Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 111:

“Why, uh, why are you all looking at me like that?”

Why do you think so? Hiccup. Seon-woo tried to act casual with a tense and strained expression.

“Lift up your blanket.”

As Kyunghwa and I stepped forward as representatives and approached the bed, Seon-woo flailed his arms and blocked the blanket.

“No, no! Let me tidy up a bit! The stuff inside spilled out…”

“Stop lying.”

Kyunghwa firmly pulled Seon-woo’s hand off the blanket and yanked it up without hesitation.

“Huh?”

Everyone tilted their heads at the unexpected items neatly stored in the suitcase.

What was it? It was two green soju bottles and two brown beer bottles.

“Are you a minor or something?”

I knew it was an inappropriate item to bring here, but Seon-woo was an adult.

Even if he acted like a middle schooler, he wasn’t underage drinking.

“I, I’ve never been on a school trip or anything like that… I wanted to feel like I was on a school trip when the PD goes in later…”

With soju and beer? He must have sincerely thought of the stories that were popular among students back then.

“Who brings soju and beer like this these days? You’ll get caught by the teachers.”

Tsk, Yi-jun picked up a beer bottle and clicked his tongue.

“Then how do you do it?”

“You have to mix it with soda or juice and bring it. If you switch it with water, they might check everything, so you have to dilute it with carbonated drinks that don’t smell like alcohol.”

Kyunghwa listened for a while and frowned.

“Do you speak from experience?”

“Um, no comment.”

Yi-jun pursed his lips and looked away. He must have done it and more. I glared at Yi-jun with the same eyes as Kyunghwa and looked at the camera.

“Please confiscate this for now.”

“Ah…!”

Seon-woo looked at me with pitiful eyes like a squirrel that had its acorn taken away, but it didn’t work on me.

“There will be liquor in the lounge later, so drink some aperitif.”

There was no need to fill his stomach with diluted soju when the chefs of the luxury hotel had prepared aperitifs with a generous budget.

“Uh…”

Seon-woo seemed to regret losing his booze and kept twitching.

“Don’t worry, we can drink together later if we have time.”

Seon-woo nodded slowly and took out the contents of his bag one by one.

“Change of clothes, pajamas, swimsuit, phone charger, xylitol candy, oh and this is lotion and sunscreen. I always carry extra sunglasses and masks.”

Seon-woo must have suffered from being known as ‘the handsome younger brother of an idol’ and ‘a positive example of genetics’ even before his debut.

He wasn’t even a celebrity yet, but he was stressed out by people constantly taking pictures of him and recognizing him wherever he went.

He had never thought much about becoming a celebrity. He had planned to inherit the family business of running a small rice cake shop in the countryside.

‘He would have been much happier there.’

I briefly imagined him eating the rice cakes he made with the happiest expression in the world.

‘But still… it would be such a waste to bury this face in mundane and rural life.’

I nodded to myself as I thought.

“Alright, let’s move to the special lounge now and have a quick lunch. We’ll also play a game while we eat. I’ll explain the game when we get there.”

What kind of game do you play while eating? I frowned involuntarily. Then Yi-jun patted my shoulder and calmed me down.

“Relax. You were like an angry old man just now because you didn’t eat properly.”

“No, it wasn’t that bad.”

I shook my head and erased my expression. Then I obediently followed the PD and the staff to the special lounge.

The main lounge was busy with lunch customers at this time.

It seemed like they had temporarily converted a space that was usually rented for business purposes into a dining area.

“Wow… this place has an amazing view.”

It was only natural that the view was good, since most of the premium facilities were located on high floors.

“Alright, everyone, please find your seats. We’re going to play two games. The first one is ‘Find the Real Thing’, and the second one is ‘Initial Sound Game’. For the first game, since Ise will have too much of an advantage, he can only participate as a helper.”

I had a rough idea of what it was. It was probably about tasting and guessing what ingredients were used or what they were.

“That’s not fair. Why are you picking on Ise hyung~.”

Yi-jun teased them sarcastically, but the production team didn’t budge.

“However, you can use the helper chance as many times as you want. You just have to taste two ingredients and choose the one with the higher grade. Then, shall we start with Seon-woo, who is seated first?”

“Ah, yes!”

Seon-woo jumped up from his seat. The order was Seon-woo, Kyunghwa, Yi-jun, Seong-won, and me from left to right. So the next player, Kyunghwa, also looked at the prepared set with a tense expression.

“We’ll get the tasting ready for you right away.”

From behind the wall that looked like a bank counter, a sizzling sound and a delicious smell of beef came up.

“The first one is Korean beef. You have to choose the real Korean beef between the imported low-priced beef and the premium Korean sirloin.”

