Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 178:

“Ah, no! I just opened the door to see if the delivery came.”

Hwijin quickly took the lunch box from me and bowed his head.

“I’ll call you later.”

I exchanged a brief glance with Hwijin, wearing a chicken costume, and quickly closed the door. Thud. A short sigh escaped me as the sound of the door closing followed.

Well… I prepared enough for more than two people, so he can take it to his room and eat well.

It was more heartfelt than any store-bought lunch box, so it should taste good. When people are pushed to the limit, it’s hard to perform at their best, so they need to eat well to get their brains working.

‘I should go back to the dorm as soon as possible.’

I glanced down at the window and saw reporters lined up on the opposite side of the apartment complex, pretending to be pedestrians.

I took off the chicken costume and dried my sweaty hair with a hand fan, then hurried my steps.

‘At least I gained some trust, so that’s not bad.’

I briefly thought about the future plans after the disbandment of Floss while separating the labels.

But it was really brief, and nothing was discussed in detail with the members. The favor I did now was purely out of goodwill.

He wouldn’t be able to do anything in this photo shoot atmosphere if he starved without eating anything.

I kept thinking about the post that came up on Entertainment Talk Talk while holding the steering wheel to go back to the dorm.

￣￣￣￣￣

Honestly, the most ambiguous member is the leader.

Is it possible for Hwijin to re-debut as a rookie next year when he’s thirty?

If he’s grouped with these 15-year-old kids, he’s not even an uncle, he’s just like a dad…

Even if he can debut, it’s his third debut and he’s already past his prime in terms of star quality, who would spend money on a recycled idol twiceㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

He’s been rubbing shoulders with this guy who’s doing idol work as a hobby these days, he should just go into composition as a veteran manager.

￣￣￣￣￣

Of course, I didn’t want to bring Hwijin in as a veteran manager.

It was a definite benefit for us to bring Hwijin, who was released from Wiplanet, to our label.

First of all, WePlanet could make an excuse that they didn’t abandon the members who were damaged by the controversy, but rather took them in as subsidiaries, and we could get a pool of talent that we could use for the actors.

Of course, from the perspective of the person concerned, if they only considered the support as an actor, we wouldn’t be a candidate.

But if he still had a desire to stand on the stage as an idol, he might consider it if a new agency supported both sides.

Well… this was just my thought. The opinion of the person concerned was the most important, and since we were still short of staff with just the Climax activities, we had to discuss it with the other members.

‘I hope things work out well for him, even if he doesn’t come to our side.’

I was worried about the variety show that was scheduled to air in a few days.

I clenched the steering wheel and tensed my shoulders for a while, then shook my head. Forget it. Let’s go back and do my job.

I told the members to take care of themselves and eat well because I might be late, but I only ate what I made while making the side dishes.

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‘I should fill my stomach and call him again.’

I decided to focus on driving with a short sigh.

Knock knock.

After Ise left, Hwijin entered the room with a lunch box hidden in his arms.

It was a bit of a relief. Thanks to Yu-geon leaving his seat, he was able to put down the lunch box without being caught by the other members or the manager.

‘I should eat with Naru and check on his condition.’

He was the youngest who hadn’t even graduated from high school yet, so he must have been more shocked than the adult members or himself who had more life experience.

‘I hope he doesn’t insist on staying in and not going out…’

He knocked on the door nervously, and heard a rustling sound from inside.

“Wh, who is it?”

A weak voice that was hoarse from crying asked for his identity behind the door.

“It’s me, can I come in for a moment?”

Naru seemed to calm down a bit at Hwijin’s composed voice and answered in a louder voice than before.

“If you have something to say, just say it from th, there!”

Hmm… Judging by his tone, he wouldn’t open the door even if he asked nicely.

“You’ll get sick if you keep starving and locking yourself in. Drink some water at least. And eat something if your stomach is okay.”

Hwijin’s gentle voice irritated Naru, and he spat out a word of refusal in a raised voice.

“I don’t need it. You eat it.”

“I just want to see your face and make sure you’re okay. You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday.”

Naru didn’t budge at Hwijin’s worried words and buried his head in the pillow.

“I’m not eating, okay! Stop nagging and leave me alone!”

“…”

Hwijin just raised his eyebrows as if he was troubled by Naru’s snappy answer.

He was a guy who would cooperate easily when there was something that benefited him.

But now that the contract was hanging over them, he seemed to have nothing to do with him.

Hwijin went back to his room and brought some fruits to Naru’s room again.

The fruits were already peeled and had cute toothpicks stuck in them, so they were ready to eat.

Knock-.

He didn’t give up and was persistent. Naru was about to tell him to go away angrily, but before he could say anything, he heard a loud sound of the door handle being hit with force.

“Yikes, what, what are you doing!”

Naru, whose face was swollen like a fish from crying, jumped out of the blanket quickly to close the door, but the lock was forcibly opened faster than that.

