Chapter 215

Chapter 215

Bae Sejin said calmly, “And next… is you.”

“R-right!” Seon Ahyeon gulped, looking very nervous. He then shouted cautiously, “I-I select Sejin!”

“What! Ahyeon, aren’t you being a little rash just because I suspected you earlier? This shouldn’t be about grudges, you know!”

“N-no!”

I’d never seen these two quarrel before. Even more hilariously, the others seemed to be watching them anxiously.

How did this happen? I stared at the cards remaining in my hand, falling into deep thought. The mood had been so peaceful when we’d first entered this new dorm.

“It’s so big! I love it!” Cha Eugene had said.

“There’s three bathrooms, just like before, right?”

“More pipes were installed during renovation, and they put in another bathroom, so there’s four now.”

“Wow.”

Some people came in to do the cleaning, so it was fantastic news that we had another bathroom. However, the location did bother me a little.

So we ended up in SV Village, in the end… It was the same location where VTIC had their dorm. There was nothing we could do about it since our move to E Palace had leaked. Our focus on security had limited the number of potential locations, so we’d ended up here, in the end. Their dorms and ours were different in size, however, and they were located quite a distance from each other in the complex.

I should check out the bedrooms. I pushed aside the pointless concern and chose to look around.

“Wow! There are so many rooms! Do I get to have a room to myself?” Eugene asked.

“There are four rooms. Only one person gets to have their own room!”

Bae Sejin seemed to have been listening. He looked startled as he muttered, “A room to myself?”

“Yes! Or three people can share the large room and a second person can have a room on their own…”

This was a bad idea.

That wouldn’t look good. We could have actually gotten two apartments and had a single room each, but we were continuing to share one, partly to stop rumors from spreading. We hadn’t even celebrated our second anniversary. People would very easily come to assume that we weren’t on good terms with each other if we were already moving into separate rooms.

We need to wait at least a year longer. If we were to lump three members into one room to gain another single-person room, people would try to accuse the members who had their own rooms of all sorts of weirdness.

I interrupted. “There’s no need to make things so cramped. I think three two-person rooms and one single-person room should be fine, as you said.”

“All right!” Raebin said, looking a little proud of himself.

I felt a bit bitter even after saying it myself, however.

I’d like to have a room for myself. I’d thrown away the opportunity to double the odds in my favor, which was a little disappointing.

“Wow! This room is amazing!”

“Th-the beds seem a lot bigger.”

In any case, a bigger dorm meant bigger rooms, giving us a bit more space to move around in.

“Oh, right.” Then Chungwoo grinned and said the words that had set everything in motion. “Why don’t we let the person who gets their own room have the biggest one?”

Surprisingly, this suggestion won the support of a few of the members.

“Wow! That sounds like a great idea!” said Big Sejin.

“I think the fans will find the reward more compelling when they watch the roommate content we film today!” Raebin said.

“Haha! Is that right?”

Chungwoo seemed a little taken aback himself, but everyone seemed to be picturing getting to use a room all by themselves. That was probably why the game over room selection had gotten so serious.

“From an objective standpoint, Cha Eugene has been contradicting himself the last two turns. Eugene is the liar!”

“No! Think again!”

“I’m right!”

“Now, now. So, Raebin, you think Eugene is lying, right?”

“Yes! I demand an inspection on the basis that Eugene couldn’t have received a bribe last turn!”

“No!” Eugene cried, making a huge fuss as though he’d been told to take poison or something.

The problem is, everyone else is just like him, too. All the members had been behaving in exactly the same way. I cupped my chin, resigned. We were playing a simple board game that incorporated elements of Mafia and a card game.

Each person chose a secret occupation card at the beginning, which limited their actions. The person who gathered the largest amount of money would win. There was one big difference, though.

Players can do whatever they like, as long as they’re not caught. They could bluff about doing things they couldn’t with their given occupations—in other words, the entire point of the game was to lie. I picked it because I thought it would be funny…

As it happened, Big Sejin won the first round after doing nothing but lying.

“S-Sejin, you’re… not a senator?”

“You’re a flower shop owner?”

“Yes! I guess this is where I say, ‘Can’t believe you fell for that!’ Haha!”

“Ugh!”

Big Sejin had quoted his line from one of their music videos and left quite the impression, apparently, since lies had completely taken over in the next game. Everyone began to fib left and right in order to gather money, and by the third round, things had become quite a mess.

“Time for your inspection, Eugene. Show us your card.”

Being inspected by someone meant you would be unable to earn an income for some time, regardless of whether the accusation was true or not. That was why anyone accused eagerly defended themselves. But as I said earlier, things had become a hot mess.

“Hmm. Eugene’s a policeman! He took bribes last turn, so he’s out!”

“Ugh…”

“I knew it!”

Every inspection was turning up another lie.

Great. We’d been filming for over two hours by now, and by the look of things, most of it would be edited out, and the final footage reduced to about thirty minutes. The fans would be sad, wanting the full version, but if we gave them what they wanted, the resulting video would be quite embarrassing and repetitive.

At this rate, someone who wouldn’t usually lie should win. That way, things will stay fresh. This won’t do. I guess I should push for Ahyeon to win the next round. He was probably the worst liar in the group. I did just that in the fourth round, giving Seon Ahyeon a competitive edge.

“I-I’ll buy this one!”

“Uh, I think buying a shop will provide more income.”

“I-is that right? I’ll go with this, then!”

Ahyeon actually managed to grow his wealth diligently, surprisingly holding his own against Big Sejin and managing to demand an inspection from him at the perfect time.

