Chapter 393 |
Side Story (10)
Beep!
“Pantheion Team’s Baek Kiryang, out!”
“Ghk, huff … this is way too hard…….”
After Nagi Zen and Do Yuda were eliminated in such a ridiculous way, Pantheion, now at a numbers disadvantage, began to get dangerously cornered. As for Baek Kiryang … well, it was probably an inevitable outcome. He was taken out after getting hit by a Hellfire Ball from the Rookie Development Team’s assistant manager, whose eyes were completely set on a trip to Hawaii.
“Kiryang-hyung! Catch the ball!”
“Hwuh!”
Thud!
The ball that Lee Danbi had passed with great effort smacked into the startled Baek Kiryang’s torso and dropped to the floor with a dull thump.
The beauty of dodgeball is that even eliminated players can go out to the outfield and keep attacking, but watching Baek Kiryang made even that seem meaningless. Surely, God had given him a gift for the piano and skipped over athletic ability entirely.
‘God really is fair.‘
I was watching the stadium, now in utter chaos, with indifference when I sensed something was off. As I reflexively went on guard, shock spread across the faces of everyone in the stadium.
“Ahhh!”
A misthrown ball came flying at an incredible speed toward the ridiculously expensive camera beside me.
Whoosh!
When I calmly reached out and snatched the ball out of the air, the stadium exploded with sound.
“What the, how did he block that?!”
“If that camera had broken, it would’ve been a major incident. That thing is seriously expensive.”
“I honestly can’t tell sometimes whether that hyung is even human or some kind of wild animal…….”
“Let’s not mess with Yutae-hyung. Not unless you want to get seriously hit.”
The reaction was even hotter than when a brilliant play occurs in any given game. Not wanting attention to drift away from the game, I immediately threw the ball to the team that had possession.
“Stop talking nonsense and focus on the game.”
Leaving the dumbfounded onlookers behind, I strode toward the judges’ seats. Then I started needling Choi Jeokhyeon, who was sitting in his chair.
“You owe me one, you know? I protected your wallet, so buy me a meal.”
Choi Jeokhyeon stared at me for a moment, then broke into a bright smile and replied, “You can break that as much as you want. It wouldn’t be an issue.”
“…Oh. Is that so.”
This bastard was being especially annoying today.
As I was twitching my eyebrow at the thought, he went and ran his damn mouth again.
“You don’t have to put on a show. I’ll buy you a meal anytime. Is there something in particular you’re craving?”
“Tsk, forget it. I was just saying it, but apparently I can’t even make a joke anymore. I’ll just stand here and keep an eye on Choi Jeokhyeon. Our CEO Choi’s wallet can take a hit without feeling a thing, but if his face gets hit, he might pass out.”
“Yeah, I’m weak, so stay by my side and protect me.”
Ah…….
He doesn’t lose a single exchange.
Wait, no? Technically, he lost.
But it wasn’t that I won. He let himself lose, and that pissed me off to no end.
“Huuu…….”
I clenched my fist and looked up at the sky.
I need to breathe. Breathe.
How could I ever forget the disgrace of getting diagnosed with Hwabyeong1 while filming a health checkup video for the Prism YouTube channel?
“This is a severe case of hwabyeong.” “Ha, hwabyeong ? Do you have any idea how much I hold myself back? I don’t get angry unless someone provokes me. It’s just that people keep picking fights with me, so…….” “Please calm down for now, sir.”
[Shocking. Legendary idol Seo Yutae diagnosed with hwabyeong on Prism’s reality show.]
[No, Yutae-ya, it’s really a blessing that you’re physically healthy, but hwabyeong?]
[I’ve never seen an idol get diagnosed with hwabyeong before LOLOL and they’re really just airing everything. The guts of a veteran idol are insane]
[ha ha ha ㅜㅜ Yutae-ya……]
[Confession time: I’m kind of worried he might collapse someday when I see how angry Yutae gets usually]
After that, articles with bizarre, easily misleading headlines sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and I got endlessly teased by Seras.
[Let’s just accept the expert’s diagnosis without complaint]
[Seo Yutae is denying reality lol]
Since I couldn’t trust that doctor, I had to personally dispel the suspicion of hwabyeong through my everyday behavior.
Just as I was making that resolution, Lee Hwayoung, who never moved his body nimbly and always walked around at a leisurely pace, was hit squarely by a weakly thrown ball from a rookie on the video editing team.
Pik, thud, thud, thud, thud……
Because it had been thrown with so little force, the ball made a feeble sound as it fell to the ground, and the Prism members inside the tent burst into a roar of laughter and shouted.
