Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 206

Ding—!

[I miss it. He used to swear at me like that too.]

…Kijisaeng [a Korean term for a female entertainer, similar to a geisha].

[That kid, he always thinks like that, but he just didn’t have the confidence to say it and kept it bottled up. In other words, you opened the floodgates.]

What have I done? I just gave Lee Hyun-jae, who was hesitant and unsure due to a lack of self-confidence, a little push.

Will I be able to remain a good influence on Lee Hyun-jae as time passes? I need to work hard.

And perhaps it’s thanks to Lee Hyun-jae’s outburst that we were able to finish the remaining practice efficiently and early.

* * *

As soon as we arrived at the dorm, Chae Ha-min grabbed me tightly from behind.

“Hyun-jae…, something…, like, changed.”

Chae Ha-min grabbed my shoulders and whispered frantically in my ear. He seemed to hope Lee Hyun-jae wouldn’t hear, but unfortunately, Chae Ha-min had no talent for whispering.

“Come to think of it, I wonder if his MBTI [Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality assessment] changed too. Judging by the hyungs’ [older brothers or male seniors] reactions, it seems like it might have……”

In response to Chae Ha-min’s reaction, Lee Hyun-jae wordlessly took out his phone and started tapping away at something. *It must have changed, you idiot.* It’s only natural that the surrounding terrain changes when a blocked dam collapses.

Chae Ha-min quickly changed the subject, embarrassed that he had been caught talking about Lee Hyun-jae.

“By the way, Dong-hwa, what was your MBTI?”

“Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.”

Chae Ha-min tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand, then laughed out loud.

“I wasn’t asking what it was, I was asking what yours is……”

Ah.

I had done it before when fans asked me.

“INTJ.”

Rummaging through my head, I remembered the other members’ MBTIs too. Ryu Iden—ESFJ, Chae Ha-min—ENFJ, Seok-joon—ENFP, Lee Hyun-jae—ISFP.

To be honest, I only know the name of MBTI and haven’t looked into it in detail, so I don’t know what it means. However, I remember that the fans reacted strangely, saying how amazing it was that my personality type was the same as Nietzsche’s.

“…Oh, I changed.”

“To what?”

Chae Ha-min peered into Lee Hyun-jae’s phone.

“ISTP.”

Oh dear, it seems like he’s taking after me, which makes me even sadder. I don’t know much about it, but it seems like half of the change from F [Feeling] to T [Thinking] is my fault.

Although these personality type tests are not absolute truths and are mixed with the Barnum effect [a psychological phenomenon where individuals believe generalized personality descriptions apply specifically to them], it seemed like there was no great difficulty in using it as evidence that it was my fault.

“I think I’ve achieved about half of my New Year’s goals.”

I was hesitating, not knowing how to react to Lee Hyun-jae’s words.

“Guys, come quickly and get your salad!”

Tonight’s dinner is salad for diet control and protein-rich meat for nutritional balance. It’s an effort to look good on camera at the upcoming comeback.

Since the hiatus was a bit long, we are undergoing strict diet management. I used to get sick of it, but these days I’ve gotten used to it and I’m enjoying the flavor of the salad in my own way.

“Ah, Dong-hwa, I took the mushrooms out of yours.”

You are a god.

“I put that much more in Ha-min’s.”

He’s a rabbit.

“Wow…, the drama production team is really pushing our OST [Original Soundtrack].”

Lee Hyun-jae must be looking up related information because it’s Chae Ha-min’s drama’s first broadcast. He’s not eating his rice, but he’s serious about current affairs analysis, which makes me feel touched that the old Lee Hyun-jae is still there.

“…At this rate, I wonder if it’ll become a drama with only the OST left.”

I chewed and swallowed the salad and replied.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“Because we chose the drama.”

If you exclude what we chose, there are no other options.

In a few days, all sorts of actors’ scandals are going to explode.

The other dramas, except for ours, will be experiencing situations where the lead actors are dropping out, so those who watch dramas will inevitably have no choice but to choose our drama. It’s a jackpot even if it’s just average.

