Chapter 113
[Mission success.]
[Reward will be given.]
[Control over Insight has increased.]
[Please beware as there may be temporary pain.]
As it had always been, my reward was followed by a piercing pain, and I braced myself. I thought I would be used to this pain by now, but...that wasn’t the case.
‘Hmph!’ It hurt as much as when I first got the Insight ability. At that time, it felt as if a nervous system that I hadn't been aware of was punctured with holes, but now, it felt as if that punctured path was getting slashed all around. Fortunately, I had prepared myself beforehand, and I lowered my head not to show how pained I was and bit my lips. I held onto anything next to me and endured. I was grateful that the broadcast was over, as it would’ve caused a huge fuss otherwise. Everyone in the chat box would’ve been asking if I was crying and so on otherwise.
Sigh. I slowly breathed in and exhaled. The pain subsided gradually and the sensation that felt as if my body was getting slashed disappeared.
“Haaa.” I breathed in and out once more and the pain dispersed.
“Please let go of my arm now, Mr. Tae-Yoon.”
“...Huh?”
I looked up and saw Kang Hyun-Sung talking to me. It was then I realized that what I had grabbed to endure the pain was Kang Hyun-Sung’s arm of all things.
‘I can’t believe it...’ I thought.
“My blood isn’t circulating,” he told me.
“Ah, I’m sorry.” I loosened my grip and pulled away. After feeling that each of my fingers was stiff, I realized that I must have grabbed Kang Hyun-Sung’s arm extremely tightly. Yet, Kang Hyun-Sung remained calm without much change of expression. I didn’t know whether he was numb to pain or he endured it, but I was about to apologize when Kang Hyun-Sung asked.
“Are you feeling sick?” Kang Hyun-Sung asked first.
“...No.”
“You seemed to be in pain.”
“...No, I just become like this sometimes when my blood pressure is low,” I just made up any excuse that came to my mind. There was no better excuse than low blood pressure for a perfectly fine person to suddenly falter and grab a nearby person’s arms.
“You should monitor your blood pressure well. It can become serious later.”
“...Yes, thank you.” I had planned to apologize, but the conversation ended with Kang Hyun-Sung expressing his worries about me.
“Good job on your live broadcast~”
“Good job~”
Then while cleaning up the site, the Showcase staff announced, “Episode 5 is going to air today so please watch it at that time~”
Hearing this, I realized, ‘Oh yeah. Today was episode 5’s release date.’ I had been so focused on the shooting that I forgot about it. The current time was 5:30 p.m.
‘There’s only thirty minutes left until the show airs.’ Half an hour was an ambiguous time to do anything. The shooting site today took place in Gyeonggi-go and it would be difficult to arrive at our lodging place in such a short time whatever we did.
‘I guess we should watch it on our way to our place in the car,’ I thought and also packed my belongings.
“Should we watch the episode altogether?” Yeon-Hoon then suddenly proposed.
“Oh!”
“Sounds good!”
“That’s great!”
“Since we don’t have any more things on our schedule, wouldn’t it be good for all of us to watch it together?” Yeon-Hoon said and all the Only One members and my group members agreed. I thought Do-Seung wouldn’t like stuff like this, but he seemed to be looking forward to it too.
‘What?’ Everyone appeared so eager to make friends that I wondered how they had been able to hold back until now.
“That’s not the problem.”
The two’s relationship clearly didn’t seem normal between a manager and a singer. It was as if they were wary of each other and wanted to get into a fight. I wondered why they were acting like this when Only One had the final performance soon, and they should be supporting each other more than ever.
‘Ah, that’s right. Their situation is different from ours.’ I immediately understood why the manager was behaving like this. If Only One won The Showcase 2, their company will change from TH Entertainment into a joint company. From TH Entertainment’s position, they probably didn’t want Only One to win the show and were probably talking amongst themselves about what they could do to prevent that scenario.
Yet, since the Only One members seemed to have no intention of giving up the first spot, the company was probably angry at them; and as a result, Kang Hyun-Sung and the manager must have gone through some conflict over time. Though I understood the manager’s position, this was going too far.
‘Even if that was the case, there’s no need for the manager to show this kind of attitude. He’s crossing the line,’ I thought. ‘He’s just releasing his stress on them. This is a problem with his personality.’
“Ah, let’s just go. Quickly get in the car,” The manager said while taking the car keys and leaving the shooting set. With the car key in the manager’s hands, there was no choice but Only One to follow the manager’s words. Of course, there was still the option of returning to their place by riding a taxi but that would place them in unnecessary danger. If I were in the same situation as Kang Hyun-Sung, I would’ve been angry by the situation too. Maybe I would’ve cursed too if no one was looking.
‘But I guess he has to endure.’ One couldn’t just live according to their emotions. Kang Hyun-Sung stared at the manager, who was leaving for a bit and then, walked back toward us.
“Unfortunately, it seems like we can’t watch the show together. Good work on today’s shooting. Hope you guys have a safe trip back home,” Kang Hyun-Sung told us.
Tap. He was about to leave when I grabbed Kang Hyun-Sung’s arm without meaning to.
“...What are you doing?” Kang Hyun-Sung looked at me astounded.
“Ah.” Even I didn’t know why I was acting like this. I was the one who thought it was bothersome to watch the show altogether and felt uncomfortable by the situation. But now that Only One was leaving, I wanted to hold them back.
‘Maybe I am feeling a sense of camaraderie with them,’ I thought. Perhaps, I empathized with their situation of being stuck in a bad company too.
In the end, I said, “I forgot to say I'm sorry for grabbing you. Be careful on your way back.” Then, I let go of his arm. Kang Hyun-Sung looked at me strangely and took the rest of his members to the car. Thus, only us, Ms. Seung-Yeon, and Ms. Hyuna remained on the site.
“Wow, that was really scary.” Ms. Seung-Yeon was the first to speak.
“Yes, I didn’t know there were still people who worked like that these days,” Ms. Hyuna said.
“So scary...”
“I suppose even Only One has their problems.”
“It’s not easy.”
“That was frightening.”
My members also commented after Only One left.
“Then, should we also head back to our place?”
“We can watch the show on our way with our laptops.”
“Okay.”
“Sounds good~”
Thus, we got in the car with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna. Only One seemed to have already left as their car was gone from the parking lot. And on our way back, I kept thinking about TH Entertainment.
‘Even in the future, I only heard bad news about the company.’ Frankly, I had no reason to worry about Only One since my members’ lives were on the line right now, and I had no leisure to care for others.
‘....But their future could change with my interference.’ Originally, Only One was The Showcase’s winner but now, it was unclear who would be the final winner. If we won the show, Only One would have to remain in TH Entertainment, and Only One’s future would change dramatically from the original future. My heart grew heavy, but my group members turned on their laptops and went into an OTT site.
“Did you turn on your computer?”
“Yes, I connected it to the hotspot.”
“Okay, let’s watch it~”
I also turned my head in the direction of the laptop screen. It was slightly over 6 p.m. now. The commercials had already ended, and the show was about to start.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“I wonder how we will appear this time.”
My members and I focused on the screen.
‘Only One...hm,’ but even then, I wondered what would happen to Only One if we won.