The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The members’ faces turned bright red like a tomato, and Yeon-Hoon’s face burned up. Even Woon, who cared the most about his fashion among us, glared at me.

‘I feel a bit bad.’ I wondered if I should have let them choose their clothes, but then I thought, ‘No, it’s better than being late.’

Besides how we were doing in the show, we were still rookies; no, not even rookies but a pre-debut group. It was ridiculous to be late with our current status. Of course, I had no intention of being late even if I had more experience either.

‘…And isn’t this actually an advantage?’ I had thought this might actually be advantageous for us since we were the only ones who hadn’t dressed up among all the groups.

‘We’ll stand out much more.’ I thought we’d already shown our cool and cute sides from our previous performance, and we also had Yeon-Hoon’s god-tier visuals. Thus, I thought it might be better to appear like this once or twice to make us feel more approachable, and I thought we needed to own our looks despite our embarrassment.

“Um, you didn’t forget that we had shooting today, right?” Bleshu’s leader, Han Do-Young asked.

I wondered if he was picking a fight with us, but he seemed to have no ill intentions. Although his question seemed to be asked out of genuine concern, it only seemed to dampen the members’ emotions even more.

“Ah, no…”

“We also knew it was shooting day…”

“Ah, yes…!”

The members answered with difficulty, and Han Do-Young withdrew with an awkward smile.

Soon after, Park Soo-Chul said, “Now that all five teams are here, let’s start the opening shoot!”

We gathered in the middle and stood in opening formation for the camera. We somehow ended up standing at the center, and Only One happened to stand next to us.

“Nice outfit.” And out of all places, Kang Hyun-Sung had to stand next to me. He complimented my outfit with a sly smile. His comment was in a completely different category than Han Do-Young’s question just before. While Han Do-Young asked because he really was worried, Kang Hyun-Sung commented to make fun of me. I looked at him to see just how great his outfit was that he could make fun of mine but—

‘…His clothes do look nice.’ I shut my mouth because it was an indisputable fact that he dressed well.

“First of all, I’d like to start by saying thank you to everyone for gathering here on time, even though Gapyeong must be far from where everyone lives." It appeared Producer Park Soo-Chul was today’s host, and he began his speech by thanking us. He gave a standard speech. He warned us to pay attention to safety and encouraged us to have fun filming before returning home. He said it was only for today that they were going to film us variety show style, and they would leave us completely alone to practice tomorrow.

After saying all the information that was worth sharing, Park Soo-Chul said in a more excited tone than before, “Okay! Then let’s officially start the shoot!”

It seemed as if they hadn’t hired a separate host for the training camp to reduce the production costs.

‘But it seems like this middle-aged man is just getting excited by himself.’ It almost felt like Park Soo-Chul hadn’t hired a host for his own enjoyment; even though he didn't appear on camera and only his voice narrated behind the scenes, he still made all kinds of motions with great enthusiasm.

“First of all, everyone is gathered in their groups, right? Please reassemble according to your teams for the next performance.” At his words, we gathered again in our teams, but before that, it was time for me to say goodbye to the members.

“I’ll be going.”

“Be confident.”

“Do well.”

The members seemed to take extra care of me because I was the maknae.

But I said, “You should all try to reel in your anger as much as possible.”

“Yeah…”

“We’ll also do well…”

Truthfully, the one who had to be on their best behavior was not me but my members, and after I separated from them, I went to Kang Hyun-Sung’s team's side. When I joined up with the team, I realized again that the team members on my side were tall. I was the tallest in my group, but in this team, I was just average.

But above all, ‘Why are they all dressed so well?’ When tall people dressed up, their aura felt different. Yet, I thought I had to be more confident, especially at times like this.

“Mr. Tae-Yoon, didn’t you wear the same clothes when you practiced with us yesterday?”

Did they hate seeing me act so confident? People kept shooting me down with questions that crushed my spirits. The person who asked the question was Only One’s Kim Joo-Hyun. I wondered if Only One members, starting with Kang Hyun-Sung, were all trying to pick a fight with our outfits today, but when I saw Kim Joo-Hyun’s face, he looked like he was just asking out of pure curiosity.

‘He really is just asking me innocently.’ I wondered if my current outfit was so bad that it garnered so much reaction; I honestly didn’t know and answered, “It’s the same design but different clothes.”

“Oh, you must be the type to buy several of the same clothes.”

“These are the most comfortable clothes to practice with.”

We chatted like this for a while about my outfit. Clothes just had to cover one’s body, so why did people have so much to say about it? I just stood there and nodded mechanically to people’s questions and comments.

Among them, Kang Hyun-Sung scanned my outfit up and down and suddenly asked a question that hit right on the mark. “Did you oversleep today?”

“…” I didn’t think wearing shabby clothes was such a big deal, but I felt a bit embarrassed about his comment. It was okay that I wore casual clothes, but I was a bit embarrassed that I overslept.

When I answered with silence, Kang Hyun-Sung seemed a bit taken aback. “Oh, you really overslept?” He said in a slight tone of surprise, “I thought it was on purpose.”

Why the hell would I do this on purpose? Of course, I thought we could stand out in this outfit during the opening shoot, but there was no need for us to go this far. Purposely wearing shabby clothes to stand out was not an ordinary person’s thought process. Thus, this meant—

‘He doesn’t see me as a normal person.’ I could clearly guess how Kang Hyun-Sung saw me.

“I didn’t think it was possible for you to oversleep.” Kang Hyun-Sung smiled and said, “It might be because you’re still growing and need a lot of sleep.” He muttered as if he was much older than me even though we were only four years apart. I was older than Kang Hyun-Sung if I added up my actual age before regressing. It was so ridiculous that it almost made me laugh.

