LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 29
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 29 The Weight of a Tiny Crown (1)
‘Ugh… my back…’
I bent down and got up again to check the ingredients one last time, and I felt a pain in my back.
‘I was fine when I woke up. But the weather is bad, and I can feel my back aching right away.’
I should stop saying that I went to the hospital every day for rehabilitation, and actually get some physical therapy.
I lifted the curtain of the window facing outside, and it was drizzling outside.
The sky was dark from the morning, which was a bad sign, but I decided not to worry about it.
‘Manager hyung said he would deliver some lighting equipment and live broadcast devices to the dorm in the afternoon.’
I had prepared a rough script, and now it was time to get ready mentally.
[Search> Rookie idol live broadcast mistakes]
Of course, Climax is not a rookie. But I am a rookie.
I wanted to see what kind of mistakes the idols who were doing live broadcasts for the first time were likely to make.
As if to prove that it was not called the era of hundreds of thousands of idols for nothing, all kinds of web posts poured out.
[Title: A disaster caused by a mouth faster than a head]
What is this?
I didn’t think much of it and clicked on the post.
It was a video of a male idol, who I didn’t know who he was, reading the contents that came up on the viewer chat.
“Oppa, you’re so handsome and talented, but why did you bully people when you were in school… Ah.”
He read the front part with good content, but he didn’t notice the back part and read it out loud.
There was silence in the video, and the protagonist of the video couldn’t continue talking and hesitated.
“That’s, well… I think you’re misunderstanding. It’s a rumor without evidence…”
Then, as if waiting for him to make a mistake, the chat started to go crazy.
[※Administrator: Slanderous and controversial chats will be deleted immediately.]
[You mean, you’re telling me to blabber because there’s no evidence?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[This message has been deleted by the administrator.]
[Please manage the chat]
[Wow, the chat is a mess]
[This message has been deleted by the administrator.]
[This message has been deleted by the administrator.]
[※Administrator: Slanderous and controversial chats will be deleted immediately.]
The staff who looked like the administrator posted a notice that they would delete the slanderous and controversial chats.
But the fire that had been ignited once did not subside.
The criticism and deleted chat messages about the school violence controversy continued.
‘What a mess…’
The video ended with the live broadcast being hastily terminated.
I glanced at the comments on the post.
[Why did he read that out of all those chats?]
[He ruined his life with his own mouth]
[The agency was trying hard to take down the controversy posts on anonymous communities, but he ignited it himself]
It seemed complicated in many ways… Anyway, it was clear that he messed up the situation with his own mistake.
I was able to find various examples of live broadcast mistakes.
Talking about various daily stories and appealing the existence of a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend
Throwing away or treating carelessly the gifts from fans and exposing the scene
Underwear or other items that should not be exposed appearing in the background of the dorm
Verbal mistakes (sexual implications, swear words, etc.)
If I cleaned up the background that would be caught on the screen in advance, I wouldn’t have to worry about these problems.
Well… It’s been five years since I debuted, and if they were going to make a big mistake, they would have done it already.
For now, it seemed enough to tighten the mouth control before the live broadcast.
Hmm… Being single is better for marketing as an idol.
As someone who provides romance and fantasy, having a real lover would be a definite disadvantage.
‘I should check with them all together sometime. It wouldn’t be good if they were dating someone without knowing it.’
I didn’t care when I succeeded as an idol and started my real revenge, but until then, it was nonsense.
‘No. It can’t be. That’s that.’
I nodded to myself and got up from my seat.
‘I have to prepare and finish the ingredients in the morning.’
I washed my face briefly in the bathroom and stood in front of the refrigerator.
I just had to finish the live broadcast safely tonight.
I had a feeling that today would be much longer than usual.
***
“You don’t need to tell me how to turn off the broadcast, right? Kyunghwa has done it before.”
In the late afternoon, when the live broadcast announcement time was almost over, manager hyung arrived with an old phone.
He said he was sorry that he couldn’t watch me from the side…
‘I don’t know if he’s sincere.’
There might have been another problem behind the scenes because I rejected Plan A.
It was a company that could do that, considering how they vented their anger at the managers there when Kang Yugeon flew away.
‘This… It looks like an older model than what I used.’
What manager hyung handed me was an old phone that I doubted if the camera worked properly.
“What are you looking at so closely?”
Manager hyung looked at me anxiously as if he had no time.
“Isn’t the model a bit… too old?”
Of course, I was also the type to save money on things… But giving me such an old thing to use for filming…
It was not cost-cutting, but close to irresponsibility.
“If you have a phone you don’t use, why don’t you donate it or something. The regular live broadcast of Floss starts at 11 o’clock, so don’t forget to finish by 10:30.”
What?
I asked with a twitch of my eyebrows.
