I’m a Genius Idol but my Passive is Sunfish Chapter 112

Jihan, looking back and forth between Baekya’s determined face and his slender fingers, slowly lowered the spatula.

 

[Jihan: I’ll trust you.]

 

[Baekya: Thanks! I really won’t lay a finger on you. Just trust me..]

 

Having proven his harmlessness—while failing to dig up any information on the other’s identity—the Peach entered the kitchen.

 

[Jihan: Are you good at cooking?]

 

[Baekya: Of course. Fried eggs were the thing I made most when I lived alone.]

 

[Jihan: You lived alone?]

 

[Baekya: Yeah. After I graduated from the Mi…]

 

[Jihan: Graduated when? You moved straight into the dorms after signing your contract.]

 

[Baekya: Uh, for a little bit after I graduated from the Hunter Training Center? I had to go around hunting vampires alone, after all…]

 

Jihan, who had reacted earnestly, quickly accepted the explanation once he remembered the concept.

 

[Jihan: Ah, right.]

 

[Baekya: You—you have to flip it now!]

 

Jihan jumped at Baekya’s sudden shout.

 

Pointing at the egg with his little paw-like hand, Baekya watched as Jihan hurriedly slid the spatula underneath. For some reason, though, the egg refused to budge.

 

[Jihan: Why is it tearing apart?]

 

[Baekya: Don’t tell me… did you not use oil?]

 

[Jihan: …Am I supposed to?]

 

Silence fell between the two.

 

[Baekya: It’s okay. That can happen. Let’s just toss this one.]

 

[Jihan: Okay…]

 

Looking at a disappointed Jihan, Baekya handed him a new frying pan and an egg. Then, he picked up a spatula, telling Jihan to watch closely.

 

[Baekya: First, pour the oil. When you move the pan and the oil flows smoothly like water, that’s when you crack the egg.]

 

[Jihan: Okay.]

 

[Baekya: If you wait just a bit, the whites will turn solid and white like my egg here. Then you gently slide the spatula in like this, and ta-da! You flip it.]

 

[Jihan: You’re a total chef.]

 

[Baekya: Ahem.]

 

Baekya, having succeeded in the mission on his first try, put his hands on his hips proudly.

 

– Dining Room: Make a fried egg without breaking the yolk (1/1)

 

[Baekya: Then, I’ll be going first.]

 

[Jihan: Yeah. Bye. Thanks.]

 

Having received the mission completion stamp, Baekya grabbed his card and left the kitchen. Choosing the garden as his next location, he quickened his pace while staying alert.

 

***

 

[Yooyeon’s Cam]

 

As the main dancer, Yooyeon headed straight for the banquet hall. There, he encountered Minseong, and the two began performing the mission while keeping a wary eye on each other.

 

– Banquet Hall: Ballroom Dance (0/1)

 

[Yooyeon: Hyung, are you the vampire?]

 

[Minseong: No. And even if I were, would I say yes?]

 

[Yooyeon: True.]

 

[Minseong: Just do your mission.]

 

[Yooyeon: Why? So you can kill me while I’m doing it?]

 

[Minseong: Man, you’re so paranoid. Fine, I’ll go first, so move aside.]

 

Just like the first meeting between Jihan and Baekya, these two were guarding against each other due to a lack of trust.

 

The banquet hall mission was a ‘Random Play Dance’. As content made to promote DASE’s comeback, the songs were limited to WANT ME, and NAN.

 

[Minseong: Come on, shouldn’t I get at least a little time to think?]

 

Minseong complained, having failed as soon as it started. However, the main dancer watching from the side tilted his head, seemingly unable to understand why Minseong was struggling.

 

[Yooyeon: Why can’t you do that right away? It looks easy.]

 

[Minseong: Are you and I the same?]

 

[Yooyeon: What’s so different?]

 

[Minseong: Can you be quiet? You’ll never understand my heart. Sigh… I miss Baekya.]

 

[Yooyeon: Give me the music.]

 

Minseong and Yooyeon swapped places.

