Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
57. On stage (5)
Eungwang Player Meister Highschool 2nd year class 0 Jeong Haeon.
For Jeong Haeon, who was more widely known as ‘Dokgo Miro’s homema’ than her name, classes and becoming a Player originally held little meaning.
Being fascinated by idols since her elementary school, Jeong Haeon dedicated her life to idol fangirling.
The moment Jeong Haeon entered middle school, she went beyond fangirling in the living room, and jumped into the fan signing events, announcement broadcasts, pre-recordings, etc, and led all sorts of music show text voting and music streaming all-out-wars, making her name known.
Her parents were rather open-minded about her future, but they couldn’t watch Jeong Haeon decide her life based on teenage entertainment personas, so they suggested:
— Student’s duty is studying, so study.
— It would be good if you thought about your career a bit, huh?
— There is no way you’re planning to say you aren’t going to highschool, right?
— Haeon is a Player. Yeah, how about trying to prepare for a Player specialized highschool?
Jeong Haeon thought it was a pity to spend the golden time that should be spent fangirling on studying, but her parent’s words were right.
Because activities as a fan cost money, she needed her parents-nim’s support.
But she couldn’t rely on her parents-nim forever.
So Jeong Haeon thought:
‘If I do Player’s activities starting from highschool, I can earn money. Let’s go to the Player specialized highschool! It’s fine to spend the money I earned with my own hands on my idols.’
Making such a resolve, Jeong Haeon studied like crazy and declared a break to pill up achievements as a Player.
The opinions on the official community where Jeong Haeon declared that she is taking a break to prepare for an exam were that ‘she will say that and then immediately come back’, ‘She will be back in one week with how I see it’, ‘She will change her nick tomorrow and post again’.
But Jeong Haeon kept to her tough[1] words.
Jeong Haeon, who was ‘all-year participant’ of the afternoon official events, put a hold on all fan activities, and as result of frequently attending school, cram school, study rooms and gyms, she safely entered Eungwang School.
Although because of her enormous fangirling career, writing all about in her self-introduction, and her fan energy openly showing when talking about it during the interview, she was decided to be class 0, it was a fact anyway that she entered the Korean most prestigious highschool with amazing grades.
But the day she enjoyed her success, an incident exploded.
— Famous idol A-ssi[2] was charged with drunk driving without detention by the police. According to the police, A-ssi was caught last week by the police’s drunk driving control…
— At the time A-ssi’s had 0.25% alcohol in their blood, well above 0.08% which is the standard for license revocation.
Jeong Haeon was shocked, but at first, her fan spirit was stronger than the shock.
As entertainment personas, who were caught drunk driving in the past, were still active, Jeong Haeon thought that the idol will receive legal punishment, and after sufficiently discipline themself and reflecting, they will be able to return.
At first, she planned to try to make some kind of shield, but the level of blood alcohol in the blood of the member, who caused an incident was extremely high and the public opinion wasn’t good.
To make a shield, Jeong Haeon tried to investigate the incident of drunk driving, but she instead learned even more how horrible the damages of the drunk driving were, and her fan spirit started to melt.
In addition, the case didn’t end on a simple drunk driving charge.
— Another member of the famous idol group that A-ssi belongs to, who a few days ago was charged without detention for violating the traffic laws, was imprisoned on the charge of hit and run.
— It became belatedly known that at the time A-ssi manipulated the scene of hit-and-run incident with other members. Police revealed plans to strictly investigate all members of the corresponding idol group.
It was belatedly revealed that A-ssi wasn’t simply drunk driving, but in fact hit someone and was fleeing.
Not only that, when it was revealed that the other members tried to manipulate the scene of the incident, the Korean Peninsula was turned upside down by the story of that group.
Jeong Haeon’s first idol plunged to the ground and withdrew from the entertainment industry under the law proceedings.
In the time when she should enjoy the happiness of getting into the school, her mental strength was exhausted and Jeong Haeon run amok[3].
That anger settled somewhat around the time of Eungwang School’s entrance ceremony, but as her anger disappeared, so did her enthusiasms and she gave up on going to school.
Jeong Haeon’s fangirling ended, and her goal of graduating from Eungwang School also ended.
At first, she didn’t go to school and took exams, but through enthusiastic persuasion of her homeroom teacher and class president, she made up her mind to take exams and avoid failing.
