Chapter 25: The Changing Room Incident

As if shaking off stray thoughts, he shook his head slightly and focused on the video again.

Unlike when Lee Chan-seo had fiercely criticized A.C.E’s live skills when Yoon Ji-heon performed ‘Saga’ during the agency evaluation, the live performance here was very stable.

Thanks to that, the stage concept, which could have seemed somewhat tacky at first glance, felt decent enough.

“They’re really good at live singing.”

As he muttered, leaving his impression of the now-finished video, the four people simultaneously turned their heads to look at him.

Ha Jin-woo glanced toward the camera, then moved his lips as if choosing his words before opening his mouth.

“Uh, yeah.

They are good.

But this stage is live AR.”

“Live AR?”

The only AR Jae-seo knew was augmented reality, and there was no way this stage was augmented reality….

“…What’s AR?”

“What?”

At his question, Jang Young-bin’s eyes went wide with surprise.

At the look that asked how he could not know that, Jae-seo felt embarrassed, wondering if it was common knowledge that he absolutely should know.

“AR is when the accompaniment and vocals are recorded together.

MR is when there’s only accompaniment.”

Ha Jin-woo, who had lightly hit Jang Young-bin’s shoulder as if telling him not to overdo it, answered instead.

Fortunately, it seemed to be industry knowledge, not general common knowledge.

“Live AR is when they mix in things like breath sounds in advance—basically, they make it sound like it’s being performed live.

They play that and lip-sync, pretending to sing live.”

Lee Woo-rim whispered quietly as if sharing a secret.

Jae-seo wondered why they would go to such lengths to pretend to sing live, but then recalled how he himself had thought the stage felt decent because they were good at live singing just moments ago, and promptly shut his mouth.

…It’s because of people like me that they use live AR or whatever it is.

“We’ve got all the choreography down!”

At Lee Chan-seo’s timely shout, he pushed all thoughts of AR and live AR out of his head.

Come to think of it, what did it matter to him whether others sang live or lip-synced?

Deciding to mind his own business and focus on doing his part well, he stood up.

They danced, then had lunch.

They danced again, then had dinner.

They danced some more, and before they knew it, the choreography was nearly complete.

With four people who could pick up choreography quickly and dance well, the teaching and learning time was short.

They decided to work on the details tomorrow and use the remaining time to practice singing.

As they all sat in a circle and were singing along to the accompaniment, a staff member called out to Yoon Ji-heon, their leader.

“We get two rooms per team.

They said we can use Room 201 and Room 202.”

It meant they had to move their belongings from the temporary rooms they used yesterday to the newly assigned ones.

“There are nine of us, so we need to split into four and five.

How should we divide?”

“Should we do odds and evens?”

“Let’s do that.”

At Lee Woo-rim’s suggestion, everyone nodded and extended their palms forward.

To the chant of “Odds and evens!” palms and backs of hands faced upward randomly, and Lee Woo-rim, who counted on behalf of everyone, let out a “Wow!” of admiration.

“It’s exactly 5 to 4!

I guess our teamwork is amazing.”

Ha Jin-woo, whose face said he just wanted to go in and rest rather than think about teamwork, laughed and vaguely agreed before getting to his point.

“Let’s have the backs of hands take Room 201 and palms take Room 202.

How about that?”

Seeing no one objected, they nodded and each headed to the temporary rooms they’d used yesterday.

With Chae Han-ul, who was being annoying asking why he wasn’t in the same room as hyung, hanging on his arm, he went to yesterday’s room and grabbed his bag.

Even when they reached the door of the new room, Chae Han-ul was still attached to his arm.

He sent Chae Han-ul into Room 201 first and entered Room 202 to find Jang Young-bin, Yeo Hyun-tae, Lee Chan-seo, and Lee Woo-rim already inside, organizing their belongings.

He put his single backpack, which didn’t really need organizing, into an empty cabinet and quickly gathered his things before leaving the room.

He planned to secure a spot in the shower room before it got crowded, wash up, and come back.

***

After showering leisurely in the nearly empty shower room, he came out to find the changing room already crowded.

He thought he had done well to hurry, but the moment he opened his locker, his body stiffened with embarrassment.

The underwear he was certain he had packed was nowhere to be seen.

As he was meaninglessly rummaging through the clothes left in his locker, he felt a warm hand on his bare shoulder.

The thought of “19+” flashed through his mind, and he reflexively flinched, turning around to find Yeo Hyun-tae standing before him.

And in his hand….

“You dropped this, so I brought it.

It’s what you need, right?”

His underwear was held there.

Seeing his underwear in someone else’s hand was quite embarrassing, but more than that, he felt relief and gratitude.

