Under normal circumstances, Jion wouldn’t have had any problem shouting out embarrassing team names like Baldoong, Balnyaang, or Bolgging.
But today’s Jion was in a bad mood, feeling a sudden sense of crisis from Seonwoo Jin’s beauty, and his nerves were on edge, feeling immense fatigue from Sollin and the other female idols talking to and showing interest in Seonwoo Jin.
On top of that, physical activities were originally his poison, so he could already predict he’d be dragging the team down, and to make matters worse, Park Homin was on the same team.
Ah, when is this bastard going to fail?
Jion seriously even thought about grabbing Park Homin’s hair instead of the kinball, collapsing, and then submitting the hair follicles to the police. Something would definitely come up if they tested them.
“……Let’s, um, do our best!”
One of the female idols carefully spoke up, sensing the cold atmosphere. She was from the same group as the female idol who had given Seonwoo Jin her number. Realizing that his own cold expression was contributing to this atmosphere, Jion quickly adjusted his attitude and flashed a bright smile.
“Yes! Let’s do our best, cheerfully and without injury.”
The ego of someone in their thirties worries more about the risk of injury than victory in such competitions. But perhaps because the words “without injury” sounded quite warm, the female idol nodded with a slightly flushed face at Jion’s words. That innocent appearance reminded him of his vocal hobby class students who only heard pretty and nice words from Jion, and for a moment, his heart softened.
It would have been nice if this soft atmosphere had lasted a bit longer.
Unfortunately, today wasn’t Jion’s day. Whether it should be called Seonwoo Jin’s day, or the day Seonwoo Jin’s potential was unleashed.
Just as a daycare teacher who was incredibly lax in daily life suddenly displayed powerful charisma in front of twenty-some children, showing leadership close to that of a cult leader possessed by spirits, in front of dozens of unfamiliar female idols, Seonwoo Jin was triggering flirtation by constantly radiating his beauty and unconsciously showing off, absorbing gazes and attention.
And when Jion turned his head to check if the members were cheering well for him, his expression rapidly soured.
“……What?”
It was because other female idols had been caught approaching and talking to the BNCZ members. And it wasn’t even leader-to-leader approaching. What made Jion even angrier was that the female idol who was getting close to Seonwoo Jin and talking to him was the very same girl who had given him her contact information and been caught red-handed by Jion on the spot.
“……Ah, seriously, she’s really pissing me off?”
If you’ve already put on that kind of performance in front of me once, you’d think she’d get the hint that, ah, this group enforces dating restrictions, and wouldn’t approach again, but she’s trying again?
Angry, Jion forgot about managing his expression and stared at Seonwoo Jin with a cold look. And he turned to look at the female idol on the same team with a chilled tone. She was looking back and forth between her team member approaching Seonwoo Jin and Jion’s frightening expression, not knowing what to do.
“……Does that friend always have that kind of personality?”
“Ah, well, um, kind of, originally, um, capital letter…… E?”
“Ah.”
Looking at the team member who was clumsily trying to shield her member, Jion smiled brightly.
“I really won’t get along with that friend.”
At the voice that was disconnected from his expression, the team member was flustered and couldn’t say anything. In a place with so many fans and so many watching eyes, a female idol and male idol having a pleasant conversation at such close distance? It was the perfect scene to give fans something to nitpick about. It wasn’t that Jion was being sensitive; it was a sight that would make other idols feel crisis too.
What was visible to Jion’s eyes couldn’t have been invisible to Park Homin’s eyes right beside him.
“They’re doing everything when they haven’t even made it yet?”
Park Homin sneered while looking at BNCZ. At the words that sniped not only BNCZ but also the female idols talking to them, the team member lowered her head, very embarrassed.
“Well. They’ll probably disband soon anyway, so let them date all they want.”
Park Homin mocked them with a tone as if he were being generous, and Jion clenched his fists tightly.
Did Seonwoo Jin before the regression keep dating around with that same mindset?
Bad thoughts kept coming and his mood worsened. If it were up to him, he wanted to run to Seonwoo Jin right now, grab him by the hair, and give him a mental education. At Jion’s expression that had become vicious again, Park Homin, who was about to add another sneer, flinched and shut his mouth. Unlike the now-quiet Balnyaang Team, the other teams were busy preparing for the game, forming strategies and reading the rules for those experiencing this event for the first time.
“Jion-ah?”
