Chapter 18: A Surprise Intervention and Drinks at the Dorm

On the way back to the dorm after the pictorial interview, the members fell asleep one by one, likely exhausted.

On the other hand, Jemin, lost in thought, was leaning against the car window quietly looking at the scenery outside.

‘Maybe because I came in last, I really don’t know much about the members.’

Thinking like that made him feel like an isolated island.

However, thinking about it once more, he figured it was probably the same for the other members too.

The members wouldn’t know Jemin well either, and perhaps there were many things they didn’t know about each other as well.

Except for Yunbin, everyone had debuted at high speed without even spending a year as a trainee at Q2P.

On top of that, he heard that even during that short period, several people repeatedly joined and left the debut group.

This world, where competitors had to be recognized as collaborators in an instant, felt a bit cruel.

‘It would have been impossible in the first place to feel instant closeness in a group formed like that.’

In fact, Jemin had been too busy focusing solely on his own debut and success.

Looking back, he realized he had only thought about surpassing the members’ popularity, even though they were business partners and a second family who would go together for 7 years.

“Done crying?”

The person who woke Jemin from such deep thought was an unexpected figure.

Hearing a rustling sound beside him, Jemin turned around.

Woohyung was taking out some book and flipping through it.

“I guess you’re worrying about me now?”

Jemin wondered why on earth Jung Woohyung was worrying about him.

Woohyung answered with his eyes fixed on the book without even looking at Jemin.

“Crying earlier was all an act, right? It was unsightly.”

Of course.

Jemin flared up with anger looking at Woohyung poking at him.

It was true that it was a calculated behavior to build an image that triggered protective instincts.

“If you hate me, just leave me alone. Why do you keep picking at me?”

“I don’t think I ever said openly that I hate you.”

Woohyung glanced at Jemin, then twirled his long index finger around as he spoke.

“Though I might have phrased it a bit indirectly.”

“To be honest, you want to bend your pride a bit now, but because of your self-esteem, you keep refusing to call me hyung, right?”

As if it wasn’t even worth answering, Woohyung turned his gaze back to the book.

When Jemin craned his neck to look, it was a philosophy and humanities book.

He was so obnoxious.

If Jung Woohyung had ignored him while reading a light novel instead, it wouldn’t have been this annoying.

“Woohyung-ah.”

As expected, there was no answer.

Even so, Jemin remained steadfast.

“You can stop now and call me hyung.”

At Jemin’s attitude, speaking as if he had been preventing him from calling him hyung all this time, Woohyung snorted.

Like a crack in an iceberg, a crevasse formed in Jemin’s pride.

“We barely have anything to talk about, do I really need to address you?”

“Hey, you talk to me the most.”

“Do I talk to you because I want to? You’re the one who keeps poking a quiet person and making me talk.”

“The one who started talking earlier was you?”

At the growing voices of Woohyung and Jemin, the closed eyes of the sleeping members twitched.

“According to my scenario, you should have grabbed me by the collar and thrown a punch back when we were trainees, getting yourself kicked out of the trainee group.”

“Is that how you sent several competitors packing?”

“At least I never tried to compete with you.”

Their eyes, already big, opened wide enough to pop out.

The way they were snapping at each other face-to-face was right on the verge of fighting like dogs.

Don’t they say a shrimp’s back gets broken in a whale fight?

Three shrimps squirmed and sat up.

“Manager-hyung is driving right now….”

Yunbin rubbed his half-open eyes and broke up the fight.

Since it was a daily occurrence, the manager didn’t even care and turned the steering wheel calmly.

“You two fighting again?”

“If you’re going to be like that, change seats or change rooms. Isn’t it ridiculous that neither of you asks us to swap first because of your pride?”

The seats in the car were drawn by lots, and when Woohyung and Jemin were matched as partners, everyone walked on eggshells.

Yunbin asked the two, “Should I swap seats for you?” but putting on airs of pride, both took the stance of “If you’re going to leave, you leave.”

In the end, no one swapped seats with Yunbin, and thus the seating was set.

It was the same for the dorm.

At this rate, it felt like the two were fated, so when Eunhan said they should try to get along, Woohyung and Jemin had glared at Eunhan at the same time.

“Let’s hear it. Why the bullshit all of a sudden?”

“It was ridiculous seeing you cry. That’s the reason. Was that garbage fan service too?”

“Squeezing out tear juice is better than a guy who keeps his mouth tightly shut after saying just a few words during precious interview time.”

“I’m the dumbass for thinking I could learn something from a guy like this.”

Even with Yunbin and Eunhan’s mediation, the fight didn’t subside.

Eventually, even James, who rarely woke up once he fell asleep, opened his eyes and sat up.

“Enough! Are we not even a team?”

This was the first time James-hyung had gotten this angry since the time someone put too much hot sauce on his pizza.

James-hyung pulling rank and enforcing discipline?

James-hyung had always been so positive and optimistic that it made one doubt if he was really from California, but he was human too, so there were times he got angry.

“I’m sorry.”

“Enduring it has its limits once or twice. That’s enough. Both of you talk at the dorm.”

Jemin read James-hyung’s mood.

The atmosphere inside the car rapidly cooled down.

