The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 105

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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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The Former Idol’s Indie Band Hard-Carry
Episode 105
The plane that departed Incheon cut through the sky above the Pacific Ocean.
For over ten hours.
Though the view outside the window was nothing but clouds, my mind lingered on the land beyond them.
United States.
It had been far, far too long.
A place I’d set foot on countless times in my past life as a solo singer.
Dazzling stages and a torrent of camera flashes, and when it all ended, I was always alone in some hotel room.
Back then, that vast city felt impossibly lonely.
“Hey, Cha Seo Ha, is there only one meal service on this flight?”
“Of course.”
“Aw, can’t I ask for another one? It’s pretty good.”
Heo Jun Sung whined from across the aisle.
Lee Do Young beside him had dozed off with his English vocabulary booklet still open.
Kang Min sat absorbed in an anime playing on a small screen, earbuds in.
Kim Ji Hu had been reading coolly until he felt my gaze and lifted his head slightly.
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing, just.”
A laugh escaped me.
Even treading the same ground, this life felt nothing like the last—there was no loneliness in sight.
* * *
The plane touched down with a dull thud of impact.
“We’re here!”
Before the wheels even finished kissing the runway, everyone switched their phones out of airplane mode.
The moment they did, notifications came flooding in like a deluge.
“Wait, what? Our airport photos are causing a stir back home?”
Heo Jun Sung shoved his phone at me.
The selfie we’d posted at the airport yesterday was already becoming quite the topic domestically.
There were already plenty of people reposting the story on YouTube.
And the comments section was surprisingly lively.
-What? Oktatop went to America?
-How do those guys without a company even manage it?
-Didn’t the Americans invite them because they hit #1 on the overseas charts?
-Isn’t this just a vacation?
└Are they a trust-fund band or something? Why would they go to America just to play around?
└Well, you can if you want. Their music chart’s been pretty solid.
-Whoa, is a Korean indie band seriously entering the American market?
-But when are they actually joining a company lmao
-Suddenly America, this is so surreal. I literally saw them at Ban-Wol Park last week….
“It’s kind of amazing that so many people are interested in our every move.”
Lee Do Young scrolled through the comments with genuine wonder.
“Well, of course. The world has finally witnessed the grand arrival of my forces upon the continent!”
“Ugh, seriously, shut up.”
Heo Jun Sung’s blinking eyes suddenly widened.
“Wait, doesn’t something feel weird? We boarded in the evening back in Korea.”
The time difference seemed to fascinate him—the way a single day had been repeated.
“We flew for over ten hours and arrived the same morning.”
“What, did time go backward?!”
“Basically, yeah?”
“Whoa… I’m a reincarnator in another world!”
“That’s not quite how it works.”
We were laughing and chattering as we walked when my heart suddenly lurched.
The immigration checkpoint.
Could we really get through this without incident?
Of course my worry wasn’t for myself—it was for those two idiots.
“What’s the purpose of your visit?”
Heo Jun Sung, called up first, went completely rigid.
“Uh… uh…. Um….”
The first words out of his mouth were:
“I want to play music! And I want to eat hamburger?”
“…….”
The officer’s eyebrows twitched.
“Dude, come on. That’s not even English!”
Kim Ji Hu jumped in urgently from behind to smooth things over.
He explained we were here for a broadcast appearance, staying just a few days before heading back.
The officer, charmed by Kim Ji Hu’s fluent English, laughingly told him to enjoy the hamburgers.
And—stamp—the passport was processed.
Kang Min stepped up next.
“Where are you staying?”
“Um, and, with me and…….”
“……Excuse me?”
“…hotel……?”
He was just saying “hotel” in Japanese.
I ended up practically dragging Kang Min through as well.
At least Lee Do Young managed the immigration process without any problems, his English halting but functional.
And the Manager who came after handled the exchange with the officer smoothly and breezed through.
“The Manager really is different.”
“He’s accomplished. He’s probably been to America more than once or twice, right?”
We collected our luggage and stepped out of the airport.
“……Huh?”
Lee Do Young, Heo Jun Sung, and Kang Min all went rigid.
Bright, blazing sunlight.
Palm trees lining both sides of the street.
People of all races passing by in t-shirts and shorts.
“It’s February?”
“Wow, it’s actually hot.”
“I told you. You should’ve packed light.”
Los Angeles’s spring was far warmer than Korea’s.
The sticky heat and the rows of palm trees planted in front of the airport made the reality of being in America sink in.
“Something… the colors are different.”
“Right? Why does it feel so open here?”
Kim Ji Hu mentioned he’d been to America a few times as a child.
The Manager and I, of course, took it in stride.
Only Heo Jun Sung, Lee Do Young, and Kang Min were genuinely marveling at the sight.
