The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 4

‘Insight’ was an amazing ability, and I could clearly see why it was called ‘Insight’. Befitting its name, my comprehension of everything within my sight increased significantly. It was not just an increased understanding of objects but phenomena and situations as well. Currently, a flowerpot was falling on Yeon-Hoon’s head. Normally, I would have been at a loss, not knowing what to do, and watched the pot fall and hit his head. But...

Slide.

I could now clearly see the precise trajectory of what angle I needed to push Yeon-Hoon to get him safely out of the fall range. I pushed his left chest first, grabbed his left side again, and pushed him aside with force.

Baaaam!

The pot that was falling on top of Yeon-Hoon’s head crashed to the floor.

“Ugh, uahh, uahhh, ackkkkk!” My member was a hair’s breadth length away from death this time as well. If I had reacted even a second later, he would have died. As soon as the pot fell on the floor, the Insight was over. I felt dizzy for a moment when the world returned to its original speed. However, I pushed back my headache and took care of Yeon-Hoon first.

“Yeon-Hoon, are you okay?”

“T-the flower pot...a huge pot...oh my god!” Yeon-Hoon seemed extremely shocked, so I calmed him down first. Then I looked up. The fact that such a big flower pot fell indicated that there was some significant problem. The convenience store that we were currently at was a convenience store on the first floor of the apartment complex. Thus, this meant that there were only private residents on the top floors, and the main culprit of this case must be living in this apartment complex right now.

“What kind of crazy guy...” When I was about to scream and wake up all the residents of the apartment, a middle-aged man came running out of the entrance.

“Oh my goodness! Are you okay!? I’m so sorry!” There was a trowel in his hand, and he had dirt on his pants.

I had found the culprit. I called out, “Mister.”

Yeon-Hoon tried to stop me. “T-Tae-Yoon, don’t.”

“Yeon-Hoon, wait a minute.”

The middle-aged man said, “I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Are you hurt? I’ll pay you any amount of hospital bills or consolation fees so...”

“Do you think it’s money we want? A person almost died!”

“I...have no words...”

While anger burned up in my heart, Yeon-Hoon said in a frightened voice, “Stop, let’s stop...Tae-Yoon.”

It was only then did I came to my senses. The person who was probably the most frightened right now was Yeon-Hoon since he almost died.

“I’m really, so very sorry.” The middle-aged man bowed. He really did seem sorry as he looked pale-stricken. On second thought, in a situation where the culprit hadn’t been found yet, he could have pretended ignorance and moved on. However, he immediately came out and told the truth, so he seemed like a moral person.

Then the middle-aged man suddenly said, “I know this may sound like an excuse, but this flower pot was not in the position to fall at all...I took it out on the veranda to repot the flower...but there was the railing and I put it inside the veranda...I can’t believe this situation happened either.”

“The pot wasn’t in a position to fall?” I asked to make sure again.

“Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, and I can’t believe it either. But it’s true...I’m sorry.”

I looked up at the sky blankly and realized that the voice I heard, ‘Probability of Woo Yeon-Hoon’s death increases’ was not just a joke. I had realized it too late. It should have been obvious that a transcendent incident like this would be possible for a being that could ring mysterious orders directly to my ear.

“...No, it’s all right.” After assessing the situation, I realized that it wasn’t this man’s fault. If I were to place the blame on someone for this incident, it would be—

‘It’s me.’ It was because I announced my intention to leave the group.

“The consolation money...” The middle-aged man seemed to want to make amends somehow.

However, Yeon-Hoon came forward and said, “No, it’s all right. I’m not hurt, so you don’t have to give me any consolation fee.” Yeon-Hoon seemed as if he was just going to let this whole incident slide under the rug as he wasn’t injured.

But that wasn’t the case for me. “No, you should give us a consolation fee.”

“T-Tae-Yoon!”

We needed to get this money.

Yeon-Hoon might wonder why I was doing this, but it was better for both parties to take this money.

I said, “He’ll give you his bank account.”

The middle-aged man said, “Thank you!”

I personally didn’t want to take this money either as I was the culprit of this accident. However, it couldn’t be helped as a person almost died in this accident. There needed to be a record that we met a mutual agreement on this accident, and there was no agreement as clear as money printed in a bank account transfer details. This was also the reason why the middle-aged man’s expression looked brighter than when we said we wouldn’t take the money.

I said, “Yeon-Hoon, it’s good for him and for us to receive this.”

The middle-aged man agreed, “Yes, please take it.”

“R-really?” Only then did Yeon-Hoon give the man his account number. After depositing consolation fees, the man carefully began to clean up the remnants of the pot. The part-timer at the convenience store also came out belatedly to assess the situation and helped clean the pot. We also helped clean a little as well. The man repeatedly waved his hands, saying that we didn’t have to, but I thought I would feel uncomfortable if I didn’t help out.

I said, “Let’s get going now.”

Yeon-Hoon replied, “Yeah, we should.”

When I thought I felt like we had cleaned enough, I led Yeon-Hoon back to our dorm. Then said, “I won’t leave the group.”

“Yeah. Wait, what? Why so suddenly?”

I quickly reversed my decision to leave the group because I’d confirmed that this game was not a joke. This was the work of some transcendent being that a mere human being like me had no choice but to follow; it was just that the joke went much too far.

‘How can they put people’s lives on the line?’ If this was the work of a god, I had no idea who they were, but I was sure that they were crazy. If I died and met them, I wanted to immediately punch their face. Then, at that moment, a voice rang in my ear again.

[Mission accomplished.]

[You’ve retracted your intention to quit.]

The same voice rang in my ear again. With this, it seemed that Yeon-Hoon moved away from the danger of death.

“Why did you suddenly decide not to quit?” Yeon-Hoon seemed to be curious about the reason why I changed my mind.

