Chapter 192
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 192
“Haaaaa….”
As I exaggerated my clumsiness and fumbled through the moves a few more times, Ju Woo-seong let out a deep sigh. He tapped his foot anxiously before finally stepping forward.
“Seo Ho-yun, are you being a klutz on purpose right now?”
“Take it up with Ho-u Ho-u.”
Ju Woo-seong bristled at my snide remark. He then turned to Kim Seong-hyeon—who remained his loyal supporter no matter what kind of pathetic display he put on—and started whining.
“Seong-hyeon, please, just show this klutz how it’s done.”
“Show him what a human being is capable of.”
Ju Woo-seong fumed at my lack of coordination while giving detailed demonstrations for each segment. Every time Kim Seong-hyeon absorbed his instructions, his stats shot up.
[Kim Seong-hyeon’s Dance stat is rising!
Now that’s what you call a star pupil, isn’t it?]
[Kim Seong-hyeon understands Ju Woo-seong’s instructions (unlike a certain someone). +2]
[Ju Woo-seong is annoyed, but the execution is flawless. +3]
[Ju Woo-seong is feeling jealous. +2]
I was the player, and the 5% proficiency bonus applied the same way, but the rate of improvement was worlds apart.
It was likely because Kim Seong-hyeon was shoveling the information in by the ladleful, while I was merely sipping it with a teaspoon.
Regardless, after dancing fifteen times in a row, I felt like I was going to die.
“Whoa.”
By that point, Ju Woo-seong had completely forgotten he was ever pouting. He stroked his chin, looking at Kim Seong-hyeon with a look of pure satisfaction.
Simple-minded bastard…
“I think I have a talent for teaching.”
“Woo-seong, please. Did you leave your conscience at home?”
Chae Jeong-woo, who had been watching blankly before getting bored and helping Seong Ji-won with his vocals, whipped his head around at that absurd claim.
“No, I’m serious! Look at Kim Seong-hyeon.”
“Excuse me, look at me. You taught me too, and I’m still like this.”
Even with his coaching, my stats barely budged compared to the other members.
Ju Woo-seong stared at me for a moment before speaking.
“No, Ho-yun. You’ve improved a lot.”
“……??”
Has he lost it?
Hearing those words from Ju Woo-seong gave me the creeps.
The guy rested his chin on top of Jeong Da-jun’s head, right on his messy, fluffy hair.
“Compared to the beginning, I mean. Back then, you were such a hopeless case—not even at a civilian level—that I couldn’t even give you an evaluation.”
Thinking back to those days, it was indeed a massive improvement. At least I didn’t hear the sound of a wooden puppet clanking every time I moved anymore.
However, I had lived my whole life believing that I was good at everything—except for having a decent personality. Since starting life as an idol, I’d been forced to realize that I lacked talent in dancing as well as character.
“But you’ve improved just enough to be even more annoying. Do you know that feeling?”
“…….”
“Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know, would you…?”
Ju Woo-seong added a pitying “How sad,” which annoyed me so much that I snatched Jeong Da-jun away from him.
Beside us, Chae Jeong-woo kicked Ju Woo-seong in the shin, telling him to stop bullying his juniors.
“Anyway, everyone’s doing great except for Seo Ho-yun.”
“Have you ever even taught your junior… I mean, Yeon-hu, even once?”
“……Ah, him.”
Ju Woo-seong brushed off his shin with an indifferent expression.
“Why would I? He’s technically my senior anyway.”
“Huh? Yeon-hu sunbae-nim is your senior?”
When Jeong Da-jun asked with wide eyes, Chae Jeong-woo provided the explanation.
“Well, it’s half-right and half-wrong. If you count from their trainee days, Yeon-hu has been around longer than anyone in Black Call. But in this industry, we usually go by debut order.”
The family tree is a total mess.
“Whoa, really? What was the order?”
“Let’s see. It was Yeon-hu, then me, and Woo-seong was the last to join.”
“Yeah. I was a trainee for what, two months?”
Is a two-month training period even possible at a major agency?
Seeing my incredulous expression, Ju Woo-seong added sheepishly, “I didn’t really have much intention of becoming a celebrity.”
“That’s impossible!!”
Kim Seong-hyeon jumped up, demanding to know who else could possibly be a celebrity if not him. Chae Jeong-woo nodded in agreement.
“Right? People who already have everything usually lack desperation.”
“That damn desperation again…”
Ignoring Ju Woo-seong’s grumbling, Chae Jeong-woo continued his explanation.
“The casting director was practically begging him, so he showed up once just to get them off his back. But then he thought, ‘Oh? I think I can do this.’ And just like that, he made it into Black Call.”
“That is so, so cool!!”
“Of course it is. I’m Ju Woo-seong, after all.”
“Ugh.”
Cool? My foot.
I felt like I was going to die of pure irritation. Some people have to calculate their movements down to the millisecond just to avoid being called a klutz, and here he is saying, “Oh? I think I can do this”? Two months of training?
