The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 201

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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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201

“This is Chae Jung-woo’s ‘Black Stars in the Dark Night’ Visible Radio!”

Chae Jung-woo grinned while adjusting his headset. Since this was a Visible Radio broadcast, I flashed a bright smile and waved toward the camera. It was our first meeting since I’d ignored all of Chae Jung-woo’s texts back when I appeared on a variety show with Kang Yeon-hu.
It was the first time they met after Jung Woo ignored all of Chae Jung-woo’s text messages that were sent when he appeared on a variety show with Kang Yeon-hu.
He directed his questions subtly—just enough to be unnoticeable—toward Jung Da-jun and Kim Sung-hyun rather than Kang Yi-chae or myself.
It seemed like a considerate move, accounting for the growing gap in recognition within The Dun.

[Good progressㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[You guys, I love you ♥♥♥]

A monitor displaying real-time comments from viewers and listeners of the Visible Radio was positioned at an angle visible to both Chae Jung-woo and us.
Having hosted the radio show for two years now, he deftly plucked out the witty comments from the rapidly scrolling stream and read them aloud.

“Da-jun, I hear you’ve been receiving quite expensive gifts from Yi-chae lately.”

Jung Da-jun, who treated StarStar like a personal diary, had been diligent about uploading selfies recently. Particularly eager to appear “mature,” he was genuinely invested in creating “boyfriend material” photos—which naturally exposed the clothes and shoes Kang Yi-chae had gifted him. Everyone except Jung Da-jun was astounded by their price tags.
Jung Da-jun, only now learning this fact, looked genuinely shocked.

“Huh? Those are expensive?”
“Yes, those are expensive.”
“Da-jun doesn’t recognize them without the logo.”
“But Yi-chae said it was thirty thousand won?”
“Oh my.”

Kang Yi-chae had a terrible habit of teasing Jung Da-jun. Of course, I did too.
Chae Jung-woo watched their back-and-forth with a gentle smile before asking.

“Speaking of which, I’ve heard that Yi-chae frequently gives Ho-yoon clothes as gifts too?”
“Of course. I put a bit more care and personal touch into those.”

True enough, they were gifts.
He’d given me black t-shirts and sweatshirts, claiming he’d considered my taste. Except they had rainbow lettering on the chest reading “I’m Pretty” and “Princess.”

“You haven’t been wearing it.”
“I wore it just once because of peer pressure, but after the fans caught me, I haven’t worn it since.”

Everyone giggled at my response. Kang Yi-chae turned his gaze toward Sung Ji-won and spoke in a leisurely tone.

“Since Ji-won’s birthday is coming up soon, I’m planning to give him a t-shirt that says ‘The Dun Royalty.'”
“I’ll wear it proudly!”

[What does “wear it proudly” even mean lol]
[They’re seriously The Dun’s number one fans..]

Chae Jung-woo wore a satisfied expression as he skimmed through the rapidly updating comments.
After that, we moved on to an image game.

“Who in The Dun is the most stubborn? You’ll choose when I count to three!”

There was no need to think about it.
I was already picking myself, but all the other members pointed to Sung Ji-won instead.

“…Huh? Me?”

As Sung Ji-won laughed awkwardly, Jung Da-jun jumped to his feet.

“Of course Ho-yoon’s pretty stubborn too. But when you look at him later, he has a rational side. Yi-chae’s the type who’s fine with anything as long as it’s fun, except when it comes to health…. But Ji-won, when he gets stubborn, literally nobody can stop him!”
“What about Kim Sung-hyun?”
“If there’s someone who makes Sung-hyun stubborn, they really need to reflect seriously!”

Muttering that if Sung-hyun, The Dun’s light and hero, became stubborn, it meant someone had done something truly wrong, Jung Da-jun swept his hair back dramatically.
I looked at Sung Ji-won and tilted my head.

‘Is Ji-won really that stubborn?’

Kang Yi-chae glanced at me for a moment, then looked away.
After that, we moved on to a segment where we read brief stories sent via text and offered solutions.
Jung Da-jun, who read a story about someone unsure whether it was romance or not, launched into an impassioned speech drawing on his drama-watching experience from the womb to now, at nineteen years old.
Of course, The Dun’s maknae had never been in a relationship.

I thought about stopping him, but figured the Noeul fans would know more about Jung Da-jun anyway, so I let it go.
Besides, I didn’t add a word myself either.

‘If I give advice, the only ending I can picture is getting slapped.’

I watched the monitor with a lukewarm expression as the Maknae spoke, his brow furrowed in an uncharacteristic display of seriousness, saying that someone who confuses the other person isn’t a good person. A few comments caught my eye.

