Entertainment Life With A Camera

Chapter 60:

Chapter 60

Why did they call us?

Ian got his phone back and contacted his parents first. 

Then he called the people he had exchanged numbers with, starting with Jo Min-hwan, who he had acted with in ‘Black Out’.

“Are you guys not sleeping? We have a music show tomorrow.”

Park Seo-dam, who had just taken a shower, lay down and looked at his brothers who were only staring at their phones.

“Uh… we should sleep.”

“You guys are not flirting, right? No dating, seriously.”

At Park Seo-dam’s words, Kim Joo-young, Jo Tae-woong, and Ian turned their heads and looked at him.

“Yes! Sir!”

“Is that the same Park Seo-dam who used to ask why we can’t date?”

“You’ve grown up so much.”

“Hey, stop teasing me!”

Park Seo-dam squealed. 

At that moment, their phones rang with notifications at the same time.

“They’re still not sleeping even though they’re not in Korea.”

“Where did the MyKit hyungs go?”

“They went to Japan, right?”

MyKit created a group chat for both groups as soon as they heard the news of Awi’s first place. 

They congratulated Awi’s first place with noisy emoticons.

(Ian) How’s Japan? – 01:03

(CheolminGod) Don’t come here – 01:03

(Jung Jisu) Don’t do any activities in Japan… just do concerts… – 01:04

(CheolminGod) Can we talk? – 01:04

(Ian) Yeah – 01:04

As soon as Ian sent his reply, the phone rang. 

Ian turned on the speakerphone and answered the call.

(Hi hi. Is everyone there?)

“Just a sec.”

Kim Joo-young jumped up and called the other members in the other room. 

Lee Joo-hyuk, Park Jin-hyuk, and Kim Hyun came to Ian’s bed and sat down.

(Congratulations on your first place, and congratulations to you too, hyungs.)

MyKit checked if all the members were gathered, and Park Se-on greeted them.

“So, why did you call us?”

(Is that Hyun hyung? Hyung, don’t come here! Come to Japan only when you become the top group in Korea! Go away to Tokyo Dome!)

Kim Cheol-min screamed. Jung Jisu followed him.

(Sigh… guys, it’s crazy here. Handshake events, signing events, high-touch events? Those are fine. They’re similar to what we do in Korea. But the problem is the selfie events, back hugs, wall slams, and stuff like that.)

“What are those? You do those too?”

(They’re the masters of commodification. They have unimaginable events.)

“And the company doesn’t stop them?”

(Our company is not that kind of company.)

[Well then, you should enjoy it while you’re there.]

Ian asked in astonishment. Jin added casually.

(We have no popularity in Korea and we’re almost starting from scratch in Japan. We came here prepared for an underground idol life, but it’s beyond imagination. We have to follow whatever the fans ask for. There was even someone who asked me to kiss their cheek.)

“You did that?”

(Of course I told the staff and refused. And Se-on, remember yesterday’s selfie event? There was someone who groped your butt.)

(Ugh… I felt so bad. But that person bought a lot of tickets and stayed for more than 30 minutes.)

Kim Cheol-min screamed from the other side of the phone. 

Amidst their chaos, Jung Jisu spoke calmly.

(The worst was when someone asked me to pretend to kiss them like in a wall slam event… sigh… and we can’t show any signs of dislike.)

(Is that all? We have a two-hour date event tomorrow with some big spenders…)

“Crazy.”

(At this point, I don’t know if we’re idols or hosts. We don’t even perform well. We can’t go on music shows here unless we have some popularity…)

MyKit made a fuss and Awi members opened their mouths wide and looked at each other.

“That must be hard.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Lee Joo-hyuk offered a lame consolation.

(Remember this. You can’t be an underground idol in Japan.)

(Just do concerts. We won’t let you do anything else.)

(By the way, don’t you have a music show tomorrow? It’s past midnight now, so it’s today… Sorry for calling you late. Let’s hang up and talk later.)

“Okay Jisu hyung, take care.”

Ian pressed the end button. 

The call was over, but they still had things to say, and the chat room notifications kept ringing.

“Wow…”

“Is this real?”

The members couldn’t continue their conversation.

“…Guys, let’s sleep. We have to leave early in the morning.”

“Yes, hyung.”

Lee Joo-hyuk wrapped up the situation and turned off the light.

‘Wow… that’s harsh.’

[Underground idols in Japan are good at selling pseudo-romance. They’ll get stalkers if they keep doing that.]

‘Really?’

[It’s worse than you think. But at least they’re not local idols there, so they’re lucky. They can come back to Korea if there’s a problem. And as long as they make money, it’s fine.]

‘I wonder if they’re okay.’

Kim Yong-min had been neglected by his agency because they didn’t have the money to send him to Japan… It was probably the reality that most of the failed idols faced.

[But Japan is a lucrative market. That’s why the Korean entertainment industry can’t let go of Japan. And they’ll heal when they see the amount of money in their bank accounts.]

Park Seo-dam fell asleep as soon as he lay down, and the ceiling was faintly lit by the light of Jo Tae-woong’s phone screen.

“How bad was it that Jisu hyung complained? He was as calm as Joo-hyuk hyung.”

“But we’re going to Japan next year, right? We won’t do that, right?”

“Should we ask Black Rush hyungs?”

“Let’s ask them later.”

