Chapter 87

One hour and thirty minutes before Kang Hajin came to yearn for regression — at that same gymnasium.

〈★Miro Maze Cup★ One-Heart Field Day〉

〈guys tonight's dinner is beef -by. Han Sewon's card-〉

〈(sho—) Little Miros in team tees ACTUALLY EXIST (—ck) ΣΣ(ﾟДﾟ;)〉

〈Destis, enjoy (wink) that's what this field day is for〉

Banners of otherworldly wordplay fluttered on all sides of the gymnasium.

PD Kwon Myeongeun, who'd rounded up the trainees first thing in the morning, clapped her hands sharply to get their attention.

"Alright, everyone! Today is a real, honest just-have-fun day! All you need to do is enjoy yourselves! We figured you'd be feeling cooped up stuck in the practice room every day, so we spent a little money. Well — YOUR representative did!"

Whoo~~! The assistant directors standing behind PD Kwon threw their arms out in the direction of someone and cheered. Swept up by the professional hype crew, the trainees clapped along with dazed looks on their faces.

At the receiving end of all the cheers stood Miro's CEO, Han Sewon, making a rare appearance.

'Wow. Even His Excellency graced us with his presence.'

Miro Maze's first broadcast had genuinely blown up, apparently. The trainees, seeing their CEO for the first time in a while, went a bit shy around him. Even Hajin hadn't seen him since the one meeting he'd had right after signing his contract.

"Yeah, yeah. Dropping off my card so you can eat something good tonight, so have fun! Don't get hurt!"

"Yes~!"

"Love our youngest sons!"

"Waaahhhhh~~!!!"

To fans, an agency's CEO was basically the company's designated punching bag — someone to take the flak on the whole outfit's behalf.

Still, as CEOs went, Miro's Han Sewon enjoyed comparatively decent public reception.

- our sewon-i has no money, no swagger, sometimes no sense, but he's good to the kids. > pick one — beat him or defend him.

I can drag him myself, but no one else lays a hand on him — that was roughly the shape of the relationship.

For good reason, too — even by Hajin's own reckoning, Miro was solid on artist welfare, at least.

For trainees from tough backgrounds, they'd cover tuition or living expenses. Weekends were kept clear of practice and classes so trainees could rest or visit home.

For minors especially — whether trainee or artist — the company made sure they walked out with a high school diploma. And there was a tearjerking story behind that one, too.

title: [The reason Upia's members would never dare to be rude to Seo Taeil. jpg] - (Upia 8th-anniversary drinking-stream in-house content video) [photo] [photo] +summary during trainee days the company was in such rough shape that seo taeil quietly dropped out of high school and worked part-time jobsㅇㅇ the ceo and the members had no clue, then noticed him not leaving the dorm on his own graduation day and pressed him until they got it out of him... the ceo was working three jobs at the time to cover staff salaries, the trainees' tuition, living expenses, and debut prep, and seo taeil took the tuition money that came out in his name and put it toward living expenses. with his own part-time earnings he rented out practice and recording rooms, and gave the leftover to the dongsaengs as pocket money (they were at arts high school and he was worried they'd feel out of place) conclusion: tae-beoji is a god. he is light and truth. disagree, and you get locked in a room with a nam daun who hasn't been allowed to speak in 3 days - was crying reading this and the last line snapped me right out of it - ah just imagining the last line, my energy's already drained and my ears are bleeding; > how is his name literally namdaun ('like everyone else')...not namdareum ('unique'), not nadaun ('like yourself'), just namdaunㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - OP add this one too! later the ceo actually confessed he'd known all along, and cried real tears with taeil promising he'd make him succeed no matter what then the moment they debuted and got their first income, he sold his own house to move the kids into a new place and covered every won of taeil's ged tuitionㅜㅠ... this is why the I.deas can never bring themselves to hate sewonㅠㅠㅜㅜㅜjust an adult who's too sincere with the kidsㅠㅜㅜ,,,, > omg i didn't know this partㅠㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅠ

And the follow-up: after that incident, Miro established the ironclad rule that every trainee or artist absolutely had to earn their high-school diploma.

A tale one couldn't hear without shedding tears…! ʕ ಡ ﹏ ಡ ʔ

'Textbook young-breadwinner-of-that-era story.'

Hajin thought this as he watched Seo Taeil testing a mic at the center of the gym.

He talked like this, but truthfully, Hajin held Seo Taeil the person in considerable respect and admiration.

Especially because he knew, better than most, how heavy a word 'responsibility' could be for an eldest sibling.

"Ah, ah. Mic check. Alright, everyone, can you hear me?"

Filming was apparently about to start — the staff who'd been fixing Taeil's hair and makeup were making their way over to the production area.

Seo Taeil was decked head to toe in the same brand of sportswear — the brand Upia had been fronting ads for three years running. Those sneakers in particular had to be the limited-edition kicks released for Upia's 12th anniversary.

'Renewing the vow today, too. Young and Rich, Tall and Handsome.'

Hajin, clenching a fist and firing up his resolve, headed for the center of the gym as the production directed.

Anyway, whatever — it did feel good to get some outside air for once.

---

"For today, we have a very special MC who'll be helping me out!"

"Oooh~."

Having gotten some broadcast under their belts, the trainees' reactions were getting better and better. Seo Taeil looked contentedly at his hoobaes for a moment, then, remembering the special MC he was about to introduce, cleared his throat.

'Should I have just dragged Jinu along? Of all the members, this guy's the only one who was free today….'

But no. I am 13-year-veteran pro idol Seo Taeil. Absolutely not showing it.

Taeil raised his mic with a practiced poker face, ready to deliver the next line.

"Truly, to make your field day today even more fun, we went to great pains — great pains — to bring you… ah, who could it be, you must be curi—"

—was as far as he got.

