𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 ―𝐝.𝐨.𝐝

Chapter 5

My eyebrow raised amusedly.

"I heard you sing at karaoke. So I decided to try singing, and I got scouted."

"So you're not trying to debut because of any...special circumstances?"

I turned to face him, letting my bangs slip down across my forehead. He seemed hesitant to ask a simple question.

"No. And, hyungnim, you can talk casually with me. You're older."*

*Up until this point, Moon was speaking formally in Korean. There's not really an equivalent to this in English honestly.

"...Alright. Then you can talk more casually too."

"Thank you, Moondae hyung."

Then the conversation ended, and the two of us fell asleep.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

The following days were the same as that day. Early morning was spent dancing until the afternoon. Then there was lunch and vocal lessons.

They weren't particularly fun. The fun things happened after.

In the advanced vocal lessons, both rappers and singers are put together and divided into small groups. It was reasonable for rappers to not get as much praise as singers for a song meant mostly for singing, but it was strange for singers to get criticized more.

"Wongil, that...stop. You're making the same mistake again," the teacher sighed, running her fingers through her hair in a frustrated manner.

There was a participant that kept making mistakes the past few days.

"Moondae, come back forward."

Park Moondae stepped out from the crowd and waited for instructions. He was told to sing the part the guy named Wongil was struggling with, and he did it nicely.

I closed my eyes as I listened. It felt like his voice was getting better as the lessons went on. The tone was more stable, and his voice was clearer. It was a bit of a nuance I wasn't sure about.

When he stopped, the trainer smiled and hummed pleasantly.

"Wongil, you should sing like this, okay?"

The younger boy couldn't lift his head. I could see his fists shaking in anger.

It's funny that this timid boy changes his personality behind the scenes. He would target Moondae hyung with snide remarks the moment the microphones were turned off and the staff was busy checking their cameras.

"I think you fit this song because you're kind of amateurish." 

He would say things like that.

Moondae hyung would simply look away and mind his own business, but that seemed to tick off that boy even more.

"You have a lot of luck, getting such good grades," he angrily sneered. "I'm jealous. It would have been great if you could also dance with luck, but that's too bad."

At that point, I decided to step in just for the fun of it. Nothing else noteworthy had happened so far, and I was bored.

"Wongil," I smiled as I placed a hand on his shoulder. 

There's a pressure point right above your chest that causes an uneasy feeling. When I pressed my middle finger there, I could feel Wongil squirm a little.

"Wongil," I said again, "I guess you don't have a lot of luck, following your logic. But don't worry. Luck isn't everything you need. Skills are needed too, so I'm sure you'll get Moondae hyung's grades once you practice for a few more years."

I didn't mean for it, but I guess Moondae hyung heard this. He turned around and examined me with his hazel eyes before sighing.

"Seungmin, let's go."

I followed him obediently into the cafeteria where we could get cold water. After looking around casually, he gave me a cup of water and sighed again.

"Seungmin, you'll get caught in an evil editing scheme if you do something like that. Be careful."

I nodded my head.

B had also warned me about evil editing, but if worst came to worst, she could just cut the cameras before anything could be caught. She was watching most of the live feed after hacking into the system now that they didn't have much work, with me gone and all.

"I know you won't say anything rash, but I can't say the same about your fists," she had said in our last conversation.

I drank the water he gave me and smiled. It seemed like Moondae hyung was more caring than I thought.

"Okay. I'll listen to you."