The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 317

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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317

[What? Spouting nonsense means Seo Ho-yoon is doing just fine.]

Laughter threaded through the grumbling voice.
After mentioning he’d call once his schedule wrapped up, Joo Woo-sung hung up.
I fidgeted with my phone before shoving it into the hospital gown’s pocket.

I lay back on the bed and blankly organized my upcoming tasks when the Doctor stopped by for a brief examination. He said we’d discuss discharge after running more tests.
Once the Doctor left, I was changing into a t-shirt from the cabinet when the hospital room door suddenly burst open with a bang.

“Ho-yoon!”

It was Sung Ji-won.
He approached quickly, his eyes and cheeks flushed red.

“…Ji-won.”

Though it had been less than two weeks here, for me it felt like nearly a year since I’d last seen him, so his arrival felt oddly welcoming.

“Ho-yoon, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”

I finished pulling down my shirt and sat at the edge of the bed.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“…A while?”
“Have you been eating properly all this time?”

Sung Ji-won’s furrowed brows shot up sharply, and his expression twisted.

“…Eating?”

As Sung Ji-won dragged out his words with an expression I’d never seen before, Seo Ho-jin, who had followed behind, quickly interjected.

“Ji-won, calm down. He asked me the same thing about school. It’s better for your mental health to just think of me as a patient.”
“…Phew. Yeah, I guess.”

What do you mean “I guess”?
Sung Ji-won exhaled deeply and nodded.
I let their conversation drift past me and peered over Sung Ji-won’s shoulder as I asked.

“Where are the others?”
“…Well, Hyun-sung and Da-jun went to an album meeting and they’re on their way back now. I just got a call from them.”

An album meeting?
I tilted my head slightly, and Sung Ji-won offered an awkward smile.

“They said that even though you’re sick, they need to discuss the next album and keep the schedule on track. If they slack off, they’ll get scolded when Ho-yoon wakes up.”

I just stared at him in slight surprise, and Sung Ji-won added quietly.

“…Well, I mean, they’re right. There’s no point in just sitting around doing nothing anyway.”

How thoughtful of them to consider all that?
But if I showed my true feelings, even the gentle Sung Ji-won would probably get upset, so I kept my mouth shut and just rolled my eyes. Though he seemed to have already figured out what I was thinking.
He ran his hand through his rich brown hair with exasperation.

“Sigh… You really are something.”

As Sung Ji-won was choosing his words, the door burst open noisily once again.
And a familiar voice rang out.

“Yaaaah!!!”
“…What?”

It was Jung Da-jun, his cheeks already wet with tears, eyes glistening with moisture as he sniffled.

“Seo Ho-yoon!”

Kim Sung-hyun was beside him.
He too was sniffling and crying.

“Hey, you Seo Ho-yoon! You jerk!”

Did I learn nothing but bad habits from Kang Yi-chae?

“Where did you pick up that habit….”

I tried to sit up to say something, but Jung Da-jun was faster—he rushed over and tackled me before I could move.

“Ugh!”

A sharp pain shot through my lower back. I think I’d pulled something.

“Hey, you bastard….”
“Waaah! You look fine, your personality’s fine, but why, why are you so frail like this… sob… you’re making people worry… hic… hic….”
“…Hey, hey.”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

His frame had grown heavier with age, and without any consideration for his own weight, he pounded my shoulders and chest while pinning me down.

“Sob… it’s really so frustrating…. You eat red ginseng like crazy… where did you even buy that ginseng? It’s not worth the money, is it? Hic… hic….”

He continued whimpering after that, but I could barely understand what he was saying.

“…Just get off me for a second.”

I gave up trying to interpret his words and went limp, staying still.
But when the endless whining continued, Sung Ji-won finally pulled Jung Da-jun away from me. He wiped away the maknae’s snot and tears from his shirt with his hand, and then it seemed to be Kim Sung-hyun’s turn next.

“Seo Ho-yoon, you bastard. Why are you so damn weak?”

Bas…what?
Everyone’s gotten foul-mouthed while I was away.

“Why were you born so frail and make everyone around you suffer like this?”
“I wasn’t born frail.”
“Do you know how many times this is?”

No matter how shameless I was, I couldn’t refute that.

“Yeah….”

I scratched my head awkwardly and spoke.

“…I’m sorry.”

Yet even after my apology, an eerie silence hung over the hospital room.
Even Jung Da-jun, who had been blowing his nose, widened his eyes and stared at me.

“…Sorry?”
“….”
“….”
“S-s-sorry??”

Then he asked again, looking around frantically.

“Brother must be sick again!!!”

Jung Da-jun, having reached this absurd conclusion, shot up and began hollering at the top of his lungs.

“Doctor!! Get the doctor!!”
“Shut up, please….”

I gestured to Sung Ji-won, Kim Sung-hyun, and Seo Ho-jin to quiet him down, but they ignored my plea with cold expressions, as if to say this was my own doing.
I had no choice but to step in and cover Jung Da-jun’s mouth with my hand.
After managing to seat the struggling boy and restore order, I scanned the members and asked.

“By the way, where’s Kang Yi-chae?”

Kim Sung-hyun hesitated, glancing at Sung Ji-won.

“Kang Yi-chae is… well.”
“Why? Is something wrong with him?”
“Oh, no. It’s not that.”

Sensing his reluctance to speak, I shifted my gaze through Jung Da-jun to Sung Ji-won, and a straightforward answer came.

“Yi-chae has the flu.”
“…What?”
“He’s pretty sick. Since you’re not completely healthy yet, we were planning to tell you gradually….”

