Chapter 260: Chapter 261:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 261

It was when Woojoo smiled at the flustered Rihyuk.

“Uh…?”

The MC, who was looking at the progress card, lifted his head.

“Woojoo, your pronunciation is amazing. You sound like a real Japanese.”

“Thank you.”

“I heard that Rihyuk was the best at it, but there was an unexpected talent here!”

The Soufflés showed a curious reaction.

They looked at Woojoo as if he was a legendary Pokemon.

“You sound like a local. I wouldn’t know you’re Korean if I closed my eyes and listened.”

At that remark, Junghyun closed his eyes slightly, and the MC and the Soufflés laughed.

After a brief conversation about Woojoo’s Japanese skills, they proceeded to the Q&A about the K-pop concert.

How did they feel about performing with the seniors, how excited were they for tomorrow’s concert, what was their impression of Japan.

Woojoo answered without hesitation, as most of the questions were expected.

There weren’t many questions about his Japanese skills, and they didn’t seem to be that amazed.

It wasn’t enough to surprise them.

Compared to the Chinese that he studied to the native level to survive in TJ, Japanese was a level where he had to recall the vocabulary in his head while speaking.

“According to our prior research, Woojoo is called a ‘language genius’. You were mistaken for a local in Taiwan, right?”

“That’s right.”

“A lot of people, including me, are curious. What’s your secret?”

The members’ ears perked up at the same time.

Woojoo gave an awkward smile to the Soufflés who looked at him like a TOEIC teacher.

“I just studied hard, rather than having a secret.”

“It feels like a Tokyo University student’s entrance interview. I see.”

Woojoo had no choice.

Everyone. He saved a grandfather who was driving a rear car, and after that, he could imitate anyone by looking at their lip movements or vocal cord muscles. Ta-da! Haha!

…If he said that, he would wake up in some research lab the next day. Where his grandmother couldn’t even visit.

It was a terrible thing.

As the attention kept on him, he decided to change the topic.

“Actually, I’m only good at pronunciation. The real language master is Rihyuk. He’s an amazing friend.”

“That’s right. Rihyuk seems to be very good at it too.”

Everyone looked at Rihyuk.

His cheeks, which had been tense with a sense of crisis, quickly turned red.

“Ahem…”

A faint blush rose over his pale face.

Rihyuk, who grabbed the microphone, pressed his cheek that was about to burst into flames.

“Thank you for the compliment. I wanted to talk to you, so I studied Japanese hard. It was rewarding.”

When he said, “Let’s discuss together,” the Soufflés waved their hands and said, “Wow,” and his nose got higher.

Woojoo grabbed the microphone and lifted the mood.

“How about it, everyone! Rihyuk is great at Japanese, right?”

“Wow…”

…That was not the reaction he wanted.

The fans’ eyes that were directed at Rihyuk quickly turned to him.

Oops. This was not right.

As Woojoo waved his hands frantically, embarrassed, the audience burst into laughter at the sight of him gesturing to look at Rihyuk.

“…”

He looked annoyed among them.

Rihyuk felt a pang of resentment.

‘How did I end up on the same team as this guy…?’

He had studied so hard all this time…!

Even in the busy schedule, he memorized foreign languages that he would need abroad.

When Bijoo Hyung was cutting rice cakes, he wrote Japanese sentences in his notebook. When Jiho was online shopping, he practiced pronunciation in front of the mirror.

Even when Junghyun Hyung lost his appetite watching a lion running in the savanna on TV, he memorized Japanese words.

Was it thanks to that?

The native teacher praised him every time we met.

-Rihyuk! You got 100 points on this quiz too. You’re really excellent. How do you never make a mistake?

-I did once. 99 points.

-Wow. You’re 30 points higher than Jiho.

-…Ah! Woojoo Hyung, really! Why are you laughing with the teacher?

It was a pleasant memory.

The native teacher said that at his level, he wouldn’t be pushed back by the locals in a debate.

But.

‘I forgot who I was on the same team with.’

He had forgotten that there was an alien on the team.

