I’m a Genius Idol but my Passive is Sunfish – Chapter 49

Author: LyraDhani

“Animals……. First, a sparrow sound.”

The classroom went quiet.

“Relax, relax.”

Encouraged by Sujae, Baekya gathered his courage.

“Chirp chirp chirp.”

A massive silence flowed for a moment. 1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. Baekya’s eyes darted around at the persistent silence even though the talent show was over.

‘Should I do it one more time…?’

The sunfish’s eyes were rolling all over the place. Eying the atmosphere, he made the sound once more.

“Chirp chirp chirp.”

Then, laughter that couldn’t be held back burst out from here and there.

“Pffft! Ah, he’s too cute!”

Yeongsam, who was laughing while hitting the desk, stood up. Approaching the podium, he hugged Baekya.

“You’re really something. Don’t you want to join our team?”

At the senior trying to smoothly recruit him, Jihan politely detached Yeongsam’s arm.

“It’s because he’s our team’s Red Bean.”

Jihan delivered the ‘Bungeo-ppang red bean’ joke with the most serious face.

Meanwhile, at the back of the classroom, there were three cast members who still couldn’t escape from Baekya’s sparrow impression.

“A sparrow is, gasp, isn’t it too honest?”

“Ah, I’m tearing up. Who praised him for that?”

“Puhahaha! Do something other than a sparrow!”

Saying it was strangely charming, Hodin asked for another animal sound.

‘Something other than a sparrow…?’

Baekya answered cautiously.

“…A lion?”

“Lion, let’s go!”

At the National MC’s request, Baekya prepared the lion this time. The sunfish worked hard at anything he was told to do.

“Roar!”

Clenching his nose bridge, he opened his mouth wide.

[Welcome to the animal kingdom]

[A brave hamster]

In his own mind, he even made the expression of a roaring lion, but in the eyes of a third party, it was just a yawning hamster.

“Pfft!”

Yulmu, who was trying his best to hold it in, eventually burst into laughter too. Baekya had guessed people would laugh at his personal talent, but he didn’t know they’d laugh this loudly.

‘Should I have been a comedian?’

While Baekya was reflecting on himself, the members and panelists calmed down.

“Why am I tearing up at this. Anyway, it’s good to see you working hard.”

Sujae wiped away tears with his finger.

“By the way, didn’t your homeroom teacher give you something to hand to the class president?”

As the talent show time ended, Daeyoon looked for the admission application.

“Ah! One moment.”

As Minseong opened the backpack Baekya was wearing, Baekya quietly offered his back so Minseong could take out the folder. A moment later, Minseong took out a square file and brought it to Hodin.

“Name: DASE!”

Hodin read with a thunderous voice.

“Affiliation! ……Doll Factory?”

At him asking where this was and if it was a factory that made dolls, Cheong corrected him with fluent pronunciation.

“Nope. Doll Factory. A place that makes dolls! We all came out of the factory.”

“Ah~ Did you escape (tal-chul)?”

“…Mask dance (tal-chum)? No. I can’t do that.”

“Huh?”

“But I saw it on YouTube.”

[Communication Error]

[Let’s see the mask dance next time…]

[DASE’s official future aspirations revealed!]

“Minseong’s dream is to be a singer. But you already achieved that, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I already did.”

“Ah, is it that you wanted to be a solo singer or something?”

Sujae teased him, asking if he’d written ‘singer’ again despite debuting in a group. Minseong waved his hands awkwardly.

“No. I really love my members right now, and I want to be together with them forever. I truly mean that.”

[Close-knit DASE]

[Next is Yulmu’s future aspiration]

“Yulmu’s future aspiration! Yulmu!”

Hodin asked if his dream was to be born as an edible Yulmu and become Yulmu-cha. Yulmu answered slyly, saying he forgot to write ‘DASE’ in front.

“DASE’s Yulmu is my future aspiration~”

“That’s you.”

“Yeah. I’ve already achieved it too.”

Daeyoon commented that DASE seemed to have strong self-love overall.

“Then you’ve also already achieved your dream. Next is Jihan.”

Jihan’s future aspiration was a teacher.

“Sounds like you studied pretty hard in school?”

“I did my best.”

When Hodin asked about his grades, Jihan thought briefly, then answered without hesitation.

“2nd in class?”

The classroom buzzed at the words that he’d been 1st exactly once.

“Whoa~ While being a trainee?”

“Yeah. While going to the company.”

Yeongsam admired Jihan’s answer, saying it was truly incredible. Knowing the schedule of trainees better than anyone, he shook his head, saying that balancing academics and debut preparation was something that really required grinding one’s life.

“I sincerely respect you.”

“Thanks.”

Next was Baek-ya.

“Baekya’s future aspiration is Daeyoon.”

“Me? Why me?”

When Hodin asked if he dreamed of being a national athlete, Baekya shook his head.

“That would be great too, but I want to be tall like Daeyoon.”

“How tall are you?”

[Baekya’s height: 175.2 cm]

[Not short at all]

Hodin asked back if he wasn’t actually slightly on the taller side than the average height.

“Right. I’m not saying I’m dissatisfied with my height now.”

However, because the members were so tall, he said he looked relatively small.

