The Villainous Member Has Returned! Episode 217
* * *
Gim Chunyong had caught a cold.
And not just any cold—a body-ache flu accompanied by fever.
“Huh, Chunyong caught a cold? Really?”
The next day, when the members heard the news from Gim Chunyong’s roommate, Son Jaeha, their reactions were….
“Ugh, I knew it, I knew this would happen! Yong-yong hyung, this is total karma. Sheesh.”
“Oh my, Hwa-seong thought so too? Me too. Chunyong hyung, his sleeping habits since *Targeting Star*….”
“Since it’s come to this, let’s just let him rest up for today? Either Jaeha or I can contact Hobin hyung. Ugh, this is so sudden.”
“Ah, I messaged him as soon as I saw him earlier. Hmm, since it’s right after promotions ended, I don’t know if I should call that lucky or not….”
“Chunyong hyeong… dummy….”
Most reactions unified under one sentiment: “I knew it.”
One might think they were taking it too casually, that it was cold-hearted.
But if you carefully considered Gim Chunyong’s past conduct as observed by the T.O.Z members, this cold had been as good as predicted.
“Huh? Chunyong. It’s below zero outside! Put on more clothes, quick. You’ll freeze to death like that.”
“Ah, I run hot, so I’m fine. I really have a constitution that doesn’t catch colds.”
“Still, at least wear a scarf! It’s really cold toda—”
“Ah, it’s refreshing. Is it snowing?”
Hadn’t he been dressing rather lightly, trusting in his natural constitution?
“Huff, Chunyong. W-wait. Are you going this hard today too? You’re too passionate…!”
“Taei. It’s not that I’m passionate; it’s that you haven’t been devoting yourself to dance practice until now. Come, come. Again….”
“Chunyong, hyung’s tired too. Please! Let’s rest for just five minutes and then do it!”
“Haaa… really? Then everyone rest for a bit. I’ll organize the latter half in advance and teach you later.”
“Gim Chunyong, you really. How are you exactly the same even at AG….”
With the single-minded determination that *the year-end stage moves have to be big enough to look good even on the overhead camera*, hadn’t he made the collaboration stage practice even more intense—to the point where the T.O.Z members, already as used to Gim Chunyong’s grinding as they could be, recoiled in horror?
“Urk, I’m sleepy….”
“Chunyong. You have to dry your hair before sleeping.”
“Because of the bleaching, it doesn’t dry well… it’ll be dry when I wake up….”
“Hmm, then shouldn’t you at least cover yourself with a blanket?”
“The winter blanket is heavy and hot….”
He slept without drying his hair, and except when secretly exchanging messages with X while Son Jaeha slept beside him, he covered himself with the blanket only half-heartedly.
Yes. It had been as good as predicted.
Though Gim Chunyong, who had blindly believed in his own health, hadn’t known.
“Ah, dammit. My body’s burning up….”
“Yong-yong hyung, go in and sleep! Come on, Logan. I’ll grab his arms. You grab his legs, Logan.”
“Get it. We lift on three, Hwa-seong. One, Two….”
“Urk, hey! You said three! You said three!”
Fortunately falling ill on a day with neither schedules nor practice, Gim Chunyong was swiftly quarantined in his room, wrapped tightly in the winter blanket he had complained was heavy and hot, and bound to his bed.
And upon learning this fact, X spewed forth a wondrous display of mockery, rage, and irritation all at once.
- X: Wow, you’re really amazing?
- X: Damn this is insane wow you actually caught a cold!
- X: At this important time!! Buried under a blanket!! Unable to do anything!!
- X: What am I going to do with you seriously I’m going crazy my stars
- X: I thought since you were so stupid you’d never catch a cold
- X: Intelligence and health are inversely proportional!!
- X: But what is this huh??
- X: Gah Gim Chunyong-yong seriously pisses people off
- X: Villainous member Rex-trash temperament hasn’t gone anywhere ㅡㅡ
After checking the flood of messages from X, Gim Chunyong replied with only a short response, a fever-reducing patch stuck to his forehead.
- Gim Chunyong: You’re not human
- X: Ah screw off just close your eyes and sleep forever
- X: Don’t ever wake up again this is a warning
He had just been berated by X, but anyway.
“Then Chunyong, just lie down and rest for now. The members will take turns coming to check on your condition. There’s no practice today anyway.”
“Yes, hyung. I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for. You have to get well quickly. That’s what matters. …Rest well. Got it?”
With Son Jaeha’s kind and gentle words as the last thing he heard, the door closed, and Gim Chunyong took a deep breath with a cracked voice.
“Huu….”
His vision was hazy, and his fingertips and toes were burning.
His head was dizzy as if fogged over, and his whole body ached.
Truthfully, Gim Chunyong had really caught a body-ache flu after a very, very long time.
“Wow, how does Rex hyung drink like that every day? Is he really okay? He’s going to get cirrhosis, seriously.”
“Haha, I went with him for his health checkup… they said he’s healthy. His liver levels aren’t even that high.”
“Wow, damn, this is really cheating!”
“Hmm, still, I think it’s better to drink less. He keeps drinking and throwing up; they say it strains his throat….”
“I’ll handle it myself, handle it.”
In fact, Gim Chunyong had been born with stamina and health, so while he might groan from hangovers and nausea, experiences of being sick with a cold were few and far between.
“…….”
It was strange, and fascinating.
