Chapter 123: The Reason for Action (10)
123. The Reason for Action (10)
Park Jae-young had never witnessed such a contradictory situation in his life.
"What on earth happened? Why did you do this? Did you get into a fight? Did you win?"
"No, Mom. That's not it..."
"I bragged to everyone about how beautifully shaped your hands were, and now look at these scratches! Scratches! Didn't I tell you repeatedly to be more careful? What is this? Are you okay? Does it hurt? It looks painful. I hope it doesn't scar... How can you take care of your body like this when you're trying to be an idol?"
"Mom, we have company here, could you calm down a bit...?"
"You're the one who used to whine about every little scratch when you were younger!"
"...I'm sowwy (sorry)."
"Are you going to take proper care of yourself or not?"
"...I pwomise (I promise)."
It was quite a spectacle to see Kang Hajin, standing over 180cm tall, being verbally scolded by his mother who appeared at least two hand spans shorter than him.
Wait, first of all.
Kang Hajin? Getting scolded? Unable to move a muscle?
'Well, he did get scolded by Si-woo hyung before... But I've never seen him shrink like this.'
Hajin's mother had a warm, straightforward appearance with a no-nonsense style. She looked like any ordinary neighborhood auntie, except her eyes were remarkably large and round.
'Hajin hyung has sharp eyes without double eyelids. Did he take after his father?'
Jae-young awkwardly sat in the corner, watching the mother-son reunion unfold.
Strangely enough, it was becoming quite entertaining to observe.
"Mom, if you're going to do this, just hit me instead."
"Why would I hit my precious child?"
"...What? Why are you suddenly making me emotional?"
"You like it when Mom worries about you, don't you? Seeing your palms like this breaks my heart."
"...We can't have Mom feeling upset. Oh dear, Hajin was wrong. I was wrong."
Huh? The atmosphere suddenly turned warm again.
Though Jae-young hadn't known Hajin for long, this was the first time he'd seen him laugh so comfortably and lean into someone's embrace. And it was only then that Jae-young noticed the resemblance between Hajin and his mother.
"...Ugh. Trying to get away with it by being cute."
'Their smiles are identical!'
The reluctant smile on Yeong-in's face was exactly like Hajin's.
That bright, refreshing smile of Hajin's was undoubtedly inherited from his mother!
As if he'd discovered some profound truth, Jae-young watched Hajin and Yeong-in with a proud expression.
"But is it okay to hug like this in front of your dongsaeng?"
"What's the problem? Why don't you hug him too while we're at it? He's our team's maknae One."
"One? Is there a Two too? Who's Two? Ha-ru?"
"Yep. He's still filming. Park Jae-young, come here. This is my mom, say hello."
"...Huh? Oh, hello. I'm Park Jae-young."
Jae-young stiffly greeted Hajin's mother. Yeong-in accepted his greeting with a warm smile, complimenting how nice his singing voice was.
"But Mom, how did you really get here?"
"I came to bring your school uniform. But Team Leader Suho asked if I wanted to watch your performance before leaving, so I decided to look around the broadcasting station."
"You saw our stage? Were you there during the pre-recording earlier?"
"Yes. You did well, my son."
"Of course. Whose son do you think I am?"
"Hmm, you looked really cool when you hit that high note at the end. Good job, you worked hard. Mom was very proud."
Yeong-in fixed Hajin's hair and patted his back affectionately.
After praising his performance for a while longer, Yeong-in checked the time and picked up her bag.
"Now that I've seen you, I should get going."
"Leaving already?"
"Of course I should go. What would I do here? You have your work, and I have mine."
"Where did you park? I'll walk you out. You can't use the elevator without an access card."
...They seem really close.
As an eldest child who wasn't used to being affectionate at home, Jae-young found Hajin's casual conversation with his mother both unfamiliar and quintessentially Hajin. So when Hajin made eye contact while seeing his mother out, Jae-young immediately flopped onto the sofa and closed his eyes.
"My head hurts so I'm going to lie down. I won't move an inch from here until the manager comes."
"...Alright. I'll be back soon. Get some rest."
"Good job, Jae-young~ Fighting~!"
Listening to the sound of Hajin and Yeong-in leaving the waiting room, Jae-young slightly opened his tightly shut eyes.
The moment he confirmed they were completely gone, Jae-young quickly grabbed his phone and opened the messenger app.
[Miro Maknae Group Chat V_V (5)]
<OMG I just saw Hajin hyung's mom!>
<She smiles exactly like Hajin hyung!!!!>
<Shocking!! Hyung turns into a complete lamb in front of his mom!!!!>
He had to share this juicy gossip with everyone as soon as possible!
"Oh? Hajin, what are you doing there?"
"Ah, Team Leader."
Hajin, who had just escorted his mother out of the broadcasting station and was returning to the waiting room, ran into Suho.
When Hajin explained he was coming back from seeing his mother off, Suho looked at him with a warm expression.
"You're exactly like your mother, you know."
"I hear that a lot."
"Your mom is really wonderful."
