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Join the Server“Why is he so into it?”
“Does the company pay him for playing with the kids?”
“No…… it is not that.”
“Hoseong hyung just likes kids.”
“Though it is true that he works hard.”
“I see.”
For some reason, Han Hoseong’s nagging suddenly came to mind.
‘I wish you would have a bit more professionalism.’
Woo Yeongchan shuddered again at the memory, then a question occurred to him.
“Lee Jujin.”
“What does it mean that ‘my opportunity and your opportunity have different value’?”
“Beats me.”
“Is it not just what it sounds like?”
“The nuance is weird, though.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“From Han Hoseong.”
“Ah……”
Lee Jujin let out a sound, as if something had clicked.
“That does sound like Hoseong hyung.”
“What does?”
“Well, he is twenty-six.”
“We are twenty-three.”
That was true.
But he could not figure out what that had to do with anything and just stared blankly, so Lee Jujin lowered his voice.
“You lost your memory, but you forgot this too?”
“……”
“To be blunt, we can mess up and still get another chance.”
“But Hoseong hyung might not.”
“He is only twenty-six.”
“In society, twenty-six is young, but in this world, it is not.”
“Think about it.”
“Even if we were all preparing for the same college entrance exam, we would be repeaters and Hoseong hyung would be a fifth-year repeater.”
“He cannot help being more desperate.”
“We are not that young either,” Lee Jujin added.
Woo Yeongchan did not know much about the entertainment industry, but the explanation made sense.
In short, it was about how the industry worked.
“So a twenty-six-year-old’s opportunity and a twenty-three-year-old’s opportunity have different value?”
“Right.”
“Besides, Hoseong hyung has been through a group collapsing before.”
“A group collapsed?”
“HIGH-5?”
“No!”
“Do not say something so unlucky.”
“We have been struggling, sure, but we have never completely collapsed, okay?”
“The one that collapsed was Flamestar!”
“I have heard that name somewhere.”
To Woo Yeongchan, who had no interest in entertainment, the idols he knew fell into exactly two categories: those famous worldwide, and those notorious for causing social scandals.
It was not the former, so it must be the latter.
Woo Yeongchan searched his memory and finally found the answer.
“Oh, the plastic surgery idols?”
“Anyone listening would misunderstand.”
“It is not plastic surgery idols, it is illegal surrogate plastic surgery idols.”
“Say it right, please.”
About eight years ago, there was an incident that turned both the entertainment section and the society section upside down at the same time.
A member of the rising idol group Flamestar had caused an absurd uproar.
When an idol gets caught up in plastic surgery rumors, it is usually about surgery they had on themselves.
But this case was the opposite.
“Seriously, I still do not get it.”
“Even if he had gotten illegal plastic surgery himself, it would be shocking enough.”
“Why would he perform it on someone else?”
The idol in question had performed plastic surgeries in place of a doctor.
His skill was apparently so great that he was on par with the clinic’s head surgeon, so at least that much was a blessing in disguise.
“Did the agency really not know?”
“What about Han Hoseong?”
“If the agency did not know, how would Hoseong hyung know?”
“He apparently sensed something was off.”
“But no matter how suspicious he was, he could not have imagined that guy was doing surrogate surgeries every day he had off.”
“……Fair enough.”
“Besides, the agency was in the middle of a big legal battle, so they did not have time to manage their artists.”
“You know, the Bluegill Entertainment fraud case?”
“Oh, I remember that.”
The head of a major entertainment company had apparently pulled off a deliberate reconstruction fraud.
The damages were huge, and naturally the number of victims was large too, so public outrage was massive.
“So what happened?”
“They handled it by the book.”
“The guy who did the surrogate surgeries went to prison for violating medical law, and the agency head went for fraud.”
“They both got hefty sentences.”
“They might still be locked up.”
“……”
“Those two brought it on themselves, but Flamestar was the real problem.”
“They were just getting established when that incident sent them crashing down.”
“You have no idea how vicious public opinion was.”
“Tons of rumors spread too.”
“That they were complicit in the fraud, that they all got back-alley surgeries together……”
“Looking back now, it is total nonsense, but back then, plenty of people seriously believed it.”
“It was practically nationwide hysteria.”
He felt like he did not need to hear more.
It was not something he had been interested enough in to look up, but Flamestar had been flooded with so much abuse that even Woo Yeongchan had noticed.
The CEO commits fraud and the idol does surrogate surgeries. A perfect matching pair, what the hell. Did that agency pick trainees based on their criminal records?
Birds of a feather flock together…… You think only one out of six is the odd one? The fans running that hope-copium are all gone now, right?
I thought that group had no weak link and all of them were handsome. No wonder…… There was a reason lol.
From now on, every time I see their faces, I am going to check what has been fixed first lol. Like a hidden picture game.
