Save a Failed Idol's Life

Chapter 167:

‘Ah….’

We had already finished the pre-production survey and meeting with the staff. We had received a rough script and started packing our stuff early.

I didn’t have much luggage to begin with, and Seon-woo was OK thanks to my nagging. Seong-won, who had a room to himself, had already cleaned up a long time ago, bringing in all kinds of cat products like a cat tower, a cat pole, and a cat wheel.

The only problem now was… Oh Yi-jun, that bastard.

On the way back to our accommodation, I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. Yi-jun shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea what was wrong with me.

“Why?”

“Why? Don’t you have a clue?”

“Uh, no, I don’t.” I was annoyed by Yi-jun’s shameless attitude. Kyunghwa shook his head as if he had tried his best.

“I told him. I talked to him, but he didn’t listen.”

Kyunghwa quickly fished out his earphones from his pocket and plugged them into his ears. He leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes.

“Let’s talk when we get home.”

I didn’t have the energy to say anything right now either. I had been tormented by Seonyoung enough. I decided to recharge a bit in the car and pour out everything as soon as we arrived home.

I sighed and tapped my chest to calm myself down. I followed Kyunghwa and closed my eyes.

“Did you guys have a fight or something?”

Yi-jun pretended to be clueless and made a silly remark. Only Seong-won’s long sigh echoed in the car.

“How could this happen when we’ve only moved into this house for less than a month?”

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as Kyunghwa shook his head.

“Just send that to the broadcast. They’ll scold you for being filthy if you live without cleaning up. Maybe that’ll wake you up.”

Kyunghwa lay down on his bed leisurely and turned on his laptop, as if he had already told me hundreds of times to clean up my desk.

“I don’t want to be known as the dirty member of Climax.”

I didn’t care about anything else, but being criticized for hygiene was the worst.

His desk was like a grave, piled up with anything and everything. He took baths regularly and strangely smelled good, which annoyed me even more. Well, at least that was a relief.

“When did you take these off and not wash them?”

There were jeans that I hadn’t seen him wear for at least a week, socks that I couldn’t tell if he had worn them or not, books and notebooks that he had left unfinished, pens, post-its, and more, stacked up to at least 60cm high.

“I think I wore those two weeks ago. They said jeans shouldn’t be washed too often, so I stored them there for now.”

“That’s not storage, that’s just piling up.”

“But art is supposed to come from chaos, you know.”

Kyunghwa said, without even looking at his desk. I really wanted to pack everything in a box and seal it. I could handle food waste with rubber gloves, but I didn’t want to touch his unwashed clothes.

“I’m not telling you to throw everything away, just make it look like a normal desk.”

Right now, it looks like a trash can.

“Hey, why? This is pretty human and not bad, right?”

Yi-jun pouted his lips as if he was wronged, but no one agreed with him. Only Seon-woo was sweating and flailing around.

“Do you want me to help you clean up?”

I refused without hesitation.

“Rejected.”

As soon as I said that, Yi-jun protested loudly.

“Aw, why~. I need it.”

“You made the mess, so you have to clean it up yourself. You have 30 minutes to tidy everything up.”

I put my foot down firmly, and Yi-jun pouted his lips and complained.

“Ugh, isn’t 30 minutes too short? Right, Pposili?”

Yi-jun quickly ran into the room where Pposili was and tried to cuddle him, scratching his chin and talking to him.

He’s just my system anyway. I muttered to myself.

‘Come here.’

Woof! Pposili seemed to understand me without me saying anything, and he barked lightly and shook off Yi-jun’s embrace and came to me.

“Let’s go, I can’t stand being here until he cleans up. It’s too dirty.”

I nodded slightly as if to say I would come back later to check on him, and headed to the living room. Yi-jun screamed like a banshee.

“Big company! Evil boss! Wage theft!”

“What are you talking about?”

If he knew how much debt Climax had accumulated over the years, he would realize how lucky and grateful he should be for this accommodation.

I shook my head and sighed briefly.

While Climax was peacefully preparing for the third mission, Floss’s dorm was a war zone.

“…”

Hwijin came out to the living room with a feeling of walking on thin ice, checked the expressions of the two members who were watching TV silently, and went back to his room and closed the door.

Floss’s dorm was originally a large apartment with four rooms that could accommodate all nine members.

Now, three of them had moved out, and he also had his own studio, so half of the rooms were practically empty, but it was especially lonely these days.

