Idol Hides His Military Service

Haa.

Yunsik was panting from sprinting in a hurry all the way from the broadcast station convenience store to the waiting room, and he didn’t even have time to catch his breath.

"Here. The convenience store full set!"

Peek.

A sloth opened its eyes to a squint and rummaged through the snack bag Yunsik handed over.

"Hmm···why is it White Heim instead of Choco Heim?"

"Sion···the convenience store in the station just happened to be completely out of Choco Heim···."

"Tsk. It’s a bit disappointing, but I’ll let it slide. Hey, Geum Lu Bu."

"Yes!"

Lee Sion tossed the bag of snacks she got from Yunsik straight to Im Yunkyung.

And Im Yunkyung handled the snack bag like it was a sacred treasure, carefully opening them one by one.

'Ah···.'

Watching that, a sigh slipped out of Yunsik on its own.

-Faith, love, hope—of these, the greatest is love.

Yunsik recalled what a pastor used to say back when he went to church as a kid.

At the pastor’s voice saying love had to come first among the virtues of faith, Yunsik shook his head inside and answered back.

'No, Pastor. I think the greatest was faith.'

Wasn’t Yunsik in this state right now because he threw away faith among those three virtues?

"Hmm···Shinyu, do you know Yeobaeksa?"

"I’m not sure, Sion."

"I see. Yeobaeksa is someone who died because of Cao Cao. You know Cao Cao, right?"

"Yes!"

Like a king, Lee Sion sat in the waiting room sofa, getting shoulder massages on her left and right from Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon, while Im Yunkyung and Kurosawa Yuri alternated between presenting iced americanos and snacks to Lee Sion’s mouth.

"Ahem! The wind is getting weaker. Don’t tell me you’re already tired and using your body being worn out as an excuse? My heart still hurts, you know?"

"···Of course not, Sion!"

Flap!

Meanwhile, Lee Gahyeon and Manager Park Jiu were diligently fanning Lee Sion and Geum Shinyu, who was glued to Lee Sion’s side and enjoying the pleasures.

"Wait, how far was I?"

"You were talking about Yeobaeksa!"

"Ah! Right. Anyway, Cao Cao and Yeobaeksa were friends, and after Cao Cao failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo and ran away, he stayed at Yeobaeksa’s house for a bit."

Lee Sion continued the story with crystal-clear diction like she was putting on a play so everyone in the waiting room could hear.

'Should I suggest to the CEO that Sion go into acting?'

It looked so natural that Yunsik even wondered if he should put Lee Sion through acting training.

"···So Yeobaeksa slaughtered a precious pig to host his friend Cao Cao, but that Cao bastard couldn’t trust his friend, and he ended up leaving behind a horrific result—slaughtering an entire family."

"That’s awful!"

"Right?"

Gulp.

Yunsik, who knew better than anyone why Lee Sion was laying out that kind of grand story, swallowed without realizing it.

"But in this waiting room, there isn’t just one Cao bastard—there are seven of them, Shinyu."

"Huh?"

"In this miserable reality where people can’t trust their members and move their hands first, I’ve taken such a deep wound in my heart that my hands and feet are trembling."

"Huh? Sion, your hands and feet really are trembling!"

"Right?"

"Yes!"

Ah.

Yunsik was learning, from the bottom of his heart, why there was a saying that the sister-in-law who stops it is more annoying than the mother-in-law who hits.

Geum Shinyu, right next to Lee Sion, kept giving perfectly timed responses, raising Lee Sion’s excitement with every word.

Using that innate sense of rhythm on reactions, she truly was the reincarnation of a peerless traitor.

Was that what the Ten Attendants were like when they ruled the late Han?

The scarier part was that Shinyu herself didn’t even intend to flatter.

It was absolute faith toward Lee Sion, and that was the key factor that divided Shinyu’s treatment from the other seven’s so sharply.

-People can make mistakes.

After LYNX’s manager and members apologized, saying they were sorry for causing trouble, and then disappeared from the waiting room, those were the first words Lee Sion said.

A mistake.

This was an undeniable wrong on Yunsik’s side, on Jiu’s side, and on the members’ side.

They really had been so sure Lee Sion did something, without even listening to the full story, and punished her.

'Why did we do that?'

Yunsik thought about it, and the members did too—why did they conclude it so rashly?—but he still didn’t know the clear reason.

Everyone in the waiting room had swarmed Lee Sion like they were possessed.

Of course, that didn’t erase the wrong, so Yunsik had been preparing himself to endure Lee Sion’s furious explosion.

But the first words out of Lee Sion’s mouth were unexpectedly that people can make mistakes, and Yunsik was so moved by that mercy that he almost cried.

Until he heard the next line.

-But my people cannot.

In an instant, Lee Sion transformed into a dictator from the Silla era.

After that, Yunsik and the members had no choice but to become Lee Sion’s faithful servants.

"Sion, it’s about time we go greet the other waiting rooms."

"Already?"

"Yes. Rehearsal starts soon, so it’ll get busy. It’d be best to make the rounds now."

"It can’t be helped. We have to work."

