𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 ―𝐝.𝐨.𝐝

Chapter 21

[ Cho Seungmin's POV ]

My entire body was aching. I stared straight at the stage and tried to wipe away all thoughts of it.

The night the second episode was aired, my group was ambushed by some people who wanted revenge. They were people that my Father took down a year ago. With their year-long preparation of gathering others who held enough courage and hostility against us, they found one of our hideouts and waited two weeks for us to finally go inside.

We have tens of hidden hideouts all throughout Korea. I wasn't expecting them to find one while we were in it.

So I was hit on my back without any defense.

Luckily, with D's quick use of a broken soju bottle, he was able to thwart an assailant before I was hit again. If I was struck any higher on the back of my neck, I would have passed out.

While I was down on the ground, stunned by the strong hit on my back, I was able to take out the daggers in my pants pockets and ran forward.

I broke apart the attackers' formation, which made it easier for us to fight back: fighting in groups of 1 vs 7 was easier than my team fighting 3 vs 25.

B, who hid as soon as it went dark, thankfully called for backup. So after a while of gritting through the ambush, we were able to demobilize most of them with the help of others who were close by.

My work life became significantly busier after this. I could only get some hasty treatment for my bruised ribs and broken fingers from the doctor working for my Father before I was sent off to hunt the runaways down.

Turns out that the Japanese yakuza turf wars had extended out to here now that Mother's Father died and the position was currently vacant. The struggle for power in the drug trade was strong, and with my Father's new port, more people were banding together to take him down. 

My team was busy working with my Mother's yakuza group to snip off the buds before they fully bloomed.

As a result, I barely managed to buy a new phone and make it to the set today.

"Rank 5 goes to contestant Park Moondae!"

I blinked out of my thoughts and clapped.

Moondae hyung was called up right after me, and he ended up sitting beside me. He had blonde hair now. He also looked healthier compared to when I first saw him.

The cameras were pointed in our direction, so I couldn't bring up the thing I needed to. I saw that he messaged me when I logged into my ID, but I didn't have the chance to reply. I wanted to apologize.

Instead, I congratulated him for his ranking.

Suddenly, Moondae hyung's arm reached for me. His hand gently pat my head twice and went back down to his lap.

The tense pressure on my muscles relaxed.

"You too, Seungmin," he smiled. "Congratulations."

That's right, I'm Cho Seungmin now. I'm not J. I'm an aspiring idol. I'm someone who can get close to Moondae hyung and dance all I want.

I nodded my head and went back to watching the ranking results with an easier piece of mind.

After Moondae hyung, Kim Raebin was announced 4th. B told me his character wasn't portrayed nicely and to avoid him in case of any controversies, even if he was most likely to debut.

Ahyun hyung placed in 3rd. He began crying while saying thanks to the viewers and his team.

When he came up to our row of seats, Moondae hyung congratulated him with some nice words.