The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

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On their way to The Showcase 2 shooting, Only One’s members were on cloud nine. Though they usually kept their mouths closed to not bother Kang Hyun-Sung, they were excitedly talking amongst themselves today.

Thanks to the explosive new attention they received after the show’s preview was released, everyone was feeling elated. Their social media account, which only had a simple greeting video, began to exponentially gain followers even without a special marketing ploy or an eye-grabbing post. This was the moment that made the members realize the power of social media and the power of a great preview.

“There are a lot of comments complimenting Young-Ho.”

“They say that you are cute, Young-Ho.”

“Yeah, our maknae is cute.”

The Only One’s maknae, Park Young-Ho smiled embarrassedly, hearing his older members’ compliments and quickly scanned the compliments about him on the phone screen.

“Maybe this could really be our big break,” Kim Si-Woon said.

“Yeah. We are off to a great start,” Kim Ju-Hyun replied.

“Perhaps, we could try out for this year’s Rising Star award.”

The inside of Only One’s car was unusually filled with chatter as the members talked about their hopeful aspirations. It was then, a flat voice clearly pierced through the noise.

“Everyone sure looks happy.”

He neither raised his voice nor enunciated each word clearly. He spat out the words as if he was just a passerby walking by. Yet, all the Only One members’ attention shot toward Kang Hyun-Sung, who sat right behind the driver seat. Kang Hyun-Sung spoke with his gaze fixed on his phone screen. Though he didn’t say anything bad and his comment was actually positive instead, the mood shifted.

“Um, were we too loud?” The oldest of the group, after Kang Hyun-Sung, Lee Chul-Woon cautiously asked.

“No, it’s fine. It is something to celebrate,” Kang Hyun-Sung said while not looking up from his phone screen. “Let’s just do well in today’s performance. Then, everything will be okay,” he said and closed his mouth again. Though he didn’t rebuke the members or say anything out of the ordinary to sour the mood, everyone instantly became tense.

“Yes.”

“Let’s do well in today’s performance.”

“Definitely.”

Park Young-Ho, who had also been talking excitedly with his older members, calmed himself down and stared ahead. Then, he glanced at Kang Hyun-Sung’s phone screen. Kang Hyun-Sung was looking at a social media page. He was probably monitoring the videos and responses for The Showcase as he usually did. Kang Hyun-Sung seemed to use his phone for only two functions: monitoring responses and discussing work-related matters. He usually did the former when he had a phone in his hands.

Next, Park Young-Ho glanced at Kang Hyun-Sung’s face instead of the phone screen this time. Kang Hyun-Sung’s face was expressionless but for some reason, he appeared to be in a subtly worse mood than before. Park Young-Ho thought deeply about what the reason for Kang Hyun-Sung’s worsened mood could be.

‘Is it because of the upcoming performance?’ Park Young-Ho thought about what Kang Hyun-Sung just said and the upcoming performance. Then, he began to understand a bit more why Kang Hyun-Sung could be in a bad mood. Only One’s fame was like a double-edged sword. They would likely rank first place in every competition thanks to Kang Hyun-Sung’s popularity. Yet, the problem was that Only One could place first even when other groups did noticeably better. That would be like an open invitation for criticisms to arise.

‘We could have our crowns stolen at the end,” Park Young-Ho thought. If Only One began to get bad press, there was a possibility that in the final episode, where audiences voted by texting on live broadcast, all the votes could gather in another group. Then, they would lose their first-place title near the end of the show.

This wouldn’t be a concern if they had a massive fandom, but Only One wasn’t at that level of popularity yet. They were still just the biggest fish in a small pond. And in the end, the only method to prevent this from happening was to do really well in their performances.

Everything would be solved if Only One performed above their competition. Since they were clearly ahead of the other group in this regard, they needed to maintain this momentum. It was easy because they just needed to do what Kang Hyun-Sung told them to do. Yet, for some reason, Park Young-Ho kept having a bad feeling in his stomach. His heart felt uncomfortable while unpleasant energy gripped his entire body. They needed to do well. A strange pressure heavily weighed down Young-Ho's heart.

