Damn Idol
Episode 60
Honestly speaking, this is all too obvious to me.
My goal isn't to hear a "Who was that again?" on Coming Up Next. It's to hear a "What program was Han Sion on?"
For that to happen, the buzz I generate needs to be bigger than Coming Up Next itself.
That's why I messed with We From Flower.
Of course, if this were a round seriously challenging for 200 million sales, I wouldn't have chosen this method.
The downsides are too obvious.
"So you messed with the seniors on purpose?"
"Rather than saying I messed with them."
"Sion. You should call them your seniors."
He acts like a handsome kindergarten teacher.
"Rather than messing with anyone, I just prioritized listening to the most failed songs from the most popular groups."
There were plenty of choices.
Because even among NOP's and Drop Out's title tracks, there were some spectacular flops.
Drop Out had even failed once before as a group, so touching their debut single or first full album's title track would have caused a real firestorm.
Still, the reason I chose Flowers Bloom was simply that the song was fun.
Ah, Blue demanding a stage with no rearrangement was another big reason.
Something like Drop Out's debut single—no matter what I did, I couldn't save the original.
Who the hell even made that?
While the members blinked their eyes listening to my explanation, Gu Taehwan quietly rose from his seat.
Then he checked outside the door and sat back down.
"Fortunately, no one's listening."
"This stays between us."
"Let's do that. If word gets out, Sion will be buried alive. Especially the Drop Out part."
"Hyung, people tell you a lot that you're tactless, right?"
I frowned at Choi Jaeseong's words.
That's not because my personality is tactless. It's an unavoidable side effect of being a regressor.
While you know nothing.
"It's fascinating. The fact that Sion lives thinking about all that. Wait, then what about Uptown Punk? What was the reason for picking that song?"
"The four others picked that song, excluding me."
"Ah, right. It was a majority vote."
"But why did you do that? You pushed for Uptown Punk like you'd coordinated beforehand."
"Ah, that? You seemed like you were going to try some tremendous producing, so I picked the most famous song I could."
"Tremendous producing?"
"You know, the kind that's super avant-garde and experimental."
Ah, so that was why?
What does he take me for.
I'm more serious about the public's tastes than anyone here.
I don't have the slightest thought of showing off my artistry.
Then Choi Jaeseong raised his hand and pointed at Gu Taehwan.
"I have something I'm curious about too!"
"Jaeseong. You don't point fingers at your elders."
"Ah, sorry."
I guess Ion's concept for today is kindergarten teacher after all.
The story Choi Jaeseong brought up was quite interesting.
"No, but why did Taehwan-hyung become an 'I'll try my best' bot?"
"Huh?"
"You don't usually say that. But weirdly, you kept shouting it non-stop during the B-Team qualifiers."
Choi Jaeseong took out his phone and showed us the online reactions.
"-No but what kind of NPC quest is this lol"
"-You've vowed to try hard 5 times lol"
"-The NPC highly evaluates your passion!"
"-Hidden reward: Song selection!"
Moreover, ever since I started properly helping Gu Taehwan with his song selection, there were quite a few comments calling us "the delinquent and the prefect."
The prefect? Me?
"Wouldn't Ion-hyung suit being the prefect more?"
"Sion-hyung has a point. Ion-hyung is surprisingly strict about manners and etiquette."
"Manners and etiquette works, but decorum is more accurate."
"Like right now."
Ion shrugged.
"I've felt that way since I was young. Even when I do the same things as my friends, I look worse."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because it looks like I'm acting the part of a handsome guy."
"...."
People don't usually say that kind of thing about themselves, do they?
Come to think of it, we had a conversation like that too.
"Hyung, have you ever met anyone handsomer than you, even once in your life?"
"Of course I have."
"When? Where?"
"At a movie premiere."
"...An actor?"
"Yeah."
Hmm, if you're as handsome as Ion, I guess that kind of conversation becomes natural.
I've regressed countless times, but since I've never had plastic surgery, I don't really know...
Ah, wait.
I did try it once, thinking I might sell more albums if I became handsomer.
But the feeling of producing sound after the surgery was so awful that I just regressed right away.
"Anyway, Taehwan-hyung. Why did you do that?"
"Well, at first I just said it without thinking. It seemed like good advice from Sion, but I thought I should check. I just didn't have anything else to say."
"Then the next time?"
"Sion seemed to like it so much."
What?
"Me?"
"Yeah. Every time I said 'I'll work hard,' your expression changed."
"What nonsense."
The sequence of events was reversed.
Gu Taehwan shouted "I'll work hard" so much that I started noticing it. There's no way I was like that from the start.
Why would I even like something like that?
"You didn't like it?"
"Obviously."
"I did it because I thought you liked it?"
"I told you, no."
"Then why did I do that?"
"No, at first..."
I tried to recall the details and argue properly, but it felt pathetic, so I gave up.
It's not like we're fighting over who bumped into whom first in some bar bathroom.
"You guys are like a couple arguing over who confessed first."
I didn't like Choi Jaeseong's analogy.
"Then why did you ask if I was Ryan?"
"Because I had nothing to ask, but you kept pressuring me to ask something."
"Was it CEO Choi Daeho?"
"Yeah. I think he remembered it from my audition video."
"Wow, shameless."
"Ion-hyung is the really shameless one."
"Ah, that's true too."
"Why me?"
After that, the members started asking each other things they'd been curious about.
