The Jealous Gaze
After debut, in the midst of busy days, he managed the schedules.
Because the group had been formed from a popular survival program, among the newly debuted rookies their momentum was quite good.
And while active, he could hear news about Innos without fail, and recently their stages had been receiving good reactions and quickly drawing attention.
Since they were under a mid-sized agency, their promotional power was inevitably limited, but they were filling that limit with skill.
In that way, the word that we and Innos were rivals started to come out occasionally.
It couldn't help but be worrying. Especially since the one suspected of trying to kill him was a group that debuted on the same day, and they were under Lumen Entertainment, which had appeared in the recent schedule data.
So, after the call that day, he continued to keep an eye on them and observe.
“Does it seem suspicious?”
The system, or rather, the guy we decided to call Bodi, appeared and spoke.
'Suspicious?'
Of course it would be suspicious.
But....
"It is suspicious, but I won't fully trust the information you're giving."
After the last incident, he had made it a basic principle not to judge everything based only on the information given by the system.
Excluding that Hael was under Lumen Entertainment, the rest of the suspicious things were just their tone and actions.
It wasn't yet time to be fully confident about that alone.
"But, the things on the danger list are definitely there, right?"
Bodi asked with a playful tone.
"Of course."
Excluding the information that Hael was under Lumen Entertainment, it was a fact that Hael was a suspicious existence.
There was a strangely feeling of disliking him while being oddly obsessed. It was interesting.
Up until now, those who harbored malice towards him had disliked him, but not to that extent of obsession.
For example, calling late at night or something like that.
"Well, in a way, it could be that you love me. Who says that love and hate are just a thin line?"
"Please stop saying such creepy things...."
If he could, he wanted to cover Bodi's mouth.
"Seems like you're viewing the emotion of malice too lightly."
"Me?"
"Has there been no one in your life who hated you that much? It seems you've lived with only shallow malice."
Shallow malice?
"From the dense malice comes obsession, which is the first time you're receiving, so you might not know well. Originally, people who want someone to fail are almost at the level of unrequited love, and they look into and chase after everything about that person."
He was at a loss for words.
That was almost pathological.
If you like someone, chasing them makes sense, but why hate them?
If you hate someone, you can just not look at them.
"Anyway, fighting!"
With that, Bodi disappeared.
'I can't understand.'
It was a moment where he recalled the saying that the world is wide and there are many crazy people.
***
He heard from the company that they had a variety show schedule.
Starlight's Gossip. It was a quite old-longevity program, a talk show variety show that anyone would have heard at some point.
The cast members were him and Kwon Hak-jin. Since it was a talk show, it seemed they had selected the members among them who spoke well.
Since each variety show going out for promotion was precious, he thought it was a good opportunity to introduce their group.
"The guest appearing on the same day is... Innos, who debuted with you, right?"
'What?'
Why him?
To check, the guest appearing with them was Hael.
"Why? Won-woo?"
When his expression didn't look good, Kwon Hak-jin, who was quick on the uptake, quickly noticed the change in expression and spoke.
"No."
It was incomprehensible how often he was linked with Hael.
Honestly, he didn't want to be linked. It seemed like it would lead to troublesome things.
But, to know what kind of person Hael was, it might not be bad to confront him directly.
Of course, even though they had only met recently, the more they talked, the more the perception of him being a crazy person solidified.
「Bodi: Did you hear the news?」
As expected, on the evening when the variety show appearance was confirmed, a message came.
「Bodi: It seems we're going out together on Starlight's Gossip? See you then^^」
Unlucky bastard.
'... I hope nothing happens.'
I don't know.
Since I can't know about things that will happen in the future, I decided to stop thinking.
***
While circulating the music broadcast, he often ran into Innos. Since the debut day was the same and activities overlapped, meetings were inevitable.
The feelings towards each other, well. Since they were debut peers, they felt a sense of solidarity-like emotion, but a strange rival consciousness was also rising.
Of course, if that competitive spirit was used as nourishment to grow oneself, it would be good, but....
'There it is again, that look.'
Every time they crossed paths in the music broadcast corridor, Hael would give a smile laden with malice and pass by him.
Why did he hate him so much. If I try to figure out the reason....
"Jealousy from different positions?"
