Chapter 407: Red Rouge (26)

"Ah! You-" The nickname almost slipped out, but I stopped myself quickly. He might be trying to keep it a secret, so saying it out loud might not be the best idea. "Nice to see you. I thought your face looked familiar."

I decided to just act friendly and acknowledge him. But that made the trainee, who was already teary-eyed, start crying even more.

"You... you remember me..." He could barely speak through his tears, but it seemed he was overwhelmed with emotion because I remembered him. He was crying so much that I started to feel a bit awkward. The other members must have known he was a Chronos fan. They probably didn’t know his nickname, though.

"Do you know his nickname, Senior?"

"Something like 'I will be Hyun-Woo hyung’s Peach Drink,' right?"

Oh, so everyone knew. I thought I had stumbled upon a big secret. With that cleared up, I felt more at ease talking with them.

"Of course, I know the nickname. It's pretty memorable." The unexpected situation made my gestures exaggerated. "I thought he was good-looking, but I had no idea he was a trainee."

"He said he became a trainee because he admired you, Senior."

"Thank you for saying that. Do you have any questions or anything you want to ask?" I wanted to shift the conversation back to useful questions and away from the fan talk. Meeting a fan here was nice, but I didn’t want it to overshadow the valuable counseling time.

Now that I thought about it, what was this kid's name? I only knew his nickname. I glanced at his name tag: Oh Do-Hyun

"Do-Hyun."

But Oh Do-Hyun was still too choked up with emotion to speak properly.

"Take a moment to calm down. Can someone get him some water? We will talk more later, but let's continue the Q&A session for now." Just as I was about to resume, another trainee raised his hand eagerly. "Yes! Uh, your name is..."

"Senior! I am San Yoo-Hwa" He said with an enthusiastic greeting, but his face looked troubled. "This might not be the right time to ask this, but... it’s not about performing on stage," he started hesitantly.

"What is it?"

"How do you deal with hate comments, Senior?"

"Well..." I paused, unsure how to answer.

It was a tough question. Honestly, I had never really overcome hate comments. Life had been harder than any hate comments. Although it could be frustrating when people were spreading false rumors around, I usually just brushed them off.

Plus, Joo-Han and Goh Yoo-Joon didn’t get too affected by them, and the rest of us in Chronos had learned to handle it similarly. San Yoo-Hwa probably asked because our recent song "Red Rouge" was about standing up to hate comments. But that song wasn’t about overcoming them. It was more like Joo-Han's way of getting back at the haters.

However, since San Yoo-Hwa seemed deeply affected by hate comments, he asked me for advice. Thinking back to the hate and criticism we received during

Pick We Up,

I understood why he might be struggling.

I pondered for a minute before answering. "To get to a point where hate comments don’t bother you, you have to go through a period where they do hurt."

"Ah..."

"It's human nature to want everyone to like you, but we are not perfect. We can't please everyone, and some people will always find something they don't like about our actions."

But we couldn’t cater to everyone's preferences and values. Some people wouldn’t like us simply because of how we looked. If we tried to live up to everyone’s standards, life would become too complicated. Therefore, we just had to become indifferent to it. There was no other way.

"You will get hurt from them for a while, but you will eventually reach a point where you can say, 'Oh, whatever.' When you can distinguish between hate comments, criticism, and constructive feedback, you will realize, 'Ah, my mind has become stronger. I won’t get hurt as easily anymore."

I finished speaking and smiled. It felt like I had just said something glossy on the surface, but it wasn’t wrong.

"This is my personal experience, so it might be different for you, Yoo-Hwa. But that’s how it is."

In the end, all I could say was, "There's no way around it, so just accept it." If there was a solution, no one would get hurt by hate comments. We just had to overcome them ourselves or with the help of those around us.

San Yoo-Hwa seemed to ponder my words, then nodded slowly. "Thank you, Senior. I will try to overcome them."

"Luckily, you have your members to support you. Lean on each other and do your best."

