Crazy, I Saw the Chumaf Trainees Today
I went out for pasta in the evening, and at the table diagonally across from me sat four guys who clearly weren’t ordinary people. Honestly I was super curious who they were, so I kept sneaking glances their way—and they turned out to be Chumaf trainees. Whoa.
Beom Se-hyuk
– Jeong Ui-tak
Ha Ye-chan
– Shim Sang-rok
Sitting in that arrangement.
I actually only learned about Chumaf online, so I looked up exactly who they were lmao. All four spoke so quietly I couldn’t catch a single word, but whoever it was had such a huge appetite they kept ordering more. Usually the staff take the menu back, but their table kept holding onto it themselves lol. They were already eating pasta when I walked in, and something was still coming out when I left lmao. Anyway all four were skinnier than on screen and had tiny heads.
“Um… could I maybe get an autograph?”
Dinner had taken longer than expected while they waited on the extra dishes they’d ordered in between. When they stood at the counter to pay, the staff member who had looked oddly nervous the whole time stopped mid-swipe of the card and spoke up in a tiny voice.
The other three’s eyes went round at the sudden request, but Ye-chan simply smiled as if it were the most natural thing in the world and answered the employee kindly.
“Of course. Where would you like it?”
“Ah—h-here, please!”
The employee’s neck had flushed scarlet all the way up. Ye-chan took the memo pad and pen she held out, signed quickly, and passed the pad to Shim Sang-rok.
“Um, my name too, if that’s okay…”
“Kim Eun-hye, right?”
Ye-chan, who had already written the name, smiled with easy composure.
“H-how did you—?!”
He simply tipped his chin toward the name tag pinned to her chest. By then the other three had finished signing as well; Jeong Ui-tak gathered the sheets and held them out. Timing it perfectly with the moment the employee received them from Ui-tak, Ye-chan spoke in a warm voice.
“Please keep supporting us from now on.”
Meeting Ye-chan’s smiling eyes head-on, the employee clutched the memo that read, in elegant handwriting, “To Kim Eun-hye,” and nodded with fierce enthusiasm.
“Yes! I’ll treasure this forever! I’m going to vote right away!”
They left under her send-off. Outside, Jeong Ui-tak scanned the surroundings in quick little sweeps before speaking up at once.
“Hyung, that was so natural.”
His eyes were sparkling; he seemed genuinely impressed.
“Right? It felt just like a fan signing.”
Beom Se-hyuk came over wearing a bright, delighted smile of his own. Ye-chan answered with nothing more than a small smile of his own.
Not just any veteran—I’ve been at this a long time.
“I’ve signed a few times, but I still never get used to it.”
“This is the first time anyone’s ever asked me for one.”
Jeong Ui-tak answered Shim Sang-rok. For young men who dreamed of becoming idols, the moment had clearly left a deep impression; for a while the three of them traded stories about the little incidents each of them had run into since Choose My Prince 99 started airing.
The conversation circled back around to autographs.
“I heard after a real signing your arms feel like they’re about to fall off.”
“Wow, I actually want to experience that. If my arms hurt from signing, I feel like I’d be weirdly proud.”
“Should we practice signing with both hands?”
Ye-chan watched the young lambs with quiet calm. Before long the first Choose My Prince 99 fan signing would be held whether they wanted it or not, and every one of them would get the full arm-falling-off experience.
In the meantime he could feel people’s gazes gathering one by one. Completely unaware that a sighting post about the four of them was already exploding on the community boards, they looked around a little awkwardly. Snippets of “Chumaf” and their individual names were starting to drift over; Ye-chan decided it would be better to move.
“Shall we walk and talk for a bit?”
Shim Sang-rok checked the time on his phone and lifted his head.
“Yeah. We’ve still got time, so let’s hit a karaoke place real quick and then head to my place.”
He flagged down a taxi as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Excuse the intrusion!”
