The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 110

As The Showcase 2’s main producer, Park Soo-Chul, followed Only One and Siren to the commercial shoot. Frankly, although it was an advertisement shoot, there was nothing very special about it except for the live broadcast in the middle.

Other than that, it was only a month-long commercial anyway. Moreover, the background was also at the amusement park, which was a typical background used in advertisements, and even the outfits were basic. He thought he could just waste his time idly here and leave but—

“Wow, Only One looks really cool in school uniforms.”

“Siren also looks really great in uniforms~”

After seeing Only One and Siren members appearing in uniforms again, he thought, ‘This is better than I thought?’ He thought that this commercial might not just be a video of handsome guys wearing pretty clothes and doing pretty things but something more. Furthermore—

“Hello, senior!”

“You don’t have to be so formal and call me senior.”

“But sir...you are my senior.”

“We’re the same age.”

“Yes!”

“Let’s just be friends.”

“Really?”

Looking at those two groups socializing, Park Soo-Chul even made a suggestion to the advertisement director and said, “Um, director, why don’t you mix Siren and Only One together instead of filming them separately? Let’s just keep this composition as it is right now.”

At first, Park Soo-Chul thought this commercial shooting would be a light-hearted and fun commercial of handsome kids socializing with each other, but his mind changed after coming to the scene.

‘If they do a good job, this could go viral.’ Park Soo-Chul thought that although cliché, if "really" handsome guys formed "real" friendships, it could become a "really" fun video.

* * *

When the production team said our groups were going to be mixed, my members and Only One both looked elated; I had no idea how my members had been suppressing their excitement until now when they wanted to socialize this badly. Usually, when men our age met, they established hierarchies amongst each other or played a strange war of nerves, but—

‘How should I say it?’ They were pure and simple people. Just in time, the staff told us how to organize ourselves.

—We have to finish shooting exactly in the morning before the theme park opens! So please decide on the group you want as soon as possible! You can form two groups of three and a group of four!

I thought we should all get together to organize the groups, but I thought, ‘Why does it seem like the groups have already been formed?’

People were gathered in the same composition they were socializing just before. Do-Seung was with Kim Ju-Hyun from Only One, and Kim Si-Woon was also next to them. Woon and Dong-Jun were together, and Lee Chul-Woon and Park Young-Ho were next to them. As for me...

“Shall the three of us be in a group?”

“Yes!”

“...Haha.”

Kang Hyun-Sung, Yeon-Hoon, and I were together. Like this, all the groups were decided in a jiffy.

—Did you hear today’s commercial concept?

“Yes!”

—We’ll assign you a ride, so you can go there and film. While you’re on the ride, shoot with this action camera.

Today’s commercial concept was a spring picnic. We had to take a video with the camera equipment they prepared for us while enjoying our ride, and the staff took shots of us moving around. Then, the director and staff would edit the films with their professional skills and turn them into advertisements. Up to this point, I wondered how this was supposed to be a Pepcola’s commercial when all we did was play around. The reason for this was soon revealed.

—Take this Pepcola’s headband

All the props we were going to wear today were embedded with Pepcola’s logo.

—Take this Pepcola too.

All the drinks we were going to drink were Pepcola and—

—The only rides we are going to ride are rides with Pepcola's mark. We can’t go to the other ones because we haven’t rented the other places.

All the rides we were going to ride have been changed to Pepcola’s version.

‘It’s like they’re marking their territories.’ Since it was their own money anyway, it was not my place to talk, but I thought it was a bit laughable.

—Then we will now be choosing the rides.

It was now time to assign each group to a ride. I thought this might be the biggest problem in today’s shooting...

‘Is there a ride that’s a bit more comfortable?’ They hadn’t told us which ride we were going to be on yet. They only told us that we were going to go on a ride and play. I hoped we would get on easy rides like a safari or a carousel.

—Twist of hell

—Soul escaping vertical fall!

—Swoosh on the waterfall!

...These were the names of the rides. Just by their names, I had no clue what kind of rides they were. The director must have also realized this as he wrote down the type of ride next to the name of the rides.

—Twist of hell (Viking)

—Soul escaping vertical fall! (Rollercoaster)

—Swoosh on the waterfall! (Flume Ride)

....This was not a very helpful piece of information. While I was worried if we could shoot well, Kang Hyun-Sung and Yeon-Hoon were exchanging conversations like this:

Yeon-Hoon said, “They all seem fun, right?”

