Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 117.

“*Ahem ahem.*”
“Yun Chung, your throat still isn’t loosened up?! We have the shoot in just a few hours.”

A few days later, in the Practice Room.
We had gathered to run through Cha-yul’s 【Slope】 once each.
Today was also the day Top of Idol would be filming each team’s practice scenes.
But there was a problem.
My throat was truly giving out now.

“My vocal condition isn’t at its peak.”

I habitually fiddled with Baek Nok-ha’s phone.
Cotton Ball Entity, when exactly are you going to settle up with me?
I had a feeling it would be soon now.
There was no contact, no way to communicate, so I was just frustrated.
Yet I could sense it dimly.
Something had gone wrong with Cotton Ball Entity.
Though I couldn’t begin to guess what that problem was.

“Then wouldn’t it be better not to practice today?”

Ryu Bora handed me a glass of pear juice as she spoke.

“Just watch the members practice, Yun Chung.”
“Right. You’ve honestly done way too many radio appearances, unnie.”

Seo Baek-young and Kim Geum agreed with Ryu Bora.

“At least the silver lining is that Dear My Diva’s schedule got pushed back.”
“Seriously. Three months delayed.”

Apparently they’d failed to coordinate schedules with the other cast members.

“I heard Ban Aesh Dan-ha postponed it. That’s the rumor anyway.”
“Whoa. That FM senior is actually capable of postponing things?!”

I see.
To be honest, I didn’t know about that either.
Then one day, out of nowhere,

Ban Aesh Dan-ha Senior

Schedule postponed

Please ask the manager for details

That’s all the message said.
But it turned out that person had delayed it on purpose.
If someone else had told me, I wouldn’t have believed it, but since Seo Baek-young was the one asking, it had credibility.

“I’m more surprised that an entire program got postponed just because of one MC’s schedule adjustment. Wouldn’t they normally just hire someone else? Ban Aesh Dan-ha Senior must be incredibly popular.”
“They really hit their career peak this time. You could say Burnash is essentially keeping Colors afloat.”
“Kim Geum. How could you say such a thing…? We pull our own weight too!”
“Of course. But at this point, you’re not just pulling your weight—you’re operating at Michelin-star restaurant level while they’re at fast-food prices.”
“….”

Yeon Ju-hong looked thoroughly displeased about something again.
The funny thing about her is that if you say “You’re the best,” she’ll absolutely deny it.
But if you say “Your group is the best,” she gets incredibly upset.
Seeing how she believes ‘I’ am not the best but ‘we’ are absolutely the best, sometimes she’s endearing, sometimes pitiful, and sometimes both.

“Yun Chung. Anyway, let’s take it easy today and focus on our practice instead.”
“Sure. Is the arrangement all finished?”
“Yes. At least the first draft is done.”
“Then let’s all listen to it together.”

Kim Geum played the song as if she’d been waiting for this moment.
The members gathered close and began listening to the song.

Run down
You descend an endless slope
Go down
Continuously falling, always falling
Yet there is no fear
We slope away from slope
We slope away from snow

“We nailed the direction, just like we discussed.”
“Did we?”

Kim Geum broke into a soft smile.
I’d noticed it before, but Kim Geum was surprisingly vulnerable to praise.
Despite having been praised her entire life, she couldn’t hide her genuine delight.

“What does everyone think?”
“It’s all good, but I wish there were more of a twist to it.”
“Since it’s a one-time stage, we could afford to be even more dramatic than this. It would make us stand out more.”
“Everyone will probably pull out all the stops. So we need to put in more effort too.”

Everyone nodded at Ryu Bora’s assessment.
Unlike Make a New Color, Top Doll—or Top Doll as it’s called—has eliminations.
Two teams out of six will be eliminated.

“We can’t aim for first, but we can’t be an eliminated team either. Not when we came from a survival show.”
“….”

It was frustrating, but I had no counterargument.

“Then, Geum.”
“…Yes. I’ll go practice.”
“I’ll help you this time.”

