Chapter 53
[Lee Juha getting 15th place was being too generous ㅎ]
[Look at Lee Juha and Choi Taeri’s rankings. This is what a bubble looks like.]
[Juha, let’s go home~]
[Should have gone when they sent you home after 6 years of training ㅎㅎ]
Park Hyeji tapped her mouse with her fingertips. Just seeing the titles of posts criticizing ‘that trainee’ made her fingertips tremble.
‘Only 15th place?’
Deputy Manager Park Hyeji, who works in the PR strategy department of a major corporation, is a recognized strategy master. There are already more than five successful advertisements from PR strategies she’s established, and last season she succeeded in rebranding a product that only middle-aged women would use, achieving cross-generational targeting.
Such Park Hyeji learned about a trainee from a TV program she happened to watch a few weeks ago. Since then, his daily life began to constantly concern her.
She quietly watched clips of ‘that trainee’ about 70 times each, and since she couldn’t openly like idols too much due to the nature of working at a major corporation, she set her lock screen to things like that trainee’s hands or half of half his face.
Wondering if this was what being hooked meant, she gradually looked for people with similar symptoms and found there were quite a few.
The fans were all quiet and well-behaved like ‘that trainee,’ so they weren’t aggressive and were nice to interact with. However, after watching episode 5, Deputy Manager Park Hyeji clearly realized her emotions.
This is what devotion represented by ‘our kid’ means.
It made no sense that our kid ranked 15th. The decadent king photoshoot he showed, his chemistry with 1st place Choi Taeri, the perfect stage of a spine-chilling control freak, his surprising tears and that ‘heh’ smile.
Our kid should have been at least in the top 5.
‘It’s largely my responsibility that our kid ranked 15th.’
Park Hyeji lamented.
The reason our kid ranked 15th was because passive fans like Park Hyeji only supported him in their hearts. She thought just casting one vote would be enough, but she didn’t know this field required much more effort to express affection than expected.
If they stayed still like this and got beaten up by other fans again, our kid’s next ranking could be 25th.
Watching fan reactions posted on the internet moment by moment, Deputy Manager Park Hyeji organized her thoughts carefully.
2 AM.
Having made up her mind, she opened a cafe on a portal site.
[Cafe name: Move to Juha. (English name: Move, Move)]
「User title will be ‘Joomin (residents for short),’ cafe owner and management (to be recruited later) will be called ‘Settlers.’
Residents who leave joining greetings must familiarize themselves with the 10 commandments below.」
「1. Joomin’s sales strategy is ‘humility and push-and-pull.’
-To market to fans who check our Lord (Lee Juha, hereafter referred to as Lord) and muggles who are uncomfortable with extreme fans, we absolutely humble ourselves but engage in long-term push-and-pull marketing of our Lord.
- All Joomin’s phone backgrounds and lock screens should be of our Lord, but residents in professions where having our Lord’s full body or face would be inconvenient should use our Lord’s body parts (e.g., hands, chin and neckline, ears and hair behind ears) to draw curiosity.
- Do not actively market offline (might look like cult members). When photos are requested, don’t show for more than 3 seconds (they’ll look it up if curious). Especially when dealing with muggles, excessive marketing is prohibited.
- When other fans show interest, for every cut of our Lord’s photo shown, also look at one cut of their bias’s photo and compliment their bias (same for videos) (repeat until the other party also compliments our Lord).-Our Joomin must gain favor so other fans don’t cast check votes against our Lord☆☆☆☆☆
- Be as humble as possible offline, but attempt more active marketing online than anyone else (e.g., when active in cafes you’ve joined, comment with appropriate memes of our Lord, and only when asked who he is, appropriately mix ‘This is trainee Lee Juha who’s rapidly rising these days^^’ and ‘Please just give him a try once.’)
.
.
.
.
- Get public broadcast seating tickets even if you have to sell your soul to cheer for our Lord, but if your companion can’t go, make sure to transfer only to our Lord’s fans (reselling prohibited).」
While ‘Move to Juha,’ armed with such detailed ten commandments, surpassed 1,000 members overnight and was buzzing, a post that would shake up ‘My Job is Idol’ fans was posted on a famous portal’s bulletin board.
