Chapter 22: Birthday Party (1)

The atmosphere in the waiting room turned cold.

The air was so heavy that no one could open their mouth.

Lee Junhyeok frowned and turned toward me.

His gaze was filled with hostility, his expression looked like he could punch someone any moment.

In the past, I would’ve been too scared to say anything and kept my mouth shut.

But this time was different.

Even if I got punched, or ended up grappling in the waiting room—

I had something to say, and I was going to say it.

“You’re good at something, hyung. Rushing in without thinking.”

“What?”

“Why don’t you just crash into it like you always do? Acting cowardly like this, sneakily from behind. Did you think no one would catch your trail?”

“Hey, Do Seohan.”

Lee Junhyeok clenched his trembling fist tightly.

The reason that fist, which should’ve been thrown long ago, hadn’t flown yet—was it fear after all?

Probably because of the overwhelming flood of hate comments down there.

After doing something worth getting cursed for, only when it blew up did he finally get scared.

His weak appearance, unlike the Lee Junhyeok I knew, made me scoff.

Even though he wouldn’t reflect no matter how many years passed.

I didn’t plan to accept an insincere apology.

So I added coldly,

“You must feel at ease, hyung. You’ve messed up again.”

“Hey.”

“I’m almost glad it blew up early. You were bound to make a big mess anyway.”

He was bound to explode sooner or later.

Because that was just the rotten nature of the person named Lee Junhyeok.

“Hey, watch your mouth. Do you really wanna die?”

“Wanna punch me? Then it’s not just leaving the program—you’ll be going to the police.”

“This bastard—!”

His face turned red like a balloon about to pop.

At the moment when Lee Junhyeok, overwhelmed by anger, finally raised his fist—

Tak—

“Hey.”

It was Ha Junseo who stepped in and grabbed his wrist.

“What are you shouting for like you did something right?”

Perhaps he was gripping hard, as Lee Junhyeok’s hand trembled in the air.

He probably didn’t really mean to punch.

Maybe he just wanted to scare me a little.

He didn’t expect someone to interfere.

I was just as surprised.

“Th… these bastards, seriously….”

“Don’t cross the line. I can only hold back so many times.”

The born pacifist.

Even when the members kept causing trouble, Ha Junseo had silently tried to protect the team.

It was my first time seeing that hyung step forward and get angry.

In the past and even after regression.

He was someone who hated fighting with a passion.

But now, he was gritting his teeth and staring directly at Lee Junhyeok.

His voice was cold, completely unfitting for that gentle face.

“You’re the one who stabbed your teammate in the back. You’re the one who brought up the past and dragged an innocent guy into this. If you caused it, take responsibility.”

“Ha…”

“Whether you leave the program or stubbornly write a fake apology, do what you want. Just stop being a burden and leave.”

Crack.

Lee Junhyeok’s expression twisted rapidly.

“Shit…”

Maybe he had no more excuses left, because he clenched his fist tightly and stormed out of the waiting room.

Bang—

It happened in an instant.

“Hyung!”

Ha Junseo shouted with clenched teeth, but Jin Sehyun shook his head.

Ha Junseo sighed and muttered quietly,

“That guy didn’t even apologize in the end.”

“Leave it. It’s his own karma.”

“He shouldn’t have gone that far.”

The first ranking announcement is the day after tomorrow.

Voting already ended the day before yesterday, so today’s situation won’t affect it.

But even if he somehow survives this round, there’s no way he’ll make it to the second.

Jin Sehyun was right.

It was his own karma.

I had no reason to see him again.

There was no chance he’d get anywhere near the final lineup in this life.

But still, this whole situation was giving me a headache.

I wanted it to be exposed, but not like this.

I was worried if Seo Ian would be okay after being mentioned.

I had no idea where his tofu-like mental state was hiding right now…

Lee Junhyeok, that guy… seriously…

“Hey, Seohan.”

The voice that shook me out of my spiraling thoughts was Jin Sehyun’s.

“You… you okay?”

My face had turned pale.

[[Issue] Stardust Project Lee Junhyeok background investigation summarized]

[Link]

There’s even a video

It’s definitely Lee Junhyeok’s voice and his face is barely hidden, it’s all exposed

The sound quality is trash, but you can hear everything

I already had a bad feeling about Lee Junhyeok on the show, but investigating a teammate to drag them down is so pathetic lol

Doubles must be in chaos after this blew up

The funniest part is that he tried to dig up dirt on Do Seohan but all he found was good deeds lololol

-?? Is he a private investigator idol? Why’s he doing background checks?

└Holy shit lololololol

└LOLOL seriously, where’d he even learn to do that?

└Wow, idols these days even do background checks?

└Junhyeok learned the harsh truths of the entertainment industry too early

└Junhyeok, you’d be better off working for a PI agency than being an idol

└Just change careers to paparazzi

-Summary: Lee Junhyeok, Eloy team’s professional troll, got caught snooping around teammates. Tried to dig on Seohan, but just uncovered how much of an angel hamster he is?

└Yup, looks like he beat up a trainee at KJ, and Mam-Seohan brought it out. Apparently, he was almost in KJ’s debut team too. T_T

└Wow… I don’t think he ever said that in an interview.

└Probably didn’t want to talk about it.

└All those bastards at KJ need to be locked up.

