Chapter 173
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 173
<Shining Star… When is the Gala Concert?>
<The Dawn to Take a Two-Week Break>
After the final episode aired, the program concluded more smoothly than expected. While Kim Hee-yeong’s skillful handling played a part, the fact that an idol who had suffered the loss of his parents had persevered for over a year without showing it—and even took first place in the competition—deeply moved the general public.
A flood of public sympathy poured in instantly.
Of course, as much as attention was focused on us, negative comments were also overflowing.
The sensitive Snowflakes gritted their teeth every time an article was posted.
However, as the person in question, I was calmly accepting the hate comments while munching on an apple Seong Ji-won had peeled for me.
After all, I was the one who did it.
Besides, there was a secondary benefit that made it all worth it.
As my family history became known, the view counts for The Dawn’s videos on Nutube began to skyrocket exponentially.
Not only did several songs climb the real-time Mango Charts, but clips of my speech from the final episode were circulating all over SNS and various online communities.
It’s important to row when the tide is in, but if you push a narrative like this too far, it only leaves a negative image.
It was nothing new for me to get cursed at, but I couldn’t let it negatively affect The Dawn.
Since we were on break anyway, I chose to stay quiet rather than show my face to the public.
After all, the plan I had made to spend the holiday with Seo Ho-jin had gone up in smoke.
“Jeong Da-jun.”
On the day I met Seo Ho-jin, I had gathered every single petal from the bouquet that hit me and brought them back to the dorm.
The moment I stepped into the living room and saw Jeong Da-jun, I intended to give him a piece of my mind, but...
“Y-Yes?!”
What could I possibly say to a kid fourteen years younger than me who was looking at me with the frantic eyes of a puppy that needed to go outside?
“…No, never mind.”
Looking at his face, I couldn’t say a word.
Being the petty person I am, I simply radiated a dark aura and let out a series of heavy sighs before retreating to my room.
I figured I might as well catch up on the sleep I’d been missing.
“Sigh….”
But sleep wouldn’t come.
It felt like it had been that way for a while now.
My roommate, Kang Yi-chae, hadn’t shown his face in the room at all lately. According to the other members, he had practically moved into the company’s recording studio.
Thanks to that, I was able to hide my condition, though I wasn’t sure if I should call that a relief.
I knew I couldn’t leave things like this, but I used Seo Ho-jin as an excuse to procrastinate. I just kept picking up my phone and putting it back down, over and over.
I’m really doing the most.
He doesn’t want to see my face, yet he tells me to stay in touch? What is that even supposed to mean?
I wished I had a mountain of work to clear my head, but the company hadn’t said a word, as if they had postponed the concert and the reality show entirely.
My phone buzzed incessantly, but it was all useless contacts.
Kang Yeon-hu, Jeong Won-ha, and so on.
Why were people I barely knew texting me?
Meanwhile, the one number I was waiting for, Seo Ho-jin’s, remained silent.
In the end, I spent my days rolling around on the bed clutching my phone, usually staying up until dawn.
What am I supposed to do about this?
After a few days of this, just as I was finally about to drift off to sleep—
Vrrr, vrrr.
The vibration sounded. I bolted upright and answered the call.
“Hello?”
[Hey, get out here.]
It wasn’t the voice I was hoping for.
My excitement evaporated instantly. I slumped back down and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.
“Who is this?”
[You want to die? Hurry up and come out. You said you’d treat us.]
It was Im Hyeon-su. Hearing the cackling in the background, it sounded like she’d already had a few drinks.
I wasn’t in the mood and wanted to ignore her, but a promise was a promise. I sluggishly threw on some clothes and headed to the location she texted me.
I took out my earphones and entered the establishment, only to see some familiar backs of heads.
Ju Woo-seong, Kim Hee-yeong, and Im Hyeon-su.
“Whoa!!!”
That’s right. It was the "Bash Ho-yun" squad.
“Kyaa!! Seo Ho-yun is here!”
Furthermore, they were already quite drunk.
