Chapter 84
Leaving behind the chaotic team atmosphere, Juha quietly approached Jo Munseok.
“Hyung.”
Since Juha rarely initiated conversation, Munseok was startled.
“What?”
“Nothing, just… did you sleep well last night?”
“Uh, yeah, I slept fine?”
Although they had been together during the last competition, Munseok and Juha weren’t close enough to exchange bedtime greetings. Munseok looked at him with a rather displeased expression.
“Nam Suchang hyung seems strange. Did something happen in your room?”
When Juha asked carefully, Jo Munseok suddenly grinned.
“He won’t bother you anymore. My loyalty is absolutely magnificent.”
At the sight of Jo Munseok making silly jokes with his intimidating build, Juha was momentarily speechless. Meanwhile, Munseok patted Juha’s shoulder with a proud expression like an older brother who had disciplined bullies picking on his younger brother, then disappeared.
‘What was that about.’
Juha tilted his head in confusion. From his expression, he could guess that Jo Munseok, who boasted the unique intimidating presence of a former athlete, had guided Nam Suchang to the ‘right path’ overnight.
It was fortunate that Nam Suchang had quieted down, but whether this was good or bad, he couldn’t tell yet.
* * *
After each warming up their bodies, the team members tried to match their dance according to the formation they had arranged yesterday. Their movements weren’t yet familiar enough to maintain the formation while emphasizing sharp angles, and since each member learned at different speeds, their positions kept clashing. Even after practicing dozens of times without improvement, their energy dropped with each practice session. Everyone knew that if energy was lost in a cheer song, it became meaningless, but they all felt deflated.
What dampened their motivation most was doubt about their current concept. Everyone had agreed on the ‘cheer song’ concept, but now they couldn’t shake the impression that it was somehow ordinary.
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
Finally, Taeri, the team leader, stopped practice. Everyone sat down as if they had been waiting, catching their breath.
“I think everyone feels it, but we seem a bit bland. Since we still have time, how about adding some more novel ideas?”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Taeri’s words, but no one readily offered ideas. They each caught their breath while only watching each other’s reactions.
Juha also couldn’t think of new ideas as his body was tired.
“Um, Taeri hyung. How many floors is the main building of Semun Hospital where we’re performing?”
Breaking the silence, Choi Musin carefully asked Taeri.
“It goes up to the 6th floor. The main building isn’t that tall.”
“So the ㅁ-shaped structure continues as one piece up to the 6th floor?”
“Yeah. Why?”
At Juha’s answer, Choi Musin rolled his eyes here and there, lost in thought. Everyone focused on Choi Musin’s mouth without saying anything. Since he had survived with extraordinary ideas so far, everyone had come to expect something from Choi Musin.
“I’ve been researching formations, and unlike other teams, we don’t just have audiences in front – we have audiences on all four sides above us too.”
“That’s right.”
Everyone nodded while listening to Choi Musin’s words.
“So how about we create a formation that’s meaningful when viewed from above while also looking good in front shots?”
“In other words, you’re saying we should create a stage that aims for a bird’s-eye view?”
When Taeri said this with a smile, Choi Musin nodded vigorously.
“Ah?”
“Oh…”
“Whoa?”
Each had different reactions, but everyone couldn’t hide their surprise. If they performed in the first-floor lobby of the ㅁ-shaped building, there might be more audiences leaning on the railings of each floor from the first to sixth floor than those watching from the first floor.
So it meant expanding the audience range not just to those in front of the stage, but to people looking down from above.
Choi Musin ran off somewhere and came back with paper and pen.
“If we arrange the formation like this, it can look like snowflakes when viewed from above… We make the lines in two tiers, with the second line focusing on the upper audiences.”
Choi Musin enthusiastically explained while even drawing pictures on the paper. If they could capture not only the first-floor lobby audience but also the attention of upper floor audiences as Choi Musin suggested, the number of audiences they could persuade would be much greater.
Living up to his reputation. Watching Choi Musin explain enthusiastically, Juha understood why Lee Yunha had praised him so much. His basic range of creativity was much broader than other trainees.
“Then let’s tell the production team about our stage concept and ask them to film from above too.”
“Good!”
“Sounds good!”
When Taeri summarized, everyone agreed with much brighter expressions.
“But is it okay for us to do this without any props?”
Go Suhyeok, who had been quiet, carefully interrupted the atmosphere with a question. Just as the team members were pondering again, Baek Cheonsan spoke up.
“Hyungs, when you think of cheering squads, it’s cloaks.”
“Cloaks?”
Cloaks had been used by Choi Musin’s team in the last competition, but the usage itself was different this time.
“Since we can’t walk around the hospital in our uniforms anyway, we’ll appear wearing cloaks and then start by dramatically throwing them off. You know, those hooded cloaks that wizards wear.”
“Oh?”
“Oh…”
Everyone nodded at Baek Cheonsan’s explanation. They could secretly wear cloaks and stand on stage, then when the music starts, throw off the cloaks and reverse the atmosphere to definitely capture the public’s attention.
There was no better prop for doing a guerrilla-style event.
“But if we walk around the hospital wearing something too black, we’ll look like grim reapers.”
Nam Suchang, who had been quiet, muttered in a small voice while reading the room.
“Then we can wear white cloaks.”