***

“Woooow!” As soon as we came out of the car, producers holding cameras greeted us. Yeon-Hoon hollered on the spot, seeing the cluster of cameras.

“Were you all really waiting to shoot us?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Wow! That’s amazing!” Yeon-Hoon appeared stunned by the sheer fact that cameras were shooting us. In our first shoot, cameras didn’t tag along like this at our entrance. Surveillance cameras only went on from the time we entered the waiting rooms and a separate broadcasting camera began filming us after we went up to the studio. Yet, now, cameras were filming us on our way from the parking lot to the waiting room. It was understandable that Yeon-Hoon was surprised but perhaps, he was feeling too high-spirited.

“Did you guys already eat?” Yeon-Hoon asked the cameramen.

“Sorry?”

“We ate a sandwich for breakfast. Tae-Yoon made it for us and it was really tasty.” Yeon-Hoon tried to make extra conversation and said things that were TMIs. The cameramen looked a bit conflicted to hear questions they didn’t expect.

“Are you uncomfortable somewhere, sir? You don’t look so good,” Yeon-Hoon said, not knowing that he was the source of this discomfort.

“Yeon-Hoon, come here,” I intervened.

“Hm?”

I forcefully pulled Yeon-Hoon back and placed the quiet Woon to the front. Woon smiled awkwardly in front of the cameras and quietly went up to the waiting rooms. The cameraman's face appeared much more relaxed then. And when we entered the waiting room, one of the writers of the show sat, waiting for us. It was a familiar face, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint her name.

“Ms. Min-Young!” Yeon-Hoon responded first. Kim Min-Young was the writer who led our first shooting at our dorms. I remembered her face because usually, assistant directors did her job instead of the writer, but it seemed Yeon-Hoon remembered both her face and name and friendly greeted her.

Yeon-Hoon asked, “It’s been a while! How have you been?”

Min-Young replied, “Ah, good. Thank you for asking.”

“Why weren’t you at the shooting last time?”

“I was there but I wasn’t on site because I was writing the script for the next shooting in the office.”

“Then, are you the one behind the script that we are all looking at?”

“Ah, yes. It is our job after all.”

“Wooow, that’s amazing!”

The way Kim Min-Young responded very flusteredly to an overly enthusiastic guy like Yeon-Hoon made a pretty entertaining watch. It seemed the cameramen also thought the same as me and filmed the scene with a smile on their faces.

‘But was she always like this?’ I wondered. From my memories, writer Kim Min-Young was a cold and expressionless person in our first meeting.

‘But she seemed to have softened quite a bit.’ There was a more emotional side to her now. ‘I thought she became a fan of Yeon-Hoon last time. I must be right.’

I thought Kim Min-Young might have been impressed with Yeon-Hoon’s singing in the first shooting. Perhaps, she became a bigger fan in a couple of weeks since that time. After all, she must have seen our first-meeting performance if she was the show’s writer. And after looking at the same clips a couple of times to write subtitles, even an uninterested person would gain interest in the person they were watching.

“Please sit down first.” Soon, Kim Min-Young returned to her usually bland expression to progress the show. Since we already received today’s script before coming here, I had a general guess what would come next. It was time for us to do our interviews.

“Did you practice a lot in the past two weeks?”

“Yes!”

“We practiced a lot!”

We all answered while wearing our padded jackets.

“That’s good to hear. We look forward to seeing your performance,” Kim Min-Young said stiffly as if she was reading off a script. “Then, I will tell you the order of the first round of performances.” She took out a piece of paper from her belongings and handed it to us. Yeon-Hoon went out to accept it as the representative of the group.

“This is the order that Only One decided as their benefit for ranking first place last time.”

“Oh.”

“What?”

My group members responded. It was common practice for the first placing group to decide the order for the other groups.

“Should we open it after counting to three?” Yeon-Hoon said, trying to make a moment for the cameras, but Do-Seung just replied.

“Let’s just open it.”

“Ah,” Yeon-Hoon looked a bit disappointed by Do-Seung’s bland response but still opened the paper. I checked the order as soon as I saw the opened paper.

