Idol Hides His Military Service

“Of course your skills were good, Sluggish Ryujin—you’ve been practicing alone in a nice building like this!”

“Don’t make such a fuss. And it’s not that Logic is bad, but if you start bragging about the facilities in front of Ryu Ayeon, she’ll just laugh at you inside.”

Ryu Ayeon shook her head at Seo Ryujin, who looked at her as if asking for agreement.

“Not at all. TSP’s been using the old building while they build a new HQ, so the facilities aren’t as great as people think.”

“Yeah? Well, anyway, welcome to Logic.”

As Seo Ryujin finished speaking and gestured for them to come in, Ryu Ayeon watched Lee Sion trot along behind her.

Seo Ryujin, Lee Sion, and herself.

- Let’s meet up during break. Come to my company.

Today’s meetup had begun with what Seo Ryujin had said to Lee Sion and Ryu Ayeon at the end of the ranking announcement following the Position Evaluation.

In response, Lee Sion had happily agreed, telling her to at least prepare food, and maybe because the adrenaline from the stage still hadn’t worn off yet—

Before she knew it, Ayeon had also nodded along in agreement.

Of course, right afterward she’d thought, oh, crap, but even then she hadn’t taken the promise all that seriously.

Because she’d written it off as one of those empty “let’s grab a meal sometime” greetings people say as a formality.

But—

- Sluggish Ryujin, Ryu Wuss! When should we come?

- Be at Logic by 10.

- OK. Whoever’s late buys lunch.

After her meeting with Park Taesu yesterday, when she’d been sinking into a fog of unrest, she’d nearly jumped out of her skin as Lee Sion unilaterally created a group chat and set a time, effectively summoning them.

Even before all this, Ayeon had never liked meeting people, and right now, especially, her head was too tangled up with what Park Taesu had said for her to be in any state to see anyone. She’d been planning to quietly dodge the whole thing.

- Don’t tell me you’re planning to break our promise, Ryu Ayeon. If so, type “I’m a bad little kid who doesn’t keep promises with my friends!” three times in the group chat and I’ll let you off lol

Sensing it with ghost-like intuition, Lee Sion had launched the first provocation.

- Hey, Lee Sion, you don’t have to go that far. I’m sure Ryu Ayeon has her reasons.

Pretending to rein Sion in, Seo Ryujin had then—

- It just means Ryu Ayeon is the kind of person who doesn’t take promises with other people seriously. I wasn’t expecting much to begin with.

—joined forces with her in scratching at Ayeon’s nerves.

And in the heat of the moment, stung by their combined taunts, she’d briefly lost her cool—and when she came back to her senses, she realized she’d already replied in the chat that she’d come, and had regretted it deeply ever since.

‘Seo Ryujin’s the same type as Lee Sion.’

If Lee Sion was the kind of beast that moved on instinct, then Seo Ryujin was a trained beast that only unsheathed its claws when necessary.

There were differences, but in the end, they were both predators that turned vicious in front of prey.

And so, despite the turmoil in her head, Ayeon had ended up coming to Logic Entertainment, the designated meeting place.

Since it was the first time the three of them had gathered like this, she’d worried it would be terribly awkward, but thankfully, that part was being handled entirely by Lee Sion.

“Is this free?”

“Hey! How many times do I have to tell you it’s free?!”

Even now, watching Lee Sion stuff the bite-sized snacks from the lobby desk into her pockets while bickering with Seo Ryujin, it felt like they were still at the dorm.

“Wow··· the practice rooms in a famous agency really are on a different level from the dorm, huh?”

“Even so, for what it was, MPlay actually did put quite a bit of effort into the dorm. There are small-to-mid agencies out there whose practice rooms don’t even have speakers or monitors.”

Following Seo Ryujin’s lead, Ayeon and Sion toured Logic Entertainment’s building.

‘This is kind of fascinating.’

In truth, Ayeon had started and continued her trainee life solely at TSP, so she had no idea what other agencies were like.

There were trainees at TSP who’d come from other companies, but since she’d never associated with them, she’d had no way of knowing the atmosphere at other places.

Thanks to using Lee Sion as an excuse, it was quite interesting to tour Logic while listening to Seo Ryujin’s explanations.

