Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 44 Heading to the First Stage (2)

What the hell? What’s so difficult about it? 

I urged the manager to hurry up and tell me.

-You guys, if you go there once, your image might be fixed as some rural idol or dance idol or something like that. Are you okay with that?

Oh. I was speechless at the unexpected and arrogant remark.

Even if we got some image, it would be better than having no image at all. 

Right now, the most urgent task was to show our hard work and make ourselves known.

‘Are we in a position to care about our image now?’

But then the manager continued with an unexpected comment.

-Especially you, Ise. You always refused to do that kind of stuff because you hated it.

What?

“Excuse me?”

The manager clicked his tongue as if he was annoyed.

-What do you mean, excuse me? Hey. I came to you two years ago with a great opportunity and you kicked me away saying it was crap. Don’t you remember what you did?

It was a mess that the previous Ise had caused.

From the manager’s perspective, it must have been unbelievable.

“Ah… Well, I’ve changed a lot since then.”

We hadn’t told the manager yet that we were thinking of this activity as our last.

If this activity failed, the company would be more cold-hearted than us and consider disbanding us. We thought there was no need to tell him that.

-If you say you’ll do it and then back out later, I won’t be able to cover for you.

I understood that he didn’t trust me. But I couldn’t just say, okay, I’ll tell them I can’t do it.

“Yes. I’ll really do my best this time.”

-Sigh…

The manager didn’t answer right away, as if he was weighing whether to believe me or not.

“You saw me doing the School Kitchen Attack, right? I’ll really do my best.”

Kyunghwa, who had been listening nervously all along, finally chimed in.

“Hyung, I’ll also do my best this time so that it won’t be a flop.”

-Oh? Kyunghwa, are you there too?

“Yes, we were just thinking that we should practice the performance in advance according to the changed route.”

-Ah… Okay, sigh, I’ll trust Kyunghwa and give it a try.

So he didn’t trust me? 

I felt a vein pop on my forehead. But I had to endure it.

To the manager, Ise was the spoiled and immature heir of a chaebol who had made a fuss about dying a month ago.

“Yes, then I’ll let PD Pyo know that we can contact the agency directly.”

-Sigh, do well this time.

“Yes.”

I barely finished the call and stretched out. 

My face felt hot, but it was nothing.

I asked Kyunghwa with a calm expression.

“Where are we going for the practice room?”

We could have used the one in the company building, but I had another place in mind.

“Um… Anywhere that’s available right now. It’s not like we have a lot of people anyway.”

“Then let me talk to Ye-jun for a moment.”

“Okay. If not, we’ll have to go to the office.”

I nodded and opened the door to the living room. The three pairs of eyes that were waiting for the result looked up at me.

“The manager said it’s okay. We need to find a practice room now.”

I glanced at Ye-jun and he pointed at himself with his thumb and tilted his head.

“Who else would it be?”

Then Ye-jun exclaimed as if he realized something.

“Oh. Okay, okay. I’ve handed over the cat feeding to grandma again, so you can use it there. There won’t be anyone coming to bother you or ask you to vacate it.”

“Okay, let’s go there then.”

Seon-woo blinked at the incomprehensible conversation.

“Ah, my grandma has an unused practice room in her building. The electricity and water are still on. There’s no heating, though.”

I wondered how he could say that there was no heating so cheerfully.

“Shall we go there then? How are we going to get there?”

If it was just the two of us, we could walk with our faces covered.

But now that there were some people who recognized us, we couldn’t walk around in a group of five.

“Ye-jun and I will walk, and the rest can take a taxi.”

I went into the room to change my clothes. Then I called PD Pyo right away.

PD Pyo was happy with the faster than expected approval.

The shooting location was Goseong in Gyeongnam. From Seoul to the south coast… It seemed better to spend the night and come back, considering the fatigue.

‘Popular idols sometimes come back in a day because of their schedule. Well, we’re not.’

I smiled wryly at the advantage of being unpopular idols.

PD Pyo didn’t stop there. 

He added another condition that I hadn’t expected.

***

A little later, all the members arrived at the practice room and stood at their starting points.

I had no trouble with the choreography since I had learned it based on the five-member route from the dance training last time.

“Seon-woo, not there.”

The problem was the other guys. Seon-woo was the worst, and Kyunghwa was the best.

Seong-won and Ye-jun were barely passable at best.

As the other three kept messing up, even Kyunghwa started to stumble and stutter.

“How come you never make a mistake, Ise-hyung? You’re so sneaky.”

“What are you talking about, Oh Ye-jun? You’re the one who keeps making mistakes and dragging Kyunghwa down with you.”

