Entertainment Life With A Camera

Chapter 148

It will always describe me.

“What? Do you want me to choose between the two?”

“Just answer freely, hyung. Don’t mind us.”

Park Seodam said that, but he couldn’t hide his anticipation. The other members looked the same, so Ian laughed bitterly.

“Well… I started as a drama extra, so I guess you could say I entered the entertainment industry as an actor first, right?”

“So, you choose actor Choi Ian?”

“Tsk, aren’t you too hasty? Just listen.”

Jo Taewoong poked Kim Juyeong’s side.

“But that was also because I wanted to debut with Awi, and the debut team was already set up. If you ask me to choose, of course I’ll choose our group.”

“Really?”

“But that’s not all, is it?”

The members who expected something more touching and grandiose from Ian quickly showed disappointed expressions. Ian ignored their faces and turned his head to look at Min Changjo.

“But I think the question is meaningless in the first place. Do we have to separate actors and idols? We’re all entertainers anyway.”

“That’s true.”

Min Changjo nodded.

“But what I can tell you is that whenever I introduce myself anywhere, I always say ‘I’m Ian from the idol group Awi.’ Because I’m in the group Awi, I can do both acting and idoling.”

“Wow.”

“Anyway, when I do entertainer activities, our group name Awi will always describe me. Are you all satisfied?”

“Wow, your answer sounds like a poem. Good job.”

As Ian looked around at the members, they gave him thumbs up. Ian frowned fiercely.

“So don’t cause any trouble, all of you.”

“Of course not.”

“And you too, Mr. Changjo.”

Min Changjo, who was suddenly pointed out, widened his eyes and pointed at himself.

“Me? All of a sudden?”

“Yes. Idols should not cause trouble. That’s a virtue. You know that, right?”

Ian’s serious words elicited immediate reactions from Min Changjo’s fans.

-ㅇㄱㄹㅇ (I agree)

-You only say the right things

-Changjo oppa, take note!

-No dating!ㅋㅋㅋ

The members smiled brightly as they saw those reactions. Ian quickly relaxed his face and raised his fist to pretend to hold a virtual microphone. Ian’s virtual microphone went to Jo Taewoong.

“Now, a question for Taewoongie, what are idol group Awi and actor Jo Taewoong?”

“Wow, how can you do this?”

Jo Taewoong was flustered as the members’ heads focused on him.

“Ian said something so touching and it’s hard to follow up.”

“Come to think of it, you’re the senior here since you debuted as a child actor.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m an old-timer. Call me senior.”

Jo Taewoong joked and then pondered seriously. The members seemed curious and the fans were watching too, so he didn’t want to answer casually.

“First of all, I became a child actor because my mom’s friend worked in broadcasting.”

“Yeah, and then?”

“They came to shoot and the child actor didn’t show up. They asked for help and called my mom who was nearby.”

“Oh, so you went straight to shooting without any audition?”

“Yes, but it was so fun then. It felt like role-playing… You know what I mean?”

Jo Taewoong looked at Ian. Ian nodded slowly. He also felt like experiencing someone else’s life while forgetting reality when he first acted.

“The shooting went well and thankfully I got many offers from different places.”

“Are you saying you’re a genius in a roundabout way?”

Park Seodam narrowed his eyes and looked at Jo Taewoong. The members chuckled quietly. Jo Taewoong continued without caring.

“My mom also thought acting was fun for me… She became my manager and showed my face everywhere there was casting.”

He enjoyed acting until then. The cool and pretty celebrities he often saw on TV liked him too, and he always ate delicious food with his family after shooting.

But he started to skip school classes more and more because of his schedule and his close friends started to treat him not as a friend but as a celebrity, someone hard to approach, and built a wall.

“If I have to choose between being an actor or an idol, I’ll choose the group. Because I started as a child actor but now I’m not a ‘child’ actor anymore, right?”

He started to feel acting was not fun but burdensome when he became a middle schooler. His talent was outstanding as a ‘child’, but he didn’t think he would have the same luck as an adult actor.

And there were people among his peers who chose and worked hard for this path, not like Jo Taewoong who jumped in for fun.

[Wow, he was an old soul?]

‘He was so thoughtful since he was young, no wonder his mental is weak.’

Being thoughtful and sensitive was an advantage. But it could also be a disadvantage if it was excessive.

“I enjoyed being a child actor, but it wasn’t something I chose to do for the rest of my life.”

“I can understand that. Your mother probably didn’t take you seriously, but just wanted you to have some experience when you were young.”

Ian silently admired Park Seodam’s words. She avoided any possible controversy with her prudent attitude.

“I had a dream of becoming like Taewoo hyung, or Diamond, the group that performed at the event. Being an idol was almost a ‘choice’ for me.”

The members were immersed in Jo Taewoong’s sincere words and stared at his face intently.

“I can’t deny my child actor days, but Awi means a lot to me. I want to be called by the group ‘Awi’ instead of ‘child actor’ when the media describes me.”

“Wow!”

“Jo Taewoong! Jo Taewoong!”