 

At the request for music, the comeback title track NAN began to play in the banquet hall. Catching the chorus immediately, Yooyeon grasped his neck with both hands and tilted his chin up.

 

With his eyes closed and a slight smirk, he wore an ecstatic expression. But as the melody shifted, his gaze turned sharp and faced forward in an instant.

 

Short screams erupted here and there at the overwhelming charisma that dominated the room.

 

[Minseong: Whew~ That’s insane, seriously. Did you guys see that? That’s my dongseng. My teammate.]

 

Minseong, forgetting he was in the middle of a mission, entered audience mode and bragged about Yooyeon while admiring the dance.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, another member was in the middle of the bedroom mission. Yulmu was crawling on his knees across the bed, searching for a hair on the sheets.

 

– Bedroom: Find a hair (0/1)

 

[Yulmu: *Yes!* I hit the jackpot!]

 

After about ten minutes of searching, Yulmu shouted ‘Eureka!’ at a single strand of hair. He gripped it tightly between his thumb and index finger as if afraid of losing it, his nails turning white from the pressure.

 

[Yulmu: But what color even is this?]

 

Yulmu walked over to the light to examine the hair.

 

[Yulmu: Is it brown? Black? No… it looks like it has some red mixed in…]

 

Actually, Yulmu had initially planned to go to the garden.

 

But then he figured that out of the six missions, the most important clue would likely be a hair, so he changed his direction to the bedroom—an excellent choice.

 

[Yulmu: Ah~ If only there were one more strand.]

 

Returning to the bed, he placed the hair on the white sheet. It was hard to conclude whose it was because the color seemed to change depending on the light.

 

Just then, a shadow fell over the pondering Yulmu.

 

[Yulmu: Who’s there?]

 

Yulmu turned around at the soundless presence.

 

[Yulmu: Hieeek!]

 

The moment he confirmed the identity of the shadow, the priest’s eyes widened, and the screen turned black and white.

 

[Production Support: CAFFE ID]

[To be continued…]

 

“Aaaagh! That’s so unfair! How can they cut it off there?!”

 

Boksoong, for whom 30 minutes was nowhere near enough, vented her frustration from the music show recording by pounding on her pillow.

 

At the very least, each episode should be three hours long before she could honestly say she’d gotten enough of the members’ faces!

 

“I can tell they edited out a lot. What was there even to cut?!”

 

Boksoong turned on her social media while shouting ‘I hate editing’. As expected, her timeline was buzzing with the newly released video.

 

***

 

“Oh man~ He’s gone, he’s totally out.”

 

Yulmu pointed at Baekya, who was nodding off in his chair.

 

Because their schedule had been set for early dawn, DASE had to head straight to the broadcasting station as soon as their afternoon practice ended.

 

After finishing the dry rehearsal, the members were in the waiting room getting their hair and makeup done before recording. Namkyung looked on with a pitiful expression as he wrapped a blanket around Baekya.

 

“I’m honestly impressed he can sleep like that.”

 

Baekya, who was nodding his head but never lost his balance, had finished his hair and makeup first and was catching some sleep while sitting upright.

 

“Looking at that, maybe his balance really is natural…”

 

“Pwahaha!”

 

The fact that Baekya’s dance skills remained the same no matter how hard he practiced was one of the Top 5 Mysteries of ID.

 

As Yulmu burst into laughter at Namkyung’s monologue, Baekya woke up with a start.

 

“Huh? No! I wasn’t sleeping!”

 

The freshly-awake Baekya babbled nonsense excuses in his dazed state.

 

“Baekdo, you can sleep more. Go ahead.”

 

“No, if I sleep now my face will get puffy…”

 

“You’re cuter when you’re puffy.”

 

“…Are you crazy? Ugh, goosebumps. I’m wide awake now.”

 

Yooyeon was flustered because he had meant to say that Baekya’s face looks better on camera when it’s a bit fuller, but the words had come out wrong.

 

“Wh-what did I just say?”

