The Malicious Member Has Returned! Episode 187* * *Truthfully, if it were Juyeong sunbae as usual, he wouldn't have opened his mouth to us this easily.
No matter how desperate he was right now to tell someone about his relationship, Juyeong sunbae was still a member of SLEDIX.
What kind of group is SLEDIX?
["As Expected, SLEDIX Again This Time" SLEDIX's 'Dream Within a Dream' Updates Male Idol First-Week Sales Record!]
["Triple Million Seller? What's Next Is Even Scarier" SLEDIX on the Verge of Becoming Quadruple Million Sellers, What Is Their Next Move?]
A veteran boy group whose fortress had never once crumbled, even while Leopold, the king of conceptual, dominated all buzz metrics every time they appeared.
Under Yeonwoo hyung's supreme command, an unyielding top-tier male idol group where every member boasted deep bonds with fans without any major scandals.
Overwhelming overseas tour revenue, and even so, regular Korean albums released steadily without fail.
This was SLEDIX's current standing.
So, there was no reason for a member of such a group to run his mouth like he did earlier.
But....
[Overlap (F): When the skill caster performs an action that acts as the target's trigger, the memory from that time resurfaces and charm correction applies (demerit possible)
Effect: Charm to target -10% ~ +10%]
Well, I guess I should say the skill X gave me after so long had flexed its muscles a bit.
"Ahem...."
Signaling that the skill was activated, I pushed the slowly blinking phone in my pocket deeper inside and let out a small cough.
Of course, I really hadn't known this skill would suddenly score a critical hit right now.
Because there was only one part in my relationship with Juyeong sunbae that could press his trigger.
[Arrows' Rex, Sweet Secret Rendezvous with Lily J's Billy? "Alone Together in the Car"]
[
[SLEDIX's Juyeong, Outgram Post Goes Viral… "You Looked Happy."]
...
The dating rumor with Billy sunbaenim that had blown up before I came back.
After that incident, Juyeong sunbae and I had briefly exchanged a conversation similar to the one from earlier.
"Hello, sunbaenim. We, Arrows, are making a comeback with a mini album this time, so I came to greet you…."
"Huh? You've got some nerve coming to greet me, huh? Wow, really shameless…."
"Juyeong-ah. Can't you watch your mouth in front of your junior?"
"Yeonwoo hyung! Just because he's someone you meet with sometimes, you're siding with another group's kid in front of me? That guy! You know what he did!"
"Haha, it seems you don't remember what happened to you when you dated back then. You really are something. Want to go through that again?"
"U-urk… Damn it! Rex-sle, no. Rex-ssi? G-good luck. Do your best. Yeah. Do your best. If you don't know, ask me, huh? Who knows? Maybe I'll teach you some dating skills or something?"
"...Thank you for the kind words."
"'Kind words' my ass, damn it!"
Who knew that conversation would act as the trigger now.
Even if it wasn't something the other party experienced directly, if it's related to me in my memories, does it surface in their head too?
Then there's no way to know properly whether it works as a merit or a demerit!
As expected of a skill from X.
No matter how much he said he collaborated with me, I couldn't hide that there were slight defects.
If it were a stage skill, I could confidently say 'deactivate it.'
But like this, seriously.
"Sigh...."
I rolled my eyes around, trying to hide my current bewilderment.
It wasn't easy, but anyway.
But was it fortunate, or not.
In this situation, it didn't seem like I needed to hide my bewilderment.
Because Yeonwoo hyung was showing an amazing sight in real time.
"Whew...."
Yeonwoo hyung, who had left me with the bold words that the "gift is extravagant," gripped the back of Juyeong sunbae's neck tightly and blinked slowly.
Like a chef measuring angles on how to cook this ingredient.
And then, as if he had made a big resolution, Yeonwoo hyung donned a gentle smile across his face....
"Juyeong-ah."
"Hyuuung, the juniors are all watching right now, if you do this here...."
"Juyeong-ah."
"......."
"Kneel."
Cutting off Juyeong sunbae's whining in one stroke, he demanded he kneel.
At Music Days Sangam Live Hall, Basement 4th floor.
On the bare floor.
A member of SLEDIX, shining in the current top tier of male idols.