‘If not for teach Jegal-nim and Geunchan-yi, I would just drop out.’
Though lethargic when very occasionally hanging out with the 2nd year class 0, Jeong Haeon somehow lived a life as Eungwang School’s student worthy of class 0.
Then a certain day, a certain video rekindled Jeong Haeon’s fan spirit.
It was the very video of Dokgo Miro’s busking.
Jeong Haeon started fangirling for Dokgo Miro, while finding her enthusiasm to live again.
She resumed her Player activates, but only to cover the necessary expanses for fangirling activities like getting a good camera to capture Dokgo Miro’s pictures.
While fangirling so enthusiastically, Jeong Haeon suddenly became anxious.
‘… What should I do if something happens again?’
Jeong Haeon feared that the idol she was fangirling for would cause an impossible to solve incident again.
The people who knew very well the reason why Jeong Haeon was losing her mind were the same.
— I’ll look into Miro! I also like Miro, so we should embrace the fan spirit and investigate her past activities!
Geun Chansol offered to investigate Dokgo Miro for Jeong Haeon.
But the investigation didn’t progress very far.
— It seems like some things about Miro was deleted? Many people among Miro’s elementary school classmates and teachers were swept in strange incidents and…
It was the result of Hwang Myeong Group’s interference, but Geun Chansol and Jeong Haeon couldn’t figure it out.
Geun Chansol seemed to feel a bizarre sense of deja vu every time she saw Dokgo Miro.
— It just hangs on my mind, but…. What is that….?
— Especially each time I look at the recent photos, I feel like I saw her somewhere many times.
The day Dokgo Miro sang an anthem on the Korean Series.
Dokgo Miro took a full swing at the foul ball that flew at her and sent it into the distance.
That scene was very well captured on the baseball coverage broadcast and Jeong Haeon’s camera, and seeing that, it seemed that Geun Chansol’s sense of deja vu grew much stronger.
Then, one day, they found a person related to Dokgo Miro’s past.
— I obtained Miro’s elementary school group photo~! It was published on the educational experience center when she was attending the elementary school!
Young Dokgo Miro was mixed among the children from the same class.
In the photo, she was stuck to a girl with a blunt bob cut, they looked extremely close.
Geun Chansol had an additional explanation about that girl.
— That kid is currently our school 1st year class 0’s junior-nim ‘Han Yi’~! I guess they were elementary school classmates.
With the picture of Han Yi as a trigger, they looked into the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home, it was revealed that Dokgo Miro often visited the children’s home since she was young, and did voluntary work like playing with children.
Jeong Haeon, who confirmed that Dokgo Miro had no personality problems, was reassured and fangirled even more diligently.
But just like before, something felt strange.
‘It feels like she always knows where I take pictures from. Is it some kind of superpower?’
The day the final round of Playlist was held.
Someone spoke up to Jeong Haeon, who was trying to take picture of Dokgo Miro’s training from the distance.
“You can’t disturb Miro, when she is training. Let’s take pictures later.”
The one who spoke was Yeo Raehun.
Jeong Haeon was a fan, but she was also Dokgo Miro’s school senior, so in the past she exchanged some words with Yeo Raehun, through Dokgo Miro’s introduction.
“… It will disturb her even from such a distance?”
“Yeah.”
Yeo Raehun spoke softly.
Jeong Haeon had doubts after hearing that answer.
‘I knew that she finds the camera bothersome, but it can even disturb her? Why? If she has a superpower to detect gazes, shouldn’t she be accustomed to the gazes somehow?’
She learned very little about Dokgo Miro’s past when digging into it, and there were few pictures of her.
‘If she hates having pictures of her taken, she would hate to be an idol.’
It wasn’t like a Player of Eungwang School would show up in the contest program because someone ordered it, so something was strange.
‘Does that kid know the reason?’
Opportunely among today audience members was a childhood friend of Dokgo Miro, who knew about her past, ‘Han Yi’.
Moreover, Yeo Raehun, who seemed to have noticed something, was also here.
* * *
Yeo Raehun greeted us after quickly looking around us.
“Hi, you’re the friends I met at the baseball stadium last time.”
“We came with 2nd year seniors-nim today too…. Wow, You remember all of us?”
