Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Translator: Penny
Chapter 110
As we entered the studio rented by our agency, a banner with bold lettering against a black backdrop caught my eye:
REVE's FIRST B-DAY
That's right. Today was August 8th, Reve's first anniversary.
"Hyung, your birthday and debut anniversary are too close together," Dobin remarked.
"Why are you telling me this? Do you think I can just change my birthday?"
"So, from now on, we should celebrate your birthday according to the lunar calendar..."
"Dobin, I really want to treat you well. But when you talk nonsense like this, all my goodwill vanishes. Are you going to calculate and remind me of your constantly shifting lunar birthday every year? Huh?"
Despite my glare, Kim Dobin didn't even blink, remaining completely unfazed as he said, "Wow, Eden Hyung's getting all aggressive."
Now this damn mutt was practically sprawled out. The higher our Relationship Improvement Score climbed, the more infuriating he became.
"Haa..."
As I rubbed my throbbing temples and let out a deep sigh, the guy who had been completely unfazed by my glare suddenly flinched.
I still can't figure out what makes this mutt cower.
On the large table in the studio lay cake sheets, whipped cream, green grapes, a whisk, and piping bags filled with chocolate.
"How often are we eating cake, anyway?"
"Then don't eat it."
"I don't have to? Really?"
As if he'd been waiting for those words, Kim Dobin immediately pounced to get confirmation.
I understood their reaction. The lettering cake the agency had made for my birthday was disgustingly bad.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed to be from the same tasteless lettering cake shop they'd used for Kim Dobin's birthday.
We'd clearly told them after Kim Dobin's birthday live stream that the cake was awful and we should get one from somewhere else, but they hadn't listened at all.
Should I flip the table?
As I was pondering this, Gyeon Hajun nudged me.
"What's on your mind?"
"I'm trying to figure out how to find out which shop made the lettering cakes for my birthday and Kim Dobin's birthday."
I had a feeling that if we dug deep enough, we'd find something. Like a cake shop with connections to an agency employee, for example.
"You're thinking about that with such a serious face? I thought you were just feeling nostalgic because it's our first anniversary."
Gyeon Hajun chuckled. "We already filmed our 7th anniversary special. Why would our 1st anniversary feel particularly special?"
Still, it did feel a bit different. I remembered spending our first anniversary before the regression cooped up in our basement dorm.
The few fans we had back then gathered in the Fan Cafe to celebrate our debut anniversary with a single commemorative post.
Back then, even replying to a comment could take up ten lines.
There was a time, before our passion burned out, when even a single comment on the Fan Cafe felt miraculous and heartwarming.
After a quick makeup and hair touch-up, I stood before the table, having been informed that the live broadcast would begin in one minute.
"Two, three! Dream of me! Hello, we're Reve!"
As the camera light came on, we all synchronized our opening greeting to my cue.
"Yes, Reve is already celebrating its first anniversary!"
"A year already? Time really flies."
"It's hard to believe it's been a year since we debuted with 'Come to My Universe.'"
"Right? It feels like it was a decade ago."
"Well, the styling was from a decade ago..."
"A decade ago? That was twenty years ago! Even when I was in elementary school, that style didn't exist anymore."
What started as sharing thoughts on their first anniversary quickly devolved into their usual banter.
"Today, to commemorate our first anniversary, we're going to try making a special anniversary cake!"
"Actually, ever since we ruined the Christmas cake, the blame for ruining the tteokbokki on 'My Idol Observation Camera' has been shifting to me and Eden Hyung..."
"That's right. To be honest, neither of us is responsible for how the tteokbokki turned out. It's all Dobin's fault for buying the wrong ingredients. If we'd had the right materials, we could have made it perfectly."
He confidently pointed to the cake ingredients on the table. This stage was more about assembling than baking, really.
"So, we're going to prove our cooking skills to our fans by making a special 1st-anniversary cake live!"
Having done this once before, the cake-making process went much smoother this time. Since only frozen or expensive strawberries were available, they substituted green grapes instead.
"Hyung, this time, just whip the cream until soft peaks form."
"Alright, Jaehee. Don't crush the grapes this time."
They chatted amiably as they finished decorating the cake. The other members watched from the sidelines, offering occasional advice.
Unlike the hideous strawberry cake from Christmas, this green grape cake actually looked presentable.
Ryu Jaehee, who had volunteered to write the lettering on the cake, took a piping bag filled with chocolate and carefully wrote the words on the cake with painstaking effort.
Congratulations
Reve's 1st Anniversary
"Hey, what's this?! It looks so old-fashioned!"
"What's wrong with it? Why does it look old-fashioned?"
"You should have just written 'Reve's B-Day' instead!"
"That's cultural imperialism, Hyung! Why use English when we have our own language?"
Sighing at the clichéd, seventy-year-old birthday party-esque phrasing, I decorated the cake with the remaining green grapes.
Still, the finished cake looked far better than the one we'd made last Christmas.
We lit the candles and sang a modified version of the birthday song, rewriting the lyrics to celebrate our debut. As the leader, I took the honor of blowing out the candles.
Gyeon Hajun and Seo Yehyeon each took a bite of the cake and clapped enthusiastically, declaring it a triumph of human spirit.
