The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 177

After perfectly finishing two songs in a row, CENTIX waved their hands while catching their rough breaths.

With words that they would briefly have time to reorganize the stage, the lights dimmed temporarily.

The shadows of staff moving in unison could be glimpsed briefly.

Eventually, desks and chairs commonly seen in schools were set up on stage.

“MILLENNIUM!”

“Wow, it really seems like every single seat is filled without exception!”

“Hello!”

Once all preparations were finished, CENTIX appeared once again with their hair and makeup reorganized.

Their appearance of cheerfully waving to fans while sitting in their seats really looked exactly like students.

‘No wait, Ha-woon is actually still a student.’

The homma thought to herself while rolling up her slogan above her camera lens.

Although she hadn’t had any intention of taking photos during the middle of the performance, many opportunities opened up during talk time.

The people around her seemed to have similar thoughts as they cautiously began taking out their phones and cameras.

The order in which the members sat was as follows.

From left: Kang Seon-woo, Ma Si-hyeok, Seong-hwi, Ryu Si-hwan, Chae Ha-ru, and Yu Ha-woon.

The homma sitting on the left side of central section B was slightly disappointed that Ryu Si-hwan wasn’t right in front of her, but she was satisfied since he was still within sufficient range.

Kang Seon-woo, who had caught his breath, boldly grabbed the microphone and started the talk.

“We only did two songs but why is that my body already heated up from the excitement? How are our members feeling?”

“MILLENNIUM’s cheers were so loud that I almost started singing along without realizing it.”

“Which part? Which part?”

“The ‘Now it’s time, CENTIX!’ chant at the beginning was so addictive—.”

As soon as Ma Si-hyeok finished speaking, many quick-witted MILLENNIUM raised their voices and chanted “Now it’s time, CENTIX!” once again.

The homma laughed inwardly as she captured Ma Si-hyeok’s startled expression in that instant.

“I didn’t expect you to chant it again. Ah, then should we try the one we always chant backstage?”

“I’m good with it!”

“Ah, the one Brother Seon-woo randomly shouts at any time?”

“……You’re going to do that here? Seriously?”

“Hahaha! Look at Ryu Si-hwan’s stiffened expression!”

Just as Kang Seon-woo said, Ryu Si-hwan had a very reluctant look in his eyes.

What kind of backstage chant could make such an expression appear?

The homma instinctively thought this needed to be recorded as video.

The moment she quickly switched modes, the members who had stood up from their seats put their hands together and shouted loudly.

“Let’s go, let’s go, CENTIX! Let’s go tear up the stage!”

“Let’s gooo!”

“Let’s gooo!”

Plus Yu Ha-woon responding with extra enthusiasm and Chae Ha-ru faithfully stomping his feet.

It seemed the so-called chaotic mess that had appeared in self-content and reality shows was reflected in reality as well.

The homma who was filming captured Ryu Si-hwan shouting the chant with an enlightened expression.

She forcibly held back laughter since her voice couldn’t enter the video, but it was so difficult.

‘Why is Si-hwan’s drooping eyes so cute!’

Perhaps realizing that leaving the younger members + same-age friend alone like this would prevent progress, Ryu Si-hwan hurriedly moved to the next topic.

“We were told there’s someone special who will serve as MC to commemorate our first fan meeting, right, Seon-woo?”

“Ah, I really think I made that chant well. The energy is totally rising—.”

“Seon-woo?”

“Alright, alright! Don’t grind your teeth! I’m scared.”

“Let’s do well, okay?”

This was a scene that always appeared in CENTIX’s group variety shows.

Kang Seon-woo unable to control his excitement and going off track. And Ryu Si-hwan showing cold cynicism with his coolly expressionless eyes.

Watching this chemistry that seemed like a cat and mouse directly in front of her eyes felt different.

Feeling a threat to his life, Kang Seon-woo tapped his cheek once and continued his comment.

