The Maknae Has to Be an Idol-Chapter 120

Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m 𝙛𝙧𝒆𝒆𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝙤𝙫𝒆𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝓶

“...Um, I just said nonsense.” I quickly made an excuse, but Kang Hyun-Sung’s downcast eyes did not return to their original state.

He said, “It’s not really pleasant for me to go on a drive with you either, but there’s no other place for us to go.”

“...Haha.”

Kang Hyun-Sung looked at me with an extremely uncomfortable expression and said, “Get in.” Then he went into the driver’s seat. I opened the passenger door next to him and went inside. This vehicle was a rental car, as I noticed a Hieut* mark on the license plate before getting inside. [1]

“Did you specifically rent a car to go on a drive with me today?”

“...I said there’s no good place for us to go.”

“Yes, I got it.” I put on the seatbelt without probing further.

Kang Hyun-Sung softly pressed on the pedal, and the car rushed forward. I was surprised that he was quite a skilled driver. We didn’t utter a single word during the entire time from when we got out of the hotel and entered the road.

“...”

“...”

I couldn't hear anything but the sound of electronic equipment vibrating, the tires on the wheels screeching and hitting against the floor, and the handles turning. I kept quiet because there was no reason for me to begin the conversation and Kang Hyun-Sung was the one who requested this meeting anyways.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything?’ But I couldn’t help but be curious about what he had to say. Shouldn’t he tell me what was on his mind if he called me out? However, Kang Hyun-Sung continued to drive without saying a single word.

And the first thing he said was, “Have you been to the Bugak Skyway?”

“...What?”

“Well, it’s a famous scenic route.”

“I haven’t been there, but do you want us to go there right now?”

“Yes.”

“Are we seriously going on a drive because we have nowhere to go?”

“...”

'This bastard.' No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t erase the thought that I was being used so that Kang Hyun-Sung could enjoy a nice, scenic drive. If he didn’t want to go alone, he should have brought his other members. Why did he have to bring me? Judging by his attitude, it didn’t feel like he had anything really important to say to me either.

I said, “Whether its Bugak or Namak*, let’s just go.” [2]

Like this, the car headed towards Bugak Skyway.

* * *

Before the car reached its destination, there was heavy traffic congestion in the middle. Kang Hyun-Sung and I sat in the car and went through a second round of silence at the stop light.

“Are you really not going to say anything?” I asked first in frustration. Although Kang Hyung-Sung was the one who messaged me to meet to talk, I wondered why he wasn’t spitting what was on his mind already. Was he trying to troll me or something? I thought that he should at least come up with a plausible lie if that was the case.

However, Kang Hyun-Sung pretended to be relaxed all by himself and replied, “We’re not in a hurry anyways.”

“What do you mean we aren't in a hurry? We’re doing the finals tomorrow! I have to quickly listen to what you have to say and go back to sleep.” This wasn’t something he should say before the eve of the final.

“Hmm. Actually, it’s not a big deal honestly.” Kang Hyun-Sung finally began to get to the main point.

Not a big deal? How could he say that after calling me out and using up so much of my time? I thought that I had been taken advantage of as I predicted, but he said, “I just want to let you know that we could be sued.”

“...What?” He said it wasn’t a big deal, but he just dropped a huge bomb. It was unclear who he was referring to by ‘us’. Did that ‘us’ refer to Kang Hyun-Sung and me or Only One? I checked his reaction first.

“I don’t think we would be able to avoid a legal battle no matter what happens with TH Entertainment.”

The ‘us’ was referring to Only One.

He continued, “If we win, TH Entertainment will probably sue us for an unfair breach of contract.”

‘Hmm, yeah, that’s true.' In fact, there was quite a bit of noise when Only One transferred their contract to a joint venture with Jaeil Group before my regression. There were a lot of talks about going to court or whatnot, but they suddenly reached a settlement and completed negotiations in the end.

“And if we don’t win, I’m going to sue TH Entertainment.”

But what followed was quite a shock. I asked, “...You’re going to sue TH Entertainment yourself?”

“Yes.”

This was a future that I didn’t know about. No, this was only natural, as Only One won this lawsuit before my regression.

