Hard Mode Idol

Yoochan plopped down on the sofa. The cheap sofa sank deeply, transmitting the vibration as he sat.

“It’s a war every morning…”

“Hyung, eat this.”

I held out a piece of apple for hyung, who had a hard time wrestling with the giant Seoho.

“Thanks. Whew. Seeing Haon heals me.”

“You’re the one who cut it for me.”

I tried to eat the remaining piece with my bare hands while holding out the fork, but a sparkling gaze attacked my cheek.

“…Ilhan hyung, you want some too?”

“Will you give me some?”

The last piece is in my hand. My hands are clean, but wouldn’t it be icky? As I stared down at the piece of apple in my hand, Jung Ilhan burst into laughter.

“No. You eat it.”

“Huh? Is it okay?”

“Yeah. It’s fine.”

He’s not avoiding it because my hand is dirty, right? No, I admit it. Honestly, isn’t it a universal rule that you don’t want to eat something someone else touched with their bare hands? Since he said it was okay, I popped the remaining apple into my mouth.

Crunch crunch.

“Should I cut more for you?”

“It’s fine.”

My pronunciation was a bit muffled because of the apple. Thanks to eating breakfast and finishing an apple, my stomach was full.

“Ugh… What time is it now?”

Seoho, who walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his neck, yawned loudly. Even though he washed his face, he still hadn’t woken up from sleep. I should make him wide awake.

“9 o’clock.”

“What? No! Ilhan hyung! Why didn’t you wake me up!”

Seoho made a fuss belatedly. Stupid. The hyungs have been waking you up for a while, but you didn’t get up. Jung Ilhan, sitting next to me, helped me by saying, “I woke you up several times.”

“Aish! Jin Haon! It’s still 8:30!”

“Hahaha!”

I laughed gleefully after neatly tricking him. But at least you’re awake now. Be grateful to this hyung.

“What should we do about Seoho being so simple-minded? If it’s 9 o’clock, would we be sitting here?”

Yoochan let out an empty laugh. This hyung also speaks so nicely. He’s not simple-minded, he’s stupid. But that was Seoho’s charm.

I’m so tired I feel like my mind is going to explode. It’s hard to even stand up straight, so I leaned my head against the elevator mirror. I was prepared for it to be hard, but the level of fatigue far exceeded my expectations. However, if I wanted to produce as many results as possible within the time limit, there was no other way than to overwork myself.

Thanks to that, I found out a few things about the ‘I’ll Die, but FIGHTING! (F)’ skill. Still, I’m satisfied that I produced meaningful results.

I confirmed that the terrible fever was a penalty, and I learned that the duration of the abnormal condition varies depending on the stamina that drops after the skill ends. However, this stamina decrease basically reflects my mental and physical fatigue.

So even if I kept it on for the same amount of time, if I was more tired, the duration of the abnormal condition increased. There was no need to create conditions and test this. Because repeating the abnormal condition and using the skill was an immense stress.

The last time I tested it for 1 hour, the abnormal condition lasted for 3 hours. At first, it was 30 minutes after using it for 1 hour. Since the results can’t be perfectly predicted after use, it’s definitely a dangerous skill that can’t be overused.

It was just luck during the music video filming. Because I was very excited due to the liberation of having no stamina limit. If it hadn’t been for that, the skill would have ended midway.

“Ugh.”

Just imagining it is terrible. This skill really had to be used as an emergency prescription when there was no other choice. It was a skill for when you absolutely don’t want to collapse on-site, even if you die. In other words, it’s for delaying the abnormal condition.

After finding out that I can’t utilize the ‘I’ll Die, but FIGHTING!’ skill, I encountered another problem. Judging by the rate of stamina depletion, it seemed like something would blow up later even if it didn’t happen now.

There were two things I could consider now. Raising the grade of acting or the ‘I’ll Die, but FIGHTING!’ skill. The higher the stat grade, the lower the stamina consumption. During the music video filming, I struggled because I couldn’t act well, and appearing on variety shows is also a form of acting anyway. Pretending to be happy, pretending to have fun.

If I’m truly happy and having fun, the stamina consumption will be low, and even if not, I have to act it out somehow, so the acting stat seemed helpful in many ways.

The other option of raising the skill grade was a gamble. Because I don’t know what the effect will be when the grade is raised. But it doesn’t seem like there will be a dynamic change just because it goes from F to E.

I want to raise my singing and dancing more…

[E-grade Jin Haon (19) – Trainee]

Stamina: 120

Charm: S (0/10,000)

Singing: A+ (873/5,000)

Dance: A (18/2,500)

Acting: E- (1/2)

Lyric Writing: F-

Composing: F

Remaining Points: 2,140

The problem is that after achieving A+ in singing and A in dance, the rate of gaining experience has slowed down tremendously. As a result, achieving S- stat by the time of debut seemed far-fetched. And you want me to raise acting on top of that?

Acting, ugh. Acting. Abnormal condition. Stamina. My head was spinning round and round.

Ding!

With a cheerful sound, the elevator door opened. Let’s think about it until I clear the main mission. I have to choose where to invest after clearing the main mission.

