The Idol Who Returned from Hell – Chapter 194

Author: Dawn

The other idols were also tremendously shocked by the unexpected results.

This wasn’t a reaction for the cameras, but genuine emotions arising from their hearts.

They must have been thinking this unconsciously.

No matter how good their performance was, CENTIX was the underdog.

It was natural that Zefa, who had everyone’s acknowledgment, would take the relative advantage.

But when they opened the lid and checked, not only did they not get 1st place, none of them even made it to 2nd place.

“Oh, wow! Amazing!”

“Hwi got 1st place!”

“Wow, I wonder how the other categories will turn out?”

The rankings that followed showed Baek Joo-won in 3rd place and Seok Jae-han in 4th place.

But the vote gap with me in 2nd place was about 40 votes, so it couldn’t even be called disappointing.

“Brother Hwi! You did really well on stage!”

“That’s right, we should naturally get 1st place!”

“Ahaha, thanks everyone.”

“Why are you so calm? Like you knew you’d get 1st place.”

At Ma Si-hyeok’s question, Seong-hwi shrugged his shoulders once.

“Well, I did it with the mindset that I couldn’t afford not to get 1st place.”

“Ooh…… Pointlessly cool.”

“It’s very useful though?”

“Is this really the same Si-hyeok who used to get pushed around by Hwi all the time? Are you the same Ma Si-hyeok?”

“Brother Seon-woo, I’ve grown too.”

The members were celebrating as if it were their own achievement.

Both sides were already grabbing Seong-hwi’s shoulders and shaking him in a frenzy, so there wasn’t really room for me to squeeze in.

Still, I patted his arm and grinned.

“Good work.”

“Brother worked harder.”

“This is strange. Why has this kid gotten so mature?”

“Just what did you think of me?”

“A narcissist wrapped up entirely in self-love and pride?”

“……With all the karma from before, I can’t deny it.”

I turned my gaze toward Zefa again.

Seok Jae-han, whose thoughts were completely incomprehensible, was sending congratulatory applause with a purely bright expression.

Baek Joo-won, who seemed to have given up on expression management, had stiffened up bleakly and was just staring continuously at the scoreboard.

‘Is it really that unbelievable?’

Looking at everything one by one, it was truly laughable.

No matter how thoroughly he had trampled Seong-hwi during trainee days, did he really believe that influence would continue until now?

Did he think that since he hadn’t changed, others wouldn’t have changed either?

There’s a saying that people can’t be fixed.

But that only applies to people who have committed all kinds of misdeeds from long ago.

When you think about it, it’s actually correct.

Baek Joo-won is still stuck in himself from a few years ago.

And Seong-hwi, who had been his victim, has demonstratively escaped from that shadow and changed like this.

“Next, we’ll announce the rap position results!”

Here too, Kang Seon-woo and Ma Si-hyeok took 1st and 2nd place respectively, completing truly overwhelming results.

Without even checking the details, it was obvious that we would be 1st in the overall competition score this time.

Everyone knew this, so the smiles didn’t disappear from either side of me.

“These are the results from combining all individual scores. The 1st place team for this 2nd competition is…… CENTIX! This is an incredible rebellion from the youngest!”

“Thank you!”

“We’ll work hard to show you an even better stage in the final competition!”

And in the vote for the best performing team, 〈OBEY〉 also won 1st place.

In the final rankings including all benefits and scores, Zefa was pushed to 3rd place by us and Comet.

{Master, that red pepper paste head is rotting worse than any face I’ve seen in hell!}

‘It would be strange if his mentality didn’t explode. He must have had such high expectations.’

{Serves him right. Won’t the Judge come here and take humans like that away directly?}

‘Wouldn’t it be funny for him to personally come for humans like that?’

{Hehe, so Master received special treatment?}

‘It’s not bragging, but that’s how it ended up sounding.’

I was also inwardly celebrating, but Cerberus seemed the most excited.

He was so thrilled that he kept giving me live commentary of Baek Joo-won’s expression rotting away.

I was worried his transparency might wear off at this rate.

“Cast members, you all worked so hard, and please rest well until the next 3rd competition filming! We’ll send exact notices through your agencies later.”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

“Thank you!”

All filming was finished.

From rehearsal to the main stage, and finally the results announcement.

I’d been wearing stage makeup for such a long time that I wanted to wash it off quickly.

“Ah, today feels especially tiring.”

“It’s probably because we prepared for the stage in a changed environment.”

“I feel sorry to the you all for no reason. Only Brother Ha-ru and I rested—.”

“What’s there to be sorry about, you cute guys? You must have wanted to be on stage too.”

“No way, absolutely not. Just watching you guys bring back good results was satisfying enough.”

“And, and!”