Ian fell asleep to the sound of Kim Joo-young and Jo Tae-woong’s conversation.

***

Awi won first place in all the music shows they participated in after ‘Music The Show’.

The number of albums sold for fan signing events jumped to more than 50. 

And half of the people who came to the fan signing events were foreigners.

“You came from Thailand? Wow, your Korean is really good.”

Ian looked at the name the fan had written and copied it onto the album.

“And this… happy birthday.”

“Wow… thank you.”

The fan manager behind him passed the fan’s gift to the back. 

In the boxes with each member’s name, there were gifts from fans and headbands they had worn during the fan signing events.

“Hi Ian! Happy birthday!”

The next fan put a gift on the table and smiled brightly. 

The gift was a shopping bag with a luxury brand logo written on it, as if it was saying ‘I’m a luxury item’ to anyone who saw it from afar.

“Noona, you came again! But didn’t you send a gift to the company yesterday?”

“Oh that? I thought it wasn’t enough, so I bought another one.”

“Wow… thank you noona.”

Today, October 12th, was Ian’s birthday. He pretended to be surprised as his fan club ‘Iron Heart’ proudly sat down in front of him.

“Did you see the advertisement?”

“The one at Samsung Station? Of course I did.”

“Not that one. The one we did with the Chinese fan union.”

“Really? Why didn’t I see it? Noona, you know me. I’m good at searching.”

“Oh, it must have been posted on the Chinese fan site. They put your ad on Times Square.”

“…Not Yeongdeungpo, but the Times Square I know, right?”

“Yeongdeungpo… how cute.”

Iron Heart covered her mouth and laughed loudly. Ian was startled and dropped his pen.

“Wow… then my parents can see it too. I’ll tell them. Thank you, noona!”

“You’re welcome. Happy birthday!”

“Please move to the next seat.”

Iron Heart moved to the next seat without hesitation.

***

“Good job, guys.”

Park Dong-su spoke to the members who got on the van.

“Don’t we have some popularity? There were a lot of foreigners.”

“There was a Thai fan who spoke Korean very well.”

“Not one, hyung. There were more.”

“There were Chinese fans too, right? But I couldn’t understand what they were saying.”

The members chattered. Park Dong-su arrived in front of the dorm and turned his head back.

“Ian, don’t get off. Let’s go to the company together.”

Jo Tae-woong got back in the van after getting off.

“Why? We have a birthday party tonight.”

“It’s because of the drama. Go ahead.”

“Oh, drama, okay. Please bring him back soon.”

“Hey, am I an object?”

The members accepted it without any complaints and went into the dorm. 

Jo Tae-woong ignored Ian’s protest and closed the van door.

“Hyung, am I going to be in a drama?”

“Just a cameo for a bit.”

“A cameo doesn’t need to go to the company, right? There’s another reason, right?”

“You’re really good at this.”

Park Dong-su raised his thumb.

“Actually, your birthday gifts arrived.”

“They came yesterday.”

“That was from one fan site… there are more from other fan sites and from China. But they’re a lot.”

[…I’m jealous.]

Jin whispered in Ian’s ear. Ian shivered and was startled.

“How am I going to take all these?”

But the amount of gifts was overwhelming. 

The gift boxes that filled one side of the wall seemed to be prepared by different fan pages, as each wrapping paper had a different color.

[Wow, how many luxury items are there?]

The materialistic Jin hovered around the shopping bags sent by the Chinese fans.

“Wow… it’ll be hard to open all these.”

“I’ll help you today.”

Ian sat down in front of the pile of gifts and unwrapped them one by one.

[Wow, this is from 18fw collection? Oh, that’s Nike collab shoes? Awesome.]

‘Hey, stay still. You’re driving me crazy.’

[You couldn’t even imagine getting these gifts when you were Kim Yong-min, right? Did you ever get any donations when you were Diamond?]

‘I did.’

[What was the most expensive gift you got?]

‘Just… sneakers. Not these limited edition ones.’

He was excited and happy when he received donations for the first time. But he became greedy and compared his gifts with Jupiter’s birthday support projects.

He had regrets and longing for Jupiter, who had barely missed their debut by a hair. 

He looked up all the news about them.

‘Wow~ look at that bastard Im Tae-woo getting a C-brand wallet.’

And he felt miserable comparing his gifts with other popular members.

But he knew that it wasn’t normal for fans to give expensive gifts.

“You don’t look very happy with your gifts?”

“Hyung, I’m super happy?”

Thanks to his experience as Kim Yong-min, he didn’t feel jealous or envious anymore. 

Instead, he felt burdened.

He cared about the netizens’ reactions and more than anything, he cared about the other members’ reactions.

‘This silver bracelet… it’s from Min-hee noona.’

Ian put on a simple leather bracelet on his wrist. Of course he was always happy to receive gifts.

[Why don’t you wear a C-brand bracelet instead?]

‘The other members will notice.’

[They’ll find out sooner or later anyway.]

He didn’t want to deceive them, but he didn’t want them to feel what he felt when he was Kim Yong-min. 

He wanted to stay with these members for a long time.

“Yes Awi manager… yes director, I’m with Ian in the basement right now. Yes?”

Park Dong-su’s voice got louder. Ian, who was opening the gifts, looked at him.

“Hyung! What’s going on?”

“Uh… you guys got invited to NMA.”

“N-net Music Awards?”

Why did they call us?