“How many ducks can seven guys eat?” Hajun muttered, watching his teammates shovel food into their mouths like magic black holes. He turned to Cha Eugene. “Where did all that food go? Your plate was piled high a second ago.”

“Don’t know. Gone now.”

“Do you have a black hole in your stomach?”

Well, Eugene does have the Black Hole (A) trait, Moondae thought to himself, pushing another piece of spicy duck stew into his mouth.

Hajun turned his gaze toward Moondae, the quiet powerhouse eater of the group, and shook his head in wonder. “How does all that fit inside your tiny frame?”

“…Do you ever stop to think your standards might be the weird ones, hyung?”

Thanks to proper nutrition over the past weeks, Moondae had gained some height, stopping right at 179 centimeters near the end of Idol Co-op. He was far from small by any normal standard, even if he looked tiny next to a giant like Hajun. The group just had healthy appetites—none of them were competitive eaters.

“No, you guys are the strange ones. Ever thought about entering a food-fighting contest?”

“I’ll pass.”

Hajun shrugged at Moondae’s firm refusal and backed off. His own plate sat almost full.

Ryu Cheongwoo, who was turning into Hajun’s full-time caretaker, coaxed him. “Want a few more bites?”

“We? You mean you.”

“You skipped breakfast. You should eat at least this much…”

The food-loving Koreans around the table all chimed in, warning him he might collapse.

“Can you handle today’s extreme sports on just that little bit of food?”

“Yep.”

“Try putting a little more effort into your answer.”

“Yep, yep.”

“Adding another word doesn’t count as effort.” Keun Sejin shook his head with an amused laugh.

Seon Ahyun chimed in from the side. “St-Still… you need to eat to have energy…”

“Loviewers are worried too. They keep saying Hajun eats way too little.”

It was the kind of useless worry even his family didn’t bother with. But when seven guys teamed up to pester him, Hajun had no choice but to eat. These food-obsessed weirdos!

---

Damn it. I should have stayed firm and refused to eat.

During the river rafting, the duck stew danced inside Hajun’s stomach. A wave of nausea hit him, making him regret every bite. “Ah, crap…”

“Hajun.”

“I didn’t curse.”

A soft warning flew from right beside him. When Hajun tried to protest, Ryu Cheongwoo flashed a gentle smile that meant, Sure you didn’t.

“What’s with that face?”

“Huh? Nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing.”

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

“Oh… getting sly now, are we? But let’s see how long you can keep smiling.”

Hajun grinned and lifted one hand off his paddle.

Cheongwoo panicked, thinking Hajun was about to flip the boat right then and there. “Wait, wait! Don’t! No, don’t do it! We’re on the upper stream, it’s dangerous here!”

“I’ll save you.”

“Still no! Don’t make me mad.”

“Now that’s a little scary.”

“U-Um…”

As the two bickered, the boat tilted a bit. Kim Raebin, sitting in the front row, overheard their conversation and trembled. “Please… refrain from doing that…”

The rest of the crew, already tense, backed Raebin’s brave plea.

“Hold back! Hold back! If we capsize, we all die!”

“Who’s going to die? I said I’d fish you out!”

“Hyung, what if someone gets hurt?”

“Nobody’s getting hurt. Don’t you want to stop paddling and play in the water?”

So that was your real motive.

Though the current was slowing down, fast waves still slapped against their faces. Getting hit by a splash of cold stream water, Moondae muttered from the bottom of his heart. “Playing in the water here means death.”

“I told you, no one’s dying.”

“Please…”

“Fine, party poopers.”

Hajun licked his lips and backed off for a better opportunity. He paddled in silence to put the members at ease, then reached his goal near the destination point at the lower stream by flipping the entire boat.

“Whoa—!”

“Aaargh!”

Since they were already soaked from rafting, the sudden flip caused little panic. Down here, the current was slow and the water was shallow.

Cheongwoo walked up to the riverbank with a sigh and wrung the water out of his shirt. Well, he held back long enough…

“Bwahaha!”

“You… YOU!”

“Look at you, drenched like a drowned rat! Take this!”

Splash!

“Pfft—hey! Stand right there!”

“No way!”

