The Malicious Member Has Returned! Episode 30
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“Th-that you inside the shadow, So sweet dream, hmph.”
Kim Juan, who had smoothly finished afternoon practice and his personal PR filming, was humming the competition song and pouring propolis into his mouth.
“Juan, it’s good now, but here, the turn, like this…”
“Yes, yes! I think I get it! Yes! I can do it well!”
Not only had he ended up on the same team as Son Jaeha, the AG pure-blood trainee he had snagged, but the stage they were presenting to the audience for the first time was “Shadow (SHADOW),” the first post-debut number-one song by Leopold, a top-tier male idol.
It was an incomparably good situation for a trainee appearing on a survival show—a stage where he couldn’t help but draw eyes even if he tried not to.
Not to mention, how about the personal PR filming that had taken place today?
“Trainees, you are given exactly one minute! For one minute, just appeal your charm to the fullest!”
Though he had been a bit flustered by the sudden filming, thanks to a dance challenge he had memorized for SNS uploads and voice impressions, Kim Juan had finished filming quite decently.
‘I didn’t know Son Jaeha would suddenly sing and rap with Jihwaseong there, but whatever. It was just those two. The other guys were just okay.’
In Kim Juan’s opinion, the only ones who had done better than him were the AG pure-blood trainees.
In truth, the production staff had responded more enthusiastically to other trainees at the time, such as Logan, the Englishman who played guitar, or Ryota, who sang an acapella anime opening medley, but still.
‘Ah, at this rate, debuting might be fucking smooth sailing? I just need to build a narrative where it looks like there’s something going on with Son Jaeha.’
Perhaps because he had even received encouragement from the original artists yesterday, saying, “Trainee Kim Juan’s acrobatic part is especially flexible.” Kim Juan’s nose was rising so high it didn’t know the height of the sky.
‘When I become an idol, I’m definitely buying a crazy expensive house and throwing a party with famous people. And I’m going to act all high and mighty in the middle of it.’
Just as he was painting such a beautiful future.
“Hey. Juan.”
“…Huh?”
Someone opened the waiting room door and called his name.
Kim Juan furrowed his brow for a moment to assess the situation, then, with an explosive “Ah!”, twisted his lips into a sneer.
…Kim Chunyong.
Right. If there was exactly one being capable of ruining Kim Juan’s mood right now, it was Kim Chunyong.
“Ah, then I’ll just do a random dance!”
During his personal PR time, Kim Chunyong had called what he danced a “random dance,” but Kim Juan knew exactly what it was the moment he saw it.
The breaking that Kim Chunyong had always practiced alone while he was at Queens.
The thing he kept practicing even though no one gave him feedback, to the point where there wasn’t even anyone to help him record.
It must have been a special dance to him. He must have practiced it like crazy.…
And he just called it a random dance, and danced it in a personal PR video barely over a minute long? And perfectly, at that?
Of course, to Kim Chunyong, he had simply danced it because the dance he practiced for a long time as a trainee remained in his memory, and the weird dinosaur imitation in the middle was chosen because it suited the PR, but.
But unaware of such circumstances, Kim Juan—who had subconsciously admitted that the dance was “perfect”—bit his lip hard once and seethed at Kim Chunyong.
“You think you’re close to me? Crazy. Why are you acting like we’re close?”
“…I just called your name, why are you suddenly cursing at me? What are you going to do if the camera audio picks that up?”
“The waiting room camera’s been taken out because they’re swapping the memory, get it? I can curse you out mixing every consonant and vowel and nothing will happen.”
“You really…”
Kim Chunyong, making a disgusted expression at Kim Juan’s vulgar cursing, let out a deep sigh and rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.
“Fine. Since there are no cameras rolling right now, I’ll be frank.”
Please, you….
“Watch that mouth.”
“…What?”
“If you destroy yourself with your own foul mouth, honestly, that’s none of my business. That’s on you. But don’t harm our team because of it. The competition is right around the corner. I wish you’d watch your boundaries with this kind of thing.”
“Aah… And here I thought. What kind of bullshit was that.”
