Chapter 393
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 393
Kim Seong-hyeon let out a disgusted "Ugh..." at Seo Ho-yun’s brazenness, but surprisingly, he didn’t fly into a rage. It was only because they were currently live.
"Didn't I tell you I was sick of you? Why did you follow me all the way to Jeju Island?"
"Seo Ho-yun, seriously..."
The question of whether he’d lost his mind climbed to the tip of his tongue, but Kim Seong-hyeon ultimately couldn't say a word. He could only clutch the back of his neck in frustration.
With a sly smirk, Seo Ho-yun added one more layer to the fire.
"No matter how pure and cute you are, you crossed the line this time."
"……."
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Is this guy a total psycho?? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Just as three deep wrinkles were about to etch themselves into Kim Seong-hyeon’s forehead, Kang Yi-chae, who had been tidying up the board game, stood up. He clutched a wad of fake bills in both hands and thrust them toward Seo Ho-yun. Ho-yun looked up at Kang Yi-chae and cocked a single eyebrow.
"Hmph! What does my son lack?! Is it his looks? His body? He’s got it all! Wealth?! Look at this, money! This is all my boy’s!"
[I love how they’re taking this 'Game of Life' roleplay way too far]
[LOL look at Ho-yun suddenly getting interested]
Kang Yi-chae’s already sharp eyes narrowed even more fiercely. Seo Ho-yun surreptitiously tucked the bills into his shirt and spoke affectionately.
"Well, that changes things. Baby, you should have told me you were loaded sooner."
"...I'm actually so annoyed right now..."
As Kim Seong-hyeon let out a small, resigned sigh, Kang Yi-chae leaned in, sticking his face right between them.
"You! Know your place!"
"Father-in-law, I already learned my place—and my fractions—back in kindergarten. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to clear up this misunderstanding and continue our sweet romance."
It had clearly started as a blind date simulation, but somewhere along the way, it had bypassed soap opera territory and turned into a full-blown comedy skit.
Seong Ji-won, the only one left out, hung his head slightly and muttered to himself.
"Ah, I should have played the father..."
[Why are you jealous of that... LOLOLOL]
[LMAO he's so cute ㅋㅋㅋ]
Caught in the middle of the storm that was Seo Ho-yun and Kang Yi-chae, Kim Seong-hyeon trembled. After bombarding them for a while, Kang Yi-chae threw a stack of asset cards he had set aside at Seo Ho-yun.
"Take this and break up with our Seong-hyeon!"
The paper cards hit Ho-yun’s chest and fluttered to the floor.
A moment of silence hung in the air, punctuated only by the loud sound of Jeong Da-jun swallowing hard.
Seo Ho-yun slowly leaned over to pick them up. He glanced at them with downcast eyes and let a mocking smile play on his lips.
"...Father-in-law, isn't your generosity a bit lacking?"
"What?!"
"You were making such a fuss, I thought the scale would be a bit bigger than this."
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
Then, he added a natural bit of PPL: "If you want to show your true worth now, you can wire the funds to my MJ Bank account."
[Crazy ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Holy crap ㅋㅋㅋㅋ What’s with the sudden ad? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[LMAO he’s insane ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Wait guys, Noeul said he wanted to go on a blind date ㅋㅋㅋㅋ but he can't do it like this ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Kim Seong-hyeon, who had spent a moment staring at the ceiling to process Seo Ho-yun and Kang Yi-chae’s endless roleplay, squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them.
"Let's stop now..."
"Right, let's stop playing hard to get."
"I'm exhausted."
"Love was never meant to be easy."
However, Seo Ho-yun merely gave a mischievous smile and brushed off Kim Seong-hyeon’s plea.
[Ho-yun’s quote parade]
[Seong-hyeon, did you do something wrong to Ho-yun? ㅋㅋㅋ He’s being extra savage today ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Glancing at the rapidly scrolling live chat, Kim Seong-hyeon tried to compose himself and soothe Ho-yun several times. But when Seo Ho-yun continued to smirk and needle him with a cold, unmoving gaze, he finally snapped.
"Hey! Are you doing this just because I told you to worry about your own collaboration stage earlier—!"
"……."
"……."
"……."
"...Huh?"
The members' eyes all locked onto Kim Seong-hyeon.
Even the fans' comments stopped for a split second.
[???]
[Collaboration??]
[????]
Just as the chat began to crawl back to life, a frown creased Seo Ho-yun’s forehead, and Jeong Da-jun dropped the snack he was holding in shock—the live stream cut out.