When Yunsik offered that piece of truth—that they had to go around and greet other senior singers soon—he watched Lee Sion get ready to head out even while showing disappointment, and Yunsik let out a relieved breath.

Hope that he could finally be freed from Lee Sion’s tyrant game.

"We’ll do the rest at the dorm."

Of course, it was only a brief peace.

***

'Ugh, what a pain in the ass.'

I found it ridiculous, looking at the members and managers whose faces had finally brightened.

When they were hitting me, they were having the time of their lives, and now that they realized it ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) was their mistake, their faces had gone dead-white. If I left them alone, it looked like they’d dig a hole and crawl into it, so I had no choice but to do emergency measures.

"Sion, are you really okay?"

"Hm?"

"You must have felt so wronged. Is it really okay to just let it go like this?"

I was slightly surprised by Shinyu’s words.

'Shinyu is delicate, though.'

There were people with such high empathy that even when something happened to someone else, they got sad like it happened to them, and Shinyu was exactly that case.

Even now, Shinyu looked upset on my behalf that the managers and the other members didn’t believe what I said.

But.

"Shinyu, can a person be perfect?"

"Huh?"

"People are full of mistakes."

It was sweet that she was worrying about me, but it wasn’t good to stay buried in that incident.

My belief was that people, whether it’s more or less, are beings who can’t help but make mistakes.

-Platoon Leader! The casing count doesn’t match!

No matter how much you told them to count and keep track of the casings before a shooting exercise, someone would still lose a casing. If everyone thought everyone had to be perfect like mistakes were unacceptable, that itself would end up causing problems.

'I have been messing around a lot lately.'

With debut right in front of us, maybe I’d gotten excited without realizing it, because I’d pulled a lot of pranks on the managers, the company staff, and the members.

To me, they were light pranks, but the sensitive ones, unlike me, must have been building up quite a grudge unconsciously.

If so, it was necessary to let it burst out once, like squeezing the foam out of beer.

"That way, I can keep using you for a long, long time."

"So that was your deep intention?"

"Of course."

Treasure your toys. If you wanted to enjoy fun things for a long time, you needed this kind of appropriate push-and-pull.

If I teased them for one or two more days, even the guilt they were feeling toward me now would probably be completely gone, and if I pulled a prank again around then, they’d probably return to fun reactions like before.

More than anything, fighting a war of nerves over something small like that wasn’t my style.

"Hello! We are Iam, a rookie group debuting today! Please take good care of us, sir."

"Ah, yes. Work hard and have good promotions."

While I was giving Shinyu a lecture on what a great hero was, we had arrived at another senior singer’s waiting room before we knew it.

The first senior singer we greeted was a ballad singer with a long career.

The male singer, who had plenty of hit songs and high recognition, only bowed his head once to accept the greeting, then lay back on the waiting room sofa with his eyes closed, looking like he had no particular interest.

It made Seo Ryujin’s brave greeting on behalf of us all feel almost pointless.

But that wasn’t anything special.

-Ah, you’re debuting this time. Work hard.

We kept visiting other senior singers’ and idol groups’ waiting rooms, but we kept exchanging nothing more than short greetings on that level.

"What is it, why is everyone’s reaction so bland?"

"Because you just debuted, so you’re excited, but those people have been receiving rookie greetings multiple times a day for years. They can’t help being indifferent."

"Huh?"

I was slightly disappointed at Yunsik’s explanation.

So did that mean the harsh oppression or ignoring from senior singers, meant to keep rookie groups in check, didn’t really exist?

"There are singers like that, but it’s rare. Celebrities know better than anyone that if you want to survive long in this industry—even if you get short-term popularity—it’s better to keep your head down."

Hmm.

I was hoping it’d be like the hazing senior officers gave new officers back when I was in the military, but it was a more deflating ending than I expected, so it was a bit disappointing.

Still.

"Wow! I really wanted to see you! I’m so happy to meet you!"

"Thank you!"

There was only one singer who welcomed us almost uniquely enthusiastically.

"I’m telling you, I lost a song because of you, Sion."

"Ah···I’m sorry!"

"I’m joking. Thanks to you, I even filmed a commercial, you know?"

It was Jihyun, the original singer of Pinkspell, the song I kept singing nonstop all through Idol Ground 100. She gave us not just a greeting but even took photos with us, showing a great reaction.

At the end, she said we had to do a broadcast together later, pressed simple food into our hands, and saw us out, and thanks to that, color returned to the members’ faces that had been worn out by all the indifference. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"Now this is the last one."

"Huh? This is a mixed-gender idol group, but they’re using the same waiting room together, Manager Yunsik?"

"Because they’re under the same TSP. Normally, they don’t really give rookies solo waiting rooms. But then they’d have to put them in the same waiting room as us, and that’s awkward, so I think they just bundled groups from the same agency together."

And our last first greeting target.

Hearing Yunsik’s explanation before we went into the waiting room labeled Baseline & LYNX, I realized we’d gotten some consideration too.

As we went around greeting, we kept seeing other low-seniority idol groups—separated by gender only—commonly using one waiting room for two groups.

But Iam, small as we were, got a solo waiting room.

It was probably because we were from MPlay, so they gave us a little consideration.

