[ Cho Seungmin's POV ]
"Oh my god," Raebin sighed, slumping on top the table.
I watched the screen where the MC was talking.
[ Now, let's reveal the sales ranking! ]
The rankings with red, negative marks neatly lined up on the grey screen.
Everyone was quiet.
1st place was Choi Wongil.
I nodded my head. I didn't ask B for the results because it was boring to know everything beforehand. Seeing Wongil's negative stocks rank 1st now was satisfying.
But 2nd place was Ahyun hyung.
The last selling period coincided with the time when hate comments toward hyung were at their peak, so it made sense. I knew it would turn over with sympathy and admiration after our performance was shown.
Then was me, Raebin and Sejin hyung. That also made sense because of the bullying scandals, and I asked Gaeul to sell some of my stocks with my own money too.
Cha Eugene was 7th, Moondae hyung was 8th, and Chungwoo hyung was 9th.
Sejin hyung was the first to say something.
"Well, when the team match airs, it's going to flip over, right?"
"I don't think overturning them will be easy," Raebin disagreed.
Sejin hyung's expression stiffened as Raebin continued, "We've completed the team match well, so there won't be a significant decline in votes."
"...?"
"...Hey, um Raebin, you know it's the negative votes, right?" Sejin hyung asked cautiously.
As if Raebin realized the misunderstanding, his eyes widened.
"Oh, negative votes tend to increase in proportion to the general votes, so this only means that our stocks purchased are also high compared to other contestants."
In an instant, everyone relaxed.
"That's true," Eugene grinned. "We did good!"
"Y-yeah!"
Moondae hyung was checking his phone. I looked over his shoulder out of habit.
- I hoped he would be in the puppy team because of his nickname, but now I'm glad
- Are they crazy? Only showing negative votes??
- Raebin went to a team with good vibes. I'm glad my kid is okay
- Keun Sejin looks like a good leader! He dealt well with Choi Wongil last time, and this team seems nice
Moondae hyung didn't look too happy.
I plopped my head on his shoulder.
"Ah, there Seungminnie goes again," Sejin hyung sneered playfully. "You treat Moondae so differently from us. How come I wasn't invited to sleep at your house?"
"Ah, I want to go!" Eugene shouted.
"Moondae hyung's house is unsafe with those stalkers," I replied.
"Stalkers?" Raebin repeated.
"Y-yeah! There were...four w-women in Moondae's house!" Ahyun hyung explained, his eyebrows crinkling.
"Woah, that's so scary," Eugene shuddered while Raebin nodded.
"B-but it's okay!" Ahyun hyung continued, "because S-seungmin scared them!"
"Oh~ Did Seungminnie scare them away?" Sejin hyung smirked.
"I didn't do anything," I rejected.
"Oh, y-yeah! But he glared r-really hard..."
"So that's what you were doing," Moondae hyung noted.
"See, Moondae hyung? I wasn't saying anything to them," I smiled. He rolled his eyes playfully.
"I want to go to Seungmin's house too!" Eugene said, changing the conversation to whatever he wanted.
I didn't want anyone coming to my house though. The more people knew, the more the risk of my address being exposed in either of my lives.
"Well, I prefer Ahyun hyung's house," I shrugged.
Sejin hyung seemed to notice the meaning of my words and grinned.
"It's true that Ahyun's living room is comfortable," he winked.
"Oh, yeah, thank you for inviting me!" Cha Eugene cheered, startling Ahyun hyung.
"Yeah, see you all at the shooting location in two weeks!" Keun Sejin hyung waved as we all left the house.
Moondae hyung ignored the continuing conversation and went back on his phone. He scrolled through the discussion boards with a slight frown.
He monitored for a long time.
This persisted until the next week.
"Moondae hyung, the episode is about to start," I said from my couch. Hyung was in the kitchen cooking something.
He came to the living room with two dishes and handed one to me as the MC talked about the continuation of team match stages.
"Thank you for the food," I smiled, taking a bite of the omurice.
After a week, hyung began to cook more in the kitchen. It tasted better than eating microwaved lunch boxes.
He nodded his head and watched the show.
