Chapter 46:
Chapter 46
I was also someone to someone else.
‘How can someone debut without thinking about the hate they would get? Do they say, “I’m going to be a celebrity on this day, so I know you’ll write hate comments and I’ll take them all~”? Is that what they say? Is this some kind of hate comment preview?’
[Then, shouldn’t they think about the hate they would get when they debut in front of people?]
‘No… sigh… never mind.’
Ian tried to argue back, but he sighed deeply.
There was no point in talking to him.
He had to win first.
Even though he was annoying, he was on my side.
Why did the Grim Reaper assign this guy to me?
[What?]
‘From now on, just open your mouth when you give me information. It’s so annoying.’
[Did I say anything wrong?]
Ian ignored Jin, who was blinking in front of his eyes.
Even so, Jin muttered that he didn’t say anything wrong.
Ugh, I shouldn’t feed him. Ian shook his head.
“What are you doing in the lying broadcast?”
“Are you giving us scripts?”
The lying broadcast on Y app started at 10 p.m., but the broadcast time was over an hour and a half.
Unless it was a very funny group, there were many times when they ran out of things to say in the middle and most of the fans only watched the clip videos.
“What if we fall asleep?”
“Hey, do you think we’ll sleep on a broadcast?”
Jo Tae-woong said with a smirk at Park Seo-dam’s words.
***
“Is Seo-dam sleeping?”
“It looks like she’s really sleeping.”
It had been only 10 minutes since the lying broadcast started, but Park Seo-dam had already closed her eyes.
As expected, she was the type who fell asleep as soon as she laid her head down.
She was the same on the broadcast.
“Who’s going to lead now?”
Park Jin-hyuk said. Ian got up from his seat.
He put his index finger on his lips and made a gesture of silence.
“Let’s prank Seo-dam.”
Everyone nodded their heads.
All the members except Park Seo-dam got up from their seats.
They were about to pretend that the broadcast was over and they had left.
“I’m not sleeping, hyung.”
Park Seo-dam grabbed Ian’s ankle as he got up. Ian was startled and jumped up.
“Wow!”
“Busted!”
All the members except Ian clapped and laughed.
“What? You guys planned this?”
“It’s a reverse prank.”
“I knew it. Jin-hyuk hyung’s mouth was twitching.”
Ian grumbled and lay down again.
The lying broadcast was a broadcast where all the members lay down on mattresses that were arranged in a staircase shape so that they could be seen by the camera. But how could they mess up the blankets and pillows so soon after they started?
“Our first lying broadcast and we already made a mess… Isn’t it too dirty?”
“Doesn’t it show our humanity?”
Ian answered as he looked at the phone for Y app with Park Seo-dam.
The strings of text that were uploaded in real time were too fast to recognize.
Ian tapped the phone and scrolled up slowly.
‘Most of them are foreigners’
The K company short plays, including ‘Dangso-deut’, were broadcasted simultaneously in foreign broadcasting stations such as China, Japan, Southeast Asia, etc., and because of that influence, there were much more foreign reactions than before.
He also noticed some awkward Korean translations.
“We’re doing a lying broadcast after our activities ended, not at the beginning…”
Park Seo-dam continued to lead while Jo Tae-woong and Kim Joo-young started arguing out of nowhere.
Park Seo-dam ignored them and asked questions to the other hyungs.
“What did you regret about this activity?”
“Hmm… I wanted to perform with a song that I worked on with Jin-hyuk, but we couldn’t do that.”
“Yeah, me too. That was a pity.”
Lee Joo-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk made another self-composed song. But they had to settle for a side track again because they couldn’t make it to the title track in this blind evaluation.
“I don’t think it’s regretful, but our choreography was too…”
“Oh, I know.”
Ian groaned and everyone murmured. Kim Hyun said.
“We had too many changes in our choreography during the album preparation process, right?”
“He was like this when he heard that our choreography changed again.”
Kim Joo-young, who joined the conversation somehow, reenacted Ian’s expression at that time.
It was a blank stare into space.
“I looked like that?”
“You looked like your world collapsed.”
Ian laughed bitterly.
During the album preparation process, Ian, who was not very good at learning choreography, barely followed the choreography and when they were about to practice together, the choreographer came and said that he had to change the choreography.
Ian looked at the camera and said.
“I wish I had some dance skills next time.”
“But you improved a lot, didn’t you?”
Kim Hyun said and everyone nodded.
“Instead, you sing well.”
Lee Joo-hyuk said while the staff rustled and brought a bunch of microphones and snacks.
“Oh, snacks.”
“I want to do it.”
“This is not an ASMR of eating snacks, but of crushing snacks.”
At Park Seo-dam’s words, the members who were already ready to tear open the snack bags and eat them put down the snacks with a sullen look.
“While Ian hyung and Hyun hyung do ASMR, we’ll listen to it and sleep.”
“If we can’t fall asleep, you’re out.”
“Should we decide on a penalty?”
“Why do we need a penalty? You’re out if you don’t want to sleep.”
Ian and Kim Hyun rolled Jo Tae-woong over and sat down in front of the table next to the mattress.
Jo Tae-woong rolled to the floor with a thud.
“Hyung, have you heard this a lot? How do you do this?”
“I don’t know either, but I guess we just tear it?”
Kim Hyun answered and pressed the snack bag with a crunch.
He happened to press it near the microphone, so the sound of the snack breaking was loud.
