The Pen That Records Everything
The deliberation was long, but the decision came fast. If I just sat around like this, I'd get kicked out anyway, so I might as well try something. And to do that, the first thing I needed was to check my current condition.
“This… I can’t use this at all?”
After testing a few things, I came to the conclusion that dancing was out of the question. Just looking at it, this was clearly not going to work. I could understand why my head didn’t remember the training from my trainee days—it had been so long ago—but I never expected this body, which had been dancing just yesterday, to be this stiff and unresponsive. Wasn’t this even worse than right after I first possessed it? I was a little flustered.
And more than anything, my physical condition was far worse than I’d anticipated. The Na Yeri of this period… how should I put it? She had a lot of problems. She’d suffered through an unfortunate childhood, which left her with anxiety, distrust of people, and a mild case of social avoidance. On top of that, the massive stress from the upcoming debut team audition had recently pushed her into anorexia and emotional instability.
The anorexia, in particular, was pretty fatal for an idol trainee who burned through energy like crazy. Even now, her condition was deteriorating in real time. To give you an idea of how bad it was—if it weren’t for a superhuman’s superior recovery ability, she would’ve been hospitalized multiple times by now. At this point, forget being an idol; she needed to go to the hospital first. As the new owner of this body, I couldn’t help but sigh.
Because her physical state kept getting worse, she’d recently had to skip the physical training that the company considered quite important. Naturally, that kind of unreliability left a bad impression on the company staff. From Na Yeri’s perspective, just keeping up with basic vocal and dance training was already overwhelming, so it was an unavoidable choice. Still, failing to control her own mind was clearly a point against her.
At this rate, even if the real Na Yeri showed up, making the debut team would be impossible. If her mental state had deteriorated to the point of ruining her body, no amount of skill would matter—she wouldn’t have been able to put on a proper performance anyway.
“Still, I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
I’d experienced something similar before, so I had a general idea that her condition wouldn’t be great. But I never imagined it would be this much of a wreck. The sense of disparity felt even stronger because I knew exactly how far this body could be strengthened. Whether I debuted or not, once the debut team selection was over, I’d have to do something about this rotten body first.
“What’s going to happen to her now?”
“What else? She’ll have to clear out the dorm. Hey, it’s fine, it’s fine. Even if she looks like that, she’s pretty good at leeching off—”
“That’s a skill too, honestly.”
“If you don’t have anything else, you gotta be good at that at least.”
“Stop it. Being born with nothing is already a sin. Who would want to be born like that?”
“So she polished that skill? The art of leeching?”
“It’s impressive, but I wouldn’t want that ability.”
I was sprawled out in despair over how messed up my body was when I heard three trainees over there snickering and laughing at me. There was a fair amount of malice in their voices. They must have been the ones who’d disliked Na Yeri from the beginning. Watching them happily mock me before casually walking away, I was so dumbfounded that I let out a dry laugh instead of getting angry.
“Right. Those guys were here too.”
No matter how unfortunate Na Yeri’s circumstances were, it was clearly favoritism for a mere trainee to be using the debut team dorm. I remembered there were quite a few people who resented her for it. Most of the trainees probably felt the same way. It wasn’t that the dorm itself was particularly nice—they were jealous of the favoritism. In their eyes, it probably looked like Na Yeri was stealing the debut spot that should have been theirs.
Debuting was the most important thing in the world to a trainee, so I could understand how they felt. But thinking it and actually expressing it through malicious words and actions were two different things. A reasonable person would have taken their complaints directly to the company instead of taking it out on Na Yeri. Unfortunately, the world has far more twisted people than normal ones, and that goes double for a special group like trainees.
The three who had been freely running their mouths earlier and then disappeared were among the most unhinged of those who hated Na Yeri.
“What were their names again…? I remember they were the Levitation Trio.”
It had been so long ago that I couldn’t recall their actual names. They weren’t particularly important people from my perspective, even if they were to Na Yeri. The only thing that stuck in my memory was that all three of them had the same superpower—levitation. That’s why I’d labeled them the Levitation Trio. The reason it stuck with me at all was because it was incredibly rare for three trainees from the same company to possess identical abilities.
But that was just my view. For Na Yeri, she probably could never forget them. The Levitation Trio had been harassing her both subtly and openly for a long time. The reason she’d ended up buying a ton of cosmetics despite having no money to live on was because of them. They’d mocked her, calling her a pathetic bitch who couldn’t even dress herself up, so she’d bought makeup she didn’t even need just to shut them up.