Overjoyed at escaping the misfortune of having to either wear wet underwear washed in the shower or go back to the room wearing only pants without underwear, a somewhat exaggerated expression of thanks burst out.

“Thank you so much, Hyun-tae.

I’ll remember you as my savior for life.”

Yeo Hyun-tae, whom he expected to just shake his head with his usual expressionless face, instead pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

What part of his words had been funny?

Whatever it was, if his savior smiled because of him, that was a good thing.

Smiling back, he reached for his underwear in Yeo Hyun-tae’s hand.

Thump.

With an ominous sound, his lower body felt airy.

Forcing his stiffened neck down, he saw the towel he had tightly wrapped around his waist lying on the floor.

Face probably pale as a ghost, he looked up to find Yeo Hyun-tae, who must have reflexively looked down at the sound of the falling towel, also raising his head, their eyes meeting.

“Ha, haha.”

He let out a laugh that sounded awkward to anyone, hurriedly picking up the towel.

Then, as he quickly tried to wrap it around his waist, the game’s mischief seemed to activate again—no matter how he moved his hands, the knot just wouldn’t tie.

Eventually, he just stood there, holding the towel roughly in place, frozen in an awkward posture.

“Well, I’ll be going then.”

Whether he was being considerate of Jae-seo’s discomfort or not, Yeo Hyun-tae spoke casually with an expression no different from usual and turned back to his locker.

Only after Yeo Hyun-tae disappeared from view did Jae-seo turn toward his own locker, quickly put on his underwear and clothes, and flee the changing room.

At least it was Hyun-tae—thank goodness.

From what I’ve seen of Hyun-tae’s personality so far, he’ll just let it slide without making a fuss.

…No, what exactly is “thank goodness” supposed to mean?

Considering what happened in front of the shower room last time, this incident was definitely getting saved to the gallery.

It’s not like we’re exchanging one-on-one… you-know-what public viewings….

But come to think of it, we’re both guys, and it’s a changing room—people might see each other naked sometimes, right?

Is this something to get so sensitive about?

No, that’s wrong.

I must never forget that this is a 19+ game.

Moreover, Yeo Hyun-tae’s favorability is quite high for some reason, so being sensitive is only natural.

Multiple selves popped up, and he clutched his noisy head before stomping his feet on the ground.

From this moment on, he decided to suspend all hopeful evaluations of the game “Please Take Care of My Idol.”

This was just a crazy, perverted game.

***

“…Jae-seo, what happened to you overnight?”

Yoon Ji-heon, entering the practice room, flinched at the sight of Jae-seo’s face and asked.

Ha Jin-woo, following behind Yoon Ji-heon, also widened his eyes and mouth the moment he met Jae-seo’s gaze, even stuttering his words.

“Your f-face, what’s wrong with it?”

Staring blankly at his haggard face reflected in the mirror attached to the practice room wall, he opened his mouth.

“I didn’t sleep well….”

“We wondered why you weren’t here this morning.

Have you been practicing here the whole time?”

“Yes.”

…It’s because every time I close my eyes, last night’s incident comes to mind, and I end up just kicking the damn blanket off, but that’s the reason.

Not just Yoon Ji-heon and Ha Jin-woo, but every team member who entered the practice room was startled and asked if he was okay.

Even Seo Jun-jae couldn’t hide his flustered expression, which showed just how serious his condition really was.

“Can you manage practice today like this?”

As he rubbed his stinging eyes from lack of sleep, Yoon Ji-heon asked with a voice full of concern.

Though it seemed the object of his concern was the practice, not Jae-seo himself.

“I’m fine.

My stamina is pretty decent, actually.”

“You don’t look fine at all right now?”

Ha Jin-woo, draping an arm over Jae-seo’s shoulder, turned him toward the mirror and continued.

“Right now, if you wore a robe, I’d believe you if you said you were the Grim Reaper.”

“…I’ll go to the bathroom and at least wash my face.”

He removed Ha Jin-woo’s arm from his shoulder and left the practice room.

Avoiding the second-floor bathroom that definitely had some unlucky energy flowing through it—water vein or whatever—he headed to the first floor.

When participants he passed on the way were not just surprised but even stepped back hesitantly at the sight of him, he quickened his pace, feeling embarrassed.

As soon as he entered the bathroom, he went straight to the sinks, turned the faucet all the way to the right, and plunged his head into the basin.

As cold water poured over his head, he felt his mind gradually clearing.

Only when his skin started tingling from the cold did he pull his head out and grab a huge wad of toilet paper to wipe the water dripping from his hair.

With his mind somewhat clearer, he looked up to see himself in the mirror looking much better than before.

It seemed the cause of his earlier unrecognizable appearance had been his dazed, unfocused eyes.