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“Hi there?”
Even now, unlike his other two roommates, Seunghyun approached him naturally and greeted Kim Bunhong, but Kim Bunhong already knew what kind of person he was.
Because he had been fooled by him once before his regression.
At the time, he couldn’t understand why a Class A trainee would talk to him, a Class B trainee, but he just wanted to believe. That’s how it was back then. In the end, all that came back was betrayal of that trust, but he was so lonely that he thought even that was better than being isolated among the trainees. As rumors about his family situation spread, he naturally came to know who the source of those rumors was.
Because Kim Bunhong had confided that fact to only one person. That person was Oh Seunghyun, a Class A trainee he had believed to be a friend.
Especially when Kim Bunhong, who had been in Class B, was decided as a debut member, ignoring AT Entertainment’s custom of forming debut members only from Class A, all sorts of malicious words poured out from behind. “Beggar XX,” “kid with no mom or dad,” and other curses too harsh to even speak aloud.
Contrary to his cold inner feelings, Kim Bunhong pulled up the corners of his mouth as much as possible and answered.
“Yeah. Hi.”
Bunhong already had a guess as to why Seunghyun was approaching him. He was looking for gossip material by any means necessary.
Even knowing this, having to smile in front of him was disgusting, but he had already lived the life of an entertainer once. He was sickeningly familiar with wearing a mask in front of others. Soon, Seunghyun asked Bunhong naturally.
“Your name is Kim Bunhong, right? I heard this is your first time being a trainee?”
Looking at Seunghyun who was speaking to him in a friendly manner, Bunhong began to speak slowly with a slight delay.
“That’s right. It’s a bit overwhelming. Trainee life and everything is new to me, so there are many things I need to learn going forward.”
“……”
“Dancing, singing too. I want to do well like the other Class A kids.”
Because Bunhong spoke innocently while letting his shoulders droop to look as pitiful as possible, Seunghyun believed his words completely and answered with a slight sneer.
“Really? Actually, I was curious because I heard you came straight into Class A. But I guess it’s really nothing special.”
* * *
Duho was in an unusually good mood that day. Actually, if he had to be precise, it was closer to not thinking about anything at all.
No plan is the plan. That was also Duho’s usual life philosophy. Like a rhinoceros that instinctively charges when there’s an obstacle ahead, he always broke through crises in front of him that way.
When he had been active in the underground scene for a while and then declared he would become an idol for the first time after being cast by AT Entertainment by chance, the reactions of his fellow rapper colleagues who had been making music with him in the underground were all consistent. They either mocked him or ignored him – one of the two. Moreover, they all asked him if he had no pride.
Duho actually found those words just amusing. He wanted to ask them what pride was. If such a thing fed you, he wouldn’t have gone around starving during the time when he recklessly jumped into music without knowing better.
Duho spotted Bunhong and Seunghyun together and gave them a brief greeting.
“Oh? Blue guy. Looks like you became friends with Seunghee.”
“It’s Seunghyun!”
Toward the irritated Seunghyun, Kim Bunhong really wanted to say this: At least you got one syllable right, so isn’t that okay?
Bunhong secretly rolled his eyes while watching Duho roam around the practice room with his long legs like it was his own home, playing pranks here and there. He wondered when he would properly call his name.
Still, thanks to Duho being busy wandering around the practice room, he was able to divert other trainees’ attention away from Bunhong. Duho approached a trainee and played a prank on him.
“Hey, our mole~”
“Ah. Hyung. Please don’t.”
Since there had been a big gap between Class A and Class B with Duho and Han Chayeon originally, Bunhong hadn’t known them well before his regression since they hadn’t trained together until Bunhong entered the debut group. But from Bunhong’s observations, seeing how he called most trainees except Han Chayeon by strange nicknames or names, he thought he was really a peculiar hyung.
Watching Duho like this, Bunhong didn’t know whether he should be relieved that it wasn’t just him being treated this way, but he still thought he was someone with good social skills.
Despite his outward appearance of grinning all day long, Duho actually didn’t seem to have much interest in others, but when he watched Han Chayeon dancing, his eyes clearly changed in a way that even a dense person could feel.