Someone from the Bolgging Team, who had noticed the unusually awkward atmosphere of the Balnyaang Team, approached and called Jion’s name. He didn’t have any idol friends close enough to call by name like that. Jion indifferently turned his head and saw Yoon Hyeok’s brightly smiling face.
“……? Ah!”
Jion, who had even forgotten that Yoon Hyeok had approached him first earlier to talk, belatedly remembered that fact and bowed his head to greet him. Yoon Hyeok laughed out loud and looked around at the Balnyaang Team.
“Haha, Homin is on this team too?”
“Yeah.”
“There are some people I haven’t seen before too. Hello, I’m Yoon Hyeok.”
“Hello, sunbae-nim!”
“Don’t greet me so stiffly.”
Yoon Hyeok accepted the greeting with an eye-smile, then patted Jion’s shoulder.
“I won’t go easy on you when the game starts later, so let’s do well.”
“Yes.”
Finding Yoon Hyeok’s friendliness burdensome, Jion nodded with an awkward smile, and Yoon Hyeok soon returned to his spot. And this time, the subject of jealousy temporarily changed.
“Yoon Hyeok sunbae seems to like Jion hyung.”
Eungi, who had been bickering with Jinyeong but following Jion with his eyes, spoke after seeing Yoon Hyeok leave.
“Earlier when we were doing the relay race, he went to On hyung to talk too. He came again this time? Even though they’re on different teams.”
“Right.”
Jinyeong also nodded in agreement with Eungi’s words. Pacifist Ryu Geon was peaceful without any wariness toward approaches from the same sex.
“Jion is pretty, so he must have taken a liking to him.”
Even among men, there were people who were particularly fond of pretty-looking juniors or cute-looking juniors. In Ryu Geon’s view, Jion was a junior with good enough looks to be doted on, and with his subtly shy and polite attitude, he was a junior that seniors would like. That’s why Seonwoo Jin was even more pissed off.
“Sunbae-nim, should I call you Woojin sunbae or Jin sunbae?”
“……Who the hell is that Yoon Hyeok guy?”
“Pardon?”
“Geon hyung, we decided not to be friendly with other idols.”
Seonwoo Jin, who had been subtly irritated from the moment Jion participated in the mixed-gender game, became extremely sensitive when he performed cute cheers like meow-meow in front of other female idols. He was angry about showing a warm smile to female idols, and he was worried about being on the same team as that weird bastard who had picked a fight before. With his mood soured in such a complex way, Seonwoo Jin paid no attention to the female idol currently talking to him.
“We agreed to keep our distance from other idols, but isn’t that being friendly with them over there right now?”
It wasn’t something Seonwoo Jin, who was sitting with other female idols saying they’d cheer together, should be saying. It wasn’t even dissing him to his face, but at Seonwoo Jin’s angry voice, the female idol who had been talking looked at BNCZ in confusion.
‘Please leave.’
Jinyeong, who quickly assessed the atmosphere, mouthed an evacuation order to them. If they stayed just a little longer, all the cool guy image Seonwoo Jin had built up well today could be completely shattered.
Actually, objectively speaking, neither Yoon Hyeok talking to Jion and coming to greet him nor the other female idols coming to talk to BNCZ was that strange a picture.
There was no reason to look askance at a senior greeting and being friendly with a junior first, and while it might seem a bit strange that the female idols approached first, in a way, this was close to a failed idol alliance, so it wasn’t a picture to be tense about.
They all had no fans to worry about, and in Jinyeong’s view, their approach didn’t have any particular ulterior motive or represent major networking; rather, the bigger reason was that they couldn’t approach Venom first, who were radiating an atmosphere of not even wanting to sit in the same row as failed idols.
Venom’s internal relationships among members had long been ruined, so Venom had no intention of cheering for Park Homin, who had the lowest rank within the group, nor any willingness to network with unheard-of junior idols who weren’t on their level. At most, only a few members within the group occasionally waved toward the fan seats and did half-hearted aegyo like finger hearts, but they were consistently maintaining an attitude of ‘we precious beings have descended upon this lowly IAC.’
‘We need to cheer together, but we can’t talk to Venom first……’
So this was a kind of business, an act far from actual networking, and Jion exchanging greetings with Yoon Hyeok was very normal and ordinary etiquette. But the two people blinded by jealousy were burning with rivalry that was incomprehensible to watch from the side, which was strange.
“Kinball is starting!”
And as if to prevent the two from becoming more unseemly, the kinball game began. It was the start of yet another crisis.
