The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 137

After the wooden bench collapsed while we were sitting on top of it, we ate on the floor.

“We should always use the instruction manual before doing anything from now on,” I said.

“...Yeah.”

“...Haha.”

“Yes~”

Both Yeon-Hoon and Woon promised to follow the instruction manual when they had to make anything from now on. From then on, the broken pieces of the wooden bench became a safety hazard so we weren’t allowed to approach them anymore. Someone even drew a circle around the area and even stuck a piece of paper that said, ‘Be careful!’. Then, after we all ate dinner together and watched the TV in the living room, we fell asleep immediately.

The second day passed without any big incident too. We just woke up in the morning, cooked soybean paste soup, and ate breakfast. Then, in the afternoon, we played jokgu[1] with the ball the staff gave us.

“Ahhh!”

“Yeon-Hoon, you are going to rip a muscle in your leg at that rate.”

“It won’t!”

Yeon-Hoon, who had little athletic ability found it hard to keep up.

Psh!

“....”

“...Oh my god.”

One big incident did occur in the middle of the game which was Dong-Jun ripping his pants. He had stretched out his legs far beyond normal to reach a ball high in the air and land a strike.

“Ahhh! Nobody look!”

“Hahaha!”

It was my first time seeing Dong-Jun appear this flustered. He quickly grabbed the top of his pants and ran back into the room. Soon after that, we all prepared lunch and ate. We had some alone time after that, and for dinner, we finished eating dak-bokkeum-tang from yesterday. Then, as it became dark, I planned to make a fire for us to watch when Woon, Dong-Jun, and Yeon-Hoon looked at me in shock.

“...Tae-Yoon, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Put that down this instance.”

“...?”

Gasp! "Tae-Yoon! How could you do such a cruel thing!”

“...Tae-Yoon?”

“We need some wood to make a fire. Can’t we just use these broken pieces of wood?”

It was all because I was planning to use the broken pieces of the wooden bench as kindling.

“Leave our Benchy alone!”

“You are heartless!”

“How could you think to do something so cruel?”

All three people looked at me like I was a bloodthirsty psycho, but anyone could see that they were the abnormal ones. Unfortunately for them, Do-Seung had already taken a good amount of ‘Benchy’ and after stacking its pieces into a pile, lit it on fire with a blow torch.

“Don’t worry. It’s burning up really well.”

“Ahhhh!”

“Benchy! Benchy!”

“...Please meet someone with more handcrafting skills next time...” That was how Benchy became a good firewood for us so that we could do some fire meditation. Then, my members and I lay the blankets over us and sat outside to stare at the fire.

‘This is nice.’ I wished that time would just stop like this. This was the sort of life that I had always yearned for.

I never wished for huge success, a great amount of money, fame, or countless trophies. Though those would’ve been nice to have, it didn’t matter to me much even if I didn’t have them. What I truly wished for was a normal life with my members such as eating tasty food, chatting about various topics, sleeping when night came, and growing old together. This moment made me think that I would be able to live like that if we continued like this.

[Record 500,000 sales on the first week of album release within the year 2022.]

[Upon success, you will progress to the next mission.]

[Upon failure, member Lee Woon dies.]

‘...Damn it.’ As if the system had read my mind, it brought me back to reality with a reminder. I clenched my fist. I also knew that I couldn’t simply enjoy my time with my members.

‘500,000 sales...’ For our debut album, I planned to reach 300,000 sales in the first week since among all the new male idol groups that debuted this year, no one reached that count. This year was the year for female idol groups, and if we established ourselves as the only notable new male idol group among them, we could maintain our sales count.

Then, after reaching that 300,000 count with a mini album in the beginning, we could do a series of concerts at sizes that we would sell out. We would also release various contents and repackage some things so that attention on us wouldn’t wade, and then, we would release another single.

Around that time, we would’ve also participated in multiple joint concerts to draw in interest, and around winter time, we could finally release our official album and pour all our marketing fees into it. If during this period, no new idol group that could threaten us debuted and most of the first-tier idols went to the military that year...

‘500,000 sales is possible.’ We needed to hit every single criteria that I listed above, but that number was reachable.

‘But this is just a plan. Unknown variables could arise...’ As I thought about these things, Yeon-Hoon suddenly talked to me.

“Here, have a marshmallow, Tae-Yoon.”

As marshmallows and campfires went hand in hand, we placed a marshmallow onto twigs and placed them in front of the fire. They seemed to have cooked well enough now.

“Thank you.”

“What are you thinking so hard about? Do you have any worries?” Yeon-Hoon seemed to have guessed that I had concerns.

‘But how can I tell him this?’ I thought. I couldn’t tell him that Woon would die if we didn’t reach 500,000 sales by the end of 2022.

“No, I was just spacing off,” I replied in the end and bit off the marshmallow he gave me. I didn’t eat much sweet stuff before regressing, but perhaps, my taste buds had also become younger with my age, and I craved these things.

‘...It’s tasty.’

“Don’t try to shoulder too many things on your own, Tae-Yoon,” Yeon-Hoon said and stared at me hard. “If there’s anything you need to discuss with us, tell us. You don’t have to burden yourself with everything,” Yeon-Hoon said while placing his palm on top of my hand. I felt a strange atmosphere sweep the area then. Do-Seung, Woon, and Dong-Jun were all glancing at me.

“Why don’t we all discuss things together before doing something? Whether it be about the album or business stuff we have to take to the company, let’s talk amongst each other first.”

‘Oh, that’s right.’ I realized then that all my members had found out that I called our boss, Kim Dong-Hyun, to expose Yoon Tae-Hyung. I forgot to explain what happened because I was too focused on playing until now. My group members appeared to have already discussed the matter amongst themselves, and Yeon-Hoon was talking to me as the representative of the group.

