"Wow! So this is Yale University."
"Is it a famous university?"
"You don’t know the Ivy League? It’s on the sa level as Harvard University! This place is."
"It’s a place we’ll never have anything to do with!"
"But the campus is really huge and pretty!"
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The mont the Iam mbers found out that Yale, Connecticut’s landmark and a school famous for having a beautiful campus, was near their lodging, they went to check it out right away.
And on Yale’s campus, the sight of the seven Iam mbers walking side by side was enough, just by itself, to draw the eyes of the people around them.
People often say Eastern and Western beauty standards are different, but maybe that’s just because you’re ugly? The Iam mbers were showing that without leaving any room for doubt.
Since every single one of them was the kind of good-looking person who wouldn’t lose anywhere they went, I could feel all the Yale students’ gazes getting pulled toward the mbers as they walked.
"Suspicious···."
"Why, Team Lead?"
"Lee Sion is being way too quiet."
Hakyoon, filming and watching them, couldn’t shake a vague sense of dread.
-Don’t let her out of your sight and keep chasing them, Hakyoon! I’m on my way right now. Lee Sion! Lee Sion, don’t you dare lose her!
The chase that started two hours ago when Lee Sion fired off a provocative declaration of war at Raon PD.
The content the content team had originally planned, the working title “A Long Journey to Find the Lodging,” had been shattered to pieces and disappeared a long ti ago.
Originally, the Iam mbers were supposed to do various missions in Arica, where it was hard to communicate, earn money, get food, and in the middle of all the chaos and mishaps, struggle their way back to their lodging, but—
-Oh! Are you just going to take a taxi?
No negotiation worked on a gang of thieves, not idols, who threatened to take a taxi back to New York on the corporate card if things didn’t go their way.
But when he thought about it carefully,
‘As long as it’s fun, isn’t that all that matters?’
Hakyoon was unexpectedly feeling that the situation wasn’t bad.
And of course, it wasn’t. They’d planned it to be fun anyway, so if it was fun, wasn’t that enough?
Other idols’ self-content usually fild lots of cute, small, precious monts their fans liked, but Iam’s fans wanted sothing funny.
Yours, whose dopamine tolerance had already been trained up by the Iam mbers, obviously wouldn’t be satisfied if they uploaded a normal, ordinary cute precious video like other idols.
In that sense, the current situation wasn’t bad.
No, it was actually good.
Raon, who was a producer now but used to be a top Korean female singer, raging and starting a chase because her card got stolen—no, in Lee Sion’s words, its storage location got “swapped,” was insane.
Thanks to that, the filming crew that had stayed behind in New York hurriedly got the content team’s cooperation, fild Raon, and was on the way to catch the Iam mbers.
If they’d left two hours ago, they would arrive in Connecticut where the mbers were soon, or they might have already arrived.
"But they’re not running."
"That really is suspicious."
If it was Lee Sion Hakyoon knew, Lee Sion should’ve been running around excitedly going, catch if you can, by now.
Even normally, Lee Sion was the type who would break through a staff cordon like she was playing tag with KJ Entertainnt employees just to go to the convenience store.
But strangely,
"If I’d focused seriously on studying, Yale might’ve been my alma mater."
"Co on, Boss, no matter how I look at it, you’re not the studious type."
"If I seriously studied for the CSAT, I really would’ve gotten into Seoul National University."
"If it’s you, Sion, you definitely could’ve!"
"See, that’s why Shinyu knows how to judge people."
Lee Sion was just leisurely sightseeing, trading pointless jokes with the mbers.
Even though Lee Sion had to know that Raon was in contact with the content team and was obviously chasing them, she was relaxed—so relaxed she looked downright lax.
‘What the hell is she plotting?’
Hakyoon could bet everything on the fact that Lee Sion was plotting sothing.
Bzzzt.
While Hakyoon stared at Lee Sion and worried about what kind of sche she was cooking up, his phone rang.
He hurriedly pulled it out and checked. It was a call from Raon.
"Yes, I received your call."
"Where are the kids right now?"
"They’re touring Yale University’s campus."
In the middle of the call, Hakyoon glanced at the mbers.
"They’re buying Yale University goods at the campus gift shop right now, so if you’re coming this way—"
"No. It’s fine."
"What?"
Raon said it was fine, cutting off Hakyoon as he was about to explain the gift shop’s location on campus.
‘Huh? That’s weird, why does it sound so vivid?’
For a mont, it felt like it wasn’t a phone call, but like she was talking right next to him, and right when he started thinking that was strange, Raon’s voice really did co again from behind him.
"Because I’m looking at you right now."
Hakyoon flinched and whipped around at the voice that suddenly ca from behind him.
And what he saw was not a top female singer, and not a producer either.
A starving predator that craved blood was standing there.
