Free Web Novel"At this point, why did you even leave MPlay in the first place?"
"Seriously. Your old home is the best. Other places won’t take my variety shows."
"Broadcast networks don’t outsource?"
"They don’t. The best I can get is a little outsourcing work from cable."
The set was extremely busy ahead of filming.
Countless staff were moving around in a rush, building the stage.
"Check the audio one more time. The right side sounds weird."
"Ah, this isn’t connected yet. We’re planning to do it after the stage installation is finished."
"Don’t forget."
"Yes!"
The filming crew was also moving all over the place with cameras, preparing for rehearsal.
And watching those staff members while talking were two people.
None other than former MPlay variety PD Kim Miyoung and the current PD Park Hyungsoo.
Miyoung and Hyungsoo had a tight bond, as direct seniors and juniors just one year apart, together from their youngest days to their first program debut.
Ironically, Idol Ground 100, Miyoung’s debut work, also became Hyungsoo’s debut work, so it wasn’t an ordinary connection at all.
And after Miyoung transferred to SY Production as a PD, the two of them were reunited at MPlay after a long time, talking about the new program whose first shoot would begin today.
'Three Kingdom'
The person who proposed this variety program with a ridiculous premise—putting Iam, LYNX, and VYNNIA, the groups currently called the best rookie girl groups, all in one place and having them compete to see who’s best—was Kim Miyoung.
'It’s a plan viewers will curse at, but still have no choice except to watch.'
When Hyungsoo first heard the pitch, Hyungsoo thought Miyoung had finally, completely lost the human heart.
Iam, LYNX, VYNNIA.
Same debut timing, and no huge gap in popularity and results, so rivalry between fandoms was already intense, and now she wanted to line those three groups up and rank them.
It was lucky they were girl groups. If this were aimed at boy groups, the fandom of whichever group placed low might have launched a surprise attack on the way home.
It was dangerous enough that it was hard not to wonder how the agencies even accepted the pitch.
Still, separate from the risk, Hyungsoo also thought it would definitely be entertaining.
Even Idol Ground 100, which Miyoung planned before, how much had it gotten cursed out in the beginning for the premise of gathering one hundred trainees and filming a survival show with debut as the goal?
But it drew even bigger popularity than the hate it got, and it left a huge mark not just on cable variety, but on the history of variety shows in the country.
That was Idol Ground 100—planned by Miyoung.
The fact that a reckless plan like this got approved, and that major agencies like SY and TSP participated, was only possible because those results existed.
Hyungsoo was also thriving after inheriting the Idol Ground series thanks to Miyoung, so even calling Miyoung a benefactor wouldn’t be enough.
"How’s season two?"
"It’s good and it’s bad."
When Miyoung asked about Idol Ground 100 season two, Hyungsoo answered honestly, exactly as it was.
"In season one, even if I made casting proposals, agencies would just snort at me, but now they contact me every day first, trying to get their trainees on the show."
"That’s good."
Unlike season one, when Hyungsoo ran around begging agencies everywhere just to recruit one hundred trainees, now, for Agbaek season two, which was in the preparation stage, everyone was desperate to participate and furious they might not get in.
Even major agencies were getting mixed in frequently, so Hyungsoo was feeling the changed status of Agbaek more intensely than anyone.
But—
"Still, we’re recruiting contestants and doing interviews right now, and I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry."
"Why?"
"Because everyone wants to do either Pink Spell or Look at Me, Daesoon for the Entrance Ceremony stage, and it seriously scared me."
"Lee Sion spread the plague again."
"I get it. Lee Sion hit that big of a jackpot."
The trainees joining season two were all picking either Pink Spell, or bizarre songs like Look at Me, Daesoon, the boy-idol version of Pink Spell, for their Entrance Ceremony stage, giving Hyungsoo a headache.
Lee Sion.
The cause of all this was Lee Sion.
On the crucial stage called the Entrance Ceremony, where you show yourself to viewers for the first time, Lee Sion performed a bizarre song with lousy skill and stood out because of it, then showed an inhuman victory from starting in F class all the way to final first place.
Of course, you couldn’t deny that Lee Sion’s inborn visuals helped a lot in Lee Sion taking first place, but—
"The arc was so good."
"Even if you wrote a script, it wouldn’t turn out like that."
The arc of last place to first place played the biggest role.
People always expected an underdog’s victory, and the contestant who answered that expectation best was Lee Sion.
Staging a coup in F class and creating the miracle of everyone being promoted, and always getting unlucky with bad team situations and songs, but overcoming that luck in a cool way and leading the team forward.
The public went wild for that arc.
Maybe because of that, there were far too many contestants in Agbaek season two dreaming of becoming the second Lee Sion.
'Idiots.'
