31. Prelude (1)
"Mr. Han-gyul."
"I was wrong......."
"...I'm sorry."
Baek Han-gyul bowed his head deeply at Ji Young-heon's soft call. The leader, Hwang Bo-kyun, also stood next to him.
After the live ended and the cameras were cleared, we had a time of reflection. There was no one else who stood out besides Baek Han-gyul, but anyway.
"You didn't do anything wrong, but let's think a little more calmly when you speak."
"Yes...."
Ji Young-heon let out a deep sigh and touched his forehead. He looked like he was hesitant to scold him and didn't know what to say.
I understand Ji Young-heon's heart ached at every word Baek Han-gyul said, but Baek Han-gyul wasn't bad either.
'If you think about it, Baek Han-gyul didn't do anything wrong.'
There was a bit of aggro for a moment, but that was because people were exaggerating the words and spreading rumors at will. He didn't actually say anything problematic.
'In the end, what Ji Young-heon wanted to say was to be aware of how his words affect others and not get swayed by everything.'
As expected, Ji Young-heon didn't seem to have any intention of scolding him too much, so he just gave him a warning and ended it.
After thinking about it, I patted Baek Han-gyul on the back.
"It's okay."
"Hyung-nim......."
"When your head is complicated, practice is the answer."
Baek Han-gyul's face turned pale. Ji Young-heon, who had been holding Baek Han-gyul back until just now, also stuck out his tongue.
Regardless, I was determined.
"Why, when depressed, you tell me to exercise."
"That's just like you."
"Thank you for the compliment."
Lee Aram shrugged and tapped Baek Han-gyul on the shoulder. It was telling him to calm down and practice.
As the floor of the practice room became slippery, Baek Han-gyul's face also straightened. As expected, the effect was good.
"Mr. Yoo Young!"
At that time, the door of the practice room burst open. Earlier, the employee who was reporting to me for monitoring gasps.
"Are you okay...?"
"Please look at this!"
As I approached, wiping my face with a towel, the employee held up a cell phone in front of my eyes.
I squinted my eyes, and the blurry cell phone screen became clear.
-As expected, good-looking guys don't have the urgency for photos (Baek Han-gyul live capture photo) (Baek Han-gyul live capture photo)
└?
└Ahhhhhh Are you crazy, seriously? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└When I saw the first picture, I suspected plastic surgery, but after seeing the second picture, I doubted my eyes
└What on earth did they do to make their faces look like that?
└So, they're saying that except for Yoo Young, Hwang Bo-kyun, and Ahn Jungwoo, all of their selfie skills were like that ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Baek Han-gyul's selfie revealed during the live broadcast, this looks like it was taken by an old man who is seeing the newspaper for the first time
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ In one picture, he went from old to idol in an instant
└No, isn't it the opposite?
-At first I thought Yoo Young picked on Baek Han-gyul because he's bad at taking pictures, but as soon as I saw the picture I felt sorry for Yoo Young because he must've had a hard time
└Fr It's funny that they practiced taking selfies before their debutㅋ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ If you look at the selfies now, either the company or Yoo Young must've worked hard
└Seriously... there's a reason Yoo Young said the camera was possessed by an evil spirit ㅇㅇ
-But if they hadn't practiced taking selfies, aren't you saying that picture could have come out as a photocard?
└ㅋㅋㅋ... No way;;: They would have made a photocard with a different picture than a selfie
└This is the scariest thing I've heard this year
└ Starting today, I'm withdrawing my support for Yoo Young. From now on, Yoo Young and I are one body, and any attack on Yoo Young will be considered an attack on me, and hereinafter, omitted.
I slowly blinked my eyes while watching the floating reactions. I knew that Baek Han-gyul's selfie skills were shocking, but was it really this much of an issue?
I thought about it carefully and turned my head to look at Baek Han-gyul. I soon found out why.
'Ah, so that's because the gap between his usual appearance and his selfie photos is so big. '
Usually, when evaluating someone's image when meeting them for the first time, appearance plays a big part. And Baek Han-gyul's appearance couldn't be called innocent at best.
But with such a punk-like handsome face and shocking photo skills, people's image was shattered, and a sense of intimacy naturally formed.
