The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 37

“I never imagined you’d make such a quick decision.”

“I have a somewhat impulsive side when it comes to making decisions.”

“That’s exactly what I always call your reckless personality.”

Yoon Hye-in, who served as the main writer for 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, let out a deep sigh.

She had been watching the live broadcast from her office, and now glanced slyly at the script placed on the table.

“To be honest, I thought you would take some time to decide which cards to discard. But what made you judge after just 4 episodes?”

“Well, that’s because…”

Main PD Jeong Chae-min, with dark circles deeply settled under his eyes, took a sip of coffee before answering.

“Hye-in, we’re ultimately selling products that are delivered to the public. No matter how much ordinary people dislike calling idols products, we are strictly industry people. We have to create products that people will like to increase buzz, increase buzz to raise viewership ratings, and raise viewership ratings to build our achievements.”

“That’s true.”

“Then we should do the selection process as quickly as possible.”

PD Jeong Chae-min, who was usually just laid-back, had the habit of speaking very quickly when he got absorbed in work talk.

Right now too, the words floating in his mind were pouring out consecutively like a machine gun.

“Didn’t you say before, Hye-in, that this season could be dangerous? The example you gave then was the participation declaration of major agencies. You said we’d get criticized for only picking the destined ones.”

“I did say that…”

“Then we just need to create a participant who can break that mold. Didn’t you feel it from the first interview?”

A participant who appeared like a comet in this season where the ratio of independent trainees had dropped significantly.

At a glance, he possessed skills that matched those of major agency trainees, and actually achieved good results during the level test and final grade evaluation too.

Writer Yoon Hye-in looked at ‘Ryu Si-hwan’s’ name, which was emphasized multiple times in the script, and nodded once.

“I know this, of course. That’s why I was going to suggest editing in various directions later, but—”

“It’s better to immediately push a character this clear.”

PD Jeong Chae-min drained all the coffee remaining in his mug and looked at episode 4, which was rushing toward the middle section.

“The on-site atmosphere was like that, and current internet public opinion is like that too. Ryu Si-hwan has already become 〈ISL 2〉’s hot potato. An kid who proved both his skills and star quality—if we just pass by someone like that, we can’t call ourselves people working in the entertainment industry.”

“So you’re saying you’ll give him a definitive push from the early stages.”

“I told you before, what proves us in the end is fans and viewership ratings. Ryu Si-hwan, who creates issues on his own without needing artificial editing, is a flawless top-tier product. And one that sells very well—a super crack that can break this standardized mold. If we show even slightly frustrating developments to viewers supporting Ryu Si-hwan, the arrows of criticism will come straight back to us.”

Actually, Ryu Si-hwan was currently firmly maintaining his position in the top 3 of the all-star voting.

His fandom had established itself early and was growing in scale.

There really was nothing good about unnecessarily provoking them.

“So that’s why you quickly discarded Park Chang-jung, who showed selfish behavior during Team 9’s practice process.”

“Of course. No matter how much we cover for Park Chang-jung, there’s no guarantee that participant will grow as much as Ryu Si-hwan, and the skill gap was too large from the beginning. Quickly burying the participant who trolled here is a development method that can come across as refreshing to the public too.”

PD Jeong Chae-min’s words were all correct.

Even though he said it was an impulsive decision, Jeong Chae-min had definitely been thinking these thoughts internally for much longer.

‘What a scary person.’

Writer Yoon Hye-in, who had been flipping through the script, had one more thing she wanted to ask.

“Ah, speaking of which, why did you request this kind of editing for this team? Seong-hwi also has a large fandom scale and is enough to cause issues.”

“You could say Ryu Si-hwan and Seong-hwi have different textures.”

PD Jeong Chae-min’s gaze was fixed on the slowly starting preparation process scenes of Team 10.

“If Ryu Si-hwan creates buzz through natural heartwarming stories and pure ability, Seong-hwi is the opposite. Actions stemming from his straightforward personality naturally create controversies.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

Writer Yoon Hye-in could only stare quietly at PD Jeong Chae-min, who was grinning.

