The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

‘Dong-Jun’s attitude controversy?’

It was a problem that I had never expected. Of course, I knew celebrities were often embroiled in such controversies, but I firmly believed that this was not applicable to our group. The members I knew were not the type of people to purposely hurt others, and based on the information I heard from their parents in my previous life, there was no problem in their school days. Thus, I thought their past was squeaky clean.

‘This might be dangerous...?’ There must have been some parts I didn’t know as it was impossible for me to know all my members’ pasts. In any case, an attitude controversy was a huge deal as if something went wrong, our group’s image would be tarnished and eat away at our group’s life span.

‘In severe cases, we’ll go downhill.’ For our case, this controversy could act as a key factor to dampen our upward trend, especially during our promotion period like now. If it had been during our inactive period, we could have taken the time to address the situation and let things settle down and make a comeback when the public opinion became quiet.

‘We’re in trouble.’ In this case, we may have to even suspend our activities depending on the content of the attitude controversy, and the words, ‘activity suspension’, were powerful in their own right and could leave a lasting imprint on Dong-Jun’s career for the rest of his life like a name tag. Moreover, the damage to Siren’s image would also be serious.

But this was the absolute worst-case scenario, and there was only one truth that I needed to immediately confirm.

‘It’s definite that an attitude controversy would drop on us.’ Someone would criticize Dong-Jun for his character, and there were only two possibilities that I could think of why Dong-Jun would be involved in this scandal.

First, Dong-Jun did something that would be frowned upon by anyone because of his poor moral character. This was the worst possible scenario, but the solution to this was simple. He needed to announce an apology and halt all activities as soon as possible and take time for self-reflection.

‘But I don’t think...this can’t be.’ I wasn’t sure, but my gut was telling me that this wasn’t the case. The Dong-Jun whom I knew was playful, but he was not a person who would maliciously hurt someone. Then the second possibility was—

‘Some dude is playing a dirty joke.’ Someone who hated Dong-Jun must be spreading rumors about him. Countermeasures were difficult in this case, but the outlook was optimistic as I could catch the person who spread the rumor and make them write a counter-explanation.

The key was how quickly I could catch the culprit who spread such malicious rumors. Since this was a battle against time, it became meaningless to catch it too late as it would be after the title, ‘member with an attitude controversy’, would stick to Dong-Jun. I needed to quickly end this matter before that image stuck on him.

Sigh... I swept my hair back and thought of the troubles to come. What I needed to check first was whether the attitude controversy dropped. I searched through all the SNS I used, but I couldn’t find anything anywhere.

‘There’s nothing.’ There were spiteful words about Dong-Jun’s attitude from a hater, but it wasn’t the type to spread controversy as they were people who would portray even 5th-generation saints as demons if they didn’t like them. I searched through communities that contained deeper conversations and even searched through some open chat rooms.

Nevertheless, I saw no signs of any posts related to Dong-Jun’s attitude controversy. I just checked a lot of the haters who made hateful posts against Dong-Jun.

‘I guess they didn’t upload it yet.’ In cases like this, various evidence of bad behavior was scattered everywhere and then came to the surface with one, decisive testimony. However, there was nothing like that for Dong-Jun.

‘If that’s the case, he at least didn’t act like a bully to everyone in school.’ This meant that Dong-Ju at least wasn’t a person who would be remembered badly by everyone. Then my prediction that someone, who hated Dong-Jun would spread malicious rumors about him, got a little stronger.

Since there wasn’t any sign of a comment that could cause an attitude controversy, there wasn’t anything I could do right now. I thought, ‘Do I have to wait?’

However, it wasn’t my personality to just sit tight and wait. I was wondering if I should try something when before I realized it, we had stopped in front of a university in Seoul.

“We’ve arrived!”

Outside, there was a host and production team of <Delicious Restaurant in Our Neighborhood>.

“As soon as you get off here, we’ll start filming.”

“Please don’t get too nervous when you get off, and all you have to do is say hello naturally and put on the mic.”

“I’ll open the door when you’re ready.”

In accordance with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna’s guidance, the members loosened their seat belts one by one. Although it was a broadcast shoot, I could see that they were all drooling. I guess everyone decided to have a cheat day just for this shooting after hardcore dieting. I would have normally smiled seeing them, but I had no leisure to crack a smile.

‘What if the attitude controversy drops during the shoot? That’s the worst.’ Although I wasn’t done organizing my thoughts yet, the members were ready to jump in at any moment.

“Guys, are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Quickly! Let’s go quickly!”

“Wow, I’m really hungry now.”

The members seemed ready to jump out instantly. Yeon-Hoon looked at me and asked if I was ready.

“...Yes, I’m ready.” I couldn’t say no in this atmosphere.

“Then, let’s go!” Soon, the door opened, and we got out of the vehicle.

“Hello!”

“Hello!”

***

In an internet café in Seoul, Kim Won-Joong and Kim Joong-Yeon gathered together. They planned to begin the plan they talked about all night at the convenience store yesterday.

“We really are going to do it? Like upload for real?”

“Ha...Yeah, let’s do it. We need to get justice.”

“But what if we get sued by them?”

“I looked it up and it says they can’t sue unless you mention their real name. Don’t be scared. We’ll never get caught.”

“But this is hella scary now that I’m trying to do it.”

“Then can you live while watching that bastard Park Dong-Jun on TV every day?”

“Yeah, thinking about that makes me really mad thinking.”

The two went on Nacepann[1] while saying this.

Frankly, at some point, the two didn’t understand why they were going so far like this, and all they wanted was not to see someone they didn’t like living a happy life. However, even then, there was no need to do something extreme like this...

