The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Since we walked while conversing, it felt as if we had taken only a few seconds to arrive back at our dorm. Meanwhile, Yeon-Hoon looked quite out of it during the whole walk because we showed him a couple of concepts and references that we collected yesterday.

“Are we really going with that concept? And use those choreographies? Don’t you think we might be reaching too far?” It appeared Yeon-Hoon wanted to avoid difficult moves, but this was necessary.

“But the group that we chose is Only One. If we want to outshine them, we need to really go out of our way to overachieve.”

“Since the difference between our fandoms is so large, I think it would be hard to appeal to the viewers if we don’t at least show this much.”

“I think we will also have to talk to the company about using back-up dancers too.”

Woon and Do-Seung talked to convince Yeon-Hoon. Yeon-Joon still looked a bit uncertain.

“Yeah…I also think it will be cool for us to do well…I’m just worried, that’s all.” Yeon-Hoon said unconfidently.

“I will support you well, Yeon-Hoon,” Woon said, comforting him. “And you are also good at dancing. You move lightly while your lines are good. I think you will be able to liven up the dance moves,” Do-Seung said, poking Yeon-Hoon’s sides.

“There’s no need for you to hype me up that much.” Yeon-Hoon’s face brightened again, hearing Do-Seung’s obvious flattery. And as I watched my other group members work hard to convince Yeon-Hoon, I turned around. Dong-Jun was stretching by himself in the corner, and I moved next to him and also began stretching.

“I have to.” And while I also stretched next to Dong-Jun, I organized today’s schedule in my head.

“Seems like today’s practice will be really tough,” Dong-Jun said.

“It has to be if we want to use all those moves.”

“Yeah. I guess we will have to do all-nighters for a while.” Dong-Jun trembled as if the thought exhausted him, but his face appeared to have a strange sense of expectations and excitement. Truthfully, Dong-Jun was the one who was most serious about being an idol among us. Perhaps, he was the type to feel a bigger competitive spirit when we had to do difficult choreographies and songs and put ourselves in dangerous settings. While I stretched out my hamstrings, I thought over everything.

First of all, we needed to finish our practice by this week if we could. That was why I told my group members yesterday that we couldn’t have many gaps in our practice. But that wasn’t only because the performance we were preparing for was so difficult; there was another reason that I didn’t tell my group members.

‘We will probably get contacted about it around today,’ Ithought. An important event would happen just before the second-round performances.

“Am I really good at dancing? Really?”

“Yes! You are really good!”

“You have a way of making the dance moves look good.”

I looked at Woon and Do-Seung, continuing to compliment Yeon-Hoon from the back. They won’t be laughing about this for so long. If the producers had the tiniest bit of respect for us, they would give us a heads-up at least before this afternoon. And as I expected, Yeon-Hoon’s phone soon began to vibrate.

“Hm? Oh wait, I got a call.”

Dong-Jun and I stopped our stretching and looked at Yeon-Hoon.

“I got a call from Hyuna.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Is there some schedule today?”

Yeon-Hoon then got the phone call softly. “Yes, hello~” Though he responded energetically as usual, his voice soon fell.

“Sorry? There’s extra shooting?” Yeon-Hoon’s expression turned serious. Woon approached Yeon-Hoon to hear what this was all about. But Yeon-Hoon gestured to Woon that he would tell everyone else what the call was about later and moved locations to continue the call. After an uncomfortable and awkward five minutes later, Yeon-Hoon returned.

“What happened?”

“There’s additional shooting?”

“What are you talking about?”

Besides me, all my group members rushed towards Yeon-Hoon. Yeon-Hoon smiled awkwardly as he spoke. “Ah, it’s not such a big deal. Next week, we are going to gather at the studio and do some kind of variety game with prizes on the line. You know, survival programs do stuff like that.”

“Ah.”

“I know what you mean.”

My other group members looked relieved to hear it was nothing serious except for one person.

Woon asked worriedly, “But how long did they say the shooting was? One hour? Or two hours?” It seemed he was worried that we would have to use a whole day for this shooting.

“Ah, it’s from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They can extend the time if necessary.”

“Ah.”

“All day?”

“And they can extend the time on top of that?”

I have never seen broadcasting shows cater to their casts, especially more so when these casts were no-name or small-time idols. For these kinds of small shootings, they could do it for a short time and edit different videos by themselves. But they had to organize an extra shooting and increase the time with all sorts of insert cuts and so on. They were only concerned about making content for the show and wouldn’t stop until there were some interesting scenes.

“The theme of the extra shooting is ‘Play Hard, Work Hard!’”

“Haa.”

“Fuuuu.”

“Damn it.”

My group members sighed deeply at the baffling theme of the shooting. The producers were forcing us to play and have fun when we didn’t have much time right now. We were so lacking in time that we would have to decrease our sleeping time and even then, we might not be able to finish everything. Yet, the broadcasting crew was stealing time we could’ve used for practice to make us do such an ironically silly-themed show.

“Let’s just give up on sleeping from today on.”

“You won’t die even if you sleep three hours a day.”

“Haaaa. Why don’t we try that?”

My group members determined themselves with dying voices. I could already predict a whole load of caffeine drinks rolling on the practice room’s floor.

***

WD Entertainment’s Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna arrived at their companies early in the morning and went outside.

“Haaaa~”

“I’m so tired.”

The head manager, Yoon Tae-Hyung had left all businesses related to Siren to them. It appeared that since no troubles arose so far, he thought he could leave everything in their hands. It was shocking that Yoon Tae-Hyung made absolutely zero effort and astonishing how someone could lack so much professionalism.

