Powered by the heated cheering, Jinyeong rushed out quickly at the start and achieved 5th place, the best result they’d expected. Even if he didn’t get on the podium, it was a high-ranking result considering there were four pre-selected athletes.
“That’s a shame!”
“The one who got 4th place would be the most disappointed.”
Jinyeong patted the head of Eungi, who was stamping his feet, and grinned.
“I did my best!”
That was true. Jinyeong had shown his best, and the refreshing smile caught on camera gave everyone a good feeling. The proof was the voices cheering for BNCZ that could be heard at the relay race that started right after.
“BNCZ fighting!”
At the cheering sound coming from somewhere, the members who were stretching widened their eyes. Since there was no fan section, not knowing where to respond, the members spun around in place flustered, then soon bent their waists and bowed toward all four directions, expressing gratitude for the humanitarian support.
“Don’t get hurt!”
Jion, who was left alone while the relay was proceeding, waved his hand widely at the members and shouted. Seeing Jion hopping and cheering for them, the members laughed and waved back. Soon the preliminaries started, and Jion, who had become alone, looked around and found an empty spot to shrink into and sat hugging his knees.
And Hayeon, who was watching Jion from afar in Venom’s fan section, let out a sigh.
“Ah…… cute……”
If only some benevolent master-nim would take a few pictures of our Jion…… No, I should have recruited some data sellers in advance…… Hayeon resolved to search for data sellers who would snap BNCZ once the schedule was over and eagerly captured Jion’s cute appearance with her eyes.
“Our Jion must be bored alone.”
“Right. He must have stayed because he can’t run?”
“Anyone can see…… Hm? What’s that?”
Something was observed in the eyes of Hayeon and BengYeoju, who were observing Jion sitting alone staring at the stadium. Some male idol striding toward Jion. White skin, brown dyed hair, tall. Hayeon frowned. He was Yoon Hyeok, a popular member of first-tier male idol group Various.
“Ah, what? Why is he suddenly being friendly?”
“Doesn’t Kim Yoon Hyeok originally not share his ‘level’ with others?”
Although their main fandom was Venom, when you deeply fanned idols, you would naturally hear news about the situation in the scene and other groups’ controversies.
Various, counted as Venom’s rival, was a first-tier male idol famous for muggle picks, taking slender height and visuals and standard idol concepts evenly. Unlike Venom, which was a collection of controversies, they were appealing to muggles as a clean accident-free group, but in reality they were a powder keg that hadn’t exploded yet, and among them, popular member Yoon Hyeok was also a member with rumors quietly circulating about staff-sourced rumors that his manners were from another world and initial-based articles sniping that he ignored celebrities who weren’t on his level.
“Is he going to hit him?”
“No way. In front of everyone. He’d hit him somewhere not visible.”
For Hayeon and BengYeoju, it was a situation where they couldn’t help but be nervous that Yoon Hyeok, who wouldn’t be strange if an exposé broke at any time, was suddenly showing interest in their kids who were totally nugu. But fortunately, Yoon Hyeok didn’t hit the top of Jion’s head with his fist as the staff rumors said. He didn’t kick or push with the top of his foot while saying irritably, “Ah, get lost.”
“Wow, you’re left alone? I’m left alone too.”
Rather, Yoon Hyeok showed a friendly-looking smile and plopped down next to Jion. Jion, startled by the person’s shadow that suddenly approached, dodged his body halfway back, then recognized that he was Yoon Hyeok of Various, a senior, and sprang up like a spring.
“Ah, hello!”
“Hello. Why are you so surprised, making me embarrassed. Haha.”
Yoon Hyeok laughed and pulled Jion’s wrist to make him sit down.
“I’m left alone too because I can’t run. Let’s watch together, loners.”
“Ah, yes……”
It was a lie. Yoon Hyeok, the most popular member in the group, had raised hell to his members asking if they’d take responsibility if he got injured, so he’d decided not to participate in any events at this Idol Sports Championship except mixed kin-ball. Why did the arrogant Kim Yoon Hyeok, who acted like a jerk to his own members, suddenly show interest in Jion, a nugu idol?
“I saw you singing trot on YouTube. You sing well?”
“Ah, thank you. Sunbae-nim also…… Your stage is cool. I watched it often.”
“Ah, really? I’m honored. A hot idol junior who’s even reverse charting these days looks up my videos.”
