Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 157:

Everyone’s eyes widened at the unexpected result. How did they do it? Everyone was shocked as the score table appeared on the large panel.

[Vocal Winner Group]

[Rap Winner Group]

[Dance Winner Group]

There was only one group that won in all fields: Climax.

Floss, the strong contender for the win, lost in the dance category. AtoX, the next favorite, lost in the rap category. Vesper also lost in the vocal category, so they were eliminated. Playground and P2CK only managed to get one win each.

Everyone looked incredulous at Climax’s unforeseen performance.

“Wow…!”

Seon-woo, the first to snap out of it, smiled brightly and hugged me and Kyunghwa, who were close by.

Of course, we were happy, but we never expected to get such a good result, so we all looked nervous.

“We all worked hard for this!”

Yi-jun, who had prepared for the mission more calmly than anyone else among the five, grinned. You didn’t really suffer physically, but you didn’t suffer mentally at all, did you? I felt a bit annoyed, but anyway, I was glad the result was good.

“I’m glad it worked out.”

Seong-won sighed deeply, then watched the four of us hugging each other awkwardly from two steps away.

“Come here, too.”

The camera was filming everything, and if he was alone, there would be rumors of discord or something. I gestured hastily, and Seong-won reluctantly came over and hugged me.

“Okay, the celebration is over, let’s get away from each other!”

Let’s stop now, it’s embarrassing. I shouted awkwardly, and then the whole set burst into laughter.

It could be seen as just luck, but it was the result of hard work that couldn’t be done with luck alone. The priority was to toast rather than worry about the next mission.

“I still can’t believe it.”

I had to get some sleep right away, as I had a shooting scheduled for tomorrow for the third mission reveal, but my heart kept pounding.

“I need to sleep soon…”

Seon-woo seemed to have trouble sleeping, too, as I heard him rustling in the dark.

An unfamiliar room, a strange ceiling, and a faint smell of a new house.

There were too many reasons why I couldn’t sleep.

“I have to sleep anyway.”

All that was left was to wait for the perfectly planned show to air.

A week later. Around the time I started preparing for the third mission, the second mission aired.

There was a gap of a month at most, and two weeks at least, between shooting and airing, so I had no way to express how much I had waited for this day.

Unlike the second mission, which was twisted and complicated in many ways, and the preparation and shooting were troublesome, the third mission was relatively simple.

An external collaboration mission. The basic framework was to prepare a stage by hiring another artist (regardless of type) outside of the group.

From dancers to singers, other idols, actors, musical actors, etc., anyone who was active as a professional artist was OK. Some possible ways to continue the conversation are:

Is it really impossible to rule out that possibility? As I hesitated for various reasons, Seon-woo spoke up first.

“Hey, you know… you’re not going to say something like a curse word, right?”

Seon-woo asked nervously, and Kyunghwa patted his back as if to reassure him.

“Don’t worry too much. Nothing that bad will come out of your mouth.”

As Kyunghwa calmly predicted, the commercial ended and the intro video started.

“Oh, it’s starting.”

Before we knew it, Yi-jun had brought some popcorn and made a crunchy, delicious sound, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

“Where do you get that stuff every day?”

Kyunghwa glared at Yi-jun with a hint of contempt, but Yi-jun calmly scooped some popcorn into a bowl and offered it to Kyunghwa.

“Do you want some, hyung?”

“No…”

Kyunghwa might have wanted to refuse, but I didn’t.

I didn’t care much, but the sweet caramel smell was irresistible. Sometimes people have to eat junk food to live, right?

“Then I’ll have some.”

As I quickly took the bowl, Seon-woo looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“……”

I ended up picking the one with the least syrup and popped it into Seon-woo’s mouth.

“That’s it for you.”

As we bickered with each other, the intro was over and the scene where they announced the second mission in the last episode was replayed.

[We will now reveal the second mission in advance for the preparation of the second round-!]

Along with the MC’s loud announcement, the edited screen continued. The participants were flustered by the unexpected unit shuffle mission.

And in the midst of that, they each showed their confidence in their own positions in the interviews.

Among the bland comments, there were a few that stood out.

[To be honest, I don’t even know if I did that well….]

The bastard Vesper who openly picked a fight with us in the interview.

[Everyone is so talented… I wonder if there’s any chance for me, a rookie….]

It was the interview of the carry member of group B, who came from Playground.

The chat messages that came up in real time were very impressive.

[- What are you talking about lol]

[- X failed and WePlanet’s team carried them, but they talk like dogs]

[- lol?]

[- They have no right to talk when they recycled their year-end stage in the first round]

[- /Remove bullshit mode]

[- If they keep whining about being rookies, they should just quit]

[- Shut up, you losers~]

[- They’re already complaining about not getting parts]

[- /Remove bullshit mode]

[- If I were them, I wouldn’t give them any parts either lol]

First of all…. the chat was very harsh. They were people who were not fans of anyone, but also fans of someone. They quickly typed what they thought and forgot about it.

