The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 170

[Ready to fly?]

[Come fly with us!]

“Wow, the more I look at it, the better it gets.”

Lately, she felt like her quality of life had dramatically improved.

The homma smiled contentedly as she watched CENTIX’s group advertisement playing on TV.

When she first heard they were filming a sports brand commercial, she was honestly quite flustered.

The sports advertisements she usually watched featured professional athletes showcasing their professional moments.

So she had no idea how CENTIX would approach filming that kind of commercial, but unexpectedly they pulled off each member’s visuals in a tantalizing way.

Especially that jump by Ryu Si-hwan at the end reminded her of the old 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

‘Well, I also bought some comfortable clothes to wear at home. It was killing two birds with one stone.’

For a limited time, purchasing Kaipol’s new brand came with CENTIX’s unreleased photo cards as a bonus.

The homma couldn’t miss this opportunity and bought training suits in six different colors, rotating through them every day.

‘Most importantly, I’m so relieved that Si-hyeok’s situation was resolved well.’

The biggest reason her quality of life improved was the end of the controversy surrounding Ma Si-hyeok.

After seeing the scars on his wrist, countless netizens expressed different opinions, creating a battlefield.

Combined with disgusting troll posts too dirty to even mention, MILLENNIUM’s main community had become complete chaotic chaos.

She had been waiting for this mess to end somehow, but she never expected him to personally reveal that he had been a victim of school violence.

No, she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to bully such a big but innocent kid in the first place.

So her heart ached terribly while watching 〈Dancing with Puppers〉.

But unexpectedly, Ma Si-hyeok himself calmly explained the situation at that time and why he had avoided mentioning it.

‘He was worried we’d be more heartbroken, but he said if he stayed silent, the fans would suffer more. He’s really just a foolish bear.’

Having experienced many idol communities, the homma thought the direction Ma Si-hyeok and CENTIX chose was very appropriate.

Rather than simply emphasizing past pain, they shifted the main focus to ‘the fact that fans exist.’

Because of this, MILLENNIUM could listen with more emotional investment.

It didn’t feel like forced tears or ridiculous bragging at all.

He chose to come here to show a better version of himself.

This single sentence shut all the haters’ mouths completely.

Now she just hopes the members won’t have to suffer for a while.

No, not just for a while – she hopes they never have to suffer again.

While eating dinner and editing videos, a notification suddenly appeared on the homma’s messenger.

A notification that a new post had been uploaded to CENTIX’s official account.

She immediately hit save and accessed Bluebird, only to be stunned by an unexpected post.

[Beloved MILLENNIUM! Without asking any questions, please choose one number between 1 and 6 that appeals to you and vote! ※Warning※ Someone may suffer because of your choice!]

“What’s this now?”

Through 〈Dancing with Puppers〉, news had been conveyed that a fan meeting would be held soon.

So she expected upcoming posts to announce details about this event.

But suddenly a post asking them to pick a number and vote appeared out of nowhere.

Still, since it was CENTIX’s request, she would wake up from sleep to do it, so she pressed 4 firmly.

After voting, when she checked the results, numbers 3 and 5 were getting overwhelming votes for some reason.

‘They wouldn’t do this for no reason, right?’

With this question in mind, the homma searched to see if there were any detectives among her acquaintances who might have discovered something.

Her timeline was filled with people who had experienced various fandom activities, so she had good reason to expect something.

Sure enough.

One follower had already posted an analysis.

[Tried everything and finally found the answer lol. Maxed out the contrast and hidden text appeared in the background ‘Centix Fan Meeting April’]

―No, how in the hell did you find this

└Seems like they tried everything possible with the photo? Lol. Adjusted transparency, zoomed in to see if there was anything next to the numbers, messed with various settings until contrast was the answer

―You’re crazy lmao. Wow but this vote is related to the fan meeting? What could it be

└I understand it’s related to the fan meeting, but I don’t know what exactly this decides. It’s not written anywhere else ;_;

└What could be decided by voting

└Is it the date? April seems confirmed

└Well if the month is already out, they probably already confirmed the date internally

└Then I don’t know. My creativity has hit rock bottom

└Ah, CENTIX is really tier 1 at making people curious…

At least finding that hidden text like people said was amazing.

But what this vote was really for remained a mystery.

‘It has a secret event vibe… Maybe it’ll be revealed on the fan meeting day.’

Still, being able to have such happy worries is such great fortune.

The homma hummed while reopening the video editing program she had closed.

But unlike her who was in a very good mood, there was a separate group whose reactions were mixed as they watched the real-time voting results.

* * *

“Number 5 is ahead again!”

“Why is number 3 getting so many votes!”

“See, you should have said okay when I offered to switch. Dummy.”

“H-How could I have known it would turn out like this?”

This is just like spectators who came to watch racehorses.

I sighed while watching the younger members pressing their heads together around the tablet in the middle.

“The results will come out tomorrow anyway, so wouldn’t it be fine to check then?”

“There’s a charm in watching the direction of the penalty sway back and forth in real-time, brother!”

“I’m in the safe zone, so it’s fun watching other kids cry in despair.”

“How did that unlucky brother end up in last place for votes?”

“Maybe he’s in last place because he has bad luck?”

Kang Seon-woo chose number 1.

Number 1 was currently getting less than 5% of the total votes, showing poor performance.

In a way, Chae Ha-ru’s bluntly spoken words made sense.

Because he had bad luck, he picked the number that looked least appealing to vote for.

