The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 197

“Guys, could you move the food on the table for just a moment—!”

“Ah, yes!”

Yu Ha-woon and Chae Ha-ru, who acted quickly, pushed the food plates that had been placed in front of us to one side.

The manager, who had come carrying what looked like a fairly heavy box, bent his back with a groan.

“What on earth is this?”

“Oh, my back. The main characters of today should open it themselves and check, shouldn’t they?”

“Then I’ll step forward as our representative and check! Everyone else, please give us a faithful drumroll!”

Kang Seon-woo, who would never miss an opportunity to be in the spotlight, stood up boldly.

I hesitated slightly at the request for a drumroll.

Ma Si-hyeok, who had already been deeply influenced by Kang Seon-woo’s speaking style, began tapping the table with both hands.

“Thump-thump-thump-thump.”

“You… don’t make sounds that don’t match your build.”

“But Brother Seon-woo asked me to.”

“You don’t need to show one-sided loyalty to that guy.”

“That’s petty, Ryu Si-hwan! Are you trying to monopolize Si-hyeok?”

Before the conversation could derail any further, I decided to just keep my mouth shut and join the drumroll.

Kang Seon-woo, who had opened the top part of the box, peeked inside.

No matter what gift it was, that guy was known for always having great reactions, so he was bound to be happy.

And sure enough, genuinely surprised eyes greeted us.

“Hey, guys. This is amazing.”

“I’m getting dizzy, so stop building suspense and take it out quickly.”

“I want to take it out too, but how do I get this out from inside?”

“Move aside for a moment.”

I got up from my seat and carefully examined the side of the box.

As I thought, this side was designed to open sideways when pulled.

“If it’s hard to take out from the top, obviously you should take it out from the side.”

“As expected, is a leader different?”

“…This is just basic common sense.”

The side of the large box opened, revealing the magnificent appearance of the hidden gift inside.

“C-c-cake?”

“How can a cake be that big?”

“How many layers is that?”

“There’s lettering all over the top! This is really amazing!”

The gift’s identity was a super-sized cake with sweet frosting and bread that was a full 4 layers.

Everyone was standing there with their mouths agape, unable to say anything, when Seong-hwi, the broadcasting ghost, instinctively picked up the fixed phone and filmed the overall outline from above.

On the top layer of the cake made in sky blue colors symbolizing CENTIX, careful lettering was written.

[Happy 1st Anniversary! —From Millennium]

The precious hearts of fans congratulating our 1st debut anniversary.

I couldn’t even imagine how many people had joined forces for CENTIX.

In a situation where everyone was overcome with emotion and lost their words, Kang Seon-woo was the first to recover.

“I was already so touched and happy from seeing the coffee truck and snack truck, but now seeing this cake too… Wow, I’m really at a loss for words. I feel like I keep repeating the same things, but what can I do when nothing comes out except ‘we really love MILLENNIUM.’ Everyone, thank you so much and we love you!”

“Thank you, MILLENNIUM!”

“We love you!”

After cheering and clapping to our hearts’ content, Chae Ha-ru recalled the fundamental problem.

“…But how are we going to eat this? We can’t eat it, can we?”

“That’s… right?”

“Can we really eat all of this?”

“In the first place, it’s a cake that the fans decorated so prettily for us, so wouldn’t eating it be strange too?”

“What should we do…?”

It was partly because we were flustered facing a 4-layer cake for the first time in our lives.

Also, the thought of ruthlessly eating a congratulatory cake filled with MILLENNIUM’s hearts felt a bit sacrilegious.

But a few of us, including me, would remember the first lunchbox support incident that had become a year ago.

‘Back then too, we said the lunchboxes the fans gave us were too precious to eat, and we got scolded instead. They said they gave it to us to eat, so why weren’t we eating it.’

So afterward, we cleanly emptied the lunchboxes and even took verification shots of eating everything.

I wondered if this would become a similar situation, so I quickly glanced at the K-Live chat window.

‘…I only see comments saying we’re cute and laughing.’

I was wondering which direction would be good to speak when.

The manager, who had disappeared somewhere again, reappeared this time bringing 3 staff members with him.

“Put that cake aside for now, you guys can eat these!”

He whispered this to me while placing 6 regular cake boxes on the table.

There were also cards with short messages on top of the boxes.

“Twenty, twenty?”

“What, what?”

“What’s going on?”

“Besides the super-sized cake, individual fans sent twenty congratulatory cakes.”

I was thankful that Rave Entertainment had a policy of allowing all personal gifts.

On members’ individual birthdays and on group anniversaries too.

Realizing anew that we had this many fans who liked expressing their hearts to the fullest made my head feel numb.

It’s too much.

I really never thought in my life that I would receive this kind of love from someone.

Every moment since debuting with CENTIX had felt like a dream.

That floating feeling seemed to soar all the way to the edge of the sky.

“Should we put this cake down for now since we need to reset the camera too?”

Since the 4-layer cake was so massive, if we put the K-Live filming phone in its original position, our faces would be hidden.

So we carefully put it in the box and set it up next to the balloons.

When we opened the 6 cakes, each one had a designated owner.

“Oh, this one has a wolf face.”

“This one’s a desert fox!”

“It looks like they made cakes with each member’s animal face. Alright, everyone find your cake and take it!”

I received the cake with a cute desert fox winking and sat down.

The manager had told us to eat this instead of the 4-layer cake, but similarly, the desert fox cake was made so carefully that it seemed too precious to eat.

