Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 68: How to Clear Up a Misunderstanding (2)
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TL: FoodieMonster007
Lee Cheonghyeon was more brilliant than he appeared. His school nickname, 'the piano prodigy,' failed to capture his full story.
"Your mom's the vice director of a research institute? And you said your dad's a teacher?"
"Yeah."
"And your older brother only got one question wrong on the CSAT?"
"Yeah."
"So he went to medical school?"
"No. The chemistry department at a different university."
"Don't all the smart people go to medical school?"
"I don't know why he went there either."
The family stories Lee Cheonghyeon occasionally shared sounded like a drama. It was no big deal to Lee Cheonghyeon, who grew up with an even more incredible family, but for Kang Kiyeon, who came from an ordinary family, even owning two foreign cars sounded like a tale from another world.
"You're from a family of scholars. Is that why you're so good at studying? Or maybe not, you work hard in class, so is it effort…"
"Haha!" Lee Cheonghyeon laughed heartily.
Lee Cheonghyeon rarely brought up his family first. He only dropped hints when the conversation required it.
Kang Kiyeon never downplayed these stories or made a big fuss. He simply found them interesting. He never belittled or exaggerated Lee Cheonghyeon's efforts. Instead of feeling inferior or envious, Kang Kiyeon felt indebted to his own supportive family.
Even knowing his background, Kang Kiyeon could still empathize with Lee Cheonghyeon's worries. This allowed Lee Cheonghyeon to be honest with him. Still, there was one subject he rarely discussed.
"Do only children really seem like they have no social skills? I'm worried."
"You don't seem like you lack social skills. Still, if you're worried, should I lend you one of mine? I'd still have one left."
"You're one of three brothers?"
Kang Kiyeon only learned Lee Cheonghyeon had a younger brother after they became close. Even then, Lee Cheonghyeon said little about him, keeping his descriptions concise.
"If you insist on taking one, I'll give you my older brother. He's the better of the two."
He then waved his hands dismissively, as if he had said something unnecessary. The nuance wasn't regret for darkening the mood. It was an apology for even suggesting he would burden Kang Kiyeon with a sibling.
Lee Cheonghyeon looked gloomy, so Kang Kiyeon didn't press further. Then came the day he learned the younger brother's name. It was an evening when Kang Kiyeon worried he had made the wrong choice.
"I think about that a lot too."
As he offered comfort, Lee Cheonghyeon showed Kang Kiyeon his message window with Lee Kangmyeong. An endless, one-sided stream of insults poured from Lee Kangmyeong. The content was shocking for a child. He seemed to be aggressively mimicking words he had heard elsewhere.
"If I don't debut, I'll probably have to hear this for the rest of my life, right?"
Lee Cheonghyeon smiled bitterly. Kang Kiyeon felt a surge of anger toward this stranger, a younger brother whose face he had never even seen.
After deep consideration, Lee Cheonghyeon changed his career path, causing significant friction with his family. The journey to the dorm was arduous. The place he escaped to was a paradise for a while, until an uninvited guest arrived.
"Who did you say?"
"Lee Cheonghyeon's younger brother."
One day, Lee Kangmyeong came to the dorm while Lee Cheonghyeon was late due to career counseling sessions.
Kang Kiyeon, the youngest, went to check the intercom and came face to face with him. When Kang Kiyeon opened the door, a boy much shorter than him threw a wad of paper at his chest.
"Give that to Lee Cheonghyeon~."
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm running an errand."
He was an elementary schooler at best. Kang Kiyeon spoke as calmly as he could.
"Is throwing things part of the errand?"
"I just gave it to you. My dad's waiting downstairs and told me to hurry back, okay? I'm leaving, okay?"
The reply was insincere. The boy's smirking face overlapped with the text messages Lee Cheonghyeon had shown him. The sound of him kicking a fire hydrant out of boredom echoed in the stairwell.
"Fuck."
Kang Kiyeon clearly heard the muttered curse. An emotion far stronger than what he felt seeing the abusive messages swept over him. Lee Kangmyeong's face showed no guilt, despite spitting such humiliating words at his own family.
Anger surged. Kang Kiyeon was too young to ask where he had learned such words, or if no one had ever scolded him for cursing like that.
The elevator doors opened. As Lee Kangmyeong tried to escape, Kang Kiyeon shouted at him.
"……"
Just as he was about to grab the boy's neck, a hand shot out from the elevator and gripped Kang Kiyeon's arm.
"What is it?"
He looked up and saw Choi Jeho. A contemptuous expression looked down at Kang Kiyeon.
"Are you crazy?"
An icy voice struck him. In that moment, Lee Kangmyeong disappeared into the elevator. After the indicator showed it reached the first floor, Choi Jeho left Kang Kiyeon at the front door and went inside.
That's what happened.
Kang Kiyeon reminisced while he watched Choi Jeho review the video on his phone.
The story didn't end there. Kang Kiyeon had empathized with Lee Cheonghyeon and couldn't quell his anger. He aimed his frustration at Choi Jeho, who had gotten angry at him without even asking for the context.
Choi Jeho, in turn, openly showed his displeasure toward everyone, not just Kang Kiyeon.
Jeong Seongbin asked what was wrong but received only silence. Choi Jeho didn't say a word in their room. If Lee Cheonghyeon or Kang Kiyeon entered, he would pull the covers over his head and turn away.
The trainees were unskilled at hiding problems, and the staff quickly noticed the uncomfortable atmosphere. Teachers scolded them and the manager warned them, but the emotional rift wouldn't heal.
After much deliberation, the company took a drastic measure.
