pjbooks Chapter 6: Do you like him for swearing without using profanity, or do you like his expression that
Chapter 6: Do you like him for swearing without using profanity, or do you like his expression that
When the twelve girls of IZ*ONE stepped into the recording studio, they were already mentally prepared to face Liu Yu's cold face and sharp tongue again. Kwon Eunbi even held a half-hour psychological preparation meeting for her younger sisters in the nanny van before they arrived, the main idea of which was "no matter what he says, let it go in one ear and out the other, as long as you sing it right."
However, when they entered the control room and saw what was inside, everyone froze in place.
Liu Yu was still wearing his ever-present dark hoodie and black-rimmed glasses, his brows furrowed as he stared intently at the audio track on the screen, his fingers clattering rapidly on the keyboard.
This is normal; this is typical of Liu Yu.
The person sitting on the sofa behind Liu Yu is the one who is acting strangely.
Senior Tian Xiaojuan was sitting there with her legs crossed, holding a glass of iced Americano, looking like a supervisor.
"Annyeonghaseyo! Hello, Xiaojuan senior!"
Kwon Eunbi reacted the fastest, immediately leading her sisters to bow and greet each other in unison.
Tian Xiaojuan put down her iced Americano, looked up, and scanned the twelve beautiful and unique girls.
For some reason, the members of IZ*ONE always felt that in addition to the polite scrutiny, there seemed to be a kind of vigilance in this senior's eyes, similar to... picking out cabbages at the market, or rather, being wary of someone stealing your cabbages.
"Hello, please don't be so formal." Tian Xiaojuan nodded, a polite smile playing on her lips. "I happened to be free today, so I came to check it out. I heard that the recording of your new album is quite rushed, and as a senior colleague, I'd like to come and learn from your advanced work experience."
Learn from advanced work experience?
Kwon Eun-bi silently repeated the sentence in her mind, feeling that something was off.
Before Consort Quan could think it through, Liu Yu, who was sitting in front, spoke up impatiently.
"Tian Xiaojuan, can you stop talking nonsense? Is that what you call learning from experience? You're just here to freeload on the air conditioning and coffee, aren't you?" Liu Yu didn't even turn his head, his voice filled with disgust. "You've been sitting here since noon, drinking three cans of my coffee and eating all my potato chips. Has CUBE gone bankrupt? They won't even give you food?"
The polite smile on Tian Xiaojuan's face vanished instantly. She grabbed a cushion from the sofa and smashed it precisely onto the back of Liu Yu's head.
"Shut the hell up! I stayed up with you until 3 a.m. yesterday, what's wrong with me eating some of your crappy potato chips? You think I won't tear down this lousy recording studio?!"
"Take it down! If you can't take it down today, you're my grandson!" Liu Yu threw the cushion aside without turning his head and continued staring at the screen. "Jin Caiyuan, go in. We're recording the second verse today."
Kim Chae-won was suddenly called out, so he quickly ran into the recording studio and put on his headphones.
The control room fell silent again, with only the accompaniment music echoing in the background.
For the next hour, the girls of IZ*ONE finally witnessed what a live sitcom was like.
Jin Caiyuan was recording inside, while Liu Yu was outside, churning out information like a heartless tyrant.
"Jin Caiyuan, did you borrow your high notes from the heavens? Why do they sound like a kite with a broken string? Try again!"
"Breath! Breath! How many times have I told you, don't breathe like an asthma patient! You're singing, not performing a resuscitation! Again!"
Jin Caiyuan's eyes reddened as she was being scolded behind the glass door, but her stubbornness made her bite her lip and sing again and again. Even though she had cursed Liu Yu's ancestors for eighteen generations in her heart, she still maintained a polite bow on the surface.
However, the members outside the control room who weren't recording had completely lost their attention on Kim Chae-won.
Ahn Yoo-jin and Choi Ye-na discover an astonishing, even terrifying, secret.
As soon as Liu Yu turns around to face the control panel, Tian Xiaojuan's eyes undergo a dramatic change.
