Chapter 101. Things Will Explode (1)
Here she was—*that* girl (main account name: Harang, sub-account name: Soda, the younger sister among the siblings) who had caught the first two episodes live and quickly shed her denial about joining the fandom.
She, too, had canceled all her evening plans to wait for the third episode of *Miro Maze*. Unfortunately, her sister, who had been eagerly anticipating watching it together for days, hadn’t finished work yet.
The girl turned off the notifications of the chat room, filled with curse words, and grabbed a cup and fork from the kitchen, heading to the living room. It looked like she would be watching the broadcast alone today.
“Ah, if I had known, I would’ve called Ggom and Gwajam to come over.”
Ggom (sub-account: MalangGgom) and Gwajam (sub-account: PleaseStopProfessorAssignment) were her fan friends with whom she had once stanned her previous favorite oppa (the one who ended up in jail after a drug bust).
After their favorite, who once seemed so fragile, turned out to just be a weakling, they had gone their separate ways, but recently, they were reuniting through *Miro Maze*.
“Well, I’ll have to watch alone today.”
With tonight’s snack in hand, the girl took a photo of the TV screen displaying the *Miro Maze* logo at the top and uploaded it to her main account.
**Harang @dohajin_luv**
**Watching *Miro Maze* Episode 3 with the chicken Hajin likes!**
**Waiting since 7 PM to eat while watching the live broadcastㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ**
**@MM_Official**
**#MiroMaze #MiroMazeLiveEvent**
**#KangHajin #LeeDoha #Miro**
**(photo)**
Not long after she posted, the Bluebird notification sounded. What was that? She clicked on the notification, and her account automatically switched from her main to her sub-account.
**PleaseStopProfessorAssignment???? @tlqkfrytn**
**MiroMaze was just used.**
**This woman just wanted to eat chicken.**
**Harang @dohajin_luv**
**Watching *Miro Maze* Episode 3 with the chicken Hajin likes!**
‖
**Soda???? @soda_lll**
**ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Be quiet…**
**(Can’t you read the room? Meme)**
Nothing major.
With a cynical expression, the girl put down her phone and focused on the TV, holding a chicken drumstick in her hand. The third episode started with a familiar title.
The third episode began with an insert shot of an unfamiliar outdoor studio, accompanied by peaceful background music.
A full shot of the exterior of a building somewhere in Seoul was shown, and as the peaceful BGM abruptly cut off, someone’s voice played over the audio.
“Alright, alright. Don’t be nervous~!”
“Let’s see a big smile! Ah, that’s good!”
The screen transitioned to a well-decorated studio where a photoshoot was in progress.
The girl recognized what the shoot was for just from the brief glimpse of the studio props.
“Oh my God! That’s Doha’s profile photo shoot!”
It was the very shoot that had recently taken over her new phone’s lock screen.
Just seeing a basketball rolling on the floor made her feel a strong connection to her favorite. She covered her mouth. At that moment, the screen showed Lee Doha, dressed in a sporty old-school look, lifting his arms behind his head and tilting his head slightly as if stretching.
“Are his muscles insane?”
His muscles were a work of art, naturally revealed as he struck the pose.
From his appropriately tanned skin and broad, well-defined shoulders to his long, sturdy-looking calves exposed beneath loose-fitting shorts.
“You could believe he’s an athlete. Ah, what if, when Doha holds a concert at a stadium, people mistake it for the Olympics?”
Even alone, she couldn’t help but gush like this. Sure, it would’ve been more fun if there had been someone to banter with, but it wasn’t a big deal.
After all, the essence of stanning and fangirling was about enjoying oneself.
When the shoot ended, Lee Doha left the studio, casually dribbling the basketball like a strong, athletic college student.
As the crew asked him to show off a special skill, the girl’s mind spun as Lee Doha, with his unusually thick fingers, spun the basketball rapidly.
**Harang @dohajin_luv**
**Doha, does that look like a basketball to you?**
**No? That’s actually the Earth.**
**I’ll soon place the world in your hands, so be prepared.**
**(Video of Doha spinning the basketball)**
She couldn’t resist leaving a mention.
Meanwhile, the profile shoots of other trainees quickly passed by. The screen showed Dan Haru in a marine look with glistening soap bubbles and Joo Eunchan wearing face paint and a jumpsuit in split-screen shots.
“Huh? Where’s Hajin?”
She noticed that Hajin hadn’t appeared yet. While not all 17 trainees were heavily featured, others at least appeared once while watching or monitoring the shoots.
“Are they conscious of the controversy over Hajin getting too much push…?”
But cutting his screen time this drastically in one episode would make it too obvious, wouldn’t it?
Hajin appeared on screen just as she was thinking that.
With that caption, Hajin finally appeared, and how to describe it…
‘It’s like he was called to the principal’s office to receive an award, but a photographer suddenly started taking pictures, so he’s awkwardly forcing a smile with a half-asleep face.’
In summary, he looked awkward.
He didn’t seem disinterested, but the more effort he put in, the stranger it looked!
“How does that guy even perform on stage?”
She couldn’t help but nod in agreement with Seo Taehyun’s voice of disbelief from the side as he adjusted his hairpin.
‘No wonder his profile picture turned out so badly… Is he just bad at taking photos? But considering the class photos, he didn’t seem this bad…’
Curious about people’s reactions, she logged into Bluebird, and it seemed others felt the same.
