There Are Four Top Idol Uncles - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 26

 

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“Yewon has fallen asleep.”

 

“That’s good.”

 

As soon as they left the department store, Lee Doha took Yewon and insisted on going to the hospital that Weon knew, making her undergo all kinds of tests.

 

Even though Yewon kept saying she was fine, it was no use. Weon, who was beside them, also said ‘Absolutely not! Over my dead body!’ and carried Yewon to the hospital for examinations.

 

Fortunately, only after the hospital gave a diagnosis of ‘nothing abnormal’ could the two men finally breathe a sigh of relief.

 

After going through all that chaos and feeding her dinner, it was time for Yewon to sleep.

 

Weon looked at Lee Doha, who was sitting in the single-person recliner chair in the living room with his eyes closed.

 

Even without saying it, he must have been the most furious today. No, he didn’t stay silent about it.

 

He said everything he needed to say back there.

 

Weon had never seen Lee Doha glare at someone other than the members and speak like that before.

 

There had been a time during their rookie days.

 

They had gone to a filming location for their first advertisement, and the advertiser had been so tyrannical. Whether he had some grudge against Lee Doha, he specifically targeted Lee Doha and made him shoot over and over again. Even though there was nothing wrong with Lee Doha’s performance, the advertiser shamelessly overworked him.

 

To the point where even the other staff felt sorry for Lee Doha.

 

However, Lee Doha didn’t say a single word of defiance or refusal. He just repeated the same lines over and over until the advertiser was satisfied.

 

At Lee Doha’s attitude of not even frowning once, the advertiser eventually got tired and gave up.

 

At that time, Weon thought.

 

‘Does this guy have no emotions?’

 

Of course, looking back later, he realized that wasn’t the case.

 

Even after that, Lee Doha never complained, rebelled, or acted stubborn toward anyone.

 

He was always obedient and respectful.

 

Except when dealing with the members and Yeongeo.

 

“Hey.”

 

“What.”

 

“…But how are you planning to handle the aftermath after being so stubborn back there?”

 

“…”

 

At Weon’s question, Lee Doha’s closed eyes slowly opened.

 

“I’ve never seen you act like that before. If you were the type to speak your mind so openly, you should have used it earlier. Instead of always getting called a pushover and a traitor by us.”

 

“Was I being stubborn?”

 

“Huh?”

 

At the question thrown back at him, Weon gaped in bewilderment.

 

Right now, did he not even realize that he had acted rebelliously?

 

“I… the fact that I couldn’t say a single proper word back there…”

 

“…”

 

“I was so angry I couldn’t stand it. That was being stubborn?”

 

Lee Doha’s voice carried a deep emotion that Weon had never heard before.

 

Weon unconsciously forgot to respond and closed his mouth.

 

It wasn’t simple anger. Lee Doha’s emotions that had been suppressed all this time were leaking out in a chaotic mix.

 

“If you hadn’t intervened there… I was so angry that I don’t even know what I might have said.”

 

“Seriously? You?”

 

“…When you get that angry in the moment, I thought that people really could throw punches. That’s how angry I was.”

 

At the word ‘punches,’ Weon’s mouth fell wide open.

 

That avoidant Lee Doha throwing punches? Having those two most incompatible words in the same sentence felt incredibly awkward.

 

All the members knew that Lee Doha wouldn’t fight back even if they hit him, so they had held back from hitting him despite feeling petty and dirty about it.

 

In fact, even Weon sometimes felt the urge to hit the tight-lipped Lee Doha just once, so that said it all.

 

“…I need to be more alert and careful.”

 

Lee Doha sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

 

Having spent more than half his life in this industry and experiencing all kinds of dirty situations, he had never been as angry as today. Even though he had seen much worse than today.

 

“…”

 

And.

 

Weon felt quite sorry for Lee Doha right now.

 

‘No matter how much of an idol he is… thinking he has to live by completely killing all his emotions like that…’

 

Isn’t that a bit too much?

 

He should torment himself moderately.

 

Naturally, Weon was also an idol, and as a professional, he understood Lee Doha’s feelings.

 

But at the same time, Weon felt sorry for Lee Doha as one human being to another.

 

Weon, who had known Lee Doha since childhood, knew well that Lee Doha wasn’t originally like this.

 

‘Hey, Lee Doha! Want to skip practice and run away today?!’

 

‘…Should we?’

 

‘Let’s run! Damn, practicing until dawn every day like this is going to kill me!!’

 

‘Agreed. I’m really going to die at this rate. Haha.’

 

Even during trainee days, though Lee Doha was very well-behaved compared to his peers, he was just a normal teenage boy who sometimes acted out and sometimes giggled with laughter.

 

But.

 

Too many things happened.

 

After too much responsibility was placed on Lee Doha’s shoulders-

 

Lee Doha changed.

 

If Yewon weren’t sleeping right now, Weon would have screamed at the top of his lungs.

 

That’s how suffocated he was feeling.

 

But at the same time.

 

‘…Still, seeing him show this much… truly human-like behavior is also rare.’

 

It felt strange.

 

Watching his closest friend change like this in real time before his eyes.

 

He should definitely be happy about it. That would be right.

 

The reason he couldn’t be completely joyful might be…

 

Perhaps what Lee Doha had needed all along was ‘family connected by blood.’ Could the members who weren’t connected by blood never become family? It might be because of that sense of futility.

 

Even after spending decades together through thick and thin, knocking on Lee Doha’s door, it never budged.

 

Seeing Yewon open the door of that fortress wide in just a few days made him feel strange.

 

Hmm.

 

This is what they call bittersweet, right?

 

Instead of complaining about such feelings-

 

“Hey, Lee Doha.”

 

“What.”

 

“Are you… writing songs?”

 

He decided to ask a question he hadn’t been able to ask before.

 

“…”

 

“You haven’t been able to write a single song since Taeyoung left. But yesterday I saw you holed up in the studio. At dawn.”

 

“…I feel sorry toward you and the members. For the delay in songwriting.”

 

“I didn’t ask you to apologize, you bastard.”

 

Weon stretched out his leg while lying down and kicked Lee Doha once.

 

That guy, every single word he says is infuriating.

 

“I never stopped working, not once… It just wasn’t going well.”

 

“Still not working out?”

 

At Weon’s question, Lee Doha closed his eyes instead of answering.

 

In the past, just closing his eyes like this would make musical ideas seem to float before him. He just had to choose among them.

 

However, after Taeyoung left and the members left Lee Doha one by one.

 

When he closed his eyes, only pitch-black darkness would engulf him.

 

At the end of the darkness that he could never shake off, anxiety and miscellaneous thoughts would consume Lee Doha.

 

To forget the anxiety that everything would end like this, Lee Doha would drink strong alcohol every day before falling asleep. The next day, he would be so hung over that he couldn’t think about anything.

 

However, Lee Doha thought even that was fortunate.

 

Because whenever he could think properly, that suffocating anxiety would come choking his throat again.

 

But then.

 

Ever since Yewon came to this house, Doha hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol.

 

Fearing that Yewon might mistake it for a drink and consume it, he had long ago thrown away every bottle of alcohol in the house.

 

Even so.

 

It felt like living.

 

This felt like truly living.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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