Peninsula: My cheat code is unscientific

Chapter 150 The Embarrassment of Being Short (6K 2126)

She paused, then reassured him:

"There's no rush to eat, let's do it another day. You can call me next time, okay?"

Chou Tzuyu thought about it and realized it was true. It wouldn't be appropriate for her to leave today's group activity, and it seemed even more inappropriate to let the two unnies have dinner with the members. So she obediently nodded:
"Okay, I understand, unnie. I'll make an appointment with you again next time."

"Okay, I'll definitely do it next time," Yoona promised with a smile.

This time, they finally said goodbye smoothly. Sunny and Yoona waved to the TWICE members again and left the dressing room amidst shouts of "Goodbye, seniors!"

After the door to the lounge closed gently, Zhou Ziyu stared at the closed door, slightly lost in thought.

"Tzuyu! What are you daydreaming about?" Nayeon's voice rang in her ears, and at the same time, she gently patted Tzuyu's back, pulling her back from her wandering thoughts.

"Ah! Unnie, no, no!" Tzuyu waved her hands hastily like a startled rabbit.
"Hey! Tzuyu! Tell me honestly, how do you know Yoona and Sunny so well?!"

Sana couldn't resist her curiosity and came over, and the other members quickly surrounded Tzuyu.

"Wow! Tzuyu is so bold today! She actually asked Sunny for her contact information!"

"Yeah, yeah! How about we make Tzuyu our spokesperson from now on?"

"Tzuyu, tell us quickly!"

The barrage of questions and teasing overwhelmed Chou Tzu-yu, turning her ears bright red. She felt like she was surrounded by a flock of excited sparrows.
She tried to organize her thoughts and briefly described her two encounters with Taeyeon backstage at the Macau airport and during her first stage performance.

"In short... I was very lucky to have met such a wonderful mentor," she concluded with a shy smile.

"Aigoo... I should have been braver and gone up to talk to her! I also got birthday wishes from Yoona and the others," Dahyun said, putting her arm around her shoulder, her tone a mix of envy and happiness for her.

Chou Tzu-yu looked at her excited teammates and smiled brightly.

Outside the door, the atmosphere was far less harmonious than inside the lounge.

As soon as the door closed, Sunny's smile vanished instantly. She raised her hand and slapped Yoona on the back, making a soft "smack" sound.

"Ah! Im Yoona!" She lowered her voice, her tone filled with murderous intent.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner that the little sister I met for the third time was Chou Tzu-yu?!"

Knowing she was in the wrong, Yoona quickly forced a fawning smile:

"Unnie... I was just... afraid that if I told you beforehand, you wouldn't come with me, right?"

"What?! Just because of this?" Sunny was even more furious upon hearing this, and made as if to raise her hand again.

Yoona quickly shrank her neck and swiftly tossed the pot away:
"Besides! And I'm not the one who said that! If you're going to look for someone, you should look for the real culprit!"

Sunny paused, her raised hand seeming to realize the logic, and her tone softened slightly. Yoona, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had escaped unscathed...
Sunny's arm still came down, but this time it landed precisely on her buttocks, with no less force.

"Snapped!"

"You're no better than me!" Sunny glared at her and said irritably.
"Knowing it was a trap, you still watched me jump right into it! Yoona, I've seen through you!"

Yoona rubbed her bottom, pouted, and decisively admitted defeat, making a pitiful expression:
“Mianne, Oni… I was wrong.”

Seeing her like this, Sunny's anger subsided considerably. Ultimately, the whole thing was indeed Jiang Che's fault, that guy who always talked big. She said irritably:

"Forget it, I'll settle the score with that guy later! Let's go back."

Meanwhile, in another corner of the city.

Jessica Jung nestled lazily on the soft sofa in her apartment. After a long day of work, she rubbed her slightly throbbing temples, habitually picked up her phone, and opened her fan club.

