Second Try Idol

“Manager Suh, can you give me some water? Warm, please."

“Okay, warm water coming right up."

“Make it a seven to three ratio, please."

“Ah, Yoo-Joon, sorry, is the cold water seven?"

Goh Yoo-Joon turned around and smirked. “Isn't that obvious? Our new manager is a bit dumb."

“I'm sorry. Alright, alright. Seven to three..."

Goh Yoo-Joon was annoyingly ordering around. The producer and the recording director were giggling as they watched me.

“Hyun-Woo is the day manager today, and Yoo-Joon is making full use of him."

“Hyun-Woo will be tired after today. He is going to sleep well tonight."

I was the butt of the jokes in this recording studio. Even between short meetings and preparing for recording, Goh Yoo-Joon kept giving me various orders.

Ah, of course, taking care of the artist was my job, so I could handle getting coffee or water and carrying luggage.

But then…

“Manager Suh."

“Yes! What is it, Yoo-Joon?"

As I responded, Goh Yoo-Joon made a pained expression. “Ah, what should I do? I think I might be coming down with something today."

“What? Are you feeling sick? You were fine earlier."

Hadn’t he been just fine during the car ride? Did he get motion sickness, or was the air suffocating here?

I approached Goh Yoo-Joon, trying to figure out the cause of his sickness, and checked on his condition. “Are you okay? Should I go buy some medicine? The recording is about to start—"

“No, medicine won't help." Goh Yoo-Joon said, dropping his pained expression. He giggled again.

‘What's with him? Is he crazy?’

I looked at him weirdly without saying anything. Goh Yoo-Joon groaned again and patted my shoulder. “Ow, ow, I feel stiff. Could you give me a massage, young Manager Suh?"

“A massage?"

“I'm sore from the long dance practice."

“..."

I couldn't help but snort in disbelief. I didn’t know that Goh Yoo-Joon liked massages. How far would this guy go?

He had not been the only one practicing the choreography. I had been there too. I raised my hand toward Su-Hwan, who was watching from behind the camera, and desperately cried out, “…Hey! Can we switch managers, please? I wanna quit!"

“Hahahaha!"

However, Su-Hwan seemed to be enjoying himself as he was taking pictures.

‘Don't use this occasion to get yourself new wallpapers!’

This wasn't what managing an artist consisted of. It was as if I was Goh Yoo-Joon’s servant. He was such a dick.

“Poor rookie manager, huh? Heh."

The director and the production team were also enjoying watching my predicament. No one was on my side.

“There is no such a thing as quitting here. Ah, quickly. I need to record soon. Su-Hwan, the newbie manager is slacking off,” Goh Yoo-Joon complained.

“Ah, whatever. I have to do it. Come on, boss. Sit up straight, you brat." I gently laughed and maneuvered Goh Yoo-Joon's back to make it easy to massage him.

“Ouch! You’re way too violent!"

“Stop!"

“Aaaargh!"

Your wish is my command, customer. I started the massage the way Goh Yoo-Joon wanted by placing my hands on his shoulders and earnestly kneading the tense muscles until they relaxed.

Goh Yoo-Joon screamed, just as expected. “Owwww! It hurts! Enough, let go!"

“Oh, come on."

Giving a massage to the elite idol Goh Yoo-Joon, who was an important artist of YMM Entertainment, seemed only right for a rookie manager. For world peace, I felt the sickness in my artist's heart easing away from my fingertips.

Just a bit more pressure on my fingers—

“Ah! Hey, Suh Hyun-Woo, I'm not kidding. I’m about to start cursing any moment now! Ow! I'm telling you, I might swear in front of the camera!"

“Go ahead."

Goh Yoo-Joon's expression indicated he was quite satisfied.

“How about now?” I asked proudly. “Do you feel a bit better?"

Goh Yoo-Joon spaced out for a moment, then fiddled with his shoulder. “Wow, did you injure me? I kind of can't feel my shoulder."

“You were quite tense."

“Liar. You are pretending to care but just messing around."

You’re welcome. I stepped back while laughing and rubbed my aching hand.

“Are you guys doing a comedy sketch? Chronos really has something worth watching."

“Haha."

“Anyway, shall we start recording now?"

“Yes!"

At the director's cue, Goh Yoo-Joon got up and headed to the booth. Once the recording started, there wasn't much for me to do. I just sat quietly, watched Goh Yoo-Joon, and spoke to the camera that was filming me. Rinse and repeat.

“His voice really is... My favorite voice. Rings, everyone, I really like it. He’s really good at singing."

I gave a thumbs-up to the camera. Goh Yoo-Joon’s voice was great, and so was the emotion he poured into it. It seemed that last night's detailed interpretation of the song and lyrics by Joo-Han helped him a lot.

As I sat quietly on the couch watching Goh Yoo-Joon for a while, our eyes met, and I gestured to the camera to focus on him. As the camera zoomed in on Goh Yoo-Joon, he responded by waving his hand broadly. “Hyun-Woo, I've filmed enough of my recording part, so you can relax now."

“Ah, thank you."

The staff member holding the camera stopped filming and put the camera down. It seemed they judged that they had filmed enough of Goh Yoo-Joon recording and my reactions, so no more filming was necessary.

