Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 74 They say our kid is doing well

I slowly slid my finger up the keypad and typed a short sentence.

[The reason why Floss’s comeback schedule was messed up was not because of ‘Climax’. Climax was a victim who was pushed to fill the empty slot. There was also a controversy over the song steal, but it was because the agency tried to reuse a backup song that Floss didn’t use for Climax. The Climax members decided to produce their own song instead.]

I wanted to write it briefly, but I ended up writing a long message, trying to make it less unfair.

There was no limit on the number of characters, so I hoped it would work.

After polishing the sentence for a while, I pressed the [Enter] button.

[We sincerely thank you for accepting the sincere apology of our Human Happiness Foundation System.]

[The power will be rebooted for logging in as Cheonise (Lim Hyun-seong).]

As soon as the message disappeared, my vision blurred again.

***

“Hyung, are you okay!?”

When I opened my eyes, I saw the hospital’s geometric ceiling with snake-like curves.

I glanced at the side and saw Seon-woo looking down at me with a worried expression.

“What… Why are you here?”

The last thing I remembered was being at the dorm. If some time had passed since then… the other members should have gone to cheer for Seong-won.

“Hyung, you collapsed all of a sudden. How could I leave you alone!”

Seon-woo sobbed as if he was about to cry. His natural black hair and white skin matched well with his pure beauty. His glistening face was… honestly, unrealistically pretty. But that wasn’t important right now.

“The internet is already in an uproar. You should go and support him on the live show. Why did you come to me?”

I frowned and tried to get up, but Seon-woo panicked.

“Hyung, don’t move. You just woke up…!”

Anyone would think I had a terminal illness. I checked the half-full IV bag and looked for my phone.

“What are you looking for? Your phone?”

He was quick to catch on. I reached out my hand.

“Yeah. I need to check the time and call the manager.”

“Uh-huh!”

Seon-woo hurriedly handed me his phone from his bag. I sighed and checked the time. It had been about an hour since I last remembered.

‘Thank goodness. The second round hasn’t started yet.’

I quickly checked the app to see who was competing. 

Luckily, the third match of the first round was in progress. Seong-won seemed to have advanced to the second round easily.

I quickly found out where I was. It was a famous hospital’s emergency room with a familiar name. It would take about 30 minutes to get to the venue from here. If I was lucky, I could make it before the second round, or at least before the final.

I could only hope that Seong-won would make it to the final.

“Don’t worry too much. Ye-jun and Kyung-hwa are in the cheering section. Just rest…!”

Seon-woo looked at me with concern. Rest? I didn’t collapse because I was sick. My body was too healthy for its own good.

“I’m fine. I don’t have any pain. Lying down will only hurt my back. Let’s go out and take a taxi to the venue.”

I waved at a passing staff member and asked them to take off the IV. Then I called the manager.

“But, hyung, you were out for a long time…!”

I saw a nurse coming towards me and put my finger on my lips to quiet him.

“Mr. Cheonise, your test results are out. Your blood test and liver X-ray are both normal, so you can be discharged right away.”

No wonder my hand hurt more than usual for just getting an IV. They must have drawn blood while I was asleep.

I didn’t care much. 

The needle came out with a brief sting, and soon my manager called me.

-Hey, Ise. Are you awake? How are you feeling?

“I’m fine, I just fainted because I was tired. I slept a bit and got some fluids, and now I feel refreshed. I’ll join you at the cheering section right away.”

Then my manager reacted the same way as Seon-woo.

-Are you sure you’re okay? It wasn’t just a random fainting, was it? Two people are enough for cheering, so just go back to your room and rest.

No. That wasn’t enough.

The close friendship between the members was the climax of our appeal to the disloyal consumers.

All the other members gave up their appearances on other Chuseok specials and came to cheer for one person.

I couldn’t miss this precious and heartwarming scene.

Although I couldn’t join them from the beginning and had to join in the middle, that was also dramatic.

Anyway, the important thing was that we all gathered despite all the schedules and hardships.

“Let’s go down and catch a taxi.”

As soon as the bleeding on my hand stopped, I finished the payment and ran to the first floor.

“Okay!”

Seon-woo ran ahead of me to the taxi stand with a worried expression.

I sprinted to catch a taxi and saw his face looking up at me as if asking for praise. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Haha, relax your face. I’m not dead.”

I didn’t know why I was laughing when the situation was serious and nothing was resolved yet.

“How can I relax! You’re going to cheer without resting.”

“I’m not the one singing on stage. Seong-won is standing on a big stage for once, so we have to go and cheer for him together.”

I smiled at Seon-woo and closed the door of the back seat.

***

When we finally arrived at the concert hall, it was time for Seong-won’s second round to start.

The prelude was playing along the corridor leading to the cheering section. 

The song Seong-won prepared for the second round match was a remake of an old famous singer’s song.

It was a classic song that was released in the late 80s and has been popular ever since, and it has been remade by other singers more than five times.

