Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 257 The Best of Them

I covered my mouth with both hands and looked around. Fortunately, I muttered very quietly, almost to myself.

I felt embarrassed, but that didn’t change my impression.

How could he lie there so helplessly, doing nothing, after lecturing me with such righteous words?

He wasn’t even really sick. Even if he had caught a terrible flu or something, it was his own fault for not taking care of himself.

‘I went on stage even when I had a fever of 38 degrees!’

Of course, I collapsed as soon as the stage was over and didn’t move until the manager woke me up at the next scheduled location.

But look at Cheon Ise now. He had been whining for almost a week, throwing away all the projects he had to lead and carry out.

He seemed to have started working again at home, but looking at him now, he didn’t seem to be doing it very diligently.

‘I didn’t say anything wrong.’

Did he try so hard because he heard me say something that hurt his pride? I suddenly felt a surge of anger.

Don’t lie down and sleep like this. Naru gritted her teeth and looked down at Ise.

“…?”

Ise barely sensed her presence and lifted his eyelids faintly. His cheeks were swollen and sullen, as if they were about to burst.

“What are you doing, this.”

Naru blurted out in a casual tone, but Ise didn’t answer and blinked his eyelids with difficulty.

“It’s so annoying. If you’re going to act like you know everything, you should set an example yourself.”

It was human to feel bad when you felt bad. Until now, the staff, the company executives, and everyone else had nothing to do with him, as long as they paid him properly.

But this time, for the first time. Maybe he was a little different from the other people he had dealt with before, since he interfered with him so much. He had thought that for a moment.

Was that all my delusion? It was extremely disappointing. He wanted to scream at him to apologize for the insults and humiliations he had received before.

“Why don’t you say anything?”

She snapped at him with a frustrated attitude, but Ise only twitched his eyelids and didn’t react.

“Did you bring me here by lying to my mom just to show me this?”

She pushed him harder, as if to provoke him, but Ise was still motionless.

“Are you going to disappoint me like this? And all the other members?”

Ise looked up at Naru with a frown.

“I…”

As his lips moved slightly, Naru’s round eyes narrowed sharply.

“I, what. Try to make an excuse.”

She didn’t give him a chance to hesitate and scolded him, while the adults behind the closed door were restless.

“…I also wanted to do well…”

What nonsense are you talking about? Naru didn’t want to hear such a weak word.

He should have said he was sorry for betraying his trust, that he would get up soon. That he was ashamed of his pathetic appearance.

He should have promised to make up for his disappointment, as if he had a way to do everything as usual.

“What?”

Naru frowned in disbelief, and Ise closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

“You’re sleeping again? What, wake up!”

Naru was left alone in dismay and shook Ise’s shoulder. He didn’t have a high fever or anything, but he wouldn’t open his eyes no matter how hard she tried.

‘Did he really catch some deadly disease?’

She was scared for a moment. She thought it was pointless to complain to a sleeping person.

Was Cheon Ise such a worthless person? Pathetic. She came to a conclusion and opened the door, and the polite lady greeted her with a dark expression.

“I’m sorry he hasn’t recovered yet. But he had a thorough check-up and there’s nothing wrong with him, so he’ll be up soon.”

Do you expect me to believe that when he’s like this? Naru sighed inwardly, but didn’t show it.

He said he was working, so I thought he was feeling better and came to see him. It’s a shame. 

“I’ll come again next time.”

She uttered a polite remark and put her feet in the shoes at the entrance, and Mrs. Ahn, the vice chairman, asked in a doubtful tone.

“Is Ise working?”

She sounded confident that it was impossible. Naru wondered what she meant and asked back.

“Yes. He said he connected to the company’s web server VPN and handled everything from home…”

But Mrs. Ahn immediately denied it.

“There’s no computer in Ise’s room. He didn’t bring a laptop either, so he doesn’t have anything to use. And we all use personal laptops, so there’s no public desktop either.”

“What?”

“I’ve never seen him work at home… Are you mistaken?”

What? Naru couldn’t help but doubt her ears.

“No, that can’t be…”

“But lying in bed all day long…”

There was no benefit to biting my lips here. I was sick of being seen as a kid who whined to the adults.

But my mom, who heard that her son was getting better, was so negative about everything.

Suddenly, I saw the face of the lady who looked exhausted.

‘…She must be tired.’

I nodded briefly and told the vice president what he wanted to hear.

“Yes, I guess I was wrong. I’ll go now. Thank you.”

I shouldn’t have come. I left the entrance with a nagging feeling.

“But there’s no way I was mistaken, right?”

