The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The members and I went straight to the dorm after our last cheer in the practice room. After taking a quick shower at the new dorm we were now getting a bit used to, we went down to the underground parking lot. As expected, Ms. Seung-Young and Ms. Hyuna were waiting for us. It was their first time coming to our new dorm today, and they were looking around the parking lot with a dazed expression.

Then one of them said, “The cars parked here right now are more expensive than our house…”

“If we scratch the car next to us by mistake, I don’t think we can pay for the repair even if we sell this car.”

They said this was quite a terrifying neighborhood.

“Hahaha.”

“We weren’t used to it at first either.”

“Even now, in fact…”

We sympathized with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna’s words and got into the car. They seemed like they had a lot of questions for Dong-Jun, such as how on earth he had a house like that and why a person like that was trying so hard to become an idol.

Although they looked at Dong-Jun with curiosity, he pretended ignorance till the very end. “Let’s go~” It seemed like he didn’t want to tell anyone besides us about his family.

Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon also didn't question Dong-Jun further, and like that, the car moved smoothly toward the salon in Gangbuk.

* * *

Even after arriving at the shop, the same scenery continued as usual.

“Long time no see, everyone~” The warm-hearted boss welcomed us.

“Boss!!” Yeon-Hoon approached the boss and acted cute.

“Hahaha! It’s so great to always see you, Mr. Yeon-Hoon!”

“Ma’am, I also feel the same way!”

“Oh my! You talk as pretty as your face~”

Yeon-Hoon and the boss’ conversation fluidly continued as their energy was equally matched. They both loved chattering away. While Yeon-Hoon and the boss caught up on how they were doing, we both sat in our respective seats. The stylist in charge came and styled our hair and makeup.

“What did you say today’s concept was?”

“It’s space opera~”

“Space opera? What’s that?”

“You just have to think of it as something like Star Wars or Dune.”

Dong-Jun and the stylist exchanged small talk about the stage.

“Oh my. But why are you doing your hair and makeup the same as usual?”

“What?”

“It would be nice to add something more eye-catching.”

At Dong-Jun’s stylist’s words, we turned our heads in unison.

“Ah.”

“Um, if you turn your head so suddenly—”

“Ack!”

As a result, each stylist was flustered.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“Hahaa.”

“Sorry about that.”

We turned our heads back to our normal conversation and then began conversing on the subject earlier.

“Would it perhaps be possible to do our makeup differently than usual?”

“Is your outfit a bit strong?”

“Yes, it’s quite intense.”

“Then it would be better to make the makeup a little stronger too. Hmm. It might be good to add decorations like this around the eyes too…”

We listened to the makeup style recommended by each stylist. Considering the stage and outfit, it would be better to make the makeup equally as intense so that not one overpowers the other. However, colorful makeup and decorations were only suitable for those who fit them.

“Mr. Yeon-Hoon, I think it would look better if we add a bit more redness and cubic crystals around your eyes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, let’s go all out while we’re at it.”

In Yeon-Hoon’s case, the fancy makeup and decorations shone and accentuated his face. But for me—

“Uh, Mr. Tae-Yoon. Um.”

“Please just make my makeup stronger.”

“Ah, yes.”

I also knew that bright and glittering decorations didn’t fit me at all.

“Do you want to try at least putting on earrings?”

“Well, yes.”

In the end, I finished adorning my face with earrings that were not very eye-catching. After we finished our hair and makeup, our outfits arrived.

“The outfits are here!”

Our costumes had arrived late.

“Geez.”

“It came late.”

“I’m sorry…the company delivered it late…”

Usually, one wore the outfits first and got their hair and makeup done as the makeup and hair might get ruined while we were changing. However, in today’s case, we started our hair and makeup first because I thought we might be late for the whole show if we waited for the outfits to come.

I said, “After we finish the stage, let’s gently take off our clothes to get a refund.”

We changed our clothes with care to not ruin our makeup and hair. Our outfit today was tech wear. Our whole outfit was black as the bright-colored outfit did not fit the song <Traitor>.

Only One wore techwear in their performance, but since we thought it would be difficult to make an impact if we wore the same outfit, we added a few more items. We chose a cane instead of a lightsaber, and instead of just normal techwear, we also added a short medieval cape. Although it seemed like an unbalanced item match, that was the charm of a space opera where technology was overdeveloped, yet the culture was reminiscent of an ancient kingdom.

“Ah…”

“Hmm…?”

Yeon-Hoon and Do-Seung, who came out after changing, stood awkwardly and looked at us, and we also looked at them with somewhat blank eyes. A short and tense silence passed in the salon. In that short moment, all kinds of emotions swarmed between us, and the reason for that was simple.

“What’s up with…the clothes?”

The clothes’ quality was abysmal, and they didn’t feel like stage outfits but cosplay costumes that students used their pocket money to participate in at Comic-Con. Even from the fabric material to the details of small points, there was a whole cheap feel to it. However, there was a saying that even if an outfit was cheap, it looked good depending on the model. In fact, even these outfits looked decent when Yeon-Hoon and Do-Seung were wearing them. But even then—

“Ah…

“We’re in trouble.”

The quality of the outfits still looked extremely cheap.

“If the audience watches the stage and sees our outfits, their immersion is going to break.”

It wouldn’t have mattered much usually, but our concept was space opera. A story that chronicled a vast mythical space. Every small prop needed to be detailed and well-executed for the audience to be immersed in our stage. However, our outfit quality completely missed the mark.

