Nothing Happened...
After a fun stretch at the PC bang finally wrapped, I ended the stream and headed back to the dorm.
Hoyeon was already there, waiting for me in a posture that could only be called heavy.
"Uh... Hoyeon? I didn't eat that much. I only had two bowls of ramyeon! I swear..."
"..."
Even my pleading didn't move her. She just kept staring a hole straight through me.
As if to say: There's more, isn't there?
"Well... I also had, like, three drinks. And some sausage-and-rice-cake skewers..."
"..."
"Ah! That's really it! I didn't eat anything else!"
This was so unfair!
Because of the three-meals-a-day order, I hadn't even been able to eat properly. I'd just been gaming and streaming at the PC bang — so why was I being put through this?
...Not that I could actually shout any of that out loud.
I glanced sideways. Yuwol and Jina were staring at me in silence too.
Realizing that nothing I said was going to break this quiet, I set my backpack down by the entrance and sat.
"Alright. Now that everyone's here, let's finish the meeting."
"...Meeting? What meeting?"
"Heh... Jiwoo-chan, you surprised?"
Tsuki's voice spilled from the tablet sitting on the dining table.
"Tsuki?"
"That's right! Jiwoo-chan's eternal partner! It's Tsuki!"
"But a meeting? What are you talking about?"
"Jiwoo-chan? Can you not hear Tsuki? Huh? It was working just a second ago. Did the internet cut out?"
Tsuki kept throwing look-over-heres at me while I ignored her. I kept right on ignoring her and asked Hoyeon what the meeting was actually about.
"It's not a huge meeting. We just need to decide something soon."
"Decide? Decide what?"
A decision was a serious matter. How was this not a huge meeting? What was she even talking about?
Don't tell me someone's getting kicked out...
No. That would be a massive deal. They wouldn't hold that here; they'd do it at the company.
So then?
"Tonight's dinner... wait, that's not it."
"Jiwoo. Let's be serious right now. Even if it's not a huge meeting, it's still a meeting."
No!
"I'm asking what the meeting is about."
I swallowed a voice that nearly blew and asked as calmly as I could. After taking five losses in a row just now, keeping a lid on my feelings was harder than it should have been.
"We're going to decide on a team name."
"A team... name?"
Don't tell me — the VTuber idol team's name?
I even thought, why hadn't we decided that already? Between joint practice, individual lessons, and trying to finish every assignment the coaches piled on, there simply hadn't been time to settle on a name.
"No! That's a huge, huge deal! How is that not a big meeting?!"
Summer break was coming. In other words, we had less than two weeks until the VTuber idol march.
"There's not much for us to decide. A few name candidates already came down from upstairs. We just pick from those."
"Candidates..."
"Ah! Hoyeon..."
Hoyeon ignored Tsuki, who was still chattering away on her own, and tapped at the tablet. Four team names surfaced on the screen.
Aespader
Maximus
Refresh
Drive
"What do you think, Jiwoo?"
"Well..."
Personally, I liked Maximus. It was safe. It had a slightly medieval edge and packed a hard, solid punch.
"Maximus? Doesn't that sound too much like a boy group?"
"She's right. That one was a leftover candidate from when they were putting together a male idol group. I brought it just in case."
Yuwol recoiled, and Hoyeon grimaced at Maximus and dumped it in the trash.
Did she really have to put it in the trash? She could have just not brought it in the first place...
Still, what a waste... Maximus.
I was gazing wistfully at Maximus sitting in the bin when—
"Tsuki likes Drive! It feels like running full speed! Later, Jiwoo-chan and I can go on a drive... hehe."
Yeah... I could ignore Tsuki for now, right?
I checked the other members. They didn't seem to disagree with me. So Drive was out too.
That left Aespader and Refresh. Neither was a bad name. If anything, both had plenty of charm. If I had to pick which one actually fit a VTuber idol group...
"Refresh, obviously."
"Aespader's better."
Jina and I split. I never expected Jina, of all people, to come out with that opinion.
I mean, come on. Aespader. It sounded like something older people would go for. Old, right? Boomer, right? The kind of name I would like?
Which is exactly why I opposed it.
Don't tell me... Jina was secretly a boomer?
I ran back through everything I'd seen her do. Waking up every morning for a cold shower, doing a light workout, knocking back those "good for you" health drinks. Sometimes she'd even say things like, We didn't do that when I was a kid... Even just that much already screamed boomer.
And then the finishing blow.
"Jiwoo. What even is Refresh? If you're Korean, you should use Korean."
