The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 176

“What if we get caught going out?”

“Hey, no way! If we get caught, I’ll do a handstand on stage today.”

“There’s no need to go that far—.”

“That’s how confident I am that we won’t get caught, Brother!”

I let out a short sigh while getting my final makeup done.

Yu Ha-woon, who had finished his preparations first, was humming to himself while putting on a black windbreaker.

About an hour and thirty minutes remained until the full-scale fan meeting would begin.

After the final rehearsal and last stage check were finished, those dark audience seats would be filled without a single empty space.

According to what I heard from the manager, our fan meeting tickets for 5,000 seats sold out in just 6 minutes.

The firepower had been so intense that the entire floor sold out even during the fan club priority pre-sale, so it was only a matter of time before general sales resulted in a complete sellout.

Intelligence had already reached our ears that the number of MILLENNIUM gathered around the handball stadium was already densely packed.

That’s why Yu Ha-woon, unable to contain his curiosity, said he would disguise himself and sneak in among the staff to check out the outside world.

“I’ll just slip out and be right back!”

There was no way to keep the butt of an energetic 18-year-old glued to a chair.

By the time the styling of my newly changed hair was completed, Yu Ha-woon had returned.

“Brother! It’s totally amazing! All the fans are standing there holding our pickets!”

“They must have bought a lot of MD goods.”

“I was so surprised I almost screamed for a moment, but I barely held it in. I need to go tell the other brothers too!”

For reference, the other members were up on stage doing another rehearsal for their unit stages.

I also had a separately prepared stage, but since it wasn’t a unit, I had already finished checking it this morning.

My newly styled hair was also set to match this event.

‘The scale really grew huge for a fan meeting. Well, I can think of it as advance practice.’

CENTIX’s setlist, which had gone through revision after revision, was elaborate enough to be called a mini concert rather than a fan meeting.

While typical fan meetings spend time with 5-6 songs and intermittent talk segments, the members’ overflowing enthusiasm and ideas had created special stages that you’d only see at concerts.

It didn’t seem like it would be bad. Like I said before, it could serve as excellent practical practice for a solo concert.

‘Building up basic stamina definitely paid off.’

The basis for being able to finalize such a lineup was the noticeably improved physical fitness.

The guys, who had adapted to me frequently bringing jump rope to the practice room, seemed to have felt the necessity of improving stamina with their whole bodies.

The rate of voluntarily showing up at the gym had increased considerably, even without me forcing them to go.

Having prepared this much, I hoped there would absolutely be no mistakes like slip-ups on stage.

I also left the waiting room and headed toward the main stage.

“Does this blocking look okay now?”

“Okay, let’s go with this then! Good work.”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

The members who had meticulously checked the details came down to backstage while wiping off sweat.

I handed Ma Si-hyeok a water bottle while patting his shoulder.

“How is it, feeling good about today?”

“Yes, Brother. My condition is fine. I think going to bed early the past few days is paying off.”

Ma Si-hyeok gulped down the water in an instant.

The energy that had surged during rehearsal still hadn’t subsided, as his pupils were sparkling intensely.

“We’ve prepared hard all this time, so I’m going to pour everything out without regrets and come down.”

“Right.”

We don’t need long words when our hearts are in sync.

We’re all looking at the same place.

Meanwhile, Kang Seon-woo, who came down from the stage later, smacked our backs while speaking loudly.

“The units are finished, so should we do the group stage one more time? So the fans outside can hear us too!”

“Ah, that’s right, that’s right! The fans outside can really hear all our rehearsal sounds, Brother!”

“Then we definitely have to go. Hey, Si-hwan! Put your name tag back on and come up!”

“……I thought we were done.”

Though I grumbled slightly, I automatically attached the name tag the staff handed me and climbed the stairs.

* * *

“Um, are you still doing the giveaway……?”

“Ah, yes! There was exactly one left, you came at the right time.”

“Gasp! Th-thank you!”

Ryu Si-hwan’s homma folded up her shopping bag after cleanly distributing even her last self-made goods.

It was very rewarding.

‘I was surprised that so many subscribers came to find me.’

She expected many acquaintances from Bluebird, her longtime home ground, would come, but contrary to expectations, a considerable number of NeoTube subscribers showed up and took goods.

She was always a homma who frequently did giveaways. But this was the first time NeoTube subscribers beat Bluebird acquaintances like today.

‘That’s proof that the channel has grown tremendously!’

The homma internally sang a song of joy.

The steadily increasing view counts and subscriber numbers were her other happiness too.

No matter how much capital she had saved up, it wasn’t infinite.

To enjoy this kind of hardcore CENTIX fan life, shouldn’t this kind of side business succeed too!

When she was organizing MD goods to post on her SNS timeline, music sounds came from inside the stadium.

Her body moved automatically to the familiar intro she’d heard hundreds of times.

‘It’s 〈HIT〉! The kids must still be rehearsing.’