“Yes, we heard they contacted us saying they wanted to personally be the MC of this event! It’s really been a long time since we’ve met, so I’m a bit nervous too. MILLENNIUM, please welcome them with big applause!”

The homma clapped while staring at the side of the stage.

‘Who could this celebrity be that they haven’t seen in a long time?’

There probably aren’t that many celebrities with deep connections to CENTIX.

But the moment clicking heels could be heard, one person immediately came to mind.

“Hello, everyone! I’m actress Go Hyeon-ju, who will be serving as special MC for this CENTIX fan meeting, Century School. Nice to meet you!”

Fans who had participated in the 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 filming went wild seeing her in person again.

The homma felt the same way.

“Why is sister Hyeon-ju coming out here!”

“She’s insanely beautiful in person, really!”

“She must have come out to maintain the 〈ISL 2〉 connection. Really awesome.”

When Go Hyeon-ju appeared in the classroom-reminiscent set, she looked like a homeroom teacher.

If someone with almost no prior knowledge of idol fan meetings or concerts were to serve as MC, it might result in somewhat rough and stiff hosting.

But Go Hyeon-ju showed off her survival show experience and created very natural hosting.

After lightly starting with CENTIX’s recent status talk, Go Hyeon-ju immediately moved to the corner fans had been waiting for.

“Now, since we’ve heard about everyone’s recent status, it’s time to move on to the full-scale games, right?”

“Every time Hyeon-ju says lines like that, I feel like I’m getting memory assaulted.”

“Me too.”

“I can speak honestly here. When I was hosting 〈ISL 2〉, the PD kept giving instructions to drag out time and make the trainees nervous, so it was hard for me too. I was a victim, a victim.”

“For being a victim, you were way too skilled at it though?”

“Ahem, ahem! Anyway, the warm-up game we’ll try is! Mini games that MILLENNIUM directly requested. Shall we lightly go into a balance game?”

Events related to CENTIX generally required a lot of fan participation.

Reality Season 1, which could be considered their first public event, had also structured games by receiving viewers’ opinions.

Whenever small and large events came up, posts from the official account would go up asking what events would be good, and various comments would be left.

From fans’ perspective, it was a perfect opportunity.

Some people among participants would win signed goods through lottery.

Also, they could actually see their favorites engaging in specific content.

So this balance game, which divided opinions over extreme choices, was also one of the items that received much response.

Since CENTIX fought tremendously even over tiny topics.

Balance game options appeared on the large LED screen.

“First match! Sleeping without air conditioning in summer vs sleeping without blankets in winter. What are the members’ choices?”

“Isn’t this too easy?”

“Me too. It’s easy though?”

Seong-hwi and Kang Seon-woo, who confidently raised their hands, slyly looked at each other.

They seemed worried that their opinions might differ…

“I’m obviously the latter! Hey, how can you sleep without air conditioning in summer?”

“What are you saying, Brother. In winter without blankets, you’ll catch a cold while sleeping and your condition will hit rock bottom.”

As expected, unity was not such an easy thing for CENTIX.

It split into two factions. Summer faction Kang Seon-woo who couldn’t live without air conditioning, and Seong-hwi who said blankets were essential for maintaining body temperature in winter.

Here, Ryu Si-hwan cleanly summarized the situation with brilliant words.

“It only says air conditioning in the option, right? Then you could just use a fan in summer.”

“If, if you put it that way, then in winter you could use an electric blanket instead of regular blankets!”

“Then only the floor gets warm and there’s no way to block cold air and wind.”

“……Now that I hear it, that’s true.”

The situation continued to flow similarly after that.

Occasionally when Ryu Si-hwan fell silent, Yu Ha-woon, who was known as the unofficial power behind the scenes, would lay down the definitive argument.

“Brothers, listen carefully. Tomato-flavored soil is still food, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But soil-flavored tomato isn’t food! With tomatoes, you can just endure and swallow while thinking ‘this is food~’ and get through it, but eating soil itself is strange, isn’t it?”

“Hearing this, that’s true too.”

The homma steadily divided between video and photo ratios while extracting appropriate amounts.

