Chapter 156

handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D this k-pop thing is honestly hilarious the kids are the ones debuting but why am I the one, a week out, off food and drink and coming down with gastritis when their conversion to full-time employment doesn't have the slightest impact on my life engagement: shares 3,093 · quotes 1,004 · hearts 4,832

The finals live broadcast was right around the corner.

The voting — previously running on the two-pick system — flipped to one-pick, and the finals audience notice went up along with related articles.

Episodes 8 and 9, plus the goodbye stages of the second-cut-eliminated trainees, and various other official contents flooded up all at once, like the show was emptying its hard drive.

title: [looking for a buddy] tomorrow at hongdae-ent — anyone up to hit the kang-lee-kim-z support ad + cafe with me! planning to open-run from 10 am… would be even better if you're of legal age! handle: @ch_blossom name: Cherry Blossom Together with Taeriday-nim (@tae_day) and Foxxy-nim (@foxxy1) the Taehyun support exhibition we've prepared and the goods giveaway notice for finals day are up! This time I really do want to get our Taehyun debuted let's all give it just a little more!

To protect their voting rights, the fans, too, went all-out.

Support ads for the trainees, cafes, goods giveaways — plus a range of vote-authentication events and hashtag events kept coming.

—oh, credits for the new song are up

At this finals, what would be unveiled wasn't a cover song but Miro Maze's own original.

Other things aside, Miro was known for putting out killer tracks — so a lot of people had their attention locked on the new song this time too.

title: [check out the lineup for the credits on the MRMZ new song] upia's seo taeil and enderway's park woong are same agency so those were expected but for lyrics sarin and yun huijae, producing ronday ㄷㄷㄷ - ? this isn't the debut song by any chance? > nn just for the finals > han sewon-ssi is the company going bankrupt if this next act flops - the lineup is insane - wow ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ song-wise you can listen with confidence, the MRMZ kids also sing well right - as an i.dea this combo is so familiar to me i'm not feeling it as much, so this was a big deal huh > ah same ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ was this just me ㅠㅠ heheh ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ > nono just felt like our taeil's been making the rounds on the phone again… > those people are all seo taeil's neighborhood-walkabout crew ㅠㅠㅠㅠ - has it come out yet who's doing which song? > nn seems it gets unveiled at the live broadcast so it's even more nerve-wracking

Everyone, hoping the trainee they were supporting would debut, was just waiting for finals day to hurry up and arrive.

At exactly that moment —

from a place absolutely no one had expected, sightings of the trainees popped up.

title: [guuuuys i i came to take a four-cut] (miro maze trainees' four-cut photos) thi-i-i-i-s what the hell my haaands are shaking - ? - ???? - ??????????????

Starting with the group shots of the trainees hanging in the {four-cut photo}(#hlbl9uo6v98g) shop supporting Miro Maze trainees, traces of the trainees started turning up everywhere.

handle: @MrJerry name: Jerry OMG guys I'm at the Hajin event restaurant and there's a little-kid Kang Hajin photocard here apparently Hajin came before opening and dropped it off oh my god [photo] handle: @milkywayboy name: Milky Road on the seo-ju-dan support ad at hongdae-ent an eunchan post-it ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ there's ones from taehyun and haru too!!! looks like all the kids came together ㅠㅠㅠㅠ title: [i'm so grateful to the kids…] they're prepping for the finals themselves, not even getting any sleep and running on empty right now, when did they even prep an event like this ㅠㅠ - like they'd do it, the company obviously did it ㅋㅋㅋㅋ > how would the company shoot a four-cut you idiot, wear a mask and shoot? > seeing kids this twisted up now i just pity you… how little love did you grow up with > i just stated a fact, what??ㅋㅋㅋ and I got plenty of love??? > yes yes… i get it… feels good getting attention even this way huh… - the comment above is grim, honestly is this community due to fail

At the surprise event no one had seen coming, the Destis were purely, honestly delighted.

The Miro Maze official account put up a notice that as a finals-live-broadcast watch and voting authentication event, the four-cut photos taken by the trainees would be sent out via random drawing.

It was fresh fuel for the final voting sprint.

And at that same moment.

In the middle of days so packed with finals prep they couldn't spare a breath, the ten trainees — having successfully wrapped even the surprise event for the Destis — were currently…

"……."

