Chapter 5
"Till, do you think you can sit over there, please? I need moral support after that traumatic experience"
Till felt the boos behind him and Mizi's contagious laughter exploding in his ear. He tried to appear relaxed, giving his seat to Sua while a small part of him begged in his head, "No, please, I hate feeling uncomfortable and out of place. Leave me here. Please, Sua, have mercy, you never have! not with me!" The adult and responsible part of him knew that saying that wouldn't be good for him at all. The most Sua thing she would say to him would be " Cry about it ," and he most likely will. So, with his head held high, gathering what dignity he still had, he sat next to Ivan.
Ivan continued to ignore him, not even looking up when he sat down next to him. For Till, used to having his attention almost 24/7, that was a hit to his ego. But he would rather be dead than appear affected.
As soon as Till settled next to Ivan, the group became as chaotic as ever, Mizi and Hyuna started arguing and Sua and Luka took their partner's side. Everyone talking about everyone, everyone commenting and commenting on what was commented. Till was already evaluating whether to end the awkwardness once and for all while the cameras weren't focused on them, wouldn't that be the best thing?
He took a deep breath, it's just Ivan.
He walked towards the person who had him hesitating, a characteristic trait of Till, being direct.
"Hey," he said with a light smile, a contrast to the tension in his body. Ivan's empty smile greeted him like an unwelcome breath of cold air. Till frowned. "Was it that serious?" he thought.
Till decided that today he was going to swallow his pride for just a moment... Obviously, so nothing would be awkward in front of the cameras, for no other reason related to Ivan... Noo, not at all.
He closed his eyes for a moment. "What you're making me say, asshole."
"I'm Sorry."
Ivan almost broke his neck turning around when he looked at Till. He was completely thrown off, his pupils seemed to have question marks. That offended a part of Till.
"What?" Ivan tilted his head a little to the side, looking like a lost puppy, Till it shook the thought out of his head.
"You're weird, well, no..." From one moment to the next Till had all of Ivan's attention, and his gaze became too heavy on him, Till looked at the ground "You're ignoring me and I came to the conclusion that it was because we had the idea of kissing you I mean not kiss you, but you know, and you don't take physical contact...uhm great, but- well, it was Mizi's idea, agh, but that's not the point, sorry-"
"You're adorable"
He looked up, already frowning, ready to let out any curse that came to mind. However, he found Ivan looking at him as if he were the world, completely infatuated with his poor apology, well, his attempt at it.
He couldn't get out anything more than a
"Hm-?" Maybe he sensed it in the air, maybe he saw something else in those emerald eyes and cowered from saying anything else, or maybe he was born to swallow any emotion that caused him warmth.
"I'm not angry, and I assumed it was Mizi because she announced herself that she had an idea" Till nodded dumbly, then shook his head in confusion, Ivan stopped him before he could say anything else.
"I'm not used to it"
"... Used to it?"
"I'm not..." Ivan completely restrained himself from the words that struggled to come out of his throat, the truth that he's been pushing out since he was young, since he saw him playing the piano in that room.
Till didn't push him, they understood each other as well as a mute and a blind person speaking in sign language, he understood that the other was fine and that was enough, or so they tried to convince themselves
"Okay... I'm glad it was just that." Till smiled at him with that glow that Ivan can't ignore, not even in death. Ivan smiled back. Ivan smiled back. His best friend, his greatest confidant, not-at-all-his Ivan.
The surrounding chatter was calming down more and more, as was Hyuna's patience, as she was calling Till.
Hyuna touched his shoulder... No response... She touched his shoulder again... No response.
"Okay, I was nice enough," when she hit him on the collarbone, she finally got a response, and also a small pout.
"Next, Till," Hyun Woo announced, seeing a piece of paper in his hand. Till stood up quickly, hiding his lateness, looking at the floor and giving a small, awkward smile, while his ears felt like a stove. Although, when Till saw Ivan smiling at him, he couldn't help but smile back knowingly. He looked back at the group, seeing how everyone returned to their usual conversation... Sua looked like she had witnessed a crime.
There was a minor mishap with the monitor, and once he had it fixed and installed on his arm, he made his way to the futon, ready to accept his fate.
A part of him was calm; they couldn't lie. And Till doesn't have many shameful events to mention... He believes.
Poor thing.
Before the massacre occurred, a gleam in his coworkers' eyes that he was all too familiar with.
"Our Father, who art in heaven—"
—
The bell rang, and Till leaned back.
You were good, Till, you were good. Rest in heaven xoxo
Unlike the other people, the group wasted no time talking about him.
