Chapter 424

Side Story (41)

As Seo Yuseong’s turn approached, he quietly blinked a few times before taking the blanket draped over his chair and placing it on the table.

“It’s a blanket.”

[Yuseong-ssi, you look like the type who would only use plain, achromatic things without any patterns, so this is quite a surprise!]

At the staff’s comment, Seo Yuseong tilted his head in confusion, muttering, “…Pattern?” before looking down at his blanket. It was an adorable blanket featuring Christmas tree ornaments printed on a bright red background. It was likely a free gift from buying something during the Christmas season.

“I just … got it from my manager.”

As if Seo Yuseong cared about design.

He was the type to just use whatever he was given.

Actually, when he was little, he had been strangely attached to a chick-yellow comfort blanket that he had used ever since he was born. But after it became so worn out that he could no longer take it outside, he seemingly stopped caring about what kind of items he used altogether.

‘Everyone in Prism has super picky taste, but he’s the only one who just uses whatever he’s given. Maybe that’s why the stylists like him so much.

The struggle I went through just to get him to part with that comfort blanket of his…….

It was an ordeal I genuinely never wished to repeat.

In the end, we put the blanket in a box containing baby clothes and other things Seo Yuseong had used as a child, and kept it at Choi Jeokhyeon’s house. Whenever I’m stressed, just looking at it at least makes me feel a little better.

‘If that house ever catches fire, that’s the one thing I’m grabbing before I run out.’

“Don’t you have any stuff from when you were little?”

“Not sure. I never really cared about anything except Seo Yuseong’s stuff.”

As for my own childhood belongings … I didn’t remember any of them.

Maybe I had simply thrown them away when I moved, or perhaps my father hadn’t kept them properly.

When I said that, Choi Jeokhyeon made a slightly peculiar expression.

Why was he reacting like that when he himself had said that he threw away everything he had used while living with his mother?

Maybe it was because he knew better than anyone that while he chose to cut ties with his family on his own, I was the one who couldn’t bring myself to let go until the very end.

‘Or maybe he simply wanted to see them.’

I mean, it would be pretty funny to hear that there was once a time when a man built like a door was wearing clothes the size of a teddy bear. Besides, our mother had quite a fondness for cute things, so I imagine animal pajamas probably made up most of my wardrobe.

Thinking back, I think the little bit of photographic evidence I have left shows me wearing pink rabbit pajamas with a fit shaped like a starfish. Even back then, my eyes and expression were far too fierce compared to other kids my age, so honestly, they looked absolutely terrible on me.

— Ah ㅠㅠ I want to moeify baby Yutae so badly, but it doesn’t suit him at all it’s bringing tears to my eyes. Look at that stoic, dignified posture— Giant feet. Giant hands— For real haha. They must have sensed even back then how towering he would grow up to be— It would have been better if it were a cat or a wolf? or at least a dinosaur onesie ㅠ but a rabbit lololol his mother really just dressed him in whatever she wanted to see him wear

It got to the point where even the fans who would go to such lengths to moe-ify me somehow still teased me for looking so ridiculous in them.

‘Still, for all their teasing, they sure saved a lot of those photos. Quite a few of them even used them as their profile pictures on the fan chat app…….’

I couldn’t tell whether they liked them or hated them.

Fans really are hard to understand, even when you think you’ve figured them out.

‘That’s why I never really released many childhood photos either.’

In the end, most of the family photos containing me remained trapped inside albums, never seeing the light of day. At the very bottom of the box where we kept Seo Yuseong’s things, no less.

‘…Come to think of it, when I checked a while back, a few of those photos were missing. I wonder what happened to them.’

Things disappearing from the dorm wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence, so it wasn’t particularly surprising when it happened. Maybe I had simply become too desensitized to it. Frankly, sneaking into the dorm by bypassing the door lock was a child’s play for stalkers, wasn’t it?

However, for something to disappear from Choi Jeokhyeon’s house was genuinely unexpected.

Well, it wasn’t anything super important anyway, so I soon forgot about it.

[Given the eye mask Inchan-ssi had earlier, you certainly have quite a few sleep-related items. Are you someone who sleeps a lot?]

Seo Yuseong fell quietly into thought as though pondering the question, then gave a short answer.

“No.”

What do you mean, no?

