章 41: Roomies (17)
Joon-woo stood at Reggie's door for the second time. As he approached, he still couldn't help but gawk at the large framed double doors and well-groomed garden. Reggie was rich, richer than Joon-woo had physically encountered, idol wise.
In fact, even as Ha-rin, even as the leading female idol for multiple years, her networth never crossed into the millions. So to see quite literally a trainee, a contestant in a multi-million dollar house baffled Joon-woo even now.
But his admiration was quickly settled as the double doors he stood at were suddenly opened. Reggie Lee poked his head out with a curious and excited smile.
Reggie wore a casual black turtleneck and pants that hugged tight against his waist. His bleached blond hair was highlighted against the dark-colored outfit. He looked quite dressed up to Joon-woo who just wore a grey crew neck and a loose pair of black sweatpants.
Reggie's smile grew as he called: "Ah, you made it– have you eaten yet?"
Joon-woo pursed his lips, he hadn't. His fridge was as bare as his room and as his whole damn apartment. He was hungry, in fact it was 1 P.M. and Joon-woo hadn't eaten all day.
"Uh… Not yet, no." He shyly admitted.
Reggie slightly frowned at the reveal, but opened the doors further as if to invite Joon-woo in. "Come in, come in. My mom made some food!" He chanted, eagerly dashing to the left, to where Joon-woo remembered Reggie's kitchen to be.
Joon-woo followed with a short bow, slipping off his torn sneakers and following Reggie to the large, modernized kitchen. It was definitely bigger than Joon-woo's apartment. But more importantly, various dishes cover the island counter.
Tteokbokki, kimchi stew, galbi. Joon-woo's mouth watered and he looked at Reggie with wide eyes. "She made– all this?"
The smells were heavenly in Joon-woo's nose. Homemade cooking usually only existed in Joon-woo's dreams and now, here it was, in front of him.
Reggie nodded in confirmation, looking at Joon-woo's surprised expression as if proud. "My mom's a good cook." He simply replied, scratching at his face, "She made it all because she missed me– and you."
Joon-woo nodded in agreement, his empty stomach grumbled, "Me?" He asked in confusion.
"You made quite the impression on her." Reggie joked, patting Joon-woo on the back, "Let's eat." He said, leading Joon-woo to a stack of plates with a fond smile upon his face, "You have to try her kimchi stew– it's actually heavenly…"
Joon-woo nodded, looking up at Reggie every now and then as he ranted about each dish his mother had made.
"And her galbi. I've watched her make it almost every weekend for the last few years and I still don't know how she makes it so good. Like, she adds all the ingredients someone would usually add, but then– it tastes like– I don't even know how to describe it." Reggie went on, and now they had spent more time chatting about food than eating.
Joon-woo couldn't help it, though. Reggie, who usually contained his excitement in fear of evil editing, seemed to be the happiest, the most fond, when talking about his mother. His cheeks were raised higher and Joon-woo thought it was cute how Reggie talked with his hands.
Footsteps trailed down from spiral stairs. Joon-woo peaked his head up, Reggie following suit. Reggie's mother, decked out in black dress pants and a fancied crochet cardigan appeared. Her long hair was tied into a bun and upon spotting Joon-woo, hurried down the stairs.
She approached the duo with a smile, patting Reggie upon his head and ruffling the 6'0' man's hair as if a habit. "I hear you've been talking about my food?" She asked Reggie.
Reggie looked to his mom with a confident expression, "Yeah." He confirmed.
His mom smiled at the reply, and she looked at Joon-woo. She, careful not to get too close, peered over Joon-woo's shoulder to look at his plate of various foods. "Ehh? That's all you're gonna eat?" She asked, head tilted with curiosity.
"Ah– no. I'm just not that hungry–" Joon-woo went to explain, but his lack of food had decided to expose itself then and there, and his stomach growled, loud.
He looked at Reggie, as if to ask for help. Reggie replied with a narrow gaze. "Let's eat." He said with a smile, easing Joon-woo to take a bit of his plate, too.
–+–
Joon-woo sat on the same couch he had to watch the first episode of Producer10 with Reggie. This time four more people sat upon the large couch, stomachs full with too-much food for their trainee-bodies to handle.
Jung Hyun-Ok sat slumped against the couch in clothes the most casual Joon-woo had seen. This, angel-looking, proper-looking person that Joon-woo had known, was wearing sweatpants so naturally Joon-woo thought himself stupid for thinking otherwise. Mi Yong was leaning his head into Jung Hyun-Ok's lap with a small yet satisfied expression.
Ryeo Hyun and Bo Jaesang sat, eyes wide and pinned to the screen. They sat too properly, also freaked out by the sheer grand picture of the house. While Reggie sat on the top pillows of the couch, just a few feet away from Joon-woo who wrapped his arms around his legs to form himself into a ball.
The familiar theme played from the TV.
"Look, look! It's starting!" Bo Jaesang excitedly called.
Reggie's mom, who was watching while leaning on the couch, nodded with a smile. The intro played and a montage of clips from training rooms, backstage, and more played. And the group found themselves in many of them.
"So many clips of us…" Mi Yong pointed out, "Aren't we quite the PD picks?" He joked, Jung Hyun-Ok lightly grimacing at the idea.
"What is 'PD pick'?" Reggie whispered the question into Joon-woo's ear.
Joon-woo's mouth went into an 'O', "[Producer pick.] It's when the producers tend to favor a contestant over another…" He explained in a mix of English and Korean.
Reggie nodded at the explanation, looking at Mi Yong who seemed to find himself the funniest man alive. "Is being a PD pick bad?" He asked Joon-woo in another low whisper.
Joon-woo pursed his lips, unsure of how to explain, "Yeah. Quite so." He bluntly replied.
Episode one had left off with Ryeo Hyun confronting Joon-woo about his excessive practice time during the first dance round. So when the familiar clip appear again with the text, 'last episode…' in the bottom, Joon-woo blew at his lips.
"Oh? When was this?" Mi Yong asked, curiosity peaked as the clip of Ryeo Hyun walking into Joon-woo's practicing place.
Ryeo Hyun pouted, "Aish… Why did they include this…" He muttered with a slight frown.
Joon-woo sympathized with Ryeo Hyun. Would they include his admission of Ryeo Hyun's age trauma? He recalled the moment and still felt a bit guilty for letting the situation get so dyer.
Ryeo Hyun from a few weeks ago and on screen said the words that began the whole situation:
"Aish… Joon-woo-ssi. You're the last one left again…."
The scene captured Joon-woo's troubled and disheveled demeanor. Highlighting it further by editing a quick fire gif in his eyes and adding 'determined' in a large font. On-screen Joon-woo then replied:
"No, Hyung, I need to dance well for the trainers tomorrow…"
Joon-woo felt Reggie's gaze fall upon him.
"Wow, Joon-woo. You worked really hard to improve…" Bo Jaesang acknowledged with admiration.
The camera panned to Ryeo Hyun's expression. They added 'stoic-ly concerned Hyung' into the screen to paint Ryeo Hyun even more stoic. Mi Yong broke into a laugh, Jung Hyun-Ok even let out a chuckle.
"You're gonna dance fine. Right now you're just killing your body, not giving it a break."
Suddenly, the editing slowed. Its editing was close to none and that made Joon-woo nervous. Were they really gonna include the whole scene?
"It'll be fine, Hyung, I'll be fine."
Reggie huffed, "Is that why you were so hard to reach during that time?" He asked, "You should've asked me for help, you know…" He groaned, leaning his head into Joon-woo hesitant shoulder.
Joon-woo waved Reggie off, though the words took him aback. Was he really hard to reach? He felt a bit bad, thinking back. But Joon-woo didn't have long to linger on Reggie's words, as the most dramatized part was coming up.
On-screen Ryeo Hyun snatched Joon-woo's phone and paused at the music. Joon-woo's face was replayed twice, his fright, his shock.
"Hyung…!"
Mi Yong's face, that had grown red with laughter, as he was still hung up on the editing of Ryeo Hyun's expression, paused. The room became tense.
"You're gonna hurt yourself if you keep this up. Your dance isn't as bad as you're making it out to be."
"Please give me my phone back, Ryeo Hyung."
"Joon-woo, you're gonna hurt yourself."
Joon-woo winced, it was coming up. The yelling, the too-real too-vulnerable side of the conversation.
"Hey, really, isn't this too much?" Bo Jaesang pointed out, as Ryeo Hyun's expression darkened.
Joon-woo and Ryeo Hyun exchanged a nervous glance. If it was revealed, how would their slowly building fan base react? How would they edit it? Would they make Joon-woo look like a douche? Ryeo Hyun?
But to their surprise what followed was:
"Don't– Don't do that to yourself."
They had cut the yelling. They had cut it so that nothing was revealed but Joon-woo's overwork. Joon-woo felt relieved, thought he felt the concern for him increase way more than it needed.
The scene ended with Joon-woo tensely and awkwardly exiting the practice room. Joon-woo wanted to hide.
"Hey." Mi Yong said, "You improved a lot on your dancing here." He complimented, though it felt foreign coming from Mi Yong.
"Thank you Hyung…" Joon-woo replied, just waiting for the next clip to come.
And after various clips of other teams interacting, came a dramatically edited Misa and FYP. They took their seats in their judged chair, the contestants' reaction being played to their enterance.
They were gonna show the performance order, now. The performances. Team One's failure in the first round. All eyes fell onto Mi Yong, not-so-discreetly.
Truly, if they showed that much of Ryeo Hyun and Joon-woo's interaction, how much would they show here?
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