Chapter 235: Is This a Status Window?
As soon as the photo shoot ended, I headed straight to my family home.
He said he’d tell me the details at home.
I nodded, at a loss for words from the absurdity.
Anyway, when I arrived, Do Seojun greeted me with an awkward smile.
For someone who’d been threatened, he looked suspiciously calm.
Click.
As soon as the door closed, we got straight to the point.
He frowned and spoke.
“What happened?”
“So, here’s what happened…. First, look at this.”
Do Seojun, dragging his words a bit, handed me a post from an online community that had gone up about a year ago.
I tilted my head after reading the title.
[That jerk’s among the contestants on Boy’s Dream lolol]
That jerk who borrowed 300,000 won from me and never paid it back, making up every excuse in the book lolol
Still haven’t gotten my money back
I was planning to expose him once he got successful
But since he’s crashing on his own, I guess there’s no need to post lololol
A person’s habits really never change lol
—Who is it???
└Seems like they’re talking about a Boy’s Dream trainee, but who’s the one who crashed?
└Isn’t it HTY?
└The one who got the evil edit last week was him
—They keep saying HTY HTY, what does that mean?
└Probably some nobody you haven’t heard of
└Ah lolololol nobody knows who that is anyway
└OP isn’t officially saying who it is;;
└It says in a comment below that the person’s surname is Han
└That’s basically a dead giveaway lolololololol
—But nobody’s really paying attention….
└No proof
└That, and also probably because he’s just a nobody—if he were ranked, it’d be chaos by now
└No popularity but tons of scandalsㅠㅠ don’t debut, please
└Even without scandals, probably couldn’t have debuted lol just a basic guy you see on the street
—But if it really is HTY, like OP says, then he’s already hit rock bottom—his image can’t get worse, right?
└There’s more dirt to spill~
└????
└F*ck I’m really curious now
└This one I do want to hear—can’t you just spill it???
“Ah….”
One of the main responsibilities of a junior PD is to have a decent grasp of the contestants’ pasts.
Whether they have clean records, or if there are any potential issues.
Sure, even with that prep, unexpected issues still blow up from places no one anticipated—but better that than getting blindsided.
This post came out after debut, and around that time, Han Taeyoon had already faded into obscurity, so the post got buried along with him.
It was an issue that had been taken to the grave—until now, dug back up after a year.
Do Seojun spoke in a calm tone.
“I combed through every Boy’s Dream post and found this. I contacted him after seeing it.”
“Wow….”
“What kind of ‘wow’ is that?”
“I’m just glad this guy is my brother….”
If he weren’t, and was my enemy instead, that would’ve been terrifying.
“I should’ve known when you exposed my fire truck past.”
“It’s the people’s right to know.”
“Unbelievable.”
I grimaced and added,
“Why don’t you just become a reporter? I think that suits you more.”
“Should I? But office romance would be awkward.”
“Are you insane….”
Do Seojun added that with a grin, clearly thinking of that actor.
Honestly, with people like him meeting people like that, there’s really nothing left to say.
Anyway, I had one thing I was curious about.
“So what exactly did you use to blackmail him?”
Han Taeyoon had no intention of staying in the entertainment industry.
There’s no way he would’ve caved to Seojun over something like a 300,000 won unpaid debt.
It must’ve been something much more solid—something that could socially bury him.
Come to think of it, even in my past life, I’d only heard that something happened, but never got the full explanation from Seojun.
When I asked, Do Seojun fumbled over his words in confusion.
“Uh… well….”
“Hm?”
“It’s not something a growing child needs to know….”
Am I a kid?
I was about to argue back when—
Bang.
The back door opened.
I turned around and saw Mom walking in, carrying a neatly sliced melon on a plate.
Her voice rose slightly with excitement.
“What are you two talking about~?”
“Huh?”
Terrible timing.
Ahem.
I cleared my throat and averted my gaze.
Do Seojun replied shamelessly.
“Teaching my little brother something good.”
“A~h.”
The subject was The Philosophy of Blackmail.
…So that happened.
“Senior, are you thinking of transferring to Doubles?”
The café on the first floor of Doubles.
Seeing Kim Woochan casually sitting by the window, tearing into a Bay Bread, the words just slipped out.
I feel like I see him here at Doubles more often than my actual company senior, Sung Jihoo.
“Haha. My contract isn’t up yet~.”
Kim Woochan responded slyly with a grin.
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if I really end up seeing him at Doubles in a few years.
I couldn’t openly express my discomfort, so I sat silently across from him.
Small talk about recent events followed.
“Nothing much has happened lately, right?”
“Yes.”
Other than the issue he brought up himself, which wasn’t really blackmail, nothing else had happened.
Since there were no personal threats to my safety either, it had been a rare stretch of peaceful downtime.
According to Kim Woochan, it was all thanks to my timely accomplishments, though I wasn’t sure of the full story—but I hoped things would stay this way.
Kim Woochan sipped his hot Americano as if savoring it, then nodded.
His hand reaching for the Bay Bread was quite cautious.
After a moment of hesitation, I spoke first.
“I’ve been thinking a bit about your ability to see all possible outcomes, Mr. Kim Woochan.”
“Mmm~.”
Kim Woochan hummed a tune as he chewed the bagel.
His sly voice followed.
“The bagels here are pretty good.”
