Chapter 38
At someone’s shout, Jaekyung quickly ducked down. Moving almost reflexively, Jaekyung’s gaze swept the surroundings. Unlike the shout saying they found someone, there was no one in front of Jaekyung.
‘Where?’
It was noisy, but that noise kept getting louder and quieter repeatedly. Jaekyung listened more carefully for a moment, then looked beyond the partition. Several men were gathered there.
‘Marketing team?’
One trainee was discovered by the marketing team leader and untied the string on his arm. Jaekyung watched as the team leader, who had increased his team members, raised his hand to signal that the numbers were full and disappeared, then ducked down again.
‘When should I go out?’
Seeing that the marketing team was full, he wondered if the PR team with Lee Jungwoo as team leader had also gathered everyone. There would probably be many people who’d want to work with Lee Jungwoo. So once the PR team of 6 was full, Jaekyung planned to gradually go out and join any conspicuous team.
* * *
Jeon Sanguk leaned against the wall and kept glancing to peek into the office.
“There’s still one person left.”
At the HR team leader’s words as he waved the string toward the cameraman, Jeon Sanguk quietly pressed his body against the wall and held his breath. He wanted a different team, so he was trying not to catch the HR team leader’s eye.
‘Where the hell is Lee Jungwoo?’
The team Jeon Sanguk wanted was the PR team. Even though rankings hadn’t been announced yet, he could pick out a few from the top ranks. The standard was the live broadcast.
Jeon Sanguk, who had been positioned in the center during the live broadcast that was a group song stage, thought his face would appear more. He had planned to appear more on camera and step on Seo Jaekyung so he couldn’t even crawl up, but later found out that wasn’t the case when he watched it back. It was right that they showed what the music PD wanted, but for Jeon Sanguk, who had given his all in the mission to get that position, it was infuriating.
And while the aftermath of that live broadcast was quite significant, it was especially concentrated on two people.
‘Lee Jungwoo, Seo Jaekyung.’
The moment he thought of Seo Jaekyung, Jeon Sanguk gritted his teeth. Seo Jaekyung’s good reaction was unpleasant, but he had to see it objectively. He had properly received a buff by being next to Lee Jungwoo. Not only was he caught on screen with Lee Jungwoo, but he knew it worked because he had a completely different image.
Acknowledging that Seo Jaekyung had used his head properly, Jeon Sanguk clenched his fist.
‘I can’t let the two of them do that again this time.’
Jeon Sanguk was going to use Lee Jungwoo to get on the broadcast. After doing one stage, he’d gain recognition, so then he could move independently.
As soon as Jeon Sanguk, who had come out into the quiet corridor, confirmed the person coming from the opposite side, his expression naturally brightened completely.
“Lee Jungwoo.”
Whether he heard his voice, Lee Jungwoo also looked in his direction, then suddenly picked up speed and came running.
“Who would have thought we’d meet like this. Then I become a PR team member… I…”
Jeon Sanguk raised his arm as if he had no choice after being discovered by Lee Jungwoo. But Lee Jungwoo didn’t slow down his running speed and just brushed past Jeon Sanguk. The wind created by Lee Jungwoo, who had brushed past in an instant, touched Jeon Sanguk’s hair.
Jeon Sanguk froze in the same position he had been in when calling out to Lee Jungwoo. As he was replaying what had just happened, he heard a tongue-clicking sound from somewhere.
“Hey, hey, I told you that guy isn’t Seo Jaekyung.”
* * *
Only after moving positions four more times did Jaekyung come out into the corridor. By now, all the teams should have been formed. Preferably, it would be good if it was a team with no JT trainees at all.
Thinking various thoughts, Jaekyung dusted off his wrinkled dress shirt. The suit pants were also quite wrinkled, so after smoothing them out several times, he realized he was still carrying the document folder.
‘This…’
Thinking it would be better to put it back in its place, he recalled the location of the supply room where he had hidden earlier. Since it’s downstairs, I should go out through the emergency stairs, he thought as he walked down the empty corridor. The noise had definitely decreased a lot. At the sound of his own footsteps echoing in the corridor, Jaekyung repeatedly stopped and walked.
‘I somehow feel like I’m working overtime alone.’
Walking down the quiet corridor made it feel even more so. Temporarily forgetting that filming was going on, Jaekyung looked at the office beyond the window. After graduating from university, would he be able to interview and get into a decent company?
Thinking that this was now a future he could dream of, Jaekyung’s expression was gradually relaxing.
“If I go to business school…”
Jaekyung, who had been muttering quietly, felt someone’s gaze and turned his head, then stopped abruptly. The moment he made eye contact with Jungwoo, Jaekyung instinctively pressed himself against the wall next to him and held his breath.
‘Why is he here?’
Once teams are formed, he should go and wait… hasn’t he formed one yet?
