The Toxic Member Has Returned! Episode 78
Kim Chunyong moved his steps out of the restroom, maintaining an expression of forced calm.
Beneath it, however, his heart was beating like mad.[@GLAEMFEK (photo) (photo)
Attaching the DM contents… Later on, I think something felt off, so they blocked me? But they told me everything I was actually curious about; now they've set their Outgram account to private and gone silent.][⎿Ah, everyone who needs to know knows now lololol][⎿⎿Liu Wei supporters at the open broadcast are just RIP lol][What a shame. I brought pizza, only to find my house on fire.]
Thanks to Gao Shumin, who had been waiting for others to ask about him, starting the snowball rolling, SNS was already in chaos even though Kim Chunyong hadn't posted anything further.[Do you want to deactivate your account? 30 days after deactivation, all information will be deleted, and login will become impossible. Yes / No][Thank you. I look forward to seeing you again later.]
The 'Chewed-Up Receipt' account that had first lit the spark had finished its role and was deleted.
What remained now was seeing how far the fire Kim Chunyong had set toward Liu Wei would spread.'The part where Li Mingshen said he would step in still hasn't taken its first step, but anyway, it's a decent start.'Now, rumors had begun circulating not only on SNS but on other communities as well, painting the same picture as when Kim Chunyong's rumor had first started.'…
Actually, it's not on the same level. Mine was a fake rumor, and Liu Wei's is real.'As emotions from that time surfaced and Kim Chunyong clenched his fist, once again, a *ppoong!* notification rang out from his pocket.
- X: Good, good. Then now, all that remains is seeing what happens to Liu Wei and how he acts because of that post you uploaded!
- X: Good, good. Your stage today was great, so if you just ride the broadcast wave well, you might barely~barely return to the 6th or 7th place range by the live broadcast, don't you think?!
- X: Well, to match the goal of "debuting through
- X: You doing well is a good thing for me too
- X: Kim Chunyong? Cheer up?
- X: We haven't even properly started yet LOLLLLEven though it was teasing disguised as X's support, Kim Chunyong didn't have the strength to laugh.
The exhaustion immediately after the stage, and the tension of knowing that a problem he had worried about for so long had finally taken the first step toward resolution.
All of it was rushing in at once, clumping together into one.'Nothing is over until it's over.'Whether Liu Wei was taken care of, or his own debut.
From the moment Kim Chunyong had boarded it, the express train of atonement had never once stopped.
"Hurk!"
In that instant, someone firmly grabbed the arm of Kim Chunyong, who had tripped and was staggering.
"…
Trainee Kim Chunyong, are you okay?"
"Ah, yes! I'm fine. Haha, was the stage too tough?"
Kim Chunyong naturally brushed away the cold sweat running down his nape and gave a word of thanks to the one who had caught him.
As was fitting for a passage used only by cast, staff, and officials, the one holding Kim Chunyong's arm was none other than Main Writer I Hyeonjeong.
Perhaps because she had been in the scorching studio, I Hyeonjeong, slightly flushed, looked at Kim Chunyong with an inscrutable expression.
"…
Congratulations."
It was a meaningful remark—one that made him wonder what she was congratulating him for.
"…
Yes?"
"Ah, ah."
Perhaps it was something she had blurted out without thinking; at the awkward question Kim Chunyong threw, I Hyeonjeong covered her mouth once and quickly smoothed things over.
"No. Um. You did well on stage, didn't you? The dye job also got a good reaction."
"Ah, yes. …
T-that's right?"
Song provider Jeong Yeonu, who had appeared as a special judge, had specifically pointed out his hair color, causing a huge cheer to erupt at the time.
"The stage, well, I… I like it all. Is this what a composer feels? Haha. Since I've always only made songs for our team. And Trainee Kim Chunyong?"
"…
Yes, sunbae-nim!"
"The dye looks good. But why red, of all colors?"
"I picked that for him. Since I'm the visual mentor."
"…
Aah. So Mentor Mun Yunha chose it."
