Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 162

162.

I quietly watched Seok-jun and Park Woo-jin’s awkward reunion, then turned my eyes to the camera.

‘Walking to the Side of Celebrities.’

A program I’d heard of before. It’s a show that briefly films the daily life of a celebrity. According to Lee Hyun-jae’s data, it’s something people watch when they’re bored. Because it’s not particularly unique, it’s more like a standard broadcast that gets steady viewership.

‘Anyway, if they want to air footage of us, they’ll need permission from the company at the very least.’

If not, they can just scrap it.

“Wow, what a coincidence. I came to Japan for a quick shoot.”

Stop pretending we’re close. I don’t want to talk to people. I want to go back to the zoo right now.

“I know. It feels like the first time I’ve seen you since the survival show. You’ve become more handsome.”

I smiled next to Seok-jun, hoping he’d pick up on the ‘let’s go our separate ways’ signal. If there wasn’t a camera, I would have just ignored him and walked past. What a shame.

“…Is that so? Hahaha.”

“Good luck with your shoot.”

I gave another sincere smile and subtly gestured to Seok-jun behind my back, using a Blossence internal signal that meant it was time to leave.

“I—I’ll be going now. Hyung-nim [older brother or respected male figure].”

“Okay! See you later!”

Park Woo-jin had a smile plastered on his face, but I could see it was starting to crack.

Hmm, really, I don’t understand his intentions.

I politely bowed ninety degrees to Park Woo-jin and turned back. It’s exhausting to make it so obvious that we’re not close.

“Ah, he mentioned somewhere that he’s close to us.”

Having heard the story, Ryu Iden curled his lips into a sneer, a rare expression for him, and muttered.

Close? With who?

I naturally turned my gaze to Ryu Iden. Usually, 80% of the time, when someone claims to be close to someone, it’s Ryu Iden.

“No. Iden will be upset if you look at him like that.”

Ryu Iden immediately dropped the sneer and pretended to tear up in his usual dramatic manner.

“…Hyung, really, someday I’m going to…”

Unable to finish my sentence, I simply shook my head.

“So, why is he spreading false information that he’s close to us?”

“I’m not close to him either, so I don’t really know. What’s certain is that he’s desperate to get his name mentioned even once more.”

Ryu Iden wore a sneer again. When I think about it, this puppy clearly distinguishes between friend and foe. If Park Woo-jin tries to cause us trouble, he’ll use all his connections to ruin him.

…Reliable.

“Are we worth that much?”

I handed the cocktail to Lee Hyun-jae and sat back down on the bench. Lee Hyun-jae took a sip, his eyes widening, and silently continued to gulp it down. Cute guy.

“You really underestimate yourself too much. We’ve barely escaped being rookies, but among the teams that debuted around the same time, we’re the only ones who’ve really made a name for ourselves, right?”

Yeah, well. That’s an area I don’t know much about, so I’ll skip it.

“He must have debuted as an idol too, right?”

Then there’s no reason to brag about being close to other groups early in his debut. There’s neither gain nor loss. No, there might be a loss, but it’s hard to gain anything.

“No, he debuted as an actor.”

Then why on earth would he do that?

“That’s how rookie actors are. To get a casting spot, you either need connections, a recognizable face, or amazing skills.”

In other words, he needs another chance to get his face out there.

“Hmm, why doesn’t he focus on improving his skills?”

I let out a soft sigh. I already have a lot of prejudice because of what I saw in Seok-jun’s potential, and I really don’t want to get involved.

But when Ryu Iden and Lee Hyun-jae heard my words, they both stopped moving and stared blankly at me.

“…What are you looking at?”

“Is this like, what’s her name? Marie Antoinette? Is that what you sound like?”

What.

“Hehe, you foolish commoners, if you can’t debut, you can succeed with your abilities, something like that?”

“Your Highness, the commoners do not possess the same talents as you.”

Listening to Ryu Iden and Lee Hyun-jae’s bizarre conversation, I realized.

…Ah, if there’s no bread, eat cake? It must be part of the propaganda to justify the French Revolution, but how effective was it that people still misunderstand it hundreds of years later? Propaganda is really amazing. The people in history who freely manipulated such propaganda, who were you?

“Stop talking nonsense, what do we do?”

“Well… saying we’re not close ourselves would look a bit strange, wouldn’t it?”

“It would be nice to have an excuse to cut ties later if he causes trouble.”

“Haha, don’t worry. It’s enough if we never mention it on our side, and we’ve already laid the groundwork for that.”

As expected, our puppy. I don’t know how loyal he is.

“What did you do, hyung?”

Lee Hyun-jae also tilted his head, curious.

“He crossed the line a bit! So I played a little trick.”

Looking at Ryu Iden smiling mischievously, my stomach felt worse than when I rode a roller coaster.

I wasn’t particularly curious, so I got up and walked towards Seok-jun and Chae Ha-min. I’m sure he handled it well on his own.

* * *

The unexpected short meeting with Park Woo-jin was followed by a brief text message to Yoon Sung-ho the next day.

A question: ‘Are you at all close to Park Woo-jin?’ The answer was simple.

―He didn’t even pretend to know me after our team’s popularity declined a bit early in our debut. Hehe.

I see. He’s obsessed with popularity. How beautiful. Isn’t it a perfect representation of the human condition? An actor obsessed with connections and popularity, a human you can see anywhere in the world. I should ask Ye-eon for advice later on whether he’s doing anything stupid.