“Since it looks like we’re all gathered in teams now, let’s start the shooting again!” Park Soo-Chul said just in time and gathered our attention. We stopped chatting and stared straight ahead.

“Can everyone see the three buildings in front of you?”

“Yes!”

“Those are the accommodations you’re going to use as a team.”

“Wow!”

“Oh!”

“It's really nice.”

I looked at the buildings that Park Soo-Chul pointed at. They were buildings with overall the same appearance but slightly different details. They were modern white buildings with separate rooftops on the second floor. It was not actually a pension but closer to a pool villa. Due to its expensive exterior, everyone responded enthusiastically, and Park Soo-Chul gestured slightly at us to show an even bigger reaction. People elicited a stronger reaction than before and exclaimed.

“Wow! It’s the best!”

“I can’t believe I’ll be living in a place like this!”

“How can a building look this amazing!”

After he got many reaction cuts like this, Park Soo-Chul proceeded with the shooting by saying the next lines, “Now, we’re going to play a distribution game to choose among those three accommodations.”

‘A distribution game?’ The wording sounded a bit strange, but it was easy to guess what it was about by the title.

“Those three accommodations have different characteristics. To explain—,” Park Soo-Chul said and took a moment to point to one of the accommodations with his hands. “That one has various spa facilities, including a jacuzzi inside.”

People’s heads swooshed to where Park Soo-Chul pointed. A spa facility, including a jacuzzi.

‘Wow, that’s good.’ There was nothing better than that after a tiring day of practice.

“And now, if you look at that building over there, there’s a full set of game consoles and top-level desktop additions, including PlayStation and Switch. There's a bunch of games available too.” The accommodation on the other side had a game room. I personally didn’t think too much of it because I didn’t play many games but—

“Oh!”

“Wow!”

“That’s amazing…?”

A few members were elated. I wondered if all the dorms had these luxurious advantages and if that was the case, why he had even bothered us to play a ‘distribution game’.

“Lastly, there's the building over there. Unlike the previous two accommodations, there’s nothing. There’s just beds and a sofa, and it’s a place that fulfills the most basic function as an accommodation.”

I smirked and nodded at his last words. As expected, there was no way all the accommodations could be good, and the producers would have set a clear method to differentiate them.

“From now on, all of you will have to play a game to get a choice of those three dorms!” Park Soo-Chul smiled while saying this.

“Wow, I really want to try a jacuzzi.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve played games.”

“I think we just need to avoid last place.”

Perhaps due to the great facilities, Park Soo-Chul successfully ignited a fire in people’s hearts.

‘It doesn’t matter to me.’ As for me, I wasn’t too impressed as the jacuzzi and game consoles were nice, but it didn’t matter to me as long as I had a place to sleep. Even using the jacuzzi and playing games were all labor in the end. It didn’t matter to me as long as we could practice and sleep. However, this was only my opinion, and Park Young-Ho from Only One seemed to have a different opinion.

“Don’t you think a jacuzzi would be great, Mr. Tae-Yoon?” Park Young-Ho was staring at the accommodation where the jacuzzi was located with sparkling eyes.

“Then I will now introduce the first of the three games we prepared for the accommodation selection,” Park Soo-Chul said and brought out a sketchbook. “We’re going with a classic variety show game—One Voice!”

'One Voice'. I listened to Park Soo-Chul’s explanation. The rules were simple; two people from each team were chosen as representatives, and they were shown two options such as jajangmyeon vs jjamppong [ref] Chinese-style Korean noodle dishes. [ref/] Both people had to choose one of the two options, and the pair that gave the most number of the same answers was the final winner. Frankly, there was no need to even explain the rules of the game as the name said it all.

Park Soo-Chul said, “Then, two players from each team, please step forward.” If possible, I wanted to stand in the background and not participate in the game.

“Aren’t you coming out?” However, Kang Hyun-Sung came forward first and then looked at me.

“…What?” I was taken aback that Kang Hyun-Sung asked me to play the game with him, and a game called One Voice at that. I tilted my head because I wondered why he asked me out of everyone. When I stepped back instead of stepping forward, Kang Hyun-Sung approached me.

Then he spoke so quietly that the other team members couldn’t hear him, “This is probably the easiest game. Are you planning to just hold out even while not knowing what the other games would be like?”

‘…He does have a point.’ He was right. I didn’t want to participate as much as possible, but since I didn’t know how the situation would proceed, it would be in my best interest to play the easiest game and finish my part for sure. In the end…

“…Yes, let’s go.” I joined Kang Hyun-Sung as the representative for One Voice. I also scanned the representatives of the other teams.

In Team Tae-Yoon without Tae-Yoon, Yeon-Hoon and Dong-Jun came out, and in Luminin’s team, Luminin’s leader and maknae came out together. I wondered who would play first when the production crew said, “Kang Hyun-Sung and Bong Tae-Yoon, please come forward.”

I supposed we were going first. Kang Hyun-Sung said, “Let’s do a good job.”

“Yes.” Frankly, I had no desire to win; even if we lost or won, it all felt the same to me. I planned to take it easy and move on, and I was just going to work hard to the extent that the public wouldn’t insult me for being lazy. However, this was quite unpleasant but…

“We’ll start with the first option. No one comes to my wedding vs no one comes to my funeral. So, what’s your choice?”

“No one comes to my funeral.”

“No one comes to my funeral.”

Kang Hyun-Sung and I started off to a great start.