Save a Failed Idol’s Life - Chapter 88
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Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 88 I’m Glad You Like It
[Give me courage now, I’ll come to you-]
Seon-young, who naturally hugged the teddy bear and spun around to complete the choreography, also seemed to have heard the screams, as her lips were lifted more than usual.
Did Seon-woo hear them too? He was worried that he might get nervous or startled, but he calmly matched his back with Seon-young and performed the choreography.
[You know, I want to be more than friends with you.]
As Seon-woo walked briskly to the left side of the stage, the male backup dancers surrounded him and highlighted him like a comic book hero.
[Should I confess casually, as if it’s nothing? I want to tell you now!]
Seon-young also moved to the right and was surrounded by the female backup dancers. Sky blue teddy bears and pastel hearts filled the background.
[Maybe I’ve been waiting for this moment.]
Then they both did a cute pose and danced adorably, then walked towards the center.
They sang in harmony, as if they had planned their movements beforehand.
[I’ll say it first, I like you!]
The moment they held hands, the audience shook as if there was an earthquake.
He knew that the combination of paper confetti flying like snowflakes and the pretty siblings who looked like dolls would be powerful, but…
He didn’t expect them to be so ecstatic.
“The reaction… is amazing…”
It was a resonance that couldn’t compare to what they did in the rural seaside village.
He stared blankly at the stage, where the most lovely things in the world seemed to be tightly packed together, and felt a strange surge in his chest.
Jealousy…? It was a different feeling. When a chef ate a delicious dish, he wanted to digest the recipe and recreate it in his own way. When a writer read a well-written piece, he wanted to write too, and his heart tickled.
He also felt his heart surge when he saw a great stage.
‘Can we get that kind of reaction too?’
He was confident in the choreography, concept, and quality of the plan. Not to mention the music that Yi-jun produced himself, the lyrics that they all wrote together were also flawless.
But if he was asked if he was sure to elicit the fanatical response of the fans… he wasn’t.
‘He’s become a toothless tiger.’
When he was young, he had nothing to lose and nothing to get worse here, so he clenched his teeth and challenged and ran,
When he got older, he used his experience to wisely succeed in only the businesses that he could.
He lost his confidence because…
‘Is it because this is not a matter of my life, or…’
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Because it was a situation where he would be game over if he didn’t succeed at once.
He couldn’t find the answer himself.
As he felt the strange surge while looking up at the stage, the song was slowly ending.
[Hello, I greet you shyly.]
[Hello, I start my day with your shy smile.]
The song had a non-sequitur structure, and followed the initial composition, where the two stood symmetrically and spun around.
[Today I have a good feeling. Because I met you in the morning.]
[Today I want to give you a special greeting]
The backup dancers wrapped the two like wings and drew a heart with their arms. Finally, once more, bang-! White powder flew from the sky and the two threw the teddy bears they were holding to the audience.
[I’ll say it first, I like you!]
The stage was over. Even after the accompaniment ended, the camera zoomed in on the two of them, capturing their every move.
Seon-yeong made a playful face, biting her lip and winking with her right eye.
Seon-woo, who had apparently rehearsed it beforehand, tried hard to wink with his left eye, but couldn’t quite manage to close it.
‘If they wanted to match the ending fairies with a wink… they should have checked if they could wink properly first.’
The audience burst into laughter, but it seemed more like a reflexive reaction to their cuteness than a mockery of Seon-woo.
I thought to myself that I would scold him later, but the corners of my mouth were smiling warmly.
Then, I heard a click, a shutter sound from somewhere.
“What?”
I turned to the source of the sound and saw Kyunghwa taking a picture of me with his phone.
“Do you know what your expression was just now?”
“What, what did I do?”
I shrugged my shoulders, feeling wronged. Really. Of course, at first I was a little jealous and wanted to go on stage and get some applause.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to sabotage the stage or do anything nasty.
“You looked like a father who’s sending off his youngest child to get married.”
Kyunghwa showed me the photo he took as evidence, and I saw myself looking at the stage with moist eyes.
But I had an excuse.
That wasn’t because I was moved by Seon-woo’s successful performance, but because the pink background reflected on my pupils.
“That’s not true.”
I ruffled Kyunghwa’s hair, teasing him.
“What’s wrong with you? Do that to Seon-woo, not me.”
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Kyunghwa quickly pushed my hand away. Sometimes I saw him getting along well with Yi-jun, so I thought he didn’t mind physical contact.
But he was always prickly with me.
“Fine, fine.”
I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so I nodded vaguely and looked at the stage again.
“Thank you so much for coming today!”
“Thank you!”
“Thank you very much, and we love you~.”
“We love you!”
