Chapter 88: Chapter 88:

I barely held back my laughter.

His face, like a sticky rice cake, was dripping with tears. He hung his head and slurped the spicy rice cake soup.

Gulp-

Everyone bit their lips hard.

They felt like they would burst out laughing any moment.

Rihyuk was banging his head on the wall every time he heard a sound.

-Bro, what should we do?

Bi Ju showed me his phone memo.

I was about to type something in response when Jung-hyun tapped my shoulder urgently.

Behind him, Rihyuk was pointing his finger down.

Uh oh…

Jiho had finished his rice cakes and was coming up one step at a time.

We ran away without hesitation.

Quietly, without making any noise.

As Jiho moved from the first floor to the second floor, we encountered a problem at the door of our dorm.

“It won’t open!”

“What the hell, why won’t it open?”

The light on the smart door lock’s number pad faded and turned off.

We pressed the door lock again in a hurry, but there was no response.

The battery seemed to be dead.

Why now…!

Footsteps stopped behind us.

“Huh?”

Jiho blinked his eyes as he saw us crowded in front of the door.

“Guys, what are you doing there?”

“Seriously, how many times did I tell you to change the battery? Since last time, I’ve said it at least… four times.”

“I know, I know.”

“How many rounds have we done to find a battery?”

“Let’s eat first and talk. Rihyuk. The kids are going to get sick.”

“…Fine.”

Rihyuk nibbled on his fries with a sullen face.

I looked around while listening to the calm jazz music.

1 a.m.

There weren’t many customers in the burger shop.

We had wandered around for a long time to buy a battery to open the door lock, and we stopped by here because we were hungry.

Jung-hyun chewed on his burger and said.

“But, how can there be no square batteries? Everywhere we go, they say they’re out. I thought convenience stores would definitely have them.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“But we did buy them, right? Now we don’t have to call the manager.”

Everyone looked relieved at Bi Ju’s words.

“Thinking about calling the manager, ugh…”

“Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine it.”

“Why are you guys shaking? I’m the one who’s going to get scolded by him.”

“I hate that.”

“Yeah, it’s just the atmosphere that’s a bit… you know.”

I laughed at their fussing. Then I turned my eyes to the one who hadn’t said a word until now.

Our youngest was eating his burger silently.

He would have been excited and chatty as usual. But now he was just rolling his eyes.

He felt half sorry and half embarrassed for his brothers who had to go on a battery expedition because of him.

He hesitated to reach for the fries.

I handed him one.

“Don’t be shy and eat.”

“…Thanks.”

Rihyuk, who was next to me, gave him a pile of his fries.

“Hey, King Jiho. Did you commit a crime or something? It’s our fault for being careless. If anyone made a mistake, it’s all of us.”

“But because of me…”

“It’s not because of you.”

Bi Ju squeezed some ketchup for Jiho.

“So just eat comfortably.”

“Jiho, you have something on your mouth.”

Jung-hyun also brushed off the crumbs on Jiho’s mouth.

As we were comforting our youngest.

Jiho lowered his head and tears started to fall.

“What the hell, why is he crying again?”

“Hyung, Jiho is crying.”

“Jiho, what’s wrong?”

His tears seemed to be from resentment before, but now they seemed to have a different meaning.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Just, everything.”

He said and then started to sob.

He blew his nose almost ten times before he calmed down.

His snub nose turned red.

The older brothers didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and the youngest spoke.

“I’m sorry for making you suffer because of me. I have to go to the broadcasting station tomorrow. And today’s lesson must have been hard too…”

“Don’t worry about us.”

I said.

“It’s not the first time we’ve stayed up all night. Is sleep the problem? What matters is that our youngest is so upset. Right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re much more important.”

Jiho rubbed his eyes with the tissue he got from Junghyun. I watched him silently and then asked calmly.

“I couldn’t ask you before because the situation was not good, but what happened? Is it because of what happened in today’s acting lesson?”

“…Yes.”

“What part of it made you so sad?”

I had a hunch, but I couldn’t judge by myself. It felt more complicated than my guess.

“…You know I originally wanted to be an actor and then switched to being an idol. So compared to you guys, I had a shorter trainee period. I’m the worst at singing, and the second worst at dancing. My skills are really lacking.”

“And you’re tripping over yourself because of that?”

“That’s the truth.”

As Rihyuk clicked his tongue, Jiho continued.

“So… I didn’t say it much, but I felt nervous whenever I worked with you guys.”

“Because you think you’re the worst?”

“Yes, I can’t do anything but be funny. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

He said before I could deny it.

“When you guys were preparing for the end-of-year evaluation, or singing, or composing, I had nothing to do so I just stayed in the back. My singing is mediocre, and I don’t have much to do.”

We listened quietly.

“So I felt like a useless person sometimes… But this time, I thought I could help with the acting. I wanted to help you guys somehow, since I always rely on you. But you’re all good at it. And the teacher kept pushing me and saying things like that.”

“…”

“You guys are good at everything. But I feel like a burden, like that kind of kid…”

I had prepared hundreds of words to comfort him, but they all disappeared as he spoke.

I thought he was just jealous of the intruder in his field.

I never thought he had such deep thoughts.

I always thought of my brother as a naive kid, but I never expected him to have such thoughts, especially not him.

The other members had similar reactions.

Bijoo looked at him with a gentle eye, his chin resting on his hand. Junghyun was silently crossing his arms, and Rihyuk was sighing briefly.

“Hey.”

Rihyuk was the first one to speak.

“What do you mean you’re useless, you idiot?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I call you an idiot because you’re an idiot, idiot. What else should I call you? Useless? If anyone’s useless, it’s me.”

“Why are you saying that, hyung? You’re good at singing.”