There was someone above the one who ran, and it was Seon Woojoo, who spoke with perfect pronunciation that made the locals gasp.

“…Hahaha. Yes. That’s right. Shall I say that there was such an episode?”

Rihyuk hated the sight of him sitting next to him and talking cheekily.

He always said ‘hoee, my vocabulary is short~’ when he was praised, and it made him boil inside.

He said his vocabulary was short, but Rihyuk didn’t even know what was short.

He wanted to shake his clothes.

That was short? That was short, huh? You, huh? If that was short, then a 2-meter ruler would be dental floss.

‘…But how did he do it? Really?’

He practiced in front of the mirror every day, but he couldn’t even reach the native level. How did he do it?

‘Where did he get the time?’

Even if Rihyuk gave him a hundred times the benefit of the doubt and covered it with talent for his pronunciation.

To be able to have a free conversation with the Japanese without an interpreter like now, he needed a lot of effort.

No matter how smart he was, he needed a lot of study time, but Rihyuk wondered how he did it in the current schedule.

New Black’s domestic schedule was planned by the minute.

And after finishing the busy schedule without a break, the vocal lesson and choreography practice started at midnight. And Woojoo Hyung had more preparations for the fourth album.

And all that was left was sleep time.

The conclusion was simple.

He had cut into his sleeping time and studied Japanese.

‘…He’s crazy.’

Rihyuk couldn’t help but laugh when he imagined him studying every day by cutting his sleep.

On one hand, he sighed.

‘This means that my Japanese studies were pointless.’

He started studying with the intention of taking on some responsibility when they went abroad, since he had so many burdensome tasks to do by himself.

He looked so exhausted, so Rihyuk wanted to ease his stress from foreign activities.

But what was the use of this now?

‘At least he was lazy at the dorm before debut.’

He would wiggle his toes when Rihyuk told him to get his clothes, and he would roll around on the living room floor when he told him to eat.

But after debut, his eyes lit up and he started working at the dorm too, saying ‘Success! Deoksoon! Success!’ Every time Rihyuk went to the bathroom at night, he was always doing something in the living room.

‘But isn’t he shortening his life like this? He needs to live long…’

His favorite person, King Sejong, also suffered from overwork, didn’t he?

Rihyuk felt worried about his health as he watched him sparkle at the foreign fans.

He couldn’t have any accidents like this.

If he had a wish-granting stone in his free time, he decided to wish for Woojoo Hyung’s longevity.

He was annoying 95% of the time, but Rihyuk was grateful to him for working hard for the group…

“Do you have any cute stories? Oh! I do. Rihyuk tried to prove his strength by lifting the water dispenser bottle and he staggered! He lifted it with a flash, but his whole body trembled.”

“Hahaha! Right! Right!”

“…Hm? Is this a situation to laugh at?”

“Right! He was so cute then! Yeah, laugh, Junghyun.”

“Hahaha!”

“Hahaha!”

…They really didn’t give him a chance to be thankful. These people.

His ears and cheeks were burning from the fans’ laughter.

Rihyuk, who was clapping and laughing ‘Hahahat!’ with the members, grabbed the mic.

“I also know a funny story.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“Woojoo loves floral prints. Really, he loves them so much that his room is full of flowers.”

Jiho joined in with a grandmother-like voice, saying ‘Obasang, obasang’, and the Soufflés laughed louder.

Woojoo also laughed cheerfully.

“But he only likes floral prints that don’t suit him, so we confiscated them in a large-scale raid. We agreed to let him wear only the floral prints that Bijoo’s family gave him as a gift, and we sealed the rest.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“Not long ago, I went to the bathroom at dawn and I saw him sneaking into Junghyun’s room.”

“…Huh.”

Woojoo’s face lost its smile and he said urgently, “Rihyuk, let’s stop there. Let’s be polite.”

“It’s okay. Everyone will enjoy it.”

Woojoo’s eyes glared at him as he smiled with his mouth.

“He opened the closet drawer in Junghyun’s room and carefully took out a floral print.”

