The Idol Who Returned from Hell – Chapter 198

Author: Dawn

The manager, who had been telling me about next year’s first half schedule, nodded his head.

“Overseas activities are important now too. We’re planning to tour Japan first since that’s currently getting the best response.”

“So we’ll be working on a new album?”

“There’s not enough time for that, and it would be too much burden on you guys, so I heard they’re thinking of making an album with the title tracks released so far translated into Japanese.”

It was a reasonable choice.

It would be difficult to make new songs because there was a lot of manpower consumption recently due to the first full album release.

And it’s much more effective to sing in that country’s language rather than performing in the Korean version.

Seong-hwi, who heard this, quickly grasped the key point.

“Then we need to study Japanese?”

“Ah, right. There’s no one here who knows Japanese properly.”

“I’ve never learned it before……”

“Me neither.”

Everyone looked at me with expectant expressions, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to study Japanese in hell.

“I can’t do it either.”

“As expected, the company is preparing special lectures for learning a second language, so everyone listen carefully. You need to say appropriate comments during the tour to get good reactions.”

“I hate studying.”

“It’s been quite a while since I last studied.”

When the topic changed to studying, everyone’s attention turned to Chae Ha-ru.

An elite from a science high school.

A genius equipped with fraudulent memory ability that automatically saves everything he sees once.

As if he had expected this to happen, Chae Ha-ru laughed softly and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll try my best too, but since I can’t handle all the comments by myself, the brothers need to study too.”

“I really haven’t held a pencil in a long time.”

“If you have time to lament like that, you could memorize a few more words.”

“Ryu Si-hwan, so heartless!”

Well, I roughly expected this kind of conversation to flow, and naturally, the Japanese lessons would be a disaster.

But after about two weeks passed.

“Kitsama! Watashi no ken wo kurae!” (+) ^[1]

“Chikushou—!” (+) ^[2]

I sighed while looking at the dorm living room that had become more chaotic than I imagined.

‘How did things turn out like this?’

No one was there to stop Kang Seon-woo and Yu Ha-woon, who were enthusiastically having a pillow fight that didn’t match their age.

Seong-hwi was also just standing next to me, laughing “Ahaha” as if he was used to it.

“Still, isn’t it meaningful that their conversation skills improved, brother?”

“Do you think that’s conversation?”

“They’re simple words, but they’re still Japanese, right?”

I observed Kang Seon-woo, who was shouting anime dialogue with cold eyes.

Seeing him immersed in acting too, it really…… Hmm. He looks twice as annoying as usual.

“Think about saying those anime third-rate villain lines on stage. Isn’t it disheartening?”

“Oh, that would definitely be embarrassing.”

If you ask for the fundamental reason why the members went off the rails, it probably wasn’t unrelated to what the Japanese conversation instructor said.

She said that to get more natural sentence composition and pronunciation, it’s good to listen and speak repeatedly through visual and audio media.

She gave examples of manga, anime, and movies.

Naturally, the guys who like to have fun chose anime, which has many interesting topics.

After being locked up in the room for about three days and binge-watching famous masterpieces.

“Seon-woo chan kawai desu ne!” (+) ^[3]

“Omae koso!” (+) ^[4]

These otakus were rapidly generated.

The conversation instructor probably didn’t recommend cultural media to learn how to talk like this.

I’m worried that if this continues, youth manga-style speech might come out during the actual tour.

“Brother, I got a great idea!”

“Tell me!”

“The people there probably watched a lot of manga and anime too, so how about shouting ‘Ogenki desu ka!’ in the middle? I think it would be fun!” (+) ^[5]

“I’ll respond right away!”

This is bad.

They really seem to be planning to do it.

Cerberus, who was very amusedly watching this desperate scene, chuckled.

{Really, these humans never change no matter when I see them.}

‘I wish they would change even a little.’

{If humans change easily, it means they’re one step away from death, so don’t think about it too much, Master!}

‘I feel like my lifespan will naturally decrease if I keep watching this chaos.’

* * *

The Japan tour was simple yet grand.

Since it was our first overseas tour, it wasn’t a dome tour like Tokyo Dome, but still the level just below that—an arena tour.

It was a large-scale event with over 100,000 total audience members, including Yokohama Arena and Saitama Super Arena.

A schedule of spending a full 14 days in Japan, including preparation time.

Rave Entertainment chose the so-called ‘squeeze’ strategy that maximizes CENTIX’s status.

Before going on tour, they had tightly scheduled first-tier talk shows in Japan.

“Do we usually film this early?”

“Unlike us, in Japan, the more famous you are, the more you seem to film in the morning.”

“I’m tired……”

Everyone got on the van rubbing their sleepy eyes due to the unfamiliar schedule.

I thought to myself that it was fortunate this was Japan with almost no time difference.

If this were America or Europe, the day and night would be completely reversed, and I could clearly see these sleepyheads having a really hard time.

“Hajime mashite, watashitachi wa……” (+) ^[6]

I heard low muttering from the seat next to me.

Chae Ha-ru was staring at his conversation notebook as if he would bore holes through it.

“Didn’t you prepare the comments almost a week ago?”

“That’s right, but still, when the actual day comes, I feel more nervous.”

