Save a Failed Idol’s Life - Chapter 83
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Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 83 That’s good enough
“Why did you write ‘fox’ and then erase it?”
I asked him, suppressing my laughter as much as I could.
Seong-won answered grumpily.
“I didn’t write ‘fox’.”
“What other animal starts with ‘yeo’ besides fox?”
Seong-won clamped his mouth shut like a clam and didn’t answer.
“Don’t want to talk?”
I asked again, still holding back my laughter. He gave me a less prickly answer than before.
“There’s also ‘a-eong-i’ (meow), so I just liked the cat side better.”
And then he turned his head with a flick, as if he had told me some great secret. Oh, thank you for telling me that.
Instead of teasing or mocking him, I quietly closed my mouth and read the rest of the survey.
[Q2. What is the emoji you use most often?]
(A person with a blank expression and an X over their mouth)
[Q3. What is the part you are most confident about in this single?]
Lyrics.
Wouldn’t it be better to add some explanation? I couldn’t understand his psychology of writing only ‘lyrics’ after contributing the most to the lyrics.
How could they be so different when they all lived under the same roof?
People might wonder how they got along so well.
‘Well, what can I say… I guess they weren’t this close when Cheon Ise was active.’
Even though they had been working together for five years, they were distant from each other. Maybe I helped them improve their relationship a little bit.
I felt a slight tingling of pride in my chest and coughed lightly.
“What’s with that weird expression?”
Seong-won looked at me strangely as I was still holding his sheet and lost in thought.
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
I casually gathered the sheets of all the members and handed them over to the staff.
The staff who collected the surveys started to leave soon.
We also got ready to go to bed and went to the bathroom to get our toothbrushes.
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“Let’s brush our teeth and sleep.”
“Ah, then I’ll brush mine now too.”
The water was precious because it was getting colder. The boiler was so slow that it took a long time to get lukewarm.
“I should brush mine now too.”
It was a good strategy to use the water quickly when someone turned it on and made it warm.
“You should brush yours now too.”
I pointed at Seong-won who was sitting on the floor. He obediently got up from his seat.
He looked so good when he listened well. I chuckled to myself and headed to the bathroom.
The bathroom, which we had cleaned thoroughly and even replaced the tiles by ourselves for a few weeks, had no fridge.
“Oof, it’s cold.”
We huddled together and each took a toothbrush. It was a funny scene.
“Ah, I should show Rise how we brush our teeth too.”
Seon-woo crept towards the camera installed in the living room. He looked like a small animal that would stick its nose right into the lens.
The difference was that puppies and kittens were actually small, but he wasn’t.
“I’m going to cover the camera.”
Kyunghwa said in a voice that I couldn’t tell if he was laughing or scolding.
“Leave it alone. He likes it.”
Seon-woo had been showing signs of worry ever since he was cast as a music show MC.
When he was finally relaxing and enjoying some small happiness, I felt like I should let him have it.
‘Well… he won’t make any weird mistakes or cause any trouble when he goes there.’
He may seem like a kid I threw into the water, but he was an adult after all. I nodded to myself and spat out the foam into the sink.
The autumn night in the countryside was quite cold, and winter was approaching.
***
After finishing the filming of Boys in Crisis, we headed back to Seoul and Seon-woo’s preparation for his MC challenge began.
The filming day was every Sunday. Seon-woo’s debut as an MC was on Monday, with less than a week left.
“I’ve never performed with someone other than the members. What if I mess up?”
Seon-woo was moving around busily since morning to prepare for the special stage to celebrate his MC debut.
“You’re not going on stage today. And she’s not a stranger, she’s your sister. You’ll be able to prepare in a more comfortable atmosphere. Don’t be too nervous.”
I tried to calm down Seon-woo, who was already shaking, and packed a salad lunch box for him.
Now that summer was over, I was glad that I only had to put one ice pack in his bag to keep it fresh.
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“Share it with your sister. I prepared some finger food for the rest, so you can share it with the staff during the break.”
I felt uneasy sending Seon-woo off with nothing, so I prepared some things for him. Was this how a father felt when sending his son to his first field trip?
If I had more time, I would have hired a professional catering service.
But since most hotel catering were already booked at this time, I had no choice but to prepare everything myself.
‘On the day of the show, I prepared about a hundred gift baskets from Cheon Soo Hotel… I can give them to the fans and staff who came to the filming.’
It was a matter of life and death if I failed this comeback, so I didn’t bother saving the Cheon Soo Group’s fortune that wouldn’t run out even if I spent it recklessly.
“Am I really going alone today?”
Seon-woo looked at me with big eyes, blinking as if he was asking for help.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
I asked him, wondering what he was talking about.
“Last time, you went with Seong-won hyung to Star Discovery…”
He was throwing a tantrum like a kid who wanted me to come to his class observation day.
“That was a filming schedule, and today is just the first day of practice.”
