The Malicious Member Has Returned! Chapter 74
Even when Li Mingshen progressed faster than Liu Wei at art school. Even when the lead role in the first comedy play the school put on was snatched away by someone else.
Liu Wei's eyes were always cold.
Because if he just waited a little, Liu Wei would pull ahead again.
In the next class, Liu Wei progressed two levels faster. The play ultimately went to Liu Wei, who showed the better performance.
"Congratulations on getting the lead."
"……."
"Now you're… number one again."
Li Mingshen watched all of that from beside him.
There were people who supported and expected things from Liu Wei, and Liu Wei proved them right.
That was an unchanging principle, a law, in the world of Liu Wei and of Li Mingshen standing beside him.
But now, that was no longer the case. Ever since the moment he placed fourth in the
No, from the very moment he appeared on
"Trainee Liu Wei. It's good, but, hmm… could you make your gaze a bit sharper?"
"There, you need a sense of anxiety that feels kind of empty. Ah. It's a bit of a shame."
"Balance… let's readjust it."
'Besides, he even heard that kind of evaluation this time… he must not be in a good mood.'
Just as Li Mingshen was briefly recalling what Liu Wei had heard during the mid-evaluation of the fourth round competition.
"—Kuh!"
"Focus."
Liu Wei grabbed Li Mingshen's shoulder and shoved him hard against the wall of the emergency stairwell as he spoke.
The pupils of his eyes, which fans had dubbed the 'Ice Fairy' for their perpetual coldness, remained unchanged.
"…
Let go of me!"
When Li Mingshen shook off Liu Wei's arm, the two bodies separated with a thud.
Li Mingshen grabbed his throbbing shoulder and ground his teeth.
'…No matter what, I have no reason to be treated like this by Liu Wei.'
Just because he wanted to do well on stage once, just because he hadn't maintained the attitude he'd shown before, to act so unreasonably like this. 'Just what kind of friend in the world acts like this?'
There wasn't even any glue that could fix a crack in a relationship once it formed.
In a relationship where Li Mingshen had always been the one to fold halfway, the moment he expressed his will strongly for the first time, the limits of the twisted relationship became clear.
"……."
In that situation, Liu Wei let out a small "Ha, ha" laugh, brushed off his slightly crumpled collar with a few pats, and began to enunciate each word.
Li Mingshen, you….
"I already know you're planning to stick with Gim Chunyong."
"…
What?"
Li Mingshen couldn't hide his bewilderment.
What Liu Wei was saying right now. That is….
'He's not annoyed because I'm trying to do well on stage, but because he thinks I'm trying to do something to him together with Chunyong?'
Before Li Mingshen could even offer an explanation, Liu Wei took out his phone from his pocket and tapped on it.
Following that action came a fluent Mandarin pronunciation that could have been used as a textbook.
"I still thought of the time we spent together and tried to accommodate you."
"Wait, Liu Wei. There's something we need to straighten out. You're misunderstanding—"
"No, I have no intention of listening even if you speak now. You should have said that right after the mid-evaluation, when I called you."
Liu Wei pushed Li Mingshen's shoulder once more and cut him off with a cold voice.
"The reason you can act like that is probably because after
If that's gone, your petty little thoughts will become laughable too.
"……."
Li Mingshen had to hold his breath for a moment to understand what Liu Wei had said.
He's… right now….
What did he just say?
However, before that thought could even finish, words burst from his mouth.
"…Bastard."
Once the first words left his mouth, there was nothing to hold back anymore.
Li Mingshen grabbed the collar of Liu Wei, who was much bigger than him, and shook him.
"Are you kidding me? Of all things, how could you bring that up?"
Of course, it was unclear whether Liu Wei could influence the plans for the Zhonghua Group that Li Mingshen was slated to join.
Because it was impossible to know how much the investors watching his back cared, or how much they listened to Liu Wei.
But he had to look at Liu Wei's intention in bringing up those words. It was an extremely selfish intention: 'If you go against my mood, I might destroy your goal.'
Regardless of whether Li Mingshen had actually harmed Liu Wei, he had brought up those words just to crush Li Mingshen.
That was a direct denial of everything Li Mingshen had endured while thinking of his family in China, and furthermore, of the ties between the two households.
"Tell me right now that you just said it without thinking."
Li Mingshen growled and clenched his teeth.
"Say you were swayed by emotion, that you got impatient. It was a mistake. Tell me that."
"……."
But Liu Wei remained the same.
"…
Ha, haha."
Li Mingshen slowly released his grip on Liu Wei's collar and laughed emptily.
'All this time, I thought Liu Wei and I were unbreakable friends, no matter what anyone thought or what happened.'
"…
It's nothing special, is it?"
This relationship of ours.
"If I could have acted however I wanted like this, I would have quit cleaning up your messes a long time ago."
"…
You."
Liu Wei's eyebrows shot up greatly, but now Li Mingshen didn't care.
Li Mingshen's eyes blazed fiercely as he shoved Liu Wei's shoulder with a thud, just as Liu Wei had done to him before, and enunciated each word.
"I'll do as you said, okay?"
I've always been like that.
Though Li Mingshen's face was smiling broadly as he said that, the muscles beneath his jaw were tense.
That's how people standing at the boundary between youth and young adulthood were.
No matter how much they tried to act rationally with their heads, just once.
