The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 254

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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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254

January 1st.
A new year had dawned.
Though the past year had brought many events, The Dun ultimately secured nominations for several awards and managed to win in several respectable categories.

[Looking at the nominations now, it’s so fascinating how it seems to prove their popularity… It feels like ever since Seo Ho-yoon’s Perfect Singer appearance, the remaining members just skyrocketed all at once]
Kang Yi-chae was a good mentor, but it felt like word-of-mouth about him was sparse, and his screen time was pretty limited, so…
But his mentor performance stage was legendary..]

In fact, the stage that Seo Ho-yoon prepared at “Perfect Singer,” which was held especially grandly for Christmas, became a warm performance that offered hope to some, comfort to others, and stirred cherished memories.
Moreover, the fact that he was eliminated by a mere 1-point difference from the winner also became a minor talking point.
When a panel member asked if it wasn’t disappointing to miss first place by such a slim margin, Seo Ho-yoon’s eyes curved gently.

“I can’t keep coming back, right? Haha, just kidding, but I’m really sad that I won’t be able to sing here again.”

His smooth response drew laughter from everyone.

“On Christmas, I hope it becomes a happy day not just for me alone, but for all the precious people around us—not just some, but everyone.”

With a brief yet heartfelt closing remark, Seo Ho-yoon stepped down from the stage.

[Seo Ho-yoon’s way of speaking is so good…]

[Honestly, isn’t The Dun a miracle from nothing… How did they even get here, it’s so amazing the influx of new fans has surged and overseas fans love them too

└As expected, performing well on stage is a big thing haha. Behind the scenes, everyone is bickering and having fun haha. There is Gap Moe.]

[Seriously, the people who supported them since their debut song Glow bow to their ancestors every morning they wake up now.. The Dun blew up so much]

Lol but seriously, back then the artist was so unpopular that it was hard to even find fans—I don’t know how those early fans managed to stick with such a tiny fandom.

└Their mental fortitude is like an alloy
└└What?
└└Check the early fan SNS accounts
└└OK]

In fact, fans who had been following The Dun since the four-member era maintained an unwavering composure no matter what happened, as if adopting a philosophy that this too shall pass.

[I’m grateful that the kids… give us the gift of breathing]

Even Noeul fans who started supporting them from Second Chance were taken aback by their devotion.

[I ran away because I was suffocating from all the love

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
└They’re posting thank-you messages every thirty minutes and each one has different words so I’m honestly shocked]

While Noeul fans watched the early The Dun supporters and resolved to strengthen their own mental fortitude, a live notification popped up.

≪Group tteokguk live! Noeul is joining too!≫

[The Dun members are… family…]
[Tteokguk live ah ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Are you crazy?]

The Dun had grown so close they were practically indistinguishable from family.
Fans contentedly clicked the link while imagining The Dun clumsily making tteokguk together, helping each other out.
However,

“We will now begin The Dun’s tteokguk-making competition.”

Reality awaited them with a cold, competitive edge.

“Pick me, pick me, pick me tteokguk.”

Hahahahahahaha
[He said it so calmly and beautifully that I thought I’d misheard for a moment]

A rice cake soup cooking competition.
The performance and taste scores were weighted equally at 5 to 5.
Sung Ji-won would be checking the performance score based on how active the comments were and how much the fans reacted.
Kim Sung-hyun, who had been quietly mixing dumpling filling on one side, suddenly asked a question.

“Why include a performance score in a cooking competition?”
“For Jung Da-jun.”

If we judged purely on taste, he’d come in dead last for sure.
At that subtly considerate gesture, Kim Sung-hyun let out a small sigh but nodded in acknowledgment as he finished the dumpling filling.
Then he took out the pre-marinated dumpling dough and began rolling it with a rolling pin.

“Ah, you guys still don’t know? Hahaha”

[This is 100% Jung Da-jun speaking and Sung Ji-won going along with it

└Sung Ji-won is seriously insane… honestly…]

But Seo Ho-yoon remained expressionless and still until Kim Sung-hyun began shaping dumplings, then he casually approached and started poking the finished dumplings with his finger.

