The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

“Do you need my help?”

Kang Hyun-Sung asked me if I needed his help. My head became too much of a mess to answer his question. This wasn’t the sort of person he was. He wanted to help me without any payment.

Why? For what? It wasn’t like we had such a great relationship with Only One nor had I given some enormous help to Kang Hyun-Sung. We simply met each other occasionally to share news and plans as business partners. Yet, Kang Hyun-Sung was trying to step over this line for some reason right now. This was so unlike him that I didn’t know what to think.

Thus, I asked, “…Why would you help me?”

Perhaps, he could feel hurt by my comment, but he needed to understand my position. I was too astounded by his offer to say anything else, and Kang Hyun-Sung appeared to ponder my question. It appeared even Kang Hyun-Sung was aware that he had no reason to help me too and was trying to purposefully find a reason to tell me by biding time.

‘But why would he…go so far to help me?’ My head went blank. I was already fatigued beyond belief, but this added to my tiredness. I would probably be knocked off to sleep as soon as I returned home today. It was then Kang Hyun-Sung slowly opened his mouth.

“It’s so that you won’t get into trouble.”

“…?” This was completely unexpected. It seemed Kang Hyun-Sung also realized that what he spat out made no sense and explained himself.

“I’m offering my help so you and your members won’t get into some big trouble and can stay in the idol scene for longer.”

Though Kang Hyun-Sung reworded his explanation, I still couldn’t understand him. Why was he concerned about our group’s problem? Perhaps, he read the puzzlement on my face, and Kang Hyun-Sung continued to make excuses.

“…It will be good for you guys and us if both groups work for a long time. It will help maintain our fandoms for longer. It’s been a while since Only One and Siren were tied together as a set. If one of us falls, I’m sure people would drag down the other team, saying that they are bygones too.”

This was reasonable to some degree, but it still didn’t make sense that he would help our group just for that reason. If it was the usual Kang Hyun-Sung, he would work on severing ties with Siren to avoid that from happening.

Furthermore, even if Kang Hyun-Sung gave me a proper reason, it was strange for me to receive his help. There were too many supernatural and incomprehensible things involved with my work such as the system, regression, death flag missions, and so on for me to work with someone else.

“…It’s fine. I will take care of my group’s problems,” I tried to reject his offer as politely as possible. Though I felt sorry for refusing, I thought things were cleaner this way. Kang Hyun-Sung seemed to revert back to his usual self then and the light in his pupils died down.

“All right. It can’t be helped then.”

“Yes.”

An awkward silence continued between us then.

“I will drop you off at your dorm,” he then said.

“Thank you.”

On our way back to the dorm, we continued to just talk about events surrounding us and separated.

***

As I expected, I immediately dozed off as soon as I arrived back home. The moment I changed my clothes and lay down, I lost consciousness. I didn’t even remember how I fell asleep. I just found myself surrounded by my members in a circle when I woke up. At first, I wondered what in the world was happening or whether I was still in a dream. Yet, I wasn’t in a dream. This was real life.

“…What are you all doing?”

“Oh! He woke up.”

“Mr. Tae-Yoon is finally awake.”

“Tae-Yoon, are you all right?”

“I should’ve taken a pic as a memory.”

My members each said a word while surrounding me. I wondered why they were doing this when I realized the reason.

“…What? Why am I here?” I thought I had definitely gone into my room last night to sleep but that wasn’t the case. After changing my clothes, I had fallen asleep in the middle of the living room. No wonder I kept feeling chilly while sleeping. I didn’t even have a blanket to cover me up in the living room.

“You also sleep walk, Tae-Yoon?”

“Seems like everyone in our team sleepwalks.”

“I do recall hearing that irregular sleep could trigger it…”

“Should we all go to a sleep clinic?”

My members commented while seeing me lay in the living room.

“…I’m sorry for making you guys worried. It seems like I mistook the living room as my room while going to the bathroom yesterday,” I explained with whatever reasoning that came to my mind because I didn’t want to bring up the fact that I met with Kang Hyun-Sung last night to converse.

For now, I got up to take a shower. Since today was Monday, there was no special schedule. We didn’t have to go out early in the morning since we didn’t have to go to a music show either. Yet, it wasn’t like we had the whole day off. We had a magazine interview this noon and a fan meeting in the evening.

“Let’s have breakfast first guys.”

Then, after I came back from a shower, I saw that Yeon-Hoon had set up the dining table. Breakfast had no rice but was just full of vegetables and plants.

“Ahhh…I want to eat meat…” Dong-Jun complained weakly and talked negatively of our meal, but nobody spared him a second glance. The only one among us who gave him the slightest attention was Do-Seung but his response was closer to rebuke than anything.

“There’s chicken breast. Shouldn’t you consider that as meat?”

“…Don’t you know that chicken breast is lumped in with veggies in terms of taste?”

“What nonsense are you saying? Quickly eat.”

Like that, my members and I finished our meals and had a short break before moving to our schedules.

“Did they say that we will have a shooting and interview together?”

While we moved, Yeon-Hoon asked Ms. Seung-Yeon for confirmation about our schedule.

“Yes. We will have a light magazine shooting and then do a group interview.”

The shooting site we were heading to today was a publishing company that released various magazines. The company was planning to release a special edition by collecting pictures and information of idols. The interview’s content would be about everything that led to our debut and we had already received the questions beforehand. Since the questions were nothing special, it didn’t take us long to come up with the answers.