"...Holy."
Logan, who had been covering his mouth and fidgeting restlessly from the moment Juyeong sunbae suddenly started blabbering about his love life, finally threw his arms over Hwaseong's and my shoulders and began whispering frantically.
"Mates, is this, is this really okay? I don't think we should be here. We must quickly return to the waiting room...."
"Urk, Logan. Please calm down. You're not the only one uncomfortable right now? I want to leave quickly too? But if we suddenly leave, it'll look even stranger...!"
"Then let's go as naturally as possible. Hurry. I really have a hard time with situations like this. I'm telling you, my empathy is very high!"
"Uh, um...."
I swept my gaze once over my younger brothers who were on the verge of tears, Juyeong sunbae who was at a loss with a pale face in front of Yeonwoo hyung, and Yeonwoo hyung who was standing in front of him grinning with his arms crossed, then chose my words.
I'm a bit sorry that Logan and Hwaseong have to experience this, but....
"...Sorry, but I don't think we can go anywhere right now."
I have to tell them the reality, what else can I do.
"Noooo!"
The moment my whisper ended, Logan cupped his cheeks with both hands and made an expression on the verge of tears.
Like a large dog that had heard a frequency it hated.
"What? Chunyong hyung, what are you talking about?! What do you mean we can't go anywhere?"
"Logan, speak Korean! If you keep doing that, we'll have a communication breakdown!"
"Hueng, I want to quickly return to my home sweet waiting room...."
"I'm telling you, me too? No, Yongyong hyung. We can't go anywhere, what does that mean? We can just say 'excuse us' and leave...!"
And similarly to Logan, Hwaseong began clinging desperately, grabbing my arm and pulling hard, forgetting his large frame.
Of course.
It's not just any team, but a huge senior like SLEDIX is about to be disciplined over a romantic scandal right before their eyes.
What rookie idol would want to watch that with their own two eyes.
But if it were the Yeonwoo hyung I knew, he would never let us leave here peacefully.
Besides, this was the board I laid out.
Sure enough.
"Ah, T.O.J everyone."
Leaving Juyeong sunbae who was still trembling, Yeonwoo hyung, who had suddenly spoken to us, unfolded his arms and slowly approached us.
Yeonwoo hyung, wearing a uniform remodeled in Eastern style that fit his tall frame, looked almost like a grim reaper.
To top it off, his hair was dyed such a dark black that it had a blue tint....
With my younger brothers hanging off both arms, I responded to hyung with an awkward smile on my face.
"...Yes, sunbaenim."
"It's nothing else, but I understand there's still some time until T.O.J's pre-recording. So there's something I'd like to ask of you."
"Huh? W-what would you like to ask...."
"Hmm, there are plastic chairs over there, right? The owner put them there so he could eat ramyeon comfortably."
"Eek, y-yes...."
"Sit there and watch for a bit. Don't feel burdened. Think of it as watching a morning drama."
"......."
"And Juyeong-ah, what are you doing? I told you to kneel. We need to talk quickly before we move."
That's right.
This is Yeonwoo hyung.
I gripped the shoulders of my two younger brothers who were rolling their eyes around and reading the room, and slowly retreated toward the plastic chairs.
Right now, if Yeonwoo hyung said to kneel with that expression, you had to kneel.
The fact that Yeonwoo hyung deliberately wouldn't send us back to the waiting room.
And the fact that he wouldn't retract his words telling Juyeong sunbae to kneel.
Those were actions with clear intent.
The intent to leave this memory forever in the mind of the wrongdoer, with third parties present beside them.
Of course, here the third parties were Hwaseong and Logan.
Because if you think about it, I was an accomplice.
Then what should I do in this situation.
"...Hwaseong-ah. Logan."
"Yongyong hyuuung...."
"Please, please. Chunyong hyung, I want to go...."
"Let's sit. ...Open the snacks we bought earlier."
"Hyuuuuuung!!"
"Uh, uh, Logan. Walk? Walk? Ah, it's not a walk. Right. I said let's eat snacks. Treats!"
As Yeonwoo hyung hinted, I had a duty to take care of these third parties attentively.
"Juyeong-ah."