While sitting in the waiting room doing his phone, Bodi's voice came.
'Position?'
With a voice that only he could hear, Bodi whispered in his ear.
"People sometimes envy someone, and without any reason, dislike them. Some are already standing in the position I wanted, some are holding the opportunities I couldn't easily get, and another person seems to be living the same day with a much lighter heart than me."
Did Hael see him that way?
'Debuted on the same day, but the visible results are clearly different?'
But this was an unavoidable phenomenon. We had already debuted after marking a spot with the popular survival program and forming a fandom.
Since Innos, who had just appeared before people's eyes, was in a completely different situation, comparing them on the same line didn't make sense.
So, there was no need to be jealous just because their rising speed was fast. In fact, it wasn't the same situation.
"But why is he doing that...."
While muttering to himself, Han I-jae spoke to him.
"Why?"
"...What?"
"You seem to be worrying a lot."
He closed the phone and shook his head.
"It's nothing."
At first, he was irritated, but a bit of pity was felt. Of course, that emotion disappeared soon.
***
To pass the waiting time, he went to the music broadcast corridor to film a challenge video.
Today, the opponent for the challenge he was filming with was Hael of Innos. The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was annoying to be linked.
Following the same variety show appearance, filming the challenge together.
"Alright, let's film it."
So, they filmed the challenge video following each other's choreography.
Hael was not to his liking at all, but he did the challenge diligently. He didn't want to be blamed for nothing.
"Thank you!"
After filming the challenge, they all monitored the video together.
"Ah, it's a pity... Can we film it one more time?"
While monitoring, Hael seemed to have something on his mind and requested to film it one more time.
Usually acting like Bodi, but when it came to his main job, he seemed to be mentally sharp.
"Thank you for your hard work."
After filming the video one more time, the challenge filming was over.
As he was about to return to the waiting room, Hael said with a greeting.
"Thank you, it was really an honor."
His endless talk of honor. At this point, it seemed like he was doing it on purpose.
"What? We're debut peers. If you say that, I'll feel burdened."
So, he turned the words to stop into a roundabout way, but Hael didn't seem to have any intention of stopping.
"No. It was an honor, really."
"Really? Thank you, haha."
Feeling bored, he just laughed it off and was about to turn around.
"From the first time I saw you, I felt it, but your smiling smile is so pretty that it makes everyone who sees it happy."
At that moment, he couldn't help but stop his steps without realizing.
'That line...?'
Since he had read novels several times, he could tell immediately.
That line was the line Do Won-woo said to Lee Hae-won in the original novel. A praise that wasn't praise at the time when they had just met.
"......"
"......"
In the silence, for a few seconds where their eyes met, a strange current flowed.
'Coincidence?'
It was too much of a coincidence that the original novel's line came out exactly without a single word from Hael's mouth.
Could this be a coincidence?
'He deliberately said that line to make me understand.'
The person trying to harm you is right here.
"Ah, really?"
His mind was racing from the words just said, but he maintained a calm face as if nothing was wrong.
"I may not be good at other things, but I'm good at smiling. I'll make sure to smile at you often when we meet from now on."
He gave the same response as the original Lee Hae-won had given.
Since he wasn't actually like the original Lee Hae-won in being positive and optimistic, he couldn't respond the same way, but with his insane memory, he copied and spat it out perfectly.
"Haha..."
Hael laughed lowly.
If he was conscious of the novel line and said it, he would have understood his response.
"Yes, then see you next time."
But Hael didn't respond further and left the place.
While looking at his receding back, he was lost in thought when he felt a gaze on him from behind the wall and turned around.
Won Ji-an was standing there.
"What are you doing there?"
Won Ji-an approached secretly and said.
"I was watching."
Did he come out because he was worried that I would meet Hael?
It wasn't a one-on-one meeting, and the corridor was wide open with many staff and eyes watching....
'Does he think so much of me.'
Anyway, if he had watched until now, Won Ji-an would have heard.
The fact that Hael had said the original novel line exactly.
"If you saw it, you would know too."
He said something that seemed to refer to Hael's actions from just now.
"......?"
But Won Ji-an tilted his head as if he didn't understand the meaning of his words.
Only then did he realize. The fact that only he, who memorized the original novel pathologically and remembered the novel lines exactly, was the one.