Chapter 58 |
The trainees and even the production staff couldn’t hide their bewilderment at Lee Hwayoung’s sudden visit. Lee Hwayoung stood in front of the door for a long time even though he knew that the number of people assigned to my song was already full.
In the end, I brought him to the practice room where there was a vacant spot, and only then did I return to my place. What else was I supposed to do? The filming couldn’t continue because of him.
It was pitiful that he went through the trouble of coming all the way to the practice room where I was, but there was nothing I could do. This was how the broadcasting system worked, and I couldn’t change it.
After Lee Hwayoung completely drained me of my energy, the part distribution that followed was absolutely terrible.
As he had mentioned and the members had expected, it was indeed equal. The only issue was that he excluded himself from that equality.
‘We each got an equally tiny part.’
With a bit of exaggeration, 40% of the parts went to Kang Baeyoung, while the rest of the members had to split what was left after excluding both Kang Baeyoung’s share and the high notes.
Of course, all the high notes part went to Do Yuda, and as someone who had completely fallen out of favor, I ended up with the smallest part.
But it was fine. I was confident I could take responsibility for my actions. I was also confident I could resolve it.
“…….”
However, I wasn’t confident that I had enough patience to endure this situation where the person who annoyed me the most would chase me around and open his mouth nonstop. Resisting the urge to hit him just once, an urge I suppressed hundreds of times, I clenched my teeth and stared at the ceiling.
‘Ah, this bastard is really pissing me off.’
Ever since I wake up this morning, that guy had been following me around without a single break, chattering nonstop. He followed me to the dorm, the dining hall, and even the bathroom, constantly trying to talk to me.
“No matter how the parts are distributed, I’ll be blamed anyway. If that’s the case, I should just look out for my own share. I have no ill feelings, I just made a rational decision.”
This guy should’ve just left after the part distribution was over, but why does he keep hanging around me and justifying himself? It’s always those who have never been hurt to the point of death by others who say things like that.
“I’m actually a very scary person when I get angry.”
I shoved the toothbrush with toothpaste into my mouth, desperately ignoring him. Ignoring was the correct answer. After watching me being chased around since this morning, Do Yuda twirled his index finger next to his ear.
It meant “Is that guy crazy?“.
Kang Baeyoung didn’t seem to notice Do Yuda’s signal, and he didn’t stop talking.
“Unfortunately, I’m not stupid. I might have a bit of a lack of empathy, though.”
“…….”
Yes, yes, you’re a selfish and cold-hearted psychopath bastard who’s willing to sacrifice others for your own benefit. Even though everyone thinks negatively of you, you carry on bravely. Since all of your friends, acquaintances, and family are as greedy and stupid as you, they’ll be very proud of your actions.
“Baeyoung-hyung, aren’t you busy planning the formation and learning the choreography right now? Is it okay for you to just follow Seungbeom-hyung around like this?”
Perhaps unable to stand it any longer, Do Yuda slipped between Kang Baeyoung and me to create some space. At that, Kang Baeyoung stopped as if he had been hit where it hurt and stared at me intently. Then, he smiled brightly and said,
“I don’t know how to learn the choreography. Since Seungbeom is good at dancing, can you help me?”
“…….”
In the end, that was his real purpose.
This bastard couldn’t learn the choreography he was supposed to teach the members on his own, so he came to me to solve this problem. His useless self-defense seemed to be a way of preventing me, who had been given a tiny part, from holding a grudge and refusing the request.
For just such a trivial thing, I had to suffer for several hours until my ears bled. I just wanted to knock this bastard out and escape this Lucky Center.
I had never been to college, but it felt like I was experiencing the horror of group projects that I had seen floating around on the internet.
It was strange. I had already gone through countless situations where I had to grab the team by the collar and drag them along, but this situation felt particularly shitty.
“How much of the choreography have you learned?”
After barely managing to control my rising anger, I casually asked as I rinsed my mouth. It was also to check on the progress.
“Where would I have time to learn it? I was busy chasing after you the whole time.”
“…….”
Kang Baeyoung replied, tilting his head as if to say ‘what are you talking about?‘. I wanted to grab his neck tightly as it was exposed by his movement, but I held back for now.
