Chapter 83

Chapter 83

At this point, maybe I had some kind of connection with Kang Hyun-Sung in my past life. What else could explain how we got tangled up in every big event to this extent? Perhaps, we were arch nemesis, lovers, or both in our past lives. I scratched my head. I couldn’t guarantee whether or not Kang Hyun-Sung recorded what he just saw or not. His promises were meaningless without evidence.

Perhaps, Kang Hyun-Sung read my doubtful eyes, and he offered, “Do you want to see my phone or something?”

“...”

“I told you I didn’t record anything, but you don’t seem to believe me.”

“Do you not have a recorder on you?”

“...?”

“...Never mind.” I thought Kang Hyun-Sung might carry a recorder with him, but I quickly changed my mind, thinking that I was being too skeptical. But as I was thinking this, Kang Hyun-Sung pulled out a recorder from his pocket.

“Here it is. I didn’t turn it on. I just carry this around to hear myself when I sing. You know, since there is a limit to recording on your phone.”

It was a reasonable excuse. For now, I confirmed that his recorder wasn’t on. Then, Kang Hyun-Sung turned on the recorder himself and showed me the records. Among the records, there was none that had today’s date.

By then, I wondered, ‘Why does it seem like he’s trying to cover for me?’ He was totally capable of recording the situation since he carried a recorder around with him everywhere, yet he didn’t leave any evidence behind as if he had purposefully wanted to cover up the situation for me.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

“With this, my debts are paid.”

“...?”

“Let’s go now to look at the accommodations.”

‘What was he talking about? He owed me debts?’ Even after racking my head, there was nothing I could guess what he was referring to. But since he was the one saying this, I just glossed over the situation while thanking my good fortune.

***

Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon murmured curses as soon as they got out of the bathroom.

“Fuck. Shit! What’s wrong with that bastard!”

Since they were on a deserted path where staff didn’t usually enter, they could yell and curse as much as they wished. But they still soon lowered their voices, knowing that someone could find them if they continued to scream repeatedly. They were outside, after all.

“Haaa. Fuck. What do we do now?” Kim Joon-Hyuk asked Lee Young-Joon. They couldn’t act rashly when their private conversation had been recorded.

“It’s not a big deal for people to curse and stuff. How dare he use that against us?” In the end, Kim Joon-Hyuk couldn’t withstand the anger overflowing out of him any longer and kicked at any random tree root. But of course, the tree didn’t budge and only his toes felt pain from the kick.

In their hearts, the two knew that they hadn’t simply said some curse words; they demeaned some people and tried to harm another person. Furthermore, their word choices were beyond repulsive. Yet, these two didn’t think about these points and were simply displeased by the fact that someone had caught their weaknesses and used them to exercise control over them.

“Joon-Hyuk.”

“What!”

“Should we just fight that bastard?”

“What?”

“We can hold him down and pound on him. Then, we can take his phone and erase all the recordings.”

“He said he made backups.”

[Probability of winning first place: 65%]

My group’s possibility of winning didn’t seem to rise any further. Was it because I failed to do something at the center? But I had memorized the dance moves by even utilizing the Insight ability. I had done as much as I could at the center and wondered what the problem was.

‘Perhaps, it’s not me who’s the problem.’ We wouldn’t be able to win by just me doing a good job. My group members all needed to individually get high scores for us to get first in the end since the third performance’s results were decided by adding each of the individuals’ scores and getting the average of it. Everyone needed to do well to increase that average. And I thought our probability of winning would naturally go up since I caught OnebyOne’s Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s weaknesses, but the probability remained the same.

‘What?’ At this point, there seemed to be two remaining possibilities. Perhaps, I was doing a really bad job at this, or Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon still hadn’t come to their senses yet. There was no way my group members wouldn’t do a good job in their performance. They were guys who could’ve debuted a long time ago and actually had opportunities or got close to debuting in big companies. I thought I should check up on Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon again when somebody’s phone vibrated. It came from Kang Hyun-Sung.

“Let’s rest a bit.” Kang Hyun-Sung stopped the music and went to get his phone.

‘What’s going on?’ I wondered.

After reading the content, Kang Hyun-Sung’s face turned serious and he said, “I will share what I just got with you all. Please check it.” Then, he uploaded the message he got onto the group chat.

—There’s no point in camping altogether if you all just practice by yourselves! Thus, we will have a midterm checkup on each of the group’s performances in the form of a competition!

—Please gather at the central yard one hour from now on and show us the stage you have prepared until now.

—Prepare your hearts because you will be harshly scrutinizing each others’ performances and criticizing them!

This was basically a time for us to batter and bring down the other teams.

“Did everyone read the messages?” Kang Hyun-Sung asked. Everyone nodded. There seemed to be no one among our team who seemed to welcome this event much. As trainees, we were already reluctant to show an incomplete performance.

‘But I suppose this is an opportunity for me to check on how Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon are acting.’ This was an event that was good for me in some ways, but everyone else looked worried sick.

Kang Hyun-Sung seemed to have noticed their reaction and proposed, “Okay, why don’t we do this? There’s no need for us to show our performance as it is and reveal to all the other groups our tricks and plans.”

Kang Hyun-Sung came up with a couple of ideas to relieve his members’ worries.

“Rather than showing them our final arrangement version, let’s show them our original version. In other words, we shouldn’t give it our all.” This made sense to do. If we did this, we wouldn’t be completely lying, and even if we were reprimanded for not trying our best, we could still be forgiven in the end.

“And Mr. Tae-Yoon.”

“Yes?”

“I will stand in the center this time.”

“Sorry?”

And that wasn’t all. Kang Hyun-Sung asked to change the center positions. I wondered if this guy was suddenly coveting the center position and grabbing his chance now. It had been suspicious how well he seemed to have been treating me.

“Mr. Tae-Yoon, you are the core of this performance. There is no need for us to show this hidden card too. So, why don’t you stand in the back for today?”

“...?” I couldn’t understand what he meant and that wasn’t all.

“And you can learn from me...”

“...?”

“What it means to be the center,” Kang Hyun-Sung said.

I almost doubted my ears. How could he say such arrogant words with his own mouth?