Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 149:

I felt like I had relieved a long-standing grudge after sending a long message of over 500 characters.

I had never spoken so strongly before… Would they get the message? A naive thought crossed my mind for a moment, but I quickly corrected myself.

‘Get a grip. If I let them make a fool of me like this, I’ll lose face in front of our kids.’

I recalled the insult I had received in the interview, as if Purr, Pposili, or Aeongi were scratching my head.

‘Don’t you think so? Honestly, I don’t even know if Climax did that well. Let alone being worthy of third place…’

‘I don’t even know if they did that well’ ‘Let alone being worthy of third place’. His voice was only loud when he was whining about being beaten by the team that he didn’t think deserved third place.

I thought of a sentence that had no magic in it, and checked the numbers next to the message that were gradually disappearing.

30 minutes later. All the numbers were gone, and even though everyone had checked the message, no one replied.

‘These bastards… Do they not understand what I’m saying if I’m nice? Or do they think they can mess with me more because I didn’t swear at them?’

The choreography was based on the point choreography of the cover song, with some modifications by me and the choreographer from the company.

The choreographer also had a hard time getting hired, as he said he had too many schedules lately and needed a break…

‘I’m sorry, I know you’re busy, but I have a favor to ask. In return, I can offer you a little more compensation…’

It was too much money to refuse.

Yeah, it’s all for a living. I even filmed a video of him and me working on the plan in a practice room where no one else came.

The choreographer was a bit shy and conscious of the camera at first, but later he seemed to think it was a good PR opportunity and made some funny scenes.

‘Ise, you need to be more confident there!’

‘More here?’

‘Yeah! You have to walk like you’re the dancing queen today, look at me!’

‘Me?’

‘If you can’t boost your confidence, at least boost your hips!’

It was mostly a sisterly and cousinly act that was embarrassingly enthusiastic, but at least I got some footage that I could broadcast.

‘I hope they don’t edit it out and cover it with AtoX or Vesper.’

That was beyond my control. The priority was to solve the problems that I could confirm right now.

I checked the plan for the last time and made some adjustments for the direction, then checked the group chat again. There were only three messages.

[^^] Ah, sorry ㅜㅜ 8:47 PM

[^^] You worked hard 8:47 PM

[^^] I’ll try to be more active tomorrow 8:48 PM

Anyone would think that he would participate even if he wasn’t active on other days. We had six practice sessions so far, and this guy only showed up twice. And tomorrow was the official first rehearsal day.

We were going to do a camera test and a first rehearsal, and all of that was going to be aired.

What are you acting like you’re supposed to come and be active? I felt a vein popping on my forehead.

At least this guy sent me a reply. The rest of them must have ignored my messages. I sighed and captured the message history.

Then I carefully sorted out the materials to send to the scriptwriter, whose contact information I had received during the pre-meeting.

Let’s see how it goes on the day of the broadcast. It was still uncertain whether everything would go as I wanted, but the production team wouldn’t refuse such a juicy bait.

And so, as I clenched my teeth, the day passed and the day of the stage arrived.

“Wow~. Today is the end of our unit activities.”

AtoX A smiled brightly and cheered in front of the camera in the unit-only waiting room separated by a makeshift partition.

Are you sad? You must be.

If there was an ending credit, it would have been time to get off the bus where the planning, choreography, and directing were all done by me.

Thanks to Na Seon-young’s help, I hired a member from Polaris who was in charge of composing, so the arrangement was less burdensome for me.

Of course, that was also thanks to my connections, so it was no different from me putting on a one-man show and the rest of the members just putting their names on it.

I didn’t want to ruin the stage either. My top priority was to win the unit competition.

So I sharpened my teeth and prepared my best to make the rest of them look harmonious and get the spotlight.

Revenge was going to be carried out secretly under the water. It wouldn’t be secret anymore after the final broadcast.

“Time flies so fast. It feels like we just met yesterday, but look at us now.”

Vesper B took over the conversation cheekily. What do you mean, look at us now? I barely recognized his face. He showed up for practice three times, but he ran away as soon as he showed his face, while I went to the bathroom or made a phone call.

Can you call that practice, when you run away after 30 minutes? Of course, the camera captured very clearly the scene where I was dumbfounded by him running away.

Not to mention the official practice, I came out alone and consulted with the staff in front of the camera countless times, so there was no comparison.

