The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

[Mission success.]

[You achieved first place in The Showcase 2.]

[You stopped Kang Do-Seung’s death.]

…I heard the notification of the mission’s success.

“Haaa.” I sharply exhaled, and I almost collapsed without realizing it was because I lost all strength in my legs. I didn’t fall thanks to Do-Seung holding me up, but I couldn’t easily calm my emotions.

“Ah…” I had gone through more than one sleepless night because this crazy system forced me to successfully complete my mission by using my member’s life as collateral. I thought I had gotten used to the stakes by now, but considering how much I was out of breath right now, I must have unknowingly felt intense pressure.

Sigh…

Today was definitely a happy day and a great moment for celebration, but my exhausted heart had no strength to feel happiness. I couldn’t believe I was in this state when I should be dancing around with my members right now, but I couldn’t put any strength in my legs no matter how much I tried. It felt like I was going to collapse like this but—

“Bong Tae-Yoon, are you ok? Hey! Breath, breathe!” Thanks to Do-Seung tightly holding onto me, I didn’t fall. My condition must have looked serious as Yeon-Hoon, Woon, and Dong-Jun, who had been hugging and shouting, all stopped and came towards me.

“Tae-Yoon!”

“Tae-Yoon, what happened?”

To outsiders, I must have looked strange as I was acting so strange on such a joyous day.

“…Guys.” But I couldn’t suppress my overwhelming emotions. In the end, I buried my face in Do-Seung’s chest and burst into tears. I felt bad that I dampened the atmosphere at a joyful time like this.

I tried to calm my emotions somehow, but Yeon-Hoon hugged and patted me from behind. “It’s okay. Everything will be all right.”

Then Woon and Dong-Jun also hugged me. Once again, the five of us were all gathered in a circle on stage, and some people might criticize us for being dramatic, but—

“Haa…” I felt like there was nowhere more safe and comfortable than in the arms of my members at this very moment.

***

After I calmed my emotions to some extent, it was now time for us to say our thoughts about winning the show. Only then could I look up and assess my surroundings properly. It seemed that other groups moved to the corner so that we could stand in the center by ourselves. Among them, I met Kang Hyun-Sung’s eyes.

‘Hmm.’ His eyes were calmer than I expected. I didn't know if he really felt calm or if he was pretending, but I thought, ‘I’m not in the position to be worried about other people.’

I couldn’t care about Only One more than necessary. Although the system didn’t immediately give me a new mission, I didn’t know when they would give me another one. If I got another mission with similar stakes, I was confident that I would act for our group without hesitation, so I couldn’t grow weak now.

“Yeon-Hoon, please tell us your thoughts about winning the show.” Just in time, Kim Young-Jin turned the mike towards Yeon-Hoon and asked for his winning speech.

After holding the mike, Yeon-Hoon seemed to ponder for a bit and slowly said, “…I think a lot has happened in the last two months, and there have been many changes.” He continued seriously, making onlookers doubt if he really was the same person who had been sobbing tearfully a few minutes ago.

“We were able to get fans who like us, and thanks to them, we were fortunately able to win among such amazing and talented people.”

I stared at Yeon-Hoon, and at that moment, we made eye contact. He gave me a small smile and continued, “Since this is a precious opportunity our fans gave us, I’ll run to the very end with our members so that we don’t waste this precious opportunity. Thank you.”

When Yeon-Hoon’s speech was over, applause poured out. Then Woon, Do-Seung, and Dong-Jun also expressed their thoughts.

“We’ll come back with better songs and albums.”

“We’ll be back soon, so please don’t get too bored in-between.”

After all the members said their thoughts, the mike was passed to me. Similar to how I felt on stage, I had nothing to say this time again since the members said everything I had wanted to say.

In the end, the only thing left for me to say was, “…Thank you so much for supporting, trusting, and loving us.” All I could say was thank you.

After saying our winning remarks, the host, Kim Young-Jin, came forward and began saying his closing remarks. “This brings to an end all the competition of The Showcase Season 2 First Chance, which has been going on nonstop for the past two months.”

I listened to those remarks in one ear and let it escape the other ear. I was a little dazed because this entire moment still felt unbelievable to me. Although it was something I had always dreamed about, I was still unsure whether this was reality.

‘Geez, this is crazy.’

Just in time, Kim Young-Jin’s closing remarks were also reaching their end. “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you for loving The Showcase 2 First Chance.”

Applause poured out from all sides once again, and five groups, including us, stared blankly at the audience. I didn’t know who started it and if the hosts or the producers had ordered us to do this, but—

“Thank you!”

We began bowing to the audience. Seeing this, everyone standing on the stage began to greet the audience as if we were all entranced, and while continuously saying thank you, we finally came down the stage. Only then did it begin to feel real that we became the final winner of The Showcase 2. As the staff began to move around us, we heard our names being called from all directions.

“Siren, please gather here for a second!” It was hectic even on stage, but it was even more so when we came down.

“Siren! Please move this way!” Like this, we followed the guidance of the production team and began to be dragged from place to place without knowing why.

***

Behind the stage, two women were in Siren’s empty waiting room after Siren left. Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna, who had been monitoring the stage and saw Siren win the final championship from the waiting room, jumped up and exclaimed in joy.

“Yessss! Is this real?”

“Kyaaaah!”

“Am I dreaming? Siren really won? Really??

“Yes, really!”

Frankly, Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna gained nothing from Siren’s win; they weren’t going to be transferring to big companies or getting bonuses. However, the two were happy as if they had won the show themselves.