“What’s the theme of the shooting?”

“According to what I heard, they matched the theme to each of the team’s concepts.”

“Really?”

“Yes, since Siren’s concept is the ocean, won’t they go with a marine concept or something?”

We arrived at the shooting site while listening to the explanations. Perhaps it was because they were doing a multiple idol groups edition but there were already several large vans parked in the parking lot. Only One was probably somewhere in this place since Kang Hyun-Sung told me yesterday that they were also going to this interview. I unconsciously searched for Only One’s car and turned my head.

‘What am I doing? Sigh.’ After the meeting yesterday, I felt a bit uncomfortable about seeing Kang Hyun-Sung. Didn’t everyone feel a bit awkward to see someone whose offer they refused? That was the sort of discomfort I felt.

“Wow, this place feels like a factory.”

“Seems like each of those buildings are all studios.”

“Yes, that’s right. From what I know, about four teams are shooting together.”

“It really is a factory then. A shooting factory.”

My members and I walked towards the studio assigned to us. Yet, when we got nearer to the studio, we were stopped from entering.

“Ah, the team before us didn’t finish their shooting?”

“Yes we thought it would be over by the time you all arrived but the photographer said he didn’t want to stop until he got an A-cut.”

“It can’t be helped. We will wait.”

Since the issue wasn’t so serious for us to complain, we had no choice but to wait. But it seemed like the studio thought it wasn’t right to just make us wait and let us get our hair and makeup done beforehand. Like Ms. Seung-Yeon predicted, our concept for today was the marines.

“Is it a sailor uniform?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not for cosplay but an authentic military uniform?”

“Yes, these are ones that American soldiers actually wore. We slightly retouched them to make them feel more modern.”

It was our first time receiving such high-quality sailor uniforms. The sailor uniforms we wore on stage felt slightly light and breezy but this one really gave off the impression that it was an outfit men wore. Since we were at a shooting site instead of a stage, perhaps, this was better for taking pictures.

“Since the changing stalls are there, please change your clothes in the stalls.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s go guys~”

“Let’s go change our clothes~”

My members and I walked to the changing stalls. Then, after changing into our outfits, we took a selfie together0900009. It was to show our fans when the magazine began to be on sale.

“This really feels like a military uniform.”

“It looks more like a military uniform with the hats on.”

“Should we all apply to join the marines when we serve our time?”

“…What did you say, Tea-Yoon?”

I saw Yeon-Hoon’s face sour when I thoughtlessly brought up the topic of military service.

“…I won’t mention it again,” I swore.

Then, we returned to the studio while making some small talk. By the time we arrived there, the shooting was coming to a close and people were organizing the scene.

“Thank goodness it didn’t take that long.”

“Yeah.”

“They said they would let us in after cleaning up in five minutes.”

“Thank goodness.”

After the promised five minutes passed, the door to the studio opened. Because of our lost time, the only thing on our minds was to quickly finish the shooting and head to the fan meeting site.

“…Ah?” But when we went inside the studio, we spotted an unexpected team packing up their belongings. The moment we met eyes with the members of the other team, we froze in our spots. I expected an idol group with a similar length of experience as us when I heard that another team was shooting at the same site, but I didn’t expect that team to be this one.

“Ah…haha. It’s been a while.”

“Ha…hahaha…hello.”

My team’s leader and the other team’s leader exchanged an awkward greeting. I looked towards the other team. Since the topic of this edition was about debuting, I thought the studio would’ve only gathered teams that already debuted but it seemed they also included groups that were about to debut as well.

“How have you all been?” The other team’s leader, Han Do-Young, walked towards us and asked. I wordlessly stared back at him. He was Bleshu’s leader who did The Showcase 2 with us. At the same time, he was also a member of a group that was involved in a recent plagiarism scandal tied to our group.

“Ah, yes. Haha. We’ve been doing well. What about you?”

“Yes…well, we’ve also been doing well. Haha.”

It was a very awkward and uncomfortable exchange. Our interaction with Bleshu was usually not this bad. Before, they would greet us cheerfully, and we would do the same. Yet, seeing their response, I became sure.

‘Seems like these guys also think they plagiarized us.’ I was sure that the Bleshu members were well aware of the plagiarism issue that was spreading inside their fandom. I decided to pass over that since it wasn’t Bleshu’s fault. Furthermore, we didn’t even see the final result yet to confirm it was plagiarism. I thought we just needed to pass this awkward interaction now.

“Um…ah…well…” Han Do-Young opened his mouth to say something and closed it again.

Then, he said, “Ah, it’s nothing. Haha. Good luck on your shooting” and led his team out of the studio. One of the biggest things that drove a person crazy was to stop in the middle of speaking, but it was easy to guess what he was trying to say and I understood why he had stopped in the middle. Thus, I hoped for all of us to quickly forget this interaction and focus on the shooting when…

[Surprise Mission]

‘What?’

Right when I was looking at Han Do-Young and the rest of the Bleshu members, I got a surprise mission. It was so obvious what this surprise mission would be about. I thought it would have something to do with plagiarism for sure, but…

[Stop Bleshu from debuting.]

[Upon success, no rewards.]

[Upon failure, definite failure to achieve Triple Crown All-Kill.]

‘This is freaking insane.’ It didn’t have anything to do with the plagiarism but to stop Bleshu’s debut altogether. This was a completely unreasonable mission again.