6. So This Is Why People Stan Trainees
Jinha decided to start by walking in the park every morning.
Walking was something he had done naturally while moving between regions back in the Cheongmaepae, and it was also a way to refresh the quest he had received this time.
Ever since receiving the 'Essence of Stamina' reward, his stamina had definitely increased, so he didn't tire even after walking for a long time.
[Repeat Quest: Walk 10,000 Steps 1/1 Target Completed.]
- Acquired 'Pill of Discernment.'
- 'Repeat Quest' will refresh again tomorrow at 12:00 noon.
- Next quest activated.
Just as expected, it wasn't a difficult quest.
Jinha immediately checked the reward.
▶ Pill of Discernment
- Increases discernment for 3 hours upon consumption.
Increased discernment?
If it were before, he would have dismissed it as a joke, but not now.
A small pill icon appeared before his eyes.
It asked if he wanted to materialize it, but since he didn't want to eat it right away, he stored it for now.
◈ Sixth Quest
[Gather Fans. 16/100]
- A star needs the ability to make fans.
- Reward: Essence of Dexterity 'Fan?'
Jinha looked at the next quest that had appeared before his eyes and thought about its meaning.
Fan.
It was a word he was hearing for the first time, but through faint awareness, he could understand its meaning.
People who like him.
People who give wholehearted love.
That was the meaning of a fan remaining in Jinha's mind.
He thought two of them were probably Gitae and Ayeong.
Two would be Seongyeon and Seongyeon's mother.
He could only guess that the remaining twelve had probably been gained while performing in front of the hospital and the store.
"Excuse me... you're Woo Jinha, right?"
While walking and looking at the quest, someone called out to Jinha.
He turned around to see three girls in school uniforms standing there.
They were children overflowing with individuality yet pretty.
Once again, simple profiles appeared above the girls' heads.
Judging by instinct, these girls didn't seem to be ones he had known originally.
"Who might you be?"
"Please sign this!"
The girls rushed up to Jinha, shoving pens and paper at him out of nowhere.
He was hearing the word 'sign' for the first time, but he could tell what it meant.
If it just meant writing his name on paper, he could do that as much as they wanted.
"Wow! Thank you. Whew, totally scored big."
"Sorry, but do you know me?"
They were high school students, even younger than Ayeong, who spoke casually with him, so he immediately dropped his speech level.
"Yes, we saw you on TV before. You were on Audition Hero, right?"
"Audi... shon? Hero?"
"No, Audition Hero."
"...Maybe you don't remember because you were busy? Want to watch it together?"
The girls searched for a video on the tablet PC they had and showed it to Jinha.
The video had short clips of Jinha dancing and singing edited together.
'Woo Jinha Eliminated'
At the very end, he saw a large subtitle along with himself crying.
Though it was his own appearance, seeing himself crying so sorrowfully made his heart ache.
"Did you join an agency these days? I saw an update about you online saying you gave up being a singer and were working after getting eliminated."
"I told you everything those community kids say is lies."
"No, an authenticated video was uploaded last time too."
Again, the girls showed a video on the tablet PC.
On the screen, a scene came out where Jinha was walking a tightrope and sending customers into the store.
Besides that, there were uploaded videos of him dancing at the hospital and working at the store.
In this world, it seemed like no matter what he did, videos were uploaded to a place called YouTube.
Seeing himself through the screen felt unfamiliar yet strangely intriguing.
"We saw this and the hospital dance too. It's the NP Boys cover, right? Seriously amazing. Exactly like the original."
"Don't you do YouTube? We'll subscribe."
"We're really your fans."
"Fans..."
Different text appeared before Jinha's eyes.
- Fans have been acquired: 3 [Gather Fans. 19/100]
His fans had increased again.
Seeing that they only registered now, they probably hadn't been fans originally, but he sincerely felt grateful.
"Thanks. Sena, Haedeun, Jeongmin."
"Huh? How do you know our names?"
The girls who heard Jinha's words asked with their mouths wide open.
"...You guys told me earlier."
"Huh? Did we tell you?"
"Uh... I think maybe we did. Anyway, daebak. He called all our names. He said thanks. We totally hit the jackpot today..."
"So this is why people stan trainees..."
The girls who had concluded among themselves that Jinha was a trainee felt like this moment was a dream.
Truthfully, they weren't even Jinha's fans yet; they had just recognized a familiar face passing by and pretended to know him, yet to have their names called and have a personal conversation like this...
This was treatment they could never receive from celebrities who were somewhat famous.
"Do you have any scheduled appearances coming up?"
"They're doing the first round of auditions for Idol Star this time; are you going on that too?"
"What's Idol Star?"
"You don't know? It's an audition program Channel W is making this time."
Come to think of it, he remembered there had been a printout in his room saying something about Idol Star.
'An audition...'
It piqued his interest considerably.
He thought that auditions might be the easiest way to enter the entertainment industry.
After chatting with the girls for a while and parting, Jinha materialized the Pill of Discernment he had received this time.
Gulp.
Jinha swallowed the pill without water.
It was a reward that disappeared after one use, but since it was a quest that refreshed daily anyway, there was no need to save it.
"Krrrrgh..."
Bitter.
Filthy bitter.
After the painful taste passed, with a feeling of his head clearing, text appeared before his eyes.
[Current probability of winning if participating in Idol Star: 1.2%]
"..."
Not even twelve percent, but 1.2 percent?
The objective indicator was advising him not to go on Idol Star.