It was quiet, but he felt even more uncomfortable than when they were raising their voices and fighting earlier.

‘It’s because of you.’

Jemin glared at Woohyung and mouthed the words.

Even though Woohyung clearly knew what Jemin was saying, he shrugged his shoulders.

It felt like it meant “So what?”, so anger surged within him.

Woohyung went a step further and made a quiet-down gesture toward Jemin—using James-hyung as an excuse, no less.

“I’m going to go cool off for a bit.”

Whether he was thoroughly mad or not, James was the first to get out of the car as soon as they arrived at the dorm.

No one could stop James as he walked off somewhere.

Watching his receding back, Eunhan stomped his feet nervously.

“Isn’t James-hyung going off to smoke a cigarette because he’s mad?”

“He shouldn’t get photographed while smoking….”

In the midst of that, Jemin was anxious thinking James might get caught in a photo smoking.

Since he was an adult, he could smoke cigarettes, but it was great fodder for haters.

Considering how the cough drop James-hyung shoved into his shirt pocket on the way to work last time was mistaken for a cigarette, Jemin’s worry wasn’t just a baseless fear.

“First, go into the dorm and reconcile, you two. And apologize to James-hyung.”

Yunbin spoke, standing between Woohyung and Jemin.

“I didn’t fight, though.”

At Woohyung’s brazen attitude, not only Yunbin but also Jemin was flabbergasted.

At those words, when Jemin acted as if he were about to pounce on Woohyung, Yunbin hurriedly blocked him with his body.

“Then was what you talked with me earlier a diss rap?”

“It was just a slight debate arising from differing values.”

As if enduring it because Yunbin held him back, Jemin stepped back.

In truth, because Yunbin was in the middle, he just pretended to be angry once.

If Yunbin hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have had the slightest thought of physically attacking. It was a kind of show.

“Honestly, you know Jemin-hyung has tolerated a lot from you all this time, right?”

“He didn’t tolerate anything with me.”

Bickering, they entered the dorm.

Since it was a semi-basement, it really felt like entering a dungeon.

Even though they sprayed air freshener quite a bit, it felt like a musty smell lingered.

It was a slightly tight size for five people to live in.

Gathered together in a living room that didn’t even look like a living room, it felt completely packed.

That was why whenever they returned to the dorm, everyone used to head straight into their rooms.

Even then, since it was a double room, Jemin had to enter the room with Woohyung anyway.

“At any rate, when James-hyung comes back, at least pretend to have reconciled.”

“…….”

Whether Woohyung agreed with Yunbin’s words or not, he didn’t raise an objection.

Before long, the sound of pressing the door lock passcode was heard as James was about to enter.

“Hyung, earlier we….”

“If you’re sorry, carry this.”

In James’s two hands, black plastic bags were held.

Without knowing what was inside, the handles of the black plastic bags were stretched long, indicating heavy contents.

“…What is this?”

Woohyung and Jemin each took one bag brought by James.

Meanwhile, Eunhan and Yunbin held back their laughter as they set up a small folding table in the living room.

When Woohyung opened the black plastic bag, several bottles of beer and soju were inside.

“Surprised, right? Scared, right?”

James said, acting restless and playful unlike his big physique.

At the fact that James-hyung wasn’t actually angry, Jemin let out a sigh of relief.

“It was a hidden camera~”

“Since you two fight so much, I talked with the hyungs beforehand that if you fight one more time, we should have you drink alcohol and clear the air frankly.”

Only then did Jemin remember that Yunbin had previously told him that he would arrange a setting once.

“Uh, but isn’t Eunhan a minor?”

“I’m twenty!”

“Whoa… Seo Eunhan, you’re already twenty?”

Perhaps because Yunbin first saw Eunhan when he was a 1st year in high school, he seemed unable to believe the fact that he became an adult this year.

Looking at Yunbin covering his mouth, Eunhan held his stomach and laughed.

“Can everyone handle their drink a bit?”

Come to think of it, up until now they had only drunk things like coke with pizza; the members had never drunk alcohol together.

First off, as soon as Jemin joined and the debut group was finalized, prohibition had started to manage body fat percentages—that was the biggest reason.

“I’m no joke.”

“Usually, guys who talk like this go first.”

James said, shaking his head at Eunhan’s grand declaration.

“Let’s drink only inside the dorm, and since we’re rookies and idols, let’s make sure we never drink outside.”

“Jemin-hyung is policing us again.”

“There’s someone whose drinking habits don’t seem like they’d be gentle, so we have to be careful.”

Jemin said while staring way too directly at Woohyung.

Woohyung pointed his finger at himself, mouth-shaping “Me?”, then shook his head.

“I don’t have bad drinking habits.”

“You probably thought you didn’t. You’ll find out today.”

“We set the stage for you to reconcile, not to fight over drinks, you know right?”

“Ah, I know~”

The sound of filling soju rang out refreshingly.

Not in soju glasses, but in glass cups.

“If I have a drink with Jung Woohyung, I feel like we’ll get properly close?”

Jemin said, handing a glass to Woohyung.

Woohyung accepted the glass with an displeased smile on his absurd face.

“Not at all.”