The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Next Wave’s office—Yoo Won-Dong scanned the materials his secretary brought him and received a briefing about the current controversy surrounding Park Dong-Jun. Not only did he receive a briefing from his personal secretary instead of the marketing or management team, he appeared very lax while listening. Furthermore, there wasn’t a hint of nervousness in his face, and so on, which all highlighted what little interest Yoo Won-Dong had in the topic.

He even appeared to be getting this briefing not for the purpose of solving this problem but to know the situation for appearance’s sake.

“People claiming to be Mr. Park Dong-Jun’s ex-classmates have written slanderous posts on NacePann. The main message of the post is that Mr. Dong-Jun had led an organized bullying campaign against them.”

“Hm.”

“According to our current findings after monitoring responses on Bluebird…”

“Hm. That’s all right. I can search for that on my own.”

“I understand, sir.”

“How does the situation look to you, Mr. Kim? Does it look very serious?”

“Ah…well…”

“No, I supposed I shouldn’t ask you but the marketing team. Hahaha. I’m sorry. Please go and do the rest of your work.”

“Yes, I understand.”

After dismissing Mr. Kim, Yoo Won-Dong looked at his computer screen again. After working in this field for a bit now, there were some things Yoo Won-Dong learned. First of all, he learned that the true responses came from BlueBird and there were many private accounts there. Thus, to assess true public responses, he needed to follow the private accounts, find the right search keywords, and so on.

Though he was quite old enough to learn the culture of the idol market, Yoo Won-Dong collected resources and did his own studying by himself. Yet, he no longer had a passion to do more.

“This is serious.” After searching through Bluebird a couple of more times, Yoo Won-Dong had read the general atmosphere surrounding Dong-Jun’s controversy. Posts about Dong-Jun were pouring out like a flood, but there was still a stream of hope left which was that the public’s opinion hadn’t completely flipped to one side. It was because people weren’t certain about the genuineness of the post yet. At this point, Yoo Won-Dong thought it was best to back off.

He thought the marketing team should come to the truth of this issue and upload an apology letter by today; and if the issue didn’t die then even after that, they could think about halting Dong-Jun’s activities. It was a simple process to take, and there was a good reasoning behind it too.

Thus, there was no need for him to stress about this too much. As he had always been doing since he transferred to this company, Yoo Won-Dong checked the proposals sent to him and signed their letter of approval. It was like any peaceful afternoon from before.

***

I arrived at the bathroom with Woon and searched my surroundings around the bathroom carefully. Since it was a bathroom that college students also used, I checked each of the stalls to confirm that no one was there. Fortunately, this was a bathroom in the corner, far from the common pathways that people take, and was empty. After finishing my preparations, I looked back at Woon again.

Woon clutched my hand and shouted, “…Tae-Yoon…!”

“…?”

“It really…works!”

“…Yeah?”

“You know what you said about transferring our memories!”

“Ah…yes. it seems everything is well connected.”

“It’s not just ‘well connected’. All the memories came in organized in perfect order—furthermore, in a way that doesn’t affect the me from this world in the slightest.”

“Oh.”

It seemed the work I did last time was quite impressive for Woon to speak this way. I had simply pressed on with all my might with Insight, but everything fit together. I wondered if all this was connected to my imagination somehow. It appeared the exact way to use Insight was to draw an image in my head.

“Then, how is it possible for you to pop out like this?”

“Ah, it just worked when I tried.”

“It just worked?”

“Yeah. Even if it’s me from another world, it’s still me in the end. It seems I can naturally make the switch when I want to talk.”

This was surprising. I thought Woon might feel some pain from the identity crisis so it was surprising that he could make such a natural switch. Perhaps, this was what a doctor would feel after seeing a patient recover successfully from a difficult surgery. It made me proud somehow.

“Ah, so is there a reason why you came out right now?”

“Yeah.” Woon’s expression changed, and he continued in a more solemn tone. “You know this controversy with Dong-Jun? It’s something I experienced around my twelfth regression.”

“Really?” This was huge news. Perhaps, this was the key to solving this case.

“I couldn’t solve the issue then and failed the mission. Thus, Dong-Jun was expelled, and the team began to head toward doom.”

Yet, rather than hearing something hopeful, this was despairing.

“That was how my twelfth regression ended.”

“That means you couldn’t solve the case then.” Was he trying to give me a heads-up in case my future ended in the same way?

“I gained some information while trying to solve the case so I wanted to share them with you. Above all, I want to pay back those guys who wrote the posts again Dong-Jun. Because in the end…it was because of those guys that our team fell into doom,” Woon said and a faint rage wavered in his pupils.

Woon looked around his surroundings again. It seemed he was wary about anyone listening to us, but as I confirmed before, there was no one here but us.

“First of all, I checked that the people who wrote the post lied about everything. You don’t have to worry about Dong-Jun’s character.”

This was what I expected and nodded quietly.

“But it won’t be easy to sue them since they only wrote Dong-Jun’s initials.”

“That’s regretful.”

“But it’s not like…there’s no solutions.”

“Could you explain?”

“The first solution is to contact Dong-Jun’s past classmates. Dong-Jun’s classmates appeared quite late in my twelfth regression. His friends gathered evidence and wrote a contrasting post to prove the original post’s lies too late so Dong-Jun was already expelled by then. Furthermore, the public opinion had already sided against him too.”

“Then, I guess it’s important to quickly get his past classmates to write a contrasting post.”

“Yeah, but there’s a problem with that.”

“What problem?”

