The Evil Member Has Returned! Chapter 87:
- “Ah, this is really the end now. Thinking that makes me feel a bit….”
- “At the very least, I want to have no regrets.”
- “I really want to debut.”
- “I didn’t buy a return ticket. …
I’ll do well.”
It was a short preview of about one minute, already on its 12th replay, containing the voices of the
It was enough to shake the heart of the sole part-timer at Hanmaeum’s private practice room.
“Really, this is truly the last….”
Ji-eun, who had gotten off work late and was full of fatigue, checked again with trembling hands the email that had arrived a few days ago.
[
“Crazy, I actually won audience admission….”
Ji-eun recalled the rough times she had with Minji and rubbed her increasingly warm eyelids.
“You see the clock here? Just send it at 59 seconds and stay still. Don’t do things like clicking the mouse. Just leave it. Then quickly go to the water purifier, fill up some water, and pray that it works out.”
“Wait, the latter part… that’s not how to apply for audience admission, it’s more like a folk belief.”
“Originally, all form Olympics and mail Olympics are done alongside folk beliefs. You really… need to steadily learn from someone who knows things. Not just ask me only when you need things like this.”
“What’s wrong with me!”
Right after that conversation, the practice room computer suddenly had a blue screen, causing a mental breakdown.
She hurriedly set an alarm on her phone and applied, but Minji, who had previously logged in with a different ID, failed identity verification and couldn’t apply.
When she didn’t know when she’d ever see Kim Chun-yong again and thought it was truly over, a winning email arrived, and of all things?
“This is… a revelation. It’s a revelation that I should go in person to greet Chun-yong once more, and because of that, Chun-yong will debut splendidly.”
Although she alone was selected, the fact that she won was important.
Drunk with emotion, Ji-eun preached at length to herself about the fatalistic nature of the situation, but soon felt embarrassed and rubbed her cheeks vigorously.
“… Ugh, what am I saying.”
They say a person alone can do anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s not embarrassing.
And something more important than that fatalistic preaching was waiting for Ji-eun.
“…….”
Ji-eun gulped once, then carefully picked up her neglected phone.
As soon as she unlocked it, social media was flooded, and still one person was madly posting.
[└ㅂ@Bombangbom Geez, suddenly having a free hand is a real big problem, what should I do about this]
[└ㅂ@Bombangbom Ah ㅠㅠ Should I find a same-day temp worker right away? But is there anyone who’d come to do a one-day part-time job handing out idol trainee debut support hand fans?]
[└ㅂ@Bombangbom But wait!! I just checked, and the YouTube Blue content trend is pretty okay, no? Awesome, this means nothing less than Chun-yong can debut]
[└ㅂ@Bombangbom Then what can I do, I’ll have to do it for Chun-yong, yeah yeah, I’ll package the fans, put them in slogan pouches, line up, I’ll give it a try, Chun-yong, your noona’s coming]
“I feel this every time I see it, but your typing speed is really fast… You seem to use the internet a lot.”
Kim Ji-eun scanned through the locked account posts of Neulbom Mir that were uploaded every 10 seconds, and clicked her tongue lightly.
Regardless, Ji-eun had no idol fan friends except Minji.
In such a situation, she was going to the audience alone?
When she, who was still clumsy even at searching social media, went, there was no telling what might happen.
“… ‘You need to steadily learn from someone who knows things,’ Minji had said.”
At the time, the ‘someone who knows things’ Minji mentioned meant herself, but what Ji-eun understood was different.
To Kim Ji-eun, the person who best understood the ecosystem of idol fan culture.
No, beyond that, a name who was leading the ecosystem of that culture.
Ji-eun slowly moved her fingers and started sending a DM.
[Yongyong Guri: Hehe, Neulbom-nim, hello!]
[Yongyong Guri: It feels like it’s been a while since I sent a DM ^^ It’s Yongyong Guri]
[Yongyong Guri: It’s nothing, but I saw on the timeline that one of the helpers for distributing fans and slogans at the live broadcast site dropped out!]