I wasn't very curious about anything, but they had more questions for each other than I expected.
Then Onsaemiro asked a different kind of question.
"What do you think of my singing?"
"Ah, me too! Tell me too. Sion-hyung said I was the worst in Seoul Town Punk, so I cried in the bathroom by myself."
"Sion said that?"
Ion opened his eyes wide and looked over with scolding eyes, channeling the kindergarten teacher again.
"Choi Jaeseong asked first."
"That's true, but you were too harsh!"
"Me?"
"It really hurt my masang. Hyung, do you know what masang is?"
"On a horse?"
"A mental wound!"
Everyone looked at me in response to Choi Jaeseong's shout.
As if to ask what the hell I'd said.
But what had I even said?
"Hyung, I monitored myself, and don't you think I was the most disappointing one in Seoul Town Punk?"
"You were the most disappointing, yeah. A soft, beautiful voice with a gentle texture never suits soul or punk to begin with. Learn to lower your voice."
"...How do I lower it?"
"Try approaching high notes with the same mindset as low notes. Most singers have different attitudes for high and low notes—they think high notes are for shouting and low notes are for singing."
"Doesn't make sense? For example, in your verse, there's that high part where you sing 'please overtake me,' right?"
"Right here, your note was like ah—ah—about this level? You have to take the feeling of singing it like um—um—around this note."
"Why so quiet? Can't do it?"
"Well, it might be too hard with your current skill. Let me give you an easier example."
It was nothing special.
Wasn't that pretty kind?
But the members' reactions were completely different.
"Wow, that was harsh."
"So that's why Jaeseong's been waking up early to practice lately?"
"Did you really have to put it that way...?"
No, that's kinda unfair.
This is just my feedback habit.
Because among singers, there are plenty of egotistical bastards who only hear the praise and ignore the criticism when you use the "praise first, then critique" approach.
Besides, I thought Choi Jaeseong did well in Seoul Town Punk.
If his innate skill was 80, he performed at 80 or above.
This is actually really hard. Choi Jaeseong is a singer who instinctively knows how to squeeze out one hundred percent of his ability.
He was only lacking by absolute standards.
"Then you should have told him that first!"
"He might get cocky."
"I won't get cocky! And so what if an aspiring singer gets a little cocky? Trainees are supposed to swing back and forth between 'my song sucks' and 'my song is killer.'"
"It's neither killer nor sucky."
"Wow! Damn!"
The last line was a joke.
An actual joke.
I'm not that socially inept.
"Then what about me? How am I now?"
Starting with Gu Taehwan's question, I went ahead and evaluated everyone's current skills.
Since I'd already spoken with Gu Taehwan and Ion several times, I just briefly went over them.
The important one was Onsaemiro.
"Onsaemiro, you're good."
You got overshadowed by me in Three Months and One Hundred Days and by Juyeon in Take Scene, but purely in terms of skill, there's not much to fault.
If there is a problem...
"You seem like you're trying too hard to prove yourself."
"Prove?"
"Your need to prove your skill keeps overriding your immersion in the song."
You weren't like that during the first preliminary mission, but you've gradually changed.
It's probably because of me...
Since you have a strong ego, you probably want to mark your territory when someone better than you is around.
"Trainer Yu Seonhwa has pretty much handled the technical side, so you need to manage your mindset."
"I was immersed during Seoul Town Punk though..."
"Right. You were the best there."
He had definitely been good in Seoul Town Punk.
He sang the same chorus as me, almost like we were competing. He struggled a bit in practice, but killed it on the actual stage.
"It's cliché, but relax."
"Oh, Sion-hyung seems to have gained some social skills."
"Is this the power of socialization training?"
I smirked at Choi Jaeseong and Ion's banter.
You wouldn't expect it, but those two actually have pretty good comedy chemistry.
But setting aside the gentle advice, I had no intention of being on the same team as Onsaemiro.
Not just after Three Months and One Hundred Days, but in every lifetime where I challenge being a K-pop idol from now on.
What I want isn't someone who swings between 100 points and 50 points depending on their condition and mood.
I want someone with a solid mentality who can consistently deliver 90 or above without fluctuation.
Still, if Onsaemiro takes my advice and grows into an excellent vocalist, that would be great.
Because...
"..."
Unwittingly, my thoughts touched upon something I didn't want to recall.
I tried to stop, but thoughts aren't something you can stop at will.
Rather, they're something that runs wild.
At times like this, it's better to think it through to the end.
Only then can I finish this thought as quickly as possible.
"..."
During my second meeting with the devil.
I was given the chance to ask questions and get answers.
I asked many things.
Why he chose me, why I had to sell albums, why this contract was made, and so on.
When some of my doubts were cleared up, another curiosity arose.
No, to be exact, it was a question I'd always had.
But at the same time, it was a question I'd already quietly settled with an answer.
So I asked.
I shouldn't have.
"If I regress, what happens to the world I leave behind?"
The answers I expected were that the world disappears, or that it reverts to a time before I existed.
If not, then just how much sorrow and loss have I inflicted on how many people?
How many lives have I ruined, and how many people were robbed of their original glory by the butterfly effects I created?
That would be so unfair.
Because I've always lived stealing someone's honor to achieve my goals.
But the devil's answer was cruel.
Rather, he looked puzzled.
[Does a crossroad disappear simply because you've passed through it?]