Filial Piety Should Be Practiced While There Is Still Time
I’m translating the chapter now and preserving the chapter’s HTML structure, including the embedded comment stream and the section break.CHAPTER_TITLE: Filial Piety Is Best Practiced in Advance
Won Hasin rose from his seat and walked over to the coffee machine. He opened the storage cabinet beneath it, took out a paper bag and a box of bottled drinks, and asked, “Have you seen this?”
“I have not.”
Neoul shook his head. It was the first he had heard of it.
“Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom bought these as a housewarming gift. Capsule coffee and drinks. They knew full well all of you trainees are broke, and this isn’t even a housewarming, so why bother with all that etiquette?”
“……”
“Then, when they saw the others had come empty-handed, they hurriedly hid these and handed them over quietly. They even asked me to make it seem like they hadn’t brought anything at all. They were worried the others might feel awkward if they found out.”
He should have realized it then.
They were overflowing with consideration.
So overflowing they’d even rip out their livers for you? Good grief.
Won Hasin shook his head vigorously.
“If a good kid like Baek Yuri turned out to be my little brother and I found out he was a rabbit, I’d cut down fish-you before my brother ever handed over his liver! I might fry you up and turn you into fish cutlet! No, better yet, I’d slice you sashimi-style and dip you in chojang! Slash-slash-slash!”
“……”
“Sli... sli... ugh... awkward...”
Neoul gave him a dry stare. Won Hasin had been pantomiming sashimi by tapping Neoul’s arm rapidly with the flat of his hand, but under Neoul’s ice-cold gaze his motions slowed and slowed until, with a decorous little retreat, he drew back his hand and stepped away.
Neoul let out a small sigh.
“Representative Won Hasin.”
“W-What...! What! Why!”
Neoul only looked at him in silence. The black irises that seemed as deep and bottomless as the sea itself gave Won Hasin the unsettling feeling that he was being rebuked to the marrow, and he began to sweat inside.
“What? What! You’re saying I’m acting my age, right? Right now?”
“I said nothing.”
As if! He’d insulted him with his eyes. With his eyes!
Feeling strangely cornered, Won Hasin cleared his throat and tried to gather his dignity.
“No, I mean, that much... liver donation can feel psychologically pretty gross, that’s all! My point is, that’s how most people are!”
Then, a beat later, he flared up again.
“And what about my age? People naturally get more childish as they get older, you know! When you’re four and your mom tells you to choose just one toy, you swallow your tears and pick one. But when you’re thirty-four, patience be damned, you just grab everything your bank account allows! That’s humanity!”
“……”
“And how much sense can you possibly have in your thirties anyway? You think you’d magically become some wise old adult if you got to be my age? No chance. Humans, huh? They don’t grow up that easily! And I—”
The barrage of words rattled into Neoul’s ears. Neoul rubbed at his outer ear, thinking it might start bleeding.
After a pause to catch his breath, Won Hasin lifted his chin with renewed pride and shouted from his diaphragm, “I’m rich enough that I don’t need to grow up!”
“……”
“And I’m the youngest!”
“……”
Silence fell.
Neoul did not know how to respond to the declaration of a company representative who was basically saying, “I don’t need to act my age, so I won’t.”
And because Neoul did not raise his voice in return, because the silence stretched on and on, Won Hasin’s face slowly began to flush with embarrassment.
If Mun Dong-dong had snapped back with a screaming “What the hell are you going on about?” or if Neoul had simply laughed it off as a joke, this would have been a good deal less humiliating.
“Ah... yes...”
Neoul’s slow, accepting nod only made Won Hasin feel more mortified.
“As I said a moment ago, I have said nothing at all.”
Neoul moved as if to flick his fin in the air to show he had no desire to quarrel, then ended up only waving one foot uselessly before setting it back down. He added, for the sake of the very aggrieved Won Hasin, “Mm. It must be wonderful not to need to grow up.”
“What was that?”
“To grow up is also to gain more worries. Representative Won Hasin, do not trouble yourself trying to age prematurely; live as you please, just as you are. Your honesty is rather refreshing.”
At Neoul’s grave, gentle smile, Won Hasin gave an airless little laugh.
Heh. This damn fish...
He had a talent for making insults sound like praise. Or was it praise that sounded like insults? In any case, he was irritated enough to be annoyed, but also felt oddly wounded on the inside. Cough.
In the meantime, Neoul stood up as if he had said everything he came to say.
“Huh? You’re leaving like this?”
Won Hasin sprang up too, wearing a look of disbelief.
“Hey, hey, did you actually hear what I just said? The other rabbits will absolutely not give you their livers. Aren’t you worried at all? Did it go in one ear and out the other?”
Neoul, who had been about to leave, turned back and said, “I know that as well.”
“Huh? What?”
“I now understand well that offering one’s liver is by no means an easy decision. Still, I do not intend to worry over it.”
“Why not?”
“Because worrying will not change anything.”
Neoul looked out the window. The view beyond was quiet, with not a breath of wind and not a single black cloud in sight.
“When the Sea Witch said she needed the liver of a rabbit who died fourteen hundred years ago, I was briefly plunged into darkness. I could not see the path ahead. But that rabbit has been reborn, and a road has opened before me.”
“……”
“There is no reason to waste time hesitating and worrying when I can see the path. Even if the Sea Witch had not told me the means, I would have gone to find another way before a day had passed.”
He had worried enough already.
Enough hesitation. Enough being swept away by his emotions.
Now it was time to move forward with only his goal in view.
“Representative Won Hasin, your words are also correct. Even if I find the rabbit, it may not readily give me its liver. Even so, I cannot give up. If I do not give up, some method will come.”
