"Cheonghyeon, your mother called and told you to check your ssages."
Im Chanyeong held out the phone he had been keeping for him. The device, which had probably been sitting in a drawer, felt as cold as scrap tal.
After returning to the practice room, Lee Cheonghyeon plugged the charger in. He apologized to the older mbers first, then leaned against the wall while the others practiced and opened the ssage his mother had sent.
Mom
[You’ll be taking the CSAT next year, so how’s your preparation going?]
[Send your target departnt and grades.]
‘She called the company just to make reply to this?’
A sigh escaped him.
He did not answer imdiately. It was only possible because he knew his mother was not idle enough to constantly check whether he had read her ssages.
"Hyung, you need to jump a little higher than you did just now."
"Singing, dancing, and jumping high at the sa ti is a very difficult task for a beginner like ."
"You’ll probably get it after about a hundred jumps."
"I’ll try to finish within seventy."
"Isn’t that compromise way too realistic?"
While the music stopped, he could hear the conversation between his teammates.
The one teaching was Kang Giyeon.
The one receiving lessons was Kim Iwol, who was approaching his first anniversary as a trainee.
‘I heard that hyung originally planned on going to college too...’
Nobody knew exactly how an ordinary college applicant ended up becoming a trainee. Everyone simply assud he had his own circumstances and let the matter rest.
When the new year arrived, Lee Cheonghyeon officially inford his family that he would be debuting soon.
His debut had already been confird long before that, but if he told them too early and sothing delayed it, he already knew exactly what kind of things he would hear. So he waited for what he considered the right timing.
‘I thought at least once my debut was confird, I’d hear less of this stuff.’
It had been a pointless expectation.
He stared blankly at the screen for a long while before finally shutting his eyes because they had started aching.
‘Do they even know tomorrow’s my birthday?’
Even if they did, it probably would not change much.
The birthday presents he received at ho were usually all the sa. Honestly, it was a relief if they did not give him another book titled sothing like Beco a Global Leader!.
Lee Cheonghyeon turned his phone off and stood up.
The mont he returned to formation, Kim Iwol—currently on his fourth jump—spoke to him.
"Did you check your ssages okay?"
"Yeah."
"Nothing wrong, right?"
"It wasn’t anything serious. Honestly, my mom really knows how to trouble busy people."
The mont he said it jokingly, Kim Iwol smiled in relief.
Only Kang Giyeon, who knew the situation, failed to brighten up.
Lee Cheonghyeon patted Kang Giyeon on the back a couple of tis before returning to practice.
Sotis he woke before the alarm rang.
Whenever his thoughts were complicated, even tiny sounds were enough to wake him.
Today was one of those days.
Lee Cheonghyeon woke because of a faint noise from beneath the bunk bed—sothing he normally would not even notice.
It ca from Kim Iwol’s side.
‘Does that hyung just not sleep at all?’
Even last night, when Lee Cheonghyeon had gone into the room first saying he would sleep early, Kim Iwol had still been outside in the living room with his laptop.
The album was right before production, the promotional copy and posters had already been completed, and yet Kim Iwol’s work showed no signs of ending.
Lee Cheonghyeon used to think all adults naturally possessed that kind of perspective.
After all, the adults he had grown up seeing were his mother, his father, Lee Soohoon, Kim Iwol, and people like them.
Though after seeing people like Jang Junho, he had learned that being an adult did not automatically an your words were correct.
Anyway, Kim Iwol definitely was not normal.
Shaking his head, Lee Cheonghyeon burrowed back under the blanket.
Then he opened his eyes again only three seconds later.
He had suddenly realized why Kim Iwol was awake at dawn.
"Hyung!"
"Whoa, you scared . Why are you up this early? Lack of sleep is the enemy of healthy skin."
Kim Iwol spoke calmly despite the dark circles under his eyes being practically the size of his own eyes.
Seaweed was already cut and laid out at the sink.
If lack of sleep truly was the enemy of healthy skin, Kim Iwol’s skin should have started a full-scale rebellion by now.
"Why are you making birthday soup again?"
Once it beca official that Kim Iwol cooked seaweed soup every mber’s birthday morning, everyone—including Jeong Seongbin—had agreed to wake up together and help prepare breakfast.
Even today, the roles had already been assigned.
One person to stir-fry at.
One person to soak seaweed.
One person to prepare the rice.
"It would violate fairness if I only didn’t make it for you. mber discrimination is a sin."
"What’s mber discrimination?"
"Discrimination between mbers. Usually caused by agencies, but unequal treatnt issues between mbers exist too, so you should at least know the term."
"Who would think not getting a birthday al counts as discrimination?! I’m not that narrow-minded!"
"It’s not like I’m preparing all this because I’m afraid of discrimination controversies. I just know about your birthday, so there’s no reason not to celebrate it."
When Lee Cheonghyeon opened the rice cooker to wash the rice at least, he found perfectly cleaned rice already waiting inside for the cook button to be pressed.
"While the seaweed soaks, there’s not much to do. Want to go back to sleep?"
"Sorry, but I’m fully awake now."
"Then at least drink so milk. Grow taller."
"Wow..."
Regardless of whether Lee Cheonghyeon clapped sarcastically or not, Kim Iwol ignored him completely and poured milk into a mug before sticking it into the microwave.
