5. Has Anyone Seen a Heart? (5)
Eunchan first thought of a few things he absolutely had to change.
First, Hyeon Juin's status was on hold for now.
I was the one who'd convinced Hyeon Juin to become an idol when he'd been torn between focusing on acting and debuting as one. When the debut team was set as six members excluding Hyeon Juin, I'd argued to the CEO with an attitude like I was ready to kneel, insisting Hyeon Juin had to come with us. And the moment he failed to make the debut team, when he'd been ready to switch paths to acting without a single regret, I'd turned him around and convinced him to try being an idol together—and eventually, we succeeded in debuting.
The problem, however, was that Hyeon Juin had been embroiled in a major sasaeng friendship scandal right after debut, cementing his image as an idol who was "nice to look at, but hard to actually stan." Since he'd been the member in charge of reeling fans in with his outstandingly handsome face, the damage was considerable.
After that, the situation deteriorated to the point where people said, "Hyeon Juin brings fans in, and Hyeon Juin drives fans away," thanks to the continuing scandals and skipped performances.
Still, the sasaeng friendship scandal was ninety-nine percent fabricated, so it wasn't entirely his fault. I didn't think this one was his mistake, either. It was just his response afterward that had been maddening.
Before the regression, it had already been in the past, so there was nothing I could do. But this time, since I knew the future to some extent, I would be able to change what was coming.
If Hyeon Juin didn't debut as an idol, I would feel much safer.
Second, I would avoid Chilwol Chilseok as a group name at all costs.
The name was unusual, so it certainly had impact.
'The problem was... it only had impact.'
Just thinking about the past when we'd been ridiculed for it made my vision blur even now. My head felt dizzy, and I felt sick to my stomach.
No other group name came to mind immediately, but I felt like slapping together a few random English words would still be better than this. There was about a month before the debut team was revealed anyway, so I decided to think it through slowly.
Third, I had to be careful in choosing the debut song's concept.
'I can never again say anything goes. The memory of Ojakgyo is still vivid.'
Back before our debut, when I'd been summoned by the CEO to pick a debut song concept.
Saying "I'm fine with anything" was my biggest regret. I hadn't known it then, but our CEO had worse instincts for songs than I'd thought. There was definitely a reason a rookie agency was a rookie agency.
In any case, I absolutely had to avoid the disaster that was the group name "Chilwol Chilseok" combined with the debut song "Ojakgyo."
'Aside from that... Ham Jeongwon was about the only other thing worth watching out for.'
During our Chilwol Chilseok promotions, we'd still had a decent number of fans in the early days.
Although Hyeon Juin had changed from being the gateway into the fandom to being a barrier to entry, everyone acknowledged his looks to the point that he was called "Shingangnam"—short for "a handsome man whose appearance seemed like a god had personally descended." There were plenty of fans who were fine keeping Hyeon Juin as a decorative member and only liking the other six.
However, before Chilwol Chilseok even approached its first anniversary, a broadcasting station aired a male idol debut survival program that was such a massive hit that people called it "the idol industry's ecosystem destroyer."
'I'd caught it by chance and got way too invested midway through... Didn't I cry back then?'
But soon after, rank manipulation and agency corruption scandals erupted, and the group disbanded simultaneously with their debut.
Ham Jeongwon had been one of the contestants, and he'd placed fifth with an enormous individual fandom. When his debut was overturned at the last minute, a frantic Ham Jeongwon convinced the CEO to bring several other contestants to our agency and let them debut. With the full support of Director Choi—who'd been one of the obsessively invested viewers—he debuted as Utopia and hit it big immediately.
Up to this point, it could have passed without much trouble.
The problem was that Ham Jeongwon had hated me. And I mean, *really* hated me!
I'd asked him in the past why that was, but there was no answer.
If anything, it only got worse after that. Since things weren't improving, I ended up avoiding him first.
But the more I avoided him, the more Ham Jeongwon subtly needled me by mentioning Chilwol Chilseok on SNS and broadcasts. Hyeon Juin got annoyed and fired right back, turning everything into a shitshow. Fans grew tired of the territorial wars between fandoms and quit Chilwol Chilseok one after another. Combined with Hyeon Juin's three scandals in three months afterward, new fan influx converged on zero.
'The problem is how to stop this from happening...'
As of now, trainee Ham Jeongwon and I had an awkward relationship.
Naturally, Ham Jeongwon was sixteen and I was twenty-one. There was a five-year age gap, and our practice schedules barely overlapped. We only exchanged awkward greetings during self-practice now and then, at most.
'Should I at least tell the company not to send him to the program...?'
No, even I thought that wasn't a great idea.
It was a bit iffy to tell them not to send a trainee to a program with so much corruption. The TOP7 might have had their debut overturned, but they'd secured an enormous individual fandom in a short time that other idols could never experience.
It was also the opportunity that allowed Ham Jeongwon to gain popularity, so it felt wrong to stop him. I couldn't block someone else's future just to make my own life easier.
But the thought of going on that program himself... Eunchan didn't want that.
For one, a survival system where you competed for rank didn't suit his personality. Plus, while the TOP7 failed to debut, he already had a debut right around the corner at his current agency.
Of course, Eunchan knew this was far from the so-called formula for success. But still,
'If possible, I want to debut with my guys. Obviously.'
He wanted Hyeon Juin to go into acting, and to form a six-member team with the others so that all seven of them could succeed.
From the beginning, Hyeon Juin had wanted to act, so he'd skipped practice, then performances, then album activities, and by year five he was basically treated as a guest member.
'Wouldn't it work if the six of us succeed as idols, and Hyeon Juin succeeds as an actor?'
There was no need to debut together and walk the same path. Even if they split up, all seven could be happy.
