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Chapter 143: Extreme Part-time Job
Translator: Enuma ID
"I'm home!"
There was a reason they called humans creatures of adaptation.
'What was the passcode again?'
Not having come back to my parents' place for nearly three months, the passcode to the apartment entrance suddenly slipped my mind, and I stood there flustered.
Е̂_ńu ḿ а
Thankfully, I barely managed to recall it and got inside, but even after stepping through the door, it felt oddly strange how the scenery of a house I should have known by heart looked so unfamiliar.
"You come home on vacation without even a heads-up?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"How's my Madam Sukja been while I was gone?"
"Do you have any idea how quiet this house is without you?"
"Wow, that stings. Get me a Coke."
Smack!
Е̄nü m̃ а̃
"Go buy your own!"
Ah.
The intense touch of a palm against my back.
'This was it!'
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Even after leaving home, my back had been working diligently, taking slaps from the members, the manager, and occasionally PD Raon, but something had always felt lacking.
Just like celebrities or YouTubers who go abroad and start craving Korean food after a few days, tasting that authentic Mom's Touch after so long finally made me feel like I was home. [TL: Pun on "맘스터치," a Korean fast food chain, and the literal "mom's touch" from getting slapped.]
Еṅuṁ ӑ .і̌ d
Truly, the original existed for a reason.
"Where's Dad?"
"He went out to meet his friends, but when I told him you were coming, he said he's on his way back."
"Why's he making a fuss like that? I'll be home for a while anyway."
"You know how your dad gets."
I nodded at Madam Sukja's words, grabbed my suitcase, and headed for my room.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
And there they were, my cozy bed, desk, and computer.
Thud.
I should've unpacked the stuff I brought from the dorm first, but I just wanted to flop down on the bed.
My beloved bed, used for so long that instead of bouncing, it sank beneath me.
'This is the feeling.'
Our dorm bed was new and its springs were still alive, so it didn't give this feeling, which was a shame. Turns out new isn't always better.
Ė ń ũ m̈ a . і̆d̈
This spine-wrecking sense of comfort.
Kind of like a military cot?
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Definitely not good for my health, but a bed imbued with magic that knocked me out the second I lay down.
Sure, the dorm was clean and the company had stocked it with all sorts of new products for us, but I couldn't feel any soul in them.
Take the gaming laptop I had convinced Mom to buy before heading to the dorm, for example.
'Maybe it's because I'm playing on a laptop, but my real skills just aren't coming out.'
Ẁѐ b ň ӧ v̄е̃ l̀ Е n̆u ḿа
Despite having far superior specs compared to my old desktop, I somehow couldn't grow attached to the thing.
Even after finding an excellent Rift partner in manager Yun-sik, I was stuck at Silver tier, probably because of the equipment.
I clearly needed to grind hard in the Rift during this vacation to climb up to Gold tier.
-Come back once you've hit Gold, and I'll give you that autograph.
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After all, I had to get the autograph of Faker, one of the world's Five Great Sages, whom I'd crossed paths with at that commercial shoot.
'It should be about time it drops, right?'
Ӗ n̄ um̆ a..i d̈
A lot had happened these past three months.
Not only had I finished training and debuted, but the number of commercials I'd filmed in that span was already quite a few.
Starting with a convenience store ad, then a school uniform ad, then the chocolate ad from a little while back, and the stomach medicine ad.
And finally, there was one commercial I'd shot solo.
-Could you turn the lights on?
A gaming brand commercial, no less.
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At first I tried to decline since it was an ad targeting only me rather than the whole group, but...
-For this commercial, we've booked pro gamer Faker-nim as your partner.
-I'll do it! I'll do it! I definitely want to do it!
The instant I heard it was Faker, I accepted on the spot.
I wasn't crazy about the concept, admittedly: I'd be alone in a dark room playing a game and losing, and then Faker would enter by switching on the lights and hand me a new mouse, keyboard, and headset. That was the whole idea.
I strongly demanded they capture me carrying the game instead, but the request was denied.
Еn̂um̄ ã.і d
Anyway, after filming with Faker, I asked him for a photo and an autograph.
