Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 227 Eating is important

Henny walked past me and slumped down on the chair right in front of the heater.

She kept holding her phone for a long time, unable to hide her bad mood.

Even after the actor who played the male lead joined us, the atmosphere remained cold for a while.

“Unni, what happened?”

The voice that greeted Henny sounded strangely familiar. The name of the male lead was…

“Oops.”

I lifted my head and checked the face of the male lead. I recognized who he was and was startled.

“?”

Kyunghwa, who had come out of the dressing room and approached me, was also surprised by my reaction and opened his eyes wide.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

I quickly shook my head. The identity of the male lead who surprised me was none other than Park Jun-ki.

‘He’s still in his early twenties, isn’t he? Is it okay for him to play a company employee?’

He didn’t look like a late twenties office worker at all. The costume, makeup, and hair were desperately trying to make him look older.

Not only Kyunghwa, but also Park Jun-ki seemed to feel my presence and looked at me.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else and got startled.”

I apologized with a laugh, and Jun-ki nodded lightly as if he didn’t know what was going on.

‘He doesn’t remember what happened back then, just like the others.’

It wasn’t a big deal, but I felt a bit sorry. I guess I should just think of it as something that never happened.

‘Well… it’s not like it was a good thing to remember anyway.’

My Idol is a thing of the past. The Swift trio are working hard to prepare for a new start at a new label, and the rest of the problematic members have gone their separate ways.

It’s better to focus on the future than to worry about the past.

I nodded to myself and fixed Kyunghwa’s outfit.

“Okay, we’re going to shoot right away, so please wait in your places!”

At the staff’s request, the actors handed over their coats and blankets to their managers and moved inside the set.

As I took Kyunghwa’s luggage and watched the movements of the other actors, I noticed Henny’s anxious expression.

Her thin arms and legs suggested malnutrition, and her hands were trembling. Her skin was also covered with makeup, but it didn’t look good.

‘Is she okay…’

She looked uneasy in many ways. Fortunately, she was the type who did her job well when she stood in front of the camera, and she was the most stable among the three actors.

Kyunghwa wasn’t bad… but. He was obviously a rookie in acting, and Jun-ki was not very good at acting either.

As I watched Henny, who was covering the acting skills of the three of them, I couldn’t help but admire her.

‘Well, the shooting should go smoothly…’

I thought so for a moment, but Jun-ki started to mess up his lines.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll just look at the script again and go.”

Jun-ki apologized to the staff with a cute expression, and everyone laughed and let it go. Everyone except Henny.

For a brief moment, Henny’s face twisted as if she was going to grab Jun-ki’s collar.

‘Wow… she’s fierce…’

When the camera started rolling, she became a different person, a cheerful and quirky female lead Joo-young, so it was hard to say anything more.

Even after that, every time they had to repeat the same scene due to the staff’s mistakes or the director’s requests, Henny’s complexion got worse and worse.

‘I wonder if she’s barely holding on with her willpower.’

I thought it would be better for her to rest, but even when the camera was off, her face darkened.

“Let’s have lunch for a while!”

At the director’s request, everyone gathered together and started to eat the lunch boxes that Jun-ki’s fans had sent.

“Hello, I’m sorry I couldn’t greet you properly earlier because I was busy.”

Jun-ki, who was a junior to Climax, came to me and Kyunghwa with a smile.

‘He’s friendly and sociable, I guess that’s his personality.’

I gladly sat down with Jun-ki and ate the lunch box, and took a selfie to post on SNS.

“So you’ve been debuting for six years now, right?”

Jun-ki seemed to have succeeded in debuting last year, before the My Idol craze died down.

Unfortunately, like many other groups that emerged after My Idol, his popularity was not very good.

Jun-ki himself had a lot of fans from his My Idol days, so he was trying to switch to acting.

‘I guess he’s more interested in us because we started to rise from the bottom.’

We were an example of perseverance paying off, but our case was different. It wasn’t because we waited… it was because the person inside the leader changed.

I kept the words I couldn’t say and smiled and made friends with Jun-ki.

While the three male idols were chatting together, Henny sat next to a woman who looked like her manager, pressing her forehead and closing her eyes.

‘She doesn’t eat.’

I could see the manager holding a lunch box in his hand, hesitating whether he wanted to eat or not.

As soon as Henny waved her hand as if to shoo him away, the manager quickly moved to where the other staff members were.

‘What’s going on…?’

While the manager, who joined the filming staff, was stuffing his mouth with side dishes as if he had been waiting for this moment, Henny took out a strange stick and a water bottle from her bag.

Then she dissolved the stick in the water and shook it like a shake, then gulped down the contents with a few sips.

