The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The percentage rose again. Although it rose by a small percentage, it was encouraging that the numbers rose up, and I was relieved that the percentage rose above 60 percent again.

‘Since the fall isn’t that big, it’s not a serious problem yet.’ I assessed the current situation based on the percentages. Since the drop in the percentage was not significant, I thought it would be unlikely for it to grow into a serious issue. However, I couldn’t be completely sure that if I left the situation as it was, it wouldn’t affect the percentages later on. I needed to remove the root of the problem before it got any worse.

‘I need to resolve this by tonight.’ I couldn’t let this problem go beyond today as emotions deepened the longer one held onto it; whether it was good or bad. If we left it alone, our two married couple, who’ve enjoyed a long and happy marriage so far, might split up.

“I think it would be a good idea to make them sleep in the same room today.”

“Huh? Really?” Dong-Jun must not have expected his careless suggestion to be accepted as a plausible solution.

“I also think that’s a good idea.” Yeon-Hoon also seemed to like that idea. “If they’re together, they have time to talk and reconcile naturally.”

He was right, but the problem was—

“But how do we make them sleep in the same room?” It was as Dong-Jun said. If I asked Do-Seung or Woon to sleep in the same room, they would have normally answered, ‘Yeah, sounds good to me~.’ But if I asked them the same question right now, they would ask me if I had gone bonkers. I also thought if we forced them into the same room, it would only escalate into a bigger fight.

I said, “Let’s go step by step.”

“Rather than telling them to sleep together, I think we should let them meet first.” I told them a simple, shabby plan that was not much of a plan in the first place.

“Ah! That’s not a bad idea!” I thought it was nothing much, but Yeon-Hoon brightened up instantly.

“Oh, yes. Simple and direct.” Dong-Jun seemed to like my plan too.

“Then, let’s do it.”

Like this, our operation for Do-Seung and Woon’s reunion began.

* * *

Kang Do-Seung lay on the floor and stared blankly at the ceiling. His back hurt from lying on the floor without anything to support his back. He slightly regretted not saying yes when Park Dong-Jun had offered to buy a bed for them–no, he shook his head. Since Dong-Jun was letting them use his house, it was only right that they bought their own beds.

Do-Seung recalled how that conversation ended by them saying that if they got money after their debut, they would buy their own furniture. Kang Dong-Seung got up from his seat and leaned on the wall. His heart felt heavy and uncomfortable, and he had no desire to look at his phone.

‘How long has it been since I last fought with Woon?’ He had fought with Woon once when they were in their past agency. No, even during that time, Kang Do-Seung had one-sidedly gotten angry at Woon rather than things escalating to a full-blown fight. In that case, it was more accurate to say that this was the first time he had ever fought with Woon. Although his mind was telling him to go and apologize first, his heart felt reluctant.

Sigh.

The reason why they fought was nothing much. OnebyOne’s Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon had gotten on their nerves the entire day. He had wanted to give them a good scolding, but he repressed his anger for the team. They acted rudely to Yeon-Hoon and ruined the entire team atmosphere. However, even these were all somewhat tolerable since he could carry on the performance while just excluding those two in the planning and preparatory process. He was in charge of the song, Lee Woon was in charge of the choreography, and Yeon-Hoon was the main vocalist.

It was a given that Siren was the heart of this combined team, so just ignoring those two troublemakers was the guaranteed path to success. However, Lee Woon kept trying to help them and include them in the team. He listened to their nonsense and kept nodding his head and trying to empathize with them. But above all, what annoyed Do-Seung the most was the way Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon treated Woon.

Sigh.

“Seriously, what’s wrong with those pieces of trash…?”

It was beyond infuriating that those two troublemakers looked at Lee Woon like easy prey. Do-Seung wanted to immediately get up and cuss them out, but since he couldn’t do that on a TV show, his mind was in a mess. When he finally couldn’t take it anymore, he asked Lee Woon to talk separately outside. With Woon’s support, he planned to appropriately deal with Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon.