I haven’t been able to help much because I’ve been busy, but my schedule has improved now.
In fact, over that time, Ryu Bora and I had the most individual schedules.
As the top member of Make a New Color, I was constantly being called out for solo appearances, and Ryu Bora had many individual activities because she had high public recognition as the center.
The difference was that I was being called everywhere to sing.
Ryu Bora’s individual activities were mainly photo shoots and advertisements.
Probably because I recently released an OST, my schedule seemed to be filled with even more singing-related engagements.
Director Kim even packed my schedule as if he’d sharpened a blade against me.
Any proposals to go out with the other members—Director Kim rejected all of them.
It felt like whenever there was a need for a lot of singing, he’d give it to me.
This was where my suspicion of my manager came from.
The only people who knew my current vocal condition was bad were the members, Lee Sol, and my manager.
Director Kim isn’t even someone who would push me forward, so there must be a reason he keeps booking singing-related schedules one after another.
He must be thinking, “Let’s strain that throat a bit.”
Honestly, every time that happened, I felt the urge to just expose the corruption the moment the mission succeeded and disappear.
As a result, with so many things overlapping, my throat seemed to have gotten worse.
But I didn’t have the seniority to refuse schedules, and since all the members were busy too, there was nothing I could do.
Seo Baek-young had a lot of TokTik-related advertisements and individual schedules coming in.
Yeon Ju-hong was doing beauty photo shoots and beverage commercials, and was making small appearances on variety shows.
Kim Geum was dying from working on music production.
Why didn’t Kim Geum, who had the best variety show skills, do broadcasting activities?

“I’d like to focus on music for a while.”
“…Didn’t you want to go on variety shows?”
“I did originally. But now that I’m sick, I understand. I’m someone who wants to do music. I’d like to prepare for the next album.”

With her will being like that, I couldn’t say anything more.
So the variety show offers that came for Kim Geum were either rejected or the other members amicably divided them among themselves.
Thanks to that, my schedule increased, but no one had complaints.
By the way, I suddenly realized something.
Right now, our group activities are only Top Doll.
I took out Yun Chung’s phone and checked SNS reactions for the first time in a while.
Because I had so many derogatory nicknames… finding them wasn’t that difficult.
During the Make a New Color era, the term “cyanide” was used a lot, but maybe because it was too long, now I was being called “Lip” frequently.
How did Yun Chung become “Lip”?
Yun Chung—Yun Blue—Yun Blu—Blu—Lip.
It seems like it went through roughly this process.
Sometimes people even called me “Two Lip.”
Since I’m getting hungry, I’d appreciate it if people would refrain from using that nickname.

★
So annoyed that during the survival show they kept going on and on about “relationships” and “connections,” but the moment we debuted, it’s just nonstop solo activities. Like, seriously?
If Rip’s the leader, she should at least do some research or pay attention to what’s going on. Tell Nina and the others to dial back the solo work.
I bet that whole “let’s go on Top Doll” thing came straight from Rip’s stubborn head. And this is all we’ve got to show for it…
Instead of chasing after that OST, how about we actually take care of the members?
Rip’s not calm—she’s just emotionless, right? I’ve told her a hundred times: I’m not an ATM with feelings.

Everyone’s really upset, it seems.
I’d already anticipated this to some extent.
Especially regarding my OST release—the fans’ complaints were most vocal about that.
At least since it was a song Kim Geum composed, the dissatisfaction died down a bit…
While the title track “Blue” was hovering between 5th and 8th place, the OST was bouncing between 15th and 20th.
Some people probably feel like we’re splitting the buzz.
The one saving grace was that the OST dropped right around when the “Blue” promotion wrapped up.
If I hadn’t been dealing with vocal nodules—such an unusual situation—I wouldn’t have released it so hastily.
Either way, I need to lay low for a while.
I should tell my manager that unless it’s absolutely unavoidable, I’m turning down all solo activities.
If they ignore me even after I say that… I’ll have to take action.