Seo Yuseong’s habit of falling asleep at the slightest opportunity was common knowledge—Prism knew it, the fans knew it, and even the general public knew about it because it had been covered on one of those chart-style variety shows¹. The production team surely weren’t asking because they genuinely didn’t know; they were probably giving him an opening to talk about it.

‘Don’t tell me he actually thinks he doesn’t sleep that much.’

While Seo Yuseong sat there looking completely oblivious to the situation, I subtly nudged him aside and answered for him.

“That’s right. Yuseong has been like that since he was little. Even as a baby, once you put him to sleep, he wouldn’t wake up easily … and he’d fall asleep almost immediately if you held him ……. he’s never been picky about where he sleeps, either, so even now, he tends to sleep well during waiting periods or while we’re traveling for schedules.”

[If he sleeps that well, raising him must have been really easy!]

“Ha, haha.”

Was it, though?

Sure, people always say that food, clothing, and shelter are what matter most to a person, but simply having a child who wasn’t picky about any of those things didn’t make raising him any easier. Anyone who knew Seo Yuseong’s personality would probably agree with me on that.

‘Has everyone had the experience of barely managing to stop their younger sibling from smashing some kid’s head in with a brick just becausethey picked a fight with them?’

Besides, whenever Seo Yuseong gets too busy and doesn’t get enough sleep, a state of emergency is declared across all of Prism that very day.

“Do not, under any circumstances, mess with Seo Yuseong.”

That’s why, outside of Prism’s active promotional periods, we always make sure Seo Yuseong’s individual schedules are arranged so that he can get enough sleep.

“Our Yuseong … is such a gentle and kind younger brother.”

I answered through gritted teeth, and the production team, blissfully unaware of everything, beamed as they set the mood for a heartwarming moment.

[As expected of an older brother! Having an older brother like you must be so reassuring]

It had better be. Damn right it should be.

‘The very first word Seo Yuseong ever said was Hyung.’

If the first word he said was “hyung” rather than the “mom” or “dad” that most children supposedly say first, you could get a pretty good idea of just how much Seo Yuseong followed me around and adored me from a young age.

…Huh?

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever seen Seo Yuseong call for our parents. Back then, I had been so utterly smitten with my cute little brother myself that I’d gotten lost in our own little world and hadn’t paid much attention to it. But thinking about it now, that alone was strange.

[Alright, please show us the next item!]

“That is all.”

While I was lost in memories of the past, the production team, who had been trying to keep the shoot moving, were left dumbfounded by Seo Yuseong’s answer and could only stare at him in disbelief.

[…Do you usually only carry around a blanket? Not just today? You don’t carry things like earphones or perfume either? Surely you at least carry a wallet…….]

“…A wallet?”

At the flustered staff’s question, Seo Yuseong repeated it back as though he’d just heard a completely unfamiliar word. He absentmindedly patted his completely empty pockets, then glanced at me.

“……”

Yeah, I’m your wallet.

“…He uses my card.”

I answered on Seo Yuseong’s behalf, and the studio immediately erupted into laughter.

— Ah, Yuseong is so cute ㅠㅠ He pointed at the coffee and muffin and looked at his hyung like ㅠ “I want some~”— The way Seo Yutae pulls out his card so naturally. I just felt something from that— How often does this happen for him to just card-pass without even looking, without even doing a ‘my-little-brother-is-cute’ smile?? How much do you see Seo Yuseong as a baby? How much do you love Seo Yuseong? At this point, you’re not even his hyung, you’re basically his dad— Please, someone give me a Seo Yutae too. I’m begging you, I’m this desperate

That wasn’t an exaggeration.

It was something that had already been shown several times on reality shows and our own content.

Unless Seo Yuseong had an individual schedule, he hardly ever went out alone. Usually, he was with me, and if I wasn’t around, he’d be with one of the other Prism members.

Would someone like Seo Yuseong really be the type to worry about the possibility that, just in case I wasn’t around, he might need to carry his own wallet?

Even if he somehow ended up stranded in the middle of the street without a single penny to his name, Seo Yuseong wouldn’t care. That guy had not even a grain of a sense of crisis.

[Next, Yoo Jay-ssi, please!]

And so Seo Yuseong’s turn ended very simply, and finally, it was Yoo Jay’s turn.

“There’s nothing particularly unusual about mine. I just have the usual things everyone carries around, wallet, phone, earphones, perfume, a hat ……. and that’s about it. I don’t carry anything else. I also borrow emergency medicine and such from Woon-hyung or Inchan-hyung.”

