Save a Failed Idol's Life

Chapter 144:

[Do you want to purchase the replay service?]

[Yes/No]

I felt something was missing from the status window that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was because Pposili, who should have been at the bottom of the window, was nowhere to be seen.

‘?’

I raised a question mark in my head and looked down at my feet. There was Pposili, sticking out his tongue and panting on my ankle.

Pposili disappears from the status window when he materializes in reality.

It made sense when I thought about it. I reflexively stroked Pposili’s round head once and shouted a command in my mind.

‘Yes.’

The surroundings turned gray as if I had switched to pod, dark mode, and the space changed.

“Who’s going to do that part?”

“Can I do it?”

“Uh, I was going to say that.”

I was unlucky enough to be in the group with the most members. And everyone here was too passionate, so none of them missed the practice.

Maybe it was because the main thing for the rap unit was to write and produce their own lyrics, unlike the vocal unit whose skill itself was the focus. They all had bloodshot eyes to get the good parts.

“Oh, I wanted to do that too. How do we decide when there are so many applicants?”

AtoX guys were the problem here too. The other group guys were not easy either. But these kids were especially full of pride that they were the original vocal group.

Unless they had a solid record like Seong-won, who took off his rank and competed in a survival program,

They all listened to the nice words that the fans gave them, such as vocal gangster, vocal top, and so on, and had a lot of strength in their shoulders.

They all had high pride, but no concrete evidence to prove it, so the conclusion kept going around.

I want to do that part too, and I can’t give it to you. If you really want to take it, give me a valid reason.

“Let’s divide the parts slowly and decide on the costumes first, shall we?”

Kyunghwa tried to move the meeting forward by suggesting a direction, but immediately complaints erupted.

“No, we have to decide on the parts first. If not, shall we do rock-paper-scissors?”

AtoX leader, Park Hyoeun, firmly blocked Kyunghwa’s attempt.

“But isn’t it a bit weird to decide on the highlight by rock-paper-scissors? The highlight has to be the best to have an advantage when we compete with other units, right?”

“Then how do we decide?”

In the end, Kyunghwa couldn’t stand it and laughed incredulously, and the guy who had given a negative opinion earlier answered sarcastically.

“Isn’t it better for the leader to decide?”

Then complaints burst out at the same time.

“Why does the leader have to decide?”

I felt like I didn’t need to watch any more after seeing this. Maybe it would be better to just boil some soup with simple ingredients for Kyunghwa.

I swallowed a sigh with a bitter taste in my mouth, and the surroundings returned to normal.

[Replay service – 24 years old 4 hours ago ended]

Our unit was also in a burning house, so there was nothing else to say.

I paused for a moment and looked around the kitchen.

I had finished most of the preparations, and all I had to do was heat it up and serve it when Yi-jun and Seong-won arrived later.

I turned off the light and untied the apron that I had tightly fastened around my waist. I hung it back on the drawer handle.

“I’ll be back in a bit. I’m going to the convenience store.”

There was a convenience store on the first floor of the officetel, so I didn’t have to worry much about dressing up or security.

“Oh, take care!”

I picked out four cans of beer for ten thousand won. I wanted to avoid it as much as possible for the sake of my figure, but I felt like I needed it today.

I suddenly wondered if I was feeding them too well these days… I was worried, but what can I do? I can’t feed them like I did on the days of my activities.

And when I’m mentally stressed like this, I have to have a good appetite to endure it. I rationalized it easily.

After all, feeding them well is the best way to go.

Speaking of which, I heard that there are a lot of alcohol ads coming in through PPL these days. Do we have any of those? Should I ask?

The winter repair special with Floss was scheduled to go up for three weeks, so I had a temporary vacation period until next week’s shooting.

‘Next week, after the last shooting of season 1, I decided to focus on the competition for a while.’

Season 2 would be done in a re-contract form after the label split, so it wouldn’t be bad to replace the director and staff who had friction with us and keep only the staff we needed.

Anyway, this is a side story.

