Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 58 Just One Favor

“Um… If you’re going to do a face mask or something to prepare for tomorrow, can I join you?”

It wasn’t easy to ask for help from the guys who were only two or three years younger than me, but looked like my sons.

As I hesitated and felt embarrassed, Ye-jun burst into laughter first.

“Why are you so serious about that? I was thinking of putting on a sheet mask soon, so come with me.”

He got up from the sofa and headed to the fridge. Why was he going to the fridge? 

I wondered for a moment, then he took something out of the top shelf.

“When did you put that in?”

“I ordered some new ones last week and stocked up. I thought we’d be more active as the comeback approached, so I wanted to prepare in advance.”

“Yeah, yeah, Ye-jun hyung and I split the cost and bought them!”

They nodded their heads vigorously, and they seemed to get along well despite being made of different stuff. They were both like puppies.

Seong-won and Kyunghwa were more like cats, if I had to distinguish them. As for me… was I a dog or a cat? I couldn’t make an objective judgment, but I thought I was closer to a dog. I came to a conclusion without much confidence.

“Come here, I’ll put it on for you!”

Seon-woo smiled sheepishly and tore open a cold pack he took out of the fridge. I pushed back my bangs that had fallen to the sides and exposed my forehead, then leaned forward and closed my eyes.

“It’ll be a bit cold. It’s from the fridge, so of course.”

As I twitched my eyelids nervously, a thin, sticky film stuck to my face.

“Ise hyung’s face is really small…”

I knew it was small. When I was with the members, they all looked small, so it didn’t show. But when I stood with the staff, the difference was obvious.

“You’re small too.”

“Huh, me?”

Ye-jun squeezed out the remaining sheet essence and smeared it all over my face. Did he have to do that? I wanted to ask him back, but I was afraid the sheet would fall off if I moved my mouth.

“You’re small too.”

“You sound like a vending machine that spits out fixed phrases when you press a button.”

Ye-jun complained and lifted his forehead to raise his bangs, then tore his own share and stuck it on his face. When Seon-woo finished putting his on, we looked like a secret cult of some religion.

“What do we do now?”

I asked awkwardly as a novice to face masks, and Ye-jun answered with a mischievous tone.

“Well… the more you move your facial muscles, the better the absorption. So you have to scrunch up your face as much as possible from now on.”

I was too ignorant to fall for that.

“No nonsense.”

“Sniff…”

Seon-woo shook his shoulders and laughed, holding his head back so the mask wouldn’t fall off.

“Don’t laugh.”

“Hey, why are you picking on him~.”

“What do you mean picking on.”

We chatted away and passed the time, and soon 15 minutes had gone by.

“You don’t have to wash this off, just pat it lightly until it dries.”

Seon-woo demonstrated by tapping his face with the tips of his palms. I tried to do the same, but something was wrong.

“Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!”

“Hey, this is weird. Does it always make such a loud noise?”

Every time I hit the less dry part where Ye-jun had smeared the remaining essence on my face, it sounded like I was slapping my cheek hard.

“Ugh… I can’t, sniff… live, really. Hyung, that’s your concept, right? You’re doing it on purpose, right?”

“What are you talking about!”

Seon-woo didn’t even try to hide his laughter this time and howled with laughter.

“I thought I was looking at our dad. Hyung, you’re copying him, right? When our dads wash their faces and apply skin care, they go woof woof woof woof woof, slap slap slap slap slap slap.”

What are you talking about? I frowned.

“Hey, no frowning! If you frown with a mask on, you’ll get deeper wrinkles!”

Ye-jun finished his joke and ran to his room like a bullet. He was not even five years old. I was too dumbfounded to get angry.

“Let’s go to bed early too. We have a schedule early tomorrow morning.”

Seon-woo finally stopped laughing and smiled brightly. I turned my gaze and checked the time I had set the alarm.

“I set it for 6 o’clock, so I’ll wake you up if I get up first.”

“Okay!”

I got up from the sofa and headed to the bedroom. I had been staying here for over a month, and the room scenery was quite familiar.

I became accustomed to things that I thought I would never have anything to do with in my life. I changed a little bit from the previous Im Hyunsung. I wasn’t afraid of becoming a different person.

The memory of when I died was as vivid as ever, as if it was engraved in this body.

“Good night.”

I closed my eyes at Seon-woo’s greeting.

****

“Hey, Ise, move back a little more, you’re in the frame!”

“Oh, yes! Sorry.”

I had been suffering for over 40 minutes, repeating countless poses, and I leaned my weight on a pillar for a moment, when the photographer’s megaphone rang out.

The shooting was scheduled from noon to evening, but what was all this fuss so early?

“Phew…”

When I actually experienced it, I realized there was so much to prepare that it made sense. This was a forced march that couldn’t be done with normal stamina.

We got on a mini van at 7 a.m. for a group pickup and arrived at a professional makeup shop.

