Chapter 75
Chapter 75
In the practice room, the mirror straight ahead revealed an arch of twelve A4 sheets taped across its center.
The decoration showed no regard for saving paper—barely one letter squeezed onto each A4 sheet.
"You don't look surprised at all......."
"That's why I said we should have set up candles."
No, I was genuinely shocked.
Because.
'The handwriting.......'
It was excessively cute.
Every stick and every circle in the letters had a heart attached to it; when I counted, the hearts alone came to a staggering eighteen.
Not just the hearts—the overall shape was far too adorable. It was that kind of handwriting where consonants were about four times the size of vowels.
It wasn't even messy handwriting. Getting appalled just because it was cute might make me seem like I had a questionably bad personality.
Still, I had to say something. To think that any of our kids could be the owner of handwriting like this.......
Honestly, doesn't it really not suit them?
"Did you guys write this?"
"No."
Kim Sanho answered.
Next to him, Jeong Sowol also shook his head from side to side.
'Which means.......'
I stared at Han Neuti with shocked eyes.
"Hey, it's not my handwriting either. See, it says 'Welcome Party' right there."
"Then who wrote it?"
Not the President?
The Manager?
'Ah, if it's the Manager, that makes sense.'
I concluded internally that it had to be the Manager's handwriting and waited for an answer.
"......."
"......."
But no answer came.
"W-Well, what does it matter? Sowol, let's start the party."
"Okay."
Han Neuti hastily broke the silence.
It was an openly awkward move, but... I pretended not to notice.
It wasn't important to begin with. Unless it were some kind of dying message, I didn't care.
Since they said the party was starting, I naturally expected a cake to appear, but Jeong Sowol, who had been dawdling while preparing something, was holding a mic.
"It's a congratulatory gift."
Jeong Sowol stood in front of the mirror.
Han Neuti and I plopped down on the floor about 1.5 meters away and waited for the present.
However I looked at it, it seemed like a kindergarten talent show, but I held my tongue.
Kim Sanho, who had settled himself at the keyboard, began playing the accompaniment, and soon Jeong Sowol raised the mic.
To a dim-witted Peter Pan
I don't want to find you anymore
I want to forget
Because you only ever cause me pain
Even if I carve it all out
And what's left of me is aluminum...
'He's really improved a lot.'
He wasn't yet at a stage where I could discuss technique, but his vocalization had already changed. The husky voice that had once been hidden in Hwang Jinseo's shadow had come to life, too.
And something I'd felt since last time.......
Jeong Sowol's singing had that wistful, classic feel distinctive of '90s band vocalists.
Seeing that it remained even though the Hwang Jinseo color had thinned, it probably started as imitation, but now it seemed fair to say it had settled as his own style.
It wasn't a vocal that fit everywhere, which made it even better.
Difficult-to-use ingredients are high-end by nature, after all.
'But.......'
Soon the song ended.
I clapped for him for the time being.
And left my most important review.
"You said it was a congratulatory gift—why'd you pick this kind of song?"
"My progress is the gift."
"Ah. ......Ah, I guess it really is a gift. Thank you."
Perhaps because the reaction wasn't what he expected, Jeong Sowol lowered the mic glumly.
'What do I do.'
I think I made a mistake.
......This wouldn't do. I had to dodge the crisis with a question Jeong Sowol would like.
"What about dancing?"
"......! I've finished the basics now."
"Then what are you learning now?"
"Advanced basics."
It might sound like it's still just the basics, but in dance, the essentials make up more than half of it. At this rate, you could say he was progressing far faster than average.
Hmm, maybe thanks to all that hard practice, his limbs seemed to have gotten longer already. If you spend all day just stretching, I guess that can happen.......
'No, seeing that I didn't have to tilt my head down as much, he really had grown.'
So when I asked, Jeong Sowol answered nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.
"I grew 3 centimeters."
"That's a lot."
"Doesn't it hurt growing that much in a month?"
"I think I'll hit 189 by next year."
"What kind of calculation gives you that number?"
"I just added 1 centimeter to Sanho hyung's height."
At the mention of his own name, Kim Sanho, who had been standing quietly the whole time, gave a shrug.
And he radiated discomfort with his entire body—rolling his eyes, clenching and unclenching his fists.
It seemed he felt the pressure to add his own comment to the conversation.
A moment later, Kim Sanho's courageous remark was revealed to the world.
"......Must be a bamboo shoot."
Bamboo shoot.......
Fine, but he still made a lot of effort. At this pace, by the time we renegotiated contracts we could be plenty friendly.
Just as I was sending him a sincerely encouraging look, Kim Sanho caught my eye and, as if he'd just remembered something, spoke up.
"Hyung, I also have a present prepared."
"You... are you going to show me a hundred push-ups or something?"
"......."
Kim Sanho silently moved his feet.
I was worrying I'd said something wrong again, but thankfully Kim Sanho seemed unbothered and walked into the supply room.
The very supply room where all sorts of household creations were born.
'Was it finally cake time?'
I said this clearly so I wouldn't look like someone who wanted cake, but I had zero interest. It was just that a party normally included cake. Even if it turned out to be a Choco Pie cake, I'd gladly accept it.
But Kim Sanho, who had gone inside and closed the supply room door, didn't come out for a while.
'He must be sticking in the candles.'
By now, I was so sure of the cake that I'd be disappointed if it weren't one.
Even while I was convinced about the cake and worrying about what to do with the leftovers before even eating any, the supply room remained shut and silent.
