Chapter 124

This is the testimony of one seriously pissed-off Sparkles.

—We were on our way back to the waiting room after finishing our shoot. Someone was practicing a challenge out in the hallway. Even if we're still trainees, obviously we should say hello, right? So we waited! But it turned out — it was the B-liver sunbaenims.

According to Dan Haru's testimony, the B-liver sunbaes (bastards) hadn't exactly had a great attitude from the moment the greeting landed.

—We greeted them first, but they didn't return the greeting. So we were like, hmm, maybe they didn't hear~, and did it again! But then! Then they went right on pretending they hadn't seen us! And then Taehyun-hyung locked eyes with one of the members, and only then did they finally look at us, going, "Ah, Taehyun?"

At this point Dan Haru punched the couch — bang — in fury. It took some doing to calm Haru down — thumping the couch like an angry rabbit stamping its hind feet — but with his brows pinched into a deep frown, he went on.

—Them not returning our greeting, fine! Them pretending Jayden-hyung and I didn't exist and only talking to Taehyun-hyung, I could deal with. What really got me was what came next.

B-liver and Seo Taehyun exchanged simple hellos and caught up on their recent lives.

Doesn't sound like a problem so far, right? But Dan Haru shook his head firmly and re-enacted the moment.

—They said it exactly like this.

—"Did you debut? Ah, a special stage? No wonder — I was wondering why you were just standing around in a broadcast-station hallway. Still a trainee, right? Ah, a survival show? Where? Are they doing Boys of the World again? Ah, your agency? Sorry, sorry, we're so busy with concert prep these days. Ugh, honestly the trainee days were better, man. Hyung can't even sleep these days. You still sleep fine, though, right? Hyung is jealous of you. Should've been you who debuted back then. Wanna swap with me? Haha."

Wow. Real gems of lines — impossible to openly get mad at, and infuriating to smile along with.

The really infuriating part was, there was no way in hell the B-liver bastards didn't know Seo Taehyun was currently on Miro Maze.

There were multiple articles that had run before the show even started — and they didn't know?

Sure enough. Sitting quietly to one side this whole time, Seo Taehyun opened his mouth with a resentful look.

—Those hyungs definitely know I've started activities on Miro Maze. They hadn't been in touch for three years, and then out of nowhere they reached out — because they had a comeback coming up and wanted us to give the song lots of listens. Back on Boys of the World they'd been all buddy-buddy when my buzz was good, and cut me off the moment I didn't debut, so I figured they'd probably pull something like this.

Hajin was about to jab Taehyun with a why on earth didn't you say any of this earlier — but held it back.

Because the B-liver bastards' bullshit hadn't stopped there.

—Anyway, those hyungs aren't the kind you gain anything by sticking around, so I was trying to wrap the conversation and head back to the waiting room. But then their manager was like, since we're all here, wouldn't it be a good idea to shoot a challenge with you too. I didn't really want to shoot one, but it was hard for me to be the one to say no first, so I just stood there….

Bang!

"Agh, you startled me!"

Dan Haru — chest heaving again all of a sudden — smacked the couch with a bang, and the immersion broke.

Ah, and just when it was getting to the good part.

"Dan Haru — who said you could just fling your anger around however you feel it? Is that gonna work, or not?"

"…but! Thinking about it again just gets me heated all over."

"If everyone wrecked stuff every time they got heated — huh? I should've torn our whole dorm apart back during the third mission."

Well, you did wreck your own leg…. ( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)

Quiet, you punk.

Hajin shoved a grumbling Thirteen aside and put his sternest face on for Dan Haru.

"You gonna do that again, or not."

"…M not gonna. M sowwy."

Haru's disgruntled lips stuck out so far his pronunciation mashed to mush. But Hajin, satisfied, nodded and looked over at Taehyun.

"Okay. Right, from the top. So — they asked to do a challenge?"

"They looked at me and laughed. Then went, 'Nah, can't do one with Taehyun.'"

"Just like that? No reason?"

"They went, 'If Taehyun does it, it'll get a little… too wholesome,' and I saw them go pfft laughing too!"

"Absolute lunatics."

Bang!

Less than a minute after telling Dan Haru not to, Kang Hajin smacked a couch cushion with a bang.

At that, Lee Yugeon — the one person in the waiting room actually sitting up on the couch — let out a sigh.

"Would you stop pounding on the cushions? Why are you all sitting on the floor when there's a couch right there?"

"Everyone knows the national rule is you use a couch as a backrest. And Lee Yugeon — you. Where were you, what were you doing. I brought you along as chaperone specifically for stuff like this."

"…a body-whatever still gets bathroom breaks, hyung. Do I not have basic human rights?"

Even as he said it, Lee Yugeon — apparently feeling some responsibility about it — scratched at the back of his neck and added,

"When I got back from the bathroom, that's what was going on, so I cut it short and got them back to the waiting room."

"That's right. Yugeon-hyung used Team Lead Suho as an excuse and got us out."

"What about the manager? He was with you, wasn't he."

His eyes drifted to the one remaining manager, who — with nothing to say for himself — lowered his head.

"It was my first time out…. I couldn't tell quickly enough whether it was a situation where I should be cutting things off. I'm sorry. I should have taken better care of you all…."

"Ah — no, no. It's fine, manager-nim. Honestly, a challenge with B-liver isn't a bad opportunity."

Seo Taehyun waved his hands hurriedly.

