JERS 08

Chapter 08

I looked straight at Lee Jiwoo, who had a bewildered expression.

“I watched the videos from when you were an idol. Considering you debuted without much preparation, it looked like you practiced really hard… Don’t you feel it’s a waste to give that up?”

At those words, Jiwoo’s face instantly turned pale.

“N-no! Not at all! I don’t regret it for even a second! I can’t go back. I can’t do it. Not anymore!”

Oh boy. As expected, Jiwoo immediately shook his head vigorously in refusal. Even the dust-bunny in his arms swayed side to side along with him, which was cute, but I couldn’t just let that distract me.

“Why not? Can I ask why you think that?”

When I didn’t back down easily and asked for a reason, Jiwoo’s pupils trembled in confusion.

“I… I mean, it’s obvious… I already failed… before…”

His voice lost strength toward the end and dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

“Why do you think you failed?”

I asked again, and Jiwoo’s expression immediately turned uncomfortable.

“Huh? Well….”

“Well?”

If you have a solid reason, then say it.

When I shrugged and waited, Jiwoo finally gave a truly ridiculous answer.

“Because… I just… wasn’t good enough…”

It was exactly the answer I wanted him to say. I swallowed a laugh and spoke calmly.

“Then do you think the group would’ve succeeded if you hadn’t been in it?”

This time, there was no answer. Honestly, if he could think straight, he wouldn’t be able to say yes.

From the start, they didn’t have proper support. A&R didn’t do their job. It was probably a chaotic, sloppy project. Everyone knew it wasn’t right, but no one had the authority or right to stop it, so it only got shoved into the trash after it failed. Even if I hadn’t been there, I could picture it clearly.

After waiting a moment, I opened my mouth again.

“I’m not angry. I just want to hear what you think, Jiwoo.”

I softened my tone in case I sounded aggressive. Jiwoo flinched, his shoulders twitching. After a long moment, his voice came out.

“No…”

“See? Then why is that your failure? Isn’t it completely the company’s fault?”

Jiwoo fidgeted awkwardly again.

“St–still…”

“Not ‘still.’”

Now it was time for persuasion and negotiation.

“I watched the movies you filmed when you were little. You’ve got too much talent to just shine briefly as a child actor and disappear.”

I meant that. It was far too precious to be buried because of adults’ poor decisions.

“So I want to see you act more… but as you know, roles for late-teen actors are limited. Even if you want to act, there aren’t many roles, so there aren’t even many auditions to apply for.”

And even for the few roles available, most had already been pre-cast. For someone trying to return after a break, re-entering was extremely difficult.

So, the question: what strategy would be best if Jiwoo wanted to start acting again?

Easy—he needed to become the one who gets pre-cast.

How? First, become famous and gain fans. His acting ability and screen visuals were already guaranteed, so love calls would definitely come.

‘Which means we’re back to square one. The key is how to gain fans.’

This was where it mattered.

I glanced over Jiwoo from head to toe with a smile. He’d probably neglected self-care for a while. He hadn’t gained weight—if anything, he looked underfed.

Losing weight is hard, but gaining it isn’t too difficult. He’s still growing; if he eats well and exercises, he’ll quickly put on healthy muscle.

‘And his face—you couldn’t ask for better. Trendy yet classically handsome.’

Just putting him back in the spotlight would spark buzz again. Maintaining that attention was another problem, though.

I smiled and finally said what I’d been leading to.

“You know KCM airs a survival audition every summer, right?”

Before I even finished, Jiwoo almost screamed.

“N-no! I don’t want to…!”

Hey, at least listen to the whole sentence. I continued calmly.

“No, I’m not saying you should debut as an idol again. I’m just saying go as far as the initial grade evaluation, just for promotion. Right now nobody knows who you are, what kind of face you can show, or what charm you have.”

“……”

“You just need to appear on the show a bit. Apart from trainees who already have fandoms, most people get filtered out anyway, so by the time of the first ranking announcement, you can naturally drop out.”

Jiwoo’s eyes were still shaking in confusion.

“And once you gain some recognition, you can slowly start with commercials or small acting roles. Honestly, that’ll probably be easier than finding a part-time job.”

That was true.

He already had the visuals, so even just catalog modeling would be easier than it would be for a regular person.

And if you’ve appeared in the hottest trending program recently? Any company wanting maximum promotion effect for the same budget would have no reason not to choose Jiwoo.

‘The important thing is to let him ease back in through small jobs first.’

