Chapter 89

In the end, it wasn't until lunchtime that Hajin got to be a free man.

Today's lunch wasn't a boxed meal but a food truck. Today's special MC, Nam Daun, had said he'd wanted to treat the juniors to a meal at least once, and had gone and set it up himself.

Hajin loaded his tray up generously with rice from the food truck — the kind of food-truck spread he'd barely gotten to eat even back in his AD days — and thought,

'The chance is now.'

Hajin's eyes gleamed like a hyena stalking prey in the jungle. In his line of sight were the Yellow team members, eating in two separate groups.

The first group — Kim Wonho and Lee Doha.

'Honestly, that side would be the easier hang….'

The problem was, the difficulty of the mission on this side was way too high.

Lunch was only an hour, and it didn't seem like he'd be able to pull off anything deep enough in that window to both recruit a companion AND raise a trust level.

Hajin turned his head and checked the second group eating at the table right next to them.

'Now that's a combination I hadn't even considered.'

Seo Taehyun and Lee Yugeon.

Both of them were from the special class, so of course he'd figured they'd have some acquaintance — but….

The two of them looked closer than Hajin had thought.

'Lee Yugeon — isn't he the type who freezes the whole world out?'

He'd always been by himself in the waiting room and the practice room, so Hajin had figured he was the solitary-lynx type. But surprisingly, since sports day had started, Yugeon had been chatting with Taehyun a lot and cracking jokes.

'Lee Doha — well, he's a guy who treats everyone pretty much the same anyway. Kim Wonho seemed to warm up to me a bit during the last A-team round…. But him being close with Seo Taehyun — that's unexpected.'

After some deliberation, Hajin's feet ended up carrying him toward the table where Taehyun and Yugeon were sitting. Today, he decided, he needed to get a read on what kind of guy this Lee Yugeon really was.

"Kangha-hyung, come on over. Sit at whichever side's easier."

"Your table looks too cramped. I'll take this one."

"Yeah, I actually wanted to say that."

Passing Kim Wonho's table — where there didn't look to be an open seat anyway — Hajin pulled up an empty chair at the one where Taehyun and Yugeon were.

When his eyes met Yugeon's on the way over, Hajin flashed a bright smile. Then, easily, he tossed out a line.

"Whoa, Yugeon-ah, you're really good at sports. I got nagged by Taehyun all day today — you guys saved me."

He shot Seo Taehyun an SOS with his eyes: 'I want to get close to this kid, so cooperate a little.' Taehyun, mid-spoonful of well-simmered doenjang soup, caught the signal, coughed lightly, set his spoon down, and joined the conversation.

"He's good at everything physical. Even does b-boying."

"Ah, for real? Yugeon-ah, you b-boy? That's cool."

He tossed the compliment naturally. Lee Yugeon, sandwiched between them chewing on stir-fried fish cake, gave Hajin a bewildered nod of the head. Then he looked at Seo Taehyun as if the whole thing was absurd.

"What?"

"What what?"

"Why are you complimenting me the second this hyung shows up?"

"Ah, what are you talking about now."

"Seo Taehyun, until literally just now you were nagging me to shape u— ow!"

"Yah, just eat your food, you."

Taehyun ruthlessly jabbed the chattering Yugeon in the side. Watching the scene, Hajin couldn't quite hide a flicker of surprise.

'They really ARE close, huh?'

Seo Taehyun was the type who got friendlier and more affectionate the more unfamiliar or awkward he found someone.

Having worked in entertainment from a young age, being nice by default to people he wasn't close with had become a reflex for him.

'In exchange, once he considers you close, he gets casual.'

And this Seo Taehyun — with actual physical contact — was joking around?

That meant Taehyun considered Yugeon pretty close.

"Hyung, you saw that just now, right? Don't go anywhere, stay right here. If you leave, this guy's gonna — ow!"

"Yugeon-ah, aren't you hungry? Just eat, come on. Enough with the nonsense."

"Stop pinching me, please. It actually hurts."

Yugeon, pretty freely, tossed playful lines at Hajin too.

Not the shy-around-people type? Yugeon's character was getting harder and harder to pin down, and Hajin was a little thrown.

'Well — come to think of it, even that time, he was the one who spoke to me first.'

When he'd asked about Kim Wonho's second mission song.

Hajin observed Yugeon, who was getting more suspicious by the minute. He didn't even have to actively do anything — Taehyun and Yugeon squabbling on their own made him easy to watch.

