From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

Uno turned back around and looked at June with narrowed eyes.

"What are you trying to say?" he asked.

June shrugged, leaning against the railings of the stairs. He nonchalantly played with his shoelaces as he continued speaking.

"You look pressured," June said, observing Uno's face. "You must not feel satisfied with your win, don't you?"

Uno fully turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You're acting like a mind-reader," he said.

"It's not that hard to read your mind right now," June said, able to see Uno's real feelings. "It's written all over your face."

Uno couldn't hold back his surprise. His fingers shook in slight nervousness, so he cracked his knuckles. Uno thought he was a very hard person to read.

June was the only person who saw right through his facade and guessed what he was truly feeling.

"Are you saying I'm easy to understand?" Uno asked.

"No," June said. "People aren't books. You can't just look at them and understand everything they're going through. However, in given situations, I can guess what other people might feel based on all our previous encounters."

"Let me take a wild guess," June said, enjoying how Uno appeared to pay more attention to his words.

"You're disappointed because even though you achieved three music show wins, you don't feel a complete sense of victory?" June guessed.

Uno took a sharp breath, so June continued.

"You've worked for this dream for so long, and you gave up almost everything to get to where you are. However, now that you're here, it's not as you imagined," June smiled, a bit reminiscent.

"Happiness becomes a fleeting concept. You ask yourself—what's the point of reveling in happiness if it's just going to disappear? It's like that Uno card game," June chuckled at his wise wordplay while Uno scoffed.

"You draw, play your hand, and someone wins. The game ends, then another one starts. The happiness fluctuates, so you start thinking that maybe there's no use in being happy at all. In the end, you start questioning if you ever wanted to play the game in the first place," he softly said.

Uno's expression gradually softened, feeling the sincerity in June's words.

"I bet you're experiencing the paradox of happiness. You're so afraid of being happy since you're going to lose it anyway. So, in the end, you put pressure on yourself to constantly achieve something…to continuously do something without rest…so that you'd be able to maintain that happiness."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," Uno said.

June softly smiled. "Maybe because I am," he said, remembering his dark days as a member of the White Tiger gang.

"Yeah, right," Uno scoffed, sitting next to him but still keeping a distance. "You don't look like you'd understand what I'm going through."

"And why is that?" June asked.

He couldn't believe he was playing therapist with a person he wasn't even close with, but Uno vaguely reminded him of his past self—Jun Hao.

"You're so…carefree and nonchalant. You look like you don't care, even if you don't win. Even if you made that mistake in the festival, you didn't even bat an eye."

"That technical mistake benefitted us, though," June smiled.

"I know," Uno said. "But how the hell do you keep being so positive all the time?"

Now, it was June's turn to be surprised.

"Positive? In no way in this lifetime would I be considered a positive person," June chuckled.

"Look," Uno sighed. "These three wins were something I already expected our group to earn."

"Cocky," June gave a side-comment.

"But, why do I feel like you guys won anyway?" Uno asked, finally baring his true feelings.

June raised his eyebrows.

"How come? Our group is hoping to have at least one win," June said. "You took them all, fucker. Your group didn't even give us a chance."

Uno chuckled and shook his head. "Your song is higher on the charts, fucker."

"Yeah, because our song is better than yours," June smirked. "And I'm a better vocalist than all of you combined."

"Now, you're the cocky one," Uno smirked. "You're brave for a person whose group didn't even get a single win for their comeback."

"Whatever," June shrugged. "We're going to take back that win in the future."

"Idiot," Uno said. "This is our last music show. I heard from my manager that this is your last show too. There's no way you're still going to win next week."

"I'm not talking about next week," June said. "Next time, we'll sweep all of the music show wins and leave you speechless."

"Are you saying you're going to have a comeback the same time around us again? Shouldn't you be scared to face us now?" Uno confidently asked.

"I might just ask our management team to do so," June countered. "How else am I going to shove our victories down your face?"

Uno shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Are you feeling better now?" June asked, subtly changing the subject.

Uno cleared his throat and straightened his back. "I've been fine since a while ago."

"Sure," June sarcastically said.

Uno smiled, a bit wider this time. However, his actions quickly caught up to him.

Why was he speaking so casually with his enemy again?

Uno stood up from the stairs and took a step back.

"This conversation doesn't mean we're friends, alright?" Uno said, quickly setting the boundaries of their relationship.

June scoffed. "Who said I wanted to be friends with an arrogant little kid like you?"

Uno frowned. "We're the same age."

"Don't worry," June said, also standing and walking to where Uno was.

June placed his hand over Uno's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

"I don't have any intentions of being friends with you."

"Good," Uno said.

"Good," June smiled.

"I don't want to be friends with someone who's not on my level anyway," June added, throwing back the insulting words Uno had told him when the two of them first officially met.

Uno looked at him with wide eyes.

"You—"

"See you next time!" June smirked, walking away while waving goodbye.

"We'll definitely beat you when we meet again."