Chapter 83: Between the Two of Them

“Everyone, come in!”

As they arrived at the dorm and rang the bell, Lee Woo-rim flung the door wide open as if he had been waiting, and popped out from inside.

Following Woo-rim, who acted like the owner just because he had arrived a few tens of minutes earlier and was introducing the place, they stepped inside.

“This door is the bathroom, and this is the first room.”

Somehow, he ended up following Woo-rim’s tour around the house.

Since nine members plus two male managers, a total of eleven people, would be living together, the large house had four rooms attached around a central living room and kitchen.

“The first room is for the managers, and we can divide the remaining three among ourselves.”

At Lee Chan-seo’s words, he thought of the other three rooms besides the first one.

The room second closest to the front door was the smallest, with two single bunk beds.

The other two rooms were past the living room and kitchen.

The medium-sized room had one bunk bed and one single bed, and was the only room with a balcony.

The largest room had one bunk bed and two single beds, with an attached bathroom.

“How should we choose the rooms and roommates?”

“Ladder game?”

At Woo-rim’s suggestion, everyone reacted with “Again?”, but since no better method came to mind, they ended up doing the ladder game once more.

“Should we do the order by rankings again this time?”

When Lee Chan-seo, who was setting up the ladder game, asked, everyone agreed.

Chan-seo entered everyone’s names into slots 1 through 9 and ran the game.

***

“We have to leave in 20 minutes, so just organize roughly and come out.”

At Yoon Ji-heon’s words, he said okay and watched the other members scatter to gather their belongings.

Then he let out a deep sigh.

“Let’s go, Jae-seo.”

He turned his head to see Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae standing side by side, as if waiting for him.

How is it that whenever something gets drawn, it has to be this combination…

He wondered if this too was the game’s mischief, and with a reasonable suspicion, he forced his leaden feet to move.

Following the two, who finally started walking ahead, he entered the medium-sized room.

Seeing the two large, wide beds lined up as if to fill the not-so-large space, he suddenly felt as if his breath was being choked off.

“How should we arrange the beds?”

At Seo Jun-jae’s question, he hurriedly spoke.

“I’ll take the top bunk.”

He remembered resolving never to use the top bunk again after using it a few times during the show’s camp.

It was because getting up and down was such a hassle.

Especially when he was tired from practice, he had often thought about just sleeping on the floor.

However, the awkwardness and discomfort of sharing a room with these two immediately overcame the hassle.

What if he woke up on the bottom bunk and made eye contact with one of them using the other bed…?

Even imagining it was embarrassing and awful.

It seemed better to endure the hassle by staying on the top bunk as much as possible, minimizing coming down.

…They wouldn’t object, would they?

Fortunately, both Jun-jae and Hyun-tae nodded as if understanding.

After successfully securing the top bunk, as he was organizing his things, a quite loud music sound began to play from outside.

“Kids, stop and come out!”

Yoon Ji-heon, without turning off the alarm he had set for time-check, went around to each room, gathering them.

He threw his half-unpacked bag into the closet and left the room with Jun-jae and Hyun-tae.

About a 20-minute drive from the dorm brought them to a nondescript gray building.

Following the manager up to the second floor, there was a small nameplate-like sign next to the door that read ‘Randy Kim’.

As they opened the door and entered, a man with a familiar yet unfamiliar face, sitting at a table in the center of the room, waved.

“Composer-nim, long time no see!”

The man was Randy Kim, the composer of ‘Me and Me’, the signal song for Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2, and ‘ALL Time’, the final contest song.

Most members had either participated in the ‘Me and Me’ recording after receiving an A grade in the final evaluation, or participated in the final contest with ‘ALL Time’.

Unlike them, he had only seen him on TV and never met him in person, so he awkwardly bowed his head as he entered.

“We’re short on time, so we’ll start recording right away with ‘Me and Me’.

First, Ji-heon.”

