Chapter 39
After the long commercial break, the live broadcast of ‘My Idol’ Episode 3 finally began.
Right from the start, they built up the atmosphere with the death match introduction that appeared at the end of the last episode, then came the live mission to gather viewer numbers.
“They’re giving stage time based on viewer count? Wow, that’s truly evil.”
Yunha pointed with her chicken drumstick while cursing openly. Father didn’t say anything but expressed his opinion with a “hmph.” Next to him, Mother glanced at Juha as if asking ‘how many minutes did you get?’ hoping for spoilers, but Juha avoided her gaze and kept his mouth firmly shut.
“You obviously filled the full time slot.”
Yunha seemed to be holding back from saying ‘since you’re on the same team as Choi Taeri.’
“Just watch TV.”
Juha scolded her, pointing at the TV screen.
Since they couldn’t introduce all 40 channels, it was naturally edited to focus on the teams that filled their full time slots.
Every time Juha and Taeri appeared, Mother and Father stopped all movement. Even Yunha stared at the screen as if being sucked in while holding her chicken drumstick.
Seeing even the parents who had told him to quit, and Lee Yunha who had said she’d rather sew her mouth shut than praise oppa, acting like this made Juha’s heart feel warm.
“Wow, Choi Taeri is really fucking handsome…”
Breaking the silence, an exclamation burst from Yunha’s mouth.
“…”
I guess I should expect what I should expect.
Yunha had no interest whatsoever in her real brother Juha and was only watching Choi Taeri. Taeri wore a plain white t-shirt with natural hair styling, yet his image was clean and fresh. In contrast, the body revealed below his neck was masculinity itself.
Lee Yunha concentrated on the screen showing Taeri without even moving her pupils.
Was being a face fan genetic?
Seeing this scene, it seemed certain that Juha and Yunha were indeed real siblings. However, having heard those words, there was something that absolutely needed to be addressed.
“…Don’t tell me you like Taeri?”
Juha asked nervously. Even though they were bickering siblings, if they were to fight over the same man, it would be difficult for Juha as the older brother to know what choice to make.
“No, I’m picking Yoo Youngin. Oh? There he comes. Wow… he’s really handsome.”
…I don’t know whether I should be happy about this or what.
Yoo Youngin was doing a mukbang with Choi Musin on the live broadcast. Though they called it mukbang, he was eating pretty cake as prettily as possible with all his might. It was purely a picture meant to show off his beauty. His video contained the message ‘I eat this well but maintain this level of beauty.’ What a variety of disgusting sights.
His partner Choi Musin didn’t try to outshine Youngin. He occasionally fed Yoo Youngin cake and wiped his mouth, then did some self-promotion when he had the chance, so he didn’t stand out too much.
The group live broadcast segments ended and the performances began.
Honestly, the 1-minute C group performances lacked sincerity even in editing. It was clear from the screen that they were just supporting roles for the popular participants.
After several uninteresting participating teams passed, Seo Eunwon and Jae Byeongho appeared. The song they chose was Crazy Monster’s ‘My Deer,’ which Juha had tried to do but gave up on.
“Oh! It’s Hannic.”
Yunha reacted immediately upon seeing Seo Eunwon.
“Is Eunwon popular?”
“He’s popular, but there aren’t many people who dislike him. Look at that. He performs so well on stage and he’s so smart.”
Yunha’s voice was excited as if she was bragging about her own younger brother. Meanwhile, she never once felt proud of her real older brother. Fine. What am I expecting?
“Eunwon is pretty good.”
Juha agreed with Yunha’s opinion while looking at Eunwon’s face floating on the screen.
Seo Eunwon, smiling like a ripe peach, naturally made viewers smile. He was like a puppy who was born pretty, received warm care from his owner, was raised preciously, and seemed like he would live happily and cheerfully for life.
Just watching him made you feel pleased and happy as if you had raised him yourself, so there was no way not to fall for him.
After Seo Eunwon’s performance and a few more stages passed, a soft filter was applied to the screen and clear background music played.
It was surely announcing the appearance of a popular participant.
