"Fuck this pimple," June muttered as he placed a pimple patch over it.
It was a good thing that Casper bought him the invisible ones, so it wasn't really noticeable.
Today was going to be the airing of the third episode of Rising Stars, but June wouldn't be able to watch it since he had a brand shoot with Akira and Jisung—the Naked Bearz, as their fans liked to call them.
June wasn't sure where their nicknstarted, but it seemed like he was being compared to the white polar bear a lot.
At first, he thought he was a cat; but now, he was a bear?
"Are you three ready?" Jay asked as he entered their dorm.
"I'm ready!" Akira exclaimed, going out of his room with a brown jumper.
Jisung also cout of his room around the stwearing a black-and-white striped shirt.
Meanwhile, June decided to keep it simple and settled with a plain white shirt.
Jay paused for a while and scrutinized their appearances.
"You guys actually dressed up as your characters! That's great," he happily exclaimed.
June looked at their outfits and realized that Jay was right.
"I'm going to get dressed," he deadpanned.
"No can do," Jay said, holding June's collar. "We're going to be late."
"I love that we're matching," Jisung giddily said.
"You're really like the bear," Jay said, feeling fond of the boys.
Then, he turned around and held onto his chest. "Is this what being a father feels like? Maybe I should have children."
"What are you doing?" June deadpanned.
Jay cleared his throat and gestured for them to follow him to the van, acting as if nothing even happened.
The three of them went to the van, where Jay started blasting their songs.
Akira clicked his tongue. "Do you have to play our songs even in the car?"
"I'm a genuine fan of you guys," Jay exclaimed. "Sometimes, I even get excited when I go to the dorms."
The three of them looked at each other with weirded-out expressions.
"Goodness, you haven't changed since then," Akira said.
With that, Jay happily sang to EVE's song as he drove to the photoshoot site.
However, as he drove, he suddenly remembered something. With that, he slammed the brakes, startling the members.
"Right!" he exclaimed.
Akira placed his hand over his chest. "A warning would have been nice."
"Jeebuz. You should be careful," Jisung said. "How many times have you done that already?"
"You're really lucky that there aren't any cars around us when you do that," June said. "I told you that we could get into an accident."
"But you guys never did," Jay sheepishly said. "Who knows? This might your saving grace in the near future!"
"Anyway," Jay said, acting like he didn't do anything wrong. "I have something inside the compartment for you, June."
June frowned as he opened the compartment. Meanwhile, Jay went back to driving.
Then, his eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw a familiar item inside.
"That was given toby the laundry lady when I had your bag cleaned. I forgot that I left it there. She toldto discard it since it could be a explosive hazard."
June picked up the phone—his old phone before Minjun gave him a decent one. Now, he had smoney to buy the latest model, but he found himself comfortable using Minjun's phone.
"That's ancient," Akira said from the backseat. "You can even store it in a museum at this point."
"You should be careful with it, bro," Jisung said. "It might blow up anytime."
June inspected the phone and saw that the battery had caused the exterior plastic casing to bulge. It did look like a hazard, so it was understandable that the laundry lady wanted to discard it.
June tried his luck and turned on the phone.
He chuckled in amusement when he saw that it actually turned on!
"It's working," June said.
"Don't use it," Akira deadpanned.
June shrugged and glanced at the navigation. He saw that they still had around ten minutes before they arrived at the photoshoot site.
So, he decided to explore his phone further.
It already got hot even when it was turned on for barely a minute, but something caught June's attention that made him unable to stop using it.
He went through his notes and saw the poem he had seen a while ago—' I Shouldn't Have Seen What I Did.'
June inferred that it had something to do with the death of Jun Hao.
Then, he saw other locked notes in his archive—ones that he couldn't open and had forgotten up until this day.
However, now that he knew more about Choi Joon-ho, he was able to figure out the passwords and open the notes.
Mom's birthday.
June quickly inputted the numbers.
"Flowers, a white polo, her favorite cheap cookies from the local mart," he muttered.
It appeared like a normal grocery list, but June guessed that it must be the items that Joon-ho planned to buy for his mother's funeral.
My dearest friend.
June smirked and inputted the words 'Haruto.'
"Don't lose yourself."
"You've already buried your past."
"You're okay."
He said those words in a small voice, but it seemed like Jay had heard him.
"Aww!" he exclaimed. "You're so sweet. I can't believe you're saying words of affirmation toso early in the morning."
June merely shook his head and clicked the last note on his phone, which seemed to be the most mysterious of all.
Follow current on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBC
June hummed. He wondered what it could be.
The password's hint was definitely the vaguest out of all.
"A month and a name. A beauty under the rain," he whispered.
He sighed as he wracked up his brain with what the riddle could mean. Why did Choi Joon-ho have to be so philosophical, too?
June clicked his tongue and read the hint once more.
A month.
A name.
He didn't think much and just started inputting months.
December.
Incorrect password. Only four more tries before the note locks.
He tilted his head to the side since it actually had a limit! How did this phone even have such a feature when it was so ancient?
November.
Incorrect password. Only three more tries before the note locks.
October.
Incorrect password. One more try before the note locks.
June sighed in frustration. His strategy was actually to guess all the months of the year.
However, that was impossible since he only had two tries left.
And then...he froze when he realized something.
His nwas a month.
With that, he quickly typed on his phone.
June.