Survival Audition: My Job is Idol 95

Chapter 95

“You should go to sleep soon too. You have to go to school tomorrow.”

“What’s it to you? You go to sleep.”

“……”

Fine. Realizing that praising blood relatives wasn’t something to be done even internally, Juha glared at Yunha slightly.

Whether he did or not, Yunha kept her gaze fixed on the TV.

“Oh, it’s starting now!”

As the TV commercial ended, Yunha sat up.

“What’s that?”

“Son of the Peach.”

“……What?”

At Yunha’s answer, Juha doubted his ears. Even if it was English, he wondered if they could broadcast such slang.

“You know, that peach brand Peachers that you and Taeri oppa wore in this episode. Turns out it’s a really famous brand worldwide? It’s a survival audition where they’re recruiting new designers.”

“What kind of audition is there for making clothes.”

Juha muttered while glancing at the TV screen. The logo looked lively with peach drawings in all the ‘O’s in the letters ‘Son Of’.

“Ugh, you really don’t know anything. That show is super popular? It’s the second most popular program on Gnet after My Idol.”

“I didn’t know.”

Having been absorbed in My Idol filming for nearly two months, he was unaware of what was happening in the world, as if he’d been living in another world.

“You should watch stuff like that too. Don’t just wear monk-like clothes all the time.”

“Whatever. It’s not like anyone sees what I wear casually.”

Juha answered nonchalantly while thinking of his own closet. Most of his clothes were achromatic colors like plain gray, navy, or khaki, so the clothes Taeri had given him did stand out.

“Everyone watches except you. Ugh, you’ve got a long way to go before becoming an idol.”

Yunha shook her head and turned her attention back to the TV.

Leaving his sister’s scolding behind, Juha went into his room. Just as he was about to open his closet thinking ‘Do I really dress like a monk?’, his cell phone rang.

It was Taeri.

“Did you get home safely?”

Juha answered the phone while examining his closet. These were clothes he’d bought saying there was no gray like another under the sky, but the inside of his closet looked gloomy as if covered with dark clouds.

-Yeah. I’m tired.

“Is there anything to eat at home?”

Juha closed the closet door and focused on the call.

-I even had Twinkle Chicken, so what. I’m not hungry.

Taeri’s slight laughter leaked through his voice, as if Juha’s concern was amusing.

“Are you going to sleep now?”

-Yeah. Since I rested today, I have to go to the company early tomorrow.

“Alright. Sleep well, and contact me tomorrow.”

-Yeah. Sleep well.

Just as he was about to hang up, Juha felt something was lacking. Compared to the endless expressions of affection that usually came out during phone calls, today’s Taeri was too plain.

“Aren’t you going to say… you miss me?”

-I miss you. I miss you, but I’m holding back because I’m afraid you’ll say you’ll come running again if I say I miss you.

Taeri answered with a chuckle.

“I won’t go, so tell me.”

-Lee Juha, I miss you so much. I love you.

“I miss you so much too. I love you.”

Juha covered his cell phone with his hand and whispered in a small voice so it wouldn’t be heard in the living room.

-Now rest. Stop worrying about me.

“Yeah yeah. Got it.”

Only after hearing all the words he wanted to hear did the call end. Juha sat down heavily on his bed, smiling continuously.

He was in trouble because he liked it so much. The share that Taeri occupied in his heart and daily life had grown so large it was frightening. Come to think of it, he was worried about the 3rd competition that would start the day after tomorrow.

Suddenly there was a knock-knock.

“What?”

Juha opened the door and asked bluntly. As expected, Lee Yunha was standing outside the door.

“Do you know about this?”

“What?”

“That the Metabolic guys are going around selling stories about you like crazy these days.”

“What?”

At Yunha’s words, Juha’s brow furrowed involuntarily.

“Thanks to you, ‘Butterfly Dream’ is having a reverse hit and they’re getting called everywhere, so they keep spreading stories about you. It’s fucking disgusting to watch. I thought you might not know since you were in the dorms, so I’m telling you.”

“……Got it.”

“Jung Changseon probably told them to do it. Mom and dad were really upset when they saw it too.”

“I got it, so get out.”

Irritation mixed into Juha’s voice.

“Ah, even when I tell you stuff, you make a fuss. Tch.”

Yunha grumbled and turned around abruptly.

‘Ah shit……’

As soon as Yunha left, Juha regretted getting annoyed.

It wasn’t Yunha’s fault, but hearing the story from Yunha’s mouth completely ruined his mood.

Juha bit his lip and went to the portal to search for Metabolic.

[What’s the connection between Metabolic and My Idol’s Lee Juha?]

[The correlation between Metabolic and My Idol’s Lee Juha]

[Reverse hit legend Metabolic, grateful to My Idol’s Lee Juha]

[Metabolic members shared dorms with My Idol’s Lee Juha, even saw him naked……]

As soon as he saw the article titles lined up, Juha’s expression automatically scrunched up. It seemed like Metabolic had nothing to talk about in interviews without Lee Juha – even just typing ‘Metabo’ brought up Lee Juha in the related search terms. From the titles alone, it didn’t seem like they said anything bad about Juha. Frankly speaking, Juha had more fans now than Metabolic, so they couldn’t speak carelessly.