Like Miyoung said, Lee Sion’s case was a special case where so many miracles stacked up that it would be impossible even if you tried to manufacture it.
Trying to copy it was nothing but suicide.
If even one of the countless incidents Lee Sion caused throughout the program had gone wrong, the title attached to Lee Sion right now wouldn’t be national idol—it would be something like raging bitch.
That was why what Park Hyungsoo was watching closely were the skilled trainees overflowing with drive to show their ability, without being infected by the trend of copying Lee Sion.
Whether you were a trainee or an idol, Hyungsoo never forgot that you had to be good on stage to grab fans’ hearts.
"But did you see Sion? I wanted to at least see Sion’s face, but Sion isn’t showing up at all."
"I don’t know. It’s been a while for me too, so I went to the waiting room to see Sion’s face, and the managers were freaking out."
-There was definitely someone here.
-Things seemed quiet lately, so was it just holding back for today? We have to find Sion, fast! Who knows what kind of incident Sion might cause again! frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
As Hyungsoo remembered the faces of Iam’s managers, searching for Lee Sion with horrified expressions the moment Hyungsoo opened the door to Iam’s waiting room—
'You can’t copy that even if you try.'
Once again, Hyungsoo was realizing all over again that Lee Sion was a one-and-only existence you couldn’t imitate.
***
"Lee Sion definitely went this way?"
Manager Yunsik’s urgent voice reached my ear.
'They got better at tracking.'
I thought I picked a solid route to slip out, but Yunsik and Jiu tracked me down faster than I expected.
In the past, those two would’ve been wandering around some random place, but after all the hide-and-seek with me, they’d improved, and they were tightening the net on me pretty closely.
I didn’t want to do this either.
-Kkiiieeek!!! This is so unfair, so unfair!!! Why won’t you let me go out! I want to eat an MPlay convenience store sandwich!
-No! Go after today’s recording ends! Producer Raon told us to keep you pinned down because if you wander around before filming for no reason, you might cause an incident.
-You know the MPlay sandwich is a popular item, and if I go after filming ends it’ll be sold out, yet you say something so shameless···!
-Endure it!
-I’ve always endured things!
-Spit first, then say that! When did you ever endure anything!
But there were things you couldn’t solve with conversation.
If they rejected my modest request of simply wanting to eat a sandwich sold at the MPlay broadcast station convenience store, then I had no choice but to show it with actions.
-Draw their attention, Yuri.
-Then are you not going to come to my # Nоvеlight # bed anymore and talk about Legend of Valley?
-If you succeed, I’ll let it slide.
-Wakatta!
The moment I said I’d end the traitor-purge program I’d been running every day since the Marine Corps camp, Yuri immediately agreed to join my escape plan.
-Jiu! Yuri has something needed on Coupang but can’t buy it because Yuri is a foreign laborer!
-You! I told you not to use the word foreign laborer.
-But it’s true!
-Sigh··· what do you need?
-The warmth of family in Japan···.
-What?
-Where a spotted white ox lets out a pale, golden, lazy cry, how could that place ever be forgotten, even in a dream!
-What is this all of a sudden···.
Thanks to Yuri’s truly smooth acting that grabbed the managers’ attention, along with the members’ attention, I was able to slip out of the waiting room.
'I already cleared the popular menus at the three major broadcast networks. Now all that’s left is MPlay, so I can’t give up.'
After starting idol activities, I learned an interesting fact.
-You know each broadcast station convenience store has special menus?
⤷That’s famous. They say even celebrities line up to buy them.
⤷Yeah, the menu is different by station, so there are even people who go around just to eat those.
⤷I heard about it too. They say the MPlay sandwich is insanely good.
⤷So what, you can’t just enter broadcast stations whenever you want.
⤷Idols probably get to try all of that. I’m jealous.
How shocked was I when I found out each broadcast station convenience store had hidden special menu items?
Regretting all those days I mindlessly bought soda, I set my goal for this promotion period as clearing the broadcast station convenience store menus.
And the convenience store special menu conquest I’d achieved so far, while ditching Yunsik and Jiu.
Today, with the MPlay sandwich, that grand journey was supposed to end, but the interference wasn’t easy.
Yunsik and Jiu were blocking my path to the convenience store and searching for me, as if they’d already slipped free of Yuri’s temptation technique.
'I need to hide in the restroom.'
The two of them were blocking the shortest route to the convenience store and closing the encirclement, so if I stayed like this, I’d get caught.
Luckily, it was Yunsik on my side right now, so it seemed like if I hid in the women’s restroom, I could slip past, and I quickly opened the door and ducked inside.
Kiiiiiik.
I entered the restroom with the particular sound of a rusty glass door, and I checked inside while keeping silent, just in case.
"Ueek!"
As if it had been waiting, the sound of someone vomiting came from inside a restroom stall, and I had no choice but to hold my breath.
