The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

After finishing our day’s schedule, we returned to our dorm by car. I listened to my members chattering away when I heard the system’s alarm.

[Mission Success]

[You successfully blocked Bleshu’s debut.]

It was an alarm telling me that I had successfully stopped Bleshu’s debut. I made a faint smile and raised my phone. Then, I sent a message to Yoo Won-Dong.

—Thank you for today. I will contact you again, director.

I didn’t think the problem would be resolved so soon. It seemed Yoo Won-Dong had acted very quickly, and I got an immediate reply from Yoo Won-Don.

—:) Good night pal

It surprised me how Yoo Won-Dong managed to pick the most middle-aged man-like words when texting me. Yet, I easily passed over it considering how much help I received from him today.

‘Haa. Thank goodness we overcame this obstacle.’ My lunch meeting with Yoo Won-Dong had been pivotal for my plan. At first, I thought the only way we could pressure the director of G&B was to convince the company’s investors to withdraw their investment. Yet, another idea came to my mind while I was conversing with Yoo Won-Dong.

‘Isn’t Yoo Won-Dong…more powerful than mere investors or investment groups?’ While listening to his careful explanation of why my foolish investment withdrawal plan wouldn’t work, I realized that Yoo Won-Dong was more of a capable and powerful person than I thought. I had forgotten about it because I always called him by his name disrespectfully in my mind but he was one of the key figures in this entertainment business.

Even if we didn’t pressure G&B with their investors, Yoo Won-Dong alone could make the company act the way he wished using the numerous connections he had. Thus, I suggested to Yoo Won-Dong a ‘deal’ in our lunch meeting. The main idea behind the deal was to ‘appease the enemy’.

—Among the Jaeil Group’s subsidiary companies, isn’t there a studio in charge of outsourcing broadcast production?

—Are you talking about Studio Wibun?

—Yes. Besides dramas and variety shows, don’t they also make many other programs?

—They began by only making dramas but they merged with other organizations and expanded their business to various variety content.

—How about you make a contract with G&B that you will place Bleshu into a couple of their title shows on the group’s debut? In the first place, the company had been desperate to the point of resorting to plagiarism because they would go bankrupt if Bleshu didn’t do well.

—That’s true.

—So then, you can offer to give them a lifeboat so that the company doesn’t crumble? You can suggest they slightly back off for now by offering to support them on their debut later on through the Jaeil Company.

—Hm.

—I think it will be best if you make a deal with them to push Bleshu’s debut date to winter in place of Jaeil Group supporting them. If possible, pushing the deadline to next year will be better.

—Haha. That sounds…good.

Yoo Won-Dong appeared to have thought this idea had a much better chance of materializing and nodded. He even added a reason for us to go through with this plan without me mentioning it and emphasized its necessity.

—After all, if Bleshu doesn’t debut at all, you guys will be able to achieve Triple Crown All-Kill most safely and won’t have to worry about losing the spotlight.

Yet, it made me wonder then and I asked.

—But will G&B Entertainment just accept our proposal? Though the offer to give our support sounds good, in reality, we are just telling them to back off a bit because our group is more important. Won’t it hurt their pride?

I didn’t know whether or not G&B would really accept our proposal. Even if we made a good offer, it was meaningless if the other side didn’t accept it. Yet, Yoo Won-Dong made a leisurely smile at this problem.

—They will accept it.

—Can you be so confident that they will?

—It’s our job to make the impossible possible. And in this case, we have the upper hand in resources, connections in the business, and pretty much every way. It will be enough to crush their pride and more.

It was the first time I felt that Yoo Won-Dong was like a director of a company. And true to his words, he succeeded in blocking Bleshu’s debut as soon as evening came. Seeing how the system rang its alarm, it appeared he had gotten G&B Entertainment to push Bleshu’s debut.

‘Seems like Yoo Won-Dong from my universe works properly.’ My members said that Yoo Won-Dong changed every universe and it seemed in my universe, he had solidified into quite a good character.

“Haa…” My heart felt light and it became easier for me to breathe.

“What? Did you just make a sigh?”

“Did something happen?”

It seemed my members had misunderstood my sigh of relief as a heavy-hearted sigh.

“No, I didn’t sigh but just breathed,” I replied.

“You breathe so noisily, Sir Tae-Yoon~”

“…What’s with your way of talking?”

“What are you talking about~ You hurt me, Sir Tae-Yoon~”

“…”

Hearing Dong-Jun’s nonsense made me feel like I had finally returned to my daily life, but I was determined to not get too used to this comfort.

‘There are still two more missions left.’ There was the Triple Crown All-Kill mission and the mission to enter the Billboard Hot 100. We needed to clear both those missions, and I returned to my anxious state again. I couldn’t loosen up before my battle with the system was over.

