267: Chapter 247 Red Velvet Dormitory: Ripples in the Southern Wind

The Red Velvet dorm living room was filled with the relaxed atmosphere peculiar to the evening, a mix of the fresh scent of shower gel from recent baths and the faint smell of snacks. A lighthearted variety show was playing on TV, but no one was really watching.

"Unnies! Come here, come here! This challenge is super popular right now!" Yeri held up her phone, hopping like an excited little deer in front of Wendy and Kang Seulgi, who were sitting on the sofa. On the screen was the "South Wind TT Dance" video posted by the official TWICE account.

"What is it?" Wendy put down the tangerine in her hand and leaned over curiously. Kang Seulgi also shifted her attention away from the TV, blinking her round eyes as she looked at the screen.

The video began to play.

"Oh my! Is that Nayeon Unnie and... President Jiang?" Wendy recognized Im Nayeon at a glance, then saw Jiang Zhiyu beside her in surprise.

"It really is PD Jiang! He's dancing to 'TT'?" Kang Seulgi also widened her eyes, her face full of novelty.

When Jiang Zhiyu's clear, youthful voice flowed out through the phone's speaker, both of them were stunned for a moment.

"Wow... this Chinese..." As a lead vocalist, Wendy was particularly sensitive to sound, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "The pronunciation is so accurate, and the timbre is so clean—it's completely youthful! Plus, his breath control is steady; to be able to maintain this sound quality while dancing and singing..." Her professional habit kicked in, and she began to analyze it from a technical perspective.

Kang Seulgi's focus was on something else: "He dances... so accurately! The strength and angles of his movements are spot on, and he's perfectly in sync with Nayeon Unnie! Has PD Jiang practiced dancing before?"

"I don't know, but he really dances well!" Yeri nodded vigorously and then started to encourage them, "Unnies! Let's film one too! Let's use this audio from President Jiang! This challenge is super popular right now!"

"Eh? We have to dance too?" Wendy was a bit hesitant, but her eyes showed she was eager to try.

"Seems... pretty fun?" Kang Seulgi was also intrigued; she was naturally the type who loved to have fun and try new things.

Under Yeri's active encouragement (and her guarantee that she would pick a good angle to make them look beautiful), Wendy and Kang Seulgi stood up, half-reluctantly. They quickly selected a relatively open area in the living room as a background, while Yeri took on the role of temporary director and photographer.

"Are you ready? 3, 2, 1, start!"

The phone played the segment of "Baby Face" sung by Jiang Zhiyu, and Wendy and Kang Seulgi followed the music, imitating the "TT" dance moves of Jiang Zhiyu and Im Nayeon from the video. Although not as standard as the original version, both had solid dance foundations, making their dance cute and natural. Wendy even improvised by adding some of her own little expressions.

Yeri stifled a laugh while filming: "Unnies, you're so cute! Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly the feeling!"

The filming process was relaxed and happy, and the sound of laughter filled the living room.

Meanwhile, in the corner of this impromptu challenge, by the bar counter near the open kitchen, Bae Joo-hyun (Irene) was standing quietly. She had just heated a cup of milk, holding the warm mug with both hands, sipping it slowly, her gaze falling calmly on the three younger members laughing and filming not far away.

Her expression was calm, revealing no excess emotion, as if she were merely an uninvolved bystander.

However, when Jiang Zhiyu's clear, clean, youthful voice from the phone, accompanied by the lyrics "It's the south wind lately, a damp love~," echoed in the living room over and over again, Bae Joo-hyun's fingers gripping the mug handle tightened almost imperceptibly.

That voice... was very special.

It wasn't the professionalism and sharpness of that young producer discussing music in her memories from the SM era, nor was it the calmness and certainty of that President of TG lobbying for cooperation when they reunited later.

This was a kind of... voice belonging to Jiang Zhiyu that she had never heard before.

Relaxed, pleasant, carrying a kind of unburdened, bright feeling that seemed to disperse the gloom. He was singing sweet Chinese lyrics, the specific meaning of which she didn't understand, but the melody was catchy.

This voice overlapped and contrasted with another voice in her mind—

[Don't always say thank you; do we still need to say thank you between us?]

In the hallway, that abrupt, familiar remark that crossed all social boundaries, and that look in his eyes at the time—so complex that it made her instantly build an ice wall—surfaced once again without any warning.

Why?

What exactly did that sentence mean?

In that look, beyond the astonishment and the quickly masked aloofness, what exactly was that deeper, fleeting emotion—that mixture of pain and disappointment, as if he were looking through her at someone else?

These questions, like tiny vines, coiled around her thoughts from time to time, leaving her puzzled, yet... unable to forget them completely.

"It's done! Unnies, come and see!" Yeri's cheer interrupted her trance.

Wendy and Kang Seulgi crowded around the phone to watch the playback, laughing as they watched.

"This audio from President Jiang is really useful; it has a strong sense of rhythm, and the singing is nice too, so we don't even have to sing," Wendy said with a laugh.

"Does it feel a bit more interesting than the original 'TT' paired with this music?" Kang Seulgi tilted her head to evaluate.

"Right, right! I told you this challenge would be fun!" Yeri said triumphantly, then, as if remembering something, she added casually, "But I really didn't expect PD Jiang to be like this in private, filming such cute videos with Nayeon Unnie. It seems he still prefers Nayeon Unnie's type—lively, cheerful, and someone who can have fun together!"

Park Sooyoung (Joy), who had been curled up on the other end of the sofa playing on her phone, looked up upon hearing this and joined the conversation, her tone teasing: "Exactly. PD Jiang himself is quite 'crazy' (not in a derogatory way); his ideas are unrestrained, and he doesn't play by the rules. Nayeon Unnie is also famous for being a ball of energy and a 'social butterfly.' No wonder they can have so much fun when they get together. Lively and cute—that really must be his type, right?"

This was said casually, carrying the lighthearted tone of girls gossiping in private.

However, to Bae Joo-hyun's ears, it made the fingers holding the milk cup tighten slightly once again.

Lively and cute... that's his type?

In her mind, images flashed uncontrollably: Jiang Zhiyu's shining eyes when he talked about variety show ideas at the barbecue restaurant, his helpless smile when bickering with Yeri, and even the naturalness and joy when he interacted with Im Nayeon in the video just now...

Yes. That kind of personality should be easier to approach him, easier to make him show that kind of unguarded smile.

Unlike her.

Cold, aloof, accustomed to keeping her distance, not good at and not liking overly expressive emotions. Even in front of the members, her cheerfulness had its limits; most of the time, she was quiet and listening.

An extremely subtle, strange feeling that even she hadn't noticed, like a bubble quietly rising from the bottom of the water, burst gently in a corner of her heart.

She subconsciously frowned slightly.

This movement was very slight and fleeting, not even attracting anyone's attention. Even she herself, the second after frowning, had her attention drawn to the ripples of the milk in the cup, or rather, was forced back to reality by herself.

She exhaled softly, finished the remaining milk in the cup, then turned around, quietly placed the cup back in the kitchen sink, and began to wash it.

The sound of rushing water drowned out the subsequent discussion of the members in the living room about the video and the challenge, and it seemed to wash away the fleeting, subtle ripple on her face that even she couldn't explain.

However, that clear, youthful singing voice, that overstepping remark, that complex look in his eyes, and the younger members' unintentional comment about "his type"... these fragments, like tiny grains of sand stirred up by the water current, settled deep in the lake of her heart, leaving behind some indescribable traces.