“...Huh?”

“Oh...”

“Nice.”

“It’s not bad.”

“I see, that’s what it is~”

We had some broken reactions in the beginning, but quickly fixed ourselves for the cameras and said lines expected of us. This was the order that Only One decided:

1-Bleshu, 2-OnebyOne, 3-Siren, 4-Luminin, 5-Only One

There was nothing strange about the order but the fact that they put us at the dead center of the schedule seemed to mean...

‘They pretended not to but they are wary of us.’ It was obvious. We weren’t the first or the last performance but right in the middle—perfect to leave a forgettable impression.

“Well, it’s not like our skills would become forgettable because our order is bad.’ Though the order of one’s performance was important, it was nowhere near enough to ruin the whole thing. As long as we gave a good show, we would be able to pop out no matter where we were placed. No, perhaps, this was better for us. If we gave an overwhelming performance, we could remain on people’s minds until the end.

“Did everyone check your group’s order?” 𝑓𝑟𝘦𝘦𝓌𝘦𝑏𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Yes!”

“We are planning to do the rehearsals in that order too. Of course, you all are not allowed to view the rehearsal like last time.” It was the same as before. “See you on the stage soon,” she said and left the waiting room.

“Haaa.”

“Number 3? We are going third?”

“It’s a spot someone needed to take, but it is a bit regretful.”

My group members started to share their true feelings then. I wondered how their reactions would appear on broadcast, but I thought this level of response was acceptable and not too strong. After all, everyone knew that going third was often the worst scenario for a performer. Perhaps, emphasizing how bad this order was and how unfair our circumstances were could garner more audience sympathy for our group.

“What about you, Tae-Yoon? What do you think?” Woon then approached me and asked.

“Well, I’m fine with it.” Though it was a bit regretful, I didn’t pay much mind to it. “If we go in the middle, we could overwhelm the beginning and latter groups’ performances,” I said.

“Oh!”

“Yeah!” freeweb(n)ovel.com

“Okay, let’s perform with the mindset that we would kill the stage!”

“Good, good!”

My group members’ morale strangely all rose again. Though it was unexpected, it wasn’t something to complain about.

“Then, should we warm up a bit before rehearsals?” Yeon-Hoon said and took off his long padded jacket. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw him do that because it looked as if a snake was shedding its skin. But after Yeon-Hoon, everyone else also took off their jackets and pushed them aside.

“It looks really cool now that we are seeing it like this.”

“I feel like we did a good job choosing the outfits.”

“Come here, you guys! Let’s all take a picture together!” Yeon-Hoon gathered us at one spot and we all took a picture together in front of the mirror. On Yeon-Hoon’s phone screen, a picture of us wearing a blue outer coat and white jeogori[1] shirt popped out. These were our hanbok outfits for our performance of “Walya.”

***

The area outside the studio that was filming The Showcase 2 was crowded with people who won tickets to view the first-round performances.

“You can only receive these if you show the text message that you voted for Hyun-Sung in Select Your Idol,” one person said. Many of the people in this crowd were Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans who were exchanging stickers, posters, and other unofficial goods with each other. Though five groups were participating in The Showcase, it was startling how the majority of the people who gathered at this place were Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans.

Yet, apart from them, there was one woman giving off a different feel from Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans. She was scanning her surroundings disinterestedly and wondering to herself if she should just return home.

Though she had told everyone she knew that she was coming to this place in the hope of finding a new idol group to support, she was already starting to lose motivation. She began to feel foolish for going out of her way to find a new obsession. Thus, she was determined to give this idol business a break if she didn’t find a group she liked this time.

A commotion rose around the studio entrance then. It seemed there were now letting people in, and she walked towards the entrance. She didn’t realize it when she was sitting still, but there appeared to be quite many people who weren’t just Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans.

‘Looks like there are people like me too?’ she thought, seeing people who didn’t have anything in their hands. Then, she walked toward their studio. At that time, she didn’t realize that she would return home, buzzing with excitement to write her review of the day.

1. Upper garment of hanbok (Korea’s traditional garment). ?