But Jinha's subjective thoughts, with his heightened discernment, were different.
It was an extremely low probability, but it was by no means set in stone.
Besides, he didn't necessarily have to win just because he appeared on the program called Idol Star.
"Anyway, there are still five months until the first preliminary round, so probabilities can change."
Jinha simply wanted to know.
His current position.
A 1.2% chance of winning.
That was his current position.
"It's not like I'll die if I go on it, right? I'm going to try it, whether it's Idol Star or Soo Star."
If the Pill of Discernment could speak, it would have said, "If you're going to do what you want anyway, why the hell did you eat me?"
But a pill was just a pill.
No answer came to Jinha's question asked in the hope that a reply might return.
* * *
"Woo Jinha... 21 years old, aspiring idol."
He had looked into the original owner of this body.
A trainee at SH Entertainment since age 14, quit and became independent at 19.
For two years, he went to auditions here and there but was eliminated from all of them, and the sense he had was gradually fading.
A man who had poured all his strength into effort based on evaluations that he had talent since he was young, but failed to achieve his dream.
"Whether it's the original me or the current me, there's no easy way."
Thinking about how painful it must have been, how little confidence he must have had to continue living that he gave up on life himself, made him feel bitter.
'In the next life... I want to become the singer I've longed for so much and be happy.'
He recalled the contents of the suicide note he had seen before.
The profession of singer, which had become Jinha's dream, also aligned with the original owner's dream.
If he achieved that dream, wouldn't it serve as something like a thank-you for having obtained this body?
"I need to live much harder than just walking around."
Feeling that he was living too lazily compared to what he had received, he somehow felt sorry.
Jinha decided to take another look at the items he had received as rewards so far.
"Stage 1 means I can raise it to the next stage..."
Even after obtaining rewards, the quests continued.
There was no guarantee that anything would change by raising the stage, but it was worth trying.
He added a few more lines to the schedule he had written with colored pencils yesterday.
Plans to refresh quests and raise the stages of rewards already received.
There was no need to rush, but he couldn't spend his time leisurely either.
"I'm putting these colored pencils to good use, Seongyeon."
Jinha stuck the schedule on the wall and stored the colored pencils well in the Void Bag.
* * *
The next morning, he headed to the park as well.
To exercise like yesterday, refresh his walking quest, and carry out the method to raise the stages of rewards he had already received.
"What's with that person?"
As soon as Jinha appeared in the park, people's attention focused entirely on him.
Some looked with furrowed brows, while others watched with interest.
[Gather People's Attention 42/100]
As people's gazes converged on Jinha, the quest number rose.
"What's with him? Is he that YouTuber or whatever these days?"
"Isn't he just some weird person?"
"Shouldn't we report him?"
The reason people's attention gathered was simple.
He was wearing a costume one would wear for a mask play at a festival, and he had a ridiculous mask covering his face.
Sweat poured down like rain under his clothes, but he held it in and began setting up the tightrope equipment he had taken out from the restroom.
"What's he doing?"
"I know what that is. It looks like tightrope walking? I saw it in a movie."
"What a sight. To think we'd see something like that here."
People in the vacant lot sat nearby and began to surround Jinha.
He had never done any promotion, but since it was such a crowded place, it didn't take long for people to gather.
"Does it go... like this?"
Having finished setting up the rope, Jinha connected his phone to the speaker he had bought after Ayeong taught him about them, and played a song he had selected in advance.
Next was setting up the camera.
While his phone did have a camera function, there was a separate camera Ayeong had, so he had brought that along.
Even if it was an old model, it was far better than filming with a phone camera.
"Please accept this today as well."
Finally, he finished a simple ritual with bean sprout soup Gitae had packed in a thermos.
After sprinkling bean sprout soup on both wooden pillars and climbing up them, there were more hikers gathered than before.
Sure enough, regardless of age, gender, or place, tightrope walking was the perfect way to gather people's attention.
"Everyone! To wish you a good day today, I'm going to show you a few tricks! I'm not selling anything, so please watch comfortably and be on your way!"
He added the words Ayeong had told him, that people might think he was here to sell health products if he walked the rope, and offered his first greeting.
"Tightrope walking is a feat if done well, and bean paste if not! Who would do such a thing!"
Music that had been set to play below began to flow out.
It was a slightly fast house-style song among those he had practiced at a coin karaoke.
"The moment I step onto the rope, this world is beneath my feet, so how can I not ascend!"
Leisurely steps as if walking on clouds like an immortal, an endlessly joyful expression with eyes closed.
Rather than a nervous heart worried about falling off the rope, it was a movement that conveyed vicarious satisfaction, as if he were walking in that high place.
His upper body began to sway with the rhythm, gradually intensifying.
They were moves that wouldn't come out unless the person dancing them was actually enjoying himself.
"Woohoo!"
"Come on out, come on out! What face is there to save!"
The music broke down the walls between people.
A few elderly people couldn't overcome their excitement and ran out below the rope.
Among them, some refused waving their hands but were ultimately dragged out and danced with a "whatever" attitude.
Dancing on the tightrope was as easy as flipping his palm over for Jinha.
There had even been times when Jinha felt more comfortable on the rope than on the ground.
When the four-minute song ended, the dancing of those below stopped too.
They were breathing heavily and looked tired, but their expressions were incredibly bright.
"After a dance like that, all your stiffness must be completely gone, right!"
"Huff, huff, yes!"
The elderly people responded with joyful expressions.
He flinched.
At that moment, he felt someone's intense gaze from below the rope.