Chapter 239
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 239
It wasn’t that the Noeuls were confused from the very beginning.
When they clicked on the first video uploaded, the members of The Dawn appeared one by one in Halloween costumes, each accompanied by fitting background music.
[KYAAAAAAAH! My wish has been granted! KYAAAAAAH!]
[Daepasung... I knew I could trust you...]
└ [You’re practically crying...]
└└ [A woman only sheds tears... at times like this...]
There was Kim Seong-hyeon as an American quarterback, clutching a football in one hand.
Seong Ji-won, adorned with an angel’s halo and wings.
And Seo Ho-yun, dressed in an ordinary high school uniform with his bangs styled down.
Finally, the maknae held a pink magic wand, dressed as Cardcaptor X-ry.
[ThankyouThankyouThankyouOMGThankyou]
[Is he insane? f*ck, Cardcaptor Jeong Da-jun is so freaking cute]
[Seong-hyeon as a quarterback, I’m gonna die T_T This is crazy]
[Seong Ji-won doesn’t even need to try this hard to look like an angel, but thank you so much...]
[I’m hyperventilating right now. Seo Ho-yun with his bangs down, for real]
[Seo Ho-yun, holy sh*t, he really looks like a high schooler LOL. Wow, a real uniform definitely hits different than a stage costume LMAO]
A crisp white dress shirt, a beige knit vest, and dark gray trousers.
With his bangs falling just below his eyebrows and his modest styling, Seo Ho-yun looked so much like a high school student that there wasn't a hint of awkwardness.
[Ah... the school uniform... I can die happy now...]
Among fans, Seo Ho-yun’s school days were considered a mystery.
Seong Ji-won had been famous since his trainee days at D.go, Kim Seong-hyeon’s past had been widely circulated during Shining Star, and sightings of Jeong Da-jun would pop up occasionally.
As for Kang Yi-chae, the rumor that he had studied abroad was practically accepted as fact, so everyone just rolled with it. But not a single story ever circulated about Seo Ho-yun.
The Noeuls, who hadn't been able to dig up even a speck of information over time, had been left sighing in frustration—until the man himself appeared wearing his actual high school uniform.
[If Seo Ho-yun went to a convenience store like that, he’d definitely get carded.
Actually, I just want to be the one to card him.]
[Why is Ho-yun so pure and innocent today...? Why is he acting like that upperclassman you’d see hanging out with friends by the 3rd-floor snack bar...?
I’m suddenly feeling indignant. Why are you doing this to me?]
[Ho-yun... Ah, can I say this...?
Every time after he’s been sick, his 'fragile-yet-sensitive' beauty really peaks...]
While most were losing their minds over Seo Ho-yun’s look, some were laughing.
[Ho-yun is seriously just like Ju Woo-seong LOL. Best friend energy confirmed.
└ Why?? Is it a costume pair??
└└ No (Photo)]
For about ten years, WH Entertainment had held a massive annual Halloween party exclusively for its artists.
Even now, related articles and photos were being posted in real-time on various communities and social media. Among them, the one taking up the most space was undoubtedly Black Call’s Ju Woo-seong.
Wearing a white shirt and slacks with his hair slicked back with pomade, he claimed to be a vampire simply by throwing on a cheap cape and sticking in fake fangs.
[Neither of them puts in any effort, yet they’re the hottest.
└ LMAO XDDDDDD]
Even High Five’s Kang Yeon-hu had shown his dedication by painting his entire face yellow, but Ju Woo-seong—who was born so naturally gifted he didn't know the meaning of 'desperation'—drew everyone’s attention despite his five-minute makeup job.
[Ah, this Halloween is so fun, holy sh*t]
[LOL Ju Woo-seong wins with his 5-minute makeup job. LMAO. Seriously, if you have a cat-like face, you have to do a vampire look at least once. It’s the law.]
Up until that point, one person had yet to appear on screen.
[Where’s Kang Yi-chae? T_T]
[Kang Yi-chae as Jeon Woo-chi, Kang Yi-chae as Jeon Woo-chi, Kang Yi-chae as Jeon Woo-chi]
Just as everyone was starting to wonder.