While I was inwardly gnashing my teeth, Chae Jeong-woo laughed heartily and changed the subject.
“What were The Dawn’s trainee days like?”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard much about that either.
“I was the first to join, and then Seong Ji-won. The two of us practiced together for quite a while, then Kang Yi-chae arrived, and finally Jeong Da-jun.”
“Oh, Seong-hyeon and Ji-won? You both have such gentle personalities, you must have gotten along from the start.”
“……Ah. Well.”
Kim Seong-hyeon just shifted his gaze without answering. Seong Ji-won, who had been wearing a faint smile, spoke up instead.
“We didn’t exactly get along from the start.”
“Huh? Really?! Why?”
Even Jeong Da-jun seemed surprised, as if this was the first time he was hearing it.
“I was a bit of a mess back then.”
Seong Ji-won, a mess?
I looked up sharply at the mismatch between the subject and the description.
“Things weren’t great after I left my previous agency. I felt bad because I thought I was only making things uncomfortable for Seong-hyeon.”
“No, I mean, it was fine….”
“Ahaha, sorry. For being mean.”
Kim Seong-hyeon shuddered slightly and confessed in a small voice that he had actually been a little scared.
“I got better because Seong-hyeon took such good care of me.”
With a bashful smile, Seong Ji-won turned the conversation toward Kang Yi-chae, who had been scribbling something on a piece of paper in the corner without participating.
“By the way, I don’t think we saw much of Yi-chae in the beginning.”
“Kang Yi-chae didn’t practice much. I used to wonder if he even wanted to be an idol.”
“Hey, I was totally serious about it.”
However, Kang Yi-chae also seemed reluctant to talk about the details of his joining the company, dodging the question with his usual sly demeanor.
I sat there quietly, listening to the conversation drift aimlessly like a game of hot potato. Jeong Da-jun, who had been grumbling at me to stop touching his hair, suddenly raised both arms.
“And then it was me!! I joined after being scouted!”
“Ah! Come to think of it, that was around the time Yi-chae started showing up for practice every single day, wasn’t it? Because he thought Jeong Da-jun was hilarious.”
“My head was so full of thoughts about Da-jun that I couldn’t go a day without seeing him.”
“Eww, creepy.”
Kang Yi-chae chuckled at Jeong Da-jun’s horrified reaction and began regaling us with the maknae’s legendary exploits.
There was the time shortly after Da-jun joined as a trainee when he accidentally saw the CEO’s hairpiece slip off. He had chased after him, caught it, and shouted, “CEO! Your wig! Your wig fell off!!” loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear as he politely handed it back. Then there was the time in the middle of summer when he and Kang Yi-chae had a water gun fight all over the building, turning the Planning Team Leader into a drowned rat and getting themselves punished.
Ju Woo-seong, who had been listening silently with his chin in his hand, asked, “Then what about Seo Ho-yun?”
“Huh?”
“I heard you even did a recording. Why didn’t you debut?”
“And how exactly do you know that?”
My senior, who was clearly far more interested in me than he let on, bragged that knowing that much was nothing for him. Naturally, I let it go in one ear and out the other.
“I did record, but… hmm, how was it again?”
I didn’t actually know the full backstory of this game’s setting.
I decided to wrap things up before the members started whispering and noticed something was off.
“Chae Jeong-woo sunbae-nim, didn’t you say you had to leave soon?”
“Oh… right. The stories were so interesting I lost track of time.”
Chae Jeong-woo checked his watch and tapped Ju Woo-seong. Ju Woo-seong grabbed his bag and left the practice room, saying he’d be back tomorrow.
Kim Seong-hyeon, who had a school violence controversy;
Seong Ji-won, who escaped his previous agency over sponsor issues;
Kang Yi-chae, who was still a complete mystery;
Jeong Da-jun, who was scammed with a double exclusive contract;
And me, a former PD whose specialty was ‘Devil’s Editing’ and who was currently this company’s biggest headache….
What a legendary combination.
“I’m going to the convenience store too!”
“If you see the CEO’s wig on the way, pick it up for him again.”
“I told you, that was a mistake!!”
“Puppy, keep making those mistakes for me.”
A natural-born comedian.
I felt like I finally understood what it meant when they said the picky Kang Yi-chae had shown up at Daepasung every day just to see Jeong Da-jun.
* * *
[Music Show Check-in Review:
He asked if I’d eaten again today.
Ho-yun, even my grandmother doesn’t ask as much as you do.]
Noeul, an office worker who had finally checked her SNS after being buried in work, chuckled as she read the posts.
“Ah, this is hilarious.”
