The Malicious Member Has Returned!
Episode 35
* * *
“Son. You’re on a program you’re in, so why are you the last one out here?”
“Ah, no. I was just tired… Has it started?”
“Not yet, come sit. Have some snacks.”
I massaged my mom’s shoulders a few times—something I hadn’t done in a while—then perched on the armrest of the sofa.
My sister against the backrest, Mom and Dad on the floor in front of the sofa.
And the youngest, Kim Nari, stretched out on the three-seater sofa like she owned the place—this was the typical scene whenever our family gathered in the living room.
“Haha….”
The familiar sight, which I hadn’t seen in so long, made me laugh without meaning to.
Right after I’d just come back, I had no time to sit around like this; I was practicing nonstop for the filming that was right around the corner.
“What’re you so happy about, ugly?”
“Seriously, totally agree. Agree times two.”
“Haha. Sure, sure.”
Yeah. Even my mom’s daughters breathing insults at me like this was okay.
“Oh-ho. You’re smiling? Think I’m joking? You just woke up and you’re seriously hideous. How is someone like this an idol? I’m worried about the future of our country’s idol industry.”
“…….”
“I’m right. I looked through trainee profiles with my friends, you know? Not even joking, you’re the ugliest. Not an idol trainee, just a thug.”
“…….”
“Exactly. With those slitty eyes, man. If there was a kid like Kim Chun-yong in my class, I’d start sighing the moment I saw them, seriously.”
I take back what I said earlier….
After all the appearance stats I’d upped since coming back, how can they call me ugly?
Thump! Thump!
— “I am not ugly! Are you both kidding me?”
As I burst out in frustration and smacked the armrest, my sister and Kim Nari pretended to be startled and doubled down on teasing me.
“Oh, he’s mad. He’s mad.”
“He’s so mad, just like a real thug. Oh, you gonna hit your big sister?”
“All three of us have the same mom and dad, you know. Insulting my face is insulting your own face.”
“What nonsense. We’re the same as you? Nari. Let’s hit him.”
“Okay. Unni, hold his arm.”
“Kids, please be quiet and let’s watch TV! And Chun-yong just came home after so long, why are you tormenting him like this!”
They only stopped after Mom swatted them both on the back.
‘Mom’s the best.’
I secretly gave Mom a thumbs-up and let out a deep sigh.
When I’m with people filming “Targeting Star,” I’m not pushed around like this. Maybe it’s because they’re family.
You may not remember where you’ve been, but you remember where you returned to. I couldn’t help it; I kept getting soft in front of my family.
Maybe if we spent more time together and got used to it, I could act how I used to… but everything still felt so dreamlike, so I was being careful with everything.
And then, at the perfect moment, “Aiming”—the original song of “Targeting Star” that I’d heard ad nauseam throughout filming—started playing on TV.
“Oh, it’s starting.”
— “Shoot your shot toward the dream of debuting!”
The now-familiar face of MC Choi Ga-on appeared, and the first broadcast of “Targeting Star” began.
I had been in a loose, melting expression while with my family, but now I steeled myself and calmly examined the screen. In the top right corner, there was a small line of text.
The first episode was airing episodes 1 and 2 back-to-back.
It was to heighten buzz by revealing all the trainee rankings within a single day, but that didn’t mean every trainee got equal screen time.
So, what I needed to check were two things.
Where did my screen time and my entrance happen?
And, in what “way” were they edited?
Seven years in the idol life. And most of those years were spent as the malignant member all the broadcasting stations avoided—that was me.
“Ah… I’m completely edited out. Why the hell did they call me here if they were going to do this? Should’ve just let me drink at the dorm….”
Provocative and malicious editing. Or editing that made you invisible. Or editing that was bland and unnoticeable. I’ve experienced it all.
And the comparative examples were—
— “Hello, I’m trainee Son Jae-ha.”
Just as expected, the AG purebloods.
Images of Korean AG trainees like Jae-ha hyung, Ji Hwa-seong, Jang Si-woo, Ahn Jin-woo practicing together in the August underground practice room flowed across the screen.
— “A survival show, it’s so scary and frightening, but… I can’t not do this. I have to debut through this.”
