The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 204

A VCR was playing showing the members staying up all night discussing ideas for the concert.

[This seems like it could be good.]

[But we did something too similar at the fan meeting. I hope it doesn’t overlap.]

[That’s true, but……]

Yu Ha-woon, who loved cute things, had suggested the idea of wearing costumes, but remembering they’d done almost identical penalty makeup at the fan meeting, he lowered his hand.

Watching the youngest like this, Chae Ha-ru snapped his finger once and said,

[I think doing makeup is fine. But how about we completely twist the concept instead?]

[Twist the concept?]

[Yeah. Like this.]

Chae Ha-ru wrote something down and showed it to his brothers and junior.

The moment Kang Seon-woo saw the writing on the paper, he burst out laughing.

[Ahaha! So you and Ha-woon will do it together, right? I absolutely won’t do it.]

[I won’t do it either.]

[Me neither.]

[I like it! I’d love to do a duo stage with Brother Ha-ru!]

CENTIX’s youngest laughed as if the quick refusals from Kang Seon-woo, Ryu Si-hwan, and Ma Si-hyeok were actually good.

The fans watching the VCR were dying of curiosity about what this unrevealed idea could be.

Looking at the dimly lit stage, they had a feeling that a unit performance was about to begin.

―Ba-ba-bam ba-ra-bam!

Along with the saxophone sound, funky jazz music flowed out through the speakers.

Curtains swooshed down on both sides of the stage.

A single white spotlight turned on, contrasting sharply with the red curtains.

「Excuse me…… Is anyone there?」

A small voice with a slightly high tone.

Accompanied by the clicking sound of heels, Yu Ha-woon appeared, showing off his flowing dress silhouette.

“Crossdressing, it’s crossdressing!”

“Ha-woon is crossdressing!”

“So cuuute!”

MILLENNIUM immediately let out loud screams at the sight.

Despite the tremendous reaction, Yu Ha-woon didn’t waver at all and steadfastly focused on his acting.

「I was told to come here for sure.」

「Sorry I’m late!」

A much lower voice than Yu Ha-woon’s spoke urgently.

A bouquet appeared through the red curtains.

Chae Ha-ru in a navy suit rushed out while fixing his disheveled hair and catching his breath.

MILLENNIUM, who had been watching the two with sparkling eyes, quickly realized what this was.

When you want to wear costumes but need to do a different concept.

A theme that often appears when trying to show fans a truly unique stage.

A crossdressing duet stage.

「Will you dance with me?」

Chae Ha-ru walked to center stage, took Yu Ha-woon’s hand, and escorted him.

MILLENNIUM watching this scene closely from the standing area could momentarily see Chae Ha-ru’s lips twitching.

He seemed to be struggling with expression management as this was a stage requiring considerable resistance to temptation.

But in contrast, Yu Ha-woon was grinning like a puppy, seemingly enjoying himself immensely.

Holding the bouquet Chae Ha-ru had given him in one hand and carefully grasping his dress hem with the other.

“He seems prettier than me, seriously.”

“Yu Ha-woon is so pretty!”

“The youngest is too cute!”

While the sultry jazz music continued flowing, the two members came out to the front of the extended stage.

And they waited for the music to die down while adjusting their outfits.

During a moment of faint silence.

Tango with a much more intense and passionate tempo than before filled the stadium.

「Oh, you are my lover」

「Oh, you are the one that makes me smile」

Despite their beautifully dressed visuals, Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon began dancing while maintaining sharp angles.

From the outside, it looked like they’d been invited to an elegant party to dance a slow waltz.

But in reality, they were performing dazzling steps without missing a single breath.

You couldn’t help but cheer while watching such a beautiful performance.

Especially when Chae Ha-ru dramatically dipped Yu Ha-woon backwards, a huge gasp erupted loud enough to lift the dome’s roof.

「Don’t you ever leave me」

「I’m the one for you」

Like the finishing touch, Yu Ha-woon picked up a single flower from the bouquet he was holding.

And he made Chae Ha-ru bite that flower lightly.

“They’re insane!”

“What are they dooooing!”

Hearing the voices of the audience below, Yu Ha-woon smiled slyly.

MILLENNIUM thought there couldn’t be anything more they could do, but the two members still had a secret weapon hidden away.

「Throw your love back to me!」

The moment the accompaniment reached its climax, the bouquet in Yu Ha-woon’s hand flew through the air.

The bouquet fell in a beautiful arc straight into the standing area on the left side of the extended stage.

The lucky MILLENNIUM who ended up catching five roses could only make an expression like they didn’t know if this was a dream or reality.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you, MILLENNIUM! See you again in a bit!”

“Bye!”

Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon, who had maintained perfect harmony until the end, waved their hands frantically while catching their rough breaths.

Until they went down on the lift, the audience didn’t forget to send them cheers.

* * *

“Brothers, you worked hard!”

All the stages scheduled before the planned talk time in the middle of the concert had ended.