“Our water dumpling is making dumplings.”
“Hey, stop.”

Kim Sung-hyun swatted Seo Ho-yoon’s hand away, protecting the beautifully formed dumplings, when Sung Ji-won suddenly spoke up.

“Hyun-sung, do some popping while cracking the eggs.”
“…Huh? What, what did you say? Really?”

With the doubt written plainly across his face, he earnestly bent his joints, raised his arms high, and performed, cracking eggs that fell into an empty bowl.
After finishing, he felt slightly embarrassed and hung his head down.
The Noeul fans went even more wild at the sight.

[Performance after finishing and feeling shy—perfect score]
[They’re giving points for the embarrassment, not the cool popping—of course I have no objections]

“…Thank you….”

With an awkward expression, Kim Sung-hyun rubbed the tip of his nose with his finger and was about to resume cooking when Kang Yi-chae, who hadn’t shown his face until now, appeared playing an acoustic guitar.

“Hey, little ones! Your oppa’s here~!”
“Ah!!”

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha are you crazy?
[Man, Kang Yi-chae gets more shameless as time goes on]
Look at Kim Sung-hyun and Jung Da-jun being so fed up with each other lol

“—Brother’s here, dongsaeng’s here, pretty girl’s here~.”

[Wow, Kang Yi-chae really mentions everyone for all kinds of fans
He’s worth being first-tier

Lol I’m going crazy / I’m dying laughing

Doo-ri-ding-ding, doo-ri-ding.

Kang Yi-chae hummed while plucking at the guitar strings, grabbing whatever chords came to mind.

“A pretty girl’s gotta know how to play guitar, obviously.”

[Hey, Kang Yi-chae
Don’t waste your talent]
[It’s just turning into a charisma battle at this point]
Haha, they’re a celebrity!
[So a song’s coming from this? If it’s The Dun, I’m ready to stream it to death]

By this point, Seo Ho-yoon had completely collapsed into a chair, munching on candies while casually glancing around.

[Ha Da-jun is so cute when he works hard at cooking ㅠㅠㅠ]

[Dajun has grown a lot these days ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ After eating that weird food… he grew up hard.

└That weird dish must have had some hidden power to make him taller..]

After eating three lemon candies in a row, Jung Da-jun tilted his head and asked Seo Ho-yoon.

“Hyung, do you like lemon?!”
“Why?”
“If you like it, I was thinking of adding a little lemon juice to the broth!!”

[Da-jun, you don’t need to get taller anyway, so stop with the weird food combinations

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

After rolling the candy around in my mouth once, I got up with an annoyed expression and swept away all the unnecessary ingredients from the materials in front of Jung Da-jun.

“Stop wasting food.”
“Huh? I need all of it! For the rice cake soup, you put cilantro as a garnish….”
“Be quiet. Just watch what I’m doing.”

After covering Jung Da-jun’s mouth, I stood beside him and helped with the prep work.

[Seo Ho-yoon First-place Material Performance +5,000 points]
[Seo Ho-yoon Hyung Material Performance +300 points]

As The Dun’s usual side was naturally revealed, the Noeul fans’ comments exploded.
Kang Yi-chae, who had been strumming the guitar and singing a serenade for the fans, was taken aback.

“What?”

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha seriously lol hahahaha

“What? Me? What about my score?”

[Seo Ho-yoon’s nonchalant behavior, whether it’s cracking an egg while popping or playing the guitar, wins it all ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Look at Kang Yi-chae playing guitar all sloppily and acting so damn wronged lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol ah that’s actually hilarious

In the end, after helping Jung Da-jun and finishing my rice cake soup in just 15 minutes, I claimed victory.
With no glory or benefits from the win, I let out a quiet laugh and delivered my closing remarks toward the phone that was filming the video.