“There’s an interpreter going with us, so you don’t need to feel too much pressure.”

“That’s true too, but……”

Chae Ha-ru smiled faintly.

“Someone said that to leave a good impression on overseas fans, you first need to show off your skills linguistically.”

“Ahem.”

He threw back exactly what I had said when we were taking conversation lessons.

It was something I said to motivate the whole group. But Chae Ha-ru had taken this seriously and studied Japanese more intensely than anyone.

“You brothers properly practiced pronunciation, right? If you forget lyrics during a performance, I’ll be angry.”

“You should ask those guys sitting behind us, not me.”

“Hey, are you going to keep treating us like radish kimchi?”

Kang Seon-woo, who was deliciously consuming konjac jelly, bristled and said.

“I can’t help it. You guys always claim your Japanese has improved, but all you say are sentences like ‘Minna honto ni arigatou!'” (+) ^[7]

“Do you know how important that sentence is during concerts!”

“Ahaha, Brother Seon-woo can just do the ‘I love you’ one-trick!”

The content of the Japanese talk show isn’t too difficult.

From the briefing, it seemed to be member individual introductions followed by overall explanation about this album. Some personal questions from the panelists. Then a final performance and wrap-up.

It’s a simple development compared to the comeback shows we always did in Korea.

So the burden on us isn’t that big, but as Chae Ha-ru said, if we mess up or forget lyrics, there would be no greater international embarrassment.

“Brother Si-hwan, don’t worry too much! I trained Brother Seon-woo until right before sleeping yesterday.”

“Ha-woon, who’s saying that, also looks a bit nervous.”

“No way!”

Yu Ha-woon also bristled at Ma Si-hyeok’s quiet remark.

Since the two hang around together, their reactions have become almost identical.

“Come on, calm down your excitement. We’re almost there.”

As the manager brother said, we arrived in front of Japan’s public broadcasting station MKH about 5 minutes later.

After changing into stage outfits and getting makeup done, we entered the studio, where applause and cheers quite different from Korea welcomed us.

“CENTIX!”

“Welcome! So handsome!”

Hearing someone say “handsome” in Japanese felt awkward somehow, but we sat in a row on stools with bright smiles equipped.

“Well then, let’s start today’s talk show, ‘Suzuki’s Chat Chat!’ right away! Today’s guests are some really famous people we’ve brought.”

“That’s right, it’s CENTIX, who has taken another step forward as global idols! Applause, applause, applause!”

“Two, three. All eyes on us! Hello, we’re CENTIX.”

Chae Ha-ru, who had prepared the group introduction comment in advance, performed his role excellently with unwavering pronunciation.

As if they hadn’t expected us to speak through an interpreter, the Japanese panelists’ reactions were extremely interesting.

“What, really? It seems like you just spoke perfect Japanese?”

“We studied a little before coming for the tour.”

“You looked incredibly smart from appearance! You really are smart!”

Through this natural progression, Chae Ha-ru started with self-introductions.

Originally, as the leader, I would have gone first, but fascinated by his high-level Japanese skills, the panelists looked at Chae Ha-ru with twinkling eyes.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Chae Ha-ru from CENTIX, in charge of visuals and being smart.”

“Ah, usually when someone introduces themselves as visual, it’s a bit awkward! But Ha-ru has the qualifications!”

“Smart head too, this is really dangerous?”

“Cool!”

Every single reaction was so precious that it was hard for us to hold back laughter.

Seong-hwi, sitting next to Chae Ha-ru, barely lowered the corners of his mouth and took the baton.

“Hello, I’m called Seong-hwi. I’m an all-rounder in charge of both vocals and dance in the team.”

“So handsome!”

“Your eyes have a mysterious light!”

“You look like the male protagonist from a youth drama!”

The compliments kept piling on.

“Hello! I’m CENTIX’s youngest, Yu Ha-woon—.”

“So cuuute!”

“Adorable!”

“I want to make you my real little brother!”

“Ah, ahaha! Thank you!”

It was like three lines of compliments for every line of introduction.

“Hello, my name is Ma Si-hyeok. I did contemporary dance briefly. I’m in charge of the dance position in the team.”

“Hello, everyone! Nice to meet you! I’m called Kang Seon-woo, and I came here today to have a really fun time!”

“Hello, I’m CENTIX’s leader Ryu Si-hwan. I’m in charge of main vocals.”

By the time the remaining members finished their introductions, the female panelist sitting in the back was hyperventilating as if she might fall backward.

We were very grateful that they welcomed us so warmly, but I was also worried they might actually collapse.

“Is there any food you wanted to try in Japan?”

“I was so curious about ramen! It looks delicious!”

“I wonder if Japanese-style tonkatsu might be a little different.”

“I eat everything well!”

“I want to eat bread!”

After completing a couple of simple questions like this, we moved backstage to prepare for the Japanese version of ‘Chronic.’

While putting on microphones, Seong-hwi playfully warned Kang Seon-woo.

“Brother, you remember, right? If you mess up pronunciation, I’ll preserve it forever.”

“The person who said they’d preserve it always ends up being wrong.”

“Both of you, please focus so you don’t mess up.”

Still, despite the chaotic atmosphere, these were members who showed monstrous concentration once they entered the actual stage.