Browsing the loving comments and compliments from her fans is one of her few ways to relax. Seeing all sorts of creative and flattering remarks from her fans makes her feel happy all day long.
However, today, when she opened the club page as usual, she noticed with a keen eye that a guy with an unusually peculiar art style seemed to have infiltrated the comments section.

While most other fans were commenting "Unnie is so beautiful," "Her clothes are so pretty," and "The brand is amazing," a user with the ID "[Guardian of Yeon's Light]"...

The lavish praise, the cunning angle, and the exaggerated language were so impressive that even President Zheng, who was used to seeing all sorts of things, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and marvel.

"Where did this weirdo... oh no, this genius come from?" she muttered to herself, tapping on the profile of this "Guardian of Yan's Light" to see where this person had come from.
The result was that the entire page was filled with posts about her, filled with all sorts of flowery and exaggerated praises.
Phrases like "Your beauty is the ticket to high capitalism" and "Your wisdom is the North Star illuminating the K-POP fashion desert"...

Aside from these posts praising her in various ways, her homepage is completely clean, with no personal information at all, and all of these posts were published today.

"A solo fan? Or a sophisticated troll?" Jessica Jung raised an eyebrow, momentarily unsure. This extreme praise made her wary.

Just then, a phone call came in.

Seeing the name flashing on the screen, the playfulness and ease that had just appeared in her eyes vanished instantly. She took a deep breath, as if switching to a different state.
Then he answered the phone, his tone calm and formulaic, revealing no emotion whatsoever.
"Hey?"

What Jessica Jung didn't know was that the eccentric, dubious solo fan she thought she knew wasn't even a real fan, let alone a solo fan.

Jiang Che had only infiltrated Jessica Jung's fan club today to keep track of the "President Jung's" recent activities and public schedule, gathering information for the upcoming "Yoona substitute contact plan." However, after browsing through the pages, he found that the fans' praise was limited to just a few phrases.

He curled his lip, inwardly complaining:

"This praise is so unsophisticated, even Baekhyun's fans are better at creating something interesting."

Since he had nothing better to do and just wanted to kill some time, he casually typed out a few posts and sent them out.

He watched as his fans showered him with praise, nodded in satisfaction, and prepared to continue his efforts by editing an even more cheesy post...

"Click——"

The apartment door was unlocked with a key, and then suddenly pulled open with brute force.

Jiang Che was startled and looked up to see Sunny standing menacingly in the doorway.

Behind her, Yoona peeked out halfway, a look of anticipation on her face, and secretly mouthed "take care" to him before quickly retreating, perfectly embodying the role of a bystander.

An ominous premonition instantly enveloped Jiang Che. His mind raced—he didn't seem to have done anything particularly heinous today, did he? But he forced a bright, sunny smile onto his face.

"Suuny's back? Aren't the TWICE members super cute??"

Sunny didn't reply, but as she approached step by step, a very kind smile appeared on her face, her teeth dazzlingly white:
"Yeah, she's quite cute. And... I also met a really interesting person, guess who it is?"

"Who?"

“It’s that one…” Sunny walked to the sofa and said, enunciating each word clearly:
"We need a fateful third meeting to exchange contact information—Little Chou Tzu-yu! Didn't you say that, cousin?"

"!!!"

Jiang Che instantly understood—it turns out that Yoona, that troublemaker, didn't tell Sunny beforehand at all!

He immediately tried to distance himself from the situation, quickly offering his explanation:
"No... Sunny, be reasonable! This has nothing to do with me! Didn't I mention this in the group chat last time? You didn't bother me then, but it's been so long, it's long expired and invalid, don't you understand?"

The more he spoke, the more justified he seemed. "Yeah, why should we settle old scores now?"

Sunny was taken aback by his sophistry, but immediately slapped Jiang Che's arm:

"Hey! Why didn't you tell me sooner that she was Chou Tzu-yu?!"

"How was I supposed to know Yoona didn't tell you!" Jiang Che immediately pointed to Lim Yoona, who was secretly laughing behind Sunny:

"She's the culprit! She tricked you into going! I thought she had explained it to you clearly!"

