Chapter 188
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 188
Regardless, at Seo Ho-jin’s request, I called a KakaO Black and pulled out of the parking lot.
Since the atmosphere had softened, I poured out all the questions I’d been curious about. How was school? Did he have friends? Any girlfriend? And so on.
Ho-jin, who had been answering half-heartedly at first, scowled deeply at the last question.
“That’s an outdated remark.”
“Shit...”
He’d entered university and even become the class representative, and now that he was all grown up, he managed to turn me into a fossilized, out-of-touch returning student with a single sentence.
But the funny thing was, I actually found the situation quite satisfying.
It meant Ho-jin was living well, possessing the common sense expected of his generation.
Spotting the taxi waiting at the requested spot, I opened the door and ushered Ho-jin inside.
Handing over the taxi fare—the second time I’d done so today—I added, “Please take good care of him. Drive safely all the way home.”
“Hahaha, of course! Don’t you worry.”
Perhaps embarrassed by my nagging, Ho-jin glared at me, his ears slightly flushed.
“Hyung, how old do you think I am?”
“Fourteen?”
“No, I think I’ll just be four.”
I chuckled and was about to send the taxi off when Ho-jin grabbed my arm.
“About that day... sorry for hitting you.”
“Your apology is awfully late, you damn little brother.”
“Hey, still, getting hit with flowers? Isn’t that a first-time life experience?”
“I’ve been hit with flowers before.”
“What?”
It happened once.
I subtly avoided his gaze, but Ho-jin tilted his head and asked, “By who?”
“Why do you need to know?”
As if I’d let him dig into his older brother’s history.
My brother shrugged with an 'I should have known' expression and burst into laughter.
“Anyway, keep your temper in check, Hyung.”
How much more could I possibly suppress it?
Any more, and I’d be ascending to heaven as an angel.
I smiled faintly as I closed the taxi door.
“Go on.”
Watching the taxi fade into the distance, I realized that the real Seo Ho-jin had grown much more than the Seo Ho-jin in my head.
As I headed back to the dorm, I checked my phone to find a flood of messages from Ju Woo-seong.
[Ju Woo-seong: Whoa;;;]
[Ju Woo-seong: Hey hey hey was that guy just now yur brother or hyung]
[Ju Woo-seong: Ah, he called u hyuung so he must b yur brother]
[Ju Woo-seong: Daebak he looks so fckin much like u]
The texts practically reeked of alcohol.
My brow furrowed automatically.
The one thing I wanted to hear least from the person I least wanted to be caught by had just come out of his mouth.
[Me: Stop talking bullshit]
[Me: Go home, wash your feet, and go to sleep]
[Ju Woo-seong: Idk about the face]
[Ju Woo-seong: But the expression]
[Ju Woo-seong: The eyes]
[Ju Woo-seong: That total jerk vibe]
[Ju Woo-seong: It’s insane]
[Ju Woo-seong: He’s Seo Ho-yun 2.0;;;;;]
That was the most ridiculous thing I’d heard all day.
I’d just confirmed he was growing up to be perfectly normal. Where did he see a resemblance?
Deciding it wasn't even worth a reply, I left him on read and entered the dorm. Jeong Da-jun came rushing over immediately.
“Hyung, c-c-could you maybe call Ho-jin Hyung just once...!”
“No.”
I gave Kang Yi-chae and Jeong Da-jun, the masterminds behind this scheme, a firm flick on the forehead each. I skipped Seong Ji-won.
Then, I went into my room, sprawled out on the bed, and stared at the photo Ho-jin had given me for a long time.
I looked at ten-year-old Ho-jin’s chubby cheeks, then at my mother’s face, which he resembled so much, and finally, my gaze settled on my father’s face, which looked like mine.
“Mmm...”
My chest ached, yet I felt a tiny sense of fulfillment.
I considered carrying it in my wallet but, worried about losing it or having it leaked, I tucked it inside a book by my bedside instead.
Right now, only my memories allowed me to exist as my true self.
Sometimes, that fact was terrifying.
Nevertheless, the fact that there was a time when the whole family was together, like in this photo, provided me with a rare sense of comfort.
I closed my eyes.
After tossing and turning a few times on the bed, I gradually drifted into a deep sleep.
* * *
“Alright!!”
Jeong Da-jun slammed his hand against the whiteboard.
“Everyone!! Let’s give it our all again!!”
“Woohoo...”
“Yay...”
Everyone else was slumped like zombies, barely offering a reaction, but Jeong Da-jun alone was bursting with energy.
“Why is he so fired up?”
“He got a perfect score on his road test.”
“What?! Jeong Da-jun did?!”
“He’s been making such a fuss about getting it as soon as he turned of age.”
I’d been face-down on the table from exhaustion, but I bolted upright at that. Jeong Da-jun grinned proudly.
“Hyung, your youngest will give you a ride with 'unshakable comfort'!”
“I don’t really need that.”
Ignoring me entirely, Jeong Da-jun slapped his driver’s license onto the whiteboard! He looked at the members with sparkling eyes.
“This is our 11th comeback meeting!!”
With the concert successfully finished and The Dawn safely established as a second-tier group, we had begun preparations for our comeback.
Kang Yi-chae, who hadn't stopped working even during Shining Star Season 2, presented songs of various genres.
Among them was a track that the A&R team had overwhelmingly praised for being unique yet commercially viable, passing unanimously to be included in the album.
“Wait, this actually worked??”
It was a fresh yet mournful, strangely unique song about unrequited love. Knowing Kang Yi-chae’s usual style, the more I listened, the more shocked I became.
“...Kang Yi-chae, hey.”
“What.”
“Well...”
“...”
“By any chance...”
“...”
“...Are you dating someone?”