Telling someone like Jiwoo to suddenly go on a survival show might sound like a stretch, but since the goal wasn’t debuting, it didn’t really matter.

‘On the show, they’ll film other more ambitious trainees more anyway. What I want is for him to be “that handsome kid who appears in the background sometimes.”’

If by chance Jiwoo bloomed unexpectedly and advanced to later rounds, that’d be great. But expecting that would be unreasonable.

“……”

Jiwoo hesitated for a while, then bit his lip hard. The dog Dust, who’d been in his arms, whimpered and licked Jiwoo’s chin.

What will you do? You know better than anyone that you can’t take responsibility for Dust in your current state.

Jiwoo hugged Dust tightly, then finally spoke with a determined look.

“If… if I go… how much… will I get paid…?”

The fish had walked right into the net. All that was left was to pull it up.

The next day, I went to Jiwoo’s house. Unfortunately, since I still didn’t have my license, I had to bring Kwon Hyung along.

When we arrived, Jiwoo greeted us with the same overgrown bangs as usual.

“Whiiine…!”

Dust, who’d come with us, immediately ran joyfully to Jiwoo.

“Dust!”

It was as if he couldn’t even see us. He scooped Dust into his arms and hugged him tightly, then turned red when he finally noticed us.

“Ah… hello…”

For now, Dust would stay at the office for a few days. Jiwoo’s home environment wasn’t suitable for a dog yet, so I’d keep him until things improved.

“Did you clean your house?”

Peeking inside the entryway, I asked. Jiwoo answered shyly.

“Yes…!”

“Then shall we check?”

As soon as I stepped inside, Jiwoo panicked.

“Ah…! W-wait!”

He quickly set Dust down, rushed inside, then returned flustered.

“I-it’s a little messy but… I think it’s okay!”

“Oh.”

Both Kwon and I let out short sounds of admiration at the same time.

“Then excuse us.”

We stepped inside—

—and stood there like idiots, stunned.

“It’s not ready.”

“Ah…”

You should never trust a teenage boy’s standard of “clean.”

“Oh man… This is going to take forever.”

Good thing we’d come with plenty of time.

Kwon and I rolled up our sleeves. We’d done enough grunt work in the past to be confident.

After finally making Jiwoo’s house look like somewhere humans lived, we were exhausted—but there was no time to rest.

We had to shoot at least a profile photo today, so we hurried him to a hair salon I knew.

“Hello, could you do a student haircut?”

The elderly head stylist looked up, then spotted Kwon instead of me.

“Oh my, isn’t this Kwon? How long has it been?”

Recognizing him, she immediately lit up.

“It’s been so long!”

Kwon laughed greeting her back.

“It’s good to see you. You haven’t changed at all. I must be the only one aging.”

“Oh stop~ I’m nothing like I used to be. Time always wins~”

Their touching reunion was sweet, but we were on a schedule. I cut in politely.

“Sorry, but could you please cut this kid’s hair? And if possible, tidy him up a bit?”

I pushed Jiwoo forward. He walked awkwardly toward the stylist.

She examined him with a hawk’s gaze, then exclaimed like a fortune teller who’d just seen destiny.

“Kid, how can you hide such a handsome face like that?”

She practically dragged him to the mirror.

She lifted parts of his messy hair, muttering as she worked. Jiwoo looked terrified and glanced at me.

“Uh… is this…?”

I patted Dust and replied,

“It’s okay. It’ll be done soon.”

The exact same line I’d said when Dust was groomed.

Soon after, Jiwoo stood shyly in front of the mirror, now neatly trimmed and strikingly handsome.

“Wow, he’s handsome!”

“Right? Why were you hiding such a good-looking face like that?”

They both admired him. Jiwoo, embarrassed by showing his face so openly for the first time in a while, fidgeted with his hands.

“D-do I… have to keep standing here…?”

He’d even gotten simple styling, so he genuinely looked like a celebrity.

With his soft puppy-like features and fluffy styled hair, he was perfect idol material.

‘He’s cute… but I feel a bit bad, so let’s hurry and take the profile pictures.’

I gave a thumbs-up.

“All we need now are photos. Let’s head to the studio.”

Even at the studio, Jiwoo kept fidgeting, still unused to his exposed face.

“Okay, taking it now—one, two—!”

Fortunately, the pictures turned out great, and we submitted the application right away.

Before long, we received news that he’d passed the document screening.

Now it was time to face the first audition.