Chapter 39
“At first, he said he discovered a kid who sang better than himself and asked me if I knew a kid named Seo Jaekyung.”
Jaekyung listened to Hajun’s words with a dazed gaze, as if letting them flow by. Hajun’s story was captivating not only to Jaekyung but also to the people who had gathered as one team.
“He acted like he fell for the singing, but on the first day he spotted Jaekyung right away. Of course he’d stick to him, wouldn’t he?”
“So that’s why Jungwoo hyung was sticking right next to Jaekyung hyung like that.”
As if he finally understood, Taeyeon giggled and leaned on Jungwoo’s shoulder, then bounced away. Unlike Geonhu who always accepted it, Jungwoo didn’t indulge Taeyeon’s aegyo. Taeyeon pouted while stroking the back of his head.
“I appeared in front and even untied the string for you, how petty.”
As Taeyeon grumbled, Jaekyung tried hard to hold back a sigh that was about to come out.
“But if they said to form teams like this, of course he’d try to bring Jaekyung first. Honestly, Jaekyung is all-around capable. Even if I were the team leader, I would have looked for Jaekyung first.”
At Hajun’s explanation, Taeyeon was the first to nod.
“Even if I were the team leader, it would be Jaekyung hyung. Of course, I want Jaekyung hyung as a team member too. So do you know how we did it?”
Taeyeon continued from what Hajun was saying earlier, telling how they found him.
“I gave Jungwoo hyung the string first and waited in the waiting room to see if Jaekyung hyung would come in. Then Hajun hyung went back and forth between the waiting room and Jungwoo hyung to watch the situation, and Jungwoo hyung searched around for Jaekyung hyung.”
“There was no need to go that far…”
“There was.”
Taeyeon immediately countered Jaekyung’s troubled words.
“I was disappointed we weren’t on the same team last time, so let’s do well this time. Hyung.”
At Taeyeon’s greeting, Jaekyung just nodded very slightly. Just like he had hidden around trying to avoid Lee Jungwoo, Jungwoo had also used his head. With three people working together, there was nothing Jaekyung could do about it.
Though Jaekyung didn’t bother to confirm it from Jungwoo’s mouth, he heard in great detail the reason why he had searched for him. Thanks to Hajun’s kind personality, starting from the preliminaries, all suspicion about Jungwoo completely disappeared.
*- I like it.*
*- Your voice was good. So I wanted to keep listening to your singing next to me. I wanted to be with you. That’s why I followed you around.*
*- Your voice was good, but your face is also good and your personality is good too.*
There was a time when Jaekyung had poured out a lot of nasty words because he wanted Jungwoo to stop following him around. At that time, Jungwoo said he liked his voice, and remembering times when he disliked him as a fellow member, he had brushed it off, but it was true.
‘Right, everything’s good. Everything’s good, that’s it.’
Jaekyung was more concerned about something else than how Jungwoo thought of him.
‘The team members…’
Sitting at the round conference table and checking faces, it was truly absurd. Since there were no names on the strings, he only now confirmed who had been brought. Setting aside Hajun, Min Taeyeon was really a tiresome JT affiliate.
Meanwhile, Jungwoo wrote down the team members’ names on paper. He wrote his own name as team leader, then below that Min Taeyeon, Yang Chaejun, Choi Wooju, Seo Jaekyung, and Yoon Hajun.
Looking at the two unfamiliar names, Jaekyung tilted his head slightly. He felt like he had heard one person’s name somewhere.
‘Where was it?’
When he actually tried to dig through his memory, it didn’t come to him easily. Jaekyung lightly ruffled his hair and looked at the two people. The man named Choi Wooju had strong features, perhaps due to his thick eyebrows and high nose bridge, while Yang Chaejun had a cute appearance like Taeyeon. He had a round face shape and dimples that appeared whenever he smiled. Even after looking closely at both their faces, nothing more came to mind, so Jaekyung just let it pass. If it didn’t come to mind, it was probably some connection from when he was doing idol work somewhere.
After the time to get familiar with each other’s faces ended, they immediately moved on to the next thing.
Each department had pre-selected songs. Since Lee Jungwoo was the PR team, they received “Will You Call My Name,” one of the songs by a current male idol group.
The medium-tempo song had an addictive melody along with a groovy rhythm. While Jaekyung familiarized himself by repeatedly listening to the song several times, Jungwoo, who had become team leader, started speaking to divide roles.
“Anyone want to be center?”
Vocal, rap, dance – everything was important, but the top priority was center, and then the killing part. Since usually the person who took center would handle the killing part, Jungwoo decided to determine that first.
At Jungwoo’s question, the team members looked at each other. Some might be looking around because they wanted to do it, some might be watching to see who would do it since they had no interest at all, and some were just watching for fun.
