To Be Recognized by More People (2)
After everyone had washed up and finished getting ready to go out, Neoul and Yeo Do-bin went to a large stationery shop nearby and chose letter paper and tape.
The paper Yeo Do-bin picked was simple and clean in design, with a rather dazed-looking gray creature drawn alone in the lower right corner. It was impossible to tell whether it was a dog or a cat.
Neoul chose fish-shaped hotteok. The back of the paper was covered in fish-shaped hotteok illustrations, and the sheet itself was cut to match.
They bought extra, on the off chance that their handwriting would be ugly or they might make a mistake while writing.
"I want to try this."
When Park Da-han had brought up fish-shaped hotteok, Neoul had looked it up later and learned that bungeo was a freshwater fish. Coming from the sea, he had never seen one.
But fish-shaped hotteok was only fish-shaped; it contained no fish, and instead it held things that were much tastier, apparently.
If it's just about making something in the shape of one thing while filling it with another, wouldn't there be a turtle-shaped bun too?
He could buy some and bring them back to the Dragon Palace someday, then use them to tease Do-seungji and the guards in ceremonial armor.
"I've made it before...!"
Yeo Do-bin's eyes lit up.
"I saw it on a Korean variety show and wanted to try it, so I ordered a fish-shaped hotteok machine and made some with my friends. Jaden and I kept burning them or letting the batter spill everywhere, but Chul-su got it right on the first try."
"Is that so."
"Yeah. I thought it was delicious, but my mom tasted it and said the fish-shaped hotteok sold in Korea was way better. Right now it's summer in Korea, so they don't sell it, but when the weather gets cold, they sell it on the street."
"When it grows cold?"
"Yeah."
Yeo Do-bin stared wistfully at the fish-shaped hotteok stationery.
"If I succeed in debuting... then I should be able to stay in Korea until winter, right...?"
If he failed to debut, it seemed he would have to return to Australia. Yeo Do-bin murmured to himself, drifting into sentiment for a moment.
"That would really be nice.... Then I definitely have to buy some fish-shaped hotteok and eat it."
Neoul nodded in agreement.
At that moment, an elderly woman passing by shattered the atmosphere.
"Heh-heh. Students. Have you come from some foreign country? Who waits until winter to eat fish-shaped hotteok these days? Turn on a delivery app and you can get it all. And the frozen mini fish-shaped hotteok sold at the supermarket is tasty too~"
"Oh?"
* * *
After buying frozen mini fish-shaped hotteok as well and returning home, they sat down in front of the dining table and got to work on the letters. They put the hotteok in the freezer.
Neoul hesitated over whether he was supposed to write different messages on all fourteen stations before finally picking up a pen.
A little while later.
"Wait. Stop."
Won Hasin halted Neoul and Yeo Do-bin as they finished writing their letters and were about to leave.
"You're going out like that?"
"Y-Yes...?"
Yeo Do-bin's pupils trembled. He lowered his head and looked over his clothes.
He was wearing casual semi-wide slacks in a calm color, with a black shirt whose sleeves had been rolled up a little. It was a perfectly ordinary outfit.
Neoul looked down at his own clothes too. He remembered Won Hasin scolding him last time at the production briefing, telling him not to wander around in practice clothes, so he had put on the cotton pants and white short-sleeved T-shirt he had found in the suitcase.
In truth, Neoul had almost no clothes to speak of. What the Sea Witch had put in the suitcase was all he had.
"How are you getting there?"
"We're going to walk down to the main road and try taking the subway or hailing a taxi...."
At Yeo Do-bin's cautious answer, Won Hasin pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Hold on a minute."
Then he went into the dressing room while calling someone on the phone. A moment later, he came back out carrying two caps and two masks.
"Wear these both, and only take them off for photos."
Won Hasin handed over the masks first, then pulled a black cap and a bucket hat low over the heads of Neoul and Yeo Do-bin, who still had not quite realized how famous their faces had become.
"Song Secretary will be here soon, so take the car and go."
"What?! "
Yeo Do-bin gasped and waved both hands in protest.
