Chapter 121

"Ah, Mrs. Kang! Hello!"

Suho, who'd been waiting for someone outside the broadcasting station, spotted a woman a little way off carrying a shopping bag and pacing nearby, and hurried over to greet her.

"Ah, Team Lead. Hello."

The woman who returned Suho's greeting with a bright, breezy smile — one that brought a certain someone to mind — was none other than Hajin's mother, Youngin.

The two of them had actually met once before, back when Hajin had officially signed with Miro — Suho as the company's rep, Youngin as Hajin's legal guardian.

"We should've come out to your place ourselves…. Thank you for coming all this way, ma'am."

"Not at all — thanks to you, I got a little day trip to Seoul out of it. Here, the uniform."

"Ah, yes. Thank you so much, Mrs. Kang."

Taking the uniform from Youngin, Suho wore an expression of genuine apology.

Originally he'd been planning to send a staff member to Hajin's place directly. But of all things, Youngin had dropped Hajin's uniform off at the neighborhood dry cleaner's, and the timing had become nearly impossible to work out.

In that situation, Youngin had offered without hesitation to bring it to the broadcasting station herself.

That was why Suho, rather than the road manager who'd come along today, had come down in person to pick up the uniform — as a gesture of gratitude and respect.

"You shouldn't have to stand around out here — let me at least buy you a coffee before you go. On me."

"Ah, you must be busy — please, I'm fine. It'd be nice to see Hajin's face once, but…. he'll be busy, won't he? Our Hajin — is he doing well?"

At Youngin's careful question, Suho understood in an instant why she'd taken the trouble of driving all the way out to distant Sangam herself. Suho knew that feeling well — a parent who'd shoulder any trouble on the chance of catching a glimpse of their child's face, even from far off.

Plenty of the other trainees' parents are the same way.

Suho checked the smartwatch on his wrist, ran through the schedule in his head, and asked Youngin.

"The kids are taping at two. Mrs. Kang, if your time works out, would you like to watch a bit of the taping before you head back?"

"Oh…. would that be all right?"

"Of course."

Ever since the 'endless-regression' incident, Suho had been mulling over the same question — isn't there something that could give Hajin a lift?

From what he'd seen of Hajin day to day, Hajin called his mother often and the two of them seemed close. Even a brief look at family and a bit of encouragement from them would help, Suho figured.

"I'll treat you to a coffee at the café here. Wait for me, and I'll get in touch when it's time."

Suho, with a warm smile, showed Youngin the way.

Hoping this surprise visit would be a small bit of cheer for Hajin.

---

Rehearsal ran on schedule, no delays.

"Miro Maze team, wait here for a second~"

"No! Not there! Stay focused, please!"

Unlike during Miro Maze filming, voices with a bit of an edge were flying back and forth.

But even against the staff's chilly attitude, Hajin and Taehyun — used to the environment — just thought guess that guy's so busy with this he probably missed lunch and left it at that.

Lee Yugeon, capitalism's own devoted servant, was muttering to himself about what the day rate for a part-timer at a place like this would run — and promptly got smacked on the back by Seo Taehyun. Dan Haru, who had a pretty tough little heart of his own, was just grinning ear to ear — apparently thrilled that they were doing a stage at all.

"Dan Haru, why so hyped."

"Ah, so I've been thinking about what to ask Team Lead for for dinner later. The hair-styling noona was just telling me there's a killer pork-cutlet place near here!"

"Donja Hoegwan?"

"Huh? How'd you know, hyung?"

Dan Haru — whose eyes were plenty big to begin with — opened them wider in surprise.

Hajin couldn't very well say a sunbae had bought it for him when he'd come out this way for a mixing session in a previous life, so he cast around for a decent cover.

"…heard you talking about it earlier. But by the time our taping wraps, that place'll probably be on break."

"Ugh. No way…."

Dan Haru's face fell into a shocked, forlorn look, like the world had ended.

He's not even a puppy who got promised a walk and then had it called off because of a typhoon….

Hajin gave Haru's head a light pat and started coaxing him. Given the nature of today's stage, having Dan Haru's mood tank was seriously not an option.

"You can just ask him for something better. Nail today's stage, and I'll take you there myself sometime."

"Whoa, really? Hyung, is that a promise?"

"Yeah. You know you've got a heavy job today too, Center."

"Yes!"

With the resilience of a young kid, Dan Haru sprang back to full spirits in no time and, going to show off, dashed off toward Taehyun, who was warming up over on one side.

Dan Haru's fine, then…. the problem's those two fragile ones.

Hajin's eyes shifted to the remaining pair.

Jaeyoung and Jayden, who'd been bouncing around the general class even before getting assigned the Feather rank, had never had reason to set foot in a place like this — not even as backup dancers for the sunbaes.

Properly frozen up, huh.

He'd even had the manager get them calming pills that morning, but apparently they weren't doing much.

Letting out a small breath, Hajin fit an in-ear into his ear and stared at Jayden and Jaeyoung, both visibly stiff from any angle.

How am I supposed to loosen those two up, then.

He had, of course, no idea that Jayden and Jaeyoung had been getting even more tense under his gaze this whole time.

"H-hyung. Hajin-hyung keeps looking over at us…."

"He's telling us with his eyes to do a good job…."

"Uh, uh-oh. He's coming. He's coming!"

Jayden and Jaeyoung, who'd been trembling in a corner, jumped when Hajin walked over their way.

Since 'To You I Declare,' Hajin had grown a lot closer with them and was, without question, a playful, easygoing hyung, but….

The 'insane class rep' moments from Hajin's B-team days were already carved bone-deep into the two of them.

"Double J over there. C'mon."

"Y-yes."

"Yes, sir."