Intrigued by their reaction, Kim Dobin cautiously tried a small piece with his fork. Apparently satisfied with the taste, he devoured an entire slice, completely undermining his earlier insistence that he didn't need to eat any.
Ryu Jaehee grinned mischievously and said, "Traditionally, for a first anniversary, you're supposed to perform your debut song."
Are you serious, Jaehee...? You're actually suggesting we sing that?
Perhaps it was because I had completely erased "Come to My Universe" from my mind. Even the choreography for the song was now hazy in my memory.
If I could, I would have deleted that damn "My Universe" from my portfolio altogether.
When I gave him a lukewarm look, Ryu Jaehee winked. I immediately understood the meaning behind the wink and chuckled softly. So it's this song, not that one.
Ryu Jaehee, who monitored fan reactions even more closely than I did, couldn't possibly be unaware that "Come to My Universe" was a taboo song among fans.
"Really? Should we perform it for the first time in ages?"
I wondered how many people would actually want to see a performance of "Come to My Universe," our true debut song from August 8th of last year. Sure, the sales figures showed there was a niche audience, but the number of people who would genuinely miss us not performing it must be vanishingly small.
The studio space was large enough for a proper stage performance.
We lined up in our familiar formation, the long-awaited One Chance performance bringing a fresh wave of emotion.
Though technically a dance stage due to the AR visuals, the choreography alone felt surprisingly enjoyable, perhaps because this song had revived our group.
After finishing the performance in the studio, we found ourselves seated side-by-side at the table, resuming our talk show.
"Wow, Yehyeon Hyung didn't miss a single step! Everyone, you can't call him the 'creator of the New Choreography' anymore!"
"Eden kept emphasizing it so much, the steps just came back to me naturally."
"Oh, so it's all thanks to me!"
I took my phone and scrolled through the rapidly scrolling chat.
[3 weeks vanished ㅋㅋ]
Why don't we do something like a Q&A?
I found the perfect chat to fill time and immediately started it.
"Hey, let's try this too! Reve, ask us anything! Let's start with the members first. Ask each other anything you've always been curious about but never had the chance to ask. Let's clear up all our 궁금증 today!"
I asked Seo Yehyeon first:
"Yehyeon Hyung, I've always wondered: when did you realize you were considered handsome?"
"Hmm... maybe around late elementary school?"
"Really? Not even in kindergarten?"
"No, I just thought adults said that to be polite, like a default compliment when they didn't know what else to say."
"When they have nothing else to say, they just say, 'He's such a good kid.' But they'd never say, 'He's handsome' if he weren't actually handsome."
Was he playing humble, or was he genuinely clueless? With a face like that, the latter would be absurd.
"Eden Hyung, did you ever say you were dropping out to pursue hip-hop?"
"...Yes."
"Ah, what was your parents' reaction back then?"
"They said I was out of my mind and beat me so hard I raised dust on a rainy day."
He groaned in response to Ryu Jaehee's question, clearly pained by having his embarrassing past dredged up like this.
Even after getting beaten, he hadn't learned his lesson. He'd run away from home to stage a protest, only to return three hours later when it started raining—a bitter memory indeed.
For the record, my parents hadn't even noticed I was gone.
Seo Yehyeon turned to Gyeon Hajun.
"Hajun, did you learn to cook separately?"
"Yes, I learned from my older sister and brother. Since I'm the youngest, I was a bit spoiled growing up. My sister believed I should at least know how to cook and clean on my own, so I worked hard to learn."
"Sister? I thought you were the oldest."
"I have an older brother who's seven years older and a sister who's six years older."
"That's completely unexpected. You don't seem like the youngest at all. Eden, on the other hand..."
"I'm an only child, you know?"
At my retort, Ryu Jaehee nodded in agreement, his face full of understanding.
"Well, if my only son dropped out of school to pursue hip-hop, I'd probably beat him too."
What's with you sympathizing with my parents?
"Dobin, do you... collect figures or anything like that?"
"That's a generalization. Not all 덕후s collect figures."
I shrugged at Kim Dobin, who was waving his hand with a serious expression.
"No, a friend is moving and asked me to take some One Piece figures. I was going to give them to you if you collected them."
"헐, I'll take them! If there's Whitebeard and Ace, please!"
"Doesn't sound like a generalization to me..."
Unaware of his future as the shortest member of the team, Kim Dobin was teasing Ryu Jaehee about his height and asking about his predicted final height.
"Youngest, what's your 예상 final height?"
"176cm? I have to stay a cute hamster forever."
"Wow, I've never heard someone say that about themselves before."
176cm? That guy would shoot up to 185cm in two years, instantly becoming Reve's tallest member.
"Daydream, if you have any questions, please send them with a 'Q' at the beginning."
Difficult questions were mixed in, like "Was it true you were in the Newborn Debut Team?" and "If so, why did you leave?"
I brushed those aside. Why stir up trouble by mentioning them?
I was picking out suitable questions to ask the members when suddenly a series of identical messages flooded the chat:
Q. Is it true that Ryu Jaehee, a former TK trainee, was expelled from TK for assault?
Q. Is it true that Ryu Jaehee, a former TK trainee, was expelled from TK for assault?
Q. Is it true that Ryu Jaehee, a former TK trainee, was expelled from TK for assault?
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny