Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 13

#13.

“Ahem, ahem.”

After clearing his throat a couple of times to announce his arrival, the members finally turned around in surprise.

“Excuse me. I thought the dorm was empty, so I entered the code and came in.”

“Ah, usually we all go out on holidays, but…”

Heungmin said, getting up to greet Dojae.

It seemed today wasn’t one of those days.

“I heard you were coming today. But is that all your luggage?”

Dojae nodded lightly.

A single suitcase in his hand and a backpack on his shoulder.

That was all his luggage.

To be honest, there wasn’t much worth packing among Kang Dojae’s clothes, so he mainly packed the new clothes he had bought.

He planned to buy what he needed as he went.

“For now, put it down over here. I think we need to wait for Gijun *hyung* [older brother or male friend] to decide on your room…”

“Yes.”

Following Heungmin’s guidance, Dojae placed his bag near the entrance and stepped into the living room.

The dorm, with four rooms (including a small room converted into storage) and two bathrooms, wasn’t small, but it felt a bit cramped for six grown men to live in.

However, the size wasn’t the problem.

‘What is this…’

Dojae barely managed to suppress his frown.

The royal family was of high status, but it wasn’t a position to flaunt.

Therefore, the Empress always strictly educated the princes not to offend others with rude behavior.

If he hadn’t been educated for so long, Dojae would have frowned long ago.

‘It’s not clean. No, it’s filthy.’

The messiness of the dorm, which he hadn’t noticed in the shoe rack, overwhelmed Dojae’s eyes.

Odds and ends scattered on the floor.

Something that could be a towel or a rag.

Half-eaten snack bags.

Even the rooms had clothes piled up like tombs, giving the feeling of a clothing cemetery.

Only one of the four rooms had its door closed, and he couldn’t even imagine what it would be like inside.

“Ah, that’s Gijun *hyung’s* private room. It’s also his studio, so it’s off-limits if possible.”

Woocheol explained, thinking Dojae was curious about that room.

‘If it’s a studio, it should be a better environment. I hope so.’

Nodding and turning his head, Dojae faced an even greater disaster.

The kitchen and the table, which should be cleaner than any other place, were just as chaotic.

Dojae squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them.

It was a messy dwelling he couldn’t have imagined before.

Kang Dojae’s house was in a shabby basement, but it was still tidy.

The only better thing here seemed to be that you could see the blue sky through the living room window.

“This house doesn’t have any palace maids… !”

Dojae, who had opened his mouth with a surge of emotion, soon closed it.

Even in the Korean Empire, it was a well-known fact that ordinary households didn’t have palace maids.

Dojae, who usually respected the palace maids, felt even more grateful to them for managing his residence without a speck of dust.

“The cooking or cleaning… who’s in charge of that?”

“The house is a bit messy, isn’t it? We try to clean it, but we’ve been practicing a lot lately…”

Dojae asked as carefully as possible, but Heungmin still had a conscience.

Dojae closed his mouth for a moment at Heungmin’s sheepish answer.

A bit? Honestly, it wasn’t a bit.

The fact that this was what they considered clean was even more disheartening.

“But an aunt comes once a week, so it gets a bit better then. The aunt also makes side dishes. Well, we mostly eat out or order in.”

Dojae desperately hoped that the day that came once a week would come soon.

“You can’t unpack until your room is decided… Sit here for now.”

“…Yes. Thank you.”

Dojae quickly turned away from the kitchen and sat in front of the living room table.

***

Not long after, Louis also arrived at the dorm.

Unlike Dojae’s simple luggage, Louis’s luggage was considerable.

“How did you bring all this?”

Heungmin, who was helping to move the luggage from the entrance to the inside, asked in surprise.

“I came in my dad’s car. I had to meet the team leader at the company today anyway.”

Because he was still a minor, Louis had to bring his parents for the contract.

“Ah, I see. That’s definitely an amount you couldn’t bring without a car… But what about your father? He could have taken a look at the dorm.”

“He had something to do, so he just dropped me off. Instead…”

Louis slyly raised the corners of his mouth and took something out of his back pocket.

“Ta-da!”

A silver credit card sparkled in Louis’s hand.

Woocheol, who had been exhausted from moving luggage, lit up his eyes.

“He told me to eat with you guys!”

“Jackpot! Your father knows what’s up!”

Louis shrugged at Woocheol’s words.

“And drop the honorifics, *hyungs*! I’m the youngest.”

“Ah, should we?”

Heungmin, who had been feeling awkward using honorifics, immediately dropped them.

“Of course, why not?!”

Smiling at Louis’s cheerful answer, Woocheol asked.

“I’ll speak comfortably too. But Louis, you… You said you’re not mixed race. Did you go abroad? According to your profile, Dojae *hyung* is the one who’s good at English.”

“Ah. I haven’t been back from the Philippines for long.”

“Did you go for language training?”

It was only for three months, but language training was language training, so Louis nodded and smiled.

Gyoosung, who had been quiet on the side, also exchanged a few greetings with Louis.

Dojae watched Louis speak comfortably with Heungmin, Woocheol, and even Gyoosung, and pondered for a moment.

In fact, Dojae was much more used to (the other person) using honorifics than speaking casually.

‘But for the future…’

“Please, everyone, feel free to speak comfortably to me as well.”

It was an overly polite way of speaking, making it impossible to treat him casually…

But anyway, the intention seemed to be well conveyed.

Woocheol carefully nodded and added.

“*Hyung*, drop the honorifics with me too.”

“I will.”

Dojae replied with a slight smile.

“Ah… He’s handsome as expected.”

Woocheol purely admired Dojae’s perfunctory smile.

