The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 194

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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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194

“‘Want to sing with me?’ All cast members, gather!”

I left the waiting room with Kang Yeon-hu and headed toward the filming set.

“Yeon-hu, Ho-yoon’s team, please stand over here!”

Kang Yeon-hu was quick to read the room and assess situations, and he’d made certain compromises to survive in this industry and achieve his dreams, but when it came to crucial moments, he was often naïve and soft-hearted.
Just like how he’d told me about Jung Da-jun’s situation back at Shining Star.

“I have no intention of accommodating Seo Ho-yoon. So don’t do anything strange.”
“Aha.”

From our brief exchange, it seemed he believed that staying quiet and unremarkable was the safest middle ground—forced as he was into this groundless program amid a torrent of criticism.
I simply let out a quiet laugh.

Some might call his approach boring, others might say he was being buried, but honestly, I thought he was wise.
This was the kind of experience you accumulated from surviving at a major agency.
There was a reason the saying went that staying quiet would at least get you through the middle.
There’s a reason they say that even if you just sit still, you’ll end up in the middle of things.

“But then I’d have no face to show Chae Jung-woo.”

Variety shows themselves didn’t follow any complicated rules.
The pairings were already set, and it wasn’t a survival show. It was simply a song festival hosted by famous comedians as MCs and several idols forming pairs.
Since it was structured as a special project, the broadcast period was short.
The song festival performance itself couldn’t possibly fail.
But——,
However—,

“Oh! Hello.”
“Oh! Hello.”

These two must be pulling their hair out.
Mars’s main vocalist, who’d been doing quite well on a variety show since Shining Star Season 1.
And the Lia Purple Maknae, who’d been through a scandal with P.O.B member Yoon Hee-eon.
They were paired together like this.
The two who’d been waiting on the set came out and greeted Kang Yeon-hu and me.
Looking at their faces, they seemed awkward, nervous, and clearly very uncomfortable with the situation.
Even after filming started, Mars’s main vocalist and the Lia Purple Maknae were busy managing their expressions.

“Oh my~~ Gu Chan and Yeon-ri, you two look so good together!”
“This place is just a romance movie with you two here! Are you two really going to develop feelings for each other? Haha!”

The agencies, unable to work as a pair, had stepped forward to create an issue by weaving the two—who had no common ground—into a romance.

‘Are they insane?’

Who would watch such a boring variety show?
Using idols means drawing in their fans, but if you tie them together like this, who’s going to watch? They’ll just get cursed out.
And who’s the PD who just approved this and accepted it so readily?
I really didn’t like how this was turning out.

“Kyaa… Um, you two on stage… haha.”
“I’m so so excited.”
“Ah, aha ha….”
“Ha… haha….”

It wasn’t an illusion that their laughter sounded like sighs.
Kang Yeon-hu, unwilling to let even a single eyebrow hair touch this romance setup, only offered a soulless smile.

“Cut!! That’s good, that’s good!”
“Alright, let’s move to the next location and film the next scene!”

Scene? Really?
It was hard to tell whether this was a reality show filming set or a drama production.
Eventually, everyone got into their respective vans and moved to the next location.

And the second peculiarity.

〔Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): Oppa, does the food taste good?
Gu Chan (Mars): Yes, it tastes even better today. I’m in a good mood.
Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): How did we end up paired like this? It’s so enjoyable.
Gu Chan (Mars): Yeon-ri sunbae, we’ve been running into each other so often lately. At this point, don’t you think it’s real fate?
Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): (laughs with slight embarrassment) Oppa! That’s unfair. Just call me Yeon-ri like you always do.〕

This program had an incredibly detailed script.
And it was hopelessly outdated.
Here we were in the twenty-first century, with people supposedly immersed in this industry, yet they couldn’t even grasp what their primary viewers actually wanted.

Of course, the screenwriters who’d worked on countless variety shows probably hadn’t wanted to write like this either.
And factually speaking, there had been quite a few successful variety shows that incorporated romance elements. Idols used to be part of that trend too.
But as idols’ influence grew exponentially, the broadcasting industry became increasingly conscious of their fandoms, and such content gradually disappeared.