“Ah, that’s a relief. My room door opens the same way.”

He came in as if he was going to tear off someone else’s door and calmly and cheerfully expressed his feelings, making Naru dumbfounded.

“What do you mean, that’s a relief! Are you crazy?”

“Huh? No, I’m not crazy. But we need to talk about what we’re going to do from now on, and if you keep staying in and not drinking water, it’s hard for me too…”

Naru was horrified and backed away at Hwijin’s nonchalant response. At that moment, when Hwijin closed the door and took out the fruit box he had hidden in his arms, Naru curled up and grabbed his head with both arms.

“Huh…?”

“…?”

Hwijin asked with a puzzled expression at Naru’s unexpected reaction.

“Ah, no… I… Ise came by secretly earlier and gave me a lunch box. I thought you might want to eat some fruits if you didn’t feel like eating…”

Naru, who had reflexively curled up in fear to protect his head, looked up at Hwijin with a flinch.

“Ah, you’re not going to hit me?”

What did he just say? I was as stunned as he was by his sudden declaration of violence.

“Me?”

I could understand if he had a record like Chanhyung. But I had never raised my hand against anyone or anything, human, animal, or object, unless it was part of a scripted scene. Why did he have such a strange misunderstanding?

“No?”

Naru peeked up at me from under his arm and muttered.

“Why?”

I honestly didn’t get it.

“Do I, do I have to answer?”

Naru mumbled and fumbled, cornered against the wall again.

“Did you ever… get hit by Chanhyung?”

My expression turned serious and Naru denied it desperately.

“No, it’s not that!”

“Then why?”

Clang, I put the fruit box on the desk and crossed my arms, persistently asking.

“Ugh…”

While Naru couldn’t answer and hesitated, there was a knock on the door behind me and the manager called me.

“What’s going on with you two? It sounded like there was a loud noise earlier.”

He looked worried, as if he thought I had come to vent my anger on Naru.

To be precise, he seemed more concerned about the possibility of more trouble here than our well-being.

“No, no, I just came in to see if he was okay.”

“Really? I can’t handle it if you two fight too.”

“No, don’t worry.”

I managed to appease the manager outside the door, when he added a remark.

“Oh. Naru, why don’t you answer your parents’ calls? They keep calling me when they can’t reach you…”

Before the manager could finish his sentence, Naru threw his phone to the bed.

“Eek…!”

Was there a problem with his parents? I wanted to ask more, but he looked so pale that I doubted he would answer or tell me anything right now.

“I brought some food to fill your stomach, so eat this and calm down.”

It seemed difficult to have a serious talk in this state.

Maybe when he calmed down a bit, I could ask him what he wrote in the contract and what he planned to do next.

I reached that conclusion and opened the door, only to see the living room where the manager was sitting and sighing heavily.

‘I used to see him a lot when I first debuted.’

Of course, he only hung out with his close friends, so I had no chance to join them, but at least I heard some laughter.

How did it come to this? I heard the crunching sound of Naru eating fruit in his room and went back.

‘Oh.’

Just then, I got a call from Ise, who said he would contact me later.

I answered the phone.

“Did the food suit your taste?”

He must have known that I had already eaten the lunch box he left for me.

“Uh, yes. I ate well.”

I lied with a smile that gave me away.

There is no such thing as a favor without a price. Even if there was, it would only be a mutual exchange of benefits in a variety show, not a favor of this magnitude that could not be dismissed as just being nice.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

When the camera was on, he would act like a close brother, joking around, but when the camera was off, he would talk like a business tycoon who had lived twice.

I needed to find out what he wanted from me. It’s okay, just think of it as acting. I can do this. Calm down and speak, one, two, three…

“Um, Mr. Lee…”

“I have something to ask you.”

As soon as Hwijin opened his mouth after taking a deep breath, Ise spoke at the same time, making their sentences overlap.

“Oh, yes! Please tell me!”

Ise sounded puzzled on the other end of the phone.

“What were you going to say?”

Hwijin hurriedly made an excuse.

“Oh, I just wanted to thank you!”

“Really? I was just wondering how the atmosphere is over there. Do the members have different opinions?”

He asked cleverly, but it was clear what he wanted to know. Are you disbanding?

Hwijin let out a sigh-like laugh and answered.

Considering the help I received from Lee, I should have honestly said yes, we’re disbanding. But I had to use my brain, since our future activities depended on it.

Especially since I only needed to show my face, the situation before and after the appearance was too different, and any choice I made would be easy to regret. Things had changed a lot since the days when I was happy with anything as long as I debuted.

At times like this… what would someone else do? Hwijin thought of the person who seemed to be the most clever at dealing with this kind of negotiation.

‘Where the hell is Yu-geon and what is he doing that he doesn’t answer the phone?’

I had to pull myself together, even if I was alone. Hwijin swallowed his dry saliva and opened his mouth.