Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus Chapter 111

Just why was Baek Suhyeon so excited?

 

‘What even is ‘breathing-energy-breakfast, breathing-energy-lunch, breathing-energy-dinner, and breathing-energy-snack’? And why has he been ‘Jegal hyung’ this and ‘Jegal hyung that’ ever since we moved into the dorms?’

 

Honestly, I didn’t even want to know.

 

The only thing I knew was that those bizarre terms Baek Suhyeon had recently become obsessed with were phrases that often appeared in martial arts novels, and that Jegal Hwi’s surname, Jegal, was one of those great clan names that frequently showed up in those stories.

 

In fact, knowing that much alone already irritated me. It wasn’t like I learned it because I wanted to. I just happened to overhear Baek Suhyeon blathering on like a runaway train as soon as we entered the dorm.

 

I’d never intentionally paid attention, yet his constant chatter had become so relentless that words I’d never cared to remember had somehow been burned into my brain. I knew he was talkative…

 

‘But lately… hasn’t it gotten way too excessive?’

 

Yeah. Lately, it felt borderline unbearable.

 

Of course, I knew why he acted like that. Baek Suhyeon hated being alone to an extreme degree… so it wasn’t strange that his energy spiked with the sudden start of dorm life. There were friends here, another friend there. On top of that, we lived together every single day and were practically never apart. For a human being who was hard to distinguish from a Golden Retriever, this place was probably paradise.

 

It was a little baffling that he seemed to feel an odd sense of familiarity toward Jegal Hwi just because of his surname, ‘Jegal’, but unexpectedly, Jegal Hwi had been humoring him, which only seemed to make Baek Suhyeon even happier.

 

Most importantly, Fantasia’s concept had struck a chord with him…. So his over-the-top excitement felt somewhat inevitable.

 

Right, the only problem was that Jegal Hwi and I were the ones suffering the stress.

 

Jegal Hwi was already scowling, stuffing his earphones into his ears. As if he had some sort of obsession with cleanliness, he was even vigorously scrubbing the spot where Baek Suhyeon had been sitting moments ago with wet wipes. He was probably suspicious of Baek Suhyeon’s hygiene, considering the guy had probably never spent half a day of his life cleaning up after himself.

 

In fact, Baek Suhyeon’s bed was notably filthier than ours. No, everything that could be considered his territory was filthy. Clothes were strewn about randomly, and weird dolls and incomprehensible merchandise were scattered across his bed.

 

Even compared to Kim Taeyeol’s room—which looked like a bomb had gone off in it—Suhyeon’s area held its own. Honestly, I couldn’t understand how he managed to sleep in there.

 

By comparison, my area was relatively tidy. Since I only had the bare essentials, there wasn’t much luggage to begin with, but I still made an effort to keep my blankets folded.

 

And Jegal Hwi….

 

‘He’s too clean, and that’s the problem.’

 

There wasn’t a single speck of dust to be seen in his area. This was exactly why Jegal Hwi reacted so sensitively to Baek Suhyeon.

 

Whether Baek Suhyeon noticed the sharp glare ‘Jegal hyung’ was directing at him or not, the guy remained blissfully incapable of reading the room as he continued spouting nonsense.

 

“Sigh… But Jegal hyung, Unha.”

 

“…….”

 

“You know, about my concept.”

 

“…….”

 

“The more I think about it, wouldn’t Contractor of the Dark Spirits have been a much cooler title?”

 

‘He’s seriously getting on my nerves.’

 

“I’m a bit dissatisfied with coming out as someone only contracted with the Water and Wind Spirits. Shouldn’t they have at least let me contract with the Fire Spirit? It would have been better if I had contracts with all four Great Spirits….”

 

‘Seriously. Why the hell does that even matter?’

 

After the classes were decided, he threw a fit because he didn’t like being an Elementalist; then, once that was settled, he threw another fit because he didn’t like the specific spirits he was contracted with.

 

I had never imagined that after making the debut lineup, we’d be having serious discussions about nonsense like this. I began to feel a surge of resentment, thinking that if I had won the ladder climb and shared a room with Joo Wooyoung, I might not have ended up in this hellish environment.

 

‘No. Even if I’d shared a room with Joo Wooyoung… I probably wouldn’t have had much peace either.’

 

Because of the person who treated this room like his own, constantly drifting in and out….

 

“Unha!!”

 

Jung Taehee.

 

‘Please, just let me rest. Seriously.’

 

The room was already small, and with four people inside, there wasn’t even space to move. Not long afterward, Kim Taeyeol joined us too, bringing the number of people squeezed into this tiny room up to five. Since Jegal Hwi refused to let anyone touch his bed, three people ended up sitting on my narrow mattress.

 

“…….”

 

“…….”

 

Lee Unha was a person who valued his own personal space, so I hated this environment. I suddenly felt envious of the room Joo Wooyoung and Kim Haejun shared. It was an ideal sanctuary where quiet music played, all belongings were neatly organized, and they only engaged in small talk when necessary.

 

“I was a bit worried, but the reaction is better than I thought. Right, Unha?”

 

“My photo really makes me look like an Elementalist, Unha.”

 

“But is this really okay? Lee Unha? The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it feels. F*ck, <Fantasia> my foot… Ah. Sorry. I cursed again. But I can’t help it in this situation, you know?”

 

“Jegal hyung. what music are you listening to? Jegal hyung?! Are you listening to our songs? Take your earphones out for a sec!”

