Chapter 230. The Ultimate Punishment (1)
This was Kairos’s dorm.
After dropping a major spoiler during the live broadcast, Kang Hajin and Dan Haru, who had returned in a daze, being dragged by Jung Siwoo, were now…
“Hold your hands up properly.”
…standing with their hands up as punishment.
No one had really ordered them to do it. As soon as they entered the dorm, the two had voluntarily crawled on all fours to a corner of the living room and raised their hands. This was their way of reflecting on their actions after whispering to each other in the car for a long time, trying to avoid the consequences of ‘a salad without meat’ and ‘bean rice for dinner.’
The only reason it continued was because Taehyun, upon seeing them, had simply nodded and told them to stay like that.
‘No, I’m still his hyung, so why am I listening to him so well? I’m the leader of this group, and I wasn’t even the one who spoiled things…’
It had already been five minutes.
Feeling dissatisfied with the situation, Kang Hajin suddenly raised his head and protested to Seo Taehyun.
“Hey, with this much sincerity, you could at least let it slide…”
Seo Taehyun quietly held up his phone screen. It was a screenshot of the management and PR teams’ group chat, which had gone into a frenzy because of the spoilers the two had dropped.
“You were invited to the staff group chat…?”
“Hyung Wook sent me the screenshot. But, is that really the point right now…?”
“…Dan Haru, raise your hands higher. It’s your fault.”
“I honestly thought the article had already been released…”
As Kang Hajin, who had nothing else to say, grumbled and nudged Dan Haru, Haru mumbled in protest, feeling wronged.
When Haru, who had been muttering about how the article was supposed to come out at 6 PM, trailed off, Lee Yugeon, who was coming out of the kitchen holding a pot of freshly cooked stew, revealed the truth.
“The article is supposed to come out at 6 PM.”
“……”
“Tomorrow at 6 PM, which is the problem.”
“…Ugh.”
After hearing Yugeon’s words, Dan Haru let out a deep sigh, his expression growing more complicated, and raised his hands even higher.
Seeing this, Taehyun, who still found the whole situation ridiculous, started scolding them again.
“I mean, of all things! You just had to wait one more day! You couldn’t hold back and ended up spoiling it!?”
“That’s right… I should have just waited…”
“…Not you! Conceptual Haru!”
When Dan Haru used a wordplay attack on his name, Taehyun nearly burst out laughing and tried hard to keep his emotions in check. Haru, who genuinely thought he just needed to wait a bit longer, muttered “Ah, I see…” and lowered his head again.
Yugeon, who couldn’t bear to watch anymore, chimed in as he brought out some side dishes.
“If Dan Haru had just waited one more day…”
“…Hyung?”
Hearing such a ridiculous joke, Joo Eunchan, who had been following Yugeon with chopsticks in hand, looked at him with a face full of betrayal. Yugeon just winked at him as if telling him to stay quiet.
At that moment, Taehyun, who had been struggling to maintain his composure, finally couldn’t hold back his smile any longer and lowered his head, laughing.
“Ah! Hey, Lee Yugeon! Stop making me laugh…! I’m trying to be serious right now!”
“He’s laughing…”
“His laughter threshold is so low. Sometimes he even laughs at rocks.”
“No, no! It’s not like that!”
“―Ah!! Stop hitting me! Your hands are too strong!!”
No matter how much he denied it, Taehyun, who had already laughed his heart out, failed to regain the serious atmosphere and ended up smacking Yugeon’s back hard enough to make a loud sound. While Yugeon, who had been hit painfully, yelled back at Taehyun, Hajin cautiously lowered his arms, glancing around.
When he signaled Haru, who was still sighing and holding up his hands, to lower them too, Haru, despite checking Taehyun’s expression, slowly lowered his arms.
In the end, it was Siwoo who wrapped up the chaos after receiving an SOS from Eunchan and rushing over with a bowl of rice.
“If you guys are done messing around, sit down so we can eat.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, hyung.”
At Siwoo’s words, Hajin and Haru, reading the room, quickly sat down at the table and prepared to eat.
Even Taehyun, who seemed like he wanted to say more, recognized that dragging it out further would only ruin the mood, so he quietly closed his mouth. Yugeon’s nudge to Taehyun’s side also helped.
It was Eunchan who delivered the sharpest blow, quietly ladling stew into a bowl.
“Because of the spoiler, Hyung Wook had to rush out to talk to the Director. He was supposed to have dinner with us… He mentioned that the article might need to be moved up to today.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Personally, I think a little bit of a spoiler can be fun for fans… But we still need to be careful. It’s not just us and Destiny involved in our work. You understand, Haru?”
“Yes… It’s just hard because I’m not used to it yet…”
“It’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes.”
As Eunchan spoke his mature opinion, all the hyungs at the table turned their attention to him. Feeling the weight of their stares, Eunchan instinctively hid behind Yugeon, glaring cautiously at the others.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Our Eunchan… really has grown up…”
Taehyun’s nostrils turned red as he patted Eunchan’s head affectionately. Seeing his eyes start to water, Yugeon asked incredulously.
“Why are you crying…? You were laughing a minute ago. Are you in puberty?”
“Don’t you think Eunchan is praiseworthy?”
“No, I do, but why are you crying? Are you his dad?”
“Stop fighting, you two. I’m tired today.”
“…We weren’t fighting!”
“We weren’t fighting!”
“Alright, then let’s just eat. Doha, come here quickly too.”
Siwoo, who had just settled a brewing argument among the high schoolers, called out to Doha, who was finishing up in the kitchen.
Doha soon walked into the living room, carrying a tray loaded with bowls of rice. He placed a heaping bowl of bean rice in front of Hajin.
“…Doha?”
