The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I took the blanket and went inside the big room that was designated to be mine and Woon’s room.

“‘The room is a bit empty,” I said. I didn’t think much about the room except that it was quite empty.

“I suppose we can fill up the space bit by bit,” Woon said. While I just saw an empty room, Woon saw a room to be filled. Nevertheless, this was our lodging place now.

“But will we be able to fill up the space?”

“Hahaha! What do you mean? We can’t?”

“Well, how should I say this? It feels like we will be leaving our luggage at a friend’s house.” After all, this place wasn’t ours but somebody else’s.

“Well, I suppose we will get used to it if we keep living here.”

“Yeah.” I placed the blanket on the floor and lay down. It felt weird since I was sharing the room with only Woon. After turning off the lights and pulling up the blankets all the way to my neck, I couldn’t fall asleep.

‘Hm.’ Usually, I would’ve been knocked out after finishing a schedule like this today, but my mind felt wide awake as I stared up at the ceiling. Noticing my behavior, Woon spoke first.

“No.”

“I see.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“…I can’t fall asleep.”

It seems we both had a hard time sleeping after our sleeping place changed. Since we had always slept with five people crammed together, it felt like something was missing due to a sharp decline in the room’s population density.

“…How was today’s shooting? Was it fun?”

“Don’t you already know? Why are you asking?”

“Well, I wanted to hear from you in person,” Woon said and poked my sides.

My group members loved to do that, and since it appeared like he would keep bothering me if I didn’t answer, I said, “…It was fun performing on the stage today.”

“Really?”

“It helped that Do-Seung told me to believe in you guys and enjoy the show.”

“Do-Seung gave you some good advice.”

“Yeah, he did, though he looked so uncomfortable encouraging me.”

“To tell you the truth…I listened to you guys talking from the side.”

“…Really?”

“Hahaha!” Woon laughed out loud, staring at me. I should’ve expected this since all my group members were right next to each other when Do-Seung and I talked.

“You guys looked so awkward talking to each other.”

“…Did I look as awkward as Do-Seung?”

“Yup!”

“…Ha, this is so embarrassing.”

“What is there to even be embarrassed about?” Woon finally calmed down after laughing by himself for a long time. “Good job. I saw you today from behind and your movements were definitely better than usual.”

The way I danced was much more natural on stage today, but I was surprised that Woon was able to catch that while also doing his own dance moves. It appeared that Woon certainly had a talent for dancing.

“I hope you will enjoy your performances more, Tae-Yoon,” Woon said cautiously. I thought we were just going to cheer each other up as teammates, but he said something more profound than that. “It’s because I want our group to work together for a long time. But for that to be the case, we have to have a good time while performing.”

If even one person harbored dissatisfaction, the group didn’t last long. And it appeared that Woon had been worrying about me more than I expected. “Truthfully, the fact that you wanted to quit being an idol had been on my mind the whole time. And whenever we performed, you always seemed to get really nervous and stressed.”

That was true. Since performing wasn’t in my nature, I got more nervous than my group members.

“So, I thought you would crumble at some point, but fortunately, it seems like you were able to overcome that a bit.”

“…Thank you for looking out for me.”

“No need to thank me. It’s only natural,” Woon said and thumped my chest.

“Should we go to sleep now?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I felt sleepy after conversing. I felt like I could go to sleep in ten minutes like this if I closed my eyes.

Creak.

It was then someone opened our room’s door.

“Huh?” Woon and I simultaneously got up and looked towards the door.

“Um…Should we sleep together just for today..?” Dong-Jun said, and Do-Seung and Yeon-Hoon stood behind him.

“Well…for a better sleep, it’s best to sleep the usual way…”

“It’s important to manage our conditions.”

It was funny how each of them gave their excuses.

“Hahaha!” Woon burst out laughing, and I looked at my group members with a baffled expression.

“Okay, just for today.”

Just today, we could sleep together in one room.

***

It was bright the next morning. After sleeping side by side in the living room, we all woke up at 6 am.

“You guys have to go to Bleshu’s practice room, right?” I asked my group members.

“Yeah! We are going to practice there until evening.”

Since we were on different teams for the third-round team alliance mission, I had to separate from them. It was regrettable that I was the only one left out of the group, but there was nothing that could be done now. And it wasn’t like there were only negatives about this either.

[Probability of winning first place: 56%]

Since I could see even numbers like this, perhaps, it was my great fortune that I went to Kang Hyun-Sung’s team.

‘I should just think that the universe works in our favor,’ I thought. By thinking that everything happened for our good in the end, I felt better.

“We are going to meet up again here at 8 pm right?” I confirmed this final point with them. At 8 pm tonight, The Showcase 2’s second episode was going to air, and we planned to gather together to watch it.

“Yeah~ Don’t worry.”

“We will see it all together.”

“See you at 8 pm!”

My group members left the dorm. Since the Bleshu’s practice room was located quite far away, they had to depart earlier than me.

“Haa. I should also get going.” After changing into a tracksuit, I packed lightly and left the house. On my phone screen, there was the address of the practice room that Kang Hyun-Sung sent me. We had quickly exchanged numbers before separating at the studio. And last night, Kang Hyun-Sung created a group chat and invited all of us to join. He didn’t make any small talk and just sent us the practice room’s address.