"N-No, it's okay...! We'll just take a taxi...!"
"It's fine. Do you know how much he gets paid? We also agreed to give him triple weekend pay. He actually seemed happy about it."
At the words "triple weekend pay," Yeo Do-bin's face went even paler.
"I-I feel too sorry about it...."
By contrast, Neoul seemed to think things had worked out rather well.
"Then may we also ask Baek Gi-yeom, Baek Yuri, and Woo Cheong to ride with us?"
"You're meeting them too?"
"After going to Hapjeong Station first with Yeo Do-bin, we plan to go to Apgujeong Station with the Baek brothers two hours later, and then to Hongik University Entrance Station with Woo Cheong three hours after that. And the rest of the stations, I thought we could visit tomorrow."
"...Are you stupid?"
"......?"
Hapjeong Station and Hongik University Entrance Station were right next to each other, and yet he was planning to go all the way to Apgujeong in between. It was an absurdly inefficient route.
"Is Baek Gi-yeom at Baek Yuri's place right now?"
"Yes. Baek Gi-yeom said Baek Yuri's house is closer than his own, so he's staying there until the survival show ends."
"Fine. I know where Baek Yuri lives. What about Cheong?"
When Neoul sent a message, the reply came quickly. It was in a neighborhood not far from Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom's place.
"Good. Tell Cheong to get ready and come out in thirty minutes, and tell the Baek brothers to come out in front of the house in an hour. Song Secretary will handle the rest."
A little later, Song Secretary, who had "arrived at work" in five minutes, greeted them warmly and loaded Neoul and Yeo Do-bin into the car. Yeo Do-bin kept bowing stiffly, while Neoul greeted him brightly.
Song Secretary came carrying a printed list of stations where Neoul's ads were posted. Mixed in among them were also the stations carrying Yeo Do-bin's, the Baek brothers', and Woo Cheong's ads, all carefully marked off in the middle.
"We'll go in order from the closest station first. Mr. Gal-neoul, please take photos as quickly as possible and get back out."
"Why?"
"Even if you wear a hat and hide your face as much as possible, you're so big that people will recognize you almost immediately. If too many people gather, you could interfere with traffic and cause a nuisance."
As always, Song Secretary remained impeccably polite and businesslike. Even on a weekend, his semi-suit was crisp and proper.
The first station they visited had very few people. Though it was not a station where his own ad was posted, Yeo Do-bin ran down the stairs with Neoul anyway so he could take Neoul's picture.
Neoul diligently looked around, touring the underground world built by humans. He had expected it to be dark and gloomy, but it was as bright as the sunlit world above.
Starting from the wall visible as soon as they came down the stairs, advertisements stretched on one after another: matchmaking services, plastic surgery clinics, civil service academies, and so on.
Columns supporting the ceiling stood at intervals throughout the space, and unknown arrows and station names caught his eye here and there.
"There it is."
While Neoul was distracted, Yeo Do-bin, with his sharp eyes, quickly found the advertisement.
In truth, the entire wall was covered with a huge photo of Neoul, so even a scatterbrained mermaid from the sea would probably have found it right away.
Star Risen from the Sea.
We cheer for your dream!
Neoul stared at the sentence written beneath the three large characters of his name beside the photo. Since his first appearance in the first episode of Idol Travel had looked like a clump of seaweed freshly hauled from the ocean, he supposed that was why it was written that way.
He gazed at it for a while, then looked one by one at the Post-its plastered all over the bottom of the ad.
-- Debut, Gal-neoul
-- Love you
-- Neoul, I hope you always take good care of your health and stay happy on stage. Thank you for showing us how hard you work, and I draw strength from your songs too. I'll keep cheering for you. Fighting!
-- Great. Job.
He did not understand the last one, but somehow.
......
It felt like he was dreaming an uncanny dream.
With a strange stirring in his chest, Neoul could not say anything and simply kept taking in the next line. The sentences, written in all different handwriting, seeped one by one into the depths of his heart.
"Neoul! You need to take your picture!"
"Ah...."
