The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 122

The scene shown by Precognitive Vision ended.

“Ha, geez. Seriously...how ridiculous.” I was so infuriated by what I saw in the Precognitive Vision that I said my thoughts out loud.

“What? What, Tae-Yoon?”

“What did you say, Tae-Yoon?”

“Huh?”

“Why?”

The members, who were in the middle of getting their makeup done, turned their eyes toward the mirror in unison to check my condition through the mirror.

“Ah, no. I just saw something ridiculous while looking through Bluebird.” I responded awkwardly and quiackly made up an excuse.

At the same time, I thought, ‘Yoon Tae-Hyung, that bastard...he’s really crossing the line.’ Although the Precognitive Vision I saw just now showed a very short scene, it held quite a lot of information.

First, the Precognitive Vision I just saw was something that would happen today since Yoon Tae-Hyung said that if we won today’s stage, he would working together with Producer Park Soo Chul. And by today’s win, he was referring to winning the final performance. The second piece of information was—

‘The people from Jaeil Group came here today.’ In other words, people from the Jaeil Group, who would lead the joint venture, would come to the final competition. It was perhaps a natural order of events as it was the supervisors’ job to be present in the initial setup when starting a new venture and proceeding with the business from there.

‘But the problem is that’s not really good news either.’ Since Jaeil Group came with its fair share of problems, I didn’t welcome their visit that much either. Before my regression, I remembered that Only One didn’t receive great care even after they moved to a joint venture. Of course, the Jaeil Group did have a lot of money, but that was another issue.

I decided to put those problems aside for now as the most important matter right now was—

‘What the hell should I do with Yoon Tae-Hyung?’ I wondered what was the best way to take him out. Even though I wanted to make my move now, the risk was too high.

‘No, the live broadcast is just around the corner, and I might mess things up.’

I had no idea what variables might occur.

‘If that’s the case, I should at least finish the show and make my move.’ Furthermore, in the conversation that I saw in my Precognitive Vision, Park Soo-Chul and Yoon Tae-Hyung didn’t decide on anything specific and weren’t planning to do something right away. They were probably just getting to know each other, so I didn’t think there was a need for me to be in a hurry, but...

[A surprise mission.]

“What the hell...”

“What the h—what?”

“Did you see something weird in Bluebird again, Tae-Yoon?”

“Stop looking at things that might affect your mentality~”

...This damn system threw an unexpected mission at the worst possible time. The members began worrying about me, thinking that I saw something strange in Bluebird again. I responded to their concerns with a smile instead. Then, I listened carefully to the surprise mission the system threw at me. I desperately hoped that it was something I could do easily before the final performance, but—

[Stop Yoon Tae-Hyung and Park Soo-Chul from meeting.]

[Upon success, no reward.]

[Upon failure, Insight will be taken away.]

‘Damn it...’ It was not a mission that I could easily do, and there was no balance between success and failure either. ‘There’s no reward for success and only penalty for failure?’

This had never happened before. My mind was swirling with all kinds of thoughts. Not getting a reward was not important as it didn’t matter to me whether I got a reward or not. However, it hung on my mind that an unusual situation like this had suddenly occurred out of the blue. The fact that there was no reward for success probably meant—

‘I have to just shut up and succeed at all costs.’ It appeared I needed to address this critical issue if the system was going so far as to break the balance of reward and punishment and coming at me so brazenly like this. Well, I wondered if I ever had a choice from the beginning, but anyway, this meant that I needed to get to my feet and move without asking questions.

Sigh...

I had planned to take care of Yoon Tae-Hyung after the live broadcast. I looked at Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna.

“Um, could I talk to you both outside for a moment?”

“...Right now?”

“We won’t be able to enter the hallway because the other teams are rehearsing.”

“It’s an urgent matter. Would it be possible to make an exemption?”

“An urgent matter?”

“You know when I called last time and asked you to do something for me before. I think this is a situation where I need both of your help.”

“...Ah.”

“...Oh.”

“Anyway, it’s an urgent matter.”

“Please wait a moment.” Ms. Seung-Yeon cut off the conversation and went outside first. Then she soon came back again and said, “Another group went up to the stage, so the production crew said we can come out for a bit.”

She came back after getting permission to walk down the hallway.

* * *

I went outside with Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna.

“What’s going on, Mr. Tae-Yoon?” Ms. Seung-Yeon asked when we reached a hidden corner of the hallway.

“I think Mr. Yoon Tae-Hyung is coming to the concert hall right now.” I immediately cut to the chase, since we didn’t have much time.

“Mr. Yoon?”

“He didn’t tell us anything like that.”

“But how do you know the head manager is coming, Mr. Tae-Yoon?”

Yeah, it was natural that they would ask questions like this, and I was now used to making up excuses. I replied, “Producer Park Soo Chul told me that he has an appointment with WD’s head manager today.” I decided to sell out Park Soo-Chul.

“Oh, really?”

“It’s a surprise that the head manager is coming to the scene...”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna believed my words without much doubt.

“But how is the head manager coming here related to you needing the materials we promised you before?” Ms. Seung-Yeon then asked.

My answer to that question was simple. “It seems like they’re going to meet in case we transfer to a joint venture.”

“...Really?”

“So I’m asking you for the materials right now to prevent that from happening somehow.”

Sigh. “Seriously, he’s so awful. How can he always only think of himself?”

