Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 115:

[- (A picture of a beggar in the Joseon era who has become a rebel leader and is blowing a horn)]

[ㄴ (A picture of another drama’s beggar role who is walking weakly)]

[- I don’t even have the strength to get angry anymore]

[ㄴ Let’s think positively. It’s better than being stuck in a corner and not sending anything out and being stored away. A new stage comes up every two weeks]

[ㄴ But what about the mental state of the fans? Can I be so selfish and positive?]

[ㄴ ༼;´༎ຶ ۝༎ຶ`༽ ༼;´༎ຶ ۝༎ຶ`༽ ༼;´༎ຶ ۝༎ຶ`༽ ༼;´༎ຶ ۝༎ຶ`༽ ༼;´༎ຶ ۝༎ຶ`༽(( ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )) o0O(Let’s cause one more trouble, Yi-jun)]

[- I really don’t want to be associated with “that fandom” but they keep… sigh…]

[ㄴ They’re probably preparing to terrorize us if our group’s rank is lowㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (Thinking about it, this is not the time to laugh picture)]

[ㄴ ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠI’m going crazy, why is nothing easy to solve?

But what made me feel a little uncomfortable was…

‘They obviously think we’re at the bottom.’

It couldn’t be helped. The internal evaluation and the expert review would be reflected separately, but…

‘If it’s a survival show, it’s basically a voting war.’

Except for Playground, which was a complete rookie, the rest of the groups had proven their solid fandom base.

We were the most likely to fail. Inside Rise, there was already a self-deprecating story that we were too weak to support the talented kids.

There was no need to think like that.

I turned off the phone screen with a bitter taste in my mouth and lay down on the bed. In the afternoon, I had a guest appearance on a lifestyle information program hosted by a famous chef.

It was okay to be a little lazy in the morning.

I pressed my thumb hard on my head, which was ringing horribly. Then I suddenly remembered and checked the TOP 200 chart.

[43rd – Drink Me – Climax]

It was still holding on in the 50s.

It had been a week since the activity ended, but I still heard our song quite often when I walked the streets.

Then I realized how amazing this rank was in the eyes of the general public.

Once you get into the playlist of the non-fandom layer, the so-called muggle pick, the rank defense is well done. It seemed that the story was true.

On the other hand, Floss’s follow-up song was barely hanging on the 90th line.

‘Of course, the main activity song is still within the 25th.’

Wherever you go, they play Floss songs by album playlist, so it was natural that the main song rank was that high.

When will we be like that?

I had to reach that level to clear all the quests and go back to my original purpose.

Suddenly, I thought that my stepmother who killed me might die of natural causes before I became a Floss-level top star.

‘Let’s not think weird things.’

I shook my head sideways and threw it away, and eventually went out to the living room.

Seon-woo was PT, Yi-jun was exercising. Kyunghwa had a personal schedule for a cable program and left in the morning, and Seong-won went to the office for vocal training.

He sang so well, but did he still need training? I thought he should be the one to teach, but there was no reason to stop him if he needed it.

The manager said he would pick me up three hours before the afternoon schedule. In the meantime, I headed to the kitchen to clean the refrigerator for a while.

I was busy with variety shows and music shows for a while, so I didn’t have time to clean the fridge.

“Ugh, there’s so much stuff to throw away.”

As I faced the cold air spilling out from the fridge, I started to sort out the wilted vegetables and the expired Greek yogurt. While I was busy with the trash, Pposili and Aeongi came to my side.

“Meow, purr, gurgle…”

I absentmindedly scratched their heads with my empty hand, and Aeong made a happy sound.

If it weren’t for Pposili, I wouldn’t have to take care of this guy at the dorm either.

Did he notice my bitter thoughts? The cat bit my hand that was scratching his forehead.

“Ow.”

I quickly pulled my hand away, and saw the red marks left by his teeth.

“Grumble, growl.”

He seemed happy, rolling on the floor and rubbing his cheek, though I had no idea why.

“Why don’t you teach him not to bite?”

I scolded Pposili, but he just tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

He pretends not to understand, but he knows everything.

I sighed and finished cleaning the fridge, and then I remembered the first day I came to the dorm.

It has been half a year already. Time flew by so fast. I impulsively searched for Jo Young Food on the internet.

“…”

The result was horrible. After my brother became the new CEO, the stock price had dropped by 20% in six months due to his scandals.

Even if I succeeded in revenge as Cheon Ise, it was a stake that I couldn’t recover. I wouldn’t lose anything even if it plummeted.

Maybe I should be happy about it. But I couldn’t help worrying about the employees.

The company that used to be full of pride for making safe food in the most hygienic environment in Korea, now I can easily guess how gloomy it was.

‘I’d rather not see it.’

As I shook my head, a message arrived.

[‘YOU’ invited you to a new chat room.]

It was Kang Yu-geon. What is it? I rubbed my eyes and saw that it was a four-person group chat.

