The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I awkwardly met Dong-Jun’s eyes. Numerous thoughts crossed my mind. Did he hear the conversation I had with Do-Seung? If he did, how much did he hear? All of it? Or just a fraction of it? What was he thinking right now? Did he think it was strange? Or since we were conversing about a topic he had no knowledge about, would he not think too much about it?

While all kinds of thoughts raced through my head, Dong-Jun said something that should have come out of my mouth first instead, “…Um, it’s a secret, Tae-Yoon.”

“…What?” What secret was he talking about? And above all, why did Dong-Jun come out so late at night? It was only then did I realize this fact, and I looked at him, wondering what he was hiding.

“…!”

“…!”

Then I saw it. The application on Dong-Jun’s phone screen.

‘Delivery app…?’ Since Do-Seung stopped him from ordering food, he had ordered delivery food while everyone was asleep.

“Dong-Jun, did you just—”

“…Want to eat together?”

“…?” I understood that he was struggling with suppressing his appetite, but we had something more important coming up. I said in a slight tone of rebuke, “But we’re in the finals now.”

“Yeah, that’s why I plan to eat it and run for 30 minutes…”

“Then how are you going to manage your condition?”

“I don’t sleep a lot usu—"

“…But don’t you have a hard time getting up in the morning?”

“…Yeah.”

“Tae-Yoon, I’m really sorry, but the delivery driver is right in front of the house. If the delivery driver pushes the button, all the members will wake up, and it’s over for us,” Dong-Jun urgently said as he looked at his phone screen.

“It’s not us but just you.”

“Please do me this one huge favor.”

“I can’t help you eat a late night sna—" As soon as I said that—

Ding.

The bell rang. Dong-Jun jumped in front of the intercom like a track runner and pressed the front door open button. He cut off the sound before it continued to prevent waking the other members with the doorbell sound.

Dong-Jun looked at me for a moment and said, “You can’t stop me anymore, Tae-Yoon. There’s only one option. Eat together, or let me eat alone.”

Sigh….

“I’m going to eat no matter what. Even if I get beaten up to death by Kang Do-Seung, I’m still going to eat.” Looking at his determined resolve, I thought nothing could stop him now. However, considering our schedule so far, I could sympathize with him.

‘Dong-Jun is also quite the glutton.’ It was already a miracle that Dong-Jun, who liked to eat and ate a lot even from an ordinary man’s perspective, suppressed his appetite so well so far.

“All right, go ahead and eat.”

“For real?”

“Yes.” If I stopped him further, I thought he might binge eat from stress.

“By the way, why is Kang Do-Seung sleeping on the ground like that…?” Dong-Jun asked while seeing Do-Seung lying on the floor of the living room. I wondered how I could explain this. The easiest answer was—

“He must have sleepwalked.”

“What?”

“I read that there’s a correlation between stress and sleepwalking.”

“…Really?” I just blamed it all on stress as everyone knew that Do-Seung was stressed out these days. Of course, this alone wasn’t good enough of an answer. However, there was nothing more I could do, and I just had to insist on my innocence like this. Moreover, even if the other party thought it was doubtful, if Dong-Jun saw how calm and collected I was about it, he would come to believe it.

“…Should I go to the hospital with Do-Seung?” Sure enough, Dong-Jun believed my lie. “Anyways, let’s put him inside the room for now because he might wake up while we’re eating.”

When we were about to move Do-Seung to our room—

Knock, knock.

The delivery driver knocked on the front door, and Dong-Jun’s face beamed. He quickly ran to the front door and asked the driver to leave it at the door. When he heard the delivery driver leave the food behind—

Swoosh.

He quickly opened the door and brought the food inside.

“Let’s eat, Tae-Yoon!” Dong-Jun said in an excited voice. But—

“…What…eat?” However, Do-Seung, who had collapsed after being possessed, slowly got up.

Dong-Jun, who was overjoyed after receiving the delivery food, immediately froze. I also moved away from Do-Seung, slightly terrified of what may unfold. However, Do-Seung slowly got up from his seat and looked around with a blank expression. He looked like he couldn’t understand why he was out in the living room. But most importantly—

“You ordered…a late-night snack?” Dong-Jun had ordered food past midnight. Do-Seung pushed away his confusion as to why he was out in the living room and glared at Dong-Jun.

“Ah, damn it. I should have left it in my room and ate it there.” Dong-Jun must have also realized it was over for him, put his food down on the table, and stared at Do-Seung.

Was it because he thought he was finished? Even though he was caught, Dong-Jun acted shamelessly and said, “Do-Seung, I’ll say this in advance. I’m going to eat mala hot pot even if I’m going to die today.”

Dong-Jun’s appetite had already exceeded his sanity, and Do-Seung also seemed not to be fully awake yet, seeing that he was still quietly listening to Dong-Jun’s provocation. Usually, Do-Seung would have carried Dong-Jun and spun him one full circle around in the air as punishment.

“…Why is it mala hot pot of all food…that’s spicy food. Your stomach is going to be upset.” However, Do-Seung’s reaction was much weaker than expected; he usually stopped Dong-Jun from ordering food as if his life was dependent on it. However, now that Dong-Jun had done the deed and ordered the food, he was rather calm. I thought it might be because he was still not fully awake, but—

“Let’s eat together.”

“…?”

“…?”

“What?”

Do-Seung said let’s eat together; even though he was the most serious about taking care of his body than anyone else.

While Dong-Jun and I were frozen because of how surprised we were by this unexpected development, Do-Seung said, “If Dong-Jun is ordering so late at night, he’s at a level where we can’t stop him anymore. Rather than letting him overeat, we should just eat all together.” It was a rather reasonable statement, and he seemed to share the same thought as me.

“But I’ve never eaten mala. I only heard it was spicy.” However, there was one problem–this was Do-Seung’s first time eating mala hot pot.

