The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

As a penalty for failing the mission, the system just stated that an altercation would break out. It didn’t tell me whether this argument would be beneficial to us but simply that it was the ‘start’ of an altercation. We could receive critical mental damage by losing this argument or suffer great damage even if we won. In other words, no one knew whether this penalty could really become a penalty after we failed, or if this was just a passing event.

“What are you going to do to him? Are you going to hit him or something?”

“Why are you asking Tae-Yoon to suddenly follow you…?”

But seeing how aggressive my members were responding, it didn’t appear that this would simply end as a penalty. Woon and Yeon-Hoon twisted Yoon Tae-Hyung’s words to mock him.

“Rather, I'm curious to know. Mr. Yoon, did you come here for the first time after all this time because we won?” Do-Seung said provokingly as if he was genuinely trying to pick a fight.

“You're hilarious, man. What do you think you can do by taking him away?” Finally, Dong-Jun blatantly insulted Yoon Tae-Hyung.

It seemed Yoon Tae-Hyung didn’t expect to be insulted by trainees way younger than him and stammered like he was buffering.

“What…?” It was then I realized, ‘There’s never been a time…when my members were that scared of Yoon Tae-Hyung.' I always had this strange obsession that I had to protect my members, but their minds weren’t so fragile that they needed protection from someone like Yoon Tae-Hyung.

Yoon Tae-Hyung might be older than us, but if we engaged in a physical fight, it was obvious who the winners would be; in retrospect, this was a fight between an alcoholic middle-aged man with a beer belly and a group of fit twenty-year-olds.

“Well, whatever it is, didn’t you come here for a purpose?” I approached Yoon Tae-Hyung and asked. “If there’s some business you need to attend to, feel free to go back to what you were planning to do instead of talking to us.”

I thought the argument would end here, but Yoon Tae-Hyung took a step forward while meeting my eyes. Then, he said, “I heard that you called the boss to blackmail him. You said you were going to sue him for breach of contract and all that. Have you gone mad?”

Yoon Tae-Hyung brought up the topic that had gone unfinished last time, and my members, who naturally weren’t aware of my blackmail, stared at me in shock.

“It’s as you say.” There was nothing for me to feel scared about. I thought I could explain to my members later and didn’t back down. “I called him to tell him what a terrible job you’ve been doing all along.”

It seemed Yoon Tae-Hyung hadn’t expected me to act so boldly and hesitated a bit.

“So, what are you going to do to me? Are you going to scold me or something?” I asked. Seeing how coldly Yoo Won-Dong treated him just now, I knew there was no way that this man would transfer to the joint company. In other words, he was someone who couldn’t exert any influence over us anymore. Of course, I couldn’t be completely certain that was going to happen but I thought it was fine to say this much.

“I did nothing wrong. You didn’t do your job and I simply reported that. We have to protect our rights too.” I truly didn’t think I did anything wrong. Perhaps, problems could arise if I were a simple employee provoking my superior. Yet, we weren’t employees nor was this guy my superior. We were simple coworkers collaborating for the same goal, and since he didn’t collaborate properly, I could report on his faults. It was meaningless to go on about manners and respect in a situation like this.

“Be careful on your way back, Mr. Yoon,” I told him and turned back to my members. “Let’s go, you guys.”

“Yeah, we should.”

“Sigh.”

My members and I returned to the waiting room, and Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna also followed us. Left alone in the hallway, Yoon Tae-Hyung seemed to stare at us blankly for a bit and murmured to himself, “…Ha. Damn it, shit.” Then, he walked away.

***

After hearing the argument between Yoon Tae-Hyung and Siren, Park Soo Chul cautiously left through the emergency staircase at the back of the hallway. When Yoon Won-Dong and Yoon Tae-Hyung had been conversing, he didn’t mind standing awkwardly nearby; but when an argument with Yoon Tae-Hyung and Siren broke out, he thought he had to hide.

He wanted to leave the area if he could but since all entrances to passageways were blocked by Siren, Seung-Yeon, Hyuna, and Yoon Tae-Hyung, he had no choice but to escape to the emergency staircase. He was wondering if he should just go down the staircase like this when he unwillingly heard the content of the argument.

“Ha, the guys sure are strong.” He had thought Bong Tae-Yoon was the only headstrong person in the group, but it appeared all the members weren’t the submissive types either. They probably wouldn’t get tricked and beaten easily anywhere they went.

Since they would have to keep working together from now on, this type of personality was preferable to a weak-willed one. Thus, while thinking about the details of the reality program they would soon have to shoot, he began to add some changes. He had originally planned to make the show easy and soft.

‘But I think I can go more hardcore now.’ Park Soo-Chul thought he could test the groups’ mentalities a bit more.

***

“Okay, let’s go back to our place now for real. I don’t want to stay here any longer.”

“Please put on your seat belts! We are going speed right under the limit speed!”

“If you are going to stay under the limit speed, doesn’t it mean you aren’t speeding?”

“No need to correct me!” After our argument with Yoon Tae-Hyung, we all got down to the parking lot and got into our car. Perhaps, as a result of staying in the concert hall all day, we had grown a bit sick of staying here for so long.

‘But we will have a lot of memories of this place,’ I thought. Starting from the parking lot to the concert hall, I tried to capture my surroundings with my eyes. I usually wasn’t the sentimental type but today, I felt more emotional than usual since we finally achieved The Showcase 2’s win we had been working so hard for. I was also grateful to this place for saving Do-Seung’s life and wanted to remember it.