“What else can I do besides that? I can’t dance, so we have to change the choreography because of me. You guys want to do harder stuff, but you can’t because of me. I feel sorry for you guys every day.”

“…”

“Anyway, stop talking nonsense.”

Bijoo chimed in.

“Don’t be depressed, Jihyo. You’re not the only one who thinks that way. We all feel inadequate sometimes. Honestly, I felt that way every time Woojoo hyung did something. I couldn’t help him with anything.”

“You guys also feel that way sometimes?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

After a brief silence.

Junghyun, who had been quietly listening, said one thing.

“We love you, Jihyo.”

“…”

“Not because you’re good at acting. Just because, you’re you. That’s why we like you. So don’t think you’re useless because of that.”

It felt like we were writing a rolling paper for each other, so naturally, their eyes turned to me.

“This feels like it’s my fault somehow.”

“No, hyung.”

Jihyo waved his hand and said hastily.

“It’s not because of your acting today, it’s just that I was thinking too much by myself…”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Huh?”

I scratched my cheek and continued.

I was talking to the whole group now.

“And I just found out about this.”

“About what?”

“That you guys think you’re causing trouble or that you don’t have anything to do in the group. That you’re not a helpful member.”

That was what I used to think every night when I joined TNT.

“Actually, I used to worry about that a lot too. It was different, but I wondered if I was really a useful member for the group. Well, not much has changed now, but…”

“Hyung?”

Junghyun asked incredulously.

“We wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”

“Right, what are you talking about?”

“…Are you joking?”

“Why do you think that, hyung?”

I laughed at their protest, with their eyes wide open.

“I’ll say the same thing to you.”

“…”

“It’s the same. Honestly, even if I did something, without you guys, could we have been so successful? How would Night Sea have turned out without Rihyuk, or Fireworks without Junghyun, or our choreography without Bijoo.”

And.

“Jihyo. You might think you didn’t do anything, but without you, our atmosphere would have been really dull.”

“…Really?”

“If it was just us, we would have been so boring that it would have been a disaster.”

The other brothers nodded in agreement.

“I think it’s really lucky that we met each other. It’s hard to meet people who are good at what they do, and also have good personalities. You guys must know that, since you’ve seen a lot of other trainees.”

Even in TJ, which was famous for its strict verification, there were a lot of people who had a lot of rumors about their past or behavior.

Honestly, meeting this combination was like winning the lottery.

“I know, I know that.”

I smiled and looked at them.

They were my brothers, my family, my everything.

“I hate it.”

Seokhwan hyung spoke to Minki hyung, who was holding the steering wheel with a smile.

“Minki, did you see his picture?”

“Yeah, I did. I went to check the entertainment community this morning, and his name was everywhere.”

“There’s no promotion like this. How did our Woojoo catch such a lucky break during his break?”

The managers laughed among themselves, and my brothers also teased me.

“Hyung, I told you to buy some clothes every day.”

“That’s right.”

“He’s in such a hurry and he’s still picking out clothes. He’s so ungrateful. He doesn’t appreciate what he has.”

“No, I do. How grateful I am, huh? This is hilarious! Ahh…”

I grabbed the youngest’s cheek and pulled it.

The mood was good.

Someone who was at the store last night wrote about us in real time and got quite a lot of views.

Thanks to that, our pictures of hugging each other in a warm atmosphere spread everywhere.

Maybe it was because people were curious about why we were hugging each other.

The news site famous for clickbait articles also ended with “What is the reason behind an idol hugging each other in the middle of the night…?” and “No one knows the secret”.

The PR team was happy about it, and our manager was smiling from ear to ear.

He said he received several calls from entertainment reporters since this morning.

Thanks to that atmosphere, a serious problem was lightly passed over.

With a short warning.

“I told you. There are eyes following you wherever you go, so be careful.”

“I know, hyung.”

I was the one who felt the lesson more than anyone.

I didn’t expect someone to see us and write about us at that store where no one was around.

The fans also said they were laughing at first when they saw the post, but then their hearts started pounding.

It was lucky that it was a warm atmosphere, or else it would have been a shock.

There’s no safe place except the dorm.

I reminded myself of the lesson again and looked at my brothers.

“Wow, look at the views of Lee Gyeonwoo sunbae’s clip.”

“There are so many articles.”

I looked at the main entertainment section of the portal site at the words of my brothers.

-Lee Gyeonwoo, joins ‘Jusehan’ Chuseok special as a guest

-Hallyu star ‘Lee Gyeonwoo’… Hot reaction to street mission

-The biggest Chuseok special Jusehan, who are the remaining guests?

Lee Gyeonwoo, who appeared on Jusehan last night, was flooding the portal.

The topic of interest was the corner that was recently being conducted on ‘Roll the Dice Around the World’.

There were so many Chuseok special guests that they decided to allocate some time at the end of each episode to introduce them in advance.

We were also going to meet the Jusehan team in a few days at the commercial shooting site and film an introduction video.

They said we would do a simple talk and a mission, but I was a little worried.

-Jusehan guest is a rookie idol, is that true?

-Then it’s really boring

-lol That’s nonsense. Who would do such a thing?

Our main PD did.

I scratched my cheek as I looked at the comments on the internet.

Is this okay?

I hope I don’t mess up and get cursed at. There were quite a few cases like that.

I scrolled down the comments and thought anxiously, then decided to focus on another task for now.

“Hyung, let’s practice the script again.”

“Okay.”

I stroked the youngest’s head and held the commercial script in my hand.

The worry disappeared and my mind became comfortable.

I don’t know how the variety show filming will go, but I was confident about the commercial CF.

It was the same now.

As I read the lines written on the script with the members, I felt a strange certainty.

This is something.

“I have a good feeling, hyung.”

“…”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, nothing…”