I'M A GENIUS IDOL BUT MY PASSIVE IS SUNFISH: Chapter 79

 TL by Miru

I'm a Genius Idol but My Passive is Sunfish: Episode 79

Fortunately, the doctor had said there was no serious damage to the bone, and a week with a splint should be enough. The unexpectedly optimistic prognosis helped Baekya breathe a sigh of relief.
When he'd woken up to see his finger swollen to twice its usual size, he’d been horrified—so much so that when he showed it to a barely-awake Yuyeon, the other boy's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Remembering Yuyeon’s panicked expression brought a mischievous grin back to Baekya’s face, and he chuckled quietly to himself.

“What’s got you grinning like an idiot when you’re hurt?”
“Oh, just thought of something funny. We’re going straight to the company, right?”
“Yeah, we’d better. Tiger’s been bugging me nonstop about when you guys will arrive.”

When someone remarked it was unfortunate he couldn’t rest despite his injury, Baekya smiled faintly.

“This is rest, isn’t it? Let’s hurry up.”

Claiming they had something urgent to finish before Tiger stormed into the practice room, Baekya immediately gathered the other members into a huddle upon their arrival.

“What are they up to now?”
“No clue. Said it was a strategy meeting or something.”

Deokjin’s vague reply made Namkyung uneasy. Feeling a sense of impending disaster, Namkyung stood from his chair. These boys could never be trusted. Just this morning, hadn’t Baekya appeared with a perfectly good finger in a cast? He claimed the injury happened after yesterday’s performance, but who could believe a story like that?

Namkyung decided to stealthily approach the huddle, holding a dry rag in one hand and a spray bottle in the other. Pretending to clean windows, he crept toward them, inching closer until he overheard snippets of Yuyeon and Baekya’s hushed conversation.

“Let’s just pretend we know nothing.”
“What if we get caught? You know I can’t lie well.”
“I know. Besides, you’re injured—you won’t have to do anything. Relax.”

But Yulmu cut in immediately, objecting to Yuyeon’s reassurance.

“You still need some kind of role~ There’s one perfect for you, actually.”
“What is it? I wanna do something.”
“The extra wheel. It’s a super special job. You should feel honored.”
“You wanna die?”

 

Baekya bared his teeth at Yulmu, irritated at being treated like a fool. Just another ordinary moment of teasing between tormentor and victim. But Namkyung sensed the hidden conspiracy beneath their seemingly innocent banter.

“You little brats!”

Eyes wide with indignation, Namkyung hurled his rag aside, bursting into the circle like an assassin spraying his weapon wildly.

“Gah!”

Startled, Baekya fell backwards onto the floor.

“Hey—cold!”

Minsung turned, wiping water from his face, clearly not expecting to be treated like a practice-room plant.

“Wait, what the—where’d you come from?”

But Namkyung was already laser-focused on Baekya, grabbing him—the easiest target of the five—and shaking him by the shoulders.

“What sneaky little scheme are you plotting now? Confess!”

Hoisting the stunned Baekya back up, Namkyung brandished the spray bottle threateningly.

Spritz.

“Uwaaagh! I swear I know nothing…!”

Drenched in water, Baekya scrunched his face miserably and defensively raised a hand beside his shoulder.

In any organization, the bottom-rankers never know anything useful. Deciding he wouldn't get anywhere by interrogating the ‘extra wheel’, Namkyung abruptly spun around.

"Then who's the mastermind?!"

He aimed the spray bottle threateningly at Jihan, and luckily, this time he'd chosen correctly.

"Han Yuyeon and Na Yulmu. Target: Cheong Cheong."

Without even a second’s hesitation, Jihan willingly revealed the identities of the ringleaders, along with their intended victim. Yuyeon lunged forward, desperately trying to cover Jihan’s mouth, but the rapper’s words were faster.

"You traitor...!"

Yuyeon shot Jihan a dirty look.

"I knew it. You two were always suspicious."

Namkyung triumphantly turned his spray bottle toward the two culprits. Cheong Cheong, their usual troublemaker, was conveniently absent, so it was obvious who’d cook up something in his absence. The manager moved the nozzle back and forth, carefully aiming at the pair.

"What exactly were you planning?"

Yuyeon stubbornly kept his mouth shut, refusing to speak, while Yulmu exchanged meaningful glances with Minsung. Without hesitation, Namkyung sprayed them both generously with a fine mist of H₂O.

Spritz– Spritz–

“Ah! Gross!”
“What are you spraying us for?”

Yulmu protested indignantly, claiming he’d seen that water sitting atop the purifier untouched for months.

"Then confess while I’m asking nicely!"

At Namkyung’s prompting, Yulmu sighed deeply, pushing his now damp hair off his forehead with a sullen expression.

"Ugh, fine. We didn’t involve you because your acting’s awful."

"Who are you calling a bad actor?"

Namkyung was genuinely offended. Then, suddenly remembering something, he pulled out his phone and checked the calendar. Right there beside Cheong’s name was a little cake emoji.

"Is Cheong’s birthday tomorrow?"

Indeed, it was. Today was the eve of DASE’s youngest member, Cheong’s birthday. Unfortunately for Cheong, he'd been immediately whisked away to rehearsals for a special performance at K Company upon returning home, providing the perfect opportunity for his hyungs to secretly plan a surprise party.

"But why was I excluded?!"

At least Baekya had been offered a trivial role—meanwhile, Namkyung had been left out completely. Hurt and bewildered, the manager expressed his frustration loudly. Yuyeon gave him an incredulous stare.

