Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 53: Eating is important

Chapter 53 Eating is important

Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations for Ye-jun’s idea. But I decided to give it a listen anyway.

“How about this? We don’t have to go to a deserted island. We can just rent a house in the countryside and do a variety show where we each have a role. Nana and Seon-woo can go out and harvest vegetables, Seong-won can help the elders, and Kyunghwa and Ise can cook. Something like that. We can show how we live in the rural area, and invite some guests too. What do you think?”

“What?”

It was surprisingly a reasonable idea.

“Hmm… It’s not bad, but… Don’t you think it’s too cliché? There are so many shows like that these days.”

“Really? Well, we don’t have to rent a house. We can just drive around with a camper van and sleep in the yard. That would be fun too.”

The ‘fun’ here was probably more for Ye-jun himself than for the viewers.

“Are you just saying that because you want to go camping?”

Seong-won didn’t miss the chance to tease him, but the idea itself was an improvement from Ise’s midnight kitchen.

“Camping would be fun too. But don’t you hate doing leisure sports on the mountains?”

As soon as he said that, Seong-won’s face was stained with disgust. Was he that repulsed by it? I mean, I would do it if I had to, but I didn’t really want to either.

“So… The ideas we have so far are request kitchen and rural experience. That’s two.”

We continued the meeting for another 30 minutes, but no new ideas came up.

“Well… It’s not like we have to pay for it ourselves. We can just try one and see how it goes. If the response is not good, we can switch to something else. But the biggest problem is finding a place to rent. Does anyone know a house in the countryside that we can rent?”

“Uh…”

Everyone fell silent again. After a while of thinking, Kyunghwa opened his mouth.

“My grandparents’ place… It might be possible. But it’s a very old house. Is that okay?”

“How old are we talking about?”

“There was a commotion earlier this year when a haunted house YouTuber broke in without permission and got reported.”

“!”

The eyes of the members, who had been looking anxious, sparkled at once.

“Isn’t that great for YouTube?”

“Is it?”

If the house was that haunted, fixing it up, cleaning the grass, and making it livable would be content too.

“But what about our grandparents while we’re filming? Should we send them on a package tour or something?”

When he realized the practical problem, he asked with a doubt. Kyunghwa hesitated and answered.

“They moved to a nursing home last year, so it’s empty now. Some relatives are taking care of the nearby fields, but no one is using the house…”

“Oh…”

Was that a good thing or a bad thing? While we were feeling awkward, Kyunghwa added.

“Anyway, it’s empty now, so renting it won’t be hard. Once we have a concrete plan, I’ll contact them. It’s too cold in the winter, so it would be a extreme challenge. If we’re going to do it, we should go in the summer.”

That was true. The countryside in the winter was too cold for the plants that grew up in the city.

“Okay, then we have the basic items. Let’s eat first. The PD sent us the stage video separately at dawn, so we can watch that and go over the schedule one more time.”

“Okay, okay. Ugh, I woke up late today and I’m so hungry that I can’t tell if I’m sick or not.”

“Why are you sick when I’m the one who lost the blanket and slept because of you?”

He was chirping with energy, so it was no different from usual. It was a lively and cheerful daily life.

Under the stage, they were like this. Unreliable and childish.

But when they stood on the stage, they all put on serious faces.

I had to do my job well if I didn’t want to lose the opportunity I had barely gotten.

But when I saw them dreaming and working so hard, I wanted to cheer for them. This was their strength and…

‘Maybe I’m too soft on them.’

If the system had planned this from the start and paired me with Ise, it was a very rational decision.

It must have read my mind… But there was no system message, so maybe I wasn’t wrong.

They were adults, and in the old days, they would have been fathers at this age.

But that was the old days, and they had been trapped in the agency system without any chance to interact with their peers.

Was it fair to ask them to be responsible as adults? I didn’t know.

But they made a lot of money, right? That logic didn’t work either, because there were too many idols who didn’t get paid for their activities.

I couldn’t change the structure and system. But at least for the ones who were already tied to me, the ones I could comfort, I wanted to support them as an adult…

‘Maybe I’m overstepping.’

It was a disease to feel pity for others too easily because my life was too hard.

“Let’s go to the kitchen and sit down.”

I had already put the portable burner on the table. With the vegetables that had been dried and the beef that I had just taken out of the fridge, I didn’t need anything else.josei

“Eat a lot of vegetables, vegetables. You have enough carbs with noodles, so skip the porridge.”

“Hey, what a waste.”

Ye-jun pouted his lips and protested, but it was no use. 

No matter how much porridge and fried rice were the Korean dessert, they were not the food to eat before the comeback.

“Stop whining and eat.”