Dojae chuckled and responded.

“You too…”

“What’s with you two? We all know you’re both handsome, so stop it.”

“Heungmin *hyung*. It’s no use being jealous.”

Heungmin let out a hollow laugh as if he was even more dumbfounded at Woocheol’s words.

Anyway, with everyone dropping honorifics, the atmosphere became much more comfortable, and the five began to choose what to order.

***

“Wow. I’m full. Thanks for the meal, Louis.”

Woocheol patted his stomach.

One by one, the others also thanked Louis.

“Tell your father we said thank you too.”

“Okay!”

Louis quickly nodded at Dojae’s words.

Heungmin looked at the two and asked.

“You’re both from New Trainee, right? So you two were close since you were at New?”

“Ah. That’s because I… !”

Louis was about to excitedly talk about how he became friends with Dojae when the sound of the door lock opening was heard, and the front door opened.

The eyes of those gathered in the living room immediately turned towards the entrance.

“*Hyung*!”

“Gijun *hyung*!”

Everyone jumped up to greet Gijun.

Gijun, who had been hospitalized yesterday afternoon, had been discharged and returned after only a day.

The cause was overwork, as expected.

There wasn’t a big problem with his body, but the doctor’s opinion was that he should replenish his energy by getting an IV drip for about a day.

“How’s your body?”

“I’m fine. Where’s my phone?”

“You’re looking for your phone as soon as you get here. *Hyung*, that’s a disease.”

“Do you want to try living without a phone?”

Gijun looked at Heungmin with sharp eyes, as if he had been more tormented by not having his phone than anything else during his day in the hospital.

Thanks to that, his already narrow, monolidded eyes looked even narrower.

At that gaze, Heungmin grumbled but found Gijun’s phone on the table and handed it over.

“No wonder Team Leader Kim took your phone away. If you have your phone, you’ll try to do something again… Oh?”

Gijun didn’t respond to Heungmin’s worry-filled nagging, which he was used to, and scanned the piled-up phone messages.

Then, as if he had forgotten for a moment, he looked back and forth between Dojae and Louis.

“Ah. Sorry. I couldn’t properly greet you yesterday either… I’m Yoon Gijun.”

“I’m Louis!”

“I’m Kang Dojae.”

“I heard about you two from Team Leader Kim. Everyone’s younger than me, so I’ll speak casually. You’re using the dorm from today?”

Louis’s eyes sparkled as he nodded.

“Yes! I’m looking forward to living in a dorm for the first time!”

“It’s not something to look forward to that much… Anyway, let’s get along in the future.”

As someone who was originally indifferent, it was the best welcome greeting Gijun could offer.

Feeling that, Dojae smiled and replied.

“I look forward to working with you too.”

“It’ll be hard to adjust, so if you both have any difficulties, let me know.”

“Yes. Ah, speaking of which. Gijun…”

Dojae paused for a moment, about to call him ‘Gijun-ssi.’

Regardless of age, it was too natural for Dojae to call someone ‘OO-ssi,’ but he knew that it didn’t fit in here.

‘I have to call him *hyung*.’

Even when Louis, who wasn’t a blood relative, called him *hyung*, it was awkward, but it was even more awkward to have to use the title ‘*hyung*’ himself.

‘Not *hyungnim* [very formal older brother], but *hyung*.’

Fortunately, Heungmin and Gijun were the only ones he had to call *hyung* here.

There was Gyoosung, who was the same age, but he was still the third oldest here anyway.

“…?”

“Gijun *hyung*.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Gijun, who had no idea how difficult it was for Dojae to call him *hyung*, replied.

“The song that *hyungnim*… *hyung* wrote. I listened to it too.”

It was when they were eating earlier.

Dojae asked what song they were listening to before he came, and the members played Gijun’s song for Dojae and Louis as well.

They added that it was a flawless song in their opinion, but Gijun was constantly overworking himself trying to revise it.

The members thought it was because he was trying to put his song on the debut album, so he felt pressured.

“The song I wrote? How was it?”

Gijun asked casually.

However, the expressions of Heungmin, Woocheol, and Gyoosung were already frozen like ice.

“Heok.”

“Do, Dojae-ya?”

Woocheol gasped for breath like someone having difficulty breathing, and Heungmin called Dojae with lost eyes.

Gijun had strong perfectionist tendencies, and he displayed that trait even more severely when it came to the songs he wrote.

The members, who had been severely punished if they couldn’t explain why they liked it even if they said it was good, didn’t say a word about Gijun’s songs if they could help it.

Heungmin deeply regretted not warning him before telling Dojae the order of using the bathroom.

But it was already water under the bridge.

Even if Heungmin stopped Dojae, Gijun would insist on hearing his opinion on his song until the end.

Of course, if that opinion wasn’t a valuable one, all sorts of contempt would follow.

It was Dojae’s first day in the dorm.

Heungmin’s eyes welled up at the thought of Dojae being called an idiot or a moron and being verbally abused by Gijun from the first day.

“It was very good. But is the part you’re still revising perhaps the interlude section?”

Gijun was silent for a moment.

Even Louis, who didn’t know Gijun well, felt a chill down his spine.

“…Did you think something was wrong there?”

The sharpness deepened on his tired face.

Dojae nodded calmly even at the sharp gaze that seemed to cut him.

To be honest, it seemed more lacking than strange.

He felt like he knew why Gijun was holding onto that part and staying up all night.

He was worried that Gijun might be upset, but he still wanted to help.

‘The members told him to find things to fix…’

Gijun, who had been deep in thought, slowly opened his mouth.

“You…”

“…”