Chapter 130

"Oh, oh. It's on, it's on."

Episode 6 was starting.

The trainees, who had been jabbering away noisily, all shut up at the same time as if on cue.

But not everyone.

Well before episode 6 had even started, there was one man in particular who hadn't been able to get a single word out.

"…yah, did I do something to Kangha-hyung?"

"Dunno."

"Or is Kangha-hyung in a bad mood today?"

"Not that I've noticed."

"Then why does he keep glaring at me…?"

"Beats me."

"…you rotten little bastard!"

"Ow! Are you nuts?!"

The man who had just driven an elbow into Lee Yugeon's ribs — Yugeon, who'd been chewing away at his chicken and answering half-heartedly the whole time.

Kim Wonho. 19 years old.

He'd asked Kang Hajin for a single slice of potato pizza, and had spent the last ten minutes with a stare burning into him!

He's staring so openly I can't even bring myself to ask why he's staring.

Wonho was starting to feel like sweat was breaking out down his back.

He turned his head slightly and checked on Hajin behind him.

……?

Hajin, who'd been staring him down this whole time, had somehow already looked away — cracking up now, trading jokes with Taehyun on the couch beside him.

Along with the relief of being out from under that unmistakable glare, Wonho couldn't help feeling a little sheepish.

…was I just being too self-conscious?

Right. What reason would that hyung have to glare at me.

Wonho scratched at his neck, wore a slightly awkward face, and picked his chopsticks back up.

---

But contrary to Wonho's wishes.

The instant Wonho turned away, Hajin's eyes went back to daggers and locked right onto him.

Hajin had a perfectly valid reason for wanting to stare a hole through the back of Wonho's head.

Why though? Response rate that time was over 90%, and we're on decent terms right now?

The fact was, Hajin barely suspected Wonho of being the Selreg.

Ask him why — well.

His gut just said so.

So now, of all things, we're guessing at the Selreg by gut feel?

Come on. Believe it or not, my instincts are good.

Anyway, as long as he wasn't seriously suspicious of Wonho, Comrade recruitment wasn't strictly necessary.

Comrade recruitment itself was a means of identifying the Selected Regressor through past timelines.

But! Still!

It's a mood thing!

There was Lee Doha, still stuck under that damn 70% mark!

Why! Was there no follow-up on Kim Wonho —

when the same Comrade recruitment event had fired for him too! Why!

Looking back at how Comrade recruitment had fired so far, it seemed to hit at whatever moment felt like yeah, this person and I could really be bound together for the long haul.

The moment when mutual trust settled into a full-fledged relationship.

Framed that way, the fact that Kim Wonho, of all people, hadn't triggered a Comrade recruitment event yet was — from Hajin's point of view — deeply insulting!

Kind of like when a friend you thought was tight with you deliberately picks any seat on the field-trip bus except the one next to yours.

…what is that? System is puzzled by an unnecessarily precise comparison…. (๑•̌.•̑๑)ˀ̣

Trust me, it's a thing.

Hajin bit into the ice cream he'd grabbed for dessert with a crunch and turned it over in his head.

Once the thought was there, a stubborn urge to lock Wonho in as a Comrade set in.

Come to think of it, feeling-wise, Comrade recruitment always fires at that "this is the moment" kind of beat.

You know that thing in dramas or movies, where the emotional score is building and then just cuts out as the protagonist beams and drops one killer line — that moment.

In web-novel terms, right before the wistful, feelings-drenched final sentence and the cut to the next scene…

Enough, you nerd….

Look at you, dropping honorifics on me now.

Anyway. The conclusion:

MOOD was what mattered.

Guess I've got to sit down for another meal with him soon.

Think you can hold out on being my Comrade?

Hajin's eyes glinted as he glared at the back of Wonho's head.

---

While Hajin was busy scheming how to butter Wonho up, Miro Maze episode 6 was rolling along steadily.

Once the mission reveal aired, along with the team assignments — trainees picking rooms at random and heading in — the trainees got noisy again, each with their own take on their on-screen selves.

"But weren't you all kind of on edge during that?"

"Yeah, first off you couldn't tell who was already inside."

"And the Wings got all the hints. Feather didn't even have that, so it was a total coin flip, completely."

The trainees kept the conversation running among themselves, no one taking the lead, all of them laughing along.

The scene was so easy and natural it was hard to believe these were the same guys who, only a few months ago, had been drawing hard lines between the special class and the general class and locked in a full-on cold war.

Wings, Feather — regardless of any of that —

Watching the trainees mixed together and chatting freely, someone…

No — the Selected Regressor thought:

…so this too was possible.

The trainees' harmony and reconciliation — something that had seemed impossible.

And the countless timelines that had shifted because of it.

…so this was possible after all.

At the far end of the Selected Regressor's gaze was the one person who had brought all of this change about.

Kang Hajin.

The one who had — casually, easily — pulled off things the Selected Regressor had thought impossible across countless repeated lives.

The one who had shown up one day out of nowhere and now cast a bigger presence than anyone else in the room.

The Selected Regressor watched Hajin quietly for a while, and then, remembering his own situation, thought:

I'm still okay. …still.

Reassuring himself, the Selected Regressor's consciousness slowly went to sleep.

Staying awake too long could put too much strain on the body.