Yet, Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna comforted each other that this could be a good thing. After all, since they had the authority to make their own choices, they were now able to use the company funds to a certain limit.

“I still don’t know if this is really right.”

“Yeah.”

The two wondered if this would have been a good thing happening in any other normal company. But nothing would change no matter how long they lamented about this. They needed to support Siren with all they had. The two were aware that they were lacking in many ways but also knew that there was no one who could care for the Sirens except them.

Thus, whether they liked it or not, they had to do this. The only thing they could hope for was Siren to win The Showcase and make a joint contract with a new company. Only then, the Sirens would be able to receive proper care and progress exponentially. And when that happened, the two could give their resignation letters and quit the company with a light heart and relocate to somewhere else.

“The guys are probably still asleep, right?”

“Why don’t you wake them up and make them eat? I will get some kimbap nearby.”

Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna discussed plans as they drove to the Sirens’ dormitory. Yet, right before they arrived in front of their dorms and stopped at the alley where the practice room was located, they saw that light was emitting out of the practice room’s windows.

“Huh?”

“What is it?”

“Their practice room’s lights are still on.”

Since this place was in a semi-basement, all that the practice room had was a small window. Yet, its light was still noticeable because the small window was the only bright thing in this dark place.

“No way.”

“Okay, why don’t we park our car first?” Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna parked the car beside the practice room and went down to the semi-basement.

Knock, knock.

They knocked on the door and heard no response.

‘Music sounds?’ A soft melody was coming out of the room.

Bam, bam.

They knocked on the door a bit harder this time.

—Huh?”

—It sounds like somebody is at the door.

The music got cut off and voices flowed out of the door. Since it was quiet during sunset time, they could hear even small whispers like this; furthermore, the fact that the practice room’s soundproof system was poor didn’t help either.

—Who is it?

—What if it’s a ghost?

—Ahhhh! Don’t say that Dong-Jun!

—Ghoooost.

—Ahhhh.

—I will go get the door.

After a short comedic exchange, the door opened. Bong Tae-Yoon opened the door and stared at Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna. The two also glanced at the inside of the practice room. The room was still feeling warm and hot, as if they had been practicing a moment ago.

Bong Tae-Yoon asked, “What’s the reason for your visit?”

“Didn’t we tell you all that there will be The Showcase’s extra shooting today?”

“We said we would pick you all up at 5 a.m….”

“Ah.” Bong Tae-Yoon’s usually expressionless face faltered a bit. And what he said next surprised the two. “It’s already the next day? I’m sorry. I forgot what date it was.”

This seemed to mean one thing: they had been practicing so hard that they lost their sense of time.

“Oh my…”

“My goodness.” Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna became speechless for a bit.

***

I only realized what date it was when Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna came to pick us up. Staying in this damn semi-basement practice room made one lose track of time easily, not knowing whether the sun rose or set. I turned around and told my group members.

“We have to go shooting now.”

My group members, who were slumping on the ground, got up one by one. Their eyes looked hollow and there was hardly any fat on their face. It wasn’t like they went on a diet. Instead, we ate more than we usually did in the last week.

Yet, we lost more weight than the period we exercised rigorously. There was a saying that when someone wanted to lose weight, 30% of the focus should be on exercising, and 70% should be on food. Yet, because we made that 30% to 300%, no amount of food seemed to overcome that and we experienced the miracle of losing weight despite eating everything we wanted.

“We will quickly wash ourselves and come out. Please wait for us here.”

“Ahhh~ Let’s quickly take a shower! I’m soaked.”

“How long has it been since we came out?”

“The air is so nice in the morning.”

We all got out of the practice room. Hyuna and Seung-Yeon stared at us in shock, but I paid no heed to their reactions and followed my group members outside. I felt a bit of my fatigue go away after feeling the outside air.

“Let’s quickly finish our shoot and practice again.”

“I thought the movements were wrapping up nicely. It’s a bit regrettable that our flow was suddenly cut off.”

“Yeah, I feel like it could become complete with just a bit more time.” Sigh.

My group members only talked about the performance even while going to wash themselves. This was a good sign. Since the past week, we have only been focusing on practicing while getting barely any sleep. And that wasn’t only because we were already struggling with time. Though the shooting today sucked up a lot of our precious time, it could also be a great opportunity for us.

‘I wonder if we will be able to do a good job,’ I wondered. The prizes on the line for today’s shooting were much greater than one would expect. Though there was no guarantee that they could be the same ones as in my past life, but if it were, it would be…

‘A commercial shoot.’ That was the prize of this shoot; a commercial with a short one-month contract. Considering the industry’s standard, the conditions of this commercial were very unfortunate, but it could be something monumental for us.

‘This is an opportunity for us to become known and change the flow of the show. We need to grab this chance at all costs.’ We had poured everything we had for this day so that we could forget our worries about practicing and only focus on the shooting. I was determined and tried to make today’s plans when a phenomenon that hadn’t been happening for a while appeared.

[A surprise mission.]

The mechanical voice that had regressed me to this timeline returned. But the most shocking thing was what it told me to do next.

[Stop Park Young-Ho from leaving Only One.]

[Upon success, you will gain partial control of ‘Insight.’]

[Upon failure, there will be a boycott against ‘The Showcase 2- First Chance’.]

The mechanical voice suddenly came out and told me to stop Only One’s youngest member, Young-Ho, from dropping out of his group if I didn’t want to see this show fail.