—Do-Seung, we’re a team in the end.

But Woon wanted to still work amicably with them.

—Can’t you see that they’re looking at you like an easy pushover? They’re just idiots with overinflated egos.

Because of how frustrated he was, Kang Do-Seung’s words came out stronger than he intended.

—What’s so bad about being an easy pushover? It’s good to build teamwork first.

—We can just build teamwork amongst ourselves. Why do you have to also involve them?

—If we gently coax them and help them merge…

—Fuck it with gently coaxing them or whatever. Why do you have to keep giving in to others? You can’t ever stop being nice? They think you’re easy because you’re only nice to them.

In the end, Do-Seung's suggestion to ignore them changed to criticism of Lee Woon. He felt so frustrated that he ended up making this mistake. Kang Do-Seung finally realized that he made a mistake when he saw Woon’s eyes become cold, but he couldn’t stop talking.

—This is an important opportunity for us. You know that if it’s not this, we can’t debut properly. So, please act in a way that makes sense. Instead of just being nice.

Once he began talking, the rest of his thoughts poured out, and Lee Woon only listened quietly.

—Do you have more to say?

In the end, Lee Woon’s eyes became ice cold, and their relationship has been like this ever since. They didn’t say a single word to each other and didn’t even meet each other's eyes. Kang Do-Seung also knew what he did was wrong. He knew that considering Woon’s personality, he couldn’t cast away or leave anyone behind. This wasn’t what he meant, and the reason why he was angry wasn’t because Woon was kind.

It was because he was frustrated that the situation was not going the way he wanted, and he was angry that those dimwits were treating Woon like a pushover. And what infuriated him the most were Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s eyes, which looked at Woon as if he was beneath them. However, nothing was resolved, and the practice ended with a heavy heart.

Sighhh.

It felt like this whole situation was his fault. Do-Seung got up from his seat. He opened his door, thinking he should at least go out to exercise when—

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door. He thought it was Woon at first.

“Do-Seung, are you sleeping?” But he heard Bong Tae-Yoon’s voice.

“…No.” He tried to hide his disappointment.

“I’ll go in for a bit.” Tae-Yoon came inside.

“Why?” Do-Seung unintentionally replied coldly and was surprised by his own voice. “Did you come here to persuade me to talk to Woon like Yeon-Hoon did earlier?” Do-Seung felt regretful that he didn’t take up Yeon-Hoon’s suggestion to apologize. He tried to control his emotions as much as he could and resolved to reply as nicely as he could this time.

“Do you want to make up with Woon? He said he wants to apologize.”

“…What?”

“Woon told me he wanted to apologize to you. Why don’t you go and have a little chat?”

Any anger he had in his heart completely dissipated at those words. Woon wanted to apologize—it didn’t matter to him whether Woon actually said this or Tae-Yoon made this up. As soon as Do-Seung heard this sentence, any pride or resentment disappeared from his heart, and he only felt apologetic toward Lee Woon.

“…I’ll go. I want to also go and apologize.” Do-Seung left his room and stood in front of Woon’s room.

Knock, knock.

After knocking, he asked for Woon’s permission. “…Woon, do you mind if I come in?”

After a brief silence, Woon said, “Yeah, come in.”

Do-Seung opened Woon’s door.

* * *

Do-Seung went into Woon’s room and seeing that made me laugh a little. Why did they fight so much if they were going to easily make up like this? Looking at Do-Seung’s attitude just now, it seemed like they would have reconciled without us having to step in. His whole body language was crying out that he wanted to go and apologize to Woon.

The original plan had been for me to talk to them separately and lie to them that they wanted to apologize to each other first so they could calm down and talk it out. Frankly, both of them never said they wanted to apologize first, so the primary goal was to make Do-Seung visit Woon’s room. I pushed ahead with this plan because I thought even if I had to fudge the truth a little, everything would go well once they met each other.