Park Seo-dam raised her head slightly while lying down and protested.
“Is this ASMR?”
“Shh, we’re serious.”
Ian also tore open the snack bag.
Ian and Kim Hyun had lost their appetite.
They had to keep their diet during the activity period, so they didn’t even put snacks in their mouths.
The potato chips with red seasoning shone like a steak in front of them.
Ian looked at him as if he was bewitched.
He felt a sense of camaraderie with Kim Hyun, who had danced hard during this activity.
‘Should we just eat it?’
Kim Hyun nodded his head.
They put the microphone near their chin and bit the potato chips.
Crunch. Whether you sleep or not, we’ll eat snacks.
In an instant, they tore open other snack bags and tasted them one by one.
Ian and Kim Hyun were having a snack party as if they were possessed.
The other members felt something was wrong and raised their upper bodies.
“What? Can we eat too?”
“Aren’t you guys too serious about eating?”
“I want to eat too.”
The ASMR was gone and they gathered around to inhale the snacks.
“There’s a question for Tae-woong hyung in the comments. You started as a child actor, right? They’re curious why you decided to become an idol instead of continuing your acting career.”
“I’m curious about that too.”
They ate snacks while Park Seo-dam stared at the phone.
The other members also looked at Jo Tae-woong with curiosity.
He smiled proudly as he felt the attention and concentration of the members on him.
He wiped off the powder on his lips and said.
“It was when I was in fifth grade? I went to my grandmother’s house to play. But there was a rural event there. Not a market-like event, but a serious one with a stage set up, you know?”
“I know.”
“To be honest, it was a remote village with only rice fields, so I thought the villagers were going to sing or something. But an idol group came to perform there.”
“An idol group?”
“Yeah, and it was a male idol group.”
Jo Tae-woong smiled faintly.
Even if it was a top singer, I thought it would be a trot singer or an older singer, but suddenly some young men in black came and greeted us.
Jo Tae-woong guessed that it was probably someone’s mistake that invited them.
‘Who are Diamond? Oh… they were someone else…’
‘Please let us perform even if you cut our fees.’
The village head sighed and reluctantly said that they could perform since it was their mistake.
They were still new at that time, so they were happy that they could perform at an event.
‘Hey, why did we come to this countryside event? It’s so lame.’
The other members grumbled but still finished the stage perfectly.
‘We are Diamond! Please remember us!’
Kim Yong-min stayed there for a long time, bowing his waist and greeting them.
Even if there were only old people in the audience, he hoped that someone would recognize them and remember their group name.
That was what he wanted.
Jo Tae-woong looked at him only.
‘Wow…’
He was impressed by their performance even though no one knew or responded to them.
He couldn’t forget how he kept bowing until he got off the stage.
‘Mom! I want to be an idol!’
After that, he looked for an agency that would let him be an idol trainee while continuing his child actor career.
And he faced a tough training that was not easy.
He thought about quitting and just doing acting again. But he still couldn’t forget those people who performed in the rural event.
The people who danced on that shabby stage where no one cared or responded.
The old people yawned and watched them, but at least in Jo Tae-woong’s eyes, they shone brightly.
“Wow… that was a serious reason.”
“But do you know who they were? Do you remember their name?”
“Do they still perform?”
He was actually worried that it would be his future when he debuted.
But somehow he felt that it would be okay. Jo Tae-woong laughed and said.
“I wish I knew, but I can’t remember. I hope they’re still performing. Maybe I’ll meet them someday.”
***
“Do you really not remember anything about that singer?”
“What? Oh, the rural event?”
On the way back from the lying broadcast, Ian asked Jo Tae-woong.
“Yeah, do you remember the song? Sing it for me.”
“Hmm… what was the song?”
Jo Tae-woong frowned as he tried to recall.
He didn’t remember the lyrics, so he hummed softly.
“I think it was like this.”
“…Huh?”
Ian turned around and looked at the back seat. Jo Tae-woong flinched.
“Ow, you scared me.”
“Is this the song?”
Ian sang a verse of the song that was buried in his memory.
Jo Tae-woong clapped his hands and said.
“Yeah! That’s right! How did you know?”
“Ian, you’re driving. It’s dangerous, sit properly.”
Ian snapped out of his trance and straightened his posture. Jo Tae-woong kept asking him like a parrot, “How do you know? Who is it? Whose song is it?” But Ian ignored him.
That’s… my song.
Diamond’s debut song.
The group that Jo Tae-woong met was none other than the group that Choi Ian belonged to in the past.
And the person who kept bowing until he got off the stage was Kim Yong-min.
‘Wow… how could this happen…’
He remembered that rural event.
The memory that was hidden like a dream revealed its shape.
‘Diamond? Who? Oh… they were someone else…’
‘Please let us perform even if you cut our fees.’
The manager begged and the village head reluctantly said that they could perform since it was their mistake.
They were still new at that time, so they were happy that they could perform at an event.
‘Hey, why did we come to this countryside event? It’s so lame.’
The other members grumbled but still finished the stage perfectly.
‘We are Diamond! Please remember us!’
Kim Yong-min stayed there for a long time, bowing his waist and greeting them.
Even if there were only old people in the audience, he hoped that someone would recognize them and remember their group name.
That was what he wanted.
In the car going to the dormitory, Ian stared blankly out of the window as if he had been hit on the head.
‘I was also someone’s inspiration…’
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