Chapter 225
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 225
Faced with that suspicious look in his eyes, I acted with deliberate exaggeration.
“I’m in top condition. I could practice for ten hours straight without a break.”
“Okay, I’ll let Ji-won hyung know.”
“I’m joking.”
I had to surrender immediately to his comeback.
Having confirmed that I still had enough spirit to crack a joke, Kang Yi-chae’s eyes crinkled as he gave a playful smirk.
“Geez, Ho-yun hyung. You really are something, always making people worry. You’re hopeless~.”
“Ahaha~.”
You crazy bastard.
I cursed him inwardly, but the atmosphere around the health-obsessed rapper seemed to have softened slightly. I was about to peel the maknae off him so the two of us could talk privately when Jeong Da-jun suddenly clung to Kang Yi-chae and asked a question.
“Pretty Zombie hyung, you’ve already started filming, right?”
“Yeah, we’ve already shot the footage for episodes one and two.”
Filming?
Since nothing came to mind, I kept my mouth shut and tried to gauge the situation as we moved to the practice room. Kang Yi-chae spoke up.
“I heard the atmosphere among the trainees there is… not great. How is it lately?”
“About the same. And maybe it’s because there are so many survival programs these days, but the skill levels of the kids participating are all pretty mediocre~.”
“What about the juniors from our agency??”
“…They’re probably… working hard?”
“You have no interest at all!!”
Ah, now that he mentioned it, did Kang Yi-chae say he was participating as a mentor for a survival program…?
“Still, our trainees seem to have decent personalities. To the point where I wonder if I should tell them that escaping this place as quickly as possible is the best path for their lives.”
As I watched Kang Yi-chae mutter with a seriously contemplative face, a strange sense of cognitive dissonance made me tilt my head. Only then did the memory slowly surface.
Rising Rookies. It was a new idol survival program led by tvK.
The only notable thing about it was that it was even less popular than Shining Star.
Kang Yi-chae had thrown a fit, asking what kind of mentor a second-year idol could be, but he seemed to have been persuaded by the argument that he was a hot idol, a composer-lyricist, and a survival show veteran himself, so he would be a great help to the trainees.
It seemed they had split the mentors into two teams: active idols with exceptional creative achievements and veteran idols with extensive experience who excelled in their respective fields. In the end, they called them mentors, but they were appearing more like assistants.
[Wait, Kang Yi-chae?? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅠㅠㅠ Holy shit, that’s such a stretch ㅠㅠ]
[What’s the big deal? There are plenty of idols with more seniority whose skills are trash ㅋㅋㅋ Kang Yi-chae will do way better. His featuring on Kang Yeon-hu’s variety show last time was insane..]
[Even if they organized the low-seniority mentors separately, isn’t he the one with the least experience?? It’s gonna be tough for Kang Yi-chae.]
I had even seen internet reactions questioning if Kang Yi-chae was out of his league because the rest of the mentor lineup was better than expected.
But why did I forget about this?
I scratched the back of my head and looked at Kang Yi-chae.
I expected his reputation to flip on its own once the program aired anyway.
Even if he said he wasn’t interested, he wasn’t the type to slack off when it came to work.
“Don’t worry about the juniors; take care of yourself.”
“Of course. I’m busy enough preparing for the year-end stages and the comeback.”
I felt a tiny bit touched, wondering if he had finally gained an ounce of interest in The Dawn’s success, but then Kang Yi-chae stretched and started whining.
“Ugh~. There’s seriously so much to do. I wish I could borrow even Da-jun’s feet.”
“My feet? If you borrow my feet, will it be okay, hyung? Should I lend them to you??”
For the next album, we were trying to strengthen The Dawn’s unique color while increasing public appeal, so we were planning a comeback around the middle of next year at the earliest.
In that sense, it’s good for everyone to build up recognition through variety shows.
I was the one appearing on variety shows frequently for now, but it was time for the other members to start raising their individual profiles.
Kang Yi-chae was set with the survival program mentorship, and it would be perfect if Jeong Da-jun could land a hit on Please Take Care of Me.
“Watch out for the cameras.”
“Ooh~, are you worrying about me?”
Why does he talk like that?
Despite the nagging that had become second nature to me, Kang Yi-chae laughed cheerfully and winked.
“Don’t forget to come cheer for me when I do my mentor stage~.”
I gave a small smirk and followed the members into the practice room. Seong Ji-won and Kim Seong-hyeon were already there, drenched in sweat from practicing.
When our eyes met, Seong Ji-won jumped up from his spot.
“Ah! Ho-yun, why are you here?”
“Hi.”
“I told you to rest! You were so sick yesterday.”
“I’m fine. Let’s practice.”
I tossed my sports bag into the corner and started stretching.
To be honest, my condition had been swinging between extremes lately.
At night, I felt like I was literally dying, but when I opened my eyes in the morning, I felt somewhat human again.
