For a while, I threw myself into practice with the mindset of grinding my very life into it.
Partly because I was in a hurry to grow, but also because there was nothing else I could do. When on earth was that damn feature article going to update with new content?
By the time I finished today's practice and got back to the dorm, it was already well past 11 PM.
Normally we practiced until 2 AM, but today the practice room heater broke, so we unintentionally came home early.
There were three minors in this debut team, and even if it was school vacation, was it okay to work students this hard?
I'd been run so ragged that I didn't even have the energy to wash, so I just roughly took off my outer layer and immediately flopped down on the sofa.
With two bathrooms and five people, we had to take turns washing anyway. Using the legitimate reason that the most junior grabbing an early spot would undermine team discipline as a shield, I waited every time until the guys had all washed and come out.
"Feels like my joints have been reassembled."
"Good work today too, hyung. Want some water?"
"Yeah, cold."
"Still, you picked up dance faster than I thought, huh? You've got talent! Vocals~ hmm, hwaiting!"
Namgung Hyun gave a thumbs-up to me sprawled on the sofa. Was he taking a jab at me or praising me?
Meanwhile, Ha Hyun filled a tumbler with a straw in it with cold water and held it out in front of me.
Is he going to feed me himself? A guy whose character is as round as his face.
I sucked up the water, my whole body trembling like a newborn giraffe, and rested for a bit, when Cha Min-seong, who had washed first and come out, came over.
"Washing last again today?"
"Yeah. I'm the new guy."
"What does that have to do with the shower order?"
"Seniors eat school lunch first, and elders pick up their chopsticks first—that's Korean manners, after all. So it's right for the new guy to wash later than his seniors, too."
Cha Min-seong, who had been staring quietly this way with a dumbfounded expression, eventually gave up on talking to me and switched to someone else.
"Then Hyun, you go in first."
"Okaaay~"
"Why does everyone attach the surname for Ha Hyun but just call Namgung Hyun 'Hyun'? If it's because it's confusing, just call them both with surnames."
"Ah, that's because Hyun-hyung gets totally sulky if you call him with his surname attached!"
Seo Seo-jun, who happened to come out just then, kindly explained while toweling his hair. That was the simple reason?
"Don't you feel left out, being the only one not called by his given name?"
"With me, doesn't it sound like just a name even with the surname attached anyway? Every time I introduce myself, I get asked what my surname is."
Answering with a light laugh, Ha Hyun went into the bathroom after Seo Seo-jun.
It was something I'd learned from watching for a few days, but unless something special came up, these guys mostly paired off to share bathrooms: Ha Hyun with Seo Seo-jun, and Cha Min-seong with Namgung Hyun.
It seemed that doing it this way made the overall shower times roughly even out.
I didn't pick any particular one to use and just used whichever freed up faster.
A little later, Namgung Hyun appeared in the living room all sparkling and grabbed me and shook me.
"Come on, come on, young man, get up quick! You can't sleep now!"
"Five more minutes."
"Five minutes become ten, and ten minutes become ten hours!"
"What a groundbreaking method of calculation, shaking the very foundations of mathematics."
Finally, I reluctantly got up and was practically crawling toward the bathroom when Namgung Hyun suddenly called me to a stop.
"Right, hyungnim."
"What."
"Don't just use shampoo and body wash, use some other stuff too! I was seriously horrified to hear you even wash your face with body wash! Treatment and conditioner, just use them like the instructions on the back say, and next to the body wash there's body oil, right? You put that one on while you're still a little damp, so try it too! It's seriously the best in winter with body lotion, so give it a go if your skin feels dry. For washing your face, pick between the foam and the oil....... And don't just pat any old lotion on your face—there's a basic skincare sample kit in my drawer, so open that and use it! It's super gentle, so it probably won't cause breakouts. Today, don't forget to put on one of the masks in the fridge before you sleep!"
That's a lot. And long.
That dazzling, picture-perfect face apparently didn't come into the world for nothing. A guy overwhelming from his natural form to begin with, and he puts in the effort too—he can't help but shine.
"Is it okay for me to use all that? You bought it with your money."