The photo was fine, but the autograph was a no-go because I was still Silver, and Faker vanished with those parting words. Even now, I'd sometimes wake up in the middle of the night crying out for Faker.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
So until my next chance to meet Faker, I'd been saddled with the singular mission of reaching Gold tier by any means necessary.
"Guess I'll just have to grind ADC for a while."
Our vacation meant the managers' vacation too, so I couldn't summon Yun-sik, my faithful summon creature up to this point, meaning I pretty much had to play ADC.
CommanderSi-on.
È ǹu̇m ȧ.ĭd̊
My first ID, zㅣLegendSi-on, had gotten way too famous, so I'd made a new one.
Luckily, ever since zㅣLegendSi-on, it had become a trend among my Rift friends to slap "Si-on" into their usernames, so no one suspected this ID was mine.
[The Si-on guys in games lately are legit terrifying]
「The bastards with Si-on in their nick don't even try to negotiate
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These guys don't know the meaning of compromise
Now I finally get how our ancestors felt when the Mongols invaded
W̆е̃bnó vе l Е n̊u m а̄
You guys better watch out for Si-ons too」
↳This is all because of the Rift Three Bandits who got dumpstered by zㅣLegendSi-on
↳fuck ever since then the Top Lane Psychos have been going wild
↳fr there are way too many Lee Si-on nicks these days and every single one of them is a psycho
↳if I see Si-on in champ select my hands literally start shaking
↳join the movement, put Si-on in your nick, games get so much easier, nobody picks fights
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↳Lee Si-on this crazy bitch, what the hell did she do to the Rift?
Thanks to my loyal Rift friends who had taken up my personal doctrine, the Rift world had been transformed into a peaceful place where I could play just like before without any real trouble.
Finally, the Rift was operating the way it was supposed to.
"Lee Si-on, what do you want for dinner tonight?"
"Huh?"
But my deep contemplation about why my tier wasn't budging was cut short when I flinched involuntarily at my mom's voice from the living room.
W̄ĕb̆n ȯv е̌ľ E n ů ḿ а̇
"You're home for the first time in a while, you've gotta have a home-cooked meal. Tell me what you want and I'll make it."
"No, Mom! You must be tired today, let's just eat out."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Eat out? What eat out? You probably haven't been eating properly all this time, Mom will cook for you. Right, Si-on likes meat, maybe I should make spicy pork stir-fry."
"No, really, I'm fine?"
"Guess I need to swing by the market and pick up groceries."
Watching Madam Sukja exhibit the classic trait of a Korean middle-aged woman, the one where once she fixates on something, nothing anyone else says registers, I was feeling a tension I hadn't even felt when face to face with a knife-wielding assailant.
Е̌nū ṁ а̊ . іd
'I'm doomed!'
If I had to name one reason why my dorm life, from the training dorm until now, hadn't been all that hard, being able to escape Madam Sukja's meals had been a significant one.
-What about dinner?
-Hm? I already ate.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
-It's only 6?
-Well... you know Manager Kim? The one living the goose-dad life after sending his kids to study abroad? I felt bad for him eating alone...
Ė nu m̀ а́
-Sigh, see? That's exactly why a house needs a mom. You should be eating home-cooked meals. Lee Si-on, get out here! Time to eat!
If there was one thing I envied most about my dad, it was his ability to dodge Madam Sukja's dinner.
Unlike Dad, who conjured up a new imaginary meal companion every time to avoid dinner, I had to eat Madam Sukja's cooking morning and night, without fail.
'It was one of the reasons I ended up eating so much school lunch.'
Madam Sukja's cooking, which mercilessly shattered the common assumption that children get raised on their mother's flavor, was nothing short of catastrophic.
Ding.
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As I was watching Mom pack up her shopping bag and regretting how I'd just waltzed back into the house without a second thought, a KakaoTalk notification on my phone snapped me out of it.
[Betraying Lim] Unnies, it's the first day of vacation, what are y'all doing?
[Petty Seo] Eating out with family, probably?
