"Four hours?" June asked with wide eyes.
Dyeing your hair can take up to four freaking hours?
"Oui," Kumo, a guy with rainbow-colored hair chopped weirdly in some places, responded.
June was skeptical at first when he saw the hairdresser.
Do you know how hard it is to trust a hairdresser who has weird hair?
Very hard.
This guy also spoke in a heavy French accent, which was definitely weird since he looked even more native than the first Koreans to be ever born in this land.
"Perfect hair takes time," Kumo responded. "Dyeing the hair very fast makes it damaged. If you don't want to be balding by 30, then I suggest you follow my suggestion."
June sighed. "Fine," he said. "But please, can you make it a muted pink? Don't make it too bright," June requested, pulling out his phone to show him the inspiration he found.
It was a picture of a guy who had brown roots, which faded into a muted pink.
Kumo squinted his eyes as he observed the picture. "Oui, oui! Kumo had done this plenty of times. You just need to put your trust in me."
June pursed his lips. "Can I ask something, though? Why don't you have a mirror?"
Kumo clicked his tongue and sighed in frustration. "I like surprising my clients. You'll only see yourself in the end."
This salon was getting sketchier as time passed by. Nonetheless, June had no choice since this was the only salon in the area that was also inside his budget range.
"Fine."
***
It was strange.
Usually, performance episodes would garner the most viewers in the the past seasons of 'Rising Stars.'
However, today marked their largest viewership yet.
Yena and Yejin, who were currently in the broadcasting station, monitoring the ratings of the show, stared at each other in disbelief as they saw a whopping 27% real-time rating as the intro of the show played.
"This is…so much more than I expected," Yena said.
"I don't know if it's a good or bad thing," Yejin responded. "The Chois had become a national issue, so I bet a lot of people who don't even watch Rising Stars are also watching."
Lo and behold, the two of them were right.
- Who's here because of the Choi rigging issue?
- Me! Who's their son again? Choi Joon-ho?
- He's June! He's the one coming in right now.
- Oh, he's handsome.
- Too bad. I would have stanned if he was actually talented.
- He is talented! You should watch the show sometimes.
Jia bit her lip in nervousness as she stared at the screen. For some reason, her mom didn't let her watch the episode beforehand, so she was more anxious than ever.
Honestly, she was afraid that June's thoughts weren't going to be understood well. There were a lot of stupid people on this planet, and even if an issue had been debunked, they would still believe what they wanted to believe. Moreover, the clips they filmed yesterday didn't do any justice to June's feelings.
Although Jia felt special that she was the only one to ever learn about June's real story and feelings, there was a part of her that wanted to share their personal conversation with the world.
"Are you alright?" Wei asked, caressing Jia's back.
Since the semester was going to start soon, her three friends, Wei, Soo-min, and Na-ri, had now returned to the dorms and joined Jia in watching the third official eliminations.
"She's nervous," Na-ri said. "A lot has happened during our break, and June just happened to be the center of all that drama!"
"I'm kind of nervous, too," Soo-min admitted. "I wonder how Rising Stars will go about this issue. So many people are watching even through the livestream!"
On the other hand, Hoon was chuckling to himself as the intro finally ended. His room was still dark, still smelled like pee and cheese-flavored chips, and was messier than the life of a college student who just had a bad break-up while studying for their finals. Beside him was Xin, who had been holding his breath since he came to Hoon's room.
His mother slightly opened the door to look at her son's face and sighed in disappointment when she saw him with crumbs all over his face, greasy hair, and a beard that could be mistaken as pubes.
She silently closed the door and shook her head.
"I really should have urged my husband to use those condoms."
In grandma's house, the five boys squeezed themselves into the cozy couch. Minjun continued to glare at them, not liking the vibe they were emanating.
C-Jay cleared his throat. "Uh–did we do anything wrong, little kid?"
"Yeah," Minjun deadpanned. "You were born."
C-Jay let out an exaggerated gasp while Grandma gently squeezed the little kid's side.
"Minjun, be respectful."
Minjun continued to look at them with narrowed eyes. "I bet you didn't believe June, too. That's why he looks sad these days."
Jisung frowned as he leaned his elbows against his knees. "June looks…sad?"
Minjun didn't respond to his question. "Well, I don't have anything to explain to you. I just want you to know that my big bro told the truth. He didn't try to deceive anyone."
Jangmoon shakily raised his hand. "May I ask a question?"
"Yes, you may," Minjun strictly said. "But keep it under ten words."
Jangmoon squeaked in fear as he internally counted the words in his mind.
"So, June is not the son of the Chois?"
Minjun sighed and shook his head. "So, you idiots really believed that post, huh?" he muttered as he looked down at the floor.
Then, he lifted his head and looked them in the eyes.
"Let's watch the episode," he said, terminating the conversation.
Minjun then turned to face the TV, muttering something under his breath.
"Please prove those rumors wrong," he whispered. "Or I might just do something by myself."
The others, too, focused their attention on the screen.
Right now, Jihyun and Robby had already been introduced, and the voting had come to an end.
"We started with 100 trainees, and tonight, we'll be down to 25! Let us now commence the third elimination!"