***

Time passed quickly after that. Our activity period for “Blue Summer Night” ended, and our four-week-long schedule filled with a variety of music, variety, and radio shows came to an end. Even till the very end, we shared the first-place trophy with Only One and by some strange coincidence, we each got three wins.

That was fine since our tie was expected. Moreover, I knew the rivalry storyline between our two groups would also end by this year because we would completely surpass Only One by then. It was only expected since we would keep working without rest until the end of the year. Of course, just because we beat them this year didn’t mean that we would always have better results than Only One.

Since Only One was slowly going through the track of a first-tier idol, they would probably reach their career high in three or four years and maintain that status for a very long time. In contrast, since we were taking the accelerated route, we would probably have our career high in about two years; and nobody knew how long we would be able to maintain that peak.

Of course, if Do-Seung improved his already amazing song-producing skills and pumped out hit songs that grabbed people’s attention on the first beat one after the other, we would be able to maintain our first-tier status for about ten years, but…

‘That will be asking for too much.’

Even right now, we were treating Do-Seung like a song-making machine. It would be too much to request more than that. I thought we shouldn’t get too greedy and hoped to maintain a first-tier status until all these missions ended. I planned to go on full hard-core mode for about a year—no, until the end of this year. Since my goal was my members’ safety and destruction of the system rather than succeeding as an idol, I thought I could think of what came later afterward.

Thus, I planned to push our team and work our hardest as possible even if it meant decreasing the lifespan of our group in the long run.

‘We will really be able to live just as idols if this system stops.’

I looked at my members with conflicted feelings. Everyone was doing their own thing in the living room while lying down in their individual poses. Do-Seung was sketching his song-producing ideas while listening to music. Woon lay beside him while watching videos of famous dancers and appeared to be drawing up new choreographies. Yeon-Hoon sat beside Dong-Jun and hummed while looking at other idol performances.

‘I should rest a bit first,’ I thought. I decided to enjoy these rare moments of peace and leaned my body against the sofa.

***

On July 17, when Siren finished all their debut activities, fans celebrated Siren’s successful debut and simultaneously, lamented that they couldn’t see their idols for some time. Posts filled with all sorts of emotions popped on Siren fandom’s feeds.

—This is a collection of our guys receiving first place

—Yeon-Hoon was so cute crying after he received his first trophy haha

—Please watch Tae-Yoon singing the first place encore stage by himself

Reply: Hahaha he’s like the loser character in comics who is hiding his true powers

Reply: Do you see any traits of a loser on Tae-Yoon’s face…?

Reply: Ah sorry; he looks like he will ignore me if I met him in school

There were comments like above that celebrated Siren’s successful debut period.

—I’m sad thinking I won’t be able to see them from now on

—Yeah, I feel like they just debuted yesterday, but four weeks have already passed :(

—I wonder when they are going to do their next activities

—:( Won’t they have a concert? Is it too much to ask since they just debuted? But won’t they be able to pull it off?

And then there were comments that expressed their sadness that Siren’s activity period was over. These two sorts of opposite emotions mixed and intertwined in Bluebird’s feed. Some commented that this was the Bluebird world where both ‘happiness and sadness’ coexisted together. Nevertheless, the fact that such diverse posts were coming out about Siren showcased Siren’s successful debut.

Yet, on the 18th afternoon, a notice popped up on Next Wave company’s homepage.

—They released lightsticks!

—???

—They just released Siren’s lightsticks?

—What? How come they released those now after their activity period is over? Lol Won-Dong sure knows how to work.

People went inside the lightsticks’ purchasing page. The design of the sticks was pretty. The stick’s theme color was also Siren’s symbolic color: emerald blue. On a white stick, there were blue accents that mimicked ocean waves, and a big ‘S’ that stood for Siren stuck to the end of the stick. Then, on the edge of the S, there was a small crown placed on top. Though it was a classical lightstick, the fans showed positive responses because of the small details and color on it.

—The quality of it looks so high based on the real-life pictures

—Doesn’t seem like Jaeil Group will just produce trash products

—I wished they added some more details to this. I’m a bit disappointed :(

—Huh? I actually like how simple it is. It looks cleaner

Yet, besides responses about the product design, there was another point that fans focused on.

—But why are they releasing lightsticks after the activity period is over? Lol

—What??? Shouldn’t they have at least released it for the next activity period?? Why are they releasing it at such a strange time?

—I like the fact that it’s out but there’s no use for it

Fans were puzzled by the fact that the company released lightsticks right after Siren’s activity period was over. Was the company playing with them or something? Yet, the fans didn’t realize that they didn’t have many days left until they would have the chance to wave the lightsticks.