The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 125

I sat in the waiting room and watched my group members enter into a frenzy. As we encroached two hours before the start of the performance, my group members’ conditions became more and more severe.

“I’m fine. I don’t feel anything. I feel wonderful. My condition is at its best,” Yeon-Hoon kept chanting the same words as he was trying to put a spell on himself that he was fine and was at his very best. His actions seemed to mimic small animals who puffed up their feathers to appear bigger and stronger.

On one hand, Woon incessantly asked:

“We will do well, right?”

“We will do a great job. Don’t you think so?”

“We are the best? Isn’t that right?”

“...Yes, it’s just as you say.”

Woon appeared like he would throw himself out of the window the moment I said no to any of his questions. I was surprised to see a certain craziness flare up inside his eyes, but I supposed it was this that allowed him to move so fiercely across the stage. He genuinely scared me a bit that I moved away from him.

On the other hand, Do-Seung and Dong-Jun screamed to themselves.

“Ahhh! I can do it!”

“Can do it!”

“We can do it!”

“Ohhhh!”

They sounded like agitated orangutans as they kept shouting self-affirming lines at the top of their voices while wandering around the waiting room. Do-Seung had always been the person to scold Dong-Jun, but at times like this, they were two peas in a pod. I sighed seeing my group members. Because of how frantic they were acting, dust kept flying around the room and my heart hurt.

Of course, it wasn’t like I was completely fine either. My hands and feet kept aching and my stomach felt nauseous. Yet, all of the symptoms stayed internal, and I thought it was a hundred and a thousand times better than expelling my nervousness outwards as my group members did.

“I’m okay. I’m the best. I beat everyone. I'm super duper strong.”

“We are the best? Right? Riiight? Hm?”

“Ahrararararahh!”

“Ho! Ho! Ho!” contemporary romance

I sighed, seeing my members look so anxious, but a faint smile appeared on my lips. My members had always appeared so calm before a performance before, so I felt a slight sense of camaraderie seeing how nervous they looked now. I also let them express their nervousness as they wished since this wasn’t something that could be stopped anyway.

‘But we need to...really win in this final performance.’ I was determined. This was the greatest hurdle and mission that this damn system gave me, and I needed to succeed at all costs. I stared at Do-Seung, who was jumping up and down with Dong-Jun now.

Though it was hard to focus on anything serious while he was acting like this, I still thought to myself, 'I have to protect him.’ I didn’t want to miss this second opportunity I was given in vain.

We needed to win this, and if we didn’t— ‘...I can’t stand still doing nothing.’

If the worst-case scenario occurred, there was no need for me to be captured in the sadness of the moment. The system couldn’t completely supersede the law of nature, and I needed to aim for another chance.

“Haaa.” I inhaled and exhaled deeply to calm my nervousness.

“Tae-Yoon! Did you see this?” Perhaps, Yeon-Hoon got back some of his senses, and he stopped his self-affirmations to walk towards me with his phone in his hands. His phone screen showed our group’s unofficial goods that had been exchanged by fans in front of the concert hall.

“People even made goods with my yearbook photo. Aren’t they so cute?” Yeon-Hoon asked me.

“Yeah, that yearbook photo is cute.”

“Uh, I didn’t mean that my yearbook photo was cute but my fans. But seeing how they are people who like me so much...doesn’t it mean I’m really that awesome?” But right after I thought Yeon-Hoon had gained back his senses, he seemed to revert right back and responded to his own question. “Yes, I’m the best. It’s true. I’m super good. No one can beat me.”

And while Yeon-Hoon kept murmuring to himself, I also looked through Bluebird with my phone.

‘We already have this many fans?’ I was aware that our fandom had increased in size, but I didn’t have a good sense of how big it got. This was because we weren’t logged into apps that idols commonly used, didn’t sell any albums, or had a group concert yet. I was only able to assess our general popularity through Bluebird.

‘But this isn’t bad.’ Though I didn’t have the exact numbers, I didn’t think our fan count would be so small, considering how many well-made goods were coming out.

‘I should do well,’ I thought to myself then, so that none of the people who came to see us think they wasted their time.

‘Hm?’ I noticed that many posts about Only One also came up on my feed.

‘There are many goods for Only One too.’ My thoughts naturally flowed to Only One. I wondered how much this team would’ve prepared and what mindset they had leading up to this point.

But in the end, I concluded, ‘I should stop thinking about them and focus on us. It will just weaken my mentality.’ I turned my head and looked at my group members. There was no need for me to be concerned about Only One. We just needed to be the main characters today.

***

An hour left before the show, Only One’s waiting room heated up with anticipation and nerves for the upcoming performance. Kang Hyun-Sung stopped thinking about Siren because he realized that it was meaningless to think of possible outcomes with another group in mind. He had been aware of this before, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Siren because he had the tendency to dwell deeper in his thoughts the more nervous he was.

Yet, he was able to pull himself out of his thoughts this time because Park Young-Ho from asked, “Are you all right?”

His expression must have been very solemn for even the maknae of the team to ask him if he was all right.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Kang Hyun-Sung replied and smiled softly. Park Young-Ho seemed to feel relieved by Kang Hyun-Sung’s response as he also smiled and leaned his back on the sofa nearby.