I am genuinely curious, can you tell me this one thing before this place goes up in flames? lol. How did he even build up surgery skills? No, I am asking purely out of curiosity.
They say he built up that precious skill by fixing the members’ faces.
What are you even asking? One look and you can see the estimate lol.
That was the kind of reaction you would see no matter which site you went on at the time.
Whatever the community’s tendencies, whatever the members’ ages or gender ratio, everyone was viciously condemning Flamestar.
“Hoseong hyung really got the short end of the stick.”
“He was really popular in Flamestar too……”
“If he had kept promoting like that, he would be at the top of the industry by now.”
“……That is rough.”
Even Woo Yeongchan, who normally did not care about other people’s business, could not help sighing at such an absurd story.
He looked toward Han Hoseong.
He was playing freeze tag with the children’s choir.
His brightly smiling face was purely sunny, with not a trace of shadow on it.
‘Forget the money. Every moment I spend as HIGH-5 is precious to me. Whether it is a CF shoot, a stage, or a variety show. Having people who come looking for us, having fans who like me, that makes me happy.’
So it was not just empty nagging.
He meant it.
Woo Yeongchan recalled Han Hoseong’s words and pressed his lips tightly together.
He could let the rest slide, but ‘having fans who like me makes me happy’ was another matter.
If it were him, he probably would have felt nothing but disillusionment toward the public who had cursed him within an inch of his life.
But Han Hoseong had not quit being an idol, which meant he really, truly loved this job.
‘For someone who looks naive, he has got more grit than I thought?’
Or maybe he was just the type who could not let go of things.
Just as he was revising his impression of Han Hoseong, Lee Jujin muttered.
“Nowon, who was in the same group, is doing so well……”
“Who is Nowon?”
Before Lee Jujin could answer, a staff member shouted.
“We are starting the shoot!”
Woo Yeongchan got up.
He figured he could find out the rest some other time.
After somehow getting through the CF shoot, a print ad shoot followed.
They took group photos first, and now they were taking individual shots.
Zenon’s turn was last.
He had a feeling he knew why.
Even during the group photo, he had been called out several times for his stiff expression.
It was like being a bad student stuck in detention for extra lessons.
Woo Yeongchan had never felt a sense of defeat before, so he did not know how to handle the emotion.
He barely swallowed his frustration and watched the others shoot.
‘So that is how you are supposed to do it.’
In front of a chroma key screen, Han Hoseong was smiling brightly.
It was a talent in itself to smile like that with a camera as huge as a cannon and a crowd of staff staring at him.
What was even more impressive was his posing.
Han Hoseong changed his pose every five seconds.
He only had a bottle of fruit and vegetable juice as a prop, yet he cycled through dozens of poses.
Woo Yeongchan had not known there were so many ways to simply stand.
‘But how am I supposed to do that?’
He did not have the knack, and he did not have the will either.
He unconsciously tried to cross his arms, then lowered them.
The thick strawberry costume made it impossible to cross his arms in the first place.
‘If at least the outfit were normal, but what kind of pose can I strike looking like a strawberry that cannot even cross its arms?!’
Just as he was glaring at the back of the director’s head and screaming internally.
“Okay, great!”
“Good work!”
Han Hoseong’s shoot was over.
As if trading places, Seol Itae stepped in front of the chroma key screen.
“The vibe is perfect!”
“Total cabbage!”
“Cabbage itself!”
“Vitamin C, vitamin U, popping everywhere!”
“Yes, drop your left shoulder just a little.”
Seol Itae, who had been as quiet as a librarian, suddenly became animated in front of the camera.
Watching Itae flutter his leaves like he really had become a cabbage at the director’s words, Woo Yeongchan felt complicated.
He really, honestly, absolutely could not do that.
“What are you doing?”
Han Hoseong appeared at his side.
“Nothing.”
“Just, what?”
“Just standing.”
“Ah, I see.”
Han Hoseong went quiet.
They stood there like an apple and a strawberry displayed in the produce section for a while.
Then Han Hoseong spoke again.
“Is the shoot going okay?”
“……”
“Why are you not talking?”
“You are doing well.”
“I am doing well?”
“Me?”
He could not help asking back.
Sweet talk designed to boost someone’s morale had its limits, and beyond those limits, it just became mockery.
“Yeah, you are working hard.”
“You have gotten a lot better at using your facial muscles.”
Han Hoseong reached out.
For a moment, Woo Yeongchan tensed, thinking he was about to pat his head, but he only straightened his headband.
“The strawberry stem was twisted.”
“……I have gotten better at using my facial muscles?”
He wondered about himself, but he wondered even more how stiff Zenon must have been.
At this point, he was genuinely curious how Zenon had even become an idol.
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