Accompanied by a traditional Korean melody that made one’s shoulders bounce instinctively, Kang Yi-chae appeared, his dopo robes fluttering.
[KYAAAH!!!]
“What is a Taoist wizard?”
He winked, tracing the brim of his gat with his thumb and index finger.
“By nature, a wizard’s duty is to bring joy to the fans.”
As he waved his hand along with the breeze, his hanbok billowed and covered the screen. Then—
[...?]
A familiar melody that stirred childhood nostalgia rang out. When Kang Yi-chae reappeared, he was wearing a sailor top, white shorts, and a cute beret.
“Catch You~.”
[...What?]
[??????????????????????????]
[Crazy LMAO]
[?? LOL He’s lost it LMAO]
“I really, really~! Like Noeul~!”
[Cardcaptor Kang Yi-‘Chae’-ri]
[LMAO! Hey! You brat!! LMAO]
It was a transition so natural it was bewildering.
Even more absurd was how well it suited him.
[Well, since he’s Kang Yi-‘Chae,’ I guess ‘Chae’-ri is possible... yeah, sure.]
[Why does this red-haired guy look so good in that?
That’s the most baffling part.]
[Hey, why did you guys change costumes? Kang Yi-chae, what are you doing?
What are you doing?!]
Moving energetically without a shred of embarrassment, his eyes wide and bright, Kang Yi-chae was truly a born idol.
He pulled a flashily decorated card from his pocket and tossed it into the air. Then, he swung a magic wand with small wings like a baseball bat, hitting the card away.
[No, LMAO. Is that right? Is that how you’re supposed to swing a magic wand? LMAO]
[Yi-chae, you’re not playing baseball right now, are you? But I’d totally dig clean-up hitter Kang Yi-chae or shortstop Kang Yi-chae.]
[LMAO. What a seriously cute brat. LMAO]
[I heard on Pop-Pop that he’s been getting private lessons on anime from Jeong Da-jun lately.
└ Are you sure he got lessons? Yi-chae is just swinging a baseball bat.
└└ LMAO f*ck. He’s definitely the disciple of Cheong-beom, who loves baseball.]
Suddenly, a brilliant light exploded, enveloping the members of The Dawn.
【Actually, the Halloween voting results were originally as follows:
Seong-hyeon: Quarterback
Ji-won: Angel
Ho-yun: School Uniform
Yi-chae: Jeon Woo-chi
Da-jun: Cardcaptor X】
【However, due to the mischief of the Taoist Wizard (Kang Yi-chae-ri)—】
The Halloween costume icons in the subtitles began to crawl around, moving next to different members' names.
【Seong-hyeon: School Uniform
Ji-won: Quarterback
Ho-yun: Angel
Yi-chae: Cardcaptor X
Da-jun: Jeon Woo-chi】
【The roles have been swapped!】
[LMAO. Daepasung actually did something right this time, f*ck. LMAO]
With crude CG in the background, the members of The Dawn flashed by, each fully immersed in their new roles.
Seong Ji-won as an American quarterback with excessively padded shoulders.
Jeong Da-jun as the Taoist Jeon Woo-chi, spinning around while chanting “Ahem!” and “Eolssu!” like a mantra.
Seo Ho-yun as an angel, looking annoyed by his dangling wings, slumping with his weight on one leg like a delinquent.
Kim Seong-hyeon, wearing horn-rimmed glasses to hide his fierce face, neatly dressed in a school uniform while flipping through a textbook page by page.
And Kang Yi-chae, still swinging his magic wand and winking cutely.
Then, the magic wand Kang Yi-chae was swinging hit the screen, causing it to crack and turn pitch black.
When the members of The Dawn were shown again, they were all wearing cat ears that supposedly measured brainwaves. They were sitting at a semi-circular table in the Daepasung practice room, a familiar sight from their choreography videos.
And so, the brainwave game began.