“Baby, you’ve got to try harder to dodge! I’ve never seen someone play dodgeball like that before.”
“Do you even want to dodge?”
At the sight of them calling Lee Hwayoung ‘baby’, Han Seungbeom’s face went pale, as if he’d seen a ghost.
It was for good reason; to the Pantheion members, Lee Hwayoung was known as prickly and quick to sulk, the very epitome of a nightmare.
“Ah, ahh …… you can’t call him that!”
“Come on, how scary could he really be even if he gets mad? There, there, our Seungbeom is fine, it’s okay. The uncles will protect you~!”
But honestly, the Prism members probably saw Lee Hwayoung as nothing more than a baby kitten with its claws out. That was why they didn’t call him by his name, instead using things like “baby”, “kid”, or “cutie”.
He wasn’t some cheesy drama protagonist, so why were they using such embarrassingly sweet nicknames for a burly man over 180 centimeters tall? To explain that, I’d have to go back to the time when the so-called ‘legendary photo‘ was born; the one that captured me kissing Lee Hwayoung on the cheek on a concert stage.
Back then, I took Lee Hwayoung, who refused to stay in Choi Jeokhyeon’s arms, along to Prism’s various schedules. Because of that, it was inevitable that the amount of time Lee Hwayoung spent with the Prism members increased.
“What the … hyung, you have a child? This is kind of shocking … you caused this kind of trouble behind our backs…….”
“Are you out of your mind? He’s Choi Jeokhyeon’s nephew. Something a bit dangerous happened in the UK, so he’s living in Korea for a while.”
“Whoa, that guy actually has a nephew? I thought he just dropped out of the sky fully grown with no blood relatives whatsoever.”
“Stop bullshitting. He’s not Bak Hyeokgeose.”2
“Honestly, you laughed at that too, hyung. Admit it? Huh? Your mouth corners look like they’re creeping up.” “…I didn’t laugh.”
When I first brought Lee Hwayoung along, the Prism members’ reaction was absolute chaos. They made such a ruckus that the manager rushed over, flustered, trying to calm us down while repeatedly glancing toward the other waiting rooms.
Why did it even matter if people from other waiting rooms peeked in … well, maybe he was worried some tabloid rumor would spread, claiming Seo Yutae had a secret son hidden away. From my perspective, it was utterly absurd, but apparently, others didn’t see it that way.
“They don’t even look that much alike. He’s the spitting image of his mom. You guys know what Camilla looks like, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true, but … It’s like the hardware is Camilla, but the software is totally you, hyung. That grumpy expression is exactly like yours. I mean, look at him. Is that a face a kid his age should even be making? His face is literally saying, ‘So what?’”
“So what.”
Apparently, everyone thought he was a secret child I’d had from some reckless fling somewhere. They knew perfectly well that I only went back and forth between the practice room, schedules, and the dorm, so I have no idea why they’d even imagine he was my son.
‘Though I’m not really in a position to talk, considering I once thought Camilla was Choi Jeokhyeon’s wife.’
Even knowing that I wasn’t the kind of person to do something so reckless, they’d seen me constantly carrying around a kid who had my exact vibe, with no parents in sight. I guess it was inevitable that their minds jumped to that conclusion.
“Wow, it’s a baby! He’s blond.”
“He’s really so small and pretty. Can he speak Korean? Try it. Say, hyung. Hyung.”
“Aren’t you way too old to be his hyung? You’re a Samchon. Samchon.”
Anyway, the Prism members were thrilled by the rare novelty of ‘the baby Seo Yutae brought along’ and eagerly tried to play with Lee Hwayoung. Because of that, Lee Hwayoung spent his time in Korea surrounded by the attention and affection of every single Prism member.
In short, whenever those members of Prism saw Lee Hwayoung, they completely lost their minds over how cute he was.
‘Jay has this slightly unsettling vibe, so he probably just plays along when the other members are around ……. and Seo Yuseong doesn’t seem to think much of it either.’
Anyway, with the exception of those two, the rest were noisily fussing over him, so he glared at the Prism members with the kind of expression a teenage boy makes when he’s annoyed by overbearing parents.
“…Sunbaenims.”
But to the Prism guys, even Lee Hwayoung getting irritated was nothing but adorable, and they just clutched their stomachs laughing among themselves.
“He’s mad, he’s mad! Are you not going to call us ‘samchon’ anymore now?”
“Ahaha, okay, okay, stop teasing him. He’s annoyed.”
