Survival Audition: My Job is Idol 20

? Views,

Chapter 20

“Ah, ah, um, that’s… You know in dramas there are male leads who chase after the female lead and love her intensely. That’s it. A male lead who’s obsessively crazy in love.”

Yunha suppressed her flustered expression and explained as euphemistically as possible.

“Crazy bastard, what bullshit. That’s a stalker criminal, not a male lead.”

Juha’s mother irritably stirred her spoon from the side.

“…”

Yunha and Juha only exchanged glances and kept their mouths shut.

They could only hope their parents wouldn’t know any more than this.

* * *

After forcing himself to eat, he showered first. He scrubbed everywhere Choi Taeri’s lips had touched, but the red marks wouldn’t disappear.

‘Damn…’

As memories of yesterday surfaced, Juha’s lower half pathetically rose.

“Shit…”

Cursing, he tapped his lower abdomen. He couldn’t tolerate soothing himself below while imagining last night.

Juha decided to review yesterday’s broadcast and worry about the future of ‘My Idol’ instead.

First, Juha’s screen exposure in episode 1 was more than expected. The concept photos came out better than expected too. How should he continue this momentum?

“Ha…”

Thinking about it made him sigh again. With a good opportunity right in front of him, remembering this situation that became a mess because of Choi Taeri made his future look bleak.

‘What the hell is Choi Taeri anyway.’

After irritably throwing his towel on the floor, Juha lay on his room bed wearing only underwear. As his body relaxed drowsily, various parts ached.

‘What is this really…’

He had to enter the dorm from tomorrow but his condition was terrible.

“Ugh…”

While Juha shuddered at his pathetic state, his room door suddenly burst open. Juha was startled and covered himself with the blanket.

“Ah really… wear clothes when you’re at home.”

His younger sister Yunha complained while covering her eyes with her palm.

“Ha shit… knock before coming in!”

Juha yelled irritably while wrapping the blanket tighter.

“What did you do to take such ridiculous photos in those clothes? It was really funny.”

Yunha said while holding back laughter.

Right, to others’ eyes he might look like a ‘decadent’, but to his real sister he’d look like a loser.

“Get out if you’re going to talk nonsense.”

“Can I tell people at school that I’m your sister?”

“Do whatever. Just get out.”

Juha waved his hand dismissively as if annoyed.

“Ah really, do you know how hard I worked yesterday to bring Mom and Dad in front of the TV? I won’t take your side anymore from now on.”

“Do whatever you want.”

Juha pulled the blanket all the way over his head. Soon Yunha left the room grumbling.

‘Was I too harsh?’

He felt slightly regretful as soon as sister Yunha left.

Though they weren’t affectionate siblings, he shouldn’t have been irritable toward a kid going to school. She’d brought their parents to the TV to support her not-even-close oppa, but he’d taken out his frustration on her unfairly.

But right now Juha was annoyed at everything.

“Damn…”

Just as he cursed and closed his eyes, a message alarm rang. Juha fumbled for his mobile phone.

[Choi Taeri: When did you leave?]

Juha bit his lips briefly. If he ignored the text, he’d probably call.

He hated that more. If he talked to Taeri in this ambiguous mood, he might get caught up in his schemes again.

[Lee Juha: Earlier. Just got home.]

Juha answered as blandly as possible.

[Choi Taeri: How’s your body?]

[Lee Juha: Fine. Going to sleep now.]

[Choi Taeri: Rest well. Contact me when you wake up.]

Juha turned off his mobile phone without replying.

From when he left that house until now, he couldn’t figure out what this feeling was. What was certain was that it wasn’t a good feeling.

Throughout the dorm stay, just thinking of Choi Taeri made his throat choke with happiness. But since yesterday, all kinds of emotions had rushed in.

Juha carefully examined why his mood was so foul right now.

‘He’s too good at it…’

Choi Taeri was the same age as Juha. Twenty years old.

But despite his age, he was too skilled.

Even now, closing his eyes brought up Choi Taeri’s face. His movements when his whole body tensed with excitement. Even his expression squinting while enduring stimulation – there wasn’t a single thing to miss.

‘I probably wasn’t his first.’

As his thoughts reached that conclusion, anger suddenly surged. And he was even more angry at himself for being annoyed by that fact.

Most of all, he was pathetic for collapsing over something like this even before starting the real competition, after resolving that ‘My Job is Idol’ was his life’s last chance.

Juha shook his head and buried his face in the pillow.

Until age twenty, he’d shown perfect self-control during several unrequited loves. But Choi Taeri had ruined everything.

What was more unfair was that they’d moved physically without properly confirming each other’s hearts.

The night spent with him felt like compensation for the days of suffering from unrequited love while sharing a bed at the dorm. But what Juha wanted was his heart, not his body.

Moreover, they hadn’t drunk much alcohol, so it was ambiguous to call it being drunk. Juha knew best what his state had been yesterday. He’d been drawn in by Choi Taeri’s pull and been sucked in without any real resistance.

“Whew…”

Thinking about it made him sigh again.

He’d heard this kind of story somewhere before. When two people cross the line after drinking and getting emotional, the relationship ends the moment one person seriously falls in love.

The person in love starts throwing their body forward to cling, and the more they do, the more miserable the relationship becomes. Juha was afraid he might become that person.

Going crazy over his relationship with Choi Taeri, abandoning his dreams and rushing in, only to eventually lose both dreams and love.

‘I should stop here.’

Juha firmly resolved.

Once could be seen as an accident. One such mistake was enough.

He could reach this conclusion because of the thought that ‘Choi Taeri probably isn’t serious either.’

He couldn’t be certain, but it had to be that way. Only then could both Juha and Taeri jump back into the audition jungle where survival was at stake without personal feelings.