 

“Our Dangbaek is cute even when he’s puffy~”

 

“I never said that?!”

 

“That’s not what he said!”

 

As his sleeve was grabbed, Yulmu had a blanket flown at him.

 

“Still basically the same thing~ Anyway, you seemed out of it earlier. You’re not hiding anything, right?”

 

Pretending to be casual, Yulmu tested the waters. As usual, the answer came back that he was perfectly fine.

 

“How many times do I have to say I’m fine? Can you please mind your own business? I’ll be the first to say it if I’m sick.”

 

“Okay~ Message received.”

 

Baekya grumbled that Yulmu apparently needed to hear that once every day before it would sink in.

 

“Besides, you guys were totally out of it in the car earlier too. My stress level is at zero right now, so I’m probably the most energetic one here!”

 

“What are you talking about~ I heard you snoring. Right, Yooyeon?”

 

“Yeah. Are you that tired?”

 

Seeing a revitalized Baekya, the two started their engine to tease the Sunfish.

 

“I don’t snore.”

 

“What’s the big deal~ People snore when they’re tired..”

 

“…Really?”

 

Falling for the prank, Baekya asked with genuine concern.

 

“I really snored?”

 

“I’m telling you, you did~”

 

Watching this fabrication unfold, Jihan felt a little sorry for him.

 

However, Baekya had known it was a prank from the start. The Hamster, who had been playing along, suddenly changed his gaze and lunged forward as soon as the scam squad let their guard down.

 

“Do you—think—I’ll—fall for it—every time?!”

 

“Aagh! Ack! Ack! Urk.”

 

The Hamster, who had become so good at pretending to be fooled, delivered merciless paw strikes to Yulmu. Four times, no less.

 

Yulmu grimaced while rubbing his arm. Having dealt with one target, the hamster immediately turned toward the next target.

 

“…You’re laughing? You’re next, you punk.”

 

“Stop!”

 

The deer, flustered by the fierce momentum, held out his palm to calm the rampaging hamster. Taking advantage of the moment the fist hesitated in the air, Yooyeon claimed his innocence.

 

“Calm down and think carefully. I didn’t say you snored, did I? I just asked if you were tired.”

 

Baekya fell for the scammer’s rhetoric. The Hamster, having calmed down a bit, thought about it carefully.

 

Come to think of it, Yooyeon hadn’t actually teased him.

 

“I just asked because you looked tired, okay? It just happened to sound worse because I was sitting next to this hyung.”

 

“…Is that so?”

 

“Of course.”

 

The cotton fists slowly lowered. Mitigating circumstances had been accepted.

 

“Hey, wait a second. This is discrimination. You’re letting him off like that? He was obviously in on it too—”

 

“Be quiet.”

 

“Ack!”

 

Yulmu, who raised an objection out of a sense of unfairness, was granted a fifth cotton-fist strike that he didn’t deserve.

 

“Stop acting up.”

 

The hamster, having conquered the waiting room, left a terrifying warning that he wouldn’t stay still if they bullied him, before returning to his seat.

 

The sensitive baby sunfish had definitely become a bit more violent than before.

 

‘Still, seeing Yulmu-cha acting like he’s in so much pain makes me wonder if I hit him too hard…’

 

When he peeked back out of guilt, Yulmu, having finished his act of being in pain, gave him a playful wink.

 

Baekya looked down at his fists and pondered seriously.

 

‘Should I beat him more?’

 

At that moment, a status window appeared.

 

[Incredible Will!]

[A new quest has arrived!]

 

It was the Point x2 Event that had appeared during K-CON last year.

 

[Q. I’m the Crazy One in this District: There can’t be two crazy people in one district!

 

No matter what it takes, beat the other members and become the one who hears ‘Crazy’, ‘Insane’, or ‘That’s crazy’ the most! Become the crazy one of this district!!

 

Let’s knock the fans’ hearts out! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و

 

– Hearing “Crazy/Insane” (0/100)

 

※ On Success: Star Points x2

However, on failure: Star Points will vanish]

 

‘This is crazy.’