I tried to cover up the spot where Yoo Hansoo had hit , even though it was late.
But I failed because Choi Jeho was already right in front of .
“Did you get hit?”
“Huh?!”
Jeong Seongbin was startled by Choi Jeho’s question.
“No, I just bumped into sothing.”
“Where would you bump into sothing to leave a handprint like that?”
“Handprint? No way.”
I turned my gaze toward the mirror to avoid Choi Jeho’s eyes and saw my face swollen and red.
The outline was faint, but not clear enough to be identified imdiately as a handprint. This bi*ch was clearly trying to corner with his leading questions.
“Hyung, are you okay…?”
Park Joowoo brought a cold water bottle with a very serious expression and handed it to .
When I put the water bottle to my face, my cheeks felt cool.
It was only then that I realized how hot my face was.
“Relax. If soone saw this, they’d think I got hit.”
“So, you really got hit?”
“I told you I bumped into sothing. And Kang Kiyeon, stop slouching. Your spine will get ssed up.”
I answered them twice, but no one seed to believe .
I straightened Park Joowoo’s eyebrows with my finger and said.
“Besides, even if I did get hit, what’s the big deal? It’s nothing.”
“How can you say it’s nothing if you got hit?”
Kang Kiyeon replied. This guy was particularly venomous today.
“Who did it? Was it Jang Joonhoo sunbaenim?”
Even Lee Cheonghyeon asked without a trace of a smile.
“I told you not to go around ntioning people’s nas recklessly, didn’t I?”
“So, was it Jang Junhoo sunbaenim or not?!”
When I denied it, Lee Cheonghyeon crossed his arms and asked, ‘Then you did get hit, right?’.
Why is there not a single person who believes ? This ahjussi is upset.
I tried to change the subject by saying, ‘Let’s stop talking about this and practice’, but they didn’t seem ready to back down easily.
I had no choice but to sigh and say,
“I just had a difference of opinion with the PD. It’s more noticeable because it happened to be my face.”
Jeong Seongbin looked at and asked,
“PD Yoo Hansoo?”
Jeong Seongbin’s eyes trembled slightly.
I felt a little guilty for reminding him of what happened with Jang Junhoo.
The atmosphere gradually beca more and more gloomy, perhaps they thought that they could get hit next.
It made sense that they’d be anxious. The presence of a violent older man was threatening.
Putting aside my plan to get rid of Yoo Hansoo, this atmosphere was bad. We needed to focus on practice.
So I said loudly as if nothing happened.
“Okay. Are we done now? Let’s play the song back again.”
I turned my back on the mbers.
As I picked up the player to play the music, soone grabbed .
Jeong Seongbin was looking up at while holding my elbow.
“We should go talk to the manager.”
“What?”
“We should tell the PD that he hit you. He already calls hyung often, so there’s no guarantee that sothing like this won’t happen again.”
Jeong Seongbin spoke softly. However, despite his calm tone., his fingertips were trembling slightly.
But what good would it do to tell anyone now?
I still didn’t know Yoo Hansoo’s weaknesses yet, and I wasn’t sure how the company would weigh between Yoo Hansoo and .
I admitted that UA had shown a certain level of kindness so far.
But I couldn’t trust a company.
They could suddenly lash out at employees who had worked there for 13 years and cut the salaries of all employees while the CEO drove around in a foreign car. That was how the company and the executives were.
Even if UA happened to see so potential in by chance, it was unlikely they’d choose over Yoo Hansoo, who already had a signed contract.
If I got unlucky, I, the victim, might end up being punished. I’d seen that happen all too often at the Hanpyeong Industry.
Since Yoo Hansoo might end up hitting the other mbers, I agreed with the system’s directive to separate him from the idol business.
But that was all. In a situation where I had no solid weapon, I couldn’t afford to get a backlash for trying to take down Yoo Hansoo.
I couldn’t afford to jeopardize our debut over sothing like this.
I tried to comfort Jeong Seongbin, hoping he would understand my sincere desire not to stir up trouble.
“I just upset the PD a little. It won’t happen again.”
“How can you be so sure? And even if he was upset, hitting soone isn’t okay.”
And I failed. I had montarily forgotten that he was one of the top-ranking mbers of the team in terms of stubbornness.
At the Hanpyeong Industry, a simple ‘I’m sorry, it’s all my fault’ would fix everything. But not here. How unfortunate.
I tried to gently ease the situation, speaking as calmly as possible.
“He wouldn’t do that again.”
Then Jeong Seongbin asked with a serious face.
“Who can guarantee that?”
At that mont, I had a gut feeling that this guy was thinking of Jang Junhoo.
Jeong Seongbin knew all too well that bullying didn’t start suddenly one day, but rather slowly and continuously repeated itself.
I ended up bringing up bad mories for no good reason..
I swallowed a sigh inwardly. Since it had co to this, I had no choice but to end this talk properly.
“Seongbin.”
“…”
“Thank you for worrying. I’ll think about what to do next, so let’s just start practicing now.”
