Chapter 48
CHAPTER TITLE: The Sudden Collision and the System's Silent Warning
Satoshi had never once imagined that he would become an idol.
After graduating high school, getting a job, and living a normal life—that had been his dream.
Becoming an idol was just an accident that happened by chance.
While walking the streets with his friends in Japan, Satoshi got picked for a street casting.
After persistent pleading, he joined the new company Horse Entertainment as a trainee.
Just out of culinary school, he was stuck on what to do next.
It was a lighthearted decision to learn Korean when the Korean dishes began spreading in Japan, and his interest in Korea happened to coincide.
But the reason Horse Entertainment showed obsession with him was different.
They needed a Japanese visual member for the upcoming debut group Centaurus.
Without proper training, he was suddenly picked as the last member of Centaurus.
Before him, a long road of hardship stretched out.
"Satoshi, what do we do with this? The song's easy if we just add AR, but the dance isn't working."
"We have to make it work somehow. There's nothing that can't be done. Just roll with it."
"No, boss isn't like that. We should bring someone who at least knows the basics."
"Man, if you had the visuals and the skills, would you really come to a small company like ours?"
Money was to be made in the Japanese market, so a Japanese member was essential.
Of course the demand was high, but the supply was short.
Big agencies brought in trainees from childhood, trained them, and debuted them.
But in small-to-medium companies, such investment was impossible.
In the end, as long as the visual matched the group image, they had no choice but to take him.
"We barely managed to get this Japanese member. Once he's ready, we'll debut immediately. You guys take care of Satoshi a bit."
Among those chasing the idol dream, almost none had weak self-esteem.
If they did, they usually couldn't endure the brutal trainee system and got kicked out.
The other eight members of Centaurus began to pick on Satoshi.
"Just barely making it hard?"
"You should try working harder."
"Satoshi. Maybe you came to Korea with a light heart, but we bet our lives on this."
During the dorm stay, Satoshi couldn't help but sense their sincerity.
But the dance he'd never done before suddenly being good? Impossible.
Still, he practiced hard.
He couldn't become a burden to the team.
At the moment when his blood nearly spilled, he barely met the lowest standard.
Centaurus succeeded in debuting.
And they received good reactions.
At first, he was happy.
'I finally did it.'
The other Centaurus members acknowledged his efforts despite the grueling schedule.
"Satoshi, thanks for following us so far."
"It's all because of you that we debuted."
But Satoshi didn't know that the real beginning had just begun.
The moment Centaurus debuted, they had music broadcasts every day for a week.
Every morning, he would go to work at dawn, then collapse into the dorm at dawn.
Lying in bed was a luxury.
He could only nap in the moving car to recover a little strength.
While everyone endured with blood and sweat, Satoshi thought.
'...Is this the right path?'
But he was already on a tiger's back.
After finishing the one-album activities and entering the break period, things seemed to be looking up.
'We made it, Satoshi.'
Satoshi felt proud of himself.
Unfortunately, the rest period given to him was extremely short.
"Satoshi. A drama cameo came in. It's the Japanese branch staff role, so it should be no problem."
"..."
"'Monthly Media' drama. Even though it's early, the ratings already exceed 10%. It's a chance for you personally to stand out, and also to let the team Centaurus shine."
He had no interest in standing out personally.
He had no big ambitions in the entertainment industry, and more work would come anyway.
But he couldn't say he wanted to rest when it was an opportunity to promote the team.
'A cameo. Just endure a little.'
He thought it would be a one-time appearance.
However, when he began acting in fluent Japanese instead of clumsy Korean, the situation changed.
"Whoa, who is this? He speaks Japanese so fluently."
"That's the Japanese member of Centaurus, Satoshi."
"Wow, a real Japanese person. With that Korean styling, I couldn't tell at all."
The character speaking awkward Korean suddenly became a smart young salaryman, bringing a refreshing charm to the viewers.
"Would you mind increasing Satoshi's screen time a bit? Is it possible for him to appear more?"
Horse Entertainment had won the jackpot.
There was no reason to refuse the writer's request.
"Satoshi. An ad came in!"
"Great!"
While the agency staff cheered, Satoshi felt like dying inside.
Were Koreans crazy?
"When is he ever going to take a break?"
"Sorry, but you have to row the boat when the water comes in."
Satoshi wanted to smash the oar he had never even seen before.
***
"Spe... emu?"
Satoshi was startled by the manager's announcement.
The manager also knew what Satoshi was worried about.
"Anyway, I know you don't speak Korean well and your pronunciation is bad. It's all in good fun, in good fun."
'In good fun?'
Satoshi felt a chill.
The audience would find it funny, sure.
"Really, it's not about winning or losing, it's just for laughs."
"Satoshi. The Punnymusic Show PD knows what's trending, right? They suddenly called you as special MC because they wanted to ride the wave. How many times do I have to explain? You have to row the boat when the water comes in. No one looks down on you. Yeah, they even think you're cute."
Unlike his soft and beautiful appearance, Satoshi had a surprisingly manly personality.