Jungwoo also quietly looked around at the team members, but after his gaze reached Jaekyung, he only looked at him. Feeling Jungwoo’s gaze, Jaekyung pretended not to notice and turned his head to the opposite side.
Center or whatever, he absolutely didn’t want to stand out, and he wanted to drop out this time, which Jungwoo probably knew well too. As expected, instead of asking Jaekyung, Jungwoo spoke so everyone else could hear.
“Anyone who wants to do it, feel free to speak up.”
Jaekyung waited quietly. Then he looked at Hajun and Taeyeon. Why aren’t they saying they want to do it? Hajun, who noticed Jaekyung’s gaze, tilted his head slightly and whispered.
“I have too weak a presence to be center.”
Jaekyung made an expression as if that was ridiculous. Hajun was very popular with his characteristic sly character. What was he talking about when he could draw people’s attention without much effort?
“Um… could I try it?”
The one who raised his hand was the man named Yang Chaejun. Chaejun looked around to see if there were any other volunteers, but no one particularly stepped forward. After a brief silence, Jungwoo nodded.
“Then we’ll put Chaejun as center.”
Chaejun couldn’t hide his excited expression as if he was happy.
“Next, for main vocal…”
“Can I recommend someone?”
Hajun interrupted Jungwoo’s words. He stepped forward as if he had been waiting for this moment, and Jungwoo nodded without looking surprised.
“Then I…”
Hajun’s head slightly turned toward where Jaekyung was. At this, Jaekyung widened his eyes and sent a silent threat. Just try recommending me.
“Wooju would be good.”
When Hajun mentioned someone else’s name while looking at Jaekyung, Wooju jumped in surprise.
“Me?”
“I saw you sing well last time?”
At Hajun’s natural progression, Wooju bowed his head as if embarrassed. Even so, he had an expression of wondering if it would be okay for him to be main vocal. Hajun started speaking to persuade Wooju.
“The song might change a bit depending on the concept, but I think your calm voice would suit it well, Wooju.”
“Then I’ll try it.”
“And Taeyeon, you want to be main dancer, right?”
“Yeah. I was only waiting for this.”
“Then it would be good for Taeyeon to do this and some of the rap parts, and I’ll go with rap too. Jungwoo, are you lead vocal?”
Instead of answering, Jungwoo nodded slightly. Not satisfied with just that, he began writing names next to each role as Hajun had said.
“Jaekyung can do sub-vocal.”
When Hajun pointed to the bottommost spot, Jaekyung nodded as if mesmerized. It was the part with the least screen time and least noticeable. Naturally, he liked it. Thanks to Hajun, who acted as if he had read his mind perfectly, Jaekyung’s expression had relaxed much more than at first.
Looking at everything divided up, Jungwoo said to Jaekyung.
“Help out a little bit.”
There was no detailed explanation of who to help with what, but Jaekyung readily nodded. It was a pleased reaction from already having a small amount of screen time. At that honest appearance, Jungwoo covered his mouth to hide his emerging laughter.
Though Hajun and Taeyeon laughed openly.
“What should we do about the concept?”
As they began discussing the concept, which was the next most important thing after center, Hajun raised his hand while erasing his smile.
“How about we go with this look as is?”
At Hajun’s words, everyone looked at their own appearance. Jaekyung also looked at the clothes he was wearing – a clean suit befitting a company employee.
“Let’s go with a clean suit look with an office worker concept.”
“But other people probably have similar thoughts, right?”
Taeyeon pointed to the other conference rooms. In conference rooms gathered not far away, each team was having discussions among their members. Since their conversations couldn’t be heard, they looked like office workers at a glance.
However, Hajun raised his finger and spoke as if it was no big deal.
“Even if we wear the same clothes, it’s fine if the atmosphere is different.”
At this very casual answer that it didn’t matter if the clothes were the same, Jaekyung sighed. Maybe the reason for enjoying everything from start to finish came from the leisure of knowing all the answers?
* * *
Jaekyung, who had returned to the dormitory, was still dressed in a suit. Around his neck was an ID card the staff had given him – an employee card with his photo for the PR team and a card with his room number. Taeyeon, who had said they didn’t need to carry it around and had skipped away, came to mind.
Jaekyung looked around and surveyed the corridor that had somehow become familiar. Walking through the hotel he had become accustomed to after living there for a month made him feel strangely unsettled for no reason.
“I can eat in peace.”
The first thing that came to mind was hotel food. What Sowoon had said about missing it the most wasn’t a lie. At school, too many people recognized his face so it was hard to eat, and when working part-time, he was too busy to have time for dinner.
He checked the number and used his card. When the door opened, he confirmed the inside.
“It’s a double room.”
Though the room had gotten smaller, there were still only two beds. Thinking it was a room for two people, he naturally became curious about who he would share it with. As Jaekyung chose the bed by the wall and was putting his bag down nearby, he heard someone entering.
As Jaekyung sat on the bed and peeked his head out, one person entered.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
