Ch.5050. Clear

Hana grabbed Suhyeok’s collar and playfully shook him.

“Lee Suhyeok!”

Suhyeok allowed the attack without any defense.

It was difficult to erase the apologetic expression from his face.

“You idiot! If you had pathetically asked ‘What should I do?’ back there, would it have been a hidden camera prank? Would it? Huh?!”

“Give it a rest, Yoon Hana. Is there anyone here who doesn’t know that Lee Suhyeok is a chicken?”

Choi Gang’s words pierced Suhyeok’s heart like a sharp spear once more.

“Ugh~”

Even Seo Eun didn’t seem inclined to defend Suhyeok this time, just chuckling behind him.

“Next time if the kids do something unexpected, just leave it to us~ Got it? You too, Juyeon.”

Even though Juyeon hadn’t said anything, being lumped in and scolded together made her feel slightly offended.

‘Idiot. Lee Suhyeok.’

Gunwoo, the vocalist who was the first to be dragged away and released, found it difficult to manage the laughter that unconsciously escaped him.

From now on, Gunwoo would also be standing in the position of perpetrator rather than victim.

The seniors’ directive was simple.

Return with the most solemn face possible and create an atmosphere of suffering.

Though his acting skills weren’t particularly good, Gunwoo was determined to do his best.

After all, it would be terrible if he were the only one to suffer the seniors’ wretched surprise.

“Hey, Gunwoo!”

As soon as he entered, the girls approached him.

“Are you okay? What did the seniors say?”

“Haah…”

Instead of answering, he sat on the sofa in despair and hung his head low.

“Did you get scolded? Did you get scolded badly?”

Taeho, whose performance quality had been the worst, was turning pale.

“Ah… really…”

As Gunwoo acted as if he was in too much pain to speak, the atmosphere among the 24th generation students became absolutely devastating.

It was like a scene depicting the grief of survivors facing the apocalypse.

“Na Hyejung, come out.”

Hana, playing the role of grim reaper, called the name of the next victim.

Hyejung, who was practically Hana’s direct junior, gulped nervously.

Following the same path Gunwoo had taken, Hyejung was dragged to the stairwell.

The repertoire was exactly the same.

“So I’m asking if you think you can go on stage like this.”

“Hey. Answer me.”

By this point, Suhyeok began to wonder about Hana’s past.

Could Hana have actually been a notorious school bully?

How else could she emit such an aura without professional experience?

Even he, who was participating in this, was sometimes startled.

“No… I’m sorry…”

“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me, but to the kids who practice with you, Hyejung.”

“I’m… sorry…”

Hyejung finally burst into tears.

When her sobbing echoed through the ceiling, Seo Eun signaled to the 23rd generation members.

“Two. Three.”

A small whisper was heard.

Followed by a warm embrace.

“Hyejung! I’m sorry! This is a hidden camera prank!”

Hana jumped out from the stairwell and apologized sincerely.

“Ahh… unnie… aaaah! Really!”

How much had she been anxious about the seniors’ harsh words?

Honestly, there were some exaggerated parts that made her suspicious, but Hana’s acting was so vivid that she ended up being completely fooled.

“Yeah~ Success! Woohoo!”

“Ah~ If it weren’t for Suhyeok, we would have gotten two people with this!”

“But… I don’t think Gunwoo would have cried even if we’d gone all the way, right?”

The successful 23rd generation perpetrators continued to grow in number.

Hyejung returned to the club room with puffy eyes.

Already knowing the full story, she had to struggle to hold back her laughter when her eyes met Gunwoo’s.

“Hyejung, are you okay?”

“What should I do… wow… aren’t the seniors being too harsh?”

As each returning student came back mentally shattered, the freshmen couldn’t help but feel suffocated.

“Guys… really… prepare yourselves mentally before you go…”

It wasn’t preparation for being scolded, but for being utterly embarrassed.

Jiho the bassist and Jiyeon the female vocalist both suffered the same fate.

They failed to make Jiho cry as he generally showed little emotional fluctuation.

Jiyeon, on the other hand, provided a refreshing spectacle with record-breaking wails.

“Next is… Sohye?”

A brief maintenance break.

Seo Eun looked up at Choi Gang.

“You can handle Sohye well, right?”

“Leave it to me!”

“Still, since it might be genuinely scary if you do it, adjust as you go.”

Honestly, among them, the most visually threatening was indeed Choi Gang.

It would be natural for anyone to burst into tears if someone with his build yelled at them.

Eventually, Sohye was brought in by Hana.

Like with the others, Seo Eun initiated.

“Sohye.”

“Yes, unnie.”

“Why do you think you were called here?”

The model answer to this question could be obtained from her peers who had already gone through the same routine.