“It’s Yoo Youngin! Wow, isn’t that truly breathtaking beauty? Does he really look that pretty in person too?”
As soon as Yoo Youngin’s face was shown in close-up, Yunha was moved as if seeing a spectacular view.
“No.”
Juha put down the chicken he was eating and answered coldly.
“Are you jealous of Yoo Youngin?”
“Why would I be jealous of him? He’s jealous of me.”
“Are you crazy?”
Yunha snapped as if dumbfounded. Well, there was no way Lee Yunha would know about the relationship between Juha and Yoo Youngin.
“Lee Yunha, can’t you speak properly to oppa?”
Only after getting scolded by Mother did Yunha shut her mouth.
Several performances passed and finally it was Juha and Taeri’s turn. This time the family truly stopped all movement and focused on the TV.
The scene of Taeri and Juha choosing music and practicing, followed by the scene of Juha being scolded by Master Niki after the mid-check, played out.
‘Don’t try to follow Taeri’s character.’
At Niki’s words, Juha’s face in the screen hardened. The atmosphere wasn’t that bad, but in the edited video, Juha was portrayed as a character who lacked talent, was timid, but was only eager to chase after Choi Taeri.
Juha broke into a cold sweat, unnecessarily watching his family’s reactions. Juha’s mother and father seemed to feel bad seeing their son being scolded, but they composed their expressions to not show it.
Fortunately, the scene soon changed, showing how Juha transformed the next day while learning dance from Taeri.
‘Want to change our concept a little?’
‘How?’
‘We’ll do it as ‘*beep*”
Without showing what concept they changed to, it immediately cut to the scene of preparing for the performance. The editing was so well done that even Juha himself was curious about what concept they had changed to.
With camera movement full of tension, along with ticking sounds, Juha took out his pocket watch beside the stage, excited Taeri grabbed and threw off his jacket, and Episode 3 ended.
“Geez. What, is that all your screen time?”
“Right.”
Yunha looked at Juha as if dumbfounded. Even Juha himself never imagined they would cut it there.
Since they showed the beginning of the performance in the preview, he thought they would at least show up to the performance, but the heartless production team mercilessly cut it right before the stage.
“Really petty. They put in the longest preview and then cut off the performance.”
“I guess they’ll put in a long segment next week.”
Even Mother, who said this, couldn’t hide her disappointment.
In the next episode preview, other participants’ performance edits passed by quickly.
And at the end, with sad music, a close-up of Juha crying with disheveled hair appeared, ending the Episode 4 preview.
“…Did you cry?”
Yunha burst into a hollow laugh.
“…”
“You did cry. Ugh. What a scene…”
Juha couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Unlike Yunha who was openly criticizing, Mother and Father just silently stared at the screen. Whatever the reason, it couldn’t feel good to see their son crying in front of the entire nation.
‘I can’t watch the next episode together.’
It was obvious what would be in the next episode. They would have the death match, Taeri would pass then fail, and Juha would be crying and wailing.
Juha didn’t have the confidence to watch that in front of his family. Especially, he had absolutely no intention of being teased in real-time in front of that Lee Yunha.
“…I’m going to my room.”
Before more words could come out, Juha headed to his room.
Juha flopped down on his bed. Fortunately, his body recovered faster than expected. The feverish sensation and dizziness that had overtaken his body had almost disappeared.
Lying down, Juha entered the ‘My Job is Idol’ fan forum on his phone.
“Ugh…”
As soon as he entered the forum, Juha unconsciously frowned. The forum was in chaos, saying this episode was beyond Gnet’s fishing tactics – it was fishing bullshit.
Fortunately, it wasn’t anger toward Juha or Taeri, but anger toward the broadcasting station for deceiving with the preview.
Skipping past the crude curses asking after the production team’s mothers’ well-being, Juha checked mainly the readable posts with many comments.
[Title: Look how evil those broadcasting station fuckers are]
‘Does it even make sense to leave screen time up to the participant kids?
If they had fans who could gather ten thousand for the first competition, why would they come on an audition program?