The only saving grace was that the other tables were empty, as if they had rented out the whole place.
Do they know what time it is…
I let out a small sigh and sat down next to Ju Woo-seong.
“When is this group going to disband?”
“It’s already a regular thing. I even sent a coffee truck to your drama set, remember? I’m thinking of starting a savings circle for us.”
“How much are you putting in?”
“Fifty thousand won each.”
“Fifty thousand? That’s beneath us. It should be at least a hundred thousand.”
“Whatever you say~!!”
For a circle consisting of a famous idol, a composer, and a PD, the amount was surprisingly modest.
“You drinking?”
“No.”
I knew well enough that I wasn’t in a great state. If I started drinking with this combination of people in this place, there was no telling what might happen, so I declined.
“Fine, we’ll drink without you. The expensive stuff.”
Despite saying that, the table was only covered with bottles of beer and a few bottles of soju.
I took a beer bottle from Kim Hee-yeong, who was looking around for an opener, and popped the cap off with a spoon.
“Whoa, that was damn cool.”
Ignoring Ju Woo-seong, who was muttering beside me with ears turned bright red, I poured the beer into Kim Hee-yeong’s glass with a perfect golden ratio of foam and smiled.
“Good job finishing the program, PD Kim.”
This is my social life.
Even if it’s an ex-girlfriend, you play nice when necessary.
“Wow~~! Thanks. You did a great, great job too, Seo Ho-yun!!”
She’s wasted…
“Seo Ho-yun! Honestly, The Dawn taking first place is the best!!”
“These guys are the best!! Dammit!! That last Stardust song was produced so well too. That brat Kang Yi-chae!”
“Hey, he doesn’t even need to go to Cal~ifornia anymore!”
“It’s so annoying!”
They’re definitely wasted…
Im Hyeon-su jumped into Kim Hee-yeong’s conversation, chattering excitedly. Then, she looked at me with bleary eyes and twitched her lips.
“Hey, hey. Can’t you tell Kang Yi-chae? I want to see my student too, you know??”
“No.”
I immediately blocked any potential scandal.
Besides, I hadn’t seen Kang Yi-chae in so long myself—it was as if he was avoiding me—so it would be hard to pass on the message anyway.
I popped a peanut from the basic snack setup into my mouth and asked Ju Woo-seong.
“How long have they been like this?”
“For about three hours now….”
To think Ju Woo-seong looked the most sober.
It was genuinely surprising. From what I knew, Kim Hee-yeong was a legendary drinker.
Suddenly, Kim Hee-yeong and Im Hyeon-su, who had been talking amongst themselves, shifted the topic and started rambling about me and Ju Woo-seong.
“Ha, our Woo-seong talked so much about how The Dawn was number one in terms of skill even before they went on stage. He was even restless every single time!”
“He talked the mentors' ears off, so eventually everyone had something to say. Han Chae-ri, Chae Jeong-woo, everyone!”
“Kuuu, you have to be recognized this much by Black Call’s Ju Woo-seong to take first place!”
“Ahaha.”
Not really. I took first place by using whatever I could get my hands on, regardless of the means.
I wet my parched throat with water instead of beer and gave an awkward smile.
Only after the two drunken nuisances had said everything they wanted to say did they sluggishly stand up with satisfied faces.
“Hee-yeong-ah, let’s go for a smoke break!”
“I’d love to, Hyeon-su-ssi~!”
“Kyaa~. Let’s go, PD Kim~.”
Unaware of my judgmental stare, the two of them headed out of the shop, humming happily.
“This bastard... he ignored all my texts, but the moment Cheong-beom Noona calls, he comes running….”
Ju Woo-seong, who had been quietly downing drinks until then, grumbled under his breath.
“Are you drunk too?”
“Look at the air here. There’s alcohol flying around in the air. How can I not be drunk?”
“Is that so?”
“I want kimchi fried rice….”
I thought he was sane, but hearing him talk nonsense, I guess he wasn’t.
“So, Ju Woo-seong-ssi, you praised me that much?”