I could finally relax and enjoy myself without having to talk to the cameras. I continued to watch Goh Yoo-Joon for a while, then shifted my gaze toward the window. Through the window, I could see the entrance of the building and the parking lot right in front of it, where my car was parked.

“…Hmm."

Come to think of it, Goh Yoon-Joon did mention earlier that there was a scent in the car. I hadn't noticed it much when driving with Su-Hwan.

‘Does Su-Hwan hyung use perfume?’

Lately, I had been sensitive to everything, so even the casual remarks Goh Yoo-Joon made couldn't be taken lightly.

“Su-Hwan, what perfume do you use?" I asked him since he approached me.

“Perfume?" Su-Hwan took out a perfume bottle from his bag and handed it to me. “I've been using this one. It’s a gift from Yeong-Yee. I've never paid much attention to the name, so I'm not sure what it is."

“Can I try it?"

“Yes."

I sprayed some of Su-Hwan's perfume on my wrist and smelled it. Of course, the initial spray and the lingering scent could differ, but neither the scent from the pillow that day nor from the car was this kind of cool fragrance.

“Thanks, Su-Hwan hyung."

“Why the sudden interest in perfume?"

“No, Goh Yoo-Joon mentioned he smelled something in the car, so I thought maybe it was your perfume."

“Ah, was my perfume smell too strong?"

I shook my head. “It wasn't your perfume smell."

“…Then..."

Just then, I saw a group of people approaching our car in the parking lot and opening the door.

“Huh? Oh."

They were our team staff. They weren't entering the car but just leaning in, apparently checking the camera equipment. They weren't particularly close to us, the Chronos members, so I still watched them suspiciously. One of them could be a stalker selling our private information.

It seemed Su-Hwan had the same thought. “The staff have started to investigate the employees one by one. It seems the prosecution is taking it lightly since there's no evidence or anything."

“Ah."

Su-Hwan laughed lightly. “I was investigated too. They suspected me the most."

I laughed involuntarily. “As trustworthy as you are... Ah."

Su-Hwan showed me his phone's wallpaper. His latest wallpaper was a funny-looking photo that Jin-Sung had taken in the US and uploaded to our group chat. With Su-Hwan's low threshold for laughter, his gallery had to be filled with photos and videos of us, so it might seem suspicious at first glance.

“If they suspect you as the culprit, the members will stand up for you. 'Our hyung isn't like that! We gave him those photos!'"

“Thank you."

Su-Hwan nodded slightly and left the recording studio to make a work call.

I turned on my phone and logged onto BlueBird.

'Stalker.'

Due to YMM announcing that they will take harsh actions against stalking, the information-selling stalker, which had quieted down for a while, had recently begun to become active again. On BlueBird, searching 'stalker' brought up a flood of posts from information sellers and those cursing the stalker.

Recently, Jin-Sung accidentally answered a call from a restricted number while waiting for a friend's call, and now his number had leaked on Papao Talk and was being sold. Of course, he changed his number immediately after.

I also called my sister just in case, and while her follower count had increased by an insane amount, fortunately, no one had commented or approached her yet.

‘Is this something we have to live with?'

I wondered if a stalker was a burden that idols had to carry with them for life. Large agencies with extensive experience and data related to stalkers provided well-secured accommodations and the maximum security possible. However, stalkers still gathered and harassed artists. Often, some degree of surrender was necessary.

According to High Tension Ji-Hyuk, even moving to a well-guarded residence did not stop wealthy stalkers from moving in next door and ringing the doorbell.

“Sigh."

We didn’t even dream of a well-guarded residence. It would be great if we could just find the person who leaked our info right away. I mindlessly scrolled through BlueBird and read posts. In the midst of this, a certain Ring's post caught my eye.

Hyun-Woo Builds Nation @woo_10 · 30 minutes ago

You said you will take serious actions, motherfucker. What serious actions is YMM taking when such people are blatantly following my baby around? Stop just talking, and do something… You are basically showing how crappy your company is, ugh.

(Screenshot of video.jpg)

Reply RT 10 Likes 23

“What's this, when was this taken..."

It seemed to be a screenshot from a video taken with a smartphone. The person in the video was none other than me, dressed in the clothes and hairstyle I had just an hour ago while preparing for a shoot in the parking lot of our residence. It was a video of me talking to Su-Hwan in the parking lot, taken from a very close distance. Over the screenshot, there were words written by the stalker.

[Dating with Hyun-Woo♥

He told me to wait until the shooting ends, so I am waiting for him right now~

We will go eat something delicious after~~~♥♥♥♥♥ Love you babe]

The next screenshot was from a video where Goh Yoo-Joon and I were bickering.

[Yoo-Joon smiles so beautifully♥♥

I wanted to see him frown so badly!

How can I make him frown?]

‘Wow, it's really creepy.’

I read the words over and over and shivered. I sent everything that I found to Su-Hwan. I thought about it again. This incident was incredibly creepy, but strangely, it kept making me laugh. It was a half-mad laugh, the sound of derangement, flowing meaninglessly out of me.

‘These videos were taken so close to us. Isn't filming this close too transparently revealing their presence?’

"Ah." I thought how foolishly the stalker was exposing themselves.

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