The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Tap.

I put down my phone on the table. It was late Saturday evening and was exactly 24 hours after the live broadcast. If I briefly organized what happened in the last 24 hours, it was possible to summarize it into one sentence.

‘It’s possible for someone to fall to their doom in just one day.’ This was the fastest and most wide-scale event that happened since we worked as Siren. I expected things to settle down with Yoon Dong-Hyuk and Hwang Joon-Kyul for longer. Since it seemed like my members were not willing to feed the trolls, I was waiting for those two bastards to slip up and accidentally let on too much.

Since feelings of inferiority were not easily resolved, I was sure that those two would definitely make a mistake in their v-live. If that happened, I thought someone who was previously hurt by them or who left YM Entertainment because of them would upload a verified post about the two.

Thus, I planned to wait 2 weeks, and if there weren’t any changes by then, I planned to directly make my move. Thus, I couldn’t believe that Woon’s short response during a live video would made such a big butterfly effect.

‘We achieved quite a feat while standing in the background again.’ Although I was pleasantly taken aback, I was scared at the same time as I directly experienced how powerful and influential the internet and media platforms were in such a short time frame.

Yoon Dong-Hyuk and Hwang Joon-Kyul were falling to the ruins to the point where they could no longer be revived. Videos, posts, and pictures of those two fighting and swearing were being posted and shared at a startling rate. I felt good that those two annoying people that had been bothering us were finished for good.

At the same time, I thought this event was getting out of control. “What should we do about this?”

‘Hmm...’ This incident had not just ended Hwang Jun-Kul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk but made the public opinion sympathetic towards us. Although it was good that the public gave justice to the victims, it was not good for idols, who should be shining stars, to have a pitiful or sad image.

Of course, these sympathetic public opinions were helpful in giving idols an initial boost, and in fact, we benefited from our sad and poor image at the beginning of The Showcase 2. However, that was not the case anymore. If we received such a pitiful image with our debut around the corner while having some recognition in the idol industry, I thought it could shorten the life of our group in the long-term.

‘This could be bad.’

Sighh... I looked at the clock with a sigh. It was 9pm. The time was now heading towards midnight, not evening anymore. Since it was a weekend evening, each of the older members went to their parents’ house to have dinner or went out for personal activities. I was the only one in this house, and I had also skipped dinner due to my conflicted feelings. I sat on the sofa and stared at the phone on the table.

‘What should we do?’ I thought I needed to first think rationally about the situation. We would probably finish collecting and organizing songs for our debut album by next week. If I just finished the lyrics quickly, the recording process would be quick, and the track list would be fully finalized within next week.

Furthermore, I thought, ‘I think we can reveal the teaser next week.’ We had originally scheduled to release the teaser next, next Monday, but I thought it would be all right to release it next Friday or Saturday. Of course, we hadn’t even filmed it yet...but I thought that money would solve the time restraint issue.

If we did all this, I thought, ‘Then we might be able to put out the urgent fire for now.’ If an idol-like teaser came out as soon as our public recognition increased, there was a possibility that the public’s sympathetic sentiments would fade.

‘I wish there was something more.’ I wished that we made another bang before or after the teaser was released. While I was continuously pondering about this matter—

Beep, beep—

I suddenly heard the door unlocking at the front door. I got up and walked towards the front door. Everyone had said they would come in late at night or tomorrow.

‘Is it a...stalker fan?’ This thought instantly occurred to me. Thus, I waited for the door to open with a spatula in my hand.

“Tae-Yoon, Tae-Yoon! Hellllp!” When I opened the door, Yeon-Hoon appeared. However, it wasn’t just Yeon-Hoon but Yeon-Hoon holding a big barrel.

“...What?”

“Hold this! Hold this for me! My arm is breaking!”

“What, you can just put it down then.”

“...Ah!” Yeon-Hoon put down the barrel with an embarrassed expression for a moment and awkwardly turned away his gaze.

I asked, “Yeon-Hoon, you’re embarrassed, right?”

“...No.”

“Why are you holding such a heavy object for no reason? You could have put it down.”

“...I knew that.”

“I don’t think you knew.”

