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Chapter 39: Survival Entertainment Show - Unit (7)

I was dressed in a special forces outfit that the Chronos members had only seen on television. I stood out with an all-black military uniform, a bulletproof vest, and matching black gloves. This ensemble, which leaned toward cosplay, captivated everyone’s attention without fail.

I smiled knowingly and simply said, "It’s a secret."

The members I met at the hair salon after about two weeks were brimming with energy. Our greetings mirrored the enthusiasm of students reuniting after a long vacation. Despite our habitual arguments during every meeting, the excitement was palpable as soon as we caught sight of each other.

"Jin-Sung seems to have lost some weight."

Lee Jin-Sung let out a deep sigh and shook his head. "Oh, don\'t even mention it."

"The dance team hyungs were really scary. I forgot because I haven’t been with them for a few years."

Lee Jin-Sung massaged his own shoulders. "Did your team practice a lot?"

"It\'s beyond a lot. See, I\'ve lost weight. Even though I ate two packs of ramen every day, my

weight just dropped further."

It seemed like their teams were also sustaining themselves on ramen. I just nodded nonchalantly to Lee Jin-Sung, who was grumbling. However, he seemed unsatisfied with my reaction and raised his voice.

"Hyung, you are not interested, are you?"

"To be honest, no."

"You are so mean. I heard you treated the youngest in your team like a baby, even grilling meat for him. Why are you so harsh to your own team\'s youngest?"

Well, the youngest in my new team was literally a baby, whereas Lee Jin-Sung was only the youngest by age. Just look at him, he was taller and more muscular than me.

"But you\'ve lost a lot of weight too, haven\'t you, Hyun-Woo hyung? I heard that the atmosphere in your team was really intense, is that true?"

I shook my head. "At first, the power struggle was no joke, but it got better over time."

"The member who used to smoke is in your team, right?"

"We made up. He turned out to be more diligent than I thought."

‘But how does he know all this?’

It seemed like someone from my assigned team had talked to a member of another team without me knowing.

"Is everyone ready? Wow, you guys...." Our manager started but then stopped mid-sentence, taking in the sight of us in our diverse outfits.

Lee Jin-Sung was dressed in his school uniform, Goh Yoo-Joon wore a suit with slicked-back hair, Joo-Han donned animal pajamas for some unfathomable reason, Park Yoon-Chan sported a silk shirt with several buttons undone, and then there was me in my military gear. Seeing this scene, our manager seemed at a loss for words, taken aback by our contrasting appearances.

"Should we get in the car?" Joo-Han asked, fumbling with the rabbit ears attached to his hat.

"Yeah, yeah! Let\'s go down and get in the car."

"You must have put a lot of effort into the group dance, given the soldier concept."

"I nearly died doing it. I’m going to go all out and pass out today," I stated.

In fact, it wasn\'t a soldier concept but a zombie concept. However, I decided not to specify that in order to get the ideal reaction.

"What about you? You are dressed in a suit, but you are not doing an office worker concept, are you?"

"Why do you think that? But yeah, you are right. It\'s not." Goh Yoo-Joon held back his words with an expectant look on his face. From this, I knew he had prepared an amazing performance. I decided not to press him for details right now as I was curious about one thing: why was Joo-Han wearing rabbit pajamas?

"Alright, let\'s go inside the building," our manager said in a serious tone as the entrance to the broadcasting station came into view. He hadn\'t given us a heads-up when we were nearing the building before, but why was he doing that now?

Just as I was pondering this, there were sudden thuds on the car.

Bang, bang!

"Oppa!"

Knock, knock! Bang! Thud, thud!

"Hyun-Woo Oppa!"

"Hyun-Woo!"

"Is this Chronos\'s car? Jin-Sung!"

Hands were beating on the car as we slowly entered through the gate.

"I was so surprised! Ah, I thought my heart was going to drop!"

"Jin-Sung, get a blanket from the stylist noona to cover the window."

"What?"

"Cover the window with a blanket." As soon as the manager finished speaking, someone put their face close to the window and peeked inside, trying to get a look into the tinted car. Feeling surprised, Lee Jin-Sung and Goh Yoo-Joon hurriedly covered the window with a blanket.

"Ah, there\'s still no one to take care of this!" The manager honked in frustration, but the people clinging to the car showed no signs of moving.

"Ah, really! You guys wait here for a bit. Don\'t do anything!"

The manager cautiously opened the door and stepped outside. In the brief moment, the door was ajar; eager hands reached in through the gap, trying to get our attention.

"Wow, what\'s this? It wasn\'t like this last time, was it?" Goh Yoo-Joon asked, genuinely surprised.

Park Yoon-Chan shook his head in response. "You said the same thing last time, hyung. It wasn\'t like this at the first competition."

He was right. There were noticeably more people gathered this time than before, and it seemed likely that the crowd would only grow larger with each subsequent event. Although I was taken aback, I couldn\'t help but feel a sense of gratification knowing that so many people were interested in us.

"Let\'s do a meet and greet after the performance, guys! Please, let us through for now! Your oppas need to get ready for their show!”

“Could you open the window just once?”

“Please, I just want to give them this gift!”

“You can give them gifts later when we\'re heading home! We can’t open the window right now as it would spoil their costumes. Please move back! If those at the front step back, everyone else will follow. Okay?” The manager adeptly calmed the fans down and got back in the car. Perhaps he was used to this from his previous experience with Allure’s events. The fans finally took a step back, only waving their hands at the manager’s firmness.

“Good luck with your performance!”

“I will cheer for you the loudest!”

I felt sorry that I couldn’t respond to the voices cheering us on.