[Title: Wow, looking at Yoo Youngin now, he’s the Yoo Youngdae I know…]
「Wowㅋㅋ Yoo Youngdae that pig bastard seems to have lost like 50kg from before.
I went to middle and high school with Yoo Youngdae and his nicknames were Yoo Youngpig, Yoo Youngpork.
Some kids called him young pig or young boar.
Because one day Yoo Youngpig got caught sleeping in class
and the old grandpa teacher sang ‘Young one, wake up from your sleep~’ or something like that.
After that, whenever kids saw the pig they’d go ‘young boar wake up from your sleeep’ this bullshitㅋㅋ ah it’s still fucking funny thinking about itㅋㅋㅋ
Back then he was a pig loser who couldn’t say a word even when teased
but wow who knew he’d be like this hereㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Youngpork, I remember youㅋㅋㅋ No, people from Mugyeong Middle School, Imeok High School probably know you well right?
I heard he dropped out during Imeok High because kids treated him like such a loser, so when he suddenly appeared as the most handsome idol in the world, I naturally thought it couldn’t be him.
Finally, proof shots
Mugyeong_middle_grad_youngpork.jpg
Imeok_high_picnic_youngpork.jpg」
The person in the photos was different enough from the current Yoo Youngin that it was believable to say they were completely different people.
First, the Yoo Youngin in the photos was about 165cm tall and heavy enough to approach 100kg. His pretty features were buried in fat and hidden behind thick black horn-rimmed glasses, making it impossible to distinguish his face.
However, when compared carefully with current photos of Yoo Youngin, anyone with decent eyesight could tell they had the same features.
The bulletin board went crazy. Core fans frantically demanded the photos and posts be taken down, but other fans who had suffered a lot started mocking Yoo Youngin in earnest.
└Holy shit… is Yoo Youngin’s pig past real?
└Yoo Youngin’s past isn’t real, it’s really solid.
└Fuck that, no wait that fuck, no wait I supported that Pigsy?
└└Hey be honest. You’re another fan, right?
└Honestly the people dissing Yoo Youngin here are other fans. Yoo Youngin fans don’t break down
└└Seems already broken down
└It’s shocking like finding out the composer of the national anthem was pro-Japanese……
└└Wow that’s really too much, it’s not like Youngin sold out the country, do you need to go that far?
└└Hey check out all your idols’ pasts honestly, no one doesn’t have embarrassing history
└Lee Juha doesn’t^^;;;;
└└ㅇㅇ Lee Juha was a legend from age 12.
└└Our Juha was an all-time legend, but Yoo Youngin is pretty now too*^^* doesn’t look like a pig at all
└└Agree agree everyone go look at Lee Juha’s past once! You can’t help but fall for himㅎㅎ
└What the fuck is this trolling?
└Taking one past photo and making such a fucking fuss. Did Youngin kill someone? Steal money?
└Honestly shouldn’t we praise him? If he lost weight and came out so confidently from that difficult situation, I won’t let Youngin go.
└But I can’t stand a loser pig bastard pretending to be cute…sorry;(pfft)
└You guys, this is all secondary harassment. I’m screenshotting everything.
└└ㅇㅇ let’s see how well a small company works ㅎ
└└Isn’t that something a Yoo Youngin fan shouldn’t say? Ultimate trolls and attention seekersㅋㅋ
Yoo Youngin’s core fans armed themselves in war mode and chased around other fans mocking Yoo Youngin, fighting them. The worst part was other fans pretending to be Yoo Youngin fans and posting farewell posts. Most other fans even poured indiscriminate attacks saying ‘Yoo Youngin fans deserve it.’
Yoo Youngin fans reluctantly fought against hate comments and mockery all night, but there were too many enemies.
It was a fun night watching Yoo Youngin’s fans crumble in real time.
* * *
“Hey, can’t you really do that? What kind of 6-year trainee is like that?”
Youngin, who couldn’t stand watching Juha’s practice, came over and yelled.
“Hah, hah, hyung isn’t doing well either.”