“Majority of Dong-Jun’s friends are in the military or studying overseas.”

“…Haa.”

“They are all probably in their training units right now, so it won’t be easy to contact them. The friend who was studying overseas also lost his phone, so he heard about the news in Korea too late.”

“…So, I will have to pass through those hurdles to make a contrasting post.”

“Yeah.”

This was very difficult.

“The second solution is to make the claims for defamation stronger to sue them.”

“How do I make the claims stronger?”

“It’s simple. It’s to make the original post change its initials to Dong-Jun’s full name. That will be sure-fire evidence.”

“But there’s no way that will happen.”

“What do you mean there’s no way? You have the ability. The ability to command people with your Insight.”

“I can only use that if I personally meet the original posters.”

“I know the address.”

“…!”

With that, the problem could be much more easily solved. But if I knew their address, there was something that was easier to do.

“Wouldn’t it make things easier to just order them to bring down their original post?”

“…”

“Or I could order to upload an apology post.”

“…Yes.”

“But why…ah.” I realized it then while speaking. It was so out of character for Woon to want to see the fall of others. It appeared that his fundamental personality changed slightly after regressing repeatedly.

“Then, let’s do both while we are at it.”

“Both?”

“I will make them change the initials to a full name to have a stronger claim to sue and make them upload an apology post immediately afterward.”

“So, you will sue them after all that?”

“Yes.”

“…Isn’t that going too far, Tae-Yoon?”

“How am I going too far? You are the one who made the suggestions and above all, it’s those people who are bad for writing lies.”

Woon quietly nodded. He probably recalled the time he had helplessly watched his team fall apart after failing the mission.

“Please tell me the address. But based on the post, it seems like there are two instead of one…Then, shouldn’t I see them when they are together?”

“Ah, since the owner of the NacePann ID is one person, you just have to go to the convenience store where he works.”

“Then, just tell me where that convenience store is.”

Woon did as I asked. Though he didn’t give me an exact address, he gave me details that allowed me to easily deduce the specific store. Furthermore, this place wasn’t too far from my dorm. I could just go there by myself while riding on the subway.

“Since it’s a night shift, you have to go in the night.”

“I guess I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“You probably wouldn’t have been able to after an incident like this anyway.”

“That’s true.”

I looked at Woon for a bit then. It was awesome that I could talk to Woon and receive his help in issues like this. It had really been a good idea for me to connect the regressors’ memories.

“Ah, and this is my last suggestion but…”

“Yes?”

“When you are planning to sue those guys, visit Yoo Won-Dong.”

“Yoo Won-Dong?”

“Yeah, if you don’t give him some work to do at this time…”

“Go on.”

“…He will go astray.”

“…Excuse me?”

“There will be nothing more tiresome than having Yoo Won-Dong as your enemy later. It seemed like you calmed him down right now, but if you leave him like this, he could change to be on your opposing side.”

“What…are you seriously telling me a man who’s over his fifties is going to go…astray…?”

“People usually get a bit younger the older they get. At least mentally.”

“…Haa.”

“Besides, getting Yoo Won-Dong’s help in the suing case is good.”

“Why?”

“Ah, you didn’t check Yoo Won-Dong’s profile.”

“Yeah, what does it say?”

“His background is in law.”

“…Seriously?”

“He joined a company because he failed the bar exam, but he has many connections who are judges, prosecutors, and lawyers.”

It was shocking that a law student became the Next Wave’s director. I supposed one never knew what kind of life they would live.

“Anyways, this is all the information I can give you about this. Do you have anything more to ask?”

“No, this is enough.”

“Then, let’s go back on site. I will also make my switch after going there.”

“Okay.”

I gained all the information I could. If I couldn’t solve this case now, I would really be a fool. Now the problem wasn’t whether I could really solve this case but how well I would go about it and how far I could push the original posters’ life down.

***

We returned to the shooting site, but the host and important staff were still gone.

“Today’s shooting was canceled.”

“Ah…!”

“I see.”

We heard that the shooting for ‘Neighborhood Eateries’ was canceled.

“I’m really sorry. We will call you again for another date.”

“I sent more detailed information to your managers so you can hear what happened through them.”

“I’m sorry.”

The staff kept apologizing to us, but there was no need for them to be sorry. After all, this was all business in the end and businesses had to always minimize risks. Rather than continuing with the shooting and faring the risk of having to delete all the footage, it was better for them to find another team they could quickly call to fill the gap.

“But where’s Dong-Jun?”

“Yeah.”

My members began to look for Dong-Jun then and Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna approached us.

“We already sent Ms. Dong-Jun to his dormitory.”

“What?”

“Really?”

Dong-Jun already left before us.

“He…seemed to be in a critical state.”

“…”

“Let’s also start moving.”

We moved according to Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna’s instructions to the parking lot. Then, we got in the car and left the college campus. Usually, we would have been chattering away and making all sorts of noise after our schedule was over, but today, it was dead silent inside the car.

“…”

“Ha…”

“Will Dong-Jun be all right?”

“…”

Ms. Seung-Yeon tried to move the car in the direction of our next broadcast destination when I stopped her.

“Ms. Seung-Yeon.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s go back to the dorm.”

“Sorry?”

“Let’s go to the dorm>’

“But if we go now, Mr. Dong-Jun…”

“That’s why we have to go.”

There were some people who needed to be alone when they were hurt. At the same time, there were also people who had an even harder time when they were alone in their worst moments. Thus, I couldn’t leave Dong-Jun alone right now.