The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I recalled the numerous Bluebird tweets about Yoo Won-Dong.

Yoo Won-Dong, do your job properly.

Go die, Yoo Won-Dong.

Yoo Won-Dong, have you lost your mind?

Yoo Won-Dong, please don’t meddle with the production.

Yoo Won-Dong, if you dare work like that again…

Yoo Won-Dong, I just want to smack you…

Yoo Won-Dong, I am really going to kill…

‘Haaaa…are you serious?’ I didn’t remember seeing a single tweet complimenting Yoo Won-Dong. But was Yoo Won-Dong that terrible at his job? If I thought about it, he wasn’t the worst this industry had to offer. In the entertainment business, that spot was always reserved for someone else. And though there were a lot of issues and complaints surrounding him, the result he made was always all right. I still couldn’t make my mind up about him.

‘He’s not completely out of his mind at least.’ For some strange reason, Yoo Won-Dong had been mentioned on Bluebird much more often than other bosses from the entertainment world.

Though most of the comments had been mocking him, there were a few that could be considered more positive. I had to see more of him to see if all that issue surrounding him was just his ridiculous star potential or if he was just unconventionally good at his job.

‘His card design is pretty,’ I noted and placed his business card into my wallet. This was already a step above the WD Entertainment bosses who had just appeared with contract clauses on our first meeting, much less business cards.

“I organized this meeting because I wanted to get to know everyone, especially since we are going to be a family from now on. I hope it doesn’t make you all uncomfortable. Hahaha!” Yoo Won-Dong smiled friendly at us.

“Ah, hahaha, we aren’t uncomfortable…!”

“It’s nice…!”

“Hahaha…”

All my group members had a difficult time remaining relaxed. Dong-Jun appeared fine, but Yeon-Hoon, Woon, and Do-Seung all looked nervous.

It was understandable. Since they had never been properly cared for by the company, they never had the chance to personally meet with the heads of a company. Thus, they were naturally nervous to immediately have a meeting with the boss of the company right after their performance.

I smiled inside my mind, seeing my group members. They were feeling awkward now, but once they got used to it, I supposed they would be able to say everything they wished. My group members weren’t the type to get so easily intimidated like this.

“Well, we did prepare for this meeting, but we didn’t prepare anything extraordinary…hm, Producer Park. Since Siren just won the show and went through all those hardships, is there anything special I can do for them?” Yoo Won-Dong asked Park Soo-Chul if there was anything he could do for us.

Maybe this was what was so great about big corporations, but they were already trying to do something for us at our first meeting. I immediately thought of possible rewards they could give us. ‘Company dinner? Corporate card?’

Park Soo-Chul seemed to have thought the same thing as me and said, “Ah then, since Siren worked so hard today, how about you treat them to a nice meal?”

‘That’s a good idea,’ I thought. We had never received even a proper lunch from WD Entertainment, so I thought this would be a great start to our relationship with this company.

“Ah~ Dinner~ How nice! Seeing how thin you guys are, you all should eat a lot and exercise.”

‘Hm…?’

But as soon as the topic of treating us was mentioned, Yoo Won-Dong made a pleasant smile and began to change the topic. “While having dinner, we can build our friendship and have a nice conversation over drinks! Ah, but can everybody drink here? Isn’t there someone underage here?”

“Ah, yes, I am underage, sir,” I responded.

“How old are you? Isn’t your name Tae…Yoon?”

“I’m nineteen years old, and yes, my name is Tae-Yoon.”

“Haha, is that so? Then, I guess Mr. Tae-Yoon won’t be able to drink. What a pity. Haha!”

I stared at Yoo Won-Dong blankly after giving my answer.

“Nineteen years old…haa. Those were the days. Hahaha! I am envious of you.”

“Nineteen sounds young, but it’s an age where you still have a good head to think. Let’s work hard with your hyungs and produce good results!”

“…Yes, sir.”

“Haha! That’s the mindset!”

Yes, I remembered it now. Yoo Won-Dong was notoriously known for being stingy and cutting costs as much as possible. Even now, he was talking in a roundabout way and continuing the conversation with nothing important to say. It was the representative way of talking for corporate manager types; they kept sliding away from the main issue while smiling kindly.

They never said ‘You can’t!’ even if it killed them but never said, ‘You can!’ either. Even now, Yoo Won-Dong was using this characteristic way of speaking that corporate managers used to circle the issue of treating us for dinner.

‘…But is he seriously not planning to give us money for dinner…?’ It wasn’t like we were asking to establish a new building or increase our budget to 50 billion so that we could also have a chance in the US market. We were just talking about having a dinner together.

Of course, one dinner meal could be expensive. If we ate costly meals like hanwoo[1] and added drinks on top of that, one meal could easily surpass a couple hundred thousand won. Still, we were only five people—seven if Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna joined us. Even if we ate a lot, I doubted the meal would be over fifty thousand won.

‘This is too much…’ I was baffled and I stared at Yoo Won-Dong in disappointment.

Seeing my response, Yoo Won-Dong looked at his watch and remarked, “Ah, is it already this late? I think it’s time for us to leave now. Hahaha!”

‘…What?’

Yoo Won-Dong was about to get up, but Park Soo-Chul wasn’t someone who would easily let this pass. He said, “Ah, then, sir, what should we do about dinner?”

The smile on Yoo Won-Dong’s face faltered momentarily, but he soon regained his expression and said, “Dinner? Of course, we should have it~”

I thought as expected, he was going to at least provide a meal but he continued, “Let’s write this off as a team-bonding experience fee for the variety show~”

“…Yes, sir.”

