The Malicious Member Has Returned! Episode 57
The day of returning to the trainee canning facility, after a vacation that had been so important to Kim Chunyong.
In that place where an indescribable tension lingered, a sedan with all windows perfectly tinted pulled onto a nearby road.
"We've arrived. You can get off here."
Inside were the secretary who worked as Director Shin Giho of AG Entertainment's hands and feet, and—
"Ah, you could've let me out further out front. We came too quickly, ugh. The cameras won't even be set up yet."...
The shamelessly speaking trainee with a completely clueless face, Kim Juan, was riding inside.
"There isn't a separate crosswalk outside, so I thought crossing the street would be dangerous. The protection of our agency's trainees is always our top priority. Go in early and think it over some more."
"Ah... yeeees. Goodbye!"
Slam—The moment he got out of the car like that, all sorts of negative emotions surged up on Kim Juan's clueless face.
"Wow, fuck. I asked them to take me to the subway station, but they're really driving me all the way here? Ugh, gives me the creeps!"
Inside his small rodent-like head, the conversation he had shared with his uncle last night was rapidly flashing by.
"...
Juan, they wanted to see you?"
"Yeah. It's not the Director directly, but the secretary? Uncle said you'd know better, but they told me they had something to talk to me about."
"Damn it..."
At the time, his uncle, holding his forehead and sweating profusely, soon spoke to Kim Juan shortly and strongly.
If you know something, say you don't.
No matter what words you hear, say you don't really know.
If you don't know well, say you actually don't know anything!
"Uncle, can you please speak so I can understand? Stop only saying what you know. Why don't you ever change? That's why you're a permanent department head..."
"Shh, shh! So, Juan, you shouldn't get involved in office politics!"
"...
Huh? Office politics?"
"They've been bombarding our side with calls these past few days, so it's obvious why they're calling you. It's because you practiced with Chunyong, Juan."
"No, why is Kim Chunyong suddenly coming up!"
The thoroughly planned but completely twisted departure of Logan by Director Shin, the power struggles among adults, and Kim Chunyong positioned as the eye of the typhoon amidst it all.
To Kim Juan, a trainee who knew none of this, everything his uncle said was nothing but absurd.
'Though I didn't really understand what he was talking about, I said I got it, but still... to think it was really about Kim Chunyong.'
Thanks to that, the moment Kim Juan had faced Director Shin's secretary still felt distant, like a dream.
"...
What are you curious about?"
"Yes. Which trainees Trainee Kim Chunyong was close with when he was at Queens, what kind of practice style he mainly preferred. Or his family relationships, things like that. Any trivial matter is fine."
"Um, for something like this, couldn't you just ask him directly..."
"There is also information that gains objectivity when heard through another person's mouth."
"Uh..."
"Besides, I have a feeling Trainee Kim Juan would organize it well."
Conviction was oozing from the secretary as he spoke like that.
As if someone had already fully informed him that Kim Juan disliked Kim Chunyong.
'They were basically asking me to tell them if Kim Chunyong had any dirt on him. I could tell what they wanted just by looking at their face when they said those things.'
Briefly recalling his conversation with the secretary, Kim Juan scrunched up his face and groaned.
"Goodness..."
Though he didn't know why the company was suddenly trying to mess with Kim Chunyong, from Kim Juan's standpoint, if he could send Kim Chunyong away completely, he couldn't have been more delighted.
Who would refuse being able to send away someone he hated, bound tightly by ill fate, without dirtying his own hands?
However, firmly embedded in Kim Juan's head were the words his uncle had drilled into him.
"Hmm, well. I don't really know?"
"...I heard the two of you practiced together for nearly three years."
"Ah, about that... we weren't really close! Look at his face. Isn't it too fierce? Ugh, I kind of dislike scary-looking things like how I look, you know."
"...Ahem. Then perhaps, other trainees who practiced with Trainee Kim Chunyong—"
"I really don't know anything. Other trainees who practiced with him? There were some. But they all gave up. You know. Those kinds of kids are everywhere."
"...I see."
"How would I remember each and every one of them? If they were ones who debuted, maybe."
"So you're saying you know absolutely nothing right now."
"Yeees, that's right. There's nothing more to tell you. May I go now? I'm going to take the subway back from here."
"...If we talk a bit more, something you know might come to mind. I'll give you a ride."
