Chapter 25: Yoo Jemin’s Business Gay Ambition

Famous Woohyung Fan @famouswoohyungfan

Jung Woohyung, are you alive or dead?

If you’re alive, I’m coming to kill you.

If you’re dead, then R.I.P., you bastard.

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Ever since the PPP greeting controversy, Jung Woohyung had gone back to his usual routine of barely showing up on social media once a week.

Some fans hoped Woohyung would consistently upload videos, but like the unfilial idol he was, he thoroughly crushed those expectations.

To defend Woohyung from his perspective, his schedule was packed, and he was simply too busy.

Though if it were Woohyung himself, he’d probably make some ridiculous excuse like, “I never communicated much to begin with, so why act like this is news now?”

“We haven’t even received our payout yet, so our dorm is still a semi-basement… Won’t people tear us apart if this gets revealed?”

That was right.

True to their status as a small, trashy agency, no matter how huge of a hit they landed, there was no such thing as a bonus.

Still, the members were able to endure it because they had received a promise that if they held out until next month, they would be moved to a decent place.

“Will we get single rooms there?”

“Eunhan, the fact that we’re not fitting five people in one room right now is a miracle in itself.”

The staff were scheduled to visit the dorm to shoot their reality show.

They were going to install cameras all over the place, but the members were already feeling self-conscious about revealing their living conditions.

Once the semi-basement dorm was aired, the CEO would probably eat so much backlash that his lifespan would be extended by thirty years.

“Jemin-hyung, what are you doing?”

“Ah, nothing!”

Jemin had been looking at something with a serious expression before hastily shoving his phone into his pocket.

‘The view counts on the fancams are way too different.’

What Jemin had been watching was the individual member fancams uploaded by the music show.

As mentioned before, Jemin was obsessed with performance stats.

In a way, it was only natural to be sensitive about metrics directly tied to his livelihood.

However, if even fans lost their minds over stats, how could the person involved feel any different?

[Mad Music 4ever Woohyung Solo Fancam] Views: 730K

[Mad Music 4ever Jemin Solo Fancam] Views: 200K

Of course, hitting 200,000 views on a video that hadn’t even been up for a week was an impressive feat in itself.

The problem was that another member of the same group recorded an even more astonishing number.

Even if a person tried not to compare, being right next to each other made comparison inevitable.

‘Even the group fancam has Jung Woohyung as the thumbnail.’

Since it was the first music show fancam for a group riding a viral climb up the charts, it naturally drew immense attention.

And all the benefits were swallowed up by Woohyung, the main dancer and center.

Woohyung was the type of guy who devoured every opportunity that came his way and soaked up every bit of push he received.

[4ever 5colors]

The title of their first standalone variety show was 4ever 5colors.

Summarizing what they heard from the production team during the meeting, it went like this.

The five members take turns being the main star of each episode.

The remaining four members perform the content chosen by that episode’s star, who then evaluates them.

Even after returning to the dorm, none of them revealed what content they had pitched.

“Please act naturally. We’ll start by filming you waking up in the morning.”

They asked them to act naturally while throwing them straight into an absurdly unnatural situation.

Jemin felt pressured by the fact that cameras were installed in every corner of the dorm.

The cue sign was given, and like clockwork, everyone pretended to be asleep.

Good Morning-!

Along with an old-fashioned alarm, Yunbin rubbed his eyes and woke up.

“Guys, hyungs! Wake up!”

“Haaawm~”

Eunhan yawned deeply, stretching out his already lanky body.

“What an artificial morning.”

Woohyung muttered.

That was right.

4ever’s mornings didn’t look like this.

This was a sort of fantasy.

Normally, Yunbin would get up like a zombie to turn off that alarm around the fourth time it rang.

Until then, James and Eunhan wouldn’t even be awake, Woohyung would be awake but refuse to turn off the alarm, and Jemin would be the only one up, washing up by himself.

That was their real daily routine.

“This is our dorm~ We placed the plushies gifted by Eternity on our beds. Fans gave me a lot of teddy bears. I never heard anything like that before my debut, but I guess I kind of resemble a bear.”

Yunbin spoke while shoving a teddy bear toward the camera.

“This is the room shared by James-hyung, me, and Eunhan, and across from us is the room Woohyung and Jemin-hyung share.”

“Look at how swollen Eunhan’s eyes are~”

James said, staring at Eunhan’s puffy eyes.

Even though he had been repeatedly told not to eat late-night snacks because of filming, he had apparently sneaked a cup noodle anyway.

“Jemin~ You’re here?”

Jemin stepped into the members’ room to secure his screen time.

Jemin flinched for a split second upon seeing Eunhan’s bare face.

Is it really okay for that face to go on broadcast?

To salvage Eunhan’s messy appearance, Jemin clapped his hands and exaggerated his reactions.

“Heol! Seo Eunhan is so cute! He looks like a newborn countryside puppy that can’t even open its eyes yet.”

Jemin acted as if he wanted to take a bite out of Eunhan, completely unable to contain himself over how cute he was.

Woohyung, who walked in right behind him, stared at Jemin with a look that blatantly asked what he was doing, completely unable to comprehend his behavior.

“You mean a stray mutt?”

“Hey! Calling a person poop!”

“I said a mutt, not dog poop.”

Yunbin knocked on the wall while smiling only with his mouth.

It was a signal telling Woohyung and Jemin to stop arguing.

“Shall we talk over a simple breakfast?”

“Is Yunbin-hyung making breakfast for us?”

“Then I’ll take a simple pork bone soup~”

“James-hyung, who eats pork bone soup for a simple breakfast?”

