The Idol Who Returned from Hell – Chapter 173

Author: Dawn

One day had passed since I finished my negotiations with the General Manager.

Though the strange tension between Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon had disappeared, making the dorm seem like it should have regained its lively atmosphere.

Everyone knew that the most important matter—the financial problem—hadn’t been resolved yet, so they remained in a listless, downcast state.

But that afternoon.

After finishing physical training and while the members were resting in their respective rooms, Seong-hwi’s shout rang out to awaken them all.

“Did everyone check their phones? Did you all see the messages?”

“Damn, you scared me. Hey, I’m changing clothes—what if you just burst open the door like that!”

“Brother Seon-woo doesn’t have privacy anyway, so it’s fine. Anyway, did you check your phone or not?”

“No. Why all of a sudden?”

Opening every door from the first floor to the second floor while causing a scene, Seong-hwi gathered the members in the living room.

Ma Si-hyeok, who had been dragged out of the bathroom unknowingly with a face wash headband on, raised his hand.

“Why are we doing this?”

“Did the message only come to me?”

“I had my phone on silent so I didn’t know if anything came.”

“Me too!”

Seong-hwi showed his phone screen with a meaningful smile.

Chae Ha-ru was the first to react after reading the text.

“The, the settlement came in?”

“Yeah. Everyone check if you got a text from the manager and go into your bank accounts. I almost fainted for a moment.”

“Brother Hwi almost fainted? I can’t imagine that.”

Yu Ha-woon, who knew his roommate’s spirited personality well, looked doubtful as he peered into his phone.

Soon after accessing the bank app to check his account balance, the youngest immediately fell backward.

“Th-th-this is really real? This is really money I can use? That’s impossible.”

Seeing Yu Ha-woon from a well-off family get that shocked, the rest of the guys hurriedly entered their own accounts.

As if they weren’t called the weak mental duo for nothing, Ma Si-hyeok also melted onto the sofa following Yu Ha-woon.

“……It doesn’t feel real.”

Kang Seon-woo reacted completely differently from the two younger members, actually starting to run around the living room in circles.

“Hahahaha! Ah, finally after all that suffering, happiness comes! Hey, Hwi! Want to grill Korean beef today? Honestly, shouldn’t we celebrate to this extent?”

“I get it, so let go of my shoulder and talk slow—.”

“Woohoo! My account balance is a whole nine digits! Crazy, this is crazy!”

“Let go and run around, Brother! My shoulder’s getting sore!”

And Chae Ha-ru, who had been quietly looking at his phone beside me, let out a very small sigh.

It was a breath filled with countless emotions.

“Ha-ru.”

“……Yes, Brother.”

“Now you can worry a little less, right?”

When I asked quietly, Chae Ha-ru raised his head and gave a faint smile.

His eyes curved like crescents from smiling seemed to have tears slightly welling up at the corners.

“……Thank you for many things.”

“What did I do to deserve thanks?”

“Brother might think it’s natural, but it was always a great source of strength for me.”

I nodded and silently patted his shoulder.

‘Right, this is how to solve things properly.’

CENTIX had earned massive income from our last two albums.

Since our group only has 6 members total, we don’t have that many members for a survival idol group either. In other words, the share each person can take becomes more than average.

If the settlement was properly processed, this could instantly solve the dispirited atmosphere before the hugely important fan meeting event.

Since I don’t have anywhere to spend money in this world anyway.

With no family or relatives existing, I obviously wouldn’t immediately use settlement money that would exceed several hundred million won.

In that case, I judged it was the right path to temporarily give up my settlement and be considerate of members who needed this money right now.

‘I’m glad the General Manager understood what I was saying.’

On the other hand, I was also worried.

I just had to say I didn’t mind receiving my settlement later.

But for the members to properly receive their overdue amounts, Rave Entertainment ultimately had to take action.

They still hadn’t cleared their karma, creating a situation where I had to step in directly. I was skeptical whether they would actually pay the guys’ settlement within two days as I demanded, but it seemed they still had some conscience.

{Master, no matter how much you gave in, you still have to mention your share again! That money-crazed fat toad human I smelled back then—he’s the type to eat and run at any opportunity!}

‘Of course I know that.’

{I absolutely can’t watch my snack money disappear before my eyes, so you must get it back, understand?}

Cerberus was more urgent than me, the actual owner of the money.

No matter how much I showed consideration for their circumstances, I obviously have to claim my share.

If Ryu Si-hwan’s settlement doesn’t come in by the promised last day of March.

‘Then, well, I suppose it wouldn’t be bad to borrow the court’s power a little.’

Things developed rapidly after that.

Chae Ha-ru immediately headed to the hospital where his mother was staying, escorted by the manager. Seeing him show us a bright smile as we saw him off, it seemed like things were going to work out well.

Those of us remaining at the dorm did several rounds of overdue group practice until Chae Ha-ru returned.

About a month remained until the fan meeting.

