The Unyielding Smile
After the live broadcast, people believed the perfect acting, and as sympathy formed, Hael escaped the criticism.
He was definitely crazy, but undeniably annoying, skilled at scamming, and calculating.
And after that day, contact with Hael was cut off. Exactly when I unilaterally cut contact by changing my number.
And not long after, I ran into Hael in the music broadcast corridor.
“……”
“……”
A strange current flowed between us.
Until then, we had at least a decent relationship with the other Innos members, but after the talk show, we had become awkward with each other.
The Innos members were cautious when looking at me, even though they weren't the ones involved.
“Hello~”
In the midst of this, Hael greeted boldly as if nothing had happened.
The Innos members, despite being members, had expressions as if they couldn't say anything to his brazen and lively greeting.
“Have you changed your number? I couldn't contact you. Why didn't you tell me?”
Well, why? He couldn't be clueless, and he was doing it on purpose.
Of course, I didn't understand. If he didn't want to publicly brag about being wronged by me, why?
“Ah, lately I've been getting calls from unknown numbers a lot. I changed the number but forgot to tell you.”
Roughly, the meaning in those words was that I wasn't an important person to him either. In reality, that was accurate.
He was on the danger list but not important.
And since that day, I had been trying to refine my words too.
Because if I said anything, I didn't know how he'd use it.
Of course, if he had a brain, he wouldn't have the courage to use me again.
One mistake is enough. If mistakes repeated, it would be seen as intent.
The trend now was sympathy, but if he did worse, he'd be seen through. People weren't fools.
'I'm curious. What exactly is his next move?'
While looking at Hael in front of me, thinking that, at that moment.
“Give me the new number.”
Hael extended his phone.
I quietly looked at the phone that had come in front of me, and one of the members next to him grabbed Hael's collar and tried to stop him.
“Let's go…”
The Innos members looked like shrimps caught in a whale fight.
From the previous incident, they seemed to have been scolded by the company. Judging by the atmosphere, they were quite shaken.
“Ah, why? I came to greet you because I hadn't seen you since that day and was happy.”
But Hael was now openly acting like he was going to explode.
“I got scolded by the company people anyway. Someone said who calls at midnight like that.”
Hael added with a smile.
“Sorry for calling late at night! From now on, I'll be a polite person who calls during the day!”
Pure admiration came out.
'Wow... This guy's really crazy.'
An apology armed with shocking lightness. It was so light that anyone listening would think it was nothing.
I tried to keep a straight face, but a smile burst out.
In response to my reaction, Hael narrowed his eyes and smiled.
“After all, your smile is so pretty. It makes everyone who sees it happy, right?”
Like the previous words, Hael spat out words similar to novel dialogue again.
“Let's go.”
“Yeah, let's go.”
In the end, Hael was quietly pulled away by the members. The Hael in front was being dragged like luggage.
Looking at that sight, I was lost in thought for a moment.
'What on earth is he thinking?'
Was he trying to attract attention by setting up a crazy concept?
Or, because I debuted, he completely went crazy?
After the talk show incident, I was trying not to get entangled as much as possible, but if it was like this, I thought it wouldn't be easy to avoid.
I couldn't guarantee that changing the number alone wouldn't entangle us.
Upon arriving at the waiting room, members preparing to go on stage were visible.
Kwon Hak-jin, seeing my expression, seemed to have noticed what happened with Hael in the corridor, and quietly approached and said.
“Are you okay?”
“Well... I'm fine.”
Although I answered that, my mind was spinning rapidly.
I knew there were plenty of dirty and brazen people in the world, but experiencing someone like Hael directly made me admire him purely while also curious.
How far would he go?
'Hael...'
Muttering Hael's name silently, I thought.
For now, I planned to watch, but since I knew who the being was trying to kill me, I had no intention of staying quiet.
If the other side crossed the line and caused more trouble, I would have to counterattack. I don't like just taking it.
“The moment the music calls you! Live MBO Music Time! Today's stage of wonderful artists is also prepared.”
The live broadcast started, and the stages of artists proceeded in order.
And the much-anticipated Starlight stage was coming up. Soon, the MC lifted the mic to introduce the stage.