“Baby, don’t get mad. It’s because you’re so cute.”
“…Stop it already!”
Thud!
“Lee Danbi, out!”
While Lee Hwayoung was distracted and fuming over the Prism members’ teasing, Lee Danbi got hit by the ball and was eliminated. At last, the crucial moment arrived with only one person left on each team.
The staff team was still in decent shape, since they had sent out someone with a fairly solid build as their representative. Pantheion Team, however, was in a precarious position, as the one left standing was Han Seungbeom, whose stamina had been weak from the start.
“Seungbeom-ah, don’t push yourself trying to catch the ball!”
“I never planned to catch it even once!”
“I see! Fighting!”
Han Seungbeom, who had been under Lee Danbi’s protection the whole time and hadn’t had to exert himself much, was already losing steam and started panting heavily.
‘It’s no good for a kid to be that feeble and shaky.’
At that, Do Yuda, who had been reading the room, suddenly made a pitiful, whimpering puppy-like expression and looked at Jo Inchan. Jo Inchan, who had been planning to let it pass without affecting the flow of the game too much, broke out in a nervous sweat.
“……”
“……”
Do Yuda didn’t say a single word.
But his face was clearly saying, ‘You’ll win this for us, right?‘
‘It’s a lost cause.’
In the end, unable to withstand the pressure, Jo Inchan squeezed his eyes shut and threw the ball, which flew at a crazily fast speed and slammed into the staff team player’s foot.
Beep! Beep!
“Pantheion wins! By securing this last point, Pantheion has maintained their lead to the very end, and without any additional matches, the YT Entertainment Field Day ends with Pantheion as the champions!”
In the end, Jo Inchan, who had delivered victory into Pantheion’s hands, looked at me with hollow eyes from among the yappy puppies wagging their tails excitedly. His face was full of self-reproach, as if asking, ‘Did I really do the right thing by doing this?’
“Kyaaa! We won!”
In response, I shook my head as if to tell him to give up, then stood up and gathered the participants in one place. Picking up the microphone, I seamlessly rattled off the closing remarks for the outing.
“Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to join this outing. You all worked very hard today. I’d especially like to thank our staff team for their cooperation during the filming. Additional pay will be provided for today’s work, so we ask for your generous understanding.”
When it comes to workplace stress, nothing beats financial therapy.
Of course, it’s not me paying. It’s Choi Jeokhyeon.
‘I haven’t actually gotten permission yet, but I’m just going to do whatever I want anyway.’
Just as I expected, Choi Jeokhyeon didn’t even flinch; he just stood there smiling. Clicking my tongue at him, I moved right along and presented Pantheion with their certificates and victory prizes.
“Certificate of Award, Pantheion. This award is presented to the aforementioned team for rolling around tirelessly at the YT Entertainment Field Day. Now, please share a few words.”
“Victory. Victory. Victory!”
“Please ignore that fool. We’d like to thank our Prism sunbaenims for helping us secure this win. Thanks to you, we’re heading home with plenty of screentime. As for our prizes, we’d like to give the premium Korean beef to our trainee team, since they’re in their growth phase, and the Hawaii travel vouchers to the staff team, who are always working hard for us.”
“…You won’t regret that?”
“Of course not. We make pretty good money now, hyung. We’ll pay for our own trip.”
…They’ve really grown up.
When did they get this big?
While I was still lost in that moment of emotion, I heard Nam Yihwon cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting,
“Long speeches are boring, sir.”
I smiled faintly and bowed my head toward the camera in a final greeting.
“Then, that concludes the field day. Nam Yihwon, follow me quietly.”
“…….”
“See? Why did you have to act up again? He might have forgotten about it if you’d stayed quiet.”
“Goodbye, hyung. It was a pleasure knowing you.”
“Ahhh……”
And so, YT Entertainment’s Field Day came to a successful close.
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Translator’s Corner:
- 화병 (Hwabyeong) is a Korean somatization disorder, a mental illness which arises when people are unable to confront their anger as a result of conditions which they perceive to be unfair. The word hwabyeong is composed of hwa (the Sino-Korean word 火 for “fire” which can also contextually mean “anger”) and byeong (the Sino-Korean word 病 for “syndrome” or “illness”), and it refers to physical symptoms (like a feeling of a lump in the chest) caused by suppressing anger or stress for long periods. ↩︎
- 박혁거세 (Bak Hyeokgeose / Hyeokgeose of Silla): In Korean founding legend, Bak Hyeokgeose (the founder of the Silla Kingdom) was born from a large egg that descended from the sky. ↩︎