Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Raise Three Idols Well And They’ll Launch a Confession Attack.

Episode 60: Half The World.

I slid down the stairs precariously and stood in front of her.

“Huff… Huff…”

I tried to catch my breath as much as possible and spoke to her.

“…Haa. How could you leave without saying anything? So heartless.”

“How did you get here, Team Leader Seon?”

Then she looked at Seok Hyun-woo as if she had realized something.

“Manager Seok, I told you not to tell Team Leader Seon.”

Seok Hyun-woo tried to kneel and apologize.

“I am truly sorry, Miss!”

“No, Manager Seok, if someone takes a picture of you like that, it will be very troublesome. I understand your feelings, but please control yourself!”

I desperately stopped him.

“But…”

Jin Yeoreum looked down at Seok Hyun-woo coldly and said.

“Manager Seok, get up. I will accept your apology.”

Seok Hyun-woo lowered his head and stepped back, as if he had nothing to say.

His response was inadequate, but considering it was caused by me, it was quite regrettable.

“So what is the reason you came here? Are you here to blame me for my rudeness? Or to criticize me for irresponsibly leaving the orphanage?”

“You’re not abandoning the orphanage. You promised to receive sufficient support for the orphanage from Jinkang in exchange for going abroad, didn’t you?”

“…How do you know that?”

It was written in the letter you sent three years later.

“It wasn’t Manager Seok who told me, so please don’t think of him.”

“…”

Jin Yeoreum, who was looking at Seok Hyun-woo again, sighed and shook her head.

“Yes, that’s not really important. The support for the orphanage was just something they said they’d do, so I didn’t stop it. It’s not a big deal to talk about.”

Jin Yeoreum slightly lifted the wide-brimmed straw hat that was blocking her view and looked me in the eyes.

“So what is it that you came all the way here to say? I’m busy, and it’s hard to find time, so please get to the point quickly.”

I got straight to the point.

“Yeoreum, let’s try being idols together.”

“…”

Jin Yeoreum spoke after a long silence.

“Didn’t I leave my intentions in the letter? I don’t intend to become an idol.”

She spoke firmly, as if she had no regrets.

However, she couldn’t hide her trembling eyes, proving her low potential in acting.

“Being an idol is a means to improve one’s image. And employing that means requires more time, resources, and risk than one might think. I’ve done the math, and studying abroad is a better option.”

“I understand. Studying abroad is also a good choice for your life, Yeoreum. But isn’t that conclusion far from the goal of image improvement that you set when you first started volunteering?”

“…Are you saying that I’m running away?”

I shrugged and said.

“If you think so, then it could be seen that way. It’s true that studying abroad doesn’t improve your image, right?”

I still remember Seok Hyun-woo talking about 100 years.

“Didn’t you declare that you would repair the damage to Jinkang’s and your family’s image with your own strength? Honestly, I was quite moved. Did I overestimate your resolve, Yeoreum?”

Yeoreum looked sad, as if it were painful to say such things, and spoke.

“Yes, you overestimated me. Even if it was volunteering instead of being an idol, I would have given up volunteering if the offer to study abroad had come. I’m that weak of a person.”

“No, Yeoreum, you wouldn’t do that.”

Before the gate incident, Jin Yeoreum quietly protected the orphanage. That period was about three years. Didn’t she receive any offers to study abroad or better offers during that time?

Of course not.

Jin Yeoreum ignored all those offers and protected that place from a young age.

The result wasn’t good, but her resolve couldn’t be lightly evaluated.

“…How do you know that, Team Leader Seon?”

“The Yeoreum I saw is that kind of person. You always pretend to make rational choices, saying it’s the best option, but in reality, you devote yourself to the children, your family, and even show care for me, Gaeul, and Han Gyeoul, whom you haven’t known for long.”

You said you wouldn’t expect it, but I saw you couldn’t hide the smile on your face when Gaeul, Han Gyeoul, and I visited. That’s the kind of person you are.

“No, I’m not that kind of person. All those actions were just for image management. Because I know that the name Jinkang follows everything I do.”

