Chapter 297 Not Safe

Chapter 297 Not Safe

It seemed like the toe-sucking incident had benefited June more than he expected.

Not only did Chul stop calling him 'Hoho,' but he also started ignoring June's existence!

It was definitely not ideal to ignore your artist as a manager, but June liked it better than Chul being passive-aggressive.

Two days had passed since they posted their teaser photos, and the boys were busier than ever.

The pressure of living up to their debut had finally hit them, especially after their concept photos had garnered a hefty amount of likes for a rookie idol group. All of the individual photos garnered more than 100,000 likes each, and their group photo even peaked at 212,000 likes.

Even now, when there were still two weeks left until their debut, the boys were working harder than usual.

Their choreographer, who was under the same agency as Gun, watched them with hawk eyes as they reached the final chorus of the song.

June stared at himself in the mirror, sweat dripping from his temples. It was already afternoon, and they had been practicing since morning, so the boys felt more tired than usual.

However, since the choreographer promised them that this would be their last round, the boys bust their best moves, all eager to go home.

June also observed his other teammates, a satisfied look passing through his eyes.

They really looked like a real K-pop group now. June hasn't seen their stats ever since Rising Stars ended, but June could tell that they've also improved by a lot.

As the last notes of the song faded, Akira fell to the ground, panting like a thirsty dog.

"Oh gosh," he gasped. "That's the hardest I've ever danced today. I'm definitely not going to do that again."

"We should, though," June said. "We looked really good just now."

"You were observing our group dance?" Ren asked, surprised. "I was too tired to even look at myself."

"June's right," Tank, their choreographer, said. June didn't know if it was a requirement in their company to have weapons as names, but he found it quite ridiculous.

"That was your best performance just now," he continued. "Gun wasn't lying when he said you guys were talented. Keep this up, and I think you'll be ready for your debut stage."

Zeth proudly smiled. "Thanks, Tank."

"No worries. Just make sure to control your breathing well so you'll have stable vocals," Tank smiled. "Well, I need to head home now. My wife's calling. Don't forget to cool down and stretch before going home, alright?"

"We will," Jaeyong said, although that was a blatant lie. They were all too tired to even move their pinkies.

"I'm going first," Tank said, waving goodbye and leaving the room.

The cameramen, who were filming the process of their debut, also left the room, leaving the eight boys all alone.

As soon as the others were gone, they sighed and acted more comfortably. Casper even inserted his hand inside his sweatpants and scratched his itchy butt.

Zeth nodded in agreement. "I'm reminded of the times I visited the province. My grandparents would feed me a whole chicken, and I'll be energetic for the entire day."

June continued eating in silence—like the real connoisseur he was.?The group continued eating their meal when Sehun suddenly brought up their debut.

"There's like less than two weeks until our debut stage," Sehun said, causing Akira to spit out the soup he had just sipped.

It splattered all over Ren.

"What the fuck?"

However, Akira ignored him and shook Sehun's shoulders.

"Don't say that!" he exclaimed. "My heart jumps whenever I think of our debut."

"What are you so nervous about?" Ren asked, still wiping his soupy arm with some wet wipes. "You've already debuted before."

"Everything!" Akira exclaimed. "Just—It's different when you're there, you know? Right now, it feels comfortable because we're by ourselves, but once you see the other idols performing, you'll become nervous...and uncertain...and it just cascades to questioning your self-worth!"

"Is it that bad?" Jisung asked, almost shaking.

Jaeyong chuckled. "This dude is just exaggerating. It is very nerve-wracking, though—especially when we have a big group coming back the same week."

"BOYMYSTIC's coming back next week," Jaeyong pointed out. "Do you think we'll run into them?"

"Most probably," Casper said. "But it wouldn't be too bad since their nomination week will be our debut week. That means we can still get some music show wins."

"Casper's right," Akira said. "Come to think of it, they're our biggest competitor for the month. Oh wait, there's LUNIX, too!"

"LUNIX is coming back?" Sehun asked with wide eyes. "I love their songs."

"Well, it seems like somebody hasn't been monitoring social media," Ren said. "Yeah, they're coming back the same week as BOYMYSTIC. I'm a fan of them, too."

"Oh, good," Sehun said. "So, there are no other groups debuting at the same time as us?"

"Not that I remember," Jaeyong said. "There are other groups coming back, but they're from relatively smaller companies. So, I think we're safe."

Meanwhile, Zeth scrolled through his phone as his members conversed.

His feed was filled with photo edits, video edits, velocity edits, and fanart of himself.

Zeth's heart couldn't help but swell in happiness as he scrolled through the posts.

However, he stopped scrolling when he saw an eye-catching post from StarSync, a very popular Korean Entertainment News Media Outlet.

"Oh, we're definitely not safe."