The staffer’s attention shifted to Cheon Sayun almost immediately.
Go Youngin decided to quietly watch the two of them talk. Cheon Sayun doing workplace socializing, live, from the front row. Honestly, I was kind of curious.
“Oh? Hello, Sayun? This is our first time actually talking in person, isn’t it? We were just having a quick chat. But why are you still here instead of going right back in? Do you have something you need to ask us to do? Zero One doesn’t have another schedule after this, right? I thought it was free time.”
The staffer, startled by the sudden appearance, quickly smoothed their expression and got overly friendly with Cheon Sayun. It was obvious they were dying to talk to him.
What are you, a question-mark serial killer? They sure looked curious as hell.
Cheon Sayun just stared blankly at the staffer who was acting like a tongue in his mouth, then let out a small laugh and flashed the same annoyingly bright smile he always wore.
“Yeees. Everyone worked hard, so I figured it was only right to go around and thank people one by one. I was just walking around.”
The staffer, who’d looked guilty and eager to get rid of me up until a moment ago, didn’t give Cheon Sayun’s gaze even a second to drift elsewhere—he just kept talking at him nonstop.
‘If you fall for that pretty shell, you’re going to be in big trouble….’
It’s not like Cheon Sayun would suddenly do something to this guy unless he’d completely lost it, but still.
Compared to how he treated me, there was a subtle “special treatment” vibe. Guess he really wanted to get on Cheon Sayun’s good side. Somehow that made sense.
Hey. That’s a truly, unbelievably monstrous bastard. He’s got slimy ulterior motives and a snake’s tongue hidden behind that smiling face.
Of course I couldn’t say that out loud. If I could’ve, I would’ve said it ages ago.
“Oh, I see! Wow, seriously. People always say you’re really kind, Sayun, and I guess the rumors were true! I hear about you all the time. Everyone likes you so much—did you know?”
“It’s more than I deserve. I know you all help us a lot, even where we can’t see it. I’m always grateful.”
“What are you talking about! Isn’t it all thanks to you artists doing such a great job? Because of that, we can work comfortably too. Oh! That reminds me—I haven’t properly introduced myself yet. My name is….”
“Haha. You’re Dongyun, right? You don’t need to introduce yourself. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Does Cheon Sayun seriously not have a single person he doesn’t know? Does he memorize every staffer’s name too? That’s… kind of respectable.
The staffer called Dongyun seemed to have the same thought, because he looked genuinely moved as he stared at Cheon Sayun.
“Ahem, yes. I’m Joo Dongyun. If I’d known you already knew, I would’ve greeted you sooner. Then, if you’re not busy….”
“I’m sorry.”
Cheon Sayun, who’d been smiling and politely dealing with him nonstop, cut him off—soft but firm. And yet his face looked so earnestly apologetic, like he didn’t know what to do.
‘I saw that exact kind of face right after the Reset. …Even now, it’s ridiculous.’
“Huh?”
Even though he’d gotten cut off mid-sentence, the staffer didn’t even seem to realize he’d been cut off—probably because of Cheon Sayun’s whole performance.
Cheon Sayun’s damned face really shined in moments like this.
He was younger, and just from the outside he looked harmless and gentle, so no matter what came out of that mouth, you’d reflexively think, Wait, did I misunderstand?
‘And that bastard Cheon Sayun knows what he looks like better than anyone.’
“I need to stop by the CEO’s for a moment with Youngin hyung. Sorry, but can we head in first?”
Cheon Sayun had only said he was going around saying hello—he never said he had extra time. The staffer finally seemed to realize that and, looking pretty disappointed, agreed to next time.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
‘…No, you psycho!’
No—how are you just wrapping this up on your own like that? Since when was there a schedule like that?
I was about to call him out, but then our eyes met. Cheon Sayun flicked his gaze toward the door. Like he was saying, Let’s go out first.
So in the end, I had no choice but to leave the studio room, abandoning the staffer there.
***
“Sayun, I’ve got something I need to ask that staffer.”
About the cake they were hiding. I need to dig that up, fuck.
“What is it. Don’t tell me it’s that shitty cake.”
