Chapter 109

〈I'm Gonna Tell You!〉

The song Team Candy Crush had ambitiously picked out was a seasonal track a male idol had dropped a few years back, aimed at the Christmas season.

The original song's main concept was 'high-teen nerd boy' — a heart-fluttering confession offensive built around finally telling the person he'd been quietly in love with forever how he felt.

The selling points were the addictive whistle loop, the corny confessions blasted out at every opportunity, and choreography so cutesy it was practically cringe — and just from the visuals in front of them, this cover had already cleared the bar!

Ah! What do I do, I can't hold it in anymore

The song kicked in properly with Seo Taehyun's rock-steady first line. From the wide-eyed startled face to the what-do-I-do foot-stamping fidget, groans went up from every corner.

Feels like I'll just pop! (pop!)

The greeting we share every morning (hello?)

Completes my 'day' without a single gap

The second the lyrics hit day, all the trainees leaned forward to gaze at Dan Haru. Haru, on cue, tossed a handful of the silver confetti he'd been holding into the air himself, cupped his face in a flower-blossom pose, and winked.

'The squishy-cutesy baby bunny flirt attack is a delight!'

What do I do? This is my first time with anything like this!

Searching up 'how to confess'

I learned love confessions from a book

Overall, the choreo stuck faithfully to the lyrics.

Jaeyoung and Parang, rapping, launched into presenting the confession methods they'd each supposedly researched. Classics like the sketchbook confession and the ring inside the ice cream, all the way to Japanese-shōjo-manga moves like the wall-slam (with Yuki — an actual Japanese guy — doing it, which was just funny), came out one after another.

But the reaction really exploded on the last one. It was Seo Taehyun's turn — he'd been listening to his dongsaengs' presentations the whole time.

Noona, wanna come see my cat?

Seo Taehyun — sporting a black cat-ear headband he must have stashed away somewhere in advance — tilted his head with a sly little expression, and once again a shriek went up. The gap between this and the innocent I'm dying of nerves face he'd had on the first line was fantastic.

"Why on earth hasn't he debuted?!"

"I don't know!!!!"

Squishy Bear and Soda howled, remembering the timeless mystery Kang Hajin himself wondered about forty times a day. Whipping the cherry-graphic slogans they'd been handed on the way in over their heads and shouting, they carried the song into the chorus.

Dan Haru — burgundy beret gripped in one hand — came fluttering out to center stage with a handheld mic. The detail was in the way the sleeves ran long enough to nearly cover the backs of his hands, one small white hand clamped around a white mic that matched him.

Can't wait!

I'm gonna tell you, all of it!

Gonna tell you everything, all!

You pretty (pretty!)

You I like (like!)

Just your existence lets me breathe

"Whoa…. holy."

The group choreo kicked in with Dan Haru's clean, crystalline voice. The moves themselves weren't especially hard, but footwork that never let up for a beat brought the song's energy alive.

Say yes?

Even if no, it's okay

I'll just tell you what's in my heart

Only you I see (see!)

Through you I see (everything!)

One smile from you and my whole world changes

Ah! I'm gonna say it, my bashful confession

"The kids' live singing, though — seriously good."

"I know, the vocal power — what?"

"Yah, this is Miro. They're Upia's and Enderway's hoobaes — if they couldn't sing live they'd have to die of shame."

Dan Haru and Seo Taehyun carried the chorus, but the other trainees put their full chest into every backing part too.

The energy of them belting out like! see! together in unison was vivid.

'What is this…. way too cute.'

Even Soda, with hip-hop running deep in her veins, found herself swaying and riding the rhythm — that kind of happy stage.

The second verse kicked into a musical-style number, a full slapstick confession operation as the boys got down to actually preparing to confess. From there Soda had built up some immunity and could watch the stage with her excitement dialed a little lower.

Of course, her cheekbones were still floating somewhere near the sky and refusing to come down — her jaw was starting to hurt.

I can't wait no more!

Near the end of the song, with a pang, pink confetti rained down over the stage.

