Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 186

I was shoving a spoonful of rice into my mouth when I was so surprised that food spilled out in a rather undignified manner. Hwayang reflexively frowned, stopping herself from cursing.

“Why?”

“You put it in yourself?”

“Yeah, you looked so eager to write a song for my *dongsaeng* [younger sibling or close younger friend].”

“Wow… amazing. What’s your connection with that person?”

“You don’t need to know. As long as nothing bad happened. I heard from the staff that there were malicious comments about you, so I wondered what was going on, but I guess it was nonsense.”

Jinhan spat out the rice he was eating again. He knew what ‘nonsense’ meant coming from his grandmother. Information was so important to his grandmother that even a slight inaccuracy could result in termination.

“…Son, how many times have I told you not to be rude…”

“There is. Something’s going on.”

He had to stop it. He couldn’t let her fire someone innocent with her own mouth.

“No, we’re going to the Gayo Daejeon [end-of-year music festival] this time, and…”

This situation first came to the ears of someone who knew that high-ranking people in the broadcasting station had at least one weakness.

Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The staff knew that Hwayang was only interested in things that made money, so they wouldn’t normally report it.

Some of the staff knew that Hwayang was interested in an individual named Ji Donghwa, but even considering that, they didn’t think it was important enough to report.

It wouldn’t cause any problems with her career, and there were plenty of other places to go even if she didn’t go to that broadcasting station. It might be a shame that her performance time at the year-end show was a little short, but it wouldn’t be a problem.

Hwayang valued rationality and efficiency, so she wouldn’t do anything that could be held against her.

However, there were times when she got annoyed just by the fact that someone she was unreasonably close to was being discriminated against.

“Ah, I don’t like that very much.”

It had been a while since Jinhan had directly witnessed his grandmother’s anger, so he bit his lip. Scary, Grandma.

“*Sunbae* [senior colleague or mentor], what were you doing before?”

“…Well, I don’t know why you’re curious.”

“Were you like a spy raised in our house?”

“…Oh, dear.”

He’s finally gone crazy.

“I don’t even know what your house is like.”

What kind of family raises spies? What era is this to be doing such a thing? Wouldn’t it be more rational to raise hackers?

“Or, were you from a *chaebol* [family-owned conglomerate] family in the past?”

“…I made a decent living.”

My father, who studied philosophy, was against accumulating capital, and my mother lived looking at things that money couldn’t buy. But thanks to my childhood, I grew up quite capital-friendly.

Mom and Dad, I’m sorry. Your son is a failure.

“It’s strange.”

You’re stranger now. Why are you suddenly coming to someone else’s studio and asking weird questions?

“What’s your relationship with my grandmother?”

Jinhan looked unconvinced. What, what is it that you can’t understand? The only grandmother I know is Chae Hamin’s grandmother.

“Her name is Hwayang. Have you ever heard of her?”

“Ah.”

Wow, the world is terribly small.

“I knew it! The ultimate weapon raised in our house!”

What kind of family is preparing to raise something like that? I knew Hwayang was someone to be feared, but she wouldn’t be raising a group to prepare for a dystopia, would she?

“I didn’t know she was your grandmother, but I heard that she and my mother were friends a long time ago.”

Come to think of it, I knew Hwayang wasn’t married, so she had an illegitimate child, and that person is already married and has a child who is now in front of me. The world is wide, and many things happen.

“Hahaha, *Sunbae*, there’s no way my grandmother would have friends.”

Is it okay to evaluate your grandmother like that?

“Well… she’s not really my grandmother, but…”

Please don’t ignore the basic principles of logic. If it’s ‘X,’ it should be ‘X,’ shouldn’t it? If not, you might not be Jinhan either.

“I know she’s not the type to have friends.”

“Even someone like me has friends. Why wouldn’t your grandmother?”

“Well, you’re definitely not the type to have many friends, *Sunbae*, are you?”

I don’t want to hear that from you. Your personality is the type to look down on people on the inside, even if you seem to have many friends on the outside.

“…Okay.”

“Anyway, tell me the truth without lying! Do I have to take a test to find out! Give me one, and I’ll solve it all!”

“No, I’ve already told you everything, you bastard.”

“*Sunbae*, you can curse me more, but please tell me the truth!”

“Shut up, please. I respect you, but I don’t plan to hang out with you.”

Jinhan was momentarily stunned, then frowned.

“I guess it’s true. Grandma has a friend…”

Then, in a voice barely audible, he muttered, ‘Grandma isn’t the type to be swayed by sentiment…’ Well, the person I saw seemed quite affectionate.

“Ah, is Mok-hwa having a hard time, or anything?”

“I don’t know. I know why you’re asking, but Mok-hwa isn’t the type to easily tell others that she’s having a hard time.”

After that, Jinhan explained the general atmosphere within the team. Everyone knew about the noise on the internet, and some were hurt, but it was nothing new.

“Actually, if they couldn’t handle that much, they wouldn’t be on our team.”

And Jinhan smiled brightly. Stop pretending to be pure, and apologize to all the pure people in this world. My trust in humanity has dropped a lot because of you.

“…Why?”

“If they seemed to have mental problems, I’d shatter them and kick them out.”

…You’re really crazy. To shatter someone’s dreams and say that.

Jinhan, who has been developing the skill of reading the meaning in my gaze lately, continued to maintain a naive expression.

“It’s also my dream. To succeed as an idol. I can’t do it alone, can I? It’s about succeeding with the members.”

“You’re heartless.”

“Hey, no way. Just the friends with slightly serious problems! I took care of the rest, of course. Ask Mok-hwa.”

“Okay, whatever. What kind of concept are you guys talking about internally for this song?”

“Ah, this is leaking internal information, *Sunbae*.”

