Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 56 If Only Everything Went According to Plan

A kitten that had gone out for a stroll in the world was sitting on Seong-won’s lap.

“Isn’t that dangerous if it gets used to human smell?”

Kyunghwa asked Ye-jun as if it was none of his business, staying far away from the kitten.

“It should be fine since its mother is watching.”

The mother cat seemed to recognize that the members were not harmful people, and lay down under the wooden floor.

It didn’t cuddle up to them, but it looked like it understood that this place was safer than the field they had been to before.

“People might think we brought it here and let it loose for the show.”

Kyunghwa blurted out and quickly covered his mouth with his hand.

“They wouldn’t think that much since it’s obvious that they’re not from a pet shop.”

And besides, we didn’t get that much commercial attention anyway.

“Well, as long as nothing goes wrong.”

“Don’t get too attached to it. It’ll start to become independent and scatter in two or three months.”

Ye-jun advised Seong-won, who still looked panicked and didn’t know what to do.

“You don’t have to say that… I don’t even want to get attached to it, I just want to run away right now.”

I chuckled at his remark, and Ye-jun retorted.

“That’s how they get attached, you know.”

Seong-won finally got up to leave his seat, carefully putting the kitten down and running away. But the kitten followed him around.

“Why. Why are you following me…!”

“It’s amazing that you’re afraid of a cat, not a bug.”

Seong-won fled to his room as if he was being chased. The kitten didn’t have the courage to go in there yet, and crouched at the threshold, looking at Seong-won.

Was it a Kitten Blue? 

Its dull blue eyes were filled with black pupils, and I couldn’t read what it was thinking.

“Meow.”

The mother cat came up to the wooden floor, worried that it had gone too far inside. 

She bit its neck and took it down, and then Seong-won came out of his room, crouching.

But his peace didn’t last long. 

As soon as the kitten saw Seong-won coming out, it meowed and climbed up the wooden pillar with its small claws, and landed on Seong-won’s lap again.

“Hey, just accept it already.”

“Seong-won hyung must have really caught its eye!”

Did he smell like sweet peas or something? What a strange obsession… But it wasn’t a bad sight. A handsome guy times a cute thing.

A combination that would easily win love.

***

After a long and hard work, I enjoyed a peaceful rest for a while. It was time to go to the landlord’s house and help him with his chores, and get some meat and milk that I had been craving since noon.

“Wouldn’t it be too chaotic if all five of us go?”

“Then let’s have three go and the other two stay and watch the house.”

We decided who would go and who would stay by a fair penalty game.

Kyunghwa, who was weak at these kinds of penalty games, was the first to lose, followed by Seon-woo, and finally I joined the losers.

“Then we’ll be back, so watch the house well.”

We drove to the landlord’s house in a van that we had borrowed from the company in advance. The driver was originally the manager, but he decided to skip the filming, so I naturally took over.

“Ise hyung, you drive well even on a mountain road.”

Of course, I’ve been driving for over 20 years. I swallowed the truth that I couldn’t answer and smiled.

“It’s not that hard. It’s just that the car shakes a bit.”

Most of the roads were unpaved, so the car shook violently whenever there was a sunken part.

I waved my hand at the one-person camera that the staff had installed on the dashboard and explained.

“We’re on our way to the landlord’s house, and we’re going to help him with his work in exchange for some meat and milk that we’ve been thirsty for since noon.”

Was the landlord’s house the place that supplied milk to the nearby cooperative? The activities that the staff had agreed on beforehand were feeding the calves, moving the milk cans, and so on.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the cute calves.”

I didn’t particularly like animals, but I didn’t hate them either. It would be easier to win their favor if I acted like I liked them.

I was smiling even though I wasn’t looking forward to it, and I felt like I had gotten used to this life.

**

The filming at the ranch went smoothly as expected. The only thing that stood out was that the calves were especially interested in Seon-woo and followed him around.

It was a scene that the viewers would love, seeing him surrounded by cute calves with thick eyelashes and blushing.

“Why, why are they following me?”

Seon-woo backed away, forgetting that he had a bottle in his left hand.

It was a great scene.

We finished the filming safely, and loaded the back seat with meat to grill and milk to take home and drink.

“We’ll have to share this with everyone when we get there, right?”

We had to drink it quickly because it was fresh. Seon-woo had his phone out, thinking of sending some to his sister.

“Are you contacting Seon-young?”

The youngest PD who accompanied us to the ranch turned the spotlight on Seon-woo and asked.

“Yes, my sister likes to eat too… Oh, I don’t mean that she always steals what I eat.”

Seon-woo’s unnecessary explanation sounded like TMI. It seemed like he was admitting that she stole his food.

If he had been a bit more cunning, I would have thought that he was feeding his sister like that.

But he was such a clueless guy that I laughed first.

“Ah, did I say something wrong? Why are you all laughing?”

Why do you think? Everyone shook their shoulders and didn’t tell him the truth.

“It’s because you’re cute, because you’re cute.”

Kyunghwa’s words made Seon-woo tilt his head even more.

