Why would Peninsula want to date a lazy dog ​​like me?

"Stop! Try again!"

Wei Wu slammed down the intercom button, his voice revealing an undisguised rage.

"Kang Hye-won, your breath control is too weak! The chorus of 'Violeta' requires a powerful yet ethereal energy, not some chanting! Didn't you eat dinner last night?!"

Outside the control room, Jiang Huiyuan, who had been reprimanded, trembled all over and could only bow repeatedly in apology: "I'm sorry, PDnim, I'm sorry, I'll try again..."

"You have five minutes to adjust. Go get some water! Everyone else, take a break too!"

Wei Wu irritably ripped off his monitoring headphones and slammed them heavily onto the mixing console.

He rubbed his throbbing temples, picked up the iced Americano on the table—which had completely melted—and gulped down a large mouthful. The bitter taste flowed down his throat, but it couldn't quell the anger in his heart.

This has been going on for five days in a row.

Since taking over the production of IZ*ONE's comeback, Wei Wu has been in hell mode.

He was never a patient person to begin with, and with the sweltering heat in Seoul these past few days, his temper had gotten worse and worse, and the atmosphere in the entire recording studio was so oppressive it could drown you.

The girls were all terrified of him, terrified of him.

During each break, no one dared to approach the control room except for necessary communication. Everyone hid in the corridors or lounges, trembling like a flock of quails.

Except for Zhang Yuanying.

That crazy woman has been acting like a saint these past few days. She's obedient and well-behaved, and even when she's scolded, she just smiles sweetly and apologizes. She even helps the staff clean up.

Wei Wu was initially wary, but after a few days he realized that Zhang Yuanying seemed to genuinely just want to maintain her flawless "national little sister" persona in front of everyone. As long as they weren't alone in private, she wouldn't go crazy.

This relieved Wei Wu, but that was all.

"Knock knock".

There was a sudden, light knock on the door to the control room.

Wei Wu frowned, his tone icy: "I told you, don't bother me during your rest time."

The door was pushed open a crack. A furry head peeked in.

It's Choi Ye-na.

Today she was wearing a loose yellow sweatshirt, and her hair was tied up in a slightly messy bun. Because her lips were naturally slightly pouting, she looked like an innocent yet comical little duck.

"PDnim..." Choi Ye-na blinked her bright eyes, her voice very soft, like a thief, "Um... I saw you were angry just now, and your voice is hoarse. Drinking too much iced Americano is bad for your stomach, have something sweet instead."

As she spoke, she held up the banana milk in her hand.

Wei Wu looked at the box of banana milk, then at Cui Ruina's face, which was full of flattery and caution, and the nameless anger in his heart suddenly disappeared.

"I don't like sweet drinks. Take it away." Wei Wu said sternly, trying to maintain his cold and authoritative demeanor as a producer.

"Oh, PDnim, just try a bite!"

Seeing that Wei Wu didn't kick her out directly, Cui Ruina became bolder. She slipped into the control room like a slippery eel and closed the door behind her.

She not only took the banana milk, but also clutched a bag of colorful gummy candies in her other hand.

"Look, your eyebrows are so furrowed they're practically trapping flies!" Choi Ye-na boldly extended a finger and lightly touched the air about ten centimeters from Wei Wu's brow, then made an exaggerated face. "If you keep frowning like that, you'll go bald before Chief Kim!"

"puff……"

Wei Wu couldn't hold back and immediately lost his composure.

He quickly coughed to cover up his embarrassment, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his lips.

"You've got some nerve, haven't you? Comparing me to that bald guy?" Wei Wu glared at her, but the coldness in his tone had completely vanished.

"Hehe, PDnim smiled! Smiling means he's not angry anymore!"

As if she had won a battle, Cui Yena happily inserted a straw into the banana milk and forcefully stuffed it into Wei Wu's hand. Then she tore open the gummy candy packaging and popped a red strawberry-flavored gummy candy into her mouth.

"Actually, Huiyuan really tried her best. She practiced in the dormitory until 3 a.m. last night, singing while crying, and her eyes were swollen like walnuts." Cui Yena chewed on a gummy candy while pleading for her teammate indistinctly, "She was just too nervous. As soon as she saw your face, which looked like the King of Hell, her throat got stuck."

"Do I look like the King of Hell?" Wei Wu raised an eyebrow.

"No way! No way! You are the savior of IZ*ONE! You are an unparalleled genius!" Choi Yena immediately put her hands together, making a silly face of devout worship, and even added a laugh that sounded like a duck quacking.

Looking at the girl in front of him, who had no idol baggage and was so genuine that she was almost silly, Wei Wu suddenly felt that a corner of the heavy stone that had been pressing on his chest for the past few days had been quietly moved away.

He took a sip of banana milk.

It was very sweet, almost cloyingly sweet, but he thought it tasted much better than the bitter iced Americano.

"Alright, stop flattering me." Wei Wu leaned back in his chair, completely relaxing. "Go tell Jiang Huiyuan not to be nervous. I lowered the key slightly in that part, so she can just use her natural voice to hit it. Don't worry about any ethereal quality. What suits you best is the best."