It happened because water had leaked from the ice pack placed against the tablet PC to keep it from overheating. To the outside world, however, it looked like they had dropped a bombshell and fled because they couldn't handle the aftermath.
While they were all warily eyeing each other, Kang Yi-chae muttered a beat late.
"......Did you just leak that?"
"...Uh... Ha, haha......"
Kim Seong-hyeon let out a hollow laugh and buried his head in the table as if his world had ended.
*
"Look, Seong-hyeon hyung is getting scolded."
"Wow, it’s rare to see him getting in trouble."
As soon as they arrived at the site for the Season's Greetings shoot, Kim Seong-hyeon had to endure a lecture regarding last night’s live stream.
While idols sometimes intentionally dropped spoilers as fan service, it seemed WH Entertainment kept a very tight lid on information regarding their company concerts.
"Alright, let's focus on work now."
Seong Ji-won patted Kang Yi-chae and Jeong Da-jun on the back, nudging them forward.
For this shoot, they had rented out an entire reed field in Jeju Island. Despite the temperature being higher than in Seoul, the lack of buildings meant the cold wind sliced right through their clothes.
Still, the photos had to be taken. As Ho-yun took off his coat and did a final check of his appearance, the photographer for the day gave him a thumbs-up of approval.
"By the way, Seo Ho-yun-ssi, this outfit really suits you."
This was their third Season's Greetings.
It seemed they had skipped it during their debut year as The Dawn. Considering Daepasung Entertainment used to pay money for songs like Mang-Mang-Mang, it wasn't exactly surprising.
Ho-yun gritted his teeth against the bone-chilling cold and met the camera lens.
After several hours of the grueling shoot, he reviewed the photos with Lee Ji-hyeon from the Daepasung planning team.
The bleak scenery under the grey winter sky blended well with his pale complexion from enduring the cold, resulting in quite beautiful shots.
"The concept for this Season's Greetings is really great, isn't it?!"
While typical Season's Greetings focused on bright, cheerful, and cozy themes for the New Year, they had decided to try a completely different direction for this one.
"A retro vibe with 1990s nostalgia, like it was shot on a hazy film camera!! Isn't it amazing?!"
Were you even born then?
As Ho-yun pulled a shirt with a cloud print on deep blue fabric over his white T-shirt to change, Lee Ji-hyeon continued to chatter excitedly.
"And there’s meaning behind all the props and outfits! They look peaceful, but they’re actually strangers who give off a dangerous aura! But it’s no fun if everyone is the same, so Kim Seong-hyeon-ssi and Kang Yi-chae-ssi are undercover cops...... Why are you looking at me like that?"
Lee Ji-hyeon, who had been rambling to herself, faltered and shifted her eyes warily.
"Ji-hyeon-ssi, be honest. Did you get a big bonus?"
"......I've realized that inspiration is birthed from money."
Ho-yun pulled his lips into a smirk and looked around.
The behind-the-scenes camera, which followed them as a matter of course, was currently focused on 'Daepasung’s rising dance star, Jeong Da-jun,' who was randomly performing breakdance moves.
Ho-yun approached Lee Ji-hyeon and lowered his voice.
"By the way, is Team Leader Jeong Seon-ui not coming today? I haven't seen her at all lately."
It wasn't a question he strictly needed to ask, but he wanted to find out exactly who had tried to wedge him in between the main dancers.
Lee Ji-hyeon hummed thoughtfully before answering.
"Hmm, I'm not sure. Team Leader Jeong isn't technically our dedicated manager anymore. Plus, Black Call has a comeback next year. I think she’s just busy coordinating various things..."
It was a plausible reason, so Ho-yun was about to nod and let it go, but she spoke up again as if remembering something.
"Ah! Come to think of it, she’s seemed really frantic lately because of frequent meetings with the higher-ups."
"The higher-ups?"
Perhaps because of the strong sense of camaraderie from suffering together since the Daepasung days, Lee Ji-hyeon spoke freely about internal matters without any guard.
"Yes, who was it... Managing Director Han Ji-hyeok? I heard he calls for her especially often. Maybe it’s about a promotion? Or a bonus."
Managing Director Han Ji-hyeok?
He was one of the figures at the center of the storm when the company was noisy with internal politics just a few months ago.
Naturally, he was a difficult person to handle.
Why is he seeing Jeong Seon-ui so often?
Ho-yun felt a chill down his spine and began retracing everything that had happened. Meanwhile, Lee Ji-hyeon added as she packed up her materials.
