The Malicious Member Returns! Chapter 88
* * *
On the day of the live broadcast, the front of the Olympic Stadium’s indoor gymnasium was filled with all sorts of noise from dawn.
“All of you who’ve been waiting since this early, withdraw! Any personally distributed number tickets are void until a proper headcount is done! The wristband numbers are randomly assigned anyway!”
“Ah, I’ll go! I’m leaving! I’m just leaving this unmanned distribution here!”
“Really, come back during the day! Go get some sleep, at least!”
Fans who had arrived 12 hours before the audience entry began, locked in fierce territorial battles, and the staff pushing them back, darkening the ground beneath their feet.
Of course, the staff weren’t just there.
“I’ll go through the lighting sequence one more time!”
“Hey, who spilled water on the stage and didn’t wipe it up? Are you kidding? A camera director almost slipped, could’ve cracked the back of their head.”
“That’s from wiping it, from wiping it!”
Inside the Olympic Stadium’s indoor gymnasium, the production crew of
[
[“Where’s my seat?” The scorching
The live broadcast stage, originally planned for a studio in Sangam, had to be moved due to the program’s unprecedented popularity.
And that wasn’t all.
[Let’s cheer on the
Despite the early preparations for the live broadcast, even the belatedly opened cinema cheering screenings were completely sold out.
“Heh... so this really is the end now.”
PD Ju Cheol-yeong, who had been scrolling through articles bearing his name, closed his phone with a rather refreshed laugh and stretched.
He’d been pulling all-nighters for three days straight, finalizing mission scores, pre-checking the text voting, and all that...
“Good. Very good.”
His head was clearer than it had ever been.
How could it not be?
“How’s the reaction, Writer Lee?”
“Obviously... it’s a storm. Some say they should’ve left ages ago and this is too late, others say if he leaves now, what about those of us who were going to vote, and so on.”
[
It was like finally getting an implant after pulling a rotten tooth—how could he not feel good?
“Haha! Anyway, we’re putting him on the final stage. You know? The kind of thing where they bring back all the eliminated contestants. This survival show had no eliminations, which was a real shame, but that Chinese kid’s helping out right at the end.”
“...I’m not sure we need to go that far.”
“No need? It guarantees live broadcast ratings. The executive PD will probably call me in to chew me out, but what do I care? Good is good.”
“PD, you’re really...!”
Lee Hyeon-jeong, who had been scanning the various SNS reactions aimed at Liu Wei, ended up pressing her forehead with a thoroughly fed-up expression.
A lot had happened on the way here.
An agency director suddenly trying to pull a trainee on his own authority and getting blocked. Malicious rumors erupting about another trainee.
And on top of that, a problematic trainee with a fiancée causing trouble right up until the end before finally deciding to withdraw!
“Ha, I feel like I’m dying from this migraine...”
“A migraine over something like this? Why don’t you take some medicine? You can’t be sick if you’re doing the live broadcast later.”
“I’m not taking it now so I can take it then!”
Ju Cheol-yeong was the type who thrived on fatigue, but Lee Hyeon-jeong was different.
At her core, she was a deeply empathetic and thoughtful person.
Seeing her dark expression, Ju Cheol-yeong clicked his tongue and handed her a bottle of water.
“I hear CEO Do and Director Shin are coming to the site today, too. Just thinking about those two, who are still awkward around each other, makes me want to laugh.”
And then, another exhausting story was a bonus.
“...Should we arrange the seating separately?”
“Why would we bother with that? Just stick them right next to each other. We can afford to push it a bit today. You should try that a little too, Writer Lee. Or maybe from the next survival show onward?”
Watching the nonchalant PD Ju Cheol-yeong, Lee Hyeon-jeong bit her lip once and carefully opened her mouth.
“Honestly, I...”
“I don’t think I can do survival programs anymore.”
“......”
Was it just her imagination that Ju Cheol-yeong’s hand stopped for a moment?