‘The microphone in this recording booth is better than the one at our company.’

Even though Logic wasn’t one of the Big Three, it was still considered a fairly large entertainment agency, and in some areas its equipment was better than TSP’s, which made the tour genuinely fun.

“This is the last stop. Got anything else you’re curious about?”

By the time Seo Ryujin finished her explanation after they’d made a full loop around the building, both Ayeon and Sion shook their heads, saying they’d seen enough.

Ryujin had done a good job explaining, and aside from differences in quality between agencies, the facilities themselves were similar enough that there was no need to see more.

“In that case, let’s get to the main point.”

“So it’s finally starting?”

“Don’t tell me you two actually plan to do that?”

At Ryujin’s declaration that they’d now move on to the main topic, Sion tilted her head and loosened up as if the time had come, while Ayeon could only panic.

“Of course we do. That’s why we’re meeting today!”

Seeing Sion look at her with a what else would we be doing? expression, Ayeon was so dumbfounded she didn’t know how to respond.

“I reserved a practice room. Let’s talk there.”

Saying they’d head to the practice room, Seo Ryujin moved off toward the hallway, and Sion followed, visibly excited.

In the end, Ayeon had no choice but to go after them.

***

“Haa···.”

Seo Ryujin was watching Lee Sion lying flat on her back on the practice room floor, gasping for breath.

‘She really is a monster.’

To be honest, Ryujin herself was fairly worn out as well, and she’d have liked nothing more than to flop down on the floor like Sion.

But she was holding back.

Because for some reason, she didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Sion.

“How do you two manage to come up with choreography right on the spot to match every song you hear?”

“That’s because the experience we’ve built up so far is different from yours. Which is exactly why you need to listen to other songs and keep practicing whenever you can.”

“I have been listening every spare moment lately.”

Ryujin knew Sion wasn’t lying.

‘Otherwise there’s no way she’d be keeping up like this.’

Right now, Sion and Ryu Ayeon were in the practice room with her.

The reason the three of them had gathered during break, of all times, was because of Lee Sion.

- Sluggish Ryujin, Ryu Ayeon! Teach me how to make choreography.

They were here to help Sion practice after she’d suddenly asked them during the Position Evaluation to teach her how to create choreography.

“I can’t really get a feel for how to use the space.”

“You should think of it as planning movement paths that fit the size of the stage. And using those paths to focus the audience’s attention on a single point—that’s the core of spatial use.”

“Hmm?”

“Remember during Bang! Bang! Love, when Ayeon made the choreography so that for each middle part, one of the members would be in the center and the rest would move? That’s spatial use.”

“Oh!”

At Ryujin’s added explanation, Sion suddenly sprang to her feet as if she’d just understood, faced the practice room mirror again, and started running through her moves.

From the outside, it looked like a random series of disconnected motions, but to Ryujin’s eyes, she could feel that Sion was thinking in terms of group choreography, not solo dancing.

‘Her understanding isn’t bad, and she isn’t just copying what we’re teaching—she’s digesting it in her own way.’

In truth, creating choreography was a different talent from simply dancing well, so Ryujin hadn’t expected Sion to actually be able to compose choreography just because they were teaching her today.

There were professional dancers who still couldn’t choreograph.

But Sion was soaking up everything Ryujin and Ayeon taught her like a sponge soaking up water, and making it her own.

She knew it would be impossible right away, but Ryujin had the feeling that someday, Sion would be able to create choreography on her own.

“The foundation of choreography creation is rhythm. You have to hit or stop your moves in sync with the sounds of the instruments in the track—especially the drum and bass hits—to emphasize the rhythm.”

“Okay!”

While Ryujin was briefly lost in her thoughts, Ayeon had taken over and was now checking Sion’s moves and continuing the lesson.

‘There she goes. She’s pretending to grumble, but she’s already completely invested in Sion.’

It was hard to believe this was the same person who used to scold Ryujin for wasting time whenever she tutored Sion.

But Ryujin thought this was only natural.

‘Wouldn’t it be weirder not to want to teach someone like Sion?’

Annoying and infuriating as she was, Sion was a student who made the work of teaching feel rewarding.

“Ryujin···.”

“Ah, unni, you’re here?”

“Yeah. Is it okay if I film now?”

