Chapter 396 |
Side Story (13)
When Nam Yihwon mentioned the CEO, a photo of a man in a well-tailored suit—one she’d seen before—was inserted on the screen, his face covered with a ‘^-^’ emoticon. That figure was already a familiar face to fans, so for a hardcore Sera who attended concerts so often she could practically earn an attendance award, it wasn’t hard to realize who was behind the emoticon.
‘Ah, Lee Saehwa-ssi…….’
Come to think of it, she had seen Choi Jeokhyeon up close once, too.
‘Was that during Yutae’s solo schedule? That time a car twice as expensive as ours pulled in on the way home from work.’
Seo Yutae absolutely detests driving, so he’s almost always picked up by the Prism members or a manager once his schedule is over. But the other members are always swamped with their own busy schedules, and knowing Seo Yutae’s personality, he’s the type to insist on sending his managers home the second it gets late. Taxis aren’t a great option either, as he finds the drivers’ stares too uncomfortable to relax.
‘I saw it … when Yutae-oppa opened the door for a moment, Lee Saehwa-ssi was sitting in the driver’s seat.’
Perhaps for those reasons, Lee Saehwa picking up Seo Yutae became a fairly common occurrence. Of course, the reasons mentioned before were just her speculation, so there could have been other factors at play. They might have simply agreed to meet up once his schedule was finished, for instance.
Nothing was more pointless than taking excessive interest in the face of someone who wasn’t even a celebrity. Still, let’s be real, when a man with looks like that sat neatly dressed in a suit in the VIP section, it was impossible not to look.
‘Of course we should support the friendship between handsome men.’
There was actually a famous fan-taken video that went viral a while back. It showed Seo Yutae looking totally overwhelmed, mobbed by rude people and cameras, but as soon as he spotted Lee Saehwa’s car coming to pick him up, he scurried over like a cat that had found its family. After seeing that, fans couldn’t help but cheer for their bond.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t be doing this. My moeifying habit is acting up again.’
“Seo Yutae is a black cat. Period. No objections accepted.”
“I shouldn’t go crazy like you. What black cat? How can a guy built like a door be a cat? A jaguar. He’s a jaguar. Seriously, if you keep moeifying him like that, wouldn’t your Oppa be offended?”
“Oh please, I still remember you calling your ex-Oppa ‘Baby Lily of the Valley’ before his two-timing scandal blew up. Keep talking and I’ll post the receipts on my fan vlog channel and archive them forever. Besides, your Baby Lily has a trash personality. He makes it so obvious that he’s uncomfortable whenever his cool image was at stake. Our Black Cat is a real man. He gets embarrassed, sure, but if you offer him cat ear headbands, he still puts them on.”
“D*mn it, I wasn’t in my right mind back then!”
“It backfired hard…….”
Remembering the time she’d been called out by a fan friend for excessive moeification, she hurriedly cleared her head. The important thing was simply that Lee Saehwa and Seo Yutae were very close. That was all.
‘CEO-nim, please keep a tight grip on Yutae-oppa. A pack a day feels downright insane.’
Seo Yutae had such a strong personality and always played the eldest-hyung role wherever he went that there were very few people who could actually rein him in.
‘Yuseong doesn’t seem to care much about his brother’s smoking habit.’
So in the end, Lee Saehwa was her last hope.
Sure enough, from the screen came Seo Yutae’s frantic voice, “Even the convenience stores near both the company and the dorm haven’t stocked the cigarettes I smoke for half a year now!”
‘How is it even possible to block every single place he could buy them from?’
The Sera stared in horror, rubbing her arms as goosebumps broke out all over. She knew Lee Saehwa was someone who ran a company powerful enough to sway South Korea’s economy, so he obviously had money and influence at his disposal. But to use it for something like this? He was terrifying in more ways than one.
‘Should I be relieved that the cigarette company itself hasn’t gone out of business?’
To be honest, since Seo Yutae smoked was pretty niche, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Seo Yutae himself seemed to feel the same; looking a bit drawn, he turned to the PD.
[“…PD-nim, could you cut this part out?”] [“Oh, trying to save only yourself? If you’re going to cut Hyung’s part, then edit out everything about me too. Fair’s fair.”]
[<We aired everything fairly^^>]
[<The original footage gets sent to the CEO anyway, so editing it won’t really matter, Director …… Sorry. Fighting!>]
‘Why … why would he want the unedited footage……?’