[Black-haired Kang Yi-chae… just seeing the words makes my heart race… please keep that rebellious vibe forever…]
[Look at the difference in how Seong Ji-won and Kang Yi-chae wear their shoes lol
Seong Ji-won’s shoes: (Still looks brand new and pretty) Hehe, Ji-won is the best ^0^
Kang Yi-chae’s shoes: (Heels completely crushed) Kill… me…..
└ I still can’t believe they’re in the same group… this is peak…
└└ But they’ve been hanging out a lot lately lol]
Because of a problem with a partner company, she had been working through the night for several days.
As a result, she hadn’t been able to keep up with SNS, Pop-Pop, or music shows at all, and was only now catching up on everything.
[Has anyone not seen this yet??!!?
https://www.neotube.com/watch?v=suNGhyunBokkEun
Buying brains! Buying brains! Name your price!!]
Hmm?
Intrigued by the caption, Noeul tilted her head and clicked the link.
She habitually checked the view count and momentarily doubted her eyes.
“Wait, the views??!”
The Dawn had become quite popular, but there was no way a song released so recently—let alone an individual fancam—could have such high views.
Confused, she quickly scrolled down to check the comments, but she was still in the dark.
[A country that possesses Kim Seong-hyeon.
That country is “South Korea”….
└ I shall be a patriot.]
Comments with that kind of sentiment dominated the top spots.
Well, let’s just watch it for now….
As she pressed play, the members of The Dawn appeared.
A moment later, the beat dropped, and Kim Seong-hyeon’s gaze transformed instantly.
What? Why is he so good?
It was already well-known in the idol world that Kim Seong-hyeon was a great dancer. He was unrivaled among idols of the same seniority.
Some even claimed he was among the top five idol dancers, but even as a Noeul, she hadn’t fully agreed with that until recently.
Whoa….
But seeing him now, she thought that might actually be true.
The way he controlled the intensity of his movements was so detailed that even to her untrained eye, it was clearly on a different level from the average idol.
As the highlight approached, Kim Seong-hyeon, who had been doing a wave, lifted his shimmering silk shirt.
Between the gaps in the fabric, smooth skin and rippling abs appeared and disappeared.
“Waaaaah!!! Aaaaah!!!”
【 To be honest, I’m a little afraid
That you’ll get tired of me 】
“How could I ever get tired of you, you brat!!!”
As a piercing scream erupted from the speakers, Noeul found herself screaming along.
【 But not right now
Do it, baby love me 】
Kim Seong-hyeon, who had been thrusting his hips while maintaining every detail down to his fingertips, moved to the back with Seo Ho-yun. In a live broadcast, this was a segment where the two of them wouldn’t normally be on screen.
Seo Ho-yun looked at Kim Seong-hyeon and let out a smirk, then quickly changed his expression as the tally light on the main camera turned on.
【 When you try to stop, I block your path
(Then I smile a little)
The first time is always the most stimulating 】
“Wow, that’s insane….”
She wondered why Nutube only let you hit the like button once.
After rewatching it several times, Noeul liked and shared the video before adding it to her playlist titled ‘Watch When Life is Hard.’
“Ah, this is seriously healing.”
The stress from work seemed to melt away.
Once she had calmed down a bit, she scanned the comments again.
[02:34 The Noeuls who were so transparent……]
[Seong-hyeon… he’s so kind.
First of all, he’s just kind.]
[Wow, but he really dances well;; It’s only been a week, but compared to the last music show, he’s like a different person ㅠㅠ Isn’t Seong-hyeon a cheat character..]
She felt strangely proud that there were more compliments and opinions about his dancing than about his abs.
[I heard the kids are basically living in the practice room for these ‘Falling’ promotions lol. They say you can’t even see their shadows at the dorm lololol.
└ There’s a rumor they took sleeping bags to the practice room and then even brought blankets..
└└ Yeah, it’s true. Yi-chae said Seong-hyeon brought them.
└└ That’s terrifying..]
Seeing the posts about how Seong Ji-won, who was already famous among fans as a practice machine, was very satisfied lately made her feel touched. It was good to see The Dawn giving their all to everything.
No wonder their dance practice video looked so perfectly synchronized.
[00:02 I’m so curious about this part ㅠ What did Ho-yun say to make him react like that??]
Then, one comment caught her eye.
Curious, she clicked the timestamp, and the video showed the beginning where the members made eye contact and smiled before the beat started.
Hmm?
Seo Ho-yun, who had been staring intently at the camera, suddenly tapped Kim Seong-hyeon on the back.
When Kim Seong-hyeon turned his head, Seo Ho-yun stepped closer, pulled the corners of his mouth into a smirk, and whispered something.
Kim Seong-hyeon’s mouth parted slightly, and after glancing around, he took a deep breath.
It was hard to see because the stage was dark, but the tips of his ears seemed a bit red.
What did he actually say?!
The Noeuls would never know, but Seo Ho-yun—who was as shrewd as ninety-nine old foxes—had whispered this to Kim Seong-hyeon:
“Ju Woo-seong is going to watch your fancam.”