“Hyung, looking at you reminds me of that meme. The one that goes, ‘I’ve lost my appetite, I’m collapsing a bit, I’m vomiting, but it’s fine. It’s manageable!’”
“Shut up.”
Jeong Da-jun poked his head out and teased me.
Seong Ji-won stared at him, let out a deep sigh, and took his place in the formation.
As my roommate, he knew my current state better than anyone, so he seemed a bit displeased with my stubbornness.
“Seven, eight!”
“Tan! Kung, ta-ra-ra-ra….”
About thirty minutes into practice, even standing became a struggle.
The choreography was brutally difficult, and my head was throbbing incessantly.
I pressed my fingers hard against my temples, but in an instant, my vision spun.
“Whoa!”
I collided with Jeong Da-jun, who was moving through the formation.
With Jeong Da-jun’s shrill scream, our feet got tangled, and we went down together.
“Ugh!”
“Heol, hyung, I’m sorry!!”
Jeong Da-jun, who had landed right on top of me and slammed his nose into my chest, clutched the bridge of his nose while quickly pushing himself up.
Without a word, I patted Jeong Da-jun’s shoulder, signaling him to get up, and just panted for breath.
“…Since I’m already down, fuck it, let’s rest a bit. It’s comfortable here.”
“Please just rest normally. No one’s going to say anything.”
Ignoring them, I sprawled out like a starfish and stared at the ceiling while the members gathered around and started fanning me.
“The choreography is a bit hard, isn’t it?”
“It feels like the formation changes every five seconds.”
“Can’t we please make it a bit easier?”
They say idol choreography is getting tougher and tougher, but can’t we just do a dance that everyone can easily follow?
Kim Seong-hyeon said he’d consider it, but that basically meant it was rejected.
While the members joined in to enjoy a brief rest, Kang Yi-chae, who was half-heartedly pretending to fan me, suddenly spoke up.
“But you know, I realized something shocking while being a mentor. Ho-yun hyung isn’t actually a ttukttak-i.”
“Huh?”
“Hey, Seong Ji-won. Did you just double-check that?”
When I glared at him, Seong Ji-won gave a shameless, beaming smile.
Looking at this guy lately, it seemed like he just tried to get away with a smile whenever he had nothing to say.
“I thought hyung was a total ttukttak-i, but seeing it now, if hyung had been on this program, he would’ve made it into the top-tier class for dancing.”
“You want to die?”
“If you were with Ji-won hyung, you would’ve run away crying already.”
“Ahaha, it’s not that bad….”
When Seong Ji-won laughed, asking why he was making such jokes, the rest of the members instantly turned dead serious.
“Hyung, it is that bad.”
“Seong Ji-won, it really is that bad.”
“You want to practice more?”
“—Ji-won hyung-nim is the most handsome person in the world and possesses the voice of an angel!!”
“Whoa~.”
Watching Jeong Da-jun immediately prostrate himself, Seong Ji-won responded with a benevolent expression.
Well, from what I could gather, it seemed Kang Yi-chae was quite taken aback after seeing trainees who couldn’t even keep up with half of half of The Dawn’s usual practice volume.
To be honest, it wasn’t just The Dawn; the people helping us were Ju Woo-seong and Chae Jeong-woo. The people designated as our rivals in the survival show were High Five.
Naturally, after only looking upward, seeing babies who had barely started crawling was bound to make them look severely lacking.
Moreover, Kang Yi-chae’s stats were so high from the start that it was hard to even call him a rookie.
“So, how are the kids?”
“……Naturally.”
Kang Yi-chae’s eyebrows twitched upward before settling back down.
“I’m nurturing them with love.”
Then he smiled like a sunflower.
“Liar!! I heard hyung already made several trainees cry!!”
“What do you mean, made them cry? They said something got in their eyes. There’s a lot of dust there.”
“He made them cry, definitely made them cry…….”
I’d bet my bank account that he already made them cry.
Well, they’re kids with zero social experience; how could they handle a fox like Kang Yi-chae?
Even I find it scary when that bastard gets serious.
That aside, I want to see Kang Yi-chae’s stats.
As I tapped the floor with my index finger while lying down, the System Window appeared right on cue.
It had been a very long time.
[Kang Yi-chae
What is the standard of a genius!]
[Singing: S-
Dancing: A+
Variety: A0
Acting: B-
Charm: S-
???: ???]
“……!”
The bastard who used to at least answer when called until recently had been completely unresponsive for the past few days, but he finally showed up.
Surprised by that, I read through the stats and was shocked again by Kang Yi-chae’s abilities, which had shot up even while left alone.
“I’m going out for a bit.”
“Sure~.”
I gave a vague heads-up to the members, whose conversation had already shifted to dinner and whose turn it was to do the dishes, and stepped out of the practice room.
That guy Kang Yi-chae—it seemed all those hours he spent holed up in the studio had piled up and translated into stats.