However, the problem was that Juha, who currently had no agency, had no way to respond no matter what they said.

‘Ah, fan reactions!’

Thinking of fans suddenly reminded him of what he’d forgotten. Now wasn’t the time to be doing this. About an hour had passed since the broadcast ended, so now was when fan reactions would be heated.

‘I can’t call myself fifteen-ha anymore.’

Juha entered the fan community with inner confidence. His eyes widened when he saw the first post he discovered.

[What’s with Lee Juha’s interview behind-the-scenes clip ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

‘After “P-p-p-please save me”

now it’s “Let’s love each other”. I’m dying laughing ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ’

‘Huh?’

He’d been secretly disappointed that the interview he did for fans didn’t make it to the main broadcast, but it seemed to have appeared somewhere. As soon as Juha saw the post, he rushed to YouTube’s official My Idol channel.

Among the filming behind-the-scenes videos lined up, ‘[Interview Behind] Lee Juha, Let’s love each other. With whom?’ was in the trending videos. Juha hurriedly clicked on the video.

‘Um, um, could I say just one thing? There’s something I absolutely have to say……’

‘Yes, please go ahead.’

Subtitles: [Nervous][Serious][Careful]

‘Lee Juha-da everyone, I’m sincerely grateful that you believe in me. Since you’ve created my flower path, I’ll create your flower path. L-l-let’s love each other.’

“……”

Juha was at a loss for words watching the video. It was his confident interview, but his expression was so resolute that he looked stupid. Still, he was glad the behind-the-scenes clip was trending. Anyway, he’d conveyed his feelings.

It was uploaded 17 minutes ago but already had nearly 300 comments.

└Lee Juha ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ P-p-thank you for saving us, next is p-p-p-let’s love each other ㅋ What are you going to do next ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└└P-p-p-pork bone soup noodles

└└P-p-p-five six seven eight nine ten

└└P-p-p-please teach me your secret too, master!!

└└P-p-p-commander! The ship has just landed in Incheon.

└└P-p-p-deer are sad beasts with long necks♡

└└P-p-p-climbing the ladder to pick stars for you☆Love you Lee Juha!

└└P-p-p-stop it you crazy bastards ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└That’s right… among faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love.

└The Lord guided us with love. Amen.

└└Lee Juha-da is really disgusting, after Lord now it’s Amen ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ

└Lee Jumin are lucky. Their bias interviews so sincerely ㅠ

└But Lee Juha seems to have a kind of cute character ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He’s a bit naive too

└└Lee Juha-seyo ㅠㅠㅠLee Juha is really amazing. If you fall in, the exit is blocked.

└└ㅇㅇ I agree with this. I accidentally watched a fancam yesterday and I still can’t escape from Lee Juha. Someone must have nailed my door shut.

└Our clumsy Lee Juha-saem now knows how to love fans too, he’s almost fully turned bb

└Lee Juha’s hair color and eye color are crazy……

└For those who fell in here, you can now go to the Semun Hospital fancam video.

└If you search ‘What’s Lee Juha-da’ there are playlists by falling-in stages. If you watch calmly, it’ll be time for work and school tomorrow morning^^

Juha burst into chuckles reading the comments. This comment section was a fierce battlefield of Lee Juha-da falling-in bystanders, falling-in beginners, and Lee Jumin trying to scoop them all up in a net.

After watching YouTube video comments for a while, Juha returned to the community. The board was heated with controversy over the AI evaluation.

[Fucking Gnet these satan bastards what the hell is this AI evaluation?]

‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Wow I’m really flabbergasted.

No matter how crazy they are about ratings, still, 80 percent of them are minors and they’re grading them by stats.

Why don’t they just add “Skill has been activated” subtitles while they’re at it?’

└Novel interpretation…

└Seeing dickhead Taechang here……………

└What are you reading? Let me read with you too

└└You should ask the production team what they’re reading. Then you can see the next sequence

└└Are we going to book possession? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└But it’s true, if they do AI evaluation again later it’ll be like “Vocal ability has risen from B- to A-. A new skill has been unlocked” bullshit

└But the production team is fucking smart though. They’re fact-checking trainees without skills.

└The problem is the status windows aren’t only visible to the kids but to all citizens…

└Everyone wake up seriously. You don’t take this seriously enough. Is this just something to laugh about? These are kids sensitive about appearance, does it make sense to openly divide them into grades like that?

└└Survival auditions doing provocative stuff isn’t new? If they won’t accept stuff like this, why did they audition?

└└ㅇㅇ And it’s worse during trainee period. Monthly evaluations, weight checks and they really give them hell, do you think this is a big deal to them?

└└Is that the same thing? The kids aren’t beef, if you openly divide them into grades on broadcast like that, it’s like stigmatizing the minor kids.

└└2222 It’s because there are people who react positively to stuff like this that broadcasts openly do this