Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail – Chapter 46

Chapter 46

“We’re here, have some ice cream!”

“You’re late. What are you two doing, playing hooky?”

“Uhm. Just socializing?”

“…You two?”

Kyunga looked at us alternately with eyes that said it couldn’t be.

Hee-on had her mouth tightly shut and was grinning, and I was smiling in a refreshing mood.

“Who bought this?”

“Hee-on did. Thanks, Hee-on.”

“….”

“Oh, Hee-on bought it? I’ll enjoy it.”

“…Yes.”

Bo-ra seemed to have sensed something when she saw Hee-on’s face.

The way she slightly lifted the corners of her mouth while putting a watermelon-flavored ice cream in her mouth looked quite meaningful.

What’s she grinning about? It’s scary.

“After eating an ice cream each like that, we returned to practice as if nothing had happened.”

A promise that couldn’t be continued

With a fading heart

You

I

Hee-on, perhaps my words were quite upsetting, sang with much more grit than before.

If only she had done that earlier.

Then she wouldn’t have been so criticized during the mid-term evaluation.

“Wow, Hee-on. Did you get some kind of enlightenment from eating ice cream? You’re much better than before.”

Kyunga seemed to have the same thought, her voice was truly admiring.

“Good, let’s keep this feeling and try again!”

Oh, I’m proud.

I smiled quietly.

But I couldn’t completely smile yet.

I took out my phone and looked at today’s date.

Today is August 3rd.

There were only two days left until the main stage.

And if Yoon Cheong’s fate were to follow as originally, ‘that incident’ would explode tomorrow.

The incident where Yoon Cheong completely ruins the main stage and her image is ruined to the point where she can’t recover.

Ring!

[‘Musical’ Yoon Cheong, third mission full of mistakes… until when?]

[Yoon Cheong, why can’t you manage your vocal cords perfectly?]

[‘Musical’ lowest vote count recorded Yoon Cheong & vocal position. Criticism pouring in…]

Yes.

That’s the incident where these kinds of articles would pour out.

I glanced at Hee-on.

Will the same thing repeat this time?

“Cheong, what ice cream is left? Let’s eat one more and do it. It’s hot.”

Kyunga finished off the ice cream left in the fridge.

“There’s an ice cream cone, can I eat this?”

“Yes, since it has peanuts on it, I can’t eat it.”

“Why? You can’t eat peanuts?”

“I have an allergy.”

“Huh.”

Kyunga was slightly surprised and put the ice cream back in the fridge.

“Cheong, I didn’t know you had an allergy. You just need to be careful with peanuts?”

“Yes, I don’t have allergies to anything else, but I strangely have an allergy to peanuts.”

Hee-on and Bo-ra each picked up an ice cream.

“It’s strange. Wasn’t your allergy to peaches, not peanuts?”

“Huh? No, it’s peanuts.”

Hee-on tilted her head.

As if something was strange.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I just ate peach ice cream.”

I pointed to the leftover peach ice cream trash.

Only then did Hee-on nod her head.

“But how did you know I had an allergy? I never said I had one.”

At my question, Hee-on flinched and shrugged her shoulders.

“You said it at the dorm. You must have forgotten after you said it.”

“…Really?”

I just let it go.

“Cheong, you have to be careful when you eat peanuts. Let’s eat something without peanuts.”

“Then you can’t eat tantanmen, sister?”

Bo-ra looked at me with a pitiful look.

“I can’t.”

“Peanut butter too?”

“I can’t.”

“…Poor thing. Peanut butter toast is delicious.”

“…I’m sad too.”

We ate an ice cream each in good harmony.

And we went back to practice.

Really, there were only two days left.

***

“…She had an allergy to peanuts, not peaches?”

A luxury sedan.

In the back seat of the car, there were two girls who still had a young vibe.

And in the driver’s seat, there was a man who appeared to be quite successful..

The man in the driver’s seat looked at the girls sitting in the back through the rearview mirror.

“Yes, she was eating peach ice cream just fine?”

“…That’s strange.”

The man in the driver’s seat murmured softly.

“Didn’t the sister who practiced with us at the agency say that she had a peach allergy?”

A woman with long black hair sitting in the back seat spoke.

She had a fairly close relationship with the woman in the driver’s seat.

And she was also a trainee participating in ‘Make a New Color’.

“Hee-on, you heard it right?”

“I said it’s right. How many times do I have to say it? If you’re confused, you ask.”

Hee-on answered Kim Ryeo-yu’s doubt with a voice full of irritation.

Then, right away, the eyebrows of Director Kim, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, went up.

Hee-on flinched and turned her head towards the window.

“Then we have to use peanut powder instead of peach peel powder.”

Director Kim turned the steering wheel and said.

“She only eats chicken breast every morning anyway, so it won’t be that hard. She only eats chicken breast at the dorm too.”

Kim Ryeo-yu was checking the real-time SNS timeline reaction while speaking.

On the broadcast, the second mission stage was still being aired.

But already, the criticism against Kim Ryeo-yu was growing.

As the days went by, public opinion against Kim Ryeo-yu became unfavorable.

If it goes like this, she might not even be able to secure a debut spot, let alone the 1st place.

Kim Ryeo-yu kept suppressing the rising anger.

It was all because of Yoon Cheong.

A trivial thing, but when she started to think about it, she felt like she was going crazy with anger.

If Bo-ra, Baek-young, or Geum had been promoted, there wouldn’t have been much damage.

They were originally the strong candidates for debut.

But Yoon Cheong was really lucky if she didn’t rank 12th.

She was an annoyance to everyone during the Colors end-of-month evaluation and was ignored by everyone.

Now she was one of the top candidates for 1st place.

No matter how much it was because of the benefit, she ranked 1st in the ranking announcement.