Seeing that the battle was about to engulf her, Yoona immediately dropped her spectator expression and said righteously:

"Jiang Che-xi, please don't slander good people. I just invited Sunny unnie to go and support her out of care for my hardworking juniors. What's wrong with that?"

She paused, her gaze sweeping over Sunny before returning to Jiang Che, and said with heartache, ":
"As for the idea of ​​a third meeting by fate, that wasn't taught to me, Unnie, you need to understand that, right?"

When Yoona saw that Sunny was still looking at her, she immediately gave her a sweet smile again:

"Unnie, you already hit me at the TV station. Besides, you've already hit him, so you can't hit me again!"

Jiang Che, listening from the side, looked completely bewildered and almost spat out a mouthful of blood:
"No way! Im Yoona! Why?! What kind of robbery logic is this?!"

"Pfft—" Sunny, who was still angry, was amused by Yoona's unreasonable words.

But the laughter lasted only a second. She immediately rallied, abandoning her pursuit of Jiang Che, and set her sights on Lin Yoona:
"Yoona, what do you mean you can't hit you if you hit him? Who made that rule?! Today I'm going to show you what it means to treat everyone equally!"

"Unnie! I was wrong!" Yoona saw that things were not going well and turned to run away.

But Sunny was faster, grabbing a cushion from the sofa and chasing after Yoona.

"Hey! Lee Soon-kyu! Are you even being reasonable?! There's a reason for every wrong, and a debtor for every crime!"

"Wow! You're serious!"

"Nonsense! Take this!"

In an instant, chaos erupted in the living room, filled with Yoona's screams and Sunny's "angry rebukes," interspersed with Jiang Che's futile attempts to mediate.

"Hit her left side! Yes! Sunny, hit harder!"

"Jiang Che, shut up! Ah! Unnie, I was so wrong!" They fought for a while longer, until both were panting and exhausted, before finally calling a halt. Sunny threw down a cushion and collapsed onto the sofa without any regard for her image. Yoona, her hair slightly disheveled, leaned against the other side of the sofa, panting heavily.

Jiang Che glanced at the two who had temporarily ceased their activities, his eyes darting around, and suggested:
"Um... how about we continue our gathering today? How about we invite Taeyeon and Sulli too? It'll be more lively with more people."

Sunny waved lazily:
"Sure, I'm just killing time anyway."

Yoona nodded in agreement. She was actually a little curious about Sulli's current state, since Sulli already knew some of the secrets.

“OK, I’ll message them and ask.” Jiang Che immediately took out his phone and sent a message to the two of them.

A moment later, the phone started beeping with notification sounds.

Taeyeon: Sure, I just finished my schedule, I can bring some fruit with me.

[Sulli: Yes! Oppa! I'm coming right away! I'll bring dessert!]

Seeing that both of them readily agreed, Sunny stood up and said:

"I'm going to wash my face."

Yoona also stood up:
"I'll tidy up the living room."

Jiang Che then turned and walked into the kitchen.

About an hour later, the doorbell rang. Yoona, who was closest to the door, went to open it and saw Kim Tae-yeon standing outside with a bag of fresh fruit and a faint smile on her face.

"Unnie." Yoona stepped aside to let her in, greeting her naturally.

"Mm." Taeyeon nodded and walked into the living room. Her eyes subconsciously scanned the room first, but she didn't see Kang Cheol. Instead, she saw Sunny sprawled on the sofa.

Sunny's eyes lit up the moment she saw Taeyeon, and she immediately switched into her dramatic persona, rushing over to hug Taeyeon's arm, burying her face in her shoulder, and accusing her in a tearful voice:

"Taeyeon unnie! You're finally here! Yoona bullied me!"

Taeyeon was taken aback by this sudden "accusation," but seeing Sunny's exaggerated acting and Yoona's speechless expression beside her,

She immediately understood what was going on, and very cooperatively straightened her face, looking seriously at Yoona:
"Yoona, how could you bully your unnie?"