[Jung Woo is so cuteeeee]
[Dajuna!!!! How did I learn about love through writing?ㅠㅠOur youngest]
[Sung Ji-won explain yourself sung Ji-won explain yourself sung Ji-won explain yourself]
“Ugh, this is so gross, man. It was worth it for being a TDI center though.”
[Our maknae is this pure please protect him absolutely]
That’s so cute lolololololololol
[Aren’t you sorry to the members? It’s really amazing that the agency’s past is completely shut~ haha]

My eyebrows twitched for a moment, but I quickly masked my expression.
Just before Sung Ji-won, who had been smiling while looking at Da-jun, could turn his head toward the monitor, I kicked his leg under the table.

‘Huh?’

I flashed Sung Ji-won a bright smile as he widened his eyes and silently asked why with his lips.
Fortunately, the next conversation topic shifted to Sung Ji-won, leaving almost no time to check the monitor, and it seemed no more comments were coming up.

“May the starlight tonight reach you. See you tomorrow.”

The Dun thanked the Noeul fans for watching, and after Chae Jung-woo delivered the final remarks, the radio show ended.

“Thank you for your hard work~.”

I stood up from my seat, and I noticed the staff’s gazes subtly passing over Sung Ji-won.

“Brother, aren’t you leaving?”
“I should.”

As I stood quietly and assessed the atmosphere, Da-jun tilted his head slightly and looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I said I was leaving and followed along, but my instincts were blaring alarms in my head.

‘This is a mess.’

“Ho-yoon.”

Just then, as I stepped into the hallway heading toward the parking lot, I heard Chae Jung-woo calling me from behind.

“…Senior.”

I gestured for the members to head down first, then quickly plastered on my public-facing smile and turned around.

“Thank you for that. Yeon-hu’s work.”

There was no need to call him out separately just to express gratitude like this.
No matter how I looked at it, Chae Jung-woo seemed like an incredibly good-natured person.

“You really are grateful, right?”
“Of course… quite… it wasn’t a direction I’d anticipated, but ultimately the broadcast turned out well. Though, Joo Woo-sung was grumbling a bit.”
“He texted me asking why you were doing this to him.”
“Ahahaha.”

At my words, Chae Jung-woo burst into hearty laughter. A moment later, he glanced around to check our surroundings and lowered his voice further.

“Ho-yoon, do you have a moment?”

Wondering what he wanted to discuss, my eyes narrowed slightly, but I nodded anyway.
He led me to a secluded corner where few people ventured.

“…Normally I would’ve just pretended not to notice and moved on, but our kids have benefited a lot from you.”
“Yes.”
“Based on what I’ve observed so far, it seems like Seo Ho-yoon has a very resilient mentality, so I’m bringing this up.”

What on earth was he trying to say with all this preamble?

“What is it?”

Growing impatient from listening, I threw out a direct question, though my face still maintained its smile.
Of course, it cracked slightly a second later.

“It’s about Sung Ji-won.”

Chae Jung-woo averted his gaze slightly and scratched his cheek.

“The live comments were coming in so fast you might not have noticed, but something seemed off about him.”
“Ah.”

He seemed to have seen that post as well.
Chae Jung-woo scratched the back of his neck, appearing to deliberate for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.

“Do you know, Seo Ho-yoon? What Sung Ji-won was like at his previous company?”
“I’m not sure. He was fine.”
“…Hmm, well….”

Chae Jung-woo raised his eyebrows once, then spoke casually and dismissively, as if he had no intention of digging deeper.

“Anyway, we’re a team, so trust us. Ho-yoon, you’re in the same boat as us.”

I’d heard those words before. Precisely from my second mark.

“Yes. Thank you for your words.”

I thought the conversation had ended and tried to wrap it up, but Chae Jung-woo burst into laughter at an odd moment.

“You don’t agree with what I’m saying, do you? Or rather, are you just letting it go in one ear and out the other?”

Being known as a good person doesn’t mean being easy to fool.

‘There’s substance to his words.’

Despite my careful expression management, Chae Jung-woo—a member of Black Call who steadfastly held his position at the top and, unlike Joo Woo-sung, genuinely had no idle gossip—seemed to possess a talent for seeing through people.

“…Well, ultimately it’s your choice, but like I said earlier, you’ve helped our members well, and this is advice given in good faith. It would be good for the team if you took it to heart.”
“….”
“If possible, keep Sung Ji-won from seeing the internet. Somehow it gets to him, and he ends up hurting himself alone and festering.”

Chae Jung-woo lowered his gaze and murmured quietly.

“Sometimes wounds linger for a long time.”

With that final remark, he lowered the corners of his eyebrows and smiled.

“Though it seems you might not worry about such things, Seo Ho-yoon.”

With that, Chae Jung-woo thanked me for my hard work today, told me to be careful on my way, turned his body, and walked toward the radio booth.

