Chapter 93
"Min-ah, don't be nervous, and have a safe trip."
"Got it."
"Take a taxi when you go."
"I said I got it."
"Take this taxi fare. Did you pack your lunch properly?"
"Ah! Grandma, I told you I packed everything earlier."
"Did you? Alright. Come back safely. Watch out for cars!"
"Yeah! I'm really leaving now!"
Sunwoo Min quickly said his goodbyes to his grandmother and slipped out of the house.
Through the slowly closing door gap, the faint sound of his grandmother's praying could be heard. She normally wasn't religious, but at times like this, she became a devout believer.
'I have plenty of time.'
Although he told his grandmother he would take a taxi...
'A taxi? What a waste of money.'
Isn't walking anywhere under 5km the universal rule?
Thinking that, he stepped out confidently, but...
'Hmm, it's a bit cold...'
As the cold November wind brushed past Sunwoo Min, he naturally turned his steps toward the bus stop.
Not long after arriving at the stop, he boarded a bus heading to the exam center.
'It's empty.'
The scenery was quieter than the roads at this time usually.
Inside the bus, unlike usual, students like himself occupied most of the seats instead of office workers.
While sitting blankly on the bus, looking out the window...
Bzzz-
Bzzz-
At the constantly vibrating phone, Sunwoo Min changed it from vibrate to silent mode.
Checking the message window, there were real-time conversations flowing in the group chatroom.
And he also saw the direct messages from his friends.
After slowly replying to the DMs first, he saw that they were almost at the CSAT exam center.
After pressing the bell and slowly getting up from his seat...
'Huh?'
He happened to glance at the phone of the female student sitting in the seat in front of him.
On the phone screen, Weers' CSAT cheering video from last night was playing.
'Ah, I need to get off.'
Sunwoo Min, who had been standing blankly in his seat for a moment, hurriedly got off the bus as it arrived at the stop.
Arriving at the entrance of the exam center, he saw the main gate crowded with juniors who came to cheer on their seniors and parents seeing off their children.
Sunwoo Min blended into the crowd of other students, receiving cheers from unknown juniors as he walked into the school.
"Don't be nervous, you can do it, my daughter!"
"Yeah, I'll be back, Mom."
The sound of a mother and daughter greeting each other came from beside him.
Hearing that sound, Sunwoo Min, who was walking into the school while tightly gripping his phone, momentarily stopped in his tracks.
'Should I... contact him?'
He's probably busy, right? What if he's in the middle of a schedule?
Countless thoughts swirling in his head for a moment.
While he was pondering like that and looking at his phone screen...
-Sunwoo Lin: Contact me when the exam is over.
A short text message from Sunwoo Lin appeared on the screen.
'Good grief. It's not like I'm a kid.'
Seeing the message, a laugh escaped him at the brief three words for some reason.
'Yeah, it was always like this.'
Sunwoo Min replied to the message with a single emoji and headed toward the exam center with much lighter steps than before.
***
Kang A-jin glanced sideways at the person who was the cause of the awkward atmosphere that had been present since this morning.
Glance-
He definitely didn't look in good condition.
'Hmm, this is a first.'
Right now, inside the car, there were three members of Weers who had finished filming YouTube content and were now heading to the company.
Normally, when there are three members around, topics of conversation are constantly generated—that was the usual atmosphere of Weers...
Kang A-jin sent a look toward his comrade who was similarly watching the mood of that one person.
'Seong-ha, you try saying something first.'
'Um... ok.'
The two exchanged glances. And soon, Shim Seong-ha opened his mouth first.
"Lin-hyung. Anyway, we have the year-end coming up."
"Huh?"
"We need to prepare for the award ceremony's invitation stage, do you have anything in mind?"
"Uh... Well."
Sunwoo Lin seemed to fall into thought for a moment. Instantly, silence filled the car.
"Can we decide today?"
"No, we don't necessarily have to decide today..."
"No, I should get it all done today while I have time. That would be better."
As Sunwoo Lin mumbled like that, Kang A-jin gave Shim Seong-ha a look as if asking why he brought up unnecessary topics.
Shim Seong-ha simultaneously looked back at Kang A-jin with a wronged gaze.
Silence flowed through the car interior once again.
Sunwoo Lin was mumbling to himself, staring blankly out the window.
Kang A-jin sighed inwardly and spoke to the manager.
"Manager-hyung, should we listen to the radio while we go?"
"Shall we? Radio sounds good."
The manager, perhaps sensing the unusual atmosphere, answered in an overly upbeat tone and turned on the radio.
-Yes, the English subject has just ended, and students not taking the second foreign language test are now taking the last subject, the inquiry section...
"Hyung! Uh. Should we listen to another channel?"
"Uh, yeah."
-Yes, today is the 20XX College Scholastic Ability Test evaluation...
-Right now, the front of the CSAT exam center is filled with parents waiting for their children...
-Considering the difficulty of last year's CSAT, this year...
News about the CSAT that couldn't be avoided no matter how much they changed the channel.
"Hmm, is it the last subject now?"
Sunwoo Lin could be seen soullessly mumbling while listening to the radio.
'Ugh, I can't breathe!'
Kang A-jin silently screamed at the sight.
***
"Min-ah!"
"Over here!"
Sunwoo Min pushed through the crowd toward his friends at the sound of them calling him.
"It's over."
"Yeah."
The CSAT, which felt like it lasted all day, had completely ended.
Around Sunwoo Min and his friends, it was completely crowded with students leaving the exam center to go home.
"Let's get out of here first."
"Yeah."
They didn't bother asking each other how well they did or how the test was.
An inexplicably refreshing yet empty feeling.
His friends were probably feeling the exact same way.
