The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Kang Hyun-Sung and I were off to a good start. This appeared to be a Would You Rather Balance game by the questions they posed to us, and both Kang Hyun-Sung and I replied without a hint of hesitation.

“Winning first place in a lottery vs. Everyone around me and I have a long, healthy life!”

“Everyone around me and I have a long, healthy life.”

“Everyone around me and I have a long, healthy life.”

Kang Hyun-Sung and I matched pretty well. Afterward, the balance game continued for a while.

“Teleportation vs. Transfiguration!”

“Teleportation.”

“Teleportation.”

“250 per month for a job you liked vs. 1,000 per month for a job you detested.”

“1,000 for a job I detested.”

“Working late till night on Friday vs. Coming to work early morning on Monday.”

“Working late till night on Friday.”

“Working late till night on Friday.”

***

At the tenth question, I began to feel that something was strange. How could we choose the same answer this many times? Even the producers looked at us doubtfully, as if they were wondering if we had planned this beforehand. But we didn’t even have the time to discuss a plan, and there was no point in scheming for a game of this level.

Furthermore, if we had actually schemed something, we would’ve shown some kind of rule like picking only right or left answers or chosen answers in a pattern like two answers on the left, and then one answer on the right.

Yet, these rules would’ve easily been discovered, and Kang Hyun-Sung and I chose our answers with no order. Thus, I trusted that the broadcasting crew must have known we used no underhanded tricks.

Yet, what continued to happen was so unbelievable that it looked as if we had fabricated the whole thing. We spat out the same answer for the eighteenth time, and upon the nineteenth question, the broadcasting crew changed their sketchbooks like they were going to use their last hidden card.

“Cat vs. Dog!”

It was the dilemma of the century. Kang Hyun-Sung and I, who had been answering without hesitation until now, stopped to think for the first time.

“Dog.”

“Cat.”

In the end, we finally gave different answers. I chose ‘dog’ while Kang Hyun-Sung chose ‘cat’.

“Yeees!”

“They finally got different answers!”

“Wow! It sure took a long time.”

The broadcasting crew looked so glad to see our failure that we didn’t know how to respond. Eventually, the broadcasting crew smiled awkwardly and apologized to us for getting too invested in the game. Then, I turned around and joined the rest of my group members. Our current score was 18.

‘But the way people look at us is strange.’ My members especially looked betrayed.

“Booo! You traitor!” Dong-Joon was the first to express his dissatisfaction.

“You sure get along well with the other team, Mr. Bong Tae-Yoon.”

“Are you sad that you are with Siren instead of Only One?”

“Maybe our current team arrangement was Tae-Yoon’s plan all along.”

My members treated me like a traitor just because I got many questions right with Kang Hyun-Sung. Perhaps, I needed to worry about them kicking me out of Siren if they saw me performing with Only One later. But in the end, I simply shrugged off my group members’ teasing, and that made them act even more fiercely. Our interaction created a comedic scene that made everyone in our surroundings roar with laughter.

“Okay, then! Let’s continue the game with the other teams!”

The second game was between Dong-Jun and Yeon-Hoon. I watched to see how they would do.

‘But why did they pick those two?’ Out of all the pairings, I wondered why they chose two people couldn’t be more different from each other.

“Jjajang ramen vs Jjampong ramen.”

“Jjajang ramen!”

“Jjampong ramen!”

As expected, those two crumbled from the very first question, which was basically a copy of the most classic question of ‘Jjajangmyeon vs. Jjampong’.

“ It’s over! Can the next team come out!” The main director, Park Soo-Chul looked satisfied by what happened and yelled that the game was over cheerfully. Yeon-Hoon and Dong-Jun blamed each other as they returned to their team. The Luminin team got five of the same answers until they failed the sixth question. Thus, the first win came to our team with a score of 18.

“Good job leader.”

“You too, Mr. Tae-Yoon.”

“No, it was nothing.”

The second game was physical. It was also a classic game where the players had to get postcards off of them without using their hands. A representative from each team came out to play the game and from our team, Bleshu’s Kang Jin-Kyu volunteered. Kang Jin-Kyu assured us that he was good at playing physical games like this and told us to trust him.

“Mr. Kang Jin-Kyu, last place!”

“Ah…”

And the first place went to…Woon.

“Siren’s Mr. Lee Woon is so fast.”

“I thought he had a motor on his body or something.”

When Woon came out while looking very serious, he started to run in one spot with all his might. Because of how powerful his movements and how fast his speed were, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him in shock. People only started to laugh after he dropped all the Post-it notes on his body in twenty seconds. Our team’s representative, Kang Jin-Kyu had stood right next to Woon of all places and started the game late after watching Woon in astonishment. That was the reason for his last place.

“I have no excuses. When I saw Woon run hard enough to make the wind blow next to me I couldn’t help but stare,” Kang Jin-Kyu admitted his failure and explained that his loss was inevitable. I also felt like I would act the same in his situation and empathized with him. The final game was one most fitting for an idol survival show: it was a random dance play game.

Two people needed to come out from each team. In my team, Only One’s Park Young-Ho and Lee Chul-Woon came out. Lee Chul-Woon appeared a bit unconfident but determined to do his best. From Luminin’s team, the group’s main dancer and main vocalist came out. Yet, we had to wait a bit for the team which my Siren members were part of to send out their representatives.

“Ah! We’ll do it! We’ll do a really good job!”

“But since Mr. Do-Young and Mr. Ji-Hyuk also want to do the game, I think it’s only right to give everyone a fair chance.”

“Ah, seriously. Don’t you all know that we are better at dancing?”

“…What?”