Standing guard in front of the microwave to stop it from boiling over, Kim Iwol eventually handed him the perfectly ward milk. Steam rose gently from the cup.
"Aren’t you drinking anything, hyung?"
"No. I’m satisfied with my height."
The words of a deceiver.
I’m definitely growing taller than him soday. I’ll absolutely surpass 183 centiters and get my revenge.
Even after saying that, Kim Iwol still poured himself a glass of lukewarm water.
Apparently he thought Lee Cheonghyeon might feel awkward drinking milk alone.
"Aren’t you tired, hyung? You’ve already celebrated birthdays five tis."
"If celebrating birthdays were the only thing I had to do, I could celebrate them any number of tis."
"What other anniversaries are there besides birthdays?"
"There are plenty. Hundred-day anniversaries, first birthdays, school entrance ceremonies, graduations, weddings, wedding anniversaries, sixtieth birthdays, seventieth birthdays, eightieth birthdays, funerals for fathers, funerals for mothers, funerals for grandmothers, funerals for grandfathers, father-in-law funerals, mother-in-law funerals, morial rites..."
Kim Iwol rattled them off like a broken vending machine.
It looked like he would keep going until he started listing the dates neighbors moved houses if nobody stopped him, so Lee Cheonghyeon hurriedly cut him off.
"Then why won’t you tell us your birthday?"
"It already passed."
"When exactly is your birthday if it’s sohow always already over every single ti I ask?"
"I think my timing’s kind of incredible too."
"Seriously..."
Kim Iwol was not the type to dodge questions just to make dumb jokes.
Since it looked like there was a reason he did not want to answer, Lee Cheonghyeon chose not to push further.
"Oh right, I should grill the at."
"at?"
"I ordered the side dishes pre-made, but the at ca uncooked. Reheating cold at ruins the taste."
"What else did you buy besides seaweed?"
"Just things for a proper al. You haven’t had homade food in a long ti."
Kim Iwol poured water into a small earthen pot and continued speaking while pulling soybean paste and tofu from the refrigerator.
"And you like Korean food."
It was true that all the mbers had gone a long ti without homade als.
Since they were preparing their bodies before debut, everyone’s diets had been restricted.
But Kim Iwol was clearly saying he was not making soybean paste stew because everyone generally missed homade food.
He was doing all this troubleso work because the birthday boy, Lee Cheonghyeon, had not been able to eat the food he liked for a long ti.
Lee Cheonghyeon had never received such thoughtful birthday treatnt in his life.
"What if I binge today and get chubby overnight?"
"We’re back to salads tomorrow, so don’t worry. With how much we practice, we could eat twelve-dish full-course als three tis today and still lose weight."
"Aren’t you treating way too well just because it’s my birthday?"
Kim Iwol, who had been responding automatically the entire ti, chanically sliced enoki mushrooms before suddenly setting the knife down and looking directly at him.
"Weren’t you the one saying I only treat you harshly compared to Giyeon?"
"When did I ever say it like that?! I just said you’re a little strict about my sleeping hours!"
"Giyeon wants to grow taller, so I make him sleep early. You want to write songs, so I work you hard while making sure you eat properly. Got it?"
Kim Iwol had a talent for leaving people speechless.
Situations like this happened often when talking with his parents too.
But there was a clear difference between the two cases.
When conversations with Kim Iwol left him speechless, it never felt unpleasant.
After checking the ti, Kim Iwol pressed the rice cooker button.
Before long, the delicious sll of cooked rice began spreading through the kitchen.
After finishing the stew, they spent quite a while talking about the debut song.
More specifically, they discussed what kind of sound their next coback should have in order to preserve the color of the debut album.
"You’re trusting with the next song too?"
"If it doesn’t burden you too much and the result turns out well."
"I heard excessive self-production can lead to self-copying."
"A creator’s style is naturally going to seep into their work overall. Whether it becos diversification or imitation doesn’t depend solely on you. There are countless points where differences can be created—concept selection, lyrics, arrangent, producing. If people still say it’s repetitive after all that, then the people in the middle share responsibility too."
"What if every song I write ends up having similar lodies?"
"Aren’t you studying right now specifically to prevent that from happening?"
Once again, Lee Cheonghyeon lost the ability to speak.
Kim Iwol trapped people with nowhere left to run, and yet his expression never changed once.
"Hyung, you’re really... confident in yourself."
"I seem that way?"
For the first ti all morning, genuine confusion flickered across Kim Iwol’s calm face.
The man who had never hesitated during conversation suddenly fell unusually quiet.
"That’s an unexpected evaluation."
The reaction was too short to sound carefully calculated.
And it did not sound like a lie either.
It was a strange response for soone who trusted other people’s abilities without question.
Maybe feeling awkward, Kim Iwol abruptly got up saying he should grill the at now.
Lee Cheonghyeon no longer cared about the at.
Everything he truly wanted for his birthday had already been given to him.
‘I really am immature.’
Praise.
Trust.
Just those things alone were enough to make Lee Cheonghyeon happier than anyone else on his birthday.
And this year, he had already beco happier than ever before sunrise had even fully arrived.
"Give the tongs. I’ll grill the at."
Lee Cheonghyeon forcibly snatched the tongs from Kim Iwol’s hands.
At that mont, the only thing on his mind was filling the table as quickly as possible so he could sit down and enjoy a delicious breakfast with the mbers.
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