The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The moment Kang Seok-Du turned the wheels to smash into the guard-rails, he clenched his eyes shut. He thought he had met many crazy guys while living, and he was one of the people in this category. Yet, Bong Tae-Yoon, sitting next to him, was of a different caliber. It was difficult to fathom how far Tae-Yoon’s cold, collected eyes looked. He didn’t show an inkling of surprise even in such a terrifying situation like this and only looked forward.

Perhaps, Tae-Yoon had firm hope that someone would save him or perhaps, he had the insanity of a madman who gave up on everything. Kang Seok-Du gave up on thinking. For Kang Seok-Du, his life was more important than anything else. The moment he thought he could die, he wanted to give up on everything—the world of reversal could go to hell in front of the immediate, definite death in front of him.

This wasn’t the formless death that the system told him about. Yet, this damn system wasn’t something that would give up just because he gave up. He was too intertwined with this situation to get out of it.

Bang! The car smashed into the guardrail.

“Fuuuck! Shit! You bastard!” All he could do right now was utter curses with his eyes closed. The car would charge into Hangang. Since they went through one guardrail, they would probably fall into the waters if they crashed one more railing. The car reached 100km/hr before he turned the wheels so the railing would easily fall off. Above all, his foot was still stepping on the gas pedal so there wasn’t anything else he could do.

Kang Seok-Du huddled his body in preparation for the upcoming impact. He moved his hands away from the wheels and put them above his head to protect his brain. His action was meaningless. A person would die if the car they were riding in fell into the water. This was a logic even an elementary school kid would know. He would die—no, definitely die. After living this damn, crappy life where he never received a proper reward for anything, he would be a corpse floating in a river.

“Fuck! Fuck! Shiiit! Ahhhh!” He didn’t think even the last words he would utter before death would be curses. His nasty and terrible life was coming to an end. Kang Seok-Du felt his body float. It appeared the car had passed through the railing and was falling into the river. Though he couldn’t decide how he was born into this world, he had at least wanted to die the way he wanted. He thought he would see a flashback of his life when…

‘…The fuck?’ Something was strange. He had definitely felt his body hit the water. Yet, he didn’t feel himself going down like he was falling. Furthermore, he should’ve felt the car crash through the railing before falling into the river…

‘But I didn’t hear the railing break?’ Though there had been a loud commotion when the car crushed the guardrail, he didn’t hear any sound of the railing break. Kang Seok-Du cautiously opened his closed eyes. Then, his head became blank after seeing a scene he had never seen before.

“The car is…afloat?” The car’s rear wheels were slightly lifted because he had suddenly hit the brakes. But it was strange. His other foot was still on the pedal and even if he had abruptly stepped on the brake, this old car wasn’t so advanced that it would lift the rear wheels in response. Moreover…

‘Time stopped…?’ He was locked in a world in which time stopped. The bird flying in the sky stopped mid-air like a stationary object and the flowing water streams froze into place.

“Shit! That’s right!” Kang Seok-Du intuitively sensed that the system had intervened. It didn’t matter whether the intervention came from the world of reversal’s system or the system that gave missions to the crazy guy next to him. He thought the fact that the system intervened with its supernatural power proved his importance and the system wouldn’t simply let him die.

“You bastard! You thought things would go your way, right? Hahaha!” Kang Seok-Du made a wide smile and turned to his side. He thought Tae-Yoon would be sobbing in shock that his plan failed.

“It finally happened.”

Yet, Tae-Yoon’s response was opposite to what he expected.

“What…?”

Instead, he looked relieved.

“Fuck…what…what is it this time!” It was then Kang Seok-Du heard a voice in his mind.

[Worldline is distorted with the system's intervention.]

[Worldline is distorted with the system's intervention.]

[Formation of risks]

[Formation of risks]

The fact that it repeated the same lines meant that it was emphasizing these points. Kang Seok-Du knew that points were often emphasized in bad situations. It seemed something had gone awry.

[Soon, the system will be temporarily shut down.]

“What? Shutdown?” he asked out loud. This had never happened before. He didn’t know what would happen after the system was shut down, but it didn’t appear positive.

“Did your system shut down?” He heard Tae-Yoon say from the opposite direction. Kang Seok-Du looked to his side and saw Tae-Yoon smiling slyly at him.

[System shutting down.]

Ziiing—!

Like this, Kang Seok-Du’s system shut down.

“Damn it!”

Simultaneously, the car that was floating with its rear wheels raised landed on the ground with a loud thud. The world’s time returned to its original speed and Kang Seok-Du quickly racked his head. He needed to find a way to get himself out of this situation, and there was only one method he could think of.

Cruuunch—!

“Ahhhh!” He broke his own right ankle; and starting from his ankle, he twisted his knee. He couldn’t even put the pain he felt into words but this was the only way. Escaping from this demon was already impossible. It was impossible for him to run after breaking his right leg in the fight at the parking lot. Thus, he had to at least put a stop to this joint suicide and to do this, he broke the foot that was stepping on the gas pedal.

“Hehehe…you bastard…try commanding me…do you really think I will die with you?” Kang Seok-Du said while opening the car door and thrusting his body outside of it. Since his right foot was broken, he had no choice but to crawl outside; and while crawling on the floor, he shouted.

“Help me! Please someone help me!” He was at Hannam Bridge where there was a lot of traffic. There was a congestion on this bridge because his car had crashed into the guardrail, and he hoped that one of the many people there would hear his call and come to his aid. The only way to escape this bastard was to draw in ordinary citizens.