It wasn’t a very important event, even though it was a special stage. We only had three practice sessions: one today, one on Wednesday, and one on the day of the rehearsal.
Did I really have to go with him to the practice?
I tilted my head at his unexpected whim.
“I’ll go with you on the day of the show. You can go and come back by yourself for practice.”
But then Seon-woo shook his head from side to side with a pleading look in his eyes.
Oh… what do I do with this? I didn’t have any schedule today anyway, so should I go with him? As I was hesitating, Yi-jun intervened.
“Hey, can I go and watch the practice?”
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“What are you doing, why are you butting in?”
“It looks fun, I want to go and play.”
There was no rule that the fellow members couldn’t come to the practice site.
But it was already crowded enough with the other staff and backup dancers… Do we really need to bring two tall men over 180 cm with us? Do we really… need to do that?
“Thank you, Yi-jun hyung, for coming with us…!”
Seon-woo looked up at Yi-jun with grateful eyes, as if he wanted anyone with a familiar face to be with him.
If he went, I had to go too. I couldn’t trust these two guys alone, even though they were adults.
“Fine. Let’s go, go.”
“Wow!”
Seon-woo clapped his hands with a happy expression, as if he had gained two allies.
I couldn’t live because of these two. Sigh.
I had no choice.
It was my fault for taking these kids that someone else had given birth to into my heart.
***
The practice room was a large dance academy on line 3. Seon-woo’s sister, Polaris Seon-young, was from another agency.
Alcor Entertainment. Ten years ago, it was a small agency founded by a top idol from the 2000s.
But now, it has grown tremendously after being absorbed by a large portal company that wanted to expand into the entertainment business.
‘They probably never thought they would become such a big company when they first debuted, enough to join the top four agencies.’
First Magnitude, or Perme for short, was the dance academy with the most followers in Korea.
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It was a much better place than the practice room I had been using until now, as if it was a company that had an exclusive contract with Alcor.
‘Not that WePlanet was a small place either…’
Most of the singers in the company were soloists rather than idols.
There were two girl groups and one boy group that debuted before Climax.
But they all failed and so did Climax, making the company notorious for being bad at idol planning.
And then they somehow managed to partner with the broadcasting station and luckily recruit Floss… Well, considering the money they made from Floss, maybe that was an investment cost.
I licked my tongue, recalling the estimated sales of Floss that I had found while researching the idol market.
While I glanced at the other side for a moment, Yi-jun quickly walked to the door and pressed the doorbell.
“Anyone would think you came here to practice today.”
“Hey, it’s just that the first person to arrive should press it.”
Then the intercom buzzed and connected.
-Hello, what can I do for you?
Yi-jun waved his hand at the intercom with a natural smile.
“Hello~. We’re Na Seon-woo and his guardian, here to practice for the Music Safe Special stage~!”
Guardian, my ass. Who’s protecting who? I chuckled, but I must have looked no different to others.
-Okay, I’ll open the door for you!
The intercom hung up and the door opened. The building looked pretty neat from the outside, and the inside also showed that they had spent money on it.
“Wow… I’ve never been to Perm before.”
Yi-jun looked around curiously, from the ceiling to the handles, as he entered.
“Oh, you brought the members too! Come this way.”
A man who looked like a staff member came out and greeted us warmly, then took us to the practice room.
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“Do you want some Americano or something? You must have had a hard time coming here.”
Um… I felt a bit sorry to drink anything when I came to watch. As I hesitated, Yi-jun cut in.
“Oh, do you have any juice?”
“Uh, yeah. We do. We have orange and grape, which one do you prefer?”
“I’ll have orange.”
Seon-woo looked at me as Yi-jun made his confident request.
“Seon-woo and I will have iced Americano, lightly brewed. You don’t have to put any syrup in it.”
Seon-woo’s eyes dimmed again, as he had hoped to drink some juice with liquid sugar in it.
We each took a drink and entered the practice room, where the backup dancers were already warming up.
“Wow…”
Seon-woo and Yi-jun looked around the room covered with mirrors with shining eyes, like Dumb and Dumber.
“What’s with you guys? It’s not your first time in a practice room.”
Of course, it was also my first time in a practice room that looked like they had thrown money at it.
The place I had been visiting to prepare for the comeback, thanks to being introduced to the backup dancers under MyType…
‘It wasn’t as fancy as this.’
It felt like they hadn’t done any interior work for at least 20 years.
“Seon-young will be here in about 10 minutes, so you can just relax and stretch lightly for now.”
One of the backup dancers, who looked quite experienced, came up to us and explained.
“The people next to you are here to watch, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You can sit over there. We have some students who are observing from our side, so don’t worry too much.”
I looked at the direction the man pointed to and saw a few boys who looked like college or high school students sitting there.
As I waited for a while, someone kicked the door open and came in with a loud noise.
“Hi~~~~!!! Hello~!”
It was a high-pitched voice that made my ears ring.
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