The Conditions for Becoming a Kind Idol Leader - Episode 1
“Fuck, seriously.”
By habit, Go Young-in muttered the curse under his breath and buried his face in both hands. A groan slipped out of him before he could stop it.
[Loading.......]
[Processing.......]
[.......]
[Reset complete.]
A garish 3D hologram floated in the air, blinking on and off as if it were deliberately mocking him while it printed out the words.
It had the exact shape of a status window straight out of a game.
The eyes peeking through the gaps between his fingers rolled toward the hologram, then dulled as though they had lost all focus.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his complexion was so pale he looked like a man who had not slept properly in days. The air about him was saturated with the sickly weariness of an invalid.
This was a reset again. He had no idea how many it had been by now.
He had been sent back into the past once more.
He couldn’t tell how long he was expected to keep doing this damned thing.
Go Young-in let out a long breath.
A fucking status window.
This time, there really was nothing left to do but sigh.
* * *
[The 100 Clauses for Becoming a Perfect Idol]
[We will help you become the best idol possible.]
“...W-what is this?”
Young Go Young-in stared blankly at the translucent something that had appeared before his eyes, sounding completely dazed.
It had materialized out of nowhere, with no warning at all.
Am I dreaming right now?
A transparent screen floating in the air? And not just that, it sparkled with unnecessary three-dimensional flair, looking exactly like the interface a game would call a status window.
Even while he saw it with his own eyes, the thing was so absurd that he couldn’t properly grasp what was happening.
He had just been walking along as usual. So why?
“This is insane.”
[Clause 18 | A perfect idol does not speak or act carelessly anywhere.]
“Huh……?”
Go Young-in blinked stupidly.
So what was he supposed to do with that?
Doesn’t speak or act carelessly? What, am I an idol now?
He wasn’t an idol, and he had never even considered becoming one. He had no interest in the industry to begin with.
“What business is it of yours whether I speak carelessly or not? What are you going to do if I do?”
[You will receive a penalty for violating the clause.]
“...It talks back? What kind of bullshit is this now?”
[Clause 18 | A perfect idol does not speak or act carelessly anywhere.]
Warning!
[Current status: Warning 1, Penalty 0]
Go Young-in wrinkled his nose.
Something was wrong. He didn’t know what it was, but instinct was warning him that the word Warning! was not meant to be good news.
[The accumulated count of “Warning 2” has been converted into “Penalty 1.”]
[Current status: Warning 0, Penalty 1]
[Once five penalties accumulate, you will be reset.]
[You will receive a “Warning” each time you violate a clause. Please note that two Warnings will be converted into one Penalty!]
Ha ha ha... ha ha......
“Haah......”
Ah... I get it.
Go Young-in gave a small laugh out loud.
He’d probably gotten heatstroke.
He had no idea what it meant to be “reset,” but his energy was running low and he must be seeing things.
Just then, a harsh sunlight came pouring down on him, stabbing through his whole body. His head hurt for no reason at all.
Right. If I keep thinking about it, I’m the only one who ends up looking crazy.
Though something deep in his chest still felt unsettled, he ignored the status window and started walking again.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Fortunately, the hallucination did not follow him. It only stayed where it had appeared, blinking quietly in place.
It existed there soundlessly, unobtrusively.
[Each time a penalty accumulates, a penalty effect is applied. The effect and duration are random.]
[Status ailment acquired: Headache.]
[Remaining time: 12 hours]
He felt like he had just heard something, but maybe it was only his imagination.
Maybe he really had been overtaken by the heat; his head suddenly began to throb.
Clutching at his aching skull, Go Young-in gave his head a light shake to either side and turned the corner, heading into an alley.
At the same moment, the strange status window hovering in midair quietly vanished, as if it had never existed at all.
* * *
By the time nearly a week had passed after that bizarre incident, another thing had happened.
“Hey, friend, you really don’t want to try being an idol?”
“Sorry. I’m not interested.”
“That face is way too wasted on you... Unnie can really support our friend and help you become the best idol if you set your mind to it. Hm? Let me give you my card, at least. If you ever change your mind later, won’t you contact me?”
Go Young-in stared at the business card held up right in front of him.
Assistant Manager Kang Ba-da, New Talent Development Team, DD Entertainment.
Under normal circumstances, he would have accepted it with the usual polite promise to think it over. But after hearing the word idol, that incident from a few days ago came rushing back, and he hesitated for no reason at all.
“No, I really won’t. My parents would be against it too. Still, thank you for thinking well of me.”
Readjusting his school bag, Go Young-in bowed and passed Kang Ba-da by.