"Is this the UA trainee dorm?"
"…Who is this?"
"Choi Jeho's younger sister."
They had sent an S.O.S directly to his family. The dorm was so quiet the intercom conversation echoed into the rooms. Jeong Seongbin went to open the door, looking flustered. The trainees didn't even know Choi Jeho had a younger sister, so it was a complete mystery.
He had once read about parents contacting universities to solve their adult child's problems. Can an adult really be that incapable of handling their own affairs? The past Kang Kiyeon would shake his head while folding laundry. Was this situation okay because the company asked the guardian? He couldn't figure it out.
"Where is Choi Jeho's room?"
A voice as stiff as her brother's asked, louder than before. The guest had apparently come inside.
Should I go say hello?
Naturally polite and a stickler for rules, Kang Kiyeon pondered for a moment. In that time, a door opened. Just as Kang Kiyeon opened his own door, a bag with familiar merchandise disappeared into the room Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon shared.
Just as he was about to ask Jeong Seongbin what was happening, the Choi siblings came out. Kang Kiyeon suspected he was partly to blame for this visit, so he reflexively hid behind the wall.
"I'm taking her to the train station and coming back."
"She just got here, but she's leaving already? Won't she be tired…?"
"It's okay. The train ride will go by quickly if I sleep."
Then, a 'goodbye' was heard. Choi Jeho, already in his slippers, spoke while waiting for his sister to put on her sneakers.
"Why'd you come to a dorm where only guys live?"
"Mom was worried you got into a fight here too."
"You should've contacted me first. Don't tell me you came without Mom knowing?"
"You said you can't use your phone. Mom's busy with work, and besides, lots of middle schoolers ride the train alone."
Listening to their conversation, Kang Kiyeon could guess what happened. The company must have told their mother something about Choi Jeho, and she worried he was causing trouble again.
I guess she couldn't even contact him since phone use is restricted.
He thought of his own parents, who always asked how he was doing. Choi Miho must have seen her mother's worry and secretly come to Seoul to help solve her brother's problem, though Kang Kiyeon wasn't sure what she had actually done.
Choi Jeho sighed. Kang Kiyeon thought it was a sigh of annoyance, but it wasn't.
"Don't just wander around without a word. At least call the dorm. It's not like I won't answer."
His tone revealed his care for his younger sister. As an only child, Kang Kiyeon didn't immediately recognize this unfamiliar attitude as the maturity of an older sibling. So he takes care of his own sister, was all he thought.
After the siblings left, the days passed quickly. Much later, Kang Kiyeon finally saw the connection between the Choi Jeho who stopped him from yelling at Lee Kangmyeong and the Choi Jeho who unhesitatingly took his sister to the station during a break.
"Hyung. Do you remember that time at the apartment, a long time ago? I yelled at some kid and you got mad at me."
It was an old story, so Choi Jeho probably wouldn't care. During a lunch break after a morning of fixing choreography, Kang Kiyeon asked while opening his salad. Choi Jeho answered with an indifferent expression.
"When Lee Cheonghyeon's younger brother came?"
"You knew he was Lee Cheonghyeon's younger brother?"
"He came to the waiting room during the concert. He grew up looking the same."
"But you didn't know back then, right?"
"Am I a psychic? How would I know just by looking at his face?"
Choi Jeho focused on his meal. He ate his salad silently, finished one container, and asked as he opened the next.
"Why. You think I was too harsh?"
"…No, it's just."
Kang Kiyeon changed the subject. It was too embarrassing to explain the long story of how he cleared up his misunderstanding, especially since it was so long ago. The sprouts in his salad tasted particularly bitter today.
"I know it's not really a substitute, but didn't I take Lee Cheonghyeon's side in the waiting room later?"
"What?"
Kang Kiyeon stopped eating and looked up, confused by the words. A lot of meaning was packed between "You think I was too harsh?" and "I know it's not really a substitute."
It meant Choi Jeho had acted harshly because Kang Kiyeon was yelling at a child, but after learning the child's identity and Lee Cheonghyeon's family situation, he understood why his friend was upset. That was why he had deliberately acted prickly toward Lee Kangmyeong backstage, all for Lee Cheonghyeon's sake.
Geez, why does he have to say things in such a difficult way…?
Kang Kiyeon swallowed a dry laugh. He realized he wasn't much different. His past self couldn't even ask Choi Jeho a simple question like, "Why were you so angry back then?" They had only come this far because he had changed enough to ask, and Choi Jeho had changed enough to explain, even if between the lines. It wasn't anyone's fault, nor was it a matter of who was better.
"Hyung, you're really the type to be misunderstood a lot."
"I know."
Understanding the principle behind Choi Jeho's actions didn't mean he fully understood the person. Kang Kiyeon couldn't hold back the sincere words that rose to his throat. Choi Jeho just gave a deflating answer and shoveled salad into his mouth.
"Still, I don't think I'll misunderstand you anymore, Hyung," Kang Kiyeon said.
Choi Jeho stared at him for a moment, then opened a water bottle and drank without any particular reaction. Even so, Kang Kiyeon didn't feel frustrated.
It would never happen, but if Jeong Seongbin ever advised Lee Cheonghyeon to stop his activities, and Lee Cheonghyeon raised his voice, even if Choi Jeho said, "Anyone would feel like shit if they were suddenly told to get lost."
The Kang Kiyeon of today would understand. He would know the sharp words and insensitive tone came from a place of understanding. As the eldest himself, Choi Jeho understood the heart of a younger brother fighting with his older brother. He would know that Choi Jeho was always on the side of the youngest.