Knock knock.

Yunsik finally knocked carefully on the door to the TSP alliance’s waiting room.

He looked tense in his expression.

It made sense. We caused that whole mess just an hour ago, so it was an awkward situation to go greet them.

"Anyway, our main goal isn’t LYNX, it’s greeting the Baseline seniors. And we’re going to overlap with LYNX’s promotion period and keep running into them for weeks, so we should greet them cleanly this time and get along again."

But like Yunsik said, we were going to keep seeing each other at music shows for the next few weeks, so I was thinking we should greet them properly.

"Yes! Come in!"

Then, along with the answer, the door opened, and LYNX’s manager, Kim Jeonghwa, appeared to welcome us.

Following Kim Jeonghwa’s gesture to come in, we entered the waiting room, and nine LYNX members came into view, warming up like they had been preparing for rehearsal.

"Hello, we are Iam, a rookie group debuting today. Please take good care of us."

"Hello, we are LYNX, who debuted last week. Please take good care of us."

The meeting between us and LYNX was finally made official.

Both us and them looked tightly wound like rookies, so the moment our eyes met, greetings popped right out.

"Huh? Where are Baseline?"

"Ah, Baseline started rehearsal a bit early today because they’re talking about stage equipment."

"Really? Then I should greet them later."

Maybe the timing didn’t match, because Baseline, our original goal, wasn’t there, and it could’ve gotten awkward. The managers, Yunsik and Jeonghwa, naturally smoothed it out.

'Big companies really are different.'

And in the meantime, I quickly scanned the waiting room with my eyes.

The remaining seven LYNX members I was seeing for the first time, excluding Esther, the leader, and the youngest, Lee Jia, who I’d run into in our waiting room earlier.

My first impression of them was: pretty.

They were attractive enough to easily leap over my raised standards from seeing countless trainees while filming Agbaek.

Honestly, the first impression had been a bit like that, but considering Esther and Lee Jia were also rarely pretty, you could say there wasn’t a single visual hole.

It was amazing they managed to recruit members like this from somewhere.

Anyway, that was enough admiring. I felt the need to step in to loosen the awkward atmosphere in the waiting room.

"Forget what happened earlier, and let’s get along from now on."

"Thank you for forgiving us. I’ll apologize one more time on behalf of everyone for what happened earlier."

Thinking this was exactly the time to show what a great hero looked like, I naturally walked up and held out my hand, and Esther, the leader, came out, took my hand, and apologized again.

And LYNX’s other members also greeted my other members one by one, and the awkward atmosphere seemed to loosen.

Especially.

"I understand how you felt."

"Huh?"

"Honestly, if Sion glares at you, who wouldn’t flinch!"

"Right?!"

The hamster who put all her stats into friendliness had already gotten close to LYNX’s youngest, Lee Jia, and I could see her chattering excitedly with me as the topic.

"Right. For us too, going around greeting seniors in our first week wasn’t easy."

"The company trained us that we have to keep manners and we absolutely can’t be the ones to bother them first, so···."

Unlike the greetings before, our members and LYNX’s members were actually having a decent amount of conversation.

Since we were around the same age and debuted around the same time, it seemed like we clicked well.

But there was one person who was uniquely apart.

"Ayeon, you should greet them. Aren’t they familiar faces?"

"Huh?"

From the moment we entered LYNX’s waiting room, Ryu Ayeon had been at the very back, saying nothing, only watching with a bitter expression, and it kept catching my eye.

And the moment I brought up Ryu Ayeon, the waiting room atmosphere rapidly turned awkward.

'So my feeling was right.'

I was sure my hunch had hit.

Back in our waiting room, you wouldn’t have noticed unless you watched closely, but the atmosphere between Ryu Ayeon and Esther wasn’t just awkward—it was hostile.

More precisely, it was the hostility Esther was sending toward Ryu Ayeon.

Anyway, that had been bothering me.

"Hi···it’s been a while."

The moment Ryu Ayeon was dragged out by force, she greeted in a lifeless voice unlike usual, and Esther reacted sharply to that.

LYNX split into six-to-three, showing different reactions. Excluding the three members who looked especially young, all the other LYNX members were reacting to Ryu Ayeon with hostility like Esther.

"Congrats on debuting. I saw your stage, and you were good."

"···."

LYNX’s waiting room changed into something like a scene from a morning drama.

The managers were wondering what the hell this even was, thinking about whether they should stop it or what they should do.

"Sion, this vibe is kind of weird?"

"Boss!"

"Sion, this is weird."

My members also trotted over behind my back, broadcasting the feeling that they had no idea what to do.

But.

'Not yet.'

I gestured for my members to calm down and waited a little longer.

"I know it’s late to say it now, but I’m truly sorry for hurting you back then."

"Yeah, fine."

"···."

Ah.

Ryu Ayeon was cowering like a sinner, and Esther answered Ryu Ayeon’s words—words Ryu Ayeon clearly pulled out after a lot of thought—like she was ignoring them without any emotion.

I didn’t know what happened between them, between Ryu Ayeon and the LYNX members, but.

"Okay, that’s enough!"

As far as I was concerned, this wasn’t it.