The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 282

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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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282

News that The Dun was heading to Los Angeles spread like wildfire.

[Finally! The Dun!!XD]
[So happy! I can’t believe I’ll get to see them in person again!]

Though The Dun had already visited Los Angeles for the Rix Cup finals, they’d departed immediately after performing on stage following their jet lag adjustment, leaving overseas fans living in the United States and surrounding regions with lingering regret.
Beyond their appearance on a stage connected to IRIX, little was revealed about their activities, but word spread that their stay would be considerably extended to include training as well, leaving everyone in high spirits.
However, domestic Korean fans felt somewhat deflated.

[Ugh, I was so scared thinking it was an overseas tour]
[Yeah, it’s just training in America and the IRIX stage]
[Please guys, come back quick, please]
[I’ll hold my breath until you return to Korea]

Had this been something Dae Pa-sung orchestrated, fans would have cursed him for not even properly establishing a pathway for American expansion, but now it was WH Entertainment backing The Dun.

[If WH catches an incurable case of American fever, Seo Ho-yoon will probably just sprawl out at Incheon Airport anyway, so it’s fine

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋAh, an idol can’t believe that, but considering Seo Ho-yoon’s personality, it’s worth it haha]

After The Dun turned on the live stream 3 times, the Idol from WH is just turning on their live stream too lolololol
It’s so cute that they turn on the live immediately after the show.ㅠㅠ]
[Joo Woo-sung was the most unexpected one. He doesn’t usually go live much, and StarStar barely posts from him either…]

Recalling High Five’s premature overseas expansion made it difficult to fully trust even WH Entertainment, but given their solid capital base, their track record of successfully launching Black Call, and the fact that they ranked among the top three domestic agencies regardless, fan backlash wasn’t severe.

Meanwhile, following the collaboration with IRIX, Kang Yi-chae became absorbed in creating game BGMs and uploaded each piece to SNS as he completed them. As expected, IRIX users and fans from around the world flocked to Kang Yi-chae, and among them were famous entertainers.

[The song I listen to every day lately. My roommate is obsessed with it.]

A famous American band guitarist who had publicly revealed IRIX as a hobby even uploaded the BGM to StarStar, tagging both IRIX and Kang Yi-chae.

[Wow, I knew Yi-chae was a genius, but my old main group is suddenly praising him too]
[Man, what a spectacular The Dun life story]

Through this opportunity, The Dun’s name became more widely recognized to the outside world.
Moreover, The Dun’s Connected received widespread praise from people who loved IRIX.

[I thought the stage was really cool, but there’s quite a gap in their everyday personalities 🙂 ]

[IRIX please give us more, I’m literally dying of thirst right now
The title is Connected but I’m feeling Disconnected right now

└Such a corny joke actually landed lol]

[I wish an IRIX female idol had done it, but this was still great]
[What are you talking about, that was so damn cool lol The Dun’s English is insanely good too]
[Damn, every time the sound effects hit in the beat, I got IRIX chills]
[Honestly, the fact that Kang Yi-chae is at that rank made it hit even harder…
Kang Yi-chae… he’s a god]

The way they captured the atmosphere of the newly opened Korean Server, combined with how IRIX’s sound effects were seamlessly woven into the beat, garnered massive response from users.
IRIX gaming YouTubers with large subscriber counts all uploaded Connected reactions without exception, and as the views rolled in, channels beyond gaming content creators began producing similar videos.

[The Dun is really filling that national pride quota here]
[Honestly, I’m so glad they didn’t make a fuss about their US debut and are just gaining popularity naturally… it’s so reassuring]
[And the timing is perfect right now, they’re popular in the US so if we pull in that overseas traffic, it’ll be huge]

Naturally, interest in Kang Yi-chae, who created Connected and produced most of The Dun’s songs, skyrocketed.

[Yi-chae definitely ignores my emails, but I love him (laughing-crying emoji)]
[I just want to play an IRIX game with Yi-chae once!]

Love calls directed at him increased tenfold compared to before, but Yi-chae rejected them all, saying he barely had enough time for the things he loved and cherished.
As The Dun’s recognition steadily accumulated, WH Entertainment employees were in full emergency mode.