And everything began the moment we awkwardly sat down and opened the puffed rice, rice crackers, sikhye, and roasted corn we had bought at the store earlier.
"It takes you forever to kneel, huh. I went easy on you with choreography practice because you're the vocal line, but you've really gotten lax...."
"Yeonwoo hyuuung...."
"Now, look here."
Yeonwoo hyung finally pushed his phone at Juyeong sunbae, who was forced to kneel and trembling like a squirrel in front of the store, and whispered.
"...Smile. I'm taking a picture."
In a coercive yet affectionate voice.
"P-picture...?"
"Yes. I'm going to upload this to our official SNS right now. The title should be roughly... 'What on earth did Juyeong do wrong?' That should do it. The fans will think you and I are joking around. Right?"
Taking a picture like that in this situation was closer to being taxidermied than being scolded.
A threatening form of taxidermy saying, 'The fans might think differently, but you and I will remember this situation forever every time we go on official SNS.'
"Gasp."
"God, this is...."
Low sighs burst from Hwaseong and Logan sitting beside me.
The bewilderment of seeing a huge senior subjected to such humiliation.
Plus the fear that when an idol gets caught dating, they might end up like that.
And those reactions from Hwaseong and Logan were exactly the role of third parties that Yeonwoo hyung wanted.
"U-urk...."
In the end, Juyeong sunbae had no choice but to force a smile while trembling, and that appearance was captured entirely on Yeonwoo hyung's phone.
Click—
"Hmm, it's a bit funny. But it came out well."
Yeonwoo hyung, who fiddled with his phone for a moment and uploaded that picture to SNS, muttered while smoothing his neatly parted black hair.
"Now that I've done one of the three things I need to do, I'm going to do the next one I can do right away."
"Yeonwoo hyung, please! What will the juniors think!"
"They'll probably think idols shouldn't date."
"Ugh...."
"No time, Juyeong-ah. I'll go straight to the next one. This time it's a video. You'd better judge for yourself how you'll look."
Yeonwoo hyung crouched down in front of the kneeling Juyeong sunbae and pushed his phone forward, smiling softly like the moon rising high in the late night.
"Now, summarize your love story from beginning to end. I'll give you 15 minutes."
"H-huh?"
"Depending on how you say this, your next punishment will be decided. Do well. Now, start."
"What the hell do you want me to start,"
"Start. Now."
"W-well! Billy and I...."
"Yes. So it's Lily J's Billy. Hmm, no wonder I heard the name Lily J earlier."
That love story wouldn't spread anywhere.
It would simply remain forever on Yeonwoo hyung's phone and drive, becoming a leash to choke Juyeong sunbae.
That's just the kind of person Jeong Yeonwoo is.
Thorough, with a compulsion to control.
He controls even himself like that, and enjoys drinking periodically to confirm those limits.
Anyway, he really is the scariest person I know.
"...Tsk."
I gulped and carefully observed Yeonwoo hyung's stern expression.
Giving him compensation for a previous transaction was one thing, but I needed to check whether he belonged to the category of 'other guys.'
But this, really....
"I fell down that time... and Billy gave me a band-aid. Ah, saying not to get hurt and to do my activities diligently...."
The more I listened to Juyeong sunbae with that tragic expression speaking to Yeonwoo hyung...
"Saying it was hard when things don't go well no matter how hard you try, and that she wondered how to overcome such a slump, so she contacted me. Along with such a strong sense of kinship, I thought 'I hope she doesn't go through the same experience as me'...."
"Experience? What kind of hard experience did you have. Tell me that slowly too."
"Ack! Yeonwoo hyung, wait, wait! You can't do this here!"
"Hmm? What can't I do, Juyeong-ah? I don't really know. I'll have to check whether what I just heard is true or not. What was so hard? Was singing the songs I made hard?"
"Huu, huuung...."
More than anything, this is really....
"...Hwaseong-ah. Pass me some rice crackers."
"Argh, eat the puffed rice you bought, hyung!"
"Holy. Is this... really okay to watch, Chunyong hyung?"
"Yeah, yeah, for now? Let's focus, focus. This is experience too."
Someone else's love story....
It's interesting, isn't it?