Chapter 69
Baek Si-hwa rolled his eyes and pushed his face in front of Yoo Min-ha.
"Then we can create such an unavoidable situation, Min-ha. Right?"
"What the heck does that mean?"
Yoo Min-ha, who was flustered by the sudden situation, tried to push Baek Si-hwa back slightly, but he did not budge.
Instead, he moved closer, twitching the corners of his lips.
"It's hard to pull off the center choreography due to an unexpected injury, wouldn't it be okay if we go like this? Oh, I should have done it right then. If it wasn't for that bastard, I would have broken at least one of your fingers."
Yoo Minha's face paled.
The moment when the distance between the two trainees almost disappeared.
I opened the door wide and walked briskly towards Baek Si-hwa.
"What, what is it―!"
"Didn't I clearly warn you back then?"
Baek Si-hwa, who saw me, hurriedly took a step back.
However, I easily blocked Baek Si-hwa's path using the crown prince's long legs.
"If you try to harm my friend again, I will kill you."
I smiled coldly and grabbed Baek Si-hwa's wrist tightly.
As I gradually increased the force applied, Baek Si-hwa clenched his teeth and frowned.
"I don't know if you're really that bold, or if you're just so stupid that you can't think rationally."
"What the heck, what do you know―!"
"I don't know what delusions you have in your petty head, but I know something else. For example, the makeshift camera installed in the practice room hallway."
"What?"
Judging by his flustered expression, it seems he really acted so hastily without thinking.
I sighed as I bent down Baek Si-hwa's arm.
"It was a reasonable choice to come to a practice room without cameras to do this. But what were you going to do with the cameras installed in the hallway? It would have been completely recorded that you and Yoo Min-ha were the only trainees who entered this practice room. If Yoo Min-ha came out holding his arm or limping, what would the production team think when they watch the footage?"
"...."
"Of course, they'll judge what Baek Si-hwa, who entered this room with him, did. Even if Min-ha keeps his mouth shut until the end."
Baek Si-hwa's expression slowly distorted after hearing my logical argument.
Anxiety soon began to creep into the eyes that had been filled with a sinister light.
"What a fool you are. You were so focused on what was in front of you that you have no idea what kind of situation you were about to face."
"...Shut up. What do you know?"
"Why on earth are you mad at me?"
I said it in a tone that said I really didn't know.
"I was the one who told you about the existence of the hallway camera. I was the one who temporarily saved you from falling into the abyss, so I don't understand what on earth you're so upset about."
"... That tone, that tone."
Baek Si-hwa shivered.
He clenched his fist in my grasp, but his thin forearms were powerless to do anything.
"That annoying way of talking like you know everything. You were like a jerk when you were giving a lesson as if you were the best in the world."
"Haha, thank you so much for praising me."
When I reacted indifferently, Baek Si-hwa ground his teeth as if he was angry.
Then he growled softly at Yoo Min-ha.
"... Know that you are lucky."
Even though he was completely cornered, he spoke like that. It seems like he really hates Yoo Min-ha.
Baek Si-hwa threw his arms down to shake off my hand.
"Let go! I'll go."
I let go of his wrist and now he's glaring at me.
I chuckled and shrugged.
"I hope you can control your facial expressions well until the end of the competition."
"Bullsh*t."
Baek Si-hwa, who had been glaring at me and Yoo Min-ha until the end, quickly left the practice room.
The moment his back disappeared, Yoo Min-ha collapsed to the floor.
"Haaaaaah...."
"Are you okay, Min-ha?"
"Yes.... I just wanted to relax a little."
Although his face was still as pale as a blank sheet of paper, Yoo Min-ha smiled faintly at me.
"Thank you, Karis hyung-nim. How did you know and come here?"
"I was practicing late and was about to head back to the cell when I saw you and Baek Si-hwa coming in here. I had a bad feeling about this, so I came to check it out.... It almost turned into a really dangerous situation."
"I apologize for any inconvenience."
After apologizing, Yoo Min-ha was silent for a while.
He just blankly stared at the door of the practice room that Baek Si-hwa left.
I checked the clock on the wall in the practice room and spoke quietly.
"Should we go outside and chat for a bit before coming in, Min-ha?"
"Yes? Oh, yes. Okay."
"If you breathe some fresh air, your complicated mind will become a little clearer."
I slowly helped Yoo Min-ha up and left the practice room.
Right then.
'Hmm?'
Yoo Min-ha, who had his head down, probably didn't notice, but I heard someone's footsteps quickly moving away from where the hallway turned.
'Was someone listening?'
I figured out that I was the only one practicing up until this point.
The trainees' dormitory and practice room were in completely different buildings, so they wouldn't have been able to come if they heard the sound.
At that moment, I was wondering who the owner of the footsteps was.
"...Karis hyung-nim."
"Hmm?"
"Have I done something to deserve so much hate?"
