Chapter 27
“Are you okay?”
The person who poked his head into the practice room was Taeri.
His eyes were full of worry, as if he was truly concerned about Juha getting scolded. Though he had every right to be resentful, just seeing Taeri’s face made Juha feel better.
The person who was both the biggest culprit and the biggest comfort in this situation. Sometimes Juha wanted to carry Choi Taeri around like a comfort doll.
“I’m okay.”
Juha forced a smile and took Taeri’s outstretched hand to stand up.
“You’ll do well.”
After finishing his words, Taeri came closer to Juha and whispered in his ear.
“Try seducing me.”
His voice was small enough not to be caught by cameras or audio.
At Taeri’s attempt to lighten the mood, a laugh burst from Juha’s mouth. When Taeri grinned, his troubles melted away.
“You heard we’re watching the broadcast together in the main hall at 10, right? Let’s quickly eat and get ready too.”
“Yeah.”
Taeri left the practice room with his arm around Juha’s shoulder.
Today, episode 2 of ‘My Job is Idol’ would air. Since they hadn’t finished filming the first ranking battle yet, the trainees had to continue staying in the dorm. Because of this, they would all watch episode 2 together at the dormitory.
* * *
After the leisurely dinner time passed, trainees began appearing one by one in the main hall.
“Hyung!”
When Taeri and Juha entered, Seo Eunwon bounced over to greet them. Yeom Sangyeop, who came with him, left Eunwon with Juha like dropping a child off at daycare and slipped away to another group.
He was still a good hyung, but it seemed like he wanted to watch this episode with the gym boys he’d gotten close to while working out together.
In the end, Juha sat down with Eunwon on his left and Taeri on his right to watch. When 80 trainees gathered, the main hall became rowdy. Eunwon seemed to find Taeri a bit intimidating, but that was beyond what Juha could care about.
For today at least, he just wanted to watch the broadcast comfortably.
When all the commercials ended, tension appeared in the eyes of the kids who had been chattering and fooling around. Juha was just as nervous.
Since he had to show a proper stage for the first competition, monitoring this episode was important.
After a brief recap of the previous episode, episode 2 began in earnest.
* * *
The game of choosing props for profile photos was edited comically. Since no trainee chose proper props, it was a complete mess. Among them, Lee Juha’s expression when he discovered the gonryongpo in the random box was spectacular.
‘Ah haha, trainee Lee Juha! You were destined to become a king.’
Park Jusung’s annoying comment and Juha’s expression filled with confusion, terror, and shock.
Thinking about it now, the gonryongpo wasn’t a bad item either, but at the time he was genuinely flustered.
However, the moment Juha entered the photo shoot, the screen changed to nothing but praise.
[Deer-like neckline]
[Eyes that could seduce even the grim reaper]
[Decadence]
[Fatal]
[Sexy]
[This is a nation]
The subtitles were so excessive that even Juha himself felt embarrassed.
Since it was a screen made knowing that Juha had won first place in the mission, it seemed they had put extra effort into it.
Watching that scene, Juha was dumbfounded.
All the atmosphere where Kim Dongmin had yelled, gotten irritated, and been harsh was edited out, with only words like “Good!” and “Well done!” inserted.
When Juha’s filming scene continued for quite a while, the surrounding trainees glanced at him sideways. Screen time is a measure of the production team’s interest. The more screen time, the more opportunities to build a fanbase.
However, since screen time per episode is limited, if Lee Juha’s screen time increased, other trainees’ screen time would inevitably decrease.
Despite the jealous glances, Taeri looked at Juha contentedly from beside him.
“Those people over there must have all seen how pretty Lee Juha is.”
“…Be quiet.”
When Taeri whispered obliviously, Juha poked his side.
After all filming ended, the ranking battle graph of each photo passed by quickly. Then came the photo ranking announcement ceremony.
[1st place, Lee Juha.]
As expected, Juha’s expression clearly showed his feelings at the time. He wanted to avoid sharing a room with Choi Taeri, but also wanted to enjoy the joy of coming in first.