The second I heard him say that, I almost had a heart attack—like I’d accidentally spoken my thoughts out loud. What the fuck, how do you know that too? Cheon Sayun wore a face like, Isn’t it obvious?
“From your face, it looks like you’re wondering how I knew, but you knew and I didn’t? How. You guys hid it like idiots. If you couldn’t find it, I’d start questioning your intelligence.”
Right. Cheon Sayun was the kind of guy who would team-kill. No—he was the kind of guy who worked even harder at team-killing. After everything he’d done to me, the fact I still hadn’t learned was, yeah, stupid enough that I couldn’t even argue.
“If you already know, that makes it easier to talk. It’s probably not a big deal, but I figured it’s better to know.”
“You don’t need to. They were just using us because they wanted to promote a shop their younger sibling just opened.”
What? No—where the hell did you even hear that. So that rushed, “made-in-a-hurry” pie thing earlier… was it from that staffer’s sibling’s shop?
Now that I thought about it, Cheon Sayun had said he’d been walking around greeting staffers. Did he learn it then? Honestly, if it was Cheon Sayun, he absolutely could’ve.
Given what celebrities are, if you’ve got even a little name value, you’re basically a walking billboard. If you wear something, eat something, or even just mention it, that alone turns into promotion and affects sales.
Oh. So that’s what it was? Huh… That conclusion feels kind of anticlimactic. Guess I overreacted. It’s not something worth being anxious about, is it?
Suddenly I felt embarrassed. It didn’t feel like the issue was “solved” exactly, but still.
‘So the thing I saw really was the cake that was originally prepared?’
That staffer must have a decent amount of pull among the staff.
DD Entertainment was a really small company at first—one of those places people called a “shithole SME”—and it grew slowly over time.
Because of that, it had a couple big problems, and the most famous one was that it was basically the final boss of connections and entrenched old-timers.
And it was awkward to bring up directly from our side. Your position in the job came with its own heavy restrictions.
In the middle of that, Cheon Sayun went quiet, like he was thinking about something. The silence felt weirdly uncomfortable. I was just about to think about leaving this bastard here and walking away when Cheon Sayun finally reacted.
“Honestly, it’s not a problem big enough to get someone fired. But I also can’t just let it go, because it pisses me off.”
That’s what this is about? You lunatic.
It really was the kind of thing that was hard to fire someone over. Most likely they’d just get chewed out and that would be it—unless, worst case, one of the members ate it and collapsed.
“I’ll handle it, so don’t get in my way.”
…Coming from Cheon Sayun, that makes me insanely uneasy. Do you really have to do something? I couldn’t even imagine what might come out of his mouth. He’s not going to bully them or anything, right?
‘Am I seeing him as nothing but bad?’
Would he really? He’s so obsessive about managing his image. But Cheon Sayun—unlike Pyo Jaeho—was unpredictable in a completely different way.
“What are you going to do…?”
“What? Nothing. It’s not a big deal.”
When he said that, Cheon Sayun looked totally innocent. In thriller movies, that’s exactly when someone’s eyes flip and they stab you in the back.
“It’s not dangerous, right?”
‘For them. Not you.’
“Am I insane? Of course not.”
You’re saying that like you absolutely could be, though…. And honestly, I didn’t even want to know that badly. He’d handle it on his own, wouldn’t he? Do I really need to know?
[ Condition 7│A kind idol leader does not spare words of encouragement for members. ]
[ Condition 7│A kind idol leader does not spare words of encouragement for members. ]
[ Condition 7│A kind idol leader does not spare words of encouragement for members. ]
Yeah, you piece-of-shit Status Window. I was just thinking you’d been quiet for once, and I guess you glitch too. Why are you popping up the same line three times in a row? What, you think you know he’s about to do something? And why do I need to “encourage” him—does he die if I don’t?
“F-fighting.”
Even as I said it, I realized I was already shouting “fighting” out loud. Slave of the damned Status Window. What “fighting”? What the fuck am I doing.
Cheon Sayun seemed to be thinking something similar, because he stared at me with a face that said, What is this new kind of bullshit?
“You lose it?”
