“Wh-what is this, hyung!”
I responded with an indifferent expression to Lee Danbi’s near-shocking shout.
“What else could it be? It’s your super special-class teacher-nim.”
“I know that because I have eyes too. How in the world did you manage to bring Chise-sunbaenim here?!”
“Well.”
After hearing my brief reply, Lee Danbi seemed to immediately abandon any hope of getting a detailed explanation from me and turned his gaze straight to Lee Chise. Noticing that Lee Danbi was staring intently at him, Lee Chise gave a playful wink and exclaimed.
“Hello, I’m the super special-class teacher-nim!”
He wasn’t any different from me. No one made any effort to make Lee Danbi understand.
Surrounded by two hopeless Prism and tossed around helplessly, Lee Danbi pitifully collapsed to the floor and muttered to himself, “Am I weird? Why am I the only one who doesn’t understand this situation?”
I spoke while ruffling his fluffy hair that was conveniently within reach with my hand, “I think it would be irresponsible of me to just blindly trust you. But since I can’t teach you rap with my own skills, I worked hard to bring someone who can teach you instead.”
“Your hyung went through a lot of trouble to bring me here, you know? You have to be good to your hyung, kiddo.”
Lee Chise chuckled as he watched me and then joined me in playing with Lee Danbi’s hair, adding a brief comment. Lee Danbi, as if finally coming to his senses at Lee Chise’s comment, looked up at me with a dazed look.
“…Did you bring him here because of me?”
“I can’t say it’s not true.”
“That’s right. Seungbeom is such a shy guy. Why are you twisting your words like that?”
‘Don’t interpret it however you want, you brat!’
“Hyung…….”
It seemed like there was definitely something wrong with that interpreter function. However, Lee Danbi appeared to have been deeply impressed by the effects of Interpreter Chise, as he covered his mouth in awe.
I looked away from Lee Danbi’s burdensome gaze and said bluntly, “So, you need to work hard. Otherwise, it’ll all be for nothing.”
“Of course, hyung! I’ll work hard. Thank you so much!”
“I’ll work hard too.”
“Then I’ll go finish the arrangement quickly, and you practice with the senior. Got it?”
“Yes! Fighting on the arrangement!”
“Fighting.”
It felt like someone kept adding a word here and there, but I decided to just pretend I didn’t hear it.
I patted Lee Danbi’s head lightly and politely greeted the guy I’d been pretending not to see the whole time.
“Then, please take care of him.”
“Okaaay.”
After hearing Lee Chise’s cheerful reply, I immediately left the practice room.
***
Lee Chise’s rap file, which Cha Woon passed on to me, served as a sort of guide.
Since I was naturally quick at working, once the rap part was taken care of, I was able to arrange the rest of the parts quite easily. Sure, I pulled an all-nighter, but it couldn’t be helped since we were behind schedule.
And as soon as I was done, I summoned my team members to a meeting. It was to distribute the parts.
‘One, two, three……’
“Five, you’re all here.”
I nodded and took a seat after counting the heads of those seated in a circle in the practice room.
“If there are five people, one is missing … Danbi, Danbi isn’t here.”
Then, as if he had heard me counting numbers softly, Baek Kiryang muttered immediately. When I turned my head to respond to him, he flinched in fear and hunched his body.
“I’m sorry … you’re right. There are only five of us, we are…..”
“How can our team only have five members? Lee Danbi won’t be coming today. Since he’s the only one in the rap position, there’s no need to waste time here anyway, so I sent him to practice the rap. He probably won’t show up until dance practice starts.” I explained, clicking my tongue at Baek Kiryang’s nonsense.
I had a feeling that this guy wouldn’t even deny it if I said something ridiculous like, “
From now on, your name is Cheong Kiryang
“.
“And if you have any questions, just ask. Don’t look around nervously or mumble to yourself like that.”
“Yes…..” Baek Kiryang lowered his head deeply in response to my words. Since Lee Danbi wasn’t beside him, he seemed to be much more discouraged than usual.
‘Eugh.’
I wondered if his personality could be improved before the competition began. If I were to judge based on first impressions, it seemed like his personality wouldn’t change even after debuting. Sighing at Baek Kiryang’s indecisive appearance, I handed out the lyric sheets to the members one by one.
Since the mission songs had been assigned a few days ago, it was likely that the members were already familiar with the original lyrics. Nevertheless, as always, there was a reason why I handed out the lyrics separately. I hated doing unnecessary things.
“This is…….”
The members, who had skimmed through the lyrics, looked up at me with their mouths open, as if noticing something strange. I nodded in response and explained.
“That’s right. There are quite a few changes, aren’t there? I made some adjustments to the lyrics, but not too far from the original. We’re going to set a clearer concept and perform on stage with that in mind.”
“Concept?”
At the mention of setting a
concept
, the members tilted their heads in confusion, as if they didn’t quite understand. It was no surprise, since the original song wasn’t particularly notable for having a unique concept. It was just a typical love story, the kind that idols often sing about.
But that wasn’t enough to make an impact in the mission, so I decided to give the song a special concept through this arrangement.
“We’ll be dividing into two groups for the performance, organization members and detectives. I’ve already requested the costumes from the production team. I’m sure they’ll have everything ready by the competition day.”
“Organization members and detectives?”
The members quickly looked over the lyrics again. Then, they exclaimed in admiration as they finally understood why I had chosen the concept that way.
“So you’ve interpreted the lyrics about begging a former lover to stay as if they were about a mafia being chased by a detective! And you’ve added lyrics for the detective’s perspective? I never thought of it this way.”
“Wow, it’s really amazing how it’s turned into a story even though you haven’t completely rewritten the lyrics. It’s so interesting.”
