The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 393

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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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393

At Seo Ho-yoon’s shameless audacity, Kim Sung-hyun let out an exasperated groan, yet surprisingly didn’t explode in anger. A live broadcast was underway, after all.

“Didn’t I tell you I was sick of you? Why did you follow me all the way to Jeju Island?”
“Seo Ho-yoon, seriously….”

The question of whether he’d lost his mind rose to the tip of his tongue, but Kim Sung-hyun ultimately couldn’t muster a single retort and could only grip the back of his neck.
Seo Ho-yoon grinned mischievously and added one more jab.

“No matter how pure and cute you are, this time you’ve crossed the line.”
“….”

[hahahahahahahaha]
[Isn’t this just crazy?? LOL]

Just as three wrinkles etched themselves across Kim Sung-hyun’s brow, Kang Yi-chae, who had been tidying up the board game, suddenly rose to his feet clutching a wad of play money in both hands and thrust it toward Seo Ho-yoon. Lifting his gaze to look at Kang Yi-chae, Seo Ho-yoon raised one eyebrow quizzically.

“Tsk tsk, what could our boy possibly be lacking?! Not enough looks, not enough physique! So what?! Wealth?! Look here, money! It’s all our son’s~!”

[The Life Game bit is hilarious]
Look at Ho-yoon suddenly getting interested.

Kang Yi-chae’s already raised eye corners lifted even more wickedly. Seo Ho-yoon smoothly tucked the bills into his pocket and spoke warmly.

“Now that changes things. Baby, you should’ve mentioned your wealth from the start.”
“…This is seriously annoying….”

Kim Sung-hyun exhaled a small sigh as if enlightened, when Kang Yi-chae suddenly leaned in from beside him.

“Hey hey hey, know your place!”
“Father, I already learned my place back in kindergarten. Now we must clear up this misunderstanding and continue our sweet romance, so would you kindly step aside?”

What had clearly started as a blind date simulation had somehow transformed into a melodrama and then devolved into a comedy sketch.
Sung Ji-won, left out of the fun, dropped his head slightly and muttered.

“Ah, I should’ve played the father role instead…”

Why are you being jealous here…lol
Hahaha so cute hahaha

Kim Sung-hyun trembled as he found himself caught in the whirlwind between Seo Ho-yoon and Kang Yi-chae. After unleashing a barrage of words, Kang Yi-chae hurled a property card he’d set aside specifically for Seo Ho-yoon.

“You, take this and break up with our Hyun-sung!”

Paper cards struck his chest and scattered to the ground.
A moment of silence fell, and Jung Da-jun’s audible gulp echoed loudly through the space.
Seo Ho-yoon slowly bent down to pick them up, glanced at them with downcast eyes, and a faint smirk played at his lips.

“…Father, isn’t your generosity a bit lacking?”
“What?!”
“You made such a fuss that I thought you’d offer something on a much grander scale.”

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

And he smoothly added a casual product placement: “If you’d like to prove your true character right now with a bank transfer, please send it to MJ Bank.”

This is insane lol what’s with these random tiny ads lmaooo
Hahahahaha you got me hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
[No, guys, Noeul said she wanted to go on a blind date hahaha. You can’t do it like this haha]

Caught in the endless roleplay between Seo Ho-yoon and Kang Yi-chae, Kim Sung-hyun tilted his head back for a moment, gazing at the ceiling, then closed and opened his eyes firmly before speaking.

“Let’s stop now…”
“Yeah, let’s end this ambiguous thing.”
“I’m exhausted.”
“Love was never meant to be easy.”

But Seo Ho-yoon dismissed his proposal with a mischievous smile.

[Ho-yoon’s Wisdom Marathon]
[Seonghyun-ah, what did you do wrong to Hoyun? Haha, you are strong today haha]

Catching sight of the actively flowing live chat, Kim Sung-hyun composed himself and tried to soothe Seo Ho-yoon multiple times. But as Seo Ho-yoon blatantly kept his eyes fixed while smirking and jeering, he finally snapped.

“Hey, didn’t I tell you to worry about the collaboration just now…!”
“….”
“….”
“….”
“…Huh?”

All eyes turned toward Kim Sung-hyun.
For a moment, even the fans’ comments froze.

[???]
[Collaboration??]
[????]

Just as Noel began to react cautiously, wrinkles formed on Seo Ho-yoon’s forehead, and Jung Da-jun dropped the snack he’d been holding in surprise—the live stream cut out.
Water had dripped from the ice pack placed against the tablet PC to cool it down. From an outside perspective, however, it looked like we’d dropped a bomb and fled without managing the fallout.
While everyone exchanged nervous glances, Kang Yi-chae muttered a beat too late.

