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“You know you should just block him already,” Seil finally spoke up and said, as he saw Do-yoon frustratedly type away on his smartwatch for the fifth time today, “Nothing good ever comes out of talking with him.”
Woosuk was never going to act cordial with him, he had read enough of his Phater posts to know that, so for the sake of Do-yoon’s mental health (and his own at this point because he was getting tired just watching him attempt to respond to someone who would never actually respect him no matter what he tried to say to him) he really should just stop humoring Woosuk at this point by just not talking to him at all.
“I can’t,” Do-yoon conflictingly began to reply as he began to type back another response with his fingers once more, “There’s no way I could.”
“You can, it's quite simple actually,” Seil began to explain as he showed the other man how to do it, “all you have to do is open up their profile like this and click the three dots right next to their name and you should be able to block him that way.”
He’d even do it for Do-yoon himself if he let him. To be honest, a part of him had already been secretly wanting to temporarily take his smartwatch for a while now, so he could block Woosuk and all his hateful Phater posts so Do-yoon would never have to deal with them again, but even he could realize that was probably taking the micro-managing angle too far.
“No, it's not that I don’t know how to block someone on Phater,” Do-yoon started to tell him, “it’s just that he’s part of Masquerade, so there is no way I could suddenly cut contact with him like that.”
Even if the two of them didn’t get along, Masquerade and the people in it were still important to him. There was no way he could just suddenly stop talking to one of its important band members like that.
“Yes, but you’re not a part of Masquerade anymore,” Seil harshly reminded him in a way that caused Do-yoon to flinch a little, “So you don’t have a responsibility to get caught up in their petty drama anymore.”
He knew Do-yoon had been their lead bassist for a long time so he had a deep attachment to them, he had been there from the very beginning for the band after all, but he just didn’t want to see Do-yoon get hurt more than he already had. He had enough haters as it was for being a “Betrayer” to his band to begin with, he didn’t need to add any more than he already had.
“Aren’t you always saying though, that haters are part of the business?” Do-yoon responded, with a bit more bite than he usually had in his tone, “That they are something that we naturally have to deal with as entertainers?”
Seil had told him something like that before, that the price for being in the spotlight came with accepting both the good and bad from it, so why was he getting so upset by the fact now? Wasn’t this the type of bad he always warned him about? The kind of stuff that he should have expected to happen to him considering he was one of the Top 5 in Buried Stars?
“Yes I did, but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with every con of it, especially if you have a choice to avoid it,” Seil frustratedly ruffled his own hair and answered, realizing now how hypocritical that might have sounded of him, “I mean some of the things Woosuk posts about you are Phater are just downright abusive!”
Honestly, he never considered himself much of a fighter on anyone else’s behalf before, since he knew it was better to avoid these kinds of things entirely because direct violence only made it worse, but he swore Woosuk was in the Top 3 people he wanted to punch most in life because of how he treated Do-yoon, which was saying a lot because he’s never even directly met the guy!
“Well, like Seungeyon says drama is just part of show business sometimes isn’t it?” Do-yoon followed up with a bittersweet smile and said as he lamented his terrible relationship with his past bandmate, “it’s something you can’t really avoid in this world.”
As much as he could acknowledge that Seil might have been right in that last aspect, it didn’t change the reality of the situation.
“Yes, but that doesn't mean it’s right nor that you should have to put up with it.”
Which Seil knew was kind of ironic of him to say to him, considering he, himself, worked for Seungeyon of all people and probably was the prime example of putting up with stuff he absolutely shouldn’t, but he couldn’t let Do-yoon end up the same way as he had.
“I mean it’s one thing to give people second chances to change, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of yourself getting continuously hurt in the process,” Seil continued to tell the other musician, “I know that if I had been your past bandmate I wouldn’t have treated you this way if I really cared about you.”
That’s what good bandmates should do right? Support each other even if their musical paths weren’t destined to cross one another’s own one anymore. Though in his opinion, this probably could’ve all been avoided if some people just got the bigger hint from the universe that they weren’t destined for the stage life.
“You’re… you’re really kind Seil,” Do-yoon unconsciously responded, finally realizing that Seil wasn’t upset at him, but rather for him, “if not also a bit possessive."
“I’m not possessive! I’m… I’m just protective, that's all!” Seil began to clarify before the other man got the wrong idea about him, “It’s just bothersome seeing you make that sad face of yours all the time like this and not being able to do anything about it!”
He didn’t know why it irritated him so much, why seeing Do-yoon sad in particular made him hurt so much when he had worked with plenty of other staff and contestants alike who felt a similar way as Do-yoom did now and he hadn’t felt a single ounce of sympathy for them back then, but what he did know, was that whenever he saw Do-yoon upset like this it felt like a straight punch to the gut every time it did happen.
“I see…” Do-yoon started to speak up and say, with a forced small smile on his face as he seemed to realize something about Seil that the other man hadn’t realized about himself quite yet, “I really do appreciate your concern Seil, but I’ll be fine. I can handle it.”
You certainly don’t look fine, Seil internally remarked to himself, despite knowing that the other musician would never admit to it.
Maybe he really should steal Do-yoon’s smartwatch and block Woosuk without him knowing, it was the only way he could think of ever getting him to not talk to him again. Then again even if he did, Do-yoon would probably just unblock Woosuk when he found out and he’d get mad at him instead, which was the last thing he wanted because he didn’t think he could handle it if Do-yoon made his disappointed face at him of all people.