The Villainous Member Has Returned! Episode 153
This month’s *Catch Me Catch You* had somehow ended up with an all-male idol cast, so the production crew set the main game’s theme with each group’s promotional concept and usual image in mind.
“T.O.J were originally idols from a survival show, and they debuted with this mysterious Boy Scout concept this time….”
“Right. And Wiz seems to emphasize mostly monotone colors too. Sledix was always like that.”
“…Then it’s gotta be that, right? Since they’re male idols.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
The main game theme for this episode of *Catch Me Catch You*, decided unanimously by the united production crew.
Alias: “Mission Complete Idol Special Forces.”
[Welcome to the *Catch Me Catch You* Special Forces Team 2♪♬ (Fanfare)
To win this game, the mission Team 2 must complete is, “Using the medals provided, exchange the opposing team’s medals on each floor for your own team’s medals”♪
Each team has 10 medals, and once exchanged, a medal cannot be returned♬
Victory or defeat is decided when one team exchanges all medals first, or when all team members are eliminated after having their armbands stripped and can no longer exchange medals!♪
Also, if both teams simultaneously have no one left who can exchange medals, the final victor is decided by the number of exchanged medals, so keep this in mind and complete the mission safely♩
Now then, mission start♬]
“…Ugh, I’m nervous!”
Ji Hwaseong pulled out the mission card he had tucked away earlier and checked it once more, then thoroughly scanned the team members he had been paired with.
Unlike Team 1, which Jeong Yeonu had split up extremely to engineer a situation where Kim Chunyong and An Taei would be together, Team 2 was divided into two groups on veteran senior Juyeong’s orders: “In the end, what matters is screen time anyway.”
And so, the ones placed in a group with Ji Hwaseong were Son Jaeha, the leader of T.O.J whom Hwaseong trusted and followed so much, and Wiz’s Jo Eun.
*So… that means this guy fought with Yungyung Hyung too, doesn’t he. I need to tread carefully here.*
Ji Hwaseong had certainly achieved mental growth through the survival show, but a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Cheerful, quick-witted.
Making the most of his mischievous rascal image, quickly judging others internally.
That was Ji Hwaseong’s true worth—the reason Kim Chunyong had decided, “Among us, he has the most idol-like mindset.”
Moreover, unlike before, while preparing for the “Aiming” stage together with Kim Chunyong and resolving the issue he’d had with Son Jaeha with reasonable flexibility, Ji Hwaseong’s mind was spinning faster than ever.
Which meant….
“Hey, Jaeha Hyung! Jo Eun ssi!”
“Ah, yeah. Hwaseong-ah.”
“…Please speak.”
“The others left about five minutes ago, so shouldn’t we head out too?! We have a mission to do, a mission!”
No matter how much Ji Hwaseong inwardly nitpicked and disliked Jo Eun, he wouldn’t openly show it.
Well, depending on the situation, you never know, but.
Ji Hwaseong threw his arms around both their necks using his tall frame, spewing out words in a sly, cute voice.
“Ah, and since this *Catch Me Catch You* theme is spy special forces, the cameras only catch us if we move, right? Let’s go, hurry!”
Ji Hwaseong was right.
To create the feeling of secretly observing handsome special forces operatives on a mission, rather than assigning individual camera staff to cast members, the production crew added realism by installing cameras in every hallway and mission location.
The only things filming the cast were the cams attached to hallways and mission sites, plus a handycam given to each cast member.
Viewers who saw this later cheered, “It’s so great that I can clearly see only my idol the whole time.”
“I heard Jeongsik has food poisoning…? Yeongjin and Chanung too!”
“What kind of bullshit is that? What the hell did they eat to get food poisoning?”
“Everyone who ate the oyster jeon at yesterday’s company dinner seems to be out of commission. We need to call the restaurant and find everyone who ate yesterday….”
“…I ate it too though?”
“The camera team is screwed….”
…Of course, there were also some adult circumstances behind that.
“Haha, I think Hwaseong is right. …Shall we get moving too? The others said they’d take floors 1 and 2, so we should probably head straight to floors 3 and 4.”
“As expected of Jaeha Hyung! I knew your brain worked fast.”
“…Let’s do that. Sounds good.”
Anyway, putting all those behind-the-scenes stories aside, thanks to Ji Hwaseong’s words, the team began moving too.
With the theme being what it was, there was flowing tension, along with the subtle feeling of, *So he’s the one who fought with our teammate.*
Was that why?
“Let’s go to floor 3 first. Then after that, if we head up to floor 4….”
“Hmm, I think it might be faster to handle things on the way down….”
“…….”
They couldn’t hide the slightly grating feeling between them, no matter how professionally they acted.
*Ah, damn. That guy’s a bit stiff. Don’t make that expression at Jaeha Hyung!*
Ji Hwaseong quickly clicked his tongue internally, controlled his expression, and backed up Son Jaeha’s words.
“…Why don’t we go with what Jaeha Hyung said!? I mean, I think it’d be much easier to breeze through things quickly on the way down!”
Right now there were two from T.O.J and one from Wiz here.