We got out of the car one by one, wrapped around by the blankets, as we arrived at the parking lot. There were no cameras following us this time.

"Why are you so on guard when there\'s no one here, hyung?" asked Park Yoon-Chan cautiously. The eyes of the staff surrounding us were incredibly sharp, almost scary. Then, the manager let out a sigh, looking tired.

"Did you know that last week, a photo of Yoon-Chan and Hyun-Woo was taken secretly?"

"Eh?"

"Huh? When?"

All of us were unaware of the incident, having been focused on the broadcast and then engrossed in practice for the rest of the day.

"The photo came to light after you left for the team dorms."

"What was photographed?"

"The two of you practicing behind the building."

Hearing this, I felt a sense of relief. It was only a photo of us practicing, a relatively harmless snapshot. Secret photography was a common issue for celebrities, but it still felt surreal when it happened to me. Currently, it was just a benign photo, but as Chronos’s popularity grew, I worried that the invasiveness of such a thing would escalate.

During Allure’s prime time, there were even incidents of their photos taken in the bathroom, while changing clothes, or sleeping on a plane.

"It\'s scary," I said, and Park Yoon-Chan also nodded with a worried face.

“There wasn\'t anything significant in the photo, right?"

"Actually, there was a video too, but it was just a conversation where Hyun-Woo was teaching Yoon-Chan." The manager seemed accustomed to this kind of situation, but that was all. He didn’t make any gestures to catch the person who had taken the secret photos.

"Fortunately, the fans who saw that video mentioned that your dedicated practice motivated them even more to vote."

"That\'s a relief."

The truth was... there was nothing we could do about it. We felt scared and upset, but we could do nothing. It was a bitter truth that the manager, I, and all the other members knew.

If we were regular people, we could obviously file a complaint or even sue them. But for us who appeared on broadcasts, it was very difficult to raise an issue about secret photography unless it was something really serious.

It could even backfire, with people saying we were making a big deal out of nothing.

"Each waiting room has the name of the participants written on it. Go say hi to the producer and then head to your respective waiting rooms. Got it?" The manager went to take a call, and the members scattered to their new team’s waiting rooms under Joo-Han’s lead.

"Oh, is our Hyun-Woo here?"

"Ah, again, hyung is calling him \'our Hyun-Woo\'. Did Hyun-Woo hyung come?"

Upon entering the waiting room, Ji-Hyuk and On-Sae were already there and greeted us warmly. Kim Jin-Wook was also there, quietly sitting in a corner.

"Hyun-Woo, do you know what happened today?" Ji-Hyuk approached me, standing close. I had become accustomed to this proximity, which had made me uneasy before.

"What happened?"

"Jin-Wook was the first to arrive today."

"What? Really? What’s up with Jin-Wook hyung?" I exaggerated my reaction to tease him, and the quiet Kim Jin-Wook frowned.

"It\'s not something to be surprised about. We all left from the same dorm at the same time, and I just got ready faster."

"He came early and even got praised, yet our Jin-Wook is so cold~"

"You are mocking me while pretending to compliment me."

Spending time with these people helped me understand why the filming staff often described Chronos as amiable. While everyone in Chronos joked around, they always considered the feelings of others. This contrasted with some groups, where their members joked more freely without restraint.

"By the way, where are the Street Center members?"

"They are running a bit late. They have an interview before coming here."

On-Sae fully admired Ji-Hyuk’s composure and said, “Trainees from major entertainment agencies are indeed on another level. They already do interviews before making their debut.”

“But they are freaking out, saying all their practice time is getting stolen.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“...Let’s practice.” Kim Jin-Wook suddenly stood up while listening to their conversation and turned on the music from his phone. Then, Ji-Hyuk shook his head and turned it off immediately.

“No, we are purposely not practicing right now.”

“Why not? You can get some rest. I will practice by myself.”

“It’s not that. Ah, you haven’t had any dance performance yet, right?”

“What are you trying to say? Just get straight to the point.”

Ji-Hyuk, the trickster, noticed Kim Jin-Wook frowning, so he playfully tried to smooth out his wrinkles with his fingers.

“You are getting wrinkles. Idols can’t afford to have wrinkles.”

“You sound like an old man when you talk, hyung.”

“I hear that a lot. Anyway, don’t practice right now. You need to save your energy. I am not sure about other times, but for this stage, our legs will completely give out once we set ourselves and go all out.”

“Oh, okay.”

We could slack off a bit and then go hard again during practice, but we had to give it our all in the actual performance. Even for us who danced every day, this stage made us groan in pain. Therefore, it would be more exhausting for Kim Jin-Wook, who barely danced.

“Understood.” Kim Jin-Wook sat back down, but he looked visibly uneasy.

"Ji Hyuk hyung, can I borrow your phone?"

"Huh? Oh, it\'s on the table."

I took Ji-Hyuk’s phone and handed it to Kim Jin-Wook. "If you are anxious, why don\'t you watch the choreography practice video?"

"Okay." Kim Jin-Wook immediately played the clip, and I sat next to him, watching the video closely.

"In this part, your gaze shifts to another member. It’s fine when everyone is doing the same thing together, but after this, the members have different moves, right? If you follow along, you might mess up."

"Okay."

"Here, when you turn around and move positions, it will be easier to transition into the next move if you lower your waist a bit as you turn."

"Got it." I simply gave him a quick and thorough lesson. Honestly, the image of Kim Jin-Wook smoking still lingered in my memory, so my impression of him hadn’t really improved. But since we were on the same team, I intended to at least help him be good enough to join YU Entertainment.