Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 248 Suspicion (2)

[Me] What are you doing? 5:41 PM

There was no big meaning behind the trivial text I sent. I didn’t have enough time to go down to the cafe on the first floor and buy a drink, and I was bored of refreshing YouTube or short knowledge videos. I was just curious if there was anything else interesting.

I didn’t expect a quick reply, but it had been 10 minutes and there was no notification that a message had arrived.

‘He doesn’t check his phone much.’

When he was Cheon Ise, he used to contact me right away if he had no schedule. Hmm, as I tapped on the chat screen, it felt like a long time had passed before I got an answer.

[Lim Hyun-seong] Are you done already? Isn’t the filming over around midnight? 5:56 PM

Far from being over. I hadn’t even started yet and was waiting.

[Me] I’m still waiting. 5:56 PM

Then a sour reply came back right away.

[Lim Hyun-seong] It seems like you’ll start recording soon. 5:57 PM

[Lim Hyun-seong] Just focus on your work. 5:57 PM

Hey, I’m not doing anything yet. Yu-geon secretly pouted his lips and typed.

[Me] You sound like you have nothing to worry about. 5:58 PM

After a brief pause, Hyun-seong sent a short reply.

[Lim Hyun-seong] What. 6:00 PM

A displeased expression, overlaid with the face of someone other than Cheon Ise, came to mind.

[Me] You said you don’t have much time left. You’re going to disappear soon. 6:01 PM

[Lim Hyun-seong] Yeah. 6:01 PM

[Me] Then what will happen to you when the time runs out? 6:02 PM

When I asked him straight what I was curious about, the answer that came back within a minute slowed down again.

‘What’s going on? It doesn’t seem like anything’s wrong.’

As the staff asked me to check again before the filming started, Yu-geon got up from the sofa where he had been lying down.

[Lim Hyun-seong] Well, I was already dead a long time ago. I guess I’ll just disappear and not exist in the world anymore. 6:08 PM

Disappear, huh… It was a word that felt different from dying, and Yu-geon looked down at his phone screen.

[Me] Then does Mr. Cheon Ise just live as he used to, with his own body? 6:08 PM

He didn’t look very well. I don’t know if it was just a simple condition drop or if there was another reason.

The last image Yu-geon remembered of Ise was that he was panting as if he had a panic attack, irritable, and screaming sharply when someone tried to support him.

I wondered why he suddenly became like that when he used to have a relatively mild personality.

‘It was because the person inside changed.’

I accepted it, but it still felt unbelievable, like I was dreaming. As I stared at the screen as if I was bewitched, I got an answer from Lim Hyun-seong.

[Lim Hyun-seong] Probably. I can’t give you a definite answer because he seems to be in a strange state right now. 6:09 PM

Yu-geon agreed with him.

[Me] Yeah, it’s weird. 6:09 PM

[Lim Hyun-seong] I don’t think the reason he’s lying in bed like that is simply because he can’t handle his work. 6:10 PM

[Lim Hyun-seong] I have to persuade him to get his act together and stand on his own feet. 6:10 PM

Yu-geon felt a strange discomfort as he glared at the message Hyun-seong sent. Why did it feel so uneasy? There was nothing wrong with the content, and he was just saying the obvious.

Then suddenly. He realized what was bothering him. Hyun-seong said he had no intention of telling the members what he had told me.

Even if he persuaded Ise and Ise returned safely as the leader and member, he wouldn’t be able to return to his previous self.

Hyun-seong said he had done his part, and when he disappeared?

What about the people who had interacted with Lim Hyun-seong, who was Cheon Ise, without knowing anything? They didn’t know that the Cheon Ise they had willingly given their hearts to was actually someone else.

Is that okay? Even if it’s okay for other people, is Hyun-seong really okay with that?

In a situation that was still incomprehensible from the perspective of others, Yu-geon stared at the screen with a stiff expression.

[Me] Are you okay with just disappearing? Don’t you have any regrets? 6:12 PM

He had done a lot as Cheon Ise in that short time. Was he okay with not finishing it himself and disappearing?

Hyun-seong didn’t seem like the type to not care about not seeing the end of what he had done.

It seemed like my guess was not wrong, as a short silence followed.

For some reason, it felt long, and the short silence ended, and the new message arrival notification I had been waiting for popped up.

[Lim Hyun-seong] I just accept it. It wasn’t mine to begin with. And there’s no way. 6:15 PM

Isn’t he giving up too quickly without a fight? Well, he seemed to be quick to decide on things that wouldn’t work from the start. But wasn’t he sorry?

I was bothered by it even though it wasn’t my business.

But are you really okay? I could easily guess that he wouldn’t be okay.

No one would be okay with their work, which they had loved and done their best, falling apart.