I pretended not to see Jeong Seongbin’s expression and stubbornly turned on the music.
Jeong Seongbin was a rational guy, so I thought he would fully understand what I ant after a night’s sleep.
However, the situation went in a direction I had never expected.
* * *
It was a few days later that I sensed the strange air current.
I asked Choi Jeho, who was warming up in the practice room.
“Hey. Didn’t Seongbin seem mad at the day before yesterday?”
“A bit.”
Choi Jeho answered without even looking at , focusing only on stretching.
For the past few days, I had been busy trying to figure out what had pressed Yoo Hansoo’s anger button.
I hadn’t noticed that I’d also hit the ‘displeasure button’ of our group leader. And I was only now realizing it.
I glanced at one side of the practice room and said.
“But why do Seongbin and Joowoo seem so awkward with each other…?”
Right.
Whether it was because the arrow of Seongbin’s anger had shifted away from or for so other reason, sothing felt off.
For so reason, the two guys who were usually the calst and most easygoing in our dorm seed noticeably awkward with each other.
Jeong Seongbin in the practice room acted the sa as usual. Park Joowoo was also not very talkative, so he didn’t seem much different.
But during breaks, the two, who used to huddle together and whisper, were now keeping their distance, so I couldn’t help but notice.
They had always displayed a close bond with a different vibe than Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Kiyeon, so this was unfamiliar and odd.
While I was trying to figure out the cause, Choi Jeho got up and said.
“How would I know?”
What a useless guy.
Still, if even the dull Choi Jeho had noticed, it ant the awkward tension between Seongbin and Joowoo wasn’t just my imagination.
“Those two would have resolved it through conversation, they’re not the type to fight.”
“That’s true.”
“Do Seongbin and Joowoo often fight?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Really?”
“…Maybe?”
Choi Jeho, who usually paid no attention to others, could be trusted on this.
After all, the two had once introduced themselves in an interview as ‘best friends who have never fought’.
‘Never fought? Really?’
‘Yes. Joowoo tends to give in to people, so we’ve always gotten along well.’
‘But how can you not fight even once while living in a group?’
‘We find that surprising too. Haha.’
Since Jeong Seongbin was not the type who would lie for the sake of interviews, his words back then were probably true.
Then this situation could be seen as an unprecedented exceptional incident. Just like Lee Cheonghyeon’s attempted runaway.
At this point, I felt like my involvent was actually a bad thing for this team. The mbers were causing trouble that they never had before since I joined.
Ah, maybe it was indeed a bad thing. I was lowering the group’s overall capability.
While I was nursing my throbbing head and trying to calm my complicated feelings, Choi Jeho asked.
“But you, when Jeong Seongbin was bullied by Jang Junhoo, you insisted on reporting it to the company. Why are you doing the opposite this ti?”
“An adult getting hit and a minor getting hit is totally different. Besides, Seongbin is different from …”
“…?”
I tried to say, ‘He’s a trainee that the company can’t let go of.’ but I held back.
Instead, hoping that the awkwardness between the two was only temporary, I decided to talk to Park Joowoo after practice and casually brought up the topic.
But his response shattered my hope that this would be easily resolved.
“So… It seems we ended up fighting.”
I had to admit. At that ti, it really took a lot of effort to swallow my sigh.
“Can I ask why you fought?”
I asked worriedly.
I was genuinely worried. If the two of you fight, the group will fail, the company will fail, and my KPI will be completely ruined.
Instead of telling the story right away, Park Joowoo took his ti.
This guy was known for his voice that lted fans’ eardrums, but it seed to also lt my liver.
It was only when I started to feel suffocated that Park Joowoo finally opened his mouth.
“Uh, that day… when hyung had a problem with PD Yoo Hansoo…”
Park Joowoo’s thoughtfulness was evident in his way of phrasing that didn’t indirectly state, ‘That day when you got slapped by Yoo Hansoo’.
“That day, I talked with Seongbin, and we had a bit of a disagreent… I know it might upset you since we talked about you behind your back, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I don’t really mind about that.”
Park Joowoo smiled kindly, but my head was filled with questions.
What reason would there be for the two of them to have a disagreent just because I got slapped?
It was who got slapped!
I wanted to hear specifically what they talked about, but unfortunately, Park Joowoo kept his mouth shut like a clam, so I failed.
In the end, I had to resort to a desperate asure.
“That’s why I need you guys to do sothing for .”
“Huh?”
Choi Jeho, Kang Kiyeon, and Lee Cheonghyeon, who were called out to the living room, looked bewildered.
“Go hear the whole story from them.”
“Us?”
Choi Jeho, who looked the most reluctant among them, was the first to ask.
“Then should I go and ask? They fought because of . You think they’ll talk to ?”
“I don’t think they’ll tell us either!”
“That’s why I’m telling you to make the effort and get the answer. I didn’t raise you to be weak, Cheonghyeon.”
I also preferred to solve things on my own rather than relying on others, but what else could I do? The situation turned out this way.
I patted the shoulders of the spies who looked bewildered and encouraged them.
And the very next day, the spies returned with information.
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