He'd been split from the base personality for so long by now that the sense of this body being his own had gone entirely.

But that didn't matter.

"Siwoo-hyung, how did you know what a harness was, though?"

"That hyung going in already knowing that is the more shocking part."

Around the point where the Blue Flare team's truth game aired, the Selected Regressor's personality had completely gone dark.

"Is it really that shocking I knew? Haru knew what a harness was too."

"I saw one on the Boys of the World that Taehyun-hyung was on!"

"Haru — you knew what a harness was…?"

"Our Ju-Doesn't-Know is shocked all over again."

"…I'm not shocked!"

"Grandpa, quit teasing Eunchan."

"This old man's one and only joy in life…."

Starting from Siwoo's line, the conversation ran through Haru, Eunchan, Taehyun, and Hajin in turn.

Someone who had been the Selected Regressor slid in among them, natural as breathing.

As if nothing had happened at all.

---

"Ooh, the stages are up now."

"But wow, they're showing all of the third mission in one shot. I figured they'd split it over two weeks like the earlier missions."

"Probably 'cause voting closes day after tomorrow."

At the mention of voting closing, the buzz in the room dipped, gone a little glum.

The 'elimination' they had barely managed to forget had come rushing back.

At the mood turning cold in an instant, Hajin — sitting in the middle — covered his eyes with a hand and put on a solemn voice.

"…the one who just uttered 'those words.' Who is he."

"'Tis Gong Seok-hyungnim, Your Highness."

"Huh? Wh-, why me…?"

"Hah. That our eldest hyung should utter 'those words' — what a grievous thing…. Have hyung sentenced to Chicken Leg at once."

"Aye, sire."

"…no, no, why! Mmph!"

At Hajin's command, Parang and Jaeyoung seized Gong Seok's arms. Wonho — "Hyung, I'm sorry. I didn't want this either!" — jammed a sauce-drenched drumstick into Gong Seok's mouth.

Yugeon, watching the whole thing, turned to Taehyun, dumbfounded.

"…what are they even doing?"

"Let them be. This is how they play."

"Isn't a seasoned drumstick a reward, not a punishment?"

"It's high in calories, so for trainees who have to watch their weight, it counts as a punishment."

"Ah, huh."

"…why do you just take that at face value?"

At Yugeon nodding along, satisfied with Taehyun's explanation, Taehyun's own face went even more incredulous as he shot back at him.

Then, remembering something, he asked Yugeon carefully.

"So — you. Are you starting to actually want to debut now?"

"Where's that coming from?"

"No, well. …can friends not even ask each other stuff?"

Yugeon glanced once at Taehyun's slightly self-conscious face, then back at their TV selves, and thought for a moment.

Back during the last 'walkout incident,' he'd come back for a mix of reasons — including the thought that he wanted to keep going a bit longer with Hajin and the Blue Flare guys….

…debut? Me?

Wasn't that still a bit far off?

Feeling suddenly at a loss, Yugeon shrugged and shook his head.

"Dunno. Haven't thought that far yet."

"Yah, and what if you actually end up debuting?"

"Beats me. But hey — ten of us here are getting cut…. That kind of luxury worry can wait till after I make it."

Yugeon started habitually clearing up the delivery trash, cutting the conversation short.

Just, for now.

At least until the results came out.

He wanted to shut his eyes on the headache of reality and live in a dream for a while.

"…is that so."

Whether he really knew what was going on in Yugeon's head or not —

Taehyun nodded with an odd look on his face, his eyes slipping into a faintly bittersweet cast.

---

Miro Maze episode 6, packed wall-to-wall with the third mission, wrapped without a hitch.

The trainees, with the elimination announcement bearing down on them, each began bracing themselves in their own way.

The Destis, too, dreaming of a last-minute reversal, threw everything they had into voting for the trainees they were rooting for.

handle: @ch_blossom name: Cherry Blossom ★MiroMaze #SeoTaehyun voting EVENT★ RT this tweet, then quote-tweet with your voting proof and 3 winners get picked at random for chicken, perfume, and a film camera! entry window: through 23:59 the day after tomorrow [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo] title: [who did we agree to ally with?] voting rn but besides haru who do i pick?? - eunchan! - eunchan lgtm! - pick from eunchan, jaeyoung, taehyun i think! we all agreed to help each other handle: @2uuu_gunn2 name: Reason Geon today's voting proof thread — GO! mention me your yugeon vote proofs just blast em at me~~

Whether it was thanks to how strong every stage in the third mission had been, or the tension of eliminations that were now actually on the horizon —

names of trainees who hadn't come up much on communities or SNS started surfacing more and more.

Park Jaeyoung, who had shown off cute-younger-guy charm on the 'I'm Gonna Tell You!' stage, was one such example, and

Gong Seok, praised for hard-carrying the Silverchain team as its main vocal, was another.

And.

Amid that churning save-my-kid melee among the Destis, one fandom in particular stood out.

- yo what the hell are these kang-stans doing

That was Hajin's fandom.

- did these guys awaken after taking that beatdown…? > they'd have every reason to > ?? why? something else happen? > ???? you didn't watch yesterday's broadcast?

The reason was simple.

- kang hajin cried right, saying thanks for the chance to do the stage

It was because of the most powerful thing in the world — my kid's tears.