Jo Munseok, who heard Nam Suchang’s words, threw out a comment indifferently.
“Huh? Angels in white?”
“Angels in white!”
“Wow, that’s great!”
Everyone clapped and cheered at Go Suhyeok’s words.
This would be the timing for Nam Suchang to step forward and summarize, but he was still only watching other team members’ reactions.
Team leader Taeri could take the initiative again, but Taeri also watched Nam Suchang’s expression. He seemed ready to hand over the proceedings if Nam Suchang wanted it. Taeri always got a lot of screen time no matter what he did, so he often yielded screen time to others, and this seemed like one of those moments.
‘I should give him a carrot.’
Nam Suchang wasn’t the type Juha particularly wanted to get close to, but people like him couldn’t stand being left out and might explode later. And if even one team member was in bad condition, it would show directly on stage. No matter how minor the mission, with 10,000 votes at stake, they couldn’t take Nam Suchang’s attitude lightly.
Since Jo Munseok seemed to have wielded quite a whip in their room, Juha picked up a mental carrot.
“Suchang hyung, could you summarize what we’ve discussed so far?”
At Juha’s words, Nam Suchang’s eyes immediately sparkled.
“Me? But Taeri is the team leader…”
From what he was saying, it seemed Jo Munseok had told Nam Suchang not to act out when there was a separate team leader.
“No. You’re better at summarizing, hyung.”
Taeri, reading the atmosphere, joined Juha in flattering Nam Suchang. When Jo Munseok nodded indifferently in agreement, Nam Suchang’s expression immediately brightened.
“Ahaha, then hyung will try summarizing.”
…That damn ‘hyung’ talk.
Nam Suchang leaned forward excitedly and opened his mouth.
“First, we’ll dynamically change our formation with a cheer song atmosphere to bring vitality to the entire hospital. For costumes, white cloaks over our uniforms. When we get out of the car and move through the hospital, we’ll wear white hooded cloaks, then stand on stage and dramatically throw them off to start. For all our 10,000 votes, Taeri will be the opening center. That’s it.”
“Wow, experienced people really are different.”
When Juha flattered him once more, Nam Suchang shrugged his shoulders.
“Hyung used to lead meetings instead of the leader at RU too.”
…What kind of person is so simple. While Juha inwardly laughed and gauged the atmosphere, Jo Munseok also let out a hollow laugh as if incredulous.
* * *
Practice ended smoothly. Nam Suchang came back to life and shouted ‘hyung this’, ‘hyung that’ to his juniors, but it didn’t reach the point of making people frown like yesterday. Since they had to finish practice by 10 PM for the minor trainees, they ran through the complete song one last time and everyone scattered to their rooms around 9 PM.
Juha moved with Taeri to the adjacent room as usual.
“It’s fortunate that Suchang hyung is more cooperative than expected.”
Juha said with a faint smile. Practice was tough, but at least the teamwork had improved enough to be bearable. It was extremely fortunate that Jo Munseok had guided Nam Suchang to the ‘right path’ from the first day. Otherwise, they might still be at Nam Suchang’s mercy, or Juha might have stepped forward and gotten into a fight because he couldn’t stand it.
“It’s because you did well.”
At Juha’s words, Taeri put his arm around his shoulder and grinned.
“What did I do?”
“Instead of Munseok hyung who only knows how to threaten but can’t console, you consoled him and Suchang hyung got better. If not, who knows what would have happened with today’s practice.”
“Is that really my doing…”
Juha trailed off as if embarrassed. Due to his introverted personality, he didn’t have many friends, but during his 6 years of trainee life, dealing with various trainees he encountered, Juha had instinctively learned how to handle people without being ignored or ignoring others.
Group life with similar young, accomplished males wasn’t easy. No matter how skilled you were, there were quite a few cases of people getting sick of relationships with strong-willed men and dropping out.
“If I debut, I won’t be able to work only with members I want. Thinking about it that way, how I get along with members will be important.”
“Lee Juha, look after me a bit too.”
For Juha who was speaking seriously, Taeri subtly acted cute. A smile finally bloomed on Juha’s face, which had been serious until then. He had resolved to comfort Taeri, but when he came to his senses, it was always Juha himself who was being comforted.
“Oh, is that Eunwon?”
While walking down the hallway, Juha and Taeri encountered Eunwon playing around with Chaemyeong. The two were also teammates but had different rooms, so they were reluctant to part and were hanging around in the hallway.
As soon as Eunwon saw Juha, his eyes sparkled.
“It’s Juha hyung!”
“Juha hyung!”
Next to Eunwon, even Chaemyeong ran toward Juha.
“Can’t you see me?”
Watching the two who only looked at Juha and were happy to see him, Taeri smiled.
“Hello, Taeri hyung too!”
At first he seemed to find Taeri intimidating, but before they knew it, Eunwon was acting cute toward Taeri as well. It was partly because he was naturally born without a wrinkled disposition, and partly because he had quickly grown close after talking several times thanks to Juha.
“Huh?”
The moment Juha saw Eunwon and Chaemyeong standing together, he tilted his head. Eunwon was definitely 168cm tall when taking profile photos. He remembered this because there wasn’t much difference from Jang Chaemyeong who was 170cm, but now he could see Eunwon’s head was slightly higher.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
