Chapter 123

In all his life, Park Jaeyoung had never witnessed anything quite this contradictory.

"How on earth did this happen? What'd you do? Did you fight someone? Did you win?"

"No, mom, that's not—"

"I went around bragging to everyone that we got blessed with one gorgeous pair of hands, and now here you are with a scratch like this — a scratch? What did mom tell you, please, ple~ase, stop bumbling around out there. What is this. Are you okay? Doesn't it hurt? Sure looks like it hurts. I don't know if it'll leave a scar…. You said you were going to be an idol — is this how you take care of your body?"

"Mom, there's a dongsaeng right here, could you calm down a bi—"

"Says the kid who was just whining at his dongsaeng about how much it hurts!?"

"…mssrry."

"Are you gonna properly look after your own body from now on or not!?"

"…llmcareit."

The sight of Hajin — well over six feet of him — getting a verbal beatdown from a mother who looked a good foot shorter was, in its own way, quite a rare thing.

Also, first of all.

Kang Hajin? Getting scolded? Just with words? And frozen stiff?

Sure, Siwoo-hyung scolded him that one time…. but I've never seen him shrivel up like that.

Hajin's mother, going by her breezy, easygoing features and general vibe, seemed to be a real straight-shooter type. She looked like any neighborhood mom you'd run into anywhere, but her eyes were enormous and round.

Hajin-hyung's eyes are single-lidded and sharp, though. He must take after his dad?

Jaeyoung sat awkwardly in a corner and watched the mother-son reunion play out.

The longer he watched, the more oddly gripping it got.

"Mom, if you're gonna go like this, just hit me instead."

"Why would I hit my precious child?"

"…what — why are you suddenly getting sweet on me?"

"You like it when mom worries about you, don't you? Well, mom is very upset right now looking at your palm."

"…can't have our mom upset, no way. Aigoo, Kang Hajin's in the wrong here. He's in the wrong."

Huh? The mood swung back to warm in no time.

Jaeyoung hadn't known Hajin very long, but he'd never seen him laugh that easily and just melt into someone's arms. And it was only then that Jaeyoung finally spotted where Hajin resembled his mother.

"…tsk. Just gonna aegyo your way past me like that."

Their smiles are identical!

Youngin's reluctantly-amused face — that was Hajin's face exactly.

That breezy, easy smile of Hajin's, no question, had been inherited from his mother!

Like he'd uncovered some incredible truth, Jaeyoung sat there quietly satisfied with himself, observing Hajin and Youngin.

"But — is it okay for you to be nuzzling into me like this in front of a dongsaeng?"

"Who cares. Give him a hug too while you're at it. That's Maknae One of our team."

"One? Is there a Two? Who's Two — Haru?"

"Yup. He's still in the middle of his shoot. Park Jaeyoung, come here. This is my mom, say hi."

"…yes? Ah, hello. I'm Park Jaeyoung."

Jaeyoung shuffled over and greeted Hajin's mother. Youngin returned the greeting with her friendly smile, throwing in a compliment about how lovely his voice had been while singing.

"But mom, how'd you actually end up in here?"

"I was here to drop off your uniform. But then Team Lead Suho asked if I'd like to watch a bit of your stage before I left, so as long as I was here, I took a little tour of the station."

"You saw our stage? Were you here for the pre-record just now?"

"Mm-hm. Nice work, my son?"

"Course. Whose son am I."

"Ohh, when you lifted that high note at the end — very cool. Good job, you worked hard. Mom was so proud."

Youngin smoothed Hajin's hair and patted his back like good boy.

She kept praising the stage for a good while longer, then, checking the time, picked up her bag.

"Well, mom's seen you, so mom's gonna get going."

"You're leaving already?"

"Of course I have to. What am I gonna do here? You've got your work, I've got mine."

"Where'd you park? Let's go down together. I'll walk you all the way out. Can't take the elevator here without a keycard."

…he must be really close with his mom.

Being the eldest at home, Jaeyoung wasn't much of an aegyo type himself, so seeing Hajin chatter away with his mother with no fuss about it felt unfamiliar — and, at the same time, thoroughly Hajin-like. So when Hajin caught his eye on the way out to see his mother off, Jaeyoung just flopped down onto the couch and closed his eyes.

"My head hurts, so I'm just gonna lie here. I won't move a single step until manager-nim comes back."

"…yeah, alright. I'll be right back. Rest up."

"Nice work, Jaeyoung-friend~ Fighting~!"

Listening to the sound of Hajin and Youngin leaving the waiting room, Jaeyoung cracked one of his tightly-shut eyes open.

The instant he'd confirmed the two of them had disappeared completely, Jaeyoung scrambled for his phone and opened the messenger.

title: [Miro Maknaes Chat V_V (5)] @ me holy shit i'm literally seeing hajin-hyung's mom rn!! the way she laughs is EXACTLY the same as hajin-hyung's!!!! shocker!!! in front of his mom hyung is a total docile little lamb!!!!

He had to get this juicy piece of gossip out to everyone ASAP!

---

"Huh? Hajin — where were you coming from?"

"Ah, Team Lead."

Hajin, on his way back to the waiting room after seeing his mother out of the station, ran into Suho.

When he explained he'd been walking his mom out, Suho gave him a warm look.

"You are her spitting image, seriously."

"I get that a lot."

"Your mother's a wonderful woman."

"I get that a lot too."

At Hajin's face — which somehow looked prouder than when he was being complimented himself — Suho clicked his tongue, giving up on him.

Still, though — he'd figured she'd want to at least sit down for a meal with the son she hadn't seen in ages…. Leaving that coolly — Hajin's mother really wasn't your average person, it seemed.