After a heated karaoke session they arrived at Shim Sang-rok’s studio apartment right in the middle of Seoul. Compared to Ye-chan’s place it was embarrassingly large and spotless.
“I’ve got coffee and orange juice—what do you want?”
“Juice for me, hyung.”
“Same for me.”
“Water’s fine.”
Once he confirmed the three of them had settled on the sofa in front of the television, Sang-rok headed for the kitchen. Ye-chan stood and followed.
“I’ll help.”
“No need. You’re a guest. Sit and relax.”
“Then I’ll just pour my own water. Is this cup okay?”
The living room and kitchen were tidy, but even the inside of the fridge was organized with military precision—nothing like the home of a guy in his twenties living alone.
My place is clean too, but that’s only because I barely own anything… He’s got all sorts of stuff in here and still keeps it this neat.
Clean was a hundred times better than dirty, of course, but if the guy had any germaphobe tendencies it could make group living a nightmare. Ye-chan decided to probe a little.
“You’re really good at keeping things organized. Didn’t the messy rooms bother you during the dorm stay?”
“Hm? Ah, this isn’t me—my dad does it. My place is on his way home from work, so he drops by sometimes. I just live however.”
Thankfully not a germaphobe. Relieved, Ye-chan took the juice glass from Sang-rok’s hand and tilted his head.
“Is your family home in Seoul?”
“Yeah. I’m the only one living out.”
He said it lightly, as if it were nothing, yet nothing natural followed. Ye-chan read the invisible line in Sang-rok’s words.
Not even downtown—he deliberately moved out into a residential neighborhood. Strange.
The other party clearly had no intention of elaborating, so Ye-chan had no plan to dig right now. Still, if they were going to be tied together as a team for more than seven years, he would have to check on it someday.
“I told you not to touch it carelessly.”
“But we came to watch it together.”
When they returned to the living room with drinks and snacks, Beom Se-hyuk and Jeong Ui-tak were already bickering. Se-hyuk was holding the remote; it looked like he had been about to turn the TV on early and Ui-tak had stopped him. Seeing Ui-tak sitting ramrod-straight, Sang-rok laughed.
“You can relax, you know. Ui-tak, make yourself at home like you would at your own place.”
“Ah—thank you.”
He still kept his back perfectly straight and bowed politely; anyone could see he was uncomfortable.
A guy this shy around people… how on earth did he act at karaoke…
He had been flying around the karaoke room so wildly that his hair, wrecked from shaking the tambourine, was still sticking out in every direction.
Sang-rok seemed to be thinking the exact same thing; the smile on his face had gone completely dead behind the eyes.
“Looks like it’s about to start.”
The second Sang-rok gave permission, Se-hyuk switched the TV on. Everyone’s eyes turned to the screen.
Unlike Ye-chan’s memory, episode three of Choose My Prince 99 opened with the recreation games from the first dorm stay. He had steeled himself the moment the teaser dropped, but it was still hard to watch with any real pleasure.
As the tightly edited highlights of Ye-chan and Woo Hwi-gyum’s exploits rolled on, the two on either side of him were dying of laughter, while Ye-chan’s own expression only grew more sour and stiff.
The editing… was solid.
“M-my stomach hurts so much…!”
On screen, Ye-chan wearing five flower crowns waved a limp hand with lifeless eyes. Beom Se-hyuk clutched his aching stomach from laughing too hard; Sang-rok clamped his right hand over his mouth to keep the laughter from exploding out.
And Jeong Ui-tak…
“Ugh-heuk…”
He had gone past laughing and was outright sobbing. Ye-chan looked down with cold eyes at Ui-tak, who had rolled off the sofa and was face-down on the floor crying, then let out a small sigh.
Viewers’ reactions would be even worse, never better; the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.
I really hope I don’t get mixed up in the next dorm stay. Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?
An old member’s favorite saying circled in his ears: once is coincidence, twice means it will happen a third time. The very person who used to say it had apparently wanted to prove the truth of his own habit, because he would vanish right before important schedules whenever you almost forgot about him.
