Chapter 42
I put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘ankle pain.’ As my words clearly rang out, everyone around me turned their heads toward Park Young-Ho and me. Park Young-Ho scowled, chewed his lower lip, and glared at me. It was a look of complete embarrassment, and it surprised me that it was possible for people’s emotions to look so transparent on their faces.
While I was thinking this, the rest of my members approached me.
“What do you mean by that, Tae-Yoon?” Yeon-Hoon asked.
“From what I saw, Mr. Young-Ho’s ankle seems to be shaking. It seems he’s in a lot of pain every time he moves because he’s breaking out in cold sweats behind his neck,” I said, slightly exaggerating the symptoms I saw.
Park Young-Ho was not the type to stay still and counterattacked. “I don’t feel any pain. What are you talking about?” He said in a slightly hostile tone.
From Park Young-Ho’s perspective, I might be just picking a fight with him, but before I could reply, Yeon-Hoon interrupted our conversation and asked, “Mr. Young-Ho, are you sure you’re okay?”
“After listening to Tae-Yoon, I think the reason why you stumbled on the stairs earlier was because of the pain.”
“Would today’s shooting be okay?”
From behind, Do-Seung and Woon also came to support me.
“Don’t get hurt~ Our bodies are our greatest assets~”
After Dong-Jun also joined, Park Young-Ho closed his mouth. Since five members of another group were suddenly worrying about him, it became difficult for him to pretend that he was not in pain. The situation became quite funny. Five Siren members were worried about Park Young-Ho, and four Only One members were blankly staring at us. People passing by might think that Park Young-ho was one of our members.
Usually, when other members from another team started to worry like this, wasn’t it normal for the members involved to step up and intervene? However, when I stared at the Only One members’ faces, everyone except Kang Hyun-Sung’s, was bright red as if they were going to explode.
‘Judging by their reaction, it didn’t seem like they knew.’ They really seemed as if they hadn’t known that Park Young-Ho was in pain. How uninterested and uncaring were they about each other that they didn’t notice he was in pain? I could tell just by looking at him, walking with a bit of interest. He was pretending to walk naturally, but there was bound to be a difference in an injured person’s stride compared to a healthy person.
“I’m really fine. There’s just a little bit of pain left, but it’s not at a level where I can’t shoot.” Park Young-Ho suddenly started making excuses to the Only One members.
‘No, just rest if you’re in pain.’ I looked at Park Young-Ho with a baffled expression, but I soon wiped this expression off my face and said, “Mr. Young-Ho, can I touch your ankle for a second?”
“What?”
“Please excuse me.” I grabbed Park Young-Ho’s ankle and turned it to the side. If it were a person with no problem with their ankle, they wouldn’t show much of a reaction. However...
“Hmph!” Park Young-Ho lost his balance and stumbled and grabbed the steel structure next to him in a hurry.
I said, “Your symptoms seem quite severe.”
I was amazed at this point. I wondered what made Park Young-Ho so anxious and fervent like this. If it hurt this much, he could have taken the day off, but he forced himself to come out to shoot even while enduring pain. At this point, no one was forcing him to shoot, but he was doing this of his own volition. I could roughly predict the atmosphere of the team.
‘It must be really suffocating.’ I stared at Only One. They all had their mouths sealed shut and said nothing.
As soon as I was about to say something more, Kang Hyun-Sung asked, “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Sorry?” Park Young-Ho acted surprised, as if he didn’t expect Kang Hyun-Sung to ask this question.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” He spoke with a low voice. Although his expression seemed gentle, it felt strangely cold. All the Only One members stiffened, and I now realized why the atmosphere of their group was so bad.
‘They must feel uncomfortable around Kang Hyun-Sung.’ Usually, a strong-spirited member was needed to lead the group, match the choreography, and unite everyone well during a group’s promotion period. However, Kang Hyun-Sung’s presence was so strong that it overwhelmed the other members. In a way, it was natural that the power balance was skewed toward one person; Kang Hyun-Sung was the overwhelmingly popular member, and they were all riding on his coattails.
‘But even then, he should lighten up the mood. It’s too much.’ Even if the power balance in his group was skewed, he could have stepped forward and created a more relaxing atmosphere, as this was a little too much.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Park Young-Ho’s face was turning pale as a ghost. He was incredibly nervous even when getting asked a simple question; this was a scene that showed what type of position Kang Hyun-Sung held in his group.
