?"June, I cleaned every hair in the bathroom!"
"June, I made you breakfast."
"June, listen to this song. I wrote it just for you."
*Intensely staring*
"B—bro, you're very handsome today."
"Did you get new sunglasses? Where did you buy them so we could be matching!"
June sighed in relief when they finally arrived at the SBC building for yet another King of Kings episode.
The WhimsiLust potion had gotten him more trouble than he expected. After making those corporate people fall in love with him, the needed time for eye contact boiled down to a mere 0.001 seconds.
In the end, June had to resort to wearing dark sunglasses to avoid everyone's gazes.
He affected 157 people in the process, though—an old man selling fishcake on the street, a street sweeper, a bunch of garbagemen, Sunwoo from BOYMYSTIC, another producer, and a street cat.
Now, he was determined to get through the filming without triggering the potion.
There were less than three hours before it expired, so he just had to wait until then.
June felt his teammates trailing behind him, much closer than he would like. So, he turned around with a glare, causing all of them to stop.
He pointed his index finger at all of them.
"You better behave," June said.
"Will you hold our hands if we behave?" Casper asked, causing June to sigh in defeat.
"Yes," June resigned.
The potion would expire by then anyway, so June just agreed to get it over with.
Happy smiles appeared on their faces, and they finally maintained an acceptable distance from June.
June entered the studio and found everyone except for CHAOS waiting inside already.
SPADES approached them as soon as they entered. Chan wrapped one arm around June and smiled.
"Nice sunglasses, bro. Where'd you buy it?" he asked.
"My little brother got it for me," June proudly said.
Chan looked closer at the glasses and gasped when he saw the small logo engraved on the frame.
"The new limited edition Ferrarigummy glasses? How'd your little brother afford this?" he exclaimed.
June shrugged. He wasn't aware of the brand, but Minjun just gave it away since it was too big for him.
"Holy schnitzel. Can I borrow it?" Chan exclaimed, holding onto the edge of the sunglasses to try and take it away from June.
However, June stepped back before he could do so.
And at that moment, he bumped into someone from behind him. June even stepped on the person's foot, so he quickly apologized.
"Watch where you're going," a familiar voice grumbled.
[Congratulations! You've stepped on a special mission!]
June turned around and saw Haruki staring down at him with a displeased expression.
[Haruki hates you.]
'You don't have to state the obvious.'
[Haruki hates you, Choi Joon-ho.]
June frowned at Fu's message. It seemed like his user interface dimmed out a bit.
He had never seen Fu like this, and he was slightly unnerved by his change in character.
[Find out why.]
June felt more unnerved. It was such a straight-to-the-point statement.
Only three words, yet June felt its impact.
[Reward: Upgrade skills faster with the host's hard work and effort]
[After the mission's accomplishment, you can now earn hard work points]
[50 hard work points can be converted for further upgrades]
[Deadline: 2 weeks]
"Are you just going to stand there?" Haruki snapped.
June pursed his lips and stepped backward, bowing his head in a silent apology.
Haruki sighed and shook his head as he walked away from the group.
Akira broke the silence after CHAOS settled in their respective area.
"Who is he to talk to our king like that?" Akira asked, bowing down to dust June's shoes.
June clicked his tongue and forced Akira to stand.
"Dang, he's really not fond of you, huh? Did you do something to him in your past life or something?" Chan asked.
June's eyebrows were slightly furrowed.
That was what he needed to find out.
"Anyway, can I try on those glasses? I've been eyeing them since it came out," Chan said, reaching out for the glasses once more.
"No!" June exclaimed, shocking both the members of EVE and SPADES.
"Why not?" Chan whined.
June pursed his lips to come up with some kind of excuse. His members being infatuated with him was already enough.
"Pink eye!" June said.
"Right," June nodded. "I have pink eye."
"You do?" Zeth exclaimed.
"We failed to protect you," Sehun pursed his lips in disappointment.
"You can look into my eyes, so we'll have matching pink eyes," Casper chimed, walking closer.
June held out his hand before Casper could take another step forward.
Chan nodded in disappointment.
"That's a bummer. Maybe next time, then," Chan said.
June nodded, relieved that he got out of the situation.
One of the staff members called for them to settle down, so SPADES and EVE went to their respective seats.
After a while, Jee Haemin went to the stage, so the participants quickly stood and bowed their heads in respect.
"I feel like it's been a while," Haemin said. "I watched all of your performances during the last mission in the comfort of my own home, and I enjoyed every bit," he said, glancing specifically at EVE.
"Today, we're going to determine the winners of the idol mission."
June cleared his mind of his pending mission and focused on the topic at hand.
He gazed at the screen, where their current rankings were shown.
The five million gap between them and CHAOS was jarring, and June felt like it was impossible to catch up to them.
"Let me first announce the last place," Haemin said.
"Robby!" he exclaimed, making the soloist sigh. He wasn't too surprised anymore since he had placed last for the majority of the missions.
The other rankings were also expected. BOYMYSTIC took the fifth place while SPADES took the fourth.
Now, OCTA, CHAOS, and EVE were the groups in the running for the first place.
"For third place—OCTA! Congratulations. You have acquired more than 3 million votes for this mission."
Uno pursed his lips but nonetheless nodded in acceptance.
He wasn't too upset with the results since he knew they didn't get to perform their best.
Uno, however, would be upset if the group he was rooting for didn't end up in the first place.
"It's CHAOS against EVE again for this week," Haemin said, building tension as the numbers went haywire on the screen.
Jaeyong looked down at his lap, not wanting to expect anything. He was really proud of the stage they created for this particular mission, but he wondered if it was enough to topple the monster that was CHAOS.
"With 11 million votes..."
The participants gasped as the number of votes was revealed.
It was already the highest votes anyone had acquired in the entire competition!
"The winner of the idol mission is..."
