If I were to explain about the person named Lee Chise, there were truly endless things to say.
Lee Chise was a guy that Kang Hyukwoo brought over from a hip-hop label right before PRISM debut. Even now, I didn’t know how Kang Hyukwoo managed to recruit Lee Chise, who was a student of a famous rapper and a promising rookie even within that hip-hop label.
The trainees, who were sensitive about debut, exchanged rumors multiple times a day, such as “
I heard he trained at a certain agency for years
” or “
I heard he got cut from the debut group because of some problem
“, constantly creating gossip about him.
And Lee Chise joined the agency in a way that was anything but ordinary, making him the perfect target for gossip. He was already shrouded in countless rumors before he could even set foot in the practice room.
There were rumors like “
I heard he’s the son of a rich family and receives generous support from his parents to pursue music
“, or “
I heard he pays tens of millions of won for lessons from that famous rapper
“, or “
I heard he has tons of expensive equipment piled up in his studio
“. The types of rumors were incredibly diverse.
After debuting together as Prism, we became close and I had various conversations with him. From that, I found out that most of those rumors were false.
Lee Chise told me that he came from an ordinary middle-class family and and had never even touched expensive equipment until joining his previous label. He explained that he simply sent recordings made with a laptop and phone recorder to the label without much thought, and they were the ones who reached out to him first.
In the end, the rumors that the trainees were spreading were full of lies.
But there was a grain of truth in them.
‘They said he is a rap genius.’
He proved that rumor true by defeating all the other debut group trainees with nothing but his skill and was confirmed as a debut member just two days after joining the company. And for me, who valued skills above all else at that time, there was nothing wrong with Lee Chise.
At first, I thought he was fine based on his skills alone.
But the longer we lived together, the more I liked his personality.
“Enough fighting, let’s eat munchies!”
“Hyung, if you keep frowning like that all day, you’re going to get wrinkles between your eyebrows?”
Lee Chise was a guy whose personality was very refreshing and straightforward, held no grudges, and treated everyone with a friendly and approachable attitude.
To be honest, the fact that he maintained a cheerful personality even in Prism, a group full of guys with personality issues, was more than enough to say everything about him.
I wouldn’t mention my own personality in good conscience, Seo Yuseong’s personality was a little, no, very strange, and Jay and Cha Woon would constantly grab each other by the collar and fight like dogs on a near-daily basis. Even this alone was already chaotic enough, but the other two members also had considerably burdensome personalities, so you could imagine what an abnormal group we were.
Amidst all of that, it was nothing short of a miracle that Lee Chise managed to maintain his personality and grow up so well.
Perhaps I should say that he was sort of the lifeblood of Prism.
1
But that wasn’t the only thing I liked about him.
“Ah, idol … I just wish he wouldn’t come here and take up our spots while he’s already living well and comfortably.”
“Aren’t you just laughing it off because you don’t have any skill?”
“It seemed that you came here with an easygoing attitude, but you’re going to pay a heavy price for being so careless.”
When Prism had entered a period of stability, Lee Chise boldly decided to appear on a hip-hop audition program. Without much of a twist, the other rappers looked down on Lee Chise, who had a constant smile on his face, and showered him with all sorts of belittlement.
After returning from the first shoot, Lee Chise dyed his hair blue the next day. When I asked him why he dyed his hair that color when he was going on a hip-hop program, he answered like this.
“Everyone seems to be mad by the fact that I’m an idol rapper. Since I’m already being looked down upon, I decided to show off my idol side properly, so I dyed my hair.”
“If they end up losing to me while I’m looking like this, they would feel even worse, wouldn’t they?”
This part was exactly what I liked the most about Lee Chise’s personality.
He was a guy with a firm opinion of his own and wouldn’t be shaken by trivial matters. A person with the guts to willingly face and overcome trials and challenges.
‘Out of all the people I’ve met so far, this guy probably has the strongest mentality.’
To put it simply, he was a real tough guy. That was Lee Chise.
But I had no idea how someone who used to be so easygoing ended up in this situation.
“No matter who it is, they can’t satisfy you as much as I can. Can they?”
“…….”
“I’ll assume you’re giving this to me. Okay?”
‘…Why is he in such a hurry?’
He was originally a guy who was very greedy when it came to music. He abandoned the hip-hop label he originally belonged to and suddenly took a gamble by coming to an idol agency. On top of that, he pushed himself to compete on a hip-hop program that everyone else was afraid of, and gritted his teeth to win the competition. If I said someone like him wasn’t greedy, that would be a complete lie.
It was probably true that he was tempted by this song. But Lee Chise wasn’t the type to make things difficult for others—especially not for Cha Woon, his fellow member—by being unreasonably insistent.
It made me suspicious, but I couldn’t just stay still like this.
So, I decided to put an end to his insistence.
“No. I absolutely can’t give you this song.”
“How amusing. Don’t you think you’d be better off just doing as I say?”
When I refused again, Lee Chise quickly countered my words.
‘As expected.’
I was now completely convinced by his behavior.
This guy is in a very anxious state now.
He usually had a gentle personality, so it wasn’t obvious, but it was clear that his edge had been pushed to the limit.
I looked up at Lee Chise’s bright eyes and asked, “What are you in such a hurry for?”
“…….”
A response like “
What do you mean I’m in a hurry
?” didn’t come. Unlike Cha Woon, this guy wasn’t one to deceive himself. He had undoubtedly become aware of his own state from what I just said.
His eyes, slightly open, trembled a little as he looked at me. I glanced at Lee Chise, who had calmed down, and assumed he was now ready to listen to me, so I opened my mouth.
“I’m not simply saying that I can’t give you my song.”
“…If that’s not what you mean, then what is?”
