The Maknae Has to Be an Idol
Chapter 213

Siren uploaded the videos they promised to upload for winning first place, and after countless shares, those videos began to spread all over social media. The video that spread the most widely across the public was Yeon-Hoon’s cover of ‘Blue Summer Night’. It was expected that a cover video would reach the public the farthest because it was made for that purpose. Even for people who didn’t know Siren too well, the public who had already seen Yeon-Hoon’s cover video rushed to see part 2.

—Ahhhhh there’s part 2 now?

—Yeah, this is the one

—So, did Saren get first place?

Reply: They are Siren!

—He really is crazy good at singing

—No but the singing isn’t the important part; his face is crazy

—The song was so good that I listened to it again after putting on my glasses

—Why do guys like him not become famous?

Reply: ? He’s in a new group that sold over 500,000 copies in the first week of sales?

Though the first part of the video had attracted quite the buzz, the video’s full version rose in popularity even faster. It was to the point that in the public’s mind, Siren became strongly established as the group, ‘where that good-looking guy who is also good at singing’ is in. Before, Only One had more public awareness than Siren but with this video, Siren’s awareness slightly surpassed them.

More accurately, it wasn’t really Only One but Kang Hyun-Sung who was well-known by the public. In other words, this meant that people were starting to remember Woo Yeon-Hoon more than Kang Hyun-Sung. It was especially encouraging that broadcast program channels left recruitment comments on the Utube video. Shows like Late Night Live Hall that was famous for calling singers in the night-time to sing live or Karaoke 2nd Time, a music quiz variety show that centered around playing at karaoke rooms, left comments under the video.

—Prince of the Sea, Mr. Yeon-Hoon, we are desperately waiting for your appearance

—Your Highness, Prince Yeon-Hoon, we sent a request to your company and are waiting for your reply :)

The writers of broadcast companies had already realized that Yeon-Hoon could be the new stimulus they needed in the predictable and set variety show business. Below those comments, Siren fans and the program's fans asked for Yeon-Hoon’s appearance. And while Yeon-Hoon’s video was triggering such a wave of attention, Siren fans were trying their best to block ‘Siren’s comedy skit video’ from spreading to the public.

—Must protect this video at all costs! So that nobody can see it!

—Share it only in your unofficial accounts!!

—If this video gets out while people are fanning over Yeon-Hoon, it will be the death of me

—How could they release a cover and skit video at the same time??? Ahahahah

—Tae-Yoon poisoned his group!!

The fans reached a consensus that while Yeon-Hoon’s video was attracting all sorts of positive reception, they needed to keep this video under the radar. And because fans only shared the video in their unofficial accounts, the video didn’t pop up on people’s feeds as often as it was shared. Yet, the number of shares it received from unofficial accounts was considerably high and at least on Bluebird, it boasted of more shares than Yeon-Hoon’s cover video. And the general response to the funny video was:

—Was Tae-Yoon’s character always like this?

—No hahaha How could he not laugh and act so calmly?

—So funny how everyone else keeps burst out laughing every time Tae-Yoon talks

—It’s funnier because he doesn’t seem to have any intention of being funny

—How can you call this comedy? Hahaha Does Tae-Yoon not know the meaning of ‘comedy’?

The general response said the video was quite funny. The part 2 of Siren’s funny video began not too differently from the previous video. No, it began in the same way because they had just edited part 2 with the previously uploaded video together. Thus, people viewed the video from the start with the mindset that they were rewatching a masterpiece. Then, the video eventually reached the part where it was cut off before. After being told that this stupid impromptu play could end if Tae-Yoon made them laugh, Tae-Yoon opened his mouth.

—Um…

It was what no one expected.

—Dong-Jun, stop eating mala hot pot.

He suddenly attacked Dong-Jun, who wasn’t doing anything, out of the blue.

—Huh?

—Ugh?

—What?

—If you eat so much mala hot pot like you are doing right now, you are going to get a hole in your stomach. It could really be dangerous.

—…Huh?

—Hahaha!

—No…Tae-Yoon!

—How is this comedy!

Dong-Jun, who had been holding the camera, just muttered, ‘huh…?’ in astonishment while the rest of the members burst in belated laughter at Tae-Yoon’s unexpected attack. Yet, Tae-Yoon’s verbal assaults didn’t end there.

—Do-Seung, stop groping to the music when you are walking alone.

—…What…what did you say?

—When you groove with your headphones on, it’s a bit embarrassing. You know our concept is more youthful and refreshing.

—Pft!

—Haaaaa!

—The king of grooves! Kang Do-Seung!

—Stop it!

Tae-Yoon brought up Do-Seung’s small habit that he only did in secret

—Yeon-Hoon, stop singing while you are in the shower. The bathroom isn’t your karaoke. Also, washing for so long isn’t good for your skin.

—Ah…?

—And stop having a whole fashion show in the morning. It’s upsetting that you take care of yourself so well with that kind of face.

—Me…?

Tae-Yoon brought up Yeon-Hoon’s bad habits.