“—Are you kidding me?!”
Kang Yi-chae snapped instantly.
Well, the song was just so unusually soft.
If not, then whatever.
“Ha... I actually got mad for a second.”
As I awkwardly looked away, Kang Yi-chae glared at me and said, “It’s not that. I’m just trying to challenge myself with as much variety as possible.”
He then turned on his phone and showed me a text. It was a conversation he’d had with Cheong-beom.
In response to his question about how on earth one makes a love song, Im Hyeon-su had replied:
[God-Genius Composer!!: My disciple]
[God-Genius Composer!!: Love is all an illusion....]
[God-Genius Composer!!: People don’t want to know reality anyway, so just watch about ten sweet rom-com movies and soak your brain in them]
[Me: As expected of you, Composer-nim]
Did Im Hyeon-su get dumped?
I clicked my tongue, seeing that Im Hyeon-su had become cynical again, as if all the California vibes had drained out of her.
“So, following my master’s words, I picked out ten masterpieces, shoved them into my head, and tried making this. It was actually pretty fun.”
“Does your heart flutter?! You said you’d only put it in the album if your heart flutters!!”
Kang Yi-chae gave a slightly bittersweet smile.
“As long as it makes other people’s hearts flutter, that’s enough...”
“...!!!”
It seemed Kang Yi-chae, who used to only howl for rock and hip-hop, had realized reality and decided to compromise a little.
“Oh, my little rapper... What happened to you, Hyung? You’ve become a real human.”
The song was genuinely good.
When what Kang Yi-chae was good at aligned with what he liked, the synergy was immense.
However, his personal taste couldn't always be accepted by the public.
“I can’t just insist on my own tastes when playing for the fans.”
“Right, you just need to follow the scent of money.”
“Sigh...”
I offered some kind advice from the side, but Kang Yi-chae just let out a long sigh while looking at me and turned his head away.
Just then, Lee Ji-hyeon threw open the meeting room door and walked in.
“What’s this? Why is a driver’s license stuck to the whiteboard?”
She seemed a bit flustered but quickly regained her composure, setting a planning document down on the table.
“I’ve seen the outputs you’re working on with the A&R team. The variety of genres is incredible.”
“Yep, feel free to pick and choose whatever you like.”
To Kang Yi-chae’s slick response, Lee Ji-hyeon gave a thumbs up.
“I had a lot of concerns. Whether it was right to increase public appeal or to solidify the core fandom. Then it suddenly occurred to me. We can’t miss this moment while we’re in the spotlight. We need to do a concept that can pull in every last soul possible.”
Lee Ji-hyeon uncapped a marker and began writing on the whiteboard.
“Avocado and Rib Steak?”
“Don’t just say things you want to eat.”
Those were the words Jeong Da-jun blurted out after staring at her legendary handwriting, eventually realizing it said ‘Apocalypse.’
Lee Ji-hyeon wagged her finger back and forth.
“It’s the ‘Apocalypse Trilogy.’ The theme is: ‘Choose whatever you want, because you’re bound to like at least one thing here.’”
She then pulled out papers from under the planning document and handed them out to the members.
“After about a year and a half, I’ve finally realized what kind of concept works.”
“What is it?”
Lee Ji-hyeon scanned us with a sharp gaze.
“It’s the Refreshing Innocent Sexy Bastard Moment.”
While I was feeling dizzy wondering if that was even proper Korean, Lee Ji-hyeon wrote something on the whiteboard again.
“What is that?”
When Seong Ji-won asked with a tilt of his head, Lee Ji-hyeon suddenly pointed at me.
“This person. Especially the last part.”
“...Ah?!”
“Hey, why do you understand that?”
Seong Ji-won snapped his fingers as if he’d had an epiphany.
I treat Seong Ji-won so well, though?!
As I protested in indignation, Kang Yi-chae cackled from the other side. I tried to kick him under the table to shut him up, but he dodged nimbly, and Kim Seong-hyeon, who got hit instead, screamed, “Ack!”
I ignored him and turned my gaze back to Lee Ji-hyeon.
“Are you confident we can be innocent and sexy?”
Since Lee Ji-hyeon had already concluded that the fans would love it, there was no one who could argue.
“I was prepared to do it even if it was a slave concept.”
“...That’s not bad?”
When I took it a step further, Lee Ji-hyeon’s eyes flashed as she bit the bait.
Leaving behind Lee Ji-hyeon, who was moved by my 'great mindset'—claiming that as long as it sells, we should do anything from a slave concept to an ancient civilization myth concept—I looked at the members.
“But who’s going to be the bastard? I’ll be the refreshing, innocent, and sexy one.”
“Someone please pass a law to make Seo Ho-yun less shameless...”
I laughed while watching Kim Seong-hyeon mutter as he rubbed his shin, but then Lee Ji-hyeon slammed her hands onto the table!
“Before that! There’s one more important thing to convey.”
She then stared intently at me, Kim Seong-hyeon, and Kang Yi-chae with a serious expression.
“It’s summer, so I assume you’ve all been working on your bodies?”
“...”
“...”
“...”
The three of us, immediately understanding her meaning, fell silent.
If it makes money.
If the public likes it.
If the fans want it.
This time, she really intended to strip us bare for profit.
.
.
.
After dozens more meetings, the comeback teaser photos were finally approved and released to the world.
[Holy shit what is this]
As the photos were released one by one by date, the Noeuls swarmed them like crazy.
[I’m collapsing...........................]
There was so much to say about the outfits, the concept, the faces, the faces, the faces, the faces, and the faces.
But setting everything else aside, there was one thing that stood out most prominently in the comeback teaser photos.
It was the fact that Kang Yi-chae—
[Just kill me now..................]
—had black hair.