As time passed and it was finally Pantheion’s turn to perform, the audience responded with an incredibly enthusiastic reaction. The members seemed a little taken aback at first, perhaps not expecting the crowd to be this hyped or for water to be splashing everywhere, but they quickly adapted and pulled off our performance with a festival-worthy level of energy.
“Marine Marine!
Look at the blue waves under the blue…”
“Sky … cough! Kehk!”
In the middle of singing, Do Yuda suddenly started coughing as if something had gone down the wrong pipe. Because he had to take deeper breaths than usual to handle the high notes, it seemed that someone had sprayed water toward his mouth at just the wrong moment, and some of it had gone down his windpipe.
At that, the people in front of the stage burst into laughter, as if Do Yuda—who was coughing and unable to sing properly—had become some kind of funny spectacle, and they started shooting even more water at him with their water guns.
“Ahahahahaha!”
“Oh no, I think he got swallowed some water. Haha!”
“Hey, try aiming right at him. Let’s see how he handles it.”
‘Isn’t this basically bullying?‘
The main target of the water streams was Do Yuda.
It seemed like they thought Do Yuda, who was especially known to the public for his cheerful image, would tolerate their pranks, and that crossing the line would somehow make them feel like they were close to him. Even though, in reality, he was a celebrity they were seeing for the very first time.
“Hey, don’t spray someone’s face when they’re singing! Please don’t aim at our faces. If water gets in our mouths, we can’t sing! You all do want to see the performance, right? It’s totally fine to spray our bodies as much as you want.”
After somehow getting through the performance, Do Yuda, perhaps not wanting to ruin the mood, exaggeratedly stuck out his lips and placed his hands on his hips in a playful gesture. The majority of the audience responded with a unified “Yeees!”, and with a thumbs-up from Do Yuda, the moment ended on a cheerful and heartwarming note.
But as the next song began and one or two people sprayed water near Do Yuda’s neck, the streams of water started aiming toward his face again. While there was clearly less water hitting his face compared to earlier, a few people with especially strong water guns persistently targeted his eyes, nose, and mouth.
As soon as I saw the face of the person giggling while spraying their water gun, I raised my hand to block the strong stream of water pouring onto Do Yuda’s face.
“There will surely be a way forward
Because from now on, your time is about to begin”
After flawlessly finishing my part live, I pointed with a stern expression at the person who had just sprayed water at Do Yuda. Shaking my head firmly, I silently mouthed the words, “Don’t do that”. After that, I passed the center position to another member as the choreography required.
As my gesture was broadcast on the screen through the camera, the audience realized I was pointing at someone among them and began glancing around. However, the person I had pointed at just turned his head left and right along with everyone else, acting as if it wasn’t him.
Next to him, someone who appeared to be his lover seemed to whisper, “Isn’t he talking about you?”. But he, trying to hide his embarrassment, acted even more brazenly, keep acting cool and loudly declaring, “What, so what if they don’t like it? Are they going to kick me out? They dragged themselves out to a water fest made for getting sprayed and now they’re acting all f**king sensitive.”
Then, as if trying to prove he wasn’t intimidated, he started spraying water even more aggressively.
This time, aiming mostly at me.
I blocked every single stream perfectly—so flawlessly that it must’ve driven him mad—until his water gun was completely empty. And as soon as the song ended, I grabbed the mic and deliberately singled him out.
“The man in the white headband and red swim shorts, please stop shooting your water gun at the members’ eyes.”
The venue fell silent in an instant.
It was because everyone around started looking around, trying to spot the person in question. Perhaps it was the lingering curiosity from earlier that hadn’t been resolved, but now their gazes were even more persistent and filled with curiosity.
“What? Who is it?”
“Seriously, they literally asked not to spray. Who keeps taking it too far?”
Since he was the only one near where I had pointed who matched the description, people’s eyes quickly locked onto him as the culprit. At that, he widened his eyes and pointed at his own face, as if to say, “Are you talking about me?”. He looked, to anyone, exactly like someone who had been unjustly accused.