"Who cares. I brought it to share from the start. If it's mine, you don't have to bother asking, so use whatever you want. Take T-shirts and pants and stuff too, feel free."
To have looks so delicate you'd think he'd be picky about every speck of dust, and yet such a breezy personality.
It wasn't for nothing that fans called him 'a real man who looks like a fairy maiden.'
"Yours won't fit me."
"Ugh, seriously. Even when I say something nice, this is what I get. Pick the oversized stuff, then! Or should I steal Min-seong-hyungnim's for you?"
"I'd rather wear yours."
"Good. Now, off to the bathroom with you!"
The guy flapped his hand as if I were a bother and chased me off to the bathroom.
When I came out to the living room after washing thoroughly and using this and that as Namgung Hyun had said, the four hulks were huddled together in the middle of the living room.
Were they plotting something in the meantime?
When I got closer, I saw a small cake and five bowls set on the living room table.
On the mini-sized lettering cake placed in the middle, 'Welcome' was written in wobbly letters, apparently by hand with a brown decorating pen.
"'Welcome'?"
"Ack!!!"
I'd only spoken up lightly, yet Seo Seo-jun leapt on the spot as if he'd seen a ghost.
At the noise, the other members looked my way too.
"Whoa, you scared me. What? When'd you come out?"
"Just now."
"Weird, I didn't hear any footsteps at all. You could get a job as a ninja later."
Namgung Hyun, joking lightly, put a cake knife in my hand.
"Then since you're out, go ahead and cut it prettily into five pieces."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you, hyungnim."
The guy, who'd answered with a big swagger, pointed at the cake with his finger and grinned.
"It's a cake we prepared for you, hyungnim, so you should cut it yourself."
Don't tell me the 'Welcome' written there was for me.
"You didn't need to go and prepare something like this."
"This gentleman doesn't know anything. If we don't welcome you like this, it'll all~ stay with you later as hurt feelings, you know? For reference, this is the first cake Seo-jun has ever made in his life, so only unconditional praise, please."
Today's pâtissier, Seo Seo-jun, muttered gloomily.
"Up until I spread the whipped cream on the sponge, I didn't doubt for a second that I had a talent for baking......."
Hearing that, I took a good look at the cake, and for a first try, the whipped cream had definitely been spread neatly.
The decorating pen was a little disappointing, but it's hard to get things right from the start.
Maybe after a few more tries, something decent would come out soon enough.
I quietly asked Ha Hyun, who was standing next to me.
"Did you do this every time someone new joined?"
"Not really......."
Ha Hyun, who trailed off as if he couldn't find a suitable excuse, gave a sheepish smile.
Of course. If they'd done it every time, there was no way this would be the first time Seo Seo-jun had made a cake.
In that case, the real purpose wasn't welcoming me but something else.
It seemed these guys had been bothered all this time by the commotion on the first day.
Nobody had said anything since then, so I'd thought it had naturally been forgotten.
So after putting their heads together to cheer me up—having been cursed out the moment I suddenly joined the debut team—what they came up with was that fist-sized cake?
Softies. Feeling sorry when they weren't even the ones who were mean.
I took the cake knife Namgung Hyun had handed me and tried to cut it as prettily as possible, but.......
All five pieces were different sizes. Art really isn't my path.
Namgung Hyun, who naturally became the one in charge of distributing the cake, put the two biggest pieces in my bowl.
"Two of them?"
"I don't really like sweets~ So I'll give mine to you, hyungnim!"
Don't lie. I saw you reviewing desserts shop by shop on that observational variety show.
Well, I guess this is all because they feel sorry, too. I decided to just accept it obediently.
Having finished distributing the cake under Namgung Hyun's command, the PLUTO (to-be) guys began telling me, the latecomer, brief self-introductions and little anecdotes from before, one by one.
As I nodded along to their stories, which I hadn't been able to hear while spending several days cycling between practice and sleep, I realized something.
In anecdotes so candid they even covered the number of shared socks in the dorm, the three syllables of Baek Ji-hyuk's name never once came up.
Everyone avoided mentioning him, as if his existence had been cut out with a knife.