"Why, why, what's going on?"
Baek Han-gyul ran to me with a face full of anxiety. He seemed anxious that someone might be scolding him.
I poked Baek Han-gyul on the cheek. It wasn't my intention, but thanks to this guy, I also got a positive image.
"It's not a bad thing. Rather, it's something to be thankful for."
"Huh?"
Baek Han-gyul was visibly relieved when I calmly explained the situation. Hwang Bo-kyun also rubbed the back of his neck, probably worried about his own words. Then he looked at the employee and asked.
"But isn't it too late now? You haven't finished work yet?"
"Oh my, now that I think about it, it's already dawn!"
"The last train must have left.... Isn't Young-i making you work overtime?"
"Hyung, you really went too far."
......Yes? Me?
As I rolled my eyes at Hwang Bo-kyun and Baek Han-gyul's Tikataka, the mentioned employee smiled awkwardly.
'Why don't you refute...?'
I bit my lip in frustration. Only then did the employee shake his head. I almost became a mean boss who made his employees work overtime until dawn.
"I have some work left to do, so I'm going to leave now."
"Thank you for your hard work. Please go in."
After politely greeting, we also cleaned up. Today was the day when the pre-recording for the music show was in the morning, not at dawn, so I was able to get some sleep in the dorm.
I glanced at Seol Yi-soo once and then left to pack my bags alone.
"Oh, isn't Yoo Young leaving work?"
"I'm going to stay in the studio. Please contact me when you pick me up in the morning."
Ji Youngheon and the members had become accustomed to me for a long time, so I didn't hold them back when I went to the studio.
After confirming that the members had left work, I washed up cleanly in the shower. After drying my hair, I received permission to use the studio exclusively for the label.
I opened the studio door as usual and went in, putting my bags down on a corner of the sofa. I took out a bottle of water from the mini fridge and drank it, and I turned on the light, and a soft purple light seeped into the water bottle.
'Let's see, the first thing I have to do is...
........'
I took out the radio script from the pile of luggage and opened it. Since the company had already reviewed it once, there didn't seem to be any place to change it. I thought I just had to pass on the additional information.
After turning the script over and turning my wrist and shoulder, I heard a cracking sound in my bones.
"Ugh... It hurts."
Next, I organized the current images of each member using the monitoring data collected by the agency.
I did this to check the points to highlight in future activities.
The image-making work is done before the debut, but since what we intended and what fans see can be different, we had to update and reflect the image from time to time, even if it was cumbersome.
'Hmm, Yoo Young... So, I have a strong impression of being a talented new generation to the public, but among fans, I feel like a younger brother who matured early. The animals that come out as moe are rabbits and dolphins?'
I tapped the keyboard and gathered my lips. It was quite fun to see how others saw me. It was especially interesting that even though we were the same, I was evaluated differently from Han A-won depending on the situation.
'Before I possessed, Yoo Young was often evaluated as a pure and pitiful hard worker, and Han A-won was an image of a polite young man, despite his appearance.'
I scratched my cheek, thinking that there was nothing that overlapped with the present.
In addition to this, there was something I realized while organizing the data: Yoo Young really doesn't have a single past photo or eyewitness account.
'That's how weird it is. It's like someone who just fell out of this world.'
When an idol debuts, the first thing they do is reveal their past. You can see that all the information that's been exposed, such as elementary, middle, and high school graduation photos, school life, relationships with friends, and small anecdotes, is uploaded. Excluding Yoo Young, all Intro members have past photos floating around the internet.
However, there was no such information about Yoo Young. At this point, it would be reasonable to expect at least one person to claim that they went to school together.
"..."
I glanced at my phone on the sofa and sighed deeply. It was because I remembered my empty contacts and photo album.
'This feels weird.'
Strangely, my memories of the regression were clear, but I didn't know much about Yoo Young's past before becoming a regressor.
When I first became possessed, I was confused and thought my memories were blurry, but at this point, I couldn't help but suspect the system's intervention.
I turned my eyes to the right end of my vision.
"..."
I tried to look at the system message, but there was no response. I felt a little dizzy, grabbed my forehead, and frowned when someone tapped me on the shoulder. My head froze for a moment.
