Chapter 47
Jungwoo, who had woken up to his alarm, washed up, and came out, plopped down on the bed with clothes to change into. While roughly drying his wet hair with a towel, Jungwoo looked down at Jaekyung, who still couldn’t wake up.
Jaekyung was sleeping deeply, not even noticing Jungwoo’s gaze. With half his face buried in the pillow, listening to the steady breathing sounds he was making, it felt too pitiful to wake him up.
Jungwoo rested his elbows on his knees and tilted his head toward Jaekyung’s face. When his eyes were open, he often glared annoyingly or mostly responded with an indifferent face, but his sleeping appearance was pure innocence itself.
The team member selection mission suddenly came to mind. Jungwoo wasn’t the only one who had wanted to bring Jaekyung as a team member that day. In the place where the team leaders gathered while the team members were settling in, they mentioned the names of trainees they wanted to bring, and Jaekyung was mentioned at least once by most mouths.
The atmosphere was such that anyone would take Jaekyung as soon as they encountered him. First of all, he lacked nothing from singing to dancing, and he had buzz too. Among them, Jungwoo had to think and think again about how he could bring Jaekyung.
– First, fill up three people as they catch your eye. Then look for Jaekyung together with me.
Hajun, who had been waiting at the entrance, expressed his desire to be on the same team as Jungwoo and asked for the team leaders’ understanding. And that’s what Hajun said when the two were left alone. So they received the ribbon from Taeyeon who appeared as if he had been waiting, and then caught Yang Chaejun and Choi Wooju who caught their eyes next.
During the time he brought Jaekyung and even sent him to share a room, Jungwoo was quite satisfied. It was good when eating meals with Jaekyung, and especially during practice, their chemistry was so good that even when it was hard, he didn’t realize it was hard. It was different from Hajun who was like raising a sly fox, simple Taeyeon, or prickly Geonhu. He thought about the next announcement ceremony and the time they’d spend afterward. As expected, just being roommates for this brief moment wasn’t enough.
Suddenly, at the loud ringing of a cell phone, Jaekyung flinched. His eyelids trembled as he slept, then Jaekyung opened his eyes and stared blankly.
Jungwoo waved his hand right in front of him, but Jaekyung blinked heavily and buried his face in the pillow.
“I’m sleepy.”
“We need to go out.”
Since he was already awake anyway, Jungwoo shook Jaekyung’s shoulder and then pulled his arm to lift his upper body. As Jaekyung was being dragged up weakly, he opened only one eye to look at Jungwoo and was startled. At the same time, as he tried to put strength into his caught arm, Jungwoo also put strength into his hand. Jungwoo, who was firmly holding Jaekyung’s arm, spoke as if waking him up.
“Why are you surprised?”
When Jungwoo asked somewhat grumpily at the gaze that looked him over from his head down, Jaekyung shook his head.
“Never mind.”
Not knowing what was “never mind,” Jaekyung relaxed his strength from the arm Jungwoo was holding. Because of that, Jungwoo looked at him as if dumbfounded and lifted Jaekyung up again.
“We need to eat and go to practice.”
Jungwoo focused only on taking Jaekyung out. At the team leader’s discretion for bringing Jaekyung as a team member.
* * *
After finishing morning practice and gathering one by one in the hall, Jaekyung, who was sitting in a corner, kept yawning. The way he was hunched over with his hat pulled down low and leaning against the wall was funny, so several passing trainees looked back.
“Didn’t you sleep yesterday?”
“I slept.”
“Then why are you so tired?”
“Because they served lettuce for dinner.”
When he brought up the saying that eating a lot of lettuce makes you sleepy, Hajun laughed and responded.
“Did you eat a whole basket of lettuce?”
He had eaten just a few scattered pieces and was making excuses. But whatever, Jaekyung was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.
Sitting in pairs of two, Jaekyung was against the middle wall and Hajun sat next to him. And as Jungwoo moved to the back, Yang Chaejun sat next to him.
“We’ll now proceed with voting to select the mafia. Please go to the booth in front and stamp one person’s name.”
With PD Choi’s direction, the trainees who were in front stood up busily. Some were confident because they already knew the revealed mafia’s identity, while others looked confused.
“I’ll be back.”
Taeyeon, who stood up first, walked confidently as if he was certain. When it was Jaekyung’s turn to vote while everyone was voting individually, Jungwoo kindly took off his hat for him. Jaekyung got up with his messy hair as it was, voted, and came back. Since he just looked a bit tired after practice, everyone didn’t look at Jaekyung strangely.
“Now that voting is over, we’ll tally the results.”
As PD Choi said to wait a moment, Taeyeon looked back at Jaekyung.
“Hyung, who did you vote for as mafia?”
“Can we say that?”
“We can say it since voting is already over.”
Even with Taeyeon’s plausible answer, Jaekyung kept his mouth firmly shut. Then Taeyeon immediately asked Choi Wooju, and also asked Jungwoo and Hajun, but just skipped over Yang Chaejun at the end. Yang Chaejun was looking at Taeyeon but since he wasn’t asked, he just gave an awkward smile.
