The next day;
Maybe, Jun was mentally tired, or maybe, it was because of the low room temperature, whatever the reason, he slept for at least 12 hours and no one woke him up either, letting him miss breakfast as well as cooking for them. By the time he woke up, it was already noon.
He looked at his mobile phone that has over 20 missed calls and 50 unread messages. It was put into silent mode before he went to the concert. He forgot about that.
Jun stared at the call list. About 10 of them are unknown numbers and the others are saved ones. There are a few calls from Somi, Jaemin, Lee Jaewook, Yuju, Dahyun, YG, and lastly, one missed call from Kim Jong-kook around 7 in the morning.
He then opened the messages. Almost all of them are congratulatory messages except for Somi. Her first unread message was an apology for not being able to attend the concert. Her second unread message was a congratulatory one. And this was on the previous evening.
And then, her last unread message appeared to be a bit serious. She texted that she wanted to say something important to him but there was no follow-up message like let's meet or call me, etc…
And this message was one minute after her call, which was at 5:42 early in the morning.
Jun called Somi right away, wondering what it might be.
While he had no plans of getting back into a relationship with her, still, he couldn't help but have soft spot for her because of one thing.
More than his own close relatives, she visited the house often to check up on him and Dahyun after the death of his mother.
She might or might not have any intentions of doing that but he cannot abandon people who are with him during the tough times.
Although she started distancing herself during the past couple of weeks, for whatever reasons she have, Jun regularly kept in touch with her. Today was no exception either.
After five rings, Somi lifted the call, "Hello?"
Her voice was a bit raspy. He was a little bit taken aback, "Hello sunbae."
"Ah, Jun-ah," She yelped in surprise and then, she started coughing. "Sorry about that."
"Are you alright?" asked Jun. He wondered whether she was sick or something.
"Yes, I'm fine. I… I… I… yes, I had a night shift, yesterday. So, a little bit tired. Yes, that's right." She replied. She added as an afterthought, "by the way, congratulations on your debut."
Jun found her reply a bit strange but he didn't dwell on it too much and thanked her before asking her about the message.
Somi started stuttering once again as she replied, "nothing, I wanted to congratulate you in person but… but… but I knew that you will be busy. That's all."
"Is that so? I guess I was worried for nothing. Okay, sunbae, you please take a rest, I will have to call others." Jun was about to cut off the call but just then, a male voice was heard in the background. "Somi-yah, the lunch is ready. Go and…"
The call was cut off, leaving behind a surprised Jun. "Hmm? This isn't her father's voice. She doesn't have Korean cousins either. An older friend?"
Something suddenly clicked in his mind, "is it her boyfriend? Is this perhaps what she wanted to tell me?"
Jun hesitated for a couple of minutes before deciding on confronting the matter right away.
He made a call.
The call was lifted on the second ring but the one who lifted the call wasn't her. The same male voice was heard. "Hello, who is this?"
Jun felt the urge to cut off the call but he braced himself and spoke, "Hello, I'm a friend of Somi. Is sunbae around?"
"Ah, she's in the shower." The man replied casually without even asking Jun's name or how he knows her or anything.
But, Jun was curious about him. So, he asked, "excuse me, may I know who you are?"
"Oh, I'm her boyfriend. Just moved in with her, yesterday…" As the truth was out, Jun's voice rose in excitement, "really? That's good. She has been plagued by her past relationship for several years, you know. I always feel guilty about that. Anyway, please take care of her and yourself too."
"Guilty? Why…" The man was confused by Jun's words but the latter had already cut off the call.
Jun was feeling as if some huge boulder was dropped from his chest. He was genuinely happy for his ex-girlfriend and intended to support them with all his heart.
Of course, there was a part of him that felt sad because of past Jun's feelings attached to him but it seemed that more than Jun's feelings towards his ex-girlfriend, his yearning to become a global Kpop idol found to be far greater.
Adding on top of that, there was this life mission that Jun swore to finish.
Feeling that this is probably his 7 points of luck being in effect, Jun proceeded to call the others in a happy mood.
Later, after taking a shower, he came downstairs and saw the manager and Eunwoo in the kitchen. Daniel is watching a rerun of Goblin on television. The others were probably in their own rooms. Jun was sure that Suga will be sleeping and Hanbin would be busy with his research for writing lyrics.
He went to the kitchen and greeted them before offering assistance.
Manager Seon refused it, "just take a seat and rest. We'll do the work, this time."
As Jun nodded, Eunwoo asked, "By the way, did you check on your mv?"
Jun replied, "I checked yesterday night before sleeping. The views were over 2 million. I guess by now, it must have been over 5 million or maybe, even nearing the 10 million mark considering how YG-nim mentioned that my video will sure to become the debut mv to be most viewed in 24 hours."
In an instant, Eunwoo and Jin-Jeol stopped their cooking and abruptly turned their heads to look at Jun, taking him by surprise. "What?"
"Hyung, it has already broken the record. Just check the views now. You will be surprised." Daniel spoke out loud from the sofa.
Taking a seat beside him, Jun opened YT and opened his mv. A gasp escaped from his mouth and he took a closer look at the mobile phone, "26 million? Isn't this a bit overachieving?" He thought.
It's a fact that solo artists don't fare better than an idol group. Adding on top of that, the Mmmh song is on the melody side in audio and on the sexy side in choreography where not many people would favor it unless the stardom of the artist affect the views.
That is why Jun had few expectations of this debut. Perhaps, he was looking down on the producers and thought that the songs in the system store are more worthy as they were proven ones.
The thing that Jun was hoping to ride on is the fame of Genesis Entertainment and its publicity.
However, he forgot about his own talent. His Angel of Voice skill lets him draw the emotions of the listener, his previous 9 points of vocals will automatically draw the attention of the music critics and senior artists, and his 8.7 points of appearance will flutter the hearts of young females who are into kpop.
Due to the various factors combined, the result turned out to be a great success for Jun.
Perhaps, the only thing that displeases him is the action of other fandom groups. Several of them, despite loving the music, disliked the video. Jun used to be a diehard fan of once in his past life and he too once disliked Blackpink and BTS videos for no reason. But, he wouldn't expect that he will be on the receiving side.
It was nearly 600 thousand at the moment but fortunately, it was thoroughly crushed by the 'likes' count that is standing at 3 million, already becoming the debut mv with the number of likes of all time.
"And there's still 6 hours to go to reach 24 hours. I wonder how far the mv will go…" Jun never felt happy as now.