I’m a Genius Idol but my Passive is Sunfish – Chapter 99

Author: LyraDhani

Baekya, pretending to get water, got up and passed behind Yooyeon.

A red head slipped into the frame of the deer who was deep in selfie mode. Since it was such a prominent color, Yooyeon noticed immediately.

Pausing his photo-taking, he waited for Baekya to pass.

‘Too bad….’

Why stop when it was going so well?

Suppressing a sigh, Baekya planned a second attempt. This time, he’d linger nearby and jump in right when Yooyeon was about to press the shutter.

Click—.

However, due to a miscalculation of distance, only his body was captured. Naturally, the achievement rate remained at 0%.

“Why do you keep lurking behind me?”

So quick-witted.

The fox-like guy was sharp.

‘So that’s why fans call him Fox.’

Come to think of it, he did seem to resemble a fox more than a deer.

“I-I wasn’t.”

When the sunfish played dumb, Yooyeon’s eyes narrowed. Just one word, ‘let’s take a picture together’, would have sufficed, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it, leading to this situation. Extremely introverted people had many hang-ups.

“Wanna take a picture together?”

“No?! Why would I?”

“…Aren’t you hating it too much?”

Turning his head away, Yooyeon didn’t ask twice. What a manly man.

‘Darn it… if he asked just once more, I was going to pretend I couldn’t refuse and take it.’

Baekya bit his lip, looking utterly regretful after kicking away a golden opportunity with his own foot.

‘Ah, forget it. Whatever! Not doing it!’

Still, unable to help his disappointment, the sunfish’s gaze turned to the floor. As Baekya was returning to his seat with listless steps, suddenly a presence drew near and snatched Baekya’s neck.

It was the deer’s ambush.

“Gotcha, you little rascal!”

“Ack!”

Staggering, Baekya found himself trapped in Yooyeon’s arms, eyes wide.

Click—

In that fleeting moment, the surprised baby peach was captured.

“Yay~ I’m submitting this as a photocard.”

“Hey! You can’t just take it out of nowhere!”

“If I told you, you’d run. Do you think I’ve only known you for a day or two?”

The single dimple felt like it was mocking him. Furthermore, inside the phone held out for him to see, a flaming sunfish was making a foolish expression.

“No! I don’t like this one.”

“I like it though~”

When Baekya tried to snatch the phone, Yooyeon raised his arm high and stood on his tiptoes.

“Give it back! You’re not going to?”

He tried reaching out desperately, but was short a few centimeters.

After hopping a few times under Yooyeon, the sunfish started to get angry. His face turned bright red, and when he huffed sharply, his bangs fluttered.

‘Should I hit him?’

Baekya’s cotton fist clenched tightly.

Come to think of it, the status window didn’t even pop up. The sunfish felt even worse.

‘So it won’t count because it wasn’t a photo I took myself, is that it?’

Not his first time dealing with it, but this trash game was ridiculously bad at explaining things. There was a reason it was failing.

Once again reminded that he was a user of a garbage game, Baekya swung his fist.

“Ugh!”

A surprise attack with a cotton fist pierced the guard in a moment of carelessness. Shocked, Yooyeon’s arm reflexively bent. A cotton fist was still a fist, after all.

“Don’t get cocky.”

The deer, defeated by the hamster’s trivial paw strike, had his phone futilely snatched away.

[Delete selected item?]

▶ Confirm

“Hey! You really—”

Yooyeon frowned as the two-shot photocard flew away right before his eyes.

“It’s my photo, why delete it?”

At Yooyeon’s serious face, the sunfish’s momentum dampened a little. Only then did the sunfish realize his action might have been offensive.

Baekya, glancing at him, returned the phone and answered, swallowing dry saliva.

“…L-Let’s take it again.”

“Again?”

“Yeah.”

Nodding hurriedly, Baekya brought his own phone and held it out.

“Instead, let’s take it with this. With mine.”

He was appalled when asked to take a picture together just moments ago, and now he was meekly offering his phone. Yooyeon scanned Baekya with suspicious eyes. However, he couldn’t find anything particularly suspicious.

“Fine, then.”

Yooyeon tried to take Baekya’s phone. But the sunfish shook his head, insisting he would take it himself.

“I’ll do it. Stand here.”

As Baekya extended his arm, the two appeared on the screen.

Click—.

[‘Take a photo with another person’ Completed!

※ Achievement Rate 20%]

“Oh! Done!”

Yooyeon had been used.

Seeing Baekya smiling brightly at a two-shot that came out much worse than the surprise shot he took, Yooyeon frowned.

“Hey, wait a minute. You just press it without one, two, three, or anything?”

“…Huh?”

Yooyeon was genuinely dumbfounded.

“I-It came out well, I think…?”

“Are your eyes twisted or something?”

