The Evil Member Returns! Chapter 107
The mini-game to choose a room with a roommate was a simple game of Jenga.
As is typical for idol reality show mini-games, it included things like talking about memorable moments from the survival days, the Indian rice game, and finger folding games.
“Hmm, I think… it’s about to fall….”
“Guys, this hyung here went to college. This kind of thing is extremely easy….”
Crash!
“…….”
“Ahaha, Yuchan hyung. You said it was easy. Doesn’t look so easy to me.”
“Boo, liar.”
“Yuchan hyung. You know the final penalty is revealing the luggage you brought, right? Hurry up and bring your carrier.”
“This really shouldn’t be happening, it’s so embarrassing… Wait, wait! Hwaseong-ah, hyung will get it! Hyung himself!”
“What are you planning to leave out!”
The reality show we’re filming isn’t a survival show, and if we played games that required intense physical effort anyway, the furniture would just end up destroyed by guys in their early twenties.
Let’s keep it soft, right, nice and soft.
And I guarantee, the part that’ll get more screen time later on will definitely be the poker game with the trump cards Logan secretly pulled out from his chest.
“How can Chunyong have the ace of spades three times in a row? Does this even make sense?”
“Logan. You’re saying there are four cards with the same number? Then the rankings… Huh? Wait, something’s weird here!”
“Losers talk a lot, Hwaseong. Chunyong hyung and I won fair and square.”
“Uh, Logan… your wrist, hup. The card….”
“Whoa, you guys are incredible cheaters, aren’t you?”
“Oh, it hurts when Jaeha hyung says that!”
Well, roughly… something like a subtitle [Scams and Yelling Already Rampant at the ToZ Dorm?!] might pop up.
“Haha….”
“Hmm? Chunyong-ah. What’s up?”
At my hollow laugh imagining that scene, my roommate, who had secured the second-largest room with me, asked in a calm voice.
Ah, right.
This was the most important part.
The person who drew the slip with the arrow pattern, just like me.
“…
No, Jaeha hyung. I just thought it felt strange since it’s not a closet room.”
Jaeha hyung.
“Haha. Yeah, it would’ve been nice if we’d gone in earlier. I did say I thought I’d share a room with you.”
“Well… anyway, the room itself is different, right? At least we got the second-largest room, so that’s a relief. Yuchan hyung and Hwaseong’s room looks like it’ll be a bit cramped.”
“Still, the two of them will have fun living together. …
You and me, too.”
Looking forward to it.
I lightly touched my fist to Jaeha hyung’s extended one, forcing myself to manage the expression that would show on the camera in the corner of the room.
“I’m looking forward to it too, hyung.”
Honestly, when I saw that Hwaseong and Yuchan hyung ended up in the same room… I’d hoped that Logan or Siu would be my roommate.
No, that was probably just wishful thinking.
A wish that I could be in a different room from Jaeha hyung, since I’m feeling this ambiguous sense of distance right now, and observe him from a step back.
Especially since I had a strong feeling that Hwaseong had seen a hidden side of hyung related to work.
“Oh? Is Chunyong changing his clothes here? Bold move.”
As I was briefly lost in thought, Jaeha hyung’s soft voice pricked my ears once more.
Hyung’s face as he smiled at me was as calm as ever, to the point where I felt like I was the weird one for being a bit tense.
“Everyone, Chunyong says he wants to do a body reveal early, haha. I guess people with great bodies are just different.”
“Jaeha hyung, that’s not it!”…
Anyway, as you can see, Jaeha hyung is so professional, so the broadcast content should turn out well.
At any rate, I had to think of it as a good thing being a good thing.
After all, there’s a saying that if you want to know someone, you should watch them closely.
Grumbling that ‘it’s too early for a body reveal,’ I naturally escaped to the bathroom.
In situations like this, the bathroom is always the one to save me, for sure.
And, right at that moment.――.
A blinking message arrived from someone I’d been neglecting the past few days while focusing on other things.
- X: Hey hey, it’s good to care about relationships and all, you know
- X: You get that you have to prepare for your debut properly, right? Huh?
- X: There’s not a single easy thing in this world, Lex Rex-ah
- X: Looking after member relationships? Prepping for debut well? Bowing deeply to fans to thank them? Ah, good, good
- X: But you also have to win the Rookie of the Year award, right?!!
- X: Before the debut stage, decide exactly what reward you want from the live broadcast, if you go on stage it’s invalidated, so—“I know, I get it….”
Muttering quietly at X’s nagging, I changed into my familiar practice training clothes.
I did think it was a bit annoying how X suddenly got excited and started chattering, but oh, well.
Now that the reality show had started, I had to push forward on the path to debut.
Right, anyway, to win Rookie of the Year, debuting had to happen first.
Tak—“Phew….”
“Chunyong, are you all set to go out? Then I should get ready now, too. When the others come out, tell them to grab the handcams for me, will you?”
“Yes, hyung. Take your time getting ready. There’s still plenty of time.”At my words ‘there’s plenty of time,’ Jaeha hyung disappeared into the bathroom with a smile that was hard to read.
I knew what that smile meant, too.
Actually, there wasn’t that much time.* * *A company office located somewhere in northern Seoul.
Just after lunchtime, when many people are stuck between working and dozing off due to a blood sugar spike and food coma.
At that moment, trainee Kim Chunyong’s fan… no.