“…Stop chasing me around and learn the choreography.”
“I was going to ask you for help.”
I used to hear that you could only understand someone’s feelings if you’ve been in their shoes. I had finally come to realize that’s true.
‘Ah, so disasters happen not when assignments are tough, but when the people are terrible.’
“Hyung, don’t kill the faucet! The faucet is innocent!”
Anger surged within me, and as I gripped the faucet tightly, Do Yuda gasped in shock and quickly pulled my hand away. The faucet, finally freed from my grasp, made a pitiful sound and stopped the flow of water.
“Ha…..”
Thinking about it, I realized I was really a lucky guy.
In the first mission, I was paired with chicks who only listened to me, and in the second mission, I met a bunch of big, gullible fools, which allowed me to bring out the best performance.
It wasn’t just a matter of my efforts. It was possible because I was incredibly lucky to be assigned human-like members.
I must have used up all the luck that was given to me. That’s why the whole situation with Cha Won got exposed, and I ended up with such shitty teammates.
“Seung, Seungbeom-ah?”
Seeing me let out a deep breath, Kang Baeyoung nervously fidgeted with his fingers.
He knew it too. How ridiculous his current actions were. But since he didn’t have the ability to fulfill the responsibility of being the leader that was in his hands, he pretended not to notice on purpose.
‘I really want to punch him.’
The realization pissed me off even more. I sighed and accepted his request. This was what I wanted anyway.
Kang Baeyoung will regret giving me full responsibility for the dance-related parts.
“I was going to do it from the beginning, so just go.”
“Really? No turning back!”
“Go, leave. Please.”
“I’ll be off then! Thank you!”
As irritation began to seep into my voice, Kang Baeyoung ran off without looking back, shouting. After watching his retreating figure, Do Yuda handed me a paper towel and cautiously opened his mouth.
“…Aren’t you losing out too much, hyung? You kind of look like a pushover.”
“What?”
“It’s like this. Hyung, you ended up taking on almost all the responsibility for preparing the performance, and the only thing that guy does is line up the members.”
“Because that’s all he’s capable of.”
Rather than leaving the performance to Kang Baeyoung, I’d rather entrust it to any random dog passing by. Honestly, it was a relief that all he had to do was line people up.
‘It’s better this way than having him think he’s so great and acting cocky.’
Kang Baeyoung was incompetent, and all the members already knew that he could never be a good leader. Taking the actual leader position from him was something I could do even with my eyes closed.
“Your part is really so small, as small as a mouse’s tail. Hyung, you’ve never had such a small part, right? It’s not like you’re a vase for decoration, so I don’t understand why he’d just have someone like you standing at the back. To be honest, I don’t like how he gave you such a small part just for show.”
“…….”
As I remained silent and listened without saying anything, Do Yuda lifted his head and asked, looking worried.
“Hyung, are you really going to just leave him alone like this? That’s not like you.”
“What if I don’t?”
“I knew hyung wouldn’t just stay still. I mean, that’s your specialty, hyung. Crushing people’s mental state and using their weaknesses to blackmail them. This time, kick his butt and demand your part! How about doing it in that way?”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at Do Yuda’s half-joking remarks. Do Yuda raised the corners of his eyebrows that had been drooping all along after coaxing a smile out of me.
“Still, I ended up taking on all the high notes parts, but hyung couldn’t do that. That’s what I’m worried about.”
“Don’t worry. You know well that I wouldn’t just leave it like that.”
“That’s a relief then … Hyung, so are you going to learn the choreography starting now?”
“No. I watched the choreography video yesterday, so I’m already done memorizing it.”
“It’s so frustrating dealing with people who are naturally talented. I told you to rest, but you really don’t listen. So what are you going to do now? It seemed like Kang Baeyoung-hyung didn’t realize that you were already done preparing.”
When Do Yuda heard that I’d already learned the dance, he let out an exaggerated groan and then asked another question. I smirked and, as if it had already been agreed upon, answered shamelessly.
“I’m going to have a private practice with you.”
“What? I never made such a promise? What do you mean by that!”
Seeing the color drain from Do Yuda’s face, I smiled even more brightly.
