Chapter 133

Hajin was momentarily lost for words at how brazen Siwoo was being.

What on earth is this guy, really.

I mean, sure, he was good-looking!

Honestly good-looking enough that if the guy himself claimed not to know it, he'd be lying!

But normally people don't try to reset the mood by asking 'am I good-looking?', do they?

Fair enough, that wasn't really a line Kang Hajin — who'd shoved a booze-free truth game on everyone to loosen things up — had any right to throw.

Hajin had been thinking he might use the opening to dig a little more out of Siwoo, but sadly the exchange between the two of them ended right there, on that awkward note.

Because Haru and Gong Seok, who'd gone out to wash up, came back.

"…did you wash your face, or take a shower?"

Hajin asked, looking at Haru — back with not just his face, but his front hair and his chest soaked through.

Apparently he'd gotten a decent handle on his feelings — the traces of sadness just barely wiped away. Haru dabbed at the water with a tissue and answered quietly.

"I ran some cold water and cried a little more into it, and I got all wet…."

"If you were going to cry, just cry — why stick your face in the water and torture yourself?"

"That way the tears stop faster. And my face doesn't get all red."

"…even crybabies have their own know-how, huh."

Hajin conveniently glossed over the fact that among the 'crybabies,' he himself held the position of Crybaby-in-Chief.

With a joke about making sure to pass that trick along to Ju Eunchan later, prep for the fourth mission got underway in earnest.

Since Hajin had handed the leader role to Siwoo this round, Siwoo ran the meeting.

"You've all heard this already, but this round's mission is a guerrilla concert. Stage format's free, song choice is free. It'll go out on a live online stream too, and online plus on-site votes get combined — only one team, the one that takes first, gets the benefit."

Where had that chilly voice from earlier gone? Somehow already back to his usual tone, Siwoo briefed them calmly on the fourth mission.

They'd already heard all of this at the elimination-and-advancement taping the other day, but at the time they'd been too busy crying to take much in — only now was the format actually sinking in.

"So what that means is we've got to prep a stage that works both online and offline…."

Siwoo let the sentence trail off and looked around at the team.

Hajin picked the thread up naturally.

"Honestly, though — didn't the shape of it kind of jump out to everyone the second the teams got announced? I mean, our team concept."

An arts-college main-vocal purebred from the A-team, Jung Siwoo.

Gong Seok, who'd shown remarkable main-vocal chops on the third mission.

The owner of a clear, delicate voice that seemed to have told puberty to go screw itself — Dan Haru.

Plus Hajin, with a vocal style that hit hard and the lung capacity to back it.

Four trainees, every one of them considered a top candidate for the group's 'main vocal' role in Miro Maze, had ended up on the same team.

And there's no way anybody here is about to suggest we go do straight-up hip-hop.

Hajin, deadly serious, raised a clenched fist in the air like a candidate on the stump.

"We push it with vocals. A cappella, whatever — let's do one properly."

At Hajin's line, everyone nodded in agreement.

Siwoo, too, gestured at the sheet music he'd pre-sorted and added his own take.

"Yeah, that's why I only pulled vocal-focused pieces to start with. This is what the company's sheet music library had — but if there's a specific song you want to do, let me know. I can handle the arrangement and the harmonies."

Truly an arts-college student.

Hajin secretly marveled — then, struck by an idea, leaned forward.

"But hyung-nim. If we just stand there singing the whole way through, we're going to look a little… awkward, right?"

"Depends on the song and how we structure it, I think…. But yeah — compared to performances with clear choreo or gestures, sure."

"So — how about we do a little actual playing?"

"…playing?"

Every gaze zeroed in on Hajin.

Hajin nodded and kept going.

"Hyung-nim, you majored in piano, right? And I can play a little guitar. You on piano, me on guitar. Seok or Haru could pick up a simple instrument or two — if we all played together, wouldn't we get a little more shape out of it?"

"…shape?"

Hajin had unthinkingly dropped another piece of broadcast-industry slang from his PD days, caught himself on it — oops — and hurriedly added an explanation.

Then, hit with some vague sense of injustice, he tacked on another line.

"I mean, doesn't everyone use 'shape' like that?"

"……?"

"……."

"……."

"…nobody does. Sorry. I say it all the time."

Only after clocking the assigned PD and Writer over in the corner whispering about it did Hajin call GG.

"Anyway. What do we think — live playing."

At Hajin's quick pivot back to the actual topic, Gong Seok tentatively raised his hand.

"Uh…. I used to play violin. Would that help too, maybe?"

"Whoa, obviously. Violin? That's absurdly cool."

"Um, I…. I…. …recorder?"

"…let's take our time figuring out what our Haru can {play."}(#cxr7h4s9yprf)

With Gong Seok and Haru both coming in positive one after the other, the mood naturally settled toward going with Hajin's idea of playing their own instruments on this stage.

Eyes on Siwoo's stack of sheet music, mentally picking out which pieces would suit an acoustic arrangement, Hajin waited last for Siwoo's answer.

"What do you think, hyung-nim?"

"……."

But contrary to everyone's assumption that he'd sign off on it right away, Siwoo didn't open his mouth easily.

"……? Hyung-nim?"

"Ah, sorry. Just — thinking for a second."

Answering Hajin's prompt, Siwoo cracked a small awkward smile and nodded.

