Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 176

#176.

***

“Hyung!”

“Hyung, are you okay?!”

“Gyuseong-ah!”

“You’re already here?”

The members, who were eating a late breakfast and preparing to head to the practice room, hurriedly greeted Gyuseong and Jung Gilju as they opened the door and entered.

Gyuseong had just returned from the hospital with Jung Gilju.

Despite thinking he was managing his health well, the extreme pressure and excessive practice had ultimately caused problems with his body.

“What did the doctor say?! You should have at least gotten an IV drip…….”

Heungmin said, examining Gyuseong.

Gyuseong’s condition was better than when Dojae had first discovered him, perhaps because he had received an injection and his fever had subsided slightly.

Dojae was also trying to feel a little relieved, thinking that Gyuseong wasn’t seriously ill.

“…….”

Gyuseong couldn’t open his mouth to say anything.

It was Jung Gilju who answered.

“He has a bad cold. For now, he got an injection and we picked up some medicine, so they said to rest fully for a day or two and see how it goes.”

At Jung Gilju’s words, the members’ expressions darkened.

Of all things, a cold. Gyuseong was a singer who had to perform live in three days.

“Of all times…….”

Kijun muttered, furrowing his brow.

‘He has a problem with his throat. It didn’t just sound like his voice was hoarse…….’

Dojae bit his lower lip with a worried heart.

However, the one who must be most frustrated was Gyuseong himself, the patient.

He was already sick, and it was obvious that he wouldn’t be comfortable considering the situation.

As a manager, Jung Gilju was also worried about the comeback stage, but it was already water under the bridge [meaning, it couldn’t be changed].

“You listened to the doctor, right? Don’t get stressed and just rest. And don’t use your voice as much as possible.”

“Yesh…….”

A cracked sound came from Gyuseong’s throat, which had been closed for a long time.

Instantly, the members were able to keenly recognize Gyuseong’s condition.

He might be able to speak, but he was in no condition to sing.

“Right…. It’s not a severe cold, so it might get better even tomorrow.”

Jung Gilju tried to encourage the exhausted Gyuseong and the members, speaking as hopefully as possible.

As if understanding Jung Gilju’s heart, Gyuseong nodded with an effort.

“You guys have time to go to the practice room now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll wait here, so get ready. Let’s go to the company together.”

At Jung Gilju’s words, the members moved busily.

“Um…….”

At that moment, Gyuseong turned around and tried to say something to Kijun and Jung Gilju.

“No way.”

“Gyuseong-ah, let’s go into the room.”

As if knowing what he was going to say, Kijun immediately said ‘no way’ firmly, and Dojae led Gyuseong into the room.

Gyuseong, who was going to say that his fever had gone down and he would be fine as long as he didn’t use his voice, so he would participate in the choreography practice, was led into the room by Dojae’s hand.

“Ugh, practice…. Is it really okay not to do it…….”

Gyuseong muttered, still worried as he changed from his going-out clothes into his pajamas.

He knew Gyuseong’s anxious heart well, but now was the best time to rest as the doctor said.

Dojae said with a firm look.

“If you don’t want to be sick for two days instead of one, rest is the best thing. We’ve already practiced a lot…. It won’t change much if we rest for a day.”

Gyuseong went to bed as Dojae advised, as he even shook his head as if telling him not to say anything more.

He was feeling better for a while because of the injection, but Gyuseong also knew that it was actually impossible to practice right now.

Dojae picked up the glass bottle he had placed on his desk.

The bottle that Dojae often used contained a white substance.

“Melt this and eat it before you go to sleep.”

Gyuseong looked at the glass bottle that Dojae handed him with a puzzled look.

“It’s bamboo salt. It’s good for your throat if you melt it and eat it.”

“Ah…….”

Gyuseong recalled his childhood.

When Gyuseong had a cold, his grandmother had told him to gargle with salt water.

At the time, he really didn’t want to do it, but he had reluctantly done it with his eyes tightly closed at his grandmother’s insistence…….

He never thought that he would receive salt, bamboo salt, from a fellow member when he became a full-grown adult.

Moreover, this time, he was ordered to dissolve and eat the grains as they were, not to mix them with water and gargle.

He could put needles in and even handed him bamboo salt, so for a moment, he wondered if Dojae had mastered the Dongui Bogam [a Korean medical encyclopedia] as Woochul had said…….

Such thoughts even came to his hazy head.

“…Thank you.”

When he greeted him with a cracked voice, Dojae said, ‘Rest quickly,’ and picked up the bag he would take to the practice room.

But then, Woochul opened the door and came in with a knock.

“Hyung, hyung. Eat this after you eat porridge.”

What Woochul held out was a nutritional supplement that he had received so many from fans that he couldn’t even eat them all.

Among them, he had found the one with the highest content of vitamins.

“Kijun hyung already cooked the porridge a little while ago!”

“What…….”

Gyuseong was at a loss, not knowing that he had cooked porridge in the middle of being busy preparing, when he could have just ordered it.

“There were no ingredients, so it’s just egg porridge…. It won’t taste good.”

Gyuseong lightly raised the corners of his lips at Woochul’s evaluation.

“Then rest, hyung!”

“…Okay.”

“Let’s go.”

Just as Dojae was about to leave the room again with Woochul.

“Hyung!”

This time, Louis came into the room.

Louis was holding a pink scarf in his hand.

“This is my favorite scarf…….”

