Second Try Idol

The night shooting began. My scene unfolded with me opening the door to a deserted clubroom.

Creak—

The silence was broken only by the sound of the door creaking. I stepped into the classroom, where a gentle breeze blew through the window left ajar by Goh Yoo-Joon. It brought a whisper of the outside world into the stagnant air. I paused in the doorway and surveyed the room before slowly taking a few more steps.

“...”

The room felt hauntingly empty. The void was filled only by the melancholic sounds of the wind weaving through the window and the starless expanse of the Seoul sky.

I, the once joyous Suh Hyun-Woo, lively in my school uniform amidst the clamor of friends in "Joy," now stood alone in "Phantom Spirit." I was wearing a black shirt adorned with a pink floral badge. My face was devoid of any smile. I solemnly swept the desk before collapsing into a chair with a heavy sigh.

“Haah..."

The director quietly prompted me, "Turn your head and look at the message on the chalkboard."

I turned to face the chalkboard where the words still remained.

The stark message Goh Yoo-Joon had left behind was a chilling reminder of the scene's gravity.

“...”

"Two, three. Perfect, you are doing a great job. Now, rise and approach the chalkboard slowly."

I followed the director's instructions, slowly got up, and headed toward the chalkboard with the phrase written on it. Fortunately, I didn't have to open my mouth at all unlike in the “Joy” video.

Even without being prompted, the wind appropriately blew to create the right atmosphere, and the staff kept quiet to help me concentrate except for the director. Thanks to this, I was able to act without any awkwardness.

I had a complex expression on my face while looking at the chalkboard. It was a look of sadness, emptiness, bitterness, or perhaps guilt as I gazed tenderly at the remnants of Goh Yoo-Joon.

『If I erase this too, all traces of Goh Yoo-Joon in this world will disappear..』

I remembered the monologue the writer had prepared for me before shooting to immerse myself into the role. I hesitated, but I erased the phrase from the chalkboard with slow yet firm movements.

『With this, our radiant memories have completely vanished. This is the end. This is it, this is it...』

As I recalled another monologue, images from the “Joy” music video appeared in my mind. They were scenes of pure happiness, but it turned out this was how we ended up in the story.

I thought I was just following directions, but it seemed I got overly immersed while shooting the three music videos. Or maybe my actions reflected the real me, who had no choice but to discard memories rather than just the story.

“Ah."

When a tear fell unexpectedly, I was at a loss for words and just stared at the eraser.

“Wonderful! Cut! Okay!"

It appeared the director was very pleased even though I felt bad. He immediately gave the okay sign. “I didn't think you would cry. You've really improved, Hyun-Woo."

As the director gave me a thumbs-up, Yoon-Chan, who had come to watch, nodded and smiled proudly. “Hyung, you did really well!"

“Really? Th-thank you..." I pretended I had been acting by wiping my tears and headed over to Yoon-Chan's side.

Yoon-Chan looked a bit tired, as if he had just finished running.

“How much did you run today?"

“Uh, a lot. Almost all day, and I might have to run again... Ah, but it's not too bad."

“You are really kind, Yoon-Chan. It's okay to say it's hard if it is."

It was nonsense that he was fine after running the entire day. I patted Yoon-Chan's head and then moved to the next filming location.

The next shoot was at the sports field. It was the same place we had come for concept photo shoots. Just like last time, I was standing there, holding the name tags of the members. A fire was burning in a drum can at one side of the field. Joo-Han was watching me from the rooftop as I was looking at the fire.

The name tags read Goh Yoo-Joon, Jin-Sung, and Yoon-Chan. I burned them with a blank expression and looked at Joo-Han on the rooftop. In the world of the story, we brothers now had a secret to bury forever.

...And that was the end.

“Cut! That's it for Hyun-Woo! See you at the group dance tomorrow!"

“Good job!"

“Great work!"

That was the end of my shooting for today.

“Thank you so much!"

Su-Hwan, who had been dragged along by Jin-Sung, appeared just in time as I was about to finish and handed me a drink.

I smiled broadly, took the drink, and headed inside the school building. “Hyung, you must be out of it today too, huh?"

“Yeah. It has been tough on me since there’s no road manager..."

It was cold as the sun had set, yet sweat beaded Su-Hwan's forehead. After Supervisor Kim had been called back to the company midway through the shoot, Su-Hwan was left to run around taking care of us alone. Thankfully, the staff helped Su-Hwan... Everyone was busy because they had to fill in Hyuk-Soo’s tasks after he got fired, so we were short on manpower.

“Are we not getting a new road manager?"

“We are currently looking to hire... Ugh..."

