A Toxic Member Has Returned! Episode 248
* * *
Due to the unexpected return of Hobin hyung and Jaeha hyung, the ego surfing with Logan and the Flict Boys trainee search—scheduled for two days—had to come to an end after just one day.
“Jaeha hyung, I really… I’ll live a good life. I promise. I’ve never caused trouble in the past.”
“Hmm, Logan. I’m not sure what exactly you saw….”
“Everything. I saw everything!”
Well, judging by Logan’s reaction right now, it seemed like we might not have even needed the full two days.
“I mean, I never thought a case like this could happen. Of course, there were trainees who got kicked off of Targeting Star too… But, huh? God, I feel like my heart is still pounding….”
From the moment he faced Hobin hyung and Jaeha hyung, Logan had been wagging his invisible tail furiously, emphasizing his flawless record and spouting advanced vocabulary about how he had realized how ignorant he had been all this time.
“…
I’m really going to live a good life. From now on, I’m going to, what is it, practice fidelity? I plan to practice fidelity. You’re the only one I have, Jenia.”
That determination, that resolve, that terrified face.
The effect is incredible.
“Chunyong-ssi. What on earth is going on here….”
“Logan, let’s eat first, okay? Chunyong… come talk with me before we eat.”
Thanks to that, the gazes of my hyungs looking at me contained a hint of bewilderment, doubt, and worry.
“Haha….”
Well, even I hadn’t expected things to get to this level.
I stood awkwardly in the living room, scratching my cheek as I watched Logan being hauled away by my two hyungs toward the kitchen.
“…….”
And slowly, the smile that had risen to my lips faded.
Because this situation had grown more complicated than I’d thought.
In the first place, this search operation hadn’t been intended to traumatize Logan or to imprint the dangers of ego surfing onto his mind.
As I said before, it had been a plan to nip potential problems in the bud and to scout out trainees beforehand who might turn out to be “those other guys.”
But….
“Oh, this friend came from overseas, just like me. His name is… Henry? He’s handsome.”
“Right? He’s really handsome. He kind of looks like Jaeha hyung, maybe….”
“Oh, but….”
During that search process….
“Ah, a secret Outgram account with multi-dating… discovered?”
“…….”
“So, is an idol trainee allowed to multi-date?”
“…
Are you kidding? Huh, is it allowed? You’re not even supposed to date at all, and multi-dating?”
“Bloody, he was seeing four people at the same time… I think even I know this isn’t allowed.”
I hadn’t known we’d find bombshells like these.
Originally, my plan was this.
I’d search through the scattered information on the Flict Boys trainees with Logan, and if there were any suspicious trainees, I’d ask X.
- Kim Chunyong: Hey X
- Kim Chunyong: That new skill you gave me this time
- Kim Chunyong: Can I use it anytime?
- Kim Chunyong: Like, even if it’s not on stage?
- X: Hey, of course. What do you take me for?
- X: Don’t you know X’s bespoke door-to-door service♡?
- X: Seriously, as long as it’s not some absurd shit like “suddenly bring me the target!,” I can help you within my abilities
- X: Tsk tsk, they say if the user is dumber than the service, they can’t use it properly
Since Gara X had boasted so confidently that this strange skill, [What Is This, What Is This], was a skill to help me, it should be more than able to give me information about that trainee.
It might not be very specific, but whether the guy debuted or not.
That level of information was enough.
After all, it was undeniable that having a being like X by your side made debuting much easier.
With skills, stat boosts, and codex rewards.
If I hadn’t had Liu Wei, I probably could have debuted much more easily too.
So my plan had been to narrow down the trainees who had been in the debut team, remember them, and keep a close eye on them throughout the survival show.
But the more we searched, the more of a spectacle it became.
“Huh, this one is… just dating. Haha, after seeing something so shocking earlier, this one seems kind of okay.”
“Hey, what do you mean ‘okay’? What kind of dating does an idol trainee have?”
Dating was just the basics.
“This guy… hmm, it looks like he fought with a school friend. But the post is so emotional it’s hard to read. Is this, by any chance, a swear word?”
“…
Let’s skip it. This is hard for me to look at too.”
“‘Yukshiral’… Is a word like this real? Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use it.”
“I said skip it, Logan!”
Involvement in a school violence incident.
“Wow. Chunyong hyung. This one apparently knows Ryota. They say he graduated from the same middle school in the past?”
“Huh? Let me see. If he’s Ryota’s friend, there’s a chance he might be a good person….”
“But, uh… K-Korea hate?”
“…….”
A guy who crossed the ocean to debut in Korea, and on top of that, he hates Korea.
Just how many walking controversies beyond imagination could there be?
“Ah, this person is an individual trainee, so there isn’t much information. Just a photo. His name is… Nohyeonjae, it says.”
“…
Yeah. Let’s note that down for now.”
“This is the first trainee to come up clean so far. And we’ve already looked through 8 out of 40.”
“Ah, that’s what I’m saying….”
We were nearly at a point where filtering out the problematic ones was faster than selecting the debut team.
“…
Wait, Logan. Don’t read the comments.”
“What? But there are 999 comments here.”
“Yeah. But if all 999 of them are hate comments, can you handle it?”
“…
Urk.”
“From now on, when you search your own name, don’t look at the comments either. Not reading comments is the most important thing.”