"……."

"……."

"…bang."

"Aaagh!"

"…gah!"

"Yes! Jayden-hyung, you got got!"

…gathered in the practice room, deep in a nerve-wracking round of 007.

"It's so unfair. I'm foreigner. Cut me slack."

"007 was originally an American thing anyway."

"That hyung, I swear — only pulls the U.S. citizenship card when it works in his favor."

"Alright, one penalty stat for Jayden-hyung, banked~"

On the faces of the trainees sitting gathered in a circle, not one of them left out, smiles bloomed for the first time in a while.

Jayden started spouting weird Konglish like I'm very unfairly accused, Man. I was so close. We must one more round.

Watching all of this quietly, Eunchan slipped a small remark toward Hajin, sitting next to him.

"But us…. It really is okay to just be goofing off like this, right?"

To Jayden — throwing a fit demanding just one more round — Jaeyoung had firmly laid down that hyung, you're actually fluent in Korean, cut it out with the fake broken-Korean act. Watching that squabble play out with a faint smile, Hajin, at Eunchan's question to him, shrugged and answered.

"What can you do. Team Lead said no practice today."

Three days before the finals.

Ji Suho had given the trainees one day of free time.

Practically speaking they'd been practicing until late last night and would be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow with rehearsal and everything else mountain-high to prep, so you couldn't exactly call it a full day…

Still, Ji Suho's directive was that at least for these few hours, they should stop thinking about practice, stop thinking about the finals, and just focus on enjoying themselves.

"Thanks to that, we got to tour the ads and cafes today too — isn't that nice?"

"It is, but…. It just feels a little off. Like, are we allowed to do this."

"They say the night before the college entrance exam you're supposed to skip studying and just manage your condition. Think of it like that. Either way it was fun, right? We have to be having fun and enjoying ourselves for the people watching us to enjoy it too."

At Hajin's easy line, Eunchan nodded like it was making a bit more sense to him.

Over the course of today they really had done a lot.

Since morning they'd toured the countless cafes and ads set up in support of them, then all together grilled meat and ate at the in-house cafeteria.

Once they'd eaten their fill, on the grounds that they had to burn off the calories, they'd headed to a nearby field and played a round of soccer.

Though, unable to hold up against a Lee Doha steamrolling and a Kang Hajin trolling, they'd wrapped it up and headed back in short order.

They'd installed a karaoke app on the practice-room monitor and gotten a solid hour of Miro Maze song-showdown in, and now, under the leadership of Jung Siwoo — who'd conquered university drinking games — and Kang Hajin, who'd done some running around in his own day, they were working their way through various games.

For trainees who'd spent anywhere from one year to over three inside this Miro underground practice room with their eyes on nothing but debut, it was definitely a welcome change of pace.

Eunchan slowly traced back through the events of today in his head and nodded to himself, a little.

"…it was fun."

"Then that's enough."

Satisfied with Eunchan's answer, Hajin smiled and turned his head again, then lifted himself up off the floor to break up the Jayden-and-Jaeyoung wrestling match that was steadily escalating.

Watching Hajin peel apart the two — tangled up bickering like a dog and a cat — with one tickle-attack, Eunchan happened to think:

So it can be like this too.

Eunchan had gone through a time when stepping into this practice room itself was a torment.

The eyes fixed on him, the whispered voices.

For the Eunchan of back then, the practice room had been a space where not a single thing was welcome or wanted — and at the same time, a space he could never escape from, must never escape from.

And yet, in just a few short months, Eunchan had even forgotten that he'd ever been afraid of this place.

"Eunchan-ah. Did you hear?"

"Ah, no. I didn't."

"They're splitting into dorm teams and gaming for tonight's grocery run and dishwashing. Right now they're picking what game."

Taehyun — now at Eunchan's side without his noticing — explained, and Eunchan nodded. Up front, Hajin — who'd been the one breaking up Jayden and Jaeyoung a second ago — had somehow gotten grabbed by the two of them and was now the one taking the payback.

"Why's Hajin-hyung like that?"

"Ah. He's rebelling — no, objecting — that splitting the teams by dorms was too unbalanced..."

Retaliation that had started as tickling was slowly turning into wrestling when Siwoo cut it off at just the right moment.