In the end, breakfast was replaced by salads provided through product placement.

All five of them squeezed together around a tiny dinner table.

Of all things, the sponsored product just had to be salad.

Having eaten it non-stop during promotions to manage their weight, they were sick to death of it.

It felt like if they threw up now, grass would spill out of their throats.

Even so, eating it with relish.

That was the mindset of a true professional.

“Eunhan, do you want to swap and try mine?”

“Huh?”

“Try this one too.”

Eunhan simply assumed Jemin’s over-the-top kindness was because the cameras were rolling.

So he obediently ate the cherry tomato that Jemin personally hand-fed him.

Only Woohyung, sitting across from them, stared at the two with a suspicious gaze.

“What is it?”

“What’s what?”

“…Never mind.”

Woohyung popped a cherry tomato into his mouth with a grimace.

“Thank you for the food!”

“What do you think we should do today?”

The first episode was centered around Yunbin’s content.

Jemin pretended to think for a moment before clapping his hands as if a great idea had struck him.

“If it’s Yunbin, isn’t it going to be some kind of sport? Right?”

Yunbin had always possessed great athletic ability and a keen interest in keeping fit.

He regularly ate chicken breast for dinner and consumed protein powder as part of his routine.

Quite a few fans disliked male idols bulking up, but Yunbin was an exception.

Many fans rooted for Yunbin, begging him not to lose even a single gram of those bursting chest muscles.

“Well. I wouldn’t know?”

“Judging by your reaction, it definitely is.”

Perhaps because most of the members felt that choreography practice was workout enough, they didn’t do any separate exercises.

Whatever program Yunbin had planned, they were going to have to brace themselves.

“Now that we’ve eaten, shall we change and head out?”

Yunbin pulled sponsored tracksuits from the closet—having grabbed them at some point—and handed one out to each member.

The colors varied by member, and Jemin was satisfied because his was a vibrant red that suited his personal color palette well.

“We’re not going to be showing off our abs or anything, right?”

“How can you show something you don’t have, Eunhan?”

Filming didn’t stop while they traveled to the booked gym.

A small camera was installed inside the car as well.

As soon as Jemin sat down, he shoved his face close to the camera.

“I’m already terrified thinking about what kind of scary workout content Yunbin has prepared. How about you, Eunhan-gun? Are you confident?”

Jemin went out of his way to ask Eunhan, who was sitting behind him.

Eunhan poked his head out and nodded.

“So cute~”

Woohyung feigned picking his ear.

It seemed something else was far more unbearable and terrifying to him than Yunbin’s fitness content.

「Control your facial expression if you don’t want to get evil edited.」

Jemin diligently typed out a text message out of the camera’s line of sight and sent it to Woohyung.

Woohyung checked Jemin’s text on his phone and pulled a reluctant face.

“4ever’s 5colors! Today’s color is orange, the color of health!”

“Wow!”

They arrived at the gym.

Standing side by side in five primary-colored tracksuits, they were practically an eyesore.

“Out of the four, we will award this palette-shaped badge to the single member who embodies the color of health the best~”

Yunbin handled hosting duties surprisingly well despite having little broadcasting experience.

“What’s good about collecting a lot of badges?”

“It’ll feel great, but more importantly, I hear there’s a massive prize!”

“I’m not really that much of a materialistic person, though.”

“James-hyung! What are you talking about when your eyes are glittering like that right now?”

The atmosphere at the start of filming was decent.

Even without prior planning, the banter among the members clicked well, and the flow was smooth.

“At any rate, before performing the missions, we’re going to do a basic physical fitness test.”

“Just hearing that makes my cartilage feel like it’s grinding away!”

“Eunhan-gun~ A twenty-year-old shouldn’t be saying things like that already.”

The opening remarks drew to a close.

Seeing the staff busily laying down mats, it was clear they were going to do something physically demanding.

Rather than pushing himself hard, Jemin focused more on how to create moments that would make viewers fall in love with him.

“For the first basic fitness test, we will see how many sit-ups you can do in one minute. First, James-hyung, please get ready.”

“Ah, I’m confident about this.”

Yunbin held his feet and blew the whistle.

James-hyung was an unexpectedly hilarious variety show talent.

Instead of James-hyung’s upper body lifting up for the sit-ups, Yunbin—who was holding James-hyung’s legs—kept bouncing up and down instead.

“No, put strength into your stomach, not your legs!”

The other members were too busy laughing to function.

Eunhan laughed so hard he even teared up.

In the end, James spent the whole minute merely tossing Yunbin around, successfully completing just one single sit-up at the very end.

“Haa~ It worked fine at home. The water veins here must be bad.”

“Do they care about water veins in America too?”

“Next up, Jemin-hyung!”

Jemin thought of this as his golden opportunity.

Woohyung caught the momentary glint in Jemin’s eyes.

He had a bad feeling about this.

When Yunbin tried to hold Jemin’s legs, Jemin refused.

“After seeing what happened earlier, I can’t trust Yunbin.”

“Hey! That’s unfair!”

As far as Jemin was concerned, the areas where he could take top rank in this group were fan service and member chemistry.

Jemin turned his head, looked at Eunhan, and spoke.

“Eunhan-ah, hold my feet for me.”

The moment Woohyung heard Jemin’s nasal, cutesy tone, he stared at him with absolute disgust.

‘Is he insane?’

Unlike Woohyung who was frozen in shock, Eunhan didn’t seem to notice anything strange, walking right over to sit cross-legged directly on top of Jemin’s feet.

“Like this?”

“Tighter…”

It had begun.

Yoo Jemin’s business gay performance, blinded by his ambition to jump to the team’s top tier.