The domineering queen who exuded an aura of 2.8 meters and threatened to tear down the recording studio will disappear instantly, replaced by a lovestruck young woman with eyes full of longing, as if they could drip honey.
Tian Xiaojuan would unconsciously rest her chin on her hands, her gaze almost obsessively fixed on Liu Yu's profile and the back of his head. An Youzhen swore she had only ever seen that kind of look in Korean dramas when the female lead looked at the male lead.
"Daiba..." Ahn Yujin nudged Choi Yena frantically with her elbow, whispering, "Unnie, look at the way she's looking at her. Does she want to devour Teacher Yoo Yu?"
Choi Ye-na swallowed hard, nodding repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice: "It's so obvious, even a blind person could see she likes him, right? But... what does she like about him? Does she like that he can swear without using any profanity? Or does she like that look on his face that says he'll always owe her eight million?"
Just as the two were whispering to each other, Liu Yu, who was in front of the control panel, suddenly encountered a technical problem.
"Tsk, why is the low frequency of this track so muddy?" Liu Yu scratched his hair in frustration, then turned his swivel chair around without warning to look at Tian Xiaojuan behind him. "Short-legged Tian, come here and listen to this. Did that idiot assistant tamper with it?"
In the mere 0.01 seconds that Liu Yu turned his head, a miracle occurred.
Ahn Yu-jin and Choi Ye-na swore they had never seen such a rapid change of expression in their lives. It was absolutely a miracle of human facial muscle control!
Just a moment ago, Tian Xiaojuan was all lovey-dovey with eyes full of pink bubbles, but the tenderness on her face seemed to be wiped away the instant Liu Yu's gaze swept over her.
Her eyes widened instantly, her eyebrows furrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned down. In a single second, she seamlessly switched from a shy young girl to a raging lioness.
"Who are you calling short-legged?! Liu Yu, are you really tired of living?!" Tian Xiaojuan suddenly stood up from the sofa, strode to the control panel, shoved Liu Yu's shoulder aside, and aggressively put on the spare listening earpiece. "Get out of my way! Let me hear what kind of mess you've made this time, you deaf idiot!"
Liu Yu stumbled from the shove, rolling his eyes dramatically: "I told you to listen, not to take my place. Only I can tolerate your temper; anyone else would have thrown you out long ago."
"If you say another word, I'll pour this cup of coffee into your computer!" Tian Xiaojuan threatened fiercely, but if you looked closely, you could see that her ears, which were covered by her baseball cap, were actually red and almost bleeding.
Ahn Yoo-jin and Choi Ye-na watched in stunned silence, exchanging a glance and giving each other a mental thumbs-up.
The Oscars owe Tian Xiaojuan a golden statuette!
As the oldest and most experienced leader of IZ*ONE, Kwon Eunbi's experience is clearly far richer than that of the younger members like Ahn Yujin. She sensed something was off the moment Jeon So-yeon walked in. Now, everything makes sense.
Learning advanced work experience, or coming to freeload coffee—it's all nonsense.
This (G)I-DLE leader is basically here to "assert sovereignty".
Tian Xiaojuan clearly knew Liu Yu all too well, and she also knew the rules of this circle all too well. She knew how much Liu Yu could attract twelve pretty girls, so she came early like a little fox guarding its food, and used the most domineering way to show everyone the childhood sweetheart tacit understanding between her and Liu Yu that "no one else can get in."
"It must have been really tough, Senior Xiaojuan," Quan Enbi thought to herself, while also finding it somewhat amusing.
Because she realized that Tian Xiaojuan's painstaking efforts were completely misguided.
Liu Yu was not only an "iron wall man," he was practically a black hole.
Just now, Tian Xiaojuan was so close, the two of them were almost shoulder to shoulder listening to the audio track. Although Tian Xiaojuan was cursing fiercely, her body unconsciously leaned towards Liu Yu, and even Quan Enfei could see that subconscious dependence.
And what about Liu Yu?
He not only had no romantic thoughts whatsoever, but also pushed Tian Xiaojuan aside with disdain.
