Chapter 76
Chapter 76
―Yah, you, after you promised to debut with me.......
Yuri hyung was panting as if he'd rushed outside in a hurry.
It might have looked like a wistful farewell scene, but in truth, it wasn't something that stirred any particular sense of camaraderie.
By that point, I had already said my goodbyes to everyone on Team A, and Yuri hyung, the only person I'd interacted with on Team B, had shown up at the very last moment.
Was I hurt?
Seeing as I still remembered it, maybe I was, just a bit.
But even so... I thought it would've been better not to have asked the next question at all.
―Hyung.
―Hm?
―Why did you want to debut with me?
―Huh?
He had a tendency to defuse conversations with jokes whenever things got heavier than the baseline.
I knew that best of all.
The fact that I knew it well meant that was how we'd always been with each other.
―Because I figured I'd succeed if I debuted with you?
―.......
Just as I knew he had a tendency to avoid a serious atmosphere, hyung also knew me well.
I was the same way. The kind who hated serious moods.
So, hyung was simply treating me the way he always did.
―Ah, I see.
But at the time, I was kind of.......
A lot sensitive.
Maybe bleach contains an ingredient that amplifies paranoia. Maybe it just hasn't been discovered yet because not many people have drunk it.
―Then I guess there's no need to keep in touch anymore. Since I'm not going to debut.
―Eyy, no, that's.......
And just like that, I turned my back and left.
Embarrassingly, even though I'd turned away coldly like someone I'd never see again, this was the modern world, and there were such things as cell phones.
Hyung kept sending me messages after that.
I never replied, to the very end, and a while later, I changed my number and deleted all my contacts.
......To be honest, the feeling of being hurt had already evaporated long before that. I simply didn't want to touch anything related to idols ever again.
Even if that person was just a colleague who had simply shared the same dream.
But now, as you know, things have turned out this way.......
Now I could look back on my conversation with Yuri hyung with a cool head.
So, returning to reality, what I felt right now, suddenly face-to-face with Yuri hyung, was.
"......."
Nothing but sheer embarrassment.
And I had a habit of averting my eyes in awkward situations.
What I was looking at right now was the cake. A cake tilting at a 30-degree angle and gradually sliding away from the center of the base plate.
Fortunately, Yuri hyung, who had followed my gaze and spotted the cake, sensed the danger, craned his neck, and looked up at Han Neuti.
"Hyung, I think you need to help me up now."
"Ah, uh....... You're not hurt?"
"Nope."
Han Neuti pushed Yuri hyung's shoulders up.
Hoisted up straight like a statue, he stared at the cake that had barely survived at the edge of the base plate and let out a sigh of relief.
And with a hem, clearing his throat, he said.
"Shall we go with the plan? Or Plan B? C?"
"......I don't know. Do whatever."
"But."
Jeong Sowol cut in.
"Where's the ribbon. It needs that to be a present."
"Ah, that thing... Sanho tripped over it, so I said don't do it because it suddenly looked like an omen of doom....... But looking at the situation now, seems like the effect's already kicked in, right?"
"Yes."
Jeong Sowol agreed immediately, and Yuri hyung laughed out loud, looking a bit sheepish.
Around then, Kim Sanho, who had been hiding in the supply room, crept out. He was holding a pink ribbon in one hand.
Han Neuti... tried to evade the situation by covering his eyes and hanging his head.
A stillness descended.
It was a suffocating silence, to the point where it felt like the first discord that had ever visited this practice room.
......It seemed like I had to be the one to open my mouth.
"So."
I got the opening out first.
"The present is you, hyung. Is that it?"
"Ah, um, the cake too!"
"The cake and hyung are the present?"
"......Is there something else you want?"
Next, I called Kim Sanho.
"Sanho."
"Yes."
"Is this the trainee you were talking about?"
"Yes."
I looked back at Yuri hyung.
"......So you're saying you want to join our company?"
"Ah, right. That's exactly it."
"To debut with me?"
"Don't you think I should? It doesn't seem like you'd hire me as an employee......."
Calmly, I compiled and organized the situation.
And the only conclusion that remained was that Yuri hyung was joining our team.
If so, there was only one thing for me to say.
