Chapter 31: Standing in the Middle

“Oh, Jun-jae did?”

“Ah, and Hyun-tae and Chan-seo too.”

“Wow, you guys could just be trainers instead of me.”

At Eum Yu-sol’s joking remark, Seo Jun-jae responded with his characteristic relaxed tone, saying thank you.

Jae-seo squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of that voice.

Once he’d registered it as strange, he kept getting drawn to it.

“The pop in the dance break—that wasn’t in the original song, you guys changed that, right?”

Fortunately, Eum Yu-sol didn’t address Seo Jun-jae further and instead asked everyone.

For a question like this, Yoon Ji-heon, who’d taken on the leader role, would probably answer.

“Yes, we kept the original moves but tried to change the feel to our own style.”

At Yoon Ji-heon’s answer, Eum Yu-sol nodded slowly with a satisfied expression.

“That’s why it has much more impact.

Good change.”

“Thank you!”

Joking that with four people who were so good, he had nothing to do, Eum Yu-sol laughed and turned his head to look for the remaining members.

He soon stopped and sharpened his eyes again.

“Woo-rim, your timing keeps falling slightly behind.

When Woo-rim is center for the chorus, who are the two people right behind him?”

Eum Yu-sol had Lee Chan-seo and Ha Jin-woo, who raised their hands at his question, stand behind Lee Woo-rim in formation and made them perform the chorus choreography.

Then at some point, he shouted stop and froze all three.

“Look now.”

Following where Eum Yu-sol pointed with the pen in his hand, they saw in the mirror that Lee Woo-rim’s arm was positioned lower than Lee Chan-seo’s or Ha Jin-woo’s.

“Chorus choreography is linear, so if your timing’s off, it shows a lot.

Plus, you were singing while dancing just now, so you fell even further behind than earlier.

Woo-rim, when you practice choreography, you’d better keep singing live.”

“Ah, yes!

Understood!”

Before Lee Woo-rim’s turn was even finished, Jae-seo felt Chae Han-ul, standing to his left, tense up nervously.

It made sense—Chae Han-ul was the only one left.

“This team’s center is Han-ul, right?”

And it was the center role, considered the most important position in Please Take Care of My Idol, so he’d be even more nervous.

“Hmm, how did Han-ul become center?”

“All team members chose Han-ul as the member who best fits the song’s image.

His facial expressions on stage are also the most outstanding.”

While Yoon Ji-heon was answering, Chae Han-ul’s face gradually turned pale, as if he’d interpreted Eum Yu-sol’s question as “How dare you take on the center role?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Jae-seo reached out and took Chae Han-ul’s hand.

He’d been feeling a bit petty and childish after having two dance teachers snatched away earlier, but that was that, and feeling sorry for someone was separate.

He wrapped his hand around the slightly trembling one and patted the back of it with his thumb to reassure him.

Soon, he felt the trembling subside through their joined hands.

Thinking it was probably okay now, he tried to let go, but the hand that had been obediently held suddenly changed position and grabbed his back.

He could pull his hand away if he used force, but that would mean shaking it off in full view of everyone.

Doing that suddenly in front of a trainer actively teaching didn’t make sense, and Chae Han-ul’s tension didn’t seem to have fully eased yet, so he decided to stay like this a little longer.

“Hmm, it suits you.

Actually, looking just at your combination, ‘July Snow’ is a bit… too soft, isn’t it?”

Saying this, he subtly glanced toward Yoon Ji-heon and Yeo Hyun-tae.

Come to think of it, while most of their team didn’t suit it, those two especially didn’t.

Based on looks alone, the phrase “wolves in sheep’s clothing” fit them perfectly.

“As you said, Han-ul’s expressions are the most fitting and good.”

“Th-thank you!”

Contrary to Chae Han-ul’s expectations, compliments about suiting the role followed.

However, Eum Yu-sol’s expression as he said this wasn’t very good.

“The problem is only your expressions.

Your dance doesn’t show.”

At the criticism that followed, Jae-seo felt Chae Han-ul’s grip on his hand tighten.

“I definitely understand why you’re center, but the camera doesn’t just shoot from the chest up, right.

If you’re going to be center, you need to dance properly too.

Right now your movements are too vague.

After the first verse, when Han-ul is center, everyone get in formation.”

As they quickly formed up, Eum Yu-sol tilted his head as if telling them to dance.

They started dancing to Yoon Ji-heon’s count, and soon the stop was called during the move where they raised both elbows diagonally.