Hajin stared at Doha with wide eyes, stunned by his friend’s betrayal.
Without saying a word, Doha mixed all his rice into his seaweed soup and spoke in a calm voice.
“Hajin, you’re the leader, so you have to take responsibility for the members’ mistakes.”
As he mixed his rice into the soup, Hajin noticed that Doha’s lips were curled up ever so slightly more than usual. Realizing what was happening, Hajin shot to his feet, pointing accusingly at him.
“Y-you…! Don’t lie to me! You’re just getting back at me for teasing you about Deon last time, aren’t you!?”
“…That’s a misunderstanding.”
“Oho!? Ohoho―!? You hesitated to answer, you Deon!!?”
And so, the second round of battle began.
Yugeon and Eunchan, who were fed up with the constant fighting, Taehyun, who claimed the hyung should also bear some responsibility, and Doha, who stayed silent, all weighed in. Meanwhile, Hajin, who found the situation unfair, began demanding respect and protection for the leader.
As usual, the situation devolved into chaos.
The only one who stayed out of the fray, watching his noisy dongsaengs with eyes full of unspoken words, was Siwoo, who quietly sighed. Then, he spoke to Haru, who was sitting next to him, holding a spoon and nervously glancing around.
“Let’s eat.”
“…Yes.”
Perhaps this was the kind of utterly ordinary day that someone might have desperately wished for.
—
Kang Hajin returned to his room after midnight.
After dinner, they had wrapped up the meeting about the Utopia guest stage, and by now, it was late.
Actually, the meeting itself hadn’t taken that long…
“That stubborn Seo Taehyun… Just like Seo Taeil…”
“….”
…After eating dinner, Taehyun had insisted that everyone digest their food before the meeting and forced all the members to do bodyweight exercises for two hours in the living room, which had caused the delay.
‘Did we even finish the meeting properly today?’
Hajin briefly worried that they might have rushed through the meeting because everyone was too tired, but he quickly dismissed that thought.
Knowing Taehyun, who had no talent for physical activities but had turned self-discipline into a habit, there was no way he would have let the meeting end half-heartedly.
‘Honestly, wouldn’t it make more sense for Taehyun to be the leader? Was he the real power behind the scenes all along while I was just the figurehead leader?’
As Hajin was being shocked by the power dynamics he had suddenly realized, Doha, who had come in with him, had been unusually quiet.
At first, Hajin thought Doha might just be tired from the workout, but he soon realized something felt off about Doha
’s behavior.
Moreover—
[Companion ‘Lee Doha’ is currently feeling—‘Slightly awkward.’]
With a notification like that popping up, it was hard to pretend not to notice.
Having spent enough time sharing a room with Doha to understand his psychology and personality to a decent degree, Hajin quickly figured out what was on Doha’s mind.
‘Is he feeling bad about the bean rice joke?’
Hajin had eventually finished the entire bowl of bean rice that had been placed in front of him at dinner. Given how much he normally hated beans, it was a significant event.
Hajin had been so hungry after the stress of preparing for their album release that he didn’t care about beans or grains—he just needed to eat.
‘Doha does have a tendency to go a bit soft on me sometimes.’
Doha, who had been Hajin’s first friend since entering the maze, often acted a bit awkwardly around him. Of course, that didn’t mean he had become a gentler person. He was still as brutally honest and critical as ever…
But at least when it came to ‘emotional matters,’ Doha seemed to be more considerate of Hajin than others. It might be because he knew about Hajin’s trauma of being ostracized.
In any case, now that Hajin knew Doha was genuinely concerned about him, he took a moment to think.
‘It would be weird to tell him not to worry because the joke was fun.’
Direct communication would probably be more effective with someone like Doha, but Hajin wanted to handle it in a more subtle way.
Given the group’s dynamics, situations like this were likely to occur frequently in the future, and he couldn’t keep giving feedback every time something happened, saying, ‘That joke was fine, but this one wasn’t.’
After thinking it over, Hajin, lying in bed and ready to sleep, glanced at his phone and spoke up.
“Doha.”
“…Yeah?”
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow… I don’t think I have anything special planned.”
“Wanna go play basketball with Yugeon and Eunchan?”
Speaking casually as if it was no big deal, Hajin saw that Doha, though a bit slow, seemed to understand his intention.
By the time Hajin confirmed that the red alert on the system had disappeared, Doha was also getting into bed and nodding.
“Sure. Let’s go in the evening.”
“Okay~ Good night. I feel like I’m going to pass out as soon as I close my eyes.”
“Yeah. Good night.”
“If I can’t wake up in the morning, just leave me. I’m really tired.”
“Alright. I’ll let Siwoo hyung know.”
As the eldest, Siwoo always woke up early to make sure the members were up on time.
He claimed it was to ensure the high schoolers got to school and to keep them on schedule during promotions…
But after seeing how Siwoo seemed to enjoy waking up Eunchan and Taehyun, who were notorious for being heavy sleepers, Hajin had his doubts.
‘Well, I’ve laid the groundwork now…’
Hajin waited until he saw Doha turn off the bedside lamp, then opened the quest window.
The new quest window that had become familiar after frequent use showed one more new quest, in addition to the Rookie Award quest and the quest that couldn’t be accessed yet.
It was a quest Hajin had created after confirming the rumors about him at the club.
[A Mini Quest has arrived!]
Objective: Clear up the false rumor.
Reward for success: A private meeting with ‘The Presence’
[The quest has been completed, and the reward is now available for collection.]
[Would you like to receive the reward of ‘A private meeting with The Presence’ now? (Y/N)]
Since Thirteen wasn’t around, he’d have to deal with Thirteen’s boss. Typical gangster behavior.
Hajin nodded. And soon, he fell into a deep sleep.