"You don't like it? That's a problem. Then that would mean your styling vision has narrowed, Yeonu-ssi…."
"No, it's good. I don't think you need to say any more, haha."
Well. Whether the cheers were because of the hair color, or because of Mun Yunha's mouth, which spouted strange remarks every time she opened it and had suffered countless edits throughout
"……."
Thinking of another man seated in the special judges' section, I Hyeonjeong naturally averted her gaze from Kim Chunyong.
"Trainee Kim Chunyong, it would be best to return to the waiting room before it's too late. The other trainees' stages will all be ending soon. You have to go back up, right?"
"Ah… yes."
At I Hyeonjeong's words, which naturally changed the subject, Kim Chunyong paused briefly and then slowly moved his steps toward the waiting room.
Watching his tall retreating figure, I Hyeonjeong's eyes remained strangely intent.
"Chief PD Ju, why did you suddenly call CEO Do Jaechan? Hajun was making quite a fuss."
"Well, do you think I got scolded by the Head PD for a whole week for nothing? It's because I was trying to get everything I wanted."
"No, what does that have to do with CEO Do Jaechan…."
"Writer I."'In the program I'm making, nothing good will happen for Director Sin.'"……."
Words that Ju Cheoryeong had spat out, biting off each syllable, furious to the point of viciousness.
And Liu Wei of Team 'Submersion', who had just finished his stage and stood before the special judges.'The trainees' Outgram comment sections were all blocked after Trainee Kim Chunyong's incident, so it's quiet now, but… the post that went up on SNS a little while ago. That was really….'I Hyeonjeong had come to see Kim Chunyong, not as a trainee who looked too sharp and scary, but as a young student who still needed protection.'The PD must have done it. Trainee Kim Chunyong must have been shocked after seeing it by chance, because the same thing that happened to him occurred.'That was right.
She couldn't even imagine that the direction from which Liu Wei's fiancée issue had erupted was Kim Chunyong.
From the start, the common judgment was, "How could a trainee busy filming a survival show with no backing set off such a huge issue?"
She carefully moved her steps back toward the stage and let out a groan.'…
Now I understand why the PD went out of his way to call CEO Do Jaechan to the set.'Although the first button she had fastened was in the wrong direction, anyway.'He's trying to fix the debut members.'Ultimately, she had guessed correctly what PD Ju Cheoryeong's reason for calling CEO Do Jaechan to the set was, so it couldn't be seen as completely wrong.* * *The 4th competition filming site of
The lineup of song providers was exceptional, and thanks to the pressure of performing a senior artist's song, the trainees showed more than their usual abilities.
Was it thanks to such intensity?[1st place
– Laki 2nd place
– Jeong Yeonu
– I Seryeong
– Pyo Jeyeol
Even right after the results came out, no trainee appeared with a dark expression or burst into tears.
"It's a shame, it's a shame, but! Still, I'm really happy that we were able to perform with such a great song!"
"I've always been a fan of Sunbae I Seryeong… I want to remember this until I die. Thank you so much!"
In some trainees' comments, a nuance hinting that the end was near wafted out.
I won't be able to debut here.
But I will do my best until the very end.
All that awaited after this stage was the live broadcast.
Because the experience of being able to put on a properly prepared stage before that had grown them by another level.
"……."
However, amidst it all, not a single word. No, there was also a trainee to whom Choi Gaon, who had been informed of the situation by the production crew, deliberately didn't even hand the microphone.
"Did you see that Liu Wei guy's face? They say he looked at his phone right before the stage. He looked like he knew everything."
Right at that moment, as Do Jaechan was recalling that time, Ju Cheoryeong held out a coffee with a faint smile.
Ju Cheoryeong had lost a lot of weight while filming
'Whew, what a vicious man. He's overjoyed that his survival show contestant has a fiancée. Is that why he can make survival shows every time?'
Do Jaechan, who had secretly clicked his tongue lightly at such a Ju Cheoryeong, took a sip of the vending machine coffee Ju Cheoryeong handed him and slowly opened his mouth.
