The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 85

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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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85

I failed to manage my expression. To be fair… Min Ji-heon is younger than me. But right now, that wasn’t possible.
I’d gotten younger.

“Do I really look that old?”

I furrowed my brow deliberately, acting as though I’d heard a tasteless joke.

“I’m twenty-three. I’m younger than Min Ji-heon.”
“Aha, so now you’re twenty-three?”

Min Ji-heon laughed aloud as if he’d heard something amusing.
After his laughter faded, he fell silent in thought for a moment, then crossed his arms and scanned me from head to toe. But something about his gaze sent chills down my spine—as if he were seeing through something behind me, not me itself.

“Around thirty-three…?”
“…!”

Red warning lights flashed in my mind and goosebumps raced up my spine in an instant. Regardless, Min Ji-heon gazed at me while tracing his lips with his finger.

“No… maybe a bit older? I’m not quite sure about this….”
“….”
“Oh, I think I just made a rhyme, didn’t I….”

I watched Min Ji-heon, who was muttering “maybe… maybe not…” with narrowed eyes.

‘Is he insane?’

…Could he really just throw something out and hit the mark like that? My thought process was slightly twisted, but true to my thirty-two years as a cage fighter, I instinctively opened my mouth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“….”
“Is this some kind of hidden camera?”

Min Ji-heon, who had continued muttering word jokes to himself, simply offered a meaningful smile.

“You’ve come back, haven’t you?”

Min Ji-heon’s eyes narrowed further as he peered past me, as though tracing something invisible.

Wait—surely he didn’t actually install a camera somewhere just to test me?
If I got caught spouting nonsense here, wouldn’t I be completely finished?

“…I have to admit, your acting really is impressive, senior. So where exactly is the camera installed?”
“Hmm… Hyung, I think I need to explain some things about myself first.”
“….”
“Have you ever heard that shamans and entertainers are separated by just a hair’s breadth?”

I think I’ve heard something like that. But I didn’t have the mental capacity to entertain such nonsense right now.
Ignoring my glare of heightened suspicion, Min Ji-heon continued speaking.

“I’m not a shaman, though~ My family’s ordinary, but… well, at some point I started seeing things I shouldn’t. So when I was younger, I got into a lot of trouble because of it….”

Min Ji-heon spoke matter-of-factly, as though explaining a character he was portraying.

“If I don’t disperse this energy somehow, malevolent spirits really do come at me like crazy. That’s why I act.”
“…What?”
“Don’t misunderstand—I genuinely love acting too.”

Min Ji-heon tapped his own cheek playfully.

“…Yes, you really do seem to love it. So your next project is a shaman role?”
“Haha, my next project is Please Camera. I haven’t actually played a shaman role yet.”

Min Ji-heon merely smiled like someone encountering a source of amusement. His gaze, as always, wandered somewhere beyond me.

“So I’ve seen everything there is to see, experienced all sorts of things… but your case was something else entirely. It’s been a while since something confused me like this.”

‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’

I remembered what Min Ji-heon had said when he first saw me on Jeju Island. Back then, I’d simply thought it was territorial posturing. Min Ji-heon’s wandering gaze finally stopped, fixing directly on my eyes as he murmured.

“Is this a person… or a ghost?”

Ding!

[WARNING!
I’m warning you.
Get out of here now.]

The System Window flashed with an intensity I’d never witnessed before. Beyond the dizzying cascade of warnings, I could see Min Ji-heon’s face, still smiling.

“What was your original profession? How did you end up becoming an idol… You’re quite resourceful.”

[WARNING!
I’m warning you again.
Get out immediately.]

The atmosphere that had been loose until moments ago suddenly tightened. Dozens of System Windows materialized before me in chaotic succession, lending credibility to Min Ji-heon’s words. This wasn’t some staged hidden camera prank—this was real.
It was time to shift tactics.

“What are you talking about?”

‘How could anyone believe such nonsense about seeing ghosts.’

Min Ji-heon is an actor. An exceptionally talented one at that—someone who’d earned the title of national actor.
If he could deceive viewers, deceiving an individual like me would be child’s play. I fixed him with a cold stare and spoke through gritted teeth.

“Stop the theatrics and get to the point.”

I needed to figure out how he knew about me. We were inside a game. So far, only my brother remembered me. Even if he’d somehow investigated my background, there was nothing he could possibly discover.
Min Ji-heon rubbed the corner of his eye with a somewhat embarrassed smile.

