Save a Failed Idol's Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 233 Seeping In

“The reason why we’re doing this live today is, we wanted to share our stories from our trip as Offbeat! We went on a trip to bond as a group! You all saw the concept poster that was released yesterday, right?”

Hwijin smoothly took over the progress as he had practiced with the script beforehand.

“We’ve known each other for a long time as seniors and juniors in the same agency, but we haven’t really worked together much, right?”

“Right, because our schedules were different and we missed each other a bit?”

“Yeah, so this time we prepared a short trip for a team-building event. We wanted to share our memories with our fans, and luckily we got a chance to do so as a collaboration content with SeeYa.”

Since it was a live broadcast, we could only explain it verbally for now, but when the video was uploaded later, it would have a nice promotional banner at the bottom.

“You can watch our hilarious travelogue at 6 p.m. on SeeYa and Offbeat’s YouTube channel. You can also watch it three weeks early on SeeYa as a preview service! Please show us a lot of interest.”

“Many thanks~”

Pwoo, Yi-jun blew a long pipe that he got from somewhere, and Naru made a disgusted expression.

“That just sounded like an old man who learned a trendy word for the first time.”

“Is that so? I’m still young, you know? Aren’t I on the younger side if you average out Offbeat?”

As the conversation went off track with nonsense, Hwijin stepped in and brought it back to the center.

“Anyway, we had a lot of fun and came back safely. We have a simple event for our fans, where we’ll send you prizes by lottery. Can you guess what we prepared?”

Then, various chats started to pour in at the same time. There were all kinds of guesses, from postcards to photos, photocards, polaroids, etc., but there was only one correct chat.

[- souvenir!]

That was the answer. Of course, we also picked out some selfies and landscape photos, polaroids, etc. separately.

We didn’t plan to use them as prizes. Maybe we’ll use them later when we make photocards or do some collaboration events.

From my perspective, it was still… hard to understand how they could be so passionate about this tiny picture. But if I didn’t understand, I could memorize it. It was a grateful thing that there were many people who wanted to collect things related to me with passion.

“Ah, yes. That’s right! Aren’t you curious what each of our eight members chose as souvenirs?”

Yu-geon proceeded with the souvenir reveal as he had written the script beforehand, exchanging witty remarks with Yi-jun.

“Actually, we kept it a secret from each other about what we bought.”

“But I think I know what Ise and Seon-woo bought.”

“What?”

I was quietly listening to them exchange their prepared lines in the middle, when Yi-jun suddenly cut in and my ears twitched.

“What do you think I bought?”

“I don’t know, but something edible?”

“Ah~.”

Everyone nodded their heads naturally, and the staff who were helping with the filming all burst into laughter.

“Why are you laughing?”

I asked with a fake smile, as if to protest, and the staff asked back.

“So, did you buy food as a souvenir, or not?”

“…”

I didn’t really feel bad. Half of it was food, after all.

“Well, yes…”

“Me too…”

Seon-woo nodded his head slightly next to me, and the situation became even more ridiculous. The speed of the chats increased, and I was glad that we made our fans laugh.

“Let’s start with the souvenir reveal from that end.”

Did I look like someone who was so serious about eating? I mean, it was true, but I felt embarrassed when I realized it and my face turned hot.

“It’s okay. You’re famous for being a good cook, but no one would think you bought anything other than food.”

“Is that a consolation? It sounds like you’re hitting me again?”

With Kyunghwa’s reasonable remark, we started to reveal our souvenirs from Seon-woo’s direction.

“I bought snacks from Okinawa. They’re like donuts… how should I say it, fried doughnuts? They have a crispy texture with sugar on them. They have a long shelf life and they’re really delicious!”

When we stopped by the souvenir shop in Okinawa, he was looking closely at all kinds of snacks. He bought a lot of them, more than enough for himself.

“I thought it would be a waste to just throw them away after eating them…! So I signed the packaging like this! Please don’t save them too much and eat them while they’re delicious.”

He seemed to have put some thought into sending food as a souvenir, as he diligently signed the packaging with the marker he borrowed from me.

I appreciated his intention, but that meant the fan had to keep the signed packaging even after eating it, right?

I felt like pointing it out, but everyone kept their mouths shut.

They didn’t want to criticize Seon-woo’s sincere effort.

“Okay, then, shall we see what Seong-won has prepared?”

Seong-won carefully took out a small souvenir, which was a candle. It looked like something he bought from the street where they sold music boxes and various crafts in Otaru.

“Wow, it’s pretty.”

Inside the transparent candle, a white snowstorm was swirling, and below it, there was a delicate miniature of a canal.

“What is this scent?”

“Orange and lavender.”

We all sniffed the wrapped packages one by one, like some kind of sniffer dogs.

“This must look hilarious. Eight of us taking turns smelling the packages without opening them.”