They all spat out their words without filtering them.

“`[^1^][1][^2^][2][^3^][3][^4^][4][^5^][5]

Some say I can even bring a performance artist, but… Just like the first mission, the popularity vote was included in the evaluation again, so I thought it wouldn’t be good to try something too difficult.

‘I think it would be better to show them something that people would like, considering the comments AtoX received.’

There was no need to prepare a stage that was too innovative and different from the norm. The other members also agreed, and the opinion was to make a stage that was easy to accept, but had a high level of completion.

The separate corporation establishment was also finished. To coincide with the second mission broadcast, we also distributed a promotional article like [Climax, established a separate label and made a new nest… The representative is the leader Cheon Ise].

These days, the entertainment articles’ comments are all blocked, so I couldn’t check the reaction directly…

But the fans’ reactions on SNS were all positive.

[- Is the label separation not moving to a different company???]

[ㄴ Yes, yesㅜ It seems like they separated it as an independent corporation that only manages Climax, so they won’t be overworked like nowㅜㅜㅜ]

[ㄴ Oh, I went to the home page and there are really no other artists besides Climax?]

[ㄴ Yes, it’s unfortunate, but we have to be thankful for thisㅠㅠㅠ Sigh… I think of how Wiple always lacked manpower and used the Clingies endlessly…]

[- RT I will follow one person, unfollow one person

Reason: (article capture image)]

[- Guys, just RT

Reason: (label logo capture image)]

Some people were disappointed that it was only a label separation, not a company transfer, and some people were proud of the representative Cheon Ise.

Well… Being a representative is not a big deal yet, since there are too many holes to fill and things to fill in the empty bucket.

As time goes by, I hope that everything will be solved one by one, as it has been so far. I finished the afternoon meeting and returned to the dormitory, and gathered with the members at the broadcast time.

“Who is subscribed to Puzzle?”

Kyunghwa asked, sitting on the sofa with his phone in his hand.

“Oh, I’m subscribed, why?”

Yi-jun tilted his head as if wondering what was going on, and Kyunghwa continued his words as if he was glad.

“There’s something that lets you see the live chat of the viewers in real time, right? Let’s watch it on the smart TV.”

“Oh… Wait a minute.”

Yi-jun fiddled with the app on his phone for a while, then turned his phone to the TV and pressed a button.

Pop, the screen was connected to the phone in an instant, and the TV was linked to the app screen.

“Wow…”

It was still commercial time, so only the reactions of the viewers waiting for the program were coming up.

[- It hasn’t started yet, right?]

[- Yes]

[- Yes, not yet]

[- I want to skip the ads]

[- It’s a broadcast ad, so you can’t skip it]

“Wow, this is amazing… I didn’t know there was something like this.”

Seon-woo was amazed as if he was seeing a new thing for the first time, and Kyunghwa explained.

“They said you can only see it during the broadcast. It doesn’t save and when the broadcast ends, it changes from real-time to uploaded, so this is the end of the chat.”

In other words, it was a volatile medium. Maybe because it didn’t leave a record, some people might say something harsh… It might be better not to see it.

I wondered if it would be better to leave now, but we had nothing to be ashamed of.

We didn’t do anything biased or troublesome, and we did our best sincerely. Unless the production team suddenly turned around and made us villains…

I think they used [/Sarcasm Off Mode] as a mockery or a joke when they typed commands like low-speed mode or chat off mode.

‘I’m not going to get away with this without getting cursed at…’

At that anxious moment, the dance group A was the first to start the show, as they were the first group to have their first meeting.

[“Dance group A, you are Ise, right? This is your first day at work. Please wait inside, the others will be here soon.”]

[Guys… when are you coming… (sobbing)]

[“Do you all usually come on time?”]

[No response]

[A crow flies away effect]

Of course, I… asked for a bit of a blunt editing. But they fast-forwarded the waiting time and made it quite comical, but I felt sorry for myself being alone.

[- ?]

[- What the hell?]

[- Where are the rest?]

[- Didn’t you share the schedule?]

[- Where did you go?]

[- Is the leader being bullied?]

Soon enough, the AtoX members joined and they showed the part where they argued over the schedule issue.

[“Oh, but I have a personal thing tomorrow that I can’t cancel, so I can’t come.”]

[“But I can come.”]

The dance group A’s segment, which lasted about five minutes, ended with nothing but schedule trouble.

[- Crazy lolololololol]

[- Wow, I’m seriously going to have a stroke watching this, I’m going to drink some cold water and come back]

[- Are you the only one who’s busy lolololololol]

[- I hate those bastards the most when I do group projects]

[- Their time is precious and mine is not???]

The live chat, as well as the SNS I subscribed to, and the fan community’s flame war, all started to burn in real time.