Kang Hyun-Sung asked, “If you overdo it and get injured, it will interfere with the shooting. You know that.” The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at B1nNovel.
“Ah, yes, but...”
After gathering all my thoughts together, I thought there was a high possibility that rather than an article about abuse of authority told from a whistleblower's point-of-view, a sensational article with a lot of grudges involved could be released. Because of one person’s action, countless people’s efforts and the hard work of the idols gathered here might all go up in smoke.
First, I excluded the producers and writers from the candidates as there was no way they could be involved in a career-ending incident. Except for those in high positions, I began checking out others one by one. A part-timer was more likely than a full-time worker to write a slanderous article.
Among them, there was one person who caught my eye. ‘What’s up with that yellow-haired man?’
There was a man who dyed his hair bright yellow. He appeared to be in his early thirties. ‘His hair color really stands out.’ But above all, ‘Why does he keep touching his phone like that?’
He kept taking out his phone and looking around. Then, he took a picture of a steel structure or the lower part of the stage. After taking all the pictures, he quickly put the phone back in his pocket. He looked way too suspicious.
“Mr. Kyung-Jun! How many times do I have to tell you to raise the tripod here!”
“Ah, I’m sorry!” That man didn’t seem to be a full-time employee here. Based on the work he was assigned, which was moving tripods and other equipment, he was probably working time as a filming assistant. Since the evidence was so blatant like this, that man immediately became my prime suspect.
‘There’s a high probability that he’s the one who’s going to upload that slanderous article.’ Although it was just an assumption, in terms of probability, he was my prime suspect. Besides Park Young-Ho, I decided to keep an eye on that man today as well. Park Young-Ho, who injured his ankle, and a man in his thirties with yellow hair; my head hurt from thinking that I now had to constantly keep my eye on two people.
“We’ll begin shooting!” It was now time to shoot. The cameras lit up.
“Hello, everyone!” Host Kim Young-Jin and Nahyun, the hosts of The Showcase 2, came in from behind the studio.
We started the shooting by bowing to the hosts at 90 degrees. The hosts began to raise their energy by looking at the camera and began to make their opening remarks.
“The reason why we have the cast of The Showcase 2 here today is...”
“The Work Hard, Play Hard theme is to...”
“Playing games is crucial to strengthen unity, etc...”
Comments that the writers obviously wrote came out of the host's mouths. I appropriately clapped or nodded in response to their words while trying not to move my gaze away from Park Young-Ho and the yellow-haired man.
“Finally, what everyone is waiting for! I’ll announce the big prize that goes to the team that wins first place overall in today’s games! Oh, I think everyone will be surprised by the huge prize!” Then Kim Young-Jin raised his voice a little more than usual and raised the excitement.
I kept an eye on Park Young-Ho and the yellow-haired man and turned to Kim Young-Jin.
He announced, “A chance to appear in PepCola’s commercial!”
It was just as expected. In contrast, the whole studio completely flipped.
“What?”
“Commercial?”
“For real?”
“What, is this for real? Wow!”
“The Showcase’s class is on another level...”
“As expected of a big company...”
Shooting a commercial was an area only allowed by big-name stars and was also an opportunity to increase one’s awareness to the public. But in reality, this prize was just a month-long, ultra-short-term contract with minimal labor payment. I reacted with a moderate expression of surprise. The problem was that this huge prize could only be won if we won first place overall.
What type of game we would be playing was the most important factor. First of all, I was sure that eating lemons would be one of the games. While I was extremely curious about what other games different groups suggested, the host, Nahyun raised the energy of the set by saying her next lines.
“Then let’s start with the first game! Are you ready!”
“Yesss!” I waited for the game to quickly be announced. While I raised my fighting power with the determination to destroy everything—
“The first game is...eating lemons quickly!”
My increased fighting power turned straight into gastric acid and refluxed back to my stomach. Why was eating lemons the first game? I was hoping that it would come out for the third game or after, but it was finalized that I was going to have an upset stomach first thing in the morning. Nothing really was working out today.
1. Basically a game where everyone puts on earplugs or noise-canceling headsets while playing charades. ?