"Really?! Thank you, PDnim! You're such a kind person!" Choi Ye-na jumped up and down excitedly, grabbed another bag of gummy candies from the table, and dashed out like a gust of wind.

The moment the door closed.

Wei Wu looked at the half-finished box of banana milk in his hand, a faint smile still on his lips.

"This is what a normal idol should be like," he murmured to himself.

There was no morbid possession, no suffocating calculation, no capitalist cages built with tens or hundreds of millions. There was only pure, somewhat clumsy, but incredibly genuine goodwill.

He is a low-income worker in a foreign country who has just experienced the torment of a yandere. He needs money, but he needs even more moments that allow him to temporarily let down his guard and feel the "warmth of a normal person".

The next few days.

The atmosphere in the recording studio underwent a subtle change.

Choi Ye-na became Wei Wu's "unofficial power bank".

Whenever Wei Wu was about to lose his temper or was exhausted, as soon as Cui Ruina appeared, even if she only handed him a gummy candy or made a funny face outside the glass window, Wei Wu's face, which was always ready to breathe fire, would miraculously calm down.

He even started to soften his tone when recording with Choi Ye-na.

"Ruina, make the transitions here smoother, don't make them sound like a duck's quack," Wei Wu would occasionally joke.

"Hey! PDnim! I'm not a duck!" Choi Ye-na pouted angrily in front of the microphone, which triggered a burst of good-natured laughter from the other staff in the control room.

Looking at the "puffed-up duck," Wei Wu felt a long-lost sense of relief.

But in this world, the brighter the sunlight, the deeper the shadows.

At the end of the corridor on the other side of the recording studio, a pair of eyes were watching everything.

Zhang Yuanying stood in a dark corner, holding a bottle of ice water in her hand.

Her fingernails had dug deep into the flesh of her palms.

"On what grounds?"

Zhang Yuanying looked into the control room and saw Wei Wu smiling as he accepted a bag of potato chips from Cui Ruina.

Her breathing became heavy, like an enraged beast struggling to suppress an eruption of lava.

"That stupid duck... what makes him laugh?"

"Why can he eat what she gives him without any suspicion, but avoid me even a glass of water?"

"His emotions can only be controlled by me. His joys and sorrows belong only to me!"

Zhang Yuanying was screaming wildly in her heart.

She wished she could rush into the control room right now, smash that bag of potato chips on the ground, and then kick Cui Yena away from Wei Wu with the most vicious words.

She even thought how wonderful it would be if she could sew up the duck's beak, or gouge out Wei Wu's eyes so he would only look at her.

but.

Reason, like the strongest cage, firmly restrained this mad beast.

"Don't get angry."

Zhang Yuanying took a deep breath and forced herself to loosen her grip on her hand, which was already bleeding.

If she were to have an outburst now, if she were to tear off the facade of the "perfect puppet."

Wei Wu would immediately be on guard, and might even break the contract without hesitation and leave, completely escaping her world.

She couldn't let all her previous efforts go to waste. She had to keep pretending, pretending to be the most harmless, the most obedient, and the least threatening younger sister.

"Only in this way can I stay by his side. Only in this way can I gradually and completely devour him."

A terrifying yet incredibly sweet smile slowly crept onto Zhang Yuanying's lips.

She emerged from the shadows and walked towards Choi Ye-na, who was drinking water and sweating profusely after finishing recording, bathed in the light of the corridor.

"Ye Na unnie, thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Yuanying handed over the ice water, her eyes as clear as a spring, her tone full of sincere concern.

"Ah, Won-young, thank you. I'm so thirsty." Choi Ye-na took the water without noticing and gulped down a big mouthful.

"Unnie, you and PDnim are really close." Jang Wonyoung casually straightened Choi Yena's slightly disheveled collar, smiling like an innocent angel. "He's usually so fierce to us, never even giving us a smile, but he only smiles at you."

This sentence was like a soft thorn coated with deadly poison, silently piercing out.

Choi Ye-na paused for a moment, then chuckled and scratched her head. "Oh, no, it's nothing. PDnim is actually a good person. He's just too tired and under a lot of pressure. I was just trying to cheer him up, and he wasn't so fierce once he relaxed."

"Yeah?"

Zhang Yuanying's gaze lingered on Cui Yena's unguarded face for a second.

"Unnie is such a warm person. No wonder everyone likes you, even PDnim relies on you so much."

Zhang Yuanying turned around and walked towards the lounge with her back to Cui Yena.

In the instant she turned around, the sweet smile on her face became withered and distorted, like a rose whose moisture had been instantly drained.

"rely?"

"Wei Wu, do you think you've found a safe haven where you can breathe?"

"I will let you know that in this world, I am your only true home. Whether it's your talent, your smile, or your pitiful, yearning-for-normal heart..."

"I will crush everything, bit by bit, and then reshape it into a shape that belongs only to me."

Zhang Yuanying walked into the lounge and locked the door behind her.

In a corner where no one could see her, she vigorously rubbed the fingers that had just touched Choi Ye-na's collar onto her clothes, as if they had been stained with something disgusting.