‘…….’

I knew what it was. It was a diet package that was being sold on SNS and even on the portal site’s hot deals.

That stuff would ruin her health. I was worried for a moment when Kyunghwa grabbed my arm.

“……?”

When I looked at Kyunghwa with a puzzled expression, he whispered with a frown.

“Are you interested in Henny? Why are you staring at her?”

No, that was a ridiculous misunderstanding. I was interested in Henny’s health and the causal relationship between her and that diet product. I shook my head right away.

“What are you talking about? I was just curious what she was eating.”

“She’s not eating anything, you know.”

If someone didn’t know what the drink in Henny’s hand was, they might think that way. I added an explanation to the bizarre misunderstanding that had arisen.

“What she’s holding in her hand is probably a Nanerkit shake. It’s the one that advertises 80 calories or something per serving.”

“Oh~.”

Only then did Kyunghwa seem to believe me a little bit and looked at the water bottle in her hand.

“I mean. You should have seen you looking at those heavenly girls with interest.”

Of course. It was mainly because I had no fantasies or interests in dating or marriage, but.

‘They’re too young.’

Even if I liked older women, I wouldn’t be interested in those fresh and young girls.

“I prefer older women, if I had to choose.”

“?”

Kyunghwa looked at me with an expression that he couldn’t understand.

“Henny is twenty-seven, right?”

“Ah.”

I added an excuse.

“Older than that.”

If they were older than my real age… Hmm… They would look like quite unusual criminals on the outside.

‘Not me, but the other person.’

It’s better to live alone and go alone if you don’t want to be left behind.

I came to a random conclusion by myself and dismissed Kyunghwa’s suspicion.

“Anyway, don’t worry about it. It’s none of your business.”

The filming, which resumed shortly after the short meal time, continued until late at night.

And throughout the filming, Henny didn’t eat anything except for one diet shake.

In the end, as soon as the last scene was over, she almost collapsed and staggered into the arms of her manager.

“Henny, are you okay?”

As the staff’s attention was drawn, Henny’s expression darkened for a moment and then she smiled brightly as if she was acting.

“I’m sorry, I just tripped over my foot! You all worked so hard today!”

I didn’t feel good watching her. Was it okay to leave her alone? I was worried as we got ready to go back.

“…….”

I was still bothered after returning to the accommodation. That damn diet product. I couldn’t believe that anyone would lose weight if they only ate that and starved themselves. I felt even worse when I saw it in front of me.

I came home and sorted out the lyrics I had picked out in the first round, but I still couldn’t organize my thoughts and felt complicated.

Eventually, I went into the SNS subscription account and entered Henny’s personal SNS.

Henny was also an idol, but not a rookie, so she had a separate personal SNS account.

In the story video that was uploaded a while ago, Henny was smiling brightly and eating a delivery food that was a calorie bomb.

[I flexed on late-night snacks tonight thanks to Nanerkitㅋㅋ]

Only she knew if she really ate it or went to vomit right away.

‘Is she trying to kill herself?’

I felt even colder when I saw the subscribers leaving comments praising how jealous they were that she was so skinny even after eating like that.

“…….”

I felt a presence behind the sofa and turned around to see Kyunghwa looking down at me with his eyes narrowed and full of doubt.

“You really….”

“No, it’s not what you think.”

“You expect me to believe that after you searched for her story?”

“No, I was sure she would binge eat when she got home. And she really did.”

I pointed at the tteokbokki that Henny was eating with a happy expression in the video and Kyunghwa made a sound of clicking his tongue.

“It’s pitiful, but. It’s not a problem we can help with, you know.”

I knew that… I had a contract for years. If I changed my appearance or stopped taking the pills, the advertisers would sue me for breach of contract.

But this way… It would surely cause trouble someday. It was unfair to face a scandal over my personality, which had become extremely sensitive due to my poor diet.

People tend to lose their temper when they starve. If I went without food for three days, I would become a walking time bomb.

Was there anything I could do to help without losing money?

I thought for a moment and remembered what had sparked the climax of my recovery.

‘Ah…!’

But I was so busy with management right now… Could I do that too?

This was also an opportunity. I had been planning it for a long time.

I wasn’t sure, but this was something I did better than breathing. I went straight to the fridge and checked what salad ingredients were left.

“Hmm… This should be fine.”

I calculated the volume and calories of each ingredient and wrote them down on a note.

“As filling and tasty as possible…”

Suddenly, Seon-woo came to the kitchen, sniffing the smell, because of me who started to mix and match things.

“Hyung, what are you making?”

“Perfect. Come and taste it.”

I smiled and sat Seon-woo down.