Chapter 38 |
In the hushed silence of the car, no one felt inclined to speak.
One person was watching the situation, and the other was mentally drawing the “patience” character for the eighteen times.
When the silence dragged on for a while, and I grew tired of the miserable sound of the heater, I spoke up.
“Try it, explain.”
Jay flinched in surprise at the short remark.
Like a child instinctively preparing to be scolded.
“Ah, that… I’m sorry. I didn’t know that he was not just someone from the same agency, but someone that hyung cares about.”
“You didn’t know?”
“….I didn’t say anything. The other trainers did.”
They were all excuses. I wanted a convincing explanation, but there was none.
Every time I asked a follow-up question, that guy’s body crumpled up, as if he was about to crawl into a mouse hole. Then, as if searching for a way to escape the situation, he started blinking his eyes at an abnormal speed.
I grabbed Jay by the back of his head and roughly turned his face towards me.
“Don’t even think of racking your brain in front of me. I can see everything.”
“Yes…..”
Jay, who was completely exposed to my murderous gaze, tried to avert his gaze and turned away from me.
“There’s no way someone like you wouldn’t have noticed. You’re quick-witted enough to even suspect my identity, hmm?”
“…….”
When I later looked at the part assigned to Do Yuda, it was a complete mess.
Despite having the same number of people with the original singers, they completely changed the parts distributed according to each position to their own liking. They gave all the high notes to Do Yuda and took away the parts that seemed easier to sing.
There was no way Jay didn’t notice this.
“They made a song that’s already hard for the main vocalist even harder, and on top of that, they didn’t even use any AR, just MR, and you didn’t say anything? Don’t piss me off.”
“Up until the mid-term evaluation, the parts weren’t like that. They suddenly changed it among themselves. I was surprised too when I came to the rehearsal day and saw that it had suddenly changed. Tomorrow is the performance, so I can’t tell them to change the parts now.”
“You have to point it out. That way, you’ll know what the hell happened that led to this mess. You just assumed it was Do Yuda’s greed and that’s it?”
“I’m not the one who said that…..”
“You said you didn’t say anything. What is that if not being a bystander?”
As soon as I cut off his excuses, he pouted. He was probably thinking he had his own reasons for it.
“Hyung, sometimes it’s necessary to develop the ability to decline on your own. Part distribution is something that will continue even after debuting, and it’s clear that the kid is also at fault for not clearly expressing his opinion.”
“You little brat, you, you! When you’re in Prism, you didn’t want to lose the parts to your hyungs. Huh? When is it when you come to me crying so hard!”
I immediately yelled at him for his excuse. Seeing him talk back like that without remembering the time when he was young and inexperienced, it seemed to me that he still hadn’t come to his senses.
“I’ve never done that?”
“…….”
“I won’t talk back. I understand.”
When I glared at him with all sorts of insults, he finally came to his senses.
I couldn’t tell if he’s being clueless or just playing dumb. Was he on my side or my enemy?
“A bunch of 20 and 21-year-olds are ganging up on a 19-year-old, and you’re just watching it? The adults around them who didn’t stop this situation are definitely responsible as well. And you’re no exception.”
“Aren’t they all pretty much around the same age if they’re 20, 21, and 19 years old?”
“…….”
‘Why does talking to this brat always make me so angry?’
In an atmosphere that was close to bullying, Do Yuda probably didn’t have the space to clearly express his opinion. What would the trainers, who only come a few times a week to give brief feedback, know? But seeing him say such thoughtless things made me feel like my insides were about to explode.
“But hyung, is there anyone in that team who sings well, other than Do Yuda? I think it’s better the way it is now.”
“Be quiet.”
I held my throbbing head and calculated the situation for a while.
‘I can’t change the parts drastically now. As Jay said, the members of Do Yuda’s team are terrible at singing.’
I had to boldly give up my obsession with the best option. If I wanted that, I should have interfered from the very beginning. What I had to do now was not to stick to idealism, but to find a way to make the best adjustments that could yield optimal efficiency in the short period of just one day.
I finally found a decent main vocalist and was planning to take him with me, but what the heck is all this trouble?
‘Who was the one with the best basic skills among Do Yuda’s team members? I should catch him and rob…..’
“Hmm, hmm, mmhm.”
Once I cleared my head of the deep worries I had been dwelling on,
When I lifted my head after organizing the deep thoughts I was lost, I finally heard other sounds. This kid was humming a tune while I was grinding my head.
‘This brat, his mood is going up and down again.’
I felt like crap, but there was no time to point it out. I slapped him on the back and grabbed his ear.
“Ouch!”
Without showing any signs of surprise, Jay, who had been hit, grinned and leaned in closer. I began to quietly tell him the things I wanted him to do.
“First, catch the leader over there … I’ll take over from the middle…..”
“Yes. Got it … okay. I understand.”
Jay, who nodded as I gave each instruction, gave me a thumbs-up sign of understanding.
“If you understand everything, run. Don’t act like a kid.”
“I will obey your command.”
Jay exaggeratedly bowed, smiled politely, and then started running like a dog.
There were only 2 minutes left of break time, so he had no choice.
***
After Jay returned, rehearsals and feedback for all the teams were conducted, followed by a second round of feedback on Do Yuda’s team’s rehearsal.
“I usually try not to say much because I don’t want to make the trainees feel discouraged, but I think I need to address this.” Jay, looking genuinely troubled, briefly pinched the space between his eyebrows with his fingers and skillfully set the mood.
In the first rehearsal, Jay had been silent the entire time, so when he suddenly grabbed the microphone, the trainees on stage exchanged confused glances.