Before I could even come up with an excuse—an excuse that barely counted—Cheon Sayun said that one line and then walked off on his own.
Go Youngin stood there alone, staring at his back disappearing into the distance, and let out a hollow laugh.
No, fuck. Even when I cheer him on, it’s still a problem.
***
After I sent Cheon Sayun off, I messaged the group chat—useless as always—to ask what the other members were doing. Two left me on read, and one hadn’t even opened it.
Bastards.
If the manager hadn’t told me everyone went back to the dorm, I would’ve been shaking with anxiety, wondering if they’d gone off to cause some kind of incident.
I checked the time, thinking maybe I should go back too, but it was that awkward in-between hour. Since I was already here, I stopped by the practice room, loosened up, and killed time. Before that, I got called back to the CEO again and talked a bit about the spoiler too.
I expected a lecture, but surprisingly, he said it was fine, and that shocked me.
After that… nothing much happened.
I was told to rest hard until today, so I stayed a bit longer and then went back to the dorm. Of course nobody even came out to see who’d arrived. I figured.
I went into my room, and Cheon Sayun still wasn’t back.
What the hell did he go do, seriously.
I showered, lay down on the bed, and checked SNS. As expected, the reaction to that “whatever pie” scrap was exactly what you’d think. On a day when I should’ve been able to just pass by all the good, sincere stuff and feel refreshed, something like this had to happen, so yeah—of course people were pissed.
────────────────
????INSTIGRAM│geenikei.lats
────────────────
????Genie Handmade Tart & Pie Specialty????
Handmade. Tart & Pie / anniversaries / custom orders
❤ Reservations & inquiries: please KakaoTalk. (DM not checked) ❤
Followed by Dongyun.k, ZER01_Official, and 1 other account
────────────────
────────────────
[Anon Entertainment Chat] No matter how I think about it, that “Youngin tart” is sketchy, so I looked it up lol [65]
Yeah 202N.05.13 │ Views: 1,099
────────────────
(instigram_account_capture.jpg)
(pie_photo_capture.jpg)
They trot that out claiming it’s for the 2nd anniversary, and it made me so ragey I went digging just to see where it was from—and I found that Zero One’s public Instagram account and a DD staff account were following it. The official account has now unfollowed.
I was wondering what that staffer was about, and it looks like the shop owner is the staffer’s family lol. The shop hasn’t even been open that long.
If the quality was good, fine, but it’s so bad I feel like I could make something better using my own leg hair. I can’t forgive this. Put your head here, fuck.
────────────────
[ 65 comments ]
>> The official account “accidental follow” is so sloppy it feels like watching some backwoods skit, and it’s not even funny
└ For real. Are they doing a comedy bit? If they were, they should’ve at least committed. DD always pulls this shit so I don’t even need comedy shows anymore lol…
└ I swear, people trying to leave DD—today again I’m going to pour water, pray, and beg DD to get their shit together, fuck lolol
>> I wanna beat the shit out of it. The inside is all smashed too—what is that, banana? Or a worm that got stepped on and popped? Fuck
>> Did they really pay money for that? lololol Stack your layers properly. The toffee, banana, and cream are all mixed together and it looks ugly as hell. No lie, when I first saw the cross-section I thought someone puked and dumped it there
└ Sorry, but that’s what that food is supposed to look like;
└ The fuck are you talking about. You think I’ve never eaten pie? Even if I give you a hundred concessions and say fine, at least on an anniversary bring something that looks nice—on top of it being careless-looking like that, it’s whipped cream when one of the members can’t even eat whipped cream. How am I not supposed to be pissed?
>> Look at the pie crust shaping, it’s so amateur. Pathetic ㅉㅉ I swear I could lick it into a straighter line than that. I win lol
└ Fuck lolololol why are you licking it lolololol are you insane lolololololololol
└ But seriously, it’s pissing me off because licking it might actually come out better lolololololol
>> But like… it’s not an ad, so isn’t this much okay? I don’t get why it’s an issue.