The interview asking for his feelings about winning first place was even worse. With no aegyo and a stiffly hardened face, saying “Thank you to the fan fan fans who voted for me, thank you for sparing my life.” Fortunately, it seemed to look to others like he was nervous from coming in first place.
If he had more charm, he would have thrown hearts and winks and even blown kisses like Yoo Youngin.
Facing his own lack of charm, Juha felt like hiding.
The screen changed to K-pop dance pairing. The expressions of trainees dancing to the music were all bright.
‘Is it almost over?’
Juha glanced at the clock. With only about 5 minutes left until the broadcast ended, it was time for the final scene.
As soon as he thought that, the music stopped and the number [2] appeared on screen.
Instantly, Choi Taeri began sprinting. The camera, surprised by Taeri’s runaway train-like appearance, couldn’t keep up.
Thanks to this, scenes of three cameras filming the running Taeri played sequentially.
“Ugh!”
“What…”
“What’s with him…”
Bewildered reactions erupted among the trainees watching together.
Even the trainees who had been desperately looking for their own partners at the time were seeing this scene properly for the first time. Moreover, it was edited so carefully that the sprinting Taeri looked like a superhero in a special suit.
With a thud, the scene ended with Taeri hugging Juha, and Park Jusung appeared on stage.
‘To be or not to be, that is the question. In this mission, one teammate will definitely be eliminated.’
Along with Park Jusung’s guidance, the words ‘Death Match’ were stamped on screen more frightening than a haunted house, and episode 2 ended.
* * *
After the group viewing ended, the trainees couldn’t bring themselves to leave.
Though they had fallen into a jungle with only limited prey, since they were colleagues for now, everyone was worrying about each other.
Since everyone was busy reviewing their own scenes, they seemed to listen half-heartedly to other trainees’ situations.
“Trainees, come get your phones.”
When staff came out with a big box and shouted from the front, trainees hurriedly lined up. It was under the pretext of monitoring broadcast reactions. Taeri and Juha also received their phones and went up to the penthouse.
Even while washing and joking around with Taeri, Juha was inwardly anxious.
Though he had won first place in the mission with his decadent king photo, the public’s reaction after actually watching the program could be different.
Taeri and Juha lay leaning against the bed together, each looking at their phones. Even in this situation, Taeri kept pestering for kisses, so it took a while to shake him off.
Eventually, Juha held Taeri’s hand tightly to appease him and started searching on his phone. Whether he had no interest in reactions or not, Taeri lazily looked at articles and humor while wearing glasses.
Juha subtly turned his body to the other side and focused on looking at reactions about Lee Juha and Choi Taeri.
As expected, posts about Choi Taeri exploded, perhaps because the final scene was too intense.
**[Title: A legendary gif was born in the idol world.]**
‘Slave hunter Choi Taeri.gif’
â””What’s with the file name lmaooooo
â””This is the first time in my n years of idol fandom life, really
â””Teacher Choi, there must be a reason you’re doing this.
â””But why? Why exactly????
**[Title: Damn, is Choi Tae that thing even human?]**
‘Isn’t that a bull?
How can the camera not keep up lmaooo’
â””What’s Taereung doing, not recruiting Choi Taeri
â””Make Choi Taeri a national track team member
â””These days it’s Jincheon
â””A racetrack would be fine too. As a horse, not a jockey, of course.
**[Title: But why exactly did Choi Taeri run to Lee Juha?]**
‘Was there a red cloth there or something?’
â””Bullfighting lmaooo
â””At that speed, you’d think he was chasing the enemy who killed his parents
â””Or maybe Lee Juha borrowed about 1 billion won from Choi Taeri and ran away
â””Or maybe he fell in love
└└Thank you teacher for giving me the answer.
└└Me too
└└I believe it.
└└I believe in Tae, I believe
As soon as he saw the phrase “or maybe he fell in love,” Juha unconsciously flinched.
Whether he knew this reaction or not, Taeri kept fidgeting with Juha’s hand that he was holding.