“No…”

“…What’s going on? Woojoo Hyung went into my room? Why?”

“That’s what we’re trying to hear. Junghyun.”

“Okay. How exciting.”

Everyone looked on with excitement.

“As it turns out, some of the clothes we thought were sent by Bijoo’s family were actually the ones I hid.”

“Wow…! No wonder!”

Bijoo clapped and said, ‘There’s no way my sister would pick those clothes!’

The MC showed interest.

“You sneaked them out at night.”

“Yes. That’s what I did.”

The members nodded and murmured.

“I knew something was weird. New clothes kept coming out no matter how many times he wore them.”

“…So all those clothes were hidden in Junghyun’s closet all this time. Right, Hyung?”

“Wow. I had no idea I had those in my closet.”

The translators translated the members’ conversation cheerfully, and the fans started to laugh. Then the MC asked, “Did you not know about this, Junghyun?”

“Yes!” Junghyun nodded confidently. “I don’t even know what’s in my closet.”

“…You have a strange charm, Junghyun.”

The MC smiled as if amused, and everyone’s eyes turned to Woojoo.

He smiled bitterly, thinking ‘I’m doomed.’

Then Woojoo shivered when he saw the members looking at him with menacing eyes.

“…”

He avoided their gaze and rolled his eyes, then shrunk like a criminal.

“Everyone.”

His miserable voice echoed in the convention hall.

“I’m sorry.”

The members started to roar.

As if they had caught their prey, they rushed towards him like a pack of hyenas. Woojoo kept saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

In the end, he made a pinky promise with Bijoo in front of the fans.

“Since I’m promising in front of the fans, I won’t wear them anymore.”

“From today…?”

“Yes.”

He looked gloomy like a wilted flower.

When Rihyuk smiled as if to tempt him, Woojoo pointed at him with his finger.

“Ah…! I remember! I remember why you went to the bathroom that day, Rihyuk. It just came to me.”

“…Wait a minute.”

“You cleaned the bathroom that dawn, right?”

“Uh. That.”

“You were scrubbing the floor with your phone flashlight on. And laughing.”

“I was a bit stressed…”

Rihyuk intervened hastily.

“Woojoo Hyung, calm down. If you do this, we’ll die together.”

“I’m already dead.”

“…I! I have another cute story!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Let me go first!”

And then the expose began.

“He was so cute! Isn’t Rihyuk adorable?”

“Woojoo is cuter!”

“No way! You’re cuter!”

“No, you are! You’re the best!”

The members smiled warmly as they shouted compliments at each other.

They thought they were exposing each other, but they looked like kindergarten kids bickering. It felt more like watching red pandas rolling around than a life-or-death showdown.

While the MC was hyping up the crowd and the fans were recording the scene, there were some people who were quietly staring blankly.

‘What is this?’

The Korean fans who were watching blinked their eyes.

‘Why are they speaking Japanese?’

‘I need subtitles.’

‘It sounds like they’re saying they’re cute.’

The Koreans were amazed by the rare sight of their idols having a verbal fight in Japanese in Japan.

And then.

‘…Why am I here?’

The interpreter smiled warmly as he watched the two idol members babbling in Japanese.

He couldn’t help but admire.

‘They’re using advanced Japanese for a childish argument…’

The expose ended in a draw, leaving only wounds for both sides.

‘Not bad.’

‘You too.’

As they shook hands, Jiho looked at them with disdain.

After the questions about the funny stories were over, they also did an OX corner.

‘I think I’m cute.’

While everyone held up an X, the youngest held up an O and made everyone laugh.

There was also a New Black dance tutorial corner led by Bijoo.

He said it was easy to ride the wave, but the fans’ eyes were dripping with raindrops.

They also had an event where they gave a small gift to the fans who won rock-paper-scissors with them, but Woojoo had to try not to win.

Woojoo sometimes won unconsciously.

‘He’s the god of rock-paper-scissors.’

The younger ones praised him, and he shook hands and played rock-paper-scissors with an elementary school fan who came up on stage.