Even though it wasn’t even mid-fan meeting yet, the capacity was already quite full.

This was a homma who had prepared three large-capacity SD cards for days like this.

The next corner was content CENTIX had never shown before.

Drawing pictures.

It was a game where they looked at pictures drawn by the problem submitter and guessed the given word.

“Si-hyeok? Is that possibly…… hieroglyphics?”

“It, it’s a drawing.”

“No matter how I look at it, it seems like characters you’d see in pyramids—.”

Ma Si-hyeok, who usually showed off his dexterity in various places, collapsed while producing only bizarre drawings.

Surprisingly, Kang Seon-woo displayed simple yet distinctive drawing skills and obtained the most points.

“I used to be called Picasso back in the day!”

“When was that back in the day, Brother?”

“……Kindergarten?”

“That’s from back when people still had to use torches for light.”

“Hey, punk, Chae Ha-ru! I told you not to keep teasing about age!”

The fulfilling first talk time ended.

Leaving behind words that they were going down to prepare for the next stage, CENTIX hurriedly went down to backstage.

Go Hyeon-ju also skillfully communicated with MILLENNIUM for a few minutes before saying she’d see them again later and briefly withdrew to the side stage.

The homma carefully put away her camera while catching her breath.

They probably wouldn’t do 〈Chronic〉 right away. Since quite a bit of time remained, they’d save the title song.

Then the next sequence would most likely be unit stages by the members.

She was very much looking forward to who would start it off.

—Sssss…

A faint crying sound could be heard from somewhere on the dark stage.

Along with the unidentified sound, a trap beat that bounced and dropped like a xylophone came out through the speakers.

「Ay I’ll bite you hard

Anaconda」

Three silhouettes slowly walked out through the red-lit fog, bodies crouched low.

When Ma Si-hyeok in the center perfectly handled the first intro with his mid-low voice, tremendous response erupted from the surroundings.

“Si-hyeok!”

The fan sitting next to the homma seemed to obviously be Ma Si-hyeok’s hardcore fan.

Her appearance of screaming without even blinking, to the point where tears were about to form, was truly admirable.

「Be careful, I

Don’t know where I’ll go

It’s dangerous, I’m

Getting closer and closer」

「I’ll swallow up

All of you at once like this

Sneer, like an anaconda」

During the chorus part, Kang Seon-woo, still sporting his signature two-tone silver hair, flashed his characteristic smile with his lips curled up.

Red contact lenses contrasting with his nearly platinum hair color and heavy eye makeup truly put the finishing touch on everything.

‘This is one of the concept evaluation songs from 〈ISL 1〉, right?’

If the homma’s memory wasn’t wrong, this was 〈Anaconda〉, the evaluation song that drew the hottest reaction during 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

At that time, she hadn’t invested tremendous amounts of time like seriously stanning CENTIX, so she didn’t remember well.

But the melody with trap and jazz vibes was definitely perfect for the three members on stage.

「Pierce through your heart

Swallow it whole just like that

Our meeting gazes are hot but

That’s still not enough for me」

Seong-hwi’s tone and smooth dance lines captivated everyone who visited the venue.

Despite being a stage with only three people, it felt incredibly full.

The homma, who had been staring ahead in a trance, suddenly realized.

‘This is a unit of dance major members!’

Main dancer Ma Si-hyeok, Seong-hwi, and Kang Seon-woo who had skills comparable to theirs.

The 〈Anaconda〉 stage ended with a fantastic harmony.

The homma, who had been clapping following Ma Si-hyeok’s individual fan still cheering enthusiastically enough to blow her vocal cords, swelled with increasing anticipation.

If this was the dance unit, then surely Ryu Si-hwan would—!

Silence fell over the stage that had instantly darkened.

The homma, who instinctively felt that something big was coming, forgot to breathe and clasped her hands while waiting.

And finally.

—♩♪♪♪♬♬

An electric guitar riff accompaniment burst out with force enough to tear the speakers apart.