"Damn it, don't get so close to me, your perfume is giving me a headache. Did you pour the whole bottle of perfume on yourself? It smells awful." Liu Yu said, fanning his nose with his hand.
Tian Xiaojuan froze instantly.
"Liu! Yu!" Tian Xiaojuan's eyes practically spit fire. She ripped off her headphones and slammed them heavily on the table. "What do you know about perfume! You're only fit to smell burnt electronic components! I'm done!"
After saying that, Tian Xiaojuan turned around angrily, walked back to the sofa, plopped down, crossed her arms, and turned her face to the side, clearly very angry.
Liu Yu shrugged nonchalantly: "If you don't want to serve me, then don't. I wasn't expecting your wooden ears to pick up anything anyway. Jin Caiyuan, continue!"
Ahn Yu-jin and Choi Ye-na, watching from behind, were practically bursting with suppressed laughter.
Just as everyone was finding Liu Yu's slowness unbelievable, Zhang Yuanying, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, suddenly stood up.
Today she was wearing a pink cropped top and high-waisted jeans, and her long, straight legs stood out in the cramped control room.
She went to the water dispenser next to her, filled a glass with warm water, and then walked lightly to the control panel.
"Professor Liu Yu, you must be tired from your work. Please have some water."
Zhang Yuanying's voice is soft and sweet, with her signature coquettish ending tone.
She bent down slightly and handed the water glass to Liu Yu. The angle was perfect for Liu Yu to see her flawless face and the alluring beauty mark at the corner of her eye.
The air in the control room suddenly became quiet for a moment.
Sitting on the sofa, Tian Xiaojuan suddenly turned her head and stared intently at Zhang Yuanying as if she were her prey. A woman's intuition told her that this girl, who looked like a delicate porcelain doll, was definitely not as simple as she appeared.
Zhang Yuanying seemed completely oblivious to the murderous gaze emanating from behind her. She maintained her sweet smile, her shimmering eyes fixed on Liu Yu.
"The teacher's voice is a little hoarse, it breaks my heart to hear that," Zhang Yuanying said softly.
Tian Xiaojuan's fingers had dug deep into the leather cushions of the sofa.
What a scheming little girl! How dare she do such a thing right in front of me!
Just as Tian Xiaojuan was about to explode, Liu Yu's reaction once again made everyone's jaws drop to the ground.
He didn't even look up at Zhang Yuanying, but simply took the water glass and pointed to an empty table next to him.
"Put it there. Don't wave it around in your hand. If you spill it on my mixing console, I couldn't afford to pay for it even if I sold myself." Liu Yu's tone was icy and flat. "Also, stop with that cloying way of speaking. This is a recording studio, not your fan meeting. If your voice isn't hurting, speak properly. Go sit over there and don't block my view."
Zhang Yuanying's sweet smile visibly froze for a second.
Her fingers curled slightly at her sides, her nails almost digging into her palms. But the moment she turned around, she maintained that obedient and harmless demeanor.
"Yes, I understand. I'm sorry, teacher."
Sitting on the other side of the sofa, Tian Xiaojuan almost burst out laughing when she saw Zhang Yuanying's discomfiture.
Liu Yu, this blockhead who doesn't understand romance, can be quite endearing at times. At least, when it comes to dealing with flowers and plants, he's practically a heavily armored tank with built-in physical defense.
"Ahem." Tian Xiaojuan cleared her throat to hide the smile on her lips and picked up her Americano again.
Kwon Eun-bi took in all of this and shook her head helplessly.
The man at the center of the storm was yelling into the microphone, "Kim Chae-won! Who taught you that vibrato you just now? Did you learn it from that village husky?! Sing it again!"
"Teacher Liu Yu," Jin Caiyuan retorted in the recording studio with her sweetest smile and most polite language, "if your ears weren't full of earwax, you should be able to tell that this is a rendition of the demo you gave me yesterday. Was your demo recorded by a husky yesterday?"
"Pfft—" Ahn Yu-jin and Choi Ye-na finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Tian Xiaojuan also clutched her stomach and laughed so hard she fell onto the sofa.