[Yongyong Guri: If it’s okay with you, Neulbom-nim, can I help you tomorrow??]
[Yongyong Guri: I also won audience admission for the live broadcast this time]
It was different from just asking to be invited to the locked account, to see Chun-yong’s private photos.
Meeting someone she’d only seen on social media in person?
The crime articles Ji-eun had incidentally seen so far flashed before her eyes, but she shook her head wildly and quickly erased them.
‘That was because those people were strange, not because people you meet through the internet are!’
And as if to respond to her resolve, a reply quickly came back from Neulbom Mir after a slight pause.
[└ㅂ: Wow, really? No, thank you so so much, the work suddenly exploded so I was really flustered… ]
[└ㅂ: Ah, then if possible, could you come to the front of the general gymnasium by 5 AM tomorrow? ㅠㅠ There’s a lot to prepare…]
[└ㅂ: I’ll properly compensate you! After the live broadcast, all the helpers have a get-together hehe They’re all Chun-yong fans so it’ll be ok]
[└ㅂ: If you have any questions, go to this link > Https://notiice.springyong/777 and I’ve summarized it simply!]
“Wh-What. 5 AM? And what’s this link…? There’s that much work? It’s not just watching the audience recording and leaving?”
Kim Ji-eun broke out in a cold sweat for a moment as too professional sentences were listed out….
“But all the people there are entirely Chun-yong fans? For real? All of them Chun-yong fans?!”
Words like ‘all Chun-yong fans’, ‘get-together’, ‘compensation’ that appeared here and there put her back into a trance.
Clenching her fist, Ji-eun made a resolution once more in her heart.
Just as Kim Chun-yong gives his best on stage, she would become a Kim Chun-yong fan who is not inferior to other fans.
“… First, I have to cancel my part-time job the next day. I’ll get cursed out by the boss, but if I work from 5 AM and then watch the audience recording, my body… ugh.”
Neulbom Mir, and Kim Ji-eun.
The first fan of the evil member Recksseuregi, and the first fan of Kim Chun-yong.
Thus, the two were moving to have their first meeting.
Kim Chun-yong was also struggling to give the final stage of
* * *
The live broadcast process of
After the ‘Aiming’ stage with all 18, the group name chosen by viewer vote would be revealed.
After that, the 18 would be divided into three teams of 6 each for the final debut evaluation stage.
And finally, the debut members would be announced by combining the voting scores so far, live broadcast text votes, and mission scores from the mission system.
So the trainees just had to practice the ‘Aiming’ harmony again and prepare for the debut evaluation song stage….
“… Haha, I wanted to give a gift to you trainees. Sing this song, and I hope your memories of
That was that, but.
Who would have known that suddenly one more song to practice would appear.
“W-Wow! Senior Jeong Yeon-woo prepared a separate song just for us, I’m so happy. Really… happy!”
“Thank goodness there’s no dance… No! A song where we can focus on vocals like this isn’t common, right? Wow, I’m speechless.”
“Oh my god. Gao Yan hasn’t even memorized the choreography yet, and now he has to do one more vocal? This isn’t a gift, mmmph!”
“Shh, Gao Yan. Shh! You’re not supposed to say that now!”
It was said that all the trainees except Gao Yan outwardly screamed with happiness, but inwardly shed tears of blood.
“Gao Yan, who said it’s not a gift there, really….”
Of course I also thought it wasn’t a gift but a bad news. But whether you actually say it out loud or not is a different matter.
“… Sigh.”
I wiped the sweat dripping from the tight schedule and recalled the message from Yeon-woo hyung yesterday.
The answer to the question I had sent via my smartwatch after much hesitation, ‘Why the hell did you add one more song?’ was there.
- Jeong Yeon-woo: Well, you’ll have to practice a bit more…
- Jeong Yeon-woo: The longer the stage, the more people like it and the more time to vote increases ^^
It was a correct argument.