Dong-Jun smirked and said, “Try it today, and let’s see what your condition is like.”

“…?”

“…?”

“…What condition?”

“Addiction builds up slowly over time.”

Like this, deep in the night, the three of us shared a late-night snack.

“…Ah, crazy.” Do-Seung fell deep for Dong-Jun’s mala hot pot. “…Why did I only find out about this now?”

I almost choked while seeing Do-Seung, who looked like he was seriously contemplating his life choices while eating mala hot pot.

Dong-Jun said, “You’re a natural mala lover, showing such a reaction like this from the first try.”

“No, ah. I’m in trouble. I have to add 30 more minutes of cardio tomorrow.” Even while saying this, Do-Seung didn’t stop moving his chopsticks.

Then, while eating, Dong-Jun asked, “Oh yeah, but what were you guys talking about earlier?”

“…What?”

“What are you talking about?”

I asked because I was surprised, but Do-Seung seemed genuinely confused.

“I mean, you guys were talking about special abilities or whatnot earlier. Do you guys play a phone game together?”

I was startled that he mentioned the word ‘abilities,’ and Do-Seung still looked like he had no idea what Dong-Jun was talking about.

Do-Seung said first, “What the heck are you talking about? I don’t know what you are saying.”

“…I also don’t know what you’re saying.” I decided to lie and go along with Do-Seung.

“…Come on, don’t play around. I’m sure I heard it.” Dong-Jun’s face became white as sheets. Then he put down his chopsticks and rubbed his arm as if he had goosebumps and said, “…Then what did I hear?”

Do-Seung said, “Was it a ghost?”

I backed him up. “It must be a ghost.”

“Hey, don’t say something that’ll devalue this house!” I didn’t know if he was scared of ghosts or the house price falling, but regardless of what it was, it was my first time seeing Dong-Jun’s scared expression.

“Ah, but why was I sleeping in the living room?” At the same time, Do-Seung asked.

I was able to deal with this question more resolutely than before. “Oh, I think you sleepwalked. I came out of the living room and was using my phone, and you suddenly came out and fell.”

“…Me? I did that?”

“Yes.”

“I should go to the hospital after the show is over.”

“…Well, let’s all get a medical checkup together later.”

“Yeah, we should.”

Like that, Dong-Jun mistakenly thought that a ghost lived in the house, and Do-Seung mistakenly thought he had a sleepwalking problem. I felt sorry for Dong-Jun and Dong-Seung for my lies, but through their misunderstandings, I was able to successfully hide my secret.

* * *

If I consider the fact that we slept late after eating late at night, everyone woke up early this morning since we woke up at 7 am. It was like any morning except that my face was a little bit more puffy than usual. However, the real problem was—

“Wow, did the three of you share a late-night snack without us yesterday?” Woon saw the mala hot pot container in the trash can and was disappointed that he was not included in the party.

“I like mala hotpot too! Why did you guys eat without me!” And Yeon-Hoon was upset.

Well, there was nothing we could do except to repeatedly say we were sorry.

I said, “Let’s eat together next time. I’m sorry.”

We ate a simple breakfast of bread and gathered in the living room with the table spread out. Today was March 25. It was the day when episode 4 of The Showcase 2 aired, and it was also the first day of preparation for the final stage. However, Episode 4 of The Showcase 2 was something we had to worry about in the evening, and our morning would be occupied with talks about the final stage.

“I know it’s going to be hard to prepare for the final performance right after practicing for the last performance until yesterday, but let’s stay focused and do it.” The meeting was led by composer Do-Seung.

We had a brainstorming meeting where each person said a concept they wanted to do.

“Since we’re Siren, should we do an ocean concept song?”

“It’s still spring, so isn’t that a bit early?”

“And we did a similar ocean theme in the introductory performance.”

“Shall we finally do a sexy concept this time then?”

“Hmm, isn’t the hook too weak for a sexy concept?”

“Refreshing concept?”

“We already did that.”

“Innocent concept?”

“That’s similar.”

“Horror?”

“During spring?”

“Suit concept?”

“That’s too dark.”

Although it was a brainstorming meeting, it felt like a concept battle match where we took turns throwing keywords, and the composer, Do-Seung, smacked our ideas down. However, he was so firm about shooting them down that all of our fighting spirit increased, and we began throwing any ideas at random.

“Tiger!”

“What the heck is a tiger concept, Don-Jun? Think before you talk, you punk.”

“Shall we do rabbit?”

“Yeon-Hoon, since Dong-Jun said tiger, you just said rabbit without thinking about it, right?

“What about we wear preppy outfits and do a high-teen concept?”

“That’s the best idea so far, but I don’t feel a strong pull towards it.”

“What about hip-hop?”

“I don’t want to just rap by myself.”

“Turtle!”

“I said not to spit out any idea on your mind, Dong-Jun.”

“Dragon King!”

“Yeon-Hoon, why are you following Dong-Jun too? You want us to retell the ‘Rabbit’s Liver’[1] folktale?”

I watched the members’ meeting, which was quickly turning into a quarrel, and quietly said, “Everyone, this is a stage where we have to make our original performance, right?”

Frankly, ever since the last mission came out, my heart had been racing. Although I had developed my self-identity as an idol to some extent and was starting to realize the joy of performing, I still identified myself as a novelist deep in my heart.

“Why don’t we make a performance that would lead to our debut?”

“Lead to our debut?”

“What do you mean?”

I couldn’t believe there would come a time when I would say this. I remembered the old days, so I tried to suppress my excitement and said, “Shall we make our own universe all together?”

The time when novelists were the most happy—it was when they were creating their own world.

1. Famous folk tale about a dragon king who had to eat a rabbit’s liver to recover from his sickness. ☜