"…I saw. He was composed for someone who already knows. And he did well on stage."
"Well, I suppose he has to be at that level to think of appearing on a survival show without a care despite being engaged. For me, the ratings go up, and I get to stick it to Director Sin, so I'm happy. But this isn't the end."
"…If the guy's ranking just falls like this, isn't that enough? The picture has been drawn appropriately now."
Do Jaechan had also thought about what Ju Cheoryeong said.
There was only one reason why Director Sin was dirtying his hands and desperately trying to debut Liu Wei.
The investment they had received under the pretext of debuting Liu Wei—who, among AG Global's Chinese trainees currently, was the one they were pushing and had the most talent and potential.
But if the very proposition of 'talent and potential' collapsed from the start, the story changed.'If it turns out like this, we also gain leverage. If we had known he had a fiancée, we wouldn't have even considered pushing Liu Wei in the first place.'When Do Jaechan asked his secretary to look into the fiancée's family, she turned out to be the daughter of one of the investors from the very beginning.'You orchestrated this from the beginning, so do we have any reason to keep our promise? From here, we just renegotiate the deal. Like, debuting as the Chinese group we were thinking of from the start.'Director Sin Giho, well.
Since it was the picture he had been preparing from the start, his feet must be on fire trying to somehow fix the situation.
From Do Jaechan's position, he could stand on equal footing with the investors instead, which was rather advantageous.
As Do Jaechan's face brightened slightly while lost in thought, Ju Cheoryeong snapped his fingers with a *tak* and spoke in a low voice.
"No, CEO. It would be a problem if you already thought everything would resolve so smoothly. If that were the case, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to bring you to the Music Days headquarters."
"……."
Do Jaechan slowly leaned back in his chair as if telling Ju Cheoryeong to continue.
In the office, from which the assistant director, writer, and Do Jaechan's secretary had withdrawn, only the two men's voices quietly echoed.
"As I told you, it hasn't ended yet, has it? In reality, only one live broadcast stage remains, but there's still a mission. There's also one more filming where they talk about their impressions and resolutions. How should I put it… so-called narrative-selling?"
"I know that sort of thing. But what can Liu Wei sell there? He has a fiancée. This is a fact, isn't it? Unlike the previous rumor about Trainee Kim Chunyong."
"Well… you remember that too."
"He is our company's trainee; how could I not know? Anyway, moving on. Right now, Director Sin is desperately blocking articles, but how long can that last? I just have to wait."
"What if Liu Wei still debuts even after all that?"
"…What?"
Do Jaechan was bewildered, and Ju Cheoryeong's eyes lit up.
His face was like that of a carnivore that had finally caught the ankle of its prey.
Ju Cheoryeong was someone who, unlike Do Jaechan, didn't think long-term and knew very well how to handle somewhat hot-tempered people who didn't listen.
"Liu Wei's rank is currently 4th, right? Unless other trainees show dramatic results, the drop in ranking won't be that large. Probably… 6th?"
At the mention of 6th place, Do Jaechan's jaw muscles twitched.
"6th place is the debut zone. You can control that much…."
"Ah, you want me to rig the rankings? Well, it's as easy as going out for bread, so if you just put in some snacks, I suppose I could do it."
"No, that's not what I—"
In that instant, Ju Cheoryeong leaned toward Do Jaechan, biting off each word.
"Fortunately, there exists a better method than that."
A way to make it impossible for Liu Wei to debut, and to make Director Sin change his mind and turn toward CEO Do Jaechan.
Do Jaechan, seeing Ju Cheoryeong's blazing gaze, downed his now nearly cold coffee in one gulp and rolled his eyes.
"…Let's hear what it is first."
Ju Cheoryeong sprang up from his seat and flashed a wicked grin, waving his idea notebook toward Do Jaechan.
"If a trainee has disappointed him. Then…."
Isn't it a matter of creating a trainee he can love more?
The fact that red was faintly visible on the color chart poking out from the notebook's gap was something that needed no further explanation.