“Don’t you think we will do really well in today’s performance?” Park Young-Ho asked in a hopeful voice. “We worked so, so hard.”

As Young-Ho said, they had worked very hard for this—to the point that even the spartan Kang Hyun-Sung worried whether his group mates would be able to keep up with the schedule. Yet, none of the members fell behind and kept up with Kang Hyun-Sung’s pace.

That was why Kang Hyun-Sung could respond, “Yeah, we can do a good job.”

“Really?”

“Gasp! What did Hyun-Sung say just now?”

“Did he say that we would do a good job?”

“What in the world?”

Hearing Kang Hyun-Sung cheer them on, all the Only One members stared at Hyun-Sung in shock.

“...Ha, seriously?” Kang Hyun-Sung smiled humorlessly and repeated, “Yeah, I know we will do well.”

“Yeaaah!”

“We can do it!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Woop, woop!”

As the Only One members cheered, the waiting room became chaotic. Kang Hyun-Sung smiled softly upon seeing them. He realized how much he had refrained from complimenting himself and others then. At the same time, he told himself, ‘...I have to do well at all costs.’

He wanted to win this show and move his group to a joint company. He couldn’t let these guys stay in a terrible company like TH Entertainment. They were too talented and kind to wait hopelessly for who-knows-how-long for their next chance.

“Hm.” Kang Hyun-Sung inhaled and exhaled deeply. He thought he had stopped getting nervous before a performance after Select Your Idol, but his heart was pounding.

“Do you think our lyrics will be properly conveyed to our fans?” It was then that Park Young-Ho asked about their song’s lyrics. They all had to stand on the stage with their original songs this time. Since Only One couldn’t self-produce, they left the song-making to an external source. In the process of writing the lyrics, each of the members sent keywords to the lyricists, and coincidentally, all of their keywords had the words ‘thank you' in them/

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it will reach them,” Kang Hyun-Sung said. He was about to say that they needed to do a good job of relaying their message properly out of habit but quickly changed his words.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Yup.”

“Thank goodness.”

Kang Hyun-Sung tapped the top of Park Young-Ho’s head and looked at the mirror. The Only One members were sitting on the sofa with Kang Hyun-Sung at the center. Kang Hyun-Sung looked at his group through the mirror and said, “Let’s win this.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s win!”

“Yeahhh!”

“Ohhhhh!”

They resolved their hearts for victory.

—Only One, please be on standby!

“Let’s go.”

The Only One members got up one by one.

***

Only One’s fan gripped her hands tightly and looked at the stage with anticipation. She was a fan who had woken up from sunrise to ride on the train to Seoul. She hadn’t liked Kang Hyun-Sung during his time at Select Your Idol but bafflingly fell for him in The Showcase 2 and came all the way to Seoul to see him.

“Please, please, let them win, please God.” But that long distance felt like nothing if she could see this stage. If Only One just won, she felt like she could go to even to the toughest parts of the world willingly to volunteer. She felt desperate to the point it pained her. Eventually, it became 6 p.m. and the concert hall lights changed. Broadcast equipment turned on, and lights came up on the LED screen.

“Ha!” Only One’s fan held her breath and looked at the stage. Her spot was so bad that she couldn’t even see the stage properly and had to rely on the large electric screen. Yet, her heart thumped from the sheer fact that she could see Only One as dots from a distance.

According to the information that BlueBird leaked, Only One would have the first opening performance. She was angry that her guys got the opening but thinking back on how Only One wanted either the ending or the opening, she quelled her emotions.

—Grab the first chance in front of you.

—Hello, I’m The Showcase 2 First Chance’s host, comedian Kim Young-Jin.

—I’m singer Nahyun. Welcome to tonight’s show!

The two people who always came out in The Showcase 2 appeared. Kim Young-Jin and Nahyun walked out to the stage.

“Waaaaah!” Perhaps, it was expected. Even Kim Young-Jin, who had appeared like an ordinary businessman on TV, looked better in real life. His proportions were good, and he had distinct features.

“Oh, he’s handsome,” Only One’s fan thought.

—This is the day when The Showcase 2 finally lays down its curtains.

—So many tearful and happy moments happened until now, but today is the day that will mark the end of this magnificent story.

The hosts continued their time-killing commentaries for the show and raised the audience’s anticipation. Only One’s fan waited anxiously when Only One would come out.

—This is the team that will start the final performances with a bang.

—The team that had declared itself to be the only star in your hearts! Let’s begin Only One’s performance!

“Uh, Ahh! Ahhhh!” As soon as the introduction to Only One’s performance came out, the stage’s lights turned off. The stage turned so dark that she couldn’t see anything besides the back of the head of the person in front of her.

Click.

Then, the lights turned on again, and Only One appeared on stage.

“Wow, waaaaaah!”

“Ahhhhh”

The large electronic display captured glimpses of their general appearance and formation, and nothing looked even close to ordinary. Only One’s fan’s heart thumped rapidly.

Ding—a clear EDM base intro flowed in, and Kang Hyun-Sung walked to the center.

—I hope there’s no such thing as a sad ending

—At the end of the road that erupted between us

—I will make sure no painful feelings can remain

—In the hearts that allowed us to walk together

As the fan’s eyes sparked open in excitement, Only One’s performance officially began.