LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 111
Chapter 111
I thought it was something Seo Moon-gyeol and Gyun Seong-ha, who had been training at Seed last year, would react to, but instead, it was Ban Yo-han, who had been lazily solving problems, who responded.
“Oh, that. It was fun. Want to do it again?”
“What do you mean, do it again?”
Kang Ji-woo retorted coldly, which was rare.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t so rare for Kang Ji-woo to be cold towards Ban Yo-han.
“What is it?”
I asked, putting the book aside.
Studying was out of the question now.
“Last year, on each other’s birthdays, we gave each other useless gifts.”
“Useless gifts?”
“Yeah, literally useless gifts. Like last year’s calendar or a framed picture that supposedly kills you if you look at it three times.”
“That’s really useless.”
Gyun Seong-ha also closed his book and joined the conversation.
The only one still focused on studying was Seo Moon-gyeol.
“My birthday came first, so Ban Yo-han had to give the first gift. Do you know what he gave me?”
Although he hastily changed his words, the phrase ‘preemptive strike’ was unusual.
In the calm before the storm, Ban Yo-han wore a troubled smile.
Finally, Kang Ji-woo exploded.
“That guy wrote a report on what happens when idols date! A twenty-page report! If you submitted it to a professor, you’d get a perfect score and even be called in for praise because it was so meticulously done!”
“Who wants to date?!” Kang Ji-woo, who had been huffing, quickly calmed down and spoke as if advising us.
“Hah… But guys, let’s not date until we’re at least thirty. I don’t mean anything else; I’m saying this because I’m worried about you.”
“For someone who’s worried, you don’t say anything useful.”
“That’s what I’m saying…”
“So, are you planning to date now?”
Kang Ji-woo asked in a subdued voice.
When Gyun Seong-ha and I shook our heads quickly, Kang Ji-woo, who seemed to think we made the right decision, gave us a benevolent smile before glaring at Ban Yo-han.
“And Ban Yo-han, if you have any conscience, don’t date until you retire. No, just live alone forever and die lonely!”
Despite the harsh and cruel curse, we had embraced as friends just a few hours ago.
Now, I was curious what amazing content filled those twenty pages.
“I admit, your gift was excessively thoughtful.”
Ban Yo-han, pretending to be apologetic, said with drooping eyebrows.
“I was so tired of doing my assignments that I prepared yours as an escape.”
Kang Ji-woo, ignoring Ban Yo-han’s shameless excuse, looked at me and continued.
“But that wasn’t the real gift.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Yeah.”
With rough hand movements, Kang Ji-woo searched his phone gallery and showed me a photo.
“Wow…”
The photo Kang Ji-woo showed was of a pair of rings, clearly designed and packaged as couple rings.
“…”
“This guy really goes beyond imagination…”
He’s a bastard.
Amid the cold public opinion against Ban Yo-han, Kang Ji-woo, full of indignation, shouted in a voice loud enough to be concerned about the noise between floors.
“After showing me that persistent report! He gave me two rings! As a gift! Is he even human?!”
Even Seo Moon-gyeol now looked at Ban Yo-han with lukewarm eyes.
“Well, what else would I be if not human?”
…Honestly, I thought Kang Ji-woo wouldn’t be guilty if he hit that bastard.
“So what happened to those rings?”
At Gyun Seong-ha’s question, Kang Ji-woo simply replied, “Those?” and answered lightly.
“I sold them.”
Seeing his relatively relaxed expression compared to before, he must have sold them at a high price.
“You sold them?”
Ban Yo-han, unaware, was surprised.
“Why would I keep them?”
Kang Ji-woo frowned.
“I’d be upset if you still had them, but selling them without saying anything? That’s disappointing.”
“You really, just be quiet. It’s not nearly enough to compensate for my emotional damage.”
“So what did you give Yo-han hyung for his birthday? You must have given something back since you received.”
At my words, Ban Yo-han now stepped forward with a face full of things to say.
Ban Yo-han showed a photo on his phone.
When I looked, it was a screenshot of an email draft.
“…This is Ban Yo-han from the Business Administration Department at Wooul University. I’m interested in pursuing graduate studies and I apologize for the intrusion, but I wanted to contact you, professor. Although I’m still a first-year undergraduate, I was wondering how I could prepare for a successful entry into graduate school…”
Reading the slightly exaggerated email aloud, I closed my mouth.
“…Did you actually send this?”
“In the end, I didn’t.”
Kang Ji-woo, having regained his composure, waved his hand nonchalantly.
“In the end?”
“Yeah, I didn’t send it.”
Ban Yo-han added in a sarcastic tone.
“He was making a fuss, waving that graduate school application like a nuisance, contemplating whether to send it or not in front of me, and then he accidentally pressed the send button and got so startled that he quickly canceled the send. I should have recorded that.”
It was easy to imagine how Kang Ji-woo taunted him.
After receiving a twenty-page report cursing him not to date and a useless pair of couple rings, how eagerly had he waited for Ban Yo-han’s birthday?
“Still, compared to what Yo-han hyung did, I think it’s mild. After all, it wasn’t actually sent.”
