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At those words, Duho let out a short laugh.
“Wow~ I didn’t see it that way, but ‘Kim Yellow’ is really smart. He hit Han Chayeon’s weak point right on target.”
At that, Chayeon frowned and corrected him again.
“It’s Kim Bunhong.”
Though Nayeon’s influence did play some part as Duho said, in truth, that wasn’t everything for Han Chayeon. On what seemed like any ordinary day, the door was already open before Chayeon even arrived at the practice room. In this rare exceptional situation that happened only a few times a year, Chayeon wondered to himself.
‘Did the security guard leave it open?’
And the glass windows inside had been cleaned spotlessly. So clean they were practically sparkling. Not only that, but the exercise equipment and various other things that the trainees always left scattered around were neatly organized and returned to their proper places. Chayeon tilted his head, thinking.
‘Could it be the cleaning ajumma?’
The rules that existed in Han Chayeon’s world began to be disrupted by the appearance of some mysterious helper. When this didn’t stop at just one day, but continued for two days, then three days, he became genuinely curious about who the culprit was. He practically stayed up all night and went to the practice room much earlier than usual at dawn. Peering through the crack of the open door, along with the sound of music flowing out, that guy was there. ‘—Kim Bunhong’.
During the day when he was among the other trainees, he was a kid who didn’t particularly stand out. Well, of course, since he hadn’t been there very long and hadn’t come from being a trainee elsewhere either. Therefore, Chayeon, who had no expectations whatsoever about him, came to see Bunhong in a new light because Bunhong, who was secretly practicing in the practice room, had unexpectedly good skills. At this completely unexpected sight, Chayeon felt puzzled.
‘He has better fundamentals than I thought?’
No, is he hiding it? Why on earth? Why does he come to the practice room at dawn to practice without others noticing?
‘He looks weak and skinny, so sorry to say, but honestly I thought his dancing would be… not good at all.’
When you’ve been dancing for a long time, you can somewhat estimate others when you see them. The trainee called Kim Bunhong that Han Chayeon had lightly scanned with a glance was honestly exactly the stereotype he’d first formed after hearing the rumors. ‘Young, handsome, and a complete newbie who’d never even experienced trainee life.’
But rather than just being at a trainee level, he danced quite well, as if he’d debuted somewhere before, which was better than Han Chayeon had expected, and he seemed just as diligent and determined.
Once he cast aside his prejudices, the person himself came into view. Then things that hadn’t been visible before began to show. Han Chayeon thought that maybe Duho was right about him being a coward.
‘No. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see it, but that I didn’t want to see it.’
Because he always thought process was more important than results. And it didn’t look like he had such amazing skills that he deserved to skip procedures and enter A-class directly.
‘Come to think of it, I still haven’t thanked him.’
However, he heard later that according to a company employee, it was also Kim Bunhong who had found Han Chayeon’s younger sister Nayeon, so in a way, he was a benefactor.
* * *
The door opened on its own without Kim Bunhong needing to put any force on his fingers. Someone had opened the door from inside first.
When the door opened, the first thing he saw were two trainees. There were two bunk beds in the room, meaning a total of four people shared it, so these must be two of Kim Bunhong’s three roommates he’d have to live with for the time being. One of them, who spotted Bunhong, asked.
“Huh? Who are you?”
“Ah, I’m…”
The trainee next to the one who asked with wide eyes poked him in the waist with his elbow. Then, as if catching on, one of them smiled slightly and said.
“Ah~ that guy~”
The atmosphere instantly turned cold. For a while, those two stared at Kim Bunhong as if watching an animal in a cage, then walked away without even greeting him. In the process, one of them roughly bumped his shoulder as they passed, which was just a bonus. As the giggling laughter grew more distant, Bunhong was left standing in front of the door, clutching his shoulder, thinking.
‘Come to think of it, were there no cameras in the hallway?’
Judging from their reaction, it seemed that was the case. Afraid that tears might well up in his eyes, Kim Bunhong quickly puffed out his cheeks and hurried into the room, dragging his suitcase. The three had apparently already agreed on how to divide the space, so his remaining spot was the most corner position on the upper right bunk among the two bunk beds. He struggled up the ladder and began making his bed. After finishing organizing all the luggage from his suitcase, Bunhong went to the bathroom, washed his face, and looked at his face reflected in the mirror, muttering in a voice that had lost confidence.