At that, Do Yuda looked anxiously back and forth between me and the person I had pointed out, then carefully tugged at the edge of my sleeve and mumbled, “Hyung, I’m okay.”. But I gently took his hand and lowered it, keeping my eyes fixed on the man as I warned him in a flat, emotionless voice.
“Yes, you, sir. I saw everything, so please stop it. It’s not funny, and it’s unpleasant.”
I had already considered the possibility of the situation progressing this way, and only pointed him out after double-checking multiple times. But if I were to back off now with a vague “Is that so?”, I could end up being branded a sociopath for wrongfully cornering an innocent person.
“I really didn’t do it.”
Especially when dealing with people like him; those who shamelessly stick to their lies even after being told everything was seen.
Besides, if it had happened to me, I might’ve just let it go. But since it happened to the members, there was no way I could stand by and do nothing as their leader.
When the man kept denying it, someone with an official Muse merchandise towel draped around their neck turned to him and fired back sharply.
“You sprayed it. I saw everything from right next to you. Just stop already. It’s not even funny. You’re the only one who can’t read the room and keeps laughing while spraying water.”
Then, a few people, wearing the exact same amused expressions they had when the man shot his water gun at Do Yuda earlier, started secretly filming him with their phone cameras.
“Hey, you psycho, why are you filming that?! Hahaha!”
“Ah, hold on. If I upload it to NeoTube as ‘Annoying Water Fest Attendee’, the views will be insane. People’ll click just because they’ll wanna beat that guy up, right? I’m gonna be a million-subscriber nEOTuber starting today!”
As several cameras turned toward him, the man who had been shooting the water gun couldn’t hide the deep red flush spreading across his face. He then grabbed his lover’s hand and quickly left the audience area.
***
After finishing the performance and heading backstage to the singers’ waiting area, I spotted Lee Chise talking with some staff. He was wearing black pants and a leather outfit that looked like it was made up of nothing but sleeves and shoulder straps. Meanwhile, a makeup artist was vigorously applying something to his back to give it that dewy, glossy look.
‘…This is stressing me out.’
The moment I saw it, I squeezed my eyes shut like I’d just witnessed something I wasn’t supposed to, and threw the giant towel draped over my shoulders onto my head. Seeing a member who’s practically family wearing such an overtly sexy outfit turned out to be, surprisingly, harder to handle than I’d expected. Though to be fair, it still wasn’t as excruciating as watching Nam Yihwon’s kissing scene.
There were countless celebrities waiting backstage, but I could subtly feel the way the staff’s gazes—filled with admiration and awe—were all gravitating toward the direction where Lee Chise was standing. Everyone was trying not to make it obvious, but when every single person nearby was doing the same thing, there was no way it could go unnoticed.
“Wow, look over there.”
“Awesome…….”
Eventually, I could even hear people whispering in hushed voices, but Lee Chise went about his business silently, as if he were used to it.
‘Why on earth is he walking around without a jacket?’
I knew.
Unlike me, Lee Chise naturally tends to run hot and can’t stand wearing layers in this kind of weather. I understood it was just how he was and that it couldn’t be helped, but I still couldn’t understand why it pissed me off so much.
I calmly turned around, intending to head straight back the way I came.
But unfortunately, Lee Chise spotted me like a hawk and grabbed my arm in an instant.
“Seungbeomie, hi? My members are over there, wanna come hang out with us for a bit?”
And without even checking my reaction, he just started dragging me off somewhere without giving me a chance to resist. He’s not someone lacking in tact, so he must be doing this on purpose.
“…What about the sunbaenims’ performance?”
“Uh-huh, we’ve still got plenty of time before it’s our turn.”
“…….”
Of course they would. Our Great Sunbaenim, those Prism rascals, always appear last, just as their name value demands. Damn it. I mean, he was so focused on his work he didn’t even care about how people around him were reacting, so why was he dragging me off now?
‘Just leave me alone, please.’
The place he dragged me to was, as expected, packed with Prism members.
“Ah.”