Having successfully completed three 1st unit stages lasting about 2 minutes each, we were catching our breath for a moment in the waiting room.

It was Yu Ha-woon who came running barefoot to greet me and Kang Seon-woo, who had the last turn.

“You and Ha-ru got us off to a great start, so there was less pressure.”

“It was really, really fun! Going out to the extended stage made the fans’ voices clearer, so I was really excited!”

“Were you serious when you threw that flower? The reaction was no joke.”

“Really?”

Kang Seon-woo grinned while wiping off the red tint he had applied to his lips.

“Still, I think Brother Si-hwan and Brother Seon-woo’s stage got the best reaction.”

“No way, absolutely not. You know why it looked that way?”

“Huh?”

Ma Si-hyeok, who had been fixing his bangs, looked at Seong-hwi with a confused expression.

“It’s just because we went last. We raised the tension to the max in the middle, so that kind of reaction was a natural progression.”

“Ah.”

“Obviously we were the coolest.”

I looked at Seong-hwi’s confident face and clicked my tongue.

“The guy who almost slipped earlier because he got carried away by his own excitement is saying that.”

“On such a good day like today, let’s not mention every little detail like that, brother. How about it?”

“You started the provocation first.”

“Ahaha, was I that much on your mind?”

The conversation was flowing in a strange direction again.

I instinctively cut off the conversation and changed the topic.

“Si-hyeok, how’s your stamina?”

“I’m still fine, brother. Strangely, when I’m on stage, I don’t even feel out of breath.”

“I was a bit worried because your unit stage choreography was so intense.”

While the Yu Ha-woon·Chae Ha-ru combination did a tango duet, the Ma Si-hyeok·Seong-hwi combination had done a relay of senior singers’ hit songs from the 1990s dance style.

Seong-hwi’s words were right though—thanks to those two really heating up the atmosphere, our stage with horror elements mixed in had also gotten a good response.

But not wanting to admit that, I continued talking only with Ma Si-hyeok.

“Do you remember the talk time questions?”

“Uh…… I don’t think I remember all of them.”

“You can improvise, so it’s fine.”

“Look at this brother. He’s gritting his teeth and ignoring me.”

Even when Seong-hwi complained and tapped my back, I remained indifferent.

Finding this amusing for some reason, Kang Seon-woo held up his camera for close coverage.

“Are you two perhaps having a lovers’ quarrel?”

“As if.”

“When other people see this, they might mistake you for a truly affectionate couple.”

“Ahaha, I am being a bit one-sided.”

“Oh my, Hwi is walking a lonely path!”

Before the conversation could get any more chaotic, I hurriedly grabbed Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon’s shoulders and left the waiting room.

“Come on, let’s go quickly. The fans are waiting.”

“We haven’t gotten the signal to go up yet.”

“Brother, I need to touch up my makeup more!”

My escape attempt was miserably blocked.

Only after enduring Kang Seon-woo and Seong-hwi for about 3 more minutes could we go up to the fully set stage.

“Hello!”

“Hello!”

“Wow, seeing it like this, so many people really came!”

As Yu Ha-woon said, looking at the dome’s panoramic view while not dancing or singing felt truly different.

The moment I saw those seats filled tightly to the very end, chills ran through my body.

Once everyone was seated in the chairs set up on stage, Kang Seon-woo boldly raised his microphone and cue cards.

“Then from now on, we’ll have the concert’s corner segment, 〈Ask CENTIX Anything!〉 talk time! Let me introduce the MC who will personally handle today’s proceedings, Mr. Kang Seon-woo! Hello!”

“……He’s having fun by himself.”

The moment my dry reaction was caught by the microphone, MILLENNIUM burst into laughter.

When Kang Seon-woo made an aggrieved expression and shook his head, the laughter got even louder.

“I’m putting my whole heart into this right now, so how can you say that, Mr. Si-hwan.”

“I got worried because it seemed like your dual personality was emerging. Sorry.”

“If you apologize, I can’t tease you anymore. Hmm. Anyway, let’s start now! The questions in my hands today were taken from comments left on CENTIX’s official account a week before the concert. There were over 20,000 comments, and MILLENNIUM, thank you once again for always sending us such great love!”

The first question was simple yet difficult.

“The most memorable moment while being active…… Ah, there are too many. Do I have to choose just one?”

“Just one.”

“Mmm, it’s too hard, but! I still vividly remember when we debuted. If we hadn’t debuted, moments like this wouldn’t exist now.”

“I think the same as Ha-woon.”

Yu Ha-woon and Ma Si-hyeok chose their debut day, and Seong-hwi picked the day he received the Artist of the Year award just recently.

“Mine’s similar, but I really loved when we first received a 1st place trophy with 〈Chronic〉. It felt like our efforts were recognized for the first time.”

“Oh, me too! We really do have some kind of connection.”

Kang Seon-woo and Chae Ha-ru lightly bumped fists.

Now only I was left.