Of course, even in the midst of that chaos, I didn’t forget to drill the basic rules of ego surfing into Logan, but anyway.
That’s how it happened.
That Flict Boys would be far wilder and rougher than I’d thought.
That among the mentors there, the one with the least experience was our T.O.Z, and that if we didn’t keep our wits about us, there would be big trouble.
This was the conclusion I had reached.
“I see. So that’s how it was. Checking the Flicks Boys trainees in advance with Logan… hmm, it was something we needed.”
“Yes. I was also teaching Logan what to be careful about when searching his own name….”
While Logan was eating in a daze, Jaeha hyung, who had started a conversation with me in the room, also wore a slightly confused expression.
After all, the three of us were going out as mentors on Flict Boys.
But what if the mentees we were assigned turned out to be problematic trainees?
In what manner should we treat them, and how should we react?
If we had many years of experience built up, that would be different.
We could evaluate the trainees coldly, keep our distance, and perhaps truly stick to the role of a mentor.
However, because we had just debuted through a similar program, to the trainees appearing on Flict Boys now, we were virtually role models.
Could I really be cold and indifferent to trainees my age or younger, who would follow me blindly?
Although a favoritism controversy had erupted back then, it was true that the trainees who had trained at AG for a long time had depended heavily on Senior Min Siyoung emotionally.
The sense of camaraderie from having known me for a long time.
The same kind of emotions we would experience this time.
It was only natural that Jaeha hyung’s worries deepened, as he had felt those things in his bones.
“…
Are things really that bad?”
“Well, of the 40 trainees, we checked about 20 whose info was leaked here and there. About half of them.”
“Hmm, what in the world….”
Watching Jaeha hyung check the list of controversies I had written on post-it notes one by one, I opened my mouth again after a brief silence.
“…
You know this too, hyung, but most of these are probably just for ratings.”
“…….”
That’s right.
This was originally PD Ju Cheolyeong’s style.
Raising ratings with controversial trainees, increasing buzz, and using trainees like consumables.
Targeting Star had been less severe because it was AG’s own survival program, but thinking about his previous works like Dive Little Star or Ready for Idol, this was spot on.
Besides, not all of the leaked trainees were problematic.
If every single one of them were like that, they wouldn’t be holding an idol survival show; they’d be opening a rehabilitation program.
Of course, it briefly crossed my mind that PD Ju Cheolyeong had likely thought the same thing, but…
I’d set that aside for now.
“…
Here. This one, this one, and this friend. Ah, and this one too.”
Of the 20 trainees Logan and I had checked this time, only four were clean without a single problem.
The one that stood out among them was an individual trainee named Nohyeonjae.
[Nohyeonjae @Nohyeonjae_official]
A clean profile photo, and an Outgram account with only one video of him singing.
There was a strong feeling that his past was clean, or that he had meticulously curated it, without even needing to emphasize it.
“I think kids like this are probably the trainees cast with debut in mind.”
“Hmm.”
Jaeha hyung, understanding what I was saying, let out a short sigh, and I nodded as I continued.
“…
I’m not saying we should play favorites. I just think we should know in advance who we might push at Music Days.”
“Yeah, exactly. We can’t ask Hobin hyung to take care of everything for us….”
No matter how competently Hobin hyung took care of us, in the end, the ones who would actually go out and film for the program were me, Jaeha hyung, and Logan.
Hobin hyung couldn’t come onto the set to take care of us.
We had to handle our own conduct, and we had to decide in advance how to deal with controversial trainees or trainees likely to debut.
“…
Chunyong, do you have some thoughts on this? I think I need to worry about it from now on.”
“Roughly. Nothing’s certain, though.”
“Hmm… you’ve always judged these situations well since Targeting Star, after all.”
We met eyes in silence for a moment.
Though our roles had changed, it somehow felt a little like we had returned to the days of Targeting Star.
Back then, I had thought of nothing but debuting once more with the Arrows members, by any means necessary, and Jaeha hyung had always pretended to be calm while gasping under the same heavy burden.
Seeing how vividly I remembered it despite the passage of time, I could truly feel how much tension we had lived under back then.
It was hard, back then.
And we would see trainees struggling, wouldn’t we?
But we were tougher now than we were then, and we had gained enough composure to judge what was best going forward.
We would do well this time too.
We had to, and in the midst of it all, I had to achieve the goal I had set for myself.
“…
Anyway, shall we talk again after Logan finishes eating? You need to have breakfast too, Chunyong.”
“Ah, I’ll make a call and come out. Just a moment….”
After the short conversation, Jaeha hyung left the room with a slightly more resolute expression, and after staring at the closed door for a moment, I took out my phone, which had been silent the entire time.
To finish what I hadn’t been able to do because of the shocking state of the trainees and my hyungs’ early visit.
Of course….
- Kim Chunyong: Hey
- Kim Chunyong: Hey X
- Kim Chunyong: Let’s use that skill you gave me
- Kim Chunyong: That wish ticket thing
- X: Hey, it’s not a wish ticket, it’s called [What Is This, What Is This]
- Kim Chunyong: Same difference
- X: -- What is it
- X: You want me to tell you who debuts? Anyway, you can’t even remember that, you idiot
- Kim Chunyong: It’s something like that
- Kim Chunyong: …
Tell me which of the kids with controversies end up debuting
- Kim Chunyong: And kids who are suspiciously clean, too, though that line has changed a bit.