“The goal of this episode 4 was to maximize Seong-hwi’s controversial actions to create even bigger talking points.”

“But then won’t there be more people opposing Seong-hwi than supporting him?”

“Of course, I have no intention of discarding Seong-hwi either.”

Team 10’s preparation process began with team meeting scenes that were discord from the start.

Seong-hwi pushing his thoughts with intense eyes and team members who wouldn’t take cooperative attitudes.

“If we just show things as they are, people will naturally make their judgment. Which side was wrong, and which side was right.”

* * *

“What the hell is this.”

The homma, who had three monitors turned on simultaneously, frowned and clicked her tongue.

On her work desktop, a video titled [Ryu Si-hwan Episode 1 Moments] was being encoded. On the tablet PC set up beside her desk, the 〈ISL 2〉 live talk chat window was open. On the living room TV, episode 4’s live broadcast was playing at very high volume.

While other participants’ stages were on, she had been diligently editing the video, but when it was time for Ryu Si-hwan’s screen time to appear, she would immediately run to the TV to concentrate as much as possible.

Right now, even though it wasn’t the 〈Volt〉 stage that Ryu Si-hwan belonged to, she couldn’t help but watch with interest.

[First, I want to address this—is there anyone who wants to be the leader?]

[(Quiet silence…)]

[If no one wants to, may I put on the leader sticker?]

The atmosphere of Team 〈Evolution〉, which had two A-grade trainees, was cold itself.

Seong-hwi, who took on the leader role himself, seemed to be trying to quickly proceed with detailed position distribution and choreography assignments.

[Can you handle the choreography for this part?]

[It seems like it would be a bit difficult.]

[Let’s try it once and think again if it doesn’t work.]

For some unknown reason, the work speed was broadcast as significantly slower due to several participants displaying quite uncooperative attitudes.

Then the real incident started with Seong-hwi’s sudden proposal.

[Can I just take on both center and main vocal myself?]

[What? (Everyone looks surprised)]

[To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be anyone here who can properly handle this part… I don’t want to ruin the stage either.]

At Seong-hwi’s words about wanting to do leader, main vocal, and center all by himself, the other team members just looked at each other.

[Kim Ha-jun) How should I put this… Seong-hwi taking the lead in teaching us various things and volunteering for the leader role was all good, but it felt like he was doing everything alone.]

[Oh Hee-min) It’s not that we didn’t want to do center and main vocal either.]

The homma couldn’t understand.

‘No, they don’t have the skills, so Seong-hwi stepped up to somehow save the stage, right? Am I the only one misunderstanding this?’

So she quickly skimmed through the live talk for a few minutes.

The comment section, which had arrived at the completely opposite atmosphere from when Ryu Si-hwan burst with catharsis through 2-tier high notes, was… nothing short of chaos.

—LOL they did the interview so shamelessly

—Honestly, they can’t do this kind of part distribution when they don’t have the skills, right? Do they think this is Seong-hwi’s fault?

—But it’s true that Seong-hwi was being too greedy… who takes three positions all by themselves

└Agreed. Even Ryu Si-hwan, who’s that good, voluntarily gave up center

└Don’t mention Si-hwan here for no reason

—Speaking from a really objective perspective, it’s a fact that all those team members look unmotivated. Practice half-heartedly, “can we do the dance like this?” when asked, they barely answer. I would have said I’d do everything myself like Seong-hwi too

└But does that mean it’s okay to monopolize all 3 main positions in a survival program where votes are life? If you said you’d be leader, you should think about how everyone can survive together as much as possible

└Why should Hwi worry about other people’s votes when he’s not running a charity? Lol that logic is hilarious too, isn’t it? It’s a program where you’re busy taking care of your own rice bowl hehe

└I don’t know about anything else, but if the kids had motivation like RSH’s team that just appeared, but this team’s kids don’t even have that, so Hwi is feeling frustrated

Even during the practice process leading up to the judges’ interim evaluation, Team 10 had a lot of internal problems.

[I told you before that this part’s movement should be done like this, didn’t I?]

[I don’t remember well.]

[Sigh… I’ll go through it once more.]

The overall formation was also misaligned, and the timing for moving forward during individual parts kept not matching.

Seong-hwi, who seemed to suppress his anger a bit at first, gradually had fiercer eyes as time passed.

[How many times do I have to say it? Brother, you need to come out at this beat.]

[……]

[Let me make this clear—I have no intention of ruining the stage no matter what happens. I hope everyone gets their act together. Okay? If we continue like this, we won’t be able to pick up the pieces during the interim evaluation, let alone the stage. You all know that, right?]

[(Trainees still just staring straight ahead)]

[Let’s try just one more time, and if it doesn’t work, I’m just ending it. There’s no point in group practice at this level.]

The bleak atmosphere and participants’ faces hardening.

The individual interviews that rushed in without giving viewers time to breathe played a role in heightening the tension even more.

[Production team) What was the atmosphere like during practice?]

[Ma Si-hyeok) …It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was the worst. (Lowering his head) This is my personal opinion, but if Seong-hwi hadn’t pushed forward strongly, we probably wouldn’t have been able to properly conduct the interim evaluation.]

[Oh Hee-min) Haha, this is really hard to explain with words. It’s not like I couldn’t do it because I didn’t want to. I was following along doing my best, but that didn’t seem to reach that friend (Seong-hwi)…]

[Seong-hwi) I’m the type who can’t live if I hold back what I want to say. But even so, I really tried to think positively. I kept telling them, kept pointing out that the choreography should be done like this. But still no improvement? Then I have to cut to the chase. I had to tell them everyone would be finished if they didn’t get their act together.]

The escalating internal conflict had viewers’ tension rising too.

The homma forgot about editing her video and earnestly read comments while watching the situation.

—Seong-hwi moms are busy giving tearful shields lol. His selfish personality is being revealed as is

└Instead of just blindly criticizing, look at the overall hopeless context here, damn. They can’t understand after being explained multiple times, so what should Seong-hwi say there

└Those team members are hopeless too, but Seong-hwi’s wording is definitely on the harsh side

└Why do I feel like I understand Hwi’s feelings? It’s like watching my college group project nightmare. Always just messaging “I’m working hard!”, “I’m researching materials!” but when you actually check, it’s just copy-pasted from Wikipedia, ditching meetings, ugh just thinking about it makes me angry

└Even so, saying “you’ll all get eliminated” that openly is a bit problematic

“They’re really fighting bloody battles…”

Seong-hwi’s team, which looked really precarious, still managed to finish the main stage without noticeable mistakes.

Even until the broadcast ended, talk about the controversial Team 10 didn’t cease.

Was it the problem of Seong-hwi, who showed unfiltered speech despite constructing the stage well in the end?

Or was it the problem of team members who came out with uncooperative attitudes from the beginning?

Like firewood endlessly being thrown into a campfire, the communities showed no signs of calming down even past dawn.

The homma, who finished editing her [Ryu Si-hwan Episode 1 Moments] video, yawned while checking the 〈ISL 2〉 homepage.

‘Next week’s preview showed there would be the 1st ranking announcement ceremony, so people’s firepower is probably most intense right now.’

IdolNet and numerous other fan communities were in full swing.

With the continuous stream of posts, interest in 〈ISL 2〉 was rapidly increasing day by day.

Whether this was intended or not, the different sides of Ryu Si-hwan and Seong-hwi shown in episode 4 had essentially hit consecutive home runs.

She grinned while checking the video she had made with the highest quality.

Right, even if she couldn’t earn money through prediction bets, that was fine.

Even without the sponsorship feature, there were many ways to help Ryu Si-hwan during the most important 1st voting period.