“Why was the part distribution done this way? It’s too much to simply assume this is because Trainee Do Yuda’s greed. One person shouldn’t have to carry this much burden.”
The leader, who was also the ringleader of the main group who had been harassing Do Yuda, grabbed the microphone with a gentle smile in response to Jay’s sharp question.
“Because we believe everyone has different strengths. Some trainees are good at hitting high notes, some are good at showing off their charm, and others excel at dancing. I believed that in order to present a great performance, the best choice was to assign each person the part they can do best, and the current distribution is the result of that.”
Hearing him speak those seemingly convincing words without hesitation, it seemed like he was someone who knew how to talk his way out of things.
‘There’s another fox cub here…….’
It was really unpleasant to see him chattering nonstop, like a fish that had found water1.
“Trainee Do Yuda did take on a lot of parts. However, due to the nature of the main vocal position, it was unavoidable, and I understand that the original artist, Yuseong-sunbaenim from Prism, handled even more parts. We arranged it with consideration for Trainee Do Yuda, but is there any part that the trainer finds unsatisfactory?”
From the way he was speaking, it seemed like he was skillfully presenting a logically coherent argument, weaving a clever distortion of the truth, and appearing to be adept at steering the situation in his favor.
‘The reason there’s so much talk is because it wouldn’t be believable if you didn’t explain it in such detail.’
Do Yuda was foolish, but he wasn’t the kind of idiot who would passively let someone take his own share.
I started to think that the main reason the situation had worsened to this point was probably that bastard’s fault.
“The main vocalist part was originally a lot more … isn’t it fair to say that it’s been distributed more evenly than the original artist?” One of the dance trainers muttered.
It was proof that there were already people who had fallen for his political tactics.
However.
“Trainee Song Hanseo seems so at ease. He’s also very good at talking … even though he’s still a trainee, he already acts like an idol with five or six years of experience.”
“My skills may be lacking, but I think I was able to appear that way because I worked hard. Thank you for the compliment, Trainer Jay.”
“Haha, that’s not a compliment.”
If that side has a fox cub, then this side has a fox cub with nine tails.
Jay, who had instantly understood the other person’s true nature, smirked with a glint in his eyes.
“Yes?”
“I’m saying that even I, who’s been on stage for over 10 years, get out of breath when I sing this song. But why can Trainee Song Hanseo sing it without even gasping for breath? That’s not a compliment. Compliments are for when you do something well.”
The atmosphere among the trainees sank into silence at Jay’s words, who rarely gave criticism.
“Ah … I see what you mean. Hmm. Ah, I’m sorry. I think I misunderstood for a moment. I’ll think about that part a bit more. Uh … it’s something I hadn’t considered. Thank you for helping me improve.” Song Hanseo, calmly lifting the corners of his mouth, kept talking nonstop.
In fact, it was nothing more than repeating his usual actions to pretend to be calm, rather than actually not being flustered. However, Jay neatly ignored that and continued speaking his mind.
“It’s a song that should leave you out of breath and sweating, but the members here look perfectly fine. If there are people who seem fine, then obviously there must be someone who’s carrying that difficult load. And I can clearly see who that person is.”
“.…Trainee Do Yuda didn’t express any objection. It was something agreed upon by the trainees, so it’s a bit puzzling when you make it sound like we forced it on him.”
Song Hanseo immediately got defensive, perhaps feeling exposed as Jay had seen right through him. Seeing his inner thoughts revealed so quickly made it clear that he was still quite young.
‘How stupid…..’
Jay still didn’t mention which trainee was shouldering the burden.
Despite that, if Do Yuda’s name came out of his mouth first, it would be like admitting that he knew about Do Yuda’s struggles all along but pretend to be oblivious.
“If you were having such a hard time because of us, you should’ve told us, Yuda-ya. People will think we’re the bad guys if you do this.”
“It’s not that…….”
There was a hint of irritation in the words he spat at Do Yuda under his smiling face.
Do Yuda seemed flustered by the situation itself and could not properly respond to Song Hanseo’s words.
“I believe there may have been a misunderstanding on the trainer’s part, as you may not be fully informed of what’s happening among the trainees.”
Jay, who had watched the entire scene, let out a sigh and exchanged glances with the surrounding trainers, chuckling softly. Then, he shook his head.
‘He’s really stubborn, isn’t he?‘, this kind of nuance was conveyed.
The conversation hadn’t properly concluded yet. With no decision on who was in the right, Jay’s reaction caused Song Hanseo’s argument to be dismissed as mere stubbornness in an instant.
The rest of the trainers simply watched Jay’s expression and let out faint laughs, like office workers who synchronized their laughter with the boss’s.
And then, just in time, I walked in.
Jay called out to me, who was obviously just a passerby.
“Ah, Trainee Han Seungbeom.”
“Yes.”
“Can you come over here for a second? I have something to ask you.”
I tilted my head for a moment, as if I had encountered an unexpected situation, and then went up towards the stage. And I was handed a microphone by the staff who had adjusted the camera angle.
“What do you think? Since you’re close with Trainee Do Yuda, you must have known something about the atmosphere of this team.”
“…….”
Jay, smiling brightly, asked kindly in a tone that encouraged me to speak freely. As if he were talking to an ordinary trainee.
I nodded in response, and opened my mouth to speak.
“Please understand that, as someone who cares for Do Yuda, my words may lack objectivity.”
There is no objectivity, but you will listen to what I have to say.
Let’s attack.
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Translator’s Corner:
- like a fish that found water (물 만난 고기처럼): someone on their own element. because you know, fish lives in water. ↩︎
I just know MC is proud as hell watching Jay…….