Kim Juan made a confident, hamster-like expression at Kim Chunyong’s words, then suddenly smiled brightly and whispered.
“Are you talking about Jang Siu bombing the midterm evaluation? Geez, why are you blaming me for his weak mental….”
“You—”
At Kim Chunyong’s growl, Kim Juan raised both arms high above his head and cut him off, shaking his head side to side.
“Hey, I roughly heard his situation from my uncle too, so I know. But I didn’t intend for that at first, you know? I really just did it because I was curious. I mean, who would I ask to get me Senior Jang Siwon’s autograph if not for this kind of opportunity? But, don’t you know?”
A fishy smile hung on Kim Juan’s cute face.
“If he ruins the competition because of that, I’m the one who should be grateful instead.”
“…….”
“He’s right above me in rank. Well, it’s a base ranking, but it would definitely affect the broadcast too. Now that I think about it, I’m damn good at reading the situation, really. This must be luck sent from heaven too, right?”
“…Is that what you should be saying right now? I’m telling you not to harm others, and you’re calling it your luck?”
“So what. Deep down, you feel the same way. But you pretend to look out for others, pretend to be nice. It’s disgusting. Fuck, the entertainment industry is everyone for themselves in the end. Why should I care about that?”
Kim Juan turned his back to the door and strode toward Kim Chunyong, poking his shoulder sharply with a finger.
“What. The one you snagged was Jang Siu, right? And are you blaming me because that went south?”
“…….”
“Too bad, the one I snagged is Son Jaeha. Unlike Jang Siu, whose mental is thinner than tissue paper and who’s ambiguous in every way. Do you know how much I sucked up to that guy? The bond I built calling him ‘hyung’ when he’s nothing special is on a different level than yours.”
“Ha, haha. You really… are the worst. Does that hyung know you’re this kind of person?”
“What does he know, fuck. Stop acting all high and mighty. It’s really annoying. I told you to forfeit and leave earlier, didn’t I? What do you think will happen if you get on the wrong side of Son Jaeha, an AG pure-blood? Can you handle it?”
Sure enough, in a place without cameras, Kim Juan’s words grew rougher.
Mockery and sarcasm were the basics; he didn’t even hesitate to throw around Son Jaeha’s name, the person he had wanted to debut with.
There were no cameras in the waiting room right now, and Kim Juan was facing Kim Chunyong, the person he hated most in the world.
Kim Chunyong slowly closed his gaping mouth, scanning such a Kim Juan with an icy gaze.
Kim Juan, too heavily intoxicated by his own emotions right now, missed quite a lot.
That the reason he went out of his way to eat propolis in the waiting room was because Son Jaeha frequently appeared here.
And the fact that when Kim Chunyong entered earlier, he had deliberately not fully closed the waiting room’s glass door.
“…Are you two having an important conversation right now?”
“—!”
Two pairs of eyes turned toward the waiting room door simultaneously.
“Uh… u-uh….”
Realizing who it was, Kim Juan stammered with his mouth hanging open.
“I came to get a drink because I was thirsty from practicing, hmm. It looks pretty serious in here.”
Light brown hair that glistened despite being drenched in sweat, and a somewhat troubled expression. An AG company water bottle in his hand.
Kim Juan forcibly squeezed a voice from his throat and muttered.
“Jae… Jaeha hyung.”
Kim Chunyong glanced at such a Kim Juan once, then bowed his head toward Son Jaeha.
“…Hello.”
“Yeah. Hey, Chunyong.”
Son Jaeha, quietly watching the strange confrontation between Kim Chunyong and Kim Juan, scratched his cheek and spoke awkwardly.
“If I just fill my water and leave right now… it’d be a bit weird, wouldn’t it?”
“No! I don’t mind, but as for Juan, well.”
“Aah….”
Son Jaeha’s gaze reached Kim Juan.
His light-colored pupils still looked kind, but if you looked closely, there was something cold about them.
“If your conversation is going to take long, I’ll just come back later. Uh, um. And….”
Kim Juan trembled and tried his hardest to avoid Son Jaeha’s gaze, but to little avail.
