The Malicious Member Has Returned! Episode 28
* * *
One hour before Senior Min Siyeong visited the practice room.
“I think… Siu seems to be somewhat traumatized by that milk CF he filmed in the past. To the point where he can’t properly focus on team practice right now.”
Those were the first words I spoke to Yuchan hyung, who was sitting on the B1 emergency stairs where the cameras still weren’t rolling.
A fact I had learned over eight years of being his member, not a mere guess.
Jang Siu horribly hated any mention of the milk commercial he had filmed as a child.
To be precise….
The second-generation legendary idol who appeared in the commercial with him, the leader of ‘M-XY.’
“Hello, family of Seongun Milk? I’m idol Jang Siwon. And here is my little brother, Siu!”
Should I say he struggled whenever his older brother Jang Siwon was brought up?
Before debut, and after debut.
Before and after Siu’s name, words like ‘that Jang Siwon’s little brother’ and ‘his older brother is Jang Siwon’ followed him like a shadow.
No matter where he went, brother, brother.
Even after becoming an idol, whether Siu sang, danced, rapped, or arranged. Your brother, your brother’s group, your brother’s song, this and that. Comparisons that seemed to follow his every breath.
Arrangement, rap, singing, dance. The biggest reason why Jang Siu, who was decently good at everything, had become hypersensitive and started doubting himself.
“Yes. My brother is… quite amazing.”
I might not be able to understand every emotion of others, but I could clearly remember Siu’s face turning pale every time he heard those words.
“Now that I think about it… I see. Back then, when Juan brought up the CF in the waiting room, his expression changed immediately, didn’t it.”
“I don’t know for sure whether Kim Juan brought it up on purpose or not… but this is how it turned out either way.”
“Even so, I find it a bit hard to understand, Chunyong.”
Yuchan hyung’s languid eyes, which had been listening to me quietly, gleamed sharply.
“I get the situation. But Siu is harming the team overall right now. Since we’re on an idol survival show where most rounds are team competitions, that won’t do.”
He was right.
Jang Siu’s one-sided lack of communication, his uncooperative attitude toward the team members. And eventually, the midterm evaluation stage that he had ruined.
Maybe someone like me, who already knew the full backstory, could understand, but there was no reason for Ryota and Yuchan hyung—who were simply in the same boat—to understand all that.
Maybe after debut, once they slowly got to know him.
At hyung’s firm words, I immediately waved both hands in the air and corrected myself.
“Ah, I think the conversation took a strange turn? Of course, we don’t need to understand Siu right away. You’re right. That’s not what I’m suggesting.”
“…Huh?”
At my words, Yuchan hyung opened and closed his mouth, even more at a loss.
“Chunyong. Wasn’t your intention for our team to fully understand Siu’s situation first… and then have a deep heart-to-heart?”
“Huh? Ah, no? When would we find the time for that?”
What is this hyung even saying right now?
Flustered, I quickly reined in my expression, which was about to contort bizarrely, and asked Yuchan hyung again.
“Hyung. How long do you think it would take to have that kind of conversation with Siu?”
“Hmm… about two days?”
“Ha, haha.”
I let out a hollow laugh and tapped Yuchan hyung’s knee sharply.
This hyung has no idea what our maknae is like.
“I think it would take over a year.”
“A-a year? It’s that bad?”
“Yes. Seriously.”
“Wow, you’re really hard to deal with, seventeen-year-old puberty boy!”
Yes. He is hard to deal with.
So suffer through it together with him after debut, hyung.
“So what I mean is… let’s put understanding aside for later and just get Siu into a condition where he can perform on stage. There are only five days left until the main competition.”
“Uh, uhm… I see. Understood. But how do you plan to create that condition? Is there anything we can do right now?”
Good. Now we’re getting to the main point.
I took out the phone that had been burning in my pocket all this time and waved it at Yuchan hyung with a wide grin.
“We can ask someone who can do it.”
Someone mentally closer to him than us, who haven’t known him long; who had already endured similar hardships; and who wasn’t even a fellow trainee preparing for a survival show.
And….
Someone who could form a bond of empathy with Jang Siu.