‘But there was no need for me to even persuade them.’ As soon as I said the word ‘apology,’ I clearly saw all negative emotions melt away from Do-Seung’s face as anger disappeared in his heart altogether, and he was just waiting for someone to give him a push. Do-Seung was someone who would ride or die for his family and friends, and Woon was not the type to push someone away if they came to apologize.

I said, “We should go in at the right time and tell them to sleep in the same room today.”

“Yeah!”

“It all worked out~”

After tonight, the two would come out as a happy, old married couple again.

“Then, I guess I’ll be sleeping with Tae-Yoon today?” Yeon-Hoon asked.

“Well, yes.” Since Do-Seung and Woon were sleeping together, I had to automatically sleep with Yeon-Hoon.

“Shall we watch a movie before we go to bed?” Yeon-Hoon excitedly made plans, but I immediately cut him off.

“What? A movie, that’s too much…just go to sleep. We have practice tomorrow.”

“But it’s our first time sleeping in the same room together.”

“What, we all used to sleep together in the living room before.”

“Still, it’s your first time in this room—"

“I’m too tired.”

“…So mean.” Yeon-Hoon showed his disappointment, but I couldn’t do anything about it because I also had to go practice tomorrow.

“Then I’ll go to bed first~” Dong-Jun left for his room.

About half an hour later, I went to where Do-Seung and Woon were and said, “Do you guys want to sleep together tonight?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Well, all right…”

After I suggested they should sleep in the same room, Yeon-Hoon and I went to the other room to sleep.

“We should get to bed too.”

“Yes!”

Once we both were inside, Yeon-Hoon kept pestering me to play with him. “You seriously don’t want to watch a movie? Really? Or should we play a game?”

“Let’s just sleep. Do it tomorrow. Tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay! Then…but won't you not be here tomorrow…?”

“That’s what I mean. You should play with Do-Seung instead of me.”

“…Meanie.” At my firm refusal, Yeon-Hoon finally prepared to fall asleep. Even though he whined so much to play, he fell asleep in an instant once he closed his eyes. I wasn’t surprised because he was the type of person who fell asleep wherever he laid his head down. I lay on the floor and fell into thought.

[Probability of winning: 65%]

The percentage was back to its original state. It meant that we successfully resolved the conflict within the team. So what was left was—

‘How do I crush Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon?’ I had to deal with those two bastards who didn’t know their place. Honestly, the way to deal with guys like them was easy: to crush them with pure skills.

However, many conditions were placed to carry out this solution. We had already proved to OnebyOne several times with our performances and rank that we were better than them in skills. However, Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon still believed that they had superior skills. Thus, there was only one solution.

‘We need to crush them so completely that they have no room for delusions.’ Since those guys seem to be surprisingly strong-minded, I didn’t think they would acknowledge that their skills were inferior unless they were compared one-on-one with us. Thus, we needed a competitive arena where we could perfectly compare ourselves with them. I thought about how to make this happen when I realized I didn’t have to set up the stage.

‘Ah, that’s right. We had that.’ Since the second round was over, it was about time for ‘that’ to start. I thought the production crew would probably send us a text message tomorrow morning.

‘They went on a field day or something. Probably around this time.’ The Showcase 2 did various activities besides the performances, starting with the mini-games. I thought I could utilize that to make a good…

Zing—

A strange sensation enveloped my entire body, and a haze began to rise in front of my eyes. I wondered what in the world was suddenly going on in the dead of night when I realized—

‘Ah, Precognitive Vision.’ I just remembered that this was how Precognitive Vision felt right before it activated. I couldn’t believe that it was starting so randomly like this; as expected, I thought the system was quite tactless. Since I didn’t know what would pop out, I prepared my mind and looked straight ahead. There was a crack between the haze, and soon, the space ripped in an instance and a future scene played out in front of me.

‘…What?’ But a face that I didn’t expect at all appeared. It was a face that I didn’t want to see even in my dreams. A person whose very existence became a source of trauma for me—it was my aunt.