Those tall guys, now all bulked up, were standing around half-naked … the visual pressure was intense. It wasn’t something I really noticed back when I was the biggest one among them.
‘I thought the Pantheion guys were pretty big … but this doesn’t even compare.’
The one small mercy was that Lee Chise was the only one wearing something that looked blatantly provocative; the rest were dressed in styles you’d typically see at a swimming pool. If I had to nitpick, maybe Nam Yihwon’s tank top was showing a bit too much.
‘Ah, my goodness.’
I rubbed my face with both hands, then picked the least dangerous of the countless question marks floating in my head and finally said it out loud.
“What in the world are you wearing?”
Lee Chise tilted his head, as if he couldn’t remember, and then answered, “They said it was bol something.”
“Sports bolero.”1
In the end, Yoo Jay, who was standing next to him, answered on behalf of Lee Chise, who clearly had no idea what he was even wearing. At that, Chise nodded enthusiastically and casually repeated the name, as if he’d known it all along.
“Oh, right, that. Jiyeon always brings the quirkiest new stuff. Every time I see her suitcase, I get a little nervous. It’s always packed full of things that make you think, ‘Where on earth did she even find that?’”
“But wasn’t that supposed to be Woon-hyung’s outfit, not yours, hyung?”
“Yeah, Woon-hyung did get picked by the random draw for it, but he was way too embarrassed, so I wore it instead.”
“When did I ever say I was embarrassed!”
“You kept fidgeting, sneaking glances, and sighing. Your face was pale all morning too.”
“That was just because I thought it’d be uncomfortable to dance in!”
Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt that hugged every inch of his body, Cha Woon, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation, sharply interjected. Lee Chise broke into a hearty laugh, then narrowed his eyes and slung an arm around Cha Woon’s shoulder.
“Alright, alright. If our Hyung-nim says so, then I guess that’s how it is.”
At the subtly coaxing tone, Cha Woon clamped his mouth shut and clicked his tongue in annoyance. He was clearly bothered, but it was the kind of thing too ambiguous to properly complain about.
In the end, grumbling something about how heavy it was for no good reason, he smacked Lee Chise’s arm and then looked around to do a headcount of the other members.
“Where’s Inchan? He said he was going to the bathroom.”
“I’m right here.”
Just then, Jo Inchan suddenly appeared from behind and answered. A little startled by that, I quickly turned around, and our eyes met right away.
“…….”
“…….”
Jo Inchan looked down at me for a moment, then smiled a little awkwardly, “…Oh, Seungbeom-ssi, you’re here. Welcome.”
Jo Inchan was wearing a cap, a long-sleeved rash guard, leggings that covered him all the way down to the ankles, and swim shorts over them—leaving barely any skin exposed. I couldn’t help but stare at his outfit, puzzled by how excessively bundled up he was, despite all the hard work he’d put into working out with the other members.
At that, Jo Inchan hesitated for a moment, then subtly avoided my gaze. I’d come to realize recently that whenever he couldn’t bring himself to open up to me, he had a habit of looking away like that.
The uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away, so I kept my mouth shut and simply stared at him. Noticing the meaning behind my gaze, that guy finally opened his mouth with great reluctance, almost as if he were being physically pushed to do so.
“It’s just, I think the members are already enough…….”
But before he could even finish his sentence, Nam Yihwon cut him off with a sigh. Then, in his characteristically cynical tone, he spoke bluntly, “He said he doesn’t like it because of the scar.”
The moment I heard that answer, my mind went numb as if I’d been hit in the back of the head.
‘…His knee? Some other scar? Or both?’
And then I felt a sharp pain stab me in the chest, sharper than any I’d felt from my own injuries. Facing the wounds of someone I love hurt even more than being hurt myself.
As I clenched my mouth shut, trying to endure the pain tearing through my heart, an image flashed through my mind: Kang Hyukwoo, reaching out to his son, only to withdraw his hand before it could touch him.
You can support this translation through Buy Me a Coffee or Wishlist!
Translator’s Corner:
Trying to remember what I want to comment but all I can think of is I’m hungry .;… I’m going to sleep…..
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter