章 84: Sponsors (4)

As per Joon-woo's suggestion, two days later and despite a set schedule, all three teams were called to one exceptionally larger practice room.

It was awkward, trying to survive the last couple days. Joon-woo and his team were practically ostracized from the others', despite Reggie being a leader of one. He still didn't have control over his team, it seemed. But Joon-woo figured that's what this whole ordeal was for.

As Ha-rin, as the leader of Cheerleader– who were one of the only girl groups to branch K-Pop out globally, there wasn't really much power struggle at all. And whether that was because she was both the oldest member and also the longest trained member, or because she barely had any extra controls as a leader, she was the leader and she tried her best to do it well.

She would prompt introductions, saying "Hello, we are–" and the other members would join in on "Cheerleader!" She would represent Cheerleader's opinion in board meetings, if they ever were to be listened to. And when they first debuted, she was the one with a phone. She ran the live streams and filtered out the bad comments. She filtered the social media so no hateful posts were to be seen by her members. That was a task assigned to her by the company as the oldest and the leader. Ha-rin struggled to pretend the comments didn't affect her, though.

Maybe the hardships of leading Cheerleader through global markets, facing racism in the West and overwork all over the world, made leading Team Two through their ostracization a piece of cake.

As, Joon-woo found it quite simple to turn a blind eye when he got whistled or hollered at by other contestants who apparently lost their will to debut with how easy they were allowing the editors to collect bad clips of them for evil editing. And maybe it was thanks to Mi Yong's already-debuted and matured self that made it easier. After all, Winner was a mess of badlight and controversy. Mi Yong was the leader who picked up after his group mates, never even being in a scandal of his own.

Ryeo Hyun too, ignored the comments he got from other contestants. And the duo, though at first they were freaked out, ended up watching Ryeo Hyun and Mi Yong closely as their inspiration for how to ignore the mean comments.

When Joon-woo walked into the enlarged practice room, his team, despite all being older than him by two or more years, was behind him. Joon-woo pointed to an uninhabited wall space in the room, and they went there to do quick rehearsals.

Team Three, which had Jung Hyun-Ok in it, also did some light rehearsing, but ultimately Joon-woo caught their gaze a lot. Team One, the Reggie led team, didn't even stand or stretch. Baek Du-Ho sat, as usual, sat away from the team. And Reggie, god, looked the most sad Joon-woo had yet seen him.

Carre had teased Joon-woo more than help, about his worry for Reggie. Kite just watched along in silence and with petty eyes. The two sponsors were nothing short of useless. They acted as bickering house pets, though they were supernatural workers of the goddamned grim reaper! Joon-woo, though only mentally 29, thought himself to be 50 around his two sponsors. He had just blocked them out the last few days.

"Pretty boy, you have a visitor." Carre warned, barely moving her mouth in her standing position on Joon-woo's shoulder. Her ghost form bore no weight and nor did Kite's.

Joon-woo looked up from his strumming of his electric guitar. His lacking height was highlighted, as a contestant about as tall as Reggie, looked down on him with slightly angered eyes. Mi Yong stood, as if to come to Joon-woo's defense, but Joon-woo did a small hand gesture to stop him. The cameras were always rolling, and clearly, this contestant hadn't learned that.

The contestant was Kim Seo-jun and he was on Reggie's team. Joon-woo sent a look to Reggie who looked at Joon-woo with helpless begging eyes. Wasn't this tall guy Joon-woo's Hyung? Without the current circumstances, such a sight would've been one to laugh over. A shadow was cast over Joon-woo now. He signaled for Reggie to stay where he was too.

Kim Seo-jun blinked at Joon-woo with eyes meant for intimidation.

"Sunbae-nim?" Joon-woo asked with a tone of innocence. "Is something the matter?"

As if Joon-woo was prey in a bat cave, eyes with red intention stared at him in pairs, in multitudes. He was a perfect villain to be: A PD pick, a popular contestant, and an aloof one. He wouldn't be surprised if after the NDA's for the show ran out, his name would be dragged through the dirt. He unconsciously clutched the electric guitar in his hand tighter.

"Did you sell yourself to them?" Kim Seo-jun asked bluntly.

