Chapter 14
Chapter 14
"It's Seo Cha-gyeom."
It seemed too late to pretend I didn't know. Baek Gyeonwoo, who had been slumped helplessly on the bench at the stop, locked eyes with me and acknowledged me first.
I bit my lip and assessed the situation.
'I was sure I'd just dropped him off across the street. I even watched him cross the crosswalk.'
So had he been here ever since?
......Why?
No, by then it was too late for speculation—he'd already spoken first. I'd better greet him.
"Hello... I mean, hey."
Baek Gyeonwoo, who had been turning my greeting over in his head, let out a dry laugh and turned his head.
"Busted."
"What?"
"That we're the same age."
"......."
This was all because of the habit I'd had of calling any stranger either hyung, sir, or boss.
......That was my excuse, but it really just showed I hadn't paid attention during the grade evaluations. He would've definitely said his age during introductions.
I quickly changed the subject.
"What are you doing here? You got off earlier."
"Where are you going?"
"Me? I'm heading... to the practice room."
"The agency?"
"Yeah."
My evasive answer technique was excellent.
He clearly didn't want to talk, so I'd let it slide. The conversation would end here anyway.
I began preparing my parting words. Just because we ran into each other outside didn't mean we were on happy-to-see-you terms.
A chance encounter was most beautiful when it stayed chance...
"Hey."
Baek Gyeonwoo deliberately revived the dying conversation.
An awkward breeze blew between us. All because Baek Gyeonwoo had stopped me from leaving and then clamped his mouth shut.
Was he about to say something rude? Something like, 'I'm surprised a crappy agency like yours has a practice room'... or whatever?
But after a long pause, what came out of Baek Gyeonwoo's mouth was something I could never have predicted.
"Take me with you."
* * *
Even I was amazed at what a pushover I was.
"It's a spare bed, so you can use it."
"......Thanks."
Baek Gyeonwoo hesitantly perched on the bed that was originally supposed to be my sleeping spot.
The reason I'd offered my bed was... simply because it seemed like Kim Sanho would be less uncomfortable with me using his bed than with a stranger doing so.
Since Kim Sanho was currently using my bed anyway, I figured we could just call it a swap.
"I'll turn off the light."
After washing up, I returned and immediately turned it off.
Sleeping in the practice room was nothing new anymore. I stared up at the familiar ceiling and blinked.
'How did it end up like this?'
Once I had a moment to calm down, our conversation at the stop came back to me vividly.
―......Why our practice room?
―I have nowhere to go.
―Your agency?
―I don't want to go.
Those words were just chopped-up fragments, but he really did look like he had nowhere to go.
Baek Gyeonwoo, eyes downcast as if he knew his request was shameless, had clearly been ready to give up if I refused just once.
So... I could've refused, but I brought him here anyway. Me.
'Why did I even bother making plans?'
Thinking of myself just a few hours ago, giving the silent treatment to keep my distance, I nearly laughed. How could I be so inconsistent with my past self?
"......."
"......."
Because the beds were positioned in an L-shape, our heads were close to each other.
I let it be because shifting my position now would be even more ridiculous, but the awkwardness made it feel like I couldn't even breathe.
"Hey... Gyeonwoo."
"What."
Now that things had come to this, I might as well fish for information.
"How do you think they'll decide the first competition teams?"
I wasn't genuinely curious. But suspecting people for no reason was the biggest waste of energy, so I was using this chance to test him.
To explain, in a program like this with a passionate niche audience but low mainstream appeal, viewers who followed from the start held much more sway than those who joined midway.
Simply put, if you couldn't build a meaningful core fandom by the first ranking announcement, debuting could be difficult.
If it was true that the debut team was pre-selected as the System's hints suggested, they'd have to somehow stand out in the next mission.
Whatever trick they used, the fixed picks would need to dominate the mission regardless.
Maybe the pre-selected members had gotten advance tips about it?
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"How would I know... I have no idea."
He'd started to be rude but then caught himself and changed course.
"What kind of song do you think they'll give us?"
"Dunno."
"What's your agency like?"
"Don't know."
So that 'don't know' was the sequel to 'Oh, really?'
Listening to an answer that had ditched politeness for apathy, I blinked my increasingly heavy eyelids.
"Do you think you can debut?"
My drowsiness slurred my words. Maybe because of that, no answer came for a long moment.
'If it weren't for Youth, he might've managed somehow. His personality is bewildering, but in many ways...'
My mind grew so foggy I didn't even know what I was thinking.
There was a rustling sound, and then a voice came not from the side but from above.
"I have to."
"......."
"No matter what."
* * *
[Blink.]
[Blink.]
"......."
Had I been worried that the awkwardness would keep me from sleeping properly?
It was the moment I proved how little I knew myself. Because I opened my eyes to a bright morning without even realizing I'd fallen asleep.
The reason I could tell it was morning in a basement that got zero sunlight was simple.
"......Why?"
"It's nine. Get up."
"Why are you staring at me while I sleep?"
"You sleep like a corpse, so it was fascinating."
'I've got an eerie sense of déjà vu.'
I sat up on the bed in the brightly lit practice room. Even after clutching my head and shaking off sleep, my mind felt foggy.
Realizing I wouldn't snap out of it, I washed up immediately, and when I returned, Baek Gyeonwoo was already dressed in his coat, waiting for me.
"Leaving?"
"Yeah. ...Thank you."
"You said you had nowhere to go."
"I still have to show up for work."
'But he said he didn't want to go.'
