Chapter 104:
Chapter 104
I want to be like that.
As the lift in the center of the stage rose, a golden pharaoh’s crown revealed itself.
White smoke filled the stage floor to create a mysterious atmosphere.
“It’s Egypt, alright.”
Idasol, who muttered as soon as he saw the crown, closed his mouth and focused on the stage as the song started with a violin melody.
The pharaoh’s crown opened with a swoosh and a person came out of it. It was Ijuhyuk.
He grabbed the microphone after roughly tearing off the bandage wrapped around his head.
“The universe begins with you and me”
Then Ian, who was dressed like a priest, sang the next verse.
At the bridge part of the song, rich sounds echoed throughout the concert hall, and backup dancers rushed onto the stage.
“Let’s go…”
Lim No-eul, who had a bad stomach today, breathed hard and headed for the stage.
‘Here… like this…’
Lim No-eul usually doesn’t think about anything when he dances.
The fact that he had a lot of thoughts meant that his concentration was disrupted.
Moreover, by chance, Lim No-eul’s middle movement was a terrible one, from the far right to the front left.
‘…Huh?’
Lim No-eul’s body swayed as he followed the movement and he couldn’t balance himself properly.
‘No…!’
***
The first time Lim No-eul saw Awi was when Awi was a trainee, busking in front of Daehak-ro.
“Who is that? A celebrity?”
“The one in the middle is handsome.”
Lim No-eul, who was bored waiting for his late friend at the meeting place, watched someone’s performance at a place where people gathered.
Seven men, all of them had clean faces as if they had received care beforehand.
Lim No-eul, who had received a few business cards from entertainment companies after losing some weight, thought they were either trainees or unknown idols.
“Wow.”
A voice that didn’t falter even while dancing lightly.
He smiled casually and made eye contact with the people who came together.
“He’s cool…”
Lim No-eul was completely hooked on the busking at that moment.
At the end of the song, when Ian hit a high note, the surrounding people exclaimed and clapped at the reverberation.
“Thank you!”
“We’re debuting in December! We’re Awi! Please support us!”
After the busking ended, they bowed and greeted them.
The people lingered around with regretful expressions. Lim No-eul was one of them.
After that, Lim No-eul searched for Awi’s name for no reason and found out that they were accepting applications for their debut stage recording.
‘I sang well then… I want to hear it live…’
He moved his mouse cursor back and forth and agonized over it. He finally pressed the pre-recording application button.
“But aren’t all the people there women? It’s uncomfortable… Ah! I don’t care.”
Lim No-eul laughed bitterly. Looking at the explosively increasing number of comments, it was like drinking soup before getting rice cakes.
‘Maybe, I’ll get it?’
Whatever.
When he came to his senses, it was Thursday.
He skipped school and stood in line for Nnet’s recording at dawn. Among the people who gathered, Lim No-eul was the only man.
‘I’m glad it’s winter…’
Lim No-eul bowed his head as he shivered in his long padding, scarf, and hat.
“Oh, there’s a male fan too.”
“How did you get here?”
Since it was a joint recording with other groups, he felt the murmuring and gazes more intensely. Lim No-eul said quietly.
“I saw them at Daehak-ro… busking.”
“Busking fan? Lucky~ I couldn’t go.”
He chatted with the people who talked to him and entered the recording place while trying not to stick to other fans as much as possible.
‘Ah… I’m nervous. I shouldn’t come next time.’
Lim No-eul’s face relaxed as soon as Awi went up on stage.
“Hello. This is our first recording.”
They said that but they perfectly performed three stages.
Lim No-eul opened his mouth blankly as he watched Awi.
They felt better than when they were busking.
‘…I’ll come again if I can.’
At the cafe on the first floor of the broadcasting station, Ian waved his hands at Lim No-eul who was standing far away while recognizing each fan who came to the recording.
“…Did you join the fan club?”
Seeing him, Lim No-eul finally entered the fan’s path.
He was lucky enough to go to two or three more recordings.
He felt something was missing just by running around recordings.
“Why is the fan sign cut so high?”
The price was too high for a middle school student to afford.
So he bought an album and entered a lottery for a fansign event at a large bookstore, instead of the one that required a lot of purchases. But he didn’t win.
“You like male idols, right?”
“Huh?”
“Someone in class 2 said that. What was it? They saw you at a fan meeting.”
Lim No-eul shivered at his friend’s words. He thought he had done a good job of pretending to be normal at school, but someone must have recognized his face.
“Are you gay?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then why do you like male idols? Don’t you like girl groups like Luna Girls?”
“Luna Girls… they’re pretty. But don’t be prejudiced.”
Lim No-eul frowned. Does liking men make him gay?
“You like me, don’t you?”
“What?”
“As a friend or whatever. You like me, right?”
“That’s so cringy, but yeah, I guess we wouldn’t be friends if I didn’t like you.”
“Then are we gay?”
“That’s… no.”
He might have convinced his friend, but he couldn’t stop the rumors from spreading in the next class.
Soon, Lim No-eul was known as the gay guy who liked men.
“I just like their songs! And their coolness! What does idol mean? They’re my idols!”
