Chapter 64 |
“You, are you injured?”
Lee Hwayoung, who always walked with his back straight, was now walking very cautiously, as if he were uncomfortable. His unusual gait was enough to make me feel a sense of discomfort, and without hesitation, I stood up and grabbed him.
At that, Lee Hwayoung furrowed his brows and hunched his shoulders, as if he felt pain from even the slightest movement.
“Is it your back?”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”
With a blunt voice, Lee Hwayoung pulled away the hand that was holding him. I was momentarily angry at that rude attitude and behavior, then reason shouted at me as if urging me to be patient. I should be grateful that this brat didn’t end it with his rude “Mind your own business“. Let’s just forgive him since he’s sick. But seriously, this kid didn’t have any manners.
While I was still trying to calm the anger that was still churning within me, Lee Hwayoung grabbed his waist and let out a deep breath, as if another pain had come. I wasn’t exactly worried about him, but I was a little concerned, so I opened my mouth again.
“It seems like you’re in a lot of pain. Have you gone to the hospital?”
“It’s fine. I don’t need it.”
“If you give me one more answer that doesn’t relate to my question, I’m going to call an ambulance right away, without considering your will. So, do as your please. I’m someone who values time like gold, so I don’t want to waste it arguing with you like this.”
A dingdong warning rang in my head, showing that my tiny patience had reached its limit.
If this little brat answers my question with nonsense one more time, I will rush out the room without hesitation and call the production team.
Lee Hwayoung must have grasped something about my personality since we became roommates, as he glared at me with a displeased look, not doubting my threat. I asked the same question again, not caring if he glared at me or not.
“The hospital?”
“…I didn’t go.”
Finally, I got a proper answer to my question. I clicked my tongue and asked the second question.
“It’s your lower back that hurts, right?”
“…….”
There was no answer, but I could see him lowering his head slightly.
‘If it’s the lower back, it’s going to become a serious problem. If it were the arms or legs, he could modify the choreography a bit and perform on stage with a brace, but since it’s the waist, that’s not possible.’
It was easy to guess why Lee Hwayoung kept quiet about his injury.
“Why don’t you go to the hospital?”
“If I go to the hospital, I might have to miss practice.”
‘As expected.’
It was an answer I had expected. Lee Hwayoung’s way of thinking was really similar to mine when I had just debuted, more so than with my current mindset.
‘I never imagined we would even resemble each other in this way….’
I briefly thought about just ignoring it, but it still bothered me, so I couldn’t do that. I was the type of person who needed to resolve annoying things right away.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. If I take some painkillers and rest for a bit, I’ll get better. I can get the proper treatment after the program ends.”
Lee Hwayoung glanced at my serious expression and spoke, as if making an excuse. I instantly got angry at those words and yelled loudly without thinking.
“What kind of an idiot are you?!”
As soon as I said that, Lee Hwayoung’s blue eyes widened like a startled cat’s, and he stared at me. I didn’t care if he was startled or not. I immediately started scolding this guy.
“No matter how good the treatment is, there is no such thing as a perfect cure. Treatment is just a desperate attempt to prevent things from getting worse and to maintain the current condition as much as possible. No matter how much money you pour into it, you can never go back to the body you had before the injury. The same goes for the vocal cords, waist, and legs!”
At the sound of my shouting, Woo Kangwon and Do Yuda, who had been watching the whole time, mistakenly thought there was a fight and hurriedly ran over. I crossed my arms and waited for the two of them to restrain Lee Hwayoung.
“Seungbeom-ah, calm down!”
However, contrary to my expectations, Woo Kangwon grabbed my shoulder and pulled my body away from Lee Hwayoung. His gesture was similar to subduing a mad dog.
“Ah! No, you should catch him, not me. He’s the problem, and I’m the one making sense here!”
“What’s wrong, Seungbeom-ah? Calm down and let’s talk it out. Nicholas seems really surprised.”
“Hyung, are you also picking fights with Nicholas-hyung now? Your fighting chicken spirit is killer.”
‘I won’t let them get away with this.’
No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t escape from Woo Kangwon’s grasp, so I gritted my teeth and shouted, “That guy injured his back and is refusing to go to the hospital! If you’re going to hold someone down, hold him, not me!”
“Nicholas, is that true?”
Woo Kangwon turned to look at Lee Hwayoung with a genuinely surprised expression, as if caught off guards by my words. It was only after sensing the awkward tension between them that I remembered they were on the same team.
He didn’t even get caught by his teammates, so it seemed like he had been enduring the pain during practice, pretending as if it didn’t bother him at all.
“It looks like this happened while practicing the choreography. Hyung, you’re on the same team as Lee Hwayoung, right? What’s wrong with him?”
I gave up on the idea of getting a proper answer from Lee Hwayoung, so I decided to just hear the whole story from his teammate. Woo Kangwon pondered my question for a moment, seemingly trying to remember the details, before finally speaking.
“Our team’s choreography includes a lot of acrobatic moves. I think he might have injured himself by attempting high-difficulty moves without proper basics? Still, I kept a close eye on the members until the mid-term evaluation to prevent any injuries, I never thought he would get hurt like this. Does it hurt a lot?”
“…Not really.”
‘I roughly get it now.’
As I listened to Lee Hwayoung’s prickly response, I finished my rough deduction. The fact that he was fine until yesterday, that Woo Kangwon, who had practiced with him, hadn’t noticed the injury, and that he had been trying to hide the fact from Woo Kangwon.