“What I mean is, this is not the time for you to be worrying about me.”
“…What are you up to now? Did I do something wrong?”
Non-negotiable. I grabbed Do Yuda’s hood and dragged him into the practice room. Hearing his screams made me feel like some of the stress I’d been building up was melting away.
***
Several days had passed since the practice had started in earnest. Today, we finished all the choreography up to the final formation, and the mid-term evaluation with the trainers was scheduled for tomorrow.
“Let’s wrap this up.”
I operated the tablet and turned off the song that was playing through the speakers. I had met Do Yuda late at night for a final check, but there was nothing else to do because his condition was better than I expected. Then, Do Yuda mumbled and mentioned something.
“Actually, I’m scared. They said the composers are coming too. What if they don’t like it and refuse to give the song to us?”
“Ah.”
I froze in place when I heard those words.
I parted ways with Jay like that, and Cha Woon was in such a mess, so how could I shamelessly face those two? I suddenly got a splitting headache.
‘Surely they’re not going to fight, right?’
I had a bad feeling about this. Jay and Cha Woon were arch-enemies who would fight whenever they saw each other, and now that my relationship with Cha Woon had been revealed, I couldn’t even dare to imagine in what direction their relationship would escalate.
I suppressed my agitated heart and replied calmly.
“It’ll be fine. Even if we’re just lying down there, they still have to give us the song. That’s what contractual responsibility means.”
“Did our private practice mean anything? To be honest, since the center, that hyung, isn’t good, everything else seems not good too. I still don’t understand why you’re really looking forward to the trainer’s mid-term evaluation, hyung.”
“Of course. There’s nothing I do that is meaningless.”
“…It seems like you’re expecting something.”
“The trainers are sitting in those positions because they deserve it. No matter how much the public belittles idols, that’s an unchanging fact. In front of those people, all you have to do is show them how undeserved that position is, the one Kang Baeyoung forcefully took.”
After listening to my explanation, Do Yuda thought for a moment, then gasped in shock.
“Don’t tell me, everything you had me practice was…..”
He would regret giving me the actual leader role and and putting me in charge of planning our formation. The part and position distribution had already been completed, and Kang Baeyoung had lost the power to control the members, so the outcome was predictable.
I quietly spoke to Do Yuda, who was standing still as if at a loss for words.
“I told you, there’s nothing I do that is meaningless.”
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Translator’s Corner:
omg the part where MC mentioning college group project, I suddenly realized why I’m so distressed over the last chapter, I’VE BEEEEN THEREEEE
You know in academic setting like school and college, the smartest student usually took the leader role in the group project. That’s me. I’m the smartest. I was always be the leader in group project (I graduated as the valedictorian this month so I’m confident to say all my group projects always received nothing less than A) BUT there was this one time when they gave mandatory long-period group project with members consisted of people from different departements. So ofc we’re strangers to each other. At that time we chose someone who was the only senior among us (the rest of us were of the same year), but it turned out to be the worst mistake of my life??? Not only his leadership skill was zero and he was terrible at his job, but when we had weekly evaluation and another member (A very cool law student who’s the member of student organization) pointed out his mistakes, HE GOT OFFENDED. Then he literally abusing his authority as team leader to ostracize the member who pointed him and the members who agreed with that member. I refused to join their bullying attempt so I got osctracized too DFJKKFDHFDHJK
Thinking back about it, even though I took the leader position in group project a lot, I have mentality similiar to Do Yuda lol I didn’t even tell anyone that I was having a hard time back then because my close friends are scary scary and they will definitely cause a mess if they know. One team lived in the same house since it’s a grand-scale project, and I was scared I would get hit if I didn’t just keep quiet lol The leader was your typical angry men who cursed often and punching the walls when he got angry about something.
omg it happened two years ago but remembering it again, I’m still scared. This is why you shouldn’t be mean to others, guys … it might be just a moment of anger to you, but for others, they will remember it and curse you out for the rest of their life lol i hope all those bullies got dumped
omg I just relized another reason why I (emotionally) adore the MC so so much, normal people likes me want to have someone like him in my life too. I won’t accept if there’s anyone criticizing him