It was the same thing they pointed out in the chat, but well, the picture itself wasn’t bad.

The gifts we revealed in order showed each of our personalities and made us laugh.

Ye-jun got a key ring. Yu-geon got a music box. How did he become the type to pick such delicate things? I was surprised, but as soon as he opened the gift box, I nodded in agreement.

It was a music box shaped like a sushi conveyor belt, something he had been on several broadcasts before.

‘Someone actually bought that.’

I was amazed, but I didn’t say it out loud. He looked happy anyway. It wasn’t like he lacked money.

I chose something relatively practical… a premium salt set. It was a product that contained edible salt and bath salt in cute jars that could be used as seasoning containers after they were emptied.

I briefly considered buying a cookie set, but I thought it would be useless if the recipient didn’t like sweets, and it would be a pity if nothing was left after eating.

So I chose a product that could be recycled even after it was empty.

‘I didn’t know this would look like an old person’s taste.’

They all laughed as soon as they saw it, and I felt my ears burn. After that, it was Hwi-jin’s turn, who got a stuffed mascot from the aquarium, Kyunghwa, who got a disposable film camera that he took pictures of the scenery with, and Naru, who got a ceramic craft.

As we each told the stories and reasons behind our purchases, more than 30 minutes had passed.

“That’s all the time we have prepared. You can watch our travelogue on ‘See Ya’ from 6 o’clock!”

“We’ll be releasing one episode every week for the next eight weeks, so please stay with us until the last episode!”

We ended the broadcast with a bright smile and a greeting, and we all relaxed as if the power had been cut off.

“Good job, everyone!”

“Thank you~.”

“Can I have some water, please?”

It was only three more people, but why was it so chaotic? It felt more exhausting than the day of the trip.

“Let’s go home and rest, everyone.”

We had to save up our energy for tomorrow, as we had a music video shoot and a photo shoot scheduled.

“Yes, thank you, everyone.”

We sent off the Swift members first and were about to leave when Kyunghwa looked at his phone screen.

“What are you looking at?”

“Oh. Just checking our live reaction.”

I peeked at the screen with Kyunghwa, and the fans’ reactions were all praises. There were already posts with the event participation hashtag, even though the content hadn’t been released yet.

“I’m glad they like it.”

For now… I don’t have to worry too much. I let out a short sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Yu-geon’s fans, who received a huge shock and relief at the same time from the surprise joint live broadcast of three former members of Climax and Floss, were staring at the screen with a gloomy mood, like unwanted guests at a portrait gallery.

Crazy bastard. How can he have fun after dropping a nuclear bomb on us? Is he happy because he joined Composition?

Yu-geon’s charm was that he debuted with an aggro act of smiling and scratching people’s clothes, but it was painful when the clothes being torn were his own.

‘Well… let’s just watch the first episode.’

If Yu-geon’s part is low, I’ll just quit. I made a firm resolution and waited for 6 o’clock, when the pre-released tag on the preview page changed from <Coming Soon> to <Live>.

‘It’s out!’

Yu-geon looked happy to have switched, but the public account was only saying nice things. They weren’t ready to accept the five members of Climax yet.

They had been unhappy with Climax every time there was a minor friction between them.

‘Don’t you dare discriminate against the new member.’

I won’t let it go. I was ready to send a long complaint email to Composition’s customer service as I pressed play on the first episode, and a mini-game start screen-like opening began.

It started with a cute 8-bit game start screen-like production, and then it switched to a sitcom-like scene where the members were running around with their handsome faces.

‘The production is good.’

I wondered if they spent a lot of money or if someone worked hard in the planning stage. It looked much more fun than the Floss self-content made by WePlanet that was released before.

I still felt resentful as the screen went black for a moment and then switched to Yu-geon’s self-cam.

[5:30 a.m.]

[Getting up slowly]

[~Let’s enjoy his handsome face for a while~]

Yu-geon got out of bed in his pajamas, with a sleepy expression on his face, and washed his face with his upper body exposed. The camera, which seemed to be installed by himself, showed a perfect angle, and the viewer chat went crazy.

[- OMG LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL]

[- I was watching it on the TV in the living room, but I quickly switched to mobile mode.]

[- I thought it was a wholesome travelogue, but who knew it would be such a stimulating content?]

[- I thought Mr. Cheon was a nice person, but look at his fierceness;;]

[- The boss clenched his teeth;]

[- For 30 seconds, he kept repeating the word ‘crazy’ in a low voice.]

[- How can I not keep watching when you show me something like this from the first episode?]

This is crazy. Yu Geon, who agreed to do this. And the planning team, who asked him to do this. They were out of their minds.

Of course, I don’t hate it.

‘I have to keep watching this for real.’

The start was a pass. The first episode began with such a captivating scene.