“Didn’t you say it would be two hours yesterday?”
Then manager hyung chuckled and answered.
“Think about the last time you guys did a live broadcast. You ran out of things to say in less than 30 minutes and it was silent. Just try it and see.”
Manager hyung turned his head and added, ‘Well, that was more than half a year ago.’
I turned my eyes and checked the expressions of the members.
They were all in a bad mood because they were ignored.
Seon-woo, who always went along with everything and never spoke up when he disliked something, had a hardened expression on his face.
He was angry, but this treatment suited Climax.
They had managed to get some attention by riding on the popularity of a famous idol, but they were still unknowns who couldn’t make a name for themselves.
‘Of course, everyone’s in a bad mood.’
With things like this, the priority was to somehow turn the tide in our favor.
“We got it. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
“Okay, if anything goes wrong, just call me.”
Could the manager really come back and help us if we called him?
The manager left in a hurry, saying he had to support another group’s schedule.
He was supposed to be Climax’s dedicated manager.
But since we had no schedule for a long time, he seemed to be dragged around by other teams.
‘This too, must have been considered normal for Climax until now.’
Instead of feeling depressed, we had to work hard to change this situation.
“Alright, since manager hyung is gone, let’s check if we’ve memorized the cue sheet I made in advance.”
Kyunghwa was fiddling with the phone for the live broadcast with a sullen face, so I took the initiative.
“Uh, yeah! Do I wear the apron over there?”
Kyunghwa put down the phone with a flustered look on his shoulders. The live broadcast was scheduled for 9 o’clock. It was 7:30 in the evening.
“I’ll get it.”
Seon-woo came to the front of the table with a slightly brightened expression, holding five aprons.
They looked like decent waiters when they wore the basic type of aprons sold on the food order site.
I thought about dressing them all in chef’s outfits, but…
‘It would probably look too burdensome.’
For now, aprons seemed to be enough.
“Kyunghwa hyung, can you fix the string behind me?”
It was just an apron, what was so hard about it? Yi-jun whined and turned his back to Kyunghwa.
“Why are you so clumsy? Just put it on slowly.”
Kyunghwa grumbled, but he also fixed Yi-jun’s hair that fell below his neck and tied a pretty ribbon.
It looked like… a guardian tying a ribbon around a puppy’s neck.
And Seong-won was watching that scene with an unreadable expression.
“Do you want me to tie it for you?”
“What?”
I asked casually, and Seong-won snapped back in a snappy tone.
“Ribbon.”
The knot Seong-won tied was so tight that it would be hard to untie later.
“Seong-won hyung looks good with a ribbon because he’s pretty!”
Seon-woo scratched his heart with a clueless remark, and I had to hold my breath to stop laughing.
“What, are you saying I don’t look good because I’m not pretty?”
Yi-jun jumped in without missing a beat.
“No, that’s not what I meant… Seong-won hyung just looks a bit more delicate, you know…”
Seon-woo flustered at the unexpected complaint.
It was ironic that he said that, considering he was the one who wouldn’t lose to anyone in the entertainment industry in terms of beauty.
“You’re prettier, okay.”
I ruffled his hair as if to tell him to stop talking nonsense, and Seon-woo shouted in embarrassment.
Ise hyung is also very handsome!”
“What, why don’t you ever say that to me!”
“Yi-jun hyung is also handsome!”
“Not very, though?”
Kyunghwa raised both hands and spoke as if he was fed up with the praise relay and the praise begging.
“Can you guys be quiet?”
“What did I do?”
That was what I wanted to say.
It was a bit chaotic and hectic, but it seemed to ease the tension.
“Okay, everyone, turn off the local broadcast. Kyunghwa will set up the camera and check your positions in advance. We have to see how it looks on the screen.”
Seon-woo, the most troublesome person among the five, nodded quickly.
He looked cute and a bit roundish in real life, but…
The biggest problem was how he looked on the screen.
We could use correction apps for selfies, but editing videos was hard at our level.
These days, filters are so good that we could apply real-time correction filters, but…
If we accidentally cut off in the middle, I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of mess the chat would be.
“Alright, then I’ll record the camera and play it back.”
Kyunghwa finally took his hand off the camera after fiddling with the tripod and adjusting the angle on the opposite side of the kitchen.
“Seon-woo, don’t come to the center, stay behind the other members as much as possible so your body doesn’t show.”
“Okay! I’m good at hiding.”
Everyone gasped at the unexpected nonsense.
Seon-woo probably didn’t mean it, but it helped him calm his mind.
It was as if they had recovered quickly from the down mood caused by the manager’s friction earlier. Being young was definitely a good thing.
Good. Our kids’ mood wasn’t bad.
I spread the apron again with a bang and stood in front of the camera.