└He seemed like a nice guy, but this… this is beyond expectation. No matter how kind someone is, helping someone else when their own debut is on the line… You can’t explain that unless he’s an actual angel?

└ㅠㅠㅠㅠPlease debut, Seohanㅠㅠ

Of course, there were still some of Lee Junhyeok’s fans who kept their eyes and ears shut.

He wasn’t digging up dirt, he just mentioned it because he’s the leader and was worried. Please refrain from leaving malicious comments and don’t just listen to one sideㅠㅠ

└Seohan is the leader though?

└Looks like he really was digging. Look at the conversation lolololol

└So creepy lololol

└You can clearly see the intention behind that question. How is someone that transparent?

└Worried about the team? Leader role? No matter how I look at it, the team seemed to be worried about him?

└lololol this is a whole new kind of mental gymnastics

But still, in front of overwhelming public opinion, such excuses were meaningless.

On top of that, as the footage filmed by the production crew surfaced, the public sentiment toward Lee Junhyeok reached its peak.

It was a practice video.

[Stardust Project Eloy Team Practice Video – Lee Junhyeok Not Present]

-What’s this? A practice video?

└Yeah, it’s in the practice room but Junhyeok is the only one missing. Just Debt-Junhyeok.

└Debt-Junhyeok lololololol ffs

└Wait, did he just skip practice?

└Wow, I heard their stage was top-notch. Did the other members carry the whole thing?

└I can’t spoil the performance, but Junseo and Seohan carried the rap, and Sehyun and Haim handled all the vocals. He was just doing background harmonies.

└????

└Huh? Wait a second. Seohan rapped?

└Rapping????

└Was Hamster really a rapper?

└That soft bun did what? Rap? My heart is racing

└Rap? This is the silver lining in this cold storm

└ㅠㅠㅠㅠWhen is it airing? Are you the only ones who get to enjoy it?

└Everyone got off-topic and now they’re all obsessed with the rap, I’m dying ㅠㅠ

└Holding out for the rap

└Hamster, I should’ve birthed you… seriously…

As the rage toward Lee Junhyeok and KJ intensified, the community slowly began to settle.

That didn’t mean Doubles was quiet either.

It involved three trainees, after all.

Even the Stardust Project run by Doubles seemed to go on high alert.

There must have been some complicated entanglements between the agencies.

There are always grown-up reasons behind things like this.

It’s not like a miracle will happen and a major agency like KJ will collapse overnight, but at least the manager directly involved is now in danger.

His personal info was already plastered all over the internet.

It wouldn’t be surprising if he was kicked out of KJ right away.

In fact, KJ seemed to be planning to cut him off to wrap things up.

How KJ handles this will be the key.

They’ll probably release a statement once things calm down.

Actually, none of that matters.

“Haim, you ready?”

Sfx: dashing noises

At Ha Junseo’s words, Seo Haim sprinted full speed to the end of the practice room.

“Huff… huff. Uh, hyung!”

It didn’t matter whether something had blown up outside or not.

It didn’t matter that tomorrow was the first ranking announcement.

Today, none of that was important.

After asking around and digging through all his sources, Ha Junseo found out that today was the youngest member, Do Seohan’s, birthday.

December 4th.

The youngest in the team, and even his birthday was in December—born to be the youngest.

It wasn’t an official team, but they’d shared this mission full of ups and downs.

The hyungs felt they should at least celebrate his birthday properly, so they prepared this.

But…

Jin Sehyun asked Ha Junseo in a worried voice,

“Wait hyung, Seohan’s birthday… it’s not on the lunar calendar, right?”

“Kids these days usually go by the solar calendar.”

“‘Kids these days’? Hyung, you’re only three years older than Seohan.”

“That makes me feel even older.”

“Huh?”

Twenty-year-old Ha Junseo made a comment that could get him smacked anywhere and then mumbled quietly,

Solar or lunar, as long as we celebrate it, he’ll probably like it.

Jin Sehyun glanced at Seo Haim who was bustling around and checked the setup.

Looked like most of it was done.

Seo Haim pointed at the Choco Pie cake and asked in an excited voice,

“Tada. Hyung, is this good enough?”

“Looks great!”

“What should we do about the balloons?”

“Just… give up on those.”

To comfort Do Seohan, whose mental state was probably shattered from the incident, the rest of the members prepared a surprise party.

They bought candles! Made a cake too!

The balloons… the balloons popped while they were blowing them up!

It was clumsy, but they gave it their all.

They stacked up a bunch of Choco Pies and made it into a makeshift cake.

Munch munch. The remaining Choco Pies ended up in the mouths of the exhausted members.

“Hyung, the right side looks a little empty. Please stop eating.”

“Uhh… is it obvious?”

“Yeah, very.”

Jin Sehyun stuck the final candle in.

Even if it was a bit patchy, it still looked like a cake.

Very satisfying.

“Looks like we’re all set?”

But then.

Something felt missing.

“Hmm.”

Seo Haim came back with popped balloon bits dangling from his head and rolled his eyes.

They had left Do Seohan with the vocal trainer while preparing for the surprise party…

It had been quite a while now.

“Why isn’t he here yet?”

At this point, it wasn’t vocal lessons—it was like he went off to meditate or something.

Wait a second.

Where the heck did that guy go?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep