The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Everyone just kept warily glancing at each other. It was a very awkward and uncomfortable time. I liked that we got some break time but because the reason for it wasn’t good, we didn’t feel so happy about it. Yet, there was one person who didn’t appear all that concerned.

“Though we are resting because of an unpleasant event, it is still a rest day. Now that we finally have a break, let’s take the time to rest~” Dong-Jun said and slumped his body into the sofa.

It was as Dong-Jun said. Though the reason for it wasn’t good, this was our precious day to rest. Using this day effectively could have a positive influence on our activities in the long run. We could take the time to rest, discuss ideas for our next activities, or do the things we had been thinking about doing but couldn’t for a while.

“That’s true. If we are going to rest, we shouldn’t do it in a bad mood.”

“I mean we aren’t the ones who did anything wrong. It’s that criminal who is the problem…”

“Since it came to this, should we have some healing time, especially for Tae-Yoon and Dong-Jun? They must be really shocked by what happened.”

Yeon-Hoon, Do-Seung, and Woon began to share ideas. I didn’t really care whatever idea they came up with. I was fine with doing nothing like this, going somewhere, or eating whatever. I was most satisfied by the fact that I could sleep past 9 am tomorrow.

“Should we think about it after sleeping? We’ve been awake for 22 hours now.”

“Ah, yeah. That’s right.”

“Let’s go to sleep~”

I stopped my members’ meeting by suggesting sleep first. We each went to our individual rooms and unfolded the blankets.

“Good night, Tae-Yoon.”

“Yeah.”

“You guys went through so much today. It could’ve been a really big deal…but let’s try to erase those bad memories by making new ones tomorrow.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“No problem. Good night.”

After exchanging greetings with Woon, I fell asleep. Perhaps, because all sorts of crazy events happened today, I fell asleep in an instant.

***

The first thing I did after waking up was write a post on our official fan café site. The post I made was what I wrote with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna yesterday. I didn’t just write down what they told me like a machine but discussed the best word choices to calm and relax our fans before putting them down. After I uploaded the post, the situation showed signs of improvement.

—What in the world…How could they get attacked on the day they win first place…?

—I think our guys are going to do really well?

—This is just the rain before the rainbow

—Thank goodness no one got hurt

It felt like fans were feeling more turmoil because the news was released right after we experienced our first win. It was probably like going from heaven to hell in just a couple of hours.

‘I feel like being our fan…is not an easy ride…’ That’s what came to my mind today. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t be keeping up with such a stress-inducing group like ours. Thus, I felt more grateful and sorry to the fans who liked us.

“Did you put up the post?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, let’s eat first.”

Do-Seung prepared breakfast after a long time. The menu was soybean paste stew which we ate since our trainee days. The taste was exactly the same as the one I tried to copy before I regressed and often ate. Though I called this soybean paste stew, it wasn’t a 100% pure soybean paste stew and was slightly different from the ordinary kinds. But whether it was authentic or not, it didn’t change the fact that the stew tasted amazing.

“Wow…this is really tasty.”

“Why do I feel like it has been so long since I ate this?”

“Do-Seung, do you want to open a soybean paste stew restaurant? I will invest.”

“Stop kidding around.”

“It’s a crime that we are the only ones enjoying this…” Dong-Jun said and took a tofu and a piece of beef brisket, placed them on his rice, and began to mix them. Then, he put a big spoonful of the mixture and shoved it into his mouth, and gasped in pleasure.

“Wow…I feel like you could explain your whole reason for existence with this soybean paste stew.”

“My whole reason for existence is just a stew?”

“It’s so great that it could explain this stew.”

“…Is this even a compliment?”

Everyone had a peaceful smile as we enjoyed our rare, leisurely mornings. Then, after spending thirty minutes on breakfast, we didn’t get up right away and lounged around for a while. Not only were we full after just eating, but we also didn’t want to move busily on a precious break day. Then, our conversation naturally led to what we should do for the rest of the day.

“Should we go watch a movie together?” The first suggestion was made by Woon to watch a movie.

“A movie?”

“A movie I want to watch just came out.”

“Hm…but we are supposed to be resting from our broadcast schedules today. Wouldn’t it make a bad impression if we went to see a movie then?”

“Ah, that’s true.”

We shot down the first idea. Of course, even if we went to watch the movies, it wouldn’t lead to a scandal or anything like that. But it could provide a good bait for the haters who wanted to find anything to hate on. Thus, it was best to not give them anything to latch onto.

“Should we borrow a car and go on a drive?” Yeon-Hoon made the next suggestion.

This was not a bad suggestion but…

“I had the accident yesterday at the parking lot, so going to ride a car the very next day is a bit…haha…” Dong-Jun showed some resistance to it. It seemed he was reluctant to go down to the parking lot after the accident yesterday.

“What is there for all of us to do together…?”

“Should we play games together?”

“It’s been so long since I played games, I don’t even remember how to play.”

“Hm…”

It was then my eyes caught the soybean paste stew in front of us.

‘Soybean paste stew?’ An idea suddenly came to my mind then.

“Should we make soybean paste stew?”

“Huh?”

“What are you talking about suddenly?”

“We just ate.”

“No, not for us.”

“Huh?”

