Chapter 45:
T/L Note: You can see the first chapter here!
Chapter 45
Are you really unhappy with me?
“When you attract hate, the ratings go up. I was the tank there.”
“Wow, crazy…”
“At the end of the program, there was always a scene where I scolded the kids.”
It was actually a remark directed at Park Sung-hoon. But the PD packaged him as a tyrant who terrorized Kim Hyun, and showed a scene of Park Sung-hoon crying behind him.
Ian shuddered as he remembered how he was used as a scapegoat by Kim Yong-min in Project Idol.
He was already immersed in Kim Hyun’s story.
“Because of that, I got bashed for having skills but no leadership. I was eliminated in the final live broadcast. The text voting didn’t come out.”
“No… wow…”
“It must have been a close call, right?”
Ian, who had practiced with him, knew that it was all nonsense, so he was even more dumbfounded.
Kim Hyun sighed deeply.
“When I got my phone back after the broadcast, everyone was talking about me.”
Every web page he visited had comments about the program he was on, and most of them were negative about him.
The ratings were only around 5 percent, a low-rated program, but it felt like the whole world to Kim Hyun.
“There were a lot of people who brought it up when we said we were going to debut. That’s why I didn’t look at the pad much, Ian.”
No wonder he saw some snarky comments like “You finally made it lol”. Ian sighed.
Kim Hyun stayed at home for almost a month without going to the agency’s practice room.
He stared blankly at the computer and clicked on the articles with hateful comments about him, even though he knew they were there.
He scrolled down to see if there were any good words about him.
He hoped in vain.
“I don’t know. What should I have done then? Why did I keep looking at the hate comments even though I knew they were there?”
“…”
[Just don’t look at them, right?]
Jin probably couldn’t understand, but Ian and Jo Tae-woong, who had been child actors and lived another life, could vaguely understand his feelings.
The three of them looked gloomy as if they had coordinated their expressions.
“Things got bigger and the trainees who practiced with me posted articles saying that Kim Hyun wasn’t like that. The broadcast was maliciously edited.”
“…”
“Do you know what they wrote in the comments? ‘Mr. Kim Hyun, you shouldn’t do this here.’ And then I got more hate.”
He had resented them for posting that article at the time. But when he thought about it again, his resentment disappeared and he only felt grateful to them.
They were still on his side.
“That’s how I stayed at home for almost a month.”
Kim Hyun regretted doing that sometimes, but then he wondered if he should have just endured such unfair treatment.
He had mixed feelings.
“Anyway, I got a call from the company. They asked me if I was going to keep skipping without permission. So I went.”
“What happened?”
“When I got there, my name wasn’t on the practice room cabinet. They said they wanted to terminate my trainee contract.”
“Are you really unhappy with me?”
Ian couldn’t take it anymore and tore his hair out in frustration.
Kim Hyun chuckled.
“Listen more. They wanted to terminate my contract because our CEO came to me personally and said he wanted to take me with him.”
“This is where our king god light makes an appearance.”
Jo Tae-woong inserted a groan.
“YANG Entertainment probably planned to let me go anyway. I was thinking about quitting seriously too. But our CEO came to the front of the company and begged me to come to his company.”
He exaggerated his tone as if trying to lighten up the mood.
“He cried and pleaded and grabbed my ankles…”
“Ah hyung, you’re not funny.”
“Am I overdoing it? Anyway, it turned out that I had panic disorder back then.”
“Are you okay now?”
“The CEO took me to the hospital himself. That’s how I got better.”
Kim Hyun smiled with relief.
‘Hyun-ah, let’s go to the hospital together and get some counseling first. You’re serious right now.’
‘I’m not going to that company even if you do that. I’m just going to quit.’
‘It’s okay even if you don’t sign a contract, just come with me.’
He followed him without knowing because it was funny to see someone who was much younger than him and an entertainment company CEO begging him like that.
After that, Lee Byung-hun kept calling Kim Hyun and picking him up personally to the hospital whenever he had a counseling session.
If the schedule didn’t match, Seo Soo-ryeon called him and asked him to come.
That incident became a big motivation for him to challenge himself as an idol again, and it was the decisive reason why he moved to this company.
“To be honest, until the day before yesterday, I didn’t want to remember that time and I ignored it. But then that came.”
Even after moving to BHL Entertainment, he hit rock bottom with his self-esteem.
He wondered if it was okay to debut him in the next group, who had been cursed by the whole nation. But people were not satisfied with cursing him, and they looked for other things to chew on.
Soon, Kim Hyun was forgotten and they moved on to other victims of malicious editing.