* * *

Since this was the outfit we received, we finished changing first and left the salon. The owner of the salon and the stylists were worried about us till the very end and didn’t forget to say words of consolation in between.

“Your outfits might look nice under the lights!”

“It’s surprisingly hard to see fine details on camera so don’t worry!”

However, these words didn’t really reach our hearts, as small details came out remarkably well on cameras these days, and we also knew very well that there was no way the lighting could make the quality of our outfits good. The atmosphere was dead while we headed towards the studio. Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna also seemed furious. Ms. Hyuna suppressed her anger to drive, but that was not the case for Ms. Seung-Yeon. She called the company that produced the outfits and started cussing them out.

“What kind of company does such a poor job! The details are all messed up, and the fabric is completely different from what you told us before! This is definitely the company’s fault, so you have to compensate us! This is a scam!”

However, there was nothing we could do. Even if we got compensated, the situation did not change. The members’ expressions didn’t look good either. I had expected that we would have a problem with the outfits for our performance at least once.

‘It’s a miracle that the quality of the outfits hasn’t been bad so far.’ We were a group that had to set up a stage with a very tight budget, and our budget was much smaller than other companies. We were able to endure so far by self-producing our own lyrics, songs, and even choreography. We also practiced by ourselves and saved on lessons. Moreover, thanks to Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna’s hard work, we were able to garner a little extra budget.

Thanks to all these efforts, we could procure a sufficient budget to obtain a decent outfit if we used up all the money we saved. However, for this stage, we couldn’t allocate all our money to purchasing outfits.

Since the stage was so large and complex, we had to hire dancers, and the sets to be put on the stage had to be outsourced separately. As a result, even though we had more than our usual budget, we could only use the lowest possible amount for our outfits. Among the ones with the lowest prices, we chose a company with the most passable quality and ordered our outfits.

‘But their pictures were a scam.’ I didn’t know if the outfit company photoshopped their products or used good fabric only for promotional pictures. An outfit that looked completely different from the picture arrived. Although it was partly our fault that we expected good quality for the price we offered, it didn’t change that the company tricked us.

‘They lied to us, so it’s a sticky situation.’ This wasn’t something that we could easily overlook, as for people like us, a single stage could make or break our team, especially at a critical time like this. However, it already happened, and we couldn’t order new outfits anymore. In other words, we had to go up on stage with this terrible outfit. Perhaps Ms. Seung-Yeon also knew this as she soon ended the call and sighed deeply.

“I’m very, very sorry everyone. I should have known this would happen.” Ms. Seung-Yeon apologized to us.

“No, how would you have known? It’s the company that scammed us…” Yeon-Hoon talked to Ms. Seung-Yeon to console her. However, the atmosphere didn’t improve, and everyone sighed.

When we arrived at the studio, the camera directors were waiting for us.

“Let’s raise our energy and go in!” Yeon-Hoon forcibly raised our low mood and opened the car door.

“Hello~!”

“Hello, sir.”

“How are you doing, sir~”

We did as Yeon-Hoon said and opened the door while energetically greeting the directors and production crew. We headed towards the waiting room, and while we were walking down the hallway of the studio, we met Bleshu.

“Uh! Hello, Sir…en?”

We couldn’t help but freeze at their transparent response; even Bleshu members flinched and were surprised by the quality of our outfits. It must be very obvious that our outfit quality was very poor, even to outsiders.

The members clenched their teeth and greeted the Bleshu members.

“Hello~”

“It’s been a while~”

Yeon-Hoon and Dong-Jun stepped forward first and eased the uncomfortable atmosphere. However, as we got closer to Bleshu, Do-Seung and Woon’s expressions worsen.

‘Bleshu’s outfits are really good.’ Their team seemed to have put their lives at stake for this stage as their outfit quality looked great even from a glance. It was an all-white uniform with silver decorations, which gave off a luxurious impression. It felt like I was getting physically smaller the closer I got to them.

“Well, we’ll see you on stage later!”

Yeon-Hoon and Dong-Jun pretended not to be, but they also seemed quite upset. Normally, they would have chatted for a long time but quickly ended the conversation and moved to the waiting room. We all quickly walked and as soon as we got to the waiting room and opened the door—

Sighhh.

“Pweh..”

Sighs burst out everywhere.

“Our outfits…what shall we do?” Yeon-Hoon said as if he was genuinely worried. Team morale was falling to the basement floor all because of our outfits. We had worked so hard, practicing non-stop for two weeks with barely any sleep, so we were angry and felt like it was unfair that a mere factor like outfit was holding us back.

Pop, pop.

As if we were going to see the pinnacle of bad luck today, an ominous sound came from my outfit. All I had done was slam the door a bit in a hurry earlier, but the back of the outfit top had snapped.

“Tae-Yoon…your outfit ripped…”

I wondered how cheap the fabric had to be for this to happen.

Sigh.

“Wait a minute.” I stood in the front of the mirror, repressing my irritation. I tried to cover it roughly with a cape, but this mess had already exceeded that level of recovery. I carefully took off my costume and put it on the table so that my makeup and hair wouldn’t get ruined.

“That’s serious.”

“What should we do now?”

Sighhh.

“I feel so upset.”

The members all sighed in unison. I looked at my ripped outfit and thought, ‘ It might be better to just take it off and go up.’

“Ah.” As soon as I thought of this, an idea quickly formed in my mind.

‘Insight.’ I looked at the outfits in front of me and activated Insight.

Numerous measures to take advantage of this messy costume began to form in my mind.