“Wow, I’m gonna get roasted so hard.”
Ui-tak, who had somehow climbed back onto the sofa, muttered the words with complete calm. The production team had put real effort into showing every single mistake the center of Vocal Team 5 made. They had even carefully used the fights with his teammates, and the absolute highlight was the mid-check full of back-to-back errors.
Episode three of Choose My Prince 99 ended on the image of Jeong Ui-tak refusing to give up the center position even under that barrage of criticism.
The internet must be on fire right about now.
Ye-chan patted Ui-tak’s shoulder a couple of times.
“Don’t look at the internet until next week.”
“You don’t look either, hyung. I’m about to get dragged for pushing myself as center, and you’re getting bundled in with me.”
Ui-tak snorted as if it weren’t even funny; he looked like he had finally thrown off a heavy weight and felt lighter for it.
“Manager hyung says he’s right out front. We’re heading out.”
Jeong Ui-tak checked his phone, grabbed his bag, and stood. His family home was in Jeju, so he was living in the dorm the company provided; they would pick him up and give Beom Se-hyuk a ride at the same time.
“Ye-chan, you want a lift too?”
“Nah. Completely opposite direction for me.”
After turning down Se-hyuk’s offer, Ye-chan helped Sang-rok tidy up once the other two had left.
“Sorry for putting a guest to work like this.”
“If you keep treating me that politely I’ll feel pressured to come again next week. Just be comfortable, hyung.”
“Mm, alright. Then I won’t hold back. Results come out next week, huh.”
Sang-rok folded a snack bag, glanced briefly at the commercials still playing on the TV, and let the words slip out. Ye-chan nodded.
“Should I bring something next week? I ended up showing up empty-handed today.”
“You’re the one making it hard to invite you if you keep being so formal. Just come casually.”
Sang-rok let out a short laugh and continued.
“Belated congratulations on first place in vocals.”
He scratched the back of his head, saying the timing had somehow slipped away. Ye-chan dipped his head in a small bow.
“Thank you. You were so close, hyung.”
“The two-vote difference, you mean?”
They had won the team vote and received the thirty-thousand-vote benefit, but Sang-rok had been riding high in first place on the online votes the whole time; losing to Kang Hae-sol in the live vote could easily have hit him hard.
We weren’t even on the same team, so it wasn’t a direct matchup.
Sang-rok stared down at the table as if lost in thought, then spoke.
“Yeah. I should feel like it was a waste… but I don’t.”
“……”
He sat all the way down on the floor, back against the sofa, and went on with a serious face.
“If I’d been on the same team as Hae-sol, the gap would’ve been even bigger.”
He added, as if wondering whether that sounded too spineless, and gave an embarrassed little laugh.
“I thought I was pretty confident in my skills, but watching Hae-sol’s stage just crushed me. Our turn came right after theirs and my legs were shaking. Haha—rappers are supposed to have guts, right?”
“It didn’t show at all.”
“If it had shown that badly, the audience would’ve noticed, but more than that—wouldn’t you have taken back the offer to debut together first?”
“No. I wouldn’t take it back.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Ye-chan casually rolled his eyes toward the spot where the hologram window usually popped up.
Unless I figure out how to dissolve the Party, we’re stuck going together whether it turns out good or bad.
Whatever part of the answer had amused him, Sang-rok’s shoulders shook with quiet chuckles for a moment before he straightened his back and sat properly again.
“Just… looking at you guys… anyway, I want to do better.”
Ye-chan paused. It had been a long time since he’d heard words so full of teamwork. It was a little embarrassing, but it didn’t feel bad at all.
“Let’s work hard together.”
Short words that carried a lot. When he finished speaking, Ye-chan gave Sang-rok’s shoulder a light pat.
And the next day.
Just as Jeong Ui-tak had predicted, the internet was on fire.