The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I gripped my fist and clenched my teeth. I had to press my lips tightly to not let out a sound because if I didn’t, I thought swear words would escape out of my mouth. Yeon-Hoon was sleeping, and I needed to calm my heart. I stared at the scene in front of me. I was inside a coffee shop. Since it didn’t look like a coffee franchise that was nearby here, I thought this incident wasn’t something that would happen around our dorm.

My aunt was sitting on the chair, looking at me. And in this future scene, I was wearing a sweater and track pants. I didn’t own any of these clothes yet, so I supposed this was a future that wouldn’t take any time soon. Since Precognitive Vision let me observe the scene from a third-person perspective, I was able to check facts as an outsider. I glanced at my aunt and checked her appearance. She was wearing a homely dress filled with strange patterns. As she usually did, her appearance was gaudy and eccentric.

‘She aged.’ Though it had been just three years since I last saw her in this timeline, she aged considerably more. It was inevitable, considering how much she drank and smoked. I could easily predict what she would say next.

—I bet you earned quite some money now.

Of course, it was all about money. How could she be so obvious and predictable? It always surprised me that the perfect example of a ‘bad adult’ cliché that came out in dramas, movies, or novels lived and breathed right near me. But perhaps because of her, I was able to mature faster and leave the house.

—How could you not contact me even once? Do you not have any gratitude for the person who fed you and gave you a place to stay? Do you not have a conscience?

She spoke just as I expected her to.

—Why don’t you share a bit of your pay for appearing on shows? I heard that celebrities get paid hundreds and thousands per episode.

Not a single line she said escaped my expectations, so I stopped paying attention to what she said and scanned my surroundings to look for clues. I wanted to find something that would help me figure out this day’s date. Perhaps, there could be a calendar on the wall, or someone could even say the date out loud.

Then, my Precognitive Vision abruptly cut off.

Sigh.

‘Damn it.’ I didn’t feel good because it felt like I didn’t gain much from this vision.

‘So, it seems certain that my aunt is going to visit me.’ This was the most important part.

My parents passed away not long after I was born. Thus, I didn’t feel any longing for them or missed them. Yet, the problems came after that. The person who gained guardianship over me was my aunt, and my aunt was a person who fundamentally lacked morals.

Sigh.

I had a headache. I thought a day like this would come. I didn’t know what my aunt could do. I needed to think of all possibilities and quickly searched through my phone.

‘….I still have it…’ Fortunately, all the evidence I collected was still there. It was what I had been preparing for since I realized the wrongs of this world and knew that there could be a day when I would need to completely cut off all connections with my aunt.

I had learned the ways of the world earlier than other people at the young age of ten—about nine years ago. I checked whether or not there was any damaged data and thought of a couple of preventive measures. I had hoped my aunt would never enter my life again, but I knew that was being overly optimistic.

‘There’s no way she will leave me alone.’ Thus, there was only one thing I could do–to make her not even think about getting close to me.

‘She won’t even be able to approach me,’ I thought.

***

The main director, Park Soo-Chul, and writer, Jin, sat together in a pension while pouring drinks for each other all night long. They still had more scenes to edit, but they were using the excuse of work to drink as they wished.

“Ahhh, this place is nice. Really nice,” Park Soo-Chul director said and gulped down a whole glass of a drink. He was obviously very pleased by the place they chose to drink.

“Aren’t you just happy that you are finally out of the editing room after being stuck there the whole day?” One writer asked.

“Honestly, when I’m in the editing room, it’s nice to even go to the bathroom.”

“Well, yeah.”

The reason they were all gathered at this pension was simple: it was to plan for The Showcase 2’s outdoor trip. The original plan was to have something similar to a school trip but instead of that idea, they decided to develop it further and create a new plan: a training camp.

“Will a training camp help the casts? You know, to improve the quality of their performances?”

A training camp for celebrities was a very old and established idea now. Since the theme, ‘camp’ was used so many times, it had lost its freshness a long time ago.

“There’s a team alliance going on right now. This is the only opportunity to do this.”

They probably wouldn’t get another chance to get the same teams as they currently did, and this team alliance mission had potential to gain enough attention to be mentioned from time to time on the internet. Naturally, it could also be beneficial when planning for the show’s seasons 3 and 4.

“Instead of only staying at the broadcasting station, let’s also rest a bit and get some fresh air outside,” Park Soo-Chul said. Personally, he also wanted to have some healing time by working at a place with nice scenery while the casts were locked in one place.

“We do all the work anyways. Actually, we will have more work.”

“But I don’t think the cast will like it too much,” the other staff protested. Their reaction was as expected. The only one who would be able to play would be the main producer, Park Soo-Chul, while the rest of the crew would have longer labor time and more work to do for the training camp. Overall, they wouldn’t gain much from doing this.

“I will do something for you all later. Sorry,” Park Soo-Chul said and drank another glass.

“You are going to give the announcement tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then let’s play hard today and work hard tomorrow,” Park Soo-Chul said and took a spoonful of the snack in front of him.

“Okay~ Let’s do a good job~ Cheers!”

“…Cheers.”

“…Yay…”

And thus, a grand project that only one person desired began.

***

It was morning. I was now used to waking up at 6 a.m. When I shared the room with Woon, we both got up together at 6 a.m. and folded the blankets, yet Yeon-Hoon…

“…Yeon-Hoon.”