I blinked, unable to process the information quickly enough.
Since becoming part of The Dun, I’d spent considerable time with Kang Yi-chae, yet I’d never once seen him fall ill.

“So he’s admitted to a hospital room upstairs from here.”
“That’s right! Yi-chae’s fever is running dangerously high, and he just collapsed like that…. He seems conscious, but he can barely speak….”

Something felt terribly wrong.

“I’m going to check on Kang Yi-chae.”
“I want to go too!!”
“Hey, Jung Da-jun, you stay here.”

Kim Sung-hyun pressed down firmly on Jung Da-jun’s crown as he tried to stand again, then swiftly caught hold of my collar as I was about to bolt out the door.

“Seo Ho-yoon, you don’t know where the hospital room is. Go with Sung Ji-won. I’ll contact the company in the meantime. And this time, make sure you get all the tests done properly.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Tsk.”
“I understand.”

I gave a half-hearted nod, pulled my collar free from Kim Sung-hyun’s grip, and stepped out of the hospital room first. Sung Ji-won quickly followed behind me and spoke.

“We’ve managed to keep the news from leaking outside pretty well. We have previously filmed content videos too. Fortunately, since he collapsed inside the company, it didn’t spread widely.”
“….”
“Plus, Min Ji-heon handled the response incredibly fast, so most people at the company just think it’s the flu….”
“What about the trainee who was with him?”
“A trainee? There was someone else there? I haven’t heard anything about that….”

Was this the System’s doing after all?
Sung Ji-won, tilting his head slightly in confusion, continued speaking.

“Um, and what else do I need to tell you? The Manager was quite shocked, but he’s handling it well, and the album….”

On the surface, aside from his eyes being slightly swollen, he seemed no different from usual, but he appeared somewhat distracted. Had his face lost weight?
I observed his features carefully, slowed my pace slightly, and called out to him.

“Sung Ji-won.”
“Hm?”
“It’s fine. You need to calm down first. …Your complexion looks terrible.”

Sung Ji-won pressed his lips together, hesitated for a long moment, then smacked my shoulder hard.

“…Ow.”
“…Don’t say it hurts.”

And then he gently revealed the sincerity he’d been suppressing all this time.

“I will.”

I let out a soft chuckle and opened the door leading to the Emergency Stairs.
We chatted quietly as we made our way upstairs to find Kang Yi-chae.

“Yi-chae, Ho-yoon’s awake….”

But the Hospital Room was empty.

“Huh?”

Blankets tossed aside, bedsheets crumpled.
It looked like he’d left in a hurry.

“Where the hell did a sick person go?”
“Call him.”
“Yeah.”

Sung Ji-won pulled out his phone and called Kang Yi-chae.

“I’m a bit worried. He’s been having nightmares for days.”
“Nightmares?”
“Yeah. He was groaning and talking in his sleep, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.”
“….”

But after pressing the call button several more times with no connection, he furrowed his brow.

“Can you wait here for a bit? I’ll look around nearby for Yi-chae and come back.”

I watched Sung Ji-won hurry out of the Hospital Room, then rubbed the back of my neck.
For some reason, my heart felt unsettled.

‘Why am I so anxious?’

It might be nothing, but I decided I needed to go downstairs and inform the others about the situation.
I moved my feet while contacting Kang Yi-chae on my phone. Sung Ji-won kept calling too, and the line kept dropping intermittently.

[The customer is not answering. After the beep, you will be connected to voicemail.]

‘This is insane.’

Brrr, brrr, brrr… brrr, brrr, brrr….

Listening anxiously to the dial tone, I opened the emergency stairs door and descended, sweat gathering in my palms.

“Why the hell isn’t this bastard picking up….”

I spat out a curse irritably when a bell sound rang from above.

Ding-a-ling.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling.

I reflexively lifted my head.
A shadow flickered through the dim light illuminating the staircase.
I narrowed my eyes, scrutinizing the figure in detail, and ended the call.

Ding-a-ling-a-ling… ding-a-ling…—click.

At the same moment, the sound reverberating from all directions ceased.
I called out the person’s name.

“Kang Yi-chae.”

With his gaze fixed on me, Kang Yi-chae walked slowly.

“Hey.”

A voice rough and deeply cracked reached my ears.

“You saw me clearly but didn’t pick up. Why.”

I deliberately responded with greater composure.
Because of a tension rising from my feet—one whose origin I couldn’t fathom.

“You said you were sick? Where have you been?”

In moments like this, I was genuinely grateful for my acting experience. I drew upon every ounce of honed skill to mask the tremor at the corners of my mouth, and forced my feet to remain planted when they wanted to retreat.

“…Kang Yi-chae?”

He stood several paces away, utterly unresponsive.
A sharp, unsettling presence bristled like a lightning rod.

The billboard I’d wanted to verify one last time.
The Shining Star synopsis with one member conspicuously absent.
…An explanation that no one would remember me except for one specific person.

As I was reassuring myself that this was absurd, trying to dismiss the flimsy hypothesis,

“If you won’t answer—”
“Ho-yoon.”

…Lightning struck directly overhead.

“Why didn’t you contact me? You’ve been shooting arrows just fine.”

Kang Yi-chae’s feet lifted from the ground as he stepped closer, one pace at a time. His lowered gaze remained fixed on the vicinity of my hand.
I clenched my fist, wondering if calluses that shouldn’t exist would show, and drew in a breath.
As Kang Yi-chae slowly raised his eyelids again, he looked directly at me.

“Why do you have that expression?”

And he smiled slightly.

“Are you that happy to see me?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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