The Toxic Member Has Returned! Episode 151
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The members of Tioje, who had arrived at the filming location for *Catch Me Catch You*, appeared far more serious and motivated than usual.
“We look forward to working with you. We're Tioje!”
“Oh, are you the leader here? Wow, so polite. Usually the manager brings this kind of thing. Thank you, we'll enjoy it.”
“Ah, our manager is on the way too. We prepared some separate snacks, but there was so much that we didn't have enough hands to carry it all.”
“No way, you prepared snacks on top of coffee?! I heard AG had changed, but this is really… no joke.”
Part of it was the thought that they had to do well since they were appearing on a proper popular variety show, and part of it was because it had been a while since they'd done physical activity somewhere other than a stage.
And more than anything, what firmly solidified that determination was….
“Ah, did you greet the Wiz members? You're around the same age. You can be friends, friends!”
“…Haha, yes. Thank you for your concern.”
It was because the Tioje members, excluding Gim Chunyong, had come face-to-face with the people Yu Hobin had been so worried about.
[Music Days *Catch Me Catch You* Cast Adjustment Notice]
While Tioje had already confirmed their appearance on *Catch Me Catch You*, Music Days had belatedly sent a fax regarding cast adjustments.
They had additionally cast Wiz to create chemistry between “debut groups from a similar period,” and the established singer originally scheduled, Serenia, had been changed to members of Sledics.
“We didn't know Wiz would be additionally cast…. If we had heard about it from our side later, we would have tried to adjust it somehow. We apologize.”
“Hmm, there are many ways we could be disadvantaged if we backed out of this kind of variety show… This is troubling. We wanted to avoid encountering them as much as possible, if only because of Chunyong.”
“Sigh… Hobin-hyung, Jaeha-hyung. You're worrying over nothing. It was something that happened briefly when we were trainees, right? Even if they and I don't get along well, we're not stupid enough to cause an accident on set over old matters….”
“No, no. Chunyong-hyung. You can't say it like that! Anyone can become stupid. I mean, anyone can easily get into a fight.”
“Logan's right, Chunyong-ah. I've seen a lot of kids who talked just like you? They all broke up with their campus couples and took a leave of absence, or fought and took a leave of absence. You never know what might happen.”
“Ah, seriously, that's what I'm saying. Yongyong-hyung. Think about it. Did you expect that kind of bomb to go off in your waiting room? Huh?!”
“Chunyong-hyeong… I… more than other people… that… An Taei….”
Perhaps because the fragments of the bomb that had dropped in the waiting room remained deeply embedded in their minds, the members at the *Catch Me Catch You* filming set and Yu Hobin seemed to have only one thought in their heads.
‘Somehow prevent Chunyong from meeting the Wiz members and successfully finish filming.’
“…Mate. Come over here, over here! Where do you think you're going!”
“Logan, I'm just going to drink some water… Do you think I'm suddenly going to go fight them or something?”
“Wow, shit, Yongyong-hyung. Sometimes I think you forget what your own face looks like. Putting aside that you're handsome, you really, incredibly, totally look scary? It seems like you could hit someone right this instant?”
“…Ji Hwaseong, you punk. Get over here.”
“Ack! Look! He hit me, he hit me! He's hitting me right now!”
“Tsk, too much talk. …Logan, what are you looking at? Are you hungry for your hyung's affection too?”
“Um, what does ‘hungry for affection’ mean? Sorry, Korean is still difficult.”
“Haha… You say words like ‘tapa’ just fine now, so don't pretend you don't know….”
Gim Chunyong let out a hollow laugh and roughly ruffled Ji Hwaseong's head, then surveyed the filming set sharply and keenly with his eyes.
The staff busy preparing filming props, the writers checking scripts, and so on.
Not to mention Wiz as well, conversing at a slight distance.
“Once this is over, I'm going to the practice room to check the choreography once. Keep that in mind.”
“Danu, aren't you overdoing it? There weren't any major problems during monitoring either. Since your main strength is vocals, you don't need to worry so much about the choreography to that extent….”
“Bak Hawon. I'll handle it myself.”
“Haha… Danu, Hawon. Why are you fighting? I'm scared, guys.”