“I have a desire to become similar to them.”

Yeongsam comforted Baekya.

“No. You’re more charming as you are now. Of course, you’d be cool if you were tall, but the balance and image fit when the six of you are together is so good.”

He guessed the company probably considered all that when forming them. Half right, half wrong. Since Baekya was a member who joined urgently at the last minute.

“Thanks for saying that.”

[This time, Yooyeon’s future aspiration]

“Yooyeon is… a princess?”

“Right. I wanted to be a princess when I was little.”

Hodin said he’d seen kids who wanted to be princes, but a princess was a first.

“I have two older sisters.”

Because of that, he said he’d watched many magical girl transformations or cartoons with princesses since he was little….

“My sisters wore pretty shoes with ribbons, but I only had sneakers, so I once cried saying I wanted to wear those too.”

“So do you still want to be a princess now?”

“Well~ No. Thinking about it, I want to be a prince now.”

“Why? Do your dreams change that easily?”

“Because now the fans are the princesses?”

As if on cue, his dimples popped out.

“Wow~ He planned that! Totally planned!”

Daeyoon, flustered because his heart fluttered despite being a man, shouted toward Yooyeon.

“Oh~ Not bad?”

As Minseong held out his hand toward Yooyeon, they naturally high-fived.

“It’s the last one. Cheong is… a person? Are you saying you’re not a human yet or something?”

The members, except Cheong, burst out laughing at Sujae’s wordplay.

[????]

[The only foreigner who didn’t understand]

“Why? What was that just now?”

Yooyeon explained in detail. However, as expected, he didn’t grasp the deep context and a different answer came out.

“Right, I’m not a person.”

If you were to pick a member who was more sincere than anyone about this concept, it would probably be Cheong.

“I’m a doll right now. So later, I want to become a human.”

“Then what do you want to do most when you become a person?”

Sujae asked.

“Um.”

As Cheong contemplated, his eyes met Baekya’s, and he answered brightly.

“I want to raise a hamster!”

“……Why are you saying that while looking at me?”

“Because you look like one!”

[Next, time to look at strengths and weaknesses]

“Why is Minseong’s strength blank? Weakness: Weak mentality.”

“Right. I think my mental strength is a bit weak.”

At his answer that he wanted to become mentally stronger like the other members, Sujae proposed a solution.

“Then how about going into some mountain and doing mental cultivation? Gathering vitality under a waterfall.”

“Woooooooh!”

Sujae demonstrated dramatically, and Minseong laughed and played along.

“Then let’s have the members say one of Minseong’s strengths instead.”

Hodin said since he was the leader, if he usually took good care of the members, good answers would come—otherwise, he’d just get two weaknesses.

“Minseong’s strengths are his leadership and consideration.”

Jihan answered calmly. Sujae, whose nostrils were flaring because he was looking for a joke, suddenly became quiet.

“Why do I strangely end up listening to whatever he says…?”

Sujae said he couldn’t refute Jihan’s words because his voice carried weight. Daeyoon also agreed.

“Next is Yulmu! Yulmu’s strength is that he’s strong.”

“Right. I’m strong.”

“How strong? Stronger than Daeyoon?”

Sujae snarked, putting his friend forward. On the other hand, Daeyoon said he’d just worked hard at basketball and his arm strength wasn’t that great. However, a match for the two was already being set up.

A desk placed in the middle. Yulmu and Daeyoon, who had similar physiques, sat facing each other across the desk. A tense psychological warfare was felt the moment they clasped hands.

[Breathtaking tension]

[Who is the final winner?]

“Well, ready!”

Yulmu, usually playful, wore an unusually serious expression.

“Ready~ Go!”

At the whistle, the match began. Veins popped out on Yulmu’s forearms and hands as he rolled up his sleeves.

The two seemed locked, unmoving.

[Evenly matched]

[Yulmu pushing, Daeyoon holding on!]

Then Yulmu threw a decisive move, pulling closer to his body with more strength. Daeyoon grit his teeth and tried to hold on, but the victory began to slowly tilt.

“Whoaaaaa!”

In the end, Yulmu won as the back of Daeyoon’s hand touched the desk. DASE surrounded Yulmu, celebrating as if they’d won themselves.

[Continuing with Yulmu’s weakness]

“Yulmu’s weakness: Strong competitiveness.”

“Right. This kid’s competitiveness is no joke.”

Member testimony followed. At the question of how strong it was, Yooyeon said with a slightly fed-up face.

“There was a game that went around among the members for a while, where you throw a water bottle and try to make it stand. I managed to do it in one go.”

Yooyeon shivered, saying they’d once made a bet on it and after that, Yulmu wouldn’t stop until he succeeded, forcing everyone to watch.

“It got so bad that he even came into the shower to throw bottles— mmph!”

“Stop! That’s enough!”

Minseong quickly covered Yooyeon’s mouth.

“Is this okay for broadcast?”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

Yeongsam countered nonchalantly.

“But Daeyoon, if you’d won today, Yulmu would have come all the way to your house to ask for an arm wrestling match.”

Yulmu affirmed with a smiling face at Sujae’s words.

“Right. That could happen.”

Next, Jihan’s strength: Whistling.

“You already showed that as your talent earlier.”