To Dan Haru's high-note ad-libs, the trainees took turns showing off their individual charm points. Some pulled hand-cut hearts out of their jackets and unfolded them; some threw in the choreo from a challenge dance that was trending lately.

Seo Taehyun busted out the title-track choreo from Boys of the World — the one that had made him the 'Cherry Boy' — and the way he laughed afterward like he was suddenly embarrassed was, if anything, even more devastating.

Running to you

I can't wait no more.

Seo Taehyun's sweet vocal color closed out the song. As the trainees gathered in the center forming different hearts with their hands, a single piece of confetti stuck to Haru's cheek. Gwajam didn't miss the moment — she caught Dan Haru's radiant laugh on her camera.

"Whoa, insane…."

"Unnie, Dan Haru! Dan Haru!!!"

"Got it, got it. Calm down."

Squishy Bear — eyes already turned to hearts — clapped a hand over her mouth, cheeks flushed. Gwajam patted her back with an I feel you look and passed over a water bottle. The deep meaning being: drink some cold water and get a grip.

Even after the trainees, still catching their ragged breath, slowly stood up to shift into interview formation, the heat out in the audience showed no sign of cooling. Groans kept spilling out from every direction. At this point, Soda was starting to worry a little.

"Yah, what are the next teams going to do."

"No, seriously, how do you top this? With what? Not pressing the button for this stage — that's an insult to k-pop."

"Only way to flip the mood after this is Wolpyeong-z showing off their abs. But Lee Doha's a hundred percent not doing anything like that."

"Obviously. Our Doha's real hip-hop. He doesn't pull that cheap k-pop stuff."

Whether it was abs or backs on display, though, she had full confidence she'd scream herself out of her mind.

"Whoa, but Seo Taehyun is actually crazy. I feel like I've said the word crazy five hundred times today."

"That Seo Taehyun is just Seo Taehyun — it's a scandal. How can there not be some proper group name in front of that name?"

"Even Yeommantic is doing idol work…."

"Ah, fuck. Please refrain from bringing that name up."

Yeommantic was Soda's ex-oppa, who had recently become a dad and a married man in one go. His surname was Yeom, so '{Yeombyeong-haneun}(#m0ufaaqin73p) Romantic' had been shortened into Yeommantic.

Soda gave Gwajam a bone-dry look, and Gwajam laughed and soothed her with a promise to get killer shots of Lee Doha when he came out.

In the meantime, stage cleanup finished, and Team Candy Crush and Seo Taeil climbed back onto center stage.

"The energy's incredible. Give our Destis a proper hello, please."

"Yes! Two, three!"

"Hello! We're Candy Crush, responsible for your daily dose of sweet!"

On the count, the trainees lightly bit the tips of their index fingers and winked. The pose looked like a stylized version of biting a lollipop.

"Whoa, did you see Seo Taehyun do that extra head-tilt on purpose?"

"What do I do. Jaeyoung's too cute. I feel like my type's being remodeled."

Whether people were whispering or not, up on stage the talk went on. The trainees each gave their own individual greeting, and Seo Taehyun, as leader, took the reins on explaining the stage and the song choice.

Maybe because they were still young, even while Taehyun was interviewing with Taeil, the rest of them never stopped moving for a second — like actual chicks.

Soda had her phone open on an LED-board app, holding up ★My every day is completed by you★ as her fangirl-gushing line. She hadn't necessarily set out to cheer for Haru — she'd just been rotating through fitting lines for each trainee as they came up on stage, as a matter of good manners.

'…huh? Did he just see me?'

But her eyes met Haru's up on stage. Or, they seemed to. She was in the middle of maybe? maybe not? about it when, as if to confirm the kill, Dan Haru broke into a bright smile, mouthed me too, and gave a small wave.

"What the — I just saw Helios."

"Who?"

"The Greek sun god."

"Isn't that Apollo?"

"That's what most people think, but strictly speaking Apollo has more of a second-gen vibe of inheriting the position from Helios — actually, Helios is more fundamentally the sun god than Apollo—"

"No, stop. I'm sorry. My bad."