‘That carefree attitude won’t last long.’

A gentleman’s revenge is not too late even after 10 years. That was the phrase I muttered the most in my mind these days.

As I calmed myself down, it was soon our unit’s turn.

“Dance A unit, please come up!”

We had already finished the pre-recording and the final rehearsal. Now we only had the main stage left. Unlike the first mission, where the audience score affected the ranking, the second mission was conducted with 100% recorded stage without any audience.

‘Why do they keep changing things? It’s confusing.’

It wasn’t a bad direction, as long as we weren’t swayed by the reactions of other teams’ audiences.

For now, the priority was to make this stage the best.

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t drag it out any longer and headed for the stage.

We, as in the outfit concept I chose, was graffiti. We each wore black work clothes that we loosely modified so that they wouldn’t interfere with the choreography, and we chose our own symbol colors to show our personality with scarves, innerwear, bands, etc.

AtoX members were generally small in stature, and the Vesper guys didn’t have anyone who could show off their physique, so it was a flaw that I had to wear a sleeveless inner.

‘I thought Oh Yi-jun would wear something like this.’

Even though I knew in my head that there was nothing wrong with it, my face was burning.

“Wow, hyung, your outfit suits you really well!”

Vesper B slapped my exposed shoulder with a hand gesture that I couldn’t tell if it was cheering or mocking, and ran up to the stage as if fleeing.

Ha… He was so cocky and didn’t show up for practice, but he wanted to do the stage.

I could already see his smug face in front of me, thinking how smart he was to secure the victory for the dance team.

Let’s see how far his confidence will take him. I stood calmly in my place, taking deep breaths.

Clang. A gunshot rang out in the darkness, along with the sound of handcuffs rattling.

A spotlight shone on me, and a shadow of iron bars appeared on the stage.

Another gunshot.

Thud, the sound of a body falling, followed by a siren that pierced my ears.

As the blue and red lights alternated, everyone quickly took their positions and prepared for the choreography.

[Do you remember the moment we first locked eyes?]

As the first lyrics began, the whole stage lit up and revealed the set.

The concept was prison break. Five escapees who were betrayed by their organization and locked up in jail had to split up and run away.

[Thrilling Poison, I drank from the cup of venom.]

[I don’t mind if you hurt me more, as long as it’s you.]

The original song had a sexy and dangerous vibe, but we focused more on the flashy performance.

The base was hip hop, but we mixed in some trendy styles and the famous point choreography of the original song, where we bit off half-gloves with our teeth.

I never thought I would be in charge of the choreography, but I somehow managed to get this far with my eyes spinning.

Thankfully, everyone did well with the choreography, and there were no mistakes or slips like in the rehearsal.

[Give me some time. You can give me one chance, right?]

[You’ll be blinded by the thrilling joy I’ll give you.]

The lyrics were so provocative that even though we tried to adjust the arrangement and the choreography to a more charming villain feel, it still looked sexy.

‘Well, that’s not too bad either.’

We divided the line from three to two, and switched places between the front and the back, creating a chase-like atmosphere. The staff below nodded with satisfaction.

“It’s good, I was worried that Ise would have a hard time.”

“Yeah, the stage turned out well, thankfully.”

Was this enough to look decent? But ‘decent’ wasn’t enough. I had to be a more dramatic hard carry leader, who could elicit more than just ‘okay’ from the audience.

[Choose me right now. I’ll seep into you more sweetly.]

[I’ll shake you up so you can’t breathe.]

Phew, the first verse was almost over, and it was time for the choreography that I and the choreographer had agonized over.

I swiftly moved to the front of the line, and stood on one leg as the tempo slowed down for the chorus.

‘I really… did everything I could to win this competition.’

I closed my eyes and waited for the timing. The color of the light changed and signaled me.

[Dangerous, entrust yourself to me now.]

[I’ll take you to a better place than you can imagine.]

We wrapped our wrists with the ties we had tied beforehand, and they crossed like handcuffs. We lifted our bound wrists over our heads, and knelt on the stage with our legs slightly apart, twisting our hips and moving our waists.

[You can take everything from me, as if there’s no tomorrow.]

I tilted my head to the opposite direction of my hand, and collapsed to the floor. In an instant, the light went off again, and darkness fell on the stage.

We had shown enough of a teaser. Now it was time for the real climax.