“Is that your status window talking?”
“Cough.”
Cough, cough.
Kim Woochan burst into a fit of coughing and scrambled to find water.
“Where’s the water?”
“Your Americano is right in front of you.”
Sip.
“Ack! Hot… too hot.”
I had only suspected it, but his reaction confirmed it.
Watching him visibly panic like that made me laugh.
With a pale face, Kim Woochan stammered.
“W-Where did you hear that?”
“…So it’s true.”
“No, it’s not.”
Can you see a status window?
If you asked that to a random person on the street, they’d think you were crazy… but Kim Woochan was different.
There’s even someone who’s returned in time—why wouldn’t there be a status window?
His expression twisted completely as he chewed his bagel, as if I’d hit the mark.
“There’s no reason to hide it, is there?”
“Haah… That’s true.”
He didn’t look too pleased about exposing his hand, but just as I said, he didn’t have a real reason to hide it either.
Even if people found out Kim Woochan could see status windows, they’d think I was the crazy one for saying it, and it’s not like I had any leverage to use it against him.
Eventually, Kim Woochan let out a sigh and nodded.
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking.”
“Then can you see stats too? Like in games? Double S-rank?”
“…No, not really.”
“How fascinating.”
I was a generous person—if he did see stats, I could accept that too.
“Do you get quests?”
“No…. Things pop up in the form of achievements, though.”
“Ah, those achievements.”
So that’s why he was always talking about achievements.
The concert, the Billboard entry too.
They were probably mid-level achievements I needed to unlock.
What Kim Woochan called “possible outcomes” must’ve been various message windows summarizing them in short sentences.
If those achievements were a type of quest, it actually made it easier to understand.
Just like I’d been doing until now—one by one, steadily clear them.
Let’s be honest now.
I asked Kim Woochan directly.
“So what’s my next achievement?”
“Hmmm….”
But then—
I froze at his next words.
“Double Million Seller.”
…Excuse me?
That came out of nowhere.
According to the Self-content Team, the next self-content was <Stardust in Cafe>.
It was a healing content showing Stardust working as one-day café part-timers, and before filming began, the kitchen was in total chaos with everyone practicing.
Ha Junseo stood in the kitchen with a serious face, mumbling.
“I looked up some home café videos. Hold on.”
“Oh! That’s awesome!”
Next to him, Seo Haim eagerly volunteered to help as the kitchen assistant, her eyes sparkling—though I wasn’t sure how helpful she’d be.
The infamous clumsy duo of Stardust—Seo Haim and Seo Ian.
Normally, I’d be lumped in with them too, but things were different if the setting was a café.
I used to work part-time at a café, after all.
Those kinds of simple menu items—I could make with my eyes closed.
“I’ll give it a try too.”
“Ooh….”
The response was polite admiration, but their eyes clearly held zero expectations.
Ha Junseo stepped back and pulled up the home café video he’d been watching.
The menu was strawberry latte.
It had been a while, but my hands still remembered it to some extent.
“Strawberry latte is the easiest one.”
Back at the chain café where I worked, the smoothies and shakes were notoriously hard.
You had to blend two things together, sprinkle toppings—and even the dishes were a nightmare.
Compared to those, this was an angelic menu.
As I quickly mixed the milk and added strawberry syrup, the latte started to take shape.
Seo Haim, who had been passively throwing in reactions here and there, suddenly widened her eyes.
“What the.”
“Why are you good at this…?”
Even Kang Siwoo, who had slipped into the kitchen unnoticed, was just as surprised.
They must have expected me to fumble, but my hands moved smoothly and swiftly.
“Seohan, can you do other drinks too?”
“Yes. As long as I have the recipe, I should be fine.”
“Dang. We found a hidden talent in the most unexpected place….”
“It’s probably just average.”
If you're a K-part-timer, this level of recipe proficiency is pretty standard.
I guess the hyungs, who started training at a young age and never worked part-time, didn’t know that….
“You’re good. You’re good.”
“Seongbin-hyung, maybe we should just leave it all to Do Seohan?”
“Huh? For real~? What the—he’s good!”
Praise makes even whales dance.
Feeling good, I started working even faster.
Meanwhile, Cha Seongbin jumped in saying he’d try making his favorite menu, Dalgona Latte, because he’d seen it somewhere.
As he whisked the Dalgona and stirred it, some small talk started out of boredom.
“Mmm~. Filming self-content like this really makes it feel like we’ve got a comeback coming up.”
“…Problem is, we haven’t even started.”
“Gotta get the song, record it, practice the choreo, shoot the music video, go on music shows…. So much to do.”
This self-content felt more like a sweet teaser for fans waiting through our hiatus.
Just like Seo Haim said, we still had a long way to go—and the rest of the year would be a mad sprint.
Then, all of a sudden—
As if he just remembered, Cha Seongbin elbowed me and asked,
“The last single did really well, right? What was it you said back then?”
“‘Let’s sleep on Billboard,’ or something?”
“Yeah. You really gotta aim high to achieve anything, I swear~.”
I want to chart on Billboard.
It felt like just yesterday when everyone in the meeting room freaked out after I dropped that bomb—and in the end, we did make it onto the Billboard charts.
Cha Seongbin smiled brightly and added,
“So what’s the goal for this album?”
“Double Million Seller.”
…The living room went silent.