“Once you’re done with the makeup, we’ll go to get your hair done. If you finish early, take a nap.”

The makeup I received was incomparable to the simple one I had when I appeared on a radio show. Was it okay to apply so much stuff on my skin?

I frowned in doubt. The staff laughed at my reaction and said.

“Ise, why are you like that? You look like you’ve never had stage makeup before.”

That’s right. I wasn’t going to perform on stage today, but I was going to take a photo shoot for the digital single jacket image and the goods.

That meant I had to wear heavy, screen-friendly makeup as if I was going on stage.

“It might look a bit overwhelming in person, but… if you don’t do this, it won’t show up on the screen.”

I finally got out with a lot of glitter in brown tones. I felt hot when I looked in the mirror.

I was handsome even before the makeup. But after getting the idol-style makeup, I definitely had a striking impression.

I was glad that I had a thick and solid look, so I didn’t have to wear eyelashes.

When I saw Seon-woo and Seong-won who wore them, my mouth dropped open.

“They were already pretty, but they became terrifyingly pretty.”

Anyone who didn’t care about this face had a problem with their sense of beauty. I admired them for a moment and then moved on to the hair salon.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to do anything drastic, so it ended relatively quickly compared to the makeup.

Everyone looked like people from another world above their necks, shining brightly, but below their necks, they wore loose t-shirts, which made me laugh.

“We can change our clothes there, right?”

“Yeah. We prepared three sets for each of you. You’ll wear them when you shoot the music video later.”

I was scared from the start. I searched for over fifty weird outfits yesterday.

I only suggested the concept and didn’t care much about the outfits. It would be a problem if they were like the summer single last time, which only mentioned ‘that part’.

There was a fuss then, but they wouldn’t do that.

I arrived at the shooting site with half worry and half expectation.

The shooting site was a small botanical garden owned by an individual. The white steel-framed glass greenhouse was filled with all kinds of plants.

“Wow… it’s beautiful.”

Seon-woo opened his mouth wide and looked up at the ceiling of the huge dome greenhouse. There was something like a pulley in the center, and I wondered if there was a chandelier hanging there.

“Do you see the device on the ceiling? We’re going to do some aerial shooting with wires. Let’s decide who’s going to do it by rock-paper-scissors.”

It wasn’t a chandelier, but a place for us to hang. The loser of the rock-paper-scissors was me.

“But Ise hyung has a bad back, is it okay to hang?”

It was a valid point. In the end, the members who were concerned about my health excluded me.

The final victim was Seon-woo. Yeah… you got the center too, so do your part. I turned a blind eye to the result.

“Uh, is it okay to go up like this?”

Seon-woo, who was hanging in the air, wobbled and asked.

“Yes~. We’ll lift you up a little slower. When you get used to hanging, please adjust your posture a little bit!”

The photographer didn’t blink an eye at the sight of a pretty boy screaming. He only pushed the lens closer, thinking of getting one more cut.

“Don’t feel too bad, I’ll go up and shoot from below!”

Is that a consolation? I wondered, but I just watched and gave him a thumbs up.

Finally, Seon-woo’s aerial shooting was over, and it was already past 3 o’clock.

All the members had finished shooting once, and it was time to change into new outfits.

“I’ll help you change your clothes over here.”

The staff gestured to the dressing booth set up in one corner of the botanical garden. 

The first outfit was a simple jumpsuit. 

The colors were dark gray, navy, black, and other subdued colors, giving a sense of unity.

I pulled down the upper part and revealed a flashy printed short sleeve. Seon-woo buttoned up the zipper and buttons neatly up to his neck, and Ye-jun wore a sleeveless shirt instead of a short sleeve like me.

‘Sure, people with good bodies show off their arms and everyone likes it.’

Seong-won had a different design and looked more like a straitjacket than a jumpsuit. Kyunghwa was similar to me, but the short sleeve he wore inside was black instead of white.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was this level. As I took the second outfit…

‘It looks futuristic. It has a military feel to it.’

There were a lot of belts that I couldn’t tell if they were for decoration or practicality. When I looked at the outfit with a curious expression, the staff explained with a smile.

“Ise, you have good proportions and you’re so handsome that you don’t look awkward in techwear. If someone who doesn’t suit this wears it, they look like a middle schooler trying to be cool.”

I took the parts one by one from the staff with a sentence that I couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or not.

When I came out wearing them, the other members were also changing or getting ready to change.

“When you all come out, we’ll take a group shot and then go to individual shots!”

The photographer shouted with an unfading voice. I scanned the members to see who hadn’t changed yet. Then I saw Ye-jun.

“Wow, Ye-jun, you’re so funny. Do you have an SNS account? Not a public one, but a private one for friends.”

What are they talking about?

Is that what I think it is?

A proper red light came on in my head for the first time in a while.