Chapter 274

Chapter 274

If someone who was viciously competitive with a burning inferiority complex were to participate in a survival audition show, their true nature was bound to show at some point, even if they made no mistake early on.

The show encourages that kind of mindset. By the time the first team battle took place, the contestants would have already seen what the public’s initial reaction to them was. Even if they didn’t know their exact ranking yet, the view counts on videos of them and how often they were being mentioned online would be clues.

He already knows he’s close to the top of the rankings, and which contestants could be a threat to him. The closer they were to having the win in their grasp, the more obsessed a person would become. It wasn’t all that unlikely that Chae Seodam was included in the contestant group that Miry-nay had labeled as being nasty.

I spoke again. “Would you mind if I asked you who you were referring—”

“Uh… But I could be biased! I don’t think I should say who I thought was in the wrong!”

“Right,” I said calmly. “I’m not asking because I want to criticize anyone. It’s just that I’m a little worried. If they debut, they’ll belong to the same agency as us.”

“Ugh… Yes, that’s true!”

“Okay.” I paused for a moment, then asked, “So… can I ask you what the worst thing you saw them do was?”

She spoke without hesitation. “Oh, yeah! That should be fine, I think.”

There.

“Of course.”

“Yes! The thing that bothered me most was the way they would pretend not to hear this one guy whenever he said something!”

“Oh, so they were ignoring specific people?”

That’s a bit too simple, isn’t it?

“No! No… I mean… Uh, how do I explain this?”

Asking me isn’t going to help. Suddenly a commotion broke out on the other end.

“Huh?”

“Hey!”

There was the sound of running feet and a few shouts and screams.

“…?”

There was a brief dip in the noise, like the phone had been covered by someone’s hand, before someone new spoke.

“Hello, Moondae! This is Park Minha from Miry-nay!”

She was the second-place member.

“Yes… Hello, Minha.”

“Yeah!”

She was gasping for air, seemingly having run to snatch the phone. Had she also, like the manager, mistakenly believed there was something romantic going on here?

“I called to ask about the new season of Idol Incorporated.”

“Oh, sure! I can answer any of your questions! I was there too!”

You seem to be in a hurry.

“I see. I assumed that only Yulki had been on the show so far because the episode you filmed hasn’t been released yet?”

“O-oh!”

This was a lie. I’d simply wanted to speak to Yulki because I thought it would be easier to get the answers I wanted from her.

“Yes… What is it that you were wondering about?”

I gave her a concise summary of the conversation I’d had with the other member.

Minha inhaled deeply. “Oh… that.”

“I’m guessing you saw something, too?”

“Uh… Yeah.” The girl sounded reluctant, clearly hesitant. “What Yulki was talking about… was clearly a setup.”

Well, well.

“A setup?” I repeated.

“Yes. This one guy was making it look as if he was the victim in all of it, and only him.” She seemed to calm down somewhat as she explained. “Well… one of the guys told him about a change to the practice schedules while the cameras and microphones were off, but when the cameras were on, he claimed that he hadn’t been told. He looked pretty bummed out about it, too.”

“…!”

“We overheard them while we were on our way to fetch something. He probably didn’t know we were even there.”

So a contestant was trying to manipulate the edit, huh?

“The other person involved must have felt pretty upset about it, since the guy was lying.”

“Yes. He pretended to be understanding, though, saying that perhaps he had been told, and he simply didn’t remember. He apologized as well. That made it hard for us to come out and say we’d heard the other guy tell him about it…”

Smart. This made the guy saying he’d passed on the information look like an idiot. Whoever was playing games here had taken fully into account how this could look after editing. In that case…

“The other guy wasn’t that high-ranked, and didn’t have many friends, either, did he?”

This would force the other person out of the running by the next ranking announcement, essentially preventing trouble before it even began for the manipulator.

“Right…”

Hmm.

“What’s the position of the person that was targeted?”

“He was a dancer.”

I didn’t give her a chance to think, informing her of my observation without pause. “And the person behind all this must be a candidate for debut.”

“W-well, uh…”

“Oh, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

She seemed to have been caught off-guard, since she wasn’t able to hide her reaction.

I’m sorry, but that was basically a yes. Things would become clear anyway once that part of the show aired.

So it’s someone who’s in a dancer role and is sure to debut as things currently stand. There were only two or three such people, including Chae Seodam. Considering the fact that this guy’s methods aligned pretty closely with what Ahyeon had told me…

I think it’s safe to assume they’re talking about Seodam. He was crafty, as expected. He’d targeted someone who could be potential competition for the role of dancer, but had a lower ranking and was less gifted in social skills, making them an easy target. Given the production team’s editing style, this scene would probably be treated as an inferiority-fueled tantrum on the part of the targeted guy.

