The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I used Insight to look at the sandbag. Since they told us to knock over the sandbag, I was going to use my ability to see how I could knock it over. By using Insight, I instantly saw which area would be the most effective place to hit it, the hardness of the sandbag, and how I should extend my fist. After organizing this information in my head, I deactivated my Insight.

“Tae-Yoon?”

“Are you really planning to knock that over?”

“Standing sandbags are really hard to knock over.”

“But you’ve never learned boxing, right?”

When I stepped forward with a serious expression, the members tried to stop me, telling me to not overdo it. However, I didn’t reply and just looked at the producer. I could roughly predict why he didn’t think favorably of us, but I thought this was a bit childish. As a warning to the producer, I couldn’t easily let this sandbag mission slide.

“I’ll just give it a try.” I put the glove next to the sandbag in my hand and stretched out my fist, just like how I saw in the simulation I saw in my mind through Insight. Rather than just blindly throwing a strong punch, I needed to punch while thinking about how much impact I wanted to make at the hitting point. I lightly rotated my shoulders and extended my fist forward.

‘Here.’ And if I just added strength by rotating my waist before touching the sandbag—

Bam!

A nice and strong sound of impact rang out in the air.

“...What?”

“Tae-Yoon...?”

The area I hit right now was slightly below the middle of the sandbag; if it was a human, I would have hit around their pelvis area. My goal right now was to knock over the sandbag.

Whether it was a person, object, or standing sandbag, I needed to shake the center of gravity for something to fall. And to shake the center of gravity, I needed to shake up the lower body rather than the upper body. I didn’t miss the moment the sandbag shook and hit the same area one more time.

Bam!

This sandbag wouldn’t fall if I moved around and hit it all over the place. Rather, I needed to concentrate my hits on one place.

Once again, I extended my fist.

Bam!

Another one.

Bam!

Then I ended it with a kick.

Bammm!

If I kept giving the same impact to the same point with precise movement—

“Whaaaat?”

“No way!”

Thump.

The standing sandbag was bound to fall flat as if it was dying of exhaustion.

“I knocked over the standing sandbag,” I said as I took off my glove.

“Did you learn boxing, Tae-Yoon?”

“No.”

“But how did you hit it so well?”

“I guess I’m talented.”

“How can you reply so nonchalantly?”

“Was there really a need for you to be an idol...?”

The members were completely shocked that I knocked over the sandbag. In particular, Do-Seung looked at me with sparkling eyes, and as a fitness enthusiast, he seemed to have a newfound appreciation for me.

“Tae-Yoon, do you want to work out with me?”

“No, I told you. I don’t like the smell of iron.”

“With your talent, I think you’ll quickly get the hang of weight training.”

While we were chatting eagerly like that, the production team became quiet as mice. I checked the producer’s face. At first, he looked mischievously at us like he wanted us to suffer, but now he looked baffled. I felt proud to beat him at his own game, but soon, a smile appeared on the producer’s face and his eyes curved upwards.

‘...?’

Then he picked up the mike and started saying his lines.

—Siren. End of power test. The final rating will be revealed after all the tests are completed.

—Start of Reaction speed test.

That damn producer didn’t even blink an eye when he was imitating the voice of a robot. At that point, I realized that this producer was by no means a normal person; there was madness flowing through his eyes. Soon—

Bang!

“Ahhhhhh!”

“What is that?”

The ceiling suddenly opened, and items fell from the sky. They were headgear, gaiters, and chest guards, and they were protective equipment that people who did taekwondo would have worn at least once. However, the amount of equipment didn’t match the number of people.

‘Three?’ Equipment for exactly three people fell.

—Nonstop bombing will begin 30 seconds later. Please take the protective gear.

The members looked blankly at the producer.

‘He’s crazy.’ I had once heard the rumor that the executive producer of Idol Encyclopedia was not normal, and I didn’t expect to directly experience it myself. I put on the headgear, chest guards, and gaiters for my members, who were still standing dumbfounded. Of course, I put it on Yeon-Hoon, Woon, and Dong-Jun.

Do-Seung asked, “What about me?”

“Just endure getting hit.”

“...What the hell, you punk?” I didn’t put on any protective gear for Do-Seung.

—Bombing start

Staff wearing black tights approached us with a toy hammer and began to hit Do-Seung like crazy.

Boing!

Boing!

Boing!

Boing!

“Ahhhhhh!”

Sigh. Today’s shooting...was seriously going to be a challenge.

*

Producer Jang Cheol-Soo was convinced as soon as he saw Bong Tae-Yoon knock over the sandbag—he was definitely not a normal guy. Normally, most idols said things like ‘What?’, ‘Really?’, ‘What, how can we do this, sir!’ when these kinds of missions were given. He didn’t think they were bad; rather, he was thankful to them as a producer for faithfully following along and increasing the enjoyment of the program.

However, idols these days were too well-versed in the media through media platforms like Utube, OTT, cable entertainment, and so on since they were young, and they’ve been constantly exposed to media throughout their entire childhood. Thus, many children instinctively knew how to act and what to say when they were in front of the camera.

Chang Chul-Soo didn’t like this very much. How could 10 people react exactly the same way when the same mission was given to 10 people? He had been waiting for someone different, and he found a brilliantly shining, entertainment show gemstone in an unexpected place.

‘He was here.’ He had expected reactions like ‘What! Sir, this is too much! Ahhhh! What is this!’ but Bong Tae-Yoon showed the opposite reaction. He casually stepped forward, observed the sandbag for a while, put on his glove, and hit the sandbag with the correct form. Already at this point, Jang Cheol-Soo had fallen in love with Bong Tae-Yoon, and his heart was firmly decided when he saw Bong Tae-Yoon go through the toy hammer terror mission.