"Ehhey. Too long, too long!"

"Haaa…."

Someone, in a resounding and unshakable voice, cut the audio right out from under him.

Pro idol Seo Taeil's poker face collapsed in a heap. Taeil covered his eyes with a hand as if he'd seen this coming and let out a sigh.

The trainees froze for a moment at the sudden new arrival, then turned toward where the voice had come from.

From behind the production, a light-brown-haired handsome young man in the same outfit as Taeil strode toward him, tapping his palm with a rolled-up cue card.

"So how long am I supposed to wait, exactly? Huh? When are we starting the field day? After the sun's gone down?"

"Daun-ah, hyung's in the middle of a bit…."

"Well yeah, you're doing a bit, but it's too long. This isn't Pia Land (Upia's self-content channel name) filming, is it? The hoobaes are standing over there struggling — what are you doing, hyung?"

"This is exactly why I didn't want to bring you."

"What? What was that? Hyung! Is this — is this member discrimination? Should I just go back home? I am genuinely hurt right now, I really am."

"Daun-ah, please."

What was happening at Miro Maze?

Watching the always-charismatic, always-composed Seo Taeil biting his lip and floundering, the trainees' reactions short-circuited.

He'd been on for less than a minute and had already stolen the audio — it was absurd.

"Ah, fine. Introduce me already, hurry up."

"Yes. Today's special MC. Upia's…."

"Uh uh? I heard this from Hansol-i too. Hyung, why do you keep skipping our introductions? Are we embarrassing?"

"…the lovable Maltese main dancer, our third-born, Nam Daun. Yaaay."

"Mm. That's right."

Satisfied with his introduction, the man — Nam Daun — beamed a proud smile and waved at the trainees in greeting.

"Hi, hoobaes? I'm Nam-Tijoo-hyung!"

Watching this, Hajin clapped with genuine awe.

'So this is what the life of a 13-year-vet, post-military male idol with zero qualms about moe-ifying himself looks like.'

Nam Daun was known as the top variety-personality of Upia's members.

Friendly, and above all — talkative. Really talkative. For MCing something like a field day, Seo Taeil ran a little too dignified, so they'd probably brought Nam Daun in to shake up the atmosphere.

And as the production had hoped, Nam Daun expertly cranked up the field day's energy.

"Alright! My nephews! Three-second shout to the front — FIRE~~!!!!"

"Aaaahhhhhh~~~~!!!"

"Love confession to the Destis — GO~~~~!!!"

"Destis, we love you~~!!!!"

'It's chaos.'

Not even 10 minutes since Nam Daun's arrival, and some of the trainees were already flagging. Around when he blasted EDM under the pretext of a warm-up and turned the whole thing into a full-blown dance party, Seo Taeil actually put his mic down.

"Huff, huff."

"Okay, that's our opening footage. We got it, right, production?"

At the question — asked with a wink — the writer sitting in front of the camera held up a sketchbook.

〈♥God of Variety, God of Airtime, His Supreme Sacredness Nam-Tijoo, we love you♥〉

The heart, filled in thick with permanent marker, seemed to speak for the whole production team.

"Then now… hey, where'd our hyung go?"

Looking around for Seo Taeil to deliver the next bit, Nam-Tij — no, Nam Daun — scanned the surroundings.

By the time Nam Daun had led the trainees through their twelfth stadium wave, Seo Taeil had long since put his mic down and was resting in the shade of the announcer's platform. Spotting Nam Daun searching for him, he waved him off with a lazy flap of the hand.

"Keep going, keep going. Our Daun-i, whatever you want to do."

"Hey, our MC over there has zero sense of responsibility. What are you doing over there?"

"Hyung's tired too, at this point. Getting old."

"Ha, alright, fine. Everyone! Today we play with meeeee!"

"Yeeeaahhhhhh!!"

Nam Daun threw both arms up. And the trainees — drilled in their reactions by Nam Daun like devotees of some cult — threw their arms up right along with him, shouting.

'This is a mess.'

Even thinking that, Hajin played to the mood and shouted loudly along with the rest.

Yeah, so….

That, right there, was the fu—(not a curse!)cking starting point of the whole affair.

---

Teams were split according to headcount — four teams in total, three of four and one of five.

Each team was divided by team uniform: Red Team, Blue Team, Purple Team, and Yellow Team.

Team members were fairly drawn first — one round of picking balls from a box — and if any teams came out too badly unbalanced, they were re-adjusted after a careful conference between the production and the MCs. (This was around when Hajin started to feel a faint unease. Just what events had they prepared that required this much deliberation?)

And so, at last, today's final teams!

〈Red Team (though, thanks to their own aggressive lobbying, promoted to Team Phoenix.)〉

〈Captain: Jung Siwoo / Members: Ju Eunchan, Dan Haru, Park Jaeyoung〉

〈Blue Team (was, but after watching Team Phoenix's self-branding, decided they couldn't lose and changed to Team Blue Dragon.)〉

〈Captain: Kim Heegeon / Members: Lee Parang, Shin Kyungho, Yoon Taewon〉

〈Purple Team (was, but likewise, watching the two teams ahead of them and feeling some kind of pressure that they had to change too, became Team Lilac.)〉

〈Captain: Gong Seok / Kim Minwook, Yuki, Jayden〉

And, drumroll….

〈(Just) Yellow Team〉

〈Captain: Seo Taehyun / Members: Kang Hajin, Lee Doha, Kim Wonho, Lee Yugeon〉

Setting aside Seo Taehyun, the team was four menacing-looking guys over 180 cm huddled together on the gym floor in enormous yellow tracksuits. Kang Hajin watched them and thought:

'Is this right?'