[Ryu Chicken] I've got something going on
[Betraying Lim] Ah... Shin-yu unnie and Yuri unnie have some time before they head home, so they decided to hang out at my place
[Yuri the Schemer] We're going out for dinner!
Еǹum а
[Our Shin-yu] Yun-kyung apparently knows a great restaurant!
The members' Kakaos came flooding in within moments.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
'This is it!'
A method to evade Madam Sukja's dinner course had materialized, so I was just about to type back that I'd be right over when...
[D Ga-hyun] I can't go...
[Betraying Lim] Why?
Ѐn ú m а .і̆ d
[D Ga-hyun] I have to go film...
"Huh?"
I had to freeze my fingers mid-type at Lee Ga-hyun's message.
Vacation had just started, and yet here was Lee Ga-hyun spouting incomprehensible nonsense about suddenly having to go film something.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
[Me] Film what?
[D Ga-hyun] Self-produced YouTube content
E n um̀ а
Self-produced content?
Hearing that Lee Ga-hyun was filming alone when the members had always filmed together, not just me but the other members must have been shocked too, because the chat room started going off non-stop.
[Me] So what are you filming?
[D Ga-hyun] Well...
***
Ga-hyun was envious of Lee Si-on.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
-Whoa! Commander, you shot a commercial all by yourself?
-This right here is the pic with Faker. Look only, no touching.
Every Iam member had their own supportive fans, but Lee Si-on was on a different scale.
-There are a lot of variety shows that want to book just Si-on.
-Right now's the time to focus on team activities, so it'd be best to turn them down.
Lee Si-on, who had been the No. 1 in popularity rankings ever since Idol Ground 100, always brought buzz wherever she went, so even within Iam, she frequently did solo shoots.
Е̃ṅ u m̄ӑ
Things like magazine interviews or TV broadcast interviews.
Or being pulled aside during a music program to film a separate special segment, for example.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
If the company hadn't put the brakes on, there was no doubt she would've racked up an insane number of commercials and variety appearances. That was how popular she was.
The person in question didn't seem all that interested in going out alone, and since Lee Si-on wasn't the type to attach much meaning to such things, she actually seemed content, rather than dissatisfied, with the company's policy.
'I wanna try doing something solo too!'
Lee Ga-hyun was a little different.
Е̃ n um̂а.і̇ d
Of course, it wasn't that she had complaints about Iam's activities.
Ga-hyun simply had a pure desire to try being the lead once.
And that made sense, given she'd been performing as a team member all the way since Idol Ground 100, so she was yearning for a solo shot.
Whenever a performance ended, her parents would take photos of it with their phone cameras and send them to her.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
-Our Ga-hyun is gorgeous again today!
(A rushed, blurry stage photo of Lee Ga-hyun, the focus all wrong)
Ŵ ёb̀ n ov̄ӗl Еnuḿӑ
Raon, being the producer, had distributed the parts fairly, so Ga-hyun had been given a decent amount of coverage too, but for her parents, who weren't exactly young, it seemed to flash by in an instant.
Maybe that's why?
One of Ga-hyun's small wishes was for her parents to be able to take photos at ease, without nervously waiting for her to appear.
And that opportunity came sooner than she'd expected.
"So that's how it ended up; you, Ga-hyun, are going to handle the first solo video of our self-produced content."
"Yes!"
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As all the members followed the managers back to their homes from the dorm and Ga-hyun was about to do the same, PD Raon informed her that there was still something left for her to take care of.
-We're definitely giving you a break during the vacation, but as you know, for idols, vacation is also content.
Fans were curious about every single move an idol made.
From what they ate to what they wore to how they spent their day, it was only natural for them to want to know.
Some critics argued that fans were trying to pry into overly personal territory, but...
'Because they love them.'
Еn̂ŭm а . іd̊
Ga-hyun considered it a given, in a way.
Sure, if it spiraled into obsessive attachment and turned into sasaeng fan behavior, that would be a problem, but being curious about someone one loved was only human.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
That was why idols, in order to answer their fans' curiosity, would do live broadcasts, or communicate through fan messengers, or post updates about their lives on SNS.