Ms. Seung-Yeon didn't say anything with a dark expression, and Ms. Hyuna clutched her forehead and poured out insults toward Yoon Tae-Hyung.

“Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you could give me the materials I asked for before now.”

“It’s all on our phones anyway, so it’s not difficult to send them to you.”

“But frankly, these files are not critical evidence, so I don’t know how effective they would be.” Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna said while sending me the materials one by one.

“As you can see from the files, they’re not very damaging evidence, so I’m not sure how effective they will be...”

“It seems like he doesn’t want to be fired because even while slacking off constantly, he doesn’t cross the line.”

I checked the materials Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna gave me. These were the materials I had asked for over the phone on the night when I saw Yoon Tae-Hyung, Ms. Seung-Yeon, and Ms. Hyuna having a meeting together. I hadn’t asked them for critical, top-secret files; in the first place, I couldn’t get them as Yoon Tae-Hyung was not the type of person to do something overambitious or high-flown.

There was only one thing I wanted.

“These are the documents recording his commuting hours, and documents recording what he actually did.”

“These ones are video evidence, and these ones here are photo evidence.”

“I have quite a few recording files too. They’re nothing really serious but just muttering of things like, ‘I don’t want to work, I want to steal the company’s money, and things like that.’”

The files they gave me were evidence of how little Yoon Tae-Hyung worked. Frankly, it looked quite childish now that all the materials were piled together as he did nothing to be called a crime. His actions were nowhere near to be called corruption. Perhaps because his own livelihood was the most important to him, he didn’t do anything that would endanger it.

‘But he really is an ass.’

Not only was he an ass, but he did zero work as well. All he did at work was lay down and sleep, drink beer, play mobile games all day, and go back to sleep. His commuting hours were a mess, and his work content was empty. After looking through the videos and recordings, he was a human being who had no will to work at all. People would ask what worth these materials would be, but they were valuable resources for me.

I said, “This is enough.”

“...Really?”

“...That’s a relief then.”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna seemed to still wonder whether these materials were useful.

“But what are you really going to do with this?”

“Yes, I’m also wondering about that. We’ll help you more if we have anything to do.”

It seemed as if they were worried about me as they even asked where I was going to use these materials. Honestly, I didn’t have a big plan either, and it was probably something that anyone could think of.

“I’m going to expose that this man is trash through and through.”

“...What?”

“...Expose?”

Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna asked, slightly flustered.

“Frankly, it’s illegal to film a video without other people’s permission, so we can get in trouble if you post it somewhere...’

It seemed as if they thought I would make it public, but I said, “I’m not planning to post this on social media.”

“Then who are you going to tell?”

“I haven't carried out the plan yet, but would you like to hear it?” I told them about the plan I had been thinking about. It was not a complex or some kind of master plan. In a way, it was a very one-dimensional plan. contemporary romance

“Are you really going to do that?”

Sighh...

But sometimes, going simple worked the best. I replied, “Yes, there’s no side effect. We have to do it.” In particular, this kind of one-dimensional method worked better when dealing with office workers who usually kept their heads down. To be more precise, I was going to perform a one-dimensional act of throwing a ‘fit’.

“I’ll go and stir up a huge fuss.” There were people who could only understand once someone went nuts on them.

* * *

It had been a while since Yoon Tae-Hyung of WD Entertainment wore a suit to work.

“I seriously don’t want to work...” Of course, just because he dressed up didn’t mean he could change his innate nature. He only looked formal and prepared on the outside, but on the inside, he was the same as ever. He checked his appearance again through the mirror and moved out of the office. The final stage of The Showcase 2 was about an hour away. From the moment he opened his car’s door, he felt a pique of annoyance.

He murmured, “Why do those punks make people tired by doing things no one asked them to do? Sheesh.” He had been living comfortably, doing nothing for years. Now that it came to this, he needed to pretend to work for a few months no matter how much he hated it.

However, if there was night, there was also day. If he successfully carried out his transfer to a joint venture, he might be able to start his new operation there. Just like before, he could leave the work to all the subordinates under him and only needed to be present and warm up his spot. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to stay comfortably as he did in WD Entertainment.

“But I would be able to raise my pay.” If he thought about the pay raise, it was not a losing game for him. Since it came down to this, he sincerely hoped that Siren would win the championship, as even he doubted his days of doing nothing at WD Entertainment and taking their money would last forever.

The patience of his bosses would reach a boiling point, and when that time came, he would have to do something to prove himself. It might be better for him to take this opportunity to move to a large corporation and grab hold of a stronger rope. Since Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna were unexpectedly doing a good job, he thought he could make them work a bit more.

He started the car’s engine and pushed the gear lever to driving mode. Then, when he was about to softly press the gas pedal and get out of the parking lot—

Ring—

The phone bell rang. He wondered what type of call he would get at this hour, and at the same time, he had a bad feeling about this.

‘...It’s definitely trouble.’ This was a sensation that he felt when things didn’t go his way, and thanks to honing his senses by earning a salary while playing hooky for 10 years, he trusted his senses quite a lot.

–Sucker3(Kim Dong-Hyun CEO)

It was a call from WD Entertainment’s CEO Kim Dong-Hyun.

“...Fuck.” Yoon Tae-Hyung froze while holding the steering wheel. He hadn’t frozen just because he got a call but because he had a bad feeling about this. If his senses were alerting him so furiously like this, it meant—

“...I'm fucked.” It meant that today would be quite a challenge to get through.