“…Did you just spoil something?”
“…Uh… Ha, ha ha….”

Kim Sung-hyun burst into hollow laughter and buried his head on the table as if the world were collapsing.

.
.
.

“Look, Sung-hyun is getting scolded.”
“Wow, it’s rare to see him get in trouble.”

The moment we arrived at the Season Greeting filming location, Kim Sung-hyun had to endure a lecture about yesterday’s live stream incident.
While idols sometimes deliberately spoiled things as fan service, WH Entertainment seemed to control information strictly when it came to their concerts.

“Come on, let’s focus on work now.”

Sung Ji-won patted Kang Yi-chae and Jung Da-jun on the back and moved forward.
For this shoot, we’d rented out an entire reed field in Jeju Island. Despite the temperature being higher than Seoul, the absence of buildings around made the cold wind seep through our clothes, making it feel bitterly frigid.
Since we couldn’t skip the photoshoot, I removed my jacket and did a final check of my appearance when the photographer assigned for today gave a thumbs up with a satisfied expression.

“By the way, Seo Ho-yoon, your outfit looks absolutely perfect right now.”

This was the third time releasing a season greeting.
The first year after debuting with The Dun seemed to have passed without fanfare. Given that Dae Pa-sung Entertainment was the sort of company that paid money to acquire songs like “Mangmangmang,” there was nothing surprising about it.
I gritted my teeth against the bone-chilling cold and met the camera lens with my gaze.
After several hours of relentless shooting, I reviewed the photos taken with Lee Ji-hyun from the Dae Pa-sung Planning Team.
The desolate landscape beneath the ashen winter sky harmonized beautifully with the weary complexion of someone enduring the cold, and the photographs turned out quite lovely.

“This season’s greeting concept is really great, isn’t it?!”

Typical season greetings embraced bright, cheerful, and comfortable concepts to welcome the new year, but this new season greeting was being attempted in an entirely different direction.

“That nostalgic retro sensibility unique to the 1990s—as if shot through a hazy film camera!! Isn’t it amazing?!”

Would I have even been born back then?
As I changed clothes and draped a shirt with cloud prints on deep blue fabric over my white t-shirt, Lee Ji-hyun became even more animated, chattering away enthusiastically.

“And we’ve infused meaning into every prop and costume! Essentially, they appear peaceful but exude a dangerous aura—like foreigners, you know?! But if everyone were the same, it’d be boring, so Kim Sung-hyun and Kang Yi-chae are undercover cops… Why, why are you looking at me like that?”

Lee Ji-hyun, who had been earnestly talking to herself, faltered and rolled her eyes as if gauging my reaction.

“Ji-hyun, be honest with me. Did you get a big bonus?”
“…I’ve come to realize that inspiration springs forth from money…”

I pulled my lips into a wry smile and glanced around.
The behind-the-scenes camera that had naturally followed along was intently focused on Jung Da-jun, “Dae Pa-sung’s rising dance star,” who was inexplicably performing breakdancing.
I moved closer to Lee Ji-hyun and lowered my voice quietly.

“By the way, isn’t Planning Team Lead Jung Sun-ui coming today? I haven’t seen him much lately.”

It wasn’t a matter requiring essential verification, but I wanted to know who had pushed to place me among the main dancers.
Lee Ji-hyun answered with a hum.

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Planning Team Lead Jung wasn’t originally assigned exclusively to us anyway. Plus, with Black Call’s comeback next year, he seems busy coordinating various things…”

The explanation was reasonable, so I nodded and was about to move on when she suddenly opened her mouth again as if remembering something.

“Oh! Now that I think about it, the Planning Team Lead has been meeting with his superiors frequently lately, so he seems hectic.”
“His superiors?”

Perhaps because the camaraderie of having endured hardship together since Dae Pa-sung ran deep, Lee Ji-hyun spoke about internal matters without a hint of wariness.

“Yes, who was it again… Han Ji-hyuk, the Executive Director? I heard he’s been calling frequently. Could it be related to a promotion? Or maybe a bonus?”

‘Han Ji-hyuk, the Executive Director?’

Just a few months ago, when internal politics had thrown the company into chaos, he’d been one of the figures standing at the center of that storm.
Naturally, he was just as difficult to handle as he was influential.

‘Why would he be meeting with Jung Sun-ui so often?’

A vague sense of unease crept over me as I mentally retraced everything that had happened, and Lee Ji-hyun added to her words while organizing the documents.