“…”

“Yeon-Hoon!”

“…”

“Yeon-Hoon!”

“…Huh?”

On the other hand, Yeon-Hoon only woke up after I called him three times. Yeon-Hoon looked half-awake as he looked at me. Though his face was swollen because it was morning, he was still handsome.

“It’s morning.”

“Ah, ahh! Let me sleep a bit more!”

“You have to wash up!”

“Tae-Yoon, why don’t you wash up first?”

“Are you going to wake up while I take a shower?”

“Yeaaah, I will. Go wash yourself.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Just go now.”

I knew he was lying for sure. I thought he would definitely sleep some more, but I still went to the bathroom. It was nice that there was a bathroom for each room. When I came outside after washing up, Yeon-Hoon was naturally sleeping again. Thus, while drying my hair with the towel, I yelled.

“Yeon-Hoon!”

“Ahhh!”

I woke Yeon-Hoon up with a very loud voice. Yeon-Hoon finally got up from his spot and then sat on the ground.

“Go wash yourself now.”

“…Okay.”

After seeing Yeon-Hoon stagger to the bathroom, I finally went outside the room. The delicious smell of food wafted through the living room. Though it was my turn to prepare the food today, Do-Seung was already preparing breakfast.

“You’re awake?” he asked me.

“Yes.”

“I just prepared breakfast today. Let’s eat,” he said. It seemed he was sorry that he brought the group’s mood down by fighting with Woon yesterday and was making breakfast to make up for it. It was then Woon came out of the bathroom after his shower. Perhaps, they had made up last night because the two talked with no problems.

“Wow, that looks good. Finally some Korean food.”

“You said you wanted to eat it yesterday.”

“I thought you said it was hard to prepare food in the morning.”

“I just need to wake up 30 minutes earlier.”

I was thankful that they were back to acting like an old couple again.

‘But with this amount of side dishes, he probably woke up one hour earlier,’ I thought. It probably wouldn’t have been enough for him to wake up just half an hour earlier. There were egg rolls, soybean paste soup, fresh kimchi, and stir-fried spicy pork that was slightly torched on the table.

‘Dong-Jun will really like this meal,’ I thought. It had all his favorites and food with strong flavors.

“I will go wake up Dong-Jun.”

“Yeah, all right.”

“If he doesn’t get up, just shove him inside a bathtub.”

“Okay.”

I opened Dong-Jun’s room. I thought he would obviously be sleeping, but he was sniffing with his eyes closed.

Sniff, sniff.

“…?”

“…Tae-Yoon?”

“Yeah.”

“…Is it soybean paste soup, stir-fried pork, and egg rolls?”

“…Sorry?”

“…I will quickly go after washing myself.”

Perhaps, due to all those salad meals, Dong-Jun automatically got up from the smell of today’s breakfast. It was shocking to say the least. Dong-Jun’s fans affectionately called him puppy, and it appeared he was gradually becoming like a real dog. Eventually, we all gathered around the dining table and my heart finally felt calmer.

Honestly, the scene I saw with my Precognitive Vision had kept me awake last night. Yet, in front of this dining table with all my members gathered around me, my worries seemed to disappear.

“Okay! Let’s eat~”

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Thank you so much, Do-Seung.”

“Sure.”

“Wow! This is so delicious! Did you put drugs in this or something?”

“What?”

“That’s how crazy good it is.”

Seeing them, I felt this groundless, strange hope that I would be able to solve any problem or hurdle coming my way. Like that, I finished my breakfast.

“When are you guys coming back today?” I asked.

“Hm. Probably around 10?”

“Haa. We might come later, considering how stubborn the other members are.”

“We’ll try to be patient as possible.”

We all separated ways to head to our respective practice rooms.

Zing.

Zing.

Zing.

…

Everyone’s phone simultaneously rang.

“Huh?”

“What?”

Everyone looked surprised since our phones rang at the same time.

“Huh?”

“What?”

The content we read from our phones was shocking for me, so it was even more surprising for my group members.

—The Showcase 2’s training camp begins!

—Starting tomorrow, don’t separate from your team members and eat, sleep, and practice from the same place together!

—We ask you to gather at the pension linked below by tomorrow at 12 p.m.

—You all will lodge in the same place for one week.

I clearly remembered idols on The Showcase 2 going on an outdoor trip in my past life. Yet, in this life, the trip changed to a training camp. However, besides that, I couldn’t believe they told us such crucial information just a day before. How much crueler could they be? But the person who was in more shock than us was probably not us, but WD Entertainment’s only working staff, Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon.

‘I bet they don’t realize that this is another way that the broadcasting station is exercising undue authority and control over their casts. Or perhaps, they thought a one-day notice was enough. But if we are going to camp together, we will probably do all sorts of different events,’ I thought.

Perhaps, things could be better than I expected. Rather than just making us train, they would probably make us play games to amass points and prizes that would lead to greater opportunities. Since our fandom was still small compared to Only One, we needed to use this chance as well as possible.

Zing.

My phone rang again then. I wondered what it was and was surprised to receive a message from an unexpected sender.

—We’re going to a training camp. Did you see the message?

We never contacted each other after changing numbers, but Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly messaged me out of the blue.

‘What’s up with this bastard?’ I wondered.