“Yeah.”

Was it because I was standing still without saying anything? Kang Hyun-Sung asked, “Does it not look fun to you, Tae-Yoon?”

Yeon-Hoon also asked, “It doesn’t look fun, Tae-Yoon?”

“...No, it looks fun,” I said while forcing back my tears. If I had to be honest, I was not good at riding amusement park rides.

‘Will I be able to film well?’ Just in time, the time for deciding the amusement park continued.

—Now, we’re going to decide which one to ride. Which one does your group want to ride?

It was hard for me to decide which one to ride because they were all difficult.

“We want viking!”

“We’ll take the flume ride!”

However, the previous two groups quickly took the other two rides, and the only one left was...

“Damn it...” It was the rollercoaster. I thought that since things ended up like this, I should just grit through it once and get over it but—

—Even if you choose one ride, don’t feel too sad because you’re all going to take turns riding everything.

...Those were the very words I had wanted to hear the least.

* * *

Creaaak.

Thud.

Creakkk.

Thud.

The roller coaster slowly went up, and my soul was already halfway escaping my body. Honestly, I had a lot of thoughts on my mind while moving to ride on ‘Soul escaping vertical fall!’. It was about whether I could do well on today’s shooting. Considering that this was a Pepcola's commercial, the keywords I should be embodying were refreshing and thrilling.

‘But I’m the only one who looks like I’m in a horror movie.’

I tried to change my expressions but—

Creakkk.

Thud.

Every time the rollercoaster climbed the rail slowly to the top, I couldn’t control my expression at all.

‘...Let’s think of it as a brief out-of-body experience.’ This kind of forceful, extreme stress seemed highly likely to have a bad effect on my cardiovascular system. Furthermore, if an accident occurred by mistake, I could immediately die. Didn’t roller coaster deaths actually happen pretty often as well? My hand holding the safety bar tightened a bit more. When the roller coaster was about to reach its peak, I made a firm resolve. All pain eventually passed. I also resolutely accepted this fact with the mindset that this pain, too, would eventually pass when—

Squeeze.

Yeon-Hoon held my hand tight. I was about to be moved by his thoughtful gesture, but—

“This is going to be so fun, Tae-Yoon!”

...He was just excited. When I felt a small sense of betrayal—

Whooosh!

The rollercoaster immediately dropped, just like that.

“Kyahhhhhhh!” Yeon-Hoon screamed.

“Ah, ah, ah.” I didn’t even have the energy to scream, so all I did was repeatedly close and open my mouth. Was Kang Hyun-Sung bad at going on rides too? I couldn’t hear any screams or sounds from him.

However, at that moment, he said, “...It’s fun?’ This crazy guy didn’t scream even when he was excited.

Like this, the ‘Soul Escaping Vertical Fall!’ with three passengers on board ran vigorously on the rail. Yet, the rollercoaster was just the beginning, and the commercial shooting did not stop.

“Kyahhhhh~”

“Ah...ah, ah....”

“...Are you okay?”

After moving on to the viking ride and experiencing my body joints all twist up—

“Ohhhhh~”

“Ahah...”

“...Hm.”

I was sprayed all over from the flume ride. Since every ride was dangerous, I felt like I crossed death’s door each and every time. But what could I do? It was a commercial shoot, so I had no choice but to get in and get out. However, one fortunate aspect was that the staff members who took the videos had bright expressions. I was worried that I didn’t give out a refreshing and exciting feeling because I was not good at riding on amusement rides.

‘...What is it that they like?’ They must have gotten a few useful shots by their standards.

“Tae-Yoon, you’re really okay, right?” Then Yeon-Hoon looked at me and asked. Even Yeon-Hoon now realized that I was not good at riding on amusement rides. Well, it was not surprising as I froze up whenever I got on a ride.

“Shall we take a short break?” Kang Hyun-Sung said, pointing to the corner bench. Then, the staff handed over the cola and churros as if they had been waiting for us.

“Let’s eat that and get a cut!” The three of us sat on the bench and ate churros and drank Pepcola. However, we didn’t ‘just’ eat it.

“Make your expression brighter!”

“Look happier!”