The staff cut a piece of well-cooked steak and put it on two plates side by side.

“Isn’t that too easy?”

Kyunghwa hummed and looked at Seon-woo’s face with interest, resting his chin on his hand.

“It might not be. Some people who eat food for quantity rather than taste might think they’re the same unless they’re exceptionally tough.”

That was why restaurants that aimed for mass appeal didn’t bother to raise the price and use too high-quality ingredients.

Only a few customers were willing to pay a high price for expensive ingredients.

What most customers who used public restaurants wanted was reasonable prices and decent quality food.

All the experts agreed that it was not a wise strategy to increase the quality of the meat. If they wanted to use more of the budget, they should increase the quantity instead.

And Seon-woo… To be honest,

‘He had no taste.’

He might have chosen the other one, which had more meat, as long as the imported beef was not too tough to chew.

And my rational suspicion turned out to be right.

“Hmm… This one…? I think…”

Seon-woo looked at me hesitantly.

“Don’t look at me, just explain. How was the taste? Did you have any trouble chewing?”

“Uh… One of them had a bit of a tendon.”

“Was the tendon tough?”

“Hmm… No, it was just surprisingly tender.”

Then the side with the fake tendon was likely to be the Korean beef.

“How about the other one? Was it dry or chewy?”

“No, neither of them was chewy.”

Hmm… Well. The chef of the luxury hotel grilled one piece at a time in front of us, so there was no way he would overcook the imported beef.

“Any other features?”

“I don’t know, they were both delicious…”

Then I had no choice but to judge by the intuitive taste of the amateurs.

“Did you feel like any of them was too greasy to eat a lot?”

“Oh, the greasier one was the one with the tendon, I think.”

“Then that one is the sirloin.”

“Really?”

Seon-woo widened his eyes and asked.

“I don’t know the details, since I didn’t eat it. Why don’t you check it quickly?”

“Okay!”

Seon-woo nodded his head and raised his hand.

“Correct! The purple plate looks like Korean beef!”

“Ah, I’m full.”

Yi-jun rubbed his slightly protruding abs with a satisfied expression and headed to the fitness center.

“Seon-woo and I will work out a bit and come up.”

“Be careful not to get caught in a weird angle on the self-cam.”

“Am I your lover?”

Yi-jun pouted his lips as if he was hurt by the distrust, but who could trust him? He was the most childish one among them. I was not comfortable sending them off.

“I’ll stop by the bakery cafe on the first floor and then go, so just behave and work out.”

“Okay, okay.”

Kyunghwa and Seong-won were planning to film a content using the jacuzzi on the terrace, so they went up to the room first.

After having lunch and being dragged to the indoor pool, they still had the energy to move their bodies. It was definitely something possible only for the young.

‘I did overeat for lunch and dinner.’

I completed nine out of ten missions at lunch, and the PD, who was in trouble, was still vivid in my mind.

We had dinner at a barbecue lounge that operated as a buffet. Maybe it was because it was a rare opportunity to eat without any limits, but everyone piled up their plates with food as if overeating was their life goal.

Even Seong-won, who wasn’t usually a big eater, brought a lot more food than usual today.

‘It’s not like the food you make is worse than this.’

Seong-won muttered defensively, feeling guilty for some reason. Who cares? I was curious why he brought so much food, so I looked at his plate and saw that he had a lot of seafood.

Seafood was not only expensive, but also hard to get the best ingredients. And… Some people had strong preferences for or against it.

I avoided it because I thought it was too much for a side dish that five people ate every day, except for grilled fish.

Maybe I should try making grilled shrimp or lobster at home later.

With a drink before the meal, we finished our dinner and wrapped up our schedule with the production team.

After the production team left, we planned to film ourselves experiencing the hotel facilities with our self-cams.

‘So this is what we each got…’

Seon-woo and Yi-jun got the fitness facilities, I got the bakery cafe, and Seong-won and Kyunghwa got the hot water infinity pool and jacuzzi.

‘Isn’t it super awkward for two guys to hang out in the pool?’

I roughly guessed what kind of picture they would make. They would probably just stare at their phones in the waterproof bag without saying anything, wearing swimsuits.

I’d rather suffer from the physical attack of Seon-woo & Yi-jun combo than join the introverts’ awkward atmosphere.

Thinking that, I decided to go down to the first floor first, huh? There was someone sitting in a corner of the lounge who looked familiar for some reason.

‘What? Why does he look so…’

I thought for a while and turned off the self-cam.

He was wearing sunglasses, but why did he look familiar? After thinking hard, I finally remembered who he was.