She couldn’t leave it like this.

She had to block it somehow.

“Put a little peanut powder between the chicken breast tomorrow. They say her allergy is severe, so if she eats a little, she’ll get hives all over her body and her vocal cords will swell.”

“Are you going to add peanut powder?”

Jo Hee-on looked at Kim Ryeo-yu with a bit of surprise.

Could it be that she was really going to do it?

Jo Hee-on was one of the few people who knew the true nature of Kim Ryeo-yu.

The trainees were vaguely afraid of Kim Ryeo-yu, but they only knew her as a sister with a lot of energy.

But Kim Ryeo-yu was more than that.

She was a person who thought it was ‘natural’ to harm others for her own goals.

That was Kim Ryeo-yu.

Kim, the director, had suppressed Kim Ryeo-yu for fear of a character controversy after her debut, so there had been no major problems so far.

But Kim Ryeo-yu revealed her true personality without any filters to Jo Hee-on.

‘Of course, that doesn’t mean she completely hid her character….’

Kim Ryeo-yu committed all sorts of evil deeds in places unknown to Director Kim.

It was her hobby to torment those who seemed weak.

The reason was to relieve the stress she had gained from her hard trainee life.

And Kim Ryeo-yu made Jo Hee-on participate in her misdeeds so that she couldn’t expose her true self.

For example, feeding bugs to Yoon Cheong.

“But won’t it all get better if you take medicine?”

Jo Hee-on asked cautiously.

“That’s not the case. You have to take medicine in advance to get better quickly, once an allergy starts, it takes at least a few days to fully recover. There are two days left for the stage, so if you eat it tomorrow, it will completely lose its taste for a day or two.”

“….”

Jo Hee-on had a trembling expression.

“Why?”

Kim Ryeo-yu asked sharply, noticing it.

“No, but what if we get caught?”

“What, how can we get caught? Are you going to entrust it to the national tax service?”

Kim Ryeo-yu laughed, scoffing.

“You just have to push it and say you ate something wrong.”

“Or you can just say you made a self-drama because you’re not confident.”

Director Kim also spoke coldly.

“There are trainees like that. They don’t practice and lie that they’re sick to eat less scolding at the end of the month evaluation.”

“That’s right. She’s always been sick at the end of the month evaluation. Just bring the record from that time and say she’s making the same excuse every evaluation.”

“You have to say that excuses don’t work if you want to be a pro. If the atmosphere seems strange, I can intervene and create a flow.”

Jo Hee-on’s complexion turned pale as she listened to the two’s conversation.

I was afraid I might bleed, really, the two were talking and thinking exactly the same.

It was equally creepy.

“Isn’t it a bit… dangerous? They say you can die from that on the internet….”

“People don’t die that easily. It’s not like we’re spraying a lot, just a little.”

How do you know that?

You don’t even know the exact lethal dose.

Jo Hee-on began to get sick.

Are you really going to kill her?

“Are you scared, Hee-on?”

Kim Ryeo-yu laughed and ridiculed Jo Hee-on.

“No, why are you so scared? You just have to spray a little. And she must have medicine. All people with allergies carry it.”

“What if she doesn’t have it…?”

“Then it’s because she wasn’t careful.”

How does that happen?

Jo Hee-on couldn’t answer.

Kim Ryeo-yu knew well about Jo Hee-on’s shaking.

But at the same time, Kim Ryeo-yu knew the weapon to hold Jo Hee-on.

“Hee-on, aren’t you going to debut? You’re 20 years old. If you fail this time, do you think another agency will take you? You know the age limit for idols is 20.”

Director Kim also nodded in agreement.

“If you can’t be an idol, what are you going to do? You’re not thinking of being an actress, are you? You’re not as pretty as Ryu Bo-ra.”

“Oh, why did she come into the idol scene with that face?”

The two only laughed.

But Jo Hee-on couldn’t laugh.

Her family had already notified her that they would cut off her support.

If she doesn’t debut this time, she has to give up the path of an entertainer without a hitch.

Even though she had been practicing for over 10 years, it was so fleeting.

“…Are you really going to put me in with the judge’s pick?”

“Colors is in my hands. Can’t I do that?”

Director Kim spoke as if it was a matter of course.

Eventually, Jo Hee-on collapsed at his words.

Yes.

If you close your eyes just once, you can debut.

And that’s as an idol of Colors.

There’s no way she’s going to die. You just have to adjust the amount.

“But… how are you going to put it in?”

At Jo Hee-on’s question, Director Kim burst into laughter.

Kim Ryeo-yu was the same.

In the strange atmosphere, Jo Hee-on frowned.

What is it?

“Hee-on, I can’t sneak into your dorm like a thief.”

At Director Kim’s words, Jo Hee-on fell silent.

Then that means…

“Of course you have to do it.”

“What?”

Kim Ryeo-yu drove the nail in completely.

Jo Hee-on opened her mouth in surprise.

“Why me? You’re there too. You live in the same dorm, why…!”

“If I do it, it’s too obvious. But you’re on the same team. If Yoon Cheong goes to the goal, you lose the benefit too. Would you doubt the same team?”

Kim Ryeo-yu laughed brightly.

“I’ll ask you just this once. If I don’t have an alibi, everyone will naturally suspect me first.”

That’s natural.

Everyone knows you’re the craziest bitch.

Jo Hee-on just trembled in disbelief.

“But I’ll get the peanut powder for you now.”

Director Kim glanced at his watch.

It would be hard to get it at dawn, but it’s not impossible.

“Anyway, between 3 and 7, if there’s no special discussion, it’s the time when the camera remains off. Since there was no mention of filming, the camera is off. No one can know.”

“….”

Jo Hee-on shook his head.

She felt very complicated.