“Noeul, have a happy New Year.”

Once the live broadcast ended, SNS and the Community actually burned even more actively.

[Ah.. today was good too..]
[Face genius.. Seo Ho-yoon seems to be managing himself so intensely these days… otherwise light couldn’t radiate from the screen..]
[My words! Also, it’s so cute to be shy about a topic that tickles your fancy for two yearsㅜ]

No matter how young a fan was, Ho-yoon always treated them with proper respect and formal speech.
When one fan asked on Pop Pop why he always used formal language, he’d answered that he simply didn’t want to speak casually to Noeul fans.
Since the other members usually responded to him with only consonants, even this aspect seemed charming about Ho-yoon,

[Hoyun: (Sunset emoticon) ㅠㅠHoyoon, it’s the new year, so please send it to me in a different tone!!
Even casual speech..]
[Ho-yoon: You don’t like my current way of speaking?]

He suddenly copied a message from one fan and posted it on Pop Pop, asking the Noeul fans for their opinions.

[What is this, seriously what kind of clueless fan is this
The effort and affection he shows toward fans through his somewhat awkward and stiff speech pattern is what’s good about it]

[So ㅠㅠㅠ I thought he was dry just based on his tone of voice, but he said he likes the fact that he contacts me more often than text messages from my convenience store card.

Hahahahaha oh my god that’s hilarious hahahaha

[What are you talking about, you’re a real connoisseur
I hate it when Yeon-hu speaks casually, but I’m literally begging Ho-yoon to do it]
Haha, I wish you’d call me “hey” like that.
There’s no way I’d ever do that lol

While one faction argued to preserve the affection that came from formal speech and another debated experiencing something fresh from casual speech, Ho-yoon’s message arrived again.

[Hoyun: Add ㅇ at the end?]

And about a minute later,

[Ho-yoon: That’s how it goes]

All the Noeul fans who’d been bickering moments before completely flipped.

[AHHHHHHHHH I literally screamed the moment I got the Pop Pop notification]
[What is “that’s how it goes”…
You’re 23 years old right now..
Don’t act like you’re 23 months old, seriously]

[Immediately, “What?” “yes?” “No?” It’s so ridiculous that Seo Ho-yoon keeps answering with this…

└Ah, this is way too unreal and cute…]

Whenever Kang Yi-chae or Jung Da-jun post on The Dun talk, lol it feels so out of place because Seo Ho-yoon’s way of speaking is so different lol

Seo Ho-yoon’s usual speech pattern:
yep
A
I

Pop Pop Seo Ho-yoon’s speech pattern:
Yes, that’s right.
Should we try it together?
I’ll think about that one.

They mean the same thing but I can’t believe they’re so different lol and it’s seriously so funny haha

└It’s kind of touching lol Sung Ji-won said that Seo Ho-yoon reads it over several times before sending messages to Pop Pop lol
Wow, that’s seriously amazing…
└└ LOL Because of this, people who subscribed to Seo Ho-yoon’s PopPop can’t help but complain.. They have no choice but to understand]

But not long after, the messages reverted to their original form.

Ho-yoon: Haha, it feels a bit awkward.
But I’ll try my best anyway]
[Ho-yoon: Noel, be happy this year too.
And stay healthy.]

After taking a group photo of The Dun with each member holding their rice cake soup bowls, Seo Ho-yoon left.

[He posted so many photos… Plus his selfie skills keep improving…]
[ㅠㅠha so cute ㅠ Actually, if you’re this good, it’s okay to take pictures of anything, but it seems like you’re studying hard to find out what your fans like, so it’s really cute.]
[At first, he really seemed like a Godbender, but these days, when I see him on stage, he seems like a natural celebrity.ㅠㅠ]

[Seo Ho-yoon is honestly lucky to be an entertainer
Just thinking about the civilian version makes me drool… Seriously

└As if you didn’t drool over the entertainer version..
└└Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ㅠㅅㅂ ㅠㅠㅠ]

While the fans were happily spending New Year’s Day,

“…Oh, Seo Ho-jin.”

