Save a Failed Idol's Life

Even though he wasn’t a real dog, he seemed to love the same things as dogs. He went wild as soon as I let him loose on the agility track.

“Come on, Pposili!”

One guy was more excited than the dog.

“Be careful, bro! Watch out for the front!”

Another guy wanted to run too, but he was restless and envious of being left behind.

“Don’t get him too worked up, it’ll only distract him. Try to calm him down a bit.”

One guy was nagging like a director.

“…”

And one guy had a baseball cap he got from somewhere pulled down over his eyes, hiding himself from the sun.

They were quite a diverse bunch.

“Mr. Yi-jun, you’re really fast at running. You and Pposili would make a good partner.”

I was the user, but seeing Pposili spinning around with Yi-jun like a real puppy, I felt a bit awkward.

‘But running is not really my thing.’

I’d rather be a quiet spectator than a partner who had to run around that wide track.

“Are you filming well?”

Yi-jun had taken off his padded jacket and waved his hand at the stands in his sweatshirt.

“Yeah, don’t worry, it’s coming out well.”

Following Yi-jun, Pposili jumped over the obstacle.

He leaped over them with his short legs – his movements were definitely destructive.

‘He’s definitely… cute.’

I thought this might attract not only fans but also other audiences. Dog videos that made you feel good just by watching them were always in high demand.

“Let’s run with all our strength!”

He seemed to be doing well.

But then.

At the last hurdle, a ring obstacle that was quite high, Yi-jun gestured to him and Pposili hesitated, slowing down and stopping.

“Isn’t that too high?”

From a distance, it looked like the height was a bit too much for Pposili’s short and chubby legs.

“Can you lower that a little bit?”

Kyunghwa calmly called a staff member and asked, but before he could do anything, Pposili seemed to make up his mind and ran back a long way. Then he sprinted and jumped up with all his might.

“Wow…!”

He bounced. His short and chubby legs pushed off the ground and soared in a long arc, then landed gracefully on the ground.

“He did it! Wow!”

Maybe they were all troubled by the fire of Floss, but they looked very happy even though it was just a dog passing through a ring.

“Wow! Did you see that? Isn’t it so cute how he closes his eyes when he jumps?”

Seon-woo smiled brightly and cheered, holding the camera that Kyunghwa had. The rest of the members also joined in with pure joy.

“Our Pposili is amazing~.”

I finally gave Pposili a generous pat on the head. He seemed to like being praised and he stuck out his tongue and rolled over, showing his belly.

‘He really is just a dog when he does this.’

A system interface that was hard to tell whether it was an enemy or an ally. I put down my hand that was stroking Pposili and took out my phone.

The others had taken countless photos, so it wouldn’t be a problem if I took one too.

Hmm… I tried to change the angle here and there and pressed the shutter button, but only a blurry, unidentified furball was snapped.

Let’s try again.

This time, I leaned back as far as I could and squinted my eyes as I pressed the shutter button, but the angle was even more awkward than before.

“What are you doing?”

Unlike Kyunghwa and Seon-woo, who were filming a vlog in front of me, Seong-won, who was a step behind, looked down at me.

“Huh? No, I’m trying to take a picture.”

Then Seong-won stretched out his palm to me.

“Let me see.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it looks like you took a weird picture at a glance.”

What do you mean… I grumbled and went to the gallery to show him the picture.

“…”

Seong-won’s expression crumpled as soon as he saw the picture.

“Is this… what you really took?”

Of course it was. I mean, I could try to take a still life, but… living creatures were too fast and never stayed still.

“How well can you take pictures then?”

As I snapped back at him, Seong-won snatched my phone from me and zoomed in on Pposili, who was far away, with a serious expression.

Look at that, you won’t be able to do any better. I glared at the phone in Seong-won’s hand, hoping that Pposili would quickly spit out his mouth.

“Done.”

After touching the screen a few times, Seong-won handed me back the phone as if he was done.

“Hmm…”

I wonder how amazing the picture he took was. I lifted my head stiffly and checked the screen, but the picture was not much different from mine in terms of skill.

“What, you talk like you’re a photographer or something.”

“Well, I did better than you.”

“Hey, where? You and I are both fifty-fifty.”

“It’s because there’s a fifty-fifty difference that it worked.”

I was so annoyed that I argued with him, and I felt like we had gotten closer.

I thought I would never get along with this lunatic when he came out of nowhere and picked a fight with me on the first day of cleaning the fridge.

We’re not that close now, either. But at least among these members, I could clearly feel that he relied on me the most.

“You’ll be able to take better pictures next time. If you take them closer.”

Seong-won blushed his ears as if he was embarrassed by what he said.

“If you’re going to take pictures, use your own phone. I’m going.”

Just then, something happened on the track and they waved their hands at us.

“Oh, okay, let’s go!”

I left Seong-won standing alone behind the stands and went down with a thud. Heh, Pposili looked up at me with a medal around his neck.