Watching his retreating figure, I also turned my steps back toward the parking lot.

The curses I’d swallowed while working as a PD were enough to grant me immortality. How could anyone care about every single thing?

Still, there was something unsettling about D.go, Sung Ji-won’s former agency, constantly grabbing at his heels.
The situation seemed problematic, and since the rumor that Sung Ji-won originally belonged to Today Center had spread quite widely, it wasn’t strange that gossip was swirling around him.

‘The timing is the issue, though.’

There was one thing Joo Woo-sung had said long ago that I’d deeply resonated with.

It was extremely rare for a celebrity’s secrets to leak without reason.

To survive in this industry, you needed either talent or, at the very least, cunning.
As a result, those with inherently poor character or those who’d ruined their character through acquired habits were far more common than one might think.

“…Hmm.”

This had to be intentional.
It seemed Yoon Hee-eon had orchestrated something, just as the Lia Purple Maknae had mentioned, and if things went wrong, it could deal a blow to the entire group.

As for Sung Ji-won…
He was already our team’s number one, so there was no need for me to look after him separately.

Organizing my tangled thoughts, I descended to the basement and approached the van, where I noticed Sung Ji-won standing outside with his face buried in his hands and Kim Sung-hyun hovering nearby.

“Hey, why aren’t you two getting in…”

When Sung Ji-won looked up, I couldn’t continue speaking.

“Oh, yeah. Ho-yoon.”

Sung Ji-won was crying.

“Sung Ji-won.”

I stepped closer and leaned forward to examine him. I could see tears streaming down from his reddened eyes, which were heavily bloodshot above his flushed nose.

“Hey, you…”

Before I could even ask why he was crying, Sung Ji-won turned his face away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing?”
“Hey, hey. Seo Ho-yoon.”

Kim Sung-hyun’s voice reached my ears as he grabbed my arm from beside me.
Had he seen those comments from earlier?
Did he find something online in the meantime?
Or had Yoon Hee-eon contacted him?
My mind tangled with countless possibilities.

“Seo Ho-yoon, come outside for a moment.”

As my expression grew increasingly harsh, Kim Sung-hyun restrained me.
Yet my eyes remained fixed on Sung Ji-won, whose tears fell like rain.

“Stop crying and tell me what happened.”

I grabbed both his shoulders and pressed for an answer. After a moment’s hesitation, he finally spoke.

“I… I ran into the van.”
“…What?”

Embarrassed, his entire face flushed crimson as he pointed to a spot on the van.
There was indeed a pale mark visible there.

“I mean, I kept looking back to see when you’d arrive… and I smacked my face right into the door….”
“….”
“….”

An awkward silence enveloped us.

“Hey, are you even listening to what I’m saying?”
“….”
“Don’t tell me your ears only work when Sung Ji-won is talking?”

Kim Sung-hyun grumbled in frustration.
Jung Da-jun, who was already sitting in the back seat of the van, lowered the darkly tinted window with a soft whirring sound and rested his chin on the frame.

“Hyung, it’s cool and all, but… what should I say?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“You’re overprotective!”
“Da-jun, Ho-yoon’s shocked. You should keep thoughts like that to yourself~.”

With that, Yi-chae leaned against Da-jun’s back and clapped with exaggerated gestures.
Watching him chatter on about how I was the original source of Seo Ho-yoon Syndrome and that’s why people imitated me made my fists tremble involuntarily.

“Hey, get in.”
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Don’t dawdle. Hurry up.”
“Da-jun, translate for us.”
“That means he’s embarrassed, so please pretend you don’t know anything.”

Thinking I’d lose my mind if I stood here any longer, I shoved Ji-won and Kim Sung-hyun into the van first, but the younger members showed no signs of stopping their fooling around.

“Tell me. Who said that?”
“Kyaa~! Ho-yoon Hyung~!”

Da-jun ended up mimicking me, and when Yi-chae burst into laughter, I flicked both of them on the forehead.
Just then, I saw the Manager and Road Manager running over in the distance. It seemed they’d made their rounds of greetings while they were at the Broadcasting Station.
Once both of them boarded the vehicle, we quickly exited the parking lot.
As I rested my chin in my hand and gazed out the window, mentally cataloging the series of recent events,

“He should focus on doing his own thing better… and he’s always getting his wires crossed.”

The words of the Lia Purple Maknae suddenly popped into my head.
I immediately turned on my phone to text Kim Jae-yeon, but I noticed a gaze on me and only rolled my eyes to the side.
It seemed Ji-won thought he was being teased because of me and was nervously watching my reaction.
Seeing him still damp, I grabbed a tissue wedged in the corner of the seat and tossed it to him.

“Dry off.”
“Y-yeah!”

‘Damn it, fine.’

Overprotective, overprotective—but let me show you what real overprotection looks like.

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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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