— “Let’s work really hard and debut together, all of us. On three, say fighting. One, two—”
— “Fighting!”
— “Ah, you went too fast!”
The four of them chatted warmly about “Targeting Star,” and then a caption saying something like “Trainees striving together for their dreams” appeared, followed by a cut to the ranking evaluation stage.
“Aww. Hope they do well, those kids….”
“Right. Jae-ha? Son Jae-ha. He’s good-looking, that one.”
Without even having to pick up my phone and check social media or forums, just listening to my family’s reactions gave me a sense of the response toward them.
“Seriously, so damn cute….”
I glanced at Kim Nari, who was murmuring while watching Si-woo’s shy smile on screen, then looked back at the TV.
They were already handsome and cute trainees, and with the editing packing in all the highlights, of course people would fall for them.
Now that I’d seen how they showcased the trainees they were pushing, the important thing was how I came across.
“Tch….”
“What, Kim Chun-yong. Nervous? You?”
“Noona, if you say stuff like that in front of your students, you’ll be in big trouble….”
“They’re not you, are they? Just take care of yourself.”
Really, that mouth of hers.
I let out a huge sigh toward my sister, then tapped my fingers on the armrest I was sitting on as I tried to remember my previous order.
Jin-woo had just been shown, so next should be the AG global trainees, and I was probably around tenth place, I think. How would it be this time?
Still, the production team’s reaction wasn’t bad. So maybe eighth place or so?
Just as I looked away for a moment, trying to guess when my turn would be, my sister suddenly grabbed my shoulder and started a commotion.
“Oh, oh? Hey, Kim Chun-yong! That’s you!”
“Uh, what? What do you mean?”
“That, that. The slouchy back view is totally you, right?”
“…What?”
It was.
The familiar sneakers in the camera angle that only showed feet, the black blouson jacket I was wearing, and the slightly tight jeans.
— “Hello! Spring Chun! Dragon Yong! I’m Kim Chun-yong! Please take care of me!”
…
Why am I coming on so early?
Right after the AG Korean trainees?
— “Ah, is my name too old-fashioned? I’ve never thought of it that way….”
The me on screen was deftly deflecting Moon Yun-ha’s ridiculous nitpicking about my name being old-fashioned, with a slightly embarrassed face.
No, and that part with Moon Yun-ha trying to stir things up—I thought they’d edit it out, but they kept it in?
“Ha, haha….”
I kept letting out these involuntary laughs the whole time I watched myself moving on screen.
Seeing myself on air—I’d seen it 10 times, 100 times, it was already familiar.
But seeing my youthful self spring up in front of me when I wasn’t mentally prepared, I’d say it was a little bewildering.
And, more than anything…
“Puhahahak!”
I shoved my sister and Nari, who were pointing at the screen and laughing hysterically, one arm at a time, trying to hide my embarrassment.
“Don’t laugh! I said stop laughing!”
Before, when I had a two-day break I wouldn’t come home and just stayed at the dorm, so I didn’t know—this was their reaction?
My family kept looking back and forth between my reddened face and the polished image on screen, and they were practically rolling on the floor laughing.
“Honestly, how can I not laugh? My little brother goes on TV and is acting all cute like that, which doesn’t suit him at all? Ah, hilarious. ‘Is my name old-fashioned?’ he says!”
“Right? Wow, look at his hair, his face. He’s fully done up. Are you the bride, oppa? He did bridal makeup, he really did.”
“Should I have gone bare-faced then? If I did, you’d say I was ugly and you’d be embarrassed!”
“Oh-ho, sniff. Our, our son is handsome….”
“Dad! You too!”
At my yelling, even my parents covered their mouths to hold back laughter, let alone my sisters.
I rubbed my burning face fiercely and pretended not to see them.
Right, let’s not get worked up for nothing. Monitoring is important. I’ll have to keep doing it. If those people keep watching, they’ll get used to it.
Plus, I thought I might be imagining things, so I kept watching carefully, but it wasn’t my imagination.
My screen time… is doing okay.
— “If my crew… joins, I’d like that.”
