Chapter 99

'Figured that would happen.'

Today, once again, our brake-failed eight-ton truck plowed cleanly into Lee Yugeon. You could tell even from a distance that Yugeon, out of character for him, had been thrown.

'When that lands on you for the first time, the back of your head goes numb.'

Thank god Lee Doha reacted exactly the way I'd predicted.

For someone like Lee Yugeon, the "strip it all back and get to the point" approach would feel way more comfortable than the sensitivity-200%, deeply-empathizing types like Seo Taehyun or Dan Haru.

Now that I had the full picture, the sides of Yugeon I hadn't been able to see while I was locked into the "he might be the Selreg" theory finally started making sense.

The endlessly light attitude. The Copy&Paste special. And the debuff attached to Yugeon on top of it.

label: Lee Yugeon (Miro) Debuff: All stats reduced by effect of innate trait Vocals: D (C+) Dance: B+ (S) Expression: C- (A-) Charm: D+ (B+) Special: Copy & Paste (B) — At a set probability, fully absorbs a target of intense focus as his own. Appeal Points: — 'There Are Still Twelve Ships Left' — Sense of responsibility, tenacity, deep focus

'No clue what the innate trait actually is…. But he's the kind of kid who has to feel responsible before he can focus hard, and has to focus hard before he can absorb any of it. And if he's got zero intention of debuting himself, no way responsibility's going to develop.'

But that was up until now. The quest hadn't disappeared yet, and no matter what happened, I had to drag this kid through this stage in one piece.

Which meant I had to build a sense of responsibility into the kid…..

'How the hell am I supposed to reel in a guy with that much pride. Toss out something like you killed the mood, own it and see what sticks?'

I was watching Lee Yugeon flounder under Lee Doha's straight pitches, mulling over how to reel him in, when Ju Eunchan raised his hand from the corner.

"……?"

Every eye turned to Ju Eunchan. Ju Eunchan met my eyes with an intense look, as if asking permission to speak.

"Uh, uh…. Yeah. Chan-ah, go ahead."

"Yep. Speaking. So Yugeon-hyung not being able to participate in practice properly right now — that's because of the part-time work, yeah?"

"…yeah. That was the deal. Instead of a weekly wage from the store, I covered every fill-in shift."

"Then I can solve that for you, hyung."

Huh?

Ju Eunchan's confident line put a question mark over every head in the room. And in that instant, another piece of the picture flashed rapidly through my mind.

'No, don't tell me….'

"Yah, Ju Eun—"

"I will hire hyung. As our team's choreography instructor."

Before I could get a word in to stop him, Ju Eunchan pulled something out of his wallet. Older brother Eunseok's card — the one we'd seen at the housewarming a while back.

"Contract runs until the survival ends. While we're on the same team, I'll pay you double."

Even as a joke, this was past teasing — you don't just hire someone for money…!

The teammates, floored by Ju Eunchan's line, all turned to Lee Yugeon in unison. But contrary to their worry, Lee Yugeon stared blankly at Ju Eunchan and the card in his hand, then….

"Sir, I'll take great care of you today. What kind of budget are we looking at?"

Eyes lighting up fast, he plunged headfirst into becoming a slave of capitalism.

…I'm losing my mind, seriously.

---

Obviously, the insane scenario of Ju Eunchan hiring Lee Yugeon out of his own pocket didn't actually happen.

"On top of everything, Han Seongwoo's rumors going around are already bad enough. Imagine what would happen if word got out about trainees passing money around."

Jung Siwoo, in that calm, gentle tone of his, drew out a long, elaborate 'stop talking nonsense' to shut it down. Fortunately, Lee Yugeon had apparently only half-meant it, because he didn't argue any further — he just smiled and agreed. (Though on Ju Eunchan's end it seemed pretty sincere.)

Which brought us back to the actual question: how were we going to solve this? Unexpectedly, the one to answer that — brought back to square one — was Lee Yugeon himself.

"Actually, before I came in, I already told the manager I thought I should quit."

"What? Why?"

"…I have a conscience too, you know? Today too, I fully meant to be back in time for filming, but I ended up losing my phone dealing with a jerk-customer, so I couldn't even call…. Ah, anyway…. Me saying I don't plan on debuting is one thing, but I didn't sign up to cause everyone trouble."

The part-time work having driven things to this point — Yugeon explained — was what had made him think, one way or another, that this couldn't go on.

"So you can keep practicing with us from now on?"

"Normally I'd give it a bit until they found a replacement, but the manager's son just got out of military service and is sitting around at home with nothing to do anyway, so we agreed I'd finish today."

"Then your living expenses… you okay?"

"Still got savings. Said the appearance fee's coming in soon too. Yeah, one or two months, I can manage somehow. And….."

Leaning back in his chair like it was nothing, Lee Yugeon trailed off. A trace of hesitation and awkwardness on his face — for the first time, something real crept into his manner.

"My little sibling's classmates saw the show, and apparently they've been badmouthing me."

"Ah…."

"Not like I have anything to leave my siblings anyway. Embarrassing them on top of that too — that doesn't fly, does it?"

Saying that, Lee Yugeon grinned his signature wide, easy grin.

"Well then — should we start with the leash?"

"It's a choker."

At the snap in my voice, the meeting room laughed for the first time. Even Jung Siwoo turned his face away as if he'd given up, letting out an amused huff.

At long last, we were finally at the starting line.

---

"Hajin-ssi, are you feeling better?"

"Hm?"