"I'm in too. Live playing."

"Great, so now the song selection—"

"But there's something I want to say first."

"……?"

Every head lifted to look at Siwoo.

And in that instant, Hajin caught it — a crack running through Siwoo's usual poker face.

Some emotion that didn't lend itself to easy definition slipped coldly across Siwoo's eyes.

Huh — is this, again….

"…I'll play guitar. Not piano."

…seems I just brushed something I wasn't supposed to.

Hajin nodded uncertainly at Siwoo's words.

---

After the first meeting and the taping wrapped.

Back at the dorm for dinner and to get himself sorted, Hajin lay on his bed, thinking.

Jung Siwoo….

Hajin floated an empty system window up into the air.

Then, pulling Siwoo's profile from the database, he slowly laid out below it everything he actually knew.

label: Jung Siwoo Age: 22 Birthday: 07.04 Trainee period: 4th year (started at 19, in the spring) Position: Vocal Notes: — Formerly classical piano major — Currently applied-music vocal major — Mother is a well-known pianist — No information on father (only mother's side of family listed since intake at Miro) — Reason for quitting piano unknown — Dropped out of arts high school, entered Miro — Only trainee he's close with at Miro is Lee Doha or so — Currently on leave from Gaon Arts University

"…laid out like this, I really don't know a thing."

Getting to know a single person really is that hard of a thing!

"Whoa, you scared me…!"

At Thirteen's sudden entry, Hajin jumped.

Guess by now this kid doesn't even flinch when I casually mess with the system window.

As if he could read that much of Hajin's thoughts too, Thirteen's system window shifted into a lonely, colorless grayscale.

Well…. Guess I've just given up now…?

Have you now. …oh, hey, I can change the saturation on this too?

Sweet.

I'll put that to use next time I do a system UI custom upgrade.

See — there he goes again, plotting something weird….

Thirteen dumped sigh effects (=3) all over the system window in droves. Hajin, unbothered, folded his arms and mulled over what color to change the system window to for a fresher mood.

…so what do you make of Jung Siwoo, Thirteen?

Either way, the guy was a Time Administrator — Hajin figured he might know a little more than he did himself.

And sure enough, Thirteen — apparently reading Hajin's thoughts, as always — turned the question right back on him.

You want to know about the incident that caused Jung Siwoo to quit piano, don't you?

Hajin studied the question for a beat, then nodded — as if to say he wouldn't deny it.

Thirteen briefly displayed a loading (…) icon, then carefully pulled up another window.

Why Jung Siwoo quit piano, and why he came to dream of being an idol singer, exactly — even we find it hard to say precisely. We are, literally, 'Time Administrators' — meaning, we only manage the times that occur along a person's timeline. We aren't privy to the internal shifts and deep emotions of a human being.

So the answer is 'no' after all, Hajin was thinking, brow starting to scrunch — when Thirteen calmly picked up the rest of the answer.

However…. right around the time Jung Siwoo became an idol trainee, what happened to him — that much, I can tell you.

And then a quest-reward notification window — a sight Hajin hadn't seen in a while — floated up.

No, it wasn't a reward for a quest.

System Error Compensation Notice reward: View one designated individual's (Jung Siwoo) timeline ※Warning: response rate with the designated individual is low※ ※Warning: timeline viewing will be restricted to text※ Fixed Regressor, you do still have an outstanding compensation claim for a system error, after all. Would you like to claim, as your compensation, a viewing of Jung Siwoo's past?

"Direct viewing like last time — that's not an option?"

Your response rate with Jung Siwoo isn't high enough. That's not possible. The penalty for the CP Yoon Giseok past-viewing incident is still being tallied, as it happens. High-risk behavior that could invite additional penalties — I'd recommend holding off on that for the time being. Honestly, I wouldn't especially recommend viewing Jung Siwoo's past either.

"Why? Look, if I want to catch the Selreg, I've got to at least know something."

Back during Lee Yugeon's infinite regression the other day — if he'd known about Yugeon's family situation a little earlier, maybe he wouldn't have suspected him of being the Selreg at all.

…and maybe I could've given the kid some kind of help a little sooner too.

As long as finding the Selected Regressor was on him, anything he could learn about strong suspects, he had to lock down. Only that way could he minimize variables, and only that way could he handle them when they cropped up.

To Hajin as of right now, Jung Siwoo was a variable.

Kim Wonho — who Hajin thought he was already plenty close with — still hadn't triggered a Comrade recruitment; there was no way Jung Siwoo, whose personality Hajin hadn't even properly figured out yet, was going to trigger one easily.

Better to at least gather clues one by one this way.

Decision made, Hajin — with the air of someone who'd firmed up his resolve — opened his mouth.

"Show me. What happened to Jung Siwoo four years ago."

What on earth had happened that made that hyung drop out of arts high school and become an idol hopeful.

The system window loaded for a moment.

Like search results loading on an old computer, letters slowly rose across the window.

Viewing the 'Jung Siwoo' event from four years ago.

And the moment he read it, Hajin understood — instantly — why Thirteen hadn't recommended this route.

Why, up until now, Thirteen hadn't proactively fed him information about other people in this form.

He got it, right away.

"…ah, damn it."

Father, 'Jung Geonho' — deceased (cause of death: illness)