└ Yeah, I kinda feel like “staffer’s family shop” isn’t something that deserves this much hate
└ 333 This feels a little sensitive. Like… what even is it…
└ Oh~ it’s “nothing,” so it’s even more fucking annoying~ It’s not just some random B-app either, it was the special 2nd anniversary B-app, and they can’t even do that one “nothing” thing right? lololol
>> This is a visual even my family dog Hyeongsik wouldn’t eat. It’s fucking awful.
└ Who’s Hyeongsik? Your sibling?
└ Our dog.
└ Fuck lolololololololol I’m losing it lololol why are you feeding that to a dog lololol
Mind-Reading Master????❌????⭕ @WHO_COUGHED
Since “Bread1” didn’t take a single bite of that “tart” on LIVE today, I think he knew the source and felt uncomfortable. Sebin barely talks unless “kkubang” talks to him / gross, “kkubang’s” tension is lower than usual / “kkubang” looks restless / “sagyoung’s” smile isn’t a smile / “T-jax” is upset so he’s intentionally pulling trolls. You can see it all in their faces, guys, be careful~
Reposts 101 Quotes 557 Hearts 60
│
A dog that barks when it sees nonsense @Krrrrr_krr
Replying to @WHO_COUGHED
Grrrrrgrrgrrrooowww-bark!!!!! barkbarkrkrk-bark!!!!! Grrr.... barkbark awooo-barkbark awooo-bark!!!! barkbark!!!!!!!!!! barkbark-uhhh-barkbark!!! bark krkrkr barkbarkbark krk-uhh-barkbarkbark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even so, just like Pyo Jaeho’s troll mess got buried thanks to the comeback spoiler, this too passed like a decent little incident.
Cheon Sayun, well… thinking about the future made me uneasy, but he didn’t seem like he’d do anything today.
‘Then why do I feel this anxious?’
In the end, Go Youngin sent Cheon Sayun a message.
₁[ When are you coming back to the dorm? It’s late, Sayun. ]
Yeah, I knew he wouldn’t read it right away.
He’s not actually in the middle of causing an incident, is he? He wasn’t answering, and there wasn’t anything I could do.
With a sigh, I dug through my gallery. Just in case, I was going to secure Cheon Sayun’s alibi—post something on SNS, and if possible, include an unreleased photo of him before it went up.
[ Condition 20│A kind idol leader gladly helps members. ]
Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it without you telling me. I couldn’t be more “glad” than I am right now. Fuck… and I was going to post anyway before today ended, just to say goodnight.
And there’s no way I have a photo taken with him, and as for solo shots… I’ve got even less.
So I took a quick selfie in the room. Then I used the fact that we were roommates to write something that vaguely implied he was with me, and uploaded it.
Thinking about it, I hadn’t even done anything special, and it had only been one day. And yet, compared to when I only had to worry about myself, my head was a complete mess on an entirely different level.
So I have to keep doing this? Haha….
With my tasks done and not wanting to think any more, Go Youngin decided to turn in early so he could handle the full comeback schedule starting tomorrow.
────────────────
[Anon Entertainment Chat] I’m at a cafe right now and Zero One’s Cheon Sayun is here [8]
Yeah 202N.05.13 │ Views: 494
────────────────
(Cheon_Sayun_photo_sitting_with_someone.jpg)
It’s his back and it’s shaky because I took it secretly so you can’t see clearly, but I feel like fans will recognize him right away? It’s Cheon Sayun, right? Seeing him in person, he’s really tall and long lol The person with him looked like an acquaintance? Didn’t seem like a celebrity, it was a civilian womanㅎㅎ
────────────────
[ 8 comments ]
>> This is creepy as fuck. You took a creep shot of a civilian and you’re sitting here laughing—delete this post
>> Yeah~ Youngin said everyone’s together at the dorm~ Fake~
>> We don’t take old-era bait. Fuck off
└ The kid was doing a 2nd anniversary fan live until just now, and you think he’d “logically” be there?
>> Whoa, it does look similar. Feels kinda real though
└ What “real,” fuck lololol
└ Sigh. I never got why people bother making such obvious fakes, but it’s because of trash like you
>> ❌❌❌ Ondle, stop feeding trolls and no more comments below this ❌❌❌