 

“…….”

 

‘Damn it. Seriously.’

 

“…….”

 

‘I should have picked a concept like Jegal Hwi from the start.’

 

Blunt, unresponsive when annoyed… just doing his own thing his own way. Looking at him desperately guarding his own space, his suffering seemed similar to mine, but at this moment… I was jealous. I was so jealous of him.

 

“I’m getting stressed. Sigh… Should we eat some tteokbokki?”

 

“…….”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“…….”

 

“Aren’t you dieting?”

 

“That’s only for Taeyeol hyung. The rest of us are fine. Let’s just make today a cheat day! Cheat day!”

 

“But the showcase is….”

 

“Let’s just eat today. Actually, I already ordered it. It’ll be here in 3 minutes. Wooyoung hyung! Haejun hyung! Come eat tteokbokki!!! Let’s eat while we have a meeting!!!!”

 

Suddenly, Baek Suhyeon opened the door and shouted into the living room, prompting Joo Wooyoung and Kim Haejun’s door to open.

 

“A meeting?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“What meeting? Was there something to discuss?”

 

“Just a meeting. Ah! Jegal hyung, you come too, quickly.”

 

“I’m not eating….”

 

“I said we’re having a meeting!!”

 

Jegal Hwi’s voice, thick with dissatisfaction, was naturally ignored.

 

“…….”

 

“…….”

 

Unable to refuse after hearing the word meeting, he reluctantly got to his feet, and after Baek Suhyeon grabbed him by the arm, all seven of us gathered in the cramped living room.

 

Even while we huddled around the living room table, the chatter didn’t stop. Voices saying, ‘I’m not eating’, ‘Where’s the soda?’, and ‘Aren’t we going to get scolded tomorrow?’ filled the air.

 

“Let them scold us all they want. They know perfectly well we’re stressed because of them. If they can’t even understand this much, that’s the real problem.”

 

Kim Taeyeol, who claimed he wouldn’t eat a late-night snack for the sake of the showcase, was the first one to greet the tteokbokki. Jegal Hwi, dragged in by the word meeting, was forced to listen. Jung Taehee and Baek Suhyeon were busy setting up the delivery. Joo Wooyoung and Kim Haejun brought cups and poured drinks for everyone.

 

“Ah. I need the bathroom.”

 

“Wait a minute. Let me go first, hyung.”

 

The members lined up verbally to use the single bathroom.

 

“Didn’t you order too little? There are seven of us.”

 

“Come on. We have to manage ourselves to prepare for the showcase. Since Jegal Hyung said he wasn’t eating anyway, let’s just treat this like a tasting.”

 

We just shared trivial talk like usual.

 

No, it wasn’t entirely trivial. Sure, terrible jokes made up a good portion of the conversation, but lately we’d been talking seriously about the concept a lot too. Although it felt like we were repeating the same things over and over, I figured it was their way of relieving stress. This was the only place they could secretly trash the agency or the producer, after all.

 

“But seriously, is this really okay? I honestly can’t tell whether those bastards at The World have any idea what they’re doing. We still have no clue how our music video is going to turn out… It feels like we filmed a lot, but honestly, the only thing I remember is standing in front of a green screen…”

 

“…….”

 

“I don’t know much about music videos, but in the end… that means it’s all going to be CG and special effects…. Can they even finish that on time? Am I the only one worried that it’ll turn out looking ridiculous? Don’t you think so, Unha?”

 

“Calm down. I’m sure The World has something in mind. Even though Crown was involved in the middle, The World was the one originally in charge of our project… Maybe they prepared the parts that needed extra time in advance. They’ve got just as much riding on this as we do, so I don’t think they made this gamble recklessly. Don’t you think so too, Wooyoung hyung?”

 

“Yeah. It’s not good to jump to conclusions before we’ve even seen the results. And like I’ve always said, talking about it among ourselves isn’t going to change anything. Right now, I think the best thing we can do is trust the staff who are working so hard for us and repay that trust by giving our all in preparing for what’s left.”

 

“Isn’t that just a bit too cliché?”

 

‘But it’s also the right answer.’

 

Other than waiting, there was nothing else we could do.

 

Of course, no matter how true that was, I couldn’t maintain an attitude like Joo Wooyoung’s all the time. I didn’t mean we should resort to force or anything like that. I simply meant that the people who had complaints also deserved to be heard. I wasn’t saying this because I was secretly on Kim Taeyeol’s side. Externally, Lee Unha was neutral, after all.

 

I just couldn’t ignore the people who were dissatisfied in this kind of conflict. Telling them to just shut up was exactly the sort of thing you should avoid in communal living. Mediating opinions to some extent was a necessary virtue for a leader guiding this team.

 

“But honestly, I agree with Taeyeol hyung too. It was the same during Idol Classism, but this is so, so different from what I imagined that it’s giving me cognitive dissonance.”

 

“Right?”

 

“Honestly, if I could have run away, I would have. Well, thinking positively, we might get some game commercials. And… like we keep saying, the real key is how the MV teaser turns out. Let’s just wait until then.”

 

“Yeah. We have to…. Instead of this, should we put something on TV?”

 

“Let’s watch what we were watching yesterday. The anime… what was it… something-something Hero Knight Adventures.”

 

Baek Suhyeon responded enthusiastically to my suggestion.

 

Overall, it was giving me a headache, but this was a snapshot of daily life in the <Fantasia> dorm after the conclusion of Idol Classism.