The members were right.
The song
Catch me!
by Hype, which we were going to perform, expressed the emotions of a man begging his ex-lover to catch him. Since most of the lyrics were written metaphorically, there was room for multiple interpretations.
For example, the lyric
“I was worried because I couldn’t see you. I was afraid you might disappear forever”
originally described a man pathetically chasing after his ex-lover. However, we could reinterpret itas a detective desperately pursuing a mafia who had vanished into the darkness. There was no issue with this dual interpretation at all.
“I think it’s fine? Actually, aside from Kiryang-hyung, our team is a bit younger in age, so I was worried that a love song might be a little difficult for us.”
“I like it too! While I’m a bit worried about Seungbeom-hyung’s love cells, I think it would be best to follow his opinion when it comes to the performance.”
1
“Me too … I think it’s a good idea.”
The members exchanged glances with each other and nodded their heads to show their approval.
‘Love cells? Just freeze it to death. Idols don’t need that kind of stuff.’
Of course they had to like it.
If there’s anyone complaining that they don’t like what I worked so hard to put together, I’ll bury them alive.
“Lee Hwayoung, what about you?”
“It’s fine.”
Finally, after confirming that even the only complainer on our team liked it, I immediately moved on to the next step.
“Then, we’ll proceed with the concept as it is now, and next, we need to decide on the characters.”
“Characters?”
Again, the team members looked at me with puzzled faces. They didn’t seem to understand because it’s something that’s usually done on stage.
“Even if you’re not the center, you need to create a certain sense of presence to catch the audience’s attention. As I said on the position assignment day, in this fourth mission, our team will perform with both Lee Hwayoung and I as the double center. But focusing too much attention solely on the centers would reduce the performance’s completeness, so we should try to avoid that as much as possible.”
“Ah, I see. It’s like a musical where everyone has their own lines. That way, everyone will definitely get their fair share of the spotlight.”
“Each person will wear different costumes, so it’ll be fun to watch.”
“Alright. Well, to be honest, we’re in a position where we have to struggle to not be overshadowed by Seungbeom-hyung and Nicholas-hyung, but if you help us like this, it’s a win-win for us.”
The moment they had something new to focus on besides just dance and vocal practice, the members lit up and started brainstorming character ideas with big grins on their faces.
“So, am I a detective with a strong sense of justice?”
“You’re an idiot, don’t you know you look like a villain?”
“If you put it that way, Nicholas-hyung is definitely the young boss! It suits him perfectly, doesn’t it?”
“That’s right. No matter how you look at him, he doesn’t have the face of a detective.”
“Well, detectives get paid for their work….”
“Exactly. That’s why it doesn’t suit him.”
I felt a small sense of pride as I watched the struggling team gradually become more lively. Well, Baek Kiryang was still just observing hesitantly, and Lee Hwayoung was glaring at the lyrics with a sullen expression, so not all the members were engaged in lively conversation.
Still, it was a good sign that the remaining members, who had been showing low participation, were now actively sharing their opinions. It seemed to me that they were really starting to get motivated now that they knew they could make an impression on stage.
“Since we decided to go with a double center, Seungbeom-hyung should join the detective team to balance things out.”
“I guess so.”
“But our numbers don’t match up. There are seven of us, so one person would be left out. Either someone will end up a a loner or an extra, I guess.”
Baek Kiryang’s face turned pale at the mention of one person being left behind.
Normally, friendless people were sensitive to this kind of situation.
And indeed, that sensitivity was justified.
“Ah, that’s Baek Kiryang-hyung, so leave him out.”
At the words I casually uttered, Baek Kiryang looked at me with eyes that seemed to pop out. Even though he seemed to expect it, he was clearly taken aback. He grabbed his head and started mumbling to himself.
I leaned my head slightly to listen, and it was mostly an instant reflection on what mistake he had made this time and why he was hated.
‘This is so depressing … how can he not be tired living like this?’
I put my hand on his shoulder, trying not to show my irritation at the sudden outpouring of negativity, “You didn’t make any mistakes, calm down.”
“…I’ve calmed down. I’m ready. But, but … I can’t quit. I just can’t quit.”
‘Just how far has that train of thought gone?’
It seemed like he wasn’t calm or ready at all, but if I didn’t clear up the misunderstanding as quickly as possible, he would soon start foaming at the mouth and faint. I grabbed Baek Kiryang’s trembling shoulders firmly with both hands and started to explain as gently as I could.
“Listen carefully. Hyung, you’ll appear as the different side of the Boss. The boss when mingling among regular people, that is. Since it’s the same person, it won’t be counted as an extra person. We’ve got two good people who sing well, and luckily they happen to be the same height, so I planned it this way to take advantage of that.”
“Pairing with Nicholas….”
Baek Kiryang stared blankly at the floor, lost in thought at the explanation that was given as quickly as possible.
Since he was really staring at the floor without moving at all, I tapped Baek Kiryang and called out to him.
‘Is he dead?’
“Hyung?”
I wondered if he had fainted, but at my call, Baek Kiryang slowly lifted his head.
He stiffened and blurted out,
“There’s no way I can take that kind of role!”
Yeah, but no.
You
will
do it.
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Translator’s Corner:
Love cells:
the cell in your body that controls the “love” romantic feelings. Idk how to explain it, just watch the k-drama
Yumi’s Cells
if you’re curious.
If you don’t understand what he meant, he’s worried about MC’s love cells because wdym he’s turning a love song into a criminal-being-chased-by-a-detective song. ↩︎
I think my mouse is ?? idk the word, conduting?? electric current because my fingers keep tingling when I touched it ??? is this normal ??? (the answer is most likely no, me going to google it after this)