Kang Ba-da clicked her tongue as she watched his back.
That face was really the kind that could do anything if it wanted to…….
Whatever Kang Ba-da was thinking, Go Young-in didn’t care. He moved away quickly without looking back.
After walking at a somewhat brisk pace and confirming there was no one nearby, he let out a slow breath.
This is really weird. Why does it feel so wrong?
Didn’t people say instincts told them when something was off? Ever since he’d seen that hallucination, everything had felt wrong.
Something’s seriously wrong here.
There’s no way...
But his no way turned out to be creepily accurate.
And it didn’t take long for Go Young-in to realize that fact.
“Hey, student, I’m with this company, and I was wondering if you like singing?”
“Excuse me. I happened to see you passing by, and I’d hate to miss someone like you. Are you signed with an agency?”
“Don’t you want to become a star shining onstage? You’ve got potential! You’re practically an uncut gem!”
All kinds of people claiming to work for entertainment agencies approached Go Young-in as if they had coordinated it in advance.
Then, out of nowhere, they would latch onto him and ask if he wanted to become an idol.
And not because he had been wandering around some area known for idol agencies, either. He was just taking the roads he normally used.
Every time, Go Young-in refused them and hurried away.
Some of them were so persistent that even after he turned them down, they kept coming back, or followed him like stalkers all the way home.
When he started taking a different route, they somehow even found his school and waited right in front of the main gate.
He still remembered the shock of seeing them there and fleeing out the back entrance.
Please... why the hell are you doing this to me? Did I ask for this? If you act like this, even someone who wanted to do it would run for the hills!
Grinding his teeth inside, Go Young-in puffed out an angry breath.
He had been harassed so relentlessly that even the mere letter “i” in “idol” felt like it might turn his stomach.
“You crazy bastard! Come out! I said come out!”
He shouted his curses with all his might, thinking maybe he could at least drag the status window out and demand to know what it had done, but if that thing had really been a hallucination, then nothing appeared at all.
Even after that, the strange people kept coming after him stubbornly, and each time, Go Young-in did his best to run.
Part of him wondered whether he should have just clenched his teeth and pretended to go to an agency audition. But by then his stubbornness had set in, and he absolutely refused to lose.
He started avoiding them with even more care and desperation.
Yet after all that avoiding and refusing, if that still wasn’t enough, the surrounding world itself began to go strangely sideways.
If he walked without thinking even a little, or got lost, he would somehow find himself standing in front of an idol agency.
If his classmates didn’t talk about idols, they would leave him out of the conversation.
If he happened to go into a store, one of the idol members might be there as a customer.
And to make it worse, a close relative would suddenly get hired at a broadcasting station...
Go Young-in felt as if he had been possessed by a ghost.
This is driving me nuts.
How long had he been dealing with it?
Fortunately or unfortunately, just like the status window that had appeared and vanished without warning, the persistent situations that had come after him also disappeared all at once.
That’s unsettling in its own way.
Still, he couldn’t relax. He had no idea when it might start tormenting him again.
The moment nothing happened, his nerves only grew sharper. It felt as if he were trapped in the eye of a storm.
But as though his worries had been unfounded, the strange phenomena never came back.
Only years later did he finally feel safe enough to stop thinking about it.
Little by little, that bizarre and absurd episode faded from Go Young-in’s mind.
And before long, he had become an adult.
After entering university, Go Young-in completed his first year and immediately applied for enlistment, then went into the army as quickly as possible.
If he was going to be hit by a whip, he might as well take the blow first and get the thing he didn’t want to do out of the way fast.
Fortunately, he got through military life without any major incident or accident, surviving that miserable stretch where a single day felt like a year, and was discharged safely.
He drank a few light celebratory drinks with the friends who had gathered to congratulate him, loosened up for the first time in ages, and then went home, stretched out on his bed, and fell asleep in rare comfort.
And then, the next day.
[The 100 Clauses for Becoming a Perfect Idol]
[We will help you become the best idol possible.]
“......”
Go Young-in, just awake, looked down at his own hands, now smaller than before. His eyes shook violently.
No way... no, impossible. No, no, no.
Thinking it might be a dream, he clenched and opened his fists a few times.
The sensation of strength entering and leaving his smaller hands was far too vivid to be a dream.
[The 100 Clauses for Becoming a Perfect Idol]
[We will help you become the best idol possible.]
“...W-what is this?”
Young Go Young-in stared dazedly at the translucent thing that had appeared before him.
[Reset complete.]
It was Go Young-in’s first reset.