Chapter 10 - The Conditions for Becoming a Kind Idol Leader - Episode 10
“Guys, wait here for a moment.”
Do Sa-jin, Zero One’s manager, looked around at the members as he spoke. He was the same man saved in Go Young-in’s phone as Manager-nim.
“Sorry. I should’ve come to get you earlier too... I got caught up making adjustments to your afternoon schedule. I’ll drive you back to the dorm myself later.”
Do Sa-jin kept wiping at his sweat, glancing nervously at the Zero One members as if he’d committed some grave sin. Not that Zero One had actually done anything; it just seemed to be Do Sa-jin’s nature to act that way.
Do Sa-jin... If I remember him at all, that means he must have been manager for a pretty long time.
When exactly had he quit, and for what reason? There had definitely been a revolving door of managers after him, so the fact that his name felt familiar meant either that they had known each other for a long time, or that something had happened between them.
Well, that’s not important right now.
“Have a safe trip. It’s fine.”
Go Young-in decided it would be better to send the manager off quickly. Judging by how stiff he looked, he really must have felt bad. What was there to be that sorry about for not being able to pick them up once in the morning? If it was urgent, there was always the road manager.
“That’s right. Don’t worry about us and go ahead. We’re still inside the company building anyway.”
Cheon Sa-yoon also spoke to the manager in a calm, composed voice. Only then did Do Sa-jin finally look relieved, repeating the same thanks several more times before leaving.
The dorm could only be reached if the vanished manager or the road manager was available, and the practice room was shared, so there was a good chance another team was using it. There wasn’t a single empty room available.
Which was why Zero One was currently seated in a circle around a round table in the lobby.
……
“…….”
After sitting down, each of them either played on their phones, closed their eyes to meditate, or just did their own thing. It had already been fifteen minutes since anyone had said a single word.
...How grim.
The silence wasn’t awkward. It just made him realize, once again, how serious things were. In truth, ever since the status window had appeared, Go Young-in had rarely been one to speak unless the status window told him to.
Seeing them like this, they really do look less like they’re not close and more like they don’t even care.
They’d spent time together, and yet there they were in this silence. Of course, things had been no less strained once they’d accumulated more years as a group, but he couldn’t help wondering if it had always been like this from the start.
What had they really been like, all this time?
Go Young-in found himself uncharacteristically serious. In the past, had he been one of those people who simply kept to himself in their midst?
Maybe because he had only just now resolved to face things properly, thanks to the status window. Or maybe because this was the first reset he’d experienced after debut. Somehow, everything felt unfamiliar.
One guy with a personality problem, one frivolous bastard, one guy who made no sense, and one who still probably had no idea what was what.
Honestly, he only knew fragments of the members as individuals.
Why had they gone on to cause so many incidents in the future? Had those things really even been done by them in the first place? What on earth were they thinking? What kind of private lives did they have? He didn’t truly know a single thing.
Even their personalities were somehow different from what he remembered. The Zero One members were far more... unpredictable, in more ways than one, than the personalities Go Young-in thought he had known. Or maybe he’d simply known them wrong to begin with.
And the status window too... Even if I don’t want to think about it, I can’t let my guard down when I never know what they’ll do next.
Go Young-in briefly wondered if this was really okay, then quickly hardened his resolve.
No. Something has already changed from before. Even if I can’t change everything, I’ll do whatever I can to stop the big incidents. Since I’ve already decided to change things, I’m not going to let it go off the rails that easily, you little bastards.
Just you wait, you asshole status window. Let’s see who wins. And as for being the leader? Hell if I know what a leader even does, but maybe I can figure something out by taking a cue from Cheon Sa-yoon.
As Go Young-in muttered to himself, gathering his faltering spirit, a voice suddenly cut through the silence.
“Go Young-in.”
Lim Se-bin, who had been sitting with his eyes closed in silence until now, was somehow staring at him. Since when had he been looking?
Lim Se-bin was both the eldest member of Zero One and the last member he still hadn’t properly spoken to after returning to the past.
As far as Go Young-in remembered, Lim Se-bin was the kind of person who almost never spoke first. Beyond that, nothing much came to mind. Well, maybe he had been a little delicate?
Of course he was startled when the one person he least expected to address him called his name.
“Yes?”
“Why did you do that?”
“...Do what?”
