| Episode 90. Job Competency Improvement Training (4)
‘At this point, isn’t the inside of my nose just torn open?’
I stared for a moment at the drops of blood running down my hand and dripping onto the toes of my shoes. What kind of nosebleed happened this often?
I was seriously wondering whether I needed to get electrocautery when a tissue was suddenly thrust in front of my eyes.
When I raised my head slightly, I saw Park Juu’s face, gone as white as the tissue.
“Hyung, tissue……”
“Uh, thanks.”
I pinched my nose as hard as I could. Jeong Seongbin asked me,
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
Then Choi Jeho yanked out a handful of tissues and said,
“How is this nothing? The floor’s bright red.”
“The floor?”
I lowered my gaze and looked down at the floor.
We could just wipe it up anyway, why was he making such a big—
“No, why is the floor like this?”
There was blood all over the practice room floor.
Maybe I’d staggered and stepped in the drops, because there were even shoe prints left in a few places.
“What do you mean, why? Hyung, take off your shoes and go sit over there!”
Then Lee Cheonghyeon started wiping the soles of my shoes with wet tissues. Kang Giyeon, who had taken a few wet tissues from Lee Cheonghyeon, joined in wiping the practice room floor.
“Hey, that’s enough. I’ll do—”
“Do what? You’re going to wipe the floor, hyung? While bleeding from your nose like that?”
Kang Giyeon, who was crouched down wiping my shoes, shot me a glare as he spoke.
Lee Cheonghyeon added a word too.
“I knew a day like this would come. If a person doesn’t sleep and only practices and works every day, how is his body supposed to hold up?”
“Is it just me, Cheonghyeon, or did that sound like you were glad about it?”
“Of course it’s just you.”
While I was exchanging words with Lee Cheonghyeon, Park Juu slowly tugged me by the arm. Then he sat me down on the sofa and handed me a fresh tissue.
“I think it’d be better if you went back early and rested today.”
Jeong Seongbin said.
But that was out of the question.
I had to fill the rest of my practice time so I could color in the Job Competency Enhancement Program!
I only needed to hold out for two more hours. I couldn’t leave like this.
For the sake of the greater good, I resolved to endure the humiliation and said gravely,
“No, I’ll plug it with tissue and do it.”
“What?”
From afar, Lee Cheonghyeon answered as if he was dumbfounded.
When I looked up, all five of them were staring at me.
“This kind of thing stops quickly. If I just plug my nose and—”
“No. No matter what, I don’t think you should dance in this state, hyung.”
“I agree with Seongbin. It’s not like you’d just be moving around normally……”
Jeong Seongbin and Park Juu took turns saying something from either side of me.
Unbelievable. I wasn’t even going to do that much, okay? I was only asking them to let me practice for exactly two hours!
Things were taking an awkward turn. I scratched roughly at my hair, then presented a more moderate proposal for negotiation.
“Then can we at least work on the formations?”
“You think practicing a few more hours today is going to change something that much? Forget it, just go back to the dorm.”
Choi Jeho said as he threw the wet tissues into the trash can.
No, something will change that much, buddy. How long do you want to stand on the same stage as a member whose dance proficiency is still in the single digits?
‘He’s got nothing to be desperate about, is that it?’
Absolutely infuriating. It was miserable enough being bad at this, so don’t get in the way of my practice too.
With no other choice, I sent Kang Giyeon a look pleading for help.
His obsession with practice was stronger than anyone’s, and the number of times he clashed with Choi Jeho was overwhelmingly high even among the Spark guys, so surely that bastard would take my side—
“Giyeon, what are you doing?”
I asked as I watched Kang Giyeon pick up my bag without meeting my eyes even once.
Kang Giyeon opened my bag, then answered while putting my water bottle and diary inside.
“Packing.”
“That’s my stuff.”
“That’s why I’m packing it.”
After finishing packing, Kang Giyeon even neatly snapped the button shut before handing me the bag.
“Let’s go back to the dorm, hyung.”
“What?”
“If you’re worried practice won’t go properly without you, we’ll end practice here for today too. Seongbin hyung, it’s okay if we leave early just for today, right?”
Kang Giyeon’s expression was cold.
No one stopped him from acting like this. On the contrary, Park Juu and Lee Cheonghyeon were hurriedly gathering their own things, as if afraid Jeong Seongbin might say no.
“What are you guys doing right now?”
“What do you think? We’re packing up so we can clock out!”
Then Lee Cheonghyeon stood up with his backpack on his back and my bag slung over his front.
It was beyond absurd. They’d acted like they would die if they couldn’t practice, so I couldn’t understand why they were suddenly doing this.
If there was someone who was bad at it, they should be helping him become at least halfway functional somehow, not this. Was now really the time for you to show goodwill?
The one who dealt the finishing blow to me as I sat there in bewilderment was Choi Jeho.
The guy shuffled after the younger ones who had run out, then stopped beside the practice room door, put his hand on the switch, and said,
“What are you doing? Not coming out?”