As Yoon Ji-heon followed Randy Kim into the recording booth, the other members one by one sat at the table or on the sofa, warming up their voices or practicing their parts.

He also pulled out a chair from the table and sat down.

Recently, through the company, he had received guide audio files for the songs to be included in NUAVE’s debut album and lyric sheets with the parts divided.

As he was taking out the lyric sheet for ‘Me and Me’ from the holder he had brought from home since early morning, the chair next to him was suddenly pulled back with a noisy scrape.

“Jae-seo hyeong…”

Soon, Chae Han-ul sat down and, with a pitiful expression like a wet puppy, leaned his head against his shoulder as if clinging to him.

Having just recently learned through Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae just what a favorability of over 50% actually meant, Han-ul’s actions, with his favorability nearing 90%, felt much more uncomfortable than before.

Thinking he needed to be clear for Han-ul’s own sake, he tried to pull his arm away.

But then he saw Han-ul’s shoulders, pitifully hunched, and they overlapped with the image of Park Seo-hu who had been so deflated in the car earlier.

In the end, his heart softened again.

“…Are you okay?”

To leave no room for doubt in Han-ul’s heart, he needed to be somewhat cold.

But no matter how he thought about it, this didn’t seem like the time.

A mere seventeen-year-old was struggling because of a fake rumor, and he was going to act coldly, saying he needed to draw a line…

He realized he was just trying to rationalize his own desire to feel at ease quickly with the fancy-sounding excuse of ‘for the other person’s sake’.

“Jae-seo hyung, just hypothetically…”

Han-ul, his head buried in his shoulder, started in a weak mutter, then closed his mouth again.

‘There are still plenty of people saying we’re the problem.’

At that moment, he suddenly remembered what Park Seo-hu had said when he heard the exposé was proven completely false.

He suspected Han-ul might also be depressed because of similar reactions.

If so, the hypothetical that might follow Han-ul’s ‘if’ would probably be something like ‘what if it’s true that our team has a problem?’

“If it were true that our team has a problem, I’d be the first one to blame?”

Anticipating what Han-ul was going to say, he borrowed the same hypothetical.

Han-ul, who had been clinging to him, abruptly lifted his head and raised his voice.

“That’s not true!”

Then he began listing reasons why there was nothing wrong with him.

“Hyung, you!

You sing well, your voice is good, you dance well, you’re smart!

And, and you’re handsome….”

After a string of compliments that were almost embarrassing, Han-ul suddenly started stuttering, his face turning bright red, and then he trailed off.

Seeing that, he finally understood why Han-ul’s favorability had risen so quickly.

…This kid really has low standards.

The reason he hit 50% favorability in less than a month of meeting him was because of his face.

Anyway, for this matter, he felt fortunate that Han-ul’s judgment was clouded.

“People say I’m a PD pick.

They say the PD gave me lots of screentime.”

“Ah, that’s not true!”

Han-ul, pounding his chest in frustration, spoke again with a firm voice.

“Hyung, you’re skilled and, you’re, you’re handsome, so no matter which PD it was, they would have given you lots of screentime!”

Listening repeatedly to Han-ul’s flattering, rose-tinted version of himself, he felt so embarrassed that goosebumps started rising.

At this point, he hoped the kid would understand.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

“See?”

“…Huh?”

“You’re certain I’m not a PD pick.

You have your own clear reasons for thinking that.

But the point is, outside, I hear the same accusations.”

He hadn’t specifically looked for reactions, but that was probably the case.

People who wanted to badmouth Park Seo-hu and Chae Han-ul wouldn’t spare him either.

The three of them were surely being lumped together and criticized.

No, even among them, he was probably criticized the most.

“The fact that I got a lot of screentime is also a matter of interpretation.

There are people who think like you, and there are people who think the PD deliberately pushed me.”

“That’s not…” Han-ul muttered in a dissatisfied voice, but he ignored him and continued.