Lim No-eul snapped at the source of the rumor.
“I like girls too! I want to date a girlfriend!”
The misunderstanding was cleared and the rumor died down as ‘the weird kid in class 1 who liked male idols’. His blunt personality helped him deal with the gossip.
He didn’t let the rumor bother him and continued to attend fan meetings and follow their schedules.
He watched the rerun of the award show in his room.
“Wow… that’s awesome.”
On the screen, Ian appeared behind Park Seo-dam and grabbed him for a back dive.
‘I want to be like that.’
He wanted to be on the same stage as them, not as a fan but as a singer. Was that too greedy?
Lim No-eul looked at himself in the mirror.
He had a decent face and had even been scouted on the street.
‘I might as well lose weight by dancing. And… I’ll audition.’
That was how Lim No-eul became one of the top contenders in the trainee dance evaluation.
***
He wanted to stand next to them on stage, not ruin it.
‘This is crazy…’
The dim stage with dry ice, the slippery floor, the worst choreography, and Lim No-eul’s bad condition that day all combined to make him fall flat on his face. He ignored his sore ankle and got up quickly to follow the dance.
“Huh? Who fell?”
“Was it one of them?”
“No, it was a backup dancer. That must hurt…”
Luckily, he wasn’t caught on camera, but the people in the venue noticed Lim No-eul falling.
After the stage ended, he burst into tears as soon as he entered the backstage. He curled up in a corner and hung his head.
‘I could have done well… I’ve been doing well until now.’
Lim No-eul sniffled.
“Who took his money?”
Cho Tae-woong, who came down from the stage last, found Lim No-eul crouching.
All the backup dancers were dressed as mummies, so they stood out.
“Why is he like this?”
“I don’t know.”
Ian also followed Cho Tae-woong and crouched in front of him. He lowered his eyes to match his.
[Is this Lim No-eul? He fell on stage.]
‘Really?’
[Yeah, he totally collapsed. The people in the venue must have noticed.]
‘But he wasn’t on camera?’
[No, you were on camera then.]
It was lucky that he wasn’t on camera, or everyone watching would have known.
A sob came from between their hunched bodies. Suddenly, Cho Tae-woong walked over to a staff member.
“Excuse me, can I have a bottle of water?”
The staff handed him a bottle of water blankly.
“Drink this first.”
Just like Kim Young-hyun did for Cho Tae-woong, Cho Tae-woong opened the bottle cap and handed it to Lim No-eul.
“Th… thank you.”
Lim No-eul lifted his head and took the water. His face was red and stained with tears and snot. He held his trembling hand and drank the water.
“Hey… anyone can make mistakes. It’s okay.”
Cho Tae-woong said, looking at him. He was serious, unlike his usual teasing and joking self. He remembered how he was when he was a trainee.
“Yeah, I almost sang with this thing instead of the mic earlier.”
Ian said. He had almost used a stage prop as a microphone.
He had instinctively raised his other hand to grab the mic, but it was a close call.
“I sprayed my shoes earlier, but they were still slippery.”
“The floor was made of slippery material. I could have fallen.”
Lim No-eul wiped his tears with his arm. He was the trainee who used the practice room the longest.
“But… you prepared a lot for the stage, didn’t you?”
Still, the lights in Awi’s practice room never went out. He had seen him working on his stage until late at night, even pulling all-nighters.
I ruined his stage. Lim No-eul sobbed and cried out loud.
“I’m sorry…”
Jo Tae-woong and Ian looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
They had cared a lot about their performance.
They were sorry that the whole picture had collapsed, but it was okay.
They were strict with their own mistakes, but not with others’.
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“It happens.”
Ian and Jo Tae-woong patted his shoulder.
They would get scolded by the choreographer anyway, but he wouldn’t be too harsh on them.
The stage floor was slippery in the first place.
They decided to just comfort Lim No-eul.
“What? What’s going on?”
The other members who heard the commotion came and squatted in front of Lim No-eul.
“He fell on the stage.”
“Really? We didn’t even notice anyone falling while we were performing.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes.”
“But you said you fell, are you hurt anywhere?”
Surrounded by seven members in an instant, Lim No-eul was touched and sorry for Awi who came to console him and burst into tears.
“What, what’s wrong? Why are you crying again?”
“I’m sorry…”
“Ugh… This is not helping.”
Jo Tae-woong started to laugh bitterly and the other members also joined him one by one.
***
The staff who handed water to Jo Tae-woong secretly took a picture.
-Awi comforting a backup dancer
I’ll prove that I was there.
He suddenly asked me for water and I thought he was going to drink it, but he gave it to a backup dancer who was crying because he messed up on stage. He looked like a trainee and he was so cute that I took a picture.
└What’s wrong with them?
└└It didn’t show up on YouTube, but a backup dancer fell
└Really?
└Aw, so cute???? It looks like they’re surrounded by bullies?????
└They’re sweet for taking care of the trainee????
└I was there too and they’re all nice. I saw them comforting the trainee from behind and they got dragged away by their manager after performing
└The crying trainee is cute and so are the ones being dragged away by their manager?????
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