“Because my playing skills are lacking…?”

“You know it well.”

Choi Gang took over the baton.

“Ji Sohye! Do you know that you’re the worst drummer ever!”

“We’ve never had such an incompetent generation before!”

“You’re truly disgracing the name of Spirit!”

His bass voice, like thunder, bounced off the walls and vibrated the air.

While the booming voice itself seemed threatening, the content was rather…

Having already witnessed Hana and Seo Eun demonstrate the extreme art of making people miserable, Choi Gang’s comments didn’t seem that threatening to Suhyeok’s ears.

“Hic… hic…”

Sohye started crying less than 30 seconds after they began.

The seniors were actually the ones who were taken aback.

They had set making someone cry as their mission accomplished, but she cried so easily that it disrupted their plan.

Even Choi Gang, who had been putting in a lot of effort, was equally surprised.

He lowered his voice to comfort her.

“You’ll get better with practice! I’m telling you to practice!”

“But… you won’t teach me, sunbae!”

What kind of development was this?

Seo Eun and Hana gave Choi Gang disapproving looks.

“When. When did I refuse to teach you!”

“When I asked you to watch me practice… you said you had to watch a broadcast… that you were busy… and even when I contacted you personally, you hardly ever checked…”

As the conversation continued, it became more awkward for Choi Gang.

Eventually, he stood up and declared the end on his own.

“This. This is all a hidden camera prank! Sohye! What we said wasn’t serious!”

Instead of answering, Sohye rushed to embrace Choi Gang.

With her face buried in his chest, no one could see her expression.

The cunning 24th generation drummer, Ji Sohye!

She had realized this was a hidden camera prank the moment Choi Gang uttered his first words.

Partly because Choi Gang’s acting was crude, and partly because she had been closely observing him normally.

Turning crisis into opportunity, she pressed herself against him with even more personal feelings.

Nevertheless, she didn’t forget to keep up the act of sniffling.

“Gang, let’s have a talk later, shall we?”

Seo Eun hadn’t missed Sohye’s comment about him never helping with practice.

“Wow… Sohye has a more fragile mentality than I thought?”

Hana, unaware of Sohye’s true intentions, patted her head.

“Unnie…”

Sohye, who had perfectly executed a complete narrative arc by transferring from Choi Gang’s embrace to Hana’s.

Now only one person remained.

Suhyeok’s direct junior whom he needed to scold.

Only Taeho was left.

“Lee Suhyeok.”

Hana called his name with a hint of anxiety.

“Yeah?”

“If you can’t do it, should I just do it for you?”

In reality, Juyeon had delegated most of the scolding authority to Seo Eun.

“No. I can do it.”

Suhyeok wanted to make up for his earlier mistake.

And although it was a malicious thought, being the perpetrator in a hidden camera prank was quite fun.

Every time the juniors embraced their seniors with resentment, Suhyeok felt a strange sense of elation rising within him.

It was the kind of pleasure he would never have experienced if he hadn’t joined Spirit.

Thinking this would be his first and last chance to participate in such a prank, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

“I can do it, Hana.”

“Alright then. Let’s see you do it well, as you’ve learned.”

While Suhyeok was reaffirming his resolve.

Inside the club room, the 24th generation students were in complete chaos as the last target, Taeho, was being escorted away.

“Ack! Shit! It’s so embarrassing that I cried.”

“Wow… I seriously thought I was going to die from fear of Hana noona.”

“Idiots, hahaha. How could you fall for that?”

“What? Ji Sohye, you knew?”

They were all comparing and boasting about what the seniors had said to them.

Those who didn’t cry were winners.

Those who cried were losers.

And surprisingly, they had already begun to express their eagerness for the incoming 25th generation.

“Next year’s kids are so screwed. Just wait till they join.”

This was how bad habits were passed down.

“Do you understand, Taeho?”

Taeho felt his heart stop at Suhyeok’s cold voice.

He couldn’t think of anything.

It was too shocking to realize that the hyung he thought he was close with was looking at him with such eyes.

“Did you… really… think of me that way…?”

He desperately hoped.

If this was a hidden camera prank, he wished someone would quickly say so.

How could a person… how could a person be like this?

Was Suhyeok hyung really some kind of psychopath…?

Were all those awkward behaviors he had shown before just lies? Is that it?

“Ha.”

Instead of an answer, what came back was a cold sneer.

The rest of the 23rd generation members didn’t say anything, but they couldn’t hide their surprise.

Suhyeok really seemed to have a talent for cornering people, even more so than Hana.

Only one person, Juyeon, who had already experienced this from Suhyeok beforehand, was watching calmly.

“Do I look like I’m joking to you?”

Lee Suhyeok.

Mission accomplished!