The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Team Luminin’s performance began. Their performance continued smoothly without any noticeable faults or wow factors. Yet, perhaps, due to lack of practice, they were slightly lacking in details and completion. However, since it hadn’t been long since we started practicing for the third competition, I thought it was natural.

I barely looked at Luminin’s stage and continued my previous thoughts. I first stared at Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon sitting across from me. Kim Joon-Hyuk had his head down and was clenching and unclenching his hands. He looked angry, but it was more accurate to say he was completely out of it.

On the other hand, Lee Young-Joon’s condition was a bit worse. He was blatantly glaring at me; it was so intense and obvious that I wondered if lasers might shoot out of his eyes.

At this point, I was surprised. I was surprised that they were acting like this while I had evidence that could destroy their careers. Kim Joon-Hyuk felt like he was trying to moderately repress his anger because of this fact, but in contrast…

‘What the hell’s with Lee Young-Joon?’ Lee Young-Joon seemed like the type to act rashly and let his anger control his actions and thoughts. I turned my gaze away from Lee Young-Joon. It felt like if I stared at him any longer, he might accept that as a provocation and rush toward me. I needed to at least avoid that shitshow. On the other hand, I met eyes with Yeon-Hoon.

—Tae-Yoon, are you okay?

Yeon-Hoon mouthed out these words, and I nodded. However, Yeon-Hoon’s eyes still looked concerned. Then he glanced between Lee Young-Joon and me for a while and sighed deeply while shaking his head.

“Team Luminin’s performance is over. Does anyone want to give their feedback?”

Finally, it was now time to criticize Luminin’s performance. Since it was an 'okay' performance, nobody said anything too harsh and glossed over it.

“Then don’t forget the feedback you received today and please start practicing hard again tomorrow!”

“Great job!”

“Thank you for your hard work~”

After Luminin’s performance was over, the bizarre midterm checkup ended.

“Ughhh~”

“Come on! Get up~”

Kang Hyun-Sung’s team began to get up one by one and stretched their stiff muscles and joints. I also got up from my seat and gently rolled my ankle. It was time to go back in and finish our practice.

‘I also need to filter out the trash that needs to be discarded.’ It was time to make my final confirmation that what the system wanted from me was to completely incinerate these two trolls. I also needed to prepare accordingly. While my head felt heavy as I had a lot on my mind—

“Bong Tae-Yoon!”

Someone approached from behind. It was Dong-Jun.

He asked, “Are you okay?”

“About what?”

“Their personalities are unbelievably awful. Well, it felt refreshing for me to listen as a bystander, but they could cause serious trouble for you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Yeah, I would if I had nothing to worry about.” Dong-Jun stared at me for a moment. He was always a playful person, but I got a glimpse of his serious side. He continued, “Don’t do anything dangerous. I’m also repressing my frustration. Those guys rush ahead first without thinking when they get angry.”

“Thank you for the warning.” It was not common for Dong-Jun to warn me so seriously like this. I tried to look as calm as possible to make him feel reassured.

“That…why are you making that weird expression?”

“…” But it seemed to not have much effect. Instead, I answered, “I got it. I’ll be careful.” After saying this, I began walking again. Although it would be a lie if I said I wasn’t worried, I needed to finish what I started. I needed to end this once and for all.

* * *

Park Soo-Chul stood among the staff organizing the scene and fell into thought. Regardless of everything else, he had created this event so that someone could knock down Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s pride a few inches. And frankly, Bong Tae-Yoon did exactly what he wanted.

‘But it feels iffy.’ It didn’t feel like things were resolved neatly. It was normal for people to feel dispirited after hearing criticisms and then calm down since constructive criticisms were hard to hear but had a positive effect in the long run. However, Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s reactions just now felt a bit different. No, Kim Joon-Hyuk showed an expected reaction, but the problem was with Lee Young-Joon.

‘His eyes were crazy…” He seemed like the type of person who couldn’t control their emotions and made a huge deal about small problems. For now, all he could do was wait. It was natural for intense emotions to die down after a night's sleep. Park Soo-Chul thought that if they just safely passed this night, everything would have ended up fine in the end.

* * *

The practice finally ended at noon. In the midterm checkup, our team performed the best by far. However, ironically, it was also our team that practiced the latest even though we did the best. Even though we confirmed that the lights from the other dorms went off, we practiced one hour longer.

As soon as it became midnight, Kang Hyun-Sung said, “Practice is over.”

“Ahhhh!”

“Wow! I almost died!”

“I can’t feel my hands.”

“I think my hip joint just popped out.”

“I don’t think it pops out that easily.”

People fell to the ground and groaned. While practicing with Kang Hyun-Sung, I realized many things.

First, even if Kang Hyun-Sung didn’t come out in The Showcase, I thought he would've succeeded anywhere. The amount this guy practiced was insane. Second, there was an expression that if one squeezed a dried squid hard enough, water would seep out of it. Even in moments when a person thought they were within their limits, they would be able to go further if a strong-willed person pushed them hard enough. And like this, a bunch of completely dried-out squids sprawled on the floor.

“Let’s go and wash up, and after eating breakfast tomorrow, let’s gather again by 8 o’clock.” Kang Hyun-Sung said in a flat voice.

“…Yes, sir.”

“…Roger that.”

The team members answered in a dying voice. Then, I walked out of the practice room with a towel around my neck. It was very convenient that the practice room was in the basement of the dorm we were staying. These were the advantages of staying in a training camp. When we went up to the dorm, the production crew welcomed us as if they had been waiting for us.

“Are you guys done with practicing?”

“What? Ah, yes.”

“Then can we go into your respective dorms for a brief moment?”