After saying that, she patted Sunny's back reassuringly, but she couldn't maintain her seriousness for even a second before she herself couldn't help but let her lips curl into a smile.
But they quickly suppressed it and continued to cooperate with the performance in a serious manner:

“Sunny, tell me how she bullied you? I'll stand up for you.”

Sunny continued in her tearful voice:

"She tricked me into meeting that little sister I was supposed to meet for the third time! I was forced to give her my precious contact information! Waaaaah..."

As she spoke, she exaggeratedly hugged Taeyeon, her shoulders shaking as if she had lost some priceless treasure.

Taeyeon tried her best to maintain a serious expression and nodded:

"Is that so? Yoona, you've disappointed me so much." She paused, then began to list all the bad things Yoona had done to her.

Yoona, listening from the side, was utterly exasperated. Watching the two unnies working together so well, she internally screamed:
'If it weren't for the fact that two fists can't fight four hands, she would have definitely taken on two opponents today!'

She sighed and rubbed her forehead in exasperation.

"Unnies...can you be reasonable for once..." Her explanation gradually faded under the kind gazes of Sunny and Taeyeon.

Just then, the doorbell rang again.
"I'll go open the door!" Yoona immediately rushed to the door.

The door opened, and there stood Choi Sulli. She carried a delicate paper box and wore a bright smile.
"Unnie!"

She called out sweetly and followed Yoona into the living room.

As soon as she entered, her gaze swept across everyone. She already knew that Yoona unnie and Kang Cheol oppa definitely knew the secret of the "soul swap."

So... what about Sunny unnie and Taeyeon unnie? They seem fine... Should we try to find out? Or should we just ask Kang Cheol oppa?

Before Sulli could even process what was happening, Sunny, as if she had discovered a new toy, immediately abandoned Taeyeon, whom she had just been holding, and pounced on Sulli instead.

"Oh! Our Sulli is here!" Sunny affectionately put her arm around Sulli's shoulder, her change of expression so quick it was astonishing.

Taeyeon, who was ruthlessly abandoned on the spot, watched Sunny's face change instantly and silently clenched her little fists, wanting nothing more than to give Lee Soon-kyu, whose face changes faster than flipping through a book, a good beating.

Shirley was a little taken aback by Sunny's enthusiasm, but she still greeted her politely:

“Sunny unnie, Taeyeon unnie.”

She placed the dessert on the table, but her gaze involuntarily drifted towards the kitchen. She then made an excuse:

"Unnies, I'm going to the kitchen to say hello to Oppa!" After saying that, she slipped into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Jiang Che was putting the finishing touches on when he saw Shirley come in and smiled.
"You're here? Dinner will be ready soon."

Shirley leaned closer and asked in a low voice:

"Oppa, um...Sunny unnie and Taeyeon unnie...do they also know that secret?...about that soul?"

Jiang Che didn't stop what he was doing, gave a mumbled "hmm," and whispered:
"Everyone knows that."

Upon hearing this, Shirley immediately had a look of sudden realization. No wonder she felt that the atmosphere between them was always so harmonious; it turned out that they shared the same secret!
But then, her curiosity exploded like fireworks, and she pressed on, asking:

"Oppa, so... what did it feel like when your souls swapped? Did you feel dizzy? Were there any special signs?"

For example, on a rainy day? No, it didn't rain in Beijing before. Was it because we saw a shooting star together? Or is there some kind of special ritual? Do we need to chant a spell?

"Pfft..." Jiang Che couldn't help but almost burst out laughing. He quickly composed himself, turned his head to meet Shirley's extremely serious gaze, and cleared his throat:
"The specific feeling... I can't quite explain it. Sometimes it's just a blink of an eye, and the world changes. As for the signs..."

He paused, then shook his head with a deliberately profound expression:

"There doesn't seem to be any fixed pattern. If I had to say, it probably depends on... fate?"