“Ten-sion is high-ing [tension is rising].”

Seok-jun cleared his throat and warmed up his voice. Today is the final activity in Japan. We’re filming an entertainment show, something like a talk show.

“The talk show concept is unique. It’s completely in Korean, and only the subtitles and voice actors are in Japanese.”

“It’s a program designed with Korean idols in mind…….”

In other words, it’s a program that survives on the viewership of idol fandoms. Looking at it, the editing is done with minimal manpower, so it seems like a program that wants low investment and low effort.

A Japanese person opened the door and came in. His name is Musashi. A strong-sounding name.

“Oh, hello! Blossence everyone!”

Wow, why is his Korean pronunciation so fluent? I was worried we wouldn’t understand him.

“I’m Musashi, the MC for today. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Wow, your Korean pronunciation is amazing.”

Ryu Iden shook hands as a representative and smiled.

“Ah, I studied in Korea. In fact, I lived in Korea a little longer than I lived in Japan.”

Mr. Musashi smiled kindly, cleared his throat, and took out today’s script.

“Okay, there’s not much to do today! We’ll do an interview-style talk and a small game show. The interview will have some tropes that Japanese fans like, so you might be embarrassed. So I’m going to tell you in advance what questions I’m going to ask.”

Quite considerate, good.

I smiled faintly, feeling satisfied.

“For example, there’s this! Questions like which member you think is the cutest, or which member you would introduce to your younger sister if you had one.”

Um, it’s normal.

“There will be an aegyo [acting cute] time.”

Ugh, damn it.

“There will be some embarrassing times like that! Fighting!”

Looking at Mr. Musashi’s face as he shouted that, I suddenly missed my ticket to Korea.

* * *

The warning was just a warning. The reality was far worse. It is said that there are omens before a disaster occurs, and that seems to be true.

Numerous aegyo times, dance times, and even questions that could be a little sensitive. After going through everything, a stream of sweat ran down the back of my neck.

“Okay, Dong-hwa! It’s time for Dong-hwa to read the lines!”

I quickly checked the panel that the staff member was holding. Ryu Iden, who checked it with me, was already laughing as if he was about to fall over.

“…Um, do I really have to read it all?”

“Of course. It’s our show, right?”

I took a deep breath. An unknown emotion bubbled up from the depths of my heart.

“Noona [older sister or respected female figure].”

Why do I have to read this, why are they making me do this, why on earth…… All those questions filled my head, but I firmly spat out one word at a time.

“I’m an adult now, why don’t you see me as a man?”

Puh-huh, Ryu Iden lowered his head.

“The Dong-hwa who was only cute is no more.”

There was some unfounded phrase ‘(Hmph)’ on the panel, so my brain stopped for a moment, and then I only thought of the word ‘professional’ and turned my head to the side.

“Hmph.”

Keuh-huh, this time Lee Hyun-jae collapsed. Seok-jun was looking at me with a warm smile, and Chae Ha-min was biting his lower lip tightly, enduring it as if he felt sorry.

Just laugh. Because it feels like it’s going to get more miserable.

“Ah, Dong-hwa’s ears are very red. As expected, the Ice Prince is not immune to kawaii-ness [cuteness]!”

Damn it. Please stop! I feel like I’m dying of shame. Even though it’s Japan, I really feel like I’m losing my immunity. What kind of wording is that?

After enduring several moments of shock and horror, I was able to take a break.

“Hahaha, you’re experiencing the true taste of Japanese broadcasting.”

Mr. Musashi came to me during the break and smiled brightly.

“I told Han-ho that Blossence was coming out today, so he told me to take good care of you.”

No, beyond having a friendship with Mr. Han-ho, if this is taking good care of me…

“This kind of thing works well in Japan. Please be more embarrassed. It is said that if an idol looks cute, it’s a guaranteed success.”

Okay, so you’re doing this because you’re taking good care of me. I accepted it.

They say you give one more rice cake to someone you hate, so a guy who feeds you crap is a guy you don’t hate, damn it.

“Noona.”

“I’m an adult now.”

“Puh-huh.”

Wait, why are you only teasing me? You guys read the same disgusting things.

“Keuh-hak, hmph. Hmph, he says. I’m going crazy, really.”

Ryu Iden was laughing on the set floor as he collapsed. Chae Ha-min couldn’t laugh out loud next to him, but his expression said everything – that he was laughing to death.

“Actually, Korean idol broadcasts also make you do this kind of thing, right?”

Mr. Musashi also laughed along and offered words of comfort.

“…Thank you.”

“Japan is a little more severe, heu-ha!”

What is it, are you going to comfort me or screw me over, choose one.

Momentarily, a feeling of anger rose up, but I endured it again with amazing patience.

The atmosphere was briefly cleared. Now, if I film for about two more hours, it will be over. Then I can knit. May inner stability and peace dwell within me.

“Ah, that’s right. That’s right. Blossence everyone. We’re going to play a game, right?”

At that time, Mr. Musashi suddenly remembered and clapped his hands and shouted.

“There’s a penalty for the last place.”

Then Mr. Musashi looked at me with meaningful eyes.

“You’ll have to experience a little more of the shame you just experienced.”

At that, the other members also looked at me. This is bullying, damn it. Mr. Musashi, this is ijime [bullying]. Why are you leading it?

“Just one person, who will it be?”

The gaze, as if it was decided that it was you, felt a little ominous.