Save a Failed Idol's Life-Chapter 137:

It hurts my heart, but… honestly, this was an area that I couldn’t cover either.

Of course, there seemed to be quite a few fans who felt attracted to that kind of appearance.

‘Either way… if the ranking is not decided by the fandom vote, our kid won’t lose.’

I didn’t need to worry and just set my priority to tomorrow’s negotiation.

‘I was going to say that we would start with Climax only when we talked about separating from the label, and that there was a possibility of expansion later.’

But how should I bring it up now?

I lay down, promising myself tomorrow.

The next morning. I got up from my bed with a groan and it was before the alarm went off.

Humans are adaptable animals. I had set five alarms at five-minute intervals in case I couldn’t wake up, but luckily I opened my eyes before they rang.

I got up from my bed and headed to the bathroom, glancing at Seon-woo’s bed. As always, Seon-woo was lying sprawled out.

His twisted posture exposed his white belly, which looked like it would catch a stomach ache.

“He’s always so careless.”

I picked up the blanket that was lying separately on the floor and covered him up to his chin. He flipped over, feeling suffocated.

“Hmm…”

What do you mean, hmm? I decided to wake him up as soon as I washed my face and went to the living room.

“Are you up?”

Kyunghwa, who looked relaxed for once, was sitting on the sofa, fiddling with his laptop.

“Yeah. You’re up early?”

“I guess it’s become a habit since I’ve been waking up at dawn these days.”

I envied him for losing his morning sleep in his early twenties. I still had a foggy head and shook it once before going to the bathroom in the living room.

“Let’s have a quick breakfast, wake up the kids, and get going.”

The meeting schedule that the manager had arranged was at 11 a.m. There was still plenty of time. I had already told him what I was going to say.

All that was left was to deliver it to the company and confirm their agreement. They couldn’t say no. They wouldn’t want to start a lawsuit over a contract breach when they had a schedule in progress.

I had also promised solid support from Chairman Cheon, so I should be able to give good news to the fans by the beginning of next year.

‘Maybe I’ll make some potato rice.’

Personally, I didn’t like the combination of carbs and carbs, but.

It wasn’t as bad for your body as junk food. This was also something you could only eat when you were young.

When you get older and start to take care of your carbs, you can’t eat it.

‘When else will I enjoy my youth?’

I suddenly felt sad that the measure of youth was whether you could eat a carb bomb without thinking about your blood sugar.

‘When you get old… there are so many things you can’t eat.’

I remembered how the employees who used to eat and drink like crazy when they were young started to eat healthy food for survival as they accumulated years and age.

‘Anyway, today is potato rice.’

It would be nice to add some lotus root as well as potatoes. If I roast the eggplant in the air fryer and coat it with sauce, it would be a good side dish.

I was busy thinking about how to use up the eggplant that I bought two weeks ago and didn’t eat because I was busy.

I hurried to cook the rice and sliced the eggplant thinly and prepared to roast it. The delicious smell started to rise.

I had to wake him up in 15 minutes, since the food would be ready in 30. I took off the plastic gloves I had been wearing and headed to the living room.

“What are you doing?”

He had been staring at his laptop before I started preparing breakfast. And he still was. There were more than a dozen web browser tabs pinned at the top. Was he looking for something?

“I’m just checking out the reactions to what we released yesterday.”

He wasn’t only looking at ours, but also at other groups’ responses.

“The feedback was good yesterday. Seon-woo’s bubble trick was everywhere, even in clips.”

“I know, right? I’ve watched that one dozens of times already.”

Kyunghwa chuckled and cuddled up next to Seon-woo, who had followed me to the living room, snoring. He lifted Pposili, who had also woken up and trotted after me, onto the sofa.

[※‘Ryu Kyunghwa’ is in a stable condition.]

Thankfully, he hadn’t seen anything weird while searching. I breathed a sigh of relief and asked him.

“How about the other teams? Floss is obviously well-received. I’m curious about the others.”

As I casually propped my chin on my hand, Kyunghwa swiftly showed me a window he had neatly organized in Excel.

“Wow…”

It was a chart that collected the current views, likes, and reaction keywords for each team.

The order of views was roughly what I expected.

Floss

Vesper

AtoX

Climax

P2CK

Playground

The order of likes was slightly different.

Floss

Vesper

Climax

AtoX

P2CK

Playground

I could tell why when I saw the reaction keywords for AtoX’s stage.

Foreign fans or loyal fandoms might desperately find and consume elements they liked within it.

But not the general viewers. They had come to see what new program NBS was doing and left some harsh comments that were more than I expected.

[- The original artist probably turned his head away in disbelief after seeing this]

[- Before watching: Wow, AtoX’s shocking transformation…!

After watching: You guys should never transform]

[? There was a reason why they hadn’t transformed until now]

[? Ah?????? I want to deny it but I can’t ?????]