Hajun splashed a massive wave of water straight at Lee Sejin, stuck out his tongue, and bolted. Lee Sejin chased after him in a rage, shouting at the top of his lungs, but he was no match for Hajun’s speed and stamina.

The staff waiting on the riverbank watched the scene with fond smiles. Before long, a staff member called out, asking them to step out of the water so they wouldn’t catch a cold. Hajun stopped teasing Lee Sejin and stepped onto dry land.

Seizing his chance, Lee Sejin hurried over and slapped Hajun’s back again and again while Hajun dried his hair.

“Ouch. That hurts.”

“……”

Realizing his own hands hurt more than Hajun’s back, Lee Sejin stopped with a glum face. Hajun, who whined with a face that showed zero pain, left Lee Sejin with a deep sense of defeat and sauntered off after the other members.

All that remained was showering at the nearby facility, shooting the closing scene, and returning to the dorm for rest.

---

Or so it should have been.

“Ha-Hajun-hyung! Hajun-hyung, where are you?!”

Hajun was busy stuffing his dinosaur pajamas back into his eco-bag (Keun Sejin had swapped back with him after all) when an urgent voice called out to him.

Kim Raebin, who had been called away by their manager a moment ago, ran up to Hajun with a pale face. Seeing the deep fear in Raebin’s eyes, Hajun took long strides toward him.

“What’s wrong?”

“My grandmother… she collapsed… But hyung, you said yesterday… Why…”

Grasping the situation right away, Hajun pulled Raebin into a quiet corner and cupped the crying boy’s face with both hands. Looking straight into his shaking eyes, Hajun spoke with firm calm.

“It’s okay. When I checked, it wasn’t a major crisis. I already handled it. Don’t you trust me?”

“……”

“Guess you don’t. Well… anyway, what you’re worried about won’t happen. Now pull yourself together. Wipe your tears and go. Hearing me say it a hundred times won’t ease your mind as much as seeing her yourself.”

Hajun wiped the tear tracks off Raebin’s cheeks with his thumbs and pulled his hands back. He gave Raebin’s back a gentle push toward the manager before returning to the group.

Sensing the heavy mood, the other members packed their bags in silence without asking questions. But Cha Eugene, who was close with Raebin, crept up to Hajun and asked in a low voice.

“What happened…? Is Kim Raebin crying?”

“Oh, that.”

Noticing a staff member walking past with open ears, Hajun leaned in and whispered into Eugene’s ear. “Raebin’s grandmother collapsed.”

“…!”

Eugene’s eyes widened, then creased in worry. By the time Cheongwoo returned after stepping out with Raebin and the manager, word had already spread among the group. The car ride back to the dorm was dead silent.

---

They ordered kimchi stew for dinner.

Watching the members pick at their food with heavy hearts, Hajun set his spoon down and broke the silence.

“Hey, don’t look so gloomy. She’s going to be fine.”

“What if you’re wrong, Hajun?”

“I’m not wrong. Do you guys lack faith in my skills?”

This is hurting my pride.

Hajun rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and pondered how to prove his point. “I checked through Raebin, so my read might be a tiny bit less accurate than seeing her face-to-face—”

“What?! You quack shaman!”

“Let me finish speaking. And call me that again, see what happens.”

Who does this brat think he’s talking to?

Deciding to show mercy to the clueless cat just this once, Hajun slid the pork chunks from his stew onto Moondae’s plate and continued.

“Let’s see… Raebin has an older sister, right? His sister moved in time. And, well… the issue was up top, so it must have been an issue in the brain.”

“…What is this all of a sudden?”

“Ask Raebin when he gets back. See if I’m right or wrong.”

As the members exchanged doubtful glances, Moondae chewed his meat in silence, pondering Hajun’s abilities. If what he says is true… he’s way beyond a typical shaman.

A coughing fit broke Moondae’s train of thought.

Lee Sejin had choked on his food, his face turning bright red as he reached for water. Cheongwoo handed him a glass.

“You okay?”

“Cough! Thanks…”

Lee Sejin gulped down the water, slammed the cup down, and pointed a finger at Hajun. “You!! Th-That doll…!”

“Huh?”

“That… that person doll!!”

“Ah, Meatball? What about it?”