Looking at that grinning face makes me want to bring a brick, Jinhan.

“Why did I make time today?”

“Because you said you wanted to write a song for our next album, so I’m here to help you!”

“Leaking internal information is nothing, right?”

Of course, I would never do that.

“You’re right. I’m leaking it to my grandmother regularly!”

Good job, you crazy bastard.

* * *

The war in the idol scene ignites in an instant. It’s hard for everyone to get along happily in the online space in the first place, and the fact that someone is criticizing the person you’re into is too annoying to bear.

Of course, if you don’t care about that and casually stan, you won’t get stressed, but if you get deeply involved, it’s common to fight even if it means enduring all kinds of stress.

It might be inevitable to make self-deprecating jokes that ‘muggles (a nickname for people who are not deeply involved in stanning, who can’t use magic) are the happiest.’

“Ah, what’s wrong with these bastards?”

One of the Wishes, the fandom of Luminous, who just wanted to stan happily in the idol community, couldn’t help but swear when she picked up her phone today.

She had been a hardcore fan of Dione and knew that they were treated better than groups that debuted from small companies. So, no matter what anyone said, she thought, ‘Yeah… this is a little envy-inducing,’ but this time, they were successful on their own, so they were acting up.

‘No, why is this becoming a problem with this ridiculous thing?’

The targeting was wrong from the start. Why are you blaming our kids for what the broadcasting station did?

“Why? What’s wrong?”

The well-known idol expert at the university asked, taking out a laptop to take notes during the lecture. They weren’t close, but they knew each other. They knew that they were both stanning, so the wall was low. However, there was a sense of distance where they didn’t know which group each other was stanning.

Today’s class was a major course called ‘Comparison and Contrast of Tragedy and Comedy’ during the summer semester. They had both failed to register for the course and ended up in the same class, and they hadn’t been sitting next to each other for long.

“No, the kids I’m stanning are getting hate for some weird reason.”

“Oh, really? What’s the reason?”

“They’re acting up because they got a little more time than their senior idols, you know?”

“Ah… I know.”

She knew very well. She gnashed her teeth inwardly. How could she not know? Of course, Hoppinn wasn’t at fault at all, so she kept her mouth shut completely, but she couldn’t help but feel angry at the broadcasting station.

“But, that’s just a small number of people making a fuss, right?”

“That’s right. But it’s annoying. Those ridiculous things!”

“…Ridiculous things?”

“Yeah. Ugh… I don’t know. I’m just not going to go into the community for a while. Or the blue bird [Twitter]. I can’t stand to see the mess.”

She, a Wish, and she, a Luminous, were in one place, and only one of them didn’t know the other’s information. She knew that ‘ridiculous things’ clearly referred to some of the rude Luminous, but the assumption of ‘what if’ filled her head.

‘Are they… talking about our kids?’

‘Ugh… those ridiculous Luminous… There’s a limit to how much you can act up…’

In a situation where information was lacking, the psychological barrier was moderately low, and yet the distance was still not narrowed. Thus began their uncomfortable first summer semester class.

“The common point between tragedy and comedy is that the audience knows information that the people on stage don’t. In other words, the tragic and comedic aspects of tragedy and comedy both start from the same point. For example, materials such as ‘the husband cheating on top of the wife hiding under the table’ can all be dealt with in tragedy and comedy.”

She, who didn’t reveal that she was a Luminous, and she, who unknowingly made remarks that seemed to insult her bias group, their strange winter is now beginning.

* * *

The day came. The day our stage time was shortened due to the broadcasting station’s bullshit.

To be honest, I’m not without a little excitement because I think I’ll be less tired because the stage time is short, but I can’t be too happy because the fans will be heartbroken.

And, what kind of trick is this? I felt a little annoyed that we were assigned to an outdoor stage.

At this Gayo Daejeon, there was a stage set up in a really cold outdoor area under the name of a special stage, which was avoided because of the poor waiting environment compared to the main stage.

When we were rookies, we didn’t know because the treatment wasn’t good anyway, but now it’s clearly discriminatory. It’s so petty that it’s not even a big deal to officially protest. It’s a dirty adult way.

“No, okay, everything’s fine, um, okay, well.”

Ryui-deun was barely maintaining a smile while grinding his teeth as if they would break. Okay, someone has to go there anyway, and it’s comforting to think that we went instead of Hoppinn. I can withstand the cold better than my *dongsaeng*.

However, it’s a little dirty that it wasn’t a fair lottery, but the broadcasting station chose according to their taste. I guess the selection criteria are ‘in the order of who they think is annoying.’

“Ah, the staff will all suffer together. It’s really not good.”

“Um, that’s right.”

“It’s always hard work together, but it’s not good, right?”

“That’s right. You can’t suffer alone.”

Recording complete. You clearly said with your own mouth that you can’t suffer alone, I-deun. I wonder if I can use it later. Ryui-deun lives and dies by honesty.

“Still, let’s cheer up, guys. They say it’s cooler to be treated unfairly and win.”

That human must like the plots often used in youth novels. I also like stories where you win against dirty and petty opponents in the same way. That feels more fair.

Well, you can’t just do what you want in life. It’ll be okay even if the waiting environment is poor. It’s just a day of suffering.

* * *

However, when we saw the waiting room, we were surprised.

“…Is this really bad?”

Although it’s a temporary wall, it’s a pretty sturdy-looking wall and an absurd number of heating devices. Judging from the fact that the air itself feels warm, they must have blocked it well so that no outside air can enter. The facilities such as chairs and snacks are also properly, no, quite luxuriously decorated.

“Something’s wrong. Junseong-*hyung* [older brother or close older male friend] told me to be careful, so I brought a lot of hot packs.”

“…Me too.”