Ch.5151. Bad Habits

I couldn’t…

I couldn’t listen anymore.

As a rule, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

Taeho had firmly believed that he’d been working hard in the club activities all this time.

Even though his guitar skills might be lacking, he had tried his best to make a good impression on his seniors.

Especially with Suhyeok, he’d even sent him private messages and gift certificates that he wouldn’t have sent to other seniors.

Because he felt he was learning a lot from him as someone who played the same instrument.

And throughout that process, Taeho had thought that he and Suhyeok had become quite close.

All of that was denied in this single moment.

He was just 20 years old.

For someone who had just earned his high school diploma, this came as a tremendous wound.

Seoeun, noticing the atmosphere turning sour, tried to wrap things up, but Suhyeok wouldn’t stop.

“Take care of yourself first before trying to suck up to me.”

Taeho’s fists clenched so tightly that veins popped out.

-Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap

With his head hanging low, Taeho suddenly bolted down the stairs in the opposite direction from where the 23rd generation members were sitting.

“…Huh?”

A confused Suhyeok rose awkwardly to his feet.

“T-Taeho?”

He called out his name urgently, but too late—Taeho had already disappeared to the fourth floor, and the stairwell fell silent.

The atmosphere turned frigid.

No one spoke first, but the air felt heavy and sunken.

Suhyeok turned around like a broken wooden puppet.

“Uh… what do I do?”

That was his second “what do I do?” of the day.

“Ah… seriously…”

Hana let out a deep sigh as if she had a headache.

But that didn’t last long.

She immediately unleashed a fiery scolding on Suhyeok.

“What are you doing just standing there? Go after him! Lee Suhyeok!”

“Huh?”

“Hey! You idiot! How could you push him until he ran away like that!”

“But… I learned this from watching you…”

Suhyeok looked up at Hana with a hint of resentment.

“I know you learned it from me, but you need to gauge the reaction!”

Everything needs moderation.

In a way, pulling off a hidden camera prank was quite a delicate operation for Suhyeok to handle.

You had to act unpleasant, but not cross the line.

The virtue of a hidden camera prank was to keep it at a level where “it’s just a joke, forgive me” could still be considered cute.

Right now, Suhyeok had clearly gone too far—no VAR replay needed.

Hana pushed Suhyeok’s back forcefully.

“Go fix this yourself! Augh! Seriously!”

Choi Kang-eun found even this situation amusing and burst into hearty laughter.

“You boys just don’t have the right mindset! Such manly men!”

“I… I think that’s a gender-discriminatory remark.”

Juyeon mumbled quietly from the side.

“Oh my… Anyway, Suhyeok.”

As usual, traffic control in the noisy club fell to the president.

“We’ll be in the club room, so if Taeho comes back this way, I’ll let you know.”

“Ah. Okay.”

“When you find Taeho, calm him down and apologize. He must be really shocked.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Suhyeok bowed his head to the members.

“…Suhyeok. Want me to go with you?”

Hana was worried about him, not finding him particularly reliable.

“No. I’ll handle it myself.”

“Can you really?”

Suhyeok scratched his head with an awkward smile.

“…I’m better at apologizing than getting angry.”

Getting angry required practice, but apologizing came as naturally as breathing to Suhyeok.

In big matters and small, Suhyeok was always the one to yield first.

“…Call me if you can’t find him.”

“Thanks.”

With that, the members headed back up to the fifth floor.

Suhyeok went down the stairs to the fourth floor.

“Aah…”

Only after everyone had disappeared did Suhyeok let out a deep sigh.

With just six members in total, he’d managed to send two away in different ways.

Was the culture of being popular this exhausting…?

Suhyeok felt sorry toward Taeho and uneasy about the rest of the members.

Still, concerned about Taeho, he wandered around the darkened school like playing hide-and-seek.

“…Taeho?”

“Taeho, are you here?”

“Taeho… doesn’t seem to be here either…”

Bathroom after bathroom.

Stairwell after stairwell.

After checking all the places where someone might retreat when feeling down and finding nothing, Suhyeok headed toward the playground.

And there, in the distance near the smoking spot, he spotted a silhouette with a build similar to Taeho’s.

The gray windbreaker getting closer.

It was definitely Taeho!

As soon as Suhyeok spotted him, he started sprinting.

“T-Taeho!”

Suhyeok was out of breath.

He wanted to apologize, but he was panting too hard to speak properly.

