Preparing for their debut was intense, but for Hajun—who had relived high school for dozens, if not hundreds, of years across his loops—it wasn’t really that big of a deal.
In fact, compared to Park Moondae, who was basically carrying the Magic Boy project on his back from the planning stages (Hajun had seriously considered scouting him for Depone), or Kim Raebin, who practically lived with the AR team working on tracks, Hajun didn’t have much to do .
“Do you know how to play the piano?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh… as expected of our resident young master~”
Ignoring Keun Sejin’s teasing, Hajun sat down in front of the grand piano prepped for the music video shoot . Today was finally the last day of filming. Playing the role of a music club student in the [Hi-five] MV, Hajun shook out his hands and placed his fingers on the keys .
♪♩♫♪♩
Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 .
The soft, flowing melody caught Keun Sejin off guard.
Even knowing Hajun was rich, it was hard to get used to seeing him move with such genuine, born with elegance.
Hearing how Hajun had scoffed at his younger siblings’ wish to experience being at the top of the social ladder in fiction—calling them cute kids—proved he had actually lived that high-society life.
But playing classical music while giving off such a dangerous, delinquent vibe? It was a strange contrast, yet it looked so natural and effortless on him that it didn’t feel out of place. That only made it twice as confusing.
“It doesn’t suit him…”
Did I say that out loud? Keun Sejin thought he had muttered it, but it wasn’t him. It was Lee Sejin, who had just finished his makeup, whispering as he walked past. For once, I actually agree with that guy, Keun Sejin thought.
Hajun must have heard that. He slammed his hands on the keys with a loud BANG, stopping the song. Lee Sejin flinched, jumping in surprise. With a smirk, Hajun glanced at the two of them, then started pounding the keys again, playing a brand-new piece: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, 3rd Movement.
While Moondae looked like he was thinking, There goes that lunatic again, Kim Raebin grew excited by Hajun’s frantic, chaotic performance and walked over.
“You play very well! If you don’t mind, could I ask how long you’ve been learning?”
“I don’t know, fifty years?”
“Pardon?”
“Just kidding. Probably five years .”
“Ah! I see.”
Raebin realized a beat too late that it was a joke (or was it?) and laughed awkwardly before rambling on.
“You’re so good that I thought you had been learning since you were very young. I never imagined someone could reach this level of play after only five years. You must be a natural genius—”
“Stop.”
“Whoops. Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.”
Hajun stopped playing in the middle of a bar and lifted his hands. He didn’t actually need to play for real in the music video anyway. The director, who liked giving each member a distinct character, had heard about Hajun’s rich, though completely messed-up, family background and wanted to highlight it. He said a typical delinquent character would be too clichéd and boring.
Hajun didn’t care about the MV character. He was far more annoyed by the student ghost peeking out from the window. Just so you know, this music room was on the third floor. Dammit, this is why I hate Korea. There isn’t a single school without ghosts .
- What are you doing here? What are you doing? What are you doing? –
“Should I just get rid of it?”
“Huh? Get rid of what?”
“Nothing.”
Raebin panicked, thinking Hajun wanted to get rid of him because he was being annoying. Hajun just pushed the rambling kid toward the other guys and thought: Should I get rid of it or not?
Honestly, the ghost didn’t seem to have a deep grudge. She was just an earthbound spirit floating around the school, occasionally scaring people and creating ghost stories. But she looked like a young student who still kept a lot of her human appearance, so beating her up with spiritual energy felt a bit too much. Plus, there were too many eyes around.
After a quick thought, Hajun decided to send her off peacefully. Come to think of it, if they danced their group choreography and sang here, it was basically a makeshift gutpan. Let’s see if she likes it .
Park Moondae stared with lifeless eyes at the guy who was currently nagging the members to dance with more power. Not everyone has endless stamina like you. Hajun had suddenly turned ruthless, barking out orders, and trying to guess why only gave Moondae a headache. Giving up on understanding him was the most useful thing Moondae had learned after living with Won Hajun for a month.
“Do it with more snap! Like, BAM! POW !”
“You… wheeze… I seriously… gasp… hate you…!”
“I got it, so just do it again!!”
They had already finished filming the actual scenes, but Hajun was still pushing them. He looked annoyed about something and was really running an exhausted Lee Sejin ragged.
“You’re a shaman! Like that movie! The baby shaman!”