"What is everyone going to do? Going straight home?"
"My parents said they're coming to pick me up."
"What about you, Min?"
Sunwoo Min, who hesitated for a moment at his friend's question directed at him, awkwardly answered.
"I'm a bit tired too... I think I'll just take a taxi straight home."
As they walked and talked like that, Sunwoo Min's group soon arrived in front of the school gate.
Outside the gate, cars were parked as if surrounding the school.
"I think I need to call my mom."
"Yeah, I need to call too. But Min-ah, can you catch a taxi here?"
"Well, if I can't catch a taxi, I can just take the bus."
"Bus? Just come with me, I'll tell my mom to drop you off at your house."
"Hmm..."
While Sunwoo Min was hesitating at his friend's offer to drop him off at home...
A sudden scream was heard from afar.
Kyaaaaah-
"W-what?"
"Did something happen?"
Looking in the direction of the scream along with his startled friends...
People were suddenly swarming toward one spot.
Walking through the instantly gathered crowd...
'O-Oppa?'
Sunwoo Lin's figure came into view.
"M-Min-ah. Uh, your brother..."
"Looks like he came to pick you up?"
He was wearing a hat pulled down low, but even with the hat covering him, his appearance was so recognizable at a glance.
Sunwoo Lin, exuding an incredible celebrity aura as he walked this way, suddenly looked this way and opened his mouth.
"Sunwoo Min!"
Sunwoo Min, who had been standing blankly watching Sunwoo Lin approach, suddenly came to his senses at the sound of his Oppa calling his name.
Then he walked toward his Oppa, bringing his friends along.
"Kyah! That's Sunwoo Lin! Sunwoo Lin!"
"Wow! For real?"
"Crazy! Why is Sunwoo Lin here?"
Noisy voices coming from all around.
As they walked, pushing through the crowd that instantly swarmed them...
"Hello!"
"Min's friends? Hi."
Even though it was clearly his brother, the scene felt somewhat surreal.
"Where do you two live? Should I drop you off?"
"No, it's okay. Our parents are all coming to pick us up."
"Ah, really? Then we should probably get out of here quickly. Min-ah, let's go."
"Y-yeah."
Coming back to his senses, he saw his friends waving at him.
"Min-ah, contact me later!"
"Yeah! Guys, bye!"
Being led by Sunwoo Lin's hand as they walked, the two of them—no, to be exact, the sight of people filming his brother—could be seen.
Walking while fully receiving the people's attention like that, a car that clearly looked like one celebrities would ride could be seen in the distance.
"Kyah! I'm a fan!"
"Thank you!"
Avoiding the people who were still following them, they finally got into the car.
"There are so many people."
"That's why I told you not to come out."
"Still, this is the fastest way."
"Sigh."
Come to think of it, there was a man clearing the way in front of us earlier.
'He was the manager.'
Well, there was no way Oppa could have come all the way here alone.
Thinking like that while looking at the two, his eyes met the manager's who was backing up in the driver's seat.
"Ah. I couldn't even properly greet you. I'm Lin's manager, Kim Hyun-soo."
"Yes, hello..."
After exchanging awkward greetings, Kim Hyun-soo smiled and continued speaking.
"Actually, he's not usually supposed to move around alone like this, but Lin kept worrying about his younger sibling all day today..."
"Cough."
"This guy?"
A thought blurted out instinctively.
Seeing the manager holding back a laugh at his words, Sunwoo Min was slightly flustered and glanced at his Oppa, but...
Sunwoo Lin was just sitting with an unperturbed expression.
"Uh, anyway, thanks for coming to pick me up. Thank you too, Manager-nim."
"Not at all."
With the manager's short answer, silence fell inside the car once again.
'Hmm...'
Maybe because they hadn't seen each other in a while, it felt a bit awkward, and the atmosphere seemed very different from before.
His Oppa somehow looked unfamiliar, like a true celebrity.
While the two were sitting quietly like that...
Sunwoo Lin suddenly opened his mouth.
"You worked hard."
"Huh?"
Wondering if he heard wrong for a moment, Sunwoo Min asked back, but...
"They said it was easy this time?"
"Who said that."
The reply seemed quite different from his initial words.
Still.
'He's still the same.'
"You're going to stop by home before going, right?"
"Yeah, I have to say hi to Grandma."
"What about food?"
"Food? Hyung, do you want to go ahead first? I think I'll be fine eating and taking a taxi back."
As the manager nodded at Sunwoo Lin's words, Sunwoo Lin spoke again in an indifferent voice.
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
"Um... Meat?"
His Oppa didn't say a single word about the CSAT until the end, but for some reason, that felt even more like Sunwoo Lin.
***
Weers, who had no news for a while after their Asia Tour ended in October.
However, on the day of the CSAT, Sunwoo Lin topped the entertainment news rankings with news completely unrelated to group activities.
[Sunwoo Lin spotted at the CSAT exam center. A heartwarming sight with his test-taking sibling.]
Actually, the fact that he went to pick up his test-taking sibling wasn't a huge topic on its own.
However, it was news about a Weers member who hadn't been heard from for a while, and...
-A 1st-year rookie being a Daesang candidate is a bit...
-Come on, for Weers, even if not Daesang, they can at least be on the candidate list.
-Is it the first time MusicNet has favored their own artists?
-Why are you suddenly coming to a perfectly fine article and saying something else?
The music award ceremony hosted annually by the CL Group through MusicNet.
Although there were criticisms that it was their own private festival, the MusicNet Asian Music Awards was one of the largest music award ceremonies in South Korea.
The Daesang candidates for the award ceremony, now only about two weeks away, were announced.
And Weers was included in that candidate list.