The Idol Training Simulation I Messed Up

Chapter 6

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What are the Moncles up to these days?

I miss seeing their faces.

└ Me too ㅠㅠ

└ Me too 222 ㅜㅜㅜ

└ The juniors do regular V-lives ㅠ

└ That’s them, this is us. No comparisons ㄴㄴ

└ Newma Seraphs are experts at storage. How can the New Year greeting photo be the end of it?

━━━━━━━━━━━━

***

When it was suggested that they take profile pictures, the members’ faces, which had looked as if they were dragged along, instantly brightened up.

They needed a new look to show people. This was for their future activities.

Though it wasn’t meant to be a grand gesture, it was close to the company announcing that they were about to do something.

The current profile picture of Monochrome registered on portal sites was the album jacket photo. From <12345>!

It was a picture I wanted to take down immediately.

“When I checked with the studio, the earliest date available is next Monday, but that seems too soon…”

“No!”

As I was speaking while looking at the calendar, Woohyung’s urgent voice interrupted.

“Monday is fine.”

When I looked up, I saw Woohyung with his fist clenched in front of his chest. His expression was almost determined.

‘That much?’

It was just about replacing the photo, but he reacted as if it were a schedule we couldn’t miss.

Even if it got delayed, no one would take it away…

‘… Don’t tell me there have really been many times when schedules got delayed and then canceled?’

I started to feel a creeping sense of guilt.

But now wasn’t the time to get lost in misery. I shook my head lightly to clear my thoughts and switched back to work mode.

“It’s just a few days away, are you sure? I wanted to take it when everyone was in good condition.”

A profile picture was the first image the public would see, like a signboard.

Once we took this photo, it might stay as the profile for quite a long time.

Given the group’s long hiatus, I thought we’d need a period to manage their looks before the shoot.

“We’re ready.”

Appealing as prepared talents, it felt like a job interview.

The other members, perhaps thinking the same, nodded their heads eagerly.

Though I had called them together to discuss, they responded as if they had been waiting for this moment, which was a bit surprising.

Still, it was good to move things quickly.

“Okay. Then Monday it is.”

As I circled the date on the calendar, the manager also noted it down in his diary.

It was the first schedule ‘we’ had set.

The members left with happy expressions this time.

As they left, I overheard their conversation beyond the door.

“By the way, I think I gained a little weight…”

“Lose it!”

“Don’t disobey the Director!”

They didn’t seem to realize I could hear them, referring to me as ‘Director’ as if my words were absolute, which made my eyes widen.

Among the fading sounds, I heard someone exclaiming “Ah!” indicating they were joking around.

Seeing them so energetic made me feel good too.

“Shall we have a brief meeting?”

After the members left, Yun-hee, the manager, and I sat on the sofa.

Booking the studio wasn’t the end of it.

We also needed to schedule hair and makeup appointments and decide on the concept for the shoot.

‘Styling, huh…’

I liked choosing my clothes, but I had never styled someone else.

I looked at the two people sitting across from me, hoping for some ideas. Each team was different, but the management team usually dressed casually.

I was in business casual, Yun-hee wore pastel-toned knitwear and pants, and the manager wore a black hoodie.

It felt like we weren’t enough to discuss men’s styling.

‘Hmm. Is there anyone who knows better?’

Newma Entertainment worked with external stylists, so it was hard to call them just for opinions.

As I pondered, something came to mind.

‘There is someone. Someone who dresses well and styles others nicely.’

I poked my head out of the office door to find my target.

“Secretary Choi. Help!”

I had never had a secretary before, so I wasn’t sure if I could ask for help with this.

If I were to be technical, he was like my manager, so it wouldn’t be a problem for him to join this manager team, right?

I looked at Secretary Choi, who I would rely on countless times over the next two years, with satisfaction.

***

A schedule had been set.

It felt like it had been a long time since there was a schedule that required the group to prepare together.

Above all, it was the first thing we were doing after renewing our contracts.

While others were busy because of the New Year, Monochrome’s dorm, which had a somewhat gloomy atmosphere, returned to a lively one after a long time.

Sitting at the dining table and looking at his phone, Woohyung spoke to Chae Yunhwan.

“Did you adjust the time well?”

“Yeah. First, I’ll do my individual shoot and then take the group photo.”

Yunhwan, who took a small bottle of water from the fridge, sat in the empty seat opposite Woohyung.

Next Monday, the profile photo shoot day, happened to overlap with Yunhwan’s magazine interview schedule.

Since all five were shooting on the same day, there was time for each member individually.

Thanks to this, they could manage their schedules without any overlap. They had to wake up earlier than others, though.

“What if your face gets puffy?”

“I’m thinking about staying up all night.”

“That’ll look great.”

Yunhwan’s face tended to swell, especially in the morning.

Knowing this, Woohyung asked, and Yunhwan, looking worried, started searching on his smartphone.

‘How to reduce morning puffiness quickly…’

Meanwhile, Yoo Han-yi, who approached the fridge, took something out and went to the living room.

Watching him closely, Woohyung stood up and approached him.

“Yoo Han-yi! Don’t eat that.”

“Ah, why!”

“You said you gained weight.”

“No, I lost it all. Look.”

Woohyung came to the living room sofa and snatched the coffee milk Yoo Han-yi was drinking.

Yoo Han-yi insisted, touching his face, claiming it had slimmed down, but Woohyung ignored him. He then drank all the coffee milk he had taken.

“You just came to steal my drink!”

“It’s your fault for not managing yourself properly.”