“Whaat? What’s with Mr. Tae-Yoon? He looks like he’s about to fall?”

“Ahh…His legs must have given out from being too nervous.”

Sigh…

They looked at Bong Tae-Yoon with deep concern when he was about to fall.

“Oh my…”

“He’s crying…”

And they also became teary when Bong Tae-Yoon cried in Kang Do-Seung’s arms. They were the ones who had worked closer than anyone else with Siren for the past two months and watched over all their activities. Even though they had basically gotten tricked into working at a shady company, they stayed until the end and took care of Siren. Of course, they were clumsy and made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, but they tried their best. No, in a way, they had taken care of Siren beyond their means, and that was why they were so happy about Siren’s victory. At the same time—

“It’s all over now.”

“Yeah, I know.”

It became clear that their role was now finished. From now on, Siren would no longer belong to WD Entertainment but to a joint venture between WD Entertainment and Jaeil Group. They had originally planned to leave WD Entertainment and look for re-employment after taking care of Siren until this point anyway, but now that their job was finally over, they felt sad.

“Seung-Yeon, are you crying?”

“…No.”

In the last two months, they had worked many sleepless nights to make Siren successful, and this period had been an important and precious time for Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna.

“Honestly…I think I really leaned on the Siren members mentally a lot as well.”

After graduating from college, they had gone several months wasting time without doing anything at the first workplace they’d been hired for. They had struggled with concerns and self-doubt about whether they were doing the right thing, whether they were useful human beings, or whether they had worked hard for the past decade to waste time and sit like this. Although they had worked tirelessly for the past two months for Siren, it was for themselves as well—to convince themselves that they were working hard and they were people of sufficient social value.

“It somehow feels like I can also win anything since Siren won.”

“We also have to do well, and I think we can do anything now. We’ve endured this cutthroat idol industry, so wouldn’t we be able to face anything now?”

“Of course.”

The two used their self-esteem, which have grown in the past few months, as their basis to reach their goals and reach for a higher position. While they were warmly rooting for each other’s future, Yoon Seung-Yeon’s phone suddenly rang.

Ziiing—

“Wait a minute.” Yoon Seung-Yeon picked up her phone and checked the sender. She thought it would be an unimportant schedule call but—

—Head Manager Yoon Tae-Hyung

“Ah.”

“Why?”

“This-“

Gasp! “Did you get a call from Mr. Yoon?”

It was a call from WD Entertainment’s villain, Yoon Tae-Hyung. Both Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna had a hunch that this villain was trying to stir up a huge fuss.

***

After the performance ended, we were led by the production team to a space behind the stage. We didn’t know what was going on because we were pulled along in a hurry. However, when I saw the sign on the door—

—VIP Waiting Room

“All you have to do is go in and mind what you say.” When I heard one production staff say this, I had a hunch about who we were meeting.

‘Ah.’ And my hunch was confirmed when producer Park Soo Chul appeared. “Oh, you guys are all here. Our winning group, Siren.”

If even Park Soo-Chul was coming out to meet us separately, the person we were meeting was definitely no ordinary individual.

“I’ll open the door and introduce you guys briefly so you can all go and sit down, okay? Don’t be scared.”

If this was someone whom even the prideful Park Soo-Chul would act so politely towards, I thought, ‘It must be that person.’ The director of JI ENM’s entertainment business headquarters and the future leader of the joint venture.

Above all, I thought, ‘He’s not the type of person who fits being the director of an entertainment agency.’ He was too ambitious to stay stuck in an entertainment agency department, and if my memory served me correctly, he became the vice president of JI ENM in the future five years later.

“Then let’s go in.”

Since his name was already well known as one of the major power players in JI ENM as of now, Park Soo-Chul must be adopting such polite mannerisms; this was especially so since Wnet, which Park Soo-Chul belonged to, was just one of JI ENM’s numerous subsidiaries. And if someone asked me why I knew all this, it was because—

‘It’s because Only One fans cursed him to the heavens.’

Whenever things went badly for Only One, fans mentioned his name and insulted him. Thus, I thought he was just an incompetent middle-aged man at first, so I remembered being quite surprised when he rose to vice-president of JI ENM later on. We followed Park Soo-Chul and opened the waiting room door and went inside.

“Ah, you’re here, Producer Park? Haha, and this is our fellow Siren members?” A man with full hair and round eyes greeted us. He looked over fifty but his body looked fit for his age. A middle-aged man was sitting down with an aura that oozed charisma, and even from a glance, he had the look of a person in power.

“Please sit here. I was waiting for you.”

We sat in line with his guidance.

“I look forward to working with you in the future. I’m the director of JI ENM, and the soon-to-be president of the joint venture company.” When we sat down, the middle-aged man took a business card from his pocket and handed it to us one by one.

“My name is Yoo Won-Dong,” he said with a slight smile. “Please don’t forget and remember it.”

Yeah, it was Yoo Won-Dong. It was a name I would remember even if I didn’t want to. Before my regression, comments like this were written about him in Bluebird every time Only One did an activity:

—Mr. Yoo Won-Dong makes me so angry 99% of the time but 1% of the time he brings something absolutely mind-blowing and makes my heart thump like crazy

—Mr. Yoo Won-Dong, please introduce me to a guy

—Shooting a baldie beam towards Yoo Won-Dong. If you keep acting like that, your few remaining strands of hair will all fall off ☺

Reply: But Won-Dong has a lot of hair

Reply: Who the hell cares?