Chapter 16
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 16: The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Shake it! Shake it! Like popping bottle-
♪
I moved my body reflexively, following the avatar’s movements on the huge TV panel.
How loud did they turn up the TV volume?
Luckily, Kyunghwa was out for a personal errand.
Seong-won would never join us in this kind of situation.
Only Seon-woo was sitting on the sofa, munching on carrots instead of popcorn, watching the sacred dance battle.
‘It must be because… I leveled up. I don’t feel as rushed as before when I copy the moves.’
I had enough leeway to sneak a peek at Yi-jun every now and then to see how he was doing.
Boom your face-! Blow your mind-!
It’s me who steals your heart-!
The pop song that swept the Billboard chart had such a fast tempo.
I would have hated this song if I were ‘Im Hyunsung’.
It was a song I had never heard before, and a choreography I had never tried before, but I didn’t miss a single move. It was amazing even to myself.
‘I wonder… how Yi-jun is scoring.’
I glanced at the real-time score and saw that it was neck and neck.
This was still… a lot of improvement compared to last time, right?
I stretched my arms and legs diligently, following the highlight moves that were coming up.
Then, something unexpected happened.
“What are you doing, making such a racket in the morning? I can’t sleep with all this noise.”
Seong-won walked out of his room, where he was alone. And then, he pulled out the TV cord that was plugged into the multi-tap.
“Hey! What are you doing, it’s almost over!”
Yi-jun ran over to Seong-won and pushed him aside, plugging the cord back in. But it was already too late.
The last part had passed.
[Fail-! You need to practice more! Do your best!]
Both sides were judged as Miss for the rest of the moves, and the clear failure screen popped up.
“Are you crazy? Is it that hard to just ask me to lower the volume?”
“Is it polite to blast the TV so loud that it shakes the floor in the dorm in the morning?”
They were both stubborn and hot-headed, and no one would believe they were not kids.
Seon-woo, who had been calmly chewing on carrots until a moment ago, panicked.
“Don’t fight, both of you-. I should have lowered the volume earlier. It’s, it’s my fault…”
But Yi-jun snapped back.
“Stop making excuses for this jerk. Anyone can see that he overreacted by pulling out the cord first. He should have asked me to lower the volume first!”
“What’s so great about waking me up with a gust of wind in the morning?”
I wished Kyunghwa was here at times like this.
I missed Kyunghwa, who had left for some errand in the morning, and headed to the kitchen.
Then I grabbed two large pots that looked like they were bought for cooking ramen, and held them firmly in both hands as I walked out to the living room.
“What if you broke this?”
“What do you mean, broke it? You watch the TV the most, so you’re probably the cause if it breaks.”
They were acting like children, and their arguments were getting more and more trivial.
They were both distracted by each other and didn’t notice what I was doing.
Only Seon-woo covered his eyes with his hands, as if he couldn’t bear to watch this horrible scene.
Clang-!
The bottoms of the pots hit the two light heads with a clear and crisp sound.
“Ow!”
“Ouch.”
Four eyes full of resentment glared at me.
“Stop being noisy and eat your breakfast.”
Just then, the notification sound that the cooking was completed rang out.
It was the start of a temporary truce.
***
They were guys in their prime, so they quieted down once they had spoons in their mouths.
Where did the teeth-baring and growling go?
They both chewed and swallowed the rice in their mouths.
“It’s really delicious to eat soybean paste stew after a long time.”
Yi-jun scooped up a spoonful of soybean paste and put it on top of the barley rice, which had more barley than white rice, and drooled.
He wrapped the delicious bibimbap in a fragrant pumpkin leaf that had been steamed in advance and ate it.
It was impossible not to taste good with the grilled bulgogi that had been marinated and frozen beforehand and then grilled with a little fire.
“Hyung, I always say it’s delicious, but you might think I’m just being polite…”
He didn’t have to say it, I already knew I was good at cooking.
“Just finish your bowl. Lunch is a salad without any carbs.”
It was a bit ironic to talk about salad while eating rice mixed with soybean paste and fish roe, which had a unique savory taste.
“Okay! I’ll eat it all!”
Seon-woo put a large pumpkin leaf on his palm and scooped up some meat and bibimbap, and put it in his mouth in one bite.
He looked so happy that he didn’t need an angel.
‘I’ll have to eat salad with less carbs for dinner too.’
It was my role to maintain his angelic face and figure.
Seong-won, who finished his bowl first, glared at Yi-jun and put his empty bowl in the sink.
‘What’s up with him?’
It was a big improvement, considering that he used to go straight to his room after eating.
“That guy is really rude.”
Yi-jun muttered, hitting Seong-won’s back of the head with his mouth full.
They were going to fight again. I quickly pushed the bulgogi plate in front of Yi-jun.
“Oh, thank you~.”
Yi-jun was really simple.
He looked happy as if he had never been in a bad mood when the meat came closer to his eyes.
He was easier to handle than Seong-won in many ways.
I sighed with relief and asked Yi-jun casually.
“You did better than last time, right?”
Then Yi-jun smiled mischievously, his eyes slanting upward.
Some possible ways to continue the response are:
“Ah, you’re still not as good as you used to be. I’ve never seen anyone dance as well as you, you know? Are you still getting rehab treatment?”
