I Couldn't Take It Anymore
I couldn't take it anymore... No more.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Taeho had firmly believed he'd been diligent with his club activities all this time. Even though his guitar skills left much to be desired, he'd done everything possible to make a good impression on the seniors. He'd even sent Suhyun KakaoTalk messages and gift icons that he wouldn't have bothered sending to the other seniors. After all, he felt like he was learning a lot from someone who played the same instrument. Through that process, Taeho had even come to believe that he and Suhyun had grown quite close. All of it was denied in this single moment. For a twenty-year-old who had only just earned his high school graduate status, it landed like a devastating wound.
Seoeun, noticing the atmosphere turning strange, tried to wrap things up, but Suhyun wouldn't stop.
"Take care of your own damn business before you start clinging to people."
Taeho's fists clenched so tightly that veins bulged across them.
Clatterclatterclatterclatterclatterclatterclack—
Head still bowed, Taeho suddenly bolted down the stairs toward the opposite side where the twenty-third generation sat.
"...Huh?"
The flustered Suhyun rose in an awkward scramble.
"T-Taeho?"
He called the name urgently a beat too late, but Taeho must have already reached the fourth floor—there was no echoing sound from the stairwell.
The atmosphere grew icy cold. No one spoke first, yet the air felt heavy enough to sink.
Suhyun turned around like a broken wooden puppet.
"W-what should I do?"
It was the second time today he'd uttered "what should I do."
"Ah... seriously..."
Hana let out a long, headache-filled sigh. But only for a moment. A fiery scolding came crashing down on Suhyun.
"What are you doing just standing there? Go after him, Lee Suhyun!"
"Huh?"
"Hey! You idiot! How could you keep going until the kid's mentality completely shatters and he runs off like that!"
"But... I learned that from you..."
Suhyun looked up at Hana with a trace of resentment in his eyes.
"I get that you learned it from watching me, but you still have to read the room and adjust your reaction!"
Everything required moderation. In a way, pulling off a proper prank was a rather delicate task for someone like Suhyun. You had to act genuinely upset without crossing the line. The true virtue of a prank was keeping it light enough that "It was just a joke, forgive me?" would still come across as cute.
This time, Suhyun had gone so hard there was no need for a VAR review. Hana shoved his back with all her strength.
"Go fix what you broke! Ugh, seriously!"
Choi Kang apparently found even this situation hilarious and burst into booming laughter.
"These boys have such weak mindsets! Total beta males!"
"I... I think that counts as a sexist remark," Juyeon muttered softly from beside him.
"Aigoo... Anyway, Suhyun."
As always, sorting out the chaos in the noisy club fell to the president.
"We'll head back to the club room, so if Taeho comes this way, we'll contact you."
"Ah. Okay."
"If you find him, comfort him properly. Apologize and bring him back. He must've been really shocked."
"...I'm sorry."
Suhyun bowed deeply to the members.
"...Suhyun. Want me to come with you?"
Hana couldn't help worrying about him—he wasn't exactly the most dependable in situations like this.
"No. I'll handle it myself."
"You sure you can?"
Suhyun smiled awkwardly and scratched his head.
"...I'm better at apologizing than getting angry."
Anger required practice, but apologizing came as naturally to Suhyun as breathing. Whether the matter was big or small, he was always the first to yield and bend.
"...If you can't find him, call me."
"Thanks."
With that, the members headed back up to the fifth floor while Suhyun descended the stairs to the fourth.
"Aah..."
Only after everyone had disappeared did Suhyun let out a deep sigh. There were only six members total, yet he'd managed to send two of them away in completely different ways. Was the life of an insider always this exhausting...? He felt sorry toward Taeho, and his heart wasn't at ease with the rest of the members either.
Still, his worry for Taeho outweighed everything else, so he wandered through the school building where most lights had already been turned off, searching like a game of tag.
"...Taeho?"
"Is Taeho here?"
"Taeho... probably not here either..."
He checked the bathrooms, then the stairwells—any place he himself might retreat to when feeling small. When he still couldn't find him, Suhyun turned his steps toward the playground.
And in the distance, near the smoking area, he spotted a silhouette with a build similar to Taeho's. A gray windbreaker growing steadily closer. It had to be him!
The moment Suhyun spotted him, he broke into a frantic run.
"T-Taeho!"
Suhyun was breathing so hard he could barely speak. Even though he wanted to apologize, the words wouldn't come out properly through his panting.
