Part 2
“Ah, no… Although Brother Berlin and A1 are both good-looking, they really don’t look alike at all.”
“That’s why I said distant relatives. Like, so distant there’s no blood relation, like the nephew of the son-in-law of the cousin of the great-uncle of the seventh aunt.”
“……Stop talking nonsense.”
“I’m just trying to think of a very new family relationship. Then how do you think they know each other? Could it be online friends meeting up?”
“Stop saying such ridiculous things; it makes me think you’re not very bright.”
“……Personal attacks are a no-go.”
Two trainees slacking off in the back row fell into deep thought.
If not distant relatives, then what relationship could it be?
Several days passed in a flash.
During these few days, private discussions within the company about the relationship between Skye’s Berlin and trainee A1 grew louder, spawning a hundred and eight versions of wild guesses.
Closed training meant trainees were buried in dull practice all year round.
When people are cooped up for too long, they can’t help but dig deep into any fresh occurrence.
Everyone wanted to get close to the members of Skye, but between them was not just the difference between the seventh and sixth floors, but a mountain that lacked courage and reason to crossâ
And Cecil shattered this convention of “nodding acquaintances” in one fell swoop. For several days in a row after training, he waited at the company entrance for Berlin to return to the dorm together.
Skye wasn’t often at the company, spending most of the year flying all over the country for schedules, so they still lived in their old dorm without moving.
The trainees were in the same residential area, just in apartments with two to four people.
Many new trainees learned for the first time that Skye also stayed in the practice room until the early morning.
The seniors who looked effortless on stage at any time focused completely during closed training, practicing from before dawn until late at night. To some extent, this shattered their illusion that they could relax once they debutedâessentially, like “just hold on until the college entrance exam, university will be easy,” it was a beautiful lie.
If you don’t work hard, even if you have the chance to reach high places, you won’t be able to stand firm.
With Skye back at the company, quite a few local fans couldn’t resist squatting at the company entrance. Chasing offline schedules when Skye was flying everywhere was too expensive, and they were easily blocked outside venues, waiting hours just to see a blurry shadow for a few seconds.
But the company was different. The location was fixed, the appearance times were roughly fixed, and the office building was right by the main road; it was hard to miss them.
Precisely because the offline cost was much lower, there were fans itching to come squat at the company every day; it was hard to completely prevent.
These fans had a certain moral baseline, treading the line of not being sasaengs but not strictly following rules either; it was hard to judge.
Little Chen was squatting at the company entrance for the third night.
She had come the previous two days, waiting until 11:30 PM. Bored and tired, she felt it was pointless and went home.
But she added two girls on WeChat at the company door who stayed until 1 AM and caught Berlin.
One thing was strange. Apparently, someone had been stationed at the door all day. Five people came in, and at night, the practice room on the seventh floor clearly showed all of Skye training until midnight, yet only Berlin came down in the end.
Did the teammates not go back to the dorm?
Unable to figure that out for now, the girls kindly sent her the photos they took of Berlin.
They bragged on WeChat that Berlin was very nice, telling them to go home early and not to wait so late in the future because it wasn’t safe.
Seeing the messages and photos, Little Chen wanted to squat even more.
She also wanted to hear Berlin tell her “go home early” and “stay safe.”
So she made up her mind to endure today; she absolutely had to wait for Berlin.
It was her first time squatting so late. The two girls hadn’t told her that besides Berlin, there was someone else.
At midnight, a tall figure wandered out of the company entrance.
Little Chen thought it was Skye and stood up excitedlyâonly to be pulled back by the girl waiting next to her, who looked calm and accustomed. “Relax, it’s not who we’re waiting for.”
Little Chen: “?”
She looked over. A very tall boy wearing a hood and a mask covering his face. She couldn’t see his looks, but his body looked like a supermodel at a glance; his proportions were astounding.
Carrying a large sports crossbody bag common among athletes, he sat down on the steps outside the company with hands in his pockets, his long legs casually sprawling over the stairs, looking down to put on Bluetooth headphones.
Even without seeing his face, Little Chen mentally said “Holy sh*t” out of respect: So damn handsome.
She couldn’t help poking the girl next to her who didn’t even look up. “Do you know who that is? Why is he sitting there and not leaving?”
The girl looked up from her phone, uninterested. “Don’t know. Either a nobody or undebutted. He’s there every time I come, waiting for Berlin.”
Little Chen hadn’t expected that answer. “…Huh? Waiting for Berlin?”
“Yeah. Probably wants to leech off the heat,” the girl said with a sneer. “The first time I saw him, I thought he was quite handsome given his height and build. I wanted to ask his name so I could support him later.”
Little Chen wanted to know too. “So, what’s his name?”