“…Ah, you’re quite a frightening type, aren’t you?”
“…”
“You don’t have to be so sharp about it. I know this is sudden and suspicious, but I’m genuinely trying to help you.”

In that moment, Min Ji-heon gently caressed the bracelet adorning his wrist.

“Showing you directly would be more convincing, wouldn’t it?”

The bracelet clinked softly, strung with black beads. As the atmosphere shifted ominously, my gaze was drawn to Min Ji-heon’s eyes, which shimmered with an unusual luminescence.

“Your brother would want to know too.”
“…What?”
“I’m thinking of showing you something… but first, you need to agree. This might hurt a bit.”

Min Ji-heon spoke with exaggerated precision. It was hard to believe this was the same dull person from before.
I wiped my face in disbelief.

“…Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped me. What was I even doing here right now?

“Fine, I don’t even know what it is, but let’s try it. You’ve really nailed the concept… CEO, you’re not actually doing this right now, are you?”
“Aha, I don’t think the CEO would know. Anyway… you’ve agreed, right?”

Sudden reality crashed down on me. The thought that simply agreeing to this middle-school-syndrome concept-obsessed bastard’s words wouldn’t actually explain anything.
Still, I told him to try it—half out of curiosity to see how far he’d go, half out of desperation to grasp at any straw.

“I did warn you it might hurt.”

With that, Min Ji-heon rolled up his sleeve, fiddled with his bracelet, and stared at me intently.

“An apology in advance?”
“…?”

And the moment Min Ji-heon shook his bracelet….

“Ugh….”

My entire body felt like my veins were being squeezed. I hunched forward, gasping, but Min Ji-heon opened his mouth regardless.

“【Empty ■■ to ■■ ■ companion.】”
“What, what….”

Sharp, cutting pain surged from deep within my abdomen. I clenched my teeth, gripped the table, and glared at him.
Min Ji-heon looked at me yet didn’t see me. He was gazing at something beyond, something unknowable.

“【■ exists ■■ is not…】”

His voice hissed like a serpent yet resonated like something submerged in water, wavering at my ears. My hearing dulled as if waterlogged, and the System Window’s warning chimed alongside the ringing in my ears.

Ding!

[WARNING!]

“Ugh!”

I coughed violently, something lodged in my throat rising up. I frantically covered my mouth with a napkin and retched, but I couldn’t tell what it was. My vision spun in dizzying circles, and the pain was so excruciating that my soul seemed to be tearing free from my body—I was barely conscious.

Ding!

[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]

“【■■■ is declared.】”

Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding di…
Ding di…—
———
—….

Something impossible was happening.
The warning windows vanished all at once.
Everything flowed like slow-motion in a film.
Min Ji-heon’s crazed face staring down at me with eerie calm, the soft music playing quietly in the restaurant, the System Window that had flooded me with countless alarms in warning before disappearing—all of it.

Suddenly, everything felt alien to me.
This world I stood upon—it all felt foreign and strange.
No… it wasn’t.
The truth was, the world wasn’t alien at all. I was the anomaly.
Like a foreign object jutting out from an orderly arrangement, I stood suspended between the unreal and the real, and it felt…
…nauseating. Horrifyingly nauseating.

Ding!

[E R R O R]

My vision flickered in an instant.

Screeeech!

A steering wheel spinning frantically flashed before my eyes.
A brilliant blue sky, my body lurching to one side, the radio crackling with static….
Inside a car…
…the moment I realized that, we’d already careened off course and crashed into something sharp and unforgiving.

Crash!

“Gasp…!”

As I held my breath, my weightless body plummeted endlessly, and reality came crashing back with a violent jolt.
My body convulsed uncontrollably, held upright only by my white-knuckled grip on the table.

“Gasp, gasp, cough… ugh, damn it….”

A traffic accident.
From over a decade ago, a memory from the past… that traffic accident.
The car I’d shared with my parents. Me, sitting alone in the back seat. That cursed accident that took two members of my family in a single moment.
I gripped the table so hard my knuckles turned white, swallowing down the tremors in my throat.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it….”

I’d cursed how many times now? I didn’t even know where I was anymore. A cough burst from my throat, and as I covered my mouth, Min Ji-heon urgently thrust a fresh napkin at me.
Fresh blood stained the white napkin.

“Ugh…”

Min Ji-heon’s voice, which had been nothing but groans until moments ago, came through clearly now.

“Ah… was that too much?”
“….”
“I-I’m sorry. That was more intense than I expected.”