Ah, the purpose of this vote posted on CENTIX’s official account is simple.

A vote to select the unfortunate target who will do penalty costumes at the fan meeting.

Among the numbers everyone chose, whoever owns the number with the most votes gets the honor of creating dark history at the fan meeting.

Everyone seems to have a strong mindset that they absolutely must avoid this after seeing the penalty costume’s identity revealed yesterday.

Ma Si-hyeok, who chose number 3, was running in first place for votes.

Seeing him constantly mutter that he should have switched when Seong-hwi offered yesterday, his mental state has clearly crumbled like a Krackers cracker again this time.

“It’s okay, brother! You’ll look good in anything!”

“Ha-woon, if you like it so much, why don’t you take my place—”

“Hey, that would break our promise with the fans, so that’s not allowed!”

“Yu Ha-woon is really the worst.”

Judging by the younger members’ energy, they’ll obviously hold onto that tablet until bedtime no matter what I say.

Since repeating myself would be tiring, let me just go back to my room and sleep early.

‘I’ll just check the results tomorrow.’

With that thought, I fell into a deep sleep at an early hour for once.

“Brother, brother! Brother Si-hwan!”

“……What is it?”

I was forcibly awakened by Chae Ha-ru’s unusually urgent voice.

Chae Ha-ru, who had departed from his default expression to have very sparkling eyes, clapped his hands at me.

“Brother, you saved my life! Thank you.”

“What kind of nonsense is this when I just woke up?”

Still not fully synchronized with reality, Chae Ha-ru shoved his phone screen in my face.

Looking at it, I saw the just-finished voting results displayed.

“……”

“I woke up early this morning and watched in real-time. Number 4 barely won at the end, so it’s fortunate.”

I let out a groan while looking at number 4, which placed 3rd in the final vote.

Blinking once and checking again, it’s the same. Number 4, which I chose yesterday on Cerberus’s recommendation, is in 3rd place.

Which means.

“Brother Si-hwan! We’re doomed!”

“I told you yesterday, Ha-woon. You shouldn’t tease me.”

“I totally thought Brother Ha-ru and Brother Si-hyeok would end up together!”

Ma Si-hyeok and Yu Ha-woon, who were also selected for the penalty along with me, burst through the door.

Seeing guys who usually sleep for a long time wake up early, they must have all been watching the voting results together.

I touched my messy hair and slowly recited.

“So… the voting is over now.”

“Yes.”

“You, me, and Ha-woon. Three people have to do the fan meeting wearing those penalty costumes?”

“You don’t need to confirm the kill, brother. It hurts my heart too.”

“……”

This must be a dream.

When I didn’t respond and crawled back into bed, Chae Ha-ru burst into laughter.

“Brother Si-hwan, I’ve never seen you like this before. You really wanted to avoid the penalty that badly.”

“I’m very annoyed right now, so don’t talk to me.”

“Still, I’m so grateful to you, brother. If it weren’t for you, I would have been in the penalty too—”

“Penalty talk is banned for the time being today.”

No matter how tough I am, I didn’t want to create dark history at my first fan meeting.

But since the results are already out, there’s no backing down now.

I pressed my forehead while imagining Cerberus in the living room suite house hearing my inner screams.

‘Please, let me avoid the worst even in the penalty costume.’

Who would wear which costume was decided to be determined by rock-paper-scissors after production was completed.

I prayed that the goddess of fortune would show me even a little mercy then.

After the morning commotion, we gathered in the practice room to review the month-long preparation process.

As the leader, I went up front to emphasize the most important items.

“First, this will be much more physically demanding than other stages. Even though we’ve performed on many stages, we haven’t sung many songs completely consecutively. Since we absolutely can’t have obvious mistakes that jump out at people, we were told we’ll have basic AR backing track.”

“But we also need to perfectly handle live singing, so you’re saying we need to build more stamina over this month?”

“You understand well.”

Yu Ha-woon raised his hand high and accurately caught my inner thoughts.

As they say, even a dog at a village school for three years can recite poetry.

The members had become accustomed to my speaking style.

“Until now we just did simple jump rope, but I think we’ll need to do proper cardio until the fan meeting. Otherwise we really won’t be able to sing properly due to lack of breath.”

“I always complained about not wanting to exercise… but today I can’t argue.”

Even Kang Seon-woo, the exercise weakling, understood the difference between regular stages and fan meetings well.

Seong-hwi next to him also nodded and delivered the final blow.

“The fan meeting is just the beginning, right? We’ll have to do concerts too. Concerts will obviously be several times harder than fan meetings, so it would be good to build stamina now as if preparing for concerts in advance.”

“Concert! Just hearing the word makes me excited!”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself. Let’s work hard thinking about the fan meeting that’s just a month away.”

“Yes!”

Everyone energetically responded to my words.

Time flowed incredibly fast.

We practiced songs according to the setlist and reorganized formations.

Along with special stages, we also tried to prepare thoroughly by reviewing topics that would be used for talk shows in between.

‘We’re busy enough as it is, I hope we can get through this without any issues.’

After Ma Si-hyeok’s incident, I desperately hoped no more bombs would explode.

Since we don’t have enough time to practice with each other, it would be troublesome if external issues made us worry.

But unfortunately, it seemed like the judge in hell didn’t hear my wish.

While we were busy revising the choreography for 〈Sketchbook〉, the manager opened the practice room door and entered.

“Ha-ru. You got a call……”

“Yes?”

“It’s from the hospital.”