But I couldn’t tell him that a strange voice spoke to me, so I answered, “I got persuaded by you.” There was no other reason I could give.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“What a relief!”

“Right?”

“Yeah!” Yeon-Hoon seemed quite happy that his persuasion worked. Was he happy because he performed his role as a leader for the first time? Anyway, it was fine as long as he was happy. But...

‘Do I really have to debut?’ My mind became conflicted. I had no intention of making my debut. An Idol—it was good in many ways. Idols lived among the cheers of countless people and were the stars of a fancy stage. They earned a lot of money and received a lot of love. However—

‘It’s also a market where if you take one wrong step, it’s your imminent death.’ It was a cut-throat industry where the biggest stars could instantly fall from fame. On the other hand, it was only cut-throat for those who were successful. For idols who weren’t successful, it was just a pitiful and hard job, since while others went up on stage with designer outfits, they had to wear cheap clothes that were crafted in factories. Or they had to buy outfits that roughly fit the theme and go up on stage.

Sigh. My head became a mess after thinking about all this. I felt this in my past life, but being an idol really didn’t fit me. I just wanted to have the identity of being part of a group and wanted a community that accepted me warmly, so I just stuck to being a trainee at a mid-sized agency. Back then, I thought my dream was to be an idol, but thinking back, I was just an immature child who wanted to play being an idol like a game. But now, I really had to be an idol.

‘This is driving me insane.’ I had no idea where to start again.

‘First, my dancing and singing have to be up to par.’ Even if we were a group of nobodies, we couldn’t be too bad as that was just plain rude. An idol was a job that had to go on stage, so I should at least avoid terrorizing the audience with my awful singing and dancing.

‘Second, do I have to go on a diet again?’ The second was keeping in shape. Fortunately, my current body was already in shape, but my taste buds were a normal 24-year-old. I’ve already drank before, enjoyed late-night snacks, and ate what I wanted to eat normally.

However, I needed to pack up that old life and strictly manage my diet from now on. This also came with the job. Even if nobody knew who we were, we were still idols in the end. Managing one’s diet was the minimum job requirement of working as an idol. While thinking various thoughts like this, I reached the front of our apartment already.

Yeon-Hoon said, “Let’s go up, Tae-Yoon.”

I followed Yeon-Hoon up to our dorm. It had already been over an hour since we came out, and our members were all probably sleeping. While thinking this, I opened the door.

“You’re back?”

“Did you change your mind?”

“How did the talk go?”

Do-Seung, Woon, and Dong-Jun all rubbed their sleepy eyes.

“Yeah, the talk went well,” Yeon-Hoon replied in a cheerful voice. Then he gave me a hint to tell everyone my thoughts directly.

Although it was a little embarrassing to reverse my words after all the mess I made earlier, I apologized, “I won’t quit. I’m sorry everyone, for causing such a scene past midnight.”

I had my reasons, but I felt sorry for the fuss I caused.

“Pweh.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Seriously, you basta...” Do-Seung glanced at me for a second and then said, “...You made the right decision. Thanks. For not leaving.”

He said some warm words out of character for him, and even while talking, he twisted his lips strangely as if to reveal his disgruntled feelings.

‘Woon must have made him do it.’ Seeing Woon smiling softly next to me, it seemed as if Woon forced him to be nice to me.

Dong-Jun looked at me and said with a mischievous smile, “Tae-Yoon, we made some plans while you two were out~.”

He spoke with his usual mischievous voice. “You want to quit because you’re not confident in your skills, right?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“We’re going to take turns to help you practice.”

“What?” Did I hear him right—they’re going to take turns to help me practice?

I asked, “Aren’t you guys already doing that?” I was already getting help from the other members. If I recall memories of my past life, every move and every line from a song—I haven’t done anything on my own. I only remember my members helping me with every single part of the nano-scale.

“No, no, not just that level~ But we’re really going to stick to your side and push you until you can do it.”

“Ah, what?”

“Don’t be scared. You won’t die at least.” It seemed as if the members had suggested special training as a form of punishment; I’m sure they must have been furious that I suddenly expressed my intention to leave at dawn.

“No, I’m grateful.” I had to improve my skills anyway. I’m glad that they were stepping forward to take on tasks that I should have asked as a favor instead. But above all—

‘As expected, they are great people.’ I looked around at my members. It wasn’t a very long life, but I have never met people as good as them in my 24 years of life. How should I put it? It finally felt like I was really back home.

“Uh, what the?”

“Is he crying?”

My members were asking if he was crying, but it wasn’t directed towards me.

“Hahaha! Yeon-Hoon is crying again!”

Yeon-Hoon’s eyes were watering behind me. He said, “Tae-Yoon...thanks for not leaving the group...”

I said, “Geez, Yeon-Hoon...” I wondered how this soft-hearted person got a driver’s license; I thought he would have burst into tears while holding the steering wheel.

“Hummph.” Yeon-Hoon forced himself to hold back his tears and organized his emotions.

“Pwehh. Let’s go to bed now guys. Today was seriously a long day...,” Yeon-Hoon said and went under the blanket first. The other members also lay down side by side.

“Tae-Yoon, here.” Yeon-Hoon tapped the seat next to him once again. I went over there and lay down.

“Good night, everyone~”

“Good night.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Everyone, let's keep this up.”

And like this, everyone began to say their greetings one by one on a cool night like this.

“Good night, everyone.” It was the same for me. For the first time in 5 years, I’ve said good night to them. While I felt a surge of joy in my heart—

[Record 100,000 album sales for your debut album in the first week.]

‘What?’ The next mission came at the worst timing.

[Countdown D-365]

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

[Upon failure, member Kang Do-Seung will die.]

The contents of the mission were even worse.

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