‘Is four cans enough for the two of us?’

I stuffed the cans into an opaque bag and headed inside with them in my arms.

Maybe it was because the rent was expensive for a mixed-use complex. I glanced at the residents passing by and saw a lot of familiar faces, even though they were dressed casually.

This was also a place where a lot of celebrities lived alone.

‘I hope no one recognizes me. Let’s go in quickly…’

As soon as I thought that, someone recognized me and waved at me.

“Oh, Ise!”

Damn. I had to run into someone with a bunch of alcohol in my hand. As soon as I heard my name, I turned awkwardly to the direction of the sound. Hwijin was standing there with a bright expression, even though he looked a bit pale.

And next to him was Seong-won, who looked indifferent.

“What are you doing here?”

I asked, clutching the black plastic bag to my chest.

“I live here. I went back and forth between here and the dorm, but Seong-won said he had something to do around here, so I gave him a ride.”

Things seemed to be going well for them. I looked at Seong-won, thinking that our home’s time bomb was doing well.

“Why.”

Seong-won asked with a look that said he didn’t do anything wrong.

“No, nothing. Did you have a good practice today?”

I put Seong-won aside and checked the situation with Hwijin, who was an outsider.

“Ah, yes. We’re all cooperating well and having good opinions, so I think we can do well!”

I remembered who was in the vocal A team. Floss, Climax, Playground. Those were the three groups.

There was only one Seong-won in Climax. Floss would cooperate since they were a team. Playground had no say.

Considering that, it seemed like Hwijin, who was the oldest, could lead them comfortably.

“Ah… I’m jealous.”

I unwittingly blurted out my true feelings and covered my mouth.

“Is the unit activity hard?”

Hwijin asked me cautiously if he had seen the contents of the bag on my chest.

His tone was quite careful, but his eyes were the opposite.

His expression was worried, but his eyes… they shone like someone who had seized an opportunity.

“Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with.”

His eyes were shouting ‘I’ll help you! I’ll help you!’

‘I get that he wants to repay me for the psychological help I gave him… but he doesn’t have to be happy when I look troubled.’

I was both annoyed and a little grateful, so I mumbled something vague.

“It’s not easy to match schedules when everyone is busy.”

“Oh… Your unit is AtoX and Vesper, right? Then you must be really busy.”

Hwijin nodded slowly as if he understood.

‘They’re all so busy that they don’t even show their noses.’

In that respect, I was definitely envious of Hwijin. Playground… they would come running whenever I called. Seong-won… he was a guy who quietly did whatever was beneficial to him.

I didn’t get along well with the Floss team members, but they were on the same side, so it wouldn’t be too hard to persuade them.

After suffering so much in the last mission, this time it would be much easier.

“Still, you all have decent skills, so you’ll do well on the main stage. Don’t worry too much.”

Hwijin offered me some useless consolation and pointed to the elevator as if to suggest we go up.

“What floor do you live on?”

When I asked him standing in front of the panel, Hwijin quickly pressed the ninth floor and answered.

“The ninth floor. How long have you been living here?”

How long has it been? I didn’t know that much, so I trailed off.

“It’s been a while. I’ve been staying at the dorm lately, so I left my stuff here. I’m here because there’s a problem with the dorm right now.”

“Ah~.”

Hwijin wanted to ask me what happened, but he held back as if it could be too personal and smirked.

It wasn’t such a big deal. I didn’t need to tell him and make him worry.

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you and thank you for the ride. Go ahead.”

The elevator arrived at the ninth floor and the door opened.

As I said goodbye to Hwijin, who was getting off, he hesitated outside the door as if he wanted to say something more.

But soon the door started to close and Hwijin waved his hand regretfully and disappeared to the left.

I asked Seong-won almost at the same time as the door closed.

“Are you up for the unit activity?”

Seong-won answered without a moment’s delay, as if he had been trained.

“Yeah.”

And then the silence continued until we reached the top floor where we lived.

‘Should I say something?’