That will make it hard for him to get back at Seodam in some way after he’s disqualified. By saying that perhaps it was his memory that had failed him, he’d set up a good defense for himself, while pretending to give in to the other person’s claim. With the rankings established, this would only make the other guy seem overcome with jealousy toward the guy who was at the top.

Too bad… There was no way of saving Seodam’s victim. I tutted, but this wasn’t actually a bad situation for me. It meant the guy’s predatory nature hadn’t gone anywhere. Digging up his shortcomings would not be difficult. Miry-nay had already done so once, after all.

We can’t do it ourselves, so… It seemed I would have to take advantage of this phone call in more ways than one.

“Do you perhaps… have any more scheduled appearances on this season of Idol Inc.?”

“What? Yes. We’re supposed to give them a song, so we’ll probably be going one more time! Uh… probably during the middle evaluation, after the teams for the second team battle are selected.”

“In that case, could you take note of the vibes among the contestants for me when you go?”

I heard her swallow nervously over the phone.

“M-may I ask why?”

“Based on what you just told me… I’m getting a very bad feeling about this. If he does anything worse, I want to keep my distance from him, even if he debuts and joins our agency.”

“Oh. Uh, all right!”

She seemed pretty relieved to hear this. After she warned me several times that she would try, but that I shouldn’t expect too much, she politely said goodbye and hung up. Rather than just promising to do her best to help me, she was making sure she couldn’t be blamed down the road if things didn’t work out. Her foolish rookie days were starting to come to an end.

“Good night!”

“Yes. You too, Minha. Thanks for answering my call at such a late hour.”

I hung up.

“Hmm.”

The situation wasn’t too bad. The bastard was smart, but I could very clearly see that he was slowly going to start making more and more mistakes.

I’d have lain low till the very end, if I were him. Since this had happened before, he knew he was at the top of the rankings. I could tell that he was obsessed with keeping his momentum going, rather than doing what he could to secure his current position. And now that he was at the top… he would start lowering his guard. I was confident I would be able to dig up something interesting before long. I would have to line up another one of my pieces.

As it happened, I knew there was a break in filming prior to the first ranking announcement. After a moment of thought, I sent off a text.

[I saw the show. Wishing you the best. Good luck!]

The message was for Kwon Heeseung, or Goldie #2.

***

When I checked my phone the next morning, I realized Goldie #2 had responded immediately.

[Moondae T_T Thank you so much for the encouragement! I wasn’t sure if I should contact you. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.]

[I’ll do my best. See you on the stage for sure! (Throwing hearts emoji)]

Because I’d kept contact with him infrequently since our season together, my text hadn’t come across as me trying to get friendly again because I thought he was going to become popular. Considering that he was enduring a second round on that damned show, he seemed pretty hopeful and cheerful. That wasn’t surprising, really.

He got a platinum grade this time. Goldie #2 had escaped gold grade, and the edit was favoring him. He was on a roll. The second attempt at a survival show was always either a big hit or a massive flop, and for him, it was the former.

- Heeseung is the prime example of keep going until something sticks

- Being young trumps everything else. He’s still young, can you believe it? LOL

He’d come in third in this season’s first ranking. This was nothing to complain about, and the fact that his popularity hadn’t died down even after the show went to air suggested that he was very likely to debut.

And Goldie #2, if he were to be forced into a single category, is a dancer. That made it likely he was one of Seodam’s targets—perhaps someone the bully wanted to keep in check.

“Moondae, who are you texting?” Big Sejin asked.

“Goldie— I mean, Kwon Heeseung.”

“Hmm.”

“I learned something interesting last night.”

I told him about my call with Miry-nay, informing him of my own deductions.

“Oh, I get it. Okay.” Big Sejin smiled and nodded, unlocking his phone.

[Big Sejin: How is everyone? (face with rolling eyes emoji)

[Big Sejin: The new season of Idol Inc. is about to have its first team battle. Doesn’t that remind you of our team? Oh, the nostalgia… Our performance was legendary!]

He had resurrected the chat room for October31, which had been our team during the first team battle. After a few days of careful chatting, he had managed to lure Goldie #2 into responding eagerly to the chat.

[Big Sejin: So, how’s it going, Heeseung? Are you working toward another legendary performance? (star-struck emoji)

[Kwon Heeseung: LOL I don’t know! (shy face emoji)

Bae Sejin was taken aback by all of the sudden messages.

“Why is he suddenly texting in this group chat so much?” he asked.

“He’s trying to get a feel for the current season,” I told him.

“Get a feel for it? Oh! Him. Okay.” Bae Sejin suddenly grew very cooperative, seemingly trying a little ploy of his own.