“The cat ears you are wearing are devices that measure your brainwaves. Each member will tell a scary story, and the person whose ears move the most during that time will receive a penalty. It can be a story you’ve heard, one you’ve made up, or a true story.”
“What is the penalty?” Kim Seong-hyeon asked at the staff’s explanation.
“Watching a horror movie alone.”
“...!!!”
[This is a targeted attack.
└ LMAO]
[The dancer line being the biggest cowards while the vocal line is tough as nails is f*cking hilarious. T_T LMAO]
[Kang Yi-chae screaming like he’s scared is the most annoying part.]
Kim Seong-hyeon and Jeong Da-jun resisted fiercely, but they were quickly dragged back by the staff and forced into their seats.
In the end, a tearful Jeong Da-jun decided it was better to get it over with and went first. He trembled throughout the very scary story he was telling.
“Hyung, why are you so quiet?! Don’t you have anything?”
“Huh? Me?”
Jeong Da-jun, who was shivering and rubbing his arms, spoke to Seong Ji-won, who had been listening quietly with his cat ears twitching occasionally.
“Hmm... I don’t really have much.”
Seong Ji-won thought for a moment, then made a sound as if he’d remembered something.
“Ah! Come to think of it.”
“What is it?”
“Was it when I was in middle school? My hobby was practicing alone every day...”
[Seong Ji-won sounds so sweet no matter what he says...]
[Angels these days can even speak Korean. How fascinating.]
Seong Ji-won’s voice continued calmly.
“But I got a bit tired, so I lay down in the practice room. I must have dozed off. My body felt heavy, and I thought... Ah, so this is what sleep paralysis feels like.”
“A-And then?”
“But then I heard a sound. Shhh, shhh... And for some reason, my cheek felt strangely itchy.”
[Wait, I take back what I said about him sounding sweet.
└ LMAO f*ck.]
“Please tell me it was a bug!! Just say it was a bug!!”
“Stop it!!”
“I thought it was strange, so I slowly moved only my eyes—”
Even though Kim Seong-hyeon and Jeong Da-jun were freaking out, Seong Ji-won didn’t stop.
“—And there was long, trailing hair...”
“AAAAAAAH!!”
“GYAAAAAAH!!”
“Someone was standing upside down on the ceiling, letting their long hair hang down while staring intently at me...”
“Stop!! Stop!!!”
“Ahaha,” Seong Ji-won laughed out loud.
“So? What happened after that?”
Jeong Da-jun was practically in tears, and while Kim Seong-hyeon was covering his ears and shaking his head, Kang Yi-chae asked the question, curious about the ending.
“Oh, I just stayed like that until dawn.”
“...!!”
[Screams]
[Ah, f*ck. Even Kang Yi-chae, who asked the question, had his ears twitching.]
[This is the scariest part, f*ck. LMAO]
“I shouldn’t have asked, I shouldn’t have asked... You’re lying, right? You just made it up because of the sleep paralysis, right?”
“Yeah... well, something like that...”
“Hyung, why do you sound so uncertain?!”
[So that’s what Seong Ji-won is.
He’s an angel, alright... but the kind of angel you need to run the f*ck away from if you meet him.]
[“Be not afraid...”
I’M TERRIFIED, F*CK.]
“What’s with you, Hyung? Why are you so unfazed? What would you do if you saw a ghost?!”
Amidst the chaos, Jeong Da-jun asked Seo Ho-yun, who had been listening to everything as if it were someone else’s business.
“Throw salt and go to sleep.”
[LMAO f*ck, you crazy bastard. T_T LMAO
└ LMAO. He’s so reliable. LMAO]
[But Seo Ho-yun is so strong-willed LOL. His ears haven’t twitched violently even once so far...
How do you even make this guy waver?]
[Seo Ho-yun these days: Aegyo? No damage. Dark past? No damage.
What on earth do we have to do to get a reaction out of you?]
“Don’t lie. You’re too lazy to even throw salt.”
At Kim Seong-hyeon’s undeniably valid point, Seo Ho-yun shrugged, making the other members burst into laughter.
