Chapter 46
After the mission was announced, the atmosphere in the practice room changed. Those sitting in a circle were watching each other. They were trying to figure out who the mafia was before practicing. Though they didn’t ask outright, while everyone was looking around at each other’s faces, Jaekyung saw Taeyeon and Yang Chaejun make eye contact.
It seemed like they accidentally met each other’s eyes, but Taeyeon was the first to avoid Yang Chaejun’s gaze. And he seemed somewhat hurt too. Then Yang Chaejun turned his head with a half-resigned look and made eye contact with Jaekyung.
Yang Chaejun’s eyes widened in surprise, then soon narrowed as he smiled softly. What was he smiling about? Jaekyung soon looked away from Yang Chaejun.
Now he didn’t need to look at anyone. Since he was the mafia, there was no need to suspect the citizens. However, feeling someone’s gaze, Jaekyung lifted his head.
Jungwoo was staring intently at Jaekyung. Since he was fixated only on him without looking at others, Jaekyung let out a small sigh.
“I’m not the mafia.”
“Pfft.”
Jungwoo had been glaring at him so intensely, but laughter was heard from beside them. Hajun belatedly covered his mouth, then awkwardly lowered his hand after confirming Jaekyung had heard everything.
“It’s funny that you’re answering when no one asked if you were the mafia.”
Jaekyung pointed at Jungwoo with his finger. Only then did Hajun nod as if he understood.
“Right. There was a persistent citizen over there.”
“Why is he a citizen?”
When he asked because it was strange to call Jungwoo a persistent citizen, Hajun answered lightly as if it was nothing.
“If he were the mafia, he would have said so. Lee Jungwoo, are you the mafia?”
“No.”
“See?”
“…You’re saying he’s a citizen based on just that?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow… that’s some serious trust.”
At Jaekyung’s amazed muttering, Hajun winked as if it was nothing.
“Is that really all there is to it?”
“Then what else would there be? He doesn’t lie.”
“What about me?”
When Jaekyung pointed directly at himself and asked, Hajun’s eyes narrowed. Jaekyung nervously swallowed his saliva as Hajun openly examined him as if evaluating him. It wasn’t just Jaekyung. Everyone who had been listening to their conversation was now focused on Hajun.
“You’re a bit ambiguous. You’re not the type who finds lying bothersome like Jungwoo, but you’re also not someone who lies as easily as eating like Taeyeon.”
“Hajun hyung.”
Even at Taeyeon’s indignant outburst, Hajun seemed completely unaffected and muttered.
“It seems like you’d dislike lying because dealing with the aftermath would be bothersome, but you’d also do it if necessary? Something like that.”
“So is Jaekyung hyung the mafia or not? Just say that one thing.”
Frustrated, Taeyeon pressed Hajun to give a straight answer. He’d almost burst from Hajun’s roundabout way of speaking many times before, and today was worse, not better. Hajun smiled broadly and answered.
“I don’t know that either. He’s not someone I’ve watched for a long time like Jungwoo.”
At the deflating answer, Taeyeon got fired up.
“Ah, what the hell. Then don’t create the atmosphere from the beginning.”
“It’s because Jaekyung asked. Anyway, that’s not what’s important.”
Just when Taeyeon was about to open his mouth again, thinking Hajun was trying to brush off the situation, Hajun was a bit faster.
“Individual mission.”
“…What?”
“There’s an individual mission given to the mafia. If someone shows strange behavior, that person would be the mafia, so why worry about it?”
“Ah…”
“Of course, even if you figure out who the mafia is, you should think rather than guess right away. You get 300 points for identifying the mafia, but you don’t know how much they might take with their individual mission. For example, assuming I’m the mafia, I’d think about whether I could get more than 300 points with my individual mission.”
Taeyeon smoothly continued the conversation.
“What if I’m the mafia?”
“We should expose you right away.”
“Why!”
“Your individual mission doesn’t seem like it would earn many points.”
At Hajun’s cutting words, only Taeyeon felt wronged while most looked at Hajun with respectful eyes. Jaekyung also looked surprised when Hajun pointed out what he had been missing. However, only Jungwoo scoffed at Hajun’s words.
“Why are you saying this now?”
They’d been sitting in a circle without practicing for quite a while. Hajun shrugged and replied.
“I was waiting thinking you’d say it.”
He meant he had planned to just step back and watch but ended up speaking. Since Jungwoo also quickly caught on, Jaekyung thought it wouldn’t be as easy as he’d expected to hide his identity.
“More than that, I’m curious what the individual mission is.”
When Hajun’s eyes sparkled, Jaekyung quietly turned his head away from him.
