Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 297

I Didn’t Plan to Become an Idol – Episode 297 (265/343)

Ryu Ideun was happy to see his former homeroom teacher and classmates after so long.

Ryu Ideun, having just won a basketball game against his classmates, was the first back in the classroom.

The PD [Production Director] had clearly stated it was break time.

So, he was leisurely stretching when suddenly someone with very realistic makeup and fake blood on their mouth came in and lunged at him as if to bite him.

“…Huh?”

His surprise was brief. An animalistic sense rang an alarm, and Ryu Ideun immediately sprang away from the desk he had been leaning on.

A struggle for survival, without even a scream.

He jumped into the classroom next door and locked the door.

Immediately running to lock the back door as well, Ryu Ideun breathed heavily.

“What is this……”

He hurriedly looked out the window and saw his teacher waving from the parking lot, getting into a car with his classmate.

“…Suddenly?”

His alma mater was a school that didn’t really acknowledge weekends.

Because it was an arts high school, the students usually used the practice rooms in the basement and didn’t show their faces on the ground floor. Access was probably restricted.

‘An escape game, huh.’

It was too sudden, really. No wonder the PD-nim followed him this way. A person whose love for Donghwa, though not as much as the members, was still extraordinary.

Running in his school uniform made him hot, so he unbuttoned his summer uniform.

As he let out a sigh, *thump*.

Ryu Ideun, startled, widened his eyes and turned his head to see a red handprint on the window.

Beyond it, an actor was staring at him, lips twitching.

“Why are you so good at acting!”

But the sound that came back was a monster’s scream. Wow, how many people like that are there?

Ryu Ideun quickly turned his eyes to check if there was a camera.

Wow, why didn’t he notice? Come to think of it, there were small cameras installed all over the school.

With that realization, Ryu Ideun calmly gathered his thoughts and folded the ends of his pants.

He had to run like crazy today.

* * *

“…Huh?”

Chae Hamin tilted his head blankly at the closed door.

Once again. The door, only rattling, didn’t open, and Chae Hamin tilted his head again.

“…What is it? H-hey, I’m locked in here!”

But no answer came back. His hands trembled. Was this really a broadcast situation?

Chae Hamin looked around quickly.

The too-quiet school fueled scary imaginations. The sun was slowly setting, and he couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Muddled, Chae Hamin suddenly shouted.

“Donghwa!”

For reference, the two went to different schools. Of course, there was no answer, and Chae Hamin was shocked.

Ugh, what to do, was he really trapped!

Chae Hamin stared blankly at the door before finally finding the lock.

Could this be locked from the inside…? When he was here? Was it a ghost?

Chae Hamin trembled.

If Ji Donghwa were next to him, he would have somehow helped him regain his senses, but alone, Chae Hamin felt dizzy.

“Ugh! I’m scared! Can’t you let me out!”

Again, there was no answer, and Chae Hamin sat down as if collapsing and raised his voice again.

“Donghwa!”

* * *

He sat down where the teacher guided him, and then a curtain installed on one side of the room fell, revealing a hidden space.

“…PD-nim again.”

Was this a fabricated situation?

He knew it. That PD bastard was never one to love warmth and fuzziness.

If he were that kind of person, he wouldn’t waste documentary-style editing on something so unprofitable.

It looked like some kind of monitoring room. Two monitors, a remote control, and even paper. He understood that he had to do something with the observation cameras.

He got up from his seat and picked up the paper on the table. ‘Arcade of Memories: Playing two games is the rule when leaving school!’ was written at the top.

He was trying so hard to relate it to school days.

And he had the wrong person. Giving such a harsh mission to someone whose only gaming experience was with chess or Lee Hyunjae’s board game edition.

Without even looking, he could tell that he had to clear both games to leave work.

“…Are these all the rules?”

There was no answer.

Well, seeing that the damned PD wasn’t here, it probably wasn’t a difficult game.

He sat down in the first seat without much thought and turned on the screen with the remote control.

A title that read ‘Now, Our School Is’. He couldn’t help but doubt the quality of the game.

The video naturally played and introduced the rules of the game. Roughly, there were zombies in the school, so he had to keep the character alive until they escaped.

Could he do it with his fingers? More than that, where was the keyboard?

“…There’s a dog here.”

Whether by coincidence or not, Ryu Ideun was running like crazy in the hallway, and some actors in zombie makeup were chasing after him.

Was it okay to do that at school? It was too anti-educational.

He reflexively picked up the remote control for the screen next to him.

The screen turned on to show ‘School Ghost Stories’, where he had to keep the character alive and escape from ghosts that gradually approached over time.

Of course, Chae Hamin was sitting in his seat, calling out someone’s name, which was his name.

Was his name one to be called until death, Hamin? The poet Kim Sowol would rate it highly.

“…Oh my god.”

How much money did they spend? He heard that they were filming a self-produced content video before the concert and taking a short break, so they must have poured the remaining budget into this.

They were selling nostalgia, creating a warm atmosphere, and then confronting them with zombies or ghosts, so he understood why they were in that state.

Even selling nostalgia was hard work for him, and he was struggling to rack his brain.

What was it, what did they want?

“…Something like a phone.”

He needed a means of communication.