“When did you even name it?! No, that’s not the point! Back then—!!”

Hajun’s strange abilities, the head, the medical issue. The scattered pieces clicked together in Lee Sejin’s mind, bringing back a memory: someone sticking thumbtacks into a Cheongryeo cotton doll!

“What’s wrong, Sejin?”

“You all know that doll! Cheongryeo… I saw him sticking thumbtacks into it!”

“What?”

“Th-Thumbtacks…?!”

“It’s true! You saw it too, say something!”

With the arrow swinging toward him, Moondae blinked with an awkward expression. “Um. Yeah. I saw it too.”

“Whoa.”

“…You weren’t a fan of Cheongryeo-sunbaenim?”

They had suspected as much. Everyone except Raebin knew Hajun’s gaze toward Cheongryeo was far from admiration. But without fandom, there was no way to explain his strange obsession—till now.

Cheongwoo pondered whether to ask why he did it or what he had done to their senior.

Hajun tilted his head and thought for a moment. “Am I not a fan? I have the doll, and I watched his stages.”

“That works when the doll isn’t a curse doll!”

“I-Is Cheongryeo-sunbaenim… okay right now…?” Ahyun asked in a small voice, his face pale.

“He didn’t die.”

“……”

“Why do you look even more scared? I just teased him a bit.”

---

Cheongwoo asked Hajun to fix the doll back to normal.

Though framed as a request, Cheongwoo’s tone was so firm that Hajun went to his room and retrieved the Cheongryeo cotton doll sealed inside his drawer.

The members stared at the doll, feeling ten times weirder than before.

Hajun pulled out the thumbtacks right in front of them. “Happy now?”

“…Can’t we throw that away? Thinking it’s in the dorm with us gives me the creeps.”

“Even if you throw it away, it’ll come back… Just kidding. You guys are hilarious.”

Noticing Moondae standing among the scared members with a blank stare, Hajun chuckled. Ah, what a waste to destroy it. But if he kept it, these cowards wouldn’t sleep a wink. That wouldn’t do. Having a teammate cross over to the afterlife due to sleep deprivation was a hassle.

Hajun grabbed scissors from the kitchen and snipped the stitches open.

The members gasped at the amulet and strand of hair pulled from inside. Remembering where that hair came from, Lee Sejin almost fainted on the spot.

“Now I just need to burn the amulet. You can throw the doll away, or if anyone wants it, I can sew it back up for you.”

“Throw it away.”

At Eugene’s firm answer, Hajun nodded, headed back to the kitchen, and burned the amulet and hair. He dumped the ashes and the plush doll straight into a trash bag.

Goodbye, Meatball. Farewell. A shame, but oh well… I can always make another one in secret if I need to.

After the curse doll commotion settled down, Seon Ahyun and Lee Sejin went to their room early for tomorrow’s photoshoot schedule. The remaining members gathered in the living room, waiting for Raebin, who had not yet returned from the hospital.

On the TV turned on by Eugene out of boredom, late-night news played on repeat. Out of consideration for the two sleeping members, the volume was turned down low.

Under the dim living room lights, the blue glow of the TV screen flickered across Hajun’s profile. Watching him in silence, Cheongwoo asked a delayed question.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“The Cheongryeo-sunbaenim doll.” I know you wouldn’t do something like that without a reason.

Hajun turned his eyes away from the TV and looked at Cheongwoo. Then he shifted his gaze around the room.

Eugene, who had turned on the TV out of boredom, was nodding off without even watching. Keun Sejin stared at the screen without a word, and so did Moondae. But in contrast to Keun Sejin, Moondae was paying close attention to their conversation.

Hajun’s eyes swept across the members before meeting Cheongwoo’s steady gaze once more.

Hajun parted his lips and spoke in a low voice. “I’ll tell you later.”

“……Alright.”

“…I didn’t start it, though. I’m not in the wrong.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean it.”

“Haha, yeah. I believe you.”

Quiet settled over the room once more.

Hajun listened to the low murmur of the TV, the crickets outside, the rustle of clothes as someone shifted, and the soft sound of breathing. And in that quiet moment, a thought struck him:

Maybe, without even realizing it, I’ve grown far too fond of this team.