"Ugh, honestly, I'm getting up out of pure resentment at Seo Taehyun nagging me."

"Yeah right. Lee Yugeon, you think I don't know you're just going up for a refill?"

"Ugh, busted. …you want anything? Do you need anything, hyung?"

"I'm good. And wow — don't play innocent just 'cause hyung's here."

"I'm okay too."

Yugeon picked his tray up lightly and stood.

Watching him mess around with Taehyun, Hajin had figured he must be a lightweight goofy type — but apparently not that either.

The easy way he asked Taehyun and Hajin if they needed anything — that wasn't someone who'd only looked after people once or twice.

'Now this is getting genuinely suspicious.'

That kind of thoughtfulness didn't come easy to your average 19-year-old Korean high schooler.

His social skills weren't bad, but he'd kept his distance from all the other trainees. And that earlier remark that sounded like he had no intention of debuting….

'This bastard — is he actually the Selreg?'

Wee-oo wee-oo, alarms started going off in his head. Either way, one thing was locked in: this guy was suspicious.

Once Yugeon was far enough toward the food truck to be out of earshot, Hajin pulled his chair closer to Taehyun and slid a question in.

"Seems you're pretty close with him? Joking around like that."

"Ah, after Cha Minseok left… in the special class it was just him and me who were the same age."

And now the V*ldemort bastard is coming up again….

At the mention of the tacitly forbidden name, the mood dipped a little. Catching that, Taehyun hurriedly went on.

"Anyway, we just ended up getting close. Both dance position, too."

"I didn't know he had that playful side. Usually seems pretty quiet."

"Hyung, is this your first time talking to him? That's all an act. Look how he is with me."

Listening to Taehyun explain, Hajin checked on Yugeon, still off in the distance. Some kind of issue must have come up — Yugeon was standing at the food truck, waiting for staff.

Which meant, if he wanted to squeeze any more clues out of Taehyun, now was the moment.

"But for a guy like that, he doesn't seem all that close with any other special-class kids besides you? So I was thinking… maybe he's a similar case to Eunchan?"

Hajin said it in a careful tone with a small shrug. Sharp-eyed Taehyun caught the implication in it and quickly shook his head.

"Ah. No, no. Han Seongwoo-hyung didn't touch him either."

"Yeah? Well, that's a relief."

"Lee Yugeon, he… hmm. Anyway, besides me there's not really anyone he hangs out with. But he's not a bad kid."

Seo Taehyun swallowed whatever it was he'd been about to say, and to the end only spoke well of Yugeon.

And that only fanned Hajin's suspicion.

'A kid with no problems — why is he sticking to this company when he doesn't even seem interested in debuting?'

Of all times, Thirteen was off-duty right now. He'd been quiet, and Hajin had been wondering what the hell he was doing….

※Exhausted by the Fixed Regressor's dismal athletic performance — stepping out briefly※ (Handling backlog….) (System maintenance….)

'Useless, absolutely useless.'

Just then, side dishes successfully refilled, Yugeon started making his way back to the table.

Hajin decided to leave the Yugeon topic there for now. If it went any deeper, sharp-eyed Taehyun might start getting suspicious of Hajin's angle — and that would be a problem.

But Taehyun, thinking whatever he was thinking, propped an elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand, looking at Hajin. Then, laughing like there was no helping him:

"Hyung, so that's why you kept talking to him?"

"Huh?"

"You know, hyung, you really are… something."

"…what?"

"You were worried he might be getting ostracized like Eunchan, so you deliberately went out of your way to take care of him — right?"

No, no I wasn't….

Hajin worked to hide his bewildered expression. Then he answered:

"Just… reminded me of my little brother."

Taehyun apparently took the answer in whatever direction pleased him — smiling contentedly, shaking his head like there was no helping this hyung.

Kang Hajin's conscience twinged a little, but he pointedly ignored it.

'Sorry, Hawon-ah. Little bit of selling you out again today.'

Kang Hajin's brand of #let-them-misunderstand… hard at work today too!

---

After lunch, Part 2 of sports day got underway.

If Part 1 had focused on the trainees' impressive athletic ability, Part 2 was full-on variety-moment territory.

—Alright, everyone! From here on out, by the authority of this special MC — bonus points!

Nam Daun — who'd been barely restraining himself because it was his first meeting with the juniors (that was him restrained) — let go of the reins and ran.

—What's the most important thing at an idol sports day?!