“Ye, I make sure to memorize people’s faces and names.”
“I saw the special ‘Saint of Naejang Mountain’ feature on the Buddhist broadcast! There was a scene where You memorized the names of all believers, and remembered all of their faces after meeting them just once.”
At the testimony of Sawol Seeum, who said he saw the broadcast, a small ‘Oooh’ exclamation spread out.
Yeo Raehun really memorized the names of all the children he met at the baseball stadium.
He immediately noticed that the four from that day, Song Daeseok, Mok Uram, Kwon Lena and Min Geurin weren’t here.
As a famous Player and a monk, he had many religious followers, and in recent days he had to meet many people while devoting himself to the entertainment industry, but he remembered all the children he only met briefly?
‘I knew he had a good memory, but seeing it in reality is amazing.’
As expected, he was one of my Playable Characters.
Yeo Raehun nonchalantly exchanged introductions with the 2nd year class 0’s seniors, who showed an open wariness under because he was Dokgo Miro’s rival, and his open-minded attitude was also worthy of my Playable Character.
‘But he didn’t exchange introductions with Dokgo Miro’s homema. Did Yeo Raehun already know her?’
As I thought, it seemed that Dokgo Miro’s homema and Yeo Raehun were acquainted.
When I observed them, after guessing the two people’s connection.
‘Are you bothered about Han Yi?’
I felt like Dokgo Miro’s homema was putting her attention on Han Yi alone.
Was it because she knew that Han Yi was Dokgo Miro’s childhood friend?
Before I could continue that thought, Yeo Raehun spoke to Dokgo Miro’s homema.
“Then Miro’ seniors came to cheer, huh? Are you the same class as Haeon-i?”
At Yeo Raehun’s words, GeunChan&WangChan looked at the homema with open wariness.
“Jeong Haeon-ssi, you didn’t forget your duty as Miro’s homema, right~?”
“How could you get friendly with the enemy?”
“Enemy!? Stop saying such rude things! My apologies…”
“I won’t give you the pictures I took today!”
When Jeong Haeon spoke sternly following Jegal Jaegeol, Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol bowed their heads right away and apologized, so the matter was settled.
“The costume team is looking for Raehun and Miro! I guess the costumes are ready!”
Around the time Kim Yuri’s interview finished and everyone exchanged greetings with each other, we heard the staff’s urgent voice.
The two asked us to enjoy today’s broadcast and left, so I for sure felt that the broadcast time was gradually drawing closer.
After the children, who went to get drinks, returned, the staff spoke up to us.
“Students of Eungwang School? Please come in.”
When under the staff’s guidance we entered the studio where the filming was planned, I saw people in suits who entered before us.
Those people had nametags for audience members like us, and from the cold air I felt, they seemed to just came in from outside.
“Saint of Naejang Mountain said His followers are coming, but it doesn’t seem like they came to cheer for Him… It seems They are People who came to cheer for the candidate who ranked 3rd in the last contest.”
“Everyone is wearing suits. I heard that Candidate is just an office worker, so I guess They are from the same association or company.” [4]
“These days they don’t require that stiff attire at common companies. Didn’t they deliberately dress formally to be recognizable on the broadcast~?”
“But from the cold air I guess They did the interview outside.”
There were three candidates, so it could get boring if they repeatedly interview with ordinary people who came to cheer for the three candidates, therefore I guess they filmed it outside for a change in the background at least.
As Kwon Lena glanced at the people in the suits, I heard her mumble with a surprised face.
“… Yeoreum unnie?”
*~*~*
[1] tough — literally ‘poisonous’.
[2] A-ssi — ‘A’ here isn’t a name of an idol but a cryptonym used to refer to them, as Korea has strict laws about protection of the accused, forbidding media from using accused names when reporting on the accusations. ‘A’ should stand for English Anonymous I believe (of course we all know it doesn’t work this way, but… they’re at least trying I guess?)
[3] amok — 화병 (hwabyeong) — a mental disorder resulting from suppressing one’s anger without being able to confront it.
[4] “Everyone is wearing suits. I heard that Candidate is just an office worker, so I guess They are from the same association or company.” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
Translator’s note: Listening to Geun Chansol, I once again remember why I fear ‘fan spirit’.
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