“Hey, show me mine too.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, my stats appeared.
[Seo Ho-yun
Official Nuisance]
[Singing: A+
Dancing: B+
Variety: A+
Acting: A-
Charm: A0
???: ???]
……Surprisingly, my stats have gone up a lot?
Looking at the System Window filled with A’s, I felt more bewildered than proud.
Variety and Acting had each gone up by one notch.
And here I thought they’d be lower.
I didn’t have any S-ranks or EX-ranks like Ju Woo-seong yet, but wasn’t this enough to be considered an honor student?
“Why on earth did Acting go up?”
Stage facial expressions?
I haven’t done a lick of acting since Please Take Care of the Camera. If it was going to go up, shouldn’t it have happened then?
The answer to that question came from the System Window.
Ding!
[It went up bit by bit through your usual bullshit and schemes!!]
“…….”
I was instantly convinced by the valid reasoning that was hard to refute.
It seemed that while I was restlessly and steadily making plans to push The Dawn to the top, a few people might have unintentionally tripped and fallen.
I crossed my arms and patted my own shoulders.
“I’ve lived a hard-working life.”
[Wow, seriously, how can you be so shameless?]
I tossed aside thoughts that were meaningless to dwell on and was pondering where to focus my efforts next when suddenly, the windows floating before my eyes flickered with noise.
[Seo■◎yun??
Of■ ■∂▽]
[Sin▽: A+
■: B◎◎+
Variety: A▽
Ac▽◎ting: A-
Ch◎arm: ■0
??ty: ?∂?%]
[ERROR!]
[ERROR!]
[ERROR!]
The letters broke and blurred, and then a notification sound rang out so loudly it made my ears ring, accompanied by the word ERROR.
And then, watching the System Window suddenly pop and shut off, I was left dumbfounded.
“……What?”
At the same time, I frowned as I recalled the stat window I had been scanning just moments ago.
……ty?
I had caught a glimpse of the last hidden stat.
However, my mind ground to a halt as I looked at the System Window that reappeared shortly after.
[Seo Ho-yun!!
☞Total Nuisance Baby Rabbit
☞I say Ho~~↗u↘
☞You say Ho-u↗ho-u↗ho-u↗!!]
[Nuisance: EX+
Shamelessness: S+
Wickedness: A-
Scamming: S-]
“…….”
Seeing the clearly makeshift appearance, my eyelashes trembled with rage.
[Ekyun! Your first-ever memorable EX-rank stat~☆]
“Sometimes I wish you were real. Just so I could hit you once.”
I brushed back my bangs, waving my hand to chase away the System Window that was pestering me to stop looking at my stats, saying it was the same as mirror addiction or narcissism.
[The system is a bit unstable lately, but it’ll be fine soon. Finish the variety show well and get some rest! >_<]
It poured out its own words and then vanished in a flash. I had a feeling it would have run away even if I had tried to drag it out.
I chewed over the situation.
The sudden error message.
The question mark stat.
The unstable system.
“……Hmm.”
Why did it specifically tell me to finish the variety show well?
Inferring the meaning, I tilted my neck from side to side with a smirk.
To be honest, appearing on a variety show with Min Ji-heon was exhausting, but it wasn’t a difficult task.
And that was because…
“That brat has too many useless worries.”
Variety shows are what I do best.
* * *
[Finally, the first episode of Please Take Care of Me airs today!!]
The Noeuls were full of anticipation, but on the other hand, they were a bit worried.
It was because Seo Ho-yun’s condition had seemed poor lately.
[Seo Ho-yun has looked really sick lately ㅜㅜ I hope he’s okay]
[Our baby’s condition doesn’t look good these days..]
Of course, as his popularity rose, cynical reactions were bound to follow.
[Seo Ho-yun always looks like he’s in a bad mood, so I didn’t even know he was sick ㅋㅋ If you don’t want to do it, just say so. Why do you insist on pretending to be close to Min Ji-heon ㅋㅋ]
[The fangirls are like, ‘Our baby looks sick ㅜㅜ..’ just because his face is messed up from not wanting to be there < lmao]
The Noeuls habitually blocked them, took PDFs, and reported them.
[You, who insists on leaving malicious comments, also seem a bit sick? ㅜㅜ..]
[Who... do you think you are?]
[How are these people’s tones always the same? Zero freshness.
Oi, oi.. while you guys are doing this, Ho-yun-chan is living a god-saeng life working damn hard~!]
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Guys, please get a life...]
In the midst of all that, everyone sat down dutifully in front of their TVs.
The anxiety lasted only a moment.
As soon as the first episode of Please Take Care of Me was released, the concerns about Seo Ho-yun’s poor condition evaporated in an instant.
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ;;;????]
[Hey, Seo Ho-yun is a total lunatic ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
On the screen, Seo Ho-yun was putting on a legendary performance with a perfectly composed face.