“What about Haerang hyung next to me…”

Haerang, who was sitting on the sofa first, hurriedly drank his own coffee milk in one shot and went to his room when he met Yoo Han-yi’s eyes. As if he wouldn’t get his taken.

“Ha, really petty.”

Yoo Han-yi slumped down.

He understood why the leader was being so stingy.

Until now, they had never been given enough time to prepare slowly.

They always had to be ready for whatever came their way.

Yoo Han-yi knew this painfully well and hadn’t neglected his management, but his joking remark had been the issue.

Beside the disgruntled Yoo Han-yi, the youngest member Jun-hae sat in the spot Haerang had vacated.

“Aren’t you studying?”

“Nope.”

Jun-hae, with a relieved expression, picked up the TV remote and started changing channels.

Seeing this, Han-yi looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Hyun Jun-hae, the youngest member at 23 years old, was currently in university.

Due to their erratic schedules, he couldn’t accumulate enough credits and was taking seasonal semester classes.

Until yesterday, he had been studying for an upcoming exam…

“I have an exam on the day of the shoot, so I decided not to take it!”

Woohyung and Han-yi’s jaws dropped at his words.

“You idiot! You should’ve told the manager hyung to reschedule it!”

“It’s easier to just not take the exam! Missing one exam won’t ruin everything!”

“Go study!”

“Ack!”

Han-yi shouted in disbelief, and Woohyung smacked Jun-hae on the back.

Even though he grumbled, the youngest, who listened well to his older brothers, went back to his room.

After two changes in ownership, Woohyung sat on the sofa this time.

“Let’s do a V-Live together after the shoot.”

“It’s been a while.”

“Yeah.”

Woohyung usually took the initiative to do short broadcast sessions with fans even on non-scheduled days, but recently, the frequency had noticeably decreased.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to; they couldn’t due to the chaotic atmosphere with the contract renewal and the company’s mood.

With no official updates recently, it was certain that the fans’ mood was also uneasy. Still, they had to wait a few more days.

“We’ll surprise them.”

They could show a good appearance after a long time, fully styled.

Woohyung smiled, imagining that day.

***

After work. Though only a few days had passed, I was starting to get used to my space alone.

I watched TV, observing the hairstyles and outfits of male celebrities.

In the past, I watched without much thought, but now that it was part of my job, I couldn’t just watch idly.

I thought about leaving it to the experts, but there was a lingering discomfort in my mind about leaving it entirely in others’ hands.

‘It’s just the beginning, so we need to create the best possible outcome.’

You see those kinds of photos on the internet. ‘Celebrity who fought with the stylist.jpg.’

Even famous celebrities often heard comments that their makeup or hair didn’t suit them, which showed how difficult this was.

Therefore, I thought it was best to give detailed requirements even if it was just an image.

‘It should be sophisticated without following trends, simple but not plain, and eye-catching…’

Just as I was thinking of requests that would make a designer gasp, something I had momentarily forgotten in adapting to this world came to mind.

“MY ENTER!”

MY ENTER had a styling menu.

Hair, makeup, and styling. A menu where you could choose and apply ‘Hemes.’

There were many items to choose from and you could even specify colors, so some users focused solely on Hemes.

‘I think it’s been a while since I opened Monochrome’s styling window.’

It was the first time seeing the characters of MY ENTER while familiar with the members’ faces.

The characters were close to cartoonish, but the eyes, mouth, and face shapes were definitely similar to the real ones.

Just as I was about to get goosebumps thinking they were real game characters, I noticed that the style set was exactly like the jacket photo from the <12345> album, the current profile picture.

‘Please let’s get away from 12345!’

As I clutched my head encountering the ghost of <12345> unexpectedly, another thing that made me miserable came to mind.

I hadn’t opened Monochrome’s styling window since forming Iris.

‘So, they’ve maintained the same style for years?!’

When I checked the discography, I couldn’t look at everything because it was too painful.

But from what I vaguely remembered, the album jacket photos over the past few years had similar styles, only the outfits were slightly different.

“Crazy. Just crazy.”

I smacked my head again.

Back then, I wasn’t fully adapted to the game’s content, so I had just set it randomly with whatever items caught my eye.

Upon examining each applied item, there was a certain casual consistency, but something was always off. It felt like they were wearing mismatched clothes.

“Surely if I change it, it won’t actually change in real life, right?”

Imagine how surprised the people at the dorm would be.

Just in case, I decided to change only the hair color slightly.

‘Change…’

[Cannot be changed.]

Fortunately, even after pressing the change button, the hair color wasn’t applied.

In a way, that was a relief. Despite experiencing many unrealistic things, seeing it in reality would have been scary.

Since it didn’t change in reality, this feature was useful.

‘I can predict what style would suit them with this.’

I had never styled someone in real life, but I was confident in dressing up characters. Virtual styling skills honed by Iris!

I focused intently on my smartphone, like when I was engrossed in the game.

Even though it was 2D, I started to get a clear image of the members in my mind.

***

A few days passed.

Nothing special happened, and most of it was adapting to this game world and the settings and company I was assigned to.

Soon enough, the day of Monochrome’s profile photo shoot arrived.

I personally went to the shoot location.

It might seem strange for someone with a high position like Director to go out directly, but I still didn’t know who to trust with tasks.

Just because someone had worked for a long time didn’t mean I could trust them unconditionally. They might have been part of Monochrome’s failed past…

There could be people like Yun-hee who were genuinely dedicated, but I decided to take the lead for now.

When I arrived at the studio first, Monochrome members soon arrived one after another.

Amidst them, I spotted a member and grinned.

“Baek Haerang.”

He was personally the member I was most looking forward to seeing change.