Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 72 Find Cheonise (1)

After finishing the call with Cheonise, Yugeon closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. 

He barely had time to sort out his thoughts when a staff member approached him and gestured.

“Mr. Yugeon, let’s move right away.”

It wasn’t a lie that he was too busy for a long conversation. 

All the staff members running around the huge set were waiting for him to move.

He felt the pressure of more than thirty pairs of eyes staring at him. It would have been a daunting situation for anyone.

“I’m sorry. I’ll move right away.”

The director checked the route along the set and showed him how he would appear on the camera screen.

How much was the advertising cost for this program? 

He heard that one 15-second CF slot cost more than 1,500.

The total production cost and the mid-program ads added up to an astronomical amount.

He was a top star who could make the birds fall, but he wasn’t in a position to block the way of a 23-year-old kid.

So he had said as much as he could. Yugeon tried to shake off the previous call from his mind.

‘Yugeon, I was at your uncle’s funeral too. Do you remember my face?’

He still remembered vividly when he visited the waiting room to briefly look around the contestants before the preliminaries.

Number 3. The man who kept pushing his chest with a huge number on it to Yugeon.

‘I’m sorry about your father. But the living have to live, right?’

He had no idea what he was talking about and shamelessly asked for a favor with a casual handshake. His face was so repulsive.

If he didn’t do as he wanted, he would be in trouble with the gossip program.

As soon as Yugeon left the waiting room, he barely suppressed the urge to wash his hands until they were raw at the sink.

If he thought about the disgust he felt then… He wouldn’t have minded the lord who was having a good time playing house with the members.

‘I don’t need to worry about someone who has no reliable backing…’

Just as Yugeon was looking for the call list on his phone, unable to shake off the uneasiness.

“Alright, we have 10 minutes left until the show starts! Please stand by at your seats!”

The slate sound that signaled the start of the shooting rang out loud.

It was too late to help, and even if it wasn’t, the timing was bad. He could only fix it after the show was over.

It was better to forget about things he couldn’t solve right away.

‘What do they want me to do when I can’t do anything for them? If I mess up on SNS, I’ll lose my neck in an instant.’

Yugeon clenched his fist and climbed the stairs to the stage.

The stage that looked down from the judges’ seat was far away, and in the waiting room that was not shown on the broadcast, he saw a familiar face.

A half-tied blond hair that barely touched his shoulder. He was a handsome idol with a sharp face like a fox.

He must have been unhappy with the fact that he had prevented him from getting unanimous benefits. It’s not like he had no problems either. Yugeon glanced at him with a cold eye and turned his head.

He didn’t know if he was a little jealous of the loser who couldn’t even get the initial votes.

He wondered what was holding that group together as they were falling apart.

***

When I opened my eyes, I saw a square ceiling.

The wallpaper was a faint ivory color, and the room was not large but not small either.

The uniform hanging on the wall was neatly ironed as if someone had taken good care of it. I instinctively checked the name tag on the uniform first.

[Lim Hyun-seong]

I opened my eyes wide at the familiar name I saw after a long time.

As I got up from the bed, the quilt that had wrapped me warmly according to the cool season fell off.

I looked at the mirror hanging on the opposite wall and saw a young face that looked like it had just entered high school staring blankly at me.

“What, what is this…?”

I remembered that they said they would cut off the power to move something somewhere… but I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Wait, let me sort this out first. I’m 18 years old this year, and my hobby and specialty are cooking.

I was a high school student who dreamed of becoming a professional in the food industry by entering the hotel cooking department, unless there was a big problem.

My family wasn’t very wealthy, but we didn’t lack anything either.

We were a very ordinary family of four, including my stepmother and half-sibling, who boasted of our harmony.

When I first entered elementary school, my mother passed away from a chronic illness, so I had a hard time for a while…

‘I was lucky in many ways.’

Fortunately, my stepmother embraced me warmly without any discrimination from her biological child, so I had been living without any major problems until now.

Oh, come to think of it, it wasn’t elementary school, but primary school. Why did I think of it as elementary school?

I was confused and looked at the clock hanging on the opposite side of the bed. It was 7:30.

“Hey, Hyun-seong! If you don’t come out now, you’ll be late!”

I opened the door and ran out at the urgent call of my stepmother, and saw my father who was busy preparing breakfast.

“Use the bathroom in the master bedroom. Your sibling is in the living room bathroom.”

“Okay~.”

I gladly went to the master bedroom and washed my face, and came out with a neat face. 

There was a warm home-cooked meal on the table.

“How are you doing at school these days?”

My stepmother looked at me and my sibling alternately and asked cautiously. We were in different grades, but we went to the same school, so she seemed to care about how we got along at school.

“Nothing special. It’s just the same.”

I answered lightly and scooped up some hot rice with soybean paste stew with brisket. I chewed and swallowed it with a slurp.