Along with a fact-punch loaded with glass shards — you get pissed off enough getting hurt during practice, so if you get hurt playing and can't pull off the finals properly, who exactly are you planning to blame for the rest of your life — for good measure.

Eunchan gladly took in the rowdy atmosphere of the practice room.

Unlike when he'd left, Hajin — coming back with hair and clothes in complete disarray — could be seen shuffling over this way. Taehyun, looking at Hajin, smiled and threw him a joke.

"Aigo, grandpa. Working hard entertaining the grandchildren, are we."

"My body's just not what it used to be…."

"What was it like in the old days?"

"Back in my day, in the army, I racked up commendations for this and that, could pull three all-nighters entertaining kids and be totally fine."

"Uh-huh, sure. Amazing, weren't you."

"You don't believe me?"

"Aigoo, I believe you. Our grandpa, the greatest."

Taehyun — with no way of knowing that what Hajin was saying was actually true — brushed Hajin's line off in the way he always brushed off Hajin's usual nonsense. At that, Hajin fired back at Taehyun with an expression that read my pride is slightly wounded, but with no way to prove it was true either, he just shut his mouth and settled in beside Taehyun.

Wait. But the army thing and the camp-counselor volunteering happened later than now. So this — do I call it 'the old days,' or 'the future'?

On the fact that the 29-year-old me is in the past relative to the 20-year-old me.

Hajin — struck once again with the thought that the life of a regressor really isn't easy — glanced briefly at Haru, absorbed with Siwoo in deciding the game category, then pulled his gaze away.

Naturally laying his head down on Taehyun's thigh, Hajin looked up at Taehyun and, in a slipped-in passing tone, asked:

"New song prep going well?"

"You're throwing me a check this hard, out of nowhere?"

"Not a check — concern. A hyung's worry and expectation for a dongsaeng preparing yet another challenge."

"Hyung, seriously…. even if you fell in the Han River, that mouth would float."

"Yeah. Actually this isn't a mouth, it's a lifeboat. Very well-suited to surviving the era of rising sea levels from global warming…."

"New song prep's going well, so don't worry about it, grandpa."

"Mmm. Good. Very commendable."

At Taehyun — who by now had the knack of cutting off Hajin's nonsense-tangents at just the right beat — Hajin pressed his lips shut, as if honey had been smeared on them.

But Eunchan understood better than anyone why Hajin had thrown out a question like that. He, too, had been someone surprised when Taehyun had chosen the current song out of the two on the table.

"Taehyun-hyung's good at it. He's our team's ace."

At the softly added remark, both Hajin and Taehyun turned to look at Eunchan with slightly surprised faces.

Feeling awkward and self-conscious under that attention, Eunchan quickly pulled his eyes away and hid his face with his hands.

"Ah, what. Why are you looking at me like that."

"Taehyun-ah…. Our Eunchan's all grown up…."

"Getting complimented by Eunchan really feels good."

"Chan-ah. What about hyung? How's hyung. Don't you think hyung's doing well too?"

"Hyung, you're not on our team!"

"Goodness. Anyone not on Team A wouldn't be able to bear the disappointment."

"Ah, grandpa, go away. He's our team's commendable-center-maknae."

"Aaagh! Stop teasing me!"

At the storm of attention (thinly disguised teasing), in the end Eunchan flushed the tips of his ears bright red and got up and fled. Watching Eunchan take shelter with Doha — the one guaranteed to never tease him — Hajin laughed like it was a loss and lifted himself up.

"Ah, if we lose at the finals, teasing Eunchan is over."

"…what kind of flag are you planting like that, hyung?"

"What are you talking about. That's a personal vow and resolution not to get eliminated at the finals, no matter what."

At Hajin flinching back in mock horror, this time Taehyun's laugh burst out.

Right — no chance of losing.

That wasn't just Hajin — Taehyun too.

"…gotta do well. What did it take to get this chance."

Taehyun said it in a small voice, like a vow, and clenched his fist.

He couldn't afford to lose another golden chance to the same mistake all over again.

Hajin didn't add anything to Taehyun's grave look, just quietly sank into thought.

Three days from now — what kind of result would we be facing?

Over that heavy question, the trainees' bright laughter kept piling up, like sand.