Survive! Foolish Bottom!

Eventually, Haeun approached the door cautiously. He turned the doorknob and peeked out into the narrow living room. Fortunately, there seemed to be no one around.

However, as soon as he cautiously stepped outside, a ghostly voice echoed in his ears.

“Finally came out, huh?”

Unless someone had been waiting at the door, there was no other explanation. Even Haeun, who prided herself on having no fear, couldn’t help but be startled. He jumped and turned to look in the direction of the voice.

The first thing he saw was the bright red hair. He must have undergone multiple rounds of bleaching to achieve that fiery color, reminiscent of freshly ground red pepper paste. As someone who frequently bleached his hair to maintain his yellow hair, Haeun felt a deep sense of kinship for a moment.

“Hey, are you out of your mind? The comeback is just around the corner, and you’re skipping practice?”

But the twisted words that came out of his mouth immediately brought him back to his senses.

It was a phrase he knew all too well. It was the first line he encountered every time he started playing Eu-Idol. He didn’t realize it at first, but right after starting the game, whether he chose to start practicing or not, it was impossible to practice. So getting scolded by the capturable character, ‘Seongjae,’ was part of the routine.

Haeun was too busy rolling his eyes to respond promptly. In response, Seongjae crossed his arms impatiently and continued speaking.

“Why, are you going to complain about how hard the schedule was this time too? Seriously, every day it’s just excuses after excuses. …Look at your expression. Did I say something wrong?”

Although there were some differences in the details, the overall framework was exactly like the game. He even bore a striking resemblance to the illustration of Seongjae in the game. Haeun was so amazed by the similarity that he momentarily forgot about the situation and got lost in reminiscence.

When he first started playing the game, he used to get angry at these annoying lines, but after repeating the cycle several times, his frustration gradually lessened. By the end, he even felt a sense of familiarity. The power of skipping was significant. If he said something particularly harsh, he just skipped over it.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

However, as he continued to listen, he found herself even more annoyed than he would have been by Seongjae’s lines in the game. Haeun looked at him with a displeased expression.

They were really similar.

“Hey, Park Haeun.”

He pressed on once again.

Fortunately, he was still feeling confused and unable to grasp the situation. If he hadn’t managed to hold back his frustration, he would have gotten into a fight or more. While Park Haeun looked at his annoying face and tried to determine whether this was a hidden camera

or not, a belated voice of restraint came through.

“Seongjae ah, calm down.”

In the game, this was the point where Il-hyun would start to calm down Seongjae. The guy who revealed himself this time, with his brown hair, and the mild-mannered man, were also uncannily similar to Il-hyun from the game. He asked with a concerned tone,

“Your complexion looks really off. Was your condition that bad? You never miss practices……”

Haeun reflexively recalled the situation that would follow. In fact, at this moment, during the tutorial of the game, the main character was suffering from severe fatigue and couldn’t practise due to a bad case of body aches, despite having their comeback stage right in front

of them.

Even though the suspicion that this might be a hidden camera situation still lingered, Haeun, an experienced player, recalled the strategies for playing Eu-Idol. What would happen if he responded neither annoyed nor timidly?

The environment was too vivid for it to be just a VR game. There were no VR goggles to be felt when he touched his face, and he had never heard of virtual reality games being this advanced.

However, calling this a play staged by costume players from Eu-Idol would be absurd, as the quality of the makeup was too good, and above all, they seemed too serious. If it was acting, they deserved awards.

It might be an absurd thought, but perhaps Park Haeun was really in the game world of “Eurasha Idol.” If so, it would be awkward to open his mouth recklessly and choose the wrong route. Of course, it would be just as awkward if he thought they were high-level actors who were making fun of him. If he reacted incorrectly, he would definitely become a target for ridicule.

In the end, Haeun stood there dumbfounded, unable to do anything.

“…You seem really tired, why don’t you come in and rest for a bit? We still have some time left.” 

Kind-hearted ‘Il-hyun’ looked at him with pity. He asked kindly, “Should I give you some medicine?”

Among the capturable characters, Il-hyun was the only one with a gentle and kind nature. Despite not having a particularly close relationship with the protagonist, he worried about him just because he was feeling unwell. While he wasn’t sure if it was real or not, due to Il-hyun’s 2D face on the screen looking so similar, he felt a strange sense of familiarity and gratitude.

Haeun, who was about to casually respond with “Well, thank you then,” hastily closed his mouth. Was it because his tone sounded too indifferent and unaware, unlike the idol ‘Park Ha’ in the game, who was more sensitive and thankful? Not really.

If he accepted the medicine here, his body ache would improve, but the interest of the capturable characters would increase. It wouldn’t be just Il-hyun who gave him the medicine, but also Junwoo. 

The idea that Junwoo’s interest would increase just because Il-hyun gave him medicine seemed strange. He had thought during gameplay that he would encounter all sorts of odd characters.

“No, it’s okay.”

Trying to speak as neutrally as possible, Haeun shook his head. Understanding that Il-hyun, who was kind but not particularly close, didn’t push further and simply nodded in acceptance.

“Um, well… then I’ll go in and rest.”

Haeun tried to quickly retreat to his room with his eyes downcast. He regretted coming out. He should have just ignored the suggestion to greet them as he left. He needed some time alone to figure out what was going on.

In fact, his temperament almost led him to grab them by the collar and demand they show him the camera right away if they were playing a prank. If it weren’t for a strange sense of unfamiliarity…… and his instinctual sense that he shouldn’t, he would have done it right away.

He tried to escape without a response, fearing when his temper might get the better of him and lose control. But the last member, who had remained silent until now, grabbed him.

Yoon Junwoo. With the determination to see all the endings, he had captured him but he was the most difficult character to deal with until the end.

Haeun found straightforward personalities like Seongjae more comforting. He had many friends who were intuitive and fought straightforwardly, especially among guys, who typically formed strong friendships that way, according to his observations.

But Junwoo seemed too nice on the surface, which was off-putting. Even though some people found the difference between his appearance and his true self charming, it wasn’t Haeun’s preferred type. Especially early in the game, his excessive sweetness was annoying.

As he progressed in the game, he seemed to try to show only his kind side in front of the protagonist, which felt insincere. But at this point, it was the height of his misfortune. Junwoo began speaking with a faint smile.

“Well, try to take care of yourself, whatever it is that’s bothering you. We have a comeback tomorrow, you know.”

“Uh, um…”

Haeun wanted to bite his tongue at the stupid answer that he couldn’t believe came out of his mouth.

“If we mess up this album too…

.”

Junwoo continued speaking, uncaring of Haeun’s response.

“Hyung doesn’t like disappointing others, you know?”

There was probably no one better at throwing subtly throned comments. Hearing those words made Haeun feel like he might choke.

The main character was timid and had a kind of

angel disease