“…Why did you come all the way here?”

“No. I’m sorry… I…”

“It’s fine. I was the one who misunderstood and… hah…”

Taeho tapped off some cigarette ash and let out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry, hyung. For pretending we were close.”

“No. That’s really not it.”

“You don’t need to comfort me.”

Suhyeok needed to explain it was a prank, but Taeho kept cutting him off.

“L-let me speak!”

The usually quiet Suhyeok shouted, making Taeho finally look at him with wide eyes.

“…It was a hidden camera.”

“…What?”

“It was a hidden camera. What happened on the stairs just now.”

Taeho dropped his half-finished cigarette to the ground, and Suhyeok hurriedly continued his explanation.

“I mean… I was actually assigned to scold you.”

“But… Hana told me to do it like that, so I did.”

“I ended up being better at scolding than I expected, and you seem more sensitive than you look, so… yeah.”

Taeho processed the situation.

His emotions formed a gradient.

The first wave was bewilderment.

Following that came self-reflection.

What did I say?

How did I run out of there?

Suhyeok’s harsh words had been too real for a prank.

His words had been like thorns.

To think it was all a lie…

Then I…

Why did I…

When all the puzzle pieces fell into place:

“Nooo! Suhyeok hyuuuung!”

“I-I’m so sorry!”

Suhyeok folded like a flip phone, offering a deep apology to his junior.

* * *

-Sizzle

10 PM.

It was a bit late for a team dinner, but the savory aroma of grilling pork belly was rising from the grill.

“Ahem… ahem…!”

Seoeun stood up and raised her soju glass high.

“Attention, Spirit members~ May I have your attention~”

The chattering 23rd and 24th generation members fell silent.

“We’ve got about ten days left! This dinner is to encourage everyone to keep up the good work, so let’s do our best!”

The rest of the members raised their glasses in unison.

“As I’ve explained many times, what we did today is an annual event, so don’t take it to heart!”

“If you want revenge, make sure to do it to the 25th generation!”

The 24th generation members smiled.

Their eyes held clear malice.

Seoeun, wanting to commemorate even this moment, switched her phone to selfie mode.

“Love you guys!”

“We love you too!”

Today’s dinner had a unique seating arrangement.

The rule: the person who scolded sits across from the person who was scolded.

Thus, Taeho sat across from Suhyeok.

Jiyeon sat across from Juyeon.

Still unable to shake off his guilty feelings, Suhyeok was busy grilling meat for his juniors.

“E-eat a lot. Guys.”

“Hyung. Let me do it.”

When Taeho tried to step in, Suhyeok pulled the tongs back as if to say “not a chance.”

“You just eat.”

Suhyeok felt that this was the least he could do to make amends.

“Hey, Park Taeho. But wasn’t Suhyeok oppa not that impactful today? When he scolded me, I wasn’t bothered at all.”

“What are you talking about? Suhyeok hyung’s acting skills are practically psycho-level.”

“No way. I thought Seoeun unnie and Hana unnie were much scarier.”

As the two juniors ranked the seniors’ acting skills, they soon sought Juyeon’s testimony as she had witnessed everything.

“Juyeon unnie. Who do you think was the scariest today?”

Pretending to focus on grilling the meat but secretly curious about the verdict, Suhyeok glanced sideways.

“Hmm… in my opinion…”

Juyeon, tapping her chopsticks against the oil sauce, turned her head toward Suhyeok.

“Suhyeok.”

It was a clear and straightforward answer with no buffering.

“Me? Really?”

Suhyeok frowned as if wronged.

“See? Noona acknowledges it too!”

“No way! Unnie! How could Suhyeok oppa beat Hana unnie?”

Jiyeon protested, unable to accept it.

“Well…”

Finding it bothersome that he kept grilling without eating, Juyeon picked up a piece of meat and placed it in Suhyeok’s mouth.

“Because Suhyeok made me cry too.”

Silence fell over the table.

Suhyeok made Juyeon cry?

What was this about?

“How did he…?”

“…That’s a secret.”

Jiyeon tried to ask, but Juyeon, unusually, smiled gently and avoided answering.

“Juyeon! If you say it like that…!”

“It’s not a lie, is it? It was quite a night…”

“Ohhh… Suhyeok oppa, I didn’t see you that way.”

From that day on, Suhyeok and Juyeon were officially labeled as “having a thing” among the 24th generation members.