The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 204

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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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204

Before I contacted Kim Jae-yeon to dig up information on Yoon Hee-eon, I’d already exhausted every search I could manage on my phone.

[Please withdraw from Seongjiwon haha. It’s so funny and I act like I don’t know anything. Ugh.]
[Sung Ji-won should’ve gone to the military with Today~~ After 6 years of training and realizing it wouldn’t work out, he should’ve just lived as a normal person, but instead he’s stubbornly forcing his way through and causing damage to the other members]
“The male idols doing personality marketing (lol) is so pitiful, so pitiful. Meanwhile, Dae Pa-sung is turning a blind eye and deaf ear to it… (lol)”

They delude themselves into thinking that if they envy, hate, and crush someone, they can rise higher. The moment they spot even the smallest opening, they swarm like beasts and tear into their target.
And the fact that the target is someone as sincere and genuinely kind as Sung Ji-won is what irritates me the most.

‘Honestly, Sung Ji-won is worth doing character management for.’

Anyone who talks to Sung Ji-won and spends even a few days with him would understand. Even without trying, your jaded heart gets purified little by little.
Especially living as his roommate lately, I was realizing this more and more.

Next, I searched P.O.B, but nothing related to Yoon Hee-eon came up.
Whether it was the power of a major agency or aggressive reputation management.
I clicked my tongue and tried various keyword combinations, but when I couldn’t find satisfactory results, I paused in thought before adjusting the date range.

[Apparently he’s been using gaslighting since his trainee days to satisfy his need for validation. Can you really change your nature?

└(This post cannot be viewed)
Those kids who are gonna debut with them are the ones I feel bad for lol

I let out a slight laugh as I found a tweet from a few years back that finally showed some promise.

‘Right, once something gets dirty, the stain can never be completely erased like it was before.’

After confirming there was nothing more worth seeing, I deleted Yoon Hee-eon and typed in the agency’s name.
As I skimmed through articles, communities, and SNS, one keyword stood out distinctly.

[ㅍㅇㅂ Is it true that there is a blacklist?? LOL I believed it when I saw it leaked last time, but it seems like they are not managing it LOL.

I can’t provide a reliable translation for this text. It appears to contain informal/slang Korean with unclear or corrupted characters that don’t form standard words, making it impossible to translate accurately.

Now that I thought about it, several entertainment companies had mentioned maintaining blacklists to monitor obsessive fans and sasaeng stalkers.
I adjusted my search keywords and reset the time period.
Then older posts began to appear.

[Let’s not consume photos of this person.. Let’s protect our precious P.O.B members’ privacy…

“Isn’t it about time we ended this trend of beating up Home Masters who aren’t even on the blacklist? Stop consuming this content, please.”

[But damn, the photos are taken so well]

After reading a few more posts where the hostile atmosphere seeped through the text, I could roughly piece together what had happened back then.
P.O.B’s agency had accidentally leaked their blacklist at some point, and it had apparently sparked intense controversy among the fanbase.

But something caught my attention.
All the fan managers who had been archived as having posted airport previews the day before the blacklist was presumed to have been leaked were included on the list.
All except for one person.

‘Ah~. This is damn interesting.’

I compiled the relevant information and briefly passed it along to Kim Jae-yeon, asking him to investigate.
Since he was a paparazzi by trade, I figured he’d either have a contact at P.O.B’s agency or at worst could sweet-talk some part-timer into digging up the information.
Once I got the blacklist, a simple comparison would reveal everything.
However, even though Kim Jae-yeon understood what I meant, he added a pointless question.

[But why are you doing this?]
“….”
[Isn’t it hard to call them rivals anymore? P.O.B is losing ground anyway. Or do you think they’re the ones who spread rumors about Sung Ji-won?]

I naturally ignored him and moved on.
And just now, what Kim Jae-yeon had told me over the phone boiled down to three things.

Yoon Hee-eon had dated sasaeng stalkers multiple times.
Currently, it seemed he was still meeting with one.
However, it was impossible to identify exactly who.

He said the person I’d mentioned was suspicious, but more time was needed.
I offered Kim Jae-yeon genuine praise as he grumbled about how the blacklist was such a sensitive matter that it was difficult to extract.

“How are you still making money to get by?”
[…Well, I manage somehow.]

Though I caught fragments of static in between, Kim Jae-yeon relayed what he’d investigated in considerable detail.
I hung up and showered, organizing my thoughts. Still, the outline of what was happening with Yoon Hee-eon was gradually becoming clearer.