But just as I was one step away from the front door, someone suddenly opened the door from inside and came out. The front door that opened with great force gaped wide open. The wind made my bangs flutter. For a moment, a chill ran down my spine. Wow, just one step away. If I had been hit by that, I would have passed out.

“What are you waiting for! I’m leaving!”

Was the culprit Seoho? And I got caught for leaving the dorm empty? No. It’s only 11 o’clock, why did he come back? He shouldn’t be coming in until early morning.

What should I say? Should I say I went somewhere and came back? While I was frantically racking my brain, Seoho came running out, shouting loudly. Seoho was running out while glaring inside, and I couldn’t react nimbly.

“Ugh!”

If I had been just one step behind, I could have avoided it. With one step difference, I avoided the front door, but with another step difference, I couldn’t avoid colliding with Seoho.

Due to the recoil, I was pushed back several steps. At least I’m glad I didn’t fall over. Imagine if I had fallen on this hard floor. How much would it have hurt? Especially when I’m already lacking stamina.

“…Jin Haon?”

“Gorilla? Why did you run out without looking in front of you? You startled me.”

“Hey! Where have you been!”

Seoho’s voice hit the apartment wall. It must have reached the neighbors. The moment I thought I should hurry and put him inside, Yoochan came out.

“Haon?”

Hyung, who made eye contact with me, ran over in one breath. Hyung, who came running out barefoot, grabbed both of my shoulders with his hands and examined me by turning me this way and that. Then he soon let out a sigh of relief.

“Where did you go and come back from? I have a lot to say, but let’s go inside first.”

Seoho snickered next to me, “You’re in big trouble now.” I came relatively early, thinking I always come back at dawn, but it had to be today of all days. I was unlucky.

But I had no choice either. The last abnormal condition was fainting, and when I came to my senses, 3 hours had passed. After that, I couldn’t move because I was recovering my stamina to return to the dorm. Still, I thought 11 o’clock was absolutely safe.

“Sit here.”

Yoochan led me to the sofa. The atmosphere was a bit stiff, so I wracked my brain hard. Excuses. Excuses… It’s frustrating that nothing comes to mind.

Looking around the living room, Kanghyun was leaning crookedly against the wall with his arms crossed, and Jung Ilhan was nowhere to be seen. Is Jung Ilhan in the studio? Or practicing alone? If he had stayed in the practice room, there’s no way Kanghyun would be here.

“Yoochan hyung, don’t go easy on him and scold him properly. That way, he won’t do this again next time. I’ll call Ilhan hyung.”

That guy! He’s pushing me to my death, thinking this is his chance. Let’s apologize first. It’s my fault for breaking the promise. If I wanted to deceive them, I shouldn’t have gotten caught, but since I did, I have to admit my mistake.

I was about to open my mouth, but Yoochan was faster. I closed my mouth tightly like a clam. My timing is off in many ways today.

“Haon. You were discharged from the hospital yesterday. We decided to rest today because we were afraid you might get sick again. Then you should have stayed put in the dorm. If you went out because your condition got better, at least answer the calls properly. Do you know how many times we called you?”

If the phone had rung, there’s no way I wouldn’t have known. Did they call when I was unconscious?

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know the phone rang.”

“You didn’t know? We’ve been calling since lunchtime.”

What? That can’t be.

“It didn’t ring…”

I took out my cell phone from my pocket and looked at it, and there were indeed numerous missed calls. Once at 12 o’clock, once at 1 o’clock. Once more at 2 o’clock.

From 3 o’clock until now, when I returned to the dorm, there were over 100 calls. They called a lot, taking turns evenly. Isn’t this obsession?

My phone is working fine, so why didn’t it ring? I was thinking hard about the reason and suddenly lifted my head. My gaze naturally turned to Seoho. It’s because of that guy!

“I didn’t know because I had turned this on silent…”

“What? Why?”

“Because our group chat is noisy…”

When the members’ group chat was created, Seoho started sending messages. Yoochan also diligently replied. As a result, the constant ringing bothered me, so I turned it on silent and completely forgot about it.

“But why did you put it on silent? You can just turn off the chat room.”

Is that possible? I didn’t know. In the first place, it was the first time I was invited to a group chat since high school. Moreover, back then, they invited me with the obvious purpose of harassing me, so I had to receive terror constantly. Even if I left, left, and left, I was constantly dragged back in.

They were so diligent. So I just turned off my phone completely. This time, I thought about it and turned it on silent, but who knew it would turn out like this?

“…You didn’t know?”

“Yeah. I’m not familiar with these things.”

I felt embarrassed and just rolled my eyes.

“Jin Haon is really a fake-smart person. Hey, give it to me. I’ll teach you. Try not answering the phone again.”

Seoho intervened and took my cell phone. Then he adjusted his posture so that the phone screen was clearly visible from my side and showed me how to turn it off. It was so easy that I couldn’t help but let out an empty laugh.

“Did you see it well? You turned us all upside down because you didn’t know this? You really need to be scolded.”

I just fiddled with the phone I got back, unable to continue speaking.

“I understand why you didn’t answer the calls, so that’s fine. Then where did you go? Why did you go out instead of resting?”

“That… I went to my studio.”

“Studio?”

“Yes.”

So far, it’s the truth. However, from now on, I have to lie.