Maybe it was because they were the same age. He seemed to have some rivalry consciousness usually too. When Bunhong ended up alone with Duho in the break room, Bunhong spoke to Duho as if testing him.
“Hyung seems to get along really well with Chayeon hyung.”
Then Duho, who had been drinking a beverage he just got from the vending machine, turned to look at Kim Bunhong standing behind him and said with a grin.
“Han Chayeon? He’s a tough guy. A weirdo.”
“……”
Soon he easily crushed the empty beverage can with one hand and threw it into the trash can. Even though it was quite a distance away, it went in accurately, and he began to whistle lightly while pursing his lips as if pleased.
“I don’t dislike weirdos though.”
At first hearing, it was a strange expression whose meaning couldn’t be understood. The word “weirdo” itself was like that. However, somehow Bunhong, who heard it, thought it was a word that delivered a heavy impact to the heart. Duho continued.
“I acknowledged him, you see. So I want to debut together, that’s what I’m saying.”
At those words, Bunhong suddenly realized intuitively. Duho acknowledged Chayeon as a ‘colleague’ of the same level.
While thinking it was a unique bond expressed in Duho’s characteristic quirky way, on the other hand, Bunhong developed a desire to enter that circle himself.
Not just as a fellow member or junior, but he wanted to be acknowledged as a proper colleague and belong to what Duho was talking about. Not just someone who lived in the dorms together and worked together like before his regression, but he wanted to stand proudly next to them with a level that wouldn’t be embarrassing to keep by their side.
Looking at Duho’s profile as he continued whistling and walking, Bunhong pondered.
‘Can I really do it?’
Duho, who had been rummaging through his pockets, scratched his eyebrow and gestured for Bunhong to go in first while he moved in the opposite direction.
“Go in first. I need to smoke another cigarette.”
Watching him walk into the smoking room through the smoke, Bunhong answered a beat late.
“……Got it.”
Only when Bunhong arrived in front of the practice room did he realize he was still holding the beverage can that Duho had bought him in the break room, which wasn’t even half empty yet. Only then did Bunhong stand in front of the door and begin drinking it little by little. He judged it would be better to drink such things outside before going in to avoid looking bad. But through the slightly open door gap, he could hear the remaining trainees chattering noisily.
“Ah, so annoying. That guy, I mean, the new kid. Doesn’t he somehow irritate you? We worked so hard to get here and climbed our way up, but he became Class A right away.”
“Still, no matter how much you struggle, what can you do about a parachute appointment. It’s obvious he’ll be humiliated at tomorrow’s position evaluation, so let’s just watch.”
Having unintentionally overheard the conversation after missing the timing to open the door and enter, Bunhong could immediately tell upon hearing the word “parachute” without needing to specify the subject. The trainees were talking behind his back.
“I don’t know what Chayeon hyung thinks is so great about him that he’s suddenly hanging around with him.”
Since the person in question had no memory of receiving such special treatment, he was genuinely puzzled upon hearing this. As far as Bunhong knew, his only contact with Han Chayeon was the following brief conversation they had that morning.
‘I’m asking this out of personal curiosity, but where did you get the spare key?’
‘The key? The security guard gave it to me.’
‘Ah……I see.’
Even that was much closer to a Q&A rather than a conversation, which made it even more incomprehensible.
“Anyway, I hate guys who act up relying on their looks the most.”
At the following words, Bunhong felt deflated. Somehow he had thought things were quiet in front after the cafeteria incident, but now he realized this was what was happening behind the scenes, making him think Class A was no different.
No matter how much cameras were rolling, there was no way such scenes could be broadcast, so Bunhong decided to pretend this incident never happened.
He thought this level of light gossip was tolerable. After all, he was Kim Bunhong at twenty-two, not nineteen, so he decided to just consider it simple childish pranks.
However, the one thing that bothered Bunhong was that a third party was involved in their conversation topic. While it was fortunate that Han Chayeon wasn’t mixed in with the group of trainees cursing at him, it seemed like he was receiving unnecessary criticism because of him, so Bunhong sincerely wanted to apologize to him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