“Why don’t you try feeding each other~”

They gave us a lot of different orders. However, the most difficult thing was—

‘What, we have to feed each other?’ It was this order. I clenched my teeth and only stared at Yeon-Hoon but—

Push.

Kang Hyun-Sung’s churros squeezed in through. The atmosphere would turn strange if I rejected his offer so after taking a bite of it, I immediately gave Yeon-Hoon my churros.

Yeon-Hoon took a big bite of the churros I gave him and then said, “It’s delicious~” He gave a good reaction even though no one asked him to; no, this was not a forced reaction but a genuine one.

“Mr. Tae-Yoon, did you not like the churros I gave you?” Kang Hyun-Sung asked for a reaction from me too.

“Wow, ah. So good. Haha.”

I tried to suppress my expression from becoming stiff and reacted, but Kang Hyun-Sung said, “You don’t mean it.”

“Hmph!”

Then he just forcefully stuffed the rest of the churros into my mouth.

“Hahaha!” Thinking this was funny, Yeon-Hoon burst into laughter.

I munched on the churros and glared at Kang Hyun-Sung for a moment. Well, I was glad the atmosphere was good anyway. Lastly, we got a shot of us drinking cola, and our filming disguised as break time, ended.

“We got all the scenes worth filming from here.”

After this, they shot a scene of the three of us running around the amusement park. Another scene of us drinking Pepcola while eating something like cola with popcorn chicken. After taking more selfies in front of the rides—

“It’s almost time for the amusement park to open.”

“Let’s finish up now!”

The filming of the amusement park, which was the morning shoot, was finally completed. We gathered again at the entrance of the amusement park where we gathered before the shooting began.

“What the.”

“Haha!”

“Dong-Jun, what’s up with your hair!”

Was it because everyone went through a crazy shooting? Dong-Jun’s hair was a complete mess, Do-Seung’s school uniform was slightly torn, and Woon looked completely out of it. All the Only One members weren’t in normal conditions either. Maybe our group played the calmest.

—Ah, mic test. Did all of your shootings go well?

“Yes!”

—We’re now all going to move to the set and shoot the school class scene~

The director said this right on cue. Today’s shooting schedule was to go to the amusement park in the morning, go to the set, and shoot the school scene in the afternoon. In the actual advertisement, we would be going to the amusement park after studying at school, but due to the special nature of the location, the filming plan had to be inevitably set up like this.

“Aghhhh~”

“It’s a set, but it feels weird that I have to go to school.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Everyone seemed to have gotten close during this shooting and were at ease talking to each other. Then, at that moment—

—And I’ll now deliver the main contents of today’s live broadcast.

The director said.

I revitalized my dying eyes and looked at the commercial director again. He was now going to present the main content of the live broadcast. Perhaps, today’s fate was dependent on that content. The unexpected mission was to beat Only One with retweets in a live broadcast. I tried to concentrate and listen.

—Today’s live show is ‘Cooking’!

Something much more normal than I expected came out.

‘Cooking?’ Was there a connection between cooking and Pepcola?

I wondered why it was cooking of all things.

—But, you must cook a dish that uses Pepcola!

Suddenly, the difficulty level rose exponentially.

‘Cooking with cola?’ I didn’t know if I was just being a worrywart, but I felt a strong feeling that this would not be an easy task either.

‘Isn’t this cooking too bizarre?’ Then the director said another sentence that confirmed my thoughts about today’s challenge as bizarre cooking.

—But you have to use cola as the main ingredient, not as a side.

Instead of adding cola to the meal like a hamburger set, we needed to use cola as the main ingredient. While I received a mission to beat Only One with the amount of retweets, it was a cooking mission of all things.

‘Hmm.’ All kinds of thoughts ran through my head. ‘Should I make jjimdak[1]? That’s too common.’

I had trouble thinking of a meal because nothing seemed to quite fit when—

Tap.

Do-Seung clutched my shoulder. “Cooking with...cola?”

‘What the?”

He looked at me with great excitement. When I wondered why, he asked me, “Tae-Yoon, have you tried cola fruit punch?”

“...What?”

“Fruit punch made with cola. It's a special fruit punch that my family makes.”

...There must be a bizarre food that only Do-Seung’s family liked.

1. Korean-style steamed chicken with marinated vegetables. ?