Chapter 162: Chapter 163:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 163

Everyone had a sensitive spot.

Some people had a keen sense of smell and react to the slightest odor, while others had sharp hearing and woke up to the smallest sound.

Like that, everyone had a sensitive area.

For Woojoo, it was his grandmother’s mood.

“Our Kim Deoksoon! I know her best. This is it.”

“Was that all you wanted to say, you burn victim? You made such a big deal out of it.”

“Ahem, anyway, something’s been off with her lately. Ever since the music awards, she’s been lukewarm…”

She had been like that since the day he won the Rookie Award.

She seemed to be sulking about something, and her usual grumpiness was 1.3 times more than usual when he texted or called her.

It was too subtle to ask her ‘what’s wrong?’ but too noticeable to ignore.

As Bijoo listened to his story in the car, he asked him, “Hyung, what part is different from the usual Grandma?”

“Yeah, I’m curious too.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll show you.”

Woojoo took out his phone and showed them the chat he had with Mrs. Kim Deoksoon.

“Look. When I say I love you, she says ‘yeah.’ but there’s only one dot, right? But she usually uses two dots.”

“…”

“One dot means she’s uncomfortable. ‘Yeah..’ and ‘Yeah.’ are totally different, right?”

“Aha…”

No one sympathized with him.

Woojoo thought about explaining more, but he felt like he would look weird, so he gave up.

It wasn’t like he could get an answer from them anyway.

He didn’t know why she was so upset, but he decided to call her tonight and cheer her up with a lot of aegyo.

Woojoo might as well buy her a nice Christmas present too.

A handwritten letter would be a total hit, right?

As he chuckled to himself, a cheerful melody came to his ears.

It was the carol song ‘Let it Snow’ playing on the radio.

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful–”

Jiho waved his arms and hummed along to the carol, and they all joined him.

December 24th. Christmas Eve.

Snow was falling outside the window.

It was snowing heavily, and the bonnets of the cars parked nearby were covered with snow.

The road had turned into a black puddle, but the street was full of snow piled up everywhere.

They looked at the snow accumulating one by one through the window and sang along to the carol happily.

Their main vocal sang the carol lyrics with a clear and beautiful voice, and the youngest and Junghyun added rhythm by clapping their hands.

Bijoo danced as if he was a fairy sprinkling snow, and it was so cute that Woojoo laughed.

It was a simple game they played among ourselves, but it felt like a small stage they performed in the car, since their job was their job.

It was quite convincing, as the eyes of Dowon-ssi, who was looking at them through the rearview mirror, were curved.

As the next song came on, they sang along, and Woojoo asked the driver, “Manager, when will we get there?”

“We’re almost there. Oh, there it is.”

He pointed to a building that was visible through the snow.

The gray and gloomy five-story building was the headquarters of DNS Media.

Snow-covered Christmas Eve.

Today’s schedule was a joint practice with Street Boys.

As they arrived at the DNS Media headquarters, the road manager from Street Boys guided them.

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“There’s a restaurant-like place on the first floor. There’s a sink, and I guess they cook and eat there.”

“It’s kind of similar to our company, right?”

The manager took pictures of them as they looked around like they were visiting a model house.

Woojoo made a V sign and said, “We came to DNS Media today~”

“For a joint practice~!”

“Now, shall we go and meet our Street friends~”

“Shall we~?”

They were in perfect sync.

Woojoo made a gun shape with his finger and said ‘go go!’ and the kids also smiled and said ‘go go go!’

The road manager on the other side glanced and asked, “Is this it? The reality show that the managers talked about?”

“Yes, it is.”

Their manager answered.

The scene they were filming with a handycam was going to be uploaded on YouTube as a practice video of them and the Street Boys.

The title would probably be something like ‘Behind the Scenes of Mint Choco-dan’s Practice?!’

Since the companies had already agreed on this, the Street Boys were also waiting for them in the practice room, dressed up nicely.

New Black followed their manager to the second floor and were guided to a spacious practice room.

Clack.

As soon as they opened the door and entered, the Street Boys who were sitting in their places turned their heads awkwardly.

The fake acting began right away.

“Uh-uh! What’s this?”

“Where is that Rookie Award vibe coming from, like a minty breeze?”

“Wow! It’s New. Bla. Ck.”

“Stop acting, Tree, unless you want to burn.”

“…Annoying. Why do they always say I’m burnt?”

LB grumbled and they clapped their hands and laughed.

They had agreed to pretend they didn’t know each other and greet them casually, but they were all showing off their terrible acting skills.

The enthusiastic welcome followed.

“Woahhh!”

“The No-Fun Family is here!”

“Wait, wait. Let’s do that thing. The one we practiced together last time.”

One of the Street Boys’ members pointed his finger at the New Black siblings. Then he asked with a serious face, “Are you No-Fun?”

“Yes! We’re No-Fun!”

“Woahhh! Comrades! Comrades!”

They were good. They were good.

While the energetic siblings were dancing like monkeys, the monkey bosses nodded their heads with solemn faces.

“…”

No words were needed.

