Ryu Geon was truly a diligent son of Korea. He never knew how to cut corners and approached everything sincerely. Being consistently and diligently steady to the point of being boring was Ryu Geon’s strength and made him perfect for the role of leader.
“Now, let’s start with warm-ups.”
From the day it was decided they’d appear on Idol Sports Championship, Ryu Geon led the members to a nearby high school field every day. It was a place opened to local residents in the evening hours, a pretty good facility with relay tracks drawn on the field. On this field where female students would be spinning around like conveyor belt sushi during lunch time, BNCZ members practiced running.
“Stretching, staaart! One, two, three, four!”
If he had a whistle in his mouth, he would have looked like a PE teacher. Jion warmed up his body to Ryu Geon’s cadence while wondering what subtitles Eungi would put on this scene.
“Injury prevention, injury prevention. One, two, three, four.”
Actually, Jion didn’t have any assigned events at this Idol Sports Championship except for kin-ball, a mixed ball game, so he didn’t have to come out for evening exercise. In fact, Ryu Geon also showed consideration for Jion, saying it was hot and he could rest at home, but Jion insisted on coming along to exercise together, saying it was ridiculous to rest at home alone when the other members were working hard.
“Let’s loosen up the hip joints too. Now, spread your legs.”
Jinyeong also gave him considerate words disguised as nagging before going out every day, saying the teamwork wouldn’t collapse just because he rested for a bit, but in fact, Jion had another purpose. It was to monitor, no, observe Seonwoo Jin.
Although their relationship had subtly eased while assigning Idol Sports Championship events, Seonwoo Jin and Jion still barely talked to each other, used separate beds, and hadn’t properly made up. Since neither thought they were in the wrong, they made no effort to improve the relationship.
Really, to be having such a long cold war because they didn’t choose each other as best friends well past the age of twenty.
For Jion, who was actually over thirty, it seemed too childish and pathetic, but after regressing and becoming young physically, his mental age seemed to have degraded somewhat to match his physical age. Jion was determined that he would absolutely not soothe Seonwoo Jin unless Seonwoo Jin apologized or approached him first.
Taking care of the kid has its limits, anyway we’re the same age in terms of physical age, so why should I be the only one yielding forever?
His mental level was about ten years younger than his biological age. But at the same time, Jion was afraid that if he really acted coldly and ignored him, Seonwoo Jin’s latent player tendencies might be unleashed, so he couldn’t stay far away from him.
Always sitting right next to him when moving, at a distance where the backs of their hands would bump if they moved a bit more when walking, spacing where their pinkies would brush when sitting side by side…… In the morning, he even pretended to oversleep together and waited so Seonwoo Jin wouldn’t eat alone before eating, so the members didn’t even care about their prolonged fight.
Rather, their subtle distance and cold war brought different worries to the members, and while Seonwoo Jin went to run on the track as a warm-up, Jinyeong approached Jion, who was resting on the bench, and sneakily asked.
“You guys, by any chance, are you keeping your distance because someone said you’re too homo-like, that you stick together too much for show?”
“What?”
Jion looked at Jinyeong in bewilderment. But Jinyeong’s expression was serious.
“No, before you used to be like ‘our Woojin, our Woojin, Jion-ah, Jion-ah’ all the time, but lately it’s quiet……”
“……Wouldn’t it make more sense to suspect we fought and couldn’t make up?”
At Jion’s question, Jinyeong shrugged.
“No, you keep sticking together…… I was worried that maybe you guys close the door to your room and then…… you know.”
“Then what. What do we.”
“No…… just……”
Instead of describing specific actions, Jinyeong hugged his own shoulders, twisted his waist back and forth, and made a comical expression.
“Geez.”
Jion raised his fist to threaten Jinyeong, but Jinyeong just giggled and twisted his body more noisily, playing around without being scared at all. But soon Jinyeong pretended to straighten up, stopped joking, and moved far away from Jion. It couldn’t be that he was belatedly scared. Jion turned around and quickly realized the reason.
“……”
“……”
Having finished his warm-up who knows when, Seonwoo Jin was looking at the two from afar. In the past, he would have run over without hiding his jealousy asking what the two were doing and tried to squeeze his butt between them to sit down. Seonwoo Jin watched the two until Jinyeong left, then turned around and went to Eungi instead.
“……What the.”