Well, the other side with big senior Juyeong mixed in, and fellow English-speaking country camaraderie fostering mutual goodwill, was probably faring better but….
Here, T.O.J’s influence was inevitably stronger.
Jo Eun, seeing two pairs of eyes fixed on him, let out a low sigh and approached them.
“…Then let’s do that. Let’s go.”
As Team 2, Group 2 moved to the 4th floor like that.
“Hmm, a medal… This looks a bit like a military decoration, doesn’t it? Honestly, there might be a secret to this, or maybe we can trade with it.”
“Yes. The fact that they told us to exchange other teams’ medals with this in the first place already gives off a feeling….”
“Anyway, Logan said earlier that the back of this seems to open. Let’s open it once before we exchange it later!”
Having opened with appropriately enigmatic, broadcast-friendly dialogue, they lowered their voices and continued with other words.
“Ah, Jaeha Hyung. Will Logan be doing okay? What if he’s screaming and getting scared by himself!”
“Haha, Hwaseong-ah. Logan came all the way to Korea from Liverpool by himself. He can handle this much just fine, yeah. And right now… the ones we should worry about aren’t on that side. You know?”
Son Jaeha’s voice naturally carried worry.
Worry for the members facing someone who might make things a bit difficult, in a place where he couldn’t see them.
“Yeah, really… I’m worried.”
Son Jaeha definitely considered Kim Chunyong to be the same kind of person as himself, and believed he would handle this matter well too.
But….
“…It’s not about the burden. The world won’t end if Hyung stops doing that kind of thing. No, if the world is going to end because one idol leader didn’t do something outside his own job, it’d be better if it just ended.”
Well, how could he not think about, and not worry for, the person who had said such things to him.
Humans were less rational than they thought; once they received affection, they had a habit of wanting to return it.
That applied to him as well—Son Jaeha, who had begun talking to a counselor once a week before he knew it, and was slowly regulating what medication he should and shouldn’t take.
“…….”
Watching Son Jaeha and Ji Hwaseong chat in hushed voices, Jo Eun let out a low sigh.
The “side to worry about” that Son Jaeha had just casually mentioned would sound like mission-related talk on broadcast, but to Jo Eun, who knew what had happened before, it sounded different.
All Wiz members had dyed their hair jet-black to match this concept, but Jo Eun’s was especially darker.
Thick eyebrows, jet-black hair. And dark, deep eyes.
Despite a rugged, bold appearance that seemed drawn with thickly ground ink, Jo Eun had quite a delicate disposition, and eventually approached them and spoke in a low voice.
A low voice at a height and volume that neither handycams nor cameras would pick up.
“…Don’t worry. I didn’t fight with Chunyong Hyung.”
To clear up a misunderstanding that had arisen accidentally, against his will.
“……!”
In that moment, Son Jaeha and Ji Hwaseong’s eyes went wide as they stared at Jo Eun.
No way, he’s saying this outright right now?
We’re in the middle of filming right now?
He’s seriously got insane guts.
“Th-that’s not. Um… if you look at me like that….”
Reading the words and emotions in their eyes, Jo Eun stammered, his face reddening slightly.
Even so, he didn’t forget to move his feet quickly for the mission.
“I thought… there was a misunderstanding. I want to get along with all of you. To begin with, Chunyong Hyung and I were on… pretty good terms.”
“…Really? You were on good terms with Yungyung Hyung?”
“Hyung… helped me learn the basic choreography. How could I dislike someone like that?”
“Holy crap, come here! I’m totally getting good vibes from you right now, you know?”
Ji Hwaseong threw his arm around Jo Eun’s neck and pulled him close, whispering madly into his ear.
To Son Jaeha’s handycam and the hallway cams, it looked as though they were suddenly holding a strategy meeting.
“For real? For real? But then why was the team atmosphere like that? I mean, we thought our Yungyung Hyung might have beaten someone up over there! That, what’s his name. An Taei ssi? What’s with him then?”
“Hwaseong-ah… you’re making Jo Eun ssi flustered, yeah?”
Right as the cameras were eagerly capturing a scene that would send Jenia and Wiz fans into a frenzy on social media and communities, saying, “Since when did Ji Hwaseong and Jo Eun know each other to be so close?”
“I don’t know about the other hyungs, but Taei Hyung is….”
Jo Eun’s mouth, which had been obediently speaking despite being flustered by Ji Hwaseong’s actions, couldn’t open any further.
――!!
“Hwaseong-ah, peekaboo!”
“What the—….”
Three men who suddenly appeared behind them fiercely charged toward their armbands.
Son Jaeha and Jo Eun quickly leaned back to avoid them, but Ji Hwaseong, who had been focused on interrogating Jo Eun, was caught without fail.
“Wait, time! Time out! We were in the middle of a strategy meeting! It’s only been 15 minutes since filming started! Yungyung hyeooong!”
“15 minutes is enough time for us to perform a stage three times over, Hwaseong-ah. You call that a persuasion?”
Meaning, by the group of Jeong Yeonu and An Taei, who had been forced to stick together through Kim Chunyong’s backroom scheming.
“Hyeooong… please. Yungyung hyeooong, I’m cute. I’m that hyung’s team dongsaeng… my mom and dad said they’d watch *Catch Me Catch You* this time….”