"...It's me."
This voice is Ahn Jung-woo. Only then did I feel relieved and turn around. I wiped away the cold sweat that I didn't know when I had shed and looked at Ahn Jung-woo. Then he blinked.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Huh? No. Didn't you go to the dorm? Why are you here?"
Ahn Jung-woo's eyelids moved even faster. No way; I checked my phone.
[Missed calls: Manager Ji Young-heon (12 calls)]
[Missed calls: Hwang Bo-kyun hyung (3 calls)]
[Missed calls: Ahn Jung-woo (2 calls)]
[Missed calls: Lee A-ram hyung (5 calls)]
I looked at Ahn Jung-woo again after receiving a series of missed calls. He yawned and covered his mouth with his hand when he noticed my gaze.
"Oh, the manager went to the practice room; Kyun hyung is taking care of the other members, and the rest are waiting in the van."
"Um....... Sorry. I made you worry for nothing."
"No, let's go down to the parking lot quickly."
"Uh, uh. Call the manager."
I called Ji Young-heon while leaving Ahn Jung-woo rubbing his half-opened eyes. I thought I would get in trouble, but Ji Young-heon, who was usually not like that, worried about me instead, asking why I was like that and whether I was really tired.
No matter how focused I was, I didn't know I wouldn't be able to hear the phone ring like this.
Just in case I checked my phone settings, but the ringtone was working normally.
'Come to your senses.'
I lightly slapped one cheek. Ahn Jung-woo tilted his head when he saw that.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just tired and trying to wake up."
"I see."
Ahn Jung-woo paused for a moment and touched his cheek. Then, as if something suddenly occurred to him, he asked me.
"But what happened before?"
".....?"
What are you talking about all of a sudden? It wouldn't be right to give a hint that I am late... It wasn't Ahn Jung-woo's personality. No, right? When I frowned, Ahn Jung-woo added an explanation.
"Because we couldn't contact you, Aram hyung got really anxious. I thought something happened before I came in."
That's why he came here because the other hyungs were trying to calm him down. Ahn Jung-woo added calmly.
I felt complicated, but I just kept my mouth shut and shook my head. I didn't want to rashly say an uncertain reason.
'If the reason I thought was right... I think Aram's trauma from sasaeng is worse than I thought.'
The situation was ambiguous to ask about the past right now, so I decided to catch up and talk when the opportunity arose.
Ahn Jung-woo kept his mouth shut as usual. The corners of his mouth were slightly tense, which was Ahn Jung-woo's unique habit.
As we arrived at the parking lot, Ji Young-heon, who had been loitering at the entrance, ran to us.
"Aren't you sick? Really?"
"Yes, I'm really not sick. I didn't hear the phone ringing while I was working. I'm sorry."
Ji Young-heon sighed in relief.
I got in the van and bowed my head first. Being late for an appointment is rude and wrong. Especially doing this before the schedule is the worst.
"I'm sorry. I'll be careful in the future."
"Hey, really, you...!"
"Aram, calm down~ Young-ah, Aram is worried about you too."
"I'm really sorry."
Lee Aram only grumbled at Hwang Bo-kyun's mediation and didn't say anything else. As I sat upright as if I was sitting on a bed of thorns while looking at him, Seol Yi-soo gently patted my shoulder.
"Young-ah, you've always kept your promises like a knife, so we were all worried. Did something happen, did you collapse because of the pain?"
"Yes, I'm sorry......."
"No, you shouldn't do that next time. If you have a hard time focusing, we'll be in the studio with you. If you work hard alone and we rest, it's a bit awkward."
"No, that's not right..."
"I appreciate your consideration, but if you ruin your health, I think the hyungs will be very sad. Especially on a day like today when we have to record a music show, we have to perform on stage."
Did Seol Yi-soo always talk this much? Hwang Bo-kyun kept his mouth shut and shook his head. His eyes were filled with pity.
"Hyung, really..."
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. So I'll say one more thing."
While Ji Young-heon was in the driver's seat and starting the engine, Seol Yi-soo's lecture continued, and I thought to myself in vain. I should never be late without saying anything from now on.
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