***
"Lee Sion··· I definitely told you to hide really, really well, didn’t I?"
Killing intent.
The visible red haze that Madam Sukja had shown when it was exposed that I sold my mom out on a past broadcast—that sa red haze was visible around Raon PD right now too.
She must’ve really left right after my call ended and sprinted here, because she’d arrived faster than even I expected.
And maybe because her anger had concentrated on the way here, I could feel killing intent in her gaze.
'Madam Sukja, are you watching? There’s soone here who might surpass you.'
I couldn’t help being a little startled as I looked at Raon PD like that.
This level of killing intent was dense enough to rival an enraged Madam Sukja.
I usually used Madam Sukja as my baseline for combat power comparisons, and with the Sharingan I had right now, Raon PD’s combat power looked like at least 0.8 Sukja.
An enraged Seo Ryujin was 0.5 Sukja.
That huge fiery woman who jumped before. After that, she drifted out of my attention and I barely even rembered her na, but that high school punk was about 0.2 Sukja.
0.8 Sukja was a combat power that even I couldn’t help tensing up over.
"You dare trick ?"
"I didn’t trick you, it was a mistake. Since this is Arica, I’ll call it a mistake."
"You still have the leisure to run your mouth?"
Raon PD walked toward , one slow step at a ti.
"Hey, Lee Sion, what do we do! PD is seriously not joking right now!"
"Yeah, I told you we should run, Sion-chan!"
"Since it’s co to this, how about we combine our strength and subdue Raon PD?"
"Shinyu, have you lost your mind! Why are your solutions starting to resemble Lee Sion too!"
Maybe because of how overwhelming she was, the other mbers tensed up and started asking what we should do.
But—
"PD, can we talk over there for a second?"
"Why would I?"
"At least I need to know why you’re even mad."
"W-what? You need to know the reason I’m mad?"
"Yes."
Raon PD’s combat power being beyond what I expected was all; the situation itself was exactly what I’d predicted.
Raon PD seed shocked by what I said and started pointing at with a trembling hand.
"You have the corporate card and you’ve been running around spending it like crazy, and you don’t know why I’m mad?!"
It was just a question, but she was so angry it looked like lasers were about to shoot out of her eyes.
"The corporate card··· I definitely have it."
"You—seriously! Do you know how much trouble you’ll be in later with the company if you use that however you want? For a corporate card, even the usage history and the amount, every single thing, they track it all—"
"But I said I have it. I never said I used it."
"What?"
I took out the corporate card, which I’d been keeping tucked safely inside my clothes in case the content team tried to subdue and take it back by force.
"Huh? Lee Sion, what’s that?"
"The corporate card, what else would it be."
"Huh? But it’s different from the one you gave us to use earlier."
"That one is my card."
"What?!"
From the beginning, I’d never used the corporate card even once.
"W-wait, Lee Sion, I have your card!"
"That’s a card I don’t use."
"A card you don’t use?"
"I got a new card issued last ti. They said the old one had a low limit and no benefits, so I should switch."
"Then why did you have it?"
"I was keeping it to prank the mbers later, but you really never know what’ll happen."
That’s right.
The card I got newly issued after my last settlent, and a card that was canceled and couldn’t be used anymore.
I had both types of cards.
At first I thought about throwing it away right away, but for so reason, I felt like it would be fun to use it on the mbers later, especially Lee Gahyeon, so I kept it.
-Hey, Lee Sion! This is a card that doesn’t work!
-I didn’t know!
Unfortunately, I had to give up on that.
But since I used it as bait to hook Raon PD, I was extrely satisfied.
Raon PD stared at with her mouth hanging open, looking like her mind had blanked out from shock.
"Then all the money we spent so far... you paid it all yourself?"
"Boss, are you crazy? Then why did you order room service and stuff?!"
"Sion, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?"
The mbers were just as shocked and started asking why I did this, but honestly, I didn’t spend that much.
'If you add up one steak from room service, a few burgers at McDonald’s, and other random stuff, would it even hit 500,000 won?'
Of course, 500,000 won wasn’t a small amount, but since I’d left 1,000,000 won as ergency cash, that kind of luxury was more than manageable.
From the last settlent, I used half to buy gifts, bought Bitcoin with the other half, and left 1,000,000 won as spare money.
It was money I planned to use as allowance anyway, so it didn’t really matter if I used it now.
Once promotions started, we’d be so busy there wouldn’t even be anything to spend money on, and the company fed us three als a day anyway, so for allowance, all I really needed was enough money to buy cola.
"Then you threatened with the corporate card... just to make co here?"
"Of course!"
Even I thought it was an incredible strategy.
No matter how off the rails I was, I knew using a corporate card recklessly was dangerous, so from the start it was nothing but bait.
"Now, PD is here too, so if we go back to New York together with PD, today’s content ends!"
