Chapter 65
“The guy who’s going on about how he’d debut if he were an agency son, and the guy who says he met Jaekyung here – I don’t see how they’re any different from just saying ‘I posted this stuff because I’m jealous of them.'”
Hajun shook his head as he put his phone in his pocket. Anyone could see that this was done out of envy toward Jungwoo or Jaekyung.
“What did the CEO say?”
“He said he’d handle it.”
Jungwoo answered calmly. Since they knew something like this would happen eventually, the agency had prepared for it.
“You’ll settle down quickly, but Jaekyung is the problem.”
Hajun tapped his face with his index finger, lost in thought.
“He can’t join an agency right now, can he? He’s currently an individual trainee, so there’s nowhere to protect him.”
Jungwoo had thought the same thing as Hajun.
“Even if they asked him to join, it would be after the audition ends, not now.”
Having an agency decided while in the middle of an audition could cause all kinds of talk. Rumors of cheating might spread unnecessarily. Right now, it was best to just show focus on the audition.
“This is frustrating.”
But since controversy about Jaekyung was already arising, Hajun sighed deeply.
“Why Jaekyung of all people? What kind of special treatment has he been getting? Does he bully other kids?”
The Jaekyung that Hajun had seen so far wasn’t the type to bully others at all.
“He’s the kid who hid in corners trying not to stand out, then rushed over to help when Sowoon asked for help just once. If he did it for the cameras, he wouldn’t say anything. The kid who desperately tried to avoid being filmed while helping others…”
Hajun hit his chest in frustration and looked at Jungwoo.
“We should tell Jaekyung, right?”
“It’s better for him to know.”
Jungwoo went to the same site Hajun had been looking at on his phone earlier. Then he captured everything from the posts about Jaekyung to the comments one by one. He needed to check the facts, but he was also leaving evidence so they couldn’t run away.
“What are you doing?”
Hajun poked his head over to see what Jungwoo was doing and clicked his tongue.
“At least capture your own stuff.”
He muttered that the guy who just read through it once was now very enthusiastically latching on because it was about Jaekyung.
“I’m going. You tell Jaekyung.”
Hajun turned around as if he’d done his part. Thinking Jungwoo would be slightly better than himself for Jaekyung, he’d taken time out to come. While Hajun went off to his own practice, Jungwoo checked the time.
If he’s still sleeping, he probably missed breakfast.
Jungwoo put his phone in his pocket and moved in the opposite direction from Jaekyung’s room.
* * *
Even after returning to his room, various thoughts overlapped and he fell asleep when the sun rose. He’d fallen asleep frantically, but a savory smell woke Jaekyung up.
‘What?’
At a smell that couldn’t possibly be smelled here, Jaekyung rubbed one eye and lifted his head.
“Wash your face quickly. You need to eat this and go straight to practice.”
At the familiar mid-low voice, Jaekyung momentarily recalled who his roommate was. It wasn’t Park Geonhu.
“Why are you…”
“You said there was no time.”
When Jungwoo gestured toward the clock with his eyes, Jaekyung followed his gaze and shot up.
“Didn’t the alarm go off?”
“It was ringing but you couldn’t wake up?”
Jaekyung reflexively rubbed his messy hair and went into the bathroom. After hurriedly brushing his teeth and washing his face, Jaekyung came out and quickly took off his clothes to change into training clothes.
Jungwoo, who had been watching this, pulled out a chair so Jaekyung could sit.
“Sit.”
“Did you buy this?”
“I picked it up.”
Knowing Jaekyung wouldn’t have time to go down and eat, Jungwoo had pre-ordered toast and brought it up. That smell had woken Jaekyung up.
Jaekyung sat down awkwardly and picked up the toast. This was the second time since the triangle kimbap last time.
“Thanks.”
“Just hurry up and eat.”
Jungwoo picked up his portion of toast and answered half-heartedly. As if they really needed to eat just this and get up, Jungwoo started eating his portion first. Jaekyung also took a bite following him.
For something eaten right after waking up, the bread wasn’t tough and went down well with the tomato and lettuce. When he’d eaten about half the toast, Jaekyung looked up at the gaze watching him.
“What?”
“Hate comments are written by people who have nothing to do.”
At Jungwoo’s sudden words, Jaekyung looked at him with a ‘what?’ expression, then looked back at his toast. And when he was about to take a bite, he suddenly remembered yesterday. His worry about how to bring up the story of someone attacking Jungwoo.