Juha sighed and read the next post.
**[Title: Don’t just attach ‘obsessive maniac’ to anyone anymore]**
‘The standard for obsessive maniacs has changed.
You have to catch a runaway in 50 meters in 3 seconds to be considered obsessive ㅇㅇ’
â””Agreed
â””22222
â””3333333
â””So Choi Taeri shouldn’t be doing dance or whatever, he should go to the Olympics first
â””If you put Lee Juha at the finish line, a gold medal is totally possible
â””Fuck, I imagined it hahaha
…Right. It didn’t seem impossible either. With the current Choi Taeri, wherever Juha was standing, whether there were ten or a hundred cameras, he’d run like a crazy bull.
Imagining it was dizzying. Juha shuddered and read the next post.
**[Title: Humans, get a grip]**
‘Don’t you get it even after seeing that?
Choi Tae x Lee Juha is BL fan service’
â””Isn’t BL fan service at this level big business?
â””I don’t know about other things but these guys seem serious about BL fan service
└└ㅇㅇ I’m serious too
└└22222222222 include me too
â””Those bastards are learning good things before even debuting ㅇㅇ That’s why I like it too, I want to do it
â””lmaooo I almost cursed if I hadn’t seen the end.
â””But if Choi Taeri is going to push BL fan service, he should do it with Yoo Youngin, why Lee Juha?
â””When did you bring up Yoo Youngin?
â””I’m pushing TaeIn. It’s not dead yet.
â””What a delusion
â””The trend is TaeHa
‘What’s BL fan service?’
Juha tilted his head. Having only done trainee life day and night, Juha had never been a fan of idols. Even if he had favorite idols, they were just respected seniors, and while he knew such culture existed, he wasn’t familiar with fans’ slang.
Juha searched for ‘BL fan service’ in the search bar.
[BL fan service: Business Gay Performance. Refers to male idols deliberately creating a gay couple-like atmosphere between members for fans.]
“Huh.”
As soon as he saw the text, Juha felt like he’d been hit directly by an arrow. His face felt hot because it seemed like his true feelings had been discovered too accurately.
“What’s wrong?”
When Juha’s body flinched, Taeri turned his head.
“N, nothing. Nothing.”
Juha hurriedly shook his head and turned his body. Unable to resist, Taeri pulled the hand he was holding. Juha lost his balance and fell into Taeri’s arms with a thud.
His ear happened to touch Taeri’s chest area, and he could feel Taeri’s pulse rate rising in real time.
“W, wait a minute.”
Juha was startled and quickly escaped from Taeri’s arms. Then Taeri clicked his tongue in disappointment and interlaced their fingers.
“You said you’d allow this. Why are you running away again?”
Taeri started gently seducing Juha again while wiggling their clasped hands. When he wore glasses, he seduced with an especially intellectual face, making Juha’s heart flutter shamelessly again.
“Ah, fine. I’ll hold hands with you. Let me just…”
“Did you see something weird?”
Taeri poked his head out and looked at Juha’s phone.
“No. It’s fine.”
Juha turned his body in the opposite direction again and checked his phone.
**[Title: I lost money]**
‘I saved penny by penny, not spending or eating,
and managed to get one great coin.
But some bull charged and I dropped it and lost it.
The amount was one silver coin.’
â””Fuck lmaooo are you talking about Seo Eunwon right now?
â””A bull charged and he dropped it lmaooo
└└Something small and pretty and shiny ã… ã…
â””Looking for a lost child, disappeared after being hit by a bull…
└└They say he flew up to the stratosphere, please take down the post
â””Who the hell released a bull here… Is this Cheongdo?
└└Suddenly a bullfighting ring lmaooo
After reading a few posts about Seo Eunwon, Juha wiggled his cheek while holding back laughter. He was originally cute, but being caught between Choi Taeri and Lee Juha made him an even more pitiful character.
Juha, who had been smiling contentedly while looking at posts about Seo Eunwon, saw the next post and his face hardened.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