"I knew I could trust you, Lee Sion!"
"Sion-chan is a genius?!"
"Boss, you were cool for the first ti in a while!"
"I always believed you’d pull it off, Sion!"
And if we returned with Raon PD, who had bitten the bait and co all the way here, the content would proceed exactly as originally planned, so ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) it was a perfect plan with no gaps to be found.
The mbers seed moved now that they finally knew the truth, and they were pouring out praise at , but—
"Good work, Ryujin-scrub—no, Seo Ryujin."
"Seriously, don’t ever make do this again!"
I made eye contact with Seo Ryujin and shook her hand.
"Huh? So Ryujin knew too?"
"She was on our side from the beginning."
The first thing I thought I needed when I ca up with this plan was an accomplice who knew the plan.
-So Ryujin, you have to act like you’re stopping us so the production staff thinks we’re really going off the rails.
-So you’re going to use the corporate card as bait to hook Raon PD?
-Exactly. But we need so reality. You have to oppose it really fiercely and keep saying we can’t do that. If you do that, nobody will think I’m putting on a show.
It looked like simple fishing, but inside was a combination with three separate baits mixed together.
A perfect sche you’d fall for even if you knew.
Tap, tap.
I walked up to Raon PD, who was still in shock, and patted her shoulder.
"It can’t be helped. Your opponent was . Once you get caught by Zhuge Liang of the Haan neighborhood, Lee Sion—"
Swoosh.
My warm action ant to comfort her, telling her it wasn’t because Raon PD was foolish or pathetic, she’d just t an overwhelmingly strong opponent.
Maybe she was moved by my character, because Raon PD’s hand overlapped mine on the shoulder I was patting.
"Huh?"
And it was very strong.
"Lee Sion···."
"Wait—PD, could you loosen your grip a little—"
From Raon PD’s hand, which didn’t budge at all no matter how I tried to pull away, I could feel a vivid anger.
"You did really well not using the corporate card."
"R-right?"
"But that doesn’t an you didn’t trick ."
"···."
The last thing I saw was Raon PD’s right arm shooting high up into the sky.
***
"Protect the artist’s human rights!"
"Shut up, Lee Sion!"
"Boo!!! Step down, violent producer!"
In the back seat of the car, Raon let out a laugh because it was so ridiculous as she watched Lee Sion hurl fierce accusations at her.
-Kyeeeek!!! Save !
-Seriously! Because! Of! You!
After realizing everything had been Lee Sion’s plot to lure her to Connecticut, Raon couldn’t help smacking Lee Sion on the back.
You little brat, listen for once!
Was this what Raon’s mother had felt when Raon didn’t study and only went around dancing and singing, smacking her on the back?
Truly, she could only respect Madam Sukja, who had raised Lee Sion for nineteen years—no, Lee Sion’s mother.
To put up with a troublemaker like that for nineteen years was an achievent worthy of being compared to the Virgin Mary.
Even now, the mont Lee Sion got a little distance from Raon, she started yelling about being against violence and scratching at Raon’s temper.
‘I can’t believe I lost my composure.’
Raon almost wanted to pay respect to Lee Sion for breaking the calmness she’d trained through countless years of entertainnt industry experience.
"Because of you, Lee Sion, I got hit too."
"That’s what being a leader is like."
"Ugh···."
And Seo Ryujin, who not only failed to stop Lee Sion but even went along with it, couldn’t escape Raon’s palm either.
-If you start acting like Sion too, Iam is going to be in trouble!
-Aaah! I’m sorry! But honestly, the ones who tried to trick us first were the content team! Aah!! Cancel that!
Starting with Kurosawa Yuri, who was originally the sa type as Lee Sion, Geum Shinyu, who was Lee Sion’s zealot.
Im Yunkyung, who was still holding back but already showed signs of being a young Lee Sion.
And Ryu Ayeon, who in so ways gave off even more madness than Lee Sion.
Up until now, Seo Ryujin and Lee Gahyeon had been acting as Lee Sion’s limiter, but as Raon watched the two of them gradually getting stained by Lee Sion, she beca afraid of the future.
A future where all seven Iam mbers had beco Lee Sion-fied.
Just imagining it was terrifying.
"Anyway, today’s schedule ends here, so when you get back to the lodging, don’t do anything else, rest up, and go to bed early."
"Why? What’s tomorrow? We’re flying back tomorrow evening, aren’t we?"
Anyway, they got good content, and there was no accident of unauthorized corporate card use, so today’s schedule had turned out fine, but that didn’t an everything about this New York trip was over.
There was still an important schedule left for Iam.
"Tomorrow, you’re doing a guerrilla performance in Central Park."
"A guerrilla performance?"
"We ca all the way to Arica, it’d be a sha to just go back, wouldn’t it?"
Because they still had a guerrilla performance left.
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