Yet, there were too many extraneous sounds that were blocking my sentimental time.

“How about we eat a late-night snack today? We can eat malatang

and gua bao rou…wow, I’m drooling just thinking about it.”

“If we eat right now, I guarantee that we will have an upset stomach.”

“But don’t you admit that it’s especially tempting at this time?”

“Whether I admit it or not, you are going to be sick.”

“Even if I get sick, I want to risk it.”

Do-Seung chided Dong-Jun.

“Let’s all take a selfie!” Whether anyone was listening or not, Yeon-Hoon just started to take selfies.

I was so used to this scenery by now that I tried to treat their sounds as background noise and tried to dwell on my emotions again. Yet, after we got out of the parking lots, there was a whole crowd of people gathered at the entrance.

“Huh?”

“What?”

I understood what happened in my head but couldn’t accept it in my heart. It seemed they had all gathered here and waited to see us leave work.

“Have they been waiting for us until now?”

“For us?”

“Wow…”

We had never met our fans anywhere besides on the stage. The studio we went to do our previous performances didn’t allow for fans to gather in this manner. And not just us but Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna seemed astounded by the situation.

“Uh, Uhh! H-How do I drive…!” She tried to hit the gas pedal and move forward, but the crowd gathered closer.

“I think we can’t step on the gas pedal and need to just slowly roll across.”

“Hahaha.”

“Wow, this is seriously amazing.” Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna looked around their surroundings in half-shock and half-amazement. My members and I also stared outside blankly. We were leaving much later than other groups after meeting Yoo Won-Dong, fighting with Yoon Tae-Hyung, and talking about all sorts of things. But these fans had waited here for over an hour just for this moment.

“Can we greet them?” I asked.

“I-I suppose so?”

“If things get dangerous, we will immediately get out and put an end to things.”

I exchanged looks with my members and I slowly opened one side of the window.

“Um, hello…” I was planning to just give a short greeting when I heard.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Tae-Yoooon!”

Gasp!

“Yeon-Hoon!”

Screams that were louder than my voice poured out.

“Good work today!”

“Congratulations on your win!”

“You all went through so much!”

I heard fans congratulating me from far away. I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t do anything great for these people, and I wondered if it was all right for me to receive such heartfelt congratulations. But that wasn’t all. Letters and folded papers were flowing through the window. I wondered if it was all right for me to receive these gifts so suddenly and looked towards Ms. Seung-Yeon.

‘It seems all right.’ I saw Ms. Seung-Yeon make the OK sign and decided this was still safe.

‘I feel bad though.’ I wanted to do something for them too, and perhaps, my members thought the same as me.

“Ah.”

“Wait a bit.”

“Don’t close the window for a bit!” My members suddenly became frantic.

“Give these out!” Yeon-Hoon pulled out some goods at the back of the car seats and handed them to me.

‘Ginseng sticks?’ These were the ginseng sticks we have been eating. After eating it all together on the last drive, we kept storing it in the car and eating it from time to time. Yeon-Hoon knew that I liked these sticks and always restocked our ginseng stick supplies so that it wouldn’t run out.

‘But can we give these?’ I wondered if it was all right to give ginseng sticks to fans.

“Um! Please try this!”

“…?”

In the end, I randomly passed ginseng sticks to everyone outside the car. Though there had been over ten sticks in my hand, they disappeared instantly after people grabbed them eagerly.

“Let’s put an end to things here!” It seemed the situation looked dangerous then, and Ms. Seung-Yeon put a stop to things. My group members hastily greeted the fans then.

“Thank you so much today!”

“Let’s see each other next time!”

“Thank you!”

Zing. The car window closed, and the car slowly raised its speed not to injure the fans.

“We are leaving now.”

***

After Siren left the concert hall, Siren fans who had waited to see them leave stood in a daze. Many idols didn’t lower their car windows on their way out. Since it wasn’t their job to do so, no one said anything against that, but…

“…What are up with these guys?”

“Are they angels?”

“Wow.”

Perhaps, it was because they were fans, but their hearts swelled just from the fact that Siren members rolled their windows down.

“Ginseng…aren’t they so cute?”

“It’s fake superstition when they say that hardcore fans can’t meet their idols…”

“Ha, how can we eat this?”

While clutching their ginseng sticks, the smile on their lips refused to disappear. That night, Siren fans uploaded the ginseng stick they got and uploaded it to Bluebird.

—Hahahaha ah, so cute haha

—Who eats ginseng pack in the group? Haha

—I feel like Bong Tae-Yoon would

—Damn these guys look like they will only eat chocolate and sweets like that but they eat ginseng…they are the same as me…?

News of this story spread among fans and brought smiles to their faces.

***

After departing from the concert hall, we safely arrived at our lodging place.

“Haaa.”

“We're finally home!”

“Ahhh!”

My members and I went up to our floor and we all collapsed to the ground. The day had felt very long and hectic. We all lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling blankly. I was so happy that I wished time would stop like this.

[Congratulations on succeeding in your mission.]

[Dispatching next mission.]

The system talked to me then.

[Record 500,000 sales on the first week of album release within the year 2022.]

[Upon success, you will progress to the next mission.]

[Upon failure, member Lee Woon dies.]