[Hello, we’d like to request The Dun for a commercial appearance.]
[Could we schedule a meeting to discuss The Dun for a CF?]

It wasn’t because of the downpour of various CF and program appearance requests, collaboration proposals pouring down on The Dun. This level of workload was fairly common at WH Entertainment.

“What should we do about this?”
“It’s going well.”
“Let’s ask the artists for their opinion and decide based on that.”

Jung Sun-ui reviewed the materials handed over by the management team staff and contacted Lee Ji-hyun through WH Entertainment’s internal messenger. A reply arrived within minutes. Scanning the contents, I was relieved that Dae Pa-sung had at least one competent employee.

“Once Lee Ji-hyun filters it through, we can review it….”

‘The Dun is rather reckless, after all….’

Just as I was swallowing the truth internally, a sigh-tinged voice came from the employee across the way.

“…Team Lead Jung, I think you need to see this.”
“What’s the matter?”

An ominous premonition crept in for some reason.
Standing up and approaching the employee who had called me, I saw a community post.

[Title: Do you know what that lunatic who said he was going to LA is doing?

A few days ago he bought a plane ticket and made a fuss about going to LA again
Talking about performing with IRIX, some training program or whatever,
I thought it was because High Five went there before lololololololol

That_Lunatic_Parade.avi

Those lunatics.. our cute little piggy… (not piggy)
Nah lololololololol what kind of D*sney is this lololololololol
I don’t know where they got it, but they’re pulling a cart around and scattering flowers…

Did the company make them do this?
But WH, with that pride of theirs, would absolutely never do something like this]

In the attached video, Kang Yi-chae, riding in a colorfully decorated cart, wore a flower crown like a royal diadem and scattered petals in all directions like a prince from a fairy tale as he passed by quickly.
Behind him, WH Entertainment staff members who were filming original content also rushed past carrying various equipment.
Even Jung Da-jun was bouncing around with a large bouquet, plucking flowers one by one and handing them to people.

“…What?”

For the record, it was Kim Sung-hyun who pulled the cart, while Sung Ji-won stood a little distance away, grinning widely as he recorded everything on his phone.

“…?”

[What the hell are these kids doing in the States?]
Hahahahahahaha they’re seriously having so much fun, these guys are hilarious
[This is 100% the red-haired guy’s doing]
[This group is seriously legendary in every way]
[It’s so funny that I can’t control myself when I go abroad haha. When I go domestic, I restrain myself because there are too many people, but when I go abroad, I just lose control.]

“Sigh….”

This was precisely why the WH Entertainment staff members were on high alert.
Endless live streams and spontaneous antics.
Jung Sun-ui popped a headache tablet into his mouth and suppressed a sigh.

“But seriously, why did you even go there?? lol so many cameras, what’s up with that?”

[The people following them look like WH staff?
I think I saw someone from the Black Call self-produced content behind-the-scenes before—is WH supporting them to make something???

WH is really taking good care of Ji-won lol

Moreover, when I looked it up, the live stream they did after returning to the hotel was equally ridiculous.
Kang Yi-chae, still wearing the flower crown on his head, shared his impressions of the parade with Sung Ji-won.

【Is this something you always wanted to do when coming overseas? What do you think, Ji-won?】
【When you see parades as a kid, you kind of end up admiring them…!】
【Haha! Really~!】

[Ah, the new roommates’ chemistry is so cute]

They had originally planned to rent a truck, but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out, and they’d debated whether to go with an Aladdin-on-a-magic-carpet concept or a Wild West gunslinger heading to Valhalla concept.

[Why would they even worry about that?]

[So why did they do it??

└I’m dying at the fact that it wasn’t even a self-produced content penalty—they just wanted to have fun]

Jung Sun-ui couldn’t bring herself to watch until the end and turned off the live stream.
Even if people didn’t recognize them or crowds didn’t gather like they did in Korea, even if The Dun’s popularity grew by the day and turned into profit, it was crystal clear that if the company branded them as an unmanageable entity, the problem would only snowball.
Reminding herself that ‘The Dun members are still just kids,’ she barely managed to calm her nerves before turning to the employee beside her with a question.

“Did Joo Woo-sung come to the company today?”

She had decided to put matters regarding The Dun on hold for now and handle the urgent business first—she wanted to discuss the CF offer that had come in for Joo Woo-sung.

