Chapter 67: Tears, Laughter, and Farewells

3. NUAVE

“I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all the viewers who have given their generous love and support to ‘Please Take Care of My Idol’ Season 2, and offer my final farewell!”

Son Chae-i, who had walked to the center of the protruding stage, opened her mouth with a brighter smile than usual.

“Show must go on!”

With Son Chae-i’s final ment, all schedules for Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2 came to an end.

After being thrown into this game world, he had finally crossed the finish line of a race he had been running non-stop for over five months.

And it was in a form he never expected: 5th place, the debut group.

“Hey, guys.”

The live broadcast was over, but the cameras were still rolling, and the audience continued to send shouts of support and comfort towards the participants.

As he stood there, feeling nothing but dazed, Yoon Ji-heon, the first to move, gathered them from the middle of the stairs.

“Congratulations, everyone.

Let’s do well from now on, us.”

As Yoon Ji-heon smiled with his familiar face, a hint of red appeared around his eyes.

Lee Woo-rim, who had been unable to stop his tears since the ranking announcement, burst out crying even more and buried himself in Yoon Ji-heon’s arms.

The other seven gathered around the two, one by one, holding each other.

In the midst of this, sounds of people swallowing tears could be heard, apparently having triggered their tear ducts again.

“Kids, don’t cry!”

“Don’t cry!

Don’t cry!

Don’t cry!”

As the backs huddled together began to shake, one shout from the audience grew louder as more voices joined in.

Yoon Ji-heon, lightly patting the backs of those within reach, was the first to pull back and speak.

“Alright, that’s enough.

Let’s greet everyone.”

Finally snapping out of it, they all raised their heads, turned, and bowed and waved towards various parts of the audience.

Even as they descended the stairs with the chairs marking each rank and walked towards the main stage, they waved to every gaze they met with gratitude, taking twice as long as it should have to reach the main stage.

“Jae-seo hyung!”

As MC Son Chae-i, the trainers, the final 20 participants, and even the eliminated participants who had come to watch the live broadcast were all gathered and chatting, Na Woo-jae raised his hand and approached him.

“Congratulations!

I knew you’d make it!”

Behind Na Woo-jae, who put on a playfully proud face, the members who had practiced and performed ‘Beautiful Hate’ together came over, nodding in agreement, and offered their congratulations one by one.

Rohan, who had been crying profusely during the last ranking ceremony but was now smiling brightly with clear pronunciation to offer his congratulations, suddenly had a hand placed on top of his head.

“What?

You’re only congratulating Jae-seo?”

It was Kwak Jun-sung, who had also performed in the ‘Beautiful Hate’ stage.

Shaking his head, Jun-sung rubbed Rohan’s head as he repeatedly said congratulations.

At that moment, two fragments of memory suddenly flashed through his mind.

One was of Kwak Jun-sung questioning Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae for patting his head.

The other was of Kwak Jun-sung looking at him with Chae Han-ul as if he were trash doing something inappropriate with a minor.

And recalling those two memories, he unconsciously made the same expression Kwak Jun-sung had then.

Meeting his gaze, Kwak Jun-sung’s face momentarily showed fluster, and he quickly withdrew his hand, apparently thinking the same thing.

“Sim Jae-seo!”

As he was listening to the stories of the long-unseen ‘Beautiful Hate’ team members, ignoring each other’s glances, someone called his name loudly and slapped his back with a familiar hand.

Letting out an involuntary “Ugh,” he bent over, then straightened up and turned around.

Ha Jin-woo, with his hand still raised after hitting his back, was standing there with Jang Young-bin.

Lee Woo-rim, who always seemed attached to Jin-woo’s left arm like a soulmate, was still sniffling.

“Jae-seo, congratulations on your debut.”

Jang Young-bin spoke with a smile on his face, looking thoroughly relieved.

As he thanked Young-bin and they hugged, Ha Jin-woo, wearing his familiar playful expression, made an exaggerated gesture of wiping tears.

