Chapter 49:
Chapter 49
What’s up, bro?
“That’s how you dance.”
“This is the real deal.”
Kim Hyun and Kim Joo-young said with satisfaction, and Lee Joo-hyuk laughed out loud.
“Ah, I feel alive.”
“You guys really have a grudge against the choreography.”
The digital single that was going to be released in June was finally a song that Lee Joo-hyuk and Park Jin-hyuk had worked on.
Maybe that’s why Lee Joo-hyuk looked very happy.
This song was a refreshing concept that would suit the summer.
The choreography also matched the music and was less intense than the previous songs.
“I memorized it!”
“Choi Ian, you’re getting faster at learning the moves.”
“Shall we try it together?”
Lee Joo-hyuk turned on the music, and all the members took their positions.
The song started, and they danced in sync.
The choreography was easy, so they smiled naturally.
The other members also sang along loudly as they moved their bodies.
The music ended, and they tore off the pad that was taped to the wall and played the video of their dance.
“We can upload this as a dance video.”
“Wow, we can match it in one go now.”
“It’s awesome.”
They all smiled proudly.
They nodded eagerly at Lee Joo-hyuk’s suggestion to do it one more time.
***
“Jin-hyuk’s ‘Idol Rapper’ is airing today, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll get much screen time.”
The group went to a spicy pork stir-fry restaurant that they used to eat often when they were trainees.
Lee Joo-hyuk ate with his chopsticks and asked.
“Why?”
“Well… You’ll see when you watch it.”
Kim Hyun raised his head in surprise.
“Did you cause trouble?”
“No, but…”
“Our idol sons are here? Auntie gave you a lot of meat!”
Park Jin-hyuk was about to continue his words when he saw the thick meat on the iron plate and closed his mouth.
“…Let’s eat first.”
“Thank you, auntie!”
The members picked up their chopsticks and devoured the meat.
After filling their stomachs a bit, Park Jin-hyuk swallowed his rice and spoke.
“You know that I did ‘Project Idol’ right after ‘Idol Choice’, right?”
“Yeah, we were there with you, weren’t we?”
They probably saw the trailer together at this restaurant’s TV.
“That ended last month and they debuted as an idol group called Choice. They haven’t officially debuted yet though.”
“But why are we talking about them?”
“One of their rappers is on ‘Idol Rapper’, Lim Ji-hoon.”
“Oh…”
Kim Hyun and Ian sighed at the same time, knowing how cruel the broadcasting station could be. Could it be…?
“They seem to be trying to hype him up. So I don’t have high expectations.”
“Are you kidding me…”
“I should be happy if my name appears in one line of an article.”
“Oh, that bastard Park Sung-hoon again.”
Ugh! Kim Hyun scratched his head furiously.
But Ian saw that Park Jin-hyuk’s expression looked strangely serious.
Ian felt a spark in his eyes that he caught for a moment.
That’s not the face of someone who has given up, is it?
Park Jin-hyuk smiled slyly as he met Ian’s eyes.
“I just hope I don’t get edited badly.”
“Yeah, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
They all sighed and finished their remaining rice.
‘Hey Jin, don’t you know anything?’
[He’s the one who survived with his popularity despite having no skills.]
‘Do you know?’
[I know very well.]
Jin was happy to finally have a voice and moved up and down quickly.
[Choice? They’re also from Nnet, which is notorious for its money power. Of course, they’re also the push crushers of Nnet. Lim Ji-hoon is originally a rich kid. He’s some kind of president’s son or something…]
‘That’s so corrupt.’
[Anyway, for the final live broadcast of ‘Idol Rapper’, of course the contestants had to participate in making the lyrics as well as the music together with a producer, right? But Lim Ji-hoon bribed the PD and got a famous producer’s song and then packaged it as if he made it by himself.]
‘Is that possible?’
[If you have money, anything is possible. Why not? And he picked a very sophisticated song, so most of the viewers’ votes went to him. It looked good, right? The other contestants worked with producers to make their songs, but he made a song by himself.]