Fuck, just leave me alone!
* * *
A room gone dim with the lights off.
The warm light seeping in from the living room, and even the kind words of my younger roommate telling me to get plenty of rest.
All of it was fucking awful. Fuck.
I pulled the blanket over my head and suffered endlessly. Because my twenty hours were about to go straight down the drain.
It had been a long time since I’d felt rage this intense.
It had been quiet for a while, so why was this damn nose making a fuss again?
‘Did my fatigue level go up again?’
With a doubtful heart, I opened the system, and the system shone brightly inside the dark blanket.
+
.
.
.
Accumulated Fatigue: 45% (Work Support Service in effect)
+
No, when did it get this high?
The last time I’d seen it, I thought it was in the thirty-percent range, but at some point, my fatigue had shot up.
‘Come to think of it, even at 60% fatigue, my limbs were trembling.’
Then I could understand why I’d ended up like this.
Still, even so. Back when I was an employee at Hanpyeong Industries, you know, no matter how much my nose bled, I had to shove cotton wool up my nose and keep working.
As I muttered old-man sayings to myself with no one around to listen, I heard someone come into the room.
Soon after, with the sound of a switch being pressed, the living room light went out.
“Hyung, good night!”
“Yeah.”
I could hear Lee Cheonghyeon and Choi Jeho exchanging good-night greetings too.
I’d thought I could hear them talking in the living room earlier about physical condition management and lack of sleep.
Apparently, since we’d finished practice early for once, they had agreed among themselves to refresh and go to bed early.
Refreshing was nice. Better than getting a nosebleed and collapsing.
I heard the blankets rustle a few times above my head and across from me, then it went quiet. Outside in the living room also grew still before long.
Can you guys really sleep after leaving a clumsy dancer like me like this?
I’m so furious I can’t even close my eyes.
Why are these kids idols when they have such tight security……
……Wait.
That means all of them are going to sleep now.
Then as long as I get out without those guys noticing, isn’t that enough?
There were only two hours left until I filled today’s practice quota.
It was too much of a waste to throw away all the practice time I’d built up because of this.
If I had done something else with that time, that would be one thing, but if all I’d done was practice and I didn’t even get results, wouldn’t that be unfair?
I’d had enough of that experience when I worked overtime like I was dying but couldn’t get overtime pay because the company had an all-inclusive wage system.
Under the blanket, I clenched my fist. And made up my mind.
‘I’m making a break for it!’
I couldn’t set an alarm in case someone woke up, but that could be solved by simply staying awake.
Do they have any idea how I filled those practice hours? I couldn’t watch it fall apart because of someone else’s interference.
Praying that the guys would meet a silent night, holy night, I stayed wide awake and focused all my nerves on listening.
* * *
The Spark kids fell asleep even faster than I’d expected.
After waiting about thirty minutes, there were no signs of life in the living room.
This was all thanks to how hard I’d worked them until now. Good job, past me.
“Hoo……”
Fortunately, my nose didn’t bleed again while I practiced. Right, if this damn thing had any sense, it should stay quiet.
If worst came to worst, I almost had to practice while breathing through my mouth. Thank goodness.
I was this desperate, yet the Spark bastards wouldn’t even cooperate.
I teared up as I recalled myself from two hours ago, having to sneak out so quietly that I even brought my socks out with me.
If they had just let me practice from the start, I wouldn’t have done something insane like voluntarily returning to the company in the middle of the night.
Complaining inwardly about all sorts of things, I turned off the music. At the same time, the empty space for Dance (2) in the system was filled in.
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[SYSTEM] Job Competency Enhancement Program Progress
▷ Kim Iwol
Dance (1) ■■■■■□□
Dance (2) ■■■■■□□
Vocal ■■■■■□□
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Amazing, I completed my full shift today too!
If I just held out for two more days, then I would become a slightly more evolved clumsy dancer……
“Hyung!”
That scared me.
I clutched my heart, which had nearly dropped, and turned my head toward the door where the loud voice had come from.
There stood Jeong Seongbin, drenched in sweat, having thrown the door open.
* * *
Jeong Seongbin had a lot on his mind lately.
There was nothing difficult about work.
People tried to treat them well because they were the youngest at the company, and even so, on days when problems inevitably almost arose, the group’s eldest member, Kim Iwol, stepped in and sorted things out.
The atmosphere in the group was good too.
There had been a time when Jeong Seongbin had worried about what would happen if they debuted exactly as they were.
Whenever he saw the members awkwardly creaking along, not on bad terms—though perhaps some of them were—but not exactly on good terms either.
Jeong Seongbin knew that relationships between boys couldn’t improve overnight, but he had still wished they would.
Was it thanks to those earnest prayers?
After Kim Iwol, the eldest member, joined, the group crossed over the ravine of conflicts that had looked precarious and gradually began to take on a better shape.
Then had this team now entered a stable period?
Jeong Seongbin couldn’t answer that question easily.
It was because of “Kim Iwol,” who had been mentioned over and over until now.