Luka stretched casually “What do we tell grandpa, his gray hair is already growing back, look at his hair” Luka said bombastically with a malicious smile, Hyuna didn’t miss a beat she added, never losing her mocking tone “Maybe it’s because he’s so old that he was driving 150 km/hr in a 60 km/hr place, he thought he was fast and furious, what happens to people once they have money…” Till frowned, he didn’t remember that, in fact, he was the one who usually told Hyuna to go slow… What the brunette said was a lie…
“Oh, no,” Till squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.
Cute.sleeping.kitty = Till.wanting.to.die
TELL ME TO MY FACE THAT THEY DON’T LOOK ALIKE
Sua, who had been so quiet about the previous conversations, also started commenting, without being paid, which Till found impressive. “Remember when he bought his entire animal print closet because it looked good on a rock singer he liked?” Sua said it as if it was hard for her. Sua stuck out her tongue in disgust. Till, having no idea what she was talking about, couldn’t help but feel his face turn red. Such a thing doesn’t flatter him at all.
RAWRRRR, till plz do the tiktok
The group continued commenting, and he even heard Ivan say, “Don’t remind me!”
“AS IF THAT HAPPENED” Till shout internally, gripped the bottom of the blanket tightly, his mouth set in a thin line, trying his hardest not to jump off the futon and yell at them to stop lying.
he heard the noise calm down, and Ivan's voice stood out above the others "Hey, did you knew that Till had a lot of crushes, that when we were in school, everyone rejected him because they liked me." Each of the group reacted differently to the information.
Mizi showed sympathy. Hyuna seemed to feel sorry. Luka and Sua looked at each other, both physically holding back, covering their mouths or looking away a comment too malicious to be shown on camera.
Sua with a smile plastered on her face, tried to look empathetic "That's... very sad." Till could feel the sarcasm in her tone from miles away.
Change sides baby, I welcome you here *wink wink*
cut
The torture continued, and Till's will to live was gone with the first minute. Hyuna continued the massacre of Till's dignity, "Till is really a rocker, how he dresses, the eyeliner and everything." Everyone agreed. TILL EMOOO PHASEE
“Ahh, the image of my chemical romance, yes,” Luka added, watching Till writhe on the futon, about to rise like a Holy Spirit at any moment.
“HAHA—MY CHAMICAL ROMANCE”
tennagers.plays.in.the.back
“THAT! He's breaking the stereotype these days... he's wearing more pink clothes” Hyuna rubbed his hands like a Disney villain, Ivan remembered the script he had planned with Hyuna.
“I haven't seen him in pink” Ivan pretended total confusion.
Where's his Oscar?
“He wears it as underwear, he has a whole set of pink underwear” Till couldn't help but grimace, he internally cringed.
WHAT!? Photo, I ask for a photo.
Hyuna couldn't hide her smile, but she kept her tone as serious as she could get out of it, it was a complete joke "I'll-pff ahem- I swear"
She swore lying. Never take her as a witness to a trial.
The group tried not to laugh, sticking to their role, Hyun woo's words in their heads "Remember to stay serious, make up anything, but try not to laugh, the more embarrassed Till, the more views" Then Hyun woo had sent them to war (the show).
"What else can we say? We've said everything, right?" Hyuna asked, putting more salt on the wound, tempting Till to the limit "I think we said all of Till's truths" Mizi assured, she was definitely loving this content. Sua remained thoughtful, searching in her Black mail arsenal for something real that would embarrass Till to the point of exploding... But none could be said on camera, frustrated, she put her head on Mizi's shoulder.
The camera focused on Hyuna, who was in the back, thinking.
The devil was coming up with a plan.
A light bulb above Sua's head lit up, remembering how Till had started the topic of his greatest enemy, the aeygo. If she fell, she would take everyone with her.
“Remember when they said that I am ashamed of doing aeygo, and yes I do, but nothing beats Till, because besides being ashamed, he does it badly.” Till regretted so many things in that minute, that out of pure shame he started to laugh.
Strike one!!
“AH!! Yes, I have to cover my eyes because I can't stand it.” Ivan covered his eyes, haunted by the memory. He couldn't stop smiling.
“Till the multi-talented composer, but he's bad at making faces” Till affected by Mizi's words turned over on the futon, he preferred when they told lies.
Hyuna's eyes shone, her mind flooding with memories when they were on the Japan tour, the idea already formed in her head. Ivan, seeing Hyuna's excited face, knew that he was dead for having made the content “Yep Till is going to kill me”
“Okay, but remember when a fan asked Till to do aeygo and Till-”
Till, unable to face his embarrassment, flew off the futon.