At Gyun Seong-ha’s words, Ban Yo-han quickly turned his head.
“But what if the recipient of that email was my dad, who actually has a say in my career?”
“!”
“And what if I hadn’t been able to cancel the send?”
“That would be….”
“If you add the fact that my little sister was a graduate student until two years ago?”
“Oh, my.”
“When my sister was in graduate school, she went through all kinds of hardships. Watching that, I swore I’d never become a graduate student. And Kang Ji-woo knew all about it. My sister adored him and always took good care of him.”
“Wow…”
The conclusion was clear.
After exchanging glances with Gyun Seong-ha and Seo Moon-gyeol, I spoke on behalf of us all.
“Thank you for reminding us why you two are such close friends.”
The saying “catching a fox in a raccoon den” exists for a reason.
Kang Ji-woo and Ban Yo-han were exactly the same, both sly and cunning.
“But still, I’m better than him, right?”
“Do you still want to believe that?”
As Kang Ji-woo and Ban Yo-han argued, others voiced their opinions.
“I think Yo-han hyung was worse.”
“Me too.”
“I think… Ji-woo hyung was worse.”
Everyone looked at me with wide eyes, surprised by my unexpected answer.
Even Ban Yo-han looked astonished.
“How can you, the youngest…!”
“Me? Well, from my perspective, they’re both the same, but at least Yo-han hyung’s ring could be sold for money.”
“That’s true.”
“Yeah, that’s right…”
Gyun Seong-ha changed his mind, agreeing that Ban Yo-han was better.
“See? I’m better.”
“It’s not you that’s better, it’s the money.”
“…Kyeol, you’re my only hope.”
“Ji-woo hyung is no different.”
“Kyeol, even you…!”
Seo Moon-gyeol’s dry remarks always had a surprisingly strong impact.
“Actually, it might be fun if we did this useless gift exchange among ourselves later.”
“What? Useless gift exchange?”
When I nodded, Kang Ji-woo calmly responded.
“I’m fine with it, but I’m scared it might cause rumors of discord within the group.”
“I think it will be fine as long as the hyungs behave.”
“Right. Just stick to giving useless gifts without adding any deals.”
Even the brazen duo couldn’t argue with that, remaining silent.
* * *
In early October, the weather had turned quite chilly.
Now, the only thing left was to prepare for the debut album.
“Let’s go again, taking a bit of the embellishment out of your voice.”
“Yes!”
The recording for the debut album’s title track, “Liberation,” and Seo Moon-gyeol’s composed track, “Fantasy Garden,” was in its final stages.
The directing was handled by Jung Ha-neul.
This was already the third project with Jung Ha-neul, but unlike previous recordings that passed in one go, this time, despite being fine, we had to repeat several recordings.
“Do we need to lower the tone here?”
“No, it’s perfect as it is. But let’s do it one last time.”
The recording session, which aimed to maximize the quality of the song, ended about twenty minutes later.
“Now, we’re really done. You did a great job today. Prepare well for your debut, and see you again.”
“Thank you!”
Despite the shower of compliments, I relaxed my tense body, exhausted from the exceptionally rigorous directing.
As I stepped outside, the other members, who had finished recording earlier and were practicing their facial expressions while looking at their phones, noticed me and slowly got up.
The faces that once had idol-like expressions now looked very tired.
“You should have gone ahead and rested a bit. You must be tired.”
“Why do you keep telling us to go first?”
Ban Yo-han lightly rebuked, tapping my shoulder.
“Hurry up. If we’re late, we’ll get an earful from Sae-bom hyung.”
* * *
One October afternoon, while ORCA was deeply immersed in practice.
The long-awaited reality teaser for the fans was finally released.
[ORCA Reality ‘Get Closer to ORCA’ Teaser]
Due to the busy schedule, even the regular selfies that had been steadily posted on Seed’s official account had stopped.
Although it was just a teaser, the reality show teaser was enough to excite the fans.
After the hand-drawn-looking ‘Get Closer to ORCA’ opening logo, brief introductions of each member followed.
The symbolic emojis chosen during the first shoot for each member were adorably edited in a collage format.
– *Gasp*
– On Raon’s hammer bopping the kids down is insanely cuteㅠㅠㅠ
– Kang Joo raising both hands up is super adorableㅋㅋㅋㅋ
– But who decided On Raon’s character to be a cat???? Not that it’s not cute, but
┗ Seriously, isn’t that a failed character choice??? Our boy totally likes dogs, not that it’s not cute
Quickly passing cuts of the recorded footage flashed by, creating a tantalizing effect.
The teaser ended with the members shouting “Get Closer to ORCA!” in distant but lively voices.
– I’m dying from the teaser of these pre-debut kids being so good ㅇ<-<
– But the kids are louder than I thoughtㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ they barely spoke for a few seconds but stillㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Seriously, I never knew they were this noisy. Might as well dump all their data before going to hell
– This is amazing. I’m replaying it and my smile isn’t going away. I envy the editing team.
– So what’s their greeting styleㅠㅠㅠ tell us already
– The first episode is next week. How can we waitㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
And the next day.
Rather shocking news was reported.