If you’re going to be jealous, be clearly jealous, and if not, don’t be at all. I wish he’d make his direction clear. Jion grumbled to himself.
But Seonwoo Jin’s heart wasn’t comfortable after turning around either. Unlike Jion, who was feeling hurt while somewhat maintaining his pride, Seonwoo Jin was immersed in more complicated thoughts than Jion.
Unlike Jion, who still felt a strong attraction to Seonwoo Jin but hadn’t properly realized that he liked him, Seonwoo Jin had now almost accepted his feelings of liking Jion.
He’s the same sex and a member, and sexual identity and stuff like that is too difficult so I don’t know. Seonwoo Jin simply liked Jion. That’s why his head hurt.
I like him, but he doesn’t seem to like me the way I like him.
Seonwoo Jin was quicker to notice than Jion thought. People with affection deficiency were originally ghostly at recognizing who liked them and who didn’t. And also how far they could stretch their legs. And Seonwoo Jin instinctively knew that the current Jion was not someone he could stretch his legs out with.
What if I confess I like him and he rejects me saying he doesn’t feel that way? What if he distances himself from me? What if I’m abandoned again?
Seonwoo Jin, whose heart had become complicated, unnecessarily went back and forth in front of Eungi’s camera, pretending to be interested in filming. Otherwise, he kept looking toward where Jion was, and it seemed like the other members would notice his feelings.
I want Jion’s attention, I want to be cared for, I want to be loved, but I don’t want these feelings to be discovered yet.
Inept and clumsy Seonwoo Jin was that troublesome and annoying an existence.
Time passed like that and the filming day for Idol Sports Championship approached. They heard that other agencies even provided special lessons for unique events like archery and ssireum, but there was no way Song Route, who didn’t even know how to book broadcasts or commercials, would have that kind of sense.
The members, who had no expectations from the company, weren’t disappointed by the almost nonexistent support, but on the day itself, they realized the company’s indifference was excessive and got a little angry.
“We don’t have a fan section?”
“Ah, sorry. I was supposed to announce that on the fan cafe and receive applications, but I missed it.”
The manager made an awkward expression seeing the cheering sections of other idols filling the field. Primarily it was the fault of the filming crew who made the participation offer late and didn’t inform them about the fan section and other preparation matters, but it was a mistake that wouldn’t have happened with a little attention or experience.
“No, then if members happen to win gold medals or something, what should we film? Faces? Continuously?”
They said they’d show the support banners prepared by fans when members won medals, but BNCZ had nothing to show. Since there were no fans, there were no cheering sounds either, so they’d have to extract cheering shouts from when other teams competed and insert them. The manager made an awkward expression and kept bowing his head at the PD’s irritation, but as soon as the PD left, his apologetic look disappeared.
“Anyway, even if we gathered your fans, there wouldn’t be many, so we couldn’t have hung support banners or anything.”
At the manager’s words, the members’ expressions darkened. BNCZ had never been popular, so they didn’t know how much online fan cafe membership and offline firepower were proportional. If they’d known what their fan mobilization power was, they wouldn’t have been lowballed by the manager like this.
“……Let’s just do our best!”
Ryu Geon patted the shoulders of the dejected members. But there was still a fact they didn’t know. That all the fans who currently liked BNCZ and were watching them all had oppas from the past and present. And since they were seasoned in idol fandom, they were used to the hopeless work of nugu agencies like Song Route, so even though there was no Idol Sports Championship appearance announcement on the fan cafe, they did what they had to do on their own.
“Ah, the kids came out.”
Hayeon whispered to her fandom friend sitting next to her, BengYeoju. It had already been 6 hours since they had clocked in at Venom’s fan cheering section. And though the members didn’t know, the moment the five of them came out onto the field with name tags, small murmurs arose from fan sections here and there. Each tried not to let their fandom notice their wavering and change of heart, but they couldn’t hold back the sounds coming from their hearts. The women sitting next to Hayeon also whispered after seeing BNCZ.
“Hey, that’s him, him. Let’s die together.”
“Not ‘let’s die together’ but ‘all die’.”
“They’d want to go together, right. The tallest kid next to him is Seheung?”
“Seems right. He’s more baby-like than I thought?”
Idol Sports Championship recording start time was 6 AM. And the filming end time was 2 AM. Hayeon lifted her chin, pretending not to hear anything.
Now, admire our BNCZ’s noble faces all day long.