"Why does this unnie not stan Rene?"

"She says the concepts over there just borrow the Greek myth as a knockoff pantheon and she hates it."

"Aha."

While they were bantering, Team Candy Crush's basic interview wrapped up. On a normal survival, this would be the point to start prepping the next team's stage.

But Seo Taeil didn't let Candy Crush go so easily.

"Alright, everyone. When we were taking applications for the audience this time, we asked you to write in questions for the trainees you were rooting for, or things you wanted to see them do — remember that?"

"Yes~!"

"Since we've got our Destis right here today, we thought we'd have the trainees pull out a few of the things you wrote in, right here."

At that, a production team in black came up onto the stage carrying boxes with each trainee's name and face on them.

Isn't this just supposed to be stages? They'd been calling it an angel survival, but this kind of thing was a first, so puzzled reactions went up around the audience. Gwajam, thumbing through the stage photos she'd shot, nodded like it made sense.

"Ah, right. Only three teams, and the recording runs long."

"Fair. Even at thirty minutes a team, that's only an hour thirty."

"For us, that's a straight-up win."

While they whispered, Seo Taehyun carefully picked a slip.

The first question was this one.

If you had to pick, which sunbae would you like to work with? (Kwak Somin, 27, Miseong-dong)

At the awkward tone Taehyun read it in, laughter went up from the audience too. It was probably a question riffing on Taehyun's earlier interview answer, where he'd said things were a little awkward these days since he technically outranked Taeil in family seniority.

Taehyun stole a glance at Taeil's face and fumbled to answer as politely as he could.

"Um, so — the thing is, we're really, really distant relatives. He doesn't like, call me 'nephew' or anything! It's just that when I first found out… it was a bit…."

"Ah, so when you first found out I was your nephew, having to call this nephew of yours sunbaenim felt uncomfortable?"

"What? No! Absolutely not!"

"I should've known to call you samchon on my own. Was I was too oblivious to catch it?"

"Sunbaenim, seriously, why are you doing this to me…."

The sight of Seo Taehyun breaking a sweat in front of a huge sunbae was rare enough that his teammates cracked up snickering.

The question round went on in the same vein for the other trainees. Maybe because a lot of the trainees skewed young, most of the questions and requests were things like aegyo, challenges, and cute poses.

Finally, Haru pulled a slip.

Who's your favorite hyung on the team right now? (Cha Yerim, 19, Suji-gu)

The second the question came out, from every direction someone's name went up like a shriek, like everyone already knew the answer.

"Kang Hajin!!!"

"Hajinie~."

Even Soda — who hated individual fanchants with a passion — nodded along, yeah, this one's Kang Hajin. Dan Haru, along with Ju Eunchan, was one of the main culprits behind the Destis moe-fying Kang Hajin into a 'big-breed puppy.'

"Hmm. Honestly, there are way too many hyungs I like!!"

"We know~!"

"But if I had to pick today's favorite hyung, I'd go with Yugeon-hyung!"

Wait, what?

The Destis, who'd figured Haru would say Eunchan or Taehyun at the outside if he didn't say Hajin, were so blindsided they forgot to react.

Was Dan Haru close with Lee Yugeon?

They'd both been in Class A, but there weren't any scenes with the two of them together.

Or was he name-dropping him on purpose because of the recent controversy?

Or some deep-lore relationship the fandom didn't know about?

Fans' brains were spinning faster than the earth on its axis when Dan Haru, with a sunbeam of a smile in his eyes, dropped a bomb.

"Yugeon-hyung's choker today is so sexy, mmph!"

"Hahaha! Haru-yah, hyung's your favorite, right? Say hyung's your favorite."

Seo Taehyun — quick on the uptake — had darted over at hornet speed and clamped a hand over Dan Haru's mouth, but the Destis had heard.

His choker is sexy?

Soda quietly clawed at her hair.

And thought:

'Something big is coming, fuck….'