“Wow, if I post this, Dong-Jun really won’t be able to come out on TV anymore.”

“Yeah, I know.”

At some point, it felt like their brakes were broken. No, it felt like the brake itself had disappeared altogether, and all they wanted now was to see Park Dong-Jun fall to the deepest gutter. They wanted to stand on top of the place where Park Dong-Jun crashed and laugh at him from above, saying ‘I knew this would happen to you.’

If it was possible, they wanted him to come and kneel down in front of them. They continued to write while imagining their sweet fantasies.

“Wow, I’m done.”

“Awesome. You wrote it so well.”

Although it was an impulsive plan that felt like someone was pushing them to do, they were sincerely happy, imagining Park Dong Jun’s fall.

***

<Neighborhood Eateries> program was a show that selected a specific area every week and explored local restaurants. Since we got off in front of a university today, I thought we would definitely explore famous restaurants around the university campus. Perhaps it was because college students were on the forefront of trends, the reactions here were much more intense than walking around the other streets.

“Kyahhhhh!”

“Crazyyy!”

“Wow! They’re insanely good looking!”

There were people who screamed while walking by, flashed their cameras like crazy, and followed us as if they were entranced. Anyways, we were placed in a very dramatic situation. It was to the extent that a large number of people gathered to form a sphere around us and the hosts.

“Everyone! Where are the best restaurants here! We’ll take exactly five suggestions!” The host asked the students here where the best restaurants were. The format of this show was to hear five different suggestions and pick the number 1 restaurant among those five suggestions.

“Hello, student over there! Can we interview you?” The host, who used to be a former announcer, skillfully picked out people to interview among the general public. The female student approached us with shining eyes as if she were ecstatic. She especially looked at Yeon-Hoon, and Yeon-Hoon must have felt her gaze as he gave her a bright smile.

“Wooooow! Crazy! That’s crazy!” As expected of a college student, her reaction was intense.

“What is your name?”

“It’s Park Eunju!”

“Nice name, Ms. Park Eunju. Then do you know the group Siren?”

“Yesssss! I love them so much! I watched all the episodes of The Showcase 2! I voted and told others to vote every single day!”

I stared at Park Eunju, who was definitely an ENFP[2].

“Young people these days call them favs or was it—bias? Anyways, who is your bias in Siren, Ms. Eunju?”

“What...Wow...You want me to pick here?” The female student looked seriously troubled by the host’s mischievous question.

“I love everyone...deeply in Siren.” Then she overcame the crisis by giving a neutral answer.

“Then Ms. Eunju, where do you think is the most delicious restaurant around this university?” The host now asked the main question that fit the program’s main mission.

“Well...um...I...If I had to pick just one place...the student cafeteria!”

“Wow! The school cafeteria? It’s the first time the school cafeteria has been chosen as the place with the most delicious food on this program.”

“Our school has really good food!”

“Woow! Alright! Then, let’s go, Siren!”

We decided to move to the student cafeteria, but before we left, Yeon-Hoon asked the host, “Would we be able to take a photo with our fan before we go?”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

With the host’s permission, Park Eunju excitedly cheered and held up her phone. “Wow, really? Amazing! Please hurry up and gather behind me.”

“Hahhahaha!” Dong-Jun burst out laughing at her reaction.

“Here we go! One, two, three!”

After Park Eunju’s camera shutter blinked a few times, we moved to the student cafeteria under the leadership of the production team. “Let’s move on now.”

“Thank you! I’ll treasure this picture for the rest of my life!”

“No problem at all and thanks for the suggestion. We’ll enjoy our meal!”

“Make sure to eat Jjagechi. Jjagechi. That’s super delicious.”

“Hahaha! I got it.”

“Thank you.”

“Good luck with your school life!”

“Goodbye.”

After saying farewell to the energetic Park Eunju, we arrived at the student cafeteria.

“Now that we’re in front of the first eatery, what do you all feel?” Before entering the cafeteria, the host set up a moment for us to make comments to provide content for the show. We stood in front of the building where the student cafeteria was located and started making comments one by one.

“It’s my first time at a university, so I’ve always wanted to try a university’s school cafeteria. I’m so excited!”

“Honestly, when I heard that we were coming to this university, I read a lot of comments saying that the food was really delicious, so I’ll go check if it’s really good and tell everyone my review.”

“As Siren’s representative foodie, I’ll accurately quantify the cafeteria food’s delicious factor into exact numbers.”

“Hahahaha! That sounds great, Mr. Dong-Jun! I like your spirit!”

The atmosphere on the scene was good until at least Dong-Jun said his lines. It was time for me to say something when—

“Huh?”

“What?”

“What’s that?”

Gasp!

“Right now, this is...”

There was a sudden commotion on the side of the production team. Although they were exchanging information in a quiet voice so as to not interfere with the broadcast, it obviously sounded like a problem broke out. As a result of that, I forgot to make a comment and looked at the production team. The members also looked at them with worried expressions.

I felt it instinctively, ‘it broke out.’

The situation that I was most concerned about broke out. I made eye contact with Dong-Jun, and he gave me a thoughtless grin. I wondered how long this smile could go...

‘Damn it.’ A fiery fire burned in the pit of my stomach; I was determined to finish this broadcast well and come up with a solution.

“Mr. Dong-Jun! Can you come over here for a second?”

“I’ll stop the shoot for 10 minutes and go.” Did the problem get bigger than I thought? The filming was suspended.

1. This is a reference to Nate Pann, a popular internet forum in South Korea. ☜

2. ENFP is a type of personality in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is huge in Korea. ☜

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