The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 130

When I took out a small sparkler from the plastic bag, everyone quickly lined up in a row.

They looked quite cute, like students waiting for meal distribution.

“I was secretly hoping for ice cream, but fireworks aren’t bad either!”

“……Let’s buy ice cream on the way back to the lodging.”

“Yes!”

Yu Ha-woon, who still couldn’t give up his attachment to dessert, waved his sparkler wildly after hearing the answer he wanted.

After finishing my reminder to be absolutely careful since sparks could fly out, I lit them one by one with the matches I’d bought together.

Pop-pop-crack!

“Wow, the firework colors are really pretty!”

“Brother, if you wave your arm in a circle like this, it looks even prettier.”

“That’s right. Hey, it’s like playing with fiery wheels.”

“Brother Seon-woo, using words like that makes you look really old!”

“Hey, I’m still a fresh 21-year-old, you know?”

The fireworks, glowing with beautiful colors, painted a magnificent scene against the dark night sky.

I watched contentedly as the sturdy young men wearing masks and hats ran around happily on the sandy beach.

Then suddenly, memories from the fan signing event came to mind unexpectedly.

‘Our fans definitely tried to remember every single one of our moments.’

A time that was ours alone, with no cameras and no fans.

The only ones who could remember this moment were the six of us here.

When I fumbled for my phone in my pocket, Cerberus whispered into my ear with a sly voice.

{Oh my, Master, have you become a leader who even protects memories?}

‘It feels like a waste somehow. It would be a shame not to preserve this kind of scene from our milestone first vacation.’

{Our Master, escaping hell and returning to the human world has revived his romanticism. In the old days, you were a cold manager who couldn’t find an ounce of romance—}

‘Anyone hearing this would think I trained you without any compassion.’

I turned on my phone’s camera app and took a picture of Seong-hwi and Ma Si-hyeok’s backs as they ran off into the distance.

I stared at the screen for a moment and muttered to myself.

“……Pretty.”

“Pretty, right? Where else in the world could you find such pretty members. Right? Right? Right?”

“Everyone’s pretty except you, except you.”

“You’re always so harsh only to me, our Ryu Si-hwan.”

Kang Seon-woo, who had silently gotten me in a headlock from behind, chuckled.

Then he held his vigorously crackling sparkler toward me.

“Why are you just standing there staring blankly by yourself? Give me the matches.”

Thanks to Kang Seon-woo’s nimble handiwork, my sparkler also burst into brilliant flames.

We stared at the night sea blankly for a moment without saying anything.

The pleasant sound of gentle waves and the orange flames of the sparklers created an indescribable atmosphere.

“You know, honestly speaking, Si-hwan.”

“What?”

“I never dreamed I’d be resting comfortably with you guys like this. I mean, if you think about it carefully, just a few months ago we were trapped in that nerve-wracking survival show. Things worked out so smoothly as if magic happened……”

“So you’re saying you never thought you’d end up having casual conversations with me while patting your fully stuffed belly.”

“Haha! That wasn’t what I was trying to say, but when you put it that way, it’s true.”

Kang Seon-woo playfully waved his sparkler toward me.

“The first time I saw you was during the level test. Now I can coolly confess this story, but I didn’t have any expectations when I heard you were an independent trainee.”

“But after breaking through all those doubts by performing so well, you naturally ended up talking to me?”

“Ah, come on! I’m not that heartless of a guy! It wasn’t because I was conscious of the cameras, and it wasn’t because your character was unique either.”

That’s definitely what Cerberus had said.

When I harbored suspicions about Kang Seon-woo during the very early days of 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, he said he definitely hadn’t approached me with impure intentions.

“I’m not at the level to talk about experience yet at this age, but I had a feeling the moment I saw you. Ah, this guy will probably go all the way to the finals with me.”

“Now that I’m saying this, I actually deliberately finished my stage in exactly 1 minute during the level test. I was trying to deploy a smokescreen strategy. But after seeing that, you thought I’d make it to the finals?”

“This brother’s eye for talent is incredible. You can tell just by looking. That guy’s no ordinary person.”

Well, if he was skilled enough to be in the debut group at BK Entertainment, he could easily pick up on that much.

No matter how often this guy shows his carefree side, his skills are definitely solid.

“From then on, I wanted to get to know you better. You had the skills to completely crush any major agency trainee, so why on earth had you been doing whatever wherever to only show up now? What are this guy’s hobbies? What songs does he like? I just got curious about Ryu Si-hwan.”

“It’s fine because we’re teammates, but if someone else had said this, I would have immediately reported them to the police as a stalker.”

“Ah, why are you being so cold between roommates! Anyway, I had no connection with you and was a bit uncertain about how to approach you. But unexpectedly, you responded well to my words, and I was so grateful.”

“……I think I just answered without really thinking about it.”

“Even if you thought it was nothing special, it was tremendously meaningful to someone else. Ah, it feels like yesterday when we were so awkward with each other, but now we’re even watching fireworks together.”

“Stop sprinkling weird seasoning.”

Kang Seon-woo just laughed loudly at my half-joking response.

Our sparklers were gradually dying down toward their final flames.

Accordingly, Kang Seon-woo’s eyes also slowly settled.

“Even when I always talk in a funny way, you understand everything, right? That I was always sincere.”