These were the two villains of my Siren group members’ team: OnebyeOne’s Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon. Those two were on top of my list of people that I wanted to smack on the head, and as expected, they were throwing a fuss again. After seeing their behaviors in person, I understood what my group members must have gone through more clearly. The content of their words was plain annoying but combined with their motions and tone of voice, they appeared like guys cutely whining to people who they were close with.

‘It’s hard to deal with them.’ Those two were clinging to my group members, smiling, and gesturing in a way that was hard for the receiver to refuse their request. It didn’t look good because I could feel the tension in the air and there was a sense of forcefulness in their movements. But if their actions were passed through the camera filters, they wouldn’t look rude but like cute members whining to their close, older members.

‘No wonder my group members are having a hard time.’ They could be insulted for their behaviors on air but it wasn’t to the point that would lead to their doom. If possible, I needed to put them in their place somehow—at least to the point that my group members could easily deal with them. Yet, there was no clear method that I could immediately think of.

“Um, Mr. Chul-Woon.”

“Yes?”

“If you are fine with it, could I do this random play dance?”

“Really?”

I wanted to see these two faces fall at least once. Lee Chul-Woon seemed to have felt forced to participate in this game and didn’t appear too confident about playing it. Thus, he seemed glad to see me volunteer myself.

“Then, will Mr. Tae-Yoon and I be going out together?” Park Young-Ho seemed equally happy as Lee Chul-Woon that I was participating in this game.

“Well, yes.” I also asked my other teammates if I could participate in Chul-Woon’s stead and they told me to do as I wished.

“I’m really good at the random play dance! There was a time when I danced it every day in a church camp and did it a lot of times at school break times.”

“Ah, I see.”

“I know pretty much all the recent songs, really,” he told me.

“That’s good.”

I simply nodded to Park Young-Ho’s words and thought about my Insight ability. I could only use Insight once a day but I wondered if I could lengthen the time I used it. Since I had control over the ability now, perhaps, I could also increase its use time. I also felt myself becoming more and more used to the sensation of the ability. Thus, I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to lengthen its time a bit right now.

“Okay! Let’s start our random play dance!”

The game began when we stepped forward. People were eliminated if they made the wrong dance move and just one person needed to survive each time. Matching the time the music came out, I used my Insight ability—very long and powerfully this time.

***

Park Young-Ho wanted to punch his past self who had bragged confidently to Tae-Yoon about his random dance skills. It was as if he had bragged to a pro gamer that he was good at games and a pro athlete that he was good at sports. As soon as the random play dance began, the air changed when Bong Tae-Yoon moved as the center. This was the first time Park Young-Ho had seen such a powerful and skilled random play dance.

The enjoyment of watching random play dance was seeing players have a slight lag before beginning their dance and showing viewers a feeling of awkwardness and nervousness the players also felt. Yet, there was not a moment of hesitation or awkwardness in Tae-Yoon’s movements. He was simply perfect, magnificent, and inspiring.

—You are my heart’s SHOOTING STAR—!

—My heart goes thump, thump—!

He even perfectly danced to a girl group’s song that was released ten years ago in perfect sync. His dance moves, expressions, and gestures seemed to have exactly copied from the performance of the original singers. In the end, Park Young-Ho himself gave up on the game and backed away. Eventually, the only one remaining on top of the stage was Bong Tae-Yoon. All the broadcasting crew was staring at Tae-Yoon in the same sense of shock and admiration.

A faint, feverish passion flowed out of Tae-Yoon’s eyes. It was as if he was a master who became one with dance.

***

“Mr. Tae-Yoon, stop!”

Because I used my Insight ability, all my senses were concentrated on dancing. I was only able to break out from that fixation from the producing director’s call, and I quickly canceled my Insight.

Whoosh! I felt a strong sense of dizziness then and fell on one knee.

“Uhh!” Boom. I managed to endure by putting great force into my legs and clenched my teeth to bear the headache. I bowed my head to cover my face from the cameras and swallowed back my pain.

“Hahahaha!”

“Wow, that was amazing!”

“Everyone, clap!”

“That was just…”

“That was the best I’ve seen someone do a random play dance.”

“Did your legs go out as a result?”

As I struggled against the afterpain of using Insight, people clapped and cheered for me. It seemed people thought I had been too focused on my dancing that I lost my balance and staggered instead of falling in pain.

‘…Now that I think about it, I’m the only one on the stage.’ It seemed I made history in this random play dance without even realizing it. That hadn’t been my intention but when I saw Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon stare at me in shock, it felt good.

‘Sucks for them,’ I thought. They probably had thought they would be the main characters of this game before I suddenly appeared and took the spotlight off them. Seeing their expressions, I felt no regret for using my Insight ability for a long time. The only drawback I had was that my head hurt and it burdened my body a bit.

“First place goes to Mr. Tae-Yoon! It was truly an amazing performance!” Park Soo-Chul announced that our team won again. Since we won a total of two games out of three, we ended up in first place. It felt like I had worked too hard on these games even though that hadn’t been my intention.

“Good work.” Kang Hyun-Sung approached me and patted my back. I felt a bit annoyed that he touched me without permission, but what I heard next immediately improved my mood again.

[A surprise mission]

I usually wasn’t happy about these surprise missions, but it was different this time.

[Go hide in a bathroom stall before anyone else comes during break time.]

[Upon success, you will gain Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s weaknesses.]

[Upon failure, Siren members’ stress level rises.]

The system was finally helping me for the first time today. The words ‘gain Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s weaknesses’ clearly rang in my head, and I thought, ‘Yeah, this is what I expected a system would do.’

For the first time since I went back in the past, I felt like I had regressed.