* * *
And now.
Senior Min Siyeong’s blunt voice struck Yuchan hyung and me as she sat with her arms crossed.
“First of all, how did you know I was coming today? And what are those printouts?”
“Haha… I’m sure all the trainees already know? That the original artists are coming today. I’m sure the other teams are preparing too….”
“Then the surprise original artist appearances were a sloppy surprise. Let’s reflect on that, production team.”
At the senior’s words, two production staff members made stung expressions.
The production staff had really tried to bring in guests without the trainees knowing, but there was no way any trainee actually didn’t know.
Apparently, even the kids who don’t wear makeup when practicing had come out patting cushion foundation on their faces.
Senior Min Siyeong looked at her glittering nails once, let out a deep sigh, and continued speaking.
“Then let’s get straight to the point. Why are only two of you here? The biggest problem right now should be another trainee.”
“If you mean another trainee….”
“There’s a trainee who messed up on stage. You know who.”
I felt cold sweat running down my spine at the senior’s unrelenting words and put on an awkward smile.
This was exactly why we had planned to come out first, before Senior Min Siyeong met Siu.
“Siu! You’re dancing so well again today!”
I had seen countless times over eight years at the same company how Senior Min Siyeong cherished Siu and treated him like her youngest sibling or an older niece.
But this great AG senior of ours….
“But compared to Siwon, his singing is a bit lacking. The arrangement too. Personally, I wonder if he should focus more on vocal practice….”
She had a tendency to throw words around without filtering them to people she was comfortable with.
On the mentor panel, there was a camera in front of her and she was conscious of needing to be careful, so except for special cases, she was cautious.
“His singing… isn’t great, huh.”
Recalling Jang Siu’s sulking face every time, I chose my words carefully.
“Uh, Ryota and Siu went to see Mentor Moon Yunha because of the costumes. I think they’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”
“Then let’s turn off the cameras for a bit and rest, and when those two get back—”
“No, in the meantime!”
Desperately sending eye signals to the production crew, who were nodding and trying to put down the equipment, I raised my voice.
“Could Mentor Min Siyeong perhaps give us… some advice?”
“…Advice for you two? Me?”
The senior’s eyes swept up and down me. Perhaps because her back was to the camera, her expression was openly displeased.
It was like a sign saying, ‘You are not inside my boundary.’ Since I was the one who currently had her hackles up. It made sense.
And because I had expected this.
“Oh, we’re not asking you to give us special treatment. It’s just that we have some free time. When would we ever get another chance to hear advice from a great senior like Mentor Min Siyeong!”
…I had brought one more person besides myself.
“Hmph.”
Yuchan hyung, who had once captured her attention with his outstanding vocals even if he wasn’t known for dance, chimed in beside me, and the atmosphere softened slightly.
“Well. It should be fine for a bit.”
The game was officially afoot.
“First of all… ‘Us Beyond the Waves,’ which you chose, is a really special song to me. Actually, I was planning to debut simultaneously in Korea and Japan with that song.”
“Oh, but didn’t you debut in Korea with a different song? I think….”
“That’s right. I debuted with ‘Nonstop Girl.’ In my second year of middle school.”
“Yes! I sang that so often at karaoke. Wow, hearing it like this, you really debuted at a young age? People who led an era really seem different.”
“Ah, well… I do feel a bit good. Thank you, Trainee Bang Yuchan?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I just stated the obvious.”
The senior shrugged her shoulders once at Yuchan hyung’s smooth talk. As expected, perhaps this kind of thing only worked when someone who had experienced the outside world a lot did the talking.
“But the one who brought it up doesn’t have any questions? You’re being awfully quiet?”
Trainee Kim Chunyong.
Yuchan hyung and Senior Min Siyeong’s gazes pinned me.
‘Chunyong, I think now is the perfect time.’
I responded to Yuchan hyung’s winking eye and quickly opened my mouth.
“…Of course I have many questions. But this opportunity is so precious! It’s hard to choose which to ask.”
“Just say it. It’s not like I’ll answer everything you ask anyway.”
“Then….”