“Sure, I’ll tell them.”

While taking a short break and watching Sion and Ayeon practice, Ryujin heard a familiar voice behind her.

Turning toward the voice that had cautiously called her name, she saw Park Jiyeon from Logic Entertainment’s PR team standing in the doorway with a camera.

“Okay, attention, everyone, look over here!”

And Ryujin, realizing the timing was finally right, shouted toward the two who were still fully immersed in practice.

“Huh? Who’s that?”

“She’s from our company’s PR team.”

“PR team?”

Not knowing what was going on, Sion and Ayeon looked flustered, but they bowed politely to Park Jiyeon first.

“The company thought it’d be great PR to post some photos of the three of you practicing together, so she’s here to film you.”

“What?”

Right now, the three of them—among the Idol Ground 100 contestants, all ranked in the top three for buzz and popularity—were in one place. Both Logic and Ryujin agreed it would be a waste not to use this opportunity.

Just taking some photos and videos of them practicing together and posting them on social media would obviously cause a massive stir among fans.

“Consider it paying me back for the lessons, Lee Sion.”

“W–wait, then why me?”

“Because you’re with Lee Sion, so you’re a bonus!”

Given everything she’d endured so far from the chocolate thief and the low-social-skills duo, this was a tiny price to extract, and Ryujin’s conscience didn’t so much as twitch.

***

“This was a good shoot for all of us, I’m telling you.”

“All I know is that Sluggish Ryujin tried to sell me and Ayeon out. Therefore, you’re buying lunch.”

“In your dreams! You hid the fact that the main PD is your aunt too!”

“That’s···.”

As they left the Logic Entertainment building, watching Sion and Ryujin still bickering, Ayeon fell into deep thought.

- So why do you suddenly want to learn how to create choreography?

- We don’t know what the next mission will be. Up until now, you and Ryujin have helped me, but if a situation comes where you can’t, then I’ll have to do it myself.

-···Why are you trying to do everything?

- Because it’s cool. Helping people when they need it.

-···That’s a stupid idea. You can’t help forever, and it’s not like doing that will let all of us debut together···.

- Well··· maybe. But I got this far because I got help from you, from Sluggish Ryujin, and from everyone else. So I want to do everything I can.

During their practice at Logic today, Ayeon hadn’t been able to hold back her curiosity and had asked Sion directly.

Why she was working so desperately to learn something new even during break.

As it stood now, Ayeon felt it was practically a given that Sion’s debut was guaranteed even if she did nothing.

And yet the way Sion answered that question kept stirring something in Ayeon’s chest.

“I’m going to step out and make a call.”

“Okay. I’ll fight Sluggish Ryujin in your stead for selling us out!”

“I did not sell you out! I did it so all three of us would do well!”

Leaving the two still arguing over who should pay for lunch, Ayeon slipped into a quiet side alley and fiddled with the number at the top of her call history.

Ever since her meeting with Park Taesu last night, when he’d asked if she wanted to join TSP’s new girl group LYNX, Ayeon had actually been planning to quit the program and join them.

- There won’t be any problem with leaving the show. From the start, the condition for putting a Big Three trainee on the program was that they’d be free to withdraw at any time if they wanted.

Thanks to the under-the-table deal between the production side—who wanted trainees from the Big Three—and TSP, who wanted Ryu Ayeon to grow, dropping out of the show wouldn’t be an issue.

In truth, it wasn’t even something that required much thought.

Debuting as an idol under a major agency like TSP meant guaranteed success, and for someone like Ayeon, who wanted to become an idol more than anyone, it was an offer she should have accepted on the spot.

Even if the level of success varied, the Big Three were known for making every group they debuted successful.

But Ayeon was wavering.

Part of her thought that, with the way she’d changed, maybe she could get along with the other members of LYNX this time.

And yet, for some reason, she still couldn’t bring herself to immediately say yes to joining LYNX.

- Could I think about it a little?

- Don’t take too long. I’d like you to decide during this break.

-···Okay.

At first, she’d thought it was fear.

That she was hesitating because she was afraid of rejoining the debut lineup she’d already failed to make once.

But—

- I’m going to try debuting with these guys!

Now she realized it was Sion’s words, which kept echoing in her mind, that ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) were making her thoughts so complicated.