“Oh dear. I still feel like I’m going to cry.”
In the mirror was reflected a youthful face without makeup, still retaining baby fat. He stared at himself in the mirror as if looking at a stranger.
He couldn’t help it, because until now he’d always faced only his face hidden under thick makeup and gaunt with fatigue from harsh dieting, but suddenly encountering the Kim Bunhong of the past like this gave him a strange feeling, like taking out a photo from a photo album. Something like longing, or maybe nostalgia.
In his round brown eyes with faint double eyelids, there seemed to be a slight moisture. A straight nose bridge, lips pressed in a straight line. Light brown hair that barely grazed his forehead.
‘He really was young.’
Who exactly are you, the Kim Bunhong in the mirror seemed to glare at him as if scolding. He’d always wondered. Before the regression, and now too. Every time he looked in the mirror, it became painful. They say every person has their own value of existence, but he felt he absolutely couldn’t understand himself.
‘Even after coming back like this…’
He shut his eyes tightly, disgusted by what he saw. His wet bangs, damp with water, tickled around his eyes.
Before his heart could be consumed by self-hatred, Bunhong quickly muttered to himself.
“Get it together.”
He patted both his cheeks lightly.
“This time, everything will be different.”
As if chanting a spell, he steeled his resolve and glared once more at Kim Bunhong in the mirror.
“I’ll change it. Everything.”
He decided. He decided not to cry anymore.
In his heart, there was no space to offer to people he particularly cherished. It was full of love alone, and knowing how worn and desolate that space was, he didn’t even dare to try. Because only the lonely five-year-old child was guarding that house. The child’s only friend was music. In the space where he was alone because he couldn’t let anyone in,
‘Thump.’
Finally, the door opened. It was like the sound of a heartbeat. Thump. Thump. Kim Bunhong thought it wasn’t a bad feeling. That too was pleasant music in its own way.
The program that used to be called ‘DARKNESS&Light’ before the regression, now renamed ‘BLACK&COLOR’ and sometimes shortened to ‘B&C’, drew quite a lot of attention just from being planned by AT Entertainment, a major agency.
Moreover, since this was still before various audition programs sprouted up like mushrooms after rain, the very concept of trainees competing in a survival format caused a huge stir among people who had even the slightest interest in the idol industry.
The program ‘B&C’ itself not only reached 2nd place in real-time search rankings, but under the name of the idol group ‘BLACK’, it even reached 1st place in real-time search rankings.
Though briefly, it dominated the internet real-time search rankings, and articles were quickly written by various media outlets. Several of these articles achieved high view counts and were able to secure spots on major portals. Bunhong, who had turned on the internet and was quickly skimming through articles, thought.
‘As expected, survival programs are very popular.’
However, though it takes the format of a survival program on the surface, the goal that can be accurately described as the true purpose of this program is ‘to introduce the existing members of the idol group BLACK and highlight their strengths as much as possible to build recognition.’
As had already been proven in the reality program he’d done with Lee Hanbit before the regression, BLACK’s existing members had sufficient elements, narratives, and skills that the public would find appealing.
In Bunhong’s opinion, the obstacle to BLACK’s future was himself.
So what would be the way for an ordinary person to draw attention among extraordinary talented people?
Kim Bunhong came to ask himself this question and came up with his own answer.
He thought it would be directing.
In other words, image-making. The goal that Kim Bunhong as a member should have in this program, in his opinion, had to be just one thing. If the existing members’ skills needed to stand out, then in contrast, he himself should try not to stand out as much as possible.
First, he would use the stereotypes that people would inevitably have about him.
He would let them judge that since he was handsome, had no talent, and was a low-ranking trainee, he probably had no skills either, then provide some reversal elements.
By doing so, he planned to aim for one final blow.
In that sense, his roommate and fellow trainee ‘Oh Seunghyun’ was a vessel that could serve as a very good stepping stone in the script Kim Bunhong had written.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