With nothing more to do for now, I sprawled across the bed and sought sleep.
When I opened my eyes again, sunlight was streaming down brilliantly. The outside was already bustling—the other members must have been up.
I tore open a red ginseng stick, tossed it into my mouth, and moved about sluggishly.

“The air conditioning must be broken!!”
“Is this a sauna?”

Everyone had huddled together outside the pension, and I realized they’d gone out hoping for even a hint of breeze since the air conditioning wasn’t working properly.
As I was pressing my hat down, my eyes met directly with Kang Yi-chae, who was poking Jung Da-jun’s cheeks while he whined about the heat. He flashed a grin at me.
I sat on the bench and waited for the van to arrive.
Then, Sung Ji-won, who had been near Jung Da-jun and Kang Yi-chae, approached me with slow steps and spoke.

“You really don’t mind the heat.”

Then he plopped down beside me and went limp.
We hadn’t been outside for very long, but his skin was already turning red from the sun.

“Ah… I need to contact the Elderly Woman.”
“Then just do it.”
“Right. So… uh…?”
“What?”
“…Where’s my phone?”

Watching Sung Ji-won rummage through his pockets without even lifting his head, I sighed, asked where he’d slept, then stood and headed back into the pension.
When I opened the door to the room he’d mentioned, a phone caught my eye on the bedside table.
In that moment, the information from Lia Purple Junior Member and Kang Yi-chae about Yoon Hee-eon contacting Sung Ji-won suddenly came back to me.
The thought of whether I should refrain for the sake of my groupmate’s privacy didn’t last even three seconds.

‘You refrain.’

I unlocked it with practiced ease.
Sung Ji-won and Kim Sung-hyun’s phones were used by the younger members as secondary devices for game events, so I could unlock the pattern blindfolded.

I raised an eyebrow and without hesitation tapped open the messaging app.
At the top was Hee-eon Yoon’s chat room, and below that was a chat room with a preview of the text ‘Grandma, I miss you too!! Haha’.

“Hmm.”

I opened Yoon Hee-eon’s messages and scrolled to the top to review them in order—it was quite a sight.
Passing through content about “curfew at 5 PM” and “can’t do it because my roommate is strict,”

Yoon Hee-eon: Come to this address lol
[Sung Ji-won: I apologize]

Yoon Hee-eon: Let’s grab a drink together lol
[Sung Ji-won: I apologize]

[Yoon Hee-eon: When do you have time?]
[Sung Ji-won: I apologize]

Had he gone, there would have been traps where photos capable of dealing serious damage to his entertainment career would have been taken. But Sung Ji-won responded with the same curt reply as if he’d just copied and pasted—Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v.
Yoon Hee-eon’s tone grew increasingly threatening as his anger rose.
Yoon Hee-eon’s tone became increasingly threatening as his anger continued to rise.

Yoon Hee-eon: You’re really showing your annoyance with your senior, aren’t you?

However, Sung Ji-won ignored it.

Sung Ji-won…

When even his responses ceased, Yoon Hee-eon became somewhat more blatant.
When there was no response even later, Yoon Hee-eon even began to act somewhat bluntly.

[Yoon Hee-eon: Rumors spread really fast, not just in the industry but among fans too]
[Yoon Hee-eon: You probably don’t want the members who believed in you or your family to see this kind of talk]
[Yoon Hee-eon: Wouldn’t you feel sorry toward the people who’ve supported you?]
Yoon Hee-eon: Don’t you think you should apologize to the people who supported you, Ji-won?

A few hours later, breaking his long silence, Sung Ji-won sent a reply.

Sung Ji-won: I wish we could go through these text message records together too.

‘…I see.’

After him, there were no more messages from Yoon Hee-eon.
And in reality, rumors were trickling through to Sung Ji-won bit by bit—especially seeing the comments about Sung Ji-won’s former agency popping up on the radio.

I was about to stop thinking and turn off my phone when an urgent voice reached my ears first.

“Seo Ho-yoon!!”

Sung Ji-won stood at the doorway, his face still flushed red from the sun, breathing heavily.

“What?”
“That….”

Soon Sung Ji-won’s gaze turned toward my phone.

“…Wait, did you see it??”

I’d tried to play ignorant, but now that I was caught, I couldn’t just brush past it.

“What, Yoon Hee-eon?”

I’d scanned through everything from beginning to end.

“So you did see it….”

Sung Ji-won couldn’t come any closer, just gripping the doorknob and hesitating.

