From the moment he spotted them standing face-to-face with the female idols, his heart felt like it would stop, but when he saw that woman smile and put her hand in and out of Seonwoo Jin’s pocket, his ears suddenly felt blocked and he couldn’t hear the sounds around him.
“Ah…… seriously……”
Rapidly enraged, Jion’s head went blank and he couldn’t see straight.
I thought he’d stop being a slut for once, but again, again, again, coming to a place full of women, his potential explodes.
If you looked closely, you could see that Seonwoo Jin had just been suddenly grabbed on his way and was listening to them talk, holding a lunchbox in both hands and unable to move, being unilaterally subjected to someone slipping something into his pocket—but with his deep prejudice, misunderstanding, and jealousy toward Seonwoo Jin, Jion couldn’t see reality properly.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
Jion called out to Seonwoo Jin in a voice completely drained of humor. Seonwoo Jin, who had turned his head with delight at Jion’s voice, froze in surprise at Jion’s cold expression, and the smiling female idols also hesitated and stepped back.
“Hello……”
“Hello?”
Jion raised his tone at the end as if accepting a greeting yet picking a fight, and smiled at them. Coincidentally, there were many nameless idols of similar rank who had come to pick up lunchboxes in the vicinity. Everyone grasped the situation from Jion’s utterly cold expression.
They were bound to fail at making it big anyway, had no company push, so their schedules were empty—once they got back to the dorm there’d be nothing to do, but their hearts felt empty and they were bored too. At a place like this, they could feast their eyes, and if the opportunity arose, if someone seemed like a good match, exchange contact info and date…… How many people here came with that kind of mindset?
Of course, it might have been feelings they themselves weren’t even aware of. Not all idols were like that. But looking back at this field with an instructor’s mindset, Jion spotted here and there kids who lacked motivation and had a screw loose, and he couldn’t stand those kids staring intently at Seonwoo Jin or whispering among themselves, and making such aggressive advances like this.
They know he’s handsome, so why do they stare at someone else’s member, blush, like him, and approach him…… And why does Seonwoo Jin stand there stupidly listening to everyone who talks to him and smiling at them? Could one of them be his girlfriend from before the regression? Or do they look similar?
Without even realizing he was jealous, Jion displayed his discomfort with his entire body.
Dating? He needed to pull these kinds of things out by the roots and spray herbicide on them beforehand.
Jion boldly stuck his hand into Seonwoo Jin’s pocket for all the other idols and staff watching to see. Then he pulled out the contact info paper the female idol had just put in, tore it to shreds, threw it in the trash, and smiled at them.
“I tore it up to protect personal information. That’s okay, right?”
And without even saying goodbye, Jion grabbed Seonwoo Jin’s arm and dragged him out to the field. Seonwoo Jin, who had followed Jion out in a daze, finally realized that he had misunderstood him when Jion still wouldn’t look at him even after escaping the situation, maintaining his cold attitude.
“Hey, hey! You know I didn’t talk to them first, right?”
“……”
“You saw it too. I was just standing there.”
“……”
“But they suddenly said they appreciated my hard work today, that they enjoyed watching me run earlier, so I just greeted them.”
“……You just greeted them and they put a contact info paper they’d prepared like they’d been waiting for it into your pocket?”
Upon hearing Seonwoo Jin’s explanation, Jion’s eyes blazed with fury. To Jion’s ears, already full of prejudice, all of Seonwoo Jin’s words sounded like excuses.
“After you ran, didn’t you do a ceremony toward them or give them a look? You smiled and made eye contact and gave them some kind of signal, so they wrote down their contact info in advance and prepared it. Otherwise, why would they carry around paper with their contact info written on it like they’re arranging illegal loans or something? Does that make sense?”
“It’s not… impossible though……”
Though intimidated by Jion’s fierce interrogation, Seonwoo Jin made a timid protest out of feeling wronged. But the wall of prejudice built up before the regression was thick, and Jion wasn’t adult enough to overcome his own prejudice.
“Can’t you tell at a glance? Whether someone has feelings for you or not? If you see at a glance, oh? They’re approaching me? then you should avoid it. Leave the area, or if that’s not possible, change the subject or say ‘my member will be here soon.’ Did you forget we promised our group wouldn’t date? Why are you so reckless and frivolous?”
“No, what did I even do? I was just standing there!”
“That’s why I’m asking why you were just standing there!”
With his slut trauma button pressed, Jion forgot about the eyes around them and shouted with deep breathing from his diaphragm. It was vocalization loud enough to make the entire field ring. Everyone was startled by his tiger-like momentum and roar and stared at Jion.