“Does… the… food… taste… good!?”

After arriving at the restaurant, while everyone waited for the cameras to be set up, the Lia Purple Maknae was busy muttering her lines and struggling to figure out how to look like an emotionless robot.

“The food~! Tastes~so~good~!?”
“….”

This was a mess.
I’d noticed it when Lia Purple’s agency was preparing for the year-end joint performance, but they still couldn’t manage things properly.
After suffering so much from the scandal, they were throwing Lia Purple into a situation like this?

“We’re starting filming!!”
“Yes!!”

At the staff member’s call, the Lia Purple Maknae rolled her eyes nervously and moved toward the designated window seat.
I pulled out a chair across from her and sat down, recalling the script.

〔S#3 Upscale Italian Restaurant
(After greeting each other at the Song Festival Fair
Yeon-hu, Ho-yoon, Yeon-ri, and Gu Chan dine together)

Gu Chan (Mars): I didn’t expect we’d all gather like this. I’m so happy to see everyone.
Yeon-hu (High Five): Right? Opportunities like this don’t come around often.
Ho-yoon (The Dun): (playfully) I’m nervous being around my seniors.
All: Hahaha! (laughter)

(Please proceed naturally.)

I watched Lia Purple’s Maknae, suppressing the urge to click my tongue, as she twirled only the noodles of her cream pasta with her fork.
Mars’s main vocalist, who was managing her composure with slightly more variety show experience, initiated the conversation first.

“I didn’t expect this to happen. Everyone’s so welcoming.”
“Right, opportunities like this don’t come around often.”

According to the script, my line was supposed to come next,

“….”
“….”
“….”
“….”

I shoved a mouthful of ragu lasagna into my mouth.

‘Hey, why aren’t you doing it?’

Mars’s main vocalist sent me a signal, but I pretended not to notice.
Lia Purple’s Maknae, who had been hunched over her plate with her nose practically touching it, finally flinched and lifted her head, then glanced at me sideways.
It was her turn if I didn’t deliver my line.

“Uh…. Ugh.”
“….”
“Kgh….”

As Lia Purple’s Maknae’s body trembled and her mouth gaped open, Mars’s main vocalist’s eyes wavered uncontrollably.

〔Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): Oppa, is the food delicious?〕

“Y…es…the…food…is…delicious.”

I butchered the line.
Lia Purple’s Maknae stumbled through with acting so wooden it rivaled Kim Sung-hyun’s. At this point, I couldn’t even tell if she genuinely couldn’t do it or was doing it on purpose.

〔Gu Chan (Mars): Yes, it tastes especially good today. I’m in a great mood.〕

“Today!! The mood tastes delicious!!”
“….”

Mars’s main vocalist, who had been scolded by the Lia Purple Maknae, mixed up the dialogue from behind with the dialogue from before.
The fortunate thing was that the PD seemed willing to let this slide and continued filming.
Mars’s main vocalist knew he had to escape this situation somehow, but his expression showed no sign of a solution.

“Aha, that’s right. The good atmosphere makes it taste even better.”

Since it wasn’t his problem, Kang Yeon-hu casually filled in the empty audio and enjoyed his meal happily.

〔Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): How did we end up paired like this? It’s fun.〕

“How―did―we―end―up like this… like, like, like black bean noodles!!”
“….”
“Ugh….”

The Lia Purple Maknae, whose limbs had finally cramped up, clenched her fists tightly. After several NGs in a row, the staff members, half giving up and half out of sympathy, frantically signaled that they would edit it out.

“Yeah, yeah. If the pasta noodles were just a bit thicker and darker, they’d be black bean noodles….”

Mars’s main vocalist just threw out whatever came to mind, as if to say let’s hurry up and finish. Then the discouraged Lia Purple Maknae closed her eyes tightly and continued with difficulty.

“How did we end up paired like this?!”