“What does… gasp… that have to do… pant… with this?!”
“Sigh… is it not working?”
“……”
Moondae froze as he realized what this madness might be about. Shaman? Don’t tell me… Noticing Hajun staring into empty air, Moondae quickly looked down to avoid accidentally making eye contact with whatever was there. Seon Ahyun looked confused. Why was Moondae suddenly so tense?
Hajun finally stopped nagging Lee Sejin since his makeshift gutpan wasn’t doing much. Maybe it only works if it’s an official ritual? But I usually handle everything with bootleg methods. Is the song not powerful enough? Hmm.
Lee Sejin collapsed on the floor, catching his breath while quietly cursing Hajun. Hajun waved his hand to clear the faint dark energy leaking from Sejin, then gave up on the student ghost, who was happily clapping. Whatever, just let her be .
So, the ghost ended up spending the whole day in the front row of an idol performance.
- Oppas, is it over? Are you done? No more? –
“Go away.”
“What?”
“Uh, I said move over.”
- No more? No more? This is fun! –
“…You… are seriously a bad guy…” Lee Sejin muttered with pure resentment.
Moondae was honestly impressed by Hajun’s ability to turn Sejin’s mild annoyance into pure, impossible to hold rage. Hajun flopped down where Sejin had just been sitting, laced his fingers behind his head, and kept an eye on the ghost floating near the rooftop.
- Fun! Fun! –
“I’m so tired .”
“……Tired?”
“Hajun, use nice words,” Cheongwoo said gently.
“Fuck.”
“Just leave him be, Cheongwoo-hyung~ He only does this when the mics are off and the cameras are gone, like he’s got some kind of sixth sense,” Keun Sejin joked.
The members, now used to Hajun, just laughed it off. Honestly, since his swearing had already been aired on Idol Co-op, it wasn’t like it was a secret. He had a foul mouth, but he wasn’t a bad kid deep down. Ryu Cheongwoo smiled faintly, staring into the distance.
Meanwhile, the ghost floated right up to Hajun’s face. Lee Sejin shivered as a sudden chill swept through the room, wrapping his arms around himself.
The ghost spoke:
- Fun. It was fun. Fun. It was fun. –
“Sigh… “
- I’ll go now. It was fun. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. –
“…? “
The ghost glowed and vanished. Hajun sat up halfway, completely dumbfounded by this accidental exorcism.
“Huh.”
“What’s wrong with him now…”
“No way. Is this for real?”
“What’s going on?”
“What happened?”
Did Lee Sejin even realize that his open bickering with Hajun made him look like Hajun’s closest friend? Moondae shook his head, amazed that the other members still responded to Hajun so warmly, even as he glared at Hajun himself.
Hajun, completely ignoring whatever look Moondae (the curse vessel) was giving him, finally felt his stomach rumble.
“Let’s grab something to eat on the way back.”
“…?”
“Are… are you hungry?”
Seon Ahyun quickly searched his pockets, offering some glucose candies.
“Not this. Real food. Like rice cakes.”
Come to think of it, he had basically performed an exorcism without any food offerings. It was a budget ritual . Taking the candy Ahyun offered, he popped it in his mouth and muttered, “I’m hungry.”
“Oh! This is a first! Hajun never says he’s hungry! I thought he wasn’t human.”
“Cha Eugene, stop calling your hyung by his name! Call him Hajun-hyung!”
“Oh… now that you mention it, I think this really is the first time we’ve heard you say you’re hungry, hyung-nim .”
“Haha. Well, since we’re done with the MV… let’s go eat.”
“Yay!”
“And tomorrow, let’s work hard on our choreography.”
“……”
“Okay!”
Except for Cha Eugene, who cheered happily, the other members went dead silent. The only sound was Hajun crunching on his candy. Ryu Cheongwoo was a former national athlete, so his stamina made sense. But looking at the other two guys who looked perfectly fine, Moondae couldn’t help but wonder: Is there something in the soil of California that breeds these absolute monsters?
New Terms
- 굿판 – Gutpan (Korean shamanic ritual grounds/exorcism site)
- 마벨 – Marvell (Katy’s middle name used as a stage name)
- 디포네 – Depone (Hajun’s tech startup/software company)
- T1 – T1 (The entertainment and media conglomerate parent company of TeSTAR’s agency)
