Chapter 101

Here, once again — the girl who'd watched episodes 1 and 2 live and speedran her way out of the fandom-denial phase (main account: Harang; alt: Soda; the younger of two sisters).

She, too, had cleared her whole evening for Miro Maze episode 3. Her older sister — who'd been grinding away for days on the "we absolutely have to watch it together" front — sadly still hadn't managed to clock out.

@ Sis♡ ugh one of our debut-line kids just pulled a ninja runaway fuck; they're telling me to go drag him back oh god please this brat i swear if he wasn't main vocal;;;;;;;;ㅜㅠ @ me whoa...gl... what can u do it's self-inflicted right why'd you go into ent...

The girl casually silenced the group chat's stream of profanity-laced notifications, grabbed a cup and a fork from the kitchen, and headed for the living room. Looked like she'd be watching the broadcast solo tonight.

"Ah — if I'd known, I would've called Gom and Gwajam over."

Gom (alt account: Squishy Bear) and Gwajam (alt account: prof pls stop assignments) were fandom friends she used to ult with over her ex-ex-oppa (the one who did drugs and went to jail).

After the ult who'd once looked so fragile turned out to be just a weak little bastard, the three of them had gone their separate ways — but lately, Miro Maze had been quietly pulling them back together.

"Well, watching alone today it is."

The girl snapped a photo of tonight's snack next to the TV — Miro Maze logo up in the corner of the screen — and posted it to her main.

handle: @dohajin_luv name: Harang with the chicken Hajin likes Miro Maze ep 3 live watch! gonna eat while the show's on waiting since 7pm ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ @MM_Official #MiroMaze #MiroMazeLiveWatchEvent #KangHajin #LeeDoha #Miro [photo]

Not long after posting, a Bluebird notification chimed. What now? Tapping it auto-switched her from her main to her alt.

handle: @tlqkfrytn name: prof pls stop assignments???? miro maze got used this woman just wanted to eat chicken handle: @dohajin_luv name: Harang with the chicken Hajin likes handle: @soda_lll name: Soda???? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋshhh.... (can't you read the room? meme)

Nothing serious.

Setting the phone down with a cynical look, the girl grabbed a drumstick and locked in on the TV. With the familiar title sequence, episode 3 began.

> A fresh spring day… > Where is this?

Episode 3 opened with peaceful BGM and inserts of an unfamiliar outdoor studio. A wide shot of some Seoul building's exterior — location unspecified — filled the screen. Then the peaceful BGM cut off, and someone's voice came in over the audio.

Alright, alright — don't get nervous~! Big smile, come on! Ah, nice! > What in the world's going on with the Little Miros?

The scene shifted. A well-decorated studio came into view with filming already underway.

Just from a glance at the props on screen, the girl knew instantly what shoot this was.

"Insane! That's my Doha's profile shoot!"

The very profile shoot that currently owned her new phone's lock screen.

She caught the scent of her baby just from the basketball rolling around on the floor, and her hand flew to her mouth. On screen at that moment, Lee Doha — head to toe in a sporty old-school look — was raising his arms behind his head and tilting his neck slightly, like he was warming up.

"Are those muscles even legal?"

The forearm muscles that surfaced naturally as he struck the pose were art. Perfectly bronzed skin, broadly-squared shoulders, all the way down to the long, taut calves showing under his loose shorts.

"You could tell me he's an athlete and I'd believe it. Ha — my Doha, if you go to a stadium later for a concert and everyone thinks the Olympics are on, what do we do?"

Even alone, the fangirl gushing poured out of her like she'd been struck by it. Sure, someone to hype her back would've pushed the energy higher — but no one, no problem.

Fandom and fangirling were, first and foremost, done for one's own enjoyment.

> Production: You handle that basketball incredibly well. > Lee Doha: Ah…. I used to play a lot.

After the shoot ended, Lee Doha — dribbling the basketball naturally as he walked out of the studio — was, honestly, the very picture of a strapping phys-ed major.

At the production team's request for a solo trick, when he started spinning the basketball on those unusually thick, knuckle-heavy fingers, the girl's head was spinning right along with it.

handle: @dohajin_luv name: Harang doha does what you're spinning right now look like a basketball to you? no? that's actually earth. soon i'll be placing the whole world in your hand so brace yourself [video]

She couldn't help throwing out a mention.

Meanwhile, the other trainees' profile shoots blew by quickly. Dan Haru wrapping up a marine-look concept surrounded by iridescent bubbles, and Ju Eunchan in a jumpsuit with face paint on, appeared in split-screen.

"Huh? Is Hajin not coming on?"

For a while now she'd noticed that Hajin especially hadn't been showing up. Not that all seventeen got equal weight in the edit, but even trainees who weren't the focus had at least popped up at some point, watching or monitoring while others filmed.

"Don't tell me they're actually being conscious of the 'pushing Hajin' backlash…."

Cutting his airtime this dramatically in a single episode was way too obvious, though, wasn't it?

That was exactly when Hajin showed up on screen.

> Photographer: No, um. That's not what I… > Photographer: O-of course! Of course it's good! It's good, but! > The trainee who made the photographer break a sweat is?

The Hajin appearing under that caption looked, how to put it—

'Like a high schooler called to the principal's office to pick up an award, only to find a camera guy waiting for him — forcing a smile on a half-asleep face.'

Short version: awkward.