"It depends on fate... Wow, how amazing!" Sulli had no doubts at all and walked out of the kitchen with the truth in her heart. When she came out, Sunny was occupying the most comfortable position on the sofa, Taeyeon was sitting next to her, and Yoona was sitting alone on another sofa.

Her gaze swept over the other girls, and she finally sat obediently next to Taeyeon. Looking at Taeyeon's profile, she couldn't help but mutter to herself again:
"How did Taeyeon unnie find out about this? Did she also rely on her keen insight and rigorous reasoning, just like me?"
Thinking of this, Sulli couldn't suppress her curiosity and gently nudged Taeyeon's arm, asking:
"Taeyeon unnie, how did you find out about Kang Cheol oppa and Yoona unnie... that situation?"

"Huh?" Taeyeon was taken aback for a moment, then realized that Sulli was asking about "soul swapping".

The shocking thought that she had once had of Jiang Cheol being Yoona's "alternate personality" flashed through her mind, and her face flushed—how could she possibly reveal such a dark history!
So she quickly composed herself, trying to appear inscrutable, and spoke with a tone that carried a certain nonchalance:

"About this matter... I only asked one question at the time, and it was confirmed immediately."

She paused, then emphasized:

"After all, Yoona and I have been teammates for ten years. I can immediately detect if there's even the slightest thing that's wrong with her! I really did notice it right away!"

That wasn't entirely untrue; she had indeed noticed something was off about "Yoona" a long time ago, but her conclusion was off track.

Upon hearing this, Shirley's eyes lit up instantly, her face filled with admiration:

"Wow! Taeyeon unnie is amazing! She noticed it right away! Ten years of friendship really makes a difference!"

"Ahem..." Taeyeon felt a little guilty under that pure and ardent gaze of adoration. Her ears turned slightly red, and she tactically cleared her throat, quickly grabbing a piece of dessert that Sulli had brought and stuffing it into her mouth, mumbling:

"Mmm...this...is delicious." He tried to use food to cover up his awkwardness.

Yoona and Sunny, who were standing nearby, overheard the entire conversation. They exchanged a glance, and the corners of their mouths couldn't help but turn up. Yoona quickly lowered her head, pretending to straighten her clothes, but her shoulders shrugged slightly.

Sunny rolled her eyes, internally ranting:

'Oh my god, Kim Tae-yeon's lie is so convincing... she doesn't even blush! And she found out on just one question? She clearly opened up a second track; if Sulli knew, her faith would probably crumble!!'

Just then, Shirley suddenly looked at Sunny and asked curiously:
"Sunny unnie, how did you find out about Kang Cheol oppa and Yoona unnie before?"

Upon hearing this, Sunny's face instantly darkened—was she supposed to honestly admit that she hadn't noticed at all, and even thought they were going to be cheerleading captains together? So she just laughed it off:

"Yoona and I have been teammates for ten years, so of course I can spot those little changes in her at a glance."

Shirley then looked at Sunny with adoration. She had previously thought of herself as "Kudo Shirley," and thought she was amazing, but after hearing what these two older sisters said, she suddenly realized that she was still too incompetent.

This time, Taeyeon lowered her head and pretended to straighten her clothes, her shoulders trembling slightly, while Yoona couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Yoona, is there anything funny that you want to share with everyone?" The two short-statured unnies immediately cast "kind" glances at her.

Yoona quickly suppressed her laughter and waved her hands repeatedly:

"Ani, Ani"

At this moment, Jiang Che came out of the kitchen carrying dishes:
"It's time for dinner, everyone!"

Everyone sat down around the dining table, and the atmosphere quickly became lively again. Jiang Che's cooking skills once again received unanimous praise.
Even Sunny temporarily put aside her lingering resentment about their "fateful third meeting" and focused on the food in front of her. Shirley, having learned the truth, felt a sense of kinship with everyone and became more talkative.

(End of this chapter)