[YOU] Do you want to invite the other members, or do you want to be alone? 9:56 AM

The members who were already in the chat room seemed to be from Floss.

[H]

[ㅇㅅㅇ]

Who are H and ㅇㅅㅇ? I didn’t think there was a member whose name initials were ㅇㅅㅇ in Floss.

[Me] For now, let’s just talk with me, and if you need to, you can invite more. 9:57 AM

If eight people came in at once and talked, the opinions would scatter and get distracted, and the chances of getting away from the main purpose would be high.

[YOU] Okay 9:57 AM

[YOU] First of all, H is our leader hyung 9:58 AM

Ha. Was his name Hwijin? So that’s why he was H. I nodded and waited for Yu-geon to introduce the rest of the members.

[YOU] ㅇㅅㅇ is our youngest Shim Naru.

‘…’

ㅇㅅㅇ was not an initial, but an emoticon that he used to act cute. I looked at my phone with a shocked expression.

Wait. If the leader of Floss is Hwijin…

‘I only remember that he’s famous for being old.’”

When I appeared on My Idol Stage, I was 27 years old, the only one among the cast who had completed his military service. I received a lot of attention for that.

So now, two years after the show, I am 29. Thanks to my amazing youthful looks, I looked younger than the other members who were in their mid-twenties.

I didn’t really dream of debuting as an idol when I joined the show. I had debuted as a nameless idol in my teens and failed miserably, then switched to acting.

After changing my career, I didn’t make much progress and enlisted. After discharge, I appeared in several commercials as a minor role, but I still didn’t get any recognition.

‘So I joined the show just to raise my popularity…’

And I ended up becoming the runner-up, carrying a huge popularity on my back. The big brother that My Idol Stage produced. That was Floss’s Lee Hwijin.

He was hardly unknown. He had been an idol for more than three years and his stage skills were well-known.

I knew that Hwijin had a lot of personal fans. I was lucky to get him on board.

[Me] Hello, Hwijin. Naru. 9:59 AM

[Me] Nice to meet you. 10:00 AM

Then I got a cute hamster emoji from ‘ㅇㅅㅇ’, pretending to be cute.

Uh… something that elementary school kids would use, I thought, then remembered that Sim Naru was only nineteen.

‘Well, he’s young, so that makes sense.’

Then Hwijin’s message came up.

[H] I heard a lot about you from Yu-geon. 10:01 AM

[H] I look forward to working with you. 10:01 AM

What did he tell you, Kang Yu-geon? I didn’t think he would say anything good. We exchanged brief greetings and Yu-geon got to the point.

[YOU] Boys Be Ambitious has a fixed schedule for filming, right? When is the filming day? 10:02 AM

As we went through the promotion period, the external variety show filming took priority, so the schedule changed temporarily.

It was easier to fix the appearance schedule during the non-promotion period, so we decided to film on Wednesdays and air on Saturdays.

[Me] We’re in a non-promotion period right now, so it’s irregular, but it will be every Wednesday from now on. 10:03 AM

[YOU] OK, I’ll make time for Wednesday. 10:03 AM

[Me] Okay. 10:04 AM

[Me] Let me know when the schedule is confirmed. We’ll try to accommodate as much as possible. 10:05 AM

There was nothing more to say after that, so the silence naturally came.

Well, we said what we had to say, so we’ll contact each other if we need more.

I finished the conversation and felt hungry.

I decided to have brunch for a change. I had some milk and pancake mix that were close to their expiration date.

Of course, my worries were also about food.

Not long after, I had a chance to meet Hwijin in person.

‘I didn’t expect to meet him like this…’

The production company of ‘Boys Be Ambitious’ decided to make a pre-promotion video to attract the viewers’ interest before the official filming.

They filmed video interviews with each group, and also…

“Hello, I’m P2CK’s leader, Hayoung! Nice to meet you!”

They made a place for the leaders to mingle with each other.

“Hello, long time no see.”

Since I decided to appeal that we had some friendship, I waved my hand and greeted Hwijin first.

“Ah. Hello, Ise.”

Hwijin greeted me with a skillful smile, showing no sign of hesitation or embarrassment on his face. He was indeed a former actor.

“Is this the first time we meet on the same program? How have you been?”

I casually pretended that we had met before, and Hwijin played along.

“Thanks to your concern, I’ve been doing well. I’m really enjoying watching Boys in Crisis.”

I also reached out my hand for a handshake without hesitation.

“I’m also having fun watching your drama these days. You have an amazing sync rate with the original work, don’t you?”

Hee-jin is currently starring in a web drama based on a webtoon. Of course… The quality was… well… something that the kids loved these days, I guess.

It wasn’t made for adults to watch anyway. It was aimed at middle and high school students who liked that kind of sentiment. There was no way it would be fun for an old man like me.

“Oh, no, not at all.”

Hwijin waved his hand with a laugh, and the PD came over to us right away.

“Do you two know each other?”

Exactly. That’s how you do it.

I opened my mouth naturally.