Chapter 166
Chapter 166
Translator: Penny
Chapter 166
"That'll be 3,500 won."
I grabbed a green grape ade to go from a cafe near our dorm and took a quick sip on my way back.
The artificial fruit flavor mixed with the carbonated water in my mouth. It was disgustingly sweet, definitely not my taste.
Unlike the sweltering daytime heat, the night air was cool.
I kicked off my shoes haphazardly at the entrance and stepped into the dorm. The living room was dark, lit only by the floating glow of a phone screen.
The faint face illuminated by the screen made me hate myself for instantly thinking of the talisman stuck to my bedroom wall.
"What are you, a child of darkness? Why's the light off? Staring at your phone in the dark will ruin your eyes, you know. And you're already glued to that thing all day."
Clicking his tongue, he switched on the living room light. Ryu Jaehee, who had been engrossed in typing on his phone, glanced up.
"Why are you out here in the living room so late?"
"I'm writing a statement." Ryu Jaehee waved his phone, which displayed a notepad app.
"Why not do it in your room? Is Seo Yehyeon... is Yehyeon Hyung being noisy?"
"I just thought it would be better to come out here and organize my thoughts and memories slowly, by myself. Yehyeon Hyung is always quiet, anyway. You know that too, since you've been roommates with him twice." Ryu Jaehee grinned, not forgetting to defend Seo Yehyeon.
While others preferred the privacy of their own rooms, Ryu Jaehee always gravitated toward the empty living room late at night.
Once, curious about his preference, he had casually asked why. Ryu Jaehee simply replied that it was a habit he'd picked up at his family home.
It wasn't until some time after I asked that question that I realized sharing a room with my younger siblings had always been the only option when I craved personal time and space.
I handed Ryu Jaehee a green grape ade and plopped down beside him.
"Take your time and drink while you work. No rush, right? You said you were going to drop the bomb right before the finals."
"No, I changed my mind," Ryu Jaehee said, shaking his head as he accepted the drink.
"After searching around, I realized that even if Lee Jeyeong doesn't have much of a fanbase, that Kim Jiun guy has a pretty solid one thanks to his producing work. His ranking is surprisingly high. I originally planned to humiliate him by revealing everything right before the finals to get him eliminated, but I don't want to leave even a 1% chance of him surviving. I'm going to expose him now."
The term "producing" tipped me off that Kim Jiun was the Red-Haired Jerk.
"The survival show is generating a lot of buzz right now, and TK Entertainment already has a massive fanbase. Once the fans really latch on, it'll be nearly impossible to take him down with just any scandal," Ryu Jaehee explained, sucking up his green grape ade through a straw.
"Do what your heart tells you. Who am I to interfere?"
"Still, I'm worried... What if we drop this now and it gets buried? Should we have released it when the survival show started? Could we have gotten him eliminated in the early rounds?"
Her 불안하게 떨리는 목소리 perfectly reflected her current state of anxiety.
"It really wasn't a big deal, but I guess I've been avoiding it all this time because I was scared and afraid. I should have faced it sooner. If I had..."
I gently patted Ryu Jaehee's shoulder as he stared down at the lyrics he'd written.
"It's okay. I've got a card that'll send him straight to hell. Don't worry, Kid."
Ryu Jaehee's eyes trembled as he looked at me.
"Hyung... you wouldn't... just for me, you'd use the family's power you've been avoiding to manipulate public opinion...?"
"What are you talking about, Kid? Have you been hanging around Kim Dobin too much? Our family doesn't have that kind of influence."
I pressed down on Ryu Jaehee's head a few times, trying to calm him down from his Dobin-induced nonsense. Then I showed him the self-composed song battle episode and the song the Red-Haired Jerk had plagiarized, one after the other.
"Hyung..."
Ryu Jaehee covered his mouth with a moved expression as he turned to look at me. I smiled warmly at him and said, "That's right, kid. Let's give this damn jerk a real beating. He'll pay for daring to mess with our youngest member."
"Well, it happened before I became Reve's youngest member, but still, thanks for everything."
With that, we solidified our resolve.
"Come to think of it, if Yehyeon Hyung finds out about this, he'll be furious. He told me never to drink ade at night because this cafe uses cider instead of carbonated water in their ade."
Ryu Jaehee chuckled, gently shaking his green grape ade, still bubbling with carbonation.
"Don't worry, I'll win."
"No, I really don't want to see you two fighting anymore. The pre-debut and early debut days were more than enough."
"Hey, what did I even do?"
"You seriously don't remember throwing your hat down and muttering curses after Yehyeon Hyung messed up the choreography five times in a row? I had to drag him back to the dorm that night when he was about to stay up all night in the practice room."
"Me?"
"Everyone was on edge back then because the song and choreography were terrible, but you were especially sharp. Now that you're more easygoing, I can say this, but back then I really wondered why you didn't just debut with Newborn instead of coming to this dirt-poor agency and acting like that. I even wondered if you were protesting to Hajun Hyung, who supposedly followed you here."