Honestly, every time the young female fans grabbed his cheeks at signing events, he almost wanted to quit right then.
But he had to smile.
Idols were like that, and he couldn't afford to be a burden to the team.
"Satoshi. You get it by now, right? Rehearsal starts soon, so get ready."
"...Understood."
What could he do now?
He had no choice but to accept reality.
After leaving the waiting room, Satoshi suddenly felt his chest tighten.
"Ugh... uwaaaa!"
He opened the waiting room door and started running like a madman down the empty hallway.
"Satoshi! What's wrong!?"
Startled, the manager reached out and shouted, but Satoshi didn't stop.
He might explode otherwise.
"Uwaaaa..."
He wanted to scream, but since it would burden the team, only suppressed groans came out.
While running, he turned a corner and collided with someone, tumbling down.
"Kuso!"
He couldn't help but swear.
A stupid guy.
A guy with a driver's license running around with his eyes closed?
I was sprinting at full speed and got bounced like that, but what about the other guy?
What if it was a female idol?
She might have been badly hurt.
It was the worst score for a human to make a special MC's appearance hurt an actor.
At that moment.
"Excuse me... are you okay?"
When he opened his eyes, warm light was right in front of him.
***
Namhun had sharp senses since childhood.
His ears were particularly sensitive, and he had exceptional reflexes.
Just before turning the corner, he heard quick footsteps.
The footsteps weren't loud, but he immediately sensed they belonged to a man, not a woman.
'This... it's going to collide.'
At the same time as the thought, his back leg instinctively extended and he applied force.
As expected, a person suddenly jumped out from the corner.
'Satoshi?'
This was the first time seeing him, but the moment he saw him, he knew it was Satoshi.
Namhun grabbed Satoshi's arm to prevent injury and spun him around to push him away.
Even with just the arms, stopping a grown adult running at full speed was impossible.
He had no choice but to use his body too, but they didn't get injured badly.
That was fine.
But because he caught him so quickly, Satoshi tumbled with a thud on the floor.
Namhun had used his own running force to counter.
Looking at the man sprawled on the floor, Namhun felt guilty.
But soon he felt angry.
He was the one who threw him, but wasn't the one who ran madly the wrong one?
But when he saw Satoshi's dazed expression looking at him, Namhun's chest grew cold.
The man was lying on the floor with an expression as if he had lost everything.
For a moment, he was pulled into the past.
Was it because their faces were similar?
The face of himself who had been greatly disappointed in the past overlapped with Satoshi's appearance.
Just like a scoreboard appeared above.
【Performance - Disappointed Youth】
【Comprehension / Understanding - 100】
【Proficiency / Mastery - 100】
【Immersion / Focus - 100】
【Digestibility / Execution / Expressiveness - 100】
【Condition - 0】
【Audience Reaction - 100】
【Overall Score - N/A】
'What? Why is the ability activating?'
Namhun couldn't help but be startled.
This wasn't just performance.
The situation was real.
But upon careful examination, he found a difference from the previous scoreboard.
'Condition is 0.'
And the overall score was not 0, but N/A.
That is, Not Applicable.
No applicable item, measurement impossible.
'Because it's a real situation?'
Either way, condition was 0.
For Namhun, the state of the fallen man was something he couldn't ignore.
He bent down and reached out to the fallen man.
"Excuse me... are you okay?"
The person who saw Namhun was greatly startled and rolled his eyes around.
"What? What's going on?"
The original ran over late, but Namhun ignored him and spoke to the man.
"I'm sorry. I was also startled... you weren't injured, were you?"
At Namhun's words, Satoshi quickly nodded.
"N-not hurt."
The sudden Japanese surprised Namhun, and only then did he realize who the opponent was.
"Moshikashite Satoshi desu ka?"
"H-ha, hai. Satoshi desu."
Watching their conversation, Original looked dumbfounded.
"Bro, you speak Japanese too? Crazy, did you know five languages?"
Namhun had learned classics, so he was proficient in English, Italian, and German.
"No, I only learned basic Japanese."
He smiled bitterly.
He had started learning Japanese because of the president of Evil Spirits.
—Bro. Since the reactions for the second album are good, we might make a Japanese advance around the fourth album. Study some Japanese beforehand.
—Eh? Me?
—Who else would you send? There's no one else you can trust.
At those words, Namhun couldn't help but understand.
Japanese was relatively easy to learn compared to the other languages he had mastered.
He didn't have time to study Chinese characters, so he couldn't write well, but he could speak to some extent.
Of course, that was a long time ago.
'For the other languages, I studied while talking to Sera or teaching Yulie...'
Japanese was useless, and he had almost forgotten it.
Namhun was more worried about Satoshi, who had a condition score of 0.
Even if he sang trot like a ballad, he scored 20.
'But 0 points?'
And if that was the condition...
He felt something bad.
'Wait. Isn't Satoshi the special MC today?'
Namhun instinctively realized.
He had to solve Satoshi's condition problem somehow, or something big would happen in today's broadcast.
What if a broadcast accident happened because of Satoshi?
Jin Seryeon's debut stage itself might be erased.