“Do you seriously not remember how you completely ruined Yulmu and Jihan’s surprise birthday parties?”

Though Yuyeon’s voice dripped sarcasm, Namkyung could only twitch his eyebrows, temporarily silenced.

"That... that wasn’t my fault!"

He belatedly shouted back, claiming he had single-handedly made Baekya’s hidden-camera prank a success—but the group’s reactions remained ice-cold.

"Anyone could trick him—even a three-year-old."

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

Feeling inexplicably insulted, Baekya scrunched his face indignantly.

"Didn’t you once tell him there was a sparrow sound hidden in 'WANT ME'?"

"Yeah. How many times do I have to tell you I actually recorded it? Wait—are you changing the subject?"

"See?"

Yuyeon raised one eyebrow, a confident expression crossing his face. Namkyung had clearly lost this round. Still, the manager stubbornly refused to accept his defeat, a stubbornness that made Yuyeon sigh in exasperation.

“Ugh… Do I seriously need to spell it out? Remember what you said when I asked you to keep Yulmu hyung busy outside the practice room on his birthday?”

“Oh~ Yulmu-ya! The weather sure is nice today! I wonder if everyone else went to the bathroom together. The hallway’s totally empty—I just checked!” Yulmu mimicked Namkyung’s awkward, overly enthusiastic tone perfectly. Recalling the moment, he explained that he’d figured out the surprise within seconds, just by hearing Namkyung’s first clumsy sentence.

“That’s because this kid is too quick-witted,” Namkyung insisted defensively.

Fair enough—Yulmu really was perceptive, more than most people, and Yuyeon gave a reluctant nod. But there hadn’t been just one birthday last month. Yuyeon’s gaze naturally turned to Jihan, whose birthday had come shortly afterward.

They exchanged a glance, and without further prompting, Jihan recounted his version of events:

“I honestly thought you messaged the wrong chat, so I just told you.”

Jihan’s birthday surprise had been ruined before it even started. At this point, Namkyung had no comeback, not even if he had ten mouths to speak with.

Snatching the spray bottle, Yuyeon promptly spritzed Namkyung in the face.

Spritz.

“If you want to join this time, you’ll have to be an extra, just like Baekya.”

Namkyung, now sentenced to the same minor role as Baekya, looked at the younger boy indignantly. Doesn’t this bother you at all?
But Baekya, the original extra wheel, looked blissfully indifferent.

Since Namkyung had already uncovered their plans, DASE quickly decided to rope Deokjin in as well, and finalized their strategy.

“There will be no more mistakes,” Producer Han Yuyeon declared. “We need speed and accuracy. I trust you’ll all carry out your assignments perfectly.”

Screenwriter Na Yulmu chimed in next:
“Please avoid improvising lines that aren’t in the script. If anyone ad-libs, they won’t be appearing in my next project~”

Lighting Director Han Jihan casually added,
“Switching the lights on and off? Piece of cake.”

Director Do Minsung warned with a playful laugh,
“Everyone just stick to the choreography from rehearsal. If by any chance the target does something unexpected… Well, then we’ve failed again! Haha!”

Cameraman Kim Deokjin piped up enthusiastically,
“Thank you for choosing me! I’ll do my best to meet everyone’s expectations!”

Extra Han Baekya grumbled quietly from the side,
“Am I really just staying still? My hand isn’t even that bad...”

And an outsider muttered quietly, half-complaining,
“Kids, wouldn’t I be a better cameraman than Deokjin…?”

Everything was ready for their grand mission: surprising the youngest member.

Distributed exclusively on the U-App.

 

* * *

 

 

With her roommate Boksoong currently away in Hong Kong, she had the dorm room all to herself. Right before drifting off to sleep, a thumbnail from the main page of a popular portal site caught her eye.

 

[Prank the Maknae! (Title: HAPPY CheongX2 DAY)]

 

It was currently 11:53 PM. The thumbnail that had appeared the moment she opened the portal app immediately piqued her curiosity—a cold-looking guy squeezing K Company’s penguin mascot doll flat, and next to him, another guy, who looked strikingly like a rabbit, leaning in with visible interest.

“Isn’t that…that one guy?”

She recognized him instantly from a variety show she’d watched with Boksoong, where he’d left a lasting impression with his surprisingly rich trot singing.

“Cheong X…Two?”

Intrigued by the cryptic title, she eventually gave in and tapped the thumbnail. The loading screen dragged on, possibly due to heavy viewer traffic. After a moment, a live broadcast icon popped up in the corner, and a view of a dance studio appeared. The camera angle, shifted slightly to the right from the thumbnail’s image, felt distinctly like hidden-camera footage.

 

- OMG, I was just about to sleep and got the U-App notification!
- Happy birthday, Cheong!
- Wait, didn’t they just come back from Hong Kong today? Still practicing this late? Hope they’re okay ㅠㅠ
- Looks like they’re throwing him a surprise party!

 

Her eyes lingered briefly on the rapidly updating live chat at the bottom of the screen.

“Birthday?”

So that explained the title, “Prank the Maknae.”
She had planned on only watching briefly, yet before she knew it, she had already switched the broadcast to fullscreen.

To the left side of the frame were the two guys from the thumbnail, still playing around with the doll. Off to the right, seated alone a fair distance away, was a pink-haired boy. Baekya appeared deeply engrossed in unwrapping something that looked like silver foil.

 

- What’s Baekya doing all alone over there?
- There’s our boss! Creator of the legendary “Naing”!
- Is he eating chocolate?
- Hamster, please give us a close-up of you munching chocolate, pleaseee…
- Wait, what happened to my baby’s hand?!