It’s already rich get richer, poor get poorer from the start, but they just confirm that to the people involved and take away their screen time too
Fuck, no matter how desperate they are for ratings, let’s at least maintain Satan’s employment rate.’
â””Thanks to the broadcasting station bastards, Satan has nowhere to work though…
â””But whose idea was it to leave broadcast time to the kids?
â””Thinking they passed this and felt proud while eating well makes me fucking furious.
â””But honestly, I don’t really want to see more of the kids who only did one verse and quit.
└└ㅇㅇ I agree. Rather than watch that, I think it’s better to secure my kid’s screen time
└└Are you a broadcasting station part-timer?
└└What a fucking demon bastard…
“…”
If they knew how much the production team had ground their souls into evil acts for the next episode, what kind of reaction would they show?
[Title: N years in the idol world and I’m still a human who gets fooled by previews…]
‘I wondered if Taeri and Juha’s performance would come out.
I had some hope.
But they cut it right before it started.
Ah, how do I wait a week…’
â””But honestly, next week’s ratings will probably explode
└└That’s why it’s even more infuriating
└└You’ll curse but still watch live, that’s what the broadcasting station bastards are aiming for
â””Even so, I’m gonna curse the fuck out of them fuckingshittybroadcastingstationbastardsgoanddieorwhatever
└└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Such smooth cursing that even Eminem would cry
└└(The pass necklace grasped in his hand)
[Title: I prophesy]
‘Choi Taeri fails and Lee Juha passes
Choi Taeri gets additional acceptance
Lee Juha’s touching tears show’
â””Huh…
â””If I were the production team, I’d do this too
â””Considering what the production team did today, they couldn’t not do that.
â””This level is cute, what.
â””Would Lee Juha, who got 1st place in the previous mission and is currently on the rise, fail? Would the unshakable 1st place Choi Taeri fail? It’s exactly as you said.
â””But there needs to be an excuse for Choi Taeri to fail, right? Does Lee Juha have the skill to beat Choi Taeri?
â””I have the same question. But Lee Juha failing then rising is weak drama…
Half right, but fans expected about that much and were calm.
Fans had already experienced audition programs more than enough, so they had reached almost fortune-teller level in predicting the production team’s behavior.
[Title: Honestly, Lee Juha’s visuals will carry 80% of this performance]
‘It’s still before the performance but I can feel the aura of extreme handsomeness
Plus crying while disheveling his hair in that outfit?
Unless Lee Juha shits on stage, he’ll 100% capture the general public’
â””Ah, you bastard. Even for metaphors…
â””Fuck, I imagined it. I need to file a civil lawsuit against you…
â””When I saw the practice video, Lee Juha didn’t seem to be at that level.
â””No matter how well Lee Juha does, compared to Choi Taeri…
â””Lee Juha is a 6-year trainee. Choi Taeri is a 6-month trainee
└└Fuck, totally ignoring the dance major.
└└You’re still disparaging after seeing Lee Juha learn dance from Choi Taeri on live?
└└Unless Choi Taeri messes up somewhere, he won’t lose in skill
â””But what’s the concept? So curious.
â””Lee Juha’s outfit does seem legendary. The suit effect plus pomade is amazing, but white gloves with a pocket watch, what’s that about
Everyone had similar reactions. Satan production team, curiosity about the preview, appearance praise, and skill comparisons between Choi Taeri and Lee Juha.
Other than that, regarding today’s broadcast content, posts about Seo Eunwon and Yoo Youngin were overwhelming. Both were full-time teams so they showed their entire performances, but their stage concentration was so good they deserved the good reviews.
Even the picky Lee Yunha praised at least those two.
Ring ring ring.
Just as he was about to read another post, Juha’s phone rang.
[Choi Taeri]
“Ah…”
Seeing the name, a sigh burst from Juha’s mouth.
Only then did Juha remember that he had sent just a one-character reply “yes” right before the live broadcast earlier.
After receiving the tremendous confession of “I love you,” he had completely forgotten due to the live broadcast.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