‘He’s the real deal!’ Bong Tae-Yoon distinguished the people he could be hit and not in an instant and allocated the equipment accordingly. His actions were swift without any hesitation and was a talent that would shine even more in an apocalypse, and he was the type of character that had never appeared in a variety show before.

“Aghhh! Bong Tae-Yoon! Bong Tae-Yoooon!”

Even while Do-Seung resented Bong Tae-Yoon for not giving him safety equipment, Bong Tae-Yoon calmly said everything he had to say. “You’re not going to die. Just hang in there...for a moment.”

‘...That guy is crazy.’ Jang Cheol-Soo couldn’t erase the smile on his face.

***

Since then, the filming of the Idol Encyclopedia progressed at a maddening pace. After the hammer terror attack, it was time for a game called 'Random Play Dance'. It was a mission that was the signature of Idol Encyclopedia. However, there were two obstacles needed to carry out this mission—

“Wait! We haven’t even taken off our headgear yet!”

“Huff...haaa. Aghhh!”

“What...”

After the reaction speed test ended, they immediately turned on music without even a second of break.

—My dear lady~ who went to pick mulberry leaves~

“...”

“We’re not doing it with our songs...?”

There was a ridiculous playlist mixed in between, and it was a game that was designed to make us suffer. There were cases where another idol song was mixed in during Random Play Dance to make it harder, but songs from the 1970s and 1980s had never been used before. Furthermore, our song didn’t even appear many times.

The game that came out afterwards was ‘Don’t Laugh’ Challenge. Since it was a static game, everyone thought we could finally catch our breath.

—Please look directly at the tablet screen.

“What?”

“Hmph!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahaha.”

However, the videos from the tablet screen proved to be quite a challenge. My members couldn’t help but laugh as a random filter from an app called TikTakTok was activated and placed on their faces. Yeon-Hoon’s mouth suddenly became puffed up and droopy, Don-gJun’s face suddenly turned into a horse, and a cute cat filter was overlaid on Do-Seung’s brooding posture.

“Hahahaha!”

“...”

“No way....Do-Seung...”

“Please stop laughing! This will only end if we stop laughing!”

“But how can I not laugh at this!”

“Just cry then!”

In the end, we had to repeatedly play the ‘don’t laugh challenge,’ which we had thought would be easy, until our stomach hurt, and it was from this game did I realize that even laughing could be torturous if it went too far. However, the producer didn’t stop the tests as if he were trying to test the limits of our patience.

—Test of unity. Build a human pyramid.

—Test of trust. Jump down.

—Test of humor. Make the producer laugh.

The games went through like a typhoon and were finally over.

—Thank you for your hard work. Siren’s rating evaluation has been completed.

Our rating metrics were now revealed.

—The final grade for all Siren members is S-rank. Congratulations.

Perhaps thanks to our hard work, we all received S-rank.

“...Haha.”

“Thank you...” However, everyone was too tired to express their joy. We sat down on the studio floor and accepted the ranking tag handed to us by the staff.

—We never had a group that filmed the ending scene while sitting down like that. Please get up.

They were forcing us to get up after working us to our very bones.

“Ack...”

“We’ll get up...”

The members and I tried to get up from our seats, but we couldn’t get up because our legs kept giving in. It was then the producer said something that immediately got us back to our senses.

—Do you not want to start the final mission?

The final mission was the most important mission in the Idol Encyclopedia program, and it was also the reason why we came out on this show. fr(e)ewebnov(e)l.com

“We’ll start...!”

“Ha...!”

The members and I firmed our resolve and got up.

—Then, we will now start our final mission.

There was nothing much to say about the final mission of Idol Encyclopedia.

—Live broadcast, start.

The mission was to turn on a surprise live on Idol Encyclopedia’s Utube channel. After turning on a surprise live, we quickly had to show our title song performance and end the broadcast, and this was a popular content among fans. There were even groups that doubled their fame with this content. Since we couldn’t miss this big event, we got up immediately. However, we must have been still out of it due to the hectic, consecutive missions as we went on air without checking our conditions.

Our clothes had stretched out and were on the verge of becoming rags, our hair was in a complete mess, and our stamina was rock bottom. Furthermore, this demon producer dragged a monitor in front of the studio so that we had to dance in front of a collection of humorous videos.

—Siren’s final mission will be done while watching a collection of humorous videos.

“Huhp!”

“Hahhhhack!”

“Argh! Please! Producer!”

“Ahhhhh!’

The live broadcast began and our title song, “Blue Summer Night” began playing.

—A new story between us

—The story that you and I’ll be writing

—SO GOOD I can feel it

I did my part exactly and pretended to be as calm as I could even in extreme conditions.

—A once-in-a-lifetime moment

—A drama that you’ll never see again

—Now, the two of us...hahahaha!

“Aghh!”

“Park Dong-Jun!”

As expected...our group suffered one casualty in front of the humorous videos.

***

While Siren performed their title song with messed-up appearances in Idol Encyclopedia, the lights were still on at Next Wave’s office building. It was not from a night shift ordered by the company, but a volunteer meeting from some A&R employees.

They set up late-night snacks such as chicken and pizza and waited for news. From their predictions, Siren was supposed to be able to achieve half a million today. On one side of the tablet, the A&R employees had Siren’s live broadcast on, and on the other side, they opened an administrator page where they could view the album sales.

“...Huh?”

“What...?”

Then someone jumped out of their seat while pointing at the screen.

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