‘So then…’
[In his previous life, he won ‘Idol Rapper’.]
‘Are you kidding me.’
It’s the end of the world. Ian shook his head.
***
“Still, it’s Jin-hyuk’s first solo appearance on a variety show, so we should at least monitor it together, right?”
“Yeah, bro, of course.”
Lee Joo-hyuk picked up the remote control.
They all gathered in front of the TV as if on cue.
The timing was good, as the snack commercial ended and the broadcasting station logo screen appeared, followed by ‘Idol Rapper’.
(‘Idol Rapper’? Idols are just idols. They’re not rappers.)
(They only do the music that their company tells them to.)
(They don’t have their own color?)
(The same genre, the same music… Those songs are on the top of the charts because of their fandom. Don’t you get tired of it?)
The rappers who came out as judges spoke arrogantly.
The members’ expressions were not good as they heard them.
It felt like they were talking badly about all idols.
“Hmph, they think they’re so great.”
“Right! Our maknae is awesome!”
Park Seo-dam snorted. Jo Tae-woong chimed in.
(I think all musicians have prejudices against idol rappers. I came out to show them that we can do it too. We also know how to do our music.)
“Hey, isn’t that the guy who did ‘With Legends’ together…?”
“Yeah, we got close during the recording. He’s nice. I’ll introduce you later.”
The scene changed and the reasons why the contestants decided to appear on ‘Idol Rapper’ came out one by one.
The first one was Seo Min-hoo of MOM.
(I came out to learn everything I can from the other seniors.)
“What a shameless guy.”
(I’m still a rookie who hasn’t even debuted properly…)
A brief scene of ‘Idol Choice’ finale came out, and Lim Ji-hoon of Choice was interviewed. Kim Hyun gritted his teeth.
“Hey, don’t get too angry, he’s not Park Sung-hoon.”
Park Jin-hyuk laughed softly. The scene changed again and a short clip of Mykit’s debut stage passed by.
“Seon is coming out.”
Jo Tae-woong straightened his posture.
(These days, rappers don’t criticize society. They only brag about money.)
“…Huh?”
“Hey, this is a bit….”
All of a sudden?
This is very bad.
Especially since the editing seemed to deliberately create a confrontation between Park Se-on and the other rappers, as if he was better than them.
“Se-on is not like that, right?”
“This is weird….”
Kim Joo-young muttered. Ian covered his head with both hands and sighed.
‘He got caught by the writer.’
It was the broadcaster’s trick to induce the participants to say what they wanted to hear and get an answer that would attract attention and ratings.
[Isn’t it awesome?]
‘Oh, crazy… Hey, hurry up and spoil it for me.’
[As far as I know, there was a controversy before the broadcast that Lim Ji-hoon was not good enough to be here. You know how every idol group that debuts these days has at least one rapper, right? But out of all those idol rappers, why did they choose someone who hasn’t even debuted?]
Jin kept pressing the shutter.
[And on top of that, Choi’s is from N-net. Is this favoritism or collusion? The word started among MOM fans and then other people started to doubt it too.]
On TV, Park Se-on looked pale and bored as he continued to speak.
[So one of the PDs had an idea. Let’s stir up some controversy with another participant. And the target was Park Se-on. His company is shit and he doesn’t have a fandom to shield him.]
‘Oh, what do we do….’
Could Park Se-on handle it? The Park Se-on that Ian knew didn’t seem to have a strong mentality.
“Jin-hyuk, when is the next recording?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
“Then can you talk to Se-on for me? You know what Hyun told you, right? Something like preventing bad editing.”
“Yes.”
Lee Joo-hyuk hardened his expression. He had already heard from the photo shoot that Park Se-on was forced to participate by his agency’s CEO, so he felt even worse.
[What a meddlesome…]
‘Hey.’
[Hey, come on! Let me talk! You can just ignore me! I’m bored!]