“…Anyway, let’s give our best effort through the rest of December. Based on our team’s projections, we should have real reason to be optimistic about the new year.”
“Are you telling us to prepare an acceptance speech?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’ll prepare one too. I’m just grateful that, like a miracle, I became a planner for The Dun….”

Lee Ji-hyun, having thrown out the joke, waved her hand and quickly walked toward where the staff members were for prop changes.
Filming continued late into the night after that.
We even made do with boxed dinners for our evening meal, and only after completing all the planned shots could we finally return to the pension.
Of course, we weren’t given rest time immediately after. We had to write brief messages to send to each other for the season greeting postcards that would be printed on the back.
Everyone had just showered and emerged with damp hair, gathering cozily in the living room with tablet PCs provided by the company in hand.

‘They said it would go on the back of the postcard.’

I twirled the tablet pen between my fingers and spied on Sung Ji-won, who was earnestly scribbling away while wearing a crimson tangerine-shaped hat from who knows where.

[Although I can’t make you a dancing machine right now, I promise that in ten years, I definitely will, Ho-yoon! I absolutely will!!]

“Cough.”

Even you, whom I trusted….
When I turned my head to the other side, I saw Kang Yi-chae writing something for Jung Da-jun. The moment Da-jun spotted his own name and tried to peek, Yi-chae, who had been writing in Korean, drew lines through it and started writing in English instead.

“That’s so petty!!”
“Hehe.”
“Hyung! You know translation apps can handle everything these days, right?! Aren’t you underestimating this generation way too much?”

The youngest member huffed indignantly and tried to photograph Kang Yi-chae’s tablet with his phone to recognize the text. However, because of the ornate handwriting, it only recognized strange letters, and the translation failed.

“…I guess the clever fans will figure it out later….”

Jung Da-jun pouted his lips and returned to his seat, but his reluctance to give up was evident as he borrowed the other members’ phones and repeatedly photographed Kang Yi-chae’s handwriting.
Watching the entire sequence unfold, I set down my pen and stood up.

“Hey, you guys are using it.”
“Huh? Why?!”
“Where are you going, Ho-yoon?”
“It’s getting noisy. I’ll use it later.”

I gestured toward the veranda with my hand, then opened it and stepped out onto the first floor terrace.
As I closed the glass door, the clamorous noise vanished in an instant.
With my hands tucked inside the sleeves of my sweatshirt and my arms crossed, I gazed up at the sky. More stars sparkled here than in Seoul’s sky. The cool, refreshing scent of the ocean drifted through the air and into my nostrils.
Though still chilly, I was savoring a rather pleasant mood when an unwelcome notification arrived.

Ding!

[Why aren’t you writing now?]

“I’ll write it soon, so don’t nag.”

Besides, what I’d write was predictable anyway.

‘Thanks, let’s do our best next year. That’s about it.’

However, if we won the Grand Prize at the upcoming award ceremonies, ‘thanks’ would become ‘thanked’—past tense.
Based on public reaction and the data figures the company had provided, the probability of The Dun winning the Grand Prize this year was extremely high.

‘If we win, I’ll ride that momentum and have a proper conversation with Kang Yi-chae.’

He wasn’t an easy opponent to deal with, so I planned to seize the right moment and aim for the scenario Quest completion.
Turning around, I could see four figures playing around and laughing inside the living room.

“Well, isn’t this nice….”

It was a peaceful scene, yet my heart stirred with unease.
—What if I returned to my original world and they became idols I’d never heard of or seen?
—What if I returned to my original world and they existed in a different form than they do now?
—What if I returned to my original world and they….

‘…Absolutely not.’

I raised them so carefully.
I could never allow them to end up like that.
Let them say I took money and ran—I’ll pull them up to their current popularity and position, or even higher, by whatever means necessary.
My roiling thoughts prompted me to click my tongue softly and brush back my bangs when my phone vibrated.

[Joo Woo-sung: (photo)]
[Joo Woo-sung: Nyang-nyang]

It was a selfie of Nyang-nyang and the useless Joo Woo-sung.
For some reason they’d gone out—the background wasn’t our usual home, but an unfamiliar landscape.

‘So what am I supposed to do about it?’

I scoffed and was about to head into the pension when another text came through.

[Joo Woo-sung: Behind you lol]

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance and jerked my head back, when a warm, fluffy sensation brushed against my cheek. In the next moment, a snowy white ball of fur filled my vision.

“Ttukttaki, hello?”

Joo Woo-sung, cradling Nyang-nyang carefully, broke into a grin.

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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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