Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 375

What is this?

I can understand Ryu Iden.

That guy is the epitome of self-discipline. If he hadn’t become a celebrity trainee, he would have meticulously planned his studies. From the moment I saw him on screen, I thought, ‘Ah, that guy would have excelled no matter what he did, even if he wasn’t a celebrity.’

I can also understand Chae Hamin. Our school’s dance department is quite famous, but I heard the entrance exams are primarily practical.

He probably couldn’t have gotten in based on academics alone.

But there’s no hip-hop department, and no animation major either. Moreover, the art-related departments at Korea University aren’t places you can get into with just practical skills.

The rest are departments where practical skills aren’t as important, so you have to study. Could Seokjoon have done that?

While I was puzzling over this truth that only I knew, Chae Hamin knelt beside Seokjoon, who was sprawled out like a corpse, and checked his pulse.

“…Thank goodness, he’s alive.”

A cat, startled by our sudden appearance, jumped up and stepped on Seokjoon’s face with its paws. Then, gathering strength in its hind legs, it leaped.

It moved to Chae Hamin’s side, perhaps trying to escape. Then it came to my feet and curled up again.

…How can such a cute creature exist in the world? I deliberately avoided going near cats because I was afraid I’d lose my mind like this.

I carefully sat down, trying not to disturb the cat, and it glanced at me before walking between my legs and curling up again.

Damn it, cute. Damn it, so cute.

“Huh─?”

A leisurely tone. It’s amazing he’s waking up now.

If he were a normal person, he would have been startled when the cat stepped on him, but he’s waking up because the sunlight is constantly tickling his eyes.

…Is this how Mok-hwa feels when she looks at me?

His face is decent enough, but what’s with the way he dresses? A pink Wizney Princess [likely a parody of Disney Princesses, but with a ‘z’ to avoid copyright] printed t-shirt and torn jeans.

I cautiously asked the cat with my eyes if I could touch it, while focusing on what nonsense Seokjoon was going to say.

The cat blinked, as if giving permission. I carefully stroked its spine.

It’s not a kitten, thank goodness. If it were, I would have had to take it away quickly to prevent it from getting my scent.

“I’ve never seen him let anyone get close before─.”

“No, more importantly, are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. But why would you think I wouldn’t be…….”

He struggled to lift his gaze, which was fixed on the cat on my lap. He looked surprised.

He’s talking to Chae Hamin, but his eyes are glued to the thing on my lap.

“You were lying here! It’s still cold, even though it’s spring!”

“I’m okay. I’m used to sleeping outside…….”

What, I’m worried. He’s not human. Why has he become a wild animal?

Looking closely, there was grass all over his clothes. Everywhere I looked, there were traces of him rolling around in a field.

Chae Hamin and I exchanged glances in an instant. His eyes said, ‘Dong-hwa, I know you don’t like me being nosy, but shouldn’t we take him in?’ and mine conveyed, ‘Listen first. Wait. No. Shh.’

“Sleeping outside?”

“Yes, when I get sleepy─, there are many places to sleep. It’s nice, so.”

And a yawn. Thankfully, he seems to be going home.

“Ah, you’re the one who’s often mentioned on Everytime!” [Everytime is a popular South Korean online forum for university students.]

“Huh?”

“No, recently, there have been sightings of cats and birds resting with someone.”

Tell me more.

“Wearing weird clothes, and the animals run away if you get close, so they only take pictures from afar…, but even though it’s censored, the rumors say he’s quite handsome?”

“Then it’s not me─. That’s a relief.”

It’s you no matter how you look at it, you crazy bastard.

“…But, I’ve never seen this before. He always ran away when people came─.”

His gaze is still on my lap.

“I named him Felix, arbitrarily.”

……Wasn’t the cat’s scientific name ‘Felis catus’?

“Ah, Seong-ho hyung told me to introduce myself first. I’m Seokjoon, a freshman in the veterinary department─. Nice to meet you─.”

Damn it, this world is over too.

How could Seokjoon be in the veterinary department? All my prejudices have collapsed.