"Them?" Joon-woo asked, over the gasps of both his team and his other scattered friends. Such a harsh comment was definitely caught by the cameras with how loud it was spoken.

"The producers, don't play dumb. You got on your knees and sucked them off, didn't you?" Kim Seo-jun retorted. Joon-woo flinched and it was slightly forreal.

"What a prideful bastard…" Carre hummed, surprised by the nature of the comment. For once she seemed anything but snarky… Kite still nudged her to stay silent as it was.

Joon-woo paused. How could one reply to such accusations? "Sunbae-nim, that's a bit…" He mocked scratched at his cheek, as if he was anxious. He partly was, this was only the second time he had acted anxious and panicked in front of a crowd.

"You don't even have a company. You don't have any past gigs or brand deals. You don't have anything on your record to make you notable, so you must've." Kim Seo-jun said, the working making such accusations seem true.

Joon-woo could see where the suspicions were coming from. He was quite suspicious, wasn't he? Usually the big company trainees got screen time and listened to.

"Hey…" Mi Yong began, standing from his seated position in a curt rage.

Joon-woo discreetly signaled for Mi Yong to stay. Mi Yong had played the role of the contestants prey for most of the show so far. Granted Joon-woo also wasn't spared, Mi Yong had had it tough since the very beginning.

"Sunbae-nim, I'm only 18… Our producers have morals…" Joon-woo explained, glazing the producers for what they didn't have; morals.

Kim Seo-jun scoffed, "And that matters? You obviously have an appeal younger than 18…"

Joon-woo sighed, cursing his younger appearance. He looked at Reggie, who was standing with his fists clenched and looking at Joon-woo and Kim Seo-jun with frustrated eyes.

Perfect, Joon-woo thought. He sent a glare Reggie's way, signaling for Reggie to stand his ground as a leader.

Reggie was just slightly taller than Kim Seo-jun, so when Reggie stormed their way, he cast a shadow on Joon-woo too.

"Sunbae." Reggie spoke and his voice, for once, was a cold that sent shivers down Joon-woo's spine. Reggie's gaze was deepend with some odd shadow and it made Kim Seo-jun take a step back in surprise. "I know I'm younger and my Korean isn't perfected, so I've been playing along with you– your disrespect. But threatening my friend with such outrageous and borderline pedophilec accusations?"

Kim Seo-jun scoffed, "Hah! Don't mess with me you f*cking gaijin*!"

The whole room flinched at the term.

Reggie didn't flinch. He looked at Kim Seo-jun almost mockingly and laughed. He laughed hard.

"Tell me. Tell me how much progress we've made so far." Reggie prompted.

Kim Seo-jun still had rage in his voice and was slightly out of breath.

"Enough." He replied after a beat.

"Compared to them?" Reggie gestured to Joon-woo's team.

Kim Seo-jun pursed his lips, "W-well with that guitar freak of course they would!" He gestured violently towards Joon-woo.

Reggie scoffed.

"Reggie is scary now…" Kite hummed.

"Really, I've never seen the cutie so flushed…" Carre agreed.

"Have some dignity, huh?" Reggie gestured to Team Three, "They have no known good drum player! But don't they have a whole original segment for their performance? None of us being expertly versed in piano means nothing! It means we didn't work hard enough and it's partly because of you! Who doesn't want to let me lead all because I wasn't raised in Korea!"

Kim Seo-jun couldn't find the words to reply.

"Are you gonna stand there in silence or return to our team so we can rehearse almost nothing we have?" Reggie asked his flustered teammate.

Kim Seo-jun stormed back to Team One, who had watched the scene wide-eyed.

Joon-woo sent a glare Baek Du-Ho's way, as Mi Yong muttered useless words of comfort, thinking that Joon-woo would need them. In fact, most contestants seemed to think he would need them. But Joon-woo was stronger than them and all the insults. Joon-woo felt more so proud of Reggie for standing his ground.

The doors to the practice room opened and various cameras and their men filtered in. Staff followed suit.

Joon-woo looked to Mi Yong, and by proxy the rest of the team. "The cameras caught it all." He boasted with a small smile.