In the end, Kyunghwa scolded him instead of me. Then Ye-jun obediently put a spoonful of bean sprouts, mushrooms, and beef in his mouth.

Seong-won had been quietly emptying his bowl more than anyone else.

‘Seon-woo is…’

He was smart enough to eat more vegetables than meat, without any sauce or broth.

‘Good, you’re doing well.’

After finishing the meal, I connected my phone to the big TV screen and monitored the stage video. It wasn’t going to make any difference, but still.

We all lightly admired the screen that came out much better than we thought. It was the opposite of what we expected, considering the PD was just a live broadcast producer. How well could he have filmed it?

It was a brilliant move to film each member like an individual fancam, instead of wasting shots on the full set, which was pretty shabby.

“This should be fine to edit and put in later.”

“The PD said he knew about the online buzz from the direct shots, so he won’t cut it too short.”

“That’s a relief. But we’ll have to see the final broadcast to be sure…”

That was the end of our appearance on My Hometown today. We didn’t need to show the feedback stage for the choreography yet.

“By the way, the choreography will be ready by next week. We’ll start practicing it together from next month, so be prepared.”

Now that I think about it, we also had the jacket shooting ahead of us.

‘Sigh… If I don’t want to suffer from the pile of work, I’d better prepare in advance.’

=‘Sigh… If I don’t want to suffer from the pile of work, I’d better prepare in advance.’

I had to plan well, since I couldn’t refuse any program offers in between. 

There was something I had to tell them beforehand.

“Oh, and I also told the choreographer who the center is. Seon-woo will be the center for this single.”

“Huh, me?”

Seon-woo rolled his eyes and stuttered, as if he didn’t know.

“Yeah, you. You’ve lost enough weight for now, so don’t yo-yo. Don’t disappoint me.”

“Yes!!”

Seon-woo seemed surprised, but he nodded his head as if he had seized the opportunity.

A few weeks ago, this would have been a situation where complaints would have arisen. But there was no room for disagreement after seeing the video yesterday.

Seon-woo had a bright and pure energy that drew people in on stage. He was the kind of person who would make you want to cheer for his dream, even if you just met him.

Of course, it helped that he had a handsome face. His expression was also what they called ‘a smiling face’, which had a big impact.

“If there’s a next single… we’ll rotate according to the concept then.”

That was only if there was a next chance.

“I didn’t say anything. You must have thought so.”

Kyunghwa didn’t add any more comments, but he seemed a bit deflated.

Was he conscious of giving up his part to Seon-woo?

Idol activities were basically a team game. But within that, getting the part, the weight, and the position you wanted was an individual game.

‘This is hard, really.’

It would have been counterproductive to comfort him right now. Instead of soothing Kyunghwa, I changed the topic.

“I’m going to talk to the manager about the self-made content production while I’m at it.”

I threw a bomb with the center announcement and ran away from the seat. The back of my head felt more prickly than usual.

***

The actual filming of the self-made content started less than a week later.

In the meantime, I used Kang Yugeon’s chance one more time.

‘I thanked you for the last time. I’ll owe you for this one.’

He was only twenty-three, but he was so uptight. His words that he would pay me back with interest grated on my nerves. But I had no other choice.

The filming team that Kang Yugeon got for me was not cheap, but they were definitely skilled.

They were originally working for a large-scale variety investment company, but they recently broke away and set up their own studio due to a rights dispute.

They were planning to switch to a YouTube variety team when they got contacted by me and gladly accepted the urgent schedule.

‘Well, maybe they accepted it because of Kang Yugeon’s influence.’

Either way, I just had to swallow the sweet part and spit out the bitter part. I mulled over what Kang Yugeon had said.

‘Are you close with the members?’

Of course I was. I didn’t know about Cheon Ise, but I had known them for five years. If you count the trainee days, we had been through more ups and downs than that.

It had only been three months since I met him, but…

‘Are you not close with the members, Yugeon?’

He laughed at my innocent question. What? 

That was rude.

‘Well, I’m close enough, I guess.’

What was that vague answer?

I didn’t want to brag about my ambiguous relationship with Kang Yugeon here, so I ended the call.

‘Thanks for your help anyway. I’ll hang up now.’

I felt a sweat running down my back after the short call.

***

Meanwhile, Yugeon, who was resting at home, chewed over the message that the member had sent him earlier.

[Floss Lee Jinhyung] Are you coming to Xcake today? 10:11 AM

[Floss Lee Jinhyung] If you come, Rini from Girl Flash will be there. 10:12 AM

How could he send such a message without getting tired of it?

It was impressive that he had pushed out a strong debut candidate and made it to the debut with the ninth place. He was amazing, alright.

Yugeon turned off the screen as if he hated to see it.