I mean, who wears full color makeup in the practice room, waterproof or not? When Na Yeri first showed up with makeup on, those three must have cheered inside. They’d only poked at her a little out of boredom, but she had gone and ruined one of her greatest weapons—her appearance. It was like hitting the jackpot. Of course, the fact that Na Yeri kept wearing those bizarre makeup looks without realizing how strange they looked showed that her mental state had been pretty far gone too. Still, the root cause had been them.
The biggest problem was obviously Na Yeri’s terrible makeup skills and taste, but there was no need to dwell on that. Those three, who had the worst possible relationship with her, were also the trainees with the highest chance of debuting. After all, personality and ability were separate issues.
They could dance and sing, their looks were decent, and levitation was a pretty useful ability for putting together a stage. There was no reason for the company not to use them. Sure, their personalities were questionable, but they only directed that behavior at people they deemed necessary, so their reputation within the company was surprisingly decent. In every way, they were cunning little bastards.
In fact, those three would debut with Cha Entertainment. Cha Entertainment’s upcoming debut team had seven members total, and I remembered the Levitation Trio being core members who received the company’s heavy investment. The team as a whole did quite well. Seeing that, it really seemed like justice didn’t exist in this world.
“Wait a second… that means if I debut with Cha Entertainment, I’d have to work with those guys? That’s a bit…”
From appearance to dance, singing, and even daily life—they were the ones who picked fights with Na Yeri over every little thing. There was zero chance they would suddenly change their minds just because we were on the same team and decide to get along with Na Yeri—or rather, with me. If anything, they’d try to bury me even harder since we’d be in the same group. That’s just how this industry worked. To get even a little more spotlight during team activities, you had to step on the other members.
Of course, in my case, I had no intention of caring about any of that. My dream was to be a decent filler member, do my time, and retire quietly. But there was no way those three would understand or respect that. Besides, if they were in the team, they’d definitely play all kinds of political games. Just thinking about that kind of mental warfare gave me a headache. My specialty wasn’t that kind of brain fight—it was the kind where you smashed the skull itself.
“Yeah, I really don’t like that. I don’t even know if I can debut here, but the mere possibility of it is unpleasant. There must be… some way.”
As I pondered if there was any method, an important fact came to mind. I immediately reached into my pocket. Inside was a single ballpoint pen that Na Yeri always carried with her.
“Whoa, it really is here. As expected of Na Yeri, the little villain-in-training.”
From what I’d seen so far, Na Yeri seemed like some innocent victim, but she wasn’t that simple. Just look at her role in the novel. She might have been a minor character—number 17—but she was still a villain. And the clearest proof of her cunning was this very pen.
This ordinary-looking ballpoint pen was actually a recording device. Inside it were quite a few of the harsh, thoughtless words the Levitation Trio had spewed. It had recorded not only them harassing her but also badmouthing other trainees and badmouthing the company. She must have prepared it in advance to get back at them somehow.
In the first round, I’d discovered this too late to make any real use of it. I’d found it by chance during a time when thinking about becoming an idol was the last thing on my mind. But this time, I could put it to very good use.
“Heh heh heh. Perfect.”
If someone asked me whether good character was a requirement for a successful entertainer, I’d say no. As I mentioned earlier, skill has nothing to do with personality, so people with wild personalities often debut. And do they all fail? Not necessarily. No matter how bad their character is, they still have brains, so it’s actually rare for them to show their true nature openly in public. Large agencies can even cover up some of the leaks that do happen.
Good character is obviously better, but the point is that even if your character is trash, as long as it’s managed well, there’s no major problem with debuting and working. Of course, if you commit one of the four cardinal sins of idols—drugs, DUI, school violence, or dating—that’s a different story. But trash-talking the company and your colleagues? That’s not quite at that level.
“But our company is a little different, isn’t it?”
Cha Entertainment had already destroyed one male idol team over personality issues. I didn’t know the exact details, but the highly anticipated group Black Dust had vanished like dust, just as their name suggested. In a situation like that, I doubted they would push a trainee with known personality problems into the debut team.
“I wonder what our CEO will do…”
It was almost lunchtime. I’d better move quickly. There was no reason to let anyone know that I was the one who spread this material, so lunchtime—when the staff would leave their seats unguarded—was the perfect time to work. There were only three days left until the debut team audition. There was no need to drag things out. Handling this today and taking care of my own tasks was the best way to raise my chances even a little.
And so, I slipped into the empty office with the pen-shaped recorder, finished the job, and quietly slipped back out.