“I think it will be good to also treat Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon with it. And maybe to our fans.”

“Ah…!”

“Oh…!”

My members looked quite taken aback by my idea.

“…That’s so nice of you…?”

“…Yeah.”

I felt a bit taken aback by my members’ dumbfounded reactions. Personally, I thought this soybean paste stew contained a lot of my group’s history. It was the meal we most commonly ate and the menu that I most often thought about. Thus, I simply wanted to share it with the people who supported us.

“I get that you want to share it with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna but how are you doing to make it for our fans. It’s not like we can go to our fans and personally make it for them,” Dong-Jun asked me the exact details of my plan.

“Ah, I thought we could follow the recipe and make something like a meal kit. We could give one pack to Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon each. Then, we could also share it to the fans tomorrow morning at the pre-recording.” If we prepared meal kits, we could easily give them away as gifts.

“Oh…!”

“That’s a good idea.”

“I should quickly organize the recipe.”

“And also buy the ingredients.”

“If we are going to make it, should we buy a sealing machine while we are it? You know like the ones that restaurants use and package it like a real store meal kit?”

“My house has a vacuum packaging machine. Should I get that guys?”

“Yeah, I think we will definitely need that.”

“This is…making me excited…!”

The scale of my plan was becoming bigger and bigger. Once I made the suggestion, everyone began discussing how they could increase the quality of the soybean paste meal kit.

“Should we stick our pictures inside the meal kits?”

“Good idea.”

“Ohh.”

“Let me find some useable pictures…”

At this point, this could become a Siren good, and it was sort of funny that we were having a discussion that could be made in a company’s merchandise team about goods development in front of our dining table.

“Okay then, after I organize the recipe, let’s go to the mart.”

“Ohhh! A trip to the mart~”

“We will probably the only ones who will offer soybean paste meal kit as presents to our fans.”

That was how our plan to give away soybean paste meal kits came to fruition.

***

After Seung-Yeon and Hyun finished giving their briefing about the recent incident at the company, they went to sleep right away. Because they didn’t have the energy to go back home, they reserved a place near the company to stay for the night together. Since they had been doing this whenever Siren’s schedule got too long, they were used to it and didn’t feel any discomfort.

“Ugh…Why am I tired no matter how long I sleep?”

“I think it’s because we aren’t sleeping routinely.”

“Haa…I got another pimple here.”

Because of how wrecked their sleeping and waking schedule was, they were suffering from several ailments. But of course, the company was compensating them with a good wage, bonuses, and so on for all the work they were doing. After joining Next Wave, their wages gradually climbed until they renewed their contract and received almost two times more than they did in their previous company.

Though two times sounded like a lot, their original point of comparison was shockingly small and their current wage was just within the ordinary range of what employees at a big company might get. With this change, the two realized how little WD Entertainment had given them.

“Then, should we check out first?”

“Yes.”

Seung-Yeon and Hyuna went outside their rooms after organizing it.

“Then, see you tomorrow in front of Siren’s dorm.”

“See you~”

The two greeted each other and were about to separate in front of the subway station when—

Zing—

Zing—

The two’s phones simultaneously rang. The caller was Tae-Yoon. When they got a call from Tae-Yoon, they got worried that there was some big trouble. The two stayed together and checked the message in front of the subway. Yet, in contrary to their worries, the content of the message was quite normal…

—If you didn’t eat dinner yet, do you want to eat together at the dorm?

It was a dinner invitation.

“Dinner?”

“Hm.”

“Should we go first?”

Siren members were offering them dinner in their rare break days, and they had no reason not to go. Furthermore, they were curious about what meal Siren would’ve prepared for them. In the end, they arrived at the dorm and opened the entrance door.

“Oh, you guys are here!” Yeon-Hoon was the first one to greet them. But the thing that grabbed the two more than Yeon-Hoon’s visuals was the smell of the place.

“The whole house smells like soybean paste…”

“What is this…? Did you set up a soybean paste factory?”

Simultaneously, they heard.

“Come on, give me the next kit!”

“All right!”

“Press it with the sealing machine!”

“Hey, this one isn’t vacuumed properly.”

“Ah, if you leave that there, I will do it again.”

While sitting in the living room, each of the members was packing good ingredients, vacuuming them inside bags, and sealing them into packages. It was like they were in a food factory. There was a huge pile of soybean paste stew meal kits stacked in one corner of the living room.

“Do you want to go after eating one of the meal kits we made? Of course, you can just take some to bring home, but we also wanted to treat you,” Yeon-Hoon said and made Seung-Yeon and Hyuna sit.

“Haa…”

“It’s good we brought cameras with us…”

Seung-Yeon and Hyuna were already showing signs of being a workaholic.

“You guys should’ve told us if you were planning to do something like this.”

“You are going to gift these to your fans tomorrow, right?”

“Wow…this is going to really cause a commotion on social media tomorrow.”

“I don’t think anyone else would’ve put this much effort into fan gifts…”

“This is amazing guys.”

The two didn’t even think about eating soybean paste stew and took out a camcorder and installed it in the room.

“We should add this as a behind clip that we were planning to upload next week.”

“Or we could make this a separate video to upload.”

Though it was their break time, Siren and their managers were making their own work to do and doing it as usual.