“Okay, I got it. I will discuss things with you guys more.”

“Yeah, good thinking! Let’s eat the rest of the marshmallows now!” Yeon-Hoon then brought my marshmallow which had slightly cooled in the meantime to the fire again. Then, he placed the marshmallow into two cracker pieces and handed them to me.

“Here, this is a smore!” He made me something that looked like a marshmallow sandwich.

“It tastes better if you dip it in chocolate syrup.”

“...You put chocolate syrup on top of all that? I won’t die from eating this, right?”

“You mean you will die because of how delicious it is?”

“...Of course not.” This was a dangerous-looking food perfect for clogging one’s arteries. I cautiously took a bite.

“...!”

“How is it? Isn’t this to die for?”

“...Yeah!” It really was good. I hadn’t had something so shockingly delicious in a while.

“Hahaha!”

“Wow, I’ve never seen Tae-Yoon like food so much before.”

“Is it that good, Tae-Yoonie? Awwww.”

“You can have more. I will make another for you.”

My members seemed to have found it quite funny that I liked these marshmallow smores, and Dong-Jun took the chance to treat me like a baby. Well, this wasn’t bad either since these were the family-like moments that I yearned for the most.

‘I will be able to complete this mission too somehow as long as I do it with these guys.’ It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t scared, but I felt confidence surge inside me.

***

Time passed by until it was time for the first episode of our reality program to air. Today was Friday at 6 p.m. Today, we didn’t set the food on the porch but inside the living room. It was because we were planning to watch the first episode of the program while eating.

“Heyyy! Be careful! The soup is still crazy hot.”

“But who cooked this fish so well?”

“Me.”

“Wow, Tae-Yoon is good at everything.”

Today’s menu was grilled mackerel with kimchi soup. It was a pretty traditional menu more befitting of middle-aged men rather than twenty-year-olds like us, but it was hard to fail with this combination. While I removed all the bones from the fish and placed only the meat in my members’ bowls, the show began.

“Ohh! It’s starting.”

This was the side story of The Showcase 2’s Siren’s reality program. I soon saw the title <Siren, Time to Recharge!>

“Ohhh!”

“What isn’t that font used in the show, ‘I Am a Natural Person’[2]?”

“Yeah.”

“It looks fun.”

I simply chewed on my rice with mackerel meat without saying anything. I was hopeful about this show too.

‘Though this is my opinion as a cast member, I think it will be more fun than Only One’s reality program,’ I recalled the reality program I saw in my past life with Only One, and I thought we would have more funny moments.

At that time, I remembered Only One’s reality program being more shocking than entertaining because of how much money they used, and they failed to draw much attention to the show. Overall, I thought our show would be funnier than theirs, and we could aim to get more buzz than Only One did. In a situation where we needed to get 500,000 sales within the year 2022, this was also a good opportunity, and an interesting reality show could be a good start for our debut.

Considering how even that uninteresting Only One’s reality show drew in quite a good amount of views in my past life, I knew The Showcase 2’s first act had quite a big influence and effect. Anyways, the start of the show began with us gathered at the entrance of the mountain and looking around our surroundings in bafflement. Most idol reality shows started with ‘Wow~! but we showed a completely different response.

—...Where are we?

—...A mountain?

“Hahaha! We looked that astounded?” Dong-Jun burst into laughter while looking at the TV screen.

—A daily-wear hanbok?

—Wow, we have to wear this?

—Ohh...

Then, we came out after changing into our clay-colored, daily-wear hanboks.

“Why did they suddenly turn on sad music?”

“Hahaha!”

“Our reality program is fun.” Rather than a true reality show, it was edited more like a variety and entertainment show.

‘This is good.’ This was the better direction to take to draw in more issues and attention. I went to Bluebird to see the responses by then.

—Hahahaha, seriously? These guys, haha

—Look at how soft our baby peach looks while wearing a brown village, daily-wear hanbok

—Even a daily-wear hanbok can’t hide our black cat’s pecs

Reply: So true...

It seemed the fans were enjoying the video. Though some complained that we were going through too many hardships, it was better than getting no response. Since living in this place wasn’t even that uncomfortable, this was preferable to staying in a high-class villa to pull in more audiences. As I continued to monitor the feeds about us, something else caught my eye.

—This is insane. Only One terminated their contact with TH Entertainment?

Reply: ??? Not just Kang Hyun-Sung but all of Only One???

Reply: Seriously?

“Ah.” I quickly clicked on the link and was directed to an internet article.

[Only One terminates contract with TH Entertainment.]

[Only One, the pre-debut boy group of TH Entertainment, terminates their contract with the company. This is a very unusual case where all the members of a pre-debut terminate their contract at once...]

I read through the entire article, and the purpose of this article was revealed in its last line.

[There is great interest in which company Only One will choose now.]

‘It was a promotional article,’ I realized. I thought about how we needed to reach 500,000 sales and to do so, we needed to succeed the most among the groups who debuted this year.

‘...But at this rate, the spotlight could be taken from us.’

If we had taken away Only One’s fame in the beginning, it was now Only One's turn to do the same to us. This was the sort of world the entertainment business was, and no one could blame them for doing so. In normal times, I would’ve wholeheartedly congratulated them on their contract termination and wished the best for them in their future endeavors.

‘This is driving me crazy...’

Yes, with Woon’s life on the line, we couldn’t lose to anyone.

1. A sport that combines aspects of soccer and volleyball ?

2. Name of a famous Korean TV Series about people who leave behind their stressful city life and live amid nature. ?