However, this time Mars’s main vocalist’s mouth stayed firmly shut.
In the moment he was thinking that if he responded with the correct dialogue, things would really go wrong,

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Mars’s main vocalist, Gu Chan’s line, came out of someone else’s mouth.
From mine, specifically.

“Huh?”

Kang Yeon-hu, who had been dipping bread into pasta sauce, snapped his head to the side.
I swept my gaze across the three of them staring blankly at me.

“We’ve been running into each other so much lately that I’m starting to think this is real fate.”

I stole someone else’s line from the script and spat it out.

“…Huh??”

Wondering if she was talking to herself, I turned my gaze away from the Lia Purple Maknae, whose pupils were visibly trembling, and flashed a smile toward Kang Yeon-hu.

“With our senior Yeon-hu here.”
“…!”

Even if I died and came back to life, there would never be a moment in my entire existence when I’d say something like this to a female idol.

“Hm?”

Kang Yeon-hu, suddenly caught off guard, frowned ever so slightly before quickly regaining his composure and smiled gently.

“With me and Ho-yoon?”
“Yes.”
“Now that I think about it, we’ve run into each other quite often, even on other programs.”
=Stop this nonsense before you bring up Shining Star and start a fandom war.

‘Man, he’s prickly.’

Unfortunately, unlike Kang Yeon-hu who wanted to end it here, the staff members found it intriguing and waved their arms for us to continue.
Kang Yeon-hu glanced at them, pressed his lips together slightly, then continued as instructed.

“To end up with Seo Ho-yoon like this. I was disappointed back then because I was busy and couldn’t talk much.”
“Come on, we talked plenty.”

Mostly conversations where we were wary of each other.
Kang Yeon-hu looked at me with a gaze that asked if I’d lost my mind.

“…What?”

Instead of answering, I calmly stabbed a piece of salad with my fork and put it in my mouth. I was waiting for Kang Yeon-hu’s reaction.

“Did we really talk that much? Haha.”
=Are you seriously trying to mess with me right now?
“Quite a bit? Senior, you know me well.”
=Play along, you bastard.

I savored the crisp texture of the salad between my teeth while meeting the gaze of Kang Yeon-hu, WH Entertainment’s senior whose composure was visibly slipping.

“I know what kind of senior you are, too.”

Kang Yeon-hu’s lips twitched.
He’d witnessed firsthand how I’d treated Jung Won-ha well before delivering a crushing betrayal.
On top of that, when I’d pretended not to remember in front of Sung Ji-won, I’d even cracked a joke about a hearing. He couldn’t possibly be ignorant of my true nature.

Probably right now, his mind was blaring alarm bells: “Seo Ho-yoon = dangerous person.” That’s why he was bristling like a cautious cat, every hair on end.

“Since when did you know me like that, junior?”

His face was smiling, but his words were a sharp blade.
He was issuing a warning in a gentle tone right in front of the camera—don’t say anything strange that might cause problems.
This was a program WH Entertainment was investing in, so there was no way they’d air a scene that could be problematic for Kang Yeon-hu. This was intentional behavior meant to be edited out.
This guy really wasn’t ordinary.

“Junior?”

But I wasn’t ordinary either.

“…Then what?”

Honestly, I’d disliked this concept from the start.
I wasn’t fond of scripted content to begin with, and this was packed with uncomfortable settings that made the cast uneasy.

〔Yeon-ri (Lia Purple): (laughs with a hint of embarrassment) Oppa! Don’t be upset. Just call me Yeon-ri like you always do.〕

If my junior had brought me a variety show with dialogue like this spilling out endlessly, I would’ve burned the proposal right in front of them.
But.

‘I’ll make this fun for you.’

So follow my lead.

“Hyung, I’m upset.”

I had a plan.
I lowered my gaze with a slight hint of embarrassment and smiled.

“Just call me Ho-yoon like you always do.”

Clang!!

Upon hearing those words, the Lia Purple Maknae—the original speaker of that line—dropped her fork onto the floor.

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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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