"Unni? Aespader is English too. Do you really need to say that? You're not some old fogey."
"What... old fogey?"
Jina's forehead crumpled into a thick wad of wrinkles. That was the face she only made when she was completely pissed.
"You done talking?"
"No? I'm not done yet. Honestly, Aespader... you can hear the age bracket just from the name. Isn't Refresh better? Like, you watch our videos and recharge?"
"N-no. It's too on-the-nose. It's boring. And why is Aespader some washed-up veteran name?! That famous girl group aespa has a similar name!"
The heat between the two of us was about to boil over when—
"Alright, alright, both of you stop. I've heard both of your opinions. Sit down."
At Yuwol's mediation, we sat back down, still glaring at each other.
More importantly — when did we even stand up? I'd been so angry I barely remembered what I'd been doing.
I sat there smirking, still not over it. I couldn't just let this go that easily.
Yeah. I have to say this.
"aespa works because it's aespa. If aespa had been named Aespader, they never would have gotten that famous."
"What did you just say?"
"What? Was I wrong?"
I was not wrong at all. And look at this. I opened a notes app on the tablet and wrote the team names out in English.
refresh
S . fater
Clean, right?
And then... S. fater. What even was that? It wasn't even Papa. I could not understand why a virtual idol group would be looking for a papa.
"See? The name's tacky. Doesn't it sound like a group from the nineties?"
"That's... n-no! Aespader is written like this!"
Jina snatched the pen, scribbled two lines through it, and wrote it again.
aespater..
"Huh? Why does the name look... kind of childish?"
"See? S. fater is better after all."
Anyway, Jina seemed to get my point. With that, the team name was decided: Refresh!
"Hiiing... why isn't anyone answering Tsuki..."
Ah. Right. I'd forgotten.
I soothed Tsuki, who looked ready to burst into tears at any second, and we were able to wrap up the meeting.
With the team name finally settled, we spent the remaining two weeks—
Wait... why?!
"You've gone slack, bloated on the satisfaction of completing your missions! That belly fat is Exhibit A!"
The dance coach jabbed a finger at Yuwol's stomach.
To be fair, Yuwol had been eating a lot lately. While staying up with me to run lines and practice acting, she'd been picking up snacks one after another. So of course she felt wronged. She'd been eating the same things I had — and my weight hadn't budged at all.
"No... but why?"
"Well... my fat just goes over here?"
I rested a hand lightly over my chest — and for some reason, the dance coach's eyes went a shade colder.
A chill...
A shiver ran down my spine. I whipped my head around, scanning the room.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing... I just felt this creepy aura from somewhere..."
"This won't do. Your minds have gone past slack — they've gone lazy! Starting today, I will work you until you're grateful just to be alive..."
We're going to grind you.
Hearing the dance coach, we couldn't help but tremble. I thought, I've been working hard this whole time, so maybe she'll go a little easy on me? That thought lasted about a second.
"You there! Trainee Jiwoo!"
"Y-yes! Trainee Lee Jiwoo!"
I barked out my rank and name before I even realized it, right hand shooting straight up.
"Good. Nice and sharp. Ordinarily this coach would love to grind Trainee Jiwoo personally, but you have a special program. Report there!"
"A special program... I-I'm saved..."
I let out a sigh of relief and practically floated out of the practice room.
Oh — before I left.
"Do your best, unnis~"
"That little..."
"Please let that place be another hell."
The two of them hurled curses after me. I pretended not to hear a word.
Meanwhile.
Someone once said it, didn't they? There is no paradise waiting wherever you flee.
"Who the hell said that..."
It landed dead-on.
"More! Run more! You're going to stop here?! You've got four more hours! Begin!"
Four hours?!
Even a pro would struggle to run that long.
"U-unni... I'm going to die..."
"Quit the chatter and run! Begin!"
"Uwaaaaaaah!!"
In the end, I had no choice but to fill the entire four hours on the treadmill — thanks to Hoyeon standing right next to me, making sure I couldn't run away.
"I-it's over..."
"It's not over. Now that the running's done, it's time for weights."
"N-no... I'm seriously going to d—"
"You won't die. The coaches wrung their brains dry putting this program together. We'll only take you right up to the brink."
Damn it... this useless body. Why was my stamina such garbage...
StaminaF+ → E+
For two weeks, I tasted a death so thorough my stamina grew twice over.
"J-Jiwoo? What on earth happened to you?!"
"Ah... nothing... happened..."