But that desperate struggle ended up meaning nothing, cut off instantly by the production team. There was really … nothing that could be done. Seo Yutae was a director, and Lee Saehwa was the CEO. The staff had no choice but to be more mindful of Lee Saehwa.
‘I wonder if Yutae-oppa will be okay after this airs.’
She was genuinely going out of her mind with curiosity. It’s never felt more devastating to realize that as fans, they can’t possibly know everything that happens behind the scenes.
[“We’ll start with the height and weight check first.”]
Still biting her fist as she stared at the monitor, the screen now showed the Prism members undergoing their basic physical measurements. After hurriedly checking Jo Inchan’s results before even looking at his own, Nam Yihwon broke into a slightly smug expression. He pressed down on the crown of Jo Inchan’s head and laughed.
[“Inchan-ah, when are you gonna grow up? Geez, you’re cute, so cute. This hyung is already 190cm, but you’re still stuck in the 180s.”] [“190? Don’t lie. You’re 189.”] [“Ah, that was because I wasn’t in great condition during the last checkup. Here, look for yourself. The results sheet.”] [“…You’re not lying.”]
Jo Inchan was actually very tall by any normal standard, making the sight of them fighting their own height war even more ridiculous.
[“Hwon-ah, don’t raise our average height any more. It’s already excessive.”]
When Lee Chise, holding up a results sheet that read 184 cm, went so far as to throw out a line like that, someone on the editing team must have shed a tear, because a caption, “The haves are truly the worst”1, appeared in solemn Gungseo font.2
Seo Yutae didn’t seem to care whether the two same-age members were bickering over their height or not. He just stood there expressionlessly, checking everyone’s result sheets like a teacher grading homework, before finally speaking up.
[“Woon-ah.”]
Cha Woon flinched, then slowly turned his head to gauge Seo Yutae’s mood. Seo Yutae delivered a short, sharp order.
[“Gain some weight.”] [“Yes…….”]
From what she’d heard through the fan-chat app, Cha Woon had recently been glued to protein shakes, trying to bulk up. This must have been why. To think there was someone scarier than a 24-hour personal trainer, monitoring his workout volume, weight, and food intake like that. And worse, since that inspector had such an insane physique himself, Cha Woon couldn’t even mutter a word of complaint.
‘He’s my bias, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live with him.’
Thinking about how hard the Prism members must have it, the Sera wiped away a tear.
Since height and weight tended to fluctuate every time, the members didn’t seem to care all that much. If there was one oddly consistent detail, it was that among the Seo brothers, the older one was always the tallest in Prism, while the younger one was the shortest.
‘So cute. He’s 180cm, but he’s the shortest!’
Seo Yuseong didn’t even bother checking his own results, as if he had no interest at all. But Seo Yutae, apparently finding his small and precious (only to his eyes) little brother unbearably adorable, heartedly ruffled Seo Yuseong’s curly hair after he stepped off the height-and-weight scale.
After that came the blood pressure test. Most of the members fell within the normal range, and the only result that required special attention was Seo Yutae’s.
[“You have low blood pressure. Is it usually this low?”] [“Yes.”]
When Seo Yutae nodded calmly, as if he had expected the result, the staff told him it was something to keep in mind for procedures involving sedation. As far she could remember, Seo Yutae had come up with low blood pressure during every single one of his past check-ups
‘It’s something he was born with, so it’s probably not something that can ever be fixed.’
According to what Seo Yutae had said to reassure worried fans, it wasn’t severe enough to interfere with daily life, and he managed it well on his own even when exercising, so there was no need to worry.
Still, during concerts, there were times when the environment didn’t cooperate, like high-altitude venues. Since Seo Yutae is the type to pour every last bit of his energy into a performance, she couldn’t help but worry that his condition might suddenly take a turn for the worse.
[“I’ll try even harder from now on. I’m Hyung’s personal low blood pressure.”] [“No, you’re already doing more than enough.”] [“You know I love you, right, hyung?”] [“This is driving me crazy.”]
Fans couldn’t help but worry if their favorite singer even looked a little unwell. As if he understood how they felt, Nam Yihwon deliberately formed a heart with his hands and cracked a joke to lighten the mood.
[“Who makes such a fuss over low blood pressure? This is perfectly fine.”]
Even as Seo Yutae snapped back curtly, he must have known that Nam Yihwon was genuinely worried about him, because he lightly tapped under Nam Yihwon’s chin with the back of his hand.