“You had something like that?”

Woochul stared intently at the pink scarf.

It didn’t look very special, but Louis’s hand holding the scarf was cautious, as if it was very precious to him.

“I always keep it clean and carry it in my bag because I feel like it brings me luck.”

“Oh…….”

“Hyung. You have a cold, so wear this around your neck. Keep your neck warm and get lucky.”

“It’s a win-win.”

Dojae muttered as if he believed that luck would really come.

Gyuseong accepted Louis’s scarf in a daze.

Louis picked up the scarf again and carefully tied it around Gyuseong’s neck, thinking it wouldn’t work.

Just when he thought it was all done, Heungmin came into the room with microfiber sleeping socks that were hard to find in the middle of summer, from who knows where.

“Gyuseong-ah, wear these to bed. You have to sweat a lot to get rid of the disease!”

In that way, Gyuseong lay down on the bed under the members’ somewhat extreme protection.

Even though he wasn’t feeling well, he somehow let out a laugh.

Gyuseong fell into a slumber, listening to the sound of the members heading to the practice room.

***

The members who arrived at the practice room loosened up and talked.

“Gyuseong…. Will he be all better before the stage?”

The members, who had greeted him brightly to reassure Gyuseong, couldn’t help but worry about the stage right away.

“Well. We’ll have to wait and see until tomorrow.”

Kijun couldn’t hide his gloomy heart.

“I think…….”

When Dojae, who was moving his ankle lightly and pondering, opened his mouth, all the members looked at Dojae.

“Even if his condition recovers to some extent…. It’s going to be hard for his throat to get better easily.”

“I guess so…….”

Kijun also muttered as if he had been thinking about it a little.

“…Huh. Then what do we do?”

Woochul asked with a tearful face.

“Shouldn’t we prepare for the worst, just in case?”

Kijun nodded at Dojae’s words.

“Then are we not doing a live comeback stage? Or are we just not having Gyuseong do it?”

Heungmin asked, tilting his head.

So far, MOST has been performing live without exception from the comeback stage, and all the stages that were possible, in order to maximize their strengths.

However, a live stage on a music show was not ‘essential’.

In the case of stages where more attention had to be paid to the comeback period or performance, there were often singers who did not perform live.

Even if it was live, there were cases where the vocalist’s voice was maximized during AR work to make it ‘look’ live.

“We can either go completely lip-syncing…. Or we can fix the AR a little, depending on Gyuseong’s condition…. I think we should consider both.”

If the vocals were overlaid only on Gyuseong’s part, that part would stand out too much.

It was even more so because Gyuseong’s part was long.

Considering the overall balance, Dojae’s words were correct.

“Right. We can’t just hope that Gyuseong’s throat will get better.”

Kijun said that he would discuss this issue a little more with the company and prepare.

The members nodded with regret.

They wanted to show the fans the best performance possible as it was a comeback stage…….

In fact, such a stage was as good as canceled.

“Hoo…….”

Woochul unknowingly let out a big sigh.

Dojae wrapped his arm around Woochul’s shoulder and patted him.

“The comeback isn’t just on that day. Gyuseong will recover his condition, and we can do well on the next stage.”

“That’s right…. Gyuseong hyung will be the most upset. I won’t sigh when I go to the dorm.”

“…….”

“We can only hope that Gyuseong hyung’s condition will return quickly, what.”

Dojae looked at Woochul as if he was admirable.

When you think about it, there was only a few years difference, but Dojae felt like Woochul was a very big brother, and Dojae often felt like Woochul was a very young brother.

But these days, Woochul felt very mature.

His playfulness was still there, though.

“Right. If we don’t do live, we can pay more attention to the performance.”

Everyone agreed with Kijun’s words.

It was true that movement became easier if they didn’t perform live.

But they would have to do their best so that those who watched the stage wouldn’t lose interest.

“For now, practice will continue with live stage practice. We have to do it anyway.”

Kijun, who said that, immediately stood in front of the practice room mirror.

The members also stood in formation in turn.

Even though Gyuseong was suddenly missing, the members were accurately spaced apart.

Because they had practiced so much that they could match the formation with their eyes closed…….

A cheerful beat flowed out, and at the same time, the members began to move in unison.

***

The next day.

Thursday, 5:58 PM.

The five members stopped practicing with determined hearts and gathered in the middle of the practice room.

A cold tension lingered in the practice room, which was full of the heat of the sweat that the members had been sweating.

This was because it was the time when the music video and music of , which the fans and members had been waiting for so long, were released.

Faced with the pouring reactions, the members couldn’t open their mouths easily.

“The song is good, so…….”

It was Heungmin who broke the silence to ease the stiff atmosphere.

The song was definitely good.

It was a song that everyone from the members to the company people had unanimously decided to use as the title song for the first time in a long time.

In addition, the teaser response was also good.

But the result was always unpredictable.

As much as each of them had worked hard to prepare the album more than ever…….

It was not easy to predict the results as much as they desperately wanted it to be successful.

Dojae glanced at the time on his cell phone.

The sock trainers and dancers were also unable to hide their tension and were waiting for 6 o’clock.

“It’s out!”

As soon as it turned 6 o’clock, the album music and music video included in were released on the music site and MyTube.

The number of views of the music video soared in an instant.

And just one hour later.

In that short time, compared to the countless days of preparing the album, the members realized the result before they even had their comeback stage.