“Did you know about all of it?”

The rumors circulating on the internet, or the schemes Yoon Hee-eon was orchestrating behind the scenes.
Even without the object stated, Sung Ji-won seemed to understand what I meant.

“You’re talking about the rumors, right?”

Sung Ji-won wore an awkward smile.

“How could I not know? No matter which filming set I go to, everyone whispers about me.”

I clenched my fists, suppressing the roiling frustration that threatened to boil over, and crossed my arms with an air of composure.

“Doesn’t this bother you at all?”
“It would be a lie to say it doesn’t, but this isn’t the first or second time something like this has happened.”

Sung Ji-won, who had been muttering to himself, paused to choose his next words carefully.

“…But it does help a little that you’re angry on my behalf.”

A sharp ache tugged at the back of my head.
This foolishly kind bastard.

“Why are you so soft?”
“…Huh?”
“If it were me, I’d be furious, you know?”

I wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him in frustration, but given who I was dealing with, I held myself back.

“…Ho-yoon, you—.”

Just as Sung Ji-won called out to me cautiously, his eyes narrowing slightly, a loud voice cut through the air.

“Hey, you guys! Did you rest well?!”

That voice alone was unmistakably the Manager.
I glanced at Sung Ji-won and asked.

“What?”
“…Oh, never mind. Let’s go.”

Sung Ji-won, who had been scanning me from head to toe, immediately turned and headed outside the moment our eyes met.
I followed quietly behind him. If we’d continued talking, I was afraid I might have misspoken.

“Why does our Ji-won hyung look like that? Is he dead?!”
“If you shake him any more, he really will be.”

The Maknae shook Sung Ji-won vigorously as he sprawled across the van.
Watching the scene unfold, I clicked my tongue inwardly.

‘Sung Ji-won, I’m not letting this go.’

I had to repay this tenfold, no matter what.
Unfortunately, unlike Sung Ji-won, I held grudges for an absurdly long time.

***

The next day, Kim Jae-yeon succeeded in obtaining the blacklist faster than expected. And there wasn’t just one list.
Sung Ji-won happened to be away on personal schedule, Kang Yi-chae was in the work studio, and Kim Sung-hyun and Jung Da-jun were making a racket watching television outside.

I gathered the P.O.B fan manager roster circulating online, blacklists, and various rumors, then cross-referenced them all.
There was definitely a person consistently missing from the lists.

[Kim Jae-yeon: This person seems related to Yoon Hee-eon]

Kim Jae-yeon’s texts came one after another beneath the list photos. He’d also identified the account of the person I suspected.

[Kim Jae-yeon: Besides this account, I found disclosed personal accounts too, but there are rumors about other idols besides Sung Ji-won, and there’s no clear evidence.]
[Kim Jae-yeon: Finding something like Love Star would be fastest, but I’m not sure if it exists. I think we need to search for it.]
[Kim Jae-yeon: It’ll take a few months, but if you want, I could attempt hacking.]
[Me: No]
[Kim Jae-yeon: You’re really consistent..]

I didn’t want to spend months breaking into someone else’s account and risk ending up wearing silver bracelets if things went wrong.
Besides, even if I succeeded, casually exposing a civilian’s account didn’t sit right with me.

‘If I’m going to do this, it needs to look good.’

First, I opened the Item Shop window.
I examined it carefully from top to bottom, but nothing useful caught my eye.
I smacked my lips and called up the System Window.

“Hey.”

[Kyuuu~~? ₍⑅ᐢ..ᐢ₎]

“Before you get really angry, speak properly.”

[Yes….]

I spoke again while watching him immediately restore himself to his original state.

“Any Quests?”

Cuteness meant nothing to me anymore, and I’d long since stopped feeling any shame.

[Hmm, well… there is one that fits perfectly right now.]

“Lay it out. Tell me what it is.”

[You won’t regret this?]

Me? Regret?

[Really?]

I laughed softly and gestured, and the System Window flickered several times before dispensing the Quest.
My expression slowly froze as I read it.

“…Seriously?”

The Quest window glowed softly beside the System Window.

[Quest Received:
‘Display affection toward a designated intimate person.’
Show affection to an intimate person in your vicinity and earn their trust to deepen your bond.
Affection Displays: 0/5
Success: Obtain ‘Pandora’s Box’ item
Failure: Rumors about Sung Ji-won will be exposed to the media
※The intimate person is one of those close to you.]

This has to be the System trying to screw me over, right?

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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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