Lim Se-bin challenged Go Young-in out of nowhere. Since he had no idea what was being challenged, Go Young-in couldn’t help blurting out a confused counterquestion.
“Why’d you say that earlier?”
Maybe it was the irritation in his lowered voice, but there was something strangely overstrained in Lim Se-bin’s air.
The look he shot Go Young-in was sharp enough to cut, yet oddly enough his damp eyes and vaguely wistful features made him seem less frightening than melancholy. At least the tone of his voice made it clear he was genuinely angry.
It was obvious enough that he was annoyed about something Go Young-in had said, but Go Young-in couldn’t for the life of him figure out what.
That earlier remark... Go Young-in mentally retraced what he’d said. There wasn’t anything offensive, was there...? The only thing even remotely suspicious was talking about the album with Double D Entertainment’s chairman.
Ah, fuck...
Was the problem that he’d called it Zero One’s music? Was Lim Se-bin about to tell him he had no right to decide that it was Zero One’s? To be fair, the current Zero One was a group of people who didn’t seem to have a shred of belonging to one another, so it wasn’t exactly impossible.
“I didn’t mean anything else by it. I just... meant exactly what I told the chairman.”
He answered anyway, but from the look on Lim Se-bin’s face, it didn’t seem to have made a damn bit of difference.
“......”
What part of it had flipped the switch? Go Young-in couldn’t even guess, but when he glanced around, Cheon Sa-yoon and Kyeon In-woo both looked like they vaguely understood what Lim Se-bin was talking about, which only made him more confused.
No, seriously. What the hell?
Whether his lack of comprehension showed or not, Lim Se-bin clicked his tongue lightly. Then, as if to make a point, he let out a sigh and said in an irritable tone,
“Why make a pointless mess when you could’ve just done what you were told?”
“Because I thought change was necessary.”
It would have been easier to just follow orders like before. If you were the kind of person who had a passing interest in idols, they’d probably have reached the stage of, “Oh, yeah, those guys are doing well.” In fact, that had been true right up until the controversy really began.
Besides, Go Young-in was the one who knew that if things kept going this way, they’d end up neither here nor there.
If we’re going to do this, wouldn’t it be better to do it in a way that doesn’t make people curse our ancestors? It’s not like I want to be sitting here causing trouble. No matter what I do, if you guys go and screw up the same way, it’s all going to come to nothing anyway.
Even knowing that, trying to change things somehow left him feeling drained when he got this kind of reaction.
Right. Fuck. The members didn’t know what had happened. It had all become something only he knew now. From their perspective, it probably did seem absurd for him to suddenly start acting like this just to save his own skin. So it wasn’t strange that they’d think that way.
So this was just him feeling weird and sour by himself.
Whatever. It wasn’t the first or second time. He brushed off the useless thoughts that wouldn’t earn him a single bit of understanding. Thinking any further would only cost him. From this exchange alone, Go Young-in had learned that Lim Se-bin was fucking touchy.
“Change? Are you serious right now? Are you fucking with me?”
Lim Se-bin’s cold tone sounded almost like a rebuke. A rebuke for what, exactly, Go Young-in couldn’t tell. It just felt that way.
“...Is what I said really that strange?”
“Of course it is.”
Cheon Sa-yoon, who had been listening to the exchange between Lim Se-bin and Go Young-in with obvious interest, suddenly cut in.
“Maybe you picked up something weird somewhere and it scrambled your brain?”
Then, without the slightest change in expression, he spat out such brazen nonsense that Go Young-in nearly choked.
That insane bastard.
Go Young-in quickly looked around. The round table in the corner of the lobby was occupied by no one except the Zero One members.
Ha... What a nutcase.
Luckily, there was no one nearby. A few people passed through the lobby now and then, but they were far enough away that it didn’t seem like they could hear the conversation.
That damn mouth!
“Sa-yoon, this isn’t the dorm. We’re at the company.”
“Do you think I’m the same as you, hyung? Of course I checked around.”
Go Young-in could have screamed. What kind of confidence was that? How had he managed to live without revealing that personality until now? Cheon Sa-yoon really was the kind of man who could save the world with his face and bring disaster with his mouth.
“I can understand why Se-bin-hyung’s acting like this. I’m curious too—why did Young-in-hyung suddenly start thinking that way?”
Cheon Sa-yoon continued as casually as ever, looking utterly serene, especially for someone who was talking like this.