“Hey, guys! What’s going on!”
Since the kids they’d sent on a lunchbox errand were showing off their vocal skills without even a microphone, the members couldn’t help but be shocked. Ryu Geon ran over hurriedly and squeezed in between the two.
“What’s going on, huh?”
“……Ha. It’s nothing.”
Jion suppressed his anger and returned to his seat and sat down. The startled Jinyeong and Eungi couldn’t even ask Jion what happened and just read the room. Jion, who had tried to act like nothing happened, realized that he was only holding wet wipes and disposable utensils in his hands, while all the heavy baggage was being carried by Seonwoo Jin.
Ah, the picture must have really looked weird.
Jion belatedly regretted getting angry in front of everyone. Even so, his anger toward Seonwoo Jin for not refusing the contact info the female idol handed him hadn’t subsided, so Jion also refused the lunchbox he offered.
“Here’s your lunchbox.”
“I’m not eating.”
“……”
Struck by lightning, Seonwoo Jin was completely deflated by Jion’s cold treatment and couldn’t say another word. In the chilly atmosphere, Ryu Geon took the lunchbox from Seonwoo Jin’s hand and offered it to Jion once more.
“You still need to eat though.”
“I don’t have an appetite.”
“There’s a kinball game in the afternoon.”
“……Sigh.”
Since Ryu Geon was going this far, if he didn’t eat it seemed the atmosphere would get even worse, so Jion reluctantly took the lunchbox. Only then did the other members feel relieved and open their lunchbox lids and start conversing. It was forced energy to lighten the sunken atmosphere while reading Jion’s mood.
“While you guys were getting lunchboxes, Eungi gloriously failed the preliminaries. What a waste of our cheering.”
“Ah, that wasn’t cheering, it was mockery!”
“I thought I’d come to the Serengeti plains. He jumped along like a giraffe and just threw his neck back, but how could that go over?”
“Hyung, you try it.”
“I tried this for the first time since middle school. Geez.”
“Got it, Eungiraffe.”
“Ah, stop teasing me!”
“Giraffe in English is giraffe. Eungi[silver] + giraffe is silveraffe.”
“Ahhhhh!”
Jinyeong thoroughly teased Eungi throughout the meal, and thanks to that, the meal didn’t fall into dead silence. Though the atmosphere between the two was still bleak.
The match that started after the meal was ssireum, in which Ryu Geon was competing. Seeing Ryu Geon preparing with his satba tied, Jinyeong lamented.
“Ah, hyung would shine if he competed with his top off.”
While Jion agreed internally, he kept his mouth shut to maintain his coldness. Now, nearly 40 minutes after the lightning-strike scolding incident, Jion was somewhat reflecting on the fact that he had suddenly blown up at Seonwoo Jin.
No matter how much Seonwoo Jin liked it when people showed interest even when he had someone he was dating, no matter how much he was a natural-born slut with spear-wielder qualities who was happy with anyone who liked him, he had never actually caused a real incident yet and rather had been living quite exemplarily after the regression…… No, no. Come to think of it, there was something a bit subtle after Sollin’s Sol’s Dating Advice too.
Things that kept bothering him kept coming to Jion’s mind as he tried to calm his anger.
Ha, why does a group like Loopy Cupy even appear on something like the IAC, seriously.
Bothered by Sollin talking to Seonwoo Jin separately before filming started, Jion’s mood, which had been improving, rapidly worsened again. With his heart going up and down like an nth-degree function curve, Jion ignored Seonwoo Jin, who kept glancing at him sidelong, and only stared straight ahead. Since Ryu Geon’s match was about to start, there was plenty of excuse to look away.
“Now! This match is the ssireum preliminaries!”
The first opponent they faced was a famous variety member from a senior male idol group with quite a lot of years in the industry. Hong Jinseok drew popularity with his clownish personality and overflowing variety sense, but he was equally reckless—he’d crossed the line or overdone the MSG so much that he got other celebrities he was involved with criticized, and had posted public apologies several times.
“Ah…… It’d be annoying to get matched with someone who likes to show off like that……”
Jion agreed with Jinyeong’s quietly grumbling voice. And as soon as the referee blew the whistle and stepped back, something within the expected range happened.
“Hiyaaaaaa!”
Hong Jinseok deliberately shouted a loud and ridiculous kiai, then lifted Ryu Geon’s satba. And very disgracefully at that. It was a despicable trick to deliberately make the opponent’s crotch and buttocks stand out to induce laughter.
Fucking hell.
A curse boiled up from Jion’s core.
