Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 247

The basic rule is: if you find a body, don’t panic. Just check for signs of life and report it to the police.

But in a variety show context, a conclusion like, ‘I found a body while looking for a cat, reported it to the police, and then went home,’ feels strangely anticlimactic.

“Oh? Something like this happened?”

Kanghee, the slightly impulsive senior, clicked on something.

“There’s a recording file.”

“Well, we don’t have our phones anyway.”

“Seriously, the only consistent concept is pushing us to the limit. Is it really true that we walked all the way here because we didn’t have any money?”

“Anyway, let’s play it!”

As Senior Kanghee finished speaking, silence fell over the factory. A mechanical ‘beep’ rang out, and then a bizarre argument echoed.

―Hey, don’t you know you shouldn’t do that?

―You shouldn’t have done that either, you son of a bitch.

“Oh my.”

―You, calm down, you X [expletive deleted].

―Haha, calm down? Then why didn’t you calm down?

―Ah, I can’t talk to you. Get lost. I’m going to report you for stalking.

Then came screams and the sound of something being stabbed repeatedly.

Junseong, the senior next to me, grabbed my shoulder and started gagging.

Silence descended after all the noise ended.

“That’s it, I guess. The file is over.”

“Wow, call the police, call the police. This is insane.”

Something felt off. Why was the recording complete? You have to manually press the ‘complete’ button on the recorder for the recording to end.

“Are you thinking the same thing, maknae [youngest member]?”

Senior Hanho stood next to me and muttered.

“Why did the recording end?”

“Yeah. Isn’t it weird? Does technology these days automatically stop recording?”

“As far as I know, no. There’s no need for that feature.”

“If he was stabbed to death, the recording should be long. Why does it end abruptly? Did the guy who stabbed him record it or something?”

And there’s something else strange. I recalled the brief conversation I had with my grandmother when she recommended places where Sebastian might go.

‘He often goes to about three places, especially this one. He often goes to this factory.’

‘Oh, he goes for walks really far away.’

‘Right? It’s strange. Why does he like such a distant place…….’

Why, specifically, does that cat come all the way here for a walk?

It was a casual conversation that I didn’t think much of at the time, but now that I think about it, I wonder if it holds some significance.

Confusing conversation, questions that can’t be answered anyway.

Senior Gyeongwoo, the leader, opened his mouth to try to summarize the situation.

“First, let’s get out of here. I think I’m going to go crazy if I stay here any longer.”

“Yeah. Let’s report it to the police, or see Grandma one more time.”

We hurried away.

However, our wish to go outside was not granted.

Bang.

The factory door that we had opened and entered slammed shut with a loud noise.

The first floor mostly consisted of an empty space with various miscellaneous facilities, and the door was quite large, so the noise spread so loudly that it was hard to believe that the door had simply closed on its own.

“Ah, damn it, ah!”

Senior Junseong was startled and grabbed me, and the other seniors flinched and tried to understand the unfolding situation.

“…Second.”

“…What is it, Hanho hyung [older brother/male friend]?”

“Did they say this was going to be on OTT [Over-The-Top media service, like Netflix]?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re screwed.”

A short curse, appropriate for a serious situation or not, spread, and a brief burst of nervous laughter erupted.

“The, the door is closed, that thing?”

“I’ll check.”

Kanghee hyung, who ran quickly, shook the door a few times and then shook his head.

“Other exits.”

Everyone looked around, but a sigh washed over the factory interior, which didn’t even have a single window.

“Looks like there aren’t any.”

“…First hyung.”

“…What, Gyeongwoo?”

“We’re definitely screwed.”

The curse that echoed from the mouth of a person who is usually so gentle was quite different from that of a human living according to the wind, so I almost burst out laughing again, but this time I barely held it in.

* * *

Continuing the conversation next to the corpse—being an actor is a really tough job—a little, so, we went up to the second floor.

“…Hey, is this really a factory?”

The first floor had no problem being seen as a factory, but the second floor was a little different.

A space consisting of a living room and three rooms, like an apartment.

“Isn’t this a house? What kind of factory is this?”

“It looks like someone used to live here.”

Even while climbing the stairs, our Senior Junseong, like a reliable senior, stuck to my back, holding my waist tightly and only sticking his head out.

“Hyung…….”

“I’m the younger one.”

“You be the hyung. I’m scared to death, really.”

Don’t make a sound like Ryu Iden [reference to a character]. Hearing the word hyung from someone older than me is enough with that one person.

“…This program, what’s with it? Isn’t it too bottomless?”

“We have to find a way out, I guess.”

“Chilbong-ah [name], the contract doesn’t say anything about being imprisoned…….”

For reference, Mr. Chilbong is the name of Senior Hanho’s manager.

“…First, I think we need to find a way out.”

“We can just break down that door.”

Then that’s not a broadcast, it’s a real survival drama. It’s not a variety show, it’s a documentary.

However, Senior Kanghee seriously argued for a 19th-century British machine-breaking movement, saying, ‘If it’s a factory, there must be something like a hammer.’

“Kanghee-ya, we don’t break the law.”

“Is imprisonment legal?”

“If you signed the contract, it’s legal.”

“Chilbong said there wasn’t one.”

Even though I knew how serious the situation was if it were real, I kept trying to laugh at Senior Hanho’s pun.

That was the same for the others, and everyone’s lips were trembling. Except for one person.

Our reliable fourth hyung, Senior Junseong, who was seriously trembling with fear, was still peering around like a meerkat, doing security checks.