“Pfft.”
Ju Woo-seong, who was drinking beer straight from the bottle, choked on my words and started coughing. It was quite funny, so I chuckled, and he glared at me while wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You really don’t let anything go once you bite, do you?”
“Of course.”
“Not you. I praised your group.”
Realizing he’d eventually spill everything under my pestering anyway, Ju Woo-seong spoke honestly, as if giving up.
“Han Chae-ri and I went to see you guys. Once we saw you, we knew. In terms of skill, you guys were number one.”
“Oh, my. Thanks.”
“But honestly, I thought you’d get second.”
Honestly, if it weren’t for the penalty, I would have been satisfied with second place too.
“To be fair, you were being pushed back too much in terms of capital and fandom.”
“True.”
But I had already done too much, and there was no turning back. I hated spending time regretting the past. I’d rather just do what I can in the present.
In the end, I even sold out my family. At this point, there was nothing I wouldn’t do.
I’d probably do even worse in the future.
Well, it’s nothing new.
I could easily guess what he would say next.
You’ve worked hard, I’m sorry to hear about your family, something like that.
“I didn’t think you could win.”
So how should I respond? It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. If I mention it like that…
“—Until you spread your family history yourself.”
…I thought.
“What did you say?”
What did Ju Woo-seong just… say?
How on earth… did Kim Jae-yeon? No, that’s not it.
I couldn’t even come up with an excuse because I never expected such words to come from Ju Woo-seong’s clumsy mouth. Meanwhile, he calmly sipped his drink.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
“Did you hear something from somewhere?”
“……Ah.”
Ju Woo-seong, his lips curling into a slight smirk, cracked open a new bottle of soju and poured it generously into his beer glass.
“No, I didn’t hear anything. In fact, I bet nobody knows.”
“…….”
“But hey, kid. I have an intuition.”
He downed the drink in one go and bit into a piece of dried squid.
“You know, being in the entertainment industry for a few years, there’s something I’ve learned. Once a rumor starts, it spreads uncontrollably fast. But usually, no matter how much of a piece of trash someone is, surprisingly, it doesn’t often surface before the public.”
I agreed with him on that point.
Working as a PD, I had witnessed countless pieces of human trash that were beyond recycling, yet I often saw them push a clean, innocent, and pure image in front of the public.
“That’s probably why I can still be here, maintaining my image, even though I’ve dated so much. I realized it then.”
“…….”
“That there aren’t as many scandals that break for no reason as people think.”
Dating, assault, power trips, drugs… anything.
There could be smoke without fire.
However, most of the time, someone—either the person themselves or a third party—leaked it to gain something, or it was maliciously exposed out of spite or for entertainment.
“Your family history is the same. If it was going to spread, rumors would have been circulating long ago. But the timing of it breaking was just too perfect.”
Since when had Ju Woo-seong been figuring me out?
Since I blackmailed him?
When Kim Seong-hyeon was victimized by evil editing in Shining Star Season 1?
When Today suddenly got screwed over and fell off?
Or—
…There are too many instances.
Ju Woo-seong looked apologetic even as he spoke. However, there was a strange light of conviction in his eyes.
It seemed like no one had noticed until now, yet the first person to discover it was Ju Woo-seong.
I rubbed my eyes as I looked at his unnecessarily sparkling face, even while he was wasted.
Ju Woo-seong is something else.
“Why? What are you trying to say?”
I didn’t explicitly agree, but it was as good as an admission.
“So it really was you.”
“Did you just test me without being sure?”
“Why did you do it?”
“To take first place.”
Ju Woo-seong looked at me in silence for a moment.
“……Don’t you regret doing something like that?”
“Not really.”
If I were the type to repent, I wouldn’t have started in the first place.
I smiled as I poured a proper mix of beer and soju into Ju Woo-seong’s glass.
“I’d do it again even if I went back.”
No matter how many times I go back, the result will be the same.
When I said that, Ju Woo-seong hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath.
“You crazy bastard….”