"I hear that often too."
Hajin's expression seemed even prouder when hearing compliments about his mother than when receiving them himself, making Suho click his tongue in amusement.
Still, I thought she'd at least want to have a meal with her son after not seeing him for so long... To leave so coolly like that—Hajin's mother was clearly no ordinary person either.
'...Though they probably wouldn't have been able to eat together anyway.'
Suho recalled his recent conversation with the main PD of A-Countdown and thought to himself. This industry never seemed to go according to plan.
"Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you. This works out well."
"...? What is it?"
"Do you want to appear in the live broadcast too? All the way until the 1st place announcement at the end."
"Huh...? Why suddenly?"
"...Well, Uphia is a 1st place candidate today. We just found out. But all the Uphia members are currently overseas for a concert VCR shoot."
...What kind of nonsense were those damn top-tier sunbaenim up to now?
Hajin's face filled with disbelief.
A-Countdown's request was simple:
—Honestly, we didn't expect this song to be nominated for 1st place. But what can we do? It's already nominated. If they don't win, it's fine, but if they do? Well, we could just have the MC make some brief comments, but coincidentally! Miro's next-generation trainees happened to do a special stage today!
—But they're not even officially debuted artists...
—Exactly! We're not asking them to give an acceptance speech or do an encore. Just accept the award on their behalf~ That's all. And if they don't win, they'll just get some camera time, right!? It's a good opportunity for rookies.
—But these kids aren't even rookies, they're still trainees...
—From what I saw today, their stage order works perfectly. Since the surrounding performances are all pre-recorded, they could even perform live during the main broadcast. They came all the way to a music show—shouldn't they get to sing in front of an audience at least once? They're good live too!
The request was for them to perform during the live broadcast and, if Uphia won 1st place during the ending, to simply accept the trophy on their behalf.
While not a difficult request, Hajin hesitated for several reasons.
'First, we might upset Idea, whom we just befriended.'
While sunbaenim might appreciate having juniors to "celebrate together" with, no senior fandom would appreciate their award being used as an opportunity for juniors to "accept on their behalf" and promote themselves.
Especially since the song nominated for 1st place was Uphia's digital single , released to celebrate their 13th anniversary.
A love song where they whisper "I love Idea" for the entire 3 minutes and 31 seconds.
Considering Idea's fan club anniversary was March 31st, meddling with this insane display of love would undoubtedly get them torn apart—nieces or not.
And second.
"...Who did you say the other 1st place candidate is?"
"...Believer."
Of all groups, the other nominee was Believer—the very group they'd prayed never to encounter!
"...How is it possible to not know your own artist is a 1st place candidate until today?"
"Well... Originally it was trot singer Shin Tae-pal, but he was suddenly arrested this morning...? Due to some social controversy, he was urgently removed from consideration."
"Shin Tae-pal? That trot singer? Arrested for what?"
"Apparently some fraud... And when they went to arrest him, he happened to be doing drugs... Now they're investigating that angle too..."
"...That guy's something else."
"Yeah, and then while trying to escape arrest, he crashed his car into a telephone pole... So they added drunk driving charges too?"
"He was doing drugs and drinking? It's a miracle he's still alive."
"Actually, he's hospitalized now..."
......
The world had sent someone to their grave just to give Uphia a 1st place.
Though completely irrational, Hajin genuinely believed this. What kind of destiny did Uphia have to become 1st place candidates through such absurd circumstances?
'Is Seo Tae-il some kind of preordained existence? This is a completely reasonable suspicion.'
[System Alert: But Seo Tae-il hasn't been significantly involved in any regression events so far...?]
'Then what the hell are Uphia?'
[System Alert: What are they...]
[System Alert: They're just sunbaenim who've maintained their position firmly for 13 years since debut without a single member leaving...]
Yeah, insanely enviable.
"I think I need to consider this carefully. The optics don't seem great for multiple reasons."
"...That's why I told them we'd think about the award acceptance part. But performing during the live broadcast might have some benefits."
"The trainees would probably love performing in front of an audience... I'll ask them at least."
Had the other nominee not been Believer, he might have considered it more positively.
No matter how he looked at it, there was something off about Believer. The mere idea of putting Seo Tae-hyun—who wasn't even officially debuted—on stage with them under the pretense of "accepting the award on behalf" left a bad taste in his mouth.
'And if Believer actually wins 1st place, the situation would get even messier.'
Still, he decided to ask the others first. As Hajin opened the door, he found all the remaining trainees gathered inside, having finished their recording. At the center was Dan Ha-ru, fuming with anger as he shouted.
"Those hyungs are total cowards! Bad people!"
"Ha-ru, calm down first... Anyway, what's done is done..."
"How can I calm down! After seeing how they treated our precious Tae-hyun hyung! How they—just—kept—!"
"...Ha-ru, you...!"
"Damn it, Seo Tae-hyun. If you start getting emotional at this point, what are we supposed to do?"
Huh? Is our sparkly boy angry again?
The unusual conversation made question marks appear above Hajin's head.