I wondered where they got that synchronized speech from. It was amazing. But then I saw that Seon-yeong was saying the words first, and our youngest was just repeating the last sentence like a parrot.
“So, are we going back to the waiting room now?”
“Yeah. We can eat, take a nap, and rest until the broadcast.”
That reminded me of the snack bar burger that I had been eyeing since before I came.
There was a special homemade burger that was only sold at the basement snack bar of this place, and I was curious about it.
‘There were even netizens who said they wanted to debut just to eat this.’
I headed to the waiting room first, walking briskly.
***
“Phew, I didn’t make any mistakes, right?”
Seon-woo, who had barely pulled off a perfect recording, came into the waiting room a little later than us.
He had sweated so much. I couldn’t see it well from below the stage, but his collar was soaked.
“Hey, you did well. Now just wait until five and relax.”
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I patted Seon-woo’s shoulder and casually set the stage.
“Are you not hungry? We should have lunch…”
“Lunch? Are we going out for lunch!?”
Seon-woo’s eyes, which had briefly lost their color from fatigue, regained their spark in an instant. This guy… He was really as obsessed and stubborn about eating as I was.
“Yeah, let’s go and eat quickly.”
I looked at the time and it was already past 2 p.m. I was surprised that the rehearsal and pre-recording took longer than I expected. Some groups had to spend more than four hours on the rehearsal and recording process, depending on the stage.
‘What the hell… How can they record for four hours? It’s not like the cast is anyone other than the group members and backup dancers. They shouldn’t have any schedule conflicts.’
It was quite a mystery. Well… Maybe I’ll get to experience it myself someday, but for now I put my curiosity aside and headed to the cafeteria.
Seon-woo, Kyunghwa, and I went down to the basement cafeteria and saw all kinds of idols already occupying the seats.
‘I don’t know most of these faces.’
I knew there were a lot of idols in Korea, but I didn’t know there were this many.
‘A few months ago, Climax would have been treated like nobodies.’
I avoided the awkward glances of the rookies who seemed to recognize us.
The old-fashioned seniors would ask why we didn’t greet them and try to act tough, but we were… in an awkward position.
We were too unknown to be seniors, and we were too old to be treated as rookies. We debuted five years ago.
Maybe that’s why we were considered as rank-breakers.
And that’s why the other rookies didn’t greet us either.
They just glanced at us and looked away.
‘If Yi-jun was here today, he would have gone around the whole neighborhood and greeted everyone.’
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I felt tired just thinking about it. I would put on a sales smile if I had to for business, but I didn’t want to do any unnecessary sales.
“Three special burgers, please.”
Kyunghwa ordered naturally and reached out his hand to me for the card.
‘This guy… I knew it since I first saw him on the replay service, but he expects me to treat him like a baby.’
I was shocked at the time, but I didn’t hate him that much now.
Besides, his financial situation wasn’t very good, so I wondered if there was anything I could do to help him.
I would welcome it if he accepted some financial support and shared the leader role with me.
It wasn’t my money, but I had plenty of it. The problem was that there were too many things in the world that money couldn’t solve.
“Eight special burgers, please.”
I handed over the card instead and the cafeteria lady asked.
“Are you two ordering together?”
“What? Why eight all of a sudden?”
I realized then that Yi-jun at home wouldn’t stop at one.
“Yes. Please pack five of them, and we’ll eat three here.”
“Okay. I’ll do it right away.”
The lady hummed a tune and swiped the card. Kyunghwa looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“I thought it would be nice to take some to the dorm. I think I’ll eat one more when I get home.”
“I don’t really need to eat at the dorm.”
“Yi-jun won’t eat just one, you know.”
“Oh.”
Kyunghwa nodded as if he agreed. That was true.
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I waited for about 15 minutes. The vibrating bell that the lady gave me rang, and Seon-woo quickly grabbed the tray and dashed to the counter.
“Don’t you think we’re bothering him?”
I got up from my seat, feeling like the two older guys were picking on the visual member.
“I’ll go and help him. You stay here.”
I left Kyunghwa behind and walked towards Seon-woo, who smiled at me with a bright face when he saw me.
As long as you’re happy, that’s fine. I looked at Seon-woo leisurely, gazing at the distant mountains, but my face turned sour in an instant.
That idiot didn’t notice the table leg on the floor and swept the ground with his shoe sole as he walked, tripping and losing his balance.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!”
I ran to him with all my reflexes, but unfortunately, one of the three burgers that weren’t wrapped flew into the air.
“Damn.”
What should I do? If it fell from that height, it wouldn’t keep its shape.
“Ugh, I’m so sorry, hyung!”
“Don’t cry! Did I make you feel bad?”
As I reached out for the burger, someone snatched it with a light and swift gesture.
‘What?’
I looked up to see who touched our burger.
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