At least Lee Joo-hyuk cared about his friend’s younger brother going through the same bad editing that Kim Hyun had experienced.
“Ugh… This is disgusting.”
Especially Kim Hyun’s reaction was intense. He had gotten better after confiding his trauma to his members, but he still had hatred for the broadcaster.
(Why are you here?)
(It’s Lee Jin-hyuk!)
Park Seo-dam jumped up. The writer urged him to answer.
(To make your name known?)
(Yes, there are some people in our group who are well-known, right? I also came here to raise my awareness. And it would be better if I could promote our group name as well.)
(You didn’t come here because you wanted to do the music you like or something like that?)
(Why? Is there something wrong with that? Even the veteran rappers who have been in the industry for a long time came out on hip-hop survival shows and made their names known.)
“Wow, hyung is so chic.”
Park Jin-hyuk dodged the writer’s leading questions and smiled on the screen. Kim Joo-young patted Park Jin-hyuk’s shoulder.
At the time of recording, Park Jin-hyuk must have just said whatever came to his mind, but the editing made him look like a cold city man.
(The perception of idol rappers is not very good….)
(I don’t think I need to care about other people’s opinions. Rap? I have to show it with my skills. There’s no point in talking about it now when I can’t prove it.)
“Wow, hyung is crazy?”
“That’s awesome.”
While the younger ones exclaimed without tact, Kim Hyun said in a worried tone.
“Hey, but that was dangerous. Be careful next time.”
“So what, saying what I want to say is hip-hop.”
Park Jin-hyuk turned into a naive fool and laughed happily. He must have felt good seeing himself packaged so coolly on TV.
‘He has a lot of pride.’
[He deserves it.]
‘What?’
[You’ll see.]
Ian fixed his eyes on the TV. Kim Joo-young and Park Seo-dam said.
“But I’m not worried about Jin-hyuk hyung.”
“Right, hyung is strong mentally.”
That was something that the other members agreed on too.
The introduction of the participants ended and they entered the studio one by one and chatted with each other.
(Long time no see, Se-on.)
(Hyung!)
Park Se-on and Park Jin-hyuk hugged each other with joy, and MOM’s Seo Min-hoo joined them and they had a conversation.
The MC introduced the upcoming competition and showed each participant one by one, but only Park Se-on looked grim.
“Se-on was so nervous then, but they used it like this….”
Park Jin-hyuk sighed. He only made that expression once, but they kept using it in different scenes to make Park Se-on look worse.
(Let me introduce the rap judges who will evaluate you!)
A VCR introducing the rappers flowed. There were some fairly famous producers and rappers, and a rapper who won the N-net rap survival show caught the eye.
“Wow, the judges are all amazing people.”
“I can see why Jin-hyuk hyung went out.”
And when the last producer appeared, the members jumped up.
“Holy shit, Blue Mic.”
“Blue Mic?!”
Blue Mic was a rapper and producer who had a reputation for being number one on the charts whenever he made a beat.
He was a popular musician that most singers wanted to work with, so the show also made a big deal out of his studio entrance scene. All the participants opened their mouths in astonishment.
(Blue Mic? Blue Mic is here?)
(Wow, Blue Mic is on this show?)
(I’m glad I came out….)
Blue Mic sat on the judge’s seat and looked at one place. It was where Park Jin-hyuk was. And then his pre-interview voice flowed.
(Is that Park Jin-hyuk? Love J?)
“Uh? Hyung, do you know Blue Mic?”
When Park Jin-hyuk came out of Blue Mic’s mouth, all the members stared at Park Jin-hyuk’s face.
(I came here to see him.)
As Park Jin-hyuk and Blue Mic’s faces were close-up, the first episode of ‘Idol Rapper’ ended.
“Hyung, what is this?”
Park Seo-dam’s bewildered voice echoed in the dorm living room.
Park Jin-hyuk scratched his cheek awkwardly.
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