“Don’t say anything too harsh here just because there are no cameras.”
“…….”
“…You might get caught on the hallway cameras, after all.”
Thud— Son Jaeha walked right out of the waiting room, and Kim Juan, whose legs lost strength, covered his mouth and collapsed to the floor.
A terrible assumption filled Kim Juan’s head.…
Had he heard?
“No. He, he came in in the middle so he couldn’t have…”
The person I snagged is that hyung.
There’s still a long way to go in the survival show.
And the upcoming competition is one where I have to stand on the same team as him!
“F-fuck. What the hell… No. He didn’t hear. Absolutely, absolutely didn’t hear…”
At Kim Juan’s trembling words, Kim Chunyong patted his shoulder with an ambiguous expression. His face was clearly pitying.
However.
“As if he didn’t hear, Kim Juan.”
The voice that followed was nothing short of icy.
At that cold reaction, Kim Juan snapped back to his senses and lunged at Kim Chunyong.
“You, you! You did that knowing everything! You bastard—”
“What’s wrong with you? Let go, man.”
But due to a considerable physical gap, it was rather Kim Juan who ended up hanging off him.
Kim Chunyong roughly loosened his collar from Kim Juan’s grip and shoved him away.
“The waiting room door isn’t even fully closed yet. What if someone else hears?”
The corners of Kim Chunyong’s mouth rose cheerfully as he spoke in a low voice.
The canine tooth revealed between them suited his delinquent-like appearance perfectly.
Which was to say, he really looked like no good.
Strangely enough, it was precisely in moments like this that Kim Chunyong’s true colors as a malicious member came out.
“Don’t remember? I told you when we met again after a long time.”
What kind of way of talking is that for someone aspiring to be an idol.
Kim Chunyong pushed Kim Juan back again with both hands and whispered fiercely at him.
“Stop blaming me. Did I beg you to curse me out? This is something you brought upon yourself. You have a tendency to blame me for everything.”
“Fuck…”
Kim Juan, whose mental was completely shot, staggered and grabbed the corner of the waiting room table.
Kim Chunyong took in that sight with his eyes, sighed once, and shook his head.
“Who knows? If you go apologize, Jaeha hyung might accept it.”
In fact, if Kim Juan apologized sincerely, Jaeha hyung would definitely accept it.
Because Son Jaeha was an angel who had soothed and coaxed him even when he, his roommate, was drunk and grabbing his collar making a fuss.
Selling his name behind his back while acting cocky? Well. He’d probably talk it out very gently and at length, telling him not to do it next time, then pat his shoulder.
What Kim Chunyong was saying now wasn’t simply words meant to twist Kim Juan’s stomach.
“You’re talking nonsense, you crazy bastard…”
But Kim Chunyong, seeing strength enter Kim Juan’s hand gripping the table, shook his head.
Yeah.
If he had the personality for that, he would have returned to the entertainment industry after the previous abuse controversy blew up.
But Kim Juan had simply sunk to the bottom of the sea.
“Why should I apologize! Is this my fault? I just did what was natural! So what the hell is wrong with that!”
Because he hadn’t wanted to apologize to that coordi. Because he thought this was all something done by someone who was jealous of him.
Kim Chunyong had picked a fight with Kim Juan in a waiting room where others might see, knowing full well everything.
This was, from the start—
“F, fuck… damn bastard….”
This was a competition Kim Juan could not win.
Kim Chunyong pushed Kim Juan’s shoulder with a finger, just as Kim Juan had done to him earlier, and spoke cheerfully.
“If you don’t manage your mouth from now on, it won’t be a coincidence like this—something real will happen to you.”
Get your act together if you don’t want to get cut.
“You have to do the stage properly.”
Bam— Inside the waiting room, only Kim Juan with a terrible expression and the propolis bottle he had been holding rolled across the table.
Rumble rumble…
The bottle, rolling from one end of the table to the other, soon fell to the floor and shattered with a gruesome bursting sound.
…Just as Kim Chunyong said.
The day of the competition was soon.