—Woon, you think we don't know that you sometimes admire yourself in the practice room mirror while we aren’t there?

—What…!

Tae-Yoon also brought up Woon’s weakness.

—Dong-Jun, also…

—Stop…Stop it, Tae-Yoon…

—Do-Seung, you also…

—Are you out of your mind…?

—Woon…

—Tae-Yoon…

—Yeon-Hoon…

—…I’m sorry…I really am

Tae-Yoon’s verbal assaults didn’t stop there and continued. Though everyone had laughed in the beginning, they all looked out of it by the end. Like they had received significant mental damage, they all sat soullessly. And after doing his full, Tae-Yoon shamelessly made it seem like all of his actions had been for show to make a humorous video.

—That is all. Did everyone have fun?

They burst into humorless laughter while looking at each other and their laughter soon turned into feats of mad laughter, shouting, and clapping. They laughed because they were baffled that Tae-Yoon had attacked them after they told him to make them laugh. After laughing senselessly for a while, they collapsed to the floor.

With this, they found out Tae-Yoon’s sense of humor. He forced people to laugh in bafflement by damaging their minds. Whatever it was, Tae-Yoon succeeded in making his members laugh and accomplished the mission they gave him.

—How nice and chill can a team be that the maknae can say stuff like that and be forgiven?

Reply: Don’t package this so nicely. It’s not that the team’s atmosphere is nice but that the maknae one-sidedly assaulted his members

Reply: This is maknae on top fr

—This isn’t a humorous video but an assault video

—But seeing the members’ responses, it seems Tae-Yoon didn’t say anything wrong

—Why are you spilling internal secrets instead of a funny video?

—But is it all right for Tae-Yoon to just speak so boldly like that? He’s the maknae

Reply: It really does seem like maknae is on top in Siren haha

—We have to make sure this doesn’t spread anywhere else and enjoy it amongst ourselves

—I feel like they just exposed their personal lives to us…haha

—I wanted to know you guys better but not this much…Tae-Yoon hahahaha

—Dong-Jun and I did have a similarity

Siren fans enjoyed the video more than anybody else but agreed amongst each other that they would keep this to themselves. Like that, the video was shared many times but the speed at which it spread across the internet was significantly slower; and even when it spread, it rolled back and forth within Bluebird.

Then, after revealing their videos, Siren achieved their second first win trophy in the next music show. It was a great win in consecutive days and the Siren members led the encore stage with much more calmness than their first win. Naturally, they had another live broadcast to celebrate their win, where they did a cake mukbang* [1] and took the time to explain their ‘comedy video’.

—I…don’t like mala hot pot that much

—That’s a lie

—It’s not a lie!

—If we extract your blood, mala would probably come out

—Ah…Come on, Tae-Yoon!

—I don’t really go around grooving all the time

—Should I show rebuttal videos as evidence?

—Don’t!

—I also…don’t sing in the shower…

—Yeon-Hoon, are you seriously going to lie about that?

—…Sorry…

—I also don’t look at the mirror so often…

—Beep. That’s a lie

Yet, the more the members tried to explain themselves, Tae-Yoon intercepted and blocked their attempts. Thus, there was not a single accusation that was overturned. Like that, a new nickname formed for each of the members.

Yeon-Hoon was ‘Bathroom Song Master’.

Do-Seung was the ‘Asian Groove King’.

Woon was ‘Training Room Princess’.

Dong-Jun was ‘Gangnam-gu Mala King’.

Tae-Yoon was ‘The Walking Fact Machine’.

Afterward, the second week of activities ended with Only One getting first place on Saturday and Sunday music shows.

***

It was Saturday night when the second week of activities met its end. However, we couldn’t spend the day just resting. We had to do many fan meetings since last week and had an eventful and fruitful schedule where we won first-place trophies three times.

“Haaa.”

“Let’s work again.”

“We can do it!”

Because of that, we felt fired up to do more even at a time when we could rest. My members burned with the passion to improve and their state had a big influence on their decision. The Sunday night we finished our second week of activities, we didn’t return to our dorm and went straight to the company. There, we rented a conference room and connected our laptops with a conference monitor.

“Okay, let’s talk about the next activities’ concept and direction of the song we want to take!”

The main topic of today’s meeting was about our next activities. My members were fully convinced by my opinion that we could get this year’s grand prize with the progress we were making. My members’ eyes were burning in passion to get this year’s grand prize all the time now. This was the state I wanted them to be in. If they maintained this condition and we continued to set new records every time we did our activities...

‘Triple Crown All-Kill and entering the Billboard Hot 100…could be possible.’

We might be able to clear the two death flag missions in three months at this rate. And while we burned up with passion for our plans, we noticed a figure reflected on the other side of the conference room’s glass wall.

“Huh? Who’s that?”

Eventually, someone opened the door and came inside.

“You all are doing a meeting at this time? Haha, how passionate.”

It was Director Yoo Won-Dong.

1. An eating show ☜