“...No, that’s not true.” Yeon-Hoon’s ears turned bright red.

I decided to stop teasing him because I thought he might get angry if I teased him more than this. However, now that Yeon-Hoon came inside, my troubled heart felt lighter.

“But what’s that big barrel?”

“Oh, right! Tae-Yoon! Is there rice at home right now?”

“What?”

“This is braised beef ribs! It’s absolutely delicious!”

“Braised beef ribs...in a barrel like this...?”

“My mom made this for all of us to share!”

I opened the lid of the barrel. Although it was smaller than the large buckets used in businesses, it was gigantic for home use. I wondered if this huge barrel would really be full of beef ribs.

“...?”

“...My mom is really generous.”

“Ah...” I was really shocked that it was really just packed with braised beef ribs.

‘Just the price of the meat will be...’ I tried to calculate the amount in my head but thought it was an amount too terrifying to calculate without preparing myself.

Yeon-Hoon continued, “Since we’re going to debut soon, my mom prepared them, saying we have to eat really well at important times like that.”

“Please tell her thank you so much. It smells really good.”

“Let’s eat first, quickly!” Yeon-Hoon said and took the rice out of the rice container and scooped it up.

“...I can’t eat all that.”

“Let’s eat together!” Yeon-Hoon sat down at the table after dividing the big scoop of rice into two bowls. Then he asked, “Can you scoop up some beef ribs?”

“Yes.” I put some beef ribs in a bowl and served it on the table.

“Let’s eat~”

“Yeon-Hoon, didn’t you already eat?”

“I haven't eaten yet. You don’t eat without us, so I only brought beef ribs here and came back.”

“...Oh.” I was taken aback by his sudden bout of kindness but managed to hold it in well.

“Since we can’t get chubby before we debut, let’s eat in moderation.”

“Yes.” I put the beef ribs that Yeon-Hoon’s mother made on top of the white rice and took a big bite. As soon as the meat touched the roof of my mouth, it dissolved and the sauce permeated between the grains of rice, and the rice that absorbed the seasoning pleasantly rolled around my mouth.

“...Wow.” It was a taste that made me exclaim intuitively.

“Yum! It’s good!” Yeon-Hoon seemed genuinely impressed too. Then he said, “Let’s eat this tomorrow with the other guys too.”

“Yes, I think everyone should definitely try it.” Just thinking about eating it again tomorrow morning placed me in a good mood. I added, “I think Dong-Jun will really love it.”

“Yeah, I know. I need to make sure Dong-Jun doesn’t eat too much.”

“It feels like we’re controlling a diet for a puppy.”

“Do you think so?”

Yeon-Hoon and I burst out laughing at the same time. Although there was only the two of us, it was quite noisy inside the dorm. We sat on the sofa again after we finished eating and washing the dishes. Yeon-Hoon sat next to me after taking a shower and fiddled with his phone. I also picked up my phone again and searched for various information.

“What are you searching so hard about?”

“Ah, this?”

“Why do you keep looking at that? Your mentality will just get shaken up.”

“...Yes, that’s true.”

Yeon-Hoon rebuked me after seeing that I was looking up Wang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk with my phone.

‘But while I’m at it, should I try talking to him?’ I couldn’t just let this pass by without addressing the issue. Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to ask Yeon-Hoon for advice.

I said, “But...I’m worried that our image will be solidified as pitiful or sad idols.”

“Hmm...yeah.” Yeon-Hoon seemed to be aware of how things were going. He continued, “Honestly, I was worried too. There are so...many bad rumors and news... and our image seems to be getting set as just pitiful kids.”

First of all, it was a good sign that we both viewed our current situation as a problem.

I said, “Do you think there’s anything we can do?”

“Aren’t our teaser going to be released soon?”

“Yeah.”

“Wouldn’t things die down a bit if we release that?”

“But I feel a bit uncomfortable just to keep waiting for that. It’s also difficult to change an image once it’s fixed.”

“Yeah, I agree...” Yeon-Hoon put his hand on his chin and began to contemplate it seriously.

This wasn’t the appropriate situation, but I almost laughed out loud because his serious face looked slightly like a child-genius professor. I barely held back my laughter and waited for his answer so I wouldn’t break the mood.