…not that we'd have been able to sit down for a meal together anyway, honestly.

Suho thought that, recalling the conversation he'd just had with the main PD of A Countdown. This industry, honestly — nothing about it ever went to plan.

"Speaking of which, there was something I needed to ask you. Perfect timing."

"…? What is it?"

"How about you guys do the live broadcast too? All the way through to the No. 1 announcement at the end."

"Huh…? Why, out of nowhere?"

"…so, apparently Upia's on the shortlist for No. 1 today. We just found out. But the Upia kids are all overseas on location right now, shooting VCR for the concert."

…those merciless first-in-line eldest sons of the top tier — they're doing what now?

Hajin's face flooded with disbelief.

---

A Countdown's request was simple.

—Look, we weren't exactly expecting this song to end up on the shortlist for No. 1 either. But what can you do — here we are. If they don't win, no problem, but if they do? I mean, sure, we could just paper over it with some MC ad-libbing, but — of all days! Today of all days! Miro's next-generation trainees just happen to be here doing a special stage?

—Even so, they're not officially debuted—

—Ah, exactly! We're not asking them to give an acceptance speech, we're not asking them to do an encore stage. Just accept the trophy on the group's behalf — that's all~. And even that — if they don't win, they just get their faces on camera for a second, right? Isn't that a great opportunity for rookies?

—Which is why I'm saying — the kids aren't rookies yet either, they're trainees—

—And today's stage order — see, perfect. Both sides of it are pre-taped anyway, so they could go up on stage during the live broadcast too. Come on, they're at an actual music show — shouldn't they get to sing at least once in front of a live audience? Huh? Their live vocals were solid too!

Do the stage into the live broadcast, come back up at the ending, and — if by some chance Upia won No. 1 — just accept the trophy on their behalf. That was the ask.

It wasn't really a difficult offer, but Hajin had multiple reasons for being reluctant to take it.

First off, the chance of pissing off I.dea — who we've only just barely gotten on our side.

Sunbae fandoms might love having hoobaes to celebrate their group's win alongside them, but not one of them loves those hoobaes using a stand-in trophy pickup to get their own faces out there.

Especially since the song that had made it onto the No. 1 shortlist this time was a digital single Upia had released for their 13th anniversary — ..

A love song where, for three minutes and thirty-one seconds straight, they whispered outright that they loved I.dea.

Add in that I.dea's official fanclub-founding anniversary was March 31st, and it was crystal clear: anyone who stepped into this mad love affair carelessly was getting absolutely torn to shreds, hoobae or not.

And second.

"…and the other group on the shortlist for No. 1 is who, again?"

"……B-liver."

Of all the acts to be up for it — B-liver, the one group he'd been praying with clasped hands not to run into if he could help it.

"…how does an agency not know one of their own artists is on the No. 1 shortlist until the day of?"

"So — apparently the No. 1 candidate was originally Sin Taepal-ssi, and this morning he was suddenly arrested…? Some public-scandal issue — they had to pull him from the shortlist last-minute."

"Sin Taepal-ssi — that trot singer? Arrested for what, out of nowhere?"

"Well, seems he'd been pulling some kind of fraud. …And then it turns out, when they showed up with the warrant, he happened to be doing drugs at the time…. so now there's a whole fresh investigation opening up on the drug angle too…."

"…that guy's really got some range."

"…yeah, and then, trying to run from the arrest, he crashed his car into a utility pole. So they added DUI on top of that…?"

"Doing drugs and drinking? How is he still alive?"

"Apparently he's laid up in a hospital right now, {actually…."}(#aq4amefgpt8h)

"……."

The universe had sent a man to his death just to hand Upia the No. 1 spot.

Ridiculous logic, sure, but Hajin honestly believed it. What kind of destiny did Upia have going on where they ended up on the shortlist through this kind of unhinged sequence of events?

Wait, is Seo Taeil the Selreg by any chance? This is genuinely a reasonable suspicion.

But Mr. Seo Taeil doesn't seem to have all that much to do with the regression events we've confirmed so far…?

Then what the hell is Upia, exactly?

What are they, you ask…. Just top-tier idol sunbae-nims who are, thirteen years into debut, still steadily holding down their spot without a single member loss….

Yeah, jealous as hell.

"I think I'll have to think it over a little. The optics don't look great in a few different ways."

"…which is why I already told them that, on the stand-in acceptance, I'd have to think it over. But doing the live-broadcast stage — there might be some upsides to that too."

"Doing a stage in front of a live audience — the kids will love it…. Let me at least ask them, I guess."

If the other candidate had been anyone but B-liver, he'd have looked on this more favorably.

No matter how he turned it over, this whole B-liver business just wasn't clean. For starters, the whole picture of putting Seo Taehyun — who hadn't even officially debuted — up there with those guys as a stand-in for a No. 1 acceptance just wasn't appealing.

And if B-liver happened to actually win No. 1, the whole picture only gets weirder.

Still, he figured he ought to at least ask, and Hajin pushed the door open.

The rest of the trainees, apparently having wrapped their shoot at some point, were all gathered inside. And at the center of them, Dan Haru — face fully puffed up, chest heaving — was shouting.

"Those hyungs are so mean! Bad guys!"

"Hey, Haru, come on, calm down for a sec…. anyway, it's all in the past now…."

"How am I supposed to calm down?! When I saw those people just — like — like — being like that to hyung! To our precious Taehyun-hyung!"

"…Haru, you punk…!"

"Yah, Seo Taehyun. If you get all emotional at this exact point, what am I supposed to do with you."

Huh? Sparkles pissed off again?

Something was off about this conversation. Question marks started floating up over Hajin's head.