“It means that I can’t give you
this
song. In the first place, I couldn’t produce a satisfactory quality for this song due to time constraints, so it’s a bit unreasonable for you to be so greedy for it. Since it’s someone else’s song, you won’t be able to properly promote it either. Do you really think I would want to throw away an opportunity to work with you, sunbaenim?”
“Then…….”
“Yes, let’s properly make a song from scratch. We’ll set the time as when I debuted and my group took a break.”
Lee Chise’s face brightened as I carefully explained. I held up my palm in front of him, signaling that it was too early to be happy, and continued speaking.
“In return, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“What is it?”
“Please help the rap position member of my team practice so that we can take first place in this mission. If you could do that, I will do my best to accommodate whatever you want, sunbaenim.”
I figured it would be more beneficial for Lee Danbi to learn from a professional coach like Messi rather than from the neighborhood soccer club president. I couldn’t say for sure if he’d be thrilled about this, but I thought it was worth a shot to try something rather than remain stuck in his current frustrating state.
“Hmm, teaching is okay, but since I’m hardly doing any broadcasting appearances right now … can’t I just take that kid out to practice?”
“No, that won’t work. That kid’s ranking is in a risky position right now, so he needs to get as much screentime as he can.”
“Hmm … what should I do…..” He trailed off, sounding a little hesitant.
I decided to take drastic measures against his lukewarm attitude.
To put it simply, should I call it motivation?
“Come to think of it, we have a rap trainer in our program.”
Lee Chise still didn’t seem to understand why I was mentioning a rap trainer. He hardly ever watched TV programs.
“He appeared on a hip-hop program in the same season as you, sunbaenim … Ah, I remember, his stage name is Kinder….”
As soon as he heard the name
Kinder
, Lee Chise’s body flinched.
I smirked and continued, “I’m sure if things go on like this, he’ll just criticize my team member without giving him any proper coaching. He would just say things like
this is why idol rappers can’t succeed
.”
“…….”
“Just the thought of letting that happen makes my heart ache so much.”
Then, Lee Chise let out a sarcastic laugh and, as if finding it absurd, spat out a series of harsh remarks.
“Heh, he used to say that all idol rappers are trash and looked down on them, yet now he’s crawling into an idol program?”
‘Just as planned.’
I raised one corner of my mouth at his reaction.
Lee Chise was originally a very generous and forgiving person.
But there was one person he openly hated.
It was Kinder, our program’s rap trainer. Kinder was an underground rapper who, like Lee Chise, made it to the final round of the hip-hop program and was a contender for the championship.
As I said before, the rappers who appeared on the program constantly belittled Lee Chise, but he proved his skills and gained their recognition. However, there was someone who, despite clearly witnessing his worth, continued to diss him as just an
idol rapper
. That was none other than Kinder.
“Yo, take your member and go home.”
“Go where, f**k…..”
I still vividly recalled the memory of the day when I went to the competition for a feature. He came all the way to our waiting room, shoved Lee Chise out of the way right in front of me, and began freestyling an unaccompanied diss rap.
Looking back now, I realized that if only I hadn’t been there at that time, Lee Chise might not have come to hate Kinder this much.
But the damage was already done, and I was planning to take full advantage of that situation now.
Lee Chise, remembering Kinder, smiled wickedly and said through gritted teeth, “Alright! It’s just a single broadcast appearance, no big deal. Even if I teach with my feet, I can still teach better than that guy.”
And that’s how I secured Messi-nim as teacher.
Cha Woon shook his head as he watched me finally take care of the problem.
***
We were short on time, and Lee Chise was free, so I immediately dragged him to the Lucky Center. We then went straight to the practice room where Lee Danbi was practicing alone.
“Hey, he’s way more of a chick than I expected? Is this okay?”
Lee Chise tilted his head as he saw Lee Danbi’s figure through the transparent glass on the door. I immediately stopped, my neck creaking as I turned to look at his somewhat uncertain attitude.
“Ah, you startled me!” Lee Chise shouted in horror when he saw my expression.
I didn’t care if he freaked out or not, I spoke like a rapid-fire cannon.
“Sunbaenim, I never said I just wanted your help with practice. I want to be first place, only first place. If it’s not that, it’s meaningless.”
“Uhh…..”
“Remember? I have to be first place. I don’t need a second place, or
good game
, or anything else. If I don’t get first place, I’ll just blow everything up and blow myself up too.”
“Okay. Okay, so calm down.”
“You promised me. I believe you’ll do the best you can. First place….”
“I said okay.”
“Yes.”
Only after hearing his repeated confirmation that he understood did I remove my head from in front of his eyes. My eyes felt stiff from not blinking for so long.
I closed my eyes tightly, turned around again, and opened the practice room door to enter. Lee Danbi greeted me when he spotted me.
“Ah, hyung, welcome!”
“How’s your practice going?”
“Umm, it’s still difficult. I’m trying my best, but….”
“I figured that might happen, so I brought him here, Rap Teacher-nim.”
Seeing his dejected appearance, I brought up the main point right away. In response, Lee Danbi tilted his head in confusion.
“Trainer Kinder-nim didn’t come today….”
“Hello! I am Chise!”
At that moment, Lee Chise, who had been hiding behind me, suddenly jumped out and greeted him. It was only then that the unfortunate trainee realized who the ‘
teacher
‘ actually was, and with a startled cry, he fell backward.
“Aaaak!”
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Translator’s Corner:
The word used is
생명수
(Water of life). You know water that saves every being. Human can’t survive without water. Water is the lifeblood of all living beings. etc etc. That kind of thing. MC is saying he thinks Lee Chise is that kind of water for Prism. ↩︎
#PrayForLeeDanbi /srs