Their eyes were full of camaraderie as they looked at each other among the chaotic siblings.

When Woojoo was exchanging hot glances with Hanjo and saying ‘You’ve worked hard’, one of the Street Boys’ members pointed at the thing in Woojoo’s hand.

“Hey? Boss! What’s that?”

“Oh. Well, I thought it would be rude to come empty-handed as a guest. We brought some snacks for you.”

“Aww~ You didn’t have to do that…”

Their greedy eyes sparkled at the snack bag in Woojoo’s hand.

Their bear was also in there.

Look at him. Drooling.

Woojoo knew he would be like that, so he didn’t entrust this heavy bag to him.

“Snacks! Snacks!”

“Quiet down and sit down, everyone. No snacks if you make noise.”

“Yes!”

…They listened well, didn’t they?

As Woojoo looked at them sitting in front of him like a bunch of kindergarteners, he seriously wondered if he could use food as a training method.

Bijoo shook his head next to Woojoo as if to say no, so he gave up.

In the midst of their kids and their kids staring at him with their round eyes, Woojoo unfolded the snacks one by one.

“First, I bought ice cream with 31 flavors. The flavors are random, and if you eat it in pairs…”

“Ahem.”

“And this is a cookie.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Ahem.”

“Jiho, do you have something to say?”

“No. Ahem.”

“…”

Woojoo sighed as the youngest kept appealing to him with a smug face.

“These snacks are all paid by our Jiho. Let’s all give him a round of applause in gratitude.”

“Wow!”

Their youngest enjoyed receiving bows with a pleased expression.

Woojoo distributed the snacks he had carefully taken out and told them to eat well.

Groups were formed here and there.

It felt like meeting friends and having fun on Christmas Eve.

They all smiled and shared cookies, or laughed at some silly stories.

A faint smile appeared on Woojoo’s lips as he watched the warm scene of friendship.

Yeah.

Eat well. Kids.

You’ll have to eat well if you want to practice later. Whatever.

As Woojoo was watching them warmly, Junghyun, who was sitting across from him eating ice cream, said “Oh.”

“What’s wrong, Junghyun?”

“Hyung. Your expression just now was like that. That.”

“Like what?”

“That.”

Junghyun seemed to have trouble finding the right word, so he bit his spoon and said, “Hmm.”

Then he said “Ah! I got it.” and let go of his lips.

He pointed at Woojoo with his finger, as if he had found a clear answer.

“The villain from Hansel and Gretel.”

“Hey.”

Bijoo burst into a cool laugh next to Woojoo.

Maybe it was because he fed them well.

The practice that day was very successful.

As far as Woojoo remembered, it was a very harmonious and warm atmosphere.

-You devil…!

-Hey, mister. Not everyone can dance as well as you and Bijoo. Please, have some humanity… What? It’s because of the lack of flexibility? Don’t make me do the splits! Hey! Woojoo-ssi! Stop pushing me! Aaaah!

-If Bijoo and Woojoo appear in my dreams, I’ll think it’s a nightmare.

The Street Boys also reacted warmly.

-Do you always practice like this, New Black?

-Wow. We thought we were tough when we practiced, but you guys are twice as tough.

-Namoo. Where did that bastard go? …Oh, he went to throw up ice cream? Well, that’s understandable.

-…Aaaah!

The atmosphere was very hot, as befitting Christmas Eve.

There was a lot of screaming everywhere, because Woojoo had increased the intensity of the practice much more than usual.

He couldn’t help it.

That day was the first and last practice they could do with the Street Boys.

They couldn’t match their schedules on other days, so they had to make the most of it while they could.

And he wasn’t sure if it was that hard.

Well. It might have been a bit hard…

“A bit?”

Rihyuk narrowed his eyes.

“A bit? Do you want to get salted?”

“Was it that hard? Bijoo, was it hard?”

“No.”

Bijoo shook his head. He smiled softly, as if it was not at all, and said, “It was manageable.”

He turned his head and asked again.

“Bijoo said it was manageable, right?”

“No, I mean, you can’t use those two as a standard… Ah! I can’t even complain about this anywhere. It was really crazy that day.”

“That’s right. I would understand if the Street Boys put Woojoo Hyung’s picture on a dart board.”

“Maybe they already stuck it on.”

Woojoo said, ignoring the conversation that the three of them were having while nodding their heads, “Anyway, thanks to our practice with the mindset of living only for today, our performance has become perfect, right?”

“Yes. It’s thanks to me and Hyung’s hard work that our Mint Choco-dan’s joint performance was completed.”

“Right?”

“Yes. You did a great job, Hyung.”

“No, no. Our Bijoo worked the hardest.”

“No, no. Hyung worked the hardest.”

They smiled and laughed together, saying ‘It’s all thanks to you’, while the other three moved away as if they didn’t want to join them.

Rihyuk licked his tongue and said, “He feels more upbeat than usual. Upbeat.”

“It’s because he’s wearing a school uniform.”

That wasn’t a wrong answer.

One of the reasons why Woojoo was smiling happily right now was because of the clothes he was wearing.