We came back home with a lot of food, and Seong-won and Ye-jun were playing with the cats.

“You look like you had a lot of fun.”

Ye-jun looked up at me, lying on the floor with a cat on his stomach. He looked like a big dog lying on its back.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to do this, but I’m the type that cats love.”

Yeah, right. He was smiling from ear to ear.

“I’m telling you. You can’t take them to the dorm and raise them.”

We didn’t have much work to do now, so it wasn’t common for all five of us to leave the house. But if this comeback was successful and we started to work more actively, things would change.

I remembered the times when I only went home once every three weeks, when I was busy with broadcasting and expanding my business.

It was irresponsible of me to bring an animal to the dorm, just to make my rest time happier.

“Fine, are you worried about shedding hair in your house?”

Ye-jun pouted his lips, giving me an unexpected reason. He always nagged me about hygiene and cleanliness.

That wasn’t the reason, but… that could be a nuisance too. Anyway, I became more convinced that I shouldn’t raise it in the dorm.

“That’s not it. Get ready for dinner quickly.”

“Roger that!”

Ye-jun’s eyes sparkled at the mention of dinner, and he carefully put down the cat and headed to the backyard.

“You too, stop touching the cat and go wash your hands.”

I looked at Seong-won, who still looked clueless, holding the kitten.

“I’m, putting it down…”

The cat stretched out its body, closed its eyes, and fell asleep.

“Put it down next to you. You can’t skip dinner.”

He hesitated, but his heart softened in front of any living being that liked him, whether it was a person or an animal.

He seemed to have grown attached to it. Why don’t you do that to people? He was a guy who had a weak heart for animals other than humans.

“There, done?”

I wrapped the cat in my hands and pushed it towards its mother. 

The mother cat snorted, bit the kitten’s neck, and took it to the warehouse.

Maybe it was because it had just woken up from sleep, but it looked more limp and lifeless than the others.

It didn’t seem to have any noticeable injuries, so it should be fine.

“Okay, now we’ll do a quick interview and then we’ll leave!”

As evening came, the filming team started to pack up as planned.

“Okay, Ise, Kyunghwa, Seong-won, Ye-jun, Seon-woo, I’ll call you in that order!”

The interview was nothing more than sitting one by one under the lights with the vegetable garden as the background and answering questions.

“How was it today? You fixed the house, cleaned it, harvested from the garden, and did all that.”

I answered the PD’s question with a skilled expression.

“It was fun. Actually, I haven’t been living in the dorm for long. I haven’t had many chances to do something with the members and feel like I’m living on my own. It felt different from when I appeared on another program before. It felt like we were really living together.”

A textbook-like answer followed, and the PD threw an unexpected question at me.

“You seemed quite familiar with driving. Do you usually drive a lot?”

“Not really. I only do it when I need to. Usually, the manager takes care of it.”

The PD nodded and started to wrap up with the last question.

“I see. Now, we’ll leave after lunch tomorrow and we won’t be back until next week. What do you think you’ll miss the most when you go back to the dorm?”

This was a question I had anticipated. I looked at the camera screen and smiled.

“When we had lunch and rested earlier? It was nice to lie down and feel the wind with everyone. I was happy.”

“You have a very simple happiness.”

“Well, yeah… I don’t ask for much. I think it’s good to have peace without any trouble.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. I passed the turn to Kyunghwa, who was next, and went back to the house.

“It got dark in no time.”

It wasn’t even 8 p.m., but the sky was similar to the city’s 10 p.m.

As we finished the interviews one by one and gathered, the surroundings became quiet in an instant.

Only the sound of a dog barking in the distance was loud, and there was no bird sound.

“Should we finish early and go to bed tomorrow? We have to clean up the field properly.”

There were self-cams and microphones installed in the bedrooms and living room, except for the bathroom. All the conversations we were having now were being uploaded to the server in real time.

Let’s not make a mistake and say that the staff left. We had to keep that in mind.

“Can I go wash first?”

“Let’s decide the order by rock-paper-scissors.”

“Kyunghwa hyung takes the longest, so he should wash last, right?”

“Let’s be fair and decide by rock-paper-scissors.”

After a round of bickering, we finally decided the order by rock-paper-scissors and used the bathroom accordingly.

The next morning, we cleared a huge amount of weeds and collapsed into the mini van.

We had to come back and film next week, right?

We were going to upload it this week and see the reaction, and then expand it to guest appearances.

It was a big deal that we were so exhausted.

‘I hope the filming atmosphere wasn’t bad. I hope it wasn’t just me who found it interesting.’

Two days later, the edited version, including the self-cam footage, was unbelievable for the short time it took to work on.

“This is really good, isn’t it? I would believe it if you said it was made by a production company, not a YouTube channel.”

The manager’s reaction wasn’t bad either.

Finally, the day of the first episode’s release.

I was nervous to check the reaction right away, so I waited for an hour.

Why was I so nervous? 

I was more nervous than going to see a comment than the jacket shooting tomorrow.