Neoul quickly turned, stood in front of the ad board, and took off his mask and hat. While he had been staring blankly, people had gathered around him without his noticing.
Seeing that he was focused on reading, everyone had apparently kept quiet, and only then did voices start bursting out from here and there.
"Hi, Neoul!"
"Neoul! Do a finger heart!"
"Puppy ears! Puppy ears!"
"He's so handsome!"
Neoul struck a pose with confidence. Now he knew what a finger heart and puppy ears were. Cat hearts were still a little difficult, though.
"Neoul...! Let's go!"
Yeo Do-bin, pressed flat against the wall like a shadow, snapped several photos of Neoul before shaking his smartphone.
"Do-bin, hi! You came together?"
"Ah, hello...!"
As soon as people recognized him too, Yeo Do-bin's face turned red and he bowed over and over.
Neoul stuck the letters they had brought onto the advertisement board and waved to the people.
"Thank you."
Then he turned on his heel and ran. Yeo Do-bin, flustered, ran after him.
"You guys, debut for sure!"
"Fighting!"
"Take care!"
Neoul kept wanting to look back. But if he did, he felt he would lose a great deal of time, so he held himself back and ran on with his eyes fixed ahead.
After visiting one more station, Song Secretary drove them to Woo Cheong's house.
Woo Cheong, who came out right on time, was dressed up as though he had had his blue hair styled at a salon. But he was wearing something strange.
"Hyung-nims, what state are you in? If you wear hats like that, they'll squash your hair."
Woo Cheong sighed over how desperately handsome Neoul and Yeo Do-bin were, as if they had no drive at all when it came to decorating themselves.
"You're one to talk. What in the world is that grotesque outfit?"
By contrast, Woo Cheong was wearing a long one-piece outfit in white and pale gray, with the sleeves shaped almost like fins.
"Uh... Cheong-ah, isn't that pajamas...?"
Yeo Do-bin seemed to recognize the strange clothing at once.
"That's right! It's a beluga pajama set! Here, take this! It's for you guys!"
Woo Cheong climbed into the car and held out a paper bag. When they took out the contents, shark pajamas and whale pajamas sprang out.
"I've seriously wanted to do this!"
Woo Cheong chattered away that he had planned this moment ever since a dolphin image had been attached to him and a humpback whale image had been attached to Neoul. Once a shark image was attached to Yeo Do-bin too, Woo Cheong's plan became perfect.
When Neoul and Yeo Do-bin reacted uncertainly, Woo Cheong began muttering to himself.
"If I do it alone, it'd be embarrassing, but if the three of us do it together, it won't be embarrassing at all and it'll be fun.... Wow, it'd really be so much fun. I'd be so happy if the hyung-nims wore them toooooo."
"I-I'll wear it...!"
"Yay!"
In the end, the quickly surrendered Yeo Do-bin pulled the shark pajamas on over the clothes he was already wearing. Woo Cheong then stared at Neoul and murmured.
"It'd really be fun if Neoul-hyung wore this too. The fans would really, really love it. I'm sure they would be so happyyyyy."
......
Neoul looked down at the pajamas now handed to him. Then he asked Song Secretary, who radiated reliability from head to toe, rather than the rather untrustworthy Woo Cheong.
"Do the fans truly enjoy such things?"
"Yes. They will enjoy it."
When Song Secretary said so with certainty, Neoul finally gave in too.
He shoved himself into the pajamas inch by inch. Because they were baggy and generously cut, thankfully nothing got stuck or refused to go in.
However, the top was far too snug, while the sleeves and legs were too short, so his wrists and calves stuck out dramatically.
Their destination, after arriving in grotesque sea-creature pajamas, was Hapjeong Station.
The pajama hoods had zippers, so if you put the hood on and zipped it all the way up, you could cover your entire face.
He had thought he would not be able to see anything once he zipped it up, but the fabric over the eye area was thinner than expected, so Neoul could see quite well and found it oddly fascinating.
A little later, a hulking whale with its calves sticking out, a long, white beluga, and a few men wearing shark pajamas all rushed down the subway stairs together. It was an extremely suspicious sight.
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