Maybe they'd agreed, even before I came in, to keep their mouths shut about Baek Ji-hyuk.
A sudden desertion of the debut team—however you look at it, he didn't leave on good terms, so it was understandable.
I decided to respect their decision by not bothering to raise questions about the part that had been cut out.
"...That monthly evaluation back then was seriously legendary~ He suddenly came out front with an acoustic guitar, and we were all shocked!"
"When Yeon-gyu-hyung brought his own song?"
Seo Seo-jun chimed in for Namgung Hyun, who was in the middle of spinning a tale of heroics.
"Yeon-gyu?"
"Ah, his name's Go Yeon-gyu, a friend who practiced with us. He's left here now, though......."
Before Ha Hyun could even finish answering my question, Namgung Hyun briefly worked his cell phone.
Then he brought up a photo in full screen.
What the guy showed me was a friendship photo of three students standing together happily, striking poses.
"It's this kid on the far left. Super~ handsome, right?"
The person Namgung Hyun pointed at with his finger was... an all-too-familiar face.
That's strange.
Why is 'Hayden' here?
I'd never heard that Hayden had been a trainee at Solar. Could it be someone else who looks similar?
I searched my memory for a moment.
Hayden's real name was 'Hayden Yeongyu Turner,' if I remembered right.
As you can tell from the name, he's not Korean—he's a Korean American who lived in the US and then came over here to build his career.
So his Korean name was 'Go Yeon-gyu,' using his mother's surname in front of his middle name.......
However you look at it, it seems to be Hayden himself.
"Um, did this Yeon-gyu kid leave before the debut team was put together?"
"Hmm~ to be exact, he's a kid who got cut from the debut team......."
No, it must be someone else after all.
If it was some ordinary trainee who got cut, I'd have taken it in stride, but that guy getting cut—honestly, that's a little... no, a lot hard to believe.
A singer-songwriter with visuals as elegant as an idol's, who proved his extraordinary genius from his debut and established himself as a rising powerhouse on the music charts.
That's who Hayden was.
Then again, in a world where there's a Pyeong Seol-han who looks exactly like Baek Ji-hyuk, there's no law saying there can't be a Go Yeon-gyu who looks exactly like Hayden.
As I was thinking that to myself, the dreadfully persistent internet window suddenly rose before my eyes.
[Feature] Idol, I'll Try Becoming One Myself ②
■ Putting Together a Debut Team Isn't Easy
Joining a debut team so quickly was a stroke of luck, but the mood inside the company was worse than I expected.
When I asked why, I heard that the ace trainee had recently quit, and the company came close to scrapping the debut altogether. Things still aren't great now, apparently. The chances have grown that I'll gain nothing from the agency I finally got into.
So while searching for a solution, I learned about a skilled trainee, 'Go Yeon-gyu,' who is said to be close with the existing debut team trainees and to have outstanding songwriting ability.
Wouldn't something change if I brought this friend in? I decided to put it into action immediately.
This appearing while I was thinking about Hayden... don't tell me they really are the same person?
Seeing how it especially stressed songwriting ability, no matter how I thought about it, they seemed to be the same person.
Songwriting ability isn't a quality an idol trainee necessarily needs, after all.
But I'm supposed to bring Go Yeon-gyu in myself?
How is a mere trainee supposed to persuade him?
Are you kidding me? Is this really an idol experience? Not an agency employee experience?
"Seol-han-hyungnim, why the face? Are you sick?"
"Yeah. I suddenly got a headache. Someone soak a towel in cold water and bring it here."
Cha Min-seong, who had been listening to Namgung Hyun and me talk, headed to the kitchen, brought something back, and set it on my forehead.
"Here."
"......."
This isn't a towel, it's a kitchen dishcloth, you punk.
But it was cool and felt good, so I left it there.
Everyone has their right place. Whoever put out this article, repeat after me three times.
Medicine from the pharmacist, casting from the casting manager.
I can't believe it's come to me having to do even this, but it can't be helped.
Rather than leaving it to the jerks who couldn't even recognize talent like Hayden's... Go Yeon-gyu's, I'll bring him in myself.