If the number of songs increases, naturally the live broadcast duration extends, and of course the volume of text votes coming in during that time would increase.
But why is hyung worrying about that? He clearly knows, yet he doesn’t answer.
Really, I don’t know what he’s thinking.
“Yong-yong hyung, what are you thinking about so hard?”
“… Ah, Hwaseong.”
The voice that cut in, as if knowing my concentration was scattered, was incomparably cheerful.
Seriously, should I be grateful for this?
“In my opinion, I think we can just try to match it one more time and then go. Since it’s the live broadcast tomorrow, we need to manage our condition, and well… we’re doing pretty well right now?”
“Oh, you’re doing well?”
“Ah, hyung is teasing again. I mean, not me. Our team!”
The slightly grown-out roots of his blond hair seemed to tell how much time had passed since
And perhaps because my gaze being fixed there was quite embarrassing, Ji Hwaseong soon rubbed his crown lightly and muttered sulkily.
“Ah, dang. Hey, hyung. The important thing right now isn’t whether my roots are dyed, you know? Our team’s chemistry? It’s the last, we should care about it.”
“Yeah. That’s also… right.”
Both of our gazes fixed on one spot.
The hoodie that had been sitting in front of the mirror all day, left behind by someone who had left the practice room.
That light blue hoodie resembled its owner a lot.
Despite being worn often, it hadn’t lost its shape, but if you looked closely, you could feel it had been used quite a bit.
“…….”
“… Ahem.”
I made brief eye contact with Hwaseong and cleared my throat.
“It’s an honor to be able to stay with you trainees until the end. Then… I will announce the teams for the final debut evaluation stage!”
The members of the debut evaluation stage teams were divided randomly under the pretext of being ‘the trainees fans chose as having the best chemistry’.
Of course, it was a fairly balanced division to avoid the criticism that too many debut candidates were concentrated in one team.
For example, Ji Hwaseong, the
And Yu-chan hyung, who was lying in the middle of the practice room loosening his throat, or Lee Chae-hyuk.
“Aish, really. Here, why! Can’t you dance properly!”
Even Kim Ju-an, who was yelling while dancing, was natural.
However, the other person, including myself, felt a bit ambiguous.
“… Hasn’t Liu Wei not come to practice since the day before yesterday?”
“Sigh, yes. So now we’re more used to doing it with 5 than with 6. We can do well either way, but ugh.”
The fact that they placed two members of the same dance position in one team.
Moreover, the fact that only the trainees on our team were secretly given a heads-up to ‘practice in case you go on stage with five members’.
Although it was only said to our team, such a rumor couldn’t help but spread within the trainee canning facility.
That is, the rumor that ‘that’ Liu Wei might drop out before the live broadcast due to other problems, including the fiancée issue.
I roughly thought I could tell how things would go by reading Chief PD Joo’s reactions, but in the end, things turned out like this.
“…….”
Anyway, because we became a team again at the last minute, I couldn’t take my mind off that person.
No. Come to think of it, it was natural. Tomorrow will decide whether the next chapter of my atonement opens or not…
It’s only natural to pay attention to the guy holding the most important key to it.
I straightened my shoulders, turned my head this way and that once, then naturally draped my arm over Ji Hwaseong’s shoulder.
“Uh, ack! It’s heavy!”
“What are you saying. You’re much taller than me.”
To my member, my younger brother.
I couldn’t bring myself to say it now, and maybe I can never say it.
While conveying with my heart that I had been running all this time for this moment.
“Hey, Hwaseong. Let’s do it just one more time and then go in.”
“With five people? We’ve done it with five quite a lot…”
“Hm, just in case. With the six-person formation. I think we should keep that in mind, too.”
The gaze that had been wandering aimlessly returned to its place.
Live broadcast, debut.
Liu Wei, and Arrows.
Rrrrrr―The hour and minute hands that had been moving nonstop pointed to 12 o’clock.
… Now, even if you wanted to go back, you couldn’t.