Lee Hyun-jae didn’t understand well and tried to say something, but just nodded. I was touched because I could feel that he believed that I wasn’t just spouting nonsense without any basis, knowing my usual personality.

“Ha-min, you said you’re playing the role of a junior who has a crush here?”

Chae Ha-min, who was munching on mushrooms, nodded and smiled awkwardly.

“But, it’s a bit of a unique role.”

To be unique in a campus scenario, would you have to fight a university professor and then confess to the protagonist from the victorious podium?

“It’s a spoiler, so watch it first.”

Watching the drama, it’s ordinary. Various settings have been added, but it’s an ordinary love story in an ordinary university. But these days, dramas don’t hesitate to put fantasy elements into their works, so this ordinariness stood out even more.

A love story between a male protagonist who is a perfect student council president on the outside but eats ramen at home as a semi-jobless person, and a female protagonist who wears nerdy clothes and big glasses at school but is a girl crush herself elsewhere.

It’s common if it’s common, and ordinary if it’s ordinary, but a pure story has its own flavor, so it was worth watching.

“I knew that person was in their thirties, but they suit the role of someone in their mid-twenties so well.”

Indeed. At first, I thought it was strange that the female lead in a campus love story was Soo-hyun, who is in her thirties, but it’s amazing that she can pull it off with her acting skills. I wouldn’t be confident if I were asked to play a middle-aged man in his forties.

“…But, Ha-min, what are you doing?”

I shook off the weight that was pressing down on my shoulder. After appearing refreshingly in the beginning as a kind of spice in the student council, making me think, ‘Ah…, he’s the one who occasionally lightens the mood in the drama,’ he’s been like this ever since.

“I can’t watch.”

“…Your shadow doesn’t even appear now?”

“It’s coming soon……”

In the meantime, Lee Hyun-jae, who is serious about literature, seemed bored with the commonplace plot structure, so he chewed his salad with an indifferent expression and asked.

“Hyung, do the main characters have any strange rumors going around inside the university?”

*Is that what you want?* Looking at the list of novels Lee Hyun-jae liked, he liked extreme developments, so it would be difficult for him to like such a pure story.

“I don’t think there will be such a scene?”

Chae Ha-min tried to hide his embarrassment, but it was clearly visible to my eyes. He must still be unfamiliar with the spicy maknae [youngest member].

Of course, I wasn’t surprised because I had directly heard him elaborately explain ‘why it’s not fun’ when reading pure novels with Lee Hyun-jae.

He definitely answered, ‘I want to see the moment when everything built up collapses. That’s when it’s literarily beautiful.’

“I see.”

Lee Hyun-jae licked his lips once, as if he was disappointed. Lee Hyun-jae soon lost interest and looked across the TV indifferently.

“Ugh, it’s coming out now.”

At the same time as shouting, Chae Ha-min buried his head in my back again. Of course, I was relatively smaller, so it was heavy. Even while pushing him away with my hand, I was focusing on the screen, wondering why he was doing this.

The protagonists were sitting face to face in their true forms at a convenience store table, glaring at each other, and Chae Ha-min appeared, grinning. Just by holding soju [Korean rice wine] bottles in both hands in broad daylight, it was clear what kind of character he was.

Chae Ha-min’s face gradually became prominent beyond the protagonists’ conversation scene, with embarrassment, excitement, and the subsequent expression giving off a nuance as if he had fallen in love at first sight.

“Wow, Ha-min’s acting has improved!”

Ryu Iden’s cheers. Of course, maybe it’s because we roughly knew about it.

“Indeed.”

I couldn’t help but agree. Why does Chae Ha-min’s acting keep improving? And then it’s funny that he can’t act in real life. What is this?

“Ugh……”

Chae Ha-min shook his head, shuddering with embarrassment.

“Ha-min, it’s heavy, so calm down.”

“…But why is that embarrassing, hyung?”