It wasn't that he looked unmotivated. The harder he tried at anything, the weirder it got!

That hyung — how does he even do stages?

At Seo Taehyun's baffled voice from beside him — busy clipping in a hairpin — the girl's head nodded on its own.

'No wonder the profile shots came out that bad…. Is he just bad at photos? But the ones going around online didn't look this rough.'

Curious how people were reacting, she opened Bluebird — and everyone seemed to be on the same page.

handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D y'all apparently that's really him disband... handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D but why does our Kangie's profile shot look like this?? who signed off on this??? photographer-nim was this really your best? engagement: shares 43 · hearts 67 handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D my sincerest apologies to the photographer-nim. you were the finest photographer.

'This person's genuinely funny.'

Even with different ults, the Doha-Hajin combo — linked through everything from the month-end evaluation to the smoke-break-buddies moment — was on pretty warm terms fan-to-fan. Making a mental note to try to get close if a michinso ever came up next time (short for Miro Maze Chingu Sogae — Miro Maze Friend Intro — which, shortened, just happens to spell out a phrase that means 'crazy cow'), the girl tapped a heart on Kangha-D's post.

After Hajin, the other trainees' shoots flew past just as quickly. With her ult and second-favorite both already past, the only ones catching her eye were the visual-famous trainees like Seo Taehyun and Jung Siwoo.

'Kim Wonho…. He's not bad either. Just a slightly weak impact.'

Wonho — who made up various combo names with Doha and Hajin like Wolpyeong-z, Kang-Lee-Kim-z, and Damtagi-z — wasn't especially her type.

If anything, taste-wise, more than Wonho, Yugeon — cap on backwards, blowing a bubblegum bubble, riding a skateboard — was more her—

"Ah — what am I even thinking. No, no. Absolutely not that one."

Ever since Yugeon's attitude-controversy episode, the girl had already yanked him fully off the shortlist of debut-line candidates in her head.

Falling for the punk-slacker look was fun for a minute or two, but hadn't she just recently picked an actual punk bastard and had to shell out extra money on top to unload every album and piece of merch she'd collected on him?

"No way I'm planting that kind of bomb in our Doha's path."

Plenty of people said Doha and Yugeon looked alike, but from a Doha-ult's perspective, the two were completely different types. The general vibe might overlap, sure, but the #sturdy_and_dependable alpha-male category and the #delinquent_swaggy showy-boy category had a very clear line between them.

'If it came down to Lee Yugeon, honestly Kim Wonho would be better. Sure, there's the whole "lower-tier equivalent" phrase floating around, but whatever. We've only seen one stage from him.'

That was the nature of survival shows — no one knew who was going to pop off, or when, or where. Honestly, she'd rather Wonho pop off this mission and hold Yugeon in check.

Meanwhile, the show was finally reaching the second-mission announcement.

Welcome, everyone who's made it to Miro Maze's second gate. Your second mission is a cover song.

Seo Taeil smoothly laying out the mission and the team-selection method rolled through. The moment she saw Yugeon getting the first pick of songs as the battle-benefit prize, the girl set down her chicken and clasped both hands together.

"Please — please just don't let my baby end up on a team with Lee Yugeon…. He gets close to a kid like that, and then when a Lee Yugeon personality-scandal blows up later, he'll get lumped in with no way out."

How would she know if that would happen or not? She didn't want to know either!

The girl chugged straight from a cola bottle, swallowing back all the frustration she'd been holding down. But sadly, less than five minutes later, her prayer had been shattered to pieces.

"Seriously — the second I say it out loud?"

Doha, picking his team next, went for 'Blue Scandal' — and ended up on the same team as Yugeon! On top of that, he'd been split off from Jung Siwoo and Kang Hajin — the ones she'd secretly been hoping he'd land with!

"Lee Yugeon, that kid's probably gonna come out shitty again this time. Ah, Doha — please don't get tangled up. Ha…. And in the middle of all this, Kang Hajin in glasses is a whole mess of insane. What — the second an edit with filters drops, I'm saving it."

Out of the same mouth, worry for Doha and awe at Hajin came out in one breath. Glasses-Hajin was too pretty to skim past!

Right next to him were Jung Siwoo — chocolate-brown long hair swept neatly back — and Yugeon — bleached hair, ripped-up street fashion — which just made Hajin stand out even more.

"Black hair, so pure it's insane, seriously…. He's a hundred percent aware he blew up as Hoodie Oppa and dressed for it, right?"

The natural, clean-cut beauty on screen looked like a completely different person from the one fumbling through the profile shoot, and the girl inhaled another swig of cola.

Hajin was wearing a slightly loose black hoodie — clearly the very same one from the 'Hoodie Oppa' sighting.

The girl suddenly found herself desperately curious about the details of that hoodie Hajin had on. He was still a trainee, so it probably wasn't anything luxury-brand — if she looked it up and it wasn't too pricey, maybe she'd grab one to match his look?

"Did the info drop yet? I feel like if I check Kangha-D-nim's Bluebird, it'd be up."

The broadcast was still going, but so she could peek at the reactions too, the girl picked her phone back up.

If I search 'Kang Hajin hoodie,' would something come up?

Running a few search-worthy keywords through her head, the girl tapped the Bluebird search bar.

"…huh? What is this?"

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The girl's face hardened at the ominous state of the real-time trends.

Looked like the thing she'd been expecting had blown up way too early after all.