Jaeyoung and Jayden, unusually stiff at attention today, scurried up in front of Hajin. Both of them were about a hand shorter than Hajin, so Hajin cocked his weight to one side, slung an arm over each of their shoulders, and leaned his head down between them.

Cutting through the noise on set, an unusually attractive mid-low voice landed clearly in their ears, easy and relaxed.

"Look. Stage is smaller than you'd expect, right. If we tried to run big movement patterns like when we taped Miro Maze — is that going to work, or not?"

"N-no, sir!"

"Right. You get it. And most of the production crew here — this is our first time meeting them. Get someone's title wrong and it could rub them the wrong way, so as much as possible, if you've got something to say, run it through me. Got it?"

"Yes, yes."

Instead of laying down harsh discipline — are you really going to do the stage that stiff — as they'd braced for, Hajin, unexpectedly, slowly and steadily started walking Jaeyoung and Jayden through what a broadcast set was like.

How monitoring worked on a music show,

why pre-recording was necessary and how they'd be handling it,

what was different from Miro Maze, and what was the same.

As if he understood perfectly well that they were tense and scared because so much of this was still new to them, he checked their faces now and again, making sure several times over that they'd really gotten it.

"It's because you don't know. Not knowing always makes it worse — shakier, scarier. Everyone here already knows you're first-timers keyed up out of your minds, so if you're gonna be a wreck, don't try to read the room — just be a wreck with your head up. Own the fact you're a wreck and they'll actually find it kind of cute."

What in the world 'be a wreck with your head up' was supposed to mean, they hadn't the faintest idea, but.

Once they'd heard Hajin out, the two of them — frozen so stiff they couldn't even properly see the ground under their feet — started, little by little, to see more of what was around them.

Come to think of it, that camera director looks like he was on our Miro Maze taping too.

Our competition floor is definitely wider and bigger than this!

Are the cameras they use here different from Miro Maze's? Which are the better ones?

The setting had gone from being simply unfamiliar and scary to unfamiliar, but something they knew about.

Then, bit by bit, curiosity and interest began to settle into their eyes. Watching them — sometimes brightening at something familiar, sometimes looking interested like they already knew a thing — Hajin smiled.

Giving their shoulders a couple of light pats to say hang in there, Hajin started rounding up the rest of the kids.

It was almost time to head up onto the stage.

"Guys, this isn't even the main taping yet — it's rehearsal. Right? For now, focus on reading the cameras, blocking, whether there are any sound issues — that kind of stuff, more than anything else. Got it? If something's off, tell me right away."

"Yes!"

"Miro Maze team, heading up now!"

"Alright, they're calling us. Let's go."

Right on cue, the signal came through to head up onto the stage. As Hajin gathered the kids up and started climbing, he was already thinking.

That they needed one solid move to crack open this chilly mood.

Because it's a taping that got slotted in last-minute, maybe — the crew all look a little put out.

"Hello! We're the Miro Maze Sad-Ending team! Please take good care of us!"

An air of let's just get this trainee stage over with and take a break was drifting off every corner of the room. Even after the Sad-Ending team offered up a spirited group greeting, what came back was cold.

There was no particular malice in that coldness. To us, this was a single precious stage; to them, it was just one job among the countless they saw day after day, and….

Going a step further — it was just a flash-in-the-pan stage from industry newbies who might disappear any day now, so no one was expecting anything or paying it any attention.

Which was exactly why Hajin thought he needed to break this mood once and for all.

What would be the surefire trick for grabbing the initiative here….

Hajin thought back to the days when he'd been bouncing around music shows himself.

Days when he too, like them, had stood below the stage with tired eyes, thinking only of clocking out.

Back then, what kind of singers had made him snap wide awake and actually look?

"Alright, Sad-Ending team. Mic check. Taehyun-ssi, from you."

While he was still weighing it, the sound check started up.

The trainees each sang a short phrase or spoke a line, feeding back what was coming through their in-ears.

And then, at last, when it was Hajin's turn.

Hajin gripped the handheld mic — which he'd chosen instead of a head mic to hide the cut on his palm — tight in his hand.

At the end of all those days that mattered, we—

at the end of all the time already gone, we—

"……?"

"…wh-what."

Hajin's a cappella high-note live — the very one that had moved even Sarin, the song's original singer — rang out through the studio, loud, loud.

Hajin, with a perfectly relaxed face, had belted out not just any chorus, but the third-run chorus — the one keyed up a whole step higher.

Whether everyone was staring at him in shock or not, Hajin casually pulled the mic away from his mouth, tested the volume a little, then, with a friendly smile, called out to the sound director behind the console.

"I think you can probably turn me down a bit! I've got a loud voice!"

—Yeah, yeah…. Whew, that's some rock-solid live.

"Thanks for the compliment! I'll work hard!"

The sound director's aside came through faintly on the talkback mic.

Hajin fired back an answer right away and bowed a full 90 degrees. Bewildered, the other trainees followed and bent along with him at about 120 degrees.

For a singer, being able to sing is the whole game.

The lunatics who stuck it out in this dirty-difficult-dangerous industry where work-life balance was a fantasy? They were all a certain type.

Right now they might grumble that they were only sticking with it because they had no other way to make a living — but the truth was, the ones who were really going to bail had bailed and run long ago.

They're all still here because they like it. Music, broadcasting, whatever it is.

There wasn't another field as sensitive to skill as this one.

Rookie or veteran — once people decided this one's got it, everyone got generous.

Sure enough, unlike a moment ago, cheers of whoo! and fighting! and nice one! went up along with the sound of the staff applauding.

The chilly, razor-sharp mood in the room melted away in an instant.

"Alright, then. Miro Maze Sad-Ending team. To You I Declare. First rehearsal, here we go~"

Hajin grinned and straightened up.

And this was still, only, rehearsal.