The Villainous Member Has Returned! Episode 105
After a brief hesitation, the voice that emerged was, as always, gentle in tone.
“I can’t deny it. That’s right. I was going to talk to him about why he was acting awkward and uncomfortable around me. But the conversation got a bit derailed.”
“D-did you two fight?”
In response to my question, Jaeha Hyung raised his right hand to slightly cover his mouth and let out a laugh that sounded like it was shattering.
“Fight? Me and Hwaseong?”
“Yesterday… that’s what it looked like.”
“Hey, that wouldn’t happen. I hate fighting.”
Truly.
Jaeha Hyung’s eyes deepened past his glasses.
It was easy to tell that the design of those glasses was the same as Hwaseong’s.
Jaeha Hyung’s hand, which had been hovering near his mouth, moved to the temple of his glasses, and his lips, coming back into view, moved gently.
“…We were cleaning together when Hwaseong suddenly said that. He said he heard from Liu Wei. Why don’t you tell me everything? Is it something I don’t need to know? That’s what he said.”
This was something I already knew.
If it was the Ji Hwaseong I knew, I had even expected him to just throw it out there so directly.
What was unexpected instead, what had surprised me… were the words that came out of Jaeha Hyung’s mouth.
So, what.
“I told him it’s true that he doesn’t need to know.”
“…What?”
“Wow, Chunyong-ah… You react just like Hwaseong. Haha.”
Jaeha Hyung shrugged his shoulder once, carefully took off the glasses resting on his face, and touched his own cheek.
His pale face was ashen, similar to Hwaseong’s face that I had seen yesterday.
“I think Hwaseong doesn’t need to know about those things. Not just Hwaseong, but the other members too.”
“…….”
“You would understand, Chunyong. Right?”
While doing the survival show.
“There were definitely parts where you suffered because of the things you found out.”
“…….”
It took me a moment to realize what those words meant.
The parts that had been hard because I had known, during the survival show.
That Director Shin and Liu Wei had tried to make Logan leave.
Going further, that they had tried to send me away for interfering with that.
When I opened my eyes wide, Jaeha Hyung slowly nodded and leaned his body against the wall.
“…I’m the longest-running trainee at AG, in a position where I have to hear things even if I don’t want to. But I don’t think the other members are.”
“…So that’s why you told Hwaseong that it’s true he doesn’t need to know. Because there’s nothing good about finding out. Because it’s bothersome, painful, and he has to keep making choices.”
Judging that it would be better if Liu Wei, who kept trying to wield this team, weren’t on the team.
That’s why he helped me even when debut was uncertain.
What Jaeha Hyung was saying was the answer to why he had helped me during the survival show.
“Yeah. I think that’s right. Honestly… nothing has changed from that opinion even now.”
At Jaeha Hyung’s calm voice without any rise or fall, I lightly clicked my tongue and put my hand on my waist.
So that’s why Hwaseong reacted like that yesterday.
He thought if they talked separately, he would get a proper explanation, but again he only heard words he couldn’t understand.
“Hoo….”
A sigh burst out on its own.
I could understand both of their positions.
Why Jaeha Hyung was shielding Ji Hwaseong like that.
And why Ji Hwaseong thought that was instead excluding him.
But what can you do.
This was a problem that could only be solved if one of the two gave in. And probably, unfortunately, Hwaseong would be the one to give in.
I roughly pushed back the red hair falling before my eyes and opened my mouth.
“…Jaeha Hyung. When I leave here now, I’m going to talk to Hwaseong.”
“Mhm.”
“Can I tell a lie?”
“What kind of lie?”
Just.
“…That you’ll really tell him later.”
At my words, Jaeha Hyung’s pupils seemed to cloud slightly, but it was such a brief moment that I couldn’t be sure.
“…Yeah, of course it’s okay. If that eases Hwaseong’s mind, it’s a good thing. We have reality filming coming up too, so that’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?”
“Yes, good. I’ll use your name a bit then.”
“Haha, sure. When you leave, I should listen to some songs too….”
I lightly nodded and stared intently at Hyung’s back as he turned on his laptop to listen to the demo songs he had received earlier.
Thinking I know when I don’t, and taking three steps closer while being on guard because I don’t.
Do I really know him properly?
Am I deluding myself because of those eight years only I know about?
“…Jaeha Hyung. One last question.”
At my muttered words before leaving the room, Jaeha Hyung slowly turned his body and asked back.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Hyung, why did you tell me about this before Hwaseong, who has known you for so long?”
Jaeha Hyung’s face, reflecting the laptop light, was hard to see.
I could only guess that his face was slightly smiling like before, with pupils that had deepened.
A brief silence passed.
Around the time I had the illusion of hearing an analog clock tick in this dorm that didn’t even have one, Jaeha Hyung’s voice entered my ears.
“Well, it’s because….”
“You and I both, we’ve already been through that.”
“…….”
“I think we’re in the same boat. We’ve crossed a river we can’t return from.”
“…….”
In the same boat.
Those words of Jaeha Hyung remained in my head for quite a long time.
And I vaguely understood what intention Hyung had in saying such words.
Because I too had no intention of revealing that I had fought desperately to prevent Logan from getting kicked off, and that I had played the decisive role in Liu Wei not joining TOJ.
But….
“…Hoo.”
I shook my head this way and that and quickly blew away the worries trying to encroach on my mind.
I’d talk about this later with X, the worst counselor.
Anyway. The conversation with one of the two was now over.