“Hey, Taei. No. Remember. Danu just said ‘shut your mouth’ earlier.”
“Oh, did he? Got it, then. I'll stay quiet with my mouth shut!”
“This is really….”
On the surface, they seemed moderately amicable, but upon calmly dissecting that conversation, it was ruthlessly brutal.
Gim Chunyong could easily see from this that the person firmly standing in the center of Wiz right now, An Taei, was the root cause of that brutality.
He was the type of guy to detonate an absurd bomb in someone else's waiting room, so it was more than enough for him to be capable of such things.
“Yongyong-hyung… I'm really going to get the back of my head cracked… Let me go now, heo-eong….”
“Do well, seriously.”
“That's so mean!”
After roughly messing up the blond hair of the towering Ji Hwaseong, who was whimpering, and sending him off, Gim Chunyong crossed his arms and reviewed the current situation.
Wiz, whom the members kept paying attention to?
Honestly, other than the thought that ‘I have to beat them and win the Rookie Award to survive,’ he had no particular thoughts about them.
How important could members of another group be, with whom he'd had brief trouble during his tempestuous trainee days?
Moreover, considering what had happened to him afterward, those matters at the time were no different from child's play.
He was already busy atoning for the karma from that time; why would he waste time on kids from a rival group?
- X: Hey hey, Queens isn't posting articles about you anymore??
- X: Boring… Honestly I expected there'd be more and looked forward to it, but you've got no guts, no guts
- Gim Chunyong: Get lost, punk, you're really hopeless
- X: ^^
Of course, thanks to the bad move of Queens trying to use Gim Chunyong for Wiz's marketing, their relationship had grown more ambiguous after he'd paid them back a little, but….
That was all.
As long as they didn't block the flowery path that would unfold before Tioje or his own atonement, Gim Chunyong had no particular thoughts about whether Wiz perished or whether they won the Rookie Award alongside Tioje at some other awards ceremony.
Rather, being somewhat distant with a rival group made it more convenient to carry out activities in the future as well.
However, the problem was….
“An Taei! Where do you keep going?”
“Hm? No, it's because I want to say hello to Chunyong. Is saying hello not allowed?”
“We greeted them as a group earlier. Stay put, I'm telling you…!”
A loach that had suddenly appeared kept trying to entangle the two groups together.
“…Tch.”
Gim Chunyong hurriedly moved to a place where An Taei couldn't find him, his eyes darting about.
When someone acted so recklessly, you had to resolve their fundamental curiosity to stop them.
The fact that he was acting this way even though he surely already knew that the relationship between Gim Chunyong and the Wiz members was bad meant….
That wasn't the cause.
“Haah….”
Feeling a wave of exhaustion even before filming began, Gim Chunyong let out a low sigh and blinked his eyes.
Fine, good.
Let's somehow resolve An Taei, who was swimming excitedly between the two groups right now.
But how?
Of course, a method had come to mind, but it was nearly impossible for a rookie who had only just debuted two weeks ago to pull it off.
“Good grief, really….”
For better or worse.
Gim Chunyong's worries were scheduled to be resolved sooner than expected.
“The Sledics members have arrived!”
Because the most enigmatic person Gim Chunyong knew, someone who looked at everyone as if they were in the palm of his hand, had appeared like a comet at the *Catch Me Catch You* filming set.
“Jang PD-nim. Long time no see. Just like during our last promotion… please take care of us this time as well.”
“Aigoo, I'm the one asking for your help! The Serenia kids' schedules couldn't be coordinated, so I asked you in a hurry, but thank you for coming. Your comeback is the week after next, isn't it? Aren't you very busy?”
“Haha… I came because I wanted to. For promotion as well. And I'm quite close with Jang PD-nim, aren't I?”
Exchanging greetings with the PD, elevating the other person with fluent and polished speech.
“Ah, hello. Both teams… I watched your stages. You didn't seem like rookies.”
“Thank you!”
“Not at all. I'm the one who should be thankful. You're bringing a fresh breeze to the broadcasting industry. Thanks to that, our activities will probably go smoothly as well. It's cold at night now, so please take these heat packs. Our manager will give them to you.”