After all, Tae-Yoon had stopped him whenever he tried to smash into another person’s car. Not only was it because the collision wouldn’t be suitable to lead to an absolute death, but it also appeared that Tae-Yoon wanted to limit the harm done to other people as much as possible. Thus, Kang Seok-Du thought he would increase his survival chances the most by pulling other ordinary people into his problems. Soon, Tae-Yoon got out of the car and walked towards Kang Seok-Du.

Though his face was bruised from their fight at the parking lot, it wasn’t like he was unrecognizable.

“Help me! Heeelp!” Kang Seok-Du continued to scream. Someone approached him from far away. It wasn’t just one or two people but a whole group.

“Ha…hahaha…” Kang Seok-Du was finally relieved and smiled at Tae-Yoon. “You bastard…I’m leaving. Farewell.” The group of people coming his way would probably call the ambulance car for him. Everything would be solved if they just came. Yet, Tae-Yoon crouched over him and stared at Kang Seok-Du.

“You are going to die soon.”

“…What?”

“There’s about…ten seconds left.”

“…What are you saying…you bastard? What nonsense are you saying!” Kang Seok-Du grabbed Tae-Yoon by his collar.

“But don’t worry. I will revive you anyways.”

“What? What are you…” Before Kang Seok-Du could finish, he clutched his chest and his body began to twist and turn. “Haaaa!”

“Ahhhhh!” He felt a strange pain starting in his heart. A heart was like a lump of muscles that continuously moved, and right now, it felt as if this muscle was spazzing uncontrollably. He felt a pain strong enough that he wanted to rip off his heart. He couldn’t even breathe properly, and the pain was so intense that he couldn't make out what was front and tails but writhe on the ground.

“Argh! Ah! Ah! Ahhhh!” He forgot that his right leg was twisted and struggled on the ground. To free himself from this pain, he thought it would be all right to detach his heart from his body. It was then, he felt a hand exert strong pressure on him.

“Stay still.” This was the eyes that had killed him a couple of times already. Those eyes looked towards his heart now to revive him. Though Tae-Yoon acted like he would do something from Kang Seok-Du that instance, he didn’t do anything. Tae-Yoon simply constricted Kang Seok-Du’s arms and legs and looked down at him.

“What are you…gaaaasp!” Kang Seok-Du was about to ask Tae-Yoon what he was thinking when he felt his heart constrict so hard that it felt it would burst.

Grip—! Shaaa—!

The heart stopped functioning and Kang Seok-Du lost the glint in his eyes. His entire body went wimp and all the muscles that had standing tense loosen. All his senses drifted away and Kang Seok-Du only felt the feeling that he was gradually dissembling from this life.

Riiiip—!

After ripping Kang Seok-Du’s clothes apart, Tae-Yoon began to massage Kang Seok-Du’s chest area. Tae-Yoon’s hands moved rapidly to fill up 120 counts in one minute. Kang Seok-Du’s drifting senses began to return to place.

“Haaaa!” Kang Seok-Du gasped and got up from his place. He didn’t feel an ounce of glee or gratitude that he was revived again because a face that looked like a demon was smiling at him.

“There are still a couple of more times left,” Tae-Yoon said.

The moment he heard this, Kang Seok-Du felt the same convulsions as before and reached the same ending.

Griiiip—!

“Hmp!”

“One, two, three, four…” Tae-Yoon began to massage Kang Seok-Du’s chest again in the exact machine-like manner.

Gaaaasp!

With it, Kang Seok-Du’s heart began to thump again.

“You…you bastard! Shit, just kill me!” This was nothing more than torture—a pain worse than death.

“Tae-Yoon!”

“Bong Tae-Yoon!”

“Hey, what in the world are you doing there!”

It was then, familiar faces appeared. It was the Siren members. Siren members rushed to Tae-Yoon’s side and grabbed him Simultaneously, they pulled Tae-Yoon as far away from him as possible. Kang Seok-Du thought this was his chance now. Siren members were helping him and he could use this opportunity to go up the bridge and get anyone’s help. He planned to thrust himself off his place and quickly move.

“Stop.”

—Stop

At least that was his plan before Tae-Yoon gave another damn order.

“Ahhhh!” He tried to overcome Tae-Yoon’s command with a yell and willpower but it was completely futile now.

“Everyone, move away from me.”

—Everyone, move away from me.

Tae-Yoon even gave an order to his team members who were stopping him, and Siren members moved away from him.

“Everyone, close your eyes and turn around.”

— Everyone, close your eyes and turn around.

After giving another command to his members, Tae-Yoon walked towards Kang Seok-Du. Then, he gave his last command at Kang Seok-Du.

“Jump into the Hangang river while carrying me.”

—Jump into the Hangang river while carrying me.

“Fuck.” Kang Seok-Du no longer had a will. He lifted Tae-Yoon and ran to Hangang.

Crunch! In the process, his twisted ankle forcibly returned to its place and while limping, he dragged Tae-Yoon right to the front of the Hangang river. There was no pause between the movements and Kang Seok-Du jumped off the bridge while carrying Tae-Yoon. He felt a chilling sense of his body hitting the water when—

Ziiiiiiing—!

The world went into a pause once more.

“…It’s finally over, ” Simultaneously, Tae-Yoon said a line he couldn’t comprehend at all.