June felt his heart skip a beat, and it seemed like the others were also taken aback by C-Jay's statement.
Murder? Is June a part of something that's way deeper than he had imagined?
Then, like a fucking joke, C-Jay laughed out loud, causing a collective sigh to break out in the room.
"Hey," Jangmoon said. "That's not a good joke."
C-Jay continued laughing but eventually raised his hands in surrender.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know if that's real," he said. "But it's not plain baseless. It's an ongoing rumor in Phoenix. It hasn't been confirmed, though."
"Give us the context at least," Jangmoon retorted.
"Geez, fine," C-Jay said. "Let's start from the beginning. Apparently, there were four ancient trainees in Phoenix—those that have been training for the next big boy group in the company."
"They were set to debut in CHAOS, but somehow, none of them managed to get through," he said.
"And two of them were Alex and Hyunwoo?" Jaeyong asked.
"Yes," C-Jay affirmed. "And the bullying scandal I told you is about the other trainee.
Apparently, the bullying was so intense for this one trainee that he had to leave. That was the confirmed story. However, the streets are saying that he was beaten to death."
Jangmoon grimaced. "I don't think that's real. We're just trainees! I'm sure the company wouldn't tolerate it if it happened."
June felt so confused. Is the trainee in the story pertaining to him? But then, it wouldn't make sense! How could Alex and Hyunwoo still know him if he had died already?
"You said there were four," June said. "Where's the other one right now?"
"Right," C-Jay said. "The lives of these four ancient trainees intertwined until the end. The other one was bullied, so who was naturally accused? Of course, the other three! However, in the end, Alex and Hyunwoo pleaded innocent, and only the other one was blamed. He got kicked out of the company, while Alex and Hyunwoo got to stay but were kicked out of the debut group. They were all replaced by newer trainees in the end."
June pursed his lips. So, it was most likely that he was the fourth trainee in the story—the one who got kicked out.
He cursed under his breath. He didn't have a good feeling about that one.
Then, if there were four of them back then. Did the other trainee die too?
Choi Joon-ho would have died if Jun Hao didn't transmigrate in his body.
This was just confusing.
"I'm really surprised that you know so much about this stuff," Akira said. "It makes me wonder if what you're saying is credible."
"It's a hundred percent legit!" C-Jay defended. "I've been an insider for years now. I know what's false and what's fact. The murder part is probably false, but all the other details are real. At least, that's what my sources tell me," he chuckled.
"Do a lot of people know about this?" June asked.
"Of course not," C-Jay said. "It's insider news. Only a few people are aware of it. So, don't go telling people what you've heard today."
Jaeyong scoffed. "It's not like they'll believe me anyway."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Jisung said in a shaky voice. "Let's just go back to watching the show, please."
The five lads didn't realize they had been talking for quite some time. It was already near the end of the episode!
Even as June faced the screen, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to what C-Jay had said. The details were different from what Fu had told him. At the start, Fu said that Joon-ho was merely replaced by a new trainee despite training for plenty of years. He never mentioned how he got replaced.
June clicked his tongue. This was much more complicated than he had thought.
"So, only six teams are going to be aired today?" Jaeyong asked. "We'll be shown next week then."
"Aish," C-Jay sighed. "Because of you guys, I missed Bodylicious!"
"Just watch it online," Akira retorted. "Maybe then, you'll get a million views," he teased, causing C-Jay and Jangmoon to chase him around the room.
"It was a joke!"
The three of them continued to run like little kids.
June sighed and faced the TV once more. He didn't appear much on today's episode. It was expected. Their team's performance will be shown next week, probably at the very end too.
So, all in all, it wasn't too eventful.
That is…until the previews were shown.
"Quiet down, will you?" Jaeyong snapped. "The previews are here."
The three finally stopped running and sat back down for the previews.
It was seemingly normal at first, just showing practice sessions transitioning to legendary performances. However, it got weirder at the end.
It first showed the fight between Team Aces and how it wasn't going well. June had already expected this to happen. The production crew would milk their misunderstandings and create a tension that was far more intense than the actual scene.
Jisung played with his fingers as he paid attention.
"Damn, you went through a lot," Akira chuckled. "This background music isn't helping at all, too."
Then, the screen momentarily turned black. Just as they thought the teaser was finally over, a night camera was shown on screen, along with the rustling sound of white noise.
June frowned when he recognized the scene.
T
here were two trainees sitting on the stairs, oblivious to the fact that they were being recorded.
"Brother, that's you," Jisung said, pointing at the screen. "...And Zeth?"
At first glance, June already thought it was weird. They were sitting on the staircase. It was
the day June comforted Zeth, which moved him to tears. However, the shot made it look like Zeth was crying because of June...and it wasn't anything good.
It was blurred, and their distance seemed to be letting on an unspeakable tension.
Then, June opened his mouth.
"Nobody actually cares about you at all."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"You're not special."
The five of them watched in unnerved silence.
Afterward, the scene where June was storming off into his room, leaving Zeth behind, was shown.
And just like that, the evil editing began.