“Ah, Sim Jae-seo, who once was called an AI in the beginning, is leaving our embrace and growing up like this.

My emotions are a mix of deep emotion and great disappointment.”

“Wah, that’s right.

When he was with us, he turned an ion beverage CF into an antifreeze CF….”

Lee Woo-rim, who hadn’t stopped crying for a moment since his rank was announced, quickly picked up on Ha Jin-woo’s joke, even while his sobs made his breath wheeze.

It was a joke he had become very familiar with, having heard it repeatedly since being on the ‘July Snow’ team, after the ‘A Letter’ and ‘Beautiful Hate’ contest stages, and even during ‘Wanna be your star’ practice.

But doing it while crying was both absurd and actually a little funny.

“Anyway, Jin-woo, this guy was a shame.”

At Jang Young-bin’s words, Lee Woo-rim started to tear up again, as if still sad.

Ha Jin-woo, glancing at him with a troubled expression, let out a short sigh.

“At the end, I thought I was going to lose my mind.”

Ha Jin-woo, talking about the moment he was in the so-called ‘four-way split’ screen, where four candidate participants from 9th to 12th place are shown to announce the final successful candidate in 9th place, wore a bitter expression for a moment, then quickly erased it.

“At least the lineup was so strong that even the false hope was short-lived, so that’s something.”

“Well, I guess so,” he nodded, understanding immediately.

Jang Young-bin was tackled by Ha Jin-woo, who was laughing with a carefree face even as he cursed him out.

…The problem was Lee Woo-rim standing next to him, still sniffling with a lingering expression.

“I could have, huh-huh, debuted with hyung….”

“Hey, if you say that, what about Seo-hu?”

At Ha Jin-woo’s scolding, pretending to be stern, Lee Woo-rim mumbled, “No, of course, Seo-hu hyung is great too…” and then pouted, looking disappointed.

“Without Jin-woo hyung, who am I going to team up with to tease Jae-seo hyung now?”

…What?

It seemed he was grumbling, using him as an excuse for his disappointment and regret at not being able to be with Ha Jin-woo, whom he was closer with than anyone.

But ultimately, it meant that the main target of their teasing was him, which didn’t make him feel particularly good.

Moreover, seeing Ha Jin-woo’s genuinely sorry expression at Woo-rim’s words made it worse.

“Come to think of it, everyone else seems pretty boring.”

“What did you say?”

At the sudden question, he turned his head to find the rest of the ‘July Snow’ team members, including Yoon Ji-heon, had gathered around them.

“Ah, I mean, everyone is so serious, it’s a compliment!”

Whether it was true or not, it wasn’t such a bad thing, but having been caught gossiping, Ha Jin-woo awkwardly made a poor excuse.

Pushing past Jin-woo’s side, Chae Han-ul squeezed through and stuck close to him.

“Jae-seo hyeong….”

Having cried as much as Woo-rim, his eyes were now puffy and red, which, as a close hyung, was pitiful.

But as ‘Sim Jae-seo’, the protagonist of this crazy perverted psycho game, it wasn’t.

Now that he was debuting with him, he had to decide how to deal with Chae Han-ul.

Chae Han-ul likes him.

Probably including romantic feelings.

Of course, Han-ul was still a long way from turning 19, so he thought maybe his feelings would naturally cool down by then.

Besides, even though it was obvious, he hadn’t been directly confessed to, so it seemed ridiculous to draw a line first.

They were going to be in the same team for the next few years, and he wasn’t keen on making things awkward by acting prematurely.

The only thing that worried him a little was a tiny, lingering discomfort: ‘What if, even after three years, Chae Han-ul’s feelings don’t change?’

He had decided to accept this crazy perverted psycho game to some extent, but as a partner, Chae Han-ul was a bit, no, a lot much.

As a perfectly normal 27-year-old adult, he couldn’t view a 17-year-old as a romantic interest.

Even if Han-ul became an adult in three years, it would probably be the same.

In his memory, Chae Han-ul would always remain 17.

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