The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 140

We weren’t the only ones surprised by the sudden appearance of the mountain rabbits. The production staff, who went on the road together after hearing that we were going for a walk, were also shocked.

“Oh my...”

“My goodness.”

“Wow...so cute.” The writers, who had always remained silent, murmured this out loud.

Gasp!

“Wow...”

It was to the extent that even the cameraman, who had to remain silent due to their jobs, gasped at their cuteness. There was a white rabbit, a black rabbit, a spotted rabbit, a brown rabbit, and a gray rabbit. I wondered how in the world he befriended all these rabbits.

One rabbit was already in his arms; it was a spotted rabbit mixed with white, brown, and black, and he rubbed his head on Woon’s chest and closed his eyes in happiness. Woon carefully sat on the mat with the rabbit in his arms, and my members and I were very wary and careful about our movements. However, there was one problem.

“Rabbit...it’s so cute...hello rabbit...!”

Yeon-Hoon’s eyes had already gone mad, and he was over-excited as soon as the rabbits appeared. He wasn’t touching them because he couldn’t pull them towards him by force, but he looked ready to hug them with all his might if one allowed it. The one he was particularly interested in was the white rabbit, and Yeon-Hoon’s eyes even showed a glint of obsession while looking at the white rabbit. However, when Yeon-Hoon tried to take one step closer, the white rabbit hopped to another place.

Rustle.

“Ahh...rabbit...” Yeon-Hoon looked quite upset when the rabbit ignored him, and it was understandable as everyone except him was approached by a rabbit. A black rabbit to Do-Seung, a brown rabbit to Dong-Jun, and even for me, a gray rabbit approached and rubbed his head against me.

“Hmm.” I patted the gray rabbit on my lap. Although the rabbit was cute, warm, and soft, there was only one thought in my head. ‘Wouldn’t there be a lot of germs on them if they’re wild rabbits?’

Even though I was touching them because they were cute, I thought that I should change my clothes when I got back home. Thus, I said, “Guys, don’t touch your eyes or nose with the hands you touched the rabbit, just in case.”

“Okay~”

“Got it.”

“I have hand sanitizer, so let’s use that for a temporary measure after sending the rabbits off.”

The members responded like this and were enthusiastically touching the rabbit in their arms. Was this what pet therapy was? By merely touching a rabbit, my stress was relieved a little bit.

‘But why is this little guy staying here the whole time when he doesn’t even seem to enjoy it?’ Although the gray rabbit didn’t seem to enjoy being touched, he didn’t refuse my touch either. The gray rabbit’s expression looked peeved as if he was going to leave at any moment. However, since I couldn’t read a rabbit’s thoughts, I just continued what I was doing. While I was thinking about how I could adopt a rabbit—

“Only me...I’m the only one who doesn’t have a rabbit...” Yeon-Hoon was still in a stalemate with the white rabbit. The white rabbit sat next to Yeon-Hoon and was scratching his ears with his back feet. Geez, I thought the rabbit should have approached him by now because of the amount of effort Yeon-Hoon was putting in. Then the white rabbit met my gaze, but I wasn’t sure if that was what it exactly was. Anyway, the white rabbit seemed to stare at me for a bit and then—

Swoosh!

“W-what.” The white rabbit suddenly rushed towards me and then jumped into my arms as if he was slamming his body to mine.

“...?” Then the white rabbit began competing for a seat with the gray rabbit, who was relaxing and lying in my arms. As expected, it seemed the gray rabbit did not like staying in my arms as he easily gave in without much competition.

“NO WAY! You came to me? Really?” Then the gray rabbit slowly approached Yeon-Hoon and sat on top of his knee. After I sent away the gray rabbit, I looked down at the white rabbit.

‘What’s up with this guy?’ I’ve never seen a rabbit act so forward. No, I wondered if this really was a rabbit. At this rate, wasn’t he a dog? I didn’t know rabbits liked people this much. I also patted the white rabbit’s back with the hand I touched the gray rabbit. Then he closed his eyes as if he was pleased and lowered his ears. So while we enjoyed a morning walk with rabbits, the writers and cameramen all looked at us with envy.

***

Our walk with the rabbits ended. The rabbits suddenly disappeared like a hallucination. Starting with the white rabbit, the black rabbit, the spotted rabbit, the brown rabbit, and the gray rabbit left in order. After sending away the five rabbits, there was a brief moment of silent disappointment.

“Let’s apply hand sanitizer~.” However, we applied the hand sanitizer Woon gave us to prevent possible infectious diseases. After that, I came down to the accommodation, washed my hands properly, and changed my clothes. As expected, today’s clothing was a daily hanbok like before.

“Wow, I thought prune color was bad this morning, and we got a prune-colored hanbok right away?” We received a prune-colored hanbok-like karma.

“Hahaha!”

“This color looked bad in the picture, but iy actually looks better in real life.”

“But it makes you look like a low-level martial artist from a villain sect.”

“...Villain sect? A low-level martial artist?”

“What is that, Tae-Yoon?”

“...No, it’s nothing.” I had a moment of self-reflection when those from the general public asked me innocently what I was talking about. I was sure that Woon understood what I meant, but he seemed to be pretending ignorance not to be put in the same category as me. After that, we had lunch, and the menu was ramen as we decided in the morning. Since there was rice cake left, we also put in rice cakes, and while we were at it, we also cut some kimchi and put it in. Then we found some ham and also put it in, and as a result, it naturally became budae jjigae[1], not ramen.

“Let’s eat~”

“Ohh!”

“It looks delicious!” After we filled up our stomachs with budae jjigae, the members entered the main room and began to lay down as if they had planned it.