I was getting used to him and I thought we were getting closer, but Seong-won was still the hardest person to deal with among the four members.

He didn’t seem to care at all even if we didn’t talk at all.

“…How about you?”

Just before the door opened, Seong-won asked me casually.

What’s with this awkward timing? They all probably knew that I failed to pick my teammates. I didn’t hide it and answered moderately.

“I’d like to talk to them if they show up, but they don’t, so I’m a bit stuck.”

Seong-won stared at me silently for a while, then quickly turned his head and opened the door lock and went inside first.

What the hell, why did he ask me then? I was dumbfounded and glared at the back of Seong-won’s yellow head.

“Yi-jun will be here in five minutes.”

Soon, Kyunghwa came out after washing up and looked like he had recovered a bit. He dried his hair and told me.

Let’s eat first and think. Eat first. I started to prepare the meal by heating up the side dishes I had made in advance.

That night. Everyone was so tired that they went to bed right after eating the lavish dinner.

I sneaked out of bed and woke Kyunghwa up when everyone was asleep. I was worried about what would happen if Seong-won woke up with him, but he was sleeping more quietly than I thought.

“Get up for a minute.”

I shook Kyunghwa awake and handed him a can I had just taken out of the fridge. Kyunghwa jumped up at the coldness of the can.

“Shh. There’s a rooftop garden here. Let’s go talk for a bit.”

As I was grabbing my coat, Seon-woo stretched his legs and rolled over. Did he wake up? My heart sank.

“Ugh… no more… mmm… can’t eat… hmm…”

But he was talking nonsense, so he must have been asleep. I brushed my chest and took Kyunghwa to the roof.

“Wow…”

I only knew that they had installed a high fence and decorated it with benches and a small garden for 24-hour access.

The night view from the roof and the lush little garden made a pretty impressive sight.

“What’s up, all of a sudden?”

Kyunghwa asked, looking back and forth between the can in his hand and the other side of the fence.

“I just felt like people need to breathe and live sometimes.”

It was an old-fashioned way of saying it, but I couldn’t help it. Instead of saying cliched things like, are you okay, or do you have anything you want to talk about, I just gave him some time to quietly enjoy the wind.

Kyunghwa, who had been looking at the night view for a while, licked his lips as if he had something he wanted to say.

Seong-won looked at me without a word, then swiftly turned his head and unlocked the door. He went in before me.

Why did he even bother asking me? I was baffled and glared at his yellow hair.

“Yi-jun will be here in five minutes,” Kyunghwa said.

He had washed up and seemed to have regained some energy. He dried his hair with a towel and informed me.

I decided to eat first and think later. I heated up the side dishes I had prepared earlier and got ready for dinner.

That night, we all went to bed soon after the feast. We were exhausted.

I waited until everyone was asleep, then gently shook Kyunghwa awake. I was afraid Seong-won might wake up too, but he was sound asleep.

“Come on, get up.”

I handed Kyunghwa a can I had just taken out of the fridge. He startled at the coldness and sat up.

“Shh. There’s a rooftop garden here. Let’s go talk for a bit.”

I grabbed my coat and headed for the stairs. Seon-woo stirred and kicked his legs. Did he wake up? My heart dropped.

“Ugh… no more… mmm… can’t eat… hmm…”

But he was just mumbling, so he was still asleep. I sighed in relief and took Kyunghwa to the roof.

“Wow…”

I knew they had a high fence and a small garden with benches on the roof, but I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful.

The night view from the roof and the greenery of the garden created a stunning contrast.

“What’s going on? Why the sudden move?”

Kyunghwa asked, switching his gaze between the can in his hand and the view beyond the fence.

“I just thought we needed a break. To breathe and live a little.”

It sounded old-fashioned, but I meant it. I didn’t want to say the usual things like, are you okay, or do you have anything on your mind. I just wanted to give him some quiet time to feel the wind.

Kyunghwa stared at the night view for a while, then moved his lips as if he had something to say.

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