"...Why did you come all the way out here?"
"No, it's because I felt bad... that..."
"It's fine. I was the one who didn't know his place with the seniors and acted all familiar... ha..."
Taeho tapped the ash from his cigarette and let out a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry, hyung. For pretending we were close."
"No, it's really not that."
"You don't have to comfort me."
Suhyun needed to explain it was a prank, but Taeho kept cutting him off.
"L-let me talk!"
When the usually quiet Suhyun suddenly raised his voice, Taeho finally looked at him with wide, round eyes.
"...It was a prank."
"...What?"
"It was a prank. What I said back on the stairs."
When Taeho dropped the cigarette he hadn't even finished, Suhyun hurriedly continued his explanation.
"Actually... I was the one assigned to scold you, you know?"
"But... Hana told me to do it exactly like that, so I just followed through."
"I turned out to be pretty good at it, and you seemed softer-hearted than you looked, so..."
Taeho, now grasping the full situation. His emotions shifted in clear stages. First came bewilderment. Then a replay of his own actions. What had he said? How exactly had he run out like that? Suhyun's diss had been too realistic for a prank. His words had been like thorns. And all of it was a lie... Then what about me... why on earth...
The moment all the puzzle pieces clicked together.
"Noooo! Suhyun hyuuuuung!"
"I-I'm so sorry!"
Suhyun bowed politely to his junior, folding like a flip phone.
Siiiiizzle.
It was ten at night. A little late for a dinner gathering, but the savory aroma of pork belly rose deliciously from the grill.
"Ahem... ahem...!"
Seoeun stood and raised her soju glass high.
"Everyone~ Spirit members~ May I have your attention please~"
The noisy twenty-third and twenty-fourth generations fell silent.
"We only have about ten days left! This dinner is meant to cheer us on to push through together, so let's all do our best!"
The rest of the members raised their glasses in unison.
"What we did today—as we've explained multiple times—is an annual event, so don't take it to heart at all!"
"If you want revenge, save it for the twenty-fifth generation!"
The twenty-fourth generation kids laughed. Clear malice sparkled in their eyes. Seoeun, as if wanting to commemorate even this moment, switched her phone to selfie mode.
"Love you guys!"
"We love you too!"
Today's dinner was unusual in that seats had been assigned. The rule was that the person who had done the scolding and the one who had been scolded had to sit facing each other. Thus, Taeho sat across from Suhyun, and Jiyeon sat across from Juyeon.
Suhyun, who still couldn't shake his guilt, was diligently grilling meat on behalf of the juniors.
"Eat lots, everyone."
"Hyung, I can do that."
When Taeho tried to step in, Suhyun pulled the tongs back as if there was no chance he'd allow it.
"You just focus on eating."
Suhyun believed that at least this much was necessary for it to count as a proper apology.
"Hey, Park Taeho. But wasn't Suhyun oppa's performance kind of weak today? When he was scolding me I didn't feel anything at all."
"What are you talking about? Suhyun hyung's acting is practically psycho level."
"No way? I thought Seoeun unnie and Hana unnie were way scarier."
The two juniors ranking the seniors' acting skills soon demanded confirmation from Juyeon, who had witnessed every scene.
"Juyeon unnie. From what you saw, who seemed the scariest today?"
Suhyun pretended to focus on grilling the meat, but he glanced sideways, inwardly curious about the verdict.
"Hmm... In my opinion..."
Juyeon, who had been tapping the dipping sauce with her chopsticks, turned her head toward Suhyun.
"Suhyun."
It was a clear, clean answer with zero buffering.
"Me? For real?"
Suhyun frowned as if feeling wronged.
"See! Even noona admits it!"
"No way! Unnie! How could Suhyun oppa possibly beat Hana unnie?"
Jiyeon protested as if she couldn't accept it.
"Well..."
Juyeon, bothered that he kept only grilling, picked up a piece of meat and placed it directly into Suhyun's mouth.
"Because Suhyun made me cry too, remember?"
Silence fell over the table. Suhyun had made Juyeon cry? What on earth did that mean?
"How did that..."
"...That's a secret."
Jiyeon asked sneakily, but Juyeon smiled softly and dodged the question, which was rare for her.
"Juyeon, if you put it that way...!"
"It's not a lie. It really was quite a night..."
"Ooh... I didn't see Suhyun oppa that way."
After that day, among the twenty-fourth generation, Suhyun and Juyeon were officially branded as being "in a something-something relationship."