[- The biggest mysteries of this video

0:20 Jae-p, who can’t tell if he’s a bad guy or a madman on line 1

2:12 Hyeon, who tries to rip his shirt but doesn’t have enough strength

2:45 A.M, who screams for no apparent reason

Me, who watched this till the end]

[Me, who watched this till the end22222222]

[Why did I watch this333333 It was the most useless 4 minutes of my life recently]

[- They asked them to do a cover, not to compete with the original….]

[The original artist should block AtoX from their public account right away, they have no excuse]

[- NBS, please disable the comments for AtoX’s honorable death, I beg you]

The hate comments were so overwhelming that the fans pleaded for them to be disabled.

Did these commenters not think that this could hurt the performers… or were they incapable of thinking?

Some of them deliberately exaggerated and made nonsense remarks that tore apart the performers’ hearts, just to make people laugh.

Of course, if they made a flop in a paid media, they should accept the feedback as part of their role as creators.

But they only had 5 days to prepare for this stage.

It was impossible to design the stage set, arrange the music, and choreograph the dance in such a short time.

They must have felt that this was not right while preparing, but they didn’t have enough time to fix it.

What else could they do? In a situation where they had no time to prepare an alternative, they all knew that this was a disaster, but they didn’t avoid it and went on stage.

I thought that was a very courageous act. Some might say that it would be less embarrassing to fake an accident and drop out of the schedule.

As I thought when I saw Kang Yu-geon, a pro is someone who finishes their assigned role in a given schedule.

Even though they were competitors, I wanted to sincerely comfort the AtoX members.

‘Well… the behind-the-scenes of the stage are not important to people, nor do they want to know.’

I couldn’t bear to watch the hate comments pouring on AtoX anymore, so I turned my eyes away.

The other groups were not much different. Vesper was… maybe because they had a high proportion of foreigners, their comments were mostly short, like “the best”, “our king swept everything”, “cool”, “good”, etc.

There were not many Korean responses, and they were just okay. I don’t know if there was any arrangement. It was ordinary because they always did the same thing. That was the main evaluation.

P2CK had the least presence, so the number of comments was low and the overall reaction was flat. There was nothing to criticize, but there was also nothing impressive.

Only the fans came and left some nice comments.

‘Now the problem is Playground…’

Ugh. I didn’t even have to check the comments directly to know how it was, I could tell by the keywords that Kyunghwa summarized.

[Chaos, mess, lack of skill, insufficient, trainee]

[- They only put up the juicy cuts in the trailer]

[- I don’t understand why they put in the rookies who just debuted; this is just a public execution]

They debuted with this skill and joined the lineup to show a messy stage, what’s the difference between them and trainees. Something like that.

They didn’t have any existing fandom to support them, I wonder how they were holding up.

As soon as the stage was over, I remembered the high school students who came down and cried.

“People think alike, I guess.”

I clicked my tongue lightly and crossed my arms, and Kyunghwa nodded.

We and Floss were the only ones who received unanimous praise, but we couldn’t relax. We were behind in views.

“I guess so.”

Kyunghwa nodded. Was there any reaction to Yu-geon? Since the full broadcast wasn’t released yet, there were many comments looking for Chanhyung.

Just as I was about to look for it again, I heard the sound of steam coming out of the rice cooker.

Squeak-.

“Ah, the food is ready. Wake up the kids, we’re eating in 10 minutes.”

“Okay.”

I went back to the kitchen and put the eggplants I had prepared for grilling in the pan and made the sauce. The members came out to the living room one by one, their faces still sleepy.

“We’re going straight to the office after we eat, so get ready in advance.”

“Yeah…”

I turned my head without thinking, assuming it was either Seon-woo or Yi-jun who answered me, but I was startled when I realized it was Seong-won.

“What, why.”

He snapped back at me with a sharp tone, as if to ask what the problem was. I was relieved, but I also felt a chill when I heard his unexpected meek reply.

No, maybe his personality has softened a bit lately.

I should get used to it too.

I briefly reflected as I opened the rice cooker, which was steaming hot. A savory smell wafted up.

“It smells good.”

I smiled as I scooped out some rice, lotus root, and potatoes and put them in a bowl. My worries fade away and I felt excited.

I have to eat well and go fight. I didn’t really want to fight, but I had to fill my stomach to be alert for anything.

“Don’t pick out the lotus root, just eat it.”

I deliberately gave Seon-woo a lot of lotus root, and Seong-won was the first to pick one up and eat it without dipping it in the sauce.

“Don’t eat it bland, there’s sauce.”

I pushed the sauce bowl to Seong-won, and he nodded slowly.

Has he grown from a rebellious teenager to a more obedient one? I shrugged my shoulders and emptied my bowl.

All that was left was to attack.