So I was satisfied with just sticking in candles and singing.

“Congratulations on our 1st anniversary!”

“Let’s see each other for a long, long time, guys!”

“I love you, brothers!”

The younger ones hit me from both sides.

Normally I wouldn’t have reacted much, but since today was a special day.

I patted their shoulders with the fondness of having run well together this far.

I bounced around celebrating to my heart’s content.

Eventually, feeling like we needed some different content, Kang Seon-woo turned his head around.

“Ah, there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I think it would be fine to do it here.”

“What is it?”

“Wait, before that!”

I inadvertently grabbed the pink balloon that Kang Seon-woo shoved at me.

“We can’t just be ordinary in a special place like this. Let’s inhale the helium gas and try it, friends.”

“He-helium gas?”

“Oh, I’ve never tried it before.”

“I was personally curious about Si-hyeok’s voice. How high that low voice can go.”

And so the helium gas event suddenly proceeded.

I loosened the balloon tip and took a sip.

‘…Isn’t this just going to create forced dark history again?’

“Oh, oh oh! Brothers! My voice got completely high!”

Yu Ha-woon, who had already sucked down 1 entire balloon, raised his hand high.

His voice, which was already a bit high-pitched, became ultra-high like a small cartoon character from a movie.

“Ahaha, that guy really looks like he should appear in some animation—.”

“Hey, Hwi! Your voice is also ridiculously weird!”

“Eh, mine doesn’t sound different, does it?”

“No way, you sound like a mosquito buzzing right now!”

Kang Seon-woo, who was saying this, also had his own voice reaching a ridiculous pitch.

The moment I opened my mouth to sigh and tell him about it.

“Your voice is also really weird right now—.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Wait, was that really Brother Si-hwan just now?”

“Oh my, has your lordship arrived!”

“What…?”

Everyone burst into laughter and even clapped.

Kang Seon-woo was even bowing his waist and making a really annoying expression.

I wondered if my voice had changed this weirdly, so I asked MILLENNIUM.

“Everyone, did my voice really become weird enough to get that kind of reaction? It didn’t, right? Tell me it didn’t. Please.”

“Ah, I’m really going to cry. Brother Si-hwan, would it be perfect if you sang a song here?”

“…No.”

Looking at the countless ‘lol’ going up in the chat… Unfortunately, it seems Ryu Si-hwan’s voice after inhaling helium really had become like some pathetic nobleman #1 you’d see in a historical drama.

I watched Kang Seon-woo manipulate the tablet with my shoulders drooping.

“We’ve had many people tell us to take MBTI tests before. So today as a special event, all members will take it!”

The MBTI test was fine, but doing this while having drunk helium gas was dizzying.

I listened to the younger ones’ choices while keeping my mouth shut as much as possible.

“Let’s see, what MBTI does our first contestant Ha-woon have! Everyone, what do you think came out?”

“There are many people in the chat predicting ENFP or ENFJ.”

Ma Si-hyeok, who had been staring intently at the broadcast screen, relayed MILLENNIUM’s predictions.

As expected of MILLENNIUM who knew our personalities inside and out, Yu Ha-woon came out as ENFP.

“Next, our Ha-ru’s turn.”

Chae Ha-ru came out as INFJ, and Seong-hwi came out as ESTP.

Kang Seon-woo, who had been leading the MBTI show, came out as ENFJ, which MILLENNIUM had already predicted before taking the test.

“Then what will our lordship Si-hwan get?”

“…I’m going to talk as little as possible.”

“Hey, where’s the fun in being petty like that! Here, the helium gas duration seems to be running out, so let’s refill with a new one and go.”

“I won’t inhale it!”

I tried to refuse firmly, but Kang Seon-woo mentioned the 90,000 viewers watching the broadcast, so there was no escape route.

I answered the questions faithfully in a half-resigned state.

“Our Leader Ryu came out as! Oh, we really don’t overlap at all! INTJ came out!”

“If I just get a new type, that would work.”

“You don’t need to be that determined, Si-hyeok.”

“I’ll definitely avoid overlapping types.”

“No, it’s fine, so don’t lie and answer properly!”

Ma Si-hyeok, who often got fixated on strange points, showed determined eyes while clicking the choices.

“MILLENNIUM, if you get this one right too, you’re really gods!”

“But they say Brother Si-hyeok’s type is too obvious?”

“Everyone’s saying he’s obviously INFP.”

Since MBTI is so popular these days, the fans seem to know us like the back of their hand.

And really amazingly, when Ma Si-hyeok came out as INFP, everyone was surprised.

“We really don’t overlap at all!”

“That’s surprising, but the fact that the fans all knew is even more surprising!”

“Well, well. All of our everything has been revealed to MILLENNIUM.”

“…Something about the nuance seems weird, Brother Seon-woo.”

The MBTI test that had been conducted as a surprise event was completely finished.

I hoped we could do the final greeting a bit more normally.

Very unfortunately, the recharged helium gas hadn’t disappeared yet.

“Then we’ll say our goodbyes here today! We want to convey our thanks once more to all the MILLENNIUM who congratulated CENTIX on our 1st anniversary.”

“We’ll continue to show you CENTIX growing and developing even more, so please give us lots of interest!”

“Bye~!”

We waved our hands while collectively showing off our high tones.

I smiled gently.

‘I hope only good things happen from now on.’

However, before that wish could even fade, hectic days came crashing down on us.

“A, a Japan tour?”