“No, more than introductions, Joon-ah! If something happens to you sleeping outside like this…….”

Now, such common sense isn’t the issue.

Rather, it’s just like Seokjoon. He’s always been a guy who can sleep anywhere.

I wish he would go inside a building if possible, but my narrow-minded imagination is a more important matter.

Ji Dong-hwa! Come out and explain!

[What is there to explain? Once I got rid of my desire to rap or become a singer, he went to the veterinary department on his own.]

I didn’t know anything about Seokjoon.

[To be precise, you didn’t know anything except for Lee Hyun-jae.]

……Ah, that’s true.

I silently met Seokjoon’s eyes and then turned to Chae Hamin.

Why are these guys involved? Why are they involved with a troublesome person like me, and why will they share so many lives together in the future?

And why, why, did they understand all of it?

[You chose them yourself, didn’t you?]

I was rude. With the single-minded determination to see my brother, I arbitrarily chose human candidates who I thought I could become friends with Ji Dong-hwa.

And then, through several experiments, I just…, no, no.

More precisely, these guys approached Ji Dong-hwa and started talking to him on their own with just a little push.

I never forced them. They were people who became friends without hesitation just by being next to him.

It’s strange, really. How did I get caught up in this?

Why was I only outside the monitor, and now I’m finally living my life?

Why did I try to give up on this beautiful experience based on assumptions?

[Wouldn’t the collapse of the original plan be the fun of life?]

So, I have to keep them all by my side.

Until now, I thought I’d be fine if only Lee Hyun-jae and Mok-hwa remained by my side, but the more time I spend, the more curious I become.

Why are we tied together like this?

As Ji Dong-hwa said, why did we all gather at the same school again just by giving a little push?

The curiosity is intense. The desire to know overflowed, and I almost stopped breathing for a moment.

I want to know every aspect of these people. Everything about when, at what time, and what happened to them to get here.

“Joon.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to join our club?”

“……Yes?”

“……Are you perhaps smitten with the cat?”

Chae Hamin seemed to feel that me suddenly approaching first was strange.

Will I ever be able to tell you all my secrets again?

[Are you going to pull tricks like Lee Hyun-jae?]

I don’t know. I can’t make any plans.

I don’t know anything, so I can’t do anything. So first, I have to get to know them.

* * *

The working members of the theater club ‘Playing Bastards’ consist of five strange people. These five people, all from different departments, recently started living together at Ji Dong-hwa’s house.

“There’s a room?”

“My father has a tendency to pick up people sometimes, so he chose a slightly bigger house.”

“Are you okay with it?”

“I’m fine, as long as hyung [older brother or male friend] is happy…. And recently, I’ve been busy with student council stuff, so I come home late too…. Ah, I want to kill Kim Jin-han. I’m going out again today.”

Mok-hwa left those short words and grabbed her bag.

Looking at her face, which showed a lot of fatigue, it seems that Jin-han is tormenting her a lot.

The group living is entirely thanks to one person who is only big and has no substance (actually, he has substance, but the desire to curse him is stronger).

Iden hyung was surprisingly serious about things like performance planning, and he used his skills to plan not only school performances but also external performances.

The work of overseeing the performance behind the scenes so that those who are acting can perform properly sometimes feels like a chore, but literally, they are ‘Playing Bastards,’ so except when they are working, they usually just play in the club room.

Sometimes, when planning starts in collaboration with the acting team, Ryu Iden usually takes them to his relatives’ house to live together, but this time it wasn’t possible, so they set foot in Ji Dong-hwa’s house.

“Get more funds. How much is the rental fee?”

“Huh? Dong-hwa hyung, can’t you even match the budget? For your lovely younger sibling?”

“The only way is to reduce labor costs.”

“…Ah, that’s a bit much. Everyone is our acquaintance.”

Lee Hyun-jae laughed as he watched Ryu Iden, who had arrived earlier, and Ji Dong-hwa, who was at home, arguing.

They’re getting closer and closer, it’s amazing. Sometimes, I imagine one of the five people missing.