“……Why are you saying something so obvious so seriously?”

“Haha! Ah, our leader is so dependable, I love it. Ahem, ahem! I feel like the conversation has drifted completely off course, but I just wanted to say please take care of me going forward too. We’ve finished one round of activities now. There will be so many things to do during the remaining contract period.”

“They’ll definitely try to work us to the bone in every way possible.”

“Exactly! So during that time, let’s keep our center of gravity steady so those younger guys don’t do anything strange.”

Although he didn’t mention it directly, Kang Seon-woo was probably very concerned about the incidents between Seong-hwi and Baek Joo-won too.

I nodded silently and lightly patted his shoulder.

Right when a brief silence fell.

“You two! Why aren’t you coming over and just standing there!”

“Those old guys. Did one extra year of age make your knees hurt so you’re resting? Aren’t you coming here?”

“Brother Si-hwan, Brother Seon-woo! Come quickly and do one more sparkler!”

“The sea breeze is so refreshing!”

The younger members who had been vigorously waving their sparklers in the distance shouted loudly toward us.

We laughed as if we couldn’t help it and slowly moved our steps.

“Ah, right. Si-hwan, your phone.”

“Huh? What for?”

“Well, it would be sad if only you weren’t in any photos. Run over there quickly, I’ll take pictures for you.”

“You’re dead if you only take pictures when I’m making weird faces.”

“Hey, have I ever betrayed you! Trust me, trust me.”

I lit the remaining sparkler and ran toward the younger members who were enthusiastically waving their hands.

When I glanced back to see if Kang Seon-woo was coming too, sure enough. He was taking close-up shots like some paparazzi.

“Hey, why are you taking pictures so close!”

“I think I just got a good shot? Natural shots of you looking back this way are definitely the best!”

“I’m checking the photo album later!”

I said that, but…… somehow I had a feeling it turned out well.

I burned the last sparkler together with the members who were grinning like children.

Walking while watching the waves rolling in quietly definitely seemed to greatly improve my mood.

* * *

A familiar yet delicious smell hit my nose.

“……Ramen.”

“What, this guy says ‘ramen’ as soon as he wakes up. Interesting.”

When I opened my eyes, the sun was already shining brightly.

I synchronized with the real world while looking at the scattered blankets around me.

‘I was definitely the first to wake up at the dorm and the other guys would oversleep.’

“Ah, are you looking for this?”

Seong-hwi, who walked out from the kitchen area, waved my phone.

Looking at how he had already combed his hair neatly, it seemed he’d been up for a while.

“You always had to work hard waking us up usually. So I let you sleep more and even turned off your alarm. How about it, did I do well?”

“……They say when someone who doesn’t usually do something starts doing it, their time to die has come.”

“I went out of my way to be considerate for you and this is what I get in return?”

I got up from my spot and stretched thoroughly.

The clock hanging on the pension wall showed 10:11 AM.

“How did you all wake up early for once?”

“You prepared so many things for this vacation. You looked up places, found restaurants, thought of the fireworks event. So we couldn’t just sit there in good conscience and decided to at least make breakfast.”

“And that breakfast is ramen.”

“Don’t say it so doubtfully. It’s ramen with snow crab.”

……Snow crab ramen gets my approval.

But a person of concern related to cooking immediately came to mind.

“Please tell me Ha-woon isn’t the one cooking the ramen in there.”

“No, he’s not. Ha-woon is showering upstairs, and chef Ma Si-hyeok is happily cooking inside.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Isn’t it too obvious how relieved you are, brother?”

Ma Si-hyeok’s snow crab ramen, CENTIX’s acknowledged number one cook, was excellent.

It was so delicious that we completely emptied all 3 packages of backup ramen we’d brought.

After enjoying a full breakfast feast, we were resting comfortably until the pension checkout time of 12 PM.

Buzz! Buzz buzz!

“Brother, is that your phone?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s manager brother.”

“Hmm. Did he call because he’s stuck in traffic?”

Chae Ha-ru, sitting next to me, said while peacefully peeling a tangerine.

I answered the phone wondering what was going on.

“Yes, brother.”

“Oh, Si-hwan. Are all the kids ready to check out?”

“We’re all ready. We had a good breakfast too.”

“That’s a relief. Well, the thing is, the planning director just sent me a text.”

“The planning director?”

Everyone at the company would know that CENTIX was on vacation.

What kind of text could have come that would make Manager brother speak so seriously?

“Did I tell you what schedule you have after this vacation ends?”

“Yes, you definitely said we need to prepare for year-end award show stages—”

“Right, right. And you know that the biggest award show you need to attend is KIMA, right?”

KIMA.

KNet International Music Awards, literally an international music awards show hosted by Knet.

It’s a festival-like awards show where not only Korea’s top idol groups participate, but internationally famous singers also come.

“Did the KIMA schedule get changed or something?”

“If it were something that simple, I’d be happy too. It’s not that, Si-hwan, you got a proposal.”

“A proposal for me?”

“Yeah.”

I could hear the manager brother taking a short breath through the phone.

“A proposal came in for a collaborative stage representing K-pop boy groups, with Zefa, Comet, and CENTIX performing together.”

“The number of people would be enormous—”

“Right, of course not everyone can do it. So instead of all members, they’re asking if the three group leaders could do a collaborative stage together……”