Jaekyung was making a sad face, though he hoped it wasn’t the case.
‘Let’s avoid him for now.’
“Seo Jaekyung.”
Jungwoo walked out in front of where Jaekyung had turned around.
“You… why are you here?”
“That’s what I want to ask. Where have you been all this time?”
“I just…”
Jaekyung trailed off. He couldn’t say he had been hiding, not wandering around. It was a situation that would make his deliberate hiding to avoid being on the same team meaningless. Jaekyung’s gaze looked at Jungwoo’s hand.
“Why do you still have three strings? What have you been doing instead of forming a team?”
Jaekyung pointed at Jungwoo’s hand with bewildered eyes. Then he raised his head again to look at Jungwoo’s face.
“What have you been doing all this time? And what’s with all that sweat?”
When he was hiding and watching earlier, it seemed like he was recruiting team members without much difficulty, so why was this guy sweating so much just to find three people? What on earth had happened?
“Anyway, do well.”
After roughly pointing at the sweat on Jungwoo’s face, Jaekyung turned around pretending nothing was wrong. He hoped he’d just let him pass by pretending not to know, but his shoulder was grabbed.
“Let me go.”
Jaekyung looked around while hiding his sigh. A cameraman was filming him from a certain distance. After roughly confirming the distance, Jaekyung covered his mouth with the document folder and spoke quietly.
“Sorry, but I want to go to a different team.”
He had said they should break up earlier, and now he was clearly showing his intention to refuse, so he thought Jungwoo would have no choice. If he said he didn’t like him, it would be even better if he just left feeling bad.
At Jaekyung’s words, Jungwoo raised his straight eyebrows. Instead of backing down, Jungwoo took a step closer, so Jaekyung hesitated and pressed his back against the wall. When Jungwoo took another step closer, Jaekyung pulled his body back even more as if pushing against the wall.
If Jungwoo came any closer from here, the distance between him and Jaekyung, who had nowhere to retreat, became very close. Jaekyung looked up at Jungwoo and sent him a look telling him not to come. But Jungwoo, interpreting it somehow, came even closer to Jaekyung. Their chests were already only about a sheet of paper’s thickness apart, and the document folder Jaekyung held was the only means of defense for his face.
“Jungwoo, I told you earlier. Let’s break up. I said all that for this…”
“Let me go.”
Jungwoo cut off his words as if he wouldn’t consider Jaekyung’s circumstances.
“Do it with someone else.”
It was when Jaekyung was trying to persuade Jungwoo somehow. Suddenly his arm was grabbed by Jungwoo and Jaekyung’s head looked down quickly. Seeing the hand approaching the string tied to his arm, Jaekyung struggled to avoid it somehow. However, caught between Jungwoo and the wall and unable to move, and holding the document folder on top of that, it was meaningless struggling.
Jungwoo grabbed Jaekyung’s arm and semi-forcibly untied the string tied to his arm. Only then did Jungwoo step back as if releasing Jaekyung, and a small smile appeared on his face. As he openly waved the string toward the camera, Jaekyung got angry.
“How can there be such a case?”
Though Jaekyung said this out of frustration, thinking teams should be formed by mutual agreement, Jungwoo chuckled and patted Jaekyung’s head as he passed by.
“Let’s do well.”
Jaekyung sat down against the wall with a look of despair.
I’m screwed. Really screwed.
As Jaekyung was sighing deeply, another person appeared.
“Did you find Jaekyung?”
At Hajun’s question, Jungwoo pointed to Jaekyung. Hajun tilted his head to confirm Jaekyung, who had been hidden by Jungwoo, then grinned.
“Then our team is all formed?”
Jaekyung realized that even including his string, Jungwoo only had 4 in his grasp. There still weren’t enough people to form a team, right?
Jaekyung, who had just raised his head like that, made a surprised sound when he saw Hajun’s arm.
Hajun was untying the string tied to his arm and handing it to Jungwoo.
“Once you untie the string, you have to go to the waiting room and wait. But where the hell were you hiding? I looked and looked but couldn’t see you.”
Only then did Jaekyung understand the reason for the sweat on Jungwoo’s face.
“You don’t mean you were… looking for me?”
“Yeah.”
Jungwoo answered while wiping the sweat on his chin. Jaekyung slowly scanned from Jungwoo’s forehead down to the bridge of his nose.
“…Why?”
So why do you keep… At first, he had accepted it thinking he was just rejecting the young Lee Jungwoo, but it was hard to understand that he had run around saying he wanted to perform on stage together now.
Even though Jaekyung had found it strange that Jungwoo kept hovering around him from the beginning, he had just let it pass, but not now. So he was determined to hear any words from Jungwoo. But the answer came from somewhere else.
“Why would it be?”
Hajun’s light voice was cheerful, not matching the atmosphere between the two people.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