“I’m going to sleep for a bit.”

“Is it because it’s spring? I feel really sleepy after eating.”

“Good night.”

Yeon-Hoon, Woon, and Dong-Jun went into the master bedroom, and Do-Seung said he would go around the mountain once to digest the food. Thus, I sat alone on the mat and looked at the scenery. Frankly, I wondered if there had ever been a day as peaceful as now since I regressed. It felt like a very long time since I had stared at the mountains and been able to sit like this without thinking anything.

However, whenever my heart was about to feel at ease, I thought, ‘...500,000 sales for our debut album. Woon.’ I thought about the mission the system gave me.

Sigh. I rubbed my face and swiped back my hair. Even if I wanted to rest, I couldn’t. I once again searched for Only One on my phone. I wondered if there was any additional information and—

‘...!’ There was...additional information. In terms of scale, Q Entertainment was an entertainment agency that could be considered the best in Korea. It was a company that had never failed to produce first-tier idols from their first generation of idols to the present. A photo of Lamin, the main producer and president of their label, eating together with Kang Hyun-Sung was posted. Of course, it was not a selfie or SNS upload photo, but a photo taken by a reporter. The title of the article was also a provocative title, ‘A Secret Meeting between Only One’s Kang Hyun-Sung and Lamin.’

Since Lamin was a man, it was not a scandal, but rather, it was a signal that Only One might belong to ‘Another One,’ which was Q Entertainment’s sub-label and the division Lamin was the president of.

There was no way people in Bluebird hadn’t heard of the news that I could easily find. After looking through SNS a little bit, I quickly found responses.

–Ah our boys, pls let’s go to a big company. You know you’re too good for a small or medium-sized company

–Ah, Mr. Lamin, pls take our boys

–Another One and Only One even rhymes plsssssssssss

–But if Only One really go to Q Entertainment, won’t that be crazy?

–My heart is pounding...pls let’s go to Another One, Only One...

–Of course, most agencies are all the same but...I hope they can go to an agency where they can do whatever they want.

People were hoping that Only One would join Another One more than anyone else. Another One was an agency I knew very well. All the title songs of popular groups were produced or arranged there, and they were currently receiving trainees to debut as idols. Furthermore, they were famous for being expected to grow as Q Entertainment’s cash cow in the future. It was to the extent that all the people in the Entertainment industry knew that Another One made the most trendy music. And before my regression, idols from Another One really did become famous not only in Korea but also globally as well. However, that was just people’s general opinion, and that was a future event that didn’t even happen yet.

Perhaps, the internal staff of Another One might have judged that now was the perfect time to find artists to promote their company. At the same time, they must have feared that bringing in people who had already debuted from other companies would decrease their originality, while raising a whole group from scratch would be even more daunting and take too much time. And in this way, Only One, who appeared for sale in the meantime, must have been the perfect choice for Another One.

‘If they do well...I think they can succeed?’ I thought it seemed very likely that a contract between Another One and Only One would be established.

‘Then this will get really dangerous.’ This was a very good event for Only One. If I wasn’t a part of Siren and my members’ lives were not at stake, I would have congratulated them on their success—but not now.

Sighhh.

I wondered how threatening Only One, who would have Q Entertainment’s power on its back and equipped with Another One’s trendiness, would be. While my worries grew and lengthened, Do-Seung finished his walk and came back.

“Are you still spacing out?”

“Oh, Do-Seung.”

However, the walk that he went to wasn’t the one that I was familiar with. Seeing that his forehead was covered with sweat, it seemed he had jogged lightly, and in the mountains of all places.

‘Why isn’t he an athlete?’ I thought about this for a moment but didn’t say it out loud.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

“I didn’t think about anything.”

“I can clearly see that you have a lot on your mind,” Do-Seung said and opened a bottle of water and drank it in one gulp. Then he said, “Haa! That’s so refreshing!”

After squeezing the bottled water that he finished drinking, Do-Seung sat next to me. Then he asked, “Were you thinking about the fan song you mentioned earlier?” Do-Seung’s guess was off the mark.

Rather than the fan song, I was thinking of Only One, but still, it was better for me to let him misunderstand for now. Thus, I said, “Yes, I was thinking of the fan song.”

“I thought about it while running, and let’s make it—fan song.”

“...?” I quickly turned towards him in surprise.

“I mean, I kept thinking about it while running, but I wanted to make one too. The reason why I’m able to see rabbits today, sleep like this, and have a good time is all thanks to the fans.” Do-Seung seemed to have organized his thoughts in his own way.

He continued, “I also don’t like sitting idly by. I also want to show something for the fans.”

Only One was making a huge splash online with a scary move, and the news of making a fan song was like rain in a drought.

“Shall we make one right now?”

“...What, man?”

“Right now.”

“...Are you crazy?”

“I’m perfectly normal,” Do-Seung asked me if I was crazy, but I was perfectly normal.

I texted the production crew and asked them to bring basic equipment for song production. I didn’t ask them to buy new equipment but just asked them to take out the equipment that Do-Seung originally used from the vehicle at the bottom of the mountain. While this was happening, Do-Seung looked at me like a madman. Soon, within 30 minutes, Do-Seung’s laptop, headset, and mini master keyboard were all set.

Then to Do-Seung, who just finished taking a shower after exercising, I said, “Let’s hurry up and quickly make a song. As soon as the melody comes out, I’ll write the lyrics next to you at the same time.”

“...Who are you?”

I urged Do-Seung to make a song, but we didn’t have much time as we needed to finish the fan song before the reality shoot was over.

1. Spicy stew from Korea that is made with a variety of ingredients like ham, spam, kimchi, instant noodles, and cheese. ?