The homma, who had secured a spot at the front of the entrance line early, embraced her swelling anticipation while listening to CENTIX’s rehearsal sounds.

There were songs she could immediately recognize like the title track 〈Chronic〉 and 〈Find Me〉, but there were also somewhat unfamiliar melodies mixed in between.

Then the answer was only one thing.

‘Unit stages……?’

The homma looked at her mobile ticket for a moment.

It clearly read ‘Centix 1st Fan Meeting: Century School’ in bold font.

It wasn’t even a solo concert, but they prepared unit stages too.

They really were idols you could never predict with simple thinking.

Finally, it was time to enter, and the fans who had waited a long time poured into the handball stadium interior like angry waves.

The homma majestically sat in her seat while tightly hugging her precious belongings.

Section B in the center of the stage, and even row 2 where she didn’t have to strain her neck looking up.

It was ticketing where her long fan experience had shone.

‘The camera… I should take it out carefully depending on the situation.’

Not knowing yet how strongly security would hunt down telephoto lenses.

While getting live photos was important work, the homma had absolutely no desire to cause a disturbance at the fan meeting.

The piano version of 〈Reminder〉, a fan song that CENTIX had directly created, flowed gently from the speakers placed on both sides of the stage.

While humming along to the song and communicating on SNS, before she knew it, the performance time was approaching.

As the lights went out one by one starting from the back, the noisy interior suddenly became quiet.

The homma also held her breath while tightly gripping her light stick and slogan.

—♬♩♬♩~

A familiar sound was heard.

The bell sound announcing the end of school.

A video filled the vision of fans who were staring forward as if enchanted.

Warm sunlight streaming down illuminated a desk.

A doll sprawled over the desk in an empty classroom.

When the camera approached closely and zoomed in on the face, Seong-hwi was shown yawning with a drowsy expression.

Seong-hwi began moving his fingers as if something occurred to him while listening to the bell sound.

Like magic, white text was written following his index finger.

[I want something new]

The moment the sentence expressing a desire for something new was completed, the empty classroom filled with brilliant light.

MILLENNIUM, who had been staring at the large screen, instinctively closed their eyes or covered their faces with their hands.

The homma, whose head became complicated wondering if this dazzling effect was intentionally added, shook her head and opened her eyes again.

Then a large structure began falling from the center of the stage.

—Wooooong!

A massive structure resembling celestial bodies stopped suspended in the air.

At that precise timing, the lift slowly operated.

And with the heart-striking intro of 〈Find Me〉, six tall silhouettes rose onto the stage via the lift.

“Waaaaaaah—!”

As if using the endlessly ringing cheers as a catalyst, the intro of 〈Find Me〉 burst forth powerfully.

And the voice of the intro master who heated up this fervent atmosphere rang out.

「The wind grazing both cheeks

Something suddenly comes to mind

Who am I, Who are U」

CENTIX appeared under the gold and silver lights.

Just a few seconds ago, only dark silhouettes were visible, so even their costumes couldn’t be identified.

When Ryu Si-hwan in the center lightly tugged at his black school uniform jacket, the homma felt like her nose might bleed.

‘School uniforms! It’s school uniforms!’

She should have noticed from the official name ‘Century School.’

CENTIX had worn numerous outfits, but they had never done school uniforms or school concepts yet.

Their first attempt was at this fan meeting.

But this wasn’t all.

It was something she belatedly noticed because she was distracted by Ryu Si-hwan’s sly smile in the center…

“Cr-crazy.”

The homma was speechless watching her bias with bleached golden hair fluttering.

He had made a tremendously big change from the style that had stopped at light brown. No, it wasn’t simply big but earth-shaking in scale.

Even when Ryu Si-hwan, who had only done black hair for a long time, dyed it brown, the fight between the black hair faction vs. dyed hair faction had been quite intense.

This time, since Ryu Si-hwan had completely bleached it, the battle between both sides was bound to intensify even more.

The homma, who had been a staunch black hair supporter, had wavered when faced with brown-haired Ryu Si-hwan but hadn’t gone so far as to abandon her home base.

But…

‘Blonde hair is such a cheat code!’

She felt like her mind was becoming hazy from the blonde hair that matched his fair skin so perfectly.

She had been spacing out so much that the homma didn’t even realize she was waving Ryu Si-hwan’s slogan upside down.

The members, boasting such ethereal visages, beautifully finished their first stage.

Immediate reflexive cheers and applause erupted.

「Gonna make it HIT」

But immediately after, the cheerful beat of 〈HIT〉 struck their eardrums, and the cheers quickly died down.

The intention to completely shatter the atmosphere heated up by 〈Find Me〉 from the very beginning was evident.

〈HIT〉, now well-known enough to rank among ‘national group chant songs.’

MILLENNIUM sang along with all their might to this song that was like their school anthem.

The homma frantically waved her light stick, intoxicated by the adrenaline rising from her legs.

Amidst the overwhelming cheers, CENTIX’s fan meeting officially raised its curtain.