Yoo Minha muttered in a gloomy tone.
'We should go outside first, in case someone is listening to our conversation.'
I grabbed his shoulder and quickly led him towards the stairs.
The April night air was neither too cold nor too warm.
We sat side by side on the bench in front of the practice room.
Let's take a moment to look at the clear sky and take a breath.
"You know that I was in the same agency as Sihwa, right?"
Yoo Minha slowly opened his mouth.
I nodded.
"I only know that you were trainees together at a company called UbiQs."
"I guess Sihwa didn't say anything about what happened there."
"Baek Si-hwa and I aren't close enough to have such conversations in the first place."
Yoo Minha laughed briefly at my words.
After a while, he spoke in a candid tone.
"UbiQs was my second agency. I was scouted from a dance academy I attended when I was 16, and I stayed at my first agency for about a year. That's where I really started to want to become an idol, so I wanted to go somewhere better. You know my personality, hyung-nim. When I find something interesting, I become very passionate about it."
"It feels very good."
"When I joined the new agency, there were already trainees in the debut group who had been preparing for their debut for several months. I had previous experience, but since I was the youngest in UbiQs, I hardly ever thought about being in the debut group."
As soon as the story of the debut group came up, what Baek Si-hwa said immediately came to mind.
He clearly said, 'You stole my seat.'
"So I just focused on practicing. I loved dancing and rapping so much that I could easily handle the tough schedules that the trainers asked me to complete. From the beginning, I had no intention of giving up and was determined to debut no matter what since it had come to this. Then, after about three months.... things happened."
Yoo Minha clenched his fists and shrank his body.
"Did something bad happen?"
"No, on the contrary, from my perspective, it was such an honor and blessing. The team leader of the UbiQs Rookie Development Team checks on the trainees every day. There are many who don't pay special attention to trainees other than the debut group, but this team leader checks on all the trainees. He liked how I practiced, so he continued to encourage me and said many nice things to me."
"Hmm."
I gathered my thoughts and then threw out one expected answer.
"Did that team leader recommend you to the debut group?"
"...That's right."
Yoo Minha took a deep breath.
"The team leader kept saying that the rap position in the debut group was unstable. So he strongly appealed to the CEO that I should be included in the debut group since he thought that my dancing and rapping skills had improved to a high level."
"As a result, the team leader's opinion was passed and Min-ha was selected to join the debut group instead of Baek Si-hwa. Is that what you're talking about?"
"In simple terms, yes."
When I hear this far, there doesn't seem to be any particular problem.
The agency must always put forward a 'group that sells'.
It is the job of agency executives to find the optimal combination by changing the members through internal evaluation.
In the process, Yoo Min-ha, who stood out, was singled out.
That's not a problem at all.
But....
"It must have been unfair from Baek Si-hwa's perspective."
"It's like a rolling stone gathers no moss."
"What happened to the debut group?"
"... Among the trainees, there are quite a few who like to play. There were two people in the debut group who had messy personal lives, and they were kicked out because of that. After Sihwa was kicked out of the debut group, he left UbiQs right away, so we couldn't immediately replenish the members."
"In short, it fell apart right before debut."
In the end, Yoo Minha failed to debut in UbiQs.
That's why he came out on
When the being that had blocked his path once again blocked it, Baek Si-hwa was overcome with an inferiority complex and ended up exploding on his own.
Even if you understand it this way.
"But Baek Si-hwa's actions can never be justified."
"...."
"If you tell this story to 100 people, not a single one of them will say it's your fault. You just did your best in the given situation. If he wanted to blame things at UbiQs, he should yell at the team leader, not you. The reason he didn't get the center spot in
Humans are truly funny creatures.
Without properly understanding the cause, we just try to look at the situation in front of us.
And always assume that anything that goes against us is someone else's fault.
It is not Yoo Min-ha's fault that Baek Si-hwa has reached his current situation.
He just needed someone to blame for his shortcomings.
"And I put the pressure back on him so he will never do something crazy like this again."
"Thank you...."
"I will keep a close eye on Baek Si-hwa until the end of this competition, so don't worry too much."
"I'm so sorry that I made Karis hyung-nim worry for no reason because of me."
I shook my head at Yoo Min-ha's words.
"There's no need to think that way at all. I also found Baek Si-hwa annoying from the beginning."
"But it's my personal matter...."
"Just don't get hurt. I have a feeling that Baek Si-hwa will self-destruct soon."
* * *
At dawn of the same day.
'Wow, shit. Is this guy really crazy?'
A staff member from the
And the result of collecting data by going through the data contained inside.
It seemed like it would make for a very interesting episode.
'I think I need to contact her right away.'
She turned on her cell phone and called the writer, who was probably busy editing by now.
After a few seconds of ringing.
-yes.
"Unni, something happened here."
-Something happened?
"I'll send you the information right away, so take a look."
-