Second Try Idol

Right after finishing our album-related schedules, we started our English lessons for Again After Rainfall. These weren't your typical lessons focused on memorizing vocabulary and practicing conversations. Instead, the lessons were aimed at correcting the pronunciation of the songs we'd perform during the shows and clarifying the meanings of the lyrics to help us convey more emotion.

Three members of our group, including myself, struggled with English. Therefore, these lessons were incredibly beneficial for us. Since they were integrated with singing, they never felt tedious. However, Jin-Sung always looked like he was about to cry every time we headed for a lesson.

Now, Yoon-Chan and Jin-Sung were out for their lesson, while Goh Yoo-Joon and I were bustling about in the kitchen to prepare for our Q-app broadcast.

I said, “There's no way we have beef at home. We need to buy some."

“Yes, we do. Su-Hwan hyung said he bought some yesterday. Right, hyung?"

“Yes. We usually store beef in the freezer, not the fridge, Hyun-Woo."

“Ah." I had been looking in the fridge, so I sheepishly smiled. I then fetched the beef from the freezer and placed it on the table.

Today was March 5th, Yoon-Chan's birthday. For my last birthday, Yoon-Chan and Jin-Sung had made me a soy sauce-flavored seaweed soup, so this time, it was Goh Yoo-Joon's and my turn.

We were determined not to repeat their mistake, so we made sure to use soup soy sauce instead of regular soy sauce and prepared dried seaweed slices. We were set on making the best seaweed soup for Yoon-Chan.

“Hyung, we are all set," said Goh Yoo-Joon.

I remarked, “The title of the broadcast should be 'It's here. It's finally here. The day of revenge.’"

“What do you mean by the day of revenge? We are going to make it tasty." Goh Yoo-Joon skeptically raised an eyebrow at my words.

“You? Me? Us? Tasty? Have you ever cooked seaweed soup before?"

“No, but I heard seaweed soup is easy to make. I even printed out a recipe."

“Yoon-Chan printed out a recipe last time too."

“…Did he? We are in trouble then."

From a distance, Joo-Han sighed, “What are we going to do with these two dummies? I can't watch this."

“We are starting the live broadcast," said Su-Hwan.

“Su-Hwan hyung, you've gotten too used to their banter, haven't you?"

“It's entertaining."

“Shh, shh! The livestream started. Hello! Welcome, Rings!"

I was startled by Goh Yoo-Joon's loud greeting and shook my head. “No, they haven't come in yet, have they? Oh, they have?"

I had forgotten to bring the phone to check the chat. I couldn't see the messages, but I could see the chat filling up.

“They are here. Hello."

“Hello. It's Yoo-Joon and..."

“…Hyun-Woo here. The reason we've started this live session today is…"

Thud!

Joo-Han still looked at us with disdain and tossed my phone onto the table.

“Thanks. Now we can check the chat. Everyone knows what day it is today, right?"

- AHAHAHA

- Joo-Han's expression lmao 😂

- I've been waiting for this...hehe

- HAHAHA the day of revenge? What a title 😂

- Aaah… I was wondering who'd show up today 😭This is me crying in happiness.

"See, they heard everything Joo-Han hyung said. Yes, today is Yoon-Chan's birthday, and we, the hyungs, are going to make him seaweed soup," I said.

“Hyun-Woo has sharpened the knife for a bloody revenge."

“What’s wrong with you, ugh." I pushed away Goh Yoo-Joon, who was sticking close to read the chat, and shook my head.

“Keep it a secret from Yoon-Chan. He's at the company now, and our goal is to finish it before he returns. We even brought a recipe."

- Hyun-Woo-yahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

- I am so glad I stayed awake instead of taking a nap.

- OMG, the same-age-duo ❤️

- It feels like déjà vu, I swear I've seen this scene last year too lol

- LOL, this recipe looks familiar! 😂

I was confident that as long as we got the measurements right, failing would be more surprising. However, judging from the chat, it seemed like none of the Rings believed in us.

I ignored the chat and hurried to move on. “First, we need to soak the seaweed and thaw the beef."

“Huh? Shouldn't we have thawed the beef beforehand?" asked Goh Yoo-Joon as he raised the frozen solid beef package. Indeed, he was right. As soon as I looked at the first part of the recipe, I realized that.

Goh Yoo-Joon banged the beef a couple of times before cutting the package open with scissors. “We can just heat this up. I've seen mom thaw frozen pork for spicy stir-fry directly on the pan before."

“Your mom? Or my mom?"

“Your mom."

“Ah... I knew it!"

The absurdity of the conversation made me chuckle as I soaked the dried seaweed in water.

“We need to stir-fry that beef in sesame oil," I mentioned.

According to the recipe, making seaweed soup was supposed to be incredibly simple, hardly involving any intricate steps. It was just about stir-frying the beef, adding the seaweed, water, and seasoning. I took the phone from the tripod to film Goh Yoo-Joon cooking the beef.