Seo Ho-yoon was transferring the cooled tteokguk back into a pot when the doorbell rang, and he answered the phone.

“Have you eaten?”

It was a call from his younger brother—a New Year’s greeting of sorts.
Once I turned on the induction cooktop, my hands came to a standstill as I spoke with Seo Ho-jin.
The members quickly distributed the tteokguk, which had warmed up and was now steaming, into bowls and carried them to the dining table.

“Pass the salt.”
“Wow! This is seriously delicious. Ho-yoon hyung, how did you make it taste this good?”

There’s no such thing as being naturally skilled at something.
After my parents passed away, I had failed many times when I first started cooking.

“We should’ve called Ho-jin hyung too.”

After rattling off a few complaints and hanging up, Jung Da-jun murmured regretfully.

“I asked, but he said he was too busy to come.”

I hadn’t even brought it up.
Even if the company blocked journalists and stalkers as much as possible, the more famous The Dun became, the more their private lives would be exposed piece by piece.
I wanted to prevent information about Seo Ho-jin from spreading by any means necessary. That’s why I set limits on when we could meet, and he never visited the house.
Jung Da-jun, who had been munching away with his mouth full of tteokguk, suddenly lifted his head.

“Oh! But Ho-yoon hyung, doesn’t your younger brother look like you?! Ho-jin hyung is really, really kind, of course!!”
“Ho-jin hyung seems like he’d have quite the temperament, doesn’t he?”
“Come on, Yi-chae. What are you talking about? Why would Ho-jin—”
“I’m voting for that too.”

Sung Ji-won laughed as if he’d heard something amusing, and Kim Sung-hyun, who had been quietly working through his third bowl of tteokguk, finally spoke.

“It’s just that Seo Ho-yoon’s personality is no joke, so by comparison, everything else seems unremarkable.”
“…!”
“…!!”

The members’ movements froze as if they’d reached some profound realization.

“That actually makes sense….”
“Ho-yoon’s younger brother—there’s no way he’s normal.”
“What?”

Seo Ho-yoon’s expression twisted sharply.
It wasn’t because he’d heard himself called abnormal.

“Do I look like him?”

That was the real problem.
I’d felt somewhat relieved thinking our appearances were different, but as Seo Ho-jin matured, our auras had become increasingly identical.
When we were apart, it didn’t matter, but once someone looked closely, anyone could tell.
After silently scrutinizing my own face on my phone for a while, I muttered quietly.

“…Should I get plastic surgery?”
“Are you insane?”

Sung Ji-won openly frowned, and Kim Sung-hyun, passing by as he organized the side dishes, shook his head firmly.
Even I had to admit it was ridiculous, so I clicked my tongue and shoved my phone deep into my pocket.
Even seeing the tteokguk with all its garnishes intact, I couldn’t bring myself to pick up a spoon.
For some reason, I’d lost my appetite.

“Why~? Ho-yoon, do you miss your brother Ho-jin?”

I brushed off Kang Yi-chae’s nonsense, but the guy winked at me.

“Ho-jin’s doing well. He’s fine.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I play games with him sometimes. He even carefully keeps my albums and photo cards for me. He always says thanks.”

Would he really be grateful?
Kang Yi-chae rested his chin on his hand, grinning widely. He looked in an excellent mood.

“Well, if that’s the case, why not just buy him a nice gift while you’re going to the United States? Right?”

With that, Kang Yi-chae tapped the screenshot displayed on his phone screen.
The photo showed an article with a headline.

[IRIX announces expanded version set in Korea… K-Pop collaboration track to be released simultaneously]

“Just like what you gave me, hyung.”

It was perfect.
Seo Ho-yoon let out a soft chuckle watching Kang Yi-chae practically vibrating with excitement.

A game company and music track collaboration.
To tell the heartwarming story of how this opportunity came about, I’d have to go back several months.

—————
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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