“I guess posts about me went up too.”
Jaekyung said calmly and bit into his toast. He wasn’t particularly surprised since he thought it could happen. So he answered as if it was nothing, but the bread that had been going down smoothly until just now wouldn’t go down.
“Want to read it?”
Jaekyung chewed the bread while thinking, then nodded heavily. He wanted to see what kind of content it was. Jungwoo held out his phone so Jaekyung could see well.
Jaekyung read through the content without even picking up the phone placed on the table. As soon as he saw the first sentence, someone came to mind.
‘Jeon Sanguk.’
Because when Jaekyung entered this place, he had thought the same thing about Jeon Sanguk. Once he thought it was likely that Jeon Sanguk had posted it, he could strangely read the rest of the content without difficulty.
After reading everything, Jaekyung pushed the phone back to Jungwoo and finished eating his toast.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“A lot of people will misunderstand you because of this.”
“Probably.”
If it was misunderstandings, he’d experienced them sickeningly and knew better than anyone. Jaekyung finished eating all his toast and got up from his seat.
“I’ll go first. The toast was good.”
Jaekyung left the room directly without looking at Jungwoo. Afraid his emotions might show to Jungwoo, Jaekyung hurried out and showed the expression he’d been forcibly hiding as he came into the hallway.
“Jeon Sanguk…”
He didn’t want to just be wronged anymore. Since he knew Jeon Sanguk was playing games, he planned to find him and confront him. Jaekyung, who had been walking hurriedly, stopped at a sudden thought.
‘Wait.’
Because of his feelings of injustice, he couldn’t look at other things. For example, what kind of impact this rumor would have on him. Jaekyung stood there pacing and thinking for a long time.
* * *
“Sanguk, Jaekyung is looking for you?”
At his teammate’s words, Jeon Sanguk’s eyes met Jaekyung’s in the mirror. When Jaekyung gestured slightly as if telling him to follow and left, Jeon Sanguk cursed internally.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
Jeon Sanguk thought about how to mess with him while following Jaekyung away from the cameras. Since he knew he’d been called because of the post he’d written, he had no intention of making excuses that it wasn’t his doing.
Coming out of the building and going to a secluded place, Jaekyung faced Jeon Sanguk.
Jeon Sanguk threw the first light provocation at Jaekyung.
“Not practicing? You can’t keep that position being so half-hearted.”
“Worry about yourself.”
When Jaekyung shot back, Jeon Sanguk’s face crumpled then smoothed out again.
“That 9th place must be amazing. Seeing you act up like this, it’s like some magic number.”
“Right, 35th place.”
When Jaekyung calmly shot back again, Jeon Sanguk’s face crumpled up again.
“So did you call me to say that?”
“No.”
Jaekyung looked at Jeon Sanguk and stood straight. In the past, maybe because he just didn’t want to deal with him, he’d never looked at him directly. Looking at him like this now, Jeon Sanguk’s sharp gaze wasn’t that scary.
“Now that I look at you, you’re shorter than me. How tall are you?”
At Jaekyung’s unexpected question, Jeon Sanguk looked at him like he was crazy. Then he got angry at the words meant to show he was taller.
“Is this guy insane?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever looked at you properly before. But why did I think you were so big?”
“What are you saying?”
“Standing straight like this, we’re not at eye level.”
Even as Jeon Sanguk clenched his fists and got excited, Jaekyung stood in the same position with the same expression from the beginning.
“Are you messing with me?”
“You messed with me too.”
“What? What…”
Jeon Sanguk remembered the anonymous board and smiled slyly. Thinking that was indeed why Jaekyung had called him, he regained the composure he’d lost.
“Now I see you came looking for me because you’re scared.”
Jeon Sanguk tried to hold back the laughter that kept coming by playing with his lips. But the laughter didn’t stop.
“But I don’t know what kind of prank I played?”
Originally he was going to say he was the one who posted, but his mind changed. He opened his mouth to torment Jaekyung more.
“Right, keep pretending not to know.”
That way the rumor would be maintained. Jaekyung planned to use Jeon Sanguk’s attack in reverse. 9th place was already burdensome. No matter how much Jungwoo comforted him saying other trainees would stand out more, Jaekyung didn’t want to slack off in practice relying on that.
But the malicious rumor that broke out at just the right time would have a bad impact on him. This would help him now.
“You didn’t mess with me.”
Jaekyung patted Jeon Sanguk’s shoulder and left the spot first.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