“You can’t act like that just for image management. Only someone with an excessive amount of affection, someone who can be called a pushover, can do that.”

“So how can you be so sure about that, Team Leader Seon?”

“Because I’m that kind of person too.”

“…What?”

Coming all the way here and deciding to recruit Jin Yeoreum, even though it was clearly a thorny path, was all because of that damn personality.

I didn’t want to see that weak and naive child, who resembled me, regret it.

“Let’s be idols together, Yeoreum. Han Gyeoul and Gaeul also want to be with you.”

“…”

“Of course, I do, too.”

Yeoreum’s eyes trembled again.

She hesitated to finish her words, but after making up her mind, she looked at me straight and spoke in a cold voice.

“Do you know that what you’re saying is a bit cruel? There’s something I have to endure in that process, right?”

As Jin Yeoreum said, there was something she had to endure.

She would definitely face backlash. Like a huge wave that one person couldn’t handle.

“When people find out I’m debuting, they will all criticize me. They’ll dig up old materials from my childhood and mock me. I don’t have the confidence to endure that.”

It would be strange to have the confidence to endure that.

No one in the world could face that backlash and endure it.

“That’s right. There will be a strong backlash.”

“Is it possible to turn those people around and make them like me? I think it’s impossible. No matter what I do, there will always be people who hate me.”

That was her constant worry.

“Then what was the reason you decided to volunteer, Yeoreum? If what you say is true, isn’t it also impossible to improve your image through volunteering?”

“Because there will be people who change their image of me. Even if there are still people who hate me…”

Knowing that was enough.

“Just like you said, we can’t make everyone in the world like you. Even if your innocence is proven and it is shown that you were just a victim, there will always be people who hate you.”

“Then, it’s all meaningless…”

“But even if not everyone, we can make about half of them like you.”

What we need to aim for is that half.

“If half the world hates you, I’ll make the other half go crazy for your charm. I’ll turn your flaws, controversies, and attacks against you into fans who voluntarily protect you as your shield.”

I have confidence I can do it.

If I have the status window and regression on my side, shouldn’t it be this challenging?

So I will do it. Absolutely.

“I’ll make you the greatest star that both haters and fans go crazy for.”

A single tear was flowing down Jin Yeoreum’s cheek.

As if the limit of her suppressed emotions had burst with that tear, she began to show her overflowing feelings.

“I’m not the only one who has to endure that!”

She finally revealed the care she had been pretending not to have.

“It doesn’t matter if I get hurt alone. But if I become an idol, I’ll cause trouble for everyone. Han Gyeoul, Gaeul, and you, Team Leader Seon, could succeed easily without me, but it will be difficult because of me!”

In the letter she left three years later, she continued to worry about us.

She was excessively worried that contacting her might hinder our success.

To the point of insisting on using letters as the means of contact.

That was the reason she suddenly decided to study abroad, and the reason I decided to recruit her.

That lovely child needed a bit of a reward.

“I’ve honestly told you all my feelings so far, haven’t I? So, can you tell me one thing sincerely?”

I need to hear that sincerity now, instead of three years later.

“Do you want to be an idol?”

Jin Yeoreum wiped the tears running down her cheeks with her hand and spoke.

“Do you really have to hear that? It’s not important to the current discussion.”

“No, that’s the most important thing.”

“…It’s just a meaningless feeling.”

“It’s a feeling that means everything.”

“…”

Tears flowed down her cheeks again.

“I want to do it too! With Han Gyeoul, Gaeul, and you, Team Leader Seon.”

The name Jinkang, her family, the orphanage, and me, Gaeul, and Han Gyeoul.

The child, who only cared for all those things but couldn’t live her own life, spoke her true feelings.

That was enough.

“Then face it. Move forward. If you do that, I’ll give you half the world.”

This was a declaration.

Even if recruiting Jin Yeoreum would increase the instability of success, I would definitely succeed.

By any means necessary.

She looked at the hand I offered in a daze and said.

“You’re really, really strange, Team Leader Seon.”

And then she took my hand.

Even if it was weak, clumsy, or unstable, because we dreamt the same dream.

The liars circled around and finally faced each other.