Just then.
“I challenge you!”
Kim Seong-hyeon suddenly stood up, placed two folding chairs facing each other in front of the semi-circular table, and shouted.
“Whoa!! A one-on-one match!!”
“A one-on-one match?!”
“Wow. The K-High School Boy against the Angel who has no blood or tears?”
Jeong Da-jun and Kang Yi-chae stirred, and Seong Ji-won added a comment of his own.
[Wait, there’s no such rule.]
[Guys, why are you acting like this is a thing? LMAO]
[Seong Ji-won playing along at the end is f*cking hilarious. Ah. T_T LMAO]
“Seo Ho-yun, get out here.”
“Oh?”
Kim Seong-hyeon beckoned Seo Ho-yun with a provocative flick of his finger.
At that, Seo Ho-yun’s cat ears, which had been still until now, twitched slightly.
Letting out a smirk as if he found this amusing, Seo Ho-yun strolled over and plopped down in the chair. The angel halo perched above his cat ears wobbled with his movements.
“How do we decide the winner of a one-on-one match?”
“Hmm, let’s go with the basic rule: the one whose ears move more loses.”
Once Seo Ho-yun confirmed the rules, Kim Seong-hyeon also took his seat.
And then, the performance of the master of trash-talk, Seo Ho-yun, began.
“Seo Ho-yun, you, before...”
“Wait.”
Interrupting Kim Seong-hyeon, Seo Ho-yun lightly tapped his cheek with a finger.
“You’ve got something on you. Don’t be so messy.”
[There’s nothing there, f*ck.]
In reality, there was nothing there.
[Wow. LMAO. Seo Ho-yun is so f*cking shameless. LMAO]
Flustered, Kim Seong-hyeon wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, wondering if something really was there. Then, Seo Ho-yun spoke in a gentle tone.
“Seong-hyeon, you know.”
“W-What?”
“Did Hyung make you sad?”
“...!!”
Before Kim Seong-hyeon could even try anything, he was caught in Seo Ho-yun’s pace. After that, there was no turning back.
“I’m sorry for making you sad,” “I’m always thinking of you anyway,” and so on.
As Seo Ho-yun fired off a barrage of words that wouldn't contain even a gram of sincerity even if you squeezed them, Kim Seong-hyeon eventually cried out in surrender.
As Kim Seong-hyeon fumed with his face buried in his large hands, the Noeuls felt the frustration on his behalf.
[Wow, I’m actually getting annoyed.
So annoying.
AH!!! SO ANNOYING!!!]
[LMAO. Kim Seong-hyeon’s ears ended up twitching like crazy...
Seong-hyeon... what was it you wanted to say...?
└ It is said that we will never know... LOL...]
After facing Seo Ho-yun for just a few minutes, Kim Seong-hyeon stood up from his chair looking as haggard as someone who had pulled several all-nighters.
Seo Ho-yun, still holding his spot, crossed his arms and curled his lips into a smirk.
“Kang Yi-chae, get out here.”
“Oh my?!”
[Wait, this isn't a scary ghost story session anymore, it’s becoming a targeted sniping party.]
[Just like the little piggies always do...]
[Where did Halloween go?
It’s just a freestyle 'Crying Fists' session now.
└ LMAO f*ck. T_T None of the members of The Dawn would know that show. It’s too old, the ages don’t match.
└└ Seo Ho-yun knew it.
└└ ???? How?? Did he eat an old man like Kirby?
└└ I don’t know.
But Jeong Da-jun knows it too.
└└ f*ck, why does Jeong Da-jun know it? LMAO]
“What business does our Hyung have with Yi-chae~?”
“Hmm.”
“Do I have something on me too?”
Kang Yi-chae asked in a sing-song voice as he came forward and sat across from Seo Ho-yun.
Looking at the perfectly composed Kang Yi-chae, Seo Ho-yun spoke calmly.
“You postponed your laptop’s automatic update while working on a song yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected topic, Kang Yi-chae hesitated before nodding.