Neoul spoke with certainty.
“Whenever I climbed over the walls of the Dragon Palace and slipped out through a rat hole, Abamama would seal off every route and set traps and nets, but in the end he could not stop me.”
“……”
“Only after I broke through the hundredth trap and swam free did he finally give up trying to stop me. He kept scolding me, though.”
Neoul smiled, reminiscing about his childhood. Then he cut off the thought with resolute finality.
“I will keep asking and persuading until the rabbit opens its heart. And I will pay a price equal to or greater than the rabbit’s liver. Even if I must give everything I have.”
Won Hasin thought, He did seem unusual, but... what the hell is this guy...
A man possessed by filial piety.
What, was he Sim Cheong? Planning to dive into the Indangsu or something?
He had seen plenty of parents willing to sacrifice their lives for their children, but this was the first time he had seen someone willing to put everything on the line for the sake of his parents.
Is that really the path the Dragon King wants?
He wasn’t sure.
Won Hasin found himself thinking that if he were a father, he would never want his child to sacrifice themselves.
If he cared that much, maybe he should have listened to his father more when he was alive. Going by this, he probably never listened at all.
Anyway, the guy was insane.
Neoul’s road did not seem likely to be an easy one.
“Fine. Do your best.”
Won Hasin clicked his tongue inwardly, then raised his fist and shouted encouragement.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A week later, episode 2 of Idol Travel aired. Riding on the explosive buzz of episode 1, which had set the internet ablaze, episode 2’s viewership leapt to twice that number.
Thanks to the uproar caused by Neoul’s indiscriminate attention-grabbing in episode 1, and then the Gye Tae-seok drug scandal, the program was drawing even more attention. Neoul, now nicknamed the “drug-sniffing whale,” was seeing his recognition rise fast as well.
“Start! Start! Unnie! It’s starting!”
“Ah, I’m done! I’m coming!”
The law student barely finished her assignment, then rushed at her younger sibling’s urging and sat down in front of the TV.
The sisters crouched together below the sofa, side by side, and watched episode 2 with pounding hearts.
“Unnie, Group Battle Round 1 Neoul was insane, right?”
“That’s the thirtieth time you’ve said that already.”
“No, seriously... I think he’s kind of crazy. He’s amazing.”
The miscellaneous-fan younger sister, who had attended the live viewing of the first team battle, kept repeating the same line like a parrot, apparently so impressed by Neoul’s stage that she could not shut up about it. She had darted over first to stir up curiosity, then snapped her mouth shut saying she couldn’t spoil anything.
“It’s making me so frustrated I could die, you know?”
The law student fed ice cream to her irritatingly smug younger sister and focused on the TV.
The beginning of episode 2 mostly covered the participants’ rank evaluations, which had not all fit into episode 1, the full reveal of the signal song, the trainees struggling through signal song practice, and the trainers’ sharp criticisms.
When Neoul was thoroughly scolded by the choreographer, the sisters let out a simultaneous groan.
“Oh no.”
“Poor thing.”
They felt sorry for him, hearing such harsh words, but it was also true that he kept putting out the same hand and same foot, so there was nothing to say.
The silver lining was that, even after being scolded like that, Neoul did not become especially timid or dejected. Whether the movement worked or not, he simply kept trying, over and over, and the footage of his practice flying by in fast-forward showed him working hard no matter what.
“He’s really working hard.”
“Didn’t he just succeed in that move?”
“He’s even good at drinking water. Was Neoul a hippo in his past life?”
“Exactly. He drinks two liters in one go... maybe he was a whale?”
Watching Neoul gulp down water in the middle of practice, soaked in sweat, the sisters chattered in free-association mode.
Soon after, Kim Ji-rok appeared on screen. Then the show emphasized how he and Neoul were hostile toward each other, even though they did not actually speak.
They even edited in a shot of Neoul frowning because he was winded mid-dance, making it look as though he was glaring at or sizing up Kim Ji-rok.
“Wait a second.”
The miscellaneous fan studied the screen closely and muttered, “This is kind of weird.”
Having run a MewTube channel and watched and edited countless idol variety clips and performance videos, she immediately recognized the production team’s sly edit, stitching together shots from different scenes.
“Neoul wasn’t even looking at Kim Ji-rok. He didn’t care about him at all.”
In the quickly passing footage, Kim Ji-rok was now blatantly overlaid with a scene of him walking past Neoul and showing his bad mood.
“Really? Then that’s bad editing.”
Neoul was already getting flak for his “rotten soul stench” comment in episode 1, with people calling him rude, antisocial, lacking in character, or all three.
The law student did not think Kim Ji-rok or Gye Tae-seok had particularly good eyes, so she had brushed it off with a simple, “Maybe Neoul knows something,” and had no urge to drop him as a fan.
Did Neoul tell him to shut up because he smelled rotten as a way of slandering them? Should that be seen as an abstract judgment or contemptuous expression that could lower the other party’s social evaluation? It was said on broadcast, so there is publicity, but the editing was done by the PD, and if Neoul testifies that he did not know the comment would air in that exact form, then the charge probably won’t stand...
The law student was simply absorbed in whether Neoul’s statement constituted insult or defamation, and was memorizing which penalties would apply if the charge were recognized...
After episode 1 aired, some people had laughed Neoul off as a weirdo, but the reactions had been sharp enough overall that episode 2’s response worried her too.
The law student frowned and pulled out her smartphone.
Huh? This is more...
After checking the live reactions, the law student felt a little relieved. They were not as bad as she had expected.
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