We had to thoroughly prepare the setlist composition and fan events by then.

“Right, Brother. The publicity team said earlier that our costume outfits will be completed around next week.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to mention that topic?”

“Come on, it’s still your penalty costume. I should at least tell you when it’s coming out.”

“I don’t want to hear it. Go away.”

Thanks to Seong-hwi, memories I wanted to forget came flooding back.

When the penalty costume production is completed, we’ll have to randomly decide which outfit gets selected.

The members, addicted to betting events, all agreed to leave even this in the fans’ hands.

It seems like the first button was wrongly fastened thanks to 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

* * *

‘The ticketing schedule came out!’

The college student couldn’t hide her trembling heart as she looked at the announcement retweeted on her usual favorite homma’s Bluebird.

CENTIX’s first fan meeting that had been spoiled early.

Only the announcement that it would be held in April had come out, but the exact date was revealed today.

April 10th, CENTIX’s first official large-scale event running for just one day.

She cracked her fingers while doing mental training in her head.

‘I’ve been taking course registration for this all along!’

It wouldn’t be just her feeling this way.

All CENTIX’s college student fans across the country would definitely be making the same resolution.

The brutal click battle against countless unknown opponents in cyberspace.

To graduate from university, you had to go through this hell-like course registration at least eight times.

In other words, it was like doing preliminary studying for a major test similar to fan meeting ticketing.

The college student turned on her computer and immediately entered several keywords into the search engine.

‘Even though I’m confident in click battles, course registration and ticketing are strictly different systems. Starting today, I’ll practice mock ticketing ten times before sleeping.’ (+) ^[1]

Course registration was simply clicking on pre-saved lectures, but ticketing required thinking about desired seats in advance and accurately moving the mouse to the exact position.

But even if you successfully clicked on your planned seat quickly, if luck was bad, a message saying ‘This seat has already been selected’ could pop up.

Why do such extreme emotions hinge on each click of these gray grape-like dots?

The college student refreshed the ticketing practice site while laughing to herself.

‘This kind of thrill is also part of being a fan.’

While repeating mock ticketing practice about five times.

She confirmed that a new notification had appeared on the Bluebird page she’d left open separately.

The college student who moved windows to check the content immediately caught the scent.

‘Looks like the kids are wearing costumes at the fan meeting!’

[Vote for your costume! ※Warning※ This is the final vote. Please remember that this single vote will change someone’s fate!]

It was similar to the voting format that had randomly appeared last time.

However, while numbers were selected previously, this time three specific costumes filled the voting options.

The college student and most MILLENNIUM momentarily wondered.

CENTIX has 6 members total, so why are there only enough costumes for half the group in this vote?

That doubt was resolved when they clicked on the costumes to enlarge them.

The college student burst into laughter seeing the costumes made with insane quality.

“Ahahaha! Wait, who’s going to wear this? What’s with that princess costume?”

It was really a battle between formidable candidates.

A pink color-coordinated princess dress with crown and shoes.

A giant tubby costume with overwhelming volume that would make even sumo wrestlers cry.

And a naturally solemn bald monk costume.

No matter whose brain these ideas came from, it was practically a foregone conclusion that CENTIX would adopt these outfits at the fan meeting.

The college student momentarily imagined Ryu Si-hwan with a bald head.

‘……An indescribable wistfulness and coolness would explode simultaneously?’

Let’s vote first.

It simply said to cast your vote for the most appealing costume without any other instructions.

The college student deliberated for a while before casting one vote for the bald costume that seemed like it would be funniest in person.

Taking a quick look at retweets of the voting post on CENTIX’s official account.

“The princess concept is unexpectedly popular?”

Scrolling down, she saw quite a few posts saying they voted for option 1.

Additionally, other MILLENNIUM also seemed to be spending time imagining their bias in their chosen costume.

Posts like [Princess Kang Seon-woo vs Bald Kang Seon-woo vs Hahoe Mask Kang Seon-woo, what’s your choice?] or [Imagining Ryu wearing the pink-pink princess set going ‘Oishiku nare~!’ T_T] were evidence of that.

Using her excellent imagination, the college student pictured Ryu Si-hwan in princess attire.

Adding the popular Japanese catchphrase on top of that.

‘Ah. Should I have gone with option 1.’

Her wishy-washy nature activated, making her immediately regret her decision.

Still, she shook her head back and forth to quickly shake it off.

Since the meaning of this voting ranking hadn’t been revealed yet anyway, there was no need to beat the ground and wail.

But unlike the fans enjoying all this spectacle.

There was someone literally beating the ground and burying his head.

“I’m not going to the fan meeting. I won’t do it.”

“Br-Brother Si-hwan! Stop banging your head! You’ll bleed at this rate!”

“If I collapse like this, I won’t have to wear that thing, right? This is actually good.”

“Uwahhh, everyone! Stop just watching and come quickly to stop him! What are you all doing!”