There was only one conclusion.
“You got hurt while practicing privately.”
“…….”
Looking at his expression, it was the right answer. Lee Hwayoung quickly turned his head, as if he’d been hit right on the mark. I mumbled as I watched his blunt and slightly anxious expression.
“You don’t need to go that far. You’re perfectly capable of doing well, and you know that too. So, why are you so anxious and pushing yourself too hard…..”
As I spoke, a memory flashed through my mind.
“Don’t be so stiff like that. Sometimes, look down.”
“If you keep looking only up like that, you will someday have your neck grabbed by those who were beneath you”
“See? I won.”
“Ah.” Without even realizing it, a foolish sound escaped from my mouth.
I was the one who made him anxious. Hehe.
Before I could slap myself on the back of the head and stick my tongue out, the mouth that had been tightly shut like an iron fortress all this time finally opened.
“…After seeing your performance during the mid-term evaluation, I realized that I need to work harder.”
It was a confirmation kill.
Yes. It’s all my fault. I only realize that now. I’m sorry.
It seemed that what had made him anxious wasn’t just the memory of the second mission that I had just recalled.
It was during the midst of the mid-term evaluation. Just before my team’s performance, I tried to offer Lee Hwayoung some advice and said something to him.
“I’ll show you what it means to do it properly. Watch carefully.”
From then on, Lee Hwayoung faithfully watched every second of me taking care of Kang Baeyoung, just as I had asked him to. Naturally, with my experience, I erased Kang Baeyoung’s presence in a way that was far superior to anything Lee Hwayoung had done so far, and achieved the desired result.
What I wanted to convey was the importance of knowing when and how to adjust your presence to suit the situation and purpose. However, the cheeky Nicholas Hwayoung Lee, instead of understanding my intention, became overly competitive upon seeing my far superior abilities and pushed himself too hard, which led to the current situation.
I didn’t even have a clue from where exactly it went wrong.
Teaching originally was something that should have been left to someone who’s experienced, but since a lone wolf like me tried to do it, it seemed like only the opposite effects ended up happening.
‘I didn’t mean for you to interpret it that way.’
Even the song that guy was assigned to wasn’t a concept that could be solved just by being so passionate. Lee Hwayoung’s strength was his vocal, but the Chic Concept song relied heavily on stable, harmonious group singing and performance, not individual vocal abilities.
As I scratched the back of my head with a subtle sense of guilt, Woo Kangwon spoke to Lee Hwayoung on my behalf.
“Based on your current symptoms and level of pain, it’s clear that you’ve definitely been injured. If you continue to overwork yourself like this, you might really regret it later. No, you will regret it. So, I hope you go to get treatment as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”
“…….”
Coming from a former athlete like Woo Kangwon, those words carried weight. It was the perfect time to nod in agreement, but Lee Hwayoung was still sitting on the bed with a stiff, hardened expression.
“No matter how much you want to participate in practice, if your health deteriorates, there’s nothing you can do. So, if you want to continue performing on stage, take good care of yourself.”
“I don’t want to hear that kind of advice from you, who returned after being out in the cold wind early in the morning while already having a fever.”
Ah, sure enough, he didn’t forget to snap back at me.
“How do you know that?”
“…….”
I was puzzled as to how he knew, since he must have been sleeping when I came back after talking with Jay. When I asked him about it, he completely shut his mouth.
‘I threatened him that I wouldn’t let it slide if he said another nonsense, and now he just shut his mouth.’
He’s coming up with all sorts of creative ways to not listen to me. I rubbed my stiff neck and said with a deep sigh.
“There are plenty of stages you need to perform on in the future, so you can’t risk damaging the back that you’ll use for the rest of your life just to film one program. So, take a good rest for now.”
“Are you telling me to give up the third mission?” Lee Hwayoung, realizing the implications of my words in a flash, asked in an aggressive tone.
“He didn’t say you should give up completely. He’s suggesting that you should drop out of the dance performance, right?!”
As the conversation got heated, Do Yuda, who had been watching nervously, quickly added something. He could tell that my annoyance was starting to rise at Lee Hwayoung’s stubbornness.
“That’s the same thing. Then I’ll have to give up my on-site evaluation score. You know that too.”
“Your ranking might go down a bit, but you won’t be eliminated. Objectively speaking, hyung, you have too many votes.”
“…….”
“If you recover well, I’ll do the fourth mission with you.”
Seeing Lee Hwayoung’s dejected face, I seized the moment and took a drastic measure. Immediately, Lee Hwayoung’s eyes sparkled, and he quickly responded.
“You have to take responsibility for those words. You’ll have to keep practicing with me until I say I’m good enough.”
“Okay.”
“….I never thought you would care about me this much.”
“Why, am I the first person to scold you? You’ve never been scolded by your parents before?”
When I mimicked a line often said to the stereotypical young masters from dramas and comics, Lee Hwayoung let out a small laugh. Watching him, I couldn’t help but chuckle as well.
There was no reason I should care this much about him, but I couldn’t help but be concerned. I wasn’t sure if it was because I couldn’t bear to watch him make the same mistakes I made in the past, or if there was another reason.
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Translator’s Corner:
If you missed the clue, yes, Nicholas was the one who took care of Seungbeom when MC collapsed after meeting Jay few chapters ago (the one that MC mistakenly thought it was Kangwon)
Anyway I’m done for today, I’ll go look for things to eat now