I secretly took dance lessons, pretending to be going to rehab on the surface.
I didn’t think Cheon Ise’s original skills had returned until I scored A or higher in both dance and performance.
Then it would be better to make some excuses about my physical condition in advance.
That was the hole I dug from that judgment.
“Ah, I’ll probably have to keep getting it for a while. But don’t worry, it won’t affect my activities.”
According to the manager, the concept meeting of the company’s planning team was scheduled for next week.
I said I wanted to participate in the planning this time, and he gladly made room for me.
Then now… It was time for me to learn at least some background knowledge about the idol industry.
I needed to analyze in detail what Climax had released so far.
And objectively see what was lacking compared to other hit projects.
“I’ll prepare some salad dressing for lunch, so you can just mix it and eat it. Yi-jun, you watch if Seonwoo eats something weird or goes to PT properly.”
Then Yi-jun smirked.
“Uh, I’m going out after lunch too. I can see him going to PT. Okay.”
What is this kid doing wandering around?
I was careful of people. He was the one with the highest risk of escape among all the members, so I was nervous.
Especially since he’s getting love calls from all over the place.
“What are you going out for again?”
“Just, I have some friends to meet. Haha…”
What kind of friends does a celebrity meet so often? No matter how much of a wanderer he is.
I nodded my head, thinking suspiciously.
“Okay. I’ll get ready and go. I’ll be back by dinner.”
“Yeah, I’m going to eat out, so just watch out for this guy… and that guy.”
“Okay.”
I finished the conversation and cleaned up the breakfast table and started preparing lunch salad.
When I packed three servings of salad in each lunch box, it was almost 11 o’clock.
I quietly left the dorm and headed to the officetel.
When I took out the car parked in the private parking lot next to the dorm and arrived at the officetel, it was a little late for lunch.
‘Come to think of it, it feels like I’ve been home for almost three weeks.’
Even if I call it home… I was more familiar with Cheon Ise than me, and the dorm was more like a ‘home’ to me.
I hope it’s not a mess because no one has lived there for a while.
Contrary to my worry, the house was clean, as someone came regularly to clean and organize the refrigerator.
‘Let’s eat lunch first!’
They say Mt. Geumgang is a sight after a meal.
No matter how important the work is, if you starve yourself, you won’t get any ideas.
I took out the bread that had been replaced with a new one and spread butter on it and lightly toasted it in a frying pan.
‘Crunch… The smell of butter is amazing.’
I put the crispy bacon between the toast with the buttery aroma. And… let’s melt some cheese on it.
The cheese melted and smelled delicious in the heat from the frying pan.
There was no sugar powder, but there was raspberry jam, so this would be more delicious.
After soaking it in egg and frying it like a surface, I finished the Monte Cristo, which was a bomb of calories and taste.
‘Really… It’s a taste of life.’
It’s good to eat healthy meals like in the morning.
But people have to eat unhealthy tastes that explode with calories.
Because of Seonwoo, I had been living a healthy life for a while, and my tongue was craving sweet, salty, and spicy stimuli.
I ate four slices of bread in no time and my head started to turn.
‘Now let’s analyze Climax’s works. I’ve memorized the songs and choreography, so I just need to focus on the concept and mass media response.’
I cleared the table and brought my laptop and sat down at the table.
[Climax debut single: One week with Your Man]
The concept of the first album was wildness.
Was this a trend then…?
Everyone was wearing charcoal black makeup that didn’t suit them.
I went to the most famous music site and checked the comments, and the few responses were terrible.
[- The makeup doesn’t suit you at all. I know you’re trying to follow Black Zone’s hit, but come on;;]
[- Did Hong president lose his touch? He brought a fake Black Zone as a rookie]
[- I don’t see a single Wipple face?]
What is a Wipple face? I opened a new portal site window and searched.
It seemed to be a word that meant the appearance of the face preferred by ‘Wiplanet’, the agency of Climax.
I knew who Black Zone was.
They were a male idol group that swept the music industry with a ‘wild and dangerous man’ concept seven years ago.
Even if I didn’t know the two unfamiliar faces.
First of all, Seong-won and Seon-woo were beautiful, not rugged and masculine.
Wouldn’t it be more rare to have such pretty kids? Why did they dress up kids who were young and didn’t suit them?
I summarized the disadvantages and moved on to the second single.
[Climax second single: Beach BooM]
As if to prove that the release date was August.
All seven members were bare-chested on the album jacket.
They couldn’t all wear no tops, so some members wore see-through or mesh jackets.
[- Please no meshㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[- I accidentally pressed the cover and met 14 How do YouDo’s eyes. Yes. You’re thinking of what I’m thinking.]
That was the best comment, and all the comments were embarrassing.
‘I guess I should be glad there’s no harsh swearing.’
The song itself was the best song to my ears.
But that guy’s comment…
I felt that I had to be careful when choosing the album cover.
The same was true for the third single and the first regular album.
The comment ratings were not good.
The debut single had the most likes, and the controversial second single had the most comments.
‘By the fourth single, the number of members had dropped to five.’
I wonder if there were a lot of protest comments about the members leaving.
It was finally time to look at the last single.
I opened the comment section without letting go of the tension.