Like last episode, our team wasn't shown in the first half. Our entire performance progress was shown in the second half.
[ Team Moon Rabbit has a unanimous agreement! ]
Our song selection process was broadcasted in a lighthearted way. Like usual, Moondae hyung was monitoring.
- Did you see Moon puppy's face when Keun Sejin said they need to do a sexy comment? ㅋㅋ
└ I saw the Tibetan fox come out ㅋㅋㅋ
- Keun Sejin has good taste. I, too, can't get rid of Seungmin's first stage out of my mind ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
- Raebin's so excited ㅠㅠ my baby
- I feel at peace seeing this harmonious group ah
└ my heart feels at ease...
They also didn't show the moment our scandals almost got Sejin hyung to resign. I got B to throw away the filming from the dormitory. So the editors had no choice but to show how good our chemistry was.
- I've never seen Moon puppy being this messy crazy he's so cute. Look at how he's laying on the floor with the iPad ㅋㅋㅋ
- Raebin going to his hyung for dance advice ahh I'm so glad he made a good hyung
- Look at Seungmin sleeping on Moondae's shoulder again ㅠㅠ
└ Moonmin looks so comfortable together~
- The dance line is amazing at thinking of the choreo wow
- Ahyun's dancing is so ballet-coded
└ Agreed. He's so graceful omg
And then our stage was aired.
- Holy crap the live viewers weren't kidding
- Sexy traditional rabbit...Moondae, you did it again you crazy bastard how could you think of such a legendary concept?
- Guys, Moondae put doubling in every chorus
└ Is that even possible?
└ The humming is an octave higher. No one can criticize him now...
- This stage is amazing!!!!
- Seungmin's facial expressions on stage are no joke
└ And then he becomes a polite introvert again off stage
└ the gap moe is great
- Let's just debut like this
I finished my plate of food and set it on the table. Now that our stage was done, I wasn't very interested in the show.
"Our stage was good," hyung commented.
I nodded and slid my hands into my sweatpants pockets.
Next, Team Husky's song selection process was shown. It was edited very negatively compared to our team. Even Chungwoo hyung was seen with a drained face in many of the clips.
[ Choi Wongil: I didn't know (Lee Sejin A) would react so sensitively. ]
[ Ki Jungkyun: Do you have a victim mentality? ]
[ Ryu Chungwoo: ...Sigh. ]
Cha Eugene was quiet in the corner. The BGM accompanying it made it look tragic.
Then, it showed the uncomfortable environment in their team dorm. Cha Eugene came out crying. It fast-forwarded to when he was crying in our room when I went out to boil water.
[ Park Moondae: Are you having a hard time? ]
A sad piano melody began to play.
He handed some chocolate bars to Cha Eugene.
My footage was next. I was sitting next to him and talked in English. It also showed when I ruffled his hair.
After, several scenes of Moondae hyung giving Eugene snacks and me talking to him at various locations passed by like a film.
There was also an interview with Eugene.
[ Cha Eugene: Moondae hyung helped me (edited) and Seungmin made me feel at home. ]
Beside me, Moondae hyung quickly went back on his phone.
- ?? Since when was Moondae and Eugene close?
└ Right? Ik Eugene and Seungmin were because they created the choreo together last match, but Moondae?
- Is Seungmin also from America? His English was too good
- Seungmin wearing glasses!!!!!!
└ Glasses, moonlight, homebrewed tea, check. Seriously, he's so handsome
- Moon puppy took care of Cha Kitty with food ㅋㅋㅋ
- Park Moondae is more mature than I thought
└ There's a reason why he gets along so well with his teammates. No wonder why Raebin chose him last team match
- Moondae and Seungmin taking good care of their baby ㅠㅠ
Moondae hyung adjusted himself on the couch. He was sipping on some beer like he usually does when watching Idol Inc.
"Seungmin," he suddenly muttered, "did you live in America?"
"I visited a few times," I answered honestly.
I would follow my Father sometimes for work and naturally learned English during and for those times. Our school also had a rigorous English course.
Moondae hyung stared at me for a bit and went back to his beer silently.
Sometimes, I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
The performance of Team Husky echoed in the apartment.