“No… Joo Woo-sung went to the United States right now.”

But that too didn’t go according to Jung Sun-ui’s plans.

“Why?”
“…I’m not sure…”

Eventually, a long, deep sigh escaped her lips.

***

Riiip.

Kang Yi-chae unfolded the crumpled paper and drew a line through ‘parade.’ It was a wish list item he’d wanted to do when he came back to LA.
It would have been nice to recreate that scene from the Frozen Kingdom with snow falling, but since that was difficult to pull off in so many ways, he’d substituted flowers instead.
It would have been nice to scatter snow like a scene from a winter kingdom, but since it was difficult to realize in many ways, flowers were used as a substitute instead.

“Really! It was awesome!”
“For real! That was awesome!”

As Kang Yi-chae stretched and spoke, Sung Ji-won nodded in agreement. Just then, Kim Sung-hyun came out shaking his hair after finishing his shower and asked the two of them.

What do you want to eat for dinner tonight?

Since it was LA, Kim Sung-hyun lightly dismissed Kang Yi-chae’s insistence that they had to eat LA ribs, and after hearing Sung Ji-won’s desired menu, he moved toward the Maknae to ask for his opinion as well.

“Youngest~.”

Kim Sung-hyun carefully sat down beside him and looked at Jung Da-jun’s face with worry.
As I quietly opened the bedroom door, I saw Jung Da-jun sitting on the bed. He seemed to be in pain, groaning while beads of cold sweat dripped down his face.
Kim Sung-hyun carefully sat down beside him and peered anxiously at Jung Da-jun’s face.

“Jung Da-jun, are you okay?”
“Ah, hyung….”

Jung Da-jun, stroking his knee with his hand, spoke with a dejected expression.

“My knee hurts a bit.”
“Hm?”

Upon hearing this, Kim Sung-hyun pressed various points on the youngest member’s knee before plunking down on the floor and kneading it like a massage.

“…Will I be able to stand on stage?”

Soon, a Connected performance was scheduled to commemorate IRIX’s new season launch.
However, rather than the cyberpunk concept centered around Kim Sung-hyun, they were planning to showcase an entirely different stage with Jung Da-jun as the main focus.

“Hyung, shouldn’t we change the choreography now so that you and the others take the lead?”
“Da-jun, that’s a bit….”

They had already been preparing and practicing for weeks.
Lately, he’d been suffering from severe growing pains, and with his height shooting up so much, his dance lines had all gone off, so his confidence seemed to have dropped considerably.
When Kim Sung-hyun firmly rejected his suggestion, Jung Da-jun buried his face deep in his hands, letting out a series of heavy sighs before slowly rising to his feet.

“Ugh, I want to go practice some more. I feel uneasy for some reason.”
“Then let’s go together. Seo Ho-yoon will probably be there.”
“Huh? With Woo-sung hyung?”
“Yeah. He said he was going early to run through it.”

Jung Da-jun, following behind Kim Sung-hyun as he dusted off his rear and opened the door first, grimaced slightly.

“Ugh, they must be fighting again….”
“Probably….”

.
.
.

As darkness began creeping in through the gaps between the palm fronds, Joo Woo-sung and Seo Ho-yoon were deep in practice.
The practice room they were currently using was located slightly away from downtown Los Angeles—a place Joo Woo-sung visited whenever a slump came calling.
Joo Woo-sung had come to realize that this space was perfectly suited for pushing Seo Ho-yoon to his limits.

“Done and dusted.”

Since no one around us understood Korean, I could freely speak words that would otherwise have to remain buried.

“I didn’t expect you to suddenly awaken just because you drank California water….”

Seo Ho-yoon’s face screamed the words ‘The person teaching me is Korean, so what’s this about California water?’, but Joo Woo-sung pretended not to notice and continued.

“Yeah, I’ll give up trying to understand. It could happen.”
“Wait. I’m not that bad now, am I?”

Joo Woo-sung, who had been gazing at Seo Ho-yoon steadily, shook his head slowly. Then he spoke as if addressing a troubled student.

“Ho-yoon.”
“….”
“Where’s your conscience?”

A peaceful day in Los Angeles unfolded, not much different from any other.

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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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