The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 128
After the crucial break ended for Kim Chunyong, the day of returning to the trainee dormitory arrived.
Tension filled the air, and a sedan with all its windows perfectly tinted entered the nearby road.
“We’ve arrived. You can get out here.”
Inside the car were Shin Ki Ho, the AG Entertainment director’s secretary, and…
“Oh, you could’ve dropped me off farther away. We got here too early… Ah, the cameras probably aren’t even set up yet.”
…Kim Joo An, the trainee, who was speaking shamelessly, clueless about everything.
“There’s no crosswalk nearby, and it seemed dangerous to make you walk. Protecting our trainees is always the top priority. Go ahead and head inside, and give it another thought.”
“Oh… okay. Goodbye!”
Click─
As soon as he got out of the car, various negative emotions flooded Kim Joo An’s expressionless face.
“Wow, seriously? I only asked to be dropped off at the subway, but they drove me all the way here? Ugh, this is creepy!”
Quickly running through his rodent-like head were fragments of the conversation he had with his uncle the previous night.
“…Joo An, they want to meet with you?”
“Yeah. It’s not the director himself, it’s the secretary? You’d probably know better, but they said they wanted to talk to me.”
“Damn…”
His uncle, who had been wiping sweat from his forehead at the time, quickly gave Joo An some strong advice.
Act like you don’t know anything.
No matter what they say, pretend you don’t understand.
If you’re confused, just say you know absolutely nothing!
“Uncle, can you speak in a way I can understand? Stop just telling me what you know! You’re stuck as a manager forever because of this—”
“Shh, shh! Joo An, you can’t meddle in company politics!”
“…Politics?”
“They’ve been hammering us with calls for days. If they’re calling you now, it’s obvious why. It’s because you’ve been training with Chunyong.”
“What? Why is Kim Chunyong involved all of a sudden?!”
Director Shin Ki Ho’s meticulously planned attempt to get Logan to quit had completely unraveled. The power struggles among the adults, and Kim Chunyong standing at the eye of the storm.
All of this seemed absurd and nonsensical to a trainee like Kim Joo An, who remained oblivious.
‘I said I understood, but I didn’t really get it. And now they really did bring up Kim Chunyong.’
Because of that, the moment he faced the director’s secretary still felt dreamlike and distant to Kim Joo An.
“…What exactly are you curious about?”
“Yes, we’d like to know which trainees Kim Chunyong was close to when he was in QUINCE, what his preferred training style was, or perhaps about his family. Anything minor is fine.”
“Uh… wouldn’t it be better to just ask him directly…?”
“There’s value in hearing about someone from a third party’s perspective.”
“Oh…”
“Besides, you seem like you’d summarize it well, Joo An.”
The secretary spoke with certainty, as if someone had already informed that Kim Joo An disliked Chunyong.
‘They were just fishing for dirt on Chunyong. I could tell what they wanted the moment I saw their face.’
Recalling the short conversation with the secretary, Kim Joo An clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“Unbelievable…”
He didn’t know why the company was trying to mess with Kim Chunyong, but for Joo An, the idea of getting rid of Chunyong without dirtying his own hands was incredibly appealing.
Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get rid of someone they hated?
However, his uncle’s stern warnings still echoed in his mind.
“Well, I don’t really know.”
“…But I heard you two trained together for nearly three years.”
“Oh, well… we weren’t that close! Just look at his face. Isn’t it kind of scary? I don’t like scary things, you know?”
“…I see. And what about the other trainees who trained with him?”
“I seriously don’t know anything. Sure, there were others, but they all quit. You know how it is—trainees come and go all the time.”
“…True.”
“How could I remember every single one of them? Maybe if they debuted, but…”
“So, you’re saying you don’t know anything at all?”
“Yes, exactly. I really don’t have anything more to say. Can I go now? I was planning to take the subway back.”
“Well, there’s always the chance something might come to mind if we talk a bit more. Let me give you a ride.”
“All the way here, they were prying the whole time… I should’ve just taken the subway. Would’ve been a hundred times better.”
Joo An clicked his tongue as he dragged his suitcase toward the trainee dormitory.
While he was selfish and often short-sighted, he wasn’t incapable of learning from experience.
“Coming here, you were busy stabbing people with your eyes the whole time. Even if it’s uncomfortable, taking the subway would’ve been 100 times better.”
Kim Joo An clicked his tongue, dragging his suitcase as he began heading toward the trainee dormitory facility.
Though Kim Joo An was selfish and often so short-sighted that he’d trip over a pebble in his path, that didn’t mean he was incapable of learning.
‘…Going after Kim Chunyong right now isn’t going to do me any good.’
When he ignored Kim Chunyong’s warning, ran his mouth lightly, and ended up losing his hold on Son Jae Ha altogether, he had learned something.
‘If you’re going to act like a jerk, you’ve got to be in the right position to do it. Not while you’re just a trainee like now. I can deal with Kim Chunyong later, once I get there.’
It wasn’t an entirely positive mindset, but it was something.
With that resolution to climb higher, Kim Joo An set foot at the entrance of the trainee dormitory facility.
“…Huh?”
Kim Joo An raised his eyebrows when he spotted someone heading slowly toward the emergency exit stairs.
Broad shoulders. Long legs.
And most of all, those sharp eyes that flashed momentarily.
“That bastard… Why’d he get here so fast?”
Kim Chunyong, who had been the main topic of conversation for all 30 minutes of Kim Joo An’s trip to the trainee facility, was now moving somewhere else.
* * *
I stood there, gazing toward the emergency exit for a long moment before grumbling and watching Kim Joo An’s back as he climbed the stairs toward the dorms.
After returning to the trainee facility, I happened to catch Kim Joo An on his way back and decided to trail him.
As a result, I was able to confirm one thing that had already been within the bounds of my expectations.
The sedan Kim Joo An had ridden in and gotten out of earlier—it was the same sedan belonging to Director Shin that I’d seen in my past life.
This information lent more credibility to what Jae Ha hyung had said: ‘AG is asking QUINCE about you.’
Right. It would make sense to think they might dig up something if they asked a fellow trainee.
Still, the fact that Kim Joo An had been summoned by Director Shin wasn’t going to change anything.
There was nothing for them to dig up in the first place.
‘It’s only because of this face that I’ve been misunderstood so much. I was a diligent trainee who only cycled between school, the practice room, and home.’
Kim Joo An couldn’t create enough of an issue to get me kicked out just because he didn’t like me.
The public tends to focus more on emotional incidents backed by objectivity.