“Awi Eul! Jo Taewoong candidate! You’re elected!”

The members clapped their hands at the same time. Even Park Seodam, the DJ, threw off her headphones and massaged Jo Taewoong’s shoulders from behind.

“Yes, yes, please sit down. Seodam? Seodam?”

“Yes!”

Park Seodam quickly returned to her seat. Min Changjo couldn’t say anything to her. He also made a mess when Aiwons was a guest and gave Park Seodam a hard time.

Park Seodam and Min Changjo glanced at the director’s signal outside the booth.

“Wow, this is crazy. Anyway! You all have such rich emotions. No wonder you created so many great songs. Now! You have to sing a song!”

“Yes, the song we’re going to sing is… ‘We are We are’.”

The members got up from their seats. They went to the live space that was prepared separately and picked up the microphones.

They then briefly answered the questions in the chat room and sang two songs in a row.

The time was already 40 minutes past the scheduled end of the broadcast.

-Aren’t you tiredㅜㅜ? I want to go to sleepㅜㅜ

-Sing more songs please!

-It’s good now!! Please do it until dawn!

“Thanks to your efforts, our radio show has gone way over the scheduled time.”

“Really? What should we do? We took too much time… Changjo and the production staff have to go home…”

Lee Joo-hyuk looked regretful.

“It’s too late to say that now. Let’s wrap up with some comments.”

Min Changjo answered with a tired face. The members gave brief comments one after another, considering Min Changjo.

“It was fun to talk seriously and chat for a long time.”

“Yeah. We saw our maknae working too…”

“I hope you invite us again next time.”

“Me too.”

“How about doing a joint show with Aiwons next time?”

A joint show with our group? What a horrible idea. Min Changjo forgot his expression management and frowned. Ian quickly fixed the situation.

“That might be too hard for our DJs, don’t you think?”

“Is that so?”

Min Changjo sighed in relief. As they all said something, Park Seodam clapped her hands. The PD’s eyes were on them.

“Well, this is where ‘Visible Idol Radio, Boara!’ ends.”

“See you next week, everyone! Bye!”

Min Changjo and Awi waved their hands at the camera.

-Today was the longest ever

-So funㅠㅠㅠAwi come back again

-Changjo, good job!

-It was so funㅠㅠㅠ

The camera light went off and the members got up and patted Min Changjo’s shoulder.

“Did we end too late because of us?”

“No, I had fun too. You guys must be tired… I’m fine because I’m not active.”

Min Changjo smiled soullessly, thinking ‘It’s because I’m drained…’

“Everyone, we’re going to take pictures for SNS, so strike a pose.”

The staff came into the booth and held up their phones. Min Changjo and Awi stood side by side on the wall and posed confidently.

“One, two.”

They took pictures one after another. Awi crowded around the staff and checked the pictures with a smile.

Among Awi who made all kinds of noisy poses, Min Changjo smiled faintly. His face looked worse than the picture he took before the broadcast.

The members who came out of the booth bowed their waists and greeted the production staff.

“Thank you!”

“Good job!”

The staff also looked tired. It was lucky that they had bribed them with juice beforehand. It was Lee Joo-hyuk’s unintentional big picture.

The Awi members stretched out as they left the studio. Unlike Min Changjo who was drained, they all looked satisfied.

“Wow! That was fun.”

“I hope we can do it again next time.”

“But won’t they stop inviting us next time? They made us work late.”

“Maybe. Then we can just do our own radio show on Y app.”

“Then our fans might beg us to stop?”

The members laughed as they looked at each other.

***

The members headed straight to their rooms as soon as they arrived at the dorm. Jo Tae-woong, who lay down on his bed after washing up, stared blankly at the dark ceiling.

‘What is fanfic?’

Suddenly curious, Jo Tae-woong sat up abruptly. He flipped over his blanket and turned on his phone.

‘What should I search for…’

He had been only looking at the fan cafe and the separate board for Awi, a community that only fans could enter, for his mental health. He doubted he would find what he wanted there. Jo Tae-woong entered a foreign search engine that claimed to show everything.

“What is this?”

Finally, he found what he was looking for. He saw stories that paired him with other members in romantic scenarios. He clenched his fingers in disgust. He wanted to throw his phone away right then, but his curiosity was the problem.

(Guguz Parrot Backup)

(…falling in love at first sight with transfer student Tae-woong)

‘Ugh! Crazy!’

Jo Tae-woong screamed silently and quickly pressed the back button. But in the meantime, he accidentally clicked on something different from what he searched for.

“…Huh?”

-Jo Tae-woong’s attitude shows how well he was educated at home

-I went to the same middle school as him and he was famous lol

-You can tell what his parents taught him, right?

-His parents exploited him to make a quick buck by making him a child actor, so no wonder his education was poor lol

Jo Tae-woong’s eyes lost focus in an instant. He sighed deeply as he scrolled down mindlessly.

‘…I should just sleep.’

He flopped back down and tossed and turned for a long time, feeling his heart pounding fast and hard.