— “Thank you for looking upon me favorably, but… I want to be an idol. Still, thank you so much for your kind words!”
First, I had a pretty decent chemistry with Jin Da-sol. Moon Yun-ha picking a fight over my name came off as a minor humor point, and getting scolded by senior Min Si-young was, well, not too over-the-top.
— “…I can’t give this stage a score. I’ll give it the lowest score.”
— “…I’m going to give it a 100.”
— “Oh, oh….”
Instead, they focused more on the subtle tension between Jin Da-sol, who showed interest in me, and senior Min Si-young, so I was like a shrimp caught in a whale fight.
‘That guy’ Ju Cheol-young looked favorably on me? Enough to do this much?
Before, I’d practically been shelved until I really stood out in the 4th contest.
“Sssss….”
In any case, it was a good thing. There was no harm in showing a good image from the very start of the broadcast. It would stick in the viewers’ minds.
Thanks to that, I could more closely observe how the other trainees came across on the broadcast.
— “Trainee Bang Yoo-chan’s voice is really… like a jewel. And he’s good at singing on top of that. This kind of case isn’t common.”
— “Haha… thank you. I can’t dance! So I thought I should at least be good at singing. I’ll try harder.”
Yoo-chan hyung on screen wasn’t much different from what I’d seen before.
Still not properly managed, fresh and raw. An uncut gem.
“I really like that guy, for some reason. Huh? He seems really nice. Not just nice, but something more….”
“Honey, what do you mean by that?”
At my mom’s unusually shy voice, my dad’s eyes widened, and I quickly squeezed between them and whispered to my mom.
“Mom. I’m close with that hyung. I’ll bring him home later. Let’s have a meal together or something.”
“Oh my! I’ll grill some meat for him, then.”
Sorry to Dad, but what can you do.
The women run this house, after all.
The trainees that came after that were mostly foreign trainees. Tsubasa and Ryota from Japan, and then…
— “Thank you! I’ll work harder!”
Unlike before, where Liu Wei’s perfect stage would have ended it, this time the finale of episode 1 was Logan, smiling brightly and waving at the judges.
I was a bit surprised at this part.
I thought the editing order might’ve changed because of me, but for Logan to get such a prime spot.
No, or maybe he was supposed to get it originally, but didn’t back then.
Maybe because I’d just overheard Liu Wei and Gao Yan’s conversation before coming home. I tried not to be conscious of it, but I couldn’t help but keep an eye on Logan.
‘A kid like that drops out after the next contest, huh.’
For now, I’d probably need to talk to him more, or dig a little deeper, but…
Finishing that thought, I glanced at the clock above the TV and then spoke to my family in a cheerful voice.
“There’s still one more episode. Should we watch it while eating something else? Chicken?”
“Oh, wow. An idol trainee just eating chicken? Aren’t you managing your weight?”
“I’m the type that doesn’t gain weight, so it’s fine.”
“Really want to hit you once.”
“You guys want some, right? Then I’ll go out and get it to-go. They give a 2000 won discount for takeout.”
“Alright. Buy it with your money.”
Leaving my family waving me off telling me to go and come back, I stepped out the front door and quickly pulled out my phone to access an internet forum.
Pop!
— X: Hey did you see the reactions??
— X: I checked for you while you were watching the broadcast
— X: This is on a whole other level from the teaser?? I feel like you shouldn’t see it?? In my opinion, thumbs down thumbs down >_<
As if knowing what I was thinking, a dissuading message flew in from X. I plopped down in the hallway of the apartment, where the sensor light flickered on and off, and slowly sent a reply.
— Kim Chun-yong: I have years of idol experience, stuff like this won’t break my mental ㅋㅋ
Right. Now, right after episode 1 ended.
This was the golden timing to check the rawest broadcast reactions, before a fandom fully formed.
I have no choice; I need to see and confirm this properly to know how to prepare for the broadcast going forward.
“Well… it can’t be worse than the day I threw up on stage. It’s the first broadcast, after all.”
I gulped once, and then I clicked on the post sitting at the top of the community.
[Targeting Star f*** this is insane lol]
Pandora’s box opened.