Feeling the heat rush to his face, Gim Chunyong slowly blinked and quietly began to count on his fingers how many years it had been since he’d caught a cold like this.
Once after the accident, when he had completely cut off his family.
And once when he had completely broken away from the members after the dating scandal broke out.
*So… it’s been roughly four or five years.*
He had been so busy venting the frustration poured down upon him in other directions that he hadn’t given his body a chance to fall sick.
How funny was that.
Rather, if feeling the heat spike up like this once made him feel alive, was that a rather funny thing?
“…….”
Having blankly stared into empty space while rolling his eyes around, Gim Chunyong soon slapped his own cheeks with both hands to wake himself up.
Being sick was just being sick.
If he could use this, he had to use it.
“…Hup.”
Strength snapped into his hazy vision, and Gim Chunyong’s trademark sharply slit eyes flew open.
“Chunyong hyung. I… can I talk to you… for a moment?”
“Huh? Oh, sure. Is there something you want to ask?”
“It’s not… anything grand, but… if it weren’t you, there’s no one… I could tell.”
“…Then let’s meet briefly after today’s collaboration stage practice. We can talk when we get back to the dorm.”
Gim Chunyong’s strategy toward Jang Siu was showing some progress.
Now, what was important was preparing the person that Jang Siu *really* wanted to talk to.
And that preparation was timed to begin when the members came by in turns to check Gim Chunyong’s condition.
“…Urgh.”
Gim Chunyong touched his head where a slight dizziness was rising and struggled to maintain consciousness amidst the creeping chills.
Because he had said so confidently that he could do it.
…No matter his condition, he had to do it.
* * *
The first to enter Gim Chunyong and Son Jaeha’s room was Ji Hwaseong, and next was his roommate, Son Jaeha himself.
“How is Yong-yong hyung, Jaeha hyung? Is he breathing?”
“Mhm, guess it’s because he’s usually healthy. He’s much better than he was this morning. His fever seems to have dropped too. He was looking at his phone.”
“Huh, when I went in he was just sleeping! Is he waking up and going back to sleep?”
“That could be it. Logan is going to check on him in a bit, so let’s ask again after Logan comes out.”
About an hour after Son Jaeha came out, it was Logan’s turn, and then Jang Siu.
“Oh, Siu. Did you give Chunyong hyung his medicine? He wasn’t like, pouting about not wanting to take it or anything?”
“Chunyong hyung isn’t… a child. He didn’t do that.”
“God, Siu. You shouldn’t say it like that. I used to pretend to sleep on purpose because I hated taking medicine.”
“A child….”
“No! It’s just, I didn’t want to take medicine when I’d get better eventually anyway. It’s bitter.”
“That’s exactly what a child is….”
Jang Siu made a brief expression impossible to tell whether he was laughing or crying at Logan’s words, then made eye contact with Bang Yuchan, who had just walked out of his own room, and hesitated.
The truth was, it was because of the conversation he’d just had with the sick Gim Chunyong after entering his room.
“Chunyong hyung… it’s time for your medicine….”
“Ah, Siu. …Haha, we were going to talk yesterday. But I couldn’t because this happened. Right.”
“…….”
“…Want to sit down?”
A short conversation, not even ten minutes long.
“…Yu-chan hyung said… that?”
“Yeah. You two haven’t talked like this before, right?”
“…Yes.”
“And what you just said too, you’ve never said it directly?”
“Y-yes….”
“I see, I see.”
Nevertheless, it remained unusually deep in Jang Siu’s heart….
“Um, Yu-chan hyung.”
“Hmm? Siu, what is it?”
“…Ah, it’s nothing.”
For no reason, it made him want to add a few more words to someone.
The thought that he had suddenly called out to Bang Yuchan, who was just standing there without a thought, made Jang Siu’s face burn bright red as he quickly headed to his room.
Jang Siu still found Bang Yuchan difficult.
He felt jealous, and honestly speaking, somewhat awkward; it was hard to pretend nothing was wrong.
But because he had seen others who didn’t get along well yet still managed to be close.
Because he had met people who simply revealed their inner feelings as they were.
“If the opportunity arises, I think it’d be okay to tell Yu-chan hyung about that.”
“This? But… this is too, l-lewd….”
“You saw Eun and Jayden. You know what I mean, right?”
“…….”
And on top of that, the person he had most recently opened his heart to had told him it was okay to reveal his inner feelings to the other person.
So, and so.
“…Hmm.”
Bang Yuchan quietly watched Jang Siu’s retreating figure heading quickly to his room, then flung himself onto the sofa where Logan and Ji Hwaseong were sprawled.
Now that the repackage album promotions had successfully ended.
With barely less than a month remaining until the collaboration stage with Wiz.
And in the midst of it all, now that Gim Chunyong was suffering from a light cold.
“Ah, guys. So Chunyong just needs to take his evening medicine now? And we go back to normal practice tomorrow, right?”
“Um, maybe? We have a schedule tomorrow. We have to finish our practice too, and we have to do the year-end stage costume fitting!”
“Uwaaah, this year is really ending now. It really felt like I was floating on clouds, you know? It still doesn’t feel real!”
“Haha… me too. Then, I’ll go give him his evening medicine later.”
Now, with one hour left before Bang Yuchan—whose thoughts were difficult to guess—would enter Gim Chunyong’s room.
“Why’d he have to go and get sick, making me worry….”
The moment that would become a definite turning point for someone was approaching.