What was that? I went back home with a lot of questions, but luckily my mother was out. As I was about to take a breather, I got a call from Yu-geon.

‘This kid is annoying me again. Hmph.’

I snorted inwardly and answered the phone. As expected, he called to ask about Ise.

“Did you visit him well today?”

Who do you think I am, a five-year-old? I pursed my lips and replied.

“Yeah. I didn’t make any weird mistakes, and I bought the right gift.”

He was someone I didn’t like from head to toe since I first met him on the Mydol stage.

He was only four years older than me, but he acted like an elder and a know-it-all. His arrogant and condescending gaze annoyed me.

Even his height was more than 15cm taller than me, so he looked down on me from afar.

But the fans liked the combination of Naru and Yu-geon, the shortest and the tallest in the team. And I thought it wasn’t bad either, how I looked cute and lovable next to the muscular Yu-geon.

I got used to it after being stuck with him for two years, but it was still uncomfortable.

“How is he doing?”

I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about. Of course, everyone was only interested in Ise.

“He’s still lying down. He’s pathetic. He told him to come to his agency and take responsibility for everything, but what is he doing?”

I complained irritably, and Yu-geon was silent for a moment.

I didn’t miss the chance to add.

“Oh. And he’s not doing any work either.”

Yu-geon raised his voice at my casual remark.

“What?”

“He doesn’t have a computer he can use right now, so who’s doing the work? Is the company lying to us so we don’t worry?”

I shrugged as the taxi I called arrived. I should get a license secretly soon. I muttered to myself and got in the back seat.

“Ah… I don’t know. I got it.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that. Anyway, I’m annoyed.”

Yu-geon hung up the phone as if he didn’t care about my annoyance.

“Hey? What? Did you just hang up?”

Naru grumbled alone, but it didn’t reach Yu-geon at all.

While Hyun-seong was preparing to finish everything in one shot at the shelter, there was a small commotion at the Climax dorm.

“I’m done!”

Everyone was startled by Yi-jun, who suddenly shouted and jumped up from his chair. They looked at the room where Yi-jun and Kyunghwa were working.

“What, what is it? What’s going on?”

Seon-woo, who came out of the room in a hurry, looked at Yi-jun with a bewildered expression. Yi-jun smiled brightly and lifted his laptop.

He brought it to the living room and called the members.

“Come on, look. The final version is out. Now we just need to confirm the parts and add the lyrics.”

It didn’t seem like the next step was something that could be done with ~just~, though. Yu-geon, who was resting quietly in his room, also got up and came out when he heard the loud noise from the living room.

“What’s going on?”

Yu-geon asked with a puzzled look, and Yi-jun answered with a wide smile.

“Huh? Oh, I wanted to finish the work on the Climax regular title first, so I could relax. I was stuck for a while, but I finally did it. Do you want to listen?”

Oh, right. They said they would release an album in the second quarter. Yu-geon recalled the schedule of Climax’s follow-up activities that he had heard over his shoulder while working as Offbeat. He nodded.

“Yeah, I want to listen.”

He gladly took a seat on the sofa, and Seon-woo looked at him with a strange discomfort and apologized.

“I’m sorry!”

What for? Yu-geon blinked his eyes, not understanding.

“What for?”

Yu-geon asked, and Seon-woo stuttered as if he was confessing a serious crime.

“That… there, it’s usually where Ise hyung sat…”

“Oh~.”

It felt unnatural to see someone else sitting in the place where the person who should have been there was supposed to be. Yu-geon felt more pity than annoyance for him.

He was whining like a puppy who had lost his guardian, but his guardian had disappeared and there was nothing he could do about it, saying the same thing over and over…

‘He doesn’t even know that he’ll be gone soon.’

But this was not a situation where he could hint at anything. If he did, he would be mistaken for a lunatic, not Ise.

He was bothered by what Naru had said during the day, but since Naru hadn’t directly told the Climax members yet, he kept his mouth shut for now.

“It’s okay. I don’t care much.”

He meant it. What could he do? Their leader didn’t seem to have any intention of coming back to this place, even if he had to struggle so hard.

He didn’t want to take Ise’s place, nor did he want to.

He just stayed in his seat to kill some time before he left the house for the late-night radio schedule.

“Shall we play it right away if there’s nothing else?”

Yi-jun pressed the play button on the laptop, surrounded by the members, as if to change the gloomy atmosphere.

‘Is this the second time I composed the title song?’

He only participated in the arrangement, not the full composition, of ‘Drink me’.

Including the song for the competition, it was the third time. He asked them to listen to it. As Yu-geon listened, the beat filled the living room.

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