[Me] You give up too easily without a fight. 6:16 PM

A sentence that would provoke him reflexively popped out. I had a chance to edit it and change the nuance, but I didn’t.

[Lim Hyun-seong] It’s not something that can be done by winning. 6:17 PM

But. Yu-geon wanted to argue, but he had nothing else to say.

He couldn’t do much to help. It was Hyun-seong and Ise who made the choice, and he was just a third party.

He had no right to say anything, even if it was a selfish wish. He had just spent his first day as a member of Composition and Offbeat.

He didn’t care about Cheon Ise’s feelings or justification. He wanted to work more with Lim Hyun-seong’s Cheon Ise. He wanted to see more of the group, the plan, the company that he was creating.

He went through all the trouble to put me back in this position. And then what? He accepts it because there’s no other way?

He felt a sudden surge of displeasure.

[Me] What about the other members? 6:18 PM

The others. They were left to fend for themselves without Hyun-seong, struggling with the composition and the plan. Did he expect them to just regret that Ise didn’t stay and keep doing well as he was?

They didn’t even know who the person next to them was. Did he want them to miss Cheon Ise, who had changed for a short time?

Yu-geon waited for an answer with an unhappy expression.

[Lim Hyun-seong] What do you mean? 6:19 PM

What do I mean?

[Me] Well. I just feel sorry for the members. 6:20 PM

[Lim Hyun-seong] What do you mean? 6:20 PM

Yu-geon told him his honest opinion as usual.

[Me] The happiest time of your activities as a climax was when you were with him. You’ll never know that your precious colleague was a different person. You don’t even know that you can never meet him again. 6:21 PM

And he added something he didn’t have to say, but wanted to say out of spite.

[Me] I would be hurt if I were you. 6:22 PM

He didn’t know what he wanted to get out of saying that. But he wasn’t satisfied with the way things were. He might be fine with it, but he wasn’t.

Hyun-seong didn’t reply even though he read the message.

“Okay, let’s move to the studio!”

The waiting time was over.

Yu-geon put his phone in his pocket, making sure it didn’t show, and got up from his seat and followed the staff.

“What are you doing, looking at your phone all the time? Do you have something to contact?”

Yi-jun joked as he followed the staff down the hallway. Yu-geon resisted the urge to blurt out a bomb confession to Hyun-seong without his permission and headed to the set.

The audience was already seated and the other cast members were mostly in their assigned seats.

He checked his phone one last time and saw a short reply from Hyun-seong.

[Lim Hyun-seong] Don’t talk nonsense and do your best in the shooting. 6:30 PM

I’ll do well anyway. Yu-geon pouted his lips and then smiled brightly before sitting on the stage, greeting the audience.

After revealing his father’s story, Yu-geon’s average image had improved somewhat, but he still had a lot of anti-fans.

Some of them spewed more hate, saying he sold his dead parents to restore his image.

But it helped anyway. The general public, excluding idol fans, had the image of Yu-geon as a handsome guy who was trolling in the famous idol survival show.

It turned out that he was the son of a national singer and a talented person with a pitiful story. Even adults who had never heard a song of Yu-geon felt sorry for the kid who had a hard time.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling to be pitied, but it helped his activities. He could see it now.

“Wow!”

There was a difference in popularity and recognition, but the atmosphere was much more welcoming than when Yi-jun or Kyunghwa came in. Yu-geon smiled broadly and thanked them.

‘I have to focus on my work now.’

He didn’t want to kick away the opportunity that ‘Hyun-seong’ had given him.

“So, mom, you’re saying that you see something that other people don’t see in your eyes? When did you start seeing that?”

The MC asked the story-teller with a microphone and a grim expression.

“I’ve seen it since I was young. I thought I was seeing things or going crazy at first…”

The shooting was almost over. The last story was a ridiculous one that was put in for the sake of trolling.

I’m having a hard time because of my mom who sees ghosts.

The story started out a bit trollish, but when the child came out and explained it in detail, it turned out to be a hardship caused by the parent’s activity as a shaman.

‘I guess they wanted to make it more provocative, so they set the direction like that.’

The person who reported the problem probably had the goal of getting the prize money for being selected as the final solution story.

If they were doing business as a shaman, they could also promote themselves with the broadcast.

It was nothing to be afraid of when looking at the profit behind the broadcast. Yu-geon hid his cynical thoughts and nodded as if he was listening.

Then, because of the answer that the story-teller gave to the MC’s question, a spark flew to Yu-geon.

“Then, do you think there are any wandering spirits in this studio?”

The story-teller looked around with a slight hum, narrowing his eyes, and then looked at Yu-geon and opened his eyes wide.

“Right. There’s someone behind Yu-geon right now.”

Pfft, Yu-geon almost spat out the water he was drinking as he inhaled reflexively at the unexpected spark.