Why I Never Tried for the Entertainment Industry

The reason she never tried for the entertainment industry.

The moment I stepped into the coin karaoke booth, I fed two thousand won into the machine and locked in four songs.

Then, after a brief moment of deliberation…

"Yeah. This one."

I picked a song I'd loved singing in my previous life.

♩♩♪♬-.

A quiet piano intro, a calm vocal line easing in…

♪♬♪♬-!!

The song built and built, racing toward its climax.

A full-throated belting that should have left palms sweating.

"Huff… huff…"

I finished the song, wiped the sweat from my neck, and checked the score with a flicker of hope.

"…Out of fifty, I assume."

I denied reality and queued up the next song.

A classic hit from a girl group that once defined an era.

♪♪♪♬-! ♪♪♬♬-!

A bright intro kicked the song into gear.

A chorus so buoyant it made your shoulders sway on their own. I finished the song.

And the score…

…A marginal improvement, delivered with all the mercy of false hope.

"…So I'm still growing, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at least."

Clinging to that threadbare scrap of optimism, I decided to try a third song.

This time I hit record on my phone so I could hear myself properly.

And the pick…

"…Yeah. This is the one."

A karaoke staple.

Lower key, lower difficulty than the others — I should do better on this one. It was also the song I'd belted every single time I hit a karaoke room in my past life, so confidence wasn't the issue.

I poured every raw emotion I had straight into the melody.

Had I ever been this absorbed in pitch and rhythm in my entire life? I sang like a person who had been put on this earth for the sole purpose of performing this one song, and I emptied myself into it.

And then…

"……."

…Across both my past life and this one, it was the first time I had ever scored in the thirties.

"I-It was this bad…?"

Hands trembling from the sheer shock of the number, I picked up my phone and opened the recording.

I hit play. What came out of the speaker was…

Alley Boss Tong-X…?

…It was the unmistakably familiar voice of some cartoon neighborhood bully.

"Haa…"

Having fully grasped my own level through the recording, I sighed and tossed my phone onto the sofa.

What are you even disappointed about… You already knew, didn't you.

The second reason I had given up on the entertainment industry despite looking like this.

That was it.

I couldn't sing. At all. Catastrophically.

Still, I don't think I was this bad in my past life…

For reasons I couldn't explain, Ha Yerin's new body had a singing ability that went past "bad" and straight into "weapon of mass destruction."

Couldn't do varied facial expressions, so acting was out.

Couldn't sing to save her life, so idol work was out.

"Even if singing ability doesn't matter as much for idols these days, there's a limit…"

With a voice like this, I might debut on looks alone — and the second I opened my mouth for a single line, the hate comments would bury me six feet under.

"Haa… What do I do…"

There wasn't much time left before the first broadcast of My Idol Academia.

If I wanted even a shred of a real idol career out of this, I needed to look at least halfway decent on MIA. At my current level, all I'd accomplish was publicly humiliating myself in front of the entire country.

…What if I just take the humiliation and call it a day?

The thought crossed my mind for a second — and then the two hundred million won of debt my family was carrying slammed right back into place behind it.

And then…

From now on, call me boss. You're family now.

Kang Hyeongman — no, CEO Kang Hyeongman's last words kept circling through my head.

Family… He called me family…

Maybe it was because I'd never had anyone I could call family — not in my past life, not in this one.

The word kept catching somewhere tender in my chest.

So I sat there in a coin karaoke booth with one song still left on the clock, turning it over and over in my mind, until…

"…Fine. Let's do this."

…I made up my mind.

First target: look good enough on the upcoming MIA that even if I didn't make the debut team, people would still remember me for the right reasons.

Of course, turning my Alley Boss vocal cords into something resembling a normal human's in a short span of time was not going to be easy.

I hesitated for a moment. Then…

"…Status Window."

I muttered a line that belonged in a web novel.

And then…

Fwaat—!

…A translucent window only I could see bloomed into existence in front of me.

I'd known I could see a Status Window since I was very young.

The moment I realized I'd been reincarnated, I'd jokingly called out "Status Window" — and it had actually appeared.