"And yet you kept glaring at me the whole fucking way here. Even if it'd be uncomfortable, taking the subway would've been a hundred times better."
Kim Juan clicked his tongue and began dragging his suitcase, moving his steps toward the trainee canning facility.
Kim Juan had a tendency to be selfish and trip over a stone while only looking an inch ahead, but he wasn't someone who didn't learn at all.
'...
Nothing good will come of making a fuss at Kim Chunyong right now.'
When he had ignored Kim Chunyong's warning and loosely run his mouth, completely losing the connection called Son Jaeha, he had definitely felt something.
'If you're going to act like a dog, you need to rise to a position befitting it. Not while you're a trainee like now. You can make Kim Chunyong get fucked then too.'
It wasn't entirely positive thinking, but anyway.
Just as Kim Juan vowed to rise to a higher position himself and placed his foot at the entrance of the trainee canning facility, "...Huh?"
Kim Juan discovered the back of someone heading slowly toward the emergency exit stairs and raised his eyebrows.
Broad shoulders, long legs.
And above all, the sharp eyes he had glimpsed for a moment.
"That bastard... why did he come back so early?"
Kim Chunyong, who had been the subject of conversation for the entire 30 minutes Kim Juan was coming to the trainee canning facility, was moving somewhere.
* * *
I watched Kim Juan's back as he grumbled and climbed the stairs toward the dorms after looking toward the emergency exit for a while.
After returning to the canning facility, I happened to spot Kim Juan coming back and followed him.
As a result, I could confirm one more fact that had been within the range of expectations.
The sedan Kim Juan had ridden in and gotten out of earlier was Director Shin's sedan, which I had seen in my previous life as well.
This was also information that added credibility to what Jaeha-hyung had said: "AG is asking the Queens side about me."
Right. They probably think something will come out if they ask a fellow trainee who practiced with me.
However, just because Kim Juan had been called in by Director Shin didn't mean anything would particularly change.
There was nothing to dig up in the first place.
'It's just that I've been misunderstood so much because of this impression, but I was a diligent trainee who only repeated school, practice room, and home.'
Kim Juan couldn't create an issue big enough to get me kicked off just because he disliked me.
Because the public focuses more on emotional events backed by objectivity.
"...Tch."
[But seriously, who wouldn't suspect him of school violence looking at that face?]
Recalling that past malicious comment, I let out a bitter smile.
At the time, AG had put out an article saying it was absolutely not true, but seeing them suspect me like this now meant they hadn't completely believed it either.
People should know that suspecting there must be something just by looking at someone's face is a very bad attitude.
Huh? They should know better.
"So, Chunyong? Why did you ask to see me separately? I came early because of you."
"Ah, sorry. Were you waiting?"
I hurriedly put on a smile toward the trainee standing before me and looking at me with troubled eyes, choosing my words.
The sedan with Kim Juan was just a sedan for now, and it was more urgent to execute the plan I had racked my brains over with X throughout the vacation.
First, before getting to the main point...
"Did you have a good vacation, Li Mingshen? I heard you spent it with Liu Wei."
Starting with greetings.
"The vacation. Uh..."
Li Mingshen, rolling his eyes this way and that, nodded reluctantly.
What that demeanor meant was obvious...
That it hadn't been a good vacation.
"Dàjiā hǎo (Hello), I am Li Mingshen. Please take care of me!"
Li Mingshen, a Chinese global trainee of
He was known only as a trainee who passed the AG Global audition together with Liu Wei, but in fact, the two were entangled in a somewhat more complicated way.
The same arts high school in the same region, and even the same comedy academy.
But it couldn't be said that they were very close like that. 'As expected. Then and now. Liu Wei has Li Mingshen completely under his thumb and is pushing him around. Li Mingshen is dissatisfied but can't say anything.'
There were several reasons why I had said there was a way to catch Liu Wei, but that it was tricky.
The fact that I needed to target Li Mingshen, who had almost no intersection with me like this.
And another was... because it would cause harm to someone, so it was something I had tried to avoid considering as much as possible.
"...
Why did you ask to see me? I don't think we're close. I don't really understand this situation."
Whether he read my subtle expression or not, Li Mingshen shot back sharply at me with the corners of his eyes sharpened.
