The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The atmosphere inside YM Entertainment’s Vision’s dorm was grim. It was inevitable because this year was the fourth year since Vision debuted. The group should have been experiencing a career high by this time, but the group was already showing signs of doom. As frequent scandals broke out, fans dropped out and the initial album sales and attendees of fan signings were noticeably decreasing. Thus, it was natural that the atmosphere of the dorm was bleak.

Perhaps because of this bleak atmosphere, the Vision members were unable to concentrate on their activities and kept turning their attention to other places like women, making unnecessary scandals, and frequently visiting clubs where sightings of them in clubs were spread across the internet. Furthermore, some of them even came into the dorm half-dead and only slept.

Vision was a group that was slowly decaying both on the outside and inside. Moreover, the members, Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk did not like each other. However, apart from that, their personality matched well so their conversation went on smoothly.

“Hey, Jun-Kyul.”

“What?”

“Did you call Lee Woon?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

“What did you expect? He just hung up without saying anything. Did you call Kang Do-Seung?”

“Shithead, I told you to call.”

“Why don’t you try calling him? Lee Woon is a pushover, but Kang Do-Seung turns batshit crazy if he gets angry.”

“Fuck, so what you’re going to do about it? We need to straighten things with them somehow.”

“I know, so just shut up and let me do my work.”

Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk each owed Lee Woon and Kang Do-Seung a debt respectively. Hwang Jun-Kyul debuted thanks to breaking Lee Woon’s ankle, and Yoon Dong-Hyuk made his debut by plagiarizing a song by Kang Do-Seung.

“If those guys go crazy and spill the beans about our past, it’s really over for us.”

“I told you I also know that. Stop fucking whining.”

Thus, they planned to cover up their past somehow and straighten things up with Woon and Kang Do-Seung. If they were people with common sense, they would sincerely apologize and ask for forgiveness. No, rather than apologize, they committed crimes that they needed to beg for forgiveness. However, these two weren’t able to do that. It was because they had always felt a sense of inferiority towards Woon and Kang Do-Seung.

“Fuck, is it possible for you to apologize to those bastards?”

“It feels like absolute shit.”

“I thought they shot themselves on their feet when they went into a cruddy, no-name place called WD Entertainment or something, but who knew they’d shoot up to fame like this.”

They thought they had finally managed to overcome their inferiority complex by removing those two from the debut group, but Woon and Do-Seung stepped back into the limelight by appearing in The Showcase 2 as Siren members, and Siren was showing signs of becoming a huge hit. Thus, their inferiority complex was currently much stronger than before, and they weren’t able to ask for forgiveness even more.

“We need to make up somehow and take away some of their popularity so that we can release an album or whatever.”

Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk had quite a lot of reasons to ask Lee Woon and Kang Do-Seung for forgiveness. It was to cover up their past but also to light up the last embers of their dying group. But even this didn’t stem from a commendable desire to save the group but a desire to save themselves.

“Let’s drop those druggies and womanizers when we renew our contracts and try to survive on our own.”

If they somehow maintained their current popularity and proved their value, they might be able to aim for a second chance in life after renewing their contract. In short, this was a desperate struggle to extend their lives as celebrities.

“And I told you not to talk crap about Lee Woon in your v-live. Fuck, aren’t the private accounts already saying you’re a bit shady?”

“I know.”

“I told you to pretend to be close, not secretly bring him down.”

“Hey, why the fuck are you just yelling at me? You’ve also been talking shit about Do-Seung?”

“…Me too?”

“Don’t just search my name but search yours too, you dumbass. Are you worried about reading your plagiarism controversy if you search your name?”

“…Shut up.”

“Anyway, let’s stop subtly putting them down. Haa…even if I try to be all buddies with them, it’s really hard.” They tried to ride on Siren’s fame by pretending to be close to Lee Woon and Kang Do-Seung in their v-lives, but strangely, they ended up speaking ill of them. It was probably due to their long inferiority complex, but they both pretended to be oblivious of this fact until the very end.

“…Let’s do well, I’m begging you.”

“…Tell that to yourself.”

The two ended their meaningless conversation by blaming each other until the very end.

***

On the day that Siiren members felt troubled because of Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk, the last episode of The Showcase 2’s side story ‘Siren! Be Healthy’ aired. The last episode of ‘Siren! Be Healthy’ contained the making of the fan song <Voyage> and its music video. Thanks to that, the Siren fandom once again enjoyed the numerous released clips to their heart's content.

—hahahaha why did they put Do-Seung doing pull-ups like that?

—Tae-Yoon’s film directing is hilarious lol

—fuck…this is my resting place (Woo Yeon-Hoon with flowers.jpg)

—Why does Tae-Yoon compliment people so calmly? (Bong Tae-Yoon compiling Woon’s face.mp4)

—Park Dong-Jun hahaha why did he climb the tree where Do-Seung is doing pull-ups hahaha

—The last ending scene was taken by Yeon-Hoon on the spur of the moment.

—wowww this really feels like a teen drama

—ah pls do a reality show for a thousand years

—Can’t believe this is the last episode noo

As much as they enjoyed Siren’s reality show, they were disappointed that this was the last episode. However, after Siren finished filming the music video, the reality show officially ended.