“Ah, yes? Have you been waiting for us all this time to ask us that?”

“Since you guys looked so focused, we didn’t want to break your concentration.”

The production crew were people who knew how to respect people's time and efforts. If it were a different program, they would have just intervened in our practice session and asked immediately -no, they wouldn’t have even asked to go into our private rooms. Nevertheless, the production crew went into our respective rooms as soon as we gave our permission.

When I asked what they were doing, they replied, “As we said, we won’t shoot at night. That’s why we’re turning off the camera.”

“Ah, did you wait all this time to just ask us that?”

“Yes. Well, we didn’t have anything to do anyway. Haha.”

There was an observation camera installed in each private room. We were told they would turn off the cameras at night, and they had waited for hours to give us a warning before entering our rooms. At this moment, I felt a surge of gratitude and positive feelings towards the production crew.

But I thought, ‘I should go up and turn the camera on again.’ I had another plan in mind. Thus, after spending about five minutes waiting in the living room—

“We’ve turned off all the cameras so please go up and rest well!”

“Yes!”

“Thank you~”

We went up to our respective rooms. This pension had two large rooms and five small rooms, so there were seven rooms in total. It was decided that Only One member would share one large room and the rest would use a room each. Since I was the only one separated from all my group members, I was given a private room first.

“Everyone, good night.”

“Good night and see you tomorrow~”

We said our goodbyes in the living room and separated. After I went to my room, I quickly finished my shower. Then I sat on the bed and dried my hair with a towel. When I looked out the window, I saw that all the production staff had already withdrawn.

The outside space, which had been noisy and bustling with activity due to the shooting had changed into a space that was like any other pensions. I checked the observation camera installed in the corner of my room. Then I turned on the camera that could capture most of my room with the widest angle. This was the extent of my preparation.

‘I should turn off the fingerprint function and change my PIN number.’ I also changed the lock method of my phone and left the door of my room unlocked. Then, I left my phone in plain sight. If what I predicted came to light, it was game over. If not, that would also be a relief. I closed my eyes and went to sleep. I didn’t know until then. The system’s plan and my plan had slightly different end goals, and I had no idea what was going to happen that night. But overall, I had a good night’s sleep, and even without my intervention, everything was resolved overnight.

* * *

3 am. It was way too late for those who’ve practiced and done shooting all day to stay awake. However, Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon got up from their beds. In Lee Young-Joon’s case, his eyes were bloodshot as he hadn’t calmed down yet from today's embarrassment.

“Hey, Kim Joon-Hyuk, let’s go.” Lee Young-Joon kicked Kim Joon-Hyuk, who was lying next to him. But even while keeping his eyes open, Kim Joon-Hyuk didn’t get out of bed. There was only one reason why.

“Hey, are we going to do this…?” It was because Kim Joon-Hyuk no longer felt very confident in this plan. He had made this plan in a fit of anger, but once they had to execute their plans, he began to have doubts about it.

“Fuck, you’re planning to step out now? Did you forget how that bastard mocked us during the midterm checkup?” On the other hand, Lee Young-Joon’s hostility towards Bong Tae-Yoon seemed to have only grown as time passed by. Rather than catching them in the act, Lee Young-Joon was more agitated that Bong Tae-Yoon embarrassed him in front of everyone else.

“Yeah, but what difference would it make if we erase it? Is erasing it revenge? Then will that make us feel better?” However, Kim Joon-Hyuk had gotten back his senses to a certain extent. Frankly, he was not happy about Bong Tae-Yoon either, but at least on an objective basis, he had enough sensibility to realize that they were in the wrong and Bong Tae-Yoon acted reasonably.

Thus, Kim Joon-Hyuk said, “Hey, leave me out of this. If you’re going to do it, do it alone you dumb bastard.” In the end, he chose to step out.

“What the hell did you say?” And Lee Young-Joon was greatly offended.

“I said dumb bastard, you got a problem with that?” Kim Joon-Hyuk didn’t back down and retorted. Although they were friends, he didn’t want to be partners in crime either. He continued, “We were the ones who were in the wrong in the first place. I would be crazy mad if someone cursed my family or friends behind my back, so why would he be any different?”

“Hey, you fucking shit, watch your words. Whose side are you on?”

“And honestly, didn’t you see the reactions we got during the midterm checkup earlier? I’ve been wanting to tell you this too, but the medieval knights and Joseon warriors concept is fucking cheesy. I only went along with it because you fucking begged me to.”

“Hey, you said you wanted to do it and thought it was cool. But now that people said it was bad, you’re changing your mind?”

“Yeah, I’ve changed my mind. If you can’t even get a reality check after experiencing that, you have a problem with your brain.”

Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon, who already spoke roughly in the first place, spoke even harsher than usual and shot out daggers at each other. After repeatedly firing curses at each other without backing down, Lee Young-Joon was the first to throw a punch.

Smack.

“…Did you just fucking hit me?” Kim Joon-Hyuk was not the type to stay still, and he also punched Lee Young-Joon’s face in the same spot. At this point, they completely forgot about Bong Tae-Yong. They punched and kicked each other, and their only concern was to get more punches in and cause more harm than each other.

“Aghh!”

This pathetic dogfight only ended after Lee Young-Joon accidentally broke Kim Joon-Hyuk’s ankle. All of this ended by 4 am.

[Mission success.]

[You’ve successfully severed Kim Joon-Hyuk and Lee Young-Joon’s relationship by utilizing their weaknesses.]

With the mission success notification—

[Probability of winning first place: 80%]

At the same time, a notification that the probability of winning first place increased also rang out.

“…Hm?” However, Bong Tae-Yoon, was deep asleep due to a long day of hard practice, and fell asleep without hearing the notification.