A blue jacket with a striped necktie.

It was an outfit sponsored by Everdream, the school uniform brand that they were currently modeling for.

It was a stage costume, but Woojoo was happy to wear a school uniform in his own way.

He felt excited and thrilled.

He wanted to do something fun with their kids, like going to the cinema and getting a youth discount, while screaming wow.

His heart was pounding strangely and a smile kept leaking out of his mouth.

As Woojoo started to take a selfie in front of the mirror, the youngest ran over and joined him.

The other staff in the waiting room smiled as if they found them cute.

“Hyung, let’s select our photos.”

“Let’s do that.”

As Woojoo looked at the photos stored in his phone’s album with the youngest, he saw the date.

December 30th.

Today, the day before the TBC year-end music festival, was the day they pre-recorded their joint stage with Street Boys.

Some of them had to pre-record because of the time needed for the singers to change and other things on the live stage, and their stage with Street Boys was one of them.

So, later, they were going to pre-record in the public hall where Souffles and Concretes would wave their light sticks together.

Of course, there was still a lot of time left until the recording, but they had to dress up in advance.

It was for the VCR shooting.

TBC, who had seen their choreography video, suggested that a short VCR would be nice before they went on stage.

Knock, knock.

The door opened and the writer came in and called them.

“We’re going to shoot the VCR.”

“Yes!”

New Black went out to the hallway with their managers and saw that Street Boys were already waiting for them.

They exchanged brief eye contact and gathered in front of the writer who was holding a notebook.

She looked around them and said, “What’s the concept for the stage? It’s about a singing club and a hip-hop club clashing and then reconciling at school, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to show that in the VCR. Just a short clip, about 10 to 15 seconds. We’ll film a scene where the two groups are walking from opposite ends of the hallway.”

Their eyes briefly scanned the ends of the hallway.

“Then we’ll film a scene where they meet in the middle of the hallway. We’ll have a short dialogue there. You can say anything you want, as long as it sounds a bit rough or rebellious. The background music will cover it anyway.”

They proceeded to film a few takes of each group walking towards the center with a serious atmosphere and a camera set up.

The only thing left was the scene where the two groups faced each other.

The leaders of each club had to confront each other in the hallway and exchange a line.

Jiho whispered to Woojoo, “Hyung, can you do this?”

“Why?”

“I’m just worried. This is supposed to be like a delinquent teenager scene. I don’t know if you can pull it off, you know, being a greenhouse lettuce and all…”

“Don’t worry. I’m a strong lettuce.”

Their actor seemed concerned.

The Street Boys were used to putting on a fierce expression and rocking the stage, but they had never done anything like this before.

From the youngest’s perspective, who specialized in acting, he wondered if Woojoo could handle the awkward dialogue.

Woojoo whispered back.

“I’m confident.”

He had already mastered the perfect expressions for this situation.

The two groups stayed at a distance from each other.

“Action!”

As soon as the shooting signal came, they approached each other with swagger.

The nine-member Street Boys, who walked with a cocky stride and a neck crack.

The New Black members, who had fewer members but didn’t lose their momentum, and hardened their faces with a fierce look.

As the two groups walked towards each other, the Street Boys were surprised to see the member in the center of New Black.

‘Wow…’

Even though he had tried to look angry, the New Black members looked like angry raccoons compared to the leader, who had a different vibe.

He was smiling softly just a moment ago.

But now his eyes were cold and his lips had a relaxed smile.

He looked like a different person with just a change of expression.

‘He’s not just good at composing…?’

He looked like a mafia boss from a movie, with a flawless expression acting.

‘He’s scary.’

The Street Boys felt a chill in their hearts.

It wasn’t because his expression was scary. It was because someone came to mind when they saw that expression.

The person who always scolded them like a tiger.

‘He looks like Teacher Heysion…’

He reminded them of the stern rapper who taught them rap.

On the other hand, the New Black members thought of someone else when they saw the leader’s expression.

‘He looks like Teen Spirit…’

In reality, it was a combination of the two expressions, but they didn’t know that. They felt a shiver and rubbed their weak chests.

For a moment, Hanjo and Woojoo had a staring contest.

A serious atmosphere.

As they glanced at each other, as if their fate depended on it, silence fell on the hallway.

‘Please say a line with a bit of a delinquent vibe.’

The writer behind the camera signaled, and Woojoo opened his lips first. With a cold smile.

His voice reached the ears of everyone who was nervously wondering what he would say.

“Do you have a lot of money?”

The members behind the two leaders clenched their lips and felt their cheeks tremble. They barely held back their laughter.

When the answer from Hanjo came, it was even worse.

“How much do you think I have?”

“About 5,000 won.”

“I have 10,000 won.”

“Good for you. Do you want to buy my math textbook?”

“Sorry. I’m in humanities.”

The members of both groups felt their cheeks tremble.

As soon as the production team announced the end of the shooting, the members of both groups collapsed on the floor and burst into laughter.

The sound of laughter filled the hallway.

“…?”

But the two leaders looked puzzled and stared at their siblings.