Chapter 8.1
Iâd always been good at reading peopleâs expressions. And Cheon Tae Rimâs face right now?
It practically screamed: âWhy is he already here?â A mix of wariness, confusion, and an almost eerie familiarityâlike he already knew me.
“Tae Rim, introduce yourself too. Ye Jinâs also nineteen.”
“âŠHello.”
“Yes, hello. Iâm Sun Ye Jin.”
“Are you two having a business meeting or something? Youâre the same age, so just talk casually.”
Like a matchmaker forcing an introduction, Kim Sung Hoon nudged Cheon Tae Rim to greet me. Nineteen wasnât that young to be a trainee, but there werenât many of us at this age eitherâmost trainees were younger.
I had never been particularly close with Cheon Tae Rim, but shaking his hand now felt strange.
Why had he stepped in to protect me that night?
If he had really wanted to, he could have just left me there and escaped. The sasaeng only wanted me. She had screamed at him to get lost.
This was the same Cheon Tae Rim who had, at some point, started seeing me as pathetic. Sure, he didnât like most of the slacking members, but he especially disliked me.
If I hadnât always been the one avoiding fights, we wouldâve probably come to blows multiple times.
Instead of running away, he jumped between sasaeng and me, shoved me, and got stabbed in my place.
I always thought he was a frustrating guy, but that moment made me realize something I never knew beforeâhe was the kind of person who would sacrifice himself for someone he didnât even like.
Sure, before debut, we had gotten along well enough. But after, we never stayed close off-camera. Cheon Tae Rim was disappointed in me for failing to meet his expectations, and I thought he was a fool for holding onto useless hope.
“Alright, then Iâll talk casually.”
“Okay.”
That was it. Cheon Tae Rim turned his back on me immediately after.
âŠHad he always been this cold?
I remembered us getting along better before debut, but now, he felt like a damn ice storm.
This wasnât just the usual wariness toward a new trainee.
Of course, existing trainees were bound to see me as competition, but this felt different.
More personal.
âŠHad this bastard regressed too?
That thought hit me within three minutes of seeing him.
He was the one who got stabbed, not me.
We had been in the same room, so if time had rewound, there was a chance he had been dragged along too.
But if he had, he wasnât saying anything. Even when Kim Sung Hoon tried to push him toward me, telling him to look after me, he kept his distance.
He must have noticed something was offâafter all, my entry into R&M had changed by a few days. And yet, instead of reacting, he was avoiding me on purpose. I had no intention of buddying up with him over âHey, did you regress too?â But the way he was deliberately dodging me made me suspicious.
“Ye Jin! Your grandmotherâs here. Come to the meeting room!”
“Okay.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“âŠOh, uh, no.”
“Itâs in the small conference room on the 4th floor.”
While thinking about Cheon Tae Rim, I had almost walked there on my own before Kim Sung Hoon even told me.
I planned to keep an eye on Cheon Tae Rim. If he had regressed, heâd figure out I had too.
I had memorized the layout of R&Mâs headquarters, but no normal new trainee should know exactly where the small conference room was.
Going back in time had seemed like a second chance, but there was more to worry about than I expected. I had to be careful not to stand out for the wrong reasons.Â
Especially in a place filled with people already wary of me.
Before heading to the conference room, I glanced at Cheon Tae Rim one last time.
He felt my gazeâI was sure of it. And yet, he refused to look at me, staring off into the distance instead. I still felt grateful to him. But now, I couldnât shake the feeling of suspicion, that he was hiding something.
No matter how I looked at it, Cheon Tae Rim was trying to distance himself from me. Almost like he already knew Iâd turn out to be the insubordinate, troublemaking member in the future.
When I arrived at the small conference room, Min Ji An, the casting manager, was there along with a man who looked like an HR staff member and a director from the company.
And across from themâmy grandmother.
I hesitated for a moment before cautiously taking a seat next to her. It felt strange, like I hadnât seen her in forever.
“So⊠my grandson wants to be an entertainer.”
“Yes, maâam. He wonât debut right away. Heâll start as a trainee first, join a debut team later, and if he makes it through, heâll become an idol.”