* * *
While they were practicing intensively, Hajun, who had said he was going to the bathroom for a moment, hadn’t appeared for some reason. Jaekyung flapped his shirt to release the hot heat from his body and looked around. Everyone was breathing heavily from practice, but it was obvious they were curious about where Hajun had gone. Probably because it seemed like Hajun would find out something rather than just him.
Jaekyung felt hot heat suddenly waft over from beside him and turned to see Jungwoo standing there.
“What? Do you have something to say?”
Jungwoo nodded slightly and turned his gaze toward the mirror. When Jaekyung also looked at the mirror, he could see all the people who had been practicing together just moments ago at a glance.
“It’s bland.”
“What is? The dance?”
Jungwoo nodded slightly. Then he poured out all the thoughts he’d been having.
“I’m worried about going on stage like this.”
At Jungwoo’s words, Jaekyung recalled the dance they’d just performed and their concept. It was a concept of showing restrained dancing as office workers in suits against an office background. If each person just danced well, it could be somewhat acceptable, but it seemed like it would produce a stage that couldn’t be called good.
“What do you think?”
Actually, Jaekyung had similar thoughts to Jungwoo. The song itself could fit anywhere depending on how it was interpreted. Deciding on office workers wasn’t bad, but the center was Yang Chaejun, a teenager. Even if they dressed him up properly, his youthful appearance would show and he’d look cute. But then again, the dance Taeyeon created was mainly composed of restrained choreography without big movements. If they switched the center to Hajun now, it would come out well, but considering the overall picture, Taeyeon and Yang Chaejun were problematic.
In various ways, it wasn’t a concept that matched all the trainees’ images. Even though it could be a good enough stage even if not the best, seeing him worry like this made Jaekyung look at Jungwoo’s face anew. Wouldn’t it be fine to just do it moderately?
Noticing Jaekyung’s gaze, Jungwoo made eye contact with him. Somehow the two ended up staring intently at each other, creating a strange silence. Jungwoo was the first to speak.
“This is just me being greedy, so you can say no if you disagree.”
“No, well… I understand what you’re saying.”
Jaekyung calculated the remaining time. Exactly half had passed and everyone had gotten used to their individual dances. Now all that remained was practicing together as a group, so there was still some leeway. Of course, only if things continued as they were.
“Then let’s call everyone and…”
“Wait.”
When Jaekyung suddenly raised his hand to stop him, Jungwoo looked puzzled. Even under Jungwoo’s gaze, Jaekyung thought over and over.
‘This is really strange.’
They were given two weeks for this mission where they only danced without singing. At first, he didn’t think it was generous because there were missions involved, but now that a week had passed, things were roughly organized. Not all trainees might be relaxed, but most were showing results proportional to their practice. Would the production team not know this? Or did they give enough time to practice and absorb like when they did their first stage? But Jaekyung’s instincts told him there was something else. His thoughts suddenly turned to the small camera hidden in the room.
– Have you decided on a concept yet?
‘Maybe…’
There might be a big change in this mission. Jaekyung realized that his assigned role was more important than he’d thought.
“Let’s wait and see for now.”
At Jaekyung’s blunt words, Jungwoo had to consider the circumstances. However, Jaekyung, who had gotten a hint from PD Choi’s words as the mafia, was choosing how much to tell him.
“Let’s wait just about a day…”
“I found out about the individual mission.”
Hajun’s shout as he returned cut off Jaekyung’s words.
“What is it?”
“What’s the individual mission?”
When everyone approached Hajun and asked as if they’d been waiting, instead of answering, Hajun opened the door telling them to look. Then the noise that had been cut off earlier rushed in like a tide. Since the hallway was noisy, everyone went to the practice room entrance. The same went for Jaekyung and Jungwoo. Since Jaekyung had been thinking about what to do just moments before, his curiosity was even greater.
“A little more action!”
At someone’s shout, a trainee did a magnificent tumbling in the hallway.
“Is that the individual mission?”
“What? Tumbling?”
“Do you know how to do it?”
Taeyeon asked Hajun an innocent question. Then Hajun ruffled Taeyeon’s hair and laughed.
“It’s not that, but over there.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the person Hajun’s finger was pointing at. Of course, Jaekyung also stuck his head out further to look at the person holding the small camera. For Jaekyung, who knew what the individual mission was, this was no different from openly saying “I’m the mafia.”
“It seems like the mission is to film something.”
“Then it’ll be easy to find the mafia. Someone among us has to film too.”
Looking at other teams, they got a proper sense of it. In the end, only Jaekyung, who was the mafia, was at a disadvantage. At Taeyeon’s neat summary, Jaekyung pressed his lips shut.
Should I just reveal that I’m the mafia and take the 300 points?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