“Do, Donghwa-ya.”

“…You said you were the hyung.”

“Hyung!”

“Why are you calling me?”

“Is it safe?”

“…I don’t know.”

“What’s safe, someone could suddenly pop out here and stab you with a knife.”

“Hanho hyung is right.”

“Right.”

Silence.

Our reliable hyung and guardian knight who can protect everyone, Senior Junseong, was even more intensely immersed in security checks than before.

“Let’s sort out the situation for a moment. We’re trapped.”

Nod.

“Then, who closed that door?”

“The production team?”

“Hanho hyung, stick to the concept.”

I bowed my head again and tried to hold back my laughter. Ha, it’s hard labor.

“Then we should see him as the culprit.”

“The culprit must have lived here?”

Senior Gyeongwoo looked around. A clear living space. Traces of life were evident here and there, proving that someone was living there.

“Then this is completely in the culprit’s hands.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, he knows other entrances too?”

Then, our meerkat, Senior Junseong, trembled again and looked around intensely. Really, really reliable.

I got up from my seat, but failed. Because our Senior Junseong was holding my arm.

“…Dongsaeng [younger sibling/friend].”

“Yes, hyung!”

“Please let go of my arm so I can look around for a moment.”

“Yes!”

Then he immediately stopped trying to grab Senior Kanghee’s arm, tilted his head once, and then grabbed Senior Hanho’s arm. He seems to pick who to rely on.

“First, should we search it once?”

“That’s a crime, maknae.”

“It falls under the justification for illegal acts because it’s an emergency evacuation situation.”

“Oh, that sounds plausible. Even if it’s not true, everyone commits this much illegality.”

Senior Hanho nodded and got up from his seat, but failed. Because he’s being held as well.

I put everything aside and looked around the room for a moment, and without much thought, I looked at the photo on the table.

…The photo of that grandmother holding a small boy from before.

“Hyungs.”

All eyes were on the maknae’s words.

“The person living in this house, I think it’s that grandmother’s grandson.”

A silent space, no sound could be heard. The air pressed down with a density that made even breathing feel heavy.

Hmm, why am I getting so immersed? This is a set situation. Senior Hanho broke the silence first and got up from his seat.

“Let’s postpone fighting with that grandmother and get out of here first. Is there anything?”

I agreed, so I turned the room upside down, relying on the justification for illegal acts.

* * *

“Donghwa-ya, look at this.”

My senior, Junseong hyung, who had finally regained his composure, handed me a notebook.

“The content is a bit…….”

I took the notebook and quickly read it.

‘Once upon a time, there lived a liar boy in a village. The boy was eating two bowls of rice with his friend when he suddenly wanted to eat one more bowl. So the boy shouted. There’s a culprit who killed the sheep here! The friend was taken away by the people, and the boy was able to eat two bowls of rice alone. He was happy.’

“It seems like the culprit wrote the reason why he killed him?”

“…I don’t know.”

Let’s use our heads. Let’s recall the recorded conversation from before. I slowly rummaged through the memories in my head.

―Hey, don’t you know you shouldn’t do that?

―You shouldn’t have done that either, you son of a bitch.

The words of the man presumed to be the culprit, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ And the incident that occurred in the story presumed to be a fable.

“…He must have been betrayed.”

“Betrayed?”

“Although it’s still a guess, it seems that the culprit falsely accused the victim in the past, and that’s why he committed murder.”

And as soon as I said that, the words that my grandmother said came to mind through association.

The grandmother who felt sorry for her grandson and felt sorry for him. Perhaps that pitiful reason is…….

“Ugh, my head hurts, I can’t watch anymore. I’ll look around. I’ll go downstairs for a while! See if there are any more doors that open.”

Senior Kanghee got up from his seat as if he was stiff and tried to go down to the first floor, but stopped.

“…There won’t be a culprit, right?”

“If there was, he would have come up and killed us long ago.”

Senior Kanghee, convinced by Senior Hanho’s cold words, stepped down the stairs.

“Isn’t it a cliché that you die when you act alone in something like this?”

“Show some love to the third one too. He’s going to go astray.”

“What’s he going to do even if he goes astray.”

The first and second, who are having a conversation like a couple with a middle school child, and the fourth, who is still holding my arm and looking around with anxious eyes.

When everyone was focusing on their respective roles, a scream rang out from downstairs like a lie.

When everyone was frozen, Senior Hanho went straight down with a thick book in his hand.

“Follow me! If you touched my dongsaeng…….”

At that, everyone hurriedly went down with things that could be used as weapons.

And finally, when we arrived on the first floor.

“…What, what is that?”

Senior Kanghee, sitting in his seat, stared at one place with trembling eyes.

And at the end of that gaze, the scene where the corpse that had been there until just now had disappeared was placed.

“Why, why is it gone? Someone must have moved it.”

“…Grandma, how did you raise him?”

Even though they are actors, we are in the middle of a situation play where our immersion is important, so we wouldn’t have gone outside. We should have tried to maintain the original posture as much as possible.

But the fact that the corpse disappeared means.

“Someone, it seems, is with us.”

I briefly summarized the situation.

Senior Junseong, who grabbed my shoulder next to me, breathed heavily and hugged me tightly, sobbing.

“I’m scared! Save me, Donghwa hyung!”

“I’m in the same situation of being trapped, hyung.”

While being grabbed and shaken around by Senior Junseong, I came up with one short thought.

‘…But why isn’t there any bloodstain where the corpse was.’

Was PD [Production Director] Jang not that meticulous?