“Next is the rising star in the music industry, the stage of super rookie Starlight is waiting. Receiving a lot of love with its unique sensibility Blue Flame, and…”
The MC introduced the next stage with a bright smile.
“Up to the Ripped Jeans with its unique charm, let's meet together now!”
In today's music broadcast, Starlight was scheduled to show two stages: the title track followed by the album track.
If the title track was a song with a dreamy atmosphere, the album track Ripped Jeans, although not a double title, had a powerful feel.
Genre: Old school hip hop. Completely different atmosphere from the title track.
Soon, with cheers, the members appeared on stage. They were styled in white t-shirts and ripped jeans.
− Ripped Jeans
The stage started, and the members danced while stepping on hip hop steps in unison.
− No Limits
Throw away the system
Everything is according to my will
New beginning, Starlight, start
Leading the large formation, Kang In-hyeok came out and rapped while moving.
Dancing Kang In-hyeok. Inside the ripped jeans, bandages stuck to the knees were visible. It looked like proving the practice time so far.
− Rest While Concentrating
Now Rest and Breathe
Just Dance
Burning My Youth to Get
Achievement Blazing Death
After sweeping the floor once, Han I-jae lightly stepped.
Do Won-woo, who came out from the dispersing formation, continued the next step.
− Ripped Jeans, Ripped Jeans
Hey, I don’t envy your suit
I envy my blue jeans
Not envious scam money
Na Jae-hyun took off his beanie and continued the choreography using the beanie.
Soon, Jeong Hui-min, who took over the beanie, continued the actions and danced.
− Can you see it?
Hole in the blue youth
Everything you say is untrue
Scatter confetti on my way
Solo section.
Kwon Hak-jin, wearing a headset around his neck, performed the solo.
− Come at me, try to kill me
I’ll spit blue venom
After spitting the last lyrics, Do Won-woo lowered his thumb.
− You can’t kill me
Soon, the members stood in the final formation and faced the camera.
− Ripped Jeans
After all the stages ended, only the final result announcement remained.
All performers came on stage, and among them, we, the 1st place candidates, stood at the front. In fact, we were in a state of anticipation.
Because we thought there was a possibility even considering the scores and other parts.
“1st place, congratulations! Starlight!”
Finally, our name was called, and members who looked visibly happy were seen.
'Since it's the first 1st place, it should be good...'
Kwon Hak-jin, who received the 1st place trophy, seemed moved, looked at the trophy for a moment with an emotional expression, then continued with a leader-like straightforward opinion.
“We only debuted a little while ago, and to receive such a big award as Music Time 1st place, I really couldn't imagine it. I want to say thank you.”
I listened to the opinion with a nod.
“Thank you to our representative who always supports us, all the One Code family, the managers who work hard behind the scenes, the staff, and all those who made our music and stage.”
After Kwon Hak-jin finished his opinion, the mic soon went to me.
A bit flustered for a moment, but after clearing my throat, I continued with my opinion.
“Well... First of all, thank you to all those who made it possible for us to receive such a big award. Even though we are still very lacking, I can't believe such great love is given to us.”
After saying the opinion like that, as if distracted, an important name Kwon Hak-jin had mentioned came to mind.
“And I want to thank our fans, Lucent, as well.”
After that, it ended, and with the music sound echoing on the stage, the performers came down with greetings.
Then, I met eyes with the Innos members. Since we had become awkward, it was visible that they were trying to quickly greet and exit.
'Why is he... doing that again.'
In the midst of this, Hael was doing another peculiar action. Because it was in front of the camera and people, the lively appearance from the corridor earlier couldn't be seen.
It seemed he was perfectly acting the appearance of being greatly shrunken and dejected as if conscious of the talk show incident...
'Does he really want to get people's attention like this?'
I decided not to pay attention to it. After roughly greeting, I looked straight ahead.
What remained now was the encore stage.
'From what I heard, there are cases where the encore stage gets scolded...'
In fact, I wasn't worried.
The members' skills were already proven in the survival show.
Of course, since it was the first encore stage, I thought there might be a need to adapt, but as soon as the encore stage started, the members performed without any faltering.
Even on the first encore stage, they seemed to have some leeway and even joked while looking at each other.
'Hmm...?'
At that moment, I saw Won Ji-an stumble while singing.
Ding!
At that moment, the notification rang.
Special Quest