The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 155
Yeon Woo hyung, clearly catching on to my awkward realization, spoke up with a soft voice.
“…Mentor Min Si Young’s words made me think I should get back to the practice rooms quick! Haha. That’s all.”
“Ahh, I see.”
I thought I’d played it off smoothly without showing how rattled I was, but Yeon Woo hyung had that usual strange smile on his face again.
“Trainee Kim Chunyong.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Your facial expression management isn’t bad. But I can hear your eyes rolling all over from here.”
“……”
“Keep an eye on that when you review the footage. You’re sharp enough to fix it quickly.”
Regardless of my answer, once Yeon Woo hyung opened his mouth, he didn’t stop.
Leisurely. Steady.
“Oh… that’s a ‘You’re going to talk about this here?’ face.”
“Ah—no, I didn’t think that.”
“You say that, but I just said your eyes were making noise.”
Yeon Woo hyung casually pulled out his car keys and clicked the button.
“Well, if it really bugs you, we can head to my car. I wasn’t lying about bringing gifts, after all.”
The SUV that beeped a short distance away… yeah, I’d definitely seen that car before.
“Whoa, that’s sick… No wonder you weren’t drinking today.”
“Needed something to run between the studio and here. Didn’t want anything too flashy.”
“Right. This car’s kinda… like you, hyung? Expensive, but quiet. Solid. Fits you.”
“Scraping together every adjective you know, huh, Rex.”
“So maybe let me ride in it? I’ve got, uh, a schedule tomorrow. Should probably get going.”
“What about your manager?”
“Not picking me up tonight. He’s only interested in that DJ noona who drops by here sometimes.
Anyway, I am the disgraced idol, the garbage-tier member, Trash Rex, after all.”
“…Still no. I don’t drive drunkards.”
Didn’t even get to ride in it when we were close as drinking buddies. And now here I am, finally getting in.
“Make yourself comfortable. Oh, I won’t turn on the AC—it won’t take long.”
Even as I closed the door and sank into the well-maintained leather seat, I couldn’t easily pull myself out of that memory.
The last few months, I’d been running nonstop, trying to atone for what I’d done. Avoiding those memories on purpose.
Because if I thought about them, it’d get too hard, I wouldn’t be able to focus on what was in front of me.
But sitting beside the very person who lived through that time with me— yeah. My guard had slipped a little.
Which is probably why Yeon Woo hyung spoke first.
“Do you like drinking?”
“Cough—what, no, I—cough cough…”
Seriously, you can’t even let your guard down for one second.
“Ahaha, I was just asking. Why are you so jumpy?”
Maybe my flailing was funny, because Yeon Woo hyung burst out laughing, then pulled a bottle of water from the glove box and handed it to me.
“Relax. I’m just messing with you.”
“Ghh—joking like that… You’re too much!”
“What do you mean? Between me and trainee Kim Chunyong, we’re close enough that this just counts as teasing.”
Yeon Woo hyung kept his gaze on me until I drained the entire 500ml water bottle, and then his tone shifted—just a little more serious than before.
“Strange, really….”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“You, trainee Kim Chunyong.”
Yeon Woo hyung tapped the car’s emblem on the steering wheel with his fingers, then glanced into the rearview mirror.
His eyes, locking onto mine through the mirror without ever turning his head, held a strange glint.
“I wasn’t lying when I said I was a fan of Targeting Star. Things like which songs are breaking into the charts, which choreographers are hot lately—those kinds of things are essential to monitor.”
“Ah, right. Of course. Monitoring is important.”
“And in doing so, I kept an eye on the trainees, too. Like Son Jae Ha. Ji Hwa Sung.”
He went on to list more names.
Yu Chan hyung, Logan, Si Woo, and Liu Wei, who he’d just picked for his team.
And just when it seemed like he’d named all the trainees likely to debut—
“Mmm. And trainee Kim Chunyong, too.”
Out came my name.
“Why do you think I paid attention to you?”
If I had to pick a reason, it’d probably be what he said when choosing me for his team.
That I “looked like someone who could hold his liquor.”
Which—yeah—was the exact moment I started wondering if Yeon Woo hyung somehow knew I had regressed.
Let’s be real, you can’t actually tell if someone drinks well just by looking at their face. That’s a lie.
So while I was busy trying to figure out how to bring up the whole “coming back” thing, or X, without sounding like a total lunatic—
Yeon Woo hyung’s eyes curved in the rearview mirror, like crescents.
“Trainee Kim Chunyong. Ever seen someone with alcohol addiction?”
I blinked dumbly at his out-of-nowhere question, but he didn’t care. He kept going, unfazed.
“I’ve seen plenty. The way people’s faces break down because of alcohol comes in all forms. Some get saggy cheeks. Others—ears that turn red and never return to normal.”
“Ah… yeah.”
“But there’s one thing they all have in common. You’re probably wondering what to say right now, huh? I’ll help you out. Just say, ‘What is it?’”
“…What is it?”
I followed his lead without resistance, and Yeon Woo hyung grinned in satisfaction.
“They’re all anxious. To a hopeless degree.”
“……”
For a moment, it felt like my heart dropped through the floor.
“They get that way thinking, ‘I need to drink right now to escape this,’ or, ‘If I don’t quit, this will never end.’ That kind of thing—it makes people nervous.”
“I… see.”
“So then I thought, huh. Why does this trainee look so anxious, like someone with alcohol withdrawal? That was my impression of you, trainee Kim Chunyong.”
“……”
“No matter how stressful this survival show is, to look that tense? I wondered if you had some kind of trauma.”
And yeah— Since I came back, I had been living under massive pressure.
If I failed the contract terms with X, I’d get thrown back to where I was when I got arrested.
And even worse, the thing that scared me most—
… Was the fear that I might end up depending on alcohol again.
Yeon Woo hyung had read all that—just from watching me on screen.
I clenched my jaw, trying not to grit my teeth, and slowly forced out a response.
“…Haha. Maybe you just saw someone desperate to debut, that’s all.”
“Hmm. Like I said, that’s not really—”
“But it’s kind of weird, isn’t it? You saying you’ve seen alcoholics before. You’re famous for being squeaky clean, you know?”
“……”
Just because he hit a sore spot didn’t mean I could just spill everything to him.
Even if I look twenty now, I’ve been in this industry for seven years. I’m still that problematic member.
Yeon Woo hyung, the way he is now, is probably around the same age I was back then…
So this time, I should be able to handle him just fine.
“……”
Yeon Woo gave me a long, measuring look—but I kept my face still and didn’t break eye contact.
No point in dodging. No reason to anymore.
“…Hmm.”
Finally, he nodded like he’d figured something out and leaned his head back against the headrest.
“Well, maybe so. Anyway, I didn’t see any withdrawal symptoms from you, so—yeah. Guess I was overreaching a bit.”
“…Yes, I told you so.”
“Still, feels like you’ve got something you want to say to me. Let’s hear it. I probably came on a little strong—so if it’s something I can help with, I will.”
The eyes that had been sharp and unreadable just a second ago were now shaped like crescents again.
And at that smile, I wiped every sentence I’d prepared from my brain, and slowly opened my mouth.
“I…”
I tried to find the one thing I could say now, that would be just right.
kcyfan1000
This guy is pmo lowkey…
Thank you for the translation <3