As a result of practicing to death, both Lee Juha and Yoo Youngin had achieved above-average character expression. However, both lacked the charm to make a definitive impact.
It was already late, so the production staff had withdrawn their equipment for inspection, but many teams still remained in the practice room.
Team 1’s teamwork, which Lee Cheong had pointed out, was coming together to some degree. More precisely, their mindless practice had resulted in synchronized group choreography. The teamwork of understanding and embracing each other was still far lacking.
Minors Seo Eunwon and Jang Chaemyeong couldn’t practice after 10 PM, so they practiced in their dorm room. All the hyungs told them to rest since they were at an age to grow tall, but the two insisted on practicing even if they had to hide.
With the performance only 3 days away, there was no time to monitor broadcasts.
“Who the hell made you number one in the photoshoot? Look at the camera with the expression you had when taking photos. Ugh, this idiot can’t understand shit.”
Youngin couldn’t stand it anymore and gave Juha a mix of curses and advice. Normally he would have thrown back a retort, but Juha bit his lips and endured it.
Even as it was now, there would be no problem performing on stage. Juha’s beauty was sufficiently prepared, and if he wore flowers and pretended to be pretty appropriately, he wouldn’t be eliminated.
But his current character fell far short of Juha’s expectations. He couldn’t quite grasp what was lacking, but clearly Juha’s current character was exactly 0.1 percent short.
“I really can’t understand you. A bastard who’s never been ugly in his life, why can’t you do that? Tsk tsk.”
“Is hyung unable to do it because you’re ugly?”
At Juha’s words, Youngin suddenly panicked.
“I, I’m in, innocent so I can’t do decadent beauty stuff.”
“Ha……”
Juha burst out laughing. It was absurd to say ‘innocent’ in front of the very person who knew exactly what conspiracy happened in the emergency exit.
Juha and Youngin, who had been bickering, and the remaining trainees eventually practiced until 2 AM before scattering to their respective rooms.
Na Junho, who had good responsibility and skills but was indifferent to others and had high walls, always went up to the penthouse alone after practice ended. He didn’t seem lonely, didn’t cling to chemistry, and seemed to genuinely want to sleep alone comfortably in the ‘one body’ mission.
Chaemyeong, who found it fun to play with Seo Eunwon, either called Eunwon to his room or went to sleep in his room. As a result, Juha often slept alone or with both the Myeongwon twins.
It was a bit concerning that Yoo Youngin and Jo Munseok sometimes used a room just the two of them, but practice was too grueling for them to seem likely to have idle thoughts and additional conspiracies. Besides, whenever the Myeongwon twins slept over, Yoo Youngin and Jo Munseok took pretty good care of them, so Juha was somewhat relieved.
After finishing practice and coming to his room, he was alone again today.
‘Chaemyeong must be sleeping in Eunwon’s room again.’
It was comfortable sleeping alone, but somehow felt empty. Mobile phones weren’t distributed today for the reason of focusing on performance practice. He wanted to check fan reactions at least, but accurate fan reactions would only come out after the stage ended anyway, so he decided to endure it.
Thanks to the terrible fatigue washing over him, Juha was sucked into bed before his hair was even fully dry.
* * *
The next day everyone woke up and practiced on the same schedule as usual. Since everything was in a closed space, they couldn’t know what was happening outside.
Now there were two days left until the performance. The trainees didn’t even have time to think about anything else.
The strange atmosphere was detected just before going to dinner after afternoon practice ended.
While everyone gathered in the main hall resting and chatting, Juha was watching the Myeongwon twins’ antics. Na Junho and Jo Munseok were poking each other, either having some incomprehensible quarrel or playing around.
Come to think of it, Yoo Youngin wasn’t visible.
‘Where did this hyung go again?’
Is he practicing expressions alone in the bathroom again? Other teams’ trainees would laugh if they caught him.
While Juha was having useless worries, suddenly trainee Kim Minseong came running in excitedly.
‘What’s this?’
Kim Minseong’s expression mixed surprise and interest. It looked exactly like someone who’d heard interesting gossip they’d been waiting for. He urgently went to his team members and whispered quietly.
“Hey hey, they say a post about Yoo Youngin’s past came up!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
