Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 62 Do I Have to Go This Far? (2)

“Seon-woo, come here for a second.”

I sliced off the well-cooked surface and placed a few pieces on a plate. 

A warm steam rose from them.

It was bitterly cold today because of the sudden downpour that lowered the temperature. But that also made me more hungry.

They say the best food is the one you eat when you’re cold and your body temperature drops.

“Do you want anything?”

Seon-woo walked over to me with quick steps and peeked at the fire. 

I handed him the plate and he sniffed the smell like a puppy. It was cute and a bit ridiculous.

“Are you a dog?”

“Can I eat this?”

“Go show this to the Rise people on the observation cam and then eat it.”

“Okay!”

He took the plate with sparkling eyes and ran away with the brightest expression he had since he came to the countryside.

He’s going to trip and fall like that. He should be more careful… I thought, but as soon as I did, Seon-woo stumbled over a rock and fell.

“Are you okay?”

Kyunghwa, who was huddled with the other guys in front of the cat, sprang up and ran to Seon-woo.

“Oh, man, our youngest has the worst luck with his face. Did you hurt your face?”

Ye-jun asked casually, sitting on the floor with his butt relaxed. Kyunghwa glared at him and answered.

“Hey, you’re joking about a kid who just fell?”

Kyunghwa scolded him and Seon-woo answered breathlessly.

“I’m fine! My face is fine and I’m wearing long sleeves so I didn’t scrape anything!”

Seon-woo shouted at Kyunghwa and then finally checked the plate he dropped.

“Ah! Oh no!”

“Oh…”

“Wow…”

The plate was obviously not okay.

“Ah…!”

Seon-woo’s expression changed rapidly like he was going through the five stages of grief. 

He fell while running to the observation camera, so his face was shown on the screen in a huge size. It was unfortunate, but also fortunate.

“Ahh… Ise hyung, I dropped the meat.”

Seon-woo came back to me with a weak walk, holding the plate covered with dirt.

“Go wash the plate. Pick up the meat and throw it away. It’s seasoned for humans, so the cats will get sick if they eat it.”

A chubby kitten came out of the warehouse and sniffed the meat that Seon-woo dropped.

“Okay!”

He did what I told him cheerfully and well. He was good at following orders. And I got some more content out of it.

I sighed with relief and finished cutting the rest of the meat and plating it nicely.

“The cat seems to be better, so let’s eat first, eat first!”

We set up some folding chairs and made a makeshift dining area. It felt like camping.

Except for Seong-won, who didn’t come to eat and only looked at the cat.

“Seong-won, fill your stomach before you go. You need to have some energy to take care of the cat.”

Ugh, when did I start calling him Seong-won instead of Son Seong-won, you, or hey? It was a mystery, but I couldn’t be harsh to him today when he looked so weak.

“Not eating?”

He didn’t answer loudly, but quietly raised his index finger to his lips as if to tell me to be quiet. And then he shook his head sideways.

“I’ll bring it to you, special service.”

I felt a bit bitter that I had to deliver the meat to Seong-won’s mouth before mine, but I thought of it as giving one more rice cake to a spoiled son and moved myself.

“Eat while you do it. Eat while you do it.”

I went closer and checked the cat. It was definitely better than before we went to the hospital.

But it was still much smaller and thinner than the other kittens. It was too early to be completely relieved.

“I got it.”

Seong-won didn’t even look at the plate and couldn’t take his eyes off the cat.

“Okay. I’m going back to eat.”

He was rude, but it was much better than him crying and blaming himself earlier.

I waved my hand and went back to eat the meat. But it didn’t taste as good as when I grilled it.

“It feels like we didn’t do anything today and time just flew by.”

Kyunghwa muttered, staring at the charcoal that still had some fire left.

“Well, we had an emergency, so we couldn’t help it.”

“Let’s just be glad that the cat is okay.”

We chatted about trivial things while we ate, but Seong-won was only focused on the cat.

What am I going to do with him? I can’t stop him from taking the cat to the dorm.

I was lost in a light worry when I heard a sizzling sound. The meat that was left on the grill was burning.

“Ah, quick, get the meat, the meat!”

“Don’t eat that, Seon-woo.”

“Someone take it away quickly. There won’t be any more when it’s gone.”

Ye-jun scooped up some meat with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth.

That’s why they call him an American squirrel. I smacked his forehead with a rice spoon and threw it into the sink.

“Ow!”

“Take it easy, take it easy.”

The noisy meal was over and it was time to wrap up the long day.

***

“Ugh, next time I come, I’ll bring a mat with me.”

Ye-jun yawned and twisted his body.

“You know I slept more uncomfortably because of you yesterday, right?”

Kyunghwa glanced at him and sighed as he came down from the floor. The weather had cleared up completely since last night, and the sun was shining brightly as morning came.