Neulbom Mir, the renowned fan of Chunyong, the main dancer of the soon-to-debut rookie idol group ToZ, was irritably clicking her cursor.
“Please check the file I uploaded to the web hard drive. Develop it and send it back before you leave work.”
“Yes, yes….”
Her junior colleague beside her wondered if she was annoyed because their own work performance was so poor, and was feeling a bit cautious.
But fortunately, what was making Neulbom Mir angry right now wasn’t the work process of a junior who still had mountains to learn.
There were far more experienced, yet much slower, bastards on the other side of the computer.‘AG, these crazy bastards.’On Neulbom Mir’s internet secret page, which the junior beside her didn’t know about, an SNS window was always open in a small tab as usual.[ToZ @Targetofzenon_AG(Photo)(Photo)
Hello everyone? We’re ToZ ^^ Our first reality show filming started today! We’ll meet you with a trailer not too far from now~ #ToZ #Yuchan #Jaeha #Chunyong #Logan #Hwaseong #Siu #AG_ent #MuDe]
The photo of ToZ filling the entire screen had already been posted a week ago.
At that time, Neulbom Mir was also insanely happy, thinking, ‘Now the kids are finally filming a reality show and doing things to debut!’ but… .‘Crazy, they give us just this and nothing else? Are you kidding me?! Give us individual selcas at least! Or a fandom name! Some fans are withering away right now!’While the company AG had always been prone to the terrible act of nonchalantly posting previews three seconds before a reveal, this was way too much, even for them.
“Haa….”
Neulbom Mir let out a dying sound as she leaned her head against the chair’s headrest.
Her head understood.
Because an idol’s debut and comeback weren’t something you did just because you felt like it.
In the past, things followed a simple route: a news article, a music video teaser, the music video, album release, and music show appearances… .
But in this era of self-promotion and short-form digital content, how could that possibly appeal to the masses?
From concept teasing, concept photos, highlight medleys of the title and b-sides, to promotions spread across SNS and communities!
In today’s idol market, you needed substantial content only after a preparation period just to have a shot at succeeding.
So, of course, it took some time for a high-quality, excellent debut.
But understanding with her head and feeling with her heart were two different things.‘Still, it’s too late. Way too late!’Neulbom Mir, who had been stroking Kim Chunyong’s slightly faded red hair in the group photo with her cursor a few times, finally started biting her left thumbnail as she began estimating ToZ’s future schedule.‘Assuming it takes at least three weeks from now, the final debut date will probably be about a month and a half… maybe.’At the same time that she thought she would’ve gotten a bonus ages ago if she worked this hard at her company, Neulbom Mir collapsed face-down onto her keyboard.
If her guess was right, ToZ’s debut timing right now was somewhat… .
Dangerous.[“Ready Again This Year” Major Idol Group Sladex Announces Regular Album Comeback for the Second Half of the Year!][Sladex’s Yeonwoo “This Album Will Be a New Challenge for Our Team, Too”][Entertainment Agency Queens, Taking a Jab at AG’s New Male Idols? Group ‘WEZ’ Logo Revealed][
They said Sladex’s comeback and the debut might overlap, and Queens might even openly clash them together.
On top of that, people who love news are getting excited and stirring things up like crazy.‘What if Chunyong works his ass off to debut, only for it to get buried without a trace…!’Neulbom Mir, who had abandoned her work and fallen into deep worry, clutched her forehead and heaved a great sigh.
“Haah….”
“Uh, uh.”
And it’s no secret that the junior next to her flinched their shoulders once more.‘She must be so frustrated because I’m incompetent. What do I do!’The faint-hearted junior, holding back tears at their direct supervisor’s edgy behavior, mustered the courage to speak to Neulbom Mir, who was pounding at her keyboard as if to break it.
“Uhm, ma’am. I just re-uploaded the first development. I-I know I can be a bit clumsy… but I’ve addressed all the points you mentioned.”
“…
Oh, really? Thank you. You finished it early.”‘Thank you so much for always working hard. If AG were even half as diligent as our junior here, my insides, would, be, so, much, cal, mer!’Neulbom Mir went back to her internet secret window to send the file her junior had provided to the partner company.
And then, her eyes flew wide open.
“…
I-it’s, up.”
“Huh? Ma’am, what did you just…?”
Hearing the voice from beside her, Neulbom Mir looked back and forth between the junior and the secret window a few times before grabbing their shoulders with a resolute expression.
“…
Sei-nim.”
“Y-yes!”
“Since I trained you back then, you haven’t had a chance to send a draft to a partner company on your own yet, right.”
“Huh? Uh, y-yeah. Not even once yet….”
“It’s okay if it takes a little time, would you like to try it now? I’ll watch over you.”
“Me!?”
“Yes. It’s time you tried it. If you make a mistake, I’ll correct it for you, so let’s give it a shot today.”
I trust you, Sei-nim.
“I’ll just go to the bathroom for a moment, then! Please work on the draft!”
With those last words, Neulbom Mir grabbed her phone and ran off to the bathroom.
Without realizing the junior was now covering their mouth with a mix of anticipation, anxiety, and an immense sense of responsibility.
Was it inevitable?
Neulbom Mir was also busy feeling the same emotions after seeing a site pop up on the SNS within the internet secret window.[Notice! Who stole the dog? > http//:targetofjenon.com]
Finally, the debut preview for ToZ, which countless people had been waiting for, had begun.