The moment I heard it, for some reason I strongly felt like I needed to get out of here, but—
"Lee Sion, this is definitely this way?"
Yunsik’s voice came from outside, and while I just gripped the doorknob and couldn’t do anything either way—
Click.
The stall door opened and someone came out.
"Ah."
"Huh?"
The person making a startled expression when seeing me was someone I knew well.
"Did··· did you hear?"
"I want to say I didn’t hear, but···."
Gulp.
The person whose eyes were trembling like someone got caught committing a crime, swallowing hard at my answer, was VYNNIA’s leader Kaella.
'I can guess the basics.'
A restroom in a secluded part of the station.
A VYNNIA member vomiting inside a stall in a restroom far from the waiting rooms, where people didn’t pass by much.
This was obvious.
"Did you drink a lot yesterday?"
Wasn’t it a hangover?
I walked up to Kaella, who looked flustered like I hit the exact point, and patted Kaella’s back.
"Drinking···?"
"Look, I know we’re the same age so you’re an adult, but even so, why would you drink so much you’re throwing up the day before a broadcast."
"What?"
Kaella looked like Kaella was trying to hide it to the end, but I could tell.
'This reminds me of when I was a platoon leader.'
In my past life, there was a mandatory course you had to go through when you got promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant.
-Auntie! Give us one bottle each of every kind of alcohol you have!
-Oh my! Are you doing that again!
-It’s tradition, tradition!
Promotion drink.
Mix every alcohol in the shop—beer, soju, baekseju, makgeolli—into a big cold noodle basin, then company officers play a loyalty game and drink it as a traditional military promotion celebration.
Of course, in that loyalty game, the promotion target was traditionally the last turn, which meant I had to drink all of it by myself.
'It’s a memory I still remember.'
After I became the company commander, I got rid of that tradition, but across my entire past life, that was the only time I ever lost my memory.
And the day after drinking promotion drink, I acted exactly like Kaella is acting right now, so there was no way I wouldn’t know how Kaella felt.
"This won’t do."
"W-what··· what won’t do?"
"I’ll tell you the secret technique for hangover relief."
As an older life senior, it felt like I should help a junior suffering from a hangover.
***
'What is this?'
Kaella stared at the woman making an intense expression while eating a sandwich in front of Kaella.
"Delicious!!! This exquisite harmony of potato salad and strawberry jam!"
Iam member Lee Sion, who ran into Kaella in the restroom and then dragged Kaella to the convenience store.
They had greeted each other once when Kaella debuted, so they knew each other’s faces, but since they hadn’t met after that, Lee Sion and Kaella were so close to strangers that they’d never even had a real conversation.
So Kaella had never even imagined Kaella would come to a broadcast station convenience store alone with Lee Sion like this.
'I’m insane··· I thought nobody would be there.'
After getting exposed, Kaella couldn’t refuse Lee Sion’s forceful insistence of going to the convenience store to talk.
Eating disorder.
That was the name of the illness Kaella had.
-You need to eat something. Right now, in this state, it could develop into anorexia. If that happens, the problem becomes truly serious.
The eating disorder that started before debut had recently gotten worse, and it was tormenting Kaella.
SY, called the home and pinnacle of idols.
After five years of trainee life there, the closer debut got, the less Kaella could eat.
-You trained five years and you want to go home?
SY was definitely the best entertainment agency.
If you debuted, success naturally followed, and as long as you came out under the SY name, it would be stranger if you didn’t get first place.
And in SY like that, no matter how long you trained, you couldn’t be sure you’d debut.
Even among Kaella’s trainee seniors, there were people everyone openly said were confirmed to debut, yet they were removed from the debut lineup for just one reason: failing weight management before debut.
Was that when it started?
Kaella dreamed every night about going over the weight limit and getting cut from the debut lineup, and at some point, if Kaella ate even a little too much, Kaella would throw up.
And as it got worse, recently Kaella couldn’t properly eat even one meal a day.
The vomiting in the restroom just now was because Kaella had only picked up a single snack in the waiting room, but gagging came up and that happened.
Gulp.
But right now, it was different.
Chomp!
When Kaella saw Lee Sion holding a hot bar in one hand and a sandwich in the other, turning Lee Sion’s head and taking bites, chewing and finishing them, Kaella was unconsciously swallowing saliva.
Lee Sion eating and, in between, drinking cola like it was water felt unbelievably violent to Kaella.
How could an idol eat food so violently? And yet, appetite was rising inside Kaella without Kaella even realizing it.
"Try eating. For hangover relief, shrimp ramen with a little red pepper powder mixed in is an instant cure."
"···."
Right now, the smell of steam rising from the cup noodles placed in front of Kaella was unbelievably fragrant.