Then Yeon-Hoon said, “Shall we do a surprise live broadcast with just the two of us?”

“What?”

“You said you wanted to do something before the teaser was released. But that’s the only thing we can do right away.”

“Yeah...that’s right.”

“I’ll ask Ms. Seung-Yeon!” Yeon-Hoon suggested that we do a surprise live broadcast. I did think that a v-live was the easiest thing to do.

But I also thought, ‘Does this have enough impact?’ We needed to create quite an impactful event to push away our image as a poor and pitiful idol. However, didn't v-live feel quite normal? While I was thinking this, Yeon-Hoon got permission to do a v-live.

“Ms. Seung-Yeon said yes! But she told me to first think and then talk before I speak and be careful since it's live.”

“Really?”

“Our phone...for v-live...here is it!” He took out the phone for v-live from under the TV.

But before that, I asked, “Yeon-Hoon, are we doing it without makeup?”

“Yep!”

“Really...?” freeweb novel.co m

“Our...bare faces already came out tons of time on TV.”

“Ah...you’re right.” Our bare faces appeared countless times in The Showcase 2. There was no need to hide it now.

“Then what are we going to do at the v-live?” More importantly, I wondered what we were going to do for the content. Of course, we could turn it on for a simple chat, but I thought we needed to do something more special than that.

Yeon-Hoon thought about it for a while and said, “Shall we do a song cover?”

He suggested this idea, and I immediately had an epiphany. “...!”

‘This was it.’ I found the solution to dilute the salty, tear-jerking lens placed on us.

*** freewe bnovel .com

10:30 PM. It was an ambiguous time, too early to be called late at night but too late to be called early. It was at this time Siren’s surprise v-live began.

—The youngest and oldest are here~

Only two people came to mind with these two words; it was Bong Tae-Yoon and Woo Yeon-Hoon. Siren’s fans, who have been resting at home during a weekend evening, quickly logged into the v-live. The internet was quite noisy due to the Yoon Dong-Hyuk and Hwang Jun-Kyul incident.

All kinds of people from various groups gathered together, from Siren fans, ordinary people, and trolls who were ready to stir up a fuss. There were obviously people in the chat room who asked if Lee Woon and Kang Do-Seung were okay, and there were negative people who asked what was the point of turning on a v-live during that time.

However, Bong Tae-Yoon and Woo Yeon-Hoon ignored all these comments and progressed their v-live. Moreover, actual Siren fans also posted aggressively on the chat to cover up these belligerent comments.

—Ah, what did I eat for dinner...we ate braised beef ribs today.

—My mom made it for us! It was super, super delicious!

—Yes, it was really delicious.

Bong Tae-Yoon and Woo Yeon-Hoon conducted the v-live while chatting about everyday topics like this.

—Wow, their facial harmony is perfection

—I love you, Tae-Yoon.

—They look so pure and innocent cause they’re wearing no makeup so cute *sob

—Youngest and oldest pair luv it so much <3

Bong Tae-Yoon and Woo Yeon-Hoon purposely did not respond to any comments about Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk, and the trolls and click-baiters soon began to disappear.

—I want to sing a song. Everyone, would you suggest a song for me to sing?

Woo Yeon-Hoon said he was going to take a song request.

—Oh my gosh!

—Crazy

People began to pour out song requests as if they had been waiting for this moment all along.

—Oh? I like this song.

Woo Yeon-Hoon picked out a song he liked among the suggestions and began singing it on the spot. Although there were many people who knew that Woo Yeon-Hoon was handsome, there were surprisingly many people who didn’t know he was also good at singing. Woo Yeon-Hoon was a vocalist with a singing style and skill that was hard to find in the idol industry, and his stunning visuals had overshadowed his singing ability.

—???

—Yeon-Hoon?

—Wow, crazy

—...???

Thus, late at night, the chat window froze for an instant from the songs that Woo Yeon-Hoon sang seriously with his emotions.

—9th place. Yeon-Hoon’s crazy singing (7,534 tweets)

Furthermore, although he sang only once, Woo Yeon-Hoon’s name went up on the real-time trend rankings.

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