“...Suddenly? You’ve been doing well so far, why?”
As if to confirm it was indeed her imagination, Ju Cheol-yeong’s voice was as relaxed as before.
That, however, only made it more infuriating for Lee Hyeon-jeong.
“More precisely, I don’t think I can work with you, PD. It’s emotionally too hard. I really respect your energy on set and the brilliant way you plan things, but... you know what I’m saying, right?”
“...Hmm. So that’s how it is.”
After quietly listening to her rattle off her words, Ju Cheol-yeong rubbed his stubbly cheek and looked at Lee Hyeon-jeong.
Over the past few months, meeting those young men in their early twenties at the idol canning facility, Lee Hyeon-jeong had gone from losing weight to looking utterly haggard...
She certainly looked exhausted.
But that wasn’t all Ju Cheol-yeong could see.
“Well, you say that, but Writer Lee, you’ll end up joining me for my next survival show.”
“Didn’t I just say I don’t think I can work with you?”
“You did, you did. Ah, does a person only know everything from words?”
Ju Cheol-yeong cheerfully twisted the cap off the water bottle he’d handed her earlier, a bright smile on his face.
“Now you’ve come to pity those kids, Writer Lee.”
“......”
That was also why Ju Cheol-yeong held Lee Hyeon-jeong in such high regard.
Throughout
“Trainee Gao Yan, it’s good to be confident... but still, it might be better to be a little more careful with your word choices.”
“Trainee Kim Joo-an, I told you not to do that! It’s like you’re shouting for them to attack you, what’s wrong with you?”
“...Congratulations, Trainee Kim Chun-yong.”
Unlike Ju Cheol-yeong, who treated the trainees as pawns for ratings, Lee Hyeon-jeong treated each and every one of them as human beings.
Carefully calling them aside to tell them what they shouldn’t do, quickly educating them before things went wrong.
Those were all things Ju Cheol-yeong had no intention or reason to do.
But that approach created a clear synergy. The provocative side from Ju Cheol-yeong, the emotional side from Lee Hyeon-jeong.
Ju Cheol-yeong had no intention of letting such talent slip away.
And above all, the reason Ju Cheol-yeong was certain that Writer Lee Hyeon-jeong would continue working with him from now on...
“After you’ve come to pity them so much, how could you stand worrying about other kids who’ll end up stuck with me? What if I do a girl group survival next? Haha!”
“...If you put it that way,”
“I wasn’t trying to tease. Anyway, you’ve grown attached to the trainees during
In that instant, the faces of the trainees close to the debut spots flashed through Lee Hyeon-jeong’s mind.
And the trainees who would later fall short.
“......”
If they ended up filming under Ju Cheol-yeong again.
If they had to go through another survival show, holding onto their earnestness once more?
“Well, if after hearing this, Writer Lee still wants to quit, I’d be disappointed, but...”
Judging by your expression now,
“It doesn’t look like that will happen.”
Lee Hyeon-jeong could only let out a hollow laugh at the smirking Ju Cheol-yeong.
‘Trash bastard.’
But even so, the words that came out were still sensible.
“PD, you’re really... someone who’s not great as a person.”
“I know. But as a PD, I’m nearly a perfect score.”
Lee Hyeon-jeong recalled the things she had originally planned to do after
A trip with her family to a warm country, sleeping for a week without dreaming.
Going somewhere far from anything even remotely resembling the entertainment industry and eating delicious food until she was stuffed.
And all the other bucket lists she’d made to soothe her body and soul.
Tucking her slightly grown-out hair behind her ear, Lee Hyeon-jeong murmured in a small voice.
“...I guess I can’t go on that trip.”
In response, PD Ju Cheol-yeong’s wicked smile was just a bonus.
“Yeah. Work hard while you’re young. You can rest when you’re old.”
From the start, Ju Cheol-yeong’s promise of a long vacation after the program ended was a lie.
“First, have some water. Who knows? Things might get so busy you can’t even drink later.”