The filming that had been scheduled for the morning couldn't get started until just past lunch.

The team's assigned writer, walking in as Hajin was carrying his water bottle, opened out of nowhere by asking after him. Hajin was momentarily thrown, but he caught the vague signal Siwoo was sending from where he was warming up in the back, and smiled easily.

"Ah, yes. I took some medicine and got some proper rest, so I'm okay now."

"When I got the call this morning I was so worried, honestly. People like us — our body's our asset. You've got to take care of it."

"Haha, thank you for worrying. It must've thrown you guys off. Sorry the shoot got pushed back because of me."

"Aigo, don't say that. Health first. We're not the kind of people who go chasing after somebody with a camera while they're sick."

Sounded like they'd used Hajin's condition as the excuse for today's shoot delay when explaining it to the crew. And since he really had been sick, it wasn't exactly a lie.

"Okay, guys — for this team today let's keep it light and just film the song-selection meeting and the practice straight through. Ah, Hajin-ssi, did you do any self-cam yesterday?"

"Ah — right, that."

At the question from the segment PD, Hajin fetched the self-cam bag he'd left in one corner of the practice room and handed it back to the PD. Then, with his eyebrows pulled up as apologetically as they'd go, he laid on the aegyo:

"Ah~ but, sorry. I filmed as much as I could yesterday, but I must've hit something wrong — none of it recorded…."

Nope. Straight-up lie.

Through both of last night's late meetings, the camera had been running perfectly. This wasn't some tricky DSLR or handi (handycam/camcorder) either. There was no way Hajin — turn the power on and hit REC — couldn't handle a Vixia and mess up recording.

"Aigoo, really? None of it? The recording?"

"I swear I did it just like you showed me…. To make up for it, today we'll really, really put in the work to give you plenty of footage!"

The reason Hajin had wiped the memory card clean was that no matter how he turned it over, he'd decided that yesterday's meeting content couldn't make it to air in any form.

Plenty of funny moments, and it was a shame to lose them…. But the scenes that'd actually be a plus if aired (like him staying up choreographing with Wonho) he'd filmed separately on his phone and emailed to the writer, so it didn't matter.

Of course, since final content approval was Miro's anyway, he could've just tipped Ji Suho off and had the problem scenes cut.

'To minimize the risk around Lee Yugeon, wiping the footage entirely is safer.'

The PD, at Hajin's saying the recording hadn't taken, briefly looked disappointed — but seeing Hajin with his hands clasped and his face all pleading, he just clicked his tongue and let it go.

"Well — nothing we can do. It was for backup anyway…. So the song selection and all that's been settled, yeah?"

"Yep! I sent everything organized to the writer yesterday!"

"Okay. Well, nothing to be done. Then we'll cover song-selection and that stuff in interviews, and today we'll…."

Quickly getting his bearings, the PD sat down with the writer to nail down today's shoot content. Hajin, at their side, pretended to be feeding them usable material while smoothly steering the two of them toward the filming direction he wanted. The key was calibrating the pressure so the two of them didn't feel like he was pushing too hard.

"Okay. Let's go with that."

And the scenario, as decided:

"Blue Flare's concept for today is going to be — 'We Learned Sexy From a Textbook: Baby-Chick Trainees Fumble Their Way Into Sexy!' — that kind of vibe?"

"Yes. Plus 'Yugeon's Crash Course in Rap 101.' Focusing on Yugeon and Doha will probably be interesting. The dance and rap dynamic between them flips — that's fun."

"It's also Eunchan's first stage showing vocals…. Last time Siwoo and Hajin had their main-vocal showdown, and now they're on the same team — that's a nice angle too. This team's got a lot of drama."

'Rumors of a Jung Siwoo–Lee Yugeon rift.' Or, 'discord caused by Lee Yugeon's poor attitude.'

The keywords Hajin had squeezed out of his own head to escape those titles flowed out, as-is, through the PD's and writer's mouths.

Naturally, they were all clues Hajin had planted in casual asides — but neither of the two picked up that he'd deliberately herded the conversation there.

"But how'd it end up being Yugeon on rap, though? Not Eunchan-ssi?"

At the writer's genuinely curious question, Yugeon, stretching nearby, gave an awkward laugh. Then he recited, word for word, the answer Hajin had drilled into him just minutes earlier.

"I'd had a little interest in it before, and my teammates encouraged me to give it a shot. So I decided to take on the challenge this time. Because I want to show the Destis a new side of me. Together with Doha-hyung, I'll do my best to become a great dual-rapper unit."

"Ahaha, sounds good. Solid attitude. Now I'm looking forward to it."

At Yugeon's newly motivated demeanor — so different from yesterday — the PD shot Hajin an impressed look. It was loaded with the surprise of, how the hell did you tame that little hellion?

—Look, I've never done rap, how am I supposed to do it. Ju Eunchan can, right?

—We already had that whole conversation yesterday, worked it all out nicely and warmly, so if you're curious, catch the broadcast.

—Huh? How am I supposed to catch a broadcast that hasn't even… no, wait, that's not the point!

—Weren't you the one who said you'd take the leftovers? That you didn't care?

—Yeah, well, that's — no, but you should give me something I can actually do…!

—If you can't do it, none of us can.

—……

—Pick. Wear the choker willingly and walk away with an image-boost rap part, or get slapped in the leash by force and stuck with the leftover parts, phoning it in.

—How is there any difference between those!?

…leash me, please.

To the PD's impressed look, Hajin answered only in his head.