If I cooked it, I would add a little bit of ssamjang to enhance the flavor… but I wasn’t diligent enough to prepare the family’s meal in the morning.

I ate well, and when I finished the rice bowl and got up, it was time to hurry to school.

‘I’m happy.’

I smiled unconsciously as I filled my stomach. 

A comfortable and harmonious family, a good sibling. 

Smooth friendships. I didn’t have to worry about making a living or being responsible for other people’s lives as a business owner.

A very ordinary and mediocre life of a male high school student. I didn’t know why this natural life felt like a fortune.

I didn’t have any big troubles since I was young…

‘Why do I feel uneasy?’

I erased the inexplicable discomfort and headed to school. 

I didn’t need to keep this strange feeling for a long time when I didn’t have any headache problems.

As I entered the high school that was built after 2010, I felt a new building smell that was unfamiliar to me.

I thought I was sick of going to school every day, but I didn’t know why this smell bothered me all of a sudden.

“Hyun-seong, hi~.”

I was rummaging through my desk drawer to find my seat when my friend sitting next to me tapped my shoulder and greeted me.

“Hey. Did you remember to bring your gym clothes today?”

I asked him with a playful expression, after checking that we had physical education class in the fifth period. He answered with a sour face.

“Hey, of course I did! What do you think of me?”

What do I think of him? 

He was my best friend since middle school, we were lucky enough to be in the same class all the time… But suddenly, I couldn’t remember his name.

I was sure I knew him well… Why couldn’t I remember? As my face turned pale, I looked at the blackboard where the girls had written something.

[<Congrats> Floss, the terrestrial triple crown winner <Cheers>]

[Climax, October comeback, full of ♡love♡support♡]

They were all sticking to the idol fan messages as if they were competing.

“I don’t know why they write that stuff.”

My friend sitting next to me clicked his tongue, as if he was jealous.

“Why, it’s good to have something you like.”

I answered nonchalantly, but he seemed annoyed that I didn’t agree with him. He snapped at me.

“You would say that, you’re a cooking otaku.”

“A cooking otaku, what’s that?”

I just liked to make and eat delicious food, more than others.

Just like the girls who gathered in groups to watch the idols dancing and singing in the music videos.

I also had something I liked, that’s all.

As I brushed it off lightly, a scream erupted from the girls’ group.

“OMG, what’s going on? What’s happening?”

“It must be a hoax. The tabloids are just trying to get clicks by making up nonsense.”

They were so loud that the whole class looked at them naturally.

“Ise was always known for being mentally strong, right? There’s nothing wrong. Don’t worry.”

One of the group members, an idol named ‘Ise’, seemed to have some trouble.

“I don’t know, I’m so upset. I just wish nothing happened.”

I felt uneasy listening to their sobbing voices. My friend next to me poked my side and showed me his phone screen.

“Wow… Cheon Ise, unbelievable. He posted a suicide note and went missing this morning.”

The internet article he handed me had the news of the idol member’s disappearance.

“The agency is going crazy looking for Cheon Ise, he’s not at home or at the dorm.”

I didn’t know what was going on… But I felt like I had forgotten something very important.

“His last destination was… Mapo Bridge?”

The photo attached to the article showed a familiar but strange face of a male idol, wearing a hood.

I felt like I had to meet him in person. I wanted to hear what he was thinking, why he did this.

Then a very important question popped into my head.

‘Why me?’

That’s right… I was just an ordinary high school student who dreamed of becoming a chef, and the idol in the article was a celebrity who lived in a different world.

I had no reason to go see him, not even a speck of dust.

‘Why should I interfere with someone else’s life? I have a perfect life right now. What do I lack that makes me want to go find an idol out of the blue?’

Someone whispered in my ear with my voice. He was right. But I felt a sudden urge and couldn’t breathe.

‘Isn’t this the happiest life I can imagine? Why should I think more, when I can be content with what I have now?’

A suffocating feeling of being pressed down by something heavy, as if I was sinking into deep water. 

A sense of helplessness, as if I had forgotten something important. It overwhelmed me.

“I’ll be right back, I need to go out for a bit.”

I had to see it for myself. What was Cheonise thinking? What led her to make such an extreme choice?

Even though my head felt like it was about to split open, the thought of finding Cheonise became clearer and clearer in my mind.

“Hey, are you crazy? Where are you going?”

The kids who were watching the girls making a fuss over Cheonise’s disappearance turned their eyes to me in an instant.

It was like iron filings sticking to a magnet. In a flash, the whole classroom was staring at me, giving me goosebumps.

“Why is he acting like that? Someone stop Lim Hyun-seong!”

A classmate whose face I didn’t even know grabbed my wrist. 

I reflexively shook off his hand. 

I regretted pushing him too hard, but then.

“You crazy bastard.”

The countless hands that reached out to me melted away like black slime.