Woojoo said with a smile, “I do my best no matter who I face.”

Woojoo planned to lose, but he unknowingly beat him…

Oh.

‘Did I lose?’

‘You lost.’

‘You lost.’

Woojoo thought he won, but the elementary school Soufflé who shyly threw a rock was jumping with joy.

“…”

What did elementary school kids have to offer?

Woojoo always felt that their record against elementary schoolers was not good.

He wrote his name in Korean on the sign that he made himself and handed it to Soufflé.

“You should definitely enter the rock-paper-scissors tournament.”

“Huh?”

“You have a lot of talent in that area. Like quick thinking.”

‘Talent for me…?’ He widened his eyes as Woojoo smiled at the promising rock-paper-scissors player.

Woojoo shook hands with him lightly and waved to the fan who was leaving the stage.

After finishing the talk concert in a cheerful atmosphere, they ended with their latest song, Flower Dance.

“SeonWoojoo KimBijoo KimJunghyun…!”

They even chanted their names in between, and Woojoo was surprised that the overseas fans knew this much.

Thanks to that, they felt more pumped up than usual and performed well on stage.

As the heat of the stage gradually subsided, they went down and had a high-five session with the fans who attended the event.

“Thank you! Did you have fun today?”

“Yes, it was great.”

“We had a great time too. Really… Oh, do we have to go already?”

There were so many fans that they didn’t have enough time to talk, so they spoke quickly to each one as they came.

Woojoo looked into their eyes and touched their palms, and the nervous Soufflés looked so cute that he laughed.

They calmly smiled and eased the fans’ tension.

Of course, there were moments when he was startled by some people who suddenly put on rings and wouldn’t let go, or kept touching his hand… But overall, it was a very happy time for us.

“Thank you for coming!”

“See you tomorrow!”

That was the end of the day’s schedule, which started with a booth tour.

After a simple dinner.

They finished the concert rehearsal at the practice room they had rented in advance and the sky was dark.

And then they arrived at the hotel.

“It’s a hotel!”

“It’s a room!”

“Wow-! You can see the swimming pool from here!”

The hotel they checked in was the best one they had visited so far.

They were so excited that they chatted loudly until they suddenly stopped, and Minki Hyung tilted his head.

“What are you guys doing? Do you smell something?”

“We’re smelling the scent of success.”

The managers chuckled.

They decided the room assignment by drawing straws, and the three two-person rooms were divided into Bijoo and Junghyun, Woojoo and Rihyuk, and the youngest who got a single room.

As soon as Woojoo arrived, he lay down on the bed and felt a bit less tired.

In the dark night.

After washing up, he saw Rihyuk sitting on the bed next to him, browsing his tablet PC.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m reading the reviews.”

“Reviews?”

“Reviews that the fans wrote on the internet. Do you want to see them?”

“You read them to me.”

“…And Woojoo was amazing! He was snow-white, tall, and dazzling. His hands were warm! There’s an emoticon at the end.”

As Woojoo listened to the five-star reviews like those from a delivery app, he sat on the bed and turned on his laptop.

“Are you working again?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you not rest for a day?”

“I sometimes want to rest, but usually if I don’t do it today, I won’t do it tomorrow either.”

Woojoo answered that he would do a little and then sleep, and the other person looked at him with curiosity.

As he clicked the mouse and focused on the lines on the screen.

“Um, you know.”

“What. Is the mouse sound too loud?”

“What do you think of me… No, that’s not it. Um…”

“Um…?”

“Take it easy.”

What was he talking about?

Woojoo turned his head and saw Rihyuk rummaging through the sweet potato chips on the table by the window.

“I had a thought earlier. You used to roll around in the dorm, right?”

“I did.”

“But these days, it seems like you’re working all day long. You should take it easy. You might collapse… What are you doing?”

“I might as well have some ginseng.”

Woojoo took out a ginseng from the carrier and sucked it.

Ah. This was the taste.

He finished two in one sitting and laughed.

“Okay, now I’m recovered…!”