"...Anyway, let's work hard for the rest of December. Our team expects that we can really look forward to the beginning of next year."
"Are you telling me to prepare an acceptance speech?"
"Isn't that obvious? I'll prepare one too. Something like, 'I'm just grateful to have miraculously become the planner for The Dawn'..."
After cracking the joke, Lee Ji-hyeon waved and walked quickly toward the staff to swap out the props.
The filming continued late into the night.
After finishing the planned schedule—even eating dinner out of lunch boxes—the members were finally able to return to their pension.
Of course, they weren't given rest immediately. They had to write short messages to each other to be printed on the Season's Greetings postcards.
Everyone gathered in the living room, fresh from the shower with damp hair, holding the tablet PCs provided by the company.
They said these are going on the back of the postcards, right?
Ho-yun twirled the stylus between his fingers and peeked at Seong Ji-won, who was scribbling away next to him while wearing a bright orange tangerine-shaped hat of unknown origin.
[Ho-yun, even though I couldn't turn you into a dancing machine yet, I'll make sure it happens in ten years! I promise!!]
"Ahem."
Even you, the one I trusted...
Ho-yun turned his head the other way and saw Kang Yi-chae writing a message for Jeong Da-jun. When Da-jun hovered nearby, recognizing his own name, Yi-chae immediately crossed out the Korean he had been writing and started writing in English.
"That's cheating!!"
"Heh."
"Hyung! You know translation apps exist now, right?! You're underestimating our generation too much!"
The maknae huffed and tried to take a photo of Kang Yi-chae’s tablet to recognize the text. However, because it was written in fancy cursive, the app only recognized it as strange gibberish and failed to translate it.
"...The smart fans will translate it later anyway......"
Jeong Da-jun pouted and returned to his seat, but unable to give up, he borrowed the other hyungs' phones to try and photograph Yi-chae’s writing again.
Watching the scene unfold, Ho-yun put down his pen and stood up.
"Hey, you guys keep writing."
"Eh? Why?!"
"Where are you going, Ho-yun?"
"It's too distracting here. I'll write mine later."
He pointed toward the veranda, opened the door, and stepped out onto the first-floor terrace.
As soon as he closed the sliding door, the noisy chatter vanished instantly.
Ho-yun tucked his hands into the sleeves of his sweatshirt, crossed his arms, and looked up at the sky. There were far more stars twinkling here than in the Seoul sky. The cold yet refreshing scent of the sea drifted in.
It was still chilly, but he was enjoying the mood when an unwelcome notification rang out.
Ding!
[Why aren't you writing it now?]
"I'll finish it quickly later. I'm slacking off."
The words he would write were obvious anyway.
‘Thanks, let's work hard next year too.’ Something like that.
Though, if they won a Grand Prize at the upcoming awards ceremonies, that 'Thanks' might turn into the past tense: 'Thanks for everything.'
Based on public reaction and the data provided by the company, the probability of The Dawn winning a Grand Prize this year was extremely high.
Once we win, I'll use that momentum to have a proper talk with Kang Yi-chae.
He wasn't an easy guy to deal with, so Ho-yun planned to wait for the perfect moment to complete the Scenario Quest.
Looking back, he saw the four members playing around and laughing inside the living room.
"Look at them, having the time of their lives..."
It was a peaceful sight, yet his heart felt restless.
—What if I return to my original world and they are idols no one has ever heard of?
—What if I return to my original world and they exist in a different form than they do now?
—What if I return to my original world and they...
......Absolutely not.
After how I’ve raised them?
I refuse to see that happen.
Even if people accused him of being a sellout, he would use any means necessary to keep them at their current level of popularity and status—or push them even higher.
Clicking his tongue at his swirling thoughts, he brushed back his bangs just as his phone vibrated.
[Ju Woo-seong: (Photo)]
[Ju Woo-seong: Nyang-nyang-i]
It was a selfie of Nyang-nyang-i and the useless Ju Woo-seong.
For once, he was actually outside; the background wasn't his usual house, but an unfamiliar landscape.
So what?
Ho-yun ignored it and was about to head back into the pension when another text arrived.
[Ju Woo-seong: Behind you lol]
Ho-yun narrowed his eyes and irritably whipped his head around, only for something warm and fluffy to brush against his cheek. A white ball of fur filled his vision.
"Hey there, Ttukttak-i."
Ju Woo-seong, carefully cradling Nyang-nyang-i, let his lips curl into a grin.