“I will terminate our exclusive contract with TH Entertainment no matter what it takes and move to another company.” I just stared blankly at Kang Hyun-Sung. Despite it being quite a heavy topic, Kang Hyun-Sung’s expression was calm.

“...But why are you telling me this?” Suing was, of course, an important issue, but there was no reason for him to specifically tell me this information.

I wondered why he went out of his way to set up this meeting when he said, “I’m telling you because this is not just applicable to us. If your group wins and transfers the contract to a joint contract with Jaeil group, WD Entertainment might also file a separate complaint.”

“Our agency?”

“Isn’t it common sense? But I’m telling you now because if you’re aware of it in advance, you can prepare for it. And take this.”

“A business card?”

“I met this lawyer while I was working for Yours, and they specialize in contract management in the entertainment industry. You can contact this number.”

“Hmm.” I now understood why Kang Hyun-Sung called me out. He wanted to tell me that since a lawsuit was going to happen to them, we should also be prepared accordingly. Moreover, he also wanted to introduce me to a lawyer while he was at it.

‘WD Entertainment suing...’ From what I knew about WD, I didn’t think they would sue. And it was definitely not because they cared about us.

‘Suing is not just child’s play, and there’s no way people like them would do such a bothersome thing.’ WD Entertainment was an embodiment of laziness who crawled to do the bare minimum. Furthermore, from what I saw in my Precognitive Vision, Yoon Tae-Hyung would try to make a deal instead of suing us. Of course, this was much more vicious and greedy than suing. Anyway, I wasn’t too worried about the suing aspect, but even then, I didn’t think it would hurt to keep this business card.

I said, “Thank you. I’ll take good care of it.”

“I have nothing more to say now. Since it was a sensitive issue, I wanted to talk to you directly about it, but it ended quickly,” Kang Hyun-Sung said and then tried to turn the vehicle around.

“Let’s just go to that Bugak Skyway or whatever and take a picture.” However, since he went out of his way to rent a car, I thought it would be better for us to check out the famous scenic route. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝙤𝙫𝒆𝓵.𝒄𝙤𝒎

* * *

Kang Hyun-Sung and I came back after taking pictures of the Bugak Skyway. If I gave my review, it was, ‘This is a famous scenic route?’ It felt like a step away from the general public’s usual preference.

My ears rang while I went up the mountains, and the road was winding and twisty, so I got motion sickness, and the night view of Seoul after arriving at the destination was beautiful, but—

‘Namsan Tower is better in all aspects.’ I didn’t think I would choose the Bugak Skyway when there was a better alternative. Kang Hyun-Sung also seemed disappointed as it was different from what he expected. After that, we didn’t talk to each other at all the whole time during our ride back. Since we had already gone over all important conversations, meaningless chatter was unnecessary. After arriving at the hotel parking lot, I took off my seat belt and tried to get out of the car. But—

“Are you confident about the final tomorrow?” Kang Hyun-Sung asked.

I put my butt back on the car seat while I was about to leave. Was I confident in the final? Our final song was <Hello, World>. Although I made the universe, the details of this song were created by all the members. If I was holding a song like this and said I thought I was going to lose, I wouldn’t be giving justice to my members.

I answered, “I’m confident.”

“What about you?” I asked Kang Hyun-Sung the same.

“I’m confident, too,” Kang Hyun-Sung also answered without any hesitation. Soon after, he even worried for me and said, “If your group doesn’t win, you should contact the lawyer with the business card I gave you.” He even added, “If you contact me again after terminating your exclusive contract, I’ll set up a separate meeting between you and the lawyer.”

“Are you worrying about me?”

“You should just accept my offer while I’m being generous.”

“But I’m planning to win, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

“Ha, geez.”

“Senior, I also hope you prepare well for the lawsuit and win.”

“Are you worrying about me?”

“You should accept it while I’m being generous,” I repeated his words and got out of the car. “See you tomorrow.”

After saying goodbye to Kang Hyun-Sung like that, I went up to the hotel lobby. Since our conversation did not last long, not much time had passed and the drive was 2 hours in total.

‘It’s too long for a walk though.’ It was already 10:30. Since I came out at 8:30, this meant I took a two-hour walk. I wondered if the members were worried about me.