“By the way, why is Cha-yul sunbae coming today?”
“Right? I heard no other team has the original artist visiting. Only our team does.”
“Is she worried?! We can do well!”
“….”

…I’ll give my manager one last chance with the solo activity issue and leave it to them.
First, I need to handle this.

***

“Yun Chung, was there a specific reason you chose my song? It’s not an easy one.”
“Oh, we all picked it because we genuinely love it. The lyrics really resonated with us, actually. We thought it would suit our group’s concept well.”
“I wrote the lyrics for this one. Did you know that?”
“Yes, I did know.”
“I heard you write lyrics too. Where do you usually draw inspiration from?”

This is really uncomfortable.
No matter who approached Cha-yul, she always found her way back to me to continue our conversation.
As if she had no interest in anyone else.
This crazy unnie really….
I told her to only do this in private, but she’s doing it right in front of the camera too.
As I thought that, I suddenly realized something.
Ah.
…The Cha-yul in this world would never have heard such things.
Because this is a world without Baek Nok-ha.

“Um, senior. Would you like to listen to our arrangement?”
“Oh, yes. Who did the arrangement? Did Yun Chung do it?”
“…I did it….”
“Is that so? Then let me listen to it first.”

I’m sorry, Geum.
The younger Cha-yul was far more straightforward than I had imagined.
Since I only became close to her starting from my fourth year, I didn’t know what Cha-yul was like ten years ago.
The Cha-yul I last saw at my fifteenth year wasn’t exactly an ‘ordinary’ person either.
But compared to the Cha-yul of my fifth year, that was nothing.
The current Cha-yul didn’t even seem to be aware that a camera was present.
…Of course, Cha-yul’s fans were even more enthusiastic about this side of her.

“The arrangement seems quite good. I like how it doesn’t just follow the original’s atmosphere. You have a real sense for arrangement.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I don’t say empty words when it comes to music.”
“Yes….”

Even that hot-headed tiger Kim Geum was nothing but a gentle kitten in front of Cha-yul.
She seemed to have a weak spot when it came to seniors.

“The arrangement isn’t completely finished yet. We’re trying to create a more dramatic atmosphere here. I thought about adding real instrument performances by incorporating a band sound. We wanted to try adding a more dramatic and grand feeling.”

I said that and quickly added on.

“That was Bora’s idea.”
“Is that so? It’s a good idea. You’re putting a lot of careful attention into the storytelling aspect.”

At the mention of storytelling, a peculiar light kindled across Ryu Bora’s face.
She kept saying she was tired of acting, tired of it, yet she showed tremendous interest in storytelling and cinematic sound.

“But, Yun Chung. That…”

Cha-yul began peppering me with questions again.
She really was persistent.
I swallowed a sigh as her gaze turned back to me once more.
Whether then or now, whenever she latches onto someone, she loses all sense of restraint.
I suppose I should call it consistency.
I answered with appropriate courtesy and took a brief moment to rest.
The instant the camera cut, I approached Cha-yul and whispered in her ear.

“Um… Senior.”
“Yes?”
“Actually, I’m a fan of yours.”
“!”

Cha-yul’s eyes widened immediately as she looked at me.

“Really?”
“Yes. So you don’t need to be so formal with us.”
“How did you know I was nervous?”

Cha-yul asked with genuine surprise in her eyes.
Isn’t it obvious when you look at her?
Am I the only one who can sense it?

“Because I’m a fan. I can tell that much.”
“I see…!”
“So please, just be more comfortable with us. We’re all fans of yours… you can treat us however you like.”
“Understood.”

Cha-yul nodded readily.

“I’m sorry. Yun Chung feels so comfortable to be around that I keep seeking her out.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll focus on the broadcast now. In exchange.”
“?”
“After the program ends, could you… have a meal with me later?”

Why was she struggling so hard to say something so simple?

“Of course. I’d be delighted.”
“Really? Thank goodness.”

Cha-yul immediately broke into a cheerful grin.
Watching her, I felt my energy drain away.
At this point, I felt less like an idol and more like a trainer.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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