"...Me?"
When Ryu Jaehee mentioned something from so long ago, my pupils began to dart wildly.
Was I really that awful?
"Yes, Hyung," Ryu Jaehee said, nodding as he took another sip of his drink. I had firmly believed I had been an excellent leader, even going so far as to offer harsh criticism when necessary. To learn that wasn't the case was a shock.
Could this be another instance of the System manipulating my memories...? The very thing Cha Yeonho warned me about?
No. The Project Grand Prize winner simply forgot.
The System's response was resolute.
"Can I ask you one genuine question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Why did you leave TK and join LnL? I mean, even if you had some deep, dark reason, with your skills, you could have gotten into plenty of other places."
Ryu Jaehee chuckled playfully at my question.
"Let's just say I had my own deep, dark reasons. Though nothing as dramatic as kicking out the Debut Team and following Hajun Hyung like you did, Hyung."
"Hey, I can't sleep if I'm curious about something!" I grumbled.
Ryu Jaehee relented and spilled the beans.
"Shinwol had Altair, so they wouldn't debut a boy group for at least another five years, even by then's standards. I'd heard rumors that DeGreen and Newborn already had their Debut Teams finalized. And most of the really solid agencies just didn't offer the right terms. I only wanted one thing, you see."
"What is it?"
"Accommodation. I didn't want to go back home. But the only way to get accommodation in Seoul while living here was to join the Debut Team. So I looked for places where I could join the Debut Team right away, and that's how I ended up at LnL."
"Did you really hate home that much...?"
"I told you before, didn't I? For some people, home isn't necessarily a comfortable place. It's just... I'm tired of it. If I move out, at least my younger siblings will have a bit more space in the room."
As an only child raised by ordinary parents, I'll probably never fully understand Ryu Jaehee's situation.
"That's why I liked being the youngest member here. I had people I could rely on."
Ryu Jaehee turned to me and smiled. It was such a relief that I was a reliable hyung to him, not just a disappointing one.
I was grateful to be able to repay Ryu Jaehee, who had never let go of me before the regression, even in this small way.
Though sometimes it felt like our entire Reve team was relying on him.
After writing a decent draft of the statement, I ruffled Ryu Jaehee's hair lightly and told him to go to bed before it got too late. As I yawned and stood up, Ryu Jaehee grabbed my arm urgently.
"Hyung, you don't need sleeping pills again, do you?"
I chuckled at his cautious question and shook my head.
"I'm feeling so relieved, I can sleep like a log without them, you dummy."
Midway through our salad dinner, Kim Dobin suddenly spoke up.
"The final performance is in two days. Don't we have anything special planned?"
"We've already prepared the reverse tribute."
For this reverse tribute, we had chosen to provide baked goods and handwritten letters. Since I had a habit of scribbling, I had to rewrite my letter countless times under Ryu Jaehee's strict scrutiny, constantly correcting my handwriting.
Still, it wasn't lonely, since Kim Dobin was there with me.
"No, not that. I mean the stage. Since it's the final performance, we should do something special."
"Wear the uniforms."
"We already wore them once."
"Then have two of us wear the uniforms and the other three wear the Liberation Group outfits. Wow, that's special. Satisfied?"
At my Solomon-level solution, Gyeon Hajun asked earnestly,
"We're not a large group, just five of us. Wouldn't it look a bit off if our outfits lacked uniformity?"
Now that I thought about it, he had a point. But Kim Dobin, already fixated on the idea, wasn't considering alternative opinions. Instead, he was trying to force everything to fit his vision.
"Then we'll have to completely revamp the choreography... I'm in favor, but what about you, Yehyeon Hyung?"
Seo Yehyeon's expression turned awkward as he met Kim Dobin's eyes, which were sparkling like a retriever who'd just found water.
Unable to answer directly, Seo Yehyeon glanced at me.
"What, you want me to scold Dobin for you? Hey, Dobin! Who's the leader here, Yehyeon Hyung or me? Why are you only asking Yehyeon Hyung? You're making the leader feel left out!"
"Hey, when did I ask you to scold him for me?"
Seo Yehyeon forced himself to look away from Kim Dobin's resentful glare as he pulled me away from Dobin, who had been badgering me relentlessly.
"Yehyeon Hyung is the only one who'll struggle the most with completely reworking the choreography and relearning it," Dobin pouted, hugging the puppy-shaped cushion he'd received as a birthday gift. "We had a week before, but now it's just two days... no, it's practically one day."
"I wanted to finish our last music show with a bang!"
"It's a shame, Hyung, but there's nothing we can do. If you'd told us a week earlier, it might have been possible, but you can only blame yourself for telling us so late."
As Ryu Jaehee patted Dobin's back in consolation, Seo Yehyeon, his face set with determination, spoke up.
"We can do this. Let's do it."
📝 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