**KangHadi @kang_HD**
**Guys, it’s over.**
**Disperse…**
**KangHadi @kang_HD**
**But why does our Kang’s profile picture look like this?**
**Who approved this???**
**Was this really the best you could do, writer?**
**Shared 43 Hearts 67**
‖
**KangHadi @kang_HD**
**I apologize to the writer.**
**You are the best photographer ever.**
‘This person’s way of talking is really funny.’
Although their favorites were different, the *DoHajin* pairing, which had been linked through various activities from monthly evaluations to sneaking out, had a good rapport even among fans.
The girl tapped the heart button on KangHadi’s post, resolving to become friends if there was ever a chance at a *Crazy Friends* (*Miro Maze* Friends Introduction… which got shortened in a strange way) meeting.
After Hajin, other trainees’ moments flashed by quickly. With her top two favorites already past, the only ones who caught her eye were visually well-known trainees like Seo Taehyun and Jung Siwoo.
‘Kim Wonho… He’s not bad, but he’s just not very impactful.’
Wonho, who formed various pairings with Doha and Hajin, like *Monthly Review Group*, *KangYungKim Group*, and *Wall Jumper Group*, wasn’t really her style.
In fact, in terms of her preferences, she leaned more toward Yugeon, the guy who wore his cap backward, chewed gum, and skated, rather than Wonho…
“Oh, what am I thinking? No, no, no way. He’s definitely out.”
After Yugeon’s recent attitude scandal, the girl had completely ruled him out as a candidate for her debut group.
Sure, getting swept up by a bad boy’s charm happens once or twice, but she had just recently disposed of her entire album and merchandise collection of a real bad boy who had gotten arrested!
“There’s no way I’ll plant such a time bomb in Doha’s path.”
While many said Doha and Yugeon resembled each other, to the girl, who favored Doha, they were completely different types. Even if their vibes were somewhat similar, there was a clear distinction between the #SturdyReliableAlphaMale and the #RebelliousEdgyBadBoy.
‘If it has to be Yugeon, I’d rather it be Kim Wonho. Some might call him a downgrade, but… I mean, we’ve only seen one performance so far.’
In a survival show, no one knew when or
where someone might explode with potential. The girl hoped that Wonho would unleash his potential in this mission to counter Yugeon.
Meanwhile, the broadcast had moved on to introducing the second mission.
“Welcome, everyone, to the second gate of *Miro Maze*.”
“Your second mission is a cover song.”
The screen showed Seo Taeil skillfully explaining the mission details and the team selection process. As soon as Yugeon secured the first pick of songs due to his battle benefit, the girl put down her chicken and clasped her hands together.
“Please, God, don’t let my baby get tangled up with Yugeon…. If he ends up befriending someone like that and later there’s some Yugeon character scandal, they’ll all get dragged down together.”
How did she know? She wished she didn’t!
The girl gulped down soda straight from the bottle, suppressing her frustrations. But unfortunately, her prayer was shattered in less than five minutes.
“Are you serious? How did this happen the moment I said it?”
As soon as Doha picked *Blue Scandal*, he ended up on the same team as Yugeon! And to make matters worse, he wasn’t even teamed with Jung Siwoo or Kang Hajin, who she had secretly hoped would be with him!
“Yugeon, that punk is probably going to be as rude as ever. Ah, Doha, please don’t get tangled up with him. Ha… But by the way, Hajin in glasses is crazy. What’s up with that? As soon as those edits come out, I’m saving them.”
The girl uttered a mix of worry for Doha and admiration for Hajin in the same breath. She couldn’t just let it slide; Hajin looked too good in glasses!
Of all times, he was sitting next to Jung Siwoo, who had sleek, dark brown long hair, and Yugeon, who had bleached hair and a ripped street fashion look, making Hajin stand out even more.
“That black hair is pure innocence, seriously…. He must’ve known he got popular as ‘Hoodie Oppa’ and dressed like this on purpose, right?”
Seeing this naturally fresh and pure-looking handsome guy, who didn’t at all resemble the awkward person during the profile shoot, made her take another big gulp of soda.
Hajin was wearing a slightly loose black hoodie, which seemed to be the exact one he wore when the ‘Hoodie Oppa’ sightings first emerged.
Suddenly, the girl felt an intense urge to find out more about the hoodie Hajin was wearing. Since he was still a trainee, it didn’t seem like he’d be wearing luxury brands, so she wondered if she could find it and get one for herself.
“Did any information come out yet? I feel like I might find something if I check out KangHadi’s account.”
Even though the broadcast was still ongoing, she picked up her phone again, partly to check out people’s reactions.
Would it come up if she searched for ‘Kang Hajin hoodie’?
While thinking of a few search keywords, she tapped the Bluebird search bar.
“…Huh? What is this?”
**Trending for you**
**Music‧Real-time trends**
**Yugeon withdraws**
**2,309 mentions**
**Real-time trends**
**Survival betrayal**
**1,512 mentions**
**Trending in Korea**
**Yugeon-ah, is this fun?**
**1,931 mentions**
The girl’s face stiffened as she saw the unusually intense real-time trending status.
It seemed the inevitable had happened much sooner than she had anticipated.
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