Nam Yihwon froze, looking a little like something had short-circuited, then quietly retreated behind Cha Woon.
It was far faster than blowing up in anger as a way of dealing with Nam Yihwon, but Seo Yutae would probably never realize that fact for as long as he lived. In any case, it didn’t matter much; before long, Nam Yihwon’s teasing started up again, sniping that it would be bad if lung cancer showed up on the upcoming chest X-ray.
After that, the remaining tests went by without any particular issues. If anything stood out, it was that Cha Woon was praised by the dentist during the oral exam, and that Lee Chise was shocked to learn his eyesight had worsened a bit.
[“No wonder you’ve been squinting so much at everyone lately, hyung. The prescription on your current lenses doesn’t seem right anymore.”] [“…Haah. I can’t even be bothered to wear glasses at home. Maybe I should just get surgery.”] [“The fans would be disappointed. They like you wearing glasses.”] [“Why do they even like that? Our fans are impossible to understand.”]
After completing those tests in sequence, it was time for the blood draw.
[“Oh, you’ve got great veins.”]
As the Prism members held out their arms, the phlebotomists let out gasps of admiration as if they’d struck gold. With robotic precision, they slid the needles in perfectly on the very first try.
‘Of course their veins are great ……. we’ve spent so much time zooming in on photos that the image is practically burned into our retinas.’
From a broadcast standpoint, it would’ve been more entertaining if at least one member were afraid of needles. But since Prism was a group of brutally tough guys, no one even turned their head away; they just stared directly at the needles sliding into their skin.
[“The medication will be administered here. You’ll be taken to the endoscopy room right next door.”]
With their IV needles taped securely in place, the members sat in a row outside the endoscopy room as instructed. Amidst the wait, Cha Woon began to speak.
[“…What if the anesthesia kicks in and I start talking nonsense while the cameras are rolling?”]
It must have been because he remembered what he said last time.
“Uh, uh, it didn’t saveee. I pressed Ctrl+S. Why isn’t it working?” “Yutae-hyung, my song. Is it gone? It’s gone, isn’t it?”
Since it was their own in-house content, any problematic remarks could be edited out. Still, getting loopy from the medication—slurring his words and spilling every thought that crossed his mind—might be entertaining for others, but for the person involved, it would be mortifying.
[“Ha, last time I *** (beeeep) and everything got edited out.”] [“What you just said is probably getting edited out too.”]
As the other Prism members nodded along, all looking equally uneasy, Yoo Jay turned to Jo Inchan—who was just sitting there with a perfectly composed look on his face—and asked, “Aren’t you worried, hyung?”
Jo Inchan let out a little ‘Ah‘, as if he’d just remembered he was supposed to be anxious, and then replied in the same calm tone,
[“Oh, I’m doing it without sedation.”]3
Then, in front of her, a black screen appeared with white text.
[<To be continued in Part 2>]
“Are you kidding me! The sedated endoscopy is the best part, and they cut it off here? Why is Inchan-oppa doing it without sedation! At least tell us why before ending it!”
She screamed, clutching her head in disbelief.
Now that she thought about it, when Jo Inchan said that, the Prism members’ expressions had seemed to stiffen just a little.
…Why was that?
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Translator’s Corner:
- 있는 사람이 더하다 (The haves are worse). If translated literally, it’s like “The more you have, the more you” -> “The ‘haves‘ (the wealthy/privileged) are even more [greedy/obsessive] than the ‘have-nots‘. This common Korean proverb that refers to how people who are already wealthy or blessed are often the ones who complain or want even more. ↩︎
- Gungseo font) is a traditional, brush-stroke calligraphy font. ↩︎
- In Korea, patients choose between sleep/sedated and non-sedated endoscopies. A non-sedated endoscopy involves being fully conscious while the scope is inserted. It is notoriously uncomfortable and requires a strong stomach and great mental discipline. ↩︎
Just the right chapter since someone asked about Prism heights last chapter….
No, but Choi Jeokhyeon … is at the level where he should be having driver driving him anywhere … but this man becomes Yutae’s personal driver instead … if Prism is a real boygrup, Yutae definitely won’t have big same-group ship because even fans going to ship him with someone outside the group……
Did anyone see the latest discourse on twitter lately? See, this is why you shouldn’t carelessly reposting fan-translation … if this translation got taken down because someone uploaded my translations on scribd and refused to delete it, so be it…..
Anyway, my first song recommendation to start a new year (it’s really a good, motivational song),