"......We needed a rapper, so this is good."
Yuri hyung flinched in surprise at my words.
And cautiously, gauging my reaction, he said.
"......I came prepared with an audition, so do I not need to do it?"
"Why would you audition?"
That, seriously.......
Including my sit-down with PD Lee Wiyeon, that was the most absurd thing I'd heard all day.
"We all know you're good at what you do."
This was the very man who made Mary withdraw her skepticism about self-producing idols and overhaul every single plan.
The man who gifted Mary the decisiveness to instantly form a new team centered around a total civilian with no trainee experience whatsoever.
An audition? A waste of time.
Unless he was going to put on a concert, maybe.
"Uh, um......."
Everything I said was the truth.
But the intent behind my words just now also included a slight aim to lighten the mood with a compliment.
To be a bit more honest, I mean.
......It was an olive branch.
But hyung still stood there with a troubled expression.
I tried hard to erase the awkwardness with the image of withdrawing my lonely, outstretched hand.
And a moment later, Yuri hyung fixed his gaze on the cake and said.
"Hey, well. You know."
"......."
"I had a plan to restore our relationship with a sincere rap disguised as an audition. I figured if I didn't do it this way, it'd be hard to apologize going forward......."
"Seriously, don't."
I genuinely didn't want to hear it.
Not that I didn't want to hear an apology... but who on earth reconciles with someone they haven't seen in nearly three years through a rap?
Maybe we'd be able to tell it as a funny anecdote later on, but to endure immediate embarrassment for future content was.......
It seemed I hadn't reached that level of enlightenment just yet.
'Ha.'
This wasn't working.
Hyung had shown his cards first, so I should quit playing dumb now too.
"I'm sorry. I was oversensitive back then."
Even I thought I'd blurted that out way too abruptly.
Yuri hyung's eyes widened at the apology that had suddenly sprung out, then rolled around and around before barely stopping in the center.
"Uh, um......."
"......."
"......Well, I'm more sorry."
"......."
"You know, I'm really sorry, but can I rap from the next thing onward?"
"I said don't."
I said that and scanned my surroundings.
Han Neuti was shoved in a corner as if he'd been physically assaulted by awkwardness, and Kim Sanho's hands bore traces as if he'd been playing cat's cradle with the ribbon all by himself.
Jeong Sowol had sat down at some point and was in the middle of grooming his left fingernails.
'......Seems like no one cares much, except for Han Neuti.'
Looking at this peaceful scene, something to say came to mind.
"So, since when have the three of you known each other?"
"......."
"What did you do behind my back?"
I only asked because I was genuinely curious.
But as if he felt stung for no reason, Han Neuti rushed over urgently.
"I'll explain."
"No, I mean, that doesn't mean you have to explain......."
"This guy Kim Yuri said you wouldn't care about stuff like that, so it'd be fine,"
"Ayy, hyung, that's not an explanation, that's tattling. Chaegyeom, I'll explain, so just freeze for a sec."
......Just a tiny bit, but it seemed the awkwardness had eased somewhat.
So from here on, let's promote his title from Yuri hyung to Kim Yuri.
Anyway, Kim Yuri began explaining with a serious face.
"At first, it was just that I was curious what kind of agency you'd picked, and I was a bit... worried, too. So I planned to scope it out just once, but Sanho caught me red-handed."
"At first, I thought you were a sasaeng."
"Uh, yeah, I also realized at that moment that I was acting exactly like a sasaeng and bolted. ......But it looks like I have no talent for that sort of thing. My wallet fell out as if by magic."
I remembered as I listened to the story.
I'd even briefly called him Cinderella, I recalled.
"And that's how we ended up meeting again, inevitably, and Sanho... said that you were struggling to find a good-looking guy. Once I heard that, I had no choice. How do you expect to pull a guy as good-looking as me off the street......."
"I said a decent person, not a good-looking one."
"Anyway."
Lightly dismissing Kim Sanho's correction, Kim Yuri boldly declared.
"Most of all, I promised Chaegyeom! That we'd debut together."
"Hm."
"......Weird? I threw that out there so you'd be moved, but the reaction is totally......."
