The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Dong-Jun and I were sitting awkwardly in the living room of our dorm. The members were sitting side by side on the sofa.

It was 1 am right now. It became late after I went to the police station, explained the situation in detail and filled out some documents. And the members had waited for me and Dong-Jun until this time. They waited late in the night for us to explain what happened in the underground parking lot today. The members hugged Dong-Jun and me after we returned from the police station, and after they carefully checked that we had no injuries, they sat us on the floor of the living room.

Since then, the members had been sitting on the sofa while Dong-Jun and I sat on the floor, enduring this silence without saying a word. Yeon-Hoon was the first to speak up.

“…What happened guys…? At the underground parking lot?”

“…”

“…”

“The key was missing so I went down to see if I left it in the van…Do you guys know how shocked I was?”

“…”

“Haha…”

“What in the world happened? Why was Tae-Yoon collapsed on the floor, knife and baseball bat scattered around, and the police there.”

From the members’ point of view, they were probably very confused as they saw us with the police while going down to the underground parking lot to find a car key. Naturally, they would be worried about us that we were caught up in some kind of dangerous situation and be upset that we didn’t share such important information with them. However, it was not like we had anything to say in particular.

First of all, I reported this incident as a random attack. I had also told Dong-Jun, who went to the police station with me, that it had been a senseless, unprovoked attack. The policed didn’t seem to believe me as they argued that judging by how the man stayed hidden behind a car and attacked me, it seemed more like a planned crime. And even Dong-Jun told me that he thought it was doubtful that it was a random attack.

However, the only thing I could tell them was that I had no relationship with that man, and since he had no reason to hate me, this incident could only be explained as a random attack in a fit of violent passion. Therefore, the police said they would investigate this crime with that as a probability. However, they didn’t believe it was a random attack even till the very end and seemed to have thought that someone else who had a grudge on me might have hired that man through a broker to harm me.

Of course, what the police thought was none of my business, and the most important thing for me was to persuade Dong-Jun on the spot. As we left the police station, Dong-Jun repeatedly asked me, “Is it really a random crime? You never met him face-to-face before?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Really?”

“You saw it too. He suddenly broke the window and attacked us.”

“No…But the chances of being subjected to this kind of unprovoked attack are too slim. And it’s like…I think I’ve seen him somewhere before…”

“But I never met him before. And I haven’t made any particular enemies in my life. Of course, there is someone who hates me, but they’re not the type of person to hire a broker to do this. They don’t have the guts to do that.”

In the end, Dong-Jun responded, “Yes…I see…I’ll call it a random attack, for now.”

At first, I thought about telling Dong-Jun that the man was the truck driver who almost killed us as we overcame a dangerous situation with him together. However, I didn’t want to make him feel anxious by letting him know that someone was aiming for our lives. Above all, that man had said, ‘I have to kill you first anyways, since that is the mission’.

Thus, I thought that the members would be relatively safe if they were by themselves. So I decided not to tell Dong-Jun for now. Anyway, besides that, it was time for me to repeat the claim that this incident had been a random attack to Yeon-Hoon, Do-Seung, and Woon.

“I got involved in a random attack.”

“Random attack?”

“At the parking lot?”

“Yes.”

“Doesn’t that usually happen in the streets…?”

“Well, criminals don’t care about the location.”

The members still looked doubtful, and they didn’t look fully convinced by my explanation. But what else could I say from here? I decided to push ahead with my claim.

“First of all, I never met that man and neither did Dong-Jun. Someone might have hired him to attack us, but…Neither Dong-Jun nor I did something so bad to the extent that someone would do that to us.”

Since Dong-Jun had heard these excuses nonstop while coming back from the police station, he just listened to my explanation with an indifferent expression. On the other hand, Yeon-Hoon, Do-Seung, and Woon looked very conflicted.

“But…The probability of being the target of a random attack is…” This was the first question they had, and this was the same question that Dong-Jun posed earlier.

Thus, I was able to answer even more shamelessly,” Even though it’s a rare possibility, it’s still something that happens. I was just extremely unlucky…that’s it.”

“But even then…”

“There’s no point in talking about the probability when it already happened.”

“Yeah, that’s true…”

“Even though I was involved in a random attack, isn’t it fine that I came back uninjured?”

The members seemed to be slowly accepting my explanation. Frankly, they were not trying to interrogate the truth out of us but just wanted a brief explanation of what happened to us, so there was no need for us to debate about the authenticity of my claim. The members finally looked a bit more relaxed.

“You’re really feeling okay, right?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t get hit anywhere, right?”

“Ah…I did get hit on my arm a bit but…”

“What?”

I quickly added, “Oh, but I’m not injured.” I thought I would be taken to the hospital right away if I said I was injured. Then I might not be able to sleep tonight and have to go out for pre-recording without sleep tomorrow.

