The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

It was as if a great calamity had befallen them. Perhaps, this was what would happen if a war broke out and citizens were ordered to flee.

“Hey! My toothbrush! Toooothbrush!”

“Here it is.”

“Can we go out after washing ourselves?”

“Haaa. There isn’t enough time.”

My group members got ready while running around the living room. We needed to get to the Gapyeong pension by 11 am, but we woke up at 9 am. It was no wonder we were in a full-blown panic. I was still remaining calm because I was trying to shake off my drowsiness while sitting blankly on the floor.

But as soon as I was fully awake, I would probably be running around like my members. And taking advantage of the calm feeling my sleepiness gave, I tried to organize my thoughts. I took out my phone and inputted the pension’s address. Then, after marking that as our destination place, I checked how long it would take us to arrive there.

—1 hour and 36 minutes.

It would be fine if our travel time really took 1 hour and 36 minutes but the problem was that we were leaving in rush hour and our apartment was located at Gangnam—the place with the heaviest traffic in the entire country.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Hm?”

“Let’s just go down after changing our clothes!”

“Huh?”

“Without washing ourselves?”

“What about breakfast?”

“There’s no time!”

Rather than shuffling around like this, we needed to immediately get dressed and hop into the car. If things went well, we could arrive at our destination without being late.

“Umph! My toothbrush!”

“Gargle your mouth after arriving there. Gargle.” I took out the toothbrush that Dong-Jun was holding inside his mouth.

“Woon! Don’t pick out your clothes and just wear this.”

“Ah? Okay.”

I handed Woon a training wear as he looked to be still contemplating what to wear.

“Yeon-Hoon! This isn’t the time to take a shower.”

“Ah, no, I will be really quick!”

“Just wash your face quickly!”

“What!”

I held back Yeon-Hoon who looked intent on going to the bathroom to take a shower. The only person who had the same mind as me was Do-Seung.

“Tae-Yoon, I will take all these five suitcases down right now. You gather up everyone and come down the parking lot,” Do-Seung said. Do-Seung had just put on any training wear he saw and pushed his hat down low over his face. Then, while carrying five suitcases, he went down the parking lot first. After stopping all my members who were about to waste more time and making sure they did nothing more than washing their faces, I dragged everyone down the parking lot.

“Let’s go!”

I woke up at 9 am but by the time I pushed all my members to the elevator, it was just 9:10 am. It was one of the most stressful and hectic ten minutes of my life. When we finally reached the parking lot, Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna were waiting for us while looking quite nervous.

“Ah! They're here!”

“Why did you all come down so late!”

“We planned on meeting at 8:30 am!” Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna complained as soon as they saw us. Since we had no excuses to make, we simply lowered our heads in apology. It was fortunate that we didn’t have to get our hair and makeup done since we were going to a training camp. But if we had to also go to a salon, we would have definitely been late.

“We'll leave right away! We might be able to make it if we hurry up!”

As soon as we all got into the car, Ms. Seung-Yeon hit the accelerator. The car swiftly broomed forward. There was nothing I could do now besides praying that we wouldn’t be late. Fortunately, when we arrived at the main road, Gangnam’s traffic wasn’t as heavy as expected.

“Wow! Thank goodness. I think we will be able to arrive at our destination with five minutes of spare time.”

“Wow.”

“Haaa.”

“Thank goodness.”

We finally felt relieved and felt more at ease. It was then, Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna asked the reason for our tardiness. What happened this morning was unusual. Usually, I got out of bed first and woke up all my members, but that wasn’t like a decided rule or anything. It was what I did on my way, and my group members could easily wake up by themselves hearing their alarms.

“…Does stress affect your sleep?”

“That’s right…”

“Haha…”

It seemed evident that all my members woke up late because they felt too stressed in a short period of time. Their source of stress was naturally OnebyOne’s Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon, and my source of stress was the phone call last night. Talking to my aunt on the phone had taken a great deal of energy and made me wake up later than usual. In short, this situation was what happened as several bad situations overlapped, and factors we couldn’t control affected us.

“We will be more careful next time.”

“We will manage our condition and sleeping schedule better.”

But since it was also an idol’s responsibility to manage our conditions, my group members responded like this.

“I didn’t ask to hear you guys just apologize…haha.”

“Well, thank you for saying that.”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna looked a bit taken aback to hear my members' resolution when they had simply asked their questions out of curiosity.

“But will it be all right for us to go in our current state?” Woon changed the topic then.

Hearing this, everyone else also inspected the clothes they were wearing. Today, we simply wore our training wear as we usually did without dressing up one bit. We wore white training pants, oversized sweatshirts, and black and white hats bought from a street shop. It was too casual to even be called casual style. Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna seemed to contemplate this a bit and answered.

“It will be fine. It’s not like some intense shooting. The broadcasting crew told you all to just wear like you are going on a college field day.”

“Hopefully, that’s the case.”

“Well, since they told us to not overdress…”

“That’s good…”

My group members looked a bit relieved then. Perhaps, they thought it would’ve been more awkward for them to dress up too much.