In the end, this crazy guy wasn’t planning to give us a meal with JI ENM money but the broadcast’s money—in other words, W-Net’s money. Park Soo-Chul also looked at Yoo Won-Dong with dismay. The characteristic trait of guys like Yoo Won-Dong was that though he pressured people to do many things, he showed no care for how others felt.

“Let’s meet each other again in a better place~ Stay safe.” Yoo Won-Dong maintained a smile on his face till the very end as he left the VIP waiting room. After he left and we could no longer hear his footsteps in the hallways, Park Soo-Chul spoke, “I will personally pay for Siren’s dinner. Tell me anything you all want to eat.”

“No, no! We are fine! Really!”

“Yes.”

“We are used to not eating too late now, so we might get a stomachache if we do.”

Yeon-Hoon and the other members waved their hands in refusal. I also didn’t want to receive a free meal in this forced manner and stared in the direction where Yoo Won-Dong left.

‘Though I’m sure this place will be a hundred and thousand times better than WD Entertainment, it won’t be easy…’

“Then, should we get up now?” Park Soo-Chul said, and we all got up.

***

As Park Soo-Chul walked out to the hallway, Yeon-Hoon asked, “Ah, producer, then, are we going to move to a joint company from next week? We haven’t received any information about the process yet.”

We were all curious about how everything was going to happen now.

“We will give you all the information related to that matter after some internal meetings. Please just rest for a day or two,” Park Soo-Chul replied.

“All right. Thank you~”

Then, after we separated from Park Soo-Chul, we returned to the waiting room.

“Huh? Where are Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon going?” Though those two weren’t where we expected them to be, we didn’t think the situation was so strange and sat in our spots.

“Haaa.”

Sigh.

“Ahh. I’m so tired.”

“Yeah.”

We all sat together on the sofa, sighed, and stared blankly at the ceiling. We finally had to relax after meeting our future boss right after our performance. We sat in our spots without saying anything.

“…Does this mean we are going to debut?” Then, Dong-Jun began.

“…Debut?”

“To a big company?”

“Finally?”

“We won!”

Smiles spread across my members’ faces and they all began to yell.

“Ahhhh!”

“Yaaaay!”

“We wooon!”

“Ahhhhh!”

They jumped up and down the waiting room and began to finally express their happiness. They hadn’t been able to properly celebrate on the stage because my legs gave out, and they weren’t able to do it after the performance either because Yoo Won-Dong came to see us. Thus, it was only now they could finally celebrate their win. I watched my members with satisfaction. In our past life, we couldn’t even debut; but now, our debut was right before our eyes.

‘It’s done…!’ A story of success was right near us, and my heart thumped in excitement.

Creak. It was then the waiting room’s door opened and Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna came inside.

“You are all here…?” they asked.

“Ms. Seung-Yeon! Ms. Hyuna!” Yeon-Hoon approached Ms. Seung-Yeon first and exclaimed, “We won! We won!”

It would’ve been easy to respond to Yeon-Hoon’s bright smile with another smile, but their faces didn’t appear bright.

“Ah, hahaha…”

“Hahaha.”

My group members also sensed that something was off and stared at Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna.

“Did something happen?” Yeon-Hoon asked.

“Mr. Yoon just came here…”

“…He wanted to go talk to the director from JI ENM in person.”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyun replied.

“…What?”

“No, why…?”

“He hadn’t shown up anywhere until now…” All my members stiffened. Of course, my members also didn’t have good memories of Yoon Tae-Hyung. Not only did that man neglect us for the past couple of years, he didn’t give us any support while keeping our hopes up. I thought while pressing my temples to calm my aching head.

‘Yoon Tae-Hyung is going to meet Yoo Won-Dong. It made my head hurt just thinking about their meeting.’ I needed to stop them.

“Did they meet just now? No, but the JI ENM General Manager was with us just before so there’s no way they already met,” I deduced.

“Ah, well, they met in the hallway and began to converse there…”

“We tried to block him with all our might and even stretched out our arms side-to-side to block him at the concert hall entrance…but he just pushed his way through…”

“Mr. Yoon recognized the director at first glance and knew he was from JI ENM.”

“Haaa.”

They had already met. Things were getting messier and more complicated. It probably would’ve been easy for Yoon Tae-Hyung to spot Yoo Won-Dong as the director of JI ENM. Though broadcast staff wore rather comfortable outfits, Yoo Won-Dong alone wore formal wear from head to toe and was the oldest.

He was clearly someone from JI ENM from a glance. Still, I was surprised to hear that they had happened to meet in the hallways and began to converse there. I wondered if I should go to the hallway and body slam into Yoon Tae-Hyun when another question popped into my head.

‘…Why is the system so calm?’ It felt strange. The system usually warned me first when a problem like this arose. Whether it was by giving surprise missions or activating my Precognitive Vision, it impelled me to act. Yet, it was remaining quiet now. I wondered if the system disappeared after I completed the last member's death mission, but I knew it wasn’t something that would disappear so easily.

‘Maybe this isn’t a threat.’ Perhaps, the system decided it wasn’t anything to worry about. I didn’t know what exactly happened and decided to find out for myself.

‘I should go out and see.’ I needed to confirm it, whatever the case is.

“Let’s all go find Mr. Yoon together,” I suggested.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

“We should stop him before he says anything weird.”

I was heading out to the hallways with my group members when the system rang.

[Surprise mission activated.]

[Return to your dormitory by going down the parking lot to avoid Yoon Tae-Hyung.]

[Upon success, no rewards.]

[Upon failure, an altercation with Yoon Tae-Hyung.]

‘…What?’ It was as if the system was trying to stop us from meeting Yoon Tae-Hyung by suddenly giving me a surprise mission.

1. Expensive Korean beef ☜