The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 158
At the very moment Liu Wei and Li Ming Shen clashed—
“Oh…”
Kim Chunyong, waiting for his personal interview, quietly ducked behind the vending machine in the break room.
‘I didn’t expect Liu Wei to be that blatantly hostile’
Of course, he also thought ‘Things between the two will just get worse.’
Especially since parts of what Kim Chunyong was doing had started to subtly affect Li Ming Shen.
“Let’s have trainee Kim Chunyong… and trainee Li Ming Shen stay at the center. That feels right.”
“…Sorry? You mean we’re doing the dance break?”
“Yes. The two of you, the chemistry’s… not bad.”
“Haha, Li Ming Shen. Let’s count on each other for the actual performance too.”
“Y-yeah. Sure. Th-thanks, Chunyong.”
There was Li Ming Shen, growing more confident thanks to the skill Chunyong had gotten from X—[Don’t Cry, Stay Strong (D)].
“Hey, in the second verse bridge, that hand move—we should match that together.”
“How? Do you have something in mind?”
“Yeah. Watch—when Si Woo sings ‘that faint escape route,’ we do this. Get it?”
“Oh, that’s actually… not bad.”
Or how their lines in practice had started syncing up more, just from dancing together.
Based on what Yeon Woo hyung said, Chunyong had decided:
First, I need to show him that I’m not like Liu Wei.
Since he had a tendency to button things up too haphazardly when he shouldn’t have done so in the first place, he thought, let’s start from scratch, and try to talk properly.
So for the past few days, he’d been deliberately nicer to Li Ming Shen, trying to get closer.
“Right now, Liu Wei… I don’t really want to talk to you.”
“…你。(…You.)”
“I’m heading out. Good luck with the interview.”
I didn’t know all those small pieces added up and led to that.
“Teenage boys and their pride, you never know where it’ll send them. Yesterday he didn’t want help, today he might.”
“……”
“And don’t look at me like, ‘You’re not even our age group,’ okay? Haha.”
There he is again. Thinking about Yeon Woo hyung. Get a grip, focus.
Li Ming Shen walked away, leaving Liu Wei standing still in the hall, and for a moment, Chunyong just watched his back.
Then Liu Wei turned and marched straight toward the vending machine where Chunyong was hiding.
“…Hey.”
Unlike the last time he’d bumped into Kim Joo An and Chunyong in this same room, there were cameras installed now—to catch the trainees’ “natural” moments.
Liu Wei seemed to remember that, too, so even when he spotted Chunyong awkwardly smiling his way, he didn’t show open anger.
“Yeah.”
Just that. Just a short reply that cut off the conversation entirely.
Clunk—
Liu Wei got an ion drink can from the vending machine. Then, maybe by accident—or maybe not—he let it drop.
The can rolled, and it came to a perfect stop right in front of Chunyong’s feet. And when the two of them bent down at the same time to pick it up—
“So you’re planning to use him, huh.”
…Liu Wei muttered, low and quiet.
Chunyong raised one brow slightly at the unexpected line. Liu Wei leaned in closer and kept going.
“You might be clever, but it’s not going to go the way you think.”
To the break room cameras, it probably looked like a cute little moment of two trainees picking up a can together. But the truth was anything but.
“That guy and I—we have a relationship you couldn’t even begin to imagine. It’s solid. Not something you can break.”
It was cold and cutthroat.
“…Well. If I wanted to mess with you, there’s not much I wouldn’t do.”
Chunyong responded with a touch of bite, but Liu Wei’s face didn’t soften. If anything, it looked like he might’ve smiled. Just a little.
“It was kind of fun, you know. Watching your ranking drop because of that ridiculous rumor I spread. Watching the explanation post go up, like you were actually gonna fix anything.”
I don’t know if that’s enough to make a debut, though.
“…Ha. Haha!”
There was no evidence—no hard proof. Just 100% conviction in his gut that Liu Wei was the one behind it.
Chunyong burst out in a harsh laugh before he could stop himself. This guy didn’t even care to pretend.
‘No wonder Arrows fell apart like that,’ Chunyong thought.
After Chunyong’s accident, when the team was already crumbling— Liu Wei just let it rot and left for China.
Didn’t care what happened, ignored the members they’d spent years with.
‘Maybe I should be thankful. He’s saving me from even a shred of guilt for what got blown away.’
Kim Chunyong bit hard into the inside of his cheek, grabbed the fallen can, and stood up—
then said, loud and clear, voice ringing out for the camera to catch:
“Yeah. I do want to debut. Because if I don’t make it this way, then I don’t make it at all.”
‘Unlike you, always thinking about your next backup plan… Me, this is my first and last shot.’
He popped the tab on the ion drink and handed it to Liu Wei, smiling brightly.
Just enough to flash his fangs—perfectly.
“Which is why you should hang in there too, Liu Wei.”
Just don’t blame me—blame your fiancée.
“……”
Liu Wei stared silently at the drink Chunyong had handed him—then left the break room without a word.
On the broadcast, it would all look easy going under the subtitle: “What Happens When You Grab a Drink Right Before a Personal Interview.”
But Chunyong, who downed the drink in one go and chucked the can into the trash, strode across the hallway with purpose.
After all, he had to rise to the expectations Liu Wei clearly didn’t have for him.
* * *
The place I headed straight to was the dorm I shared with my multinational roommates.
Now that the mid-ranking evaluations for the upcoming round were over…
“Eek! I did better than Gao Yan! He even messed up the lyrics! He did!”
“Hey, Ryota. If you saw my flawless dancing afterward, you wouldn’t say that.”
“Seriously, I think both of you were great. So let’s not have a pillow fight over this. My pillow already exploded!”
“I don’t want to hear that from Logan, who got praised for having ‘special talent’ again today!”
“True, but honestly, the real special one is Gao Yan. Look at this handsome face. Good grief, I never get tired of it.”
Even from outside, I could hear my roommates laughing and shouting after finishing their interviews.
“…Having fun, huh?”
I cleared my throat and opened the door, tossing out a playful greeting.
As always, Gao Yan—who had just been spouting nonsense with the straightest face—shot up and widened his eyes.
“—Chunyong hyung! I have something to tell you!”
Well, I had something to say too.
kcyfan1000
Lie Wei you pos god, Gao Yan what do you have?
Shen may have a crush /j
Thanks for the translation <3