“But don’t most people dress up when going on a college field day?” I asked. Of course, I didn’t know because I didn’t go to college, but I knew that this was an event that college students often looked forward to the most. Thus, I couldn’t imagine them not dressing up for a day like that. They probably wouldn’t go all out but would care hard enough to make a difference.

“You know what they call it? The casual but not casual look?”

“Ah.”

“Ah, hm.”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna, the only ones who went to college amongst us, struggled to answer and I took their responses to mean yes.

“…Does it look like we really missed the brief?” Yeon-Hoon asked desperately.

“Well, it does look more like you are just going completely natural…” Ms. Seung-Yeon replied regretfully. The inside of the car fell silent then.

“S-Still, everyone’s skin looks good so it makes you all look fresh. Haha. Don’t worry about it!”

“Maybe this is even better!”

“You guys don’t really need to dress up anyways! Honestly!” Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna tried to cover what they said belatedly but the mood didn’t improve.

‘This is serious…’ I thought.

***

Park Soo-Chul looked around the pension porch wearing much less formal clothes than usual. Though he usually dressed informally while going to the studio, he dressed really comfortably today in training wear from top to bottom. Not just him but the majority of the staff dressed in this manner.

This was because it wasn’t like they were on a school trip or anything but were simply on a work trip that took place outside. Most people thought it would be better to wear comfortable clothes for a work trip, and the only one excited about the change of scenery was the main producer, Park Soo-Chul.

“Ahhh! I remember having so much fun when I was in college. It reminds me of the old days, seriously.”

“Ah, what are you going on about?”

“I played foot volleyball here, cooked pork belly for dinner, and ate ramen and soju at nighttime. Ah, how good those days were.”

“It sure seems like it.”

“Good to be here again.”

“…Haa.”

Though Park Soo-Chul was usually energetic, his mood was soaring today. It felt as if he would accept any requests the casts made to him while filming. In a way, he appeared sort of like a schoolteacher on a field day, and the usually strict man appeared softer than usual.

Of course, for the rest of the broadcasting crew, he sounded just like an excited old man. They wondered how long they would have to put up with him when a car arrived from far away. Everyone looked towards the car and saw that it belonged to Only One. The car’s door opened, and the Only One members walked out.

“Wow. They give off a different feel outside of the studio.”

“There must be something about Gapyeong. It makes your heart thump.”

People welcomed the Only One members warmly and complimented them with just their entrance.

“Hello!”

“Hello~”

Only One greeted each of the staff. Though they all dressed casually, they clearly dressed up. All their outfits made them look like handsome college students. They were drastically different from the main producer, Park Soo-Chul, who dressed in a set of training clothes from top to bottom.

“Only One members, you look really cool today!” Park Soo-Chul greeted them excitedly and the Only One members looked a bit taken aback as they stood awkwardly.

“Thank you. You also look cool today,” Kang Hyun-Sung responded without a change in his expression.

After that, other groups’ cars began to arrive one by one: Bleshu, Luminin, and OnebyOne. Every time a new car arrived, the scene’s atmosphere changed from employees in a workshop with their employees to a group of college students coming on their school trip.

It appeared everyone caught onto today’s shooting’s main theme and all dressed casually but well. This was a good opportunity for them to do some shooting in more everyday wear clothes. The only people they had to wait for were the Sirens now, and there was still ten minutes left before the expected start time.

“Hmph. They are a bit late.”

“Well, it’s not time yet.”

The staff said while staring intently at the pension’s entrance. The Siren members had already become known among the staff for their everyday wear. When the idols sometimes walked around the studio in casual clothes, Siren caught their eye for being so fashionable. Perhaps, they would be able to bring that advantage to its full light today.

“Oh, it’s Siren’s car.”

Siren’s car came closer from far away with five minutes left before 11 am. People waited for the car’s door to open and looked expectantly to see what they were wearing today.

Drrr. The door opened, and the Siren members appeared.

“Sorry that we are late!”

“I’m sorry!”

“…?”

“…What?”

“….Huh?”

All the staff looked confused. They had expected Siren to wear the best clothes today, but their current outfits looked too underwhelming.

“Huh, what are they doing?”

“Did they come with only the intention to practice?”

And when they stood next to the other group members, it was even more noticeable.

“Pft!”

“Don’t laugh!”

“Bear it!”

It appeared all the Siren members were also well aware that their clothes were different from the other groups and had their heads deeply bowed, unable to raise them again. The only one who appeared happy among the broadcasting crew was Park Soo-Chul.

“Ah, as expected of Sirens! They know what’s up! On a school trip, you are meant to dress casually like this and return home after playing your hearts out! Hahaha!”

“Ah, hahaha.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Thank you…”

The Sirens replied to each line that Park Soo-Chul said while looking embarrassed.

The only one who seemed calm among the group was the Siren’s youngest, Bong Tae-Yoon.

“Mr. Tae-Yoon sure looks calm. Does he think nothing of the situation?”

“He is usually expressionless.”

“Okay, since all five teams gathered, let’s begin our opening!”

And this was how they began a strange opening shooting where one group stood in stark contrast with the rest of the four groups with the way they dressed.