He was talking as if he were someone who regarded promises as a huge deal, but I knew better.
Hyung wasn't exactly the type to value promises heavily.
He was the type to make ten promises a day, then break twelve of them the next day.
So.......
'What exactly did he like about our company?'
The first visit might have been because of me, but he wasn't the kind of person to join up just for that reason.
"But I have a suggestion."
When I turned my head at the voice that had suddenly cut in, it was Jeong Sowol.
Having finished tidying his nails and held them up to the light, he only stood up from his spot once our gazes were fixed on him.
I asked.
"What is it?"
"Roommate."
* * *
In our current dorm, there were two beds per room, six beds total.
Right now, me, Kim Sanho, and Jeong Sowol each have a room to ourselves.
And now that we'd become five people, from now on, only one person among us would be able to keep a single room.
―Anyone want the single room?
―Hang on.
Jeong Sowol urgently raised his hand in the middle of my proceedings.
―I don't like being alone.
It was probably because of the ghost, I figured.
Knowing he didn't want to be found out, I simply gave him a nod.
As I was routinely excluding Jeong Sowol from the single room candidates, Kim Yuri cut in with a suggestion.
―Then let's have the youngest pick the hyung he wants to room with!
At that, Kim Sanho started staring off into the distance. He wasn't going to get picked anyway, so what was that confidence for.......
Anyway, Jeong Sowol immediately used the authority that had been granted to him.
―Me, Neuti hyung.
―......? Huh, me?
―Ah, lucky~ You got chosen, hyung!
―Uh, well. Doesn't matter to me.
I really hoped Han Neuti wasn't scared of ghosts.
With one room decided, the rest were settled quickly.
―Anyone want the single room?
―Me.
Thanks to Kim Sanho's swift preemption, the story ended up being that my roommate would be Kim Yuri.
Kim Yuri truly seemed to have planned to settle into the company today. He'd even brought his luggage.
Ah, right. The fact that Kim Yuri was joining was truly something that only I hadn't known about. Even the President, not to mention the Manager, already knew.......
"Come to think of it... hyung, your family home is in Chungcheong-do, right."
"Ah, I live on my own now. Because of university."
"So what are you going to do about school now?"
"Is there any answer besides taking a leave of absence? I can figure it out as I go. I just finished the semester, so I have time."
The arrival of a university student in a team where the majority were middle school graduates.
Well, if we wanted to delay military service as much as possible, we'd be forced to get master's degrees anyway.
'I'm jealous of Han Neuti.'
Since he'd be able to keep promoting without any breaks from now on.
......No, we haven't even debuted yet and I'm already counting my chickens.
In the first place, a military hiatus was something only long-lasting teams that had already renewed their contracts even worried about.
'Hm.'
Somehow, memories from when I was at Mary came to mind.
To be exact, the variety show scenes I'd seen back then... of my seniors.
Whenever they marked a 1st anniversary, a 2nd anniversary, or honestly, just any time a reasonably heartwarming mood was set, the seniors would always say the words 'Let's have our team last a long, long time,' and watching them, I had thought this.
'What on earth makes them say that.'
The fans would believe those words at face value.
Wouldn't they feel even more betrayed later on when the group disbanded?
To make an excuse, I was really young back then.
As time passed, my thinking shifted, deciding it was crazier to say 'Once our contracts are up, we're strangers, but let's fight on until then.'
But.......
I had a feeling that might have been wrong, too.
Now, seeing our team coming together like this, and imagining us debuting and promoting for a long time.
'Maybe seniors were just expressing a wish, too.'
I emptied my mind and closed my eyes.
Thanks to the faint excitement subtly pulsing through my entire body, I felt like I could really sleep soundly tonight.
* * *
And the next day.
[Objective progress updated.]
[Objective: Recruit colleagues and achieve your debut. (4/N)]
Kim Yuri had completed his contract.
After staring for a long while at the System that had floated up before my eyes in the corner of the practice room, I rose from my seat.
And I went to find Kim Sanho.
"Sanho."
"Yes."
"Come with me."
Kim Sanho obediently followed me out.
We soon arrived at a corner of the stairwell.
I asked Kim Sanho.
"You're a trainee for this company, right?"