I spoke quickly in a loud voice so the camera would definitely not miss these words.
“Why didn’t you debut with ‘Us Beyond the Waves’…?”
At my question, Senior Min Siyeong’s lips pressed tightly shut. She appeared to be practicing her words, ‘It’s not like I’ll answer everything.’
But it had to be said.
I’m sorry for touching a sore spot, Senior, but you need to talk about this in order to give Siu proper feedback.
“…….”
The expression on Senior Min Siyeong’s face as she looked at me was peculiar. It seemed like she was calculating what to say.
…Ah.
Could it be that I had too much of a thug-like expression just now?
I suddenly remembered my not-so-good impression and pulled out my trump card with the most pitiful, pathetic expression possible.
“I also got cut from another agency’s debut team and ended up on
“…You got cut from a debut team?”
“Yes. So I thought if Mentor Min Siyeong could share some good words, I might be able to overcome those memories too….”
“…Hmm.”
Perhaps because it was information she was hearing for the first time, Senior Min Siyeong’s face turned ashen.
No matter how much she disliked a trainee, learning that there was a real story behind it would inevitably make her feel strange.
As I maintained my sullen expression, the senior, who had been quietly thinking about something, carefully opened her mouth.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t.”
I couldn’t.
At those words, Yuchan hyung’s mouth fell open.
“You couldn’t? Why couldn’t you debut with such a good song….”
“Because I was dismissed.”
“Huh?”
Senior bit her lower lip once at Yuchan hyung’s blank response, then continued in a slightly angry voice.
“Because I was dismissed. I had no choice but to get older and then debut. That domestic broadcasting station had no intention of evaluating me highly. That’s why ‘Us Beyond the Waves’ was released under my Japanese name, not my Korean name.”
“No way. It’s not just anyone—it’s Mentor Min Siyeong!?”
“I was young back then. No matter how well I did, I was a child. Even if people called me a genius, I was a child.”
The disregard for a young girl overflowing with talent. The broadcasting station’s characteristic arrogance of wanting to break her before she grew up.
That kind of thing.
Senior Min Siyeong, who had pulled out and touched upon the humiliation she suffered in her youth, took a shallow breath and cleanly changed her expression.
“—It just… happened. The conversation got a bit heavy. Anyway, in the end, I debuted like this and got to sing many good songs. So it all worked out. Enough to talk about it on broadcast like this.”
“But even for a genius who excels at everything… it must have been so hard being treated like that.”
At my words, the senior slowly nodded.
The dislike she had felt toward me had already faded considerably.
“That’s right, it was like that back then. I already knew how to do everything, but with comparisons and being dismissed… There were times when I thought, am I someone who can’t do any better? It’s much better now, but….”
—Now.
I wiped my damp palm against my pant leg and muttered as nonchalantly as possible.
“Then, this is just a guess.”
“…Hmm?”
A small voice that likely wouldn’t even be caught by the camera.
“Wouldn’t Siu be like that too?”
Even you, a proud genius, suffered so much under such comparisons.
Under a brother who already has an outstanding career, wouldn’t Siu also be struggling, hearing that name no matter how hard he works?
You know what that feels like, don’t you.
“Right. Siu… too.”
Senior Min Siyeong, who had been answering nonchalantly, suddenly opened her eyes wide and stared at me.
Her glass-like pupils trembled here and there, as if saying:
‘How do you, a trainee from somewhere else, know that?’
How do I know?
Because he was our maknae.
‘Siu, at this rate, you’ll bring shame to Siwon’s name!’
And Yuchan hyung and I knew that if we didn’t step in like this to guide the direction of her advice to Siu, her fiery personality would instead explode in anger and cause a disaster.
Rather than explaining that and becoming a trainee who suspiciously knew too much, I stretched the corners of my mouth upward and bowed to her at a perfect 90 degrees.
“We’re counting on you!”
Because at that exact moment.
“Heouk, Mentor Min Siyeong has come to our practice room!? To scold us! To scold us?”
Ryota, startled and making a fuss in that bizarre translated tone, and—
“…….”
The protagonist of this entire topic.
Our Jang Siu had returned.