“Given everything that’s blown up so far, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be anything at all.”
And so, lost in the thought of ‘the last,’ they had a bit more breathing room than the other staff.
BANG!
A person who felt aggrieved working alone burst through the office door.
“...What is it, Ha-jun?”
“W-Writer Lee. And PD.”
“You should be in the middle of setting up the site. What’s so urgent? Do you need us for something?”
Ha-jun, struggling with how to relay the situation, slowly opened his mouth, his left hand trembling slightly.
“Well, in the waiting room...”
And the office, which had been full of conversation moments ago, fell completely silent.
“...Hah, seriously. I thought the very last part would go smoothly for once. You’re really pulling out all the stops, huh.”
For Ju Cheol-yeong to say something like that...
Something was very wrong.
* * *
As everyone knew, the protagonists of this survival show were none other than the trainees.
No matter how immature they were, or how envious and spiteful they could sometimes be, they were still just young boys.
“Ah, I feel like I’m dying... Can someone give me some water?”
“We’re out of water in our waiting room, we should ask for more.”
“Ugh, seriously! Why does my makeup look so bad today? They say the live broadcast cameras are different from the recording cameras. Isn’t it going to look off-putting?”
The anxiety of imagining what lay ahead, and even the hope that they might debut.
“I gave it my all the whole time! So, I’m not ashamed at all.”
“I agree, Ryota. As a fellow hometown trainee. If we’d been in the same room, we could’ve talked more... but still, I’m glad we made it here together.”
Or, the sense of relief that they had made it this far.
All of this combined to create an atmosphere in the trainees’ waiting room that was strangely, intensely high in tension.
And in the middle of it all, for a brief moment, there were those having a short conversation outside.
“Chun-yong hyung, you see! Gao Yan needs mind control to imagine the Silk Road that will unfold before him. Setting the mood can wait until later!”
“Ah, geez, man. You really are...”
The two who had formed an alliance unknown to anyone else during the survival show.
Kim Chun-yong looked at Gao Yan, who stood as brazen as ever, and let out a hollow laugh, but in the end, he could only cheerfully clap Gao Yan on the shoulder.
“I just wanted to say, thank you.”
“Suddenly? Chun-yong hyung, there’s a saying that if a person does something they don’t normally do, they’ll suddenly...”
“You don’t need to pretend you’re not embarrassed. I’m just saying it because I want to.”
Gao Yan had grown significantly through
Enough that it no longer interfered with him singing and dancing on stage.
On top of that, he had captured people’s attention with an unmatched character and star quality.
But that didn’t mean it guaranteed his debut.
That was why, ahead of a farewell with Gao Yan that might come all too soon, Kim Chun-yong felt he absolutely had to convey this gratitude.
Thank you for stepping up with me even when it wasn’t your fight.
Thanks to you, I could dream of debuting again.
He couldn’t honestly say all of this, but there were emotions that were clearly communicated.
“......”
A gentle smile appeared on Gao Yan’s face as he watched Kim Chun-yong repeatedly thank him.
Not his usual slightly exaggerated, oddly serious expression.
But an ordinary smile, the kind any boy his age might wear.
“...I’m sorry, Chun-yong hyung. Now Gao Yan only has going up left to do. That thank-you should be properly received when Gao Yan becomes a superstar. Not just a superstar in Hong Kong, but a superstar of the world.”
“You punk, even when I’m doing this, you have to...”
And that’s when it happened.
CRASH!
A discordant note rang out on a scene that should have been harmonious, testing their final skills and cheering each other on for the future to come.
The sound came from the waiting room where Kim Chun-yong’s team had been chatting quietly.
Patter patter— And one figure darted out in haste.
From Kim Chun-yong’s lips, which had been wearing an awkward smile following Gao Yan, his canine teeth slowly disappeared.
“Ha, really...”
Can’t the ending be a little heartwarming?
Is that not allowed?