“Is it not going to rain at all today?”

Ye-jun asked as he stretched his body in the yard.

“It might rain in the evening, or it might not. We didn’t do a good job of managing the field yesterday, so we have to do it today.”

Kyunghwa picked up his self-cam and headed to the field. Yeah, he should at least take care of his own share.

I looked at Seon-woo, who blinked his eyes with a faint trace of sleepiness.

“You go wash your face and wake up a bit.”

“Yeah…”

As Seon-woo shuffled to the bathroom, I went to find Seong-won and crossed over to the small room.

“Squeak-!”

The cat, who had regained his energy after eating a hearty meal, was distracted by the toy that Seong-won was shaking.

“Are you feeling better?”

It was a question I wanted to ask both the cat and Seong-won. Seong-won didn’t answer right away and mumbled.

“Just.”

Just what? Anyway, it didn’t seem like he was feeling bad, so I nodded.

“Okay, if you’re feeling better, come out and help with the work. Kyunghwa already went out to clean up the field.”

Seong-won nodded instead of answering. I could see a glimpse of his red ears between his yellow hair. He seemed embarrassed.

Why was he so shy when he didn’t fit in? I left the small room with a little less burden on my mind.

It was hard enough to watch out for a kid who wasn’t even mine. How much more would it burn to raise a real child?

I wondered what a parent was as I headed to Kyunghwa.

***

As soon as the self-camera shooting and all the schedules were over, a real conflict started over the cat.

Seong-won insisted on taking him to the dorm and thinking about it later, and Kyunghwa and I argued that we had to decide what to do next.

You can’t keep animals in the dorm.

You brought him home because you wanted to see him when you were there, and then you left him alone when you had a schedule. What did he do wrong?

There was no way to refute the realistic problem.

But… it was also a cruel thing to leave the cat here, who had cried and scratched and even hurt his hand.

‘We have to make it clear that we’re not keeping him forever. It’s temporary protection. We have to find a proper guardian for him.’

Seong-won nodded silently in his arms, and the cat snuggled up to him with a blissful expression.

It was like raising a real son. It was no wonder that there was no wind in the dorm, since four kids who weren’t even in the palm of my hand had appeared.

‘Is this how it ends…’

As soon as we returned to the dorm, we received a confirmation request for the final jacket photo.

‘Didn’t this picture come out well?’

‘I like this one better.’

‘This one is good too!’

Seong-won was quiet, trying to gauge the mood of the members because of his guilt.

The other three… they were like newly hatched chicks.

They were so noisy that my ears hurt.

How did they just pass the YouDo jacket like that?

I wondered for a moment. Then I realized that they had been thoroughly checked because of that incident.

‘Let’s send three of them to the planning team.’

We sent an email with three photos for each member, two that would actually be used and one as a backup, and I felt even more exhausted.

Meanwhile, Seong-won didn’t care how his face came out and stuck to the cat.

‘Hey, eat while you watch. You’ll wear him out.’

It was only after I said something that he got up from the floor with his heavy butt.

Seong-won looked like a person who was distracted by something else while eating a simple tofu stew for dinner.

It was a good thing that he had his own room. 

Ye-jun brought the cat’s toilet and mini cat tower to his room, and it looked like he had been living alone with the cat from the beginning.

Seong-won, who didn’t come out of his room for a long time, came up to me in the living room, shivering.

‘…Thank you.’

“What?”

“Em, embarrassed…”

The guy was so unnecessarily shy. Why did he blush so much?

He closed the door and went back in before I could even confirm if his face was really red.

Maybe it was because my expectations were too low. Instead of feeling bad, I burst out laughing.

What if he hears me laughing? Will he say something about it? I covered my mouth and chuckled quietly.

Now I just have to practice when the final choreography comes out, check if my appearance on ‘Star Discovery’ is confirmed, and see if there are any other Chuseok variety shows I can go on.

Let’s do it one by one. 

They say the ground hardens after the rain. 

I believed this would somehow be a good experience.

I went to sleep with such a careless thought.

***

The next morning. When I woke up, there was a bomb in the group chat.

It was the second episode’s rough cut of ‘Boys in Crisis’ that the manager sent.

It was called a rough cut, but it would be finalized if we said it was okay.

“This can’t be okay.”

This is insane. The conversation in the car was edited with another scene and it was all in there.

“Nice job. Sigh…”

It was a level of editing that created a new scene by combining voiceless screens and screenless voices.

“Adults are all the same. They always make decisions without knowing the outcome and regret it under the assumption that I might have had a choice.”

“But I hope you don’t feel too bad.”

“…You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I turned off the mic, so I didn’t expect there to be a sub-device. 

They were recording everything. 

Just when I thought things were going smoothly, they gave me this. I quickly pressed the stop button.