Min Ji-heon, slightly flustered, stepped back and covered the bracelet again. I clenched my teeth, overwhelmed by the vivid sensation of the traffic accident, and could only breathe heavily.
In that instant, blood began trickling from Min Ji-heon’s nose as well.

“Ah, but I’m also… hurting. Wow, this is stronger than I thought.”
“Gasp, cough…”
“Let’s not do this anymore…”

Min Ji-heon muttered, his eyes closing as if dizzy. I finally finished catching my breath, and the moment I understood what was happening, I grabbed him by the collar.

“You crazy bastard…!!”

Crash!

The table slid and teacups clattered to the floor. Min Ji-heon’s expression hardened instantly, and he tried to pull away, but I yanked him back by the collar I had firmly gripped.

“You… you better answer me right now.”
“Ugh, wait…”
“My hands work better than I thought.”
“They’re already out! They’re already showing!”

Min Ji-heon must have been genuinely terrified, squeezing his eyes shut tight. Regardless, I twisted his collar again.

“…How did you know about that? What did you just show me?”
“I… I understand the feeling of being angry enough to grab someone by the collar and speak informally, but I’m struggling right now because I pushed myself too hard… Wait, you agreed to this just now!”
“Answer me right now!!”

As I shouted in fury, Min Ji-heon finally opened the eyes he’d been squeezing shut. His pupils were still hazy and wavering.

“…Ugh, just calm down for a moment.”
“….”
“Just let go of this for now.”

Damn it.
Min Ji-heon said that and released his grip on my collar. My insides churned and my brain felt like it was melting from the pain. I was thrown back, leaning against the table with my hands gripping its edge, breathing heavily as I glared at him.

‘That bastard….’

“Hey, Min Ji-heon!!!”

Just as I was about to seize the opportunity and tackle Min Ji-heon again, Min Ji-heon’s Manager suddenly burst into the private room with a loud noise.

“What are you doing here right now?! You need to get on that plane immediately, didn’t you—. S-Seo Ho-yoon?”
“….”

As I stared at Min Ji-heon without saying a word, the Manager quickly grasped the situation and his eyes darted around. However, Min Ji-heon swiftly concealed his earlier shock and answered casually.

“Sorry, I ran into an older acquaintance.”
“An older acquaintance…? Seo Ho-yoon?”

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Min Ji-heon’s Manager sidled up beside him and asked quietly. Min Ji-heon deliberately turned his body to block the scattered napkins stained with my blood from view, then looked at his Manager and smiled.

“Leaving? I was just about to clean up anyway.”
“Of course you need to leave now…! But why are you meeting with Seo Ho-yoon? …Are you close?”
“Hmm, no.”
“Then why without saying anything….”

The Manager looked back and forth between us with suspicious eyes. He sensed something strange in the atmosphere but seemed hesitant to probe deeper.

“…But I’m thinking of getting close starting now.”

A hollow laugh escaped.
He was truly insane.

“…Anyway, we’re in a hurry so let’s go. We’ll talk more in the car. Huh? Why are the glasses separated? The floor is all wet, watch your step!”

As the Manager dragged him away, Min Ji-heon shuffled along and glanced back at me.

“…Min Ji-heon.”
“M-Min Ji-heon?”

I called out to Min Ji-heon as he reached for the private room door. His Manager gasped at the name I used, but I had no room to care.
The steering wheel snapping back, the sky that had been far too vivid, the screech of tires grinding against asphalt—every sensation remained crystalline and sharp.

“You… haven’t answered me yet.”
“I, I’m really sorry, but not now…. I have to catch a flight.”

My Manager stammered while staring at me, but Min Ji-heon grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

“If it’s you, the audition’s already a lock…. Want to see each other at our filming set?”
“….”
“If you come, I’ll tell you then.”

I wanted nothing more than to seize him right there and demand what the hell he’d done. But not with eyes watching.
My fists trembled with barely contained rage, and I heard my Manager muttering as he left.

“S-so, you two are having a late-night study session…?”
“….”
“Audition practice…? No, what is this even about?”

The private room door closed, and alone now, I crumpled the bloodstained napkin and hurled it into the trash with brutal force.

“Damn it… damn bastard!”

Even cursing like a madman did nothing to ease the fury. I clenched my fists and stared at the exit where Min Ji-heon had gone.

“The filming set, my ass….”

Did he really think I’d just sit here and do nothing?
My jaw trembled.

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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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