“NO, YOU DON’T REMEMBER, SHUT UP!”
Hyuna!!! You won’t lose alone!!!!
Till couldn’t take it anymore, especially because if Hyuna told that story, he would never be able to perform on stage or on camera again… Be outside his house in general.
Sua was on the floor holding her stomach with one hand and the other on her mouth, holding back some comments and laughter, Mizi was openly laughing at full volume, Hyuna was disappointed that she couldn’t finish her story, Luka was comforting her while laughing softly, and Ivan… Ivan was crying from laughter.
“Fucking Ivan”
Till stood up, half enraged, half embarrassed, “WHY ARE YOU SAYING ALL THESE THINGS?!” He exclaimed, the laughter continued.
You're going to traumatize him... keep going.
Sua, laughing, said, "It's insomnia-zero! You can't get mad, Till!" Till continued to exclaim. The laughter had spread to the staff, and Hyun-woo looked like he was crying, staring at the YouTube gold plaque in the distance.
“I SWORE YOU WERE GOING TO SAY ANYTHING BUT NOT SHI- LIES, WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT?” The laughter subsided gradually, and Hyuna was the first to speak, a little bitter at the interruption.
“Lies? But they were forbidden, we didn't tell any lies.” Hyuna had many faces, but the angel one didn't suit her, Till knew that well. “Oh, and the one about me wearing pink underwear, where the f-...where did you get that from?” Hyuna looked around for support. Ivan, her lifelong ally, responded with a big smile, “...from your closet?”
Till stared at the rest, indignant as they resumed their laughter, satisfied with Till's expressions, while simultaneously commenting on how strange the victim was, constantly adding fuel to the fire.
Till knew there was no way to save his dignity now, unless he took off his pants.
"I'm going to take off my pants," he announced, about to unbutton his pants with a determined expression.
Everyone exclaimed excitedly, encouraging him to stand up, except for Sua. She was watching how quickly the situation escalated. She looked at Hyun-woo, checking if it was allowed. Hyun-woo was in shock, his mouth open and his eyes wide open. Most likely, given all the views the channel was going to get thanks to Till and his attempt to maintain his image, what image? You may ask, nobody knows.
Till, still red, but determined, approached the backstage to ask quickly, he turned around only to them and showed part of his boxers, everyone screamed. Sua and Luka, who looked at each other with disgust at the situation, ended up screaming the same.
cut
Flashback days before the recording.
The beginning WUAJAJA
The camera could show Ivan, bowing in greeting and respect to the crew, Hyun woo was in front of him, shaking his hand in greeting. Ivan sat on the chair.
"Hello, why did you call me hyung?" Ivan adjusted his clothes, he had just left practice and had asked everyone to wait for him at the usual bar.
Hyun woo frowned and smiled bitterly, "I feel old if you call me that"
Ivan smiled sadistically, "I know, that's why I do it hyung" they stared for a second.
"... Devil child, Ok, do you remember that we will be recording insomnia zero this week?"
Ivan looked around confused, "Yes... Did something change with the schedule, will it be done another day? Shouldn't you consult this with my manager...?" Ivan glanced at the camera, already suspicious of Hyun woo and his stuff with the show, rule number one of GOING STAGE, never trust the producer.
"No, it's not something different. I have an idea, but only if you agree." Ivan settled into the chair, leaning back, comfortable in the knowledge that this was under his control.
"Wow, you're asking for consent, that's weird. Oh, no! Are you going to die?" he said in a bored tone, already taking out his cell phone. Hyun-woo, offended that Ivan couldn't give a damn about his existence, mentally decided to remove him from his will. He smiled back. "Be grateful little antichrist, okay. When Till's turn comes, I want us to play a little prank, a harmless little pran-"
Using the name of his dear friend with emerald eyes, he threw his phone on the table and replied curtly, "No."
Hyun-woo gave him a reassuring look. "Let me finish."
"No." Now he was refusing on a whim. Hyun woo continue anyway, "You're not supposed to lie, right? Well... that's what we'll tell Till..." Hyun-woo told him the idea of lying to Till, and using the lie to his advantage, Ivan excitedly took Hyun-woo's hand as a sign of agreement.
"Okay, I like it. The fans like to see Till losing his mind."
"I knew you'd understand!"
cut
This content may contain lies or exaggerated facts. Take it with humor, and share the video so I can get my gold YouTube plaque.
YouTube, thanks, aliens!!