Once they started to falter, no one knew where they would end up.
Should it be seen as Liu Wei's fatal mistake, acting from a self-centered position without expecting the other party could do the same?
"…
I'm not done talking yet."
"So?"
"What?"
"I don't think there's much need to listen anymore."
Li Mingshen passed Liu Wei, who was standing in front of him, and strode away.
As his pace quickened, the many moments he had lost because of Liu Wei became clearer and clearer.
The effort he had made to avoid standing out to the art academy teachers.
The times he had tried to make others understand Liu Wei at his parents' request.
And furthermore, his decision to appear on
"Son of a bitch…."
Bang! Bang!
Unlike Li Mingshen's usual calm and gentle disposition as he assessed situations, a fist filled with strength hammered on a dorm room door.
"- Eek! What is it, a ghost? An oni? It's all because Logan was talking about ghosts! They say those things come when you talk about them!"
"- Ryota, that's too much. I mean, maybe since this isn't Korea it's not an oni… a different Korean ghost?"
"- Kuaaaargh…"
"- Gao Yan, how can you sleep so soundly at a time like this! This is too much, too much! We're all going to die like this!"
"- No, try to calm down. Logan, you should hand Ryota a doll or something. I'll go out and look."
A night at the idol cannery facility where some slept, some chattered, and others moved nimbly for some plan.
"Who the hell is knocking on the door so hard… What. Li Mingshen?"
"—Chunyong."
The very person who had been fighting to keep his sleepy eyes open for 'some plan' greeted Li Mingshen, and Li Mingshen immediately grabbed his collar and whispered in his ear.
"That proposal you made."
I'll do it.
"Now it doesn't matter whether I'm exposed or not. I'm just going to do it."
Even if you say no now,
"I'm going to do it…."
"Suddenly what… no, wait, this first."
Gim Chunyong, who had been scratching his cheek in confusion, stopped what he was about to say when he saw Li Mingshen's eyes mixed with injustice and rage.
Then he tapped Li Mingshen's hand gripping his collar to loosen it and brought up something else.
"…
Okay. Let's do it together."
If you want to do it, you should.
* * *
Right after the excited Li Mingshen returned to his room.
"Phew…."
I entered the bathroom of the multinational flatmate room where everyone was already asleep, carefully closed the door, and let out a sigh.
Man, I must have been caught strangely on the hallway camera.
It was a scene that wouldn't be strange if it aired right away with captions like [Conflict between trainees on the same team?!].
PD Ju Cheolyeong, who was probably determined to make
"It's a good thing I created a scene of comforting him shortly after…."
Judging by Li Mingshen's face, it seemed that hadn't resolved everything, though.
"I suppose we just need to make that trainee develop expectations for Trainee Gim Chunyong."
To be honest, it was hard to say I had completely followed Yeonu's advice.
Because I merely imprinted my existence beside Li Mingshen.
So this situation now is….
"…
Seems Liu Wei provoked Li Mingshen. No matter what he did."
I think it's better not to know how he did it.
"Hmm…."
I swallowed the groan escaping through my teeth and scrolled through the screenshots in the gallery containing Liu Wei's weaknesses.
If I added to that what Li Mingshen, whose change of heart was still fresh, would help with, then Liu Wei….
Various thoughts rose in my head.
About whether I was qualified to do that, or whether Liu Wei was someone who deserved this.
Ping!
- X: So what, hahaha. Is now the time for you to be picky about that?
Whether X was in a good mood after a long time, he excitedly fired messages at me.
Ping! Ping!
- X: Man, Liu Wei really is something. How does he have such bad luck with people? Even his own friend is sticking to you, tsk tsk.
- X: Well, if you think about what he did to you, the word karmabeam is right, but -3-
- X: How is it! The [Fortune Cookie B] skill I sent you is nice, right?
- X: Today it said something like , didn't it?
- X: I like the Fortune Cookie the best among skills… first of all, the status bar display is just too cute!!
- X: Of course I only gave it to you because you decided to take Liu Wei down, haha.
Though the words and emoticons used made him seem quite cheerful, if you slowly unpacked the content, the words were extremely brutal.
- X: Good, good. Let's just keep going like this.
- X: Anyway, no matter how you get there, you have to debut, right?! Right?!
- X: Do your best, Rex Trash, yeah?
- X: I know it must be complicated in all sorts of ways! Yeah! It's not like I don't know, okay?
- X: If you only try to play the good guy, when will you ever debut and atone?
- X: I'm right, aren't I? Haha.
Moreover, the end was ultimately plastered with sentences that circled back and grated on me again.
I ran my finger over the screen where that message had appeared and slowly sent a reply.
- Gim Chunyong: You're right.
- X: …???
Perhaps because X hadn't expected words of agreement from me, the screen froze just like that, unlike his usual chatty self.
But this time, I agreed with X's words, so there was nothing more to say.
From the beginning, I had never been a good guy.
What kind of good guy shamelessly keeps on living after sending his own family off like that?
While causing endless inconvenience to the precious people who tried to help him.
"……."
I couldn't step back anymore now.
I carefully exited the bathroom, grabbed the blanket sprawled on my bed, and pulled it over my head.
Today, and after tomorrow passes, would be the day of the fourth round competition.
That day would be the day I caught Liu Wei.
The blanket that should have been warm felt strangely cold.