‘Park Young-Ho looked betrayed when he got my number yesterday,’ I thought, but I quickly erased this image that hurt my conscience and promptly moved my feet.

***

The address that Kang Hyun-Sung sent me wasn’t what I expected. I thought the address would naturally be Only One’s company, TH Entertainment’s but it was a practice room at Gangnam.

‘Where is this place?’ It appeared to be a personal practice room they rented out. The whole building was full of practice rooms, and it seemed Kang Hyun-Sung had rented out the whole floor on one side of this building. I walked up to the floor that Kang Hyun-Sung told me about.

‘What?’ In the middle, there was an iron door blocking the path, and since there was a door lock on it, I couldn’t open it.

‘No wonder he told us to call when we arrived,’ I thought and called Kang Hyun-Sung.

—Are you here?

“Yes.”

—I will get the door.

I heard the lock device release from inside the steel door.

“You are here early,” he said, and I was able to enter the practice room.

“…Oh,” I couldn’t help but admire the room a bit. Though they painted the walls black, the space still looked wide. Three air purifiers were running at once, and the mirrors sparkled. The air conditioner was the newest kind and the most surprising part was that this was Kang Hyun-Sung’s personal practice room.

‘I thought we were going to meet up at TH Entertainment’s practice room but this is his personal practice room.’ I was surprised that an individual was using a practice room of this size. Perhaps, he noticed the surprise in my eyes, and Kang Hyun-Sung explained.

“If you make an annual, it doesn’t cost that much on a monthly basis. It’s like a thousand…”

“You don’t need to tell me.”

“All right.”

In the practice room, there was no one else but us. I thought OnebyOne and Bleshu members could be a bit late, but I wondered where the others were.

“Did the Only One members go somewhere?” It was strange that they were also not here.

“They left because they wanted to get some coffee and drinks.”

“Ah.”

“You can rest in the meantime.”

Hearing this, I sat crouched in the corner. Kang Hyun-Sung sat on the sofa and fumbled with his phone with his legs crossed. Though no one told us to, Kang Hyun-Sung and I sat at the farthest corners of the practice room. We sat diagonally from each other, so we were really at the farthest endpoints, and the distance was more noticeable since it was a vertically long room. And in case one of us accidentally met each other’s eyes, we intently stared at our phone screens with our teeth clenched.

Then, I furtively glanced up from my phone and looked towards Kang Hyun-Sung. Kang Hyun-Sung was smoothing his hair while looking in the mirror now.

“I’m still curious,” he suddenly said.

“Sorry?”

He didn’t glance in my direction and continued to look at the mirror as he continued, “How did you find me in the prayer room that time?”

‘Ah, that’s right.’ I expected this conversation to come up again when we were alone. From his point of view, that must have been a complete mystery to him.

“No, before that, why did you come to find me then?”

If I were him, I would’ve also been baffled. A guy he had a bad relationship with suddenly visited him at the hospital and asked him why he wasn’t getting ready. If I were him, I would’ve swung my fist first. I didn’t know how to answer when Kang Hyun-Sung said, “Whatever your reason was, thank you.”

“…?”

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to get up on the stage that day.”

He should’ve been angry at me for the crass words I said at that time, but Kang Hyun-Sung was thanking me instead.

“Of course, I was angry when you talked to me then, but after some time passed, I realized that wasn’t what you must’ve truly meant.” It seemed Kang Hyun-Seung realized that I had purposefully provoked him to push him back to the stage.

Perhaps, it would’ve been stranger if he didn’t realize that because of how ridiculous that situation had been. No matter how crazy or mean a guy was, people didn’t go seek out a sick person to pick a fight with them. It was more reasonable that they had some benevolent purpose behind their actions.

“So, that makes me more curious. Why did you find me and drag me outside?” Kang Hyun-Sung turned his head and met my eyes. I wondered how I could overcome this situation when just in time, Only One member appeared across the steel door while humming.

Di-di-ding!

Di-ri-ring~

“We bought ice americano and a couple of other drinks~” Young-Ho entered the practice room with both hands holding numerous drinks. Kang Hyun-Sung and I both turned our heads away from each other and stared at our phones.

“Huh? What?”

“Ah? Hello, Mr. Tae-Yoon!”

“You are already here!”

My surroundings became instantly noisy.

‘Thank goodness.’ I was able to overcome another crisis like this. ‘But I feel like he will ask me this question whenever he has the chance while we prepare for the third-round performance.’

I finally understood why Kang Hyun-Sung dragged me into his group. He wanted to uncover the mystery of that day when I found him in the prayer room.

‘Haa.’ I could already feel that this would be a very difficult and stressful performance preparation. I was sighing inside my mind when Young-Ho approached me and handed me a drink.

“Um, Mr. Tae-Yoon, would you like to drink this…?”

‘What in the world is this?’ It was a drink with whipped cream, chocolate chips, and all sorts of toppings available on the menu at venti size.

“…Ah, thank you.”

“Hope you like it!”

…It appeared that this performance preparation was going to be difficult in many ways.