Everyone’s eyes simultaneously turned to the mirror.

“Look at the angle of your left and right arms now.

Only yours, Han-ul, is narrower.

That’s why your movements look vague.”

When Han-ul answered in a somewhat deflated voice, “Sorry,” Eum Yu-sol’s voice softened, perhaps finding the sight pitiful.

“Of course, you can ease up a bit to match the song’s mood, but that doesn’t mean you slack off, right?

You still need to articulate the movements precisely.”

“Yes, understood!”

At Chae Han-ul’s somewhat more spirited answer, Eum Yu-sol gestured in reply and then, as if pondering something, lowered his head slightly and clicked his pen slowly.

Soon, apparently having organized his thoughts, he lifted his head and opened his mouth.

“Jun-jae, Jae-seo—I think you two are fine without further supervision, so help Han-ul.

Jae-seo, work with Chan-seo to help Woo-rim with his timing.

Young-bin, Ji-heon’s been looking after you, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Nodding largely with a satisfied expression, saying to continue that way, Eum Yu-sol gathered and rolled up the paper in his hand, then rose from his chair.

“Alright, let’s really dance now.”

***

They passed the official practice end time of 9 PM and only finished around 2 AM, finally returning to the dorm.

Quickly gathering his things and heading to the shower room, he saw only Yoon Ji-heon and Jang Young-bin.

Since full-scale contest preparations began, all teams practiced until late at night, so shower times had long since become staggered by team.

He took off his sweat-soaked training clothes, put them in the changing room laundry bin, hesitated briefly in front of his locker, then grabbed new underwear and headed to the shower room.

He could untie the towel knot, but they couldn’t forcibly pull down his underwear, right?

After showering, he put on the damp-from-moisture underwear and came out to the changing room.

Seeing this, Ha Jin-woo and Lee Woo-rim teased him, asking what was so embarrassing that he had to put on underwear inside before coming out.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but at least he’d made it safely back to the room without exposing himself to anyone, so he didn’t regret it.

Lying in bed, he closed his eyes, then immediately opened them again and picked up his phone.

The conversation during breakfast came to mind.

It was all over social media?

Like your autographs, photos, eyewitness accounts.

He turned his phone brightness down as low as possible, tapped the internet icon, and typed his name into the search bar.

As he slowly began scrolling, various posts containing his name appeared in a continuous stream.

At the top were mostly articles related to the Music Up&Down ‘Me and Me’ stage, the production presentation for Please Take Care of My Idol, and the first broadcast.

Scrolling further down, posts that seemed to be from communities also caught his eye one by one.

He started tapping and reading each post.

Ha Jin-woo and Jang Young-bin had said it might be better not to look than to see bad reactions, but most posts were positive, so he read through to the comments.

There were occasional malicious comments, but most people liked him and supported his debut.

Reading these posts and comments, he felt strange.

Complete strangers, people with no connection to him, were spending their time to raise his ranking, hoping he’d do well, hoping he wouldn’t get hurt.

What kind of heart was this?

He placed his hand over his left chest, which had started pounding loudly, and took a deep breath.

It felt really, very peculiar.

***

“Hello, we’re the jack-of-all-trades of the ‘July Snow’ team, Ha Jin-woo.”

“And the cutie, Lee Woo-rim!”

Ha Jin-woo and Lee Woo-rim, who’d been called out by staff during self-practice, came in carrying a camera.

They stood side by side at the practice room entrance and started shouting loudly at the camera.

“Today, we Ha-Woo brothers are filming our team’s self-cam.”

“We’ll do our best to show viewers lots of new sides of our team members!”

Lee Woo-rim looked around the practice room and thrust the camera toward Seo Jun-jae and Chae Han-ul, who were practicing at the far left.

At their fussing, asking for a greeting, the quiet practice room instantly became noisy.

As Seo Jun-jae and Chae Han-ul waved at the camera, Lee Woo-rim opened his mouth as if waiting.

“Well, it was Jun-jae hyung who picked us, right.

Now that we’ve practiced together, are you satisfied with our team?”

The tone felt somewhat unnatural, as if the question might have been suggested by staff when they were called out earlier.

“Aside from Woo-rim not listening, I’m very satisfied with everything.”

“Ah, Jun-jae hyung!

When did I ever?”

Protesting where there was a more obedient younger brother, Lee Woo-rim even pretended to cry at the camera.

Seo Jun-jae said it was a joke and naturally smoothed things over.

It was clearly to ease Lee Woo-rim’s awkward tension by teasing him on purpose.