* * *

When he woke up, it was 2 PM.

His parched throat and stiff back seemed much better.

Juha accessed the Gnet My Job is Idol app on his tablet while lying in bed.

“Whoa…”

Juha bolted upright seeing the real-time photo rankings.

325,624 hearts, real-time 2nd place.

It was an unexpected result.

1st place was naturally Choi Taeri with 367,104, but the heart count difference with Juha wasn’t that big.

‘Really 2nd place…’

Even looking again, it was an unbelievable number.

The photos that were merely a side mission weren’t connected to overall rankings. However, with this photo, Juha had firmly announced his existence to the public.

Comments about the obsessive maniac were still #1 on both Taeri and Juha’s photos. Certainly the public was more interested in relationships – chemistry – than individual trainees. For them, comments like “obsessive maniac – prey the obsessive maniac will devour” were good bait to start fangirling.

Calming his surprised heart, Juha carefully looked at other members’ photos too.

3rd place was Yoo Youngin.

What he’d chosen was an apple.

Youngin, who’d taken Snow White as his concept, had a white, fair face with watery eyes that sparkled smoothly. He was holding an apple with an innocent face like he’d jumped out of a fairy tale, mouth open as if asking for anything to be put in it.

Though it wasn’t particularly sexy, it was a photo that left room for imagination.

Though he was annoying, he had to admit Youngin was definitely idol material. Yoo Youngin’s concept digestion was flawless too.

And 4th place was a really unexpected person.

57th place Choi Musin who had chosen kimchi.

He’d chosen the worst prop but used it more cleverly than anyone.

He’d taken a photo close to an ID photo with kimchi and a Dokdo model with a Korean flag in front.

The small picket in his hands read ‘KIMCHI IS KOREAN, DOKDO Too.’

With unexpected patriotic marketing, he’d attracted attention from not only fans but ordinary people too. Though Choi Musin was from a small agency and didn’t have outstanding looks, he met minimum idol appearance requirements. For such a smart trainee, it was a strategy that could gain popularity even without looks.

Juha scrolled through photos looking at other participants, then suddenly became curious about viewer reactions.

A full day had passed now, so reactions should be appearing on various communities.

Just in case, Juha searched his own name.

Since businessman Lee Juha and politician Lee Juha came up, he corrected the search to ‘My Job is Idol Lee Juha.’

Finally posts about Juha appeared.

[Title: Hey, Lee Juha is that guy right?]

‘After 6 years of training, want to go home?

ggggg’

└After 6 years of training, comeback home

└Dadadadada After 6 years of training, comeback home

└Six, six six six After 6 years of training, comeback home

└But Serona was fucking stupid too. How do you let a kid like that go? They must have invested in him.

└They thought it was mild bone soup ramen and sent him home, but when they opened it, it was nuclear fire chicken ramen ㅇㅇ

└His skin is also white like bone soup broth… ah, I might become a PDF at this rate. Ahem.

└The group made after letting Lee Juha go being Metabolic is legendary

As expected, Metabolic, which Juha had been dropped from the debut group for, was being mentioned.

Metabolic.

Just seeing that name made Juha’s heart race violently.

Metabolic was the boy group Juha had entered the debut group for but was ultimately dropped from, Serona Entertainment’s first new male idol in 4 years.

Though Serona wasn’t one of the big 3 agencies, one girl group had been a huge hit and the boy group that followed also did moderately well. In other words, it was a company with a tier-1 girl group and tier-2 boy group.

The group they ambitiously created afterward was Metabolic.

They’d released two singles over a year, but market reaction was still lukewarm.

From the start, naming a boy group ‘Metabolic’ meaning ‘metabolism’ was problematic.

What if after suffering for 6 years and debuting, the reaction was so-so like this?

Just thinking about it was horrifying.

Juha shook his head and checked other posts.

[I’m a state-certified face judge.]

‘I only look at faces, nothing else

Choi Taeri officially certified face ㅆㅅㅌㅊ

Honestly admit this

And people keep going Lee Juha Lee Juha

But Lee Juha is only mid-tier in looks

He’s tall and handsome but honestly not enough to compete with top tier

Why?

Because top tier has kids with fucking amazing charm more than just handsome

If you’re not a face god like Choi Taeri, looks alone won’t work

Lee Juha is usually like a borrowed barley sack so business is impossible

By the way, there are fucking many kids with terrible faces there too.

My brother bastard currently sleeping on the sofa might be betterㅇㅇ’

└So who’s your brother

└Taeri fan’s post well read.

└Calling yourself a face judge then bitching that looks are good but no charm

└If he’s that level of barley sack, isn’t he worth borrowing?

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Let me borrow some too

└Lee Juha’s photo this time was decent but not enough to skyrocket to top 10

└Agree

└Honestly without the decadent king photo, even 24th place would be generous…

Juha’s gonryongpo photo was performing well enough to compete for 1st and 2nd place in hearts. But it seemed insufficient to attract fans with just that one photo.

‘Rankings can’t jump dramatically from the first episode.’

It seemed better not to have expectations. He had neither a powerful agency nor overwhelming charm or recognition.

Sighing, Juha looked at other posts.

[Title: Obsessive Maniac X Runaway King would be fucking delicious]

‘Lee Juha weakly ascended the throne.

Choi Taeri is a minister (like Prime Minister) so powerful he can fuck with the king, controlling the country.

Does he only control the country?

He controls the king like his own possession too

Lee Juha is the king but completely surrenders body and mind to Choi Taeri, letting things happen as they will, then occasionally running away

Then Choi Taeri goes crazy and chases after him.

Brings him to the palace and goes “Your Majesty’s place is here. Your walk is finished, please rest now.” bullshit.

Wouldn’t that be fucking delicious?’