"Those hyungs have been like this since Boys of the World. Getting looked down on for being young — I'm used to it. I'll just get more successful and pay them back for it. Really, it's fine."

"Taehyun-hyung…."

At Taehyun's grown-up response, Jaeyoung and Haru — near tears — clutched at Taehyun's hand.

Let's really debut!

The scene of that resolute declaration was, in its own way, almost moving.

And in that moving moment, Hajin folded his arms and nodded.

"Yeah. Let's really pay them back."

"Right, we'll definitely debut and get successful and—"

"No, let's pay them back today."

"…huh?"

Every gaze turned to Hajin.

But Hajin — without so much as blinking — pulled one corner of his mouth up wickedly.

"They're having a comeback today, right?"

"Y-yeah…."

"Then all we've gotta do is get more attention than their comeback, right?"

Let's see about that. Who wins.

At Hajin's underhanded smile, the Sad-Ending team gave a small shiver.

---

Knock, knock, knock—

Someone knocked on the door of B-liver's waiting room. While the maknae manager went out to see what it was about, the B-liver members all stayed sprawled where they were, in comfortable positions, unmoving.

"Guys, some hoobaes came by to say hello. Get up."

"Who? Didn't we already get through the greetings?"

"Miro Maze. Earlier — the group with Seo Taehyun-gun in it."

"Ahh. Them too?"

"They probably don't even have an album to hand out. Just tell them to rest."

At the members' snickering, the team-lead-level manager let out a small sigh.

Maybe because they'd blown up too fast, too early — B-liver's attitude wasn't something you could call good even out of politeness.

They picked up bad habits back in B-light.

Their trainee period had been short, so the members had debuted on physicality and looks alone despite the lack of skill.

Maybe that was why they didn't have any particular hunger, and always seemed to take success and buzz for granted.

What era of recognition do they think they're still operating on….

Now that the mileage from Boys of the World and B-light had run out.

B-liver's name recognition and buzz, at present, were a candle in the wind.

The individual members had name value, so their asking price was high — but the core fandom actually buying their albums and streaming their songs was shrinking by the day.

This industry is a place where the landscape shifts overnight. When they should be busting a hump to land one big hit and lock down their spot properly….

The members, who'd already tasted 'popularity' once, still looked completely out of touch with reality.

The manager sighed and opened the waiting room door.

At that, boys who at a glance looked young and shiny like fresh rookies stepped into the waiting room, beaming.

The manager gave each of the trainees a careful once-over. The members might dismiss them as not-even-debuted, but say what you will, Miro Maze was currently kicking up a major shakeup in the boy-idol scene. He needed to check in advance whether any of them could become a threat.

"Sunbaenims, hello. We'd like to introduce ourselves."

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

Led by a tall, sharp-featured trainee, a bold, spirited greeting rang loud through the waiting room. The nerve of it was enough that even the B-liver members — on their feet purely for the look of the thing — flinched a little.

"Ah, yeah…. Hello. We're B-liver."

"We already ran into you earlier, no need to swing back to say hi. What, did we come off like sunbaes who chew hoobaes out over greetings?"

B-liver's leader, apparently trying in his own way to defuse the mood, spoke up.

The problem being, the mood didn't get defused at all.

After they'd flat-out blown off the earlier greeting, no one was buying the big-hearted sunbae act now.

Just as the briefest silence was about to slide through, the same trainee who'd led the greeting jumped back in with a bright smile.

"Come on, we should at least greet you properly as a whole team once. We don't have a team name yet at the moment, but this time we're definitely debuting, so next time we'd like to greet you sunbaenims with a proper team chant."

"Ah, yeah…. Sure. Looking forward to it."

"Come to think of it, sunbaenims, you're also from an Ntv survival, right? You were on Boys of the World with our Taehyun."

"Uh, yeah. That's right."

At the polished delivery, the B-liver members glanced at each other and nodded.

Then the trainee clapped Taehyun's shoulder and put on a playful face.

"I actually watched Boys of the World and really enjoyed it. Anyone watching A Countdown today who was a Teacher back then is gonna feel some nostalgia, huh."

The nuance had teeth, but the B-liver members didn't seem to catch it.

B-liver's manager, though, could quietly guess at the hidden meaning behind the line.

B-liver still hasn't shaken the image of being a Boys of the World spinoff group. Watching today's A Countdown stage, people are going to naturally lump Seo Taehyun and B-liver together.

But today was, of all days, B-liver's comeback stage.

If the online communities ended up talking more about the Boys of the World trainees' reunion than about B-liver's comeback, there was no bigger loss for B-liver.

Though it's hard to imagine a trainee who hasn't even debuted yet thinking that far ahead when he said it….

Still, entertainment was a business you could never let your guard down in.

A jungle where sharp operators poured out and vanished by the day.

Just as the manager was about to shift his steps to keep a closer eye on the problem trainee, someone stepped up in front of him, blocking the way.

"…? Ah, hello, Team Lead Ji."

"Hello, Manager. It's been a while."

It was Miro's Team Lead Ji Suho.

Upia's handler — what's Ji Suho doing here?

Not that new manager from earlier?

"There's something I'd like to talk to you about. How about grabbing a coffee from the vending machine over there?"

"Right now?"

"We've got a proposal for you."

Ji Suho, smiling calmly at the bewildered manager, cast his bait.

"It has to do with the challenge."

Phase 1 of eating B-liver's buzz alive.

And it began with a challenge.