In that regard, Iam was extremely diligent.
[Today's Iam Dinner]
(A photo of the members gathered around mouth-watering golden fried rice)
Е̄ n um̌ a . і d
Tonight's dinner is golden fried rice made by Si-on herself. (Surprisingly tasty?!)
↳The pic looks tasty but the chef is suspicious, right?
↳Nah but after the chocolate thing too, Lee Si-on is weirdly good at cooking
↳There's a reason people say soldiers jump the wall over bad chow
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
↳Iam is so good at posting on SNS, I love it
↳fr, so many groups blow up and suddenly stop caring, using "we're busy" as the excuse, but this group consistently posts even the tiny stuff
Е̃ ňú m а̃. і d
They didn't have personal SNS accounts yet, but the fans loved how frequently they uploaded snippets of the members' lives through the group YouTube and SNS.
And idols like that couldn't just let a vacation go by uneventfully.
"The full-team vacation content will be shot next week, but today we need to film something to go up in between."
"Just leave it to me!"
"See, I knew putting you first was the right call, Ga-hyun."
KJ Entertainment, it seemed, had no intention of letting the precious content that was an idol's vacation slip through their fingers either, and they'd informed Ga-hyun of, of all things, a solo shoot.
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'I can do this!'
Ga-hyun was overflowing with motivation.
She wasn't confident she could go on a one-woman warpath like the variety demon Lee Si-on, but among the other members, Ga-hyun had always quietly thought she had at least a bit of variety-show instinct.
And since this was the first solo content being filmed, the content team must have surely prepared it thoroughly.
"But what's the solo content actually about?"
"Um... well."
Е nŭ mа́ .і̌ d
Since she'd be filming alone, she was incredibly curious and excited about what they'd shoot.
'When I look at other idol groups, they do stuff like food tours at popular restaurants, or shopping while walking down trendy streets.'
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Ga-hyun lost herself in happy fantasies, recalling the self-produced content of other idol groups.
"Ga-hyun, do you know what your nicknames are?"
"Huh? Nicknames?"
But instead of answering Ga-hyun's question, Raon asked her if she knew her nicknames, and Ga-hyun got an uneasy feeling.
Е̇ń ũm а̇ .і́d
"Eldest Maknae?"
"Ah, yeah, there's that one too."
That too?
"It's not E Ga-hyun, right?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Among the affectionate nicknames fans used for Ga-hyun, the popular one was Eldest Maknae, and there was also E Ga-hyun, which exaggerated one particular part of Ga-hyun's anatomy.
Wondering if it was that, she asked, and Raon flinched in shock and waved her hand frantically.
Еňŭm̌ ӑ. і̆.d̄
"No, no!"
"Uh... then what else is there?"
Because Lee Si-on was always slapping nicknames on the members, Iam members had so many of them that Ga-hyun was still racking her brain when Raon cautiously opened her mouth.
"Tonkatsu Bandit."
"...."
"Ga-hyun, one of your nicknames is Tonkatsu Bandit, remember?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Without realizing it, Ga-hyun squeezed her eyes shut at the nickname that came out of Raon's mouth.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ how is the nickname Tonkatsu Bandit
↳first time I've ever seen idols duel with chopsticks over a single piece of tonkatsu
↳Lee Si-on I get, but Lee Ga-hyun being dead serious about it is too funny
↳Lee Si-on was attacking verbally so her eyes went round but she never let go of those chopsticks, that's the kill point
↳feed these girls properly, they ditched their image for ONE tonkatsu
Wе́b́ ňo v̂ ē l̊ _E ń u ṁ а̇
↳Lee Si-on really has a gift for nicknames, weirdly enough Tonkatsu Bandit suits her perfectly
It was one of the humiliating nicknames that had stuck to Ga-hyun ever since Lee Si-on tossed out a single line back during the Idol Ground 100 training camp.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Why that one..."
"Iam's first solo self-produced content is Extreme Part-time Job: Lee Ga-hyun's Tonkatsu Shop Edition."
Ga-hyun hated the world.
*****
Е n̊ úḿа̌
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