Yooyeon turned on his phone and restored the photo Baekya deleted. It didn’t even take 10 seconds.

“…What? How?!”

“You know you’re careless, right? If you don’t want to get robbed blind someday, get it together.”

Baekya was as bad with machines as Jihan.

Ignoring the surprised sunfish, Yooyeon placed the photo he took and the photo on Baekya’s phone side by side. It was Selfie of Hope vs. Despair.

Baekya wanted to refute, but he was also a person with a conscience and eyes.

“…….”

“Nothing to say, right?”

“…Take it again.”

“That goes without saying. But let’s see your photos first.”

“…What photos.”

“The ones for the photocard. Seeing how you take photos, I don’t think they’ll work. I need to see for myself.”

Yooyeon handed the phone back, saying fans might clutch the back of their necks if they pulled Baekya’s photocard.

“Hurry.”

“Who are you to boss me around about my photos….”

The sunfish grumbled while searching through his album. His urgent hand movements suggested he was looking for a photo that was at least less terrible.

He deliberated between the blue clothes and the yellow clothes. Cold sweat trickled down his back because of Yooyeon watching from across.

“There. Good enough?”

A flash of yellow hoodie Baekya passed through Yooyeon’s vision. It was brief, but Yooyeon saw it clearly.

“Wow…….”

Yooyeon covered his mouth with a clenched fist, utterly speechless. That was how bad it was.

“Okay… sure. Let’s pretend that’s acceptable. What about the other one? There are two.”

Slanted eyes glared at Yooyeon. Baekya’s plan to show just one roughly and be done with it, but now that plan was ruined.

“Ah, come on. Just look at this one.”

“No need. I can already tell. Just different clothes, right? I’ve seen your selfies plenty.”

The sunfish became 2,000 won more expensive (Tl note: a Korean idiom meaning someone became haughty/hard to deal with).

Was it just his feeling that he was being scolded? Pouting, Baekya grumbled once again.

“It’s my photo, not yours….”

It was a small sound, barely audible, but the deer was an animal with keen hearing.

“It’s your photo, but our album. This won’t do. Come here.”

“Why. No. Not buying it.”

However, Baekya’s opinion didn’t matter.

“From now on, you’re in special training.”

* * *

“Gasp!”

Startled, Baekya opened his eyes wide.

Thump. Thump.

The sound of his heart beating resonated throughout his body. He’d been sleeping deeply—or so he thought—before jolting awake like this.

‘What was that?’

Seeing the faint light through the slightly parted curtains, it seemed to be still dawn.

Unable to calm his heart, Baekya sat up and checked his status window.

▷ Stress : 17%

“It’s the same…?”

With his heart still pounding, he started to worry slightly if he would see a ‘sudden death while sleeping!’ ending.

▷ Current Star Points : 4

Except for the recently completed <I Didn’t Know My Face Was This Colorful> and the practice room quest, wthere hadn’t been many ways to earn points—meaning the last few days were mostly spending.

True to his sunfish nature, his sensitive body had been sending warning alerts throughout comeback prep. It was extremely fortunate that points had accumulated because there wasn’t much reason to use the gacha.

In the early days of synchronization, he used to spend 2 points to make it 0% even if it just exceeded 40%. Nowadays, he had grown bold and would leave it even up to 60%.

Lv.11 Baekya (Synchronizing)

Visual : A

Vocal : S

Dance : C

Talent : A

The info window, which he hadn’t seen in a while, was peaceful. Of course, excluding Dance.

It seemed harder to pull a proper dance skill in this game than to survive.

‘By any chance… did they rig the gacha probabilities or something?’

No matter how much he pulled, that one skill never appeared. A perfectly reasonable suspicion.

Moreover, looking at the status window floating in the air felt strangely, no, too blatantly unrealistic, making him pinch his cheek without thinking.

“Ah.”

It hurt.

Perhaps he pinched too hard, the stinging sensation didn’t disappear easily. Rubbing his cheek with a sullen face, Baekya climbed down from the bed. Sleep had completely vanished.

Quietly opening the door, Baekya came out, carefully closing it so Cheong wouldn’t wake up. Heading to the sofa, Baekya picked up the overturned tablet and saw a paused vlog video. It seemed someone had paused while monitoring.

But a thumbnail at the bottom caught his eye.

“Oh? The teaser is out.”

It seemed to have been uploaded at midnight.

When he clicked the thumbnail, the screen refreshed, and the video played.

[DASE ‘NAN’ MV Teaser #1]

Gloomy wind sound.

Paper attached to a brick building fluttering in the wind.

Step. Step.

Footsteps were heard beyond the thick fog, and a figure appeared and tore off the poster.

[WANTED]

A recently issued wanted poster. The face of an unfamiliar woman stared back.

The camera, which had stayed behind the figure’s shoulder, slowly zoomed out and moved to the front.