“I-I put a l-lot of thought into this… P-please inspect Sejin! About the building he put up last turn!”

“All right, Ahyeon.”

Chungwoo, who’d volunteered to be the game master perhaps because he didn’t really care to have a room to himself, immediately checked Big Sejin’s card. I crossed my arms.

That’s one member out. Chungwoo’s findings were surprising, however.

“Sejin… he wasn’t lying!”

“Wh-what? Really?”

“Yes. His job allows him to construct buildings.”

The bastard had caught us in a double lie.

“I couldn’t lie to you guys again! You know I couldn’t. I have a conscience!”

He’s full of it. His inspection failed, so Ahyeon was forced to sit out for three turns.

“Ahyeon, you don’t get to do anything this turn, either.”

“R-right…”

“Sejin, you too.”

“All right!”

As a result, there was an unexpected winner.

“And the winner is… Moondae!”

It was me.

“Yes, thank you.”

The win was pointless, however. Big Sejin had targeted me two rounds ago, and he had an advantage in total money made.

F*ck. Maybe I should have just taken everyone’s money instead of worrying about making things fun to watch. In any case, the person who wins in the end is…

“And the overall winner who gets his pick of rooms is… Lee Sejin!”

“Hahaha!”

The bastard had won in the end. While it was probably fun for the viewers, I felt somewhat upset. Maybe I’ll take a jab at him.

I smiled and said, “Congrats.”

“Hey, Moondae! Thanks very much!”

“It will be nice to have a room to yourself.”

“Huh?”

“The point of the game was to choose who would get to have a room to himself, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’m envious!”

“Please enjoy your big room.”

Big Sejin’s lips twitched for a moment as I made it seem as though it was already a done deal that he’d choose the big room for himself. “Haha! Well, it’s not like I was planning to do that exactly.”

Oh, he’s trying to evade. He’d done his best in the game to secure screen time, but he didn’t actually want a room to himself. If he was alone, there was a chance he would appear less in our self-produced content.

Is he going to just let somebody else have the room, then? In that case, there was only one person he’d give it to.

“Now, I’d love to use the room myself… but I want to give it to Chungwoo! Our leader here has been supporting this team more than anyone else since our debut!”

“Huh? Me?”

“That’s right! Benefits like this should go to the leader, after all!”

“Wow!”

“Amazing choice!”

And so Ryu Chungwoo got his own room without exerting the slightest bit of effort.

I envy him, I thought, tutting under my breath.

I heard a quiet voice say beside me, “I’m the oldest…”

Bae Sejin didn’t seem to mean to say it out loud and quickly quieted down when I looked at him. I realized that Bae Sejin was actually born first. This was why one’s reputation was so important.

Though, of course, I’m actually the oldest person in this group. I licked my lips, disappointed at losing the opportunity to have a room all to myself. Not that there was anything wrong with having a roommate, of course. My next roommate was a quiet person.

“So Moondae and Ahyeon are in the same room.”

“I-I’m happy with that!” Ahyeon said.

“Yeah. It’s been a while, huh?” I said.

I was sharing my room with Seon Ahyeon. He’d brightened as soon as the decision was made.

Don’t tell me he was trying so hard so he could avoid Eugene, not because he wanted a room to himself? It was a pretty convincing hypothesis in my opinion, but I put it aside. It didn’t matter all that much. Big Sejin got what he deserved for his in-game rampage fueled by his desire for more screen time. The problem was that he wasn’t the only victim.

“Oh, all right… That means… the two Sejins are in the same room!”

Neither of them had anything to say to this. Cha Eugene and Kim Raebin had selected the same room and were already shouting at each other to get out. Big Sejin had no choice since he’d yielded his to Chungwoo. He was automatically placed in Bae Sejin’s room as a result.

“Hey, it’s nice to have you as a roommate!” Big Sejin said.

“Y-yeah…”

It took them a moment to begin exchanging cordial greetings. You should be grateful this isn’t being covered live. I hope they don’t fight.

They’d done a good job of avoiding stepping on each other’s toes after the big fight they’d had. And even if they had to share the same room, it was as big as the living room in our last dorm. It was safe to assume there would be little trouble between them.

And if I see any signs of drama, we can move one of them to another room. A suitable and hilarious public excuse for moving them would be to say their bedtimes were too disparate, leading to discomfort on both sides.

“Now then, let’s all unpack. We’ll be back with more content from us roommates later!”

“See you next time, Loviewers!”

With that, filming for our roommate content came to an end. I shrugged and went into my new room, ready to unpack.

This place does feel a lot nicer. It had been renovated several times, and it showed.

“M-Moondae, this will be fun!”

“Yeah.”

I was already looking forward to getting some peace and quiet at night.

“I’ll come over to visit often!”

“No, thanks.”

The conversation I’d had with Eugene earlier left me a little nervous, but at least he was no longer my roommate.

He just talks too much. I sighed and stretched out on my bed. All I could hear was the sound of Ahyeon diligently organizing his French embroidery and kitchen scrubbers.

Peace and quiet. It was nice, moving to a new room in a new dorm.

My happiness didn’t last more than twenty-four hours, however. The very next day, we were forced to fly to LA. We had to film some more for the damned variety show, and what they were asking of us this time was beyond horrible. We were supposed to perform a single special performance with some of the other mentors. To my displeasure, I discovered that Cheongryeo was on my team.

F*ck. It all began with the second episode of K-NOW, in which he was featured heavily.