—To celebrate the end of the show, look at this picture of the guys and rabbits together (Siren and rabbits group photo.jpg)

Reply: Ah, this was legendary :0

Reply: It’s crazy that they’re sitting with rabbits that look like them.

People enjoyed the aftermath by looking at clips or photos of the reality show that were popular among fans. One person who showed keen attention to these reactions.

“The heat is still not going down even though the reality show is over. Shall we gather the guys together and do a live broadcast.” It was Park Soo-Chul, the main producer of The Showcase 2.

***

Whether Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk gossiped about our members or not, we steadfastly did our work and time flowed by like that. Even though it was the weekend, we went to the agency and started recording first. It was a remastering of the songs that we previously released on The Showcase 2.

Since the quality of the music and song was good, I thought it would be better for us to record it again and release the new version. During this process, we corrected some parts that only Do-Seung could catch, and everyone worked extremely hard on their work as if they were trying to cover up their troubled hearts.

“Tae-Yoon, your voice sounds great here, so don’t sound like you’re pressing the back of your neck so much. Rather let out your entire voice more. That sounds really great right now. You’re doing well.” I pressed the talkback button and looked at Do-Seung, working hard on the directing. He was working harder on the recording than anyone else.

It must be because he was the composer and producer of our group, but I thought, ‘Diving into work is the best when your heart feels heavy.’ I also knew how he felt.

I answered, “Yes, I’ll try again.” I started recording again according to Do-Seung’s direction. Since we’ve all sung this song before, we were able to finish recording one song a day quickly. After recording the existing songs, the listening session for picking out the new songs began. Was it because we had a long fight with Won-Dong once before? The A&R team was extremely cooperative and called us to the company whenever they received a new song. Like this, the album work progressed steadily.

We decided on the tone and manner of the album artwork and decided on the big message we wanted to convey through the album. We also shared our universe file with the A&R team and conveyed that we would like to present lyrics containing stories that we created. Time passed by like this, and Wednesday arrived.

“Hmm? I got a call from Ms. Hyuna?” While we were having another album meeting at the conference room after lunch, we received a call from Ms. Hyuna after a while.

Of course, it was a call that came to Yeon-Hoon. The reason for the call was clear.

“Oh, they’re doing a live broadcast with The Showcase account–to commemorate the end of the show?”

It was to do a live show to commemorate the end of the side episodes.

“Wow!”

“Nice!”

“Yeah, we haven’t been communicating with the fans directly much these days.”

The members seemed glad to do this live broadcast. Since everyone seemed down because of Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk these days, I thought this could be a good turning point.

“Oh, but you’re telling us to send you guys the contents and special reveal we’ll do on the live broadcast?”

Of course, we couldn’t just enjoy ourselves and play, and this was also an extension of our work. “The live broadcast will be this Friday evening, right? The same time as when The Showcase aired? Ah, yes. I’ll tell the others~”

It seemed we had to finish preparing for the live broadcast by this Friday evening.

“Guys! Let’s briefly talk about this live broadcast!” Yeon-Hoon said, and we briefly organized the album meeting, which had been heading towards chaos.

We quickly organized and typed our main ideas and immediately moved on to the live broadcast meeting.

“What kind of reveal should we do for the first time?”

“They’re telling us to give spoilers for the album, right?”

I said, “That’s right, but I personally want to add something extra besides the album spoiler too.”

“Hmm.”

The members and I threw ideas around this time as well. Brainstorming like this had long been solidified as our main conference method.

“Then shall we give some spoilers on the album concept and announce the fandom name?”

“Ah, and give a slight hint for our debut date?”

“Got it. But we can’t reveal too much.”

“Yes, sir~”

To sum up the results after the meeting: it was to give a little spoiler for the album, announce our fandom name, and give a hint of our debut date. Since we had thought of a fandom name in our previous meeting, we planned to announce it soon. Perhaps this live broadcast would be the perfect opportunity.

At the same time, I personally hoped for something else as well. ‘If we do well…maybe we can get revenge on Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk.’

—Starting surprise v-live~

—Vision: Cheese cat is here hehe

The notification that I set to monitor them rang just in time. I pushed the notification aside and silently deleted it.

***

In a four-year campus university in Seoul, a man wearing a university jacket and bag was staring at his phone’s screen. He was so engrossed with his phone screen that he looked like he would bump into someone at any moment, but he narrowly avoided all obstacles.

“Hyun-Joong!” Then a group of people ran towards the man from afar. They were students wearing the same class jacket as him.

“Oh, what? Aren’t you guys on break? Why did you come to school?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Today is our major’s midterm exam.”

“What…?”

“Wow. Why are you so out of it these days? Did you seriously forget the exam today?”

“…Uh, damn it. I think I have to retake that course,” The man sighed and hid his phone screen behind him.

“What were you looking at?”

“It’s nothing.” He said and stuffed the phone into his pocket. Then he said, “I’m just going to roll with it since I’m doomed anyway.”

“Woow, you got guts.”

“Well, I faced bigger challenges in my life~,” the man said and walked together with his classmates toward the campus.

What he had been watching on his phone was a live broadcast of the idol group, Vision. Was it because he was a Vision’s fan? No, it was rather the opposite. He hated Vision.

The man’s name was Kim Hyun-Joong. He was a former YM Entertainment trainee and one of the final members of the debut group Vision, who left at the very end.