Yu Ha-woon, who had entered the waiting room, spun around and clenched his fists tightly.

“There’s still the final competition left anyway, right? Then we’ll definitely go up as a group, so I’ll pour out all my remaining energy then!”

“Me too. I really want to get 1st place in the 3rd competition too.”

“Yeah, these are my juniors!”

Unable to just watch this scene, Kang Seon-woo put them in headlocks.

Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon, who were mercilessly grabbed by the neck, surrendered and flailed their arms.

“Ah, brother! Stop! Stop it!”

“Br-Brother Seon-woo! I can’t breathe!”

“You have to endure at least this much!”

“Who exactly makes those rules!”

I left the three of them to play by themselves and changed clothes first.

Taking off the body-hugging outfit, I finally felt like I could live.

The other members also changed into comfortable clothes one by one and finished reorganizing.

When we were gathering our respective belongings and preparing to return to the dorm.

“Brother Si-hwan? Aren’t you coming?”

“Go ahead first. I have something to take care of.”

“I’ll wait in the car.”

I waved to Chae Ha-ru and then took a short breath.

Then I left CENTIX’s waiting room and walked down the corridor.

‘Is it here?’

There was a paper attached outside the waiting room door that read [Zefa(Zefa)]. (+) ^[1]

Since I couldn’t hear any sounds from inside, they seemed to have already left.

As expected, one person would definitely still be there.

“……”

“You haven’t left yet.”

I grinned and closed the door.

Baek Joo-won, sitting in a chair with his hair completely disheveled, looked at me with eyes full of rage.

“Why are you looking at me like that, senior?”

“Why did you come?”

“Well, I felt like I didn’t properly respond to what you said to me back then.”

“What response—.”

When I kept smiling without any answer, Baek Joo-won cut off his words as if remembering.

Rough laughter burst from his mouth.

“Haha! You were still thinking about that?”

“Didn’t you also keep thinking about it to create this situation, senior?”

His snake-like eyes narrowed even thinner.

“Where did you hear such bullshit?”

“I’m not really the type to just play around either. I heard a bit about how Senior Joo-won is still grinding his teeth like a child, trapped in emotions from years ago.”

Actually, I’d wanted to speak harshly to that red pepper paste head bastard from the moment I first saw him.

But it was difficult to act rashly without a clear justification.

Now it’s the perfect situation.

“You said back then that people don’t change even when their environment changes.”

“……”

“And you also said you were curious whether we wouldn’t waver no matter what pressure we faced.”

“What’s your point?”

“I think you already know the answer well, senior.”

I completely erased my smile.

“People can change sufficiently. Not just the environment, but if they have the will to change themselves, anything is possible.”

“……”

“Don’t assume that just because you’re the same as before, other people will be too. It seems like you’re the only one whose mental age stopped during trainee days.”

Baek Joo-won’s hand on his thigh was openly trembling.

Seeing that, I chuckled.

“If you don’t want to be humiliated again by a junior you used to look down on, please abandon that stubbornness and live your life.”

“Hey, you bastard.”

“And if you cause any more trouble for Seong-hwi or CENTIX beyond this, I won’t deal with you in such a peaceful way next time.”

“What did you say……?”

This kid really doesn’t know how to live in the world at all.

“Senior, you’re just someone who debuted a little earlier than us, you don’t have the power to shake up the laws of the Republic of Korea, do you? If you don’t want to send all of X2 Entertainment to hell, you’d better stay quiet. You know well how thirsty media companies are for whistleblowing these days, right?”

“Hey.”

“How many people would come running with fire in their eyes if it was revealed that Zefa was going around acting like complete trash before their debut?”

I threw my last words over my shoulder as I moved my feet.

“I’m quite curious about that too, but since a promise is a promise, I’ll turn a blind eye once if you stay quietly as you are. Ah, anyway……”

“……”

“When today’s competition is broadcast, you’ll get quite a bit of attention even without the X2 trainee story. Since you got beautifully buried by the guys you dismissed as mere juniors.”

“With that big mouth—!”

Baek Joo-won trembled all over and shot up from his seat, but he just ground his teeth in place.

That sight was so pathetic I almost burst out laughing.

“You said before that you’d buy me a meal sometime, right? I’ll wait until you contact me.”

“Ryu Si-hwan, hey!”

“Then I’ll see you next time.”

Leaving behind Baek Joo-won who was suddenly shouting, I slammed the waiting room door shut.

The bang and echoing explosive sound had never sounded so pleasant.

With a much more refreshed face, I went down to the underground parking garage, where my manager greeted me with raised eyebrows.

“Why does your face look so bright today? Did something good happen?”

“Ah, good things? There were quite a few.”

“Oh, you guys got 1st place this time! Right?”