As much as it was frustrating for us, Su-Hwan must have been feeling it too. Even after we moved our dorm, Rings kept insisting that we should stay true to ourselves and continually demanded that YMM catch the stalkers.

For idols, stalkers were an inseparable part of the job, but since we had been directly harmed by recent dorm invasions and close approaches, our demands would probably not stop until they were resolved. The Rings had even united to release a statement.

However, our company remained silent, as expected... In my opinion, it seemed like our small to mid-sized agency was currently playing the blame game.

I kept turning my phone on and off as I thought this. “The deal with manager Hyuk-Soo hasn’t been sorted out yet, right?"

“He can't come to work, so it's almost like he has been fired. But he hasn't been officially dismissed yet."

“Are they going to publish an article about it?"

“Yes, it's frustrating."

“Is YMM still receiving fax and email attacks?"

“Yes."

Hyuk-Soo had been confirmed for termination. However, he had not yet been dismissed.

Many people were concerned about whether there was an insider leaking personal information or giving them to stalkers, given the problems with them and personal information leakage. If a new manager was suddenly fired under these circumstances, it would be seen as negligent management, and it would pinpoint people to the source of information leakage. Then, the company would be criticized even more.

For this reason, Hyuk-Soo’s firing continued to be postponed.

“Ugh... this is frustrating."

It was too frustrating how the company always thought about their safety first. I blankly opened my phone's contact list and searched for High-Tension Ji-Hyuk.

- Hyung, are you busy? I have something to ask. When are you available to talk on the phone?

A quick response came back almost immediately.

- When should I contact you? Now? What's up?

‘How can such a busy guy reply so quickly?’

- Ah, sorry, I'm in the middle of shooting, so I will call you later. I didn't expect such a quick reply. I will contact you.

- Is this about On-Sae?

‘What's with On-Sae all of a sudden?’

- Hmm? No. It's about something else. What's with On-Sae? Tell me later.

- Okay, what's roughly the issue?

I sent Ji-Hyuk a brief reply.

If we left the situation as it was, we would just be frustrated and YMM would quietly wrap things up after a while. Things always ended with us being harmed and nothing significant happening.

A prime example was that no one, except for Su-Hwan, was telling us exactly how things were progressing. But personal information had been leaked, and even Goh Yoo-Joon had been directly affected.

There was a limit to bearing things because we were newcomers, especially at a time when all members should have been called for a briefing. So I decided to take a drastic step I wouldn't normally consider.

- It's nothing major. I just wanted to know how much it would cost to cancel the comeback.

I was thinking of helping the higher-ups make a quick decision, considering they might be worried about the potential damage to the company's image if their hard work collapsed.

***

It had been quite some time since Chronos wrapped up the shooting for Again After Rainfall. Despite various issues during filming, including Suh Hyun-Woo's fainting, it was undoubtedly one of South Korea's top music variety shows.

With detailed initial broadcast schedules, trailers, pre-release videos, eyewitness accounts, direct camera footage emerging from the shoot, and especially the scale of the final festival performance, expectations had risen not just among the core fans, but also among the general public. After a long wait, the first broadcast finally aired.

The much-anticipated premiere began with footage of Reina and other cast members preparing for departure. They showed each item they packed. Their excitement for traveling was conveyed as everyone discussed what they were bringing and wearing. The experienced cast naturally managed to make even packing entertaining.

However, the fans watching the broadcast gradually grew bored as Chronos did not appear while everyone else cheerfully prepared for their trip. The Rings were solely interested in Chronos. In fact, the public’s interest was only focused on Chronos and Reina due to extensive coverage in articles, pre-release videos, and direct camera footage.

Yet, only the manager team had appeared so far in the broadcast. The artist team hadn't even been shown up once!

“When will Chronos appear?"

Despite the show being an hour long, there was no content featuring Chronos for the first half, so complaints were erupting on various social media platforms. Again After Rainfall, which showed only the departure preparations, meetings, and the upcoming meeting with Callia for Reina's team all day, finally showed Chronos forty minutes into the first episode.

The first scene featuring Chronos, who appeared like protagonists at the end of the episode, was…

- Getting a driver's license was easy. I don't know, but I got it quickly. You should get yours as soon as possible.

- Why should I when you guys are such capable drivers? Hehe.

Goh Yoo-Joon was casually bragging about obtaining his license, and Kang Joo-Han was having a TMI talk about leaving the driving to his younger brothers. This was followed by scenes showing Jin-Sung enviously wishing he had a license and Suh Hyun-Woo nervously dealing with his fear of heights.

Despite the shooting atmosphere being quite negative at the time due to Suh Hyun-Woo's sudden health decline, the broadcast managed to adorably package his nervousness with captions and edits.

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