“It doesn’t sound like you at all, Young-in-hyung. Hmm... It’s not like you’re suddenly trying to turn this into some ridiculous little family game between us, right?”
So in the end, he was saying: we’ve been getting by just fine ignoring each other and letting things flow naturally, so why are you suddenly trying to care about the group now?
If he really hadn’t cared about the group, he wouldn’t have been this upset. Well... if anyone asked whether he’d had that much affection for the members, he honestly had no answer to give, but still...
Lim Se-bin’s expression darkened visibly. He seemed to agree with Cheon Sa-yoon in his heart, yet was very clearly displeased by Cheon Sa-yoon barging into the conversation.
Go Young-in expected him to say something, but the one who spoke next was someone unexpected.
“What, still can’t fix that mouth of yours? Who else around here is even on equal footing with you except Pyo Jae-ho? Damn it, who the hell are you calling ridiculous?”
Kyeon In-woo, who’d been on his phone playing a game until then, had somehow turned to sneer at Cheon Sa-yoon. What, Kyeon In-woo? What? What’s the problem? Why the hell are you doing this all of a sudden?
“Ha. What, are you some kind of old fart? Guess the only thing you’ve got going for you is your age. Well, I suppose that’s about all you’ve got.”
“At least I’m not like someone who goes around batting both eyelids at everyone behind their backs. What’s the point of putting on a damn show of managing your image in front of other people?”
A faint look of disgust even surfaced on Kyeon In-woo’s face. They hadn’t even properly started talking yet, and it was already this bad, so they must really hate each other.
“What a pile of shit, inside and out. Isn’t that right?”
Even after Kyeon In-woo flat-out insulted him, Cheon Sa-yoon’s expression didn’t change. If anything, he smiled brightly, eyes curving in a way that had to be twisting Kyeon In-woo’s guts.
“That’s what basic manners and social skills are called. Since you’re not doing it properly, I have to do it for you, don’t I? Or have you never heard of social intelligence?”
Without backing down, Cheon Sa-yoon openly mocked Kyeon In-woo as stupid. Was this guy really the former leader? Forget about patience—he was already at this with a member, so how on earth had he ever run a group?
In Go Young-in’s eyes, Kyeon In-woo and Cheon Sa-yoon were six of one and half a dozen of the other, but if he said that out loud, they’d obviously tell him not to talk nonsense, so he only thought it to himself.
“Then why don’t you stop bitching here and go practice that fancy social life of yours on all the people who like you? That’s your specialty, isn’t it? Stirring up politics and making everyone feel like shit.”
“Would I really want to do that if you put it that way? I’d rather stay here and make your mood even worse.”
“Ah, fuck.”
Cheon Sa-yoon didn’t spare a glance for Kyeon In-woo’s reaction. Instead, he simply widened his eyes and asked as if he were genuinely curious.
“Why? Isn’t throwing stones from the shadows something we both do? You were going to let it slide just because you don’t remember things properly?”
Kyeon In-woo, who had been trading barbs so coolly until now, suddenly scowled.
For a moment, it looked like he glanced this way too, but maybe that was just Go Young-in’s imagination. When he looked back at Cheon Sa-yoon, Cheon Sa-yoon was already staring at him with a meaningful smile. What the hell?
Kyeon In-woo’s face twisted even more. He already had a fierce look, and with an expression like that on top of it, the whole atmosphere turned vicious.
“This fucking bastard, seriously.”
“Meow.”
[Article 23 | A kind idol leader must also be able to mediate the members’ conflicts appropriately.]
Now? In this situation? The fire’s already spread and everything’s going to hell... Wait, did that mean what came before wasn’t even a real fight? And I still don’t even know why they’re fighting in the first place.
He was screwed. Go Young-in had just seen Kyeon In-woo curl his hand into a fist. The sound of teeth grinding was so clear it made his skin crawl. This is insane. The veins popping over that clenched fist were far too vivid.
Fuck, even a brush against that fist would probably kill someone.
Cheon Sa-yoon still wore the same bright smile on his face. A bone-chilling silence hung between them.
Kyeon In-woo and Cheon Sa-yoon didn’t even seem to regard each other as people. They just looked at one another like something more worthless than a cigarette butt tossed on the roadside.
Damn it, were these two fighting dogs or something...?
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