I kept watching, and when about five minutes had passed, I spoke.
"Are you having trouble lighting them?"
"Huh?"
There was no lighter in the supply room, so he was probably using the matches that came with the cake....... There are often people who struggle with that.
Imagining a flustered Kim Sanho, I walked toward the supply room.
Then Han Neuti and Jeong Sowol each grabbed one of my arms.
"Hey, hey, wait a sec."
"Hyung, trust Sanho hyung."
Subdued in a posture like I was being taken into custody, I.......
I reflected exactly like that.
Because I thought maybe I'd been too hasty.
'Even if it wasn't about the candles, he might take a while if he had a lot to prepare.'
Let's trust Kim Sanho like Jeong Sowol said.
You never knew. Kim Sanho might be inside preparing a magic trick where he pulled out a pigeon.......
[Crash!]
"......."
"It's okay. People don't die that easily."
......No matter how I thought about it, safety seemed more important than a surprise.
Unlike Jeong Sowol, who maintained a chillingly firm attitude, Han Neuti appeared to be starting to doubt Kim Sanho's handling of the situation.
Slowly removing his hand from my arm, Han Neuti heaved a deep sigh and said,
"I'll go check."
And he approached the supply room, carefully opening the door just as he had when checking the practice room earlier.
That was the problem.
"Huh?"
"Uh, huh?"
He had probably been leaning his back against the door. Losing support, his body spilled outward and he toppled backward.
Fortunately, before he hit the floor, Han Neuti grabbed his shoulders.
"Hyung, are you oka......."
Kim Sanho poked his face out of the supply room, but when our eyes met, he ducked back inside.
"......."
From under the chin of Han Neuti, who had frozen with a look that said 'we're screwed,' the owner of the bewildered face turned to look at me.
He was gripping a cake stand tightly with both hands. On the stand he hadn't let go of even while falling sat a small cake, perfectly intact.
It was an apple-shaped cake.
* * *
At Mary, even if you were called the debut team, you were still a long way from actually debuting.
Team A and Team B each had about fifteen or so members, and from within them you had to form teams of nine, seven, or sometimes five to prepare weekend evaluation assignments.
The staff assigned the teams on their own, and trainees who weren't selected couldn't take part in the evaluation.
So by looking at how often you were taking evaluations, you could roughly gauge it.
Whether your debut potential was high or low.
And I had been quietly convinced that there was no way I wouldn't debut. Because I had never once missed an evaluation.
So... I figured I should at least get to pick my own team.
―"You want to move to Team B?"
―"Yes."
At that time, Mary was drawing up plans to simultaneously launch two teams that shared a worldview but had completely different target demographics.
That was the period when Team A was being shaped for mainstream appeal and the Billboard charts, while Team B targeted K-pop fans in various countries, each developing a distinct color.
Since I had been in Team A for years, the team leader naturally asked.
―"Why?"
―"Just......."
―"There aren't people bullying you, right?"
―"Not at all."
The reason I wanted to go to Team B was, as I'd once said, simply because it seemed more fun.
But Team A and Team B had many differences from lessons to evaluation assignments, and when I brought it up, it was the point when they needed to fix the 'real debut team' within a year.
I myself knew it was impossible for such a flimsy reason.
So in truth, my request was really just... no different from whining.
―"Alright, fine. Let's move you starting next week."
But the team leader immediately approved my request.
I had been the main cause of a recent large-scale personnel purge, so he was probably being a bit considerate.
Anyway, expecting a change in my trainee life, which had been slightly burned out, I even felt a flutter of excitement for the first time in a long while.
And then the very next week.
―"What's wrong?"
―"Hey!"
―"G-Get the team leader!"
The coffee I drank every day tasted strange.
Whether it was bitter or spicy, it was a flavor I simply couldn't identify.
Since it was a taste I'd never encountered before, I couldn't guess what it was, and ridiculously, I just thought the coffee had gone bad. Even as the liquid I couldn't bring myself to swallow dribbled out of my mouth.
It was bleach.
―"The doctor said you only drank a small diluted amount, so there's no organ damage and no aftereffects."
The team leader's face, as he relayed the doctor's words, was laced with chagrin.
Being in a position responsible for the trainees, it was obvious he was trying to downplay the symptoms as much as possible. Because only then would his share of the responsibility shrink.
But I had no time to care about that.
At that moment, there was something I was more curious about than anyone else's feelings or my own physical state.
'Why?'
Since the coffee had been in my tumbler, it was definitely aimed at me.
But that week, I hadn't been assigned a weekend evaluation. Meaning even if I ended up in the emergency room, it wouldn't have affected any evaluation.
I barely interacted with anyone except Yuri hyung, so it wasn't just because we were on bad terms.
In that case.......
'Ah.'
Then I realized.
That I had stolen a spot in Team B.
The culprit was never found.
No, they didn't even try to find out. Because if we reported it to the police, rumors would naturally spread.
Seeing the company try to cover up the incident while pretending to be concerned about me, the first thought that came to me, before any other emotion, was that this was an opportunity.
And that very day, I brought up the confidentiality agreement and demanded termination of my contract.
The company, which had tried to dissuade my withdrawal even by invoking my future, finally gave up on me.
Even while stamping the document, there were no particular penalties. The director even added that he would support me if I debuted elsewhere.
He probably said that because he was certain I really wouldn't.
Just as I turned around after shoving my training journals into the recycling bin,
―"Seo Cha-gyeom!"
I ran into Yuri hyung.