“What are you talking about recovery? What is that potion?” The guy said with annoyance, “No, don’t split your time studying Japanese and stuff. Just rest a little in your spare time. Like you used to. Others have a problem with losing their initial passion, but you gained it after your debut.”

“Initial passion…”

Come to think of it, he stopped rolling around in the dorm at some point.

He was a bit of an extreme case, but so were the younger ones.

But there was no helping it.

People usually thought that trainees worked harder, but in reality, professional singers practiced more.

No matter how lazy you were, once you debuted, you snapped out of it.

Oh, if I don’t do well here, I’ll be pushed out right away.

That was why he was running non-stop.

Woojoo hadn’t had any big problems so far, but he definitely could have overdone it considering their recent schedule.

Even now, his eyelids were heavy, and his body was screaming for some rest.

“That makes sense. Initial passion.”

“Yeah. Initial passion.”

“With the same mind as then…”

Rihyuk smiled as he saw Woojoo closing his laptop.

Woojoo nodded and lay down on the bed.

The initial passion of then…

“Rihyuk.”

“Yes.”

“I’m thirsty. Bring me some water.”

“…”

“Find your initial passion.”

He quivered his lips as he saw Woojoo pointing at the water bottle with his chin and smiling.

Knock, knock.

Woojoo heard a soft footsteps inside the hotel room.

-Who is it?

“It’s me.”

-Oh, it’s you, Hyung. I’ll open it…

“Wait.”

-Yes?

“Bijoo. What if this is a fan who recorded my voice? You have to shout the password.”

-Oh, yes! …Korean history?

“69 points.”

He opened the door with a laugh.

Bijoo, who stuck out his smiling face through the gap, gasped when he saw the luggage behind Woojoo, “Huh? Why did you bring your carrier, Hyung?”

“Rihyuk kicked me out.”

“…”

“He told me to leave after I mooched off him a little. He’s so stingy…”

When Woojoo told him what happened, Bijoo burst out laughing and snorted. Then he gestured for him to come in.

“Woojoo Hyung is here.”

He said that to the empty room.

Squirm!

Something that was wrapped up like a caterpillar in the blanket on the right bed poked its head out.

“Wow, you scared me!”

“Hello, Hyung.”

“…Yeah, yeah. Junghyun.”

“Hyung. Bijoo teased me for looking like a goblin. Is that true?”

“More like a beetle larva.”

“That’s a relief.”

The satisfied caterpillar wriggled back in and disappeared.

And then Woojoo remembered what he had forgotten.

“I came here without thinking. I should have gone to Jiho’s room, not the one you two share…”

“Oh, no, no. Don’t go, Hyung.”

Bijoo waved his hand and smiled.

“I have a good idea.”

“Korean history?”

-69 points.

As Rihyuk opened the door, someone holding a suitcase handle greeted him with a warm smile.

“Hi.”

“…Wh, why are you here, Hyung?”

“I switched rooms with Woojoo Hyung.”

“…”

“I’ll take the left one.”

“No, wait…”

Rihyuk’s eyes widened at the sight of Junghyun rolling around in bed.

Sure enough.

An hour later.

Drrrrrrrrrrrr!

Waaaaah!

Drrrrrrrrrrr!

He was tormented by the outrageous snoring. Rihyuk pressed his phone desperately.

Rihyuk [Come back right now]

Rihyuk [I can’t sleep like this]

He got a reply.

Woojoo [Go to Jiho’s room]

Woojoo [What will Junghyun Hyung become if you leave]

Woojoo [Junghyun]

He quickly sent some harsh words, but the other side just chuckled.

Woojoo [Let’s go back to the beginning, Rihyuk-ah]

Woojoo [Do you remember when we used to sleep together in one room…?]

Woojoo [This is the beginning]

In the darkness, a message rang out annoyingly, making Rihyuk’s hand tremble.

‘…I fell for it again.’

He lowered his hand, which was flapping like a paper-folding doll, and covered his ears.

“Nooo…”

Growl.

“Noooo…”

Grrrr!

His groaning and Junghyun’s snoring formed a duet that echoed in the room.