Indeed. As Lee Hyun-jae said, is showing that you’re good at acting something to shudder about like this?

“No, this is……”

Chae Ha-min smiled as if his mentality had recovered.

“That’s supposed to be an admiring part for the male lead.”

Um, so what?

“No, the director told me to act like I was in love, but later I found out that the target was the opposite!”

“Um, is that embarrassing?”

Lee Hyun-jae ruthlessly asked what I wanted to ask.

“It’s embarrassing! I didn’t even properly understand the acting content……. Ugh, seriously, just thinking about that time……”

“Ah, is it like feeling satisfied after singing the wrong note and then being pointed out?”

Oh dear, that’s a memory I shared with you, Hyun-jae. You did that when you were recording your solo song.

“That’s right, that’s right. That’s it!”

“So, the person you like is that person?”

“It’s not like I’m confessing…, when the two are dating, I’m very sad, but it’s not clear who it’s because of.”

So, it’s like a person with a flower garden in their head [a Korean slang term for someone who is indecisive and popular with many people] 1.

“The director said I like both of them, but I couldn’t understand that, so it was difficult to act.”

Oh dear, it’s not just a flower garden in his head, it’s like trash [another Korean slang term, implying the person is playing with people’s feelings] 1. If the two don’t end up together, he’s planning to have a foot in both camps.

“When you watch these dramas, they’re a bit romantic.”

Ryu Iden suddenly opened his mouth while listening to the conversation.

“It feels like they’ll love one person forever without changing even after the ending.”

“…It’s a romance.”

It’s something that can’t be achieved.

There’s a lot of controversy over how to define love, but you can’t leave out the realm of hormones. People who fall in love are affected by various hormones, which cloud their judgment and make them feel joy, and being addicted to these hormones is an important aspect of love.

Unfortunately, this hormone addiction usually only lasts for six months to three years, so ‘unchanging love’ is bound to be impossible.

Rather, love that changes but continues is the right thing to say. Heraclitus, you may have been right.

…Upon hearing those words, Ryu Iden flinched and covered his ears with exaggerated gestures.

“Ah! At times like this, Ha-min needs to be stopped from talking nonsense!”

Unfortunately, Chae Ha-min was writhing as if he was about to die because he was embarrassed that he hadn’t acted properly.

“Hyung, take it to heart. It’ll become your blood and flesh.”

Lee Hyun-jae, who gives unlimited attention only to my words, took his hand off Ryu Iden’s ear. They bicker with each other, but Ryu Iden is the person Lee Hyun-jae approaches most freely, so he must be playing pranks like that.

“It’ll be helpful when hyung dates in about ten years.”

“I think it’ll be more than ten years…, but will it be helpful?”

For reference, Ryu Iden is a guy with a considerable sense of professionalism, so the concept of dating while working as an active idol doesn’t exist in his head. If that guy dates, it’s the same as saying that Blossence has virtually disbanded. Oh dear, I can’t bear to see that.

“Did you forget, the Oath of the Peach Garden?”

Or my curse. Even though it was something I said while drunk, there’s no doubt that it’s sincere. Eternal group activities, if anyone betrays us, it’s just assassination.

“Hyung will never be able to date in his life.”

Ryu Iden realized this and exclaimed ‘Ah!’ and then laughed.

“Then we might as well all gather together, pick a mansion, and live there until old age.”

As expected, he’s a canine animal, so he’s very positive about group living like a wolf.

Thinking about fighting with that guy even when I’m old doesn’t make me feel happy, but I agreed because there was no other option. Assuming that the life expectancy is 100 years, we should create a twilight mansion or something like that from about 30 or 40 years from now.

“…Um, I don’t think it’s bad. As long as the living spaces are well separated.”

“Wow, that would be great. Later, let’s all go do volunteer work together, play chess, and even elect a president to make announcements in the building.”

When Lee Hyun-jae and Chae Ha-min also expressed their approval, Ryu Iden was rather embarrassed.