It was especially the case with audition programs like ‘Project Idol’.
Kim Hyun looked at the collage work that was placed in the middle of the living room.
In the gift sent by an anonymous fan, there was also a part of his past that he wanted to forget.
He couldn’t forget, even if he wanted to.
Sometimes, he had nightmares of the whole world pointing fingers at him.
But it took him a long time to accept the fact that those days were also part of Kim Hyun, himself.
“I guess someone liked me back then. I think I’m okay now.”
Kim Hyun couldn’t sleep since last night. He couldn’t close his eyes even though he had been running around all day for his schedule.
He ended up coming out to the living room and sitting in front of the frame, staring blankly at it.
He didn’t think of anything, but tears kept falling from his eyes.
He cried alone until dawn.
“I got so much hate, I think I’ll live a long time.”
“Wow, hyung, you’re amazing. How did you endure it? So what happened to that bastard Park Sung-hoon?”
“Are you ready to drink some soda? He still hasn’t debuted.”
“Wasn’t it a program where you debut right away like P.I?”
The CEO of YANG Entertainment, Im Soon-hyun, had a tendency to pick his favorite people and push them intensively.
He was also famous for not letting go of good trainees.
That was true for the debuted singers as well.
The company only released digital singles all day long and didn’t give proper albums to their singers.
“He’ll probably keep living as a trainee until the CEO finds his favorite trainees and forms a perfect debut group.”
He might still be ruling like a king among the trainees. But how far would his pathetic pride go?
What would he think when he saw Kim Hyun, who had already debuted?
It was thrilling to think about it.
He should just suffer from false hope for his whole life and debut in his late twenties and go straight to the army.
Kim Hyun’s self-esteem took a long time to recover after moving to BHL Entertainment.
He had an emotional roller coaster when Kim Young-joon betrayed him and left, but he still debuted.
As an idol, which he had dreamed of since he was eight years old.
“Anyway, that’s the end of my story.”
“Let’s become super famous and step on that bastard.”
“I like that idea. You do say something right sometimes. But do you think he’ll ever debut?”
Jo Tae-woong and Ian comforted Kim Hyun with flattery. Kim Hyun said “You idiots…” but he looked happy.
“But can you handle it, Park Jin-hyuk? The N.net malicious editing is beyond imagination.”
Before they knew it, Park Jin-hyuk, Lee Joo-hyuk, Kim Joo-young and Park Seo-dam, who were hiding behind the wall and eavesdropping, came into the kitchen with awkward smiles.
“It’s not like I’ll get caught in the malicious editing roulette. And even if I do, it’s okay. You guys are here.”
Everyone suddenly froze and didn’t say anything. Ian felt goosebumps and his hair stood on end.
“Wow, I can’t listen to this anymore. It’s so cringy.”
“Hyung, we’re not okay with this.”
“Did he watch some Japanese manga or something?”
Park Jin-hyuk still smiled as if he was fine. The other members turned their backs on him with jeers. He hardened his expression and looked thoughtful, but no one noticed.
***
‘He went through a lot too.’
Ian glanced at Kim Hyun next to him as he got his hair done at the shop for the live broadcast.
He had been a trainee since he was young, and he had been in the final debut group but failed miserably.
He even went on a survival program and suffered from criticism and hate comments.
Kim Hyun had a lot in common with Kim Yong-min.
That’s why he cared more.
He said he was fine, but that memory would never fade until he died.
At least Kim Yong-min did, Ian did.
[I don’t understand.]
‘What?’
[Why do they do such malicious things on TV? If they were scared of that, they shouldn’t have become celebrities.]
‘What?’
[They’re public figures once they’re on TV.]
‘Why do we have to put up with hate comments if we’re public figures? Do you mean we deserve to be beaten up by people for no reason?’
[Do you think Kim Hyun didn’t do anything wrong?]
Jin’s lens clicked at Ian several times.
[They should have thought about how to act on TV if they were idol trainees.]
‘Hey, why do trainees have to know all that? Do you think YANG Entertainment taught them that? And besides, are you saying it’s his fault that he got maliciously edited?’
[That’s right. He acted like a middle schooler.]
‘Don’t you think he would be pissed off in that situation? And the malicious editing is the PD’s fault. According to your logic, if a murderer says in court ‘It’s the victim’s fault for walking around that street’, he should be acquitted?’
[That’s a different case.]
Ian sighed at the strangely circular words. Why were the people around him so annoying today?
‘Did you live like this before?’
[Why are you bringing up the previous life?]
Ian was sure. This guy… he’s a hundred percent a reporter.
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