The reason was simple. It was because the seed of BNCZ was visible to Yoon Hyeok’s eyes, which ghostily divided and evaluated people’s levels to give differential treatment. The seed to succeed. Among juniors, Yoon Hyeok pretended to be friendly with groups he thought were worth exploiting for himself, and didn’t even accept greetings from kids who were unlikely to succeed.
“Your name is, Jion? Your name is as pretty as your face?”
Success detection dog Kim Yoon Hyeok also had an excellent eye for choosing the member who would be most popular in a group, like himself. Jion firmly believed that BNCZ’s biggest signboard and visual member was Seonwoo Jin, but in Yoon Hyeok’s eyes, the person who would have BNCZ’s biggest individual fandom was Jion.
“Thank you. Sunbae-nim also…… You’re really handsome.”
“You’re not poking my side to give me a fake bow, right? Thank you.”
Yoon Hyeok smiled good-naturedly and swept back his hair. It was a pose considering even his homma camera angle.
As it was, his downfall detector had been triggered by Venom, who had been creating a ‘strangers would think we’re competitors but we’re actually close’ structure, so he needed a new visual pedestal. Yoon Hyeok thought that someone like Jion was qualified to be captured in the same frame as him, so he was thinking of riding a beauty viral with this new flower at this Idol Sports Championship filming.
“Is it okay if I sit next to you and cheer together?”
“Ah, yes!”
But Jion, who was only superficially familiar with the idol scene and didn’t know the abyss of the idol world, nodded without knowing Yoon Hyeok’s such dark intentions.
Until Jion regressed, Yoon Hyeok had never once appeared in newspaper articles for an unseemly incident, and had never been exposed by real name in the experiences that other failed idols confessed by initials on broadcasts where they sold past stories. So to Jion, Yoon Hyeok was a role model idol who had maintained a first-tier position ever since debut, and he was just grateful that such a person was pretending to be friendly with him first.
If I get close to a first-tier, there’ll be some crumbs at least.
Of course, Jion accepting Yoon Hyeok’s friendliness wasn’t entirely pure-minded either. Through the incident of facing Idol Sports Championship recording without securing even one fan section due to the agency’s sloppy work handling and lack of experience, Jion was painfully feeling the necessity of entertainment industry connections.
“I heard you talking during the interview earlier, you don’t have a fan section today?”
“Ah, yes. We came in hastily as a fill-in, so there was no announcement.”
“How could that be? Even if you post it the day before, 50 people would gather.”
“Ah……”
I don’t think we’re at that level though. Such words rose to his throat, but with long social experience, Jion instinctively realized that bringing up such words in front of this kind of opponent would make him look down on.
“……Still, I’m so grateful that other fans cheered for us instead.”
Jion deflected Yoon Hyeok’s subtle scratching attack by pretending to be innocent. And there was another person watching this not-so-easy friendly exchange from afar.
“Hey, what are you doing. It’s starting soon.”
It was Seonwoo Jin, who was stealing glances at Jion while preparing for the relay. He’d been in a bad mood from the moment he discovered someone approaching Jion, who was left alone. They had to start the relay right away, so why was that guy pretending to be friendly now? What if that strange man got Jion’s contact information while he was running? Seonwoo Jin, the first runner, was anxious.
“Whew……”
At least it was fortunate that seeing him take position at the starting line, Jion turned his gaze this way. Seonwoo Jin gritted his teeth and resolved.
I’ll run back quickly and watch with wide eyes to see if that bastard is being clingy with Seong Jion.
“Woojin fighting!”
Jion’s cheering sound didn’t even reach Seonwoo Jin’s ears, which were filled with jealousy and anger. Concentrating only on the starting signal, Seonwoo Jin took the lead as soon as he heard the bang. It was a difference of almost half a lap from 2nd place.
“Wow!”
“Wow, we should have told Seonwoo Jin to run the sprint.”
Exclamations burst out from the fan section at Seonwoo Jin’s overwhelming speed. Jinyeong, who was watching, also made a regretful sound. Thanks to that, the shoulders of the next runner, Ryu Geon, became heavy. Ryu Geon wasn’t overwhelmingly fast, but he had enough speed to maintain an appropriate gap with the person behind.
“Geon hyung is doing well! Eungi fighting!”
At the group’s unexpected good performance, Jion forgot about the existence of Yoon Hyeok sitting next to him and rushed forward, hopping. And Eungi, who received the baton from Ryu Geon, strode ahead with long legs, and the last runner Jinyeong went without saying. Jinyeong released the regret of not winning a medal in the sprint on the last lap.
“Wow, what is happening? BNCZ, relay gold medal!”