Chanhyung was out of commission until next year due to a fracture, and Yu-geon had been absent without permission, and officially he was resting due to health issues, so the remaining members were seven.

Among them, three of them rarely stayed at the dorm except when they had to accompany each other for schedules.

Floss had more individual schedules than the survival show, so he couldn’t even remember the last time they all gathered together.

‘I guess it’s better to avoid fighting if we get together, but.’

He felt bitter at the sight of no sign of camaraderie among them, especially when their contract was expiring in six months.

He thought everything would be solved if they succeeded when they were nobodies who could go out without a hat and not be recognized by anyone.

But there were so many problems that couldn’t be solved by success alone.

Hwijin glanced at the living room situation, which was a relief if they didn’t fight, and closed the door and sighed briefly.

Hwijin’s roommate was Yu-geon, whom he hadn’t seen for weeks.

‘He could at least contact me.’

What the hell was going on? Was he really sick, or did he have to go to the hospital for surgery?

He wanted to grab him by the collar and ask him to say something if he had a problem.

But when he saw him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything but welcome him back.

He was one of the closest members to him, he thought, but Yu-geon turned off his phone as soon as he called him a bit persistently, and Hwijin was quite surprised.

It was Yu-geon who cut ties with Climax. He hadn’t heard from Yu-geon for a long time, and he was in touch with the leader of another team for a variety show appearance, which was quite ironic.

I wonder if Climax has finished their practice by now. I know the production team will contact them tomorrow morning anyway, but I sent them a message just to ease my anxiety.

[Me] How’s the preparation going? 9:37 PM

The leader of Climax. Cheon Ise, who was five years younger than me, was an obscure nobody that I didn’t even know existed until a few years ago.

I think I met him for the first time about a year and a half ago. Even then, my first impression of Cheon Ise was not much different from Naru’s.

A brat who always wanted to be the center of attention, the best at everything, and have the best things for himself.

He was also raising his voice over the financial support issue with Floss. Floss was a rookie group that had just debuted, but they already had a huge fandom that had been established for almost six months through pre-release programs and broadcasts.

That meant they had to show things that other groups usually prepared after two years of debut to satisfy the needs of their long-awaited fans.

That would have been the case for any group in the same situation as Floss. They would have monopolized the company’s support.

“Do you think you can do this with our money? Huh?”

He looked like he was barely twenty-two. His attitude was outrageous. I personally didn’t want to have anything to do with him. I shook my head in disbelief as I remembered his words.

Well, it’s the entertainment industry where you can survive by being rude as long as you catch the eyes of the fans. But still, that was too much. And Climax was a nameless group that had been stuck at the bottom for almost three years.

They would probably be dropped as soon as their contract expired. I clenched my teeth as I recalled the words of my former group.

That was already a year ago. Climax, who I expected to disband soon, changed this spring.

“He suddenly started cooking.”

Some of the members scoffed at the news that the reckless brat started cooking by himself.

Didn’t they say their contract was expiring soon? They’re probably going to disband next year. Maybe he’s trying to get some attention or something.

Maybe he’s trying to move to a family-oriented agency. He’s just doing idols as a hobby anyway. Why doesn’t he change his career? They mocked him with sarcastic remarks. But Yu-geon impulsively showed interest.

I honestly opposed it at first, but Yu-geon’s reaction was quite positive.

“I went to the radio today.”

He arrived just in time for the regular schedule after a hectic day. He said something unexpected.

“He seemed different. I don’t know. I can’t tell what he’s thinking from just seeing him once.”

Then he quickly figured out how to use him and started to pass on some of the lower priority schedules to him.

It was a win-win situation for Yu-geon, who had too many offers to handle. But I wondered.

“Would that irresponsible brat do the work that others dumped on him?”

Contrary to my doubts, Cheon Ise, who appeared briefly on the screen, was a completely different person.

And a month ago. When I got an offer to join a web variety show to prevent unnecessary fan wars, I was quite surprised.

He was worried about fan fights? I didn’t believe it. I hesitated to join, but Yu-geon said he didn’t care and I had to accept his offer.

Although we didn’t live together for that long. But still, he was my roommate.

He was younger than me and I had no idea what he was thinking for the past two years.

But compared to the other members who had no clue about me, Yu-geon was a bit better.

So I reluctantly agreed to meet Climax face to face. And that day, I had to overturn the prejudice I had against Ise.

Yu-geon was right. The brat who only wanted to be noticed was gone.

And there was a strange leader who made me spill my inner thoughts like a wise adult. And he was loved by all the members.