‘But I didn’t...get a message?’ No one sent a message to ask how I was doing. I felt a small sense of betrayal while heading up to the 24th floor in the elevator when—

Ziiing—

The phone vibrated in the meantime; it was a long vibration, which meant it was a phone call. Sure enough, when I checked my phone, I was right.

—Yeon-Hoon

Yeah, there was no way they weren’t worried about me when I went on a two-hour walk. When I answered the phone with a happy heart, I was immediately met with disappointment.

—Tae-Yoon, if you’re outside right now, can you check if there’s a pharmacy open nearby?

“...” He didn’t call me because he was worried but because he wanted me to run errands.

Sigh....

I wasn’t sure if they trusted me too much or if they were too unconcerned about safety precautions. Of course, it was very rare that something bad happened to a full-grown man walking around at night, but even then, I couldn’t help but think, ‘It’s strangely upsetting.’

“Pharmacy? Is anyone sick?” However, I was quite surprised to hear the word pharmacy from him. It was the day before the final, and we couldn’t afford to be sick.

—Ah, no, no one’s sick. It’s not like that at all.

He didn’t get right to the chase and talked in a roundabout way. I wondered what the problem was when he finally answered.

—Since everyone might be nervous tomorrow morning, I thought it might be a good idea to buy Cheongsimhwan* in advance. [3]

“Ah.” Being nervous was a very normal reaction. No matter how much the members liked the stage and were good at it, even they got nervous on v-lives and final performances. Moreover, it was a concert hall filled with 5000 people.

‘It’s the biggest stage we’ve ever stood on.’ It was natural for us to feel intimidated by the size.

I answered, “I saw some pharmacies on the way, but none of them were open. I'll buy them tomorrow morning.” free(w)ebnovel(.)com

—Haaaa. Yeah, I got it. But why aren’t you back yet? Isn’t it really late now?

Fortunately, Yeon-Hoon was a little worried about me.

“I’m on my way up now.” Just in time, the elevator door also opened. I opened the hotel room after getting out of the elevator. The members were huddled in the living room and looked at me in unison.

“You’re back?”

“How was your walk?”

“What about melona?”

“Hey, Park Dong-Jun!”

Whine...

I automatically smiled, seeing their usual energetic selves and answered, “I had a nice walk. But why are you guys all sitting here?” Before I left, they were all scattered and enjoying personal time.

“Well, we were just nervous about tomorrow’s performance, so we were all sitting down and watching our old videos and pictures.”

“Old videos and pictures?”

“Yeah, we’re just going down the memory lane.”

I checked the pictures that Woon showed me. It was when I first joined WD Entertainment.

“Wow, I was shorter than Yeon-Hoon here.” That had been the only time when I was shorter than Yeon-Hoon.

“Our Tae-Yoon was so cute back then...now he’s gotten grossly big.”

“...That hurts.”

“I’m joking~”

“Come and sit down here. Let’s look at more pictures.”

Like this, we spent reminiscing while looking at old pictures for a little while without staying up too late.

* * *

The next morning dawned. I thought the five-star hotel certainly helped us get a good night's sleep. It was five in the morning. Although we’ve slept for only five hours, I felt strangely refreshed and well-rested. I looked around the members while sitting on the bed. Normally, they would all be struggling to get up with their heads stuck on their pillows.

Yawnnn.

“That was some good sleep.”

“Ughhh~”

“Wow, I feel so light.”

Everyone was already getting up. Yesterday, we had all fallen asleep together as we connected a king-sized bed and two single-sized beds together. We slept side by side in a line when we got into bed, but once we woke up, all our positions were messed up. Was it because it was our first time waking up at the same time? We looked at each other and laughed like we were sharing a joke, and then...

“Let’s get ready.” Everyone got up one by one. The current time was 5 a.m. There were about 13 hours left until the final stage.

1. Rental cars in Korea have the Korean alphabet, Hieut (?), on their license plates. ?

2. In this case, bug/buk means north and nam means south, so he’s saying whether it’s north or south or just any direction, let’s just go. ?

3. This pill means ‘clear-mind pill,’ and it’s often taken to calm one’s nerves in Korea. ?