It might seem like nothing, but once Jaekyung became aware of it, he couldn’t close his eyes anymore. If he hadn’t known at all, it would be one thing, but knowing made his heart heavy. And Taeyeon’s subtle ostracism gradually became irritating too. In the end, Jaekyung was the first to tap Yang Chaejun’s shoulder.
“Who did you vote for?”
“I… Hajun hyung.”
“Me? You voted for me?”
When his name was called, Hajun looked back at Yang Chaejun. Then Yang Chaejun nodded slightly.
“Why me? Did I seem like mafia?”
“Among these people, you seemed the most like mafia…”
“Is that an insult or a compliment?”
When Yang Chaejun couldn’t continue speaking, Jungwoo intervened.
“An insult. That’s why you shouldn’t have gone around looking so sinister.”
“Me? Did I do that? Jaekyung. Did I do that?”
Hajun asked Jaekyung as if feeling wronged. However, Jaekyung couldn’t bring himself to say no and was holding back his words, so Hajun’s eyes narrowed.
“Jaekyung. Who did you vote for?”
Jaekyung still didn’t say. With that as an answer, Hajun grabbed his forehead.
“So this is my image.”
“Who did you vote for, hyung?”
At Jaekyung’s appropriately deflecting words, Hajun immediately pointed to one person.
“You.”
Jaekyung.
Jaekyung looked at the finger pointing at him and then raised his head.
“Why me?”
“Process of elimination. Excluding Lee Jungwoo who doesn’t lie, excluding Min Taeyeon who can’t act, excluding roommate Choi Wooju. And excluding Yang Chaejun who would get caught clumsily like Sowoon.”
He eliminated them with reasonably valid reasons.
“Or not.”
With Hajun’s casual answer, PD Choi shouted.
“Okay, tallying is finished.”
At PD Choi’s words, Jaekyung turned his head from Hajun as if relieved. Since he knew who the mafia was and just voted for anyone, he was quite stung by Hajun’s reaction.
“Shall we start with the HR team? Trainee Lee Sowoon who got 5 votes. Then shall we find out if trainee Lee Sowoon is the mafia?”
Most of the cameras all turned toward Lee Sowoon who was standing awkwardly. Sowoon was being shy about it. Along with the heart-pounding sound effects from the speaker, a video was played.
It showed him secretly filming his fellow trainees practicing with a hidden camera and then clumsily hiding the small cam. Sometimes he hid it belatedly, so the trainees’ voices saying “It’s Sowoon” and joking sounds were caught directly in the audio.
“The HR team’s mafia is indeed trainee Lee Sowoon. With this, you gain 300 points.”
Since there weren’t many filmed videos, revealing who the mafia was seemed like a good choice.
“Next is the Sales team.”
Following each voting result, the trainee designated as mafia was called and a video confirming whether they were mafia continued. Places that openly revealed being mafia showed all kinds of talents while looking at the camera, and also filmed trainees secretly picking their noses, among other fun videos that poured out.
Certainly, more natural appearances came out than when standing in front of cameras.
“Now it’s the PR team. There are 4 votes. It’s…”
Jaekyung was very nervous about who would be designated as mafia from his team. He tried to act as nonchalant as possible, but did he get caught?
“Trainee Yoon Hajun.”
“Wow…”
As if incredulous, Hajun looked at the owners of the 4 votes in turn and stood up from his seat.
“So I was a person with this little trust.”
“You’re just sinister.”
Jungwoo bluntly put down Hajun.
“You shouldn’t do that to your hyung.”
“Just look ahead.”
At Jungwoo’s unfriendly reaction, Hajun turned around as if hurt. PD Choi, who captured the trainees’ reactions on camera like that, smirked.
“I’ll tell you the PR team’s result first.”
It was different from the usual video confirmation.
“Yoon Hajun… was an innocent citizen.”
With that, Hajun pointed to himself emphasizing that he was an innocent citizen.
“Hajun hyung isn’t it? Then there’s no mafia?”
At Taeyeon’s single cry, Jaekyung flinched. And Jungwoo, who keenly noticed Jaekyung’s reaction, smiled secretly.
“Now shall we see who the mafia is from the video filmed by the PR team?”
As soon as PD Choi finished speaking, the video resumed.
No, I don’t know if they turned on the video or turned off the screen.
“I can’t see anything?”
Along with Taeyeon’s reaction, Hajun glanced back at Jaekyung as if some thought occurred to him. Earlier he voted suspiciously, but now he was certain.
“It wasn’t lettuce.”
From the reason of lack of sleep, he probably figured out when Jaekyung filmed the trainees. Jaekyung pretended not to know Hajun’s sly smile and only looked at the screen.
It was all black. The trainees’ murmuring grew louder at the black screen where nothing could be seen. Then the black screen rippled like waves and the sound of someone moving was heard.
“Ah, what is this? Is this horror here?”
When only moving sounds could be heard in the darkness, it was someone’s muttering. Like his words, the video began with an eerie background sound mixed with horror.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