Maybe it was because his legs were so short and his body was stuck to the ground. The medal around his neck was stretched out as if it would drag on the floor.

“This…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Yi-jun screamed and covered Pposili’s ears.

“It’s not that your legs are short, it’s that the medal is too long!! Pposili, don’t listen!”

“What are you talking about? You’re the one who keeps saying your legs are short.”

We all burst into laughter at Yi-jun’s ridiculous reaction. Around then, a staff member came with a Polaroid camera.

“Okay, let’s take a commemorative photo and wrap it up! You worked hard today!”

“Yes, thank you!”

“One, two, three, smile~.”

Following the staff’s signal, Seong-won, who joined us late, stood in front of the camera with a clumsy pose.

Click, and click again.

One for us to take, one for the park to display. We each took one and got on the minivan to go back to our accommodation.

Today was a schedule that we only went out by ourselves, without telling the marketing team or the company people. So I took the wheel without a manager.

“How long does it take to get to the accommodation?”

Yi-jun, who sat in the back seat with Pposili on his lap, leaned forward and asked.

“It’s a bit more congested than before, so it’ll take about 30 to 40 minutes.”

As I checked the route with the navigation, I saw orange and red lines everywhere.

Oh, wait. There was a noticeable building on the 3D enlarged map.

“When did Seon-woo’s outdoor advertisement start?”

I asked, narrowing my eyes, and Kyunghwa answered for me.

“They installed the outdoor advertisement last week and the CF will start next month. When the CF comes out, Seong-won will also get an outdoor advertisement.”

That’s right. If I remembered correctly, we would pass by the building with Seon-woo’s outdoor advertisement on the way to avoid the congested area.

“Can we have lunch a little late?”

I glanced at the time and asked, and Seon-woo tilted his head and asked.

“Huh…? Why?”

He didn’t know when his advertisement was up, but eating was important to him.

“I thought it would be nice to take a proof shot or something and post it. It’s not that the fans put it up for you, but it wouldn’t hurt to post it, right?”

“Ah…!”

Seon-woo nodded as if he understood.

“Yeah! That’s fine!”

So it’s not fine if it’s not that. I nodded casually and started the car.

It was about 20 minutes to the large building we marked as a midway point.

I turned on the radio because I was bored while driving, and it happened to be an entertainment-related talk channel. They were talking about a hot topic.

[What do you think, PD Kim? The controversy is growing more and more.]

[Oh, it’s been a mess since dawn. This is not a simple internal corruption, but a matter of trust in the whole program, so I think the words are getting more and more.]

[First of all, the current claim of the program side is that there was no preferential treatment for the participants in sensitive areas such as ranking manipulation, and that the participation contracts were written individually, so the terms could vary depending on the participants. Is that right?]

[In summary, yes. They said they would provide evidence that there was no manipulation in the ranking and voting by today, so I think it’s better to watch a little more.]

“…”

I couldn’t help but be bothered by the fact that everyone’s ears were open.

“Should I… change the channel?”

Kyunghwa asked, glancing at the guys sitting in the back seat.

“Just turn on something with music.”

Yi-jun pretended not to notice the chilly atmosphere and switched to a channel that played songs 24 hours a day.

As he listened to the awkwardly outdated pop songs while holding the steering wheel, he soon saw a building that stood out in the distance.

“Oh, there it is!”

Seon-woo exclaimed, startled and embarrassed to see his own face, and Pposili barked cheerfully.

“Woof!”

“I’ll park next to it, so hurry up and take a picture.”

It was a street that seemed to be quite busy during rush hour, but fortunately, there weren’t many people passing by on a weekday afternoon.

“Okay!”

Seon-woo ran out, making a V sign with his hand and stood in front of the building.

‘The cosmetic ad came out pretty well, but it’s a bit too pretty to be comfortable.’

“Just stay still, I’ll take a picture for you.”

While the rest of the members waited in the car, Kyunghwa, who was sitting in the passenger seat, quickly ran out and volunteered to be the photographer.

And Yi-jun took a picture of him with his phone.

“What’s that?”

“It’s Oh Yi-jun taking a picture of Ryu Kyunghwa taking a picture of Na Seon-woo.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

After a short photo time, they quickly got back in the car and some pedestrians who recognized us showed us a big heart with their hands.

“Thank you!”

“Wow, is that really him?”

“Wow, I’ve never seen a celebrity before!”

Before the cheers got closer, they had to move quickly. I waved my hand at the distant place and changed the gear to drive and stepped on the accelerator to join the second lane.

I didn’t mean to do this. I unintentionally used my holiday 200% un-holiday-like.

When I get home… I’ll eat a leisurely meal and check how Floss is doing.

It’s not our business… but I couldn’t just close my eyes.

‘I’m just too nosy.’ 𝔣𝚛eewe𝚋𝚗𝚘𝚟e𝔩.𝚌𝔬m

I clicked my tongue lightly and sped up to the dorm.