“Haah… look at this scatterbrained kid saying he’s cute with his own mouth.”
“…Yungyung Hyung! Please! For the sake of our friendship! Did you forget the night we spent together? The night in our changing room!”
“Haha, I haven’t built up any sort of friendship yet. Can I just rip it off?”
“…Sunbae-nim! Hoobae! It’s hoobae love!”
“Wow, I don’t have anything like that! Can I take your armband?”
“You guys…! Just, huh? Taei ssi, please! I’m young! I’m your dongsaeng! …I am your dongsaeng, right?”
“…Sunbae-nim. Don’t be like that… let’s make a deal with us. It’ll be a good deal.”
In the end, only after Son Jaeha handed over one of their medals to Jeong Yeonu was Ji Hwaseong able to escape from their clutches.
“Jaeha Hyung, I won’t let you off next time I see you. Be careful.”
“…You’re the one who should be careful, Chunyong-ah.”
“Haha, trying to scare me….”
In the typhoon that swept through and left in an instant, Jo Eun and Ji Hwaseong, now completely disheveled, could only stare blankly at the backs of the three rapidly running away from them.
Quick footsteps, as if they had practiced together.
The harmony of the three faces—sharpness, softness, and neatness all mixed together.
And the special forces uniforms prepared by the production crew through a bulk purchase looked as though they had been custom-made specifically for those three….
“No way, that’s not the first time those three have moved together, is it!? How are they like that….”
Somehow, it felt like those who had finished preparing to “show something” for their respective teams had huddled tightly together.
“Hmm….”
And the only one watching that sight with meaningful eyes was Son Jaeha, the most rational and intelligent of those who remained.
Jeong Yeonu, An Taei, and….
Kim Chunyong, with red hair that tickled the nape of his neck.
In a place unknown to the TOJ members who were struggling simply to prevent a renewed feud between the Wiz members and Kim Chunyong….
Something rather interesting was unfolding.* * *The three men, having put some distance between themselves and Special Forces Team 2, Squad 2, leaned against the wall for a moment and caught their breath.
No matter how good their stamina was, there was nothing they could do about getting winded.
“That was good just now. Bargaining with the medals. I knew TOJ’s leader was smart… Haha, I like it. We could use that too.”
“…
Our Jaeha hyung is kind of like that. For the others, too, I think proposing a deal first wouldn’t be bad, rather than just ripping off their armbands right away.”
“I think we can just rip their armbands off! Whether we take their medals or rip off their armbands, isn’t it the same? Hm? We can settle it quickly without pointless arguing or fighting.”
Even so, their mouths did not rest, continuing to discuss plans to complete this mission and the filming safely.
They seemed as if they would float apart like oil and water, but surprisingly, they were showing rather decent teamwork.
Jeong Yeonu persuaded, Kim Chunyong backed him up, and An Taei stepped in forcefully.
If things continued to flow this smoothly, this mission looked set to become an overwhelming victory for Team 1.
“First, now that we’ve confirmed which floors the opposing team members are covering, let’s go back to the first floor. It’ll be faster if we resolve things from there.”
“…
Wouldn’t it be faster to deal with them as we go down?”
“Sorry, but rejected on the grounds that everyone will be thinking the exact same thing.”
“I’m fine with anything! Ah, if possible, I’d like to win without fighting much!”
“Haha, you’re really… nice. Huh?”
And in the midst of that….
Our Kim Chunyong did not have only that plan in his head.
“…….”
Though it might have seemed unlikely to suit his neat appearance, An Taei was pulling off the special forces uniform perfectly. Kim Chunyong stared fixedly at his face, then spoke as if nothing were wrong.
“Uh, wait a second. Taei. …
Can you come over here for a bit?”
“Hm? Sure. Why, Chunyong?”
“No, it looks like you got something on your clothes.”
Gently pulling An Taei toward him, Kim Chunyong pretended to brush off his shoulder and muttered in a low voice.
“Do you know you’ve been using the word ‘fight’ a lot since earlier?”
“…
Huh?”
Words about Kim Chunyong’s own plan to keep his current strategic ally beside him and take him down—the very one thinking of dropping a bomb on our team.
“There’s something because of that, isn’t there?”
“…….”
Panic surfaced on An Taei’s face, which had always maintained an innocent, beaming smile and a neat, guileless appearance.
The kind of panic one could only show when, in an unexpected place and an unexpected situation, they had to hear words they never thought they would hear.…
Got you, you little rascal.
“Haha! Why are you getting so serious, Taei? Hm? I brushed everything off your shoulder!”
“Uh, yeah…! Th-thanks!”
Kim Chunyong abruptly slung an arm around An Taei’s neck as he faltered, wearing the heartiest smile he could manage as he looked at Jeong Yeonu, who was watching them with an intrigued expression.
“…
Now that we’ve rested enough, shall we go take the other people’s medals too?”
The filming, the mission.
And Kim Chunyong’s plan to take down terrorist An Taei, who kept trying to throw bombs at TOJ’s peace.
Naturally, there was still quite some time left before any of it would be over.