“...Yeah. I did?”
“It was set to update automatically at night if it was plugged in.”
“Ahaha. You know everything. Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if it’s updated now?”
“But you know, you do realize that sometimes data gets lost during updates, right?”
“...Eh?”
Kang Yi-chae’s relaxed expression cracked slightly. Seo Ho-yun leaned forward, pulling his back away from the chair.
“Usually, the stuff on the desktop gets wiped.”
“...Whaaat??”
An ominous feeling began to crawl up Kang Yi-chae’s spine.
For Kang Yi-chae, who usually saved files with names like 'REAL_FINAL_FINAL_222222_NO_THIS_IS_THE_FINAL_ACTUALLY_THAT_WAS_A_LIE_THIS_IS_THE_FINAL,' this was scarier than any ghost story.
“Did you check your files?”
“...!!”
In an instant, Kang Yi-chae’s face turned pale.
[Hey]
[Ack]
[Ah, Kang Yi-chae’s ears are vibrating.]
└ [LMAO]
└└ [Wow, that counterpunch was intense. LMAO]
He suddenly bolted upright and fled the filming set.
【As fellow comrades who have all lost save files to automatic updates, the production crew decided to warmly understand his impulsive behavior.】
[Look at the subtitles, f*ck. LMAO]
【20 minutes later...】
“Haa, haa, haa...”
Kang Yi-chae reappeared, disheveled and gasping for breath.
“Are you back?”
Seo Ho-yun welcomed him warmly.
[Wow, his personality is seriously bad.]
[LMAO]
[If Seo Ho-yun acts warm, you have to run away at all costs, f*ck. LMAO]
“Haa, haa... The files... some were there. But a few files I worked so hard on are gone...”
“Is that so? That’s a relief.”
“Wow, Hyung, why did you just leave it like that when you knew?! Do you know how shocked I was?!”
“Do you know why some files are still there?”
Doubt flickered in Kang Yi-chae’s resentful eyes.
“Because I recovered them.”
“...!!”
As soon as Seo Ho-yun finished speaking, an exclamation of admiration burst from Jeong Da-jun behind them.
“Oh! That’s right! I saw Ho-yun Hyung doing something with Yi-chae Hyung’s laptop yesterday?!”
“I heard you say something about a file being gone yesterday.”
“...!!”
With Kim Seong-hyeon’s testimony added, Kang Yi-chae covered his mouth in shock.
“And you know what?”
A sly smile played on Seo Ho-yun’s lips.
“Just in case, I backed them up.”
“...!!”
“I have the recovery files.”
[LMAO. Taking a few out just to screw with him is not the mindset of a normal person. LMAO]
[f*ck. LMAO]
“Master Seo Ho-yun!!”
As Kang Yi-chae tried to hug him, Seo Ho-yun deftly twisted his body to avoid him and brushed back his bangs that were poking his eyes.
“I’m craving some ssanghwa-cha with an egg yolk floating in it...”
“I shall present it to you!!”
“I’d like it if our Yi-chae made it himself.”
“...How do you make ssanghwa-cha?”
“Are you asking me right now?”
“No, sir!!”
[Is Kang Yi-chae a slave?]
[LMAO. f*ck. This is killing me. LMAO]
As if on cue, 'Parachute' was inserted as background music. Every time the lyrics 'You're my slave' and 'No~ yes~' played, the camera zoomed in on Kang Yi-chae’s face.
And so, having acquired a red-haired slave on Halloween, Seo Ho-yun returned to his seat at the semi-circular table.
Seong Ji-won, who was sitting next to him, looked at Seo Ho-yun and asked.
“Ho-yun. But if you knew that would happen because of the update, couldn’t you have told Yi-chae to back it up beforehand?”
“Ah.”
As if he had heard an interesting question, Seo Ho-yun slowly curved his lips.
“Why would I?”
“...”
[LMAO]
[f*ck. LMAO]
There was no way Seo Ho-yun, who had been waiting for a chance to get back at Kang Yi-chae, would miss such a golden opportunity.