I brushed off Ye-jun’s nonsense with a sullen tone and he made a sound of clicking his tongue.

Are you a kid? 

Twenty-two was definitely younger than my real age, but still.

“Son Seong-won, you need to focus too. You’ve already messed up three times in the same spot. Got it?”

I wanted to perfect our last single today, but mistakes kept popping up everywhere.

When was the last time we performed that we became this bad? I frowned and clapped my hands to get their attention.

“I’ll check each one of you, so Seon-woo, you go first. The rest of you sit down.”

“Okay!”

Seon-woo, who had been the biggest hole in the group, nodded and jumped up.

Sigh… Well, at least he’s cute. Even if he made a mistake, his good looks would cover it up somehow. I nodded and looked in the same direction as Seon-woo.

We stood in front of the mirror and Seon-woo and I were side by side.

“Okay, one, two, three, four, ta-ta, ta-ta-ta.”

As I showed him the example and set the direction, he followed along well. Maybe it was because his dance level wasn’t that low.

“One, two, three, four, ta-a, ta, ta-ta-ta!”

“Good, like that.”

The others weren’t just playing around, they were checking their routes on the stages where they had stood as five.

“Five, six, seven, eight, ta-ta, ta-ta-ta.”

“Five, six, seven, eight, ta-a, ta, ta-ta, ta-a.”

I finished teaching Seon-woo and immediately pointed to the next batter.

“Next, Oh Ye-jun, come out.”

“Huh, me?”

Ye-jun, who was confident in his dance part as much as his performance, looked at me with a puzzled expression. Who else would it be?

“You need to check from the beginning too. You kept messing up in the same place.”

“That, that’s…”

“Why, are you going to make an excuse that you couldn’t concentrate?”

I pointed out sharply and Ye-jun pursed his lips and nodded.

“Fine, I trust you, hyung. You’re the best among us, so I’ll just follow you.”

It took me five times to teach Seon-woo, but luckily Ye-jun had just forgotten, not lost his skills.

He caught up to the perfect level in no time after repeating it twice.

“Next, Son Seong-won.”

Seong-won snorted but didn’t complain and got up from his seat and stood next to me.

As we stood side by side, the difference between me and Cheon Ise was clear.

Seong-won had a softer and more handsome look than Cheon Ise, who had relatively thick lines and a pretty face.

It also affected his dance line. Cheon Ise pulled the choreography with a powerful and sharp force that cut through.

“One, two, three, four, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.”

Seong-won had a smooth feeling of connecting the lines.

It was the moment when my prejudice that if you dance well, you all dance the same way, crumbled.

He would have looked good doing ballet or something.

Of course, Seong-won’s vocal talent was overwhelming, so it would have been a waste if he had danced.

“Done?”

He raised his level to the point where no one could say anything and sat down in his seat before I gave him permission.

“Sigh… Really.”

I had a lot to say, but it was better to find peace of mind than to waste time picking a fight.

It was time to match the five of us for the last time. We still had a long way to go, so we needed to finish our choreography quickly.

“Everyone, get up, I’m going to play the song, so let’s do it together.”

They smoothed out noticeably after checking each one of them. Seon-woo still almost made a mistake, but.

‘He almost did, not really.’

Yeah, I could forgive him that much with a generous heart. I sighed and brushed my chest and moved on to the next task.

“Let’s practice Your Pick My Idol.”

I put the laptop I had brought in front of the mirror. The following phrase was on the laptop screen.

[Your Pick My Idol: Perfect Conquest in One Hour]

This was related to PD Pyo’s additional condition.

‘The elders might only know the My Doll stage when it comes to idols. Just in case, can you practice ‘Your Pick My Idol’ too and come?’

Hmm… I didn’t feel like it, but that was something I could accept.

I glanced at Seong-won’s expression. He was openly dissatisfied with why he had to learn this.

“Relax your face. Are you going to pout in front of the elders too?”

I pressed the play button and moved my body slowly as the instructor in the video did.

They all had basic sense, so they were much faster than ordinary people.

[I’m the star who will steal your heart today!]

[Your Pick My Idol~!]

[Brand new me born from your fingertips~.]

Anyway, they all liked English lyrics so much. As I moved my body to the song, I quickly got used to it.

‘It’s not that hard, since it’s a choreography that involves moving with several people.’

This show was such a hit. I moved my body along with the video with a soulless expression and suddenly thought of Kang Yugeon.

‘He must have been working hard on this too, hoping to debut.’

Anyway, that wasn’t important. It was our first stage, so we had to be perfect even if the audience wasn’t what we expected.

I clenched my teeth and lifted my head to focus on the choreography.