- Please nooo 😭😭 It's really dangerous...

- Be my boyfriend.

- Please read the chat... 😢 It's not safe, Yoo-Joon…

- LOL, you are not supposed to stir-fry frozen meat in sesame oil 😂😂 Hyun-Woo 😂 Yoon-Chan 😂

- If the manager is watching, please stop them!!!

- 🥰

“Eh? Wait, hold on." I paused in confusion and grabbed Goh Yoo-Joon's wrist.

“Why?"

“They are saying it's dangerous. That we shouldn't do this," I said. It seemed like the Rings were relieved that we noticed their warnings.

‘So what do we do with the frozen meat? We can't start without stir-frying the meat, but we can't stir-fry the meat right now.’

Thawing took too long, and the livestream had already started. As the sub-leader of Chronos, I had to come up with something. “Let's do this instead."

I took the meat from Goh Yoo-Joon's hands and brought it to the safer part of the kitchen.

“Just watch from there," I said.

“You are going to stir-fry it? But you said it's dangerous."

“Because the oil splatters too much, right? It's fine. I'm a Chronos member." I had to do this because there was not much time left.

As I confidently stood in front of the frying pan, Goh Yoo-Joon handed me a pot lid as a shield. “We are Chronos, so this is okay. Don't worry, everyone. Maybe if we put it in and cover it immediately, it will be fine, right?"

“Let's go, Sub-leader!"

“Both of you are the same. Tsk." We ignored Joo-Han's muttering, and I poured the beef into the sesame oil.

“Eek."

“Wow!" As the oil splattered loudly, I grimaced and quickly covered it with the lid. The beef inside the pan started popping like popcorn.

“See? It's fine like this. Right? Hahaha."

Despite the Rings' worries, the sizzling beef eventually calmed down. After that, Goh Yoo-Joon and I worked together to add the seaweed, stir-fry it, and swiftly move everything to a pot to boil. Even though the process was chaotic, the boiling seaweed soup started to smell quite decent as time passed.

While the seaweed soup was boiling, we sat down and revisited the chat. We lightly conversed with the Rings, and I sneakily asked, “By the way, everyone, do you have any units or duet songs you'd like to see?"

Goh Yoo-Joon added, “Like, any song or member combination you'd want to hear? Anything's fine, not just me and Hyun-Woo but including other members too."

“Why we are asking is a secret. It's just something nice. Dance songs are fine too."

The Rings seemed momentarily taken aback by our sudden question but soon shared many suggestions on songs they'd like to hear and the members they'd want to perform together. The essence was this: It was about choosing songs to perform on Again After Rainfall.

There was a general consensus that just picking songs we liked wouldn't bring anything new. We then thought who could analyze our vocal colors and suggest suitable songs better than our fans? So, as a small event and gift, we planned to fill all the unit and solo performances on Again After Rainfall with song requests from our fans.

“Ah, that song is really nice," responded Goh Yoo-Joon.

“The Rings seem to have a wide musical spectrum. As expected!" I nodded and gave them a thumbs up.

The popular units among the Rings were quite predictable, with the most requested being me and Goh Yoo-Joon, who were live at the moment. Their requests were followed by me and Jin-Sung, then Joo-Han and Yoon-Chan, and so on.

However, unlike the fixed units, the songs recommended by the fans spanned a wide range of genres—songs we hadn't considered, but which, upon reflection, seemed like a great fit for the respective members. It was a good thing we asked.

It seemed the units for the limited performances were settled, so Joo-Han and I could work on selecting and arranging the songs. We naturally shifted the conversation to other topics, including stories from the Graduating after-party and daily TMI. Joo-Han had left earlier as he was unable to watch our cooking, but he then returned with a cake.

Just as we were seasoning the seaweed soup and setting the table, Yoon-Chan and Jin-Sung returned home.

“This is… seaweed soup? What's this?"

“We are back..."

“Huh, when did you start the broadcast? Did you guys make seaweed soup?"

“Come here quick. We really put a lot of effort into this."

Goh Yoo-Joon approached Yoon-Chan and Jin-Sung while showing them his arms. “Look, we got splattered with oil! Even if it doesn't taste good, you have to pretend it does."

“But Yoon-Chan, sorry. We don't have rice. Should we buy some?"

“Yoon-Chan, if it doesn't taste good, I bought a cake. So, just eat that, okay?" said Joo-Han.

As we were excitedly chatting, Yoon-Chan was just standing there with tears welling up in his eyes. He was speechless. “Hyungs... I thought just receiving birthday wishes was enough... but you did all this for me..."

Joo-Han quietly approached to check on Yoon-Chan's face and then gestured for us to come over. “Come here. Come and give Yoon-Chan a hug."

Tears started streaming down Yoon-Chan's face like little pebbles. Honestly, the soup wasn't tear-jerkingly good, so I was a bit concerned.

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