I hurriedly calmed my members down and continued, “I’m sorry for making you guys worried. But we didn’t expect it all either.”

“Yeah…”

“You guys have nothing to apologize for.”

“Yeah. It’s not you or Dong-Jun’s fault.”

“I’m sorry for asking you like I’m interrogating you even though you two are the victims.”

“No, I understand. Since this is a perplexing situation, I would also want to assess what happened first.” We quickly went into reconciliation mode, and honestly, there was nothing to reconcile or make up; we were just all shocked by the sudden catastrophe that happened today.

“Then let’s go to bed for now. Since tomorrow will probably be a busy day.”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna that you went to the police station?”

Dong-Jun and I stopped at Yeon-Hoon’s words. We forgot to report it to them because we had been so busy with the sudden assault.

“Ah.”

“Oh yeah.”

Since we stopped at the same time, the rest of the members looked at us with worried expressions.

“We didn’t tell them.”

Sigh…

“Geez…”

“Now, that’s a problem.”

The members and I were now in a dilemma. Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna were probably sleeping right now. Since they had the same schedule as us, they were also sleep-deprived every day. If so, was it right for us to call them now and wake them up? Or was it better for us to tell them what happened tomorrow morning since it was already over? However, I soon realized that it was pointless to even ponder about these two choices.

Ziiing—

Dong-Jun and my phone began vibrating, and the callers for each phone was Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna. It was then guilt began rushing in.

‘Because of us…They couldn’t even sleep and stayed awake.’ Dong-Jun and I answered the phone with a heavy heart. Soon, a worried and tense voice could be heard over the phone.

—Mr. Tae-Yoon! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Should we go to the dorm right now? All the members are okay, right? I heard that you guys were not hurt anywhere but…”

I didn’t know who they received information from, but it seemed they roughly knew about today’s incident.

“Ah…Yes, we are okay. You don’t have to come to our dorm. I’m with the members right now, and I’m not hurt anywhere.

—Ha…Thank goodness. But we still have something to discuss with you, so Seung-Yeon and I will be heading to the dorm now.

“Discussion?” I wondered what they had to discuss.

—Oh, did you not check your SNS yet?

Ms. Seung-Yeon said, and it was then I realized we were public figures and celebrities. “Oh.” There was no way that people didn’t know we went to the police station and were attacked by an unidentified assailant.

‘This is driving me crazy.’ This was so basic, but I had so much to take care of that I forgot about it. I entered SNS with a nervous heart.

“Wow.” And then I was able to confirm that Dong-Jun and I dominated the real-time rankings.

1. Siren Random Attack

2. Siren Police Station

3. Bong Tae-Yoon Ambush

4. Park Dong-Jun Ambush

If there was already this amount of buzz, it would only be a matter of time before it spread throughout the Internet.

***

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna came to our dorm late at night. There were two main topics we needed to discuss. The first was whether we were going to participate in the pre-recording and music show tomorrow—no, this early morning since it was past 12 o’clock. This was the topic we had to discuss first, and this discussion ended in a flash. Dong-Jun and I were adamant about doing it, and Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon wanted us to rest if possible.

“You have to consider not only your physical condition but also the company’s image. If people know that you two were attacked by an unidentified assailant and then go to a pre-recording and do a show right away, the company’s image will take a serious hit.”

“And you two might be fine now, but you don’t know how your physical condition will be when you wake up tomorrow morning.”

“Since you two are also sleeping really late, I think it would be better to take a break from the music show tomorrow. I’m sure the producers and staff will understand, considering the situation.”

Like this, our team decided not to go on a music show tomorrow as a group. Furthermore, besides the music show, all of today’s schedules were canceled; the radio and Utube appearance were all canceled.

“From now on, let’s decide on the words to post on our official account.”

The second topic of discussion was deciding on the words to post. Since everyone knew that we were the victims of a random attack, we decided that Dong-Jun and I should make a post respectively. After talking about all the necessary measures, it became 3 a.m.

“Let’s proceed like this for now…and get some rest tomorrow. We’ll also go to work tomorrow morning to just make a report and take half a day to get some rest, so don’t worry about us.”

“…Yes.”

“Thank you for all your work. It must have been tiring.”

“Not at all.”

After that, Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna returned, and we were the only ones left in the dorm again. Since we did nothing wrong, news about this would probably quiet down in time. So there was nothing much to worry about that. However, there was a different reason why everyone stayed in the living room and nervously glanced at each other instead of going back to our respective rooms. It was a pity that our schedules were canceled due to the assailant’s attack. But…

“…We have a day off tomorrow…?” We got a day off unintentionally. As soon as Dong-Jun said ‘we have a day off tomorrow’, everyone’s gaze dizzyingly clashed against each other in the air.