Giving warm encouragement and advice to the two leaders of the rookie groups, and even handing out sensible gifts.
The man who finished all of these perfect and neat procedures wore a pleasant smile on his face and slowly approached Gim Chunyong.
Though he had positioned himself well in a place that wouldn't catch people's eyes, Gim Chunyong's red hair seemed to serve as a guidepost for this man.
“…Long time no see.”
And so, a man stood before Gim Chunyong's eyes with a gentle smile.
The head of a top-tier male idol group, a composing genius recognized by the charts.
The epitome of personal life management, a crazed workaholic.
Behind all that, a person who had tilted glasses with Rekseuregi and shared a friendship in his own depraved realm.…
It was Jeong Yeonu.
‘Damn it.’
Gim Chunyong showed him a smile containing complicated emotions, then stepped back from him and bowed his head deeply.
It was clearly an act of keeping his distance.
Seeing Gim Chunyong's behavior, Jeong Yeonu burst into laughter as if amused.
“Haha, what's wrong? I haven't done anything right now. Yet you're backing away like this.”
“Well… Since you're a great senior, I'm a bit nervous, that's all.”
“Hm? We've exchanged messages a few times, haven't we? We even talked in the car during *Targeting Star*?”
“Still, I'm nervous all the same. Since there's quite a difference in our years. You know, right? I just debuted two weeks ago. Haha…!”
As Gim Chunyong answered the similarly-aged Jeong Yeonu, who was around the same age as he had been before returning, with easygoing banter without backing down, the back of his neck was already damp with cold sweat.
Because Gim Chunyong still had his guard up with the thought that ‘getting entangled with Jeong Yeonu, who still likes drinking, would do no good.’
An Taei was one thing, and Jeong Yeonu was another.
The more people he encountered, the more things he had to worry about.
“Well, I'd be glad if I were the only reason you're nervous… But I'm not, right?”
“I have no idea what you're talking about right now….”
“—Didn't I tell you before, Chunyong-ssi? You manage your expressions well, but the sound of your eyes rolling around is too loud.”
For a moment, Gim Chunyong had unconsciously looked in the direction where Wiz was again, and he clenched his jaw in frustration.
He had thought he could somehow get the upper hand because they were of similar age.
But whether young or not, Jeong Yeonu was truly someone befitting the nickname of the crazed workaholic head of a top-tier group.
“Seems I'm right. There's something between you and someone else too. Hm, I don't know what happened, but….”
Jeong Yeonu put on his usual ambiguous smile and raised both hands to shoulder height with an innocent expression.
And then….
“I was the one who gifted you a smartwatch, and who gave you the song ‘Loop&Repeat’ for your debut album. I'm on your side.”
He declared that he was not a bomb to detonate Gim Chunyong, but reinforcements.
“…What do you mean?”
“Well, honestly I was just planning to watch how you'd grown since the survival show during this filming. But it seems like you're about to do something interesting again.”
Jeong Yeonu's beaming face was clearly filled with joy.
As if thinking, ‘How will he entertain me this time?’
They say that as ordinary people's dopamine receptor thresholds rise, they want stimuli on the same level.
Therefore, to Jeong Yeonu, who had lived his whole life as a bundle of stimulation, Gim Chunyong was yet another newly found interesting toy.
“…….”
Gim Chunyong, who had known Jeong Yeonu since the Rekseuregi days, lightly clicked his tongue and slowly rose from his seat.
Honestly, Gim Chunyong was still firmly convinced that he shouldn't get entangled with Jeong Yeonu, but….
“Then… may I tell you something.”
—Because right now, he wanted to do something about An Taei, who was staring intently at Gim Chunyong and Jeong Yeonu conversing together.
“…Haha! Yes, good. Let's go.”
Jeong Yeonu smiled broadly at that action, naturally putting his arm around Gim Chunyong's shoulder and lowering his voice.
“You seem to have something in mind? Ah, if I listen to this, can I ask a favor in return?”
“I can give you something even better than that. Probably.”
“…Something better? How would you know what I'd ask for?”
“First, let's go.”
Catch me, catch you.
Gim Chunyong's plan to figure out the exact intentions of the rival group's troublemaker and settle the matter slowly began to roll into motion.
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