Creak—I opened the closet room door and strode toward the figure sitting with his large body leaning against the wardrobe.
“Hey, Hwaseong-ah.”
“…….”
“Ji Hwaseong?”
Looking closely, the guy wearing headphones had his eyes closed with a face full of thoughts.
His double eyelids, hidden slightly by his bangs, were slack, as if trying to show how tired he was.
I clicked my tongue and approached him on my tiptoes.
He must have a lot on his mind….
I do too, you punk!
“Wah!”
“Waaah, shit! A ghost! A ghost!”
When I lifted his headphones and shouted, Ji Hwaseong nearly convulsed and rolled his eyes back.
Like a damn wasp burrowing into a person, seriously.
“Yeah. It’s the closet ghost, dumbass.”
“Yong-yong, ah, seriously. Hyung! I thought my heart was going to fall out….”
“Hey. Ji Hwaseong. You’re pissed because Jaeha Hyung keeps hiding company stuff from you and saying you don’t need to know. Right?”
At my rapid-fire words, Ji Hwaseong stammered with an absurdly blank expression unbefitting of him.
“…H-how did Yong-yong Hyung know that?”
“You don’t know? Just listen. There’s a way to make Jaeha Hyung have no choice but to tell you from now on.”
“No, what, wait!”
“Do you trust Hyung or not? Do you remember the dragon dream I had or not?”
“Ugh….”
Okay. If we’ve come this far, that’s enough.
I soon placed both hands on the now-quiet guy’s shoulders and put on a serious face.
From now on, what I was saying was a white lie, yet the truth, and Plan B of the ‘Son Jaeha and Ji Hwaseong Relationship Improvement Project.’
Plan B that I was executing based on Ji Hwaseong’s blind loyalty in trusting and following Jaeha Hyung despite how things had turned out.
“I’ll let you know before Jaeha Hyung does.”
“…Huh?”
“I told you when we were preparing for our first ‘Aiming’ stage. I came from another agency, so I’ve heard a lot.”
If you find out before Jaeha Hyung and resolve it first….
“Hyung won’t be able to stand keeping it from you anymore, right?”
“…….”
Ji Hwaseong’s eyes and mine sparkled at those words, and that the dorm atmosphere would change a little from tomorrow….
Wouldn’t it be strange not to know, after all?
* * *
Time passed very quickly.
How quickly? So quickly that today was already our first reality filming day.
“I definitely heard it. Hwaseong yelled ‘Waaah, a ghost!’ back then!”
“Argh. What are you talking about, really? Logan mistook it because he was playing guitar while tired. There’s no ghost in the closet!”
At Ji Hwaseong fervently denying the situation, Logan, the runaway puppy from Liverpool with invisible drooping ears and tail, tried hard to get evidence from others.
“God, didn’t anyone else hear it? Chunyong Hyung said he was washing up then… What about Yuchan Hyung and Siwoo?”
“Ohh, well. I’m sure it would have been fun if we had heard it! Siwoo and I were, uh. Busy with something then.”
“Y-yeah. We were doing something….”
“Jaeha Hyung! Did Jaeha Hyung hear it?”
“Haha… Sorry, Logan. I was listening to songs then too. I don’t think I heard it properly.”
Unfortunately, he gained nothing, but oh well.
“Ahem….”
I, who had made excuses with him saying I didn’t hear it to save Ji Hwaseong’s pride, patted the back of the sulking Logan and comforted him.
“Well, you might have really heard it. Actually, maybe it’s not the closet but the room you and Yuchan Hyung used that has a ghost?”
“What? Chunyong Hyung, are you saying my roommate was one more person?”
“That’s right, that’s right! Logan, if everyone else didn’t hear it and only Logan did, it might be in that room. Wow, I’m finally cleared of false accusations.”
False accusations, my ass.
Anyway, you did scream because you were scared, you punk.
I barely held back a fit of laughter and checked where Ji Hwaseong was sitting.
Right now, while the members were all waiting in the van for a moment to install reality filming cameras in the dorm.
“Jaeha Hyung, do you want to drink this? You like it.”
Before I knew it, Ji Hwaseong was stuck to Jaeha Hyung’s side like glue again, naturally.
“Hm? Ah, you brought this. Thanks, Hwaseong-ah.”
“Haha… It’s nothing.”
Ji Hwaseong naturally blustered and shifted his gaze to me. ‘You saw, Yong-yong Hyung?’
In our meeting eyes, the conversation we had shared on the day Logan insisted there was definitely a ghost in the closet was clearly contained.
“…I know those facts before Jaeha Hyung? What good does that do?”
“You punk. Think about it. When you get down to it… Hyung doesn’t tell you because he hates dumping that burden on you. You know that too, right?”
“…I’m not a kid, so what do you mean he doesn’t want to dump that on me—”
“Yeah. I totally understand how you feel. So let’s show Hyung you’re not a kid. You get it?”
“……!”
Even while repeating to himself that he wasn’t a kid, maybe it was because he really was a kid who had grown up quickly in a greenhouse after all. At my words saying ‘I’ll tell you about company matters that happen during reality filming,’ Ji Hwaseong fell for it hook, line, and sinker without hesitation.
Ji Hwaseong’s eyes, which had sparkled as much as his then-blonde hair, had clearly been saying that.
‘With this, instead of just a younger brother to Jaeha Hyung, I can become a brother he can trust and confide in.’
Honestly, it was questionable whether this was really a solution, but oh well.
At least things had gotten a bit better for now….
Would this be enough?