I was doubtful if it would be okay because it was a song that highlighted the skillful vocal and distinctive tone, but after finishing the arrangement, it was a perfect choice.

‘Anyway, it’s hard to use a song that shows off your singing skills in the first and second rounds.’

It was better to choose a stable song that had high recognition and people could easily understand the lyrics.

After polishing the jazz-style original song to make it more rock-ballad-like, it matched well with Seong-won’s clear and powerful voice.

‘This is definitely a final entry.’

As I got closer to the cheering section, the murmuring voices became clearer.

[This long night seems like it will never end]

[I call your name countless times on the empty street]

‘He really sings well, no matter what.’

Even though I treated Seong-won like an unloved child, his singing skills were too good to be buried.

If only Seong-won had a chance to debut as a singer, not an idol.

If I hadn’t gotten involved in the center game of the chaebol’s son,

Would I be a heavenly solo singer that the Climax members couldn’t even look at by now?

[This endless night seems to be my only friend]

[If someone hears my voice, I hope they comfort this night]

I don’t know about that. All I can do now is cheer for Seong-won with all my best.

As I pushed the door leading to the cheering section with Sunwoo, the view of the huge concert hall came into my sight.

And the most eye-catching thing was, of course, Seong-won on the stage.

[Is there anyone who will stay up with me this night?]

[Only you, I sing with all my voice-]

As I hurried to find our seat at the edge of the cheering section, I met eyes with Seong-won on the stage.

He was hiding his face with a special device, so I couldn’t see his expression clearly. But I could feel for sure that his gaze behind the veil was directed at me.

‘Go go fighting.’

I raised my fist to show him. It might have been my imagination, but his blurry face seemed to smile briefly.

Seong-won skillfully handled the high notes like oil, and then scratched the speaker with his characteristic low breath.

The whole concert hall was filled with admiration and sighs.

“Wow, he’s so good… Who’s number 24? There’s nothing on the community?”

I heard the young audience sitting at the edge talking excitedly.

“Wait a minute… I’ll look it up. He’s a young man, so he’s probably an actor or an idol… He sings so well, he could be a musical actor too.”

After fiddling with his phone for a while, one of his companions who seemed to have come with him exclaimed.

“He looks like Climax’s Seong-won, you know? They don’t have any live videos left, so I’m a bit skeptical, but he has a habit of breathing in with a hiccup when he breathes.”

Then he seemed to show the picture attached to the community speculation post to his friends. It would have been a clear breach of etiquette in a normal competition or performance, but everyone was looking at their phones and the stage alternately because of the program’s uniqueness.

“Crazy… He’s so handsome.”

“Thinking that there’s this beauty behind the veil… I can’t keep my sanity.”

“His voice is so handsome that I thought his face wouldn’t match his voice… He has it all.”

That’s when I remembered that I had used the item and hadn’t checked the result yet.

I had forgotten to use the skill because I was thinking of cheering for Seong-won, so it was time to sit down and sort out the situation.

As I bent down and arrived at the staff cheering section, Ye-jun and Kyunghwa, who were sitting first, looked up and greeted me.

“Are you feeling better?”

Kyunghwa asked me, looking up at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. How about you?”

“I’m fine, what could be wrong with me?”

Kyunghwa lowered his head as if to ask me to pretend I didn’t know what happened before I collapsed. Yeah… It was a bad idea to bring up that mess again in this situation.

Before I knew it, the second verse also reached its climax and the real-time voting was going crazy.

‘The second round is an easy pass.’

As the controversy over the manipulation of various competition programs raged, the visual voting introduced by the ‘Star Discovery’ staff was spread out on the full screen behind Seong-won.

Visual voting was just… using a dedicated app to display the number of votes in real time with colors.

However… there was a reason why this method was cursed as a devilish one.

Because the two candidates sang different songs with a time gap, the first participant was able to secure votes even before the song ended.

This might make you think that the first participant had an unfair advantage over the second one, who could only get votes during their singing segment.

But the reality was the opposite.

It was because the voting was done through an app, not a text message.

‘Who came up with the idea of allowing people to take back the votes they gave to the first participant and give them to the second one while they were singing?’

Each participant was given one chance per round to cancel their previous vote and support someone else.

They said it was a fair opportunity, but…

If the second participant crushed the first one, the first participant had to watch helplessly as their votes dwindled in real time.

And that was exactly what was happening now.

[Stay with me and spend this night]

[I sing out loud for you alone-]

As Seong-won reached out his hand to the audience, they all stretched out their arms to the air, like a horde of zombies he had seen in his dreams, trying to grab his hand.

The applause and cheers echoed throughout the hall, as he finished his performance with a perfect ending.

‘If I were the first participant, I would have cried by now.’

I lifted my head and checked the final result on the screen.

It was too early to be surprised. 

Seong-won’s stage, which he had prepared with gritted teeth, was just the beginning.