I studied the window I hadn't opened in a long time.

For reference, opening the Physical Detail Stats looked like this.

The cap seemed to be 100. Taking 50 as average, my physical abilities were well above the norm.

"Probably from all the part-time jobs?"

I bent my arm inward and struck a little pose.

My forearms were slender, but if you pressed them you could feel firm muscle underneath. Same with my stomach — a faint outline of abs if you knew where to look…

Swoosh-.

I used the reflective tile in the karaoke booth to give myself a full once-over.

Height: 172 cm. Tall for a girl. Head size — no joke — about the size of a large adult man's fist.

Proportions were, of course, insane. Skin was remarkably clear for someone who'd worked as hard as I had.

Build was the lean-muscular type I'd already mentioned, waist cinched in tight. And my chest…

Squish.

"…First time touching them in a while. They've gotten bigger."

Everything that should stick out stuck out; everything that should tuck in tucked in. A body built in heaven.

But the real highlight of my physique was the face.

Features so carefully sculpted they looked like the product of divine favoritism — like staring at a perfectly made doll.

"Right. My body isn't the problem. The problem is the Artistic Detail Stats…"

I let out a breath and opened the Artistic Detail Stats.

The first thing that jumped out was Appearance. Why ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it lived under Artistic Stats, I had no idea — but the number was exactly what I'd expected. As for the rest…

"…Pathetic."

…Yeah. Pathetic.

What good was a 100 in Appearance with a 12 in Singing and an 18 in Acting…

"At this level, the universe is basically telling me not to become ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an entertainer…"

Looking only at the stats I'd been born with, a career in entertainment was a pipe dream.

But…

I still had remaining points.

In my entire life so far, I had never spent a single one of them.

Five points a year for nineteen years. Ninety-five, sitting there unused.

…This is a hard call.

My original plan had been to dump every remaining point into Intelligence once I started high school, to make getting into a top university easier.

But the moment I entered high school, things at home fell apart. Study time basically ceased to exist… and I figured there was no point maxing a stat I couldn't actually use, so I abandoned the idea.

I'd still been vaguely planning to invest in Intelligence once I hit senior year and gun for a one-shot college entrance exam win, but…

…Alright. I've decided.

After a short internal debate, I resolved to put the points into Artistic Stats instead of Intelligence.

Spending them on art meant that I — already short on study time — would have almost no shot at a good university.

But so what if I got into a good university?

Getting into a good school didn't magically change your life overnight.

You still had four years of coursework, and after that a job market with a sky-high barrier to entry was waiting.

And through all that long stretch of time…

Dad and Mom would keep clinging to my pant legs…

Studying by day, working part-time jobs at night to cover tuition… coming home to a backlog of housework.

…Just thinking about it made me nauseous.

If that was the alternative, better to take the risk and bet on the idol opportunity that had fallen into my lap.

Use the remaining points to patch up the Artistic Stats I'm missing.

The goal was simple: succeed just enough as an idol to pay off the two hundred million in debt and build a little seed money on top.

After that, I could decide whether to keep going as an idol or find something else.

Mind finally set, I moved my finger toward the Artistic Detail Stats.

Naturally, my finger's destination was Singing Ability — that miserable 12.

But right before I touched it…

"…Wait."

My eyes snagged on a stat sitting further down than Singing.

Dance.

"I've never really thought about it, but… my Dance stat is higher than I expected…?"

A 67 wasn't elite, but it was solidly respectable.

Of course, I couldn't just ignore a catastrophic 12 in Singing.

But… with Dance already sitting higher than expected, I started second-guessing how to split the points.

"Hmm…"

I pulled out my phone and searched current idol trends for a minute.

And then…

"…Okay. Decision made."

With careful, deliberate motions, I distributed the remaining points.

Press—. Click.

This was the first time I'd ever actually raised a stat.

I didn't feel anything particularly strange in my body after spending the points.

Don't tell me nothing changed…?

Anxiety prickling at the edges, I picked up the mic — still one song left on the clock.

And then…

"……!"

I felt the difference immediately.