Well, if you got on the wrong side of them, you could end up paying double penalties and never set foot in the industry again. There were plenty of petty people at agencies.
I nodded vaguely, said goodbye to Baek Gyeonwoo as he opened the practice room door, and looked for my phone.
I'd been about to contact Kim Sanho, but that effort was spared in one second.
"......Who's this?"
"......."
Just then, Kim Sanho, who was about to enter, and Baek Gyeonwoo, who was about to leave, came face-to-face in the doorway—not quite a standoff, but a meeting.
Because Baek Gyeonwoo's head towered above him, Kim Sanho's bewildered eyes were fully visible; he rolled them around for a moment, then leaned sideways to spot me.
He looked at me, then at Baek Gyeonwoo.
When he looked at me again, Kim Sanho's eyes grew wider and wider.
"......Hyung, you actually lured him here..."
"Sanho!"
"Huh?"
What nonsense was he about to spout? I rushed over to Kim Sanho, grabbed his arm, and yanked him inside.
"Come in. And, uh, Gyeonwoo, safe travels."
"......."
"You know the way?"
"Probably."
Baek Gyeonwoo gave a short nod to say goodbye to Kim Sanho and walked off.
Only after the sound of footsteps going up the stairs died away did Kim Sanho ask.
"Who was that?"
"A contestant from the show. He said he had nowhere to go, so I let him crash here just for tonight. Sorry for not mentioning it."
"That's fine... Hmm, he said he had nowhere to go?"
"Yeah."
"So you just kicked a person with nowhere to go out onto the street, hyung."
"Why are you suddenly making me out to be trash?"
That Youth, which cared so obsessively about its reputation—would they really just leave him? He was still their cash cow, after all.
'It still feels a bit off, honestly.'
I'd already guessed that sending him to the survival show was a discarded hand.
The <MAKE100%> debut team's contract period was three years. Once activities ended, most of them would be in an awkward spot to debut as rookies.
That's why many would go solo. Or switch to acting.
That was why major agencies tended to ignore temporary survival shows. Unlike mid-sized companies, big ones had a baseline of guaranteed results, so there was no need to take risks.
In the first place, no matter how good the MAKE100% debut team's earnings were, the profits had to be split among the related parties. There was no way a major agency would be satisfied with that.
Even so, the reason Youth sent Baek Gyeonwoo was obvious.
Either they saw him as too lacking to debut in their own group but too good to throw away, so they planned to debut him through the survival show and milk him dry.
Or else...
"Do you know Youth's most recent boy group?"
"Huh? I know of them. Don't know their songs well, though."
"What was their name again?"
"Giddeun? Giddeun?"
Giddeun. I grabbed my phone and immediately went to the search bar.
The name was a conjugation of 'to settle in.' Well, I didn't need to know the origin of the group name.
The member count was five. I even found out they were all mint choco enthusiasts and their MBTIs were all introverted. Unnecessary, so I'd forget it right away.
'Debut was November the year before last, and their last activity was...'
Last September.
"What's the date today?"
"February 26th."
'I'm getting a hunch.'
I scrolled down from the search bar and opened the Wit App. It was a social media platform frequently used by idol fans.
Most fans wouldn't welcome their idols searching themselves, but paradoxically, searching was essential to meet their demands.
At Mary, the company handled the monitoring for their idols. But I hadn't been a trainee there.
What I meant was, I naturally had a Wit account too.
[KgGhgdFCaIfroj]
683 following 2 followers
'It was originally 900; it sure dropped a lot.'
I blocked the spam accounts that had latched on and tapped the search bar.
The group name 'Giddeun' probably wouldn't search well, so let's try searching the member names I saw earlier.
―Giddeun, what are they up to these days? Jin Yeohyun was my type
└More like asleep forever
―Selling photocards, see photos. Signed polaroid, photocard, album photocard, unreleased polaroid, buying, splitting, selling, trading, seasons greetings. Giddeun. #WTB_Cotton #AnnounceGiddeunActivityPlan
―Ah, I miss my prince, I miss our baby puppy, I miss Jin Yeohyun...
―Jin Yeohyun, I'm holding my breath until you turn on a livestream
└Jin Yeohyun, it's your fault I died
―Youth has seriously gone to shit, is it a true story they've only released one physical album in a year since debut? The remaining suckers, the Cotton, will all get new jobs as Kes once Mebaek starts, how long are you going to trust the big agency privilege and keep dragging this out, you stupid bastards #AnnounceGiddeunActivityPlan #Kim_Ji-ha #Shin_Yoo-seop #Jin_Yeo-hyun #Lee_Ha-ru #Park_Ki-won
"......."
'I knew it would be like this.'
Get popular, get eliminated, then join an existing group.
It was entirely possible.
Giddeun's results couldn't be called a total flop, but they were far too lackluster for a product of a major agency famous for its brand power.
To the point that some kind of drastic decision was needed.
And if that decision was Baek Gyeonwoo's addition... then Youth's current moves might be deliberately encouraging fans to leave. They'd need to silence the existing fans as much as possible to reduce backlash later.
Whether Baek Gyeonwoo would become the savior reliever or the public enemy in that fractured fandom... well, who knows.
'Not that it matters to me.'
For now, it was all just speculation. Who knew, maybe Youth had gone crazy and was already preparing for the next-next group.
First, let's cool my head.
"You slept well last night?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go out. For a run."
Kim Sanho, who had been answering dutifully, suddenly averted his eyes.
"But hyung, when is that?"
"What?"
"The group music video. Isn't it usually released around this time?"
"Next Friday. Stop stalling and get up."
"Ok......."