To create this kind of structure, they must have diligently designed it so that nothing would work without his help. The damned PD said he had ‘slightly’ manipulated the situation, and he had prepared something like this.

Let him enjoy the benefits of modern civilization. Communication that transcends space. The fastest-growing field since Antonio Meucci created it.

He rummaged through the drawers, scanning the screen with his eyes.

Moving the screen around, Ryu Ideun was running at an unbelievable speed in every shot, and Chae Hamin was stuck in one screen, calling out the members’ names intermittently.

‘…But, why are we doing this.’

He was doing his best to carry out the situation since it was given to him, but he couldn’t forget the fundamental question.

He didn’t know the reason for its existence, so he couldn’t give it meaning, and if he couldn’t give it meaning, Heidegger would be crying.

The moment he opened the last drawer and took out a cell phone inside, he realized.

‘…Hmm.’

It was a concert unit composition. The one in front was self-produced content, and the one filmed behind it would be released at the concert or just before it.

They were planning to divide the unit into the hyung [older brother/male friend] line and the dongsaeng [younger sibling/friend] line and do one stage each, weren’t they?

So this was like a teamwork battle before that.

The PD bastard was collaborating with their company, so it wouldn’t be strange if he created such content.

Ryu Ideun was currently undergoing a Taereung Training Center experience, so first, Chae Hamin.

* * *

The phone rang.

Startled. Chae Hamin, who had been crawling on the floor looking for something like a key, froze.

“…Donghwa?”

Usually, when he was having a hard time, the person who called him was a member, especially Ji Donghwa!

Chae Hamin stood up with a light of hope. Everything was scary when he was alone, but if even one person was next to him, he had nothing to fear!

Chae Hamin carefully moved towards the direction of the sound.

A cleaning supply closet! The means of contact was finally inside!

He raised his hand and put it on the doorknob. Chae Hamin, smiling brightly, threw the door open.

A pale face, dark eyes, a person with their whites and pupils reversed, why were they here.

Chae Hamin froze. They said that humans couldn’t react in the face of extreme fear, and it was really true.

“…Ugh.”

One step back.

Chae Hamin quickly grabbed the phone hanging on the cleaning supply closet door and ran like crazy, like Ryu Ideun when he first encountered the zombie.

“Ugh, ugh, kk, uh! Donghwa! Donghwa!”

―The thing you just saw was a ghost.

“Huh? Ah?”

―It’s going to start moving slowly.

As soon as he finished speaking, the strange man in the cleaning supply closet took a step.

“What do I do? What do I do! Exorcist, please exorcise it, Donghwa! There’s a shaman among my grandmother’s friends!”

―Um, first, explain the situation.

“There’s a ghost!”

―…Yeah. What’s the door locked with, Hamin.

“A lock!”

―It’s in the ghost’s hands.

“No way!”

―I just solved a problem.

Chae Hamin clutched his wildly beating heart. He had to touch that, ugh!

―If you’re late, it’ll move faster and faster, so you’ll probably get caught before you can even take it out.

“Ugh!”

―You can do it, Hamin. I’m watching you right now.

“W-watching?”

Chae Hamin turned his gaze towards the camera. Beyond that. Chae Hamin waved blankly.

―Hello.

“…Wow, all my fear is gone.”

―Yeah, you can do it.

* * *

He felt like he was going to die.

Ryu Ideun wiped the sweat with a handkerchief and sighed.

“…What is it.”

Why was it that he had searched all the floors from the first to the fourth floor of the school, but he couldn’t find an exit even if he washed his eyes and looked again.

They were all locked, so he had avoided the zombie people and searched all over the classrooms.

“…What are we doing, what are we doing.”

Ryu Ideun muttered as if possessed by Ji Donghwa.

Judging from the circumstances, the other members were also in this situation, but since he didn’t know the purpose, he couldn’t do anything but run.

“Ah, Donghwa should be here at times like this.”

He folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket. Shouldn’t there be a computer that can analyze the intention of the broadcast in this day and age?

Ryu Ideun stretched his ankles and took his stance again.

Where should he run? He was doing a week’s worth of cardio.

“Huh?”

Ryu Ideun, whose physical condition was always at its best, his meticulous self-management shined again.

As if he was reluctant to listen to music with earphones for no reason, he heard a sound with his sensitive hearing.

“…A phone ringing.”

Ryu Ideun jumped once and ran. He had already formed an inner intimacy with the zombie actors coming from the front, so he smiled brightly and greeted them.

After greeting the zombie people several times, Ryu Ideun opened the door and entered through the back door.

Who puts a cell phone on the window.

To snatch the cell phone, Ryu Ideun quickly put his hand on the window frame and jumped.

It flowed smoothly like one motion, reminiscent of rhythmic gymnastics.

“Hello?”

Ryu Ideun started running again to avoid the zombie people approaching this way. Even so, his voice on the phone was not disturbed.

―Stop running.

“Originally, if there’s no one to hold the leash, the dog runs.”

Ji Donghwa’s ‘dog’ gaslighting had effectively worked, and Ryu Ideun was naturally calling himself a dog.

―Then stop running now.

“Okay.”

Ryu Ideun stopped in his place and took out his handkerchief again to press against his forehead.