[Big Sejin: We’re going to eat some apples and watch the next episode of Idol Inc. as it airs this evening. It seems like them apples are going to be spicy LOL]

[Kwon Heeseung: LOL a hundred percent]

[Bae Sejin: Apples are best eaten in the morning, though]

There was a sudden lull in the messages, and a response finally came two minutes later.

[Ha Iljoon (Golden Age): LOL Sejin, you haven’t changed a bit!]

Bae Sejin banged his head against the wall and sank into the sofa, embarrassed. He probably shouldn’t feel too bad about it, though, since everyone expected awkwardness from him anyway. In any case, he’d helped to kill any tension and make things more comfortable in the chat, so he’d done his part.

A few weeks later, the time finally came.

[※Contestant Chae Seodam explains he wasn’t told about the changes to the practice schedule※]

[※The mood in the team goes ice-cold※]

[Chae Seodam: Actually… I’m sorry. I probably didn’t hear you. Sorry.]

[Lee Hoyoon: No, that’s not it. (Edited) I told him for sure!]

[Chae Seodam: Yes. I think maybe I just didn’t remember…]

That particular scene had finally aired.

“Wow. Would you look at that?”

“Yeah.”

The members were watching the episode in the living room while Ahyeon was doing punch needle crafts in his room. We’d arranged it this way in advance.

[※Q: Anything you want to say about this?※]

[Chae Seodam: It can’t be helped. I can’t ruin the mood in the team, so… it’s all right.]

An interview with Seodam was added in with perfect timing and all the hallmarks of classic Idol Inc. editing.

“Is there a chance he has a memory problem, and he really didn’t remember—” Raebin wondered.

“No. He’s just a bad apple,” Bae Sejin said, glaring at the screen.

So you see it, too.

The show continued, nonetheless.

[“And the winning team is… ‘Changers!’”]

[“Yeah!”]

[“You win a random survival ticket! In addition, you’ll be allowed to appear on Music Bomb, Tnet’s global music show!”]

The episode ended with Seodam’s team nabbing the win.

“So the survival tickets are given at random now.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They really knew how to make the contestants miserable.

I should be doing something right now, not sitting around making comments about the show. It’s clear now that Seodam is the one Miry-nay was talking about.

The members scattered after the show, and I went into Big Sejin’s room with him. It was time to put what we’d discussed into action.

“So you want me to do it?”

“Yeah.”

He was better at stuff like this. He shrugged, pulling out his phone and calling Goldie #2.

“What if he records it?”

“He can’t. He uses an ApplePhone.”

Good. The call was picked up soon enough.

“Hey, Heeseung. I’m calling you just in case… I heard something about the show.”

“What?”

Big Sejin shared a polished version of what we’d heard from Miry-nay, making sure to say some staff member had told him everything. He phrased it as worry for Goldie #2, rather than criticism.

“…so yeah. I watched the episode today, and the scene they described was really there. It got me wondering.”

Goldie #2 was silent for a moment, but soon there was a drawn-out sigh over the phone. “Oh… No wonder I felt something was off.”

There we go.

“Has something been bothering you?”

“Yes! In our group chat— Uh, never mind that. Anyway, he started acting oddly toward me after the rankings were released.”

“Don’t tell me he’s keeping you in check?”

“That’s exactly it! I can see it now… I didn’t think he was this sort of guy, though! Why does this sort of thing keep happening to me? It happened last time, too!” Goldie #2 complained.

I recalled that Choi Wongil had treated him the same way during our season, making this feel even worse for him.

Big Sejin gently swerved tack. “Well, he’ll be in the same group as you, if you debut. I wanted to warn you just in case, which is why I made this call!”

“Ugh… Yeah! Thanks so much… Story of my life…” Goldie #2 grumbled, sighed, and soon hung up.

Big Sejin put down his phone and grinned. “Not bad, eh?”

“Yep.”

We’d done enough to ensure that Goldie #2 would cooperate if necessary. I shrugged and gave him the high five he held his hand out for before leaving the room.

As I entered my room, Ahyeon, who’d been sitting at his desk and wrapping up a finished rug, quietly asked, “Uh… Y-you watched Idol Inc, right?”

“…!”

Had he heard the sound of the TV?

I nodded.

He said calmly, “I-I’m okay. I’d like to watch with you guys next time… if that’s okay.”

“Sure…”

He seemed a little pale, but he smiled, finished organizing his things, and stood. “I can’t be this way forever… I want to get better.”

“All right.”

I gave him a pat on the back.

I suppose I can start by showing him a short clip. Ahyeon was confronted with his self-imposed challenge sooner than expected.

A few days later, we encountered some of the contestants on the show in a broadcast station corridor.

“Hello, TeSTAR!”

It was the winning team, who had won the chance to appear on a music show.

F*ck. Naturally, he was among them.

“Hello.”

Chae Seodam.