Honestly, the work would go on somehow even if only Ryu Iden and Ji Dong-hwa were there, but the atmosphere when working is another matter.

“I hope we can borrow money from my father later and buy a performance hall. Then we can even establish a foundation.”

“Do it with your own strength. Don’t use your father’s power.”

“Oh, should I take that as a confession that you’ll work with me until then? That I can have a performance hall if it’s me?”

“Get lost, please.”

“Call me Chairman, just once. It sounds good!”

If it were just those two, Dong-hwa hyung would have already been arrested for attempted murder.

So Hamin hyung has to be there. He’s the only one who can control Dong-hwa hyung’s anger.

But it can’t be just the three of them either. Jooni hyung has to be there to create a sense of leisure.

He’s the one who puts the brakes on when Dong-hwa hyung and Iden hyung start working like runaway trains, telling them to take a break.

And I’m just watching all of this, so honestly, I’m useless, but I’m still sitting in my seat out of greed.

“Hyun-jae, what are you doing─.”

Seokjoon flopped down next to Lee Hyun-jae, I don’t know when he came in. He’s in the veterinary department, but the dark circles under his eyes are dark.

Lee Hyun-jae quietly placed a cushion underneath him.

“Thanks.”

Ah, that’s right. Come to think of it, this hyung can’t manage himself without me.

He has surprisingly little sense of reality, so I need to stick by his side and nag him.

If this hyung hadn’t been scouted by Dong-hwa hyung, he would never have been connected to our club.

“By the way, hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did Dong-hwa hyung bring hyung here?”

“I don’t know─. Maybe it’s because the cat likes me. Well, I like hyung if he likes it.”

That’s an answer worthy of a crazy guy who is obsessed with the animal characters in Wizney and entered the veterinary department at Korea University with the single-minded determination to protect them.

“Did he bring you suddenly? You weren’t originally acquainted?”

“Yeah. The cat liked me, so I said I would too─.”

Sometimes I wonder.

I’m the only normal person among these five, but sometimes I suspect that all of this is under some kind of plan.

Lee Hyun-jae got up from his seat and returned to his room. There, a photo he had found a while ago was placed. A slightly older five men took it, probably a family photo.

No matter how much I rack my brain, I can’t explain it, but somehow it looks like us.

There’s something strange about this house.

Even if it’s a paranormal phenomenon, as Lee Hyun-jae, who doesn’t believe in such things, sometimes suspects that this is some kind of scheme by Ji Dong-hwa.

“…Is this hyung planning to be friends with us until the end of our lives?”

If he even edited the photo with such obsession, it’s a bit scary, really.

It was a sense that he was gradually moving towards the truth that he had not yet approached, but Lee Hyun-jae was moving towards something.

On the back of the photo, there was a meaningless sentence that seemed to have been written a long time ago and weathered, ‘Blossense 30th Anniversary Family Photo.’

‘……Blossense, does it sound like a cosmetic name, why is it like this.’

A 30th anniversary photo of five handsome middle-aged men no matter how you look at it…….

Lee Hyun-jae chuckled. Now that I’m even fantasizing that all of this is under Ji Dong-hwa’s plan, I also want to see Ji Dong-hwa suffering because things don’t go according to plan.

“Should I make him an idol or something?”

If I write a novel, I’ll be able to ruin him somehow.

Suddenly I woke up and became an idol, how troubled would Ji Dong-hwa’s personality be?

“I didn’t plan to become an idol, I’d even put a stupid title like this on it.”

Imagination, it’s a different imagination than before.

If I had fallen into it before because I didn’t want to see my parents’ eyes, now it was just a fun game.

Who would be the best person for Ji Dong-hwa to meet for the first time if he suddenly became an idol?

Chae Hamin, who will stop him from going on a rampage, would be the best.

Next, Ryu Iden, who will give him a sense of purpose.

I or Seokjoon might be okay to meet a little later.

‘I have to show it to them when I’m done writing.’

Imagining the expression he’ll make when he’s annoyed, I feel a little happier.