The girl curled her lip in annoyance. “The guy’s like a mute; he completely ignored me.”
Little Chen: “…Did he mistake you for a sasaeng?”
The girl looked at Little Chen with a weird expression. “Uh, nobodies don’t have fans, so they don’t deserve sasaengs. Who knows if he’ll even debut? If I could get his contact info, I might consider spending some money on him.”
Little Chen, who wasn’t “bad” enough, suffered a bit of a shock: “…”
The girl clearly had absolutely no interest in this “tactless” trainee. Little Chen silently scooted to the other side, feeling she wasn’t at that level yet.
She didn’t go over to disturb him, but the waiting time became much more relaxed.
Little Chen couldn’t help staring at the guy the whole time. So when the sound of the door opening rang out, she saw the boy turn his head immediately and take off his headphones.
She vaguely heard the boy’s light voice.
“Little Lin.”
Little Chen: !!!
He called Berlin “Little Lin”!!
That sound was indescribably pleasant. Little Chen felt the corners of her mouth inexplicably starting to rise uncontrollably.
Immediately after, she hurriedly looked towards the door.
Berlin, wearing his favorite coral red down jacket, walked out groggily from exhaustion, waving a hand tucked inside his sleeve at the boy.
He was also carrying a large sports crossbody bag. Little Chen knew it contained the sweaty workout clothes he had changed out of.
The boy, who had waited forty minutes, stood up and walked over, reaching out to hook Berlinâs bag strap and carrying it in his hand.
Berlin yawned, rubbed his eyes, and smiled groggily at him. “Didn’t I say you didn’t have to wait for me?”
“We agreed.” The tall boy shook his head slightly. “Go home together.”
Little Chen: !!!!
In three seconds, she ran through a full cycle in her brain: the two getting together, breaking up, getting back together, breaking up again, finally getting married, the seven-year itch, the ten-year promise, and living happily ever after.
Little Chen stared at the girl beside her in a trance and couldn’t help a thought slipping through.
Why want contact info? What’s the point of privately messaging a nobody idol when shipping a nobody with a top-tier senior is so much better?
She was briefly delirious before quickly snapping out of the heat of the moment.
This was her first time seeing Berlin offline. But she knew that this method of meeting was wrong. Blocking the company door in the middle of the night wasn’t an honorable way to meet Berlin. So she felt inexplicably guilty, her eyes darting away, embarrassed to make direct eye contact with Berlin.
Berlin was nice and probably wouldn’t say anything to her face, but the act itself was discouraged and should be stopped.
As Little Chen struggled with her conflict, she saw Berlin coming down the steps, about to pass right in front of her.
Several girls swarmed up, raising their phones and talking to Berlin.
Berlin had been too sleepy to notice earlier. He paused, slightly surprised, and sighed. “Why are you guys here again?”
Little Chen: Guilty silence, retreating…
Berlin shook his head disapprovingly. “It’s too late. It’s unsafe for you to be like this. Really, don’t come again in the future.”
Little Chen thought silently: Saying that is useless, Little Lin.
Unexpectedly, Berlin seemed to think seriously for a moment, then added, “How about this? I’ll call the police and trouble the officers to send you home.”
The sasaengs, who were giggling, froze: “…”
Just as they wavered, thinking Berlin was joking, they saw Berlin pull out his phone without hesitation, not hiding the screen from them at allâhe was actually dialing 110.
The sasaengs were dumbfounded: “…Little Lin, are you serious?”
Berlin looked up and nodded with utmost seriousness. “Of course. This time, I’ll just say you guys are unsafe going home so late and ask the officers to trouble themselves to give you a ride. Next time, I won’t say that.”
This was the third day. Berlin had spent three days persuading them not to come again, to no avail.
Since he couldn’t stop them, he could only enlist the help of the police.
Cecil tilted his head slightly, watching the people who had been laughing and shoving phones in Berlin’s face like they were watching an animal at the zoo for the past three days, now frozen in shock.
After they scattered and drove away, Cecil looked at the sighing Berlin and tilted his head slightly. “They will turn into antis.”
Berlin gave a nonchalant “Oh” and shook his head, which was much clearer now.
“It doesn’t matter.”
The streetlights stretched the shadows of the two walking slowly.
“There are too many people in this world. It’s impossible for everyone to like you.”
“We don’t need to pursue, or carefully try to make everyone like us. That’s meaningless.”
He rubbed the tip of his nose, breathed in a mouthful of fresh air, and smiled, tilting his head to look at Cecil seriously.
“We just need to be ourselves. Don’t we?”
The shadow cast by the hood obscured the fleeting light in Cecil’s eyes.
“Mm.”
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