Yoo Jay quickly took the contents out of his bag, then very naturally snapped the opening of the bag shut. Having filmed enough times to recognize something suspicious, the production team immediately sensed something was off and said with amused smiles,

[Come on, Jay-ssi. You know you’re supposed to show us everything in your bag on this program, right? No hiding things at the bottom.]

Perhaps feeling rather flustered by the callout, Yoo Jay maintained his poker face, but moved the bag a little closer to his chest in a more defensive posture.

“You, don’t tell me…….”

At that, Cha Woon stared at Yoo Jay with wide, disbelieving eyes before abruptly snatching the bag away. Rummaging through it, he pulled out a mysterious pouch and immediately smacked Yoo Jay across the back.

Inside the pouch were a lighter, two packs of traditional cigarettes, a portable ashtray, two e-liquid cartridges, and a vaping device.

‘Why does he carry around such a whole bundle of stuff?’

I’m a smoker myself, but this was the first time I’d seen someone carry around that much.

Still, I deliberately said nothing and stared straight ahead with all my might.

“I told you to at least cut down on smoking!”

“No, wait, hear me out. I don’t smoke all of this. I actually switched to e-cigarettes, the low-nicotine kind, recently because I’m seriously thinking about my health. But it felt like a waste to just throw away brand-new, unopened packs of cigarettes, so I kept them in there.”

“What do you mean, it felt like a waste? You’re not going to smoke them again, so just throw them away!”

‘I know nothing of this matter.’

Opening my mouth right now would only end up biting me in the ass.

I would quietly make it through this crisis by sacrificing Yoo Jay.

‘You should’ve smoked them all while you had the chance before something like this happened.’

The moment Yoo Jay realized that Nam Yihwon and I were both deliberately turning our backs on him as though we’d planned it together, his mouth fell open in utter betrayal. Judging by his expression, he was undoubtedly screaming internally in injustice: ‘That hyung borrows my lighter all the time! That hyung literally borrowed my ashtray this morning!’

Still, the fact that he didn’t actually say any of that out loud meant he probably wasn’t taking the “if I’m going down, we’re all going down” approach.

That’s my little brother for you.

‘…I won’t forget your sacrifice.’

Yoo Jay continued getting beaten until his back was practically going to split open, but he eventually managed to escape when Jo Inchan, feeling sorry for our youngest, shielded him with his own body.

“Hyung, calm down! Calm down!”

“Sniff, hyung, it hurts…….”

“Let go, Jo Inchan. That brat needs to get hit way more. He’s just pretending to be pitiful because he’s using his head.”

And so the filming wrapped up smoothly.

Of course, we had an image to maintain, so anything that was too embarrassing to show would probably be appropriately edited out at the agency’s discretion.

It was such a short filming session, yet I felt utterly drained for some reason. It was probably because my nerves were on edge during the forced reveal of Yoo Jay’s pouch at the end.

‘I heard Do Yuda and Nagi Zen showed off squishies and fidget spinners when they were on this show a while back.’

It would’ve been so much better if our bag contents were pure and innocent like theirs.

‘I’ll consider it a blessing if Lee Hwayoung doesn’t pull a mug out of his bag.’

As I was thinking that, my phone suddenly chimed inside my pocket.

Ding!

[Young Master 2: I really don’t understand that man.]

The notification didn’t stop at one. It continued chiming rapidly, as though echoing the sender’s fury. Judging by the fact that even this angry, Lee Hwayoung was still dutifully calling him “that man”, he was definitely talking about Choi Jeokhyeon.

‘I mean, there’s no one other than Choi Jeokhyeon who could make Lee Hwayoung this angry.’

Ding!

[Young Master 2: Why does he make me angry every single time?]

Ding!

[Young Master 2: Sometimes I wonder if he does it on purpose. Just to tease me!]

Why are those two fighting again…….

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Translator’s Corner:

1. Chart-style variety show (차트 예능) is a category of television entertainment program structured around ranked lists, top-10 charts, or survey results. ↩︎

Yuseong is the exact example of weaponized incompetence … I swear it’s not like he can’t, he just chose not to…..

Anyway sorry if there’s typo or multiple sentences. My eyesight got worse and worse asdfghjkl it makes me kinda paranoid because isn’t there certain ilness where the symptoms is deteriorate eyesight….. I really need to use glasses but idk how to do it. Like, do I just go to hospital and say my eyesight got nerfed???