After that, I made the trainees stand up and practice again. I gave detailed feedback. Most of the feedback was about improving their expressions and engaging with the audience, which seemed to be challenging for them.

"Good job, everyone. Let’s take a short break," I said.

Just as the individual counseling sessions were wrapping up, Director Lee Won-Jae, looking much more exhausted and lifeless than when we first met him, came in to announce the break.

I quickly wrapped up what I was saying and told the trainees, "Anyway, that’s all the feedback I have for you guys. Did this session help you somehow?"

I was not great at talking, and even my members acknowledged that I was not very articulate. Therefore, I worried I hadn't been much help. But judging by their expressions, it seemed like they had still managed to gain something, which was a relief.

"Thank you, Senior!"

Hearing them call me "Senior" was still so awkward. I left them and headed to where the Chronos members were. The guys looked pretty worn out, probably from giving their all to the trainees.

"Hey, getting called Senior really got you excited, huh? Didn't I tell you to save your energy for the event later?" Joo-Han scolded.

Jin-Sung quickly clung to Joo-Han and boasted, "Of course, we still have energy for the event."

"Yeah, this isn't even tiring."

"But look at you, hyung. Your eye bags are almost reaching your lips. You look more exhausted than Jin-Sung," Goh Yoo-Joon teased as he applied lip balm while imitating Joo-Han's tired expression.

Joo-Han glared at him. "Of course, my trainees have to be number one, so I gave it my all for them."

Yoon-Chan sneaked up to me and whispered, "I overheard that Joo-Han hyung told Sequence they’d have to practice all night if they don’t get first place."

"What? He did that to us too before," I replied.

Goh Yoo-Joon joined us by saying, "Telling them to practice all night, even though they are not even your members? That’s ridiculous. And those eye bags... Ouch!"

He got smacked on the back by Joo-Han. How embarrassing, especially in front of the trainees.

"Ah~ everyone worked so hard. You all gave such good advice. I’m really grateful," Lee Won-Jae said in a cheerful voice as he made his way through the trainees to where we were chatting.

The exhaustion and boredom from earlier were nowhere to be seen on his face. It seemed that Director Lee treated trainees and debuted artists quite differently.

"It was fun, Director."

"I’m glad to hear that. I overheard you have another schedule after this?"

"Yes."

"Good luck. We will wrap up with a closing greeting, and then you can go. I will let your manager know when this will be aired," he said warmly before hurrying to the next room.

The trainees continued practicing regardless of whether the broadcast had ended. We, the Chronos members, gathered to take a short break. Just then, the trainees, who had been half-heartedly practicing while watching us, suddenly rushed over.

"Seniors! Sorry to interrupt, but could we get your autographs?" one of the groups’ leaders asked cautiously.

"Sure! We can take pictures too!" Goh Yoo-Joon answered cheerfully.

With Goh Yoo-Joon's cheerful response, the trainees’ faces lightened up and started approaching us one by one.

"Uh?"

"Senior, my name is Barrier! Could we take a photo together?"

"Sure."

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

At first, I thought they wanted a group photo, but it turned out each of them had personal requests. They took turns getting autographs and photos with us. Later, we took a group photo before the trainees returned to their practice at the staff’s request.

As soon as they left, other groups lined up to get their autographs and photos. It felt like a mini fan signing event or a fan meeting just for the trainees.

After the break, we stood in front of the camera once again.

"Anyway, I hope today was really helpful. You all did so well, and we’re looking forward to your performances. Keep up the good work and do your best!"

"Yes! Thank you!"

The filming after the break was very short. We left with some encouraging words and received their thanks as we exited the practice room, wrapping up today's shoot for

Pick We Up Two.

"We need to leave immediately. We are on a tight schedule, so staff, pack up quickly. And Chronos, get in the van."

As soon as the filming ended, we hurried to the parking lot. We jumped into the van, heading straight to our first event performance schedule since the comeback.