“I never thought I’d experience something like this in my life.”
Heo Jun Sung’s murmur struck something deep in my chest.
“But where do we go now?”
Heo Jun Sung asked me, and the Manager answered.
“The broadcast station said they’d send a car. There should be a pickup vehicle over there.”
Our first moments on foreign soil were chaotic and far from smooth.
The heat annoyed us, but strangely, smiles never left any of our faces.
* * *
We took the van the broadcast station sent us toward our accommodation.
The moment we got in, Kang Min murmured while gazing out the window.
“But man, the roads here are huge. So many lanes.”
“You can’t live in this city without a car.”
To us Seoul natives raised on the subway system, the endless highways felt alien.
The roads were far wider than Korea’s, and the cars moved with startling speed.
“Huh, this neighborhood hasn’t changed one bit.”
The Manager, sitting up front, murmured quietly while gazing out the window.
“You’ve been to America pretty often, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. Back in the day, one of the groups I managed even did a showcase here.”
“Wow… that’s impressive.”
“That’s all ancient history now.”
Yet even as he said it, the Manager’s eyes gleamed with something—a spark I hadn’t seen before.
It seemed he didn’t entirely mind being dragged all this way by these rowdy kids, even if he’d thought himself washed up.
And then, far ahead on a hillside, I spotted a familiar white sign.
“Whoa! Dude! Is that it?! Hollywood!”
“Yeah! For real!”
A sight you’d only ever see on TV spread out across the window.
Just then, while everyone was absorbed in the view:
“Hey, there’s that too!”
Heo Jun Sung suddenly pressed his face against the glass and shouted.
“Patty’s Four Burgers!”
A famous burger restaurant in LA.
Past the palm trees, a yellow arrow-shaped sign flashed by.
“Driver! Or wait, Manager! Let’s eat there!”
“No way, man. We don’t have time right now.”
“Nooooo!”
Heo Jun Sung drooped against the front seat in defeat.
Every sign we passed was in English, occasionally in Spanish.
The van barreled forward, carrying a van full of wide-eyed kids seeing this world for the first time.
* * *
After a long drive, we arrived at our accommodation—a clean, business-class hotel near Hollywood.
Not luxury, not rundown—just a solid mid-range place.
The moment we threw our luggage into the rooms, the Manager clapped his hands.
“Alright, skip the unpacking. Everyone come back out.”
The others, wanting to explore the rooms, knew better than to protest and came back out immediately.
“I know you’re all tired, but we can’t be late for the meeting. Let’s move.”
We were all bleary from the long flight and the jet lag, but there was no choice.
Three nights, five days.
In this short span, we had to make our first real impression on the international stage.
And the van set out again.
* * *
Our schedule was like this:
First day: meeting with the broadcast station.
Second day: filming.
Third day: free time and departure prep.
There was no real time to play around—we had to focus purely on the shoot.
After driving for a while longer from the hotel, we arrived at The Greenroom studio.
The people who would oversee our first overseas stage performance were waiting inside.
“But honestly, I’m getting a little nervous now.”
Lee Do Young muttered quietly.
“Nervous?”
“Yeah. It’s America, and I’m worried the language barrier will be an issue.”
“Don’t worry.”
I looked out at the sprawling, unfamiliar city I could see all at once and smiled.
“Even if words don’t connect, music will.”
The studio looked like an old brick warehouse that had been converted.
Rough on the outside, yet possessed a subtle charm.
“This is a broadcast station?”
“It’s smaller than I expected.”
The others tilted their heads at the unfamiliar appearance of the facility.
“This is what the real deal actually looks like.”
The Manager answered with practiced ease.
Everyone gazed up at the building with nervous expressions.
“Let’s go.”
I took the lead toward the entrance.
* * *
The meeting turned out to be nothing special.
They asked about our music, how we formed the band, funny recent stories—that sort of thing.
The overall framework wasn’t much different from Korean talk shows, except music got a much bigger portion of the discussion.
Oh, and there were questions about Moon Ga Young, naturally.
“Hey, Cha Seo Ha, why do you speak English so well?”
“Just picked it up, you know.”
“That’s strange…….”
During the meeting, I’d communicated in fluent English.
Naturally, all the guys stared at me like I’d grown a second head.
I just vaguely said I’d done some studying beforehand and moved on.
Before heading back to the accommodation, we grabbed tacos from a place near the studio to quick-fuel.
Heo Jun Sung whined about wanting hamburgers, but it was too far to make the detour.
So there I was, fighting exhaustion and forcing tacos into my mouth:
“You guys.”
Kim Ji Hu opened his mouth in a quiet tone.
“I have something to say.”
“Something to say?”

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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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