Hyeon Juin could be annoying, but after watching him for years, Eunchan must have developed some fondness—he didn't want to see the guy fail.
The faces of Chilwol Chilseok's fandom, the Kkachi, who had shown up for every music show recording, fan signing, handshake event, and selfie event were still vivid in Eunchan's mind.
As time passed, the fans coming to signings dwindled to barely a hundred, and after a few years like that, he'd naturally memorized their faces. Would he be able to see those fans again? He hoped he could.
Eunchan stared blankly at the ceiling and sighed. He didn't know how pitiful the heavens must have found him to give him this chance. Still,
'...now that the chance has come, I don't want to waste it.'
If my memory was right, I would be summoned by the CEO tomorrow. About debut-related matters.
'I have to choose my words carefully.'
Until then, he had to come up with a reason the CEO would accept for why a six-member group was better than a seven-member one. A careless slip of the tongue or the wrong choice would throw everything off. For him, this was close to a survival strategy.
This time, he wanted to succeed.
He didn't need to be so-called top-tier or first-class. It would be enough if someone passing by on the street could recognize him.
To Eunchan, success simply meant "getting out of the red and earning roughly minimum wage." He'd never even thought about making a lot of money doing something he'd started because he wanted to.
He just wanted to be an idol. So badly.
Even though the idol life he'd experienced once had failed so miserably it was tragic, he still loved dancing and singing in front of the public. If given the chance, he wanted to stand on stage anytime.
This time, he wanted to be greedy.
'I'm good at working hard, after all.'
Unlike Hyeon Juin, a former child actor, or Seo Juhyeok, who'd won on an audition program and already made it into a debut team once, Eunchan didn't have anything he was particularly better at compared to the other members.
Still, he was confident in his ability to work hard. In the past, that had been his only strength, but now that he knew the direction of the future, he felt he could do even better. And he vowed to himself that he wouldn't live a life of passive compliance like before.
'...So, I'll just check the reactions and go to sleep.'
Eunchan clenched his fist, burying his resolve in his heart, then picked up his phone again in his right hand and logged into his subscribed accounts on SNS. Based on six years of experience, there was no better way to check how the idol scene worked.
"Huh?"
The chaos inside made the resolution he'd just made seem meaningless, but—
"What the hell is this?"
Scrolling down the timeline of his subscribed accounts just a little, he found one eye-catching post. Eunchan rubbed his eyes.
'Ha.'
The attached photo was absurd enough, but the caption was the finishing blow.
With his ears ringing sharply as if someone had smacked him on the back of the head, Eunchan squeezed his eyes shut.
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DoljabiMultiFangirl (~6/30 HIATUS! Back after midterms)
@wkqejrdla
My trainee friend sent me this. Is that a hidden trainee next to H.J.I?
They said the two seem close and their visual chemistry is good. Said they're debuting soon. Yep.
If it's not complete BS and from a verifiable legit-ass source, this is absolutely INSANE.
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-REPOST: H.J.I? Pretty sure he'll be completely overshadowed by him, my K-pop career says so
ㄴ The kid next to him is f*cking handsome too, though? Is he a hidden trainee?
ㄴ Really lol If H.J.I is textbook handsome, this guy has softer features
-REPOST: Oh damn he's handsome lol Visuals are basically finished at that level, no?
ㄴ If those two debut in the same group, I'm burying my bones in Minutes
ㄴ The guy next to him has an actor face, though? Is he an acting student?
ㄴ F*ck, no way, people say there are no lookers in K-pop these days -_-
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"What are they talking about?"
More than anything, the photo was a nightmare.
On the screen was a large image of Hyeon Juin, with me half-hidden by him, appearing to be having a conversation.
The way my awkward smile was manipulated to look like we were chatting warmly.
And what...? An aspiring actor? Over my dead body.
"This is exactly why fabrication is so easy. You can attach any words to anything and it looks plausible. You really can't trust rumors."
He'd already experienced his photos being twisted on SNS countless times, so it was nothing new, but of all things, it had to be a post linking him with Hyeon Juin. He could only let out a hollow laugh.
'...This is driving me crazy. When was this taken?'
Eunchan frowned at the suddenly throbbing pain in his head. He pressed two fingers between his eyebrows, thinking hard about the photo.
A scene suddenly flashed through his mind.
Ah, was it when I'd talked to Hyeon Juin for a brief moment after the evaluation earlier?
'I only have a few sets of clothes so I always look the same, but Hyeon Juin is wearing exactly what he had on earlier.'
But today was the pre-debut monthly evaluation, so only trainees were inside. How had this picture leaked?
[...My trainee friend sent me this...]
Eunchan clicked his tongue after reading the roughly 150-character post again.
Ah, so someone took it secretly.
But since he wasn't close with every trainee, it was hard to pinpoint who. Even so, he couldn't believe someone had posted something so completely wrong. It was pure fiction.
"Not a single thing in it is right."
He'd admit one thing, though. Visuals. Hyeon Juin was incredibly handsome.
But they weren't close, and they certainly weren't becoming actors together. Whoever wrote this had no eye for the truth.
'I got needlessly worked up... over something pointless.'
Eunchan pressed his palm against his chest to soothe the frustration and turned his phone to the lock screen.
He'd seen photos manipulated on SNS to the point of nausea, and he'd experienced far worse in the past, so it wasn't particularly worth worrying about. He only felt like telling the poster what the facts actually were.
There was one thing he'd learned today.
As long as he didn't do anything out of the ordinary, the overall flow of events seemed to proceed just as it had in the past. The final monthly evaluation that afternoon was proof of that.
And seeing an eyewitness account he hadn't seen before being posted on SNS, it seemed that when he threw a wrench in things, quite a lot changed as a result.
Did he have to pay attention to every gesture and tone of voice? That was pretty tricky.