Unlike with Liu Wei and Gao Yan, I clicked my tongue inwardly at Li Mingshen's flawlessly fluent vocabulary and nodded my head.
"I didn't mean to anger you. Still, if you felt bad about it, sorry."
"...No. I was a bit sharp too. Sorry, Chunyong."
After both sides had calmed down, I took a slight pause and struggled to pick out words that would be good to bring up.
"Li Mingshen, do you..."
Want to debut in Korea?
What eventually popped out was nothing if not straightforward, but anyway.
Perhaps my words were quite absurd, as Li Mingshen, with a dumbfounded face, repeated opening and closing his mouth several times before lashing out.
"...Is that what you want to ask right now? If not, why on earth would I have decided to appear on
"No, you didn't want to appear, but you had to because of Liu Wei. You definitely wanted the Chinese team being prepared in China."
At my point, Li Mingshen opened his eyes wide and stared at me. His pupils were filled with bewilderment.
"...H-how did you know?"
"Liu Wei doesn't like me very much. Enough to try to drop me from this survival show."
"......"
"If you think about it in connection with that, the answer comes quickly."
Though in truth, it was something I had heard at the club where I always drank before coming back.
"That Chinese guy who was on a survival show with Rex before, I heard he debuted in China."
"...Who? Liu Wei? Don't even bring him up."
"No. That sidekick. Li Mingshen, was it? The short one."
"Hey, what do you mean sidekick? You really have a way with words."
"No, it's not wrong though? Originally, his debut was confirmed at an AG China subsidiary agency, but he went on the survival show to play second fiddle to Liu Wei. Then he's a sidekick, what else."
"...He had it rough too."
Hearing my words, Li Mingshen held his temples and groaned for a moment, then soon began looking at me somewhat pitifully.
With an expression of looking at a kindred spirit, that is.
"...
I can't completely accept how you knew that fact. But the fact that you know remains unchanged."
So, what do you want to say to me?
Now to the main point.
"That's..."
I quickly swept my lips once and carefully raised each word to my mouth.
Li Mingshen's expression upon hearing my words was, well.
"...Will that work?"
There was no need to even say it.
* * *
Li Mingshen left his seat, and I briefly tidied my bangs as I chewed over what he had said.
"...If Liu Wei gets eliminated when the fact that I was bullied is revealed, I can go straight to China without needing to watch his back anymore, right? Because the investors who read the trends will completely withdraw their full support for Liu Wei."
"Yeah. It's similar."
"...I already knew my turn would come after he debuted anyway."
"But it takes a long time. Besides, the treatment you're receiving from Liu Wei is unfair. This is definitely to both our—"
"No, it won't work. You don't know anything."
"...What don't I know?"
"In China, there is something called guanxi (关系). A mutual benefit relationship. It's not just formed between me and Liu Wei. Our family, Liu Wei's family. This is a relationship where people even higher up are all entangled together."
"......."
"Our family is clearly benefiting from it. So no matter how much Liu Wei mistreats me, I cannot directly harm him." 'I'll pretend I didn't hear that. If you want to ask for my cooperation, you'll have to make it clear that I won't be exposed.'
"It's complicated, really. Because there's no such culture in Korea..."
I clicked my tongue and waved my hand around in the air.
In a situation where I was about to get a grip on something but hadn't, futility wrapped around me unpleasantly.
"If it turns out like this, in the end, the method of me doing it directly..."
"—is too sloppy."
What?
At the voice coming from above the stairs, I flinched my shoulders and turned my body around.
...I had brought only Li Mingshen here seeing that the other trainees hadn't properly returned yet, so who on earth?
"If you have a conversation in a place like this, it's natural that someone will see. Goodness, if it weren't me but someone else, it would definitely have been a disaster!"
Goodness, I'm the one who should be saying goodness.
"Uh..."
Unable to hide my fluster, I gaped my mouth and barely squeezed out a name.
"...Gao Yan."
You didn't need to appear here, man!
As if my confusion didn't matter at all, Gao Yan, who had come down the stairs in large strides, shouted non-stop.
"Yes. It's Gao Yan. I heard everything Hyung-nim said to Li Mingshen! But don't worry, Chunyong Hyung."
Soon arriving before me, Gao Yan crossed his arms with a thud like a drama protagonist and made his two eyes sparkle brightly.
And then.
"I can be of help to Hyung-nim."
He said something I had never expected.