—First place? Nope. The championship? No.

—It's being HANDSOME! Looking cool! Sports-major moments! Coming-of-age sports drama visuals!

—So from here on, any trainee who produces a handsome moment during the games gets a 100-point bonus!!!!

At Nam Daun's demand that they start looking handsome, the trainees fell into a panic.

Look handsome? What's that even mean. How do you do that.

And while everyone was still standing there dazed, the first trainee to snag a bonus emerged.

—Ah, foul! That's a foul, Captain Jung Siwoo.

In a kickball game formed by two teams paired up in alliance, the ball Jung Siwoo kicked crossed the line and got called foul. But Jung Siwoo, unfazed at the sight of the fouled ball, moved smoothly into his next action.

—Oh, what's he doing now?

Elegantly sweeping his neatly settled bangs back with one hand, he stared off into the air in a pose like he'd just knocked a home run!

With the hand he'd used to sweep his hair back, he lightly shielded the sunlight, subtly narrowing one eye — and that face was—

—Ahh!!!! Handsome!!!!!!

…so undeniably handsome no one could argue.

Living up to his nickname 'First-Love Fabricator,' his face made you long for a baseball-team first-love oppa you'd never even had.

—Captain Jung Siwoo!!! 100-point bonus!!!

—Haha. Thank you~.

'Doesn't that just profit the handsome ones?' one might think, but Nam Daun had his own fair standards.

He didn't only reward 'objective' handsomeness — anything that produced a moment fans would love earned points on the spot.

—Ahh, Phoenix team! Right there, checking on the fallen teammate and pulling him up with one hand! Bonus, incoming!

—Whoa, Lee Parang! Winking at the camera the second he trips!! The sense on this guy! 100-point bonus!!

—Captain Seo Taehyun, why are you stopping halfway through crossing the finish line? …Ah! Ending fairy! He's doing an ending fairy pose! Bonus, gavel-down!

At this rate, the outcomes of the actual games mattered less than nailing the variety angles.

Once the trainees roughly grasped how the system was working, they threw everything they had at manufacturing It Points.

In a word, it was chaos.

'I can't even guess how any of this ends up on air anymore.'

Sprawled on the ground like he'd collapsed, Hajin hit a moment of reality-check.

He'd just come back from doing nothing but strike model poses with Kim Wonho when they were supposed to have been bowling. Guilty of caving under pressure from a benefits-blinded Seo Taehyun.

After a few rounds of games like that, the end of sports day rolled around before anyone knew it.

"Everyone, did you have fun today?"

"…yes!"

"Huh? That's a small voice. DID you have fun?!"

"YEEEES!!"

Right up to the very end, Nam Daun kept the trainees on a tight leash. Hajin had gone past awe and moved on to acknowledging Nam Daun as transcendent.

'How does he scream for six straight hours without blowing out his voice?'

Amazing man….

Silently giving another thumbs-up of admiration inside his head, Hajin waited — and at last, the winning team of the day was decided.

"Today's winning team is…."

Pausing briefly for effect, Nam Daun unrolled the scroll in his hand vertically. The color pasted inside the scroll was the day's winning team.

And inside the unfurled scroll, spread out — was a whole lot of purple….

'Huh? Purple?'

"Today's winning team is Team Lilac! Congratulations!!!"

How?

Everyone looked around with round, blank eyes, uncomprehending. Even the members of Team Lilac themselves.

"While you all were ignoring the games chasing bonuses, Team Lilac dutifully played and racked up match points!"

"……"

"The bonus points were distributed pretty evenly among the teams anyway, so it's only natural that Team Lilac — with the most match points from the games — takes the win, right?"

"……"

"So everyone — you can't drop your guard for a single second in variety~."

At Nam Da—, no, at that chaotic Nam-tijoo bastard's line, everyone was left speechless.

Landed unexpectedly with both the winner's trophy and the benefit, Team Lilac's captain Gong Seok took the mic with a face gone completely rigid.

"Uh, um. So, um, thank you. Well, that is — I, I dedicate this glory to Desti?"

"Oohh, good speech!"

At Nam Daun's cue to clap, the trainees produced applause and cheers by now like reaction machines. Clapping in congratulation with the rest, Hajin thought:

'Going home and starting a Nam Daun burner account….'

Nothing he'd actually have to post on it, but for now, opening one.

'For me to lose on variety sense!'

Kang Hajin, former variety PD. Miserably defeated by a 13-year veteran pro idol.