Chapter 1:The Idol’s Technique That Never Fails

 

Chapter 1: The Idol’s Technique for Never Failing - 

“You’ve achieved great success not only as an idol but as a producer as well.”

At the therapist's words, Jung Hae-won, who had been mentally calculating his next schedule, looked up.

“Ah, I didn’t catch that. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. What I was saying is... well, you’ve achieved massive success as both an idol and a producer. It’s an ongoing success. But where do you think that anxiety originates from?”

The consultation continued to miss the mark.

The client was a difficult person to read. It was no easy task to peer into the inner workings of someone who had achieved such overwhelming success. Furthermore, with his schedule backed up, the therapist didn't have much time.

The client thought for a moment before answering.

“I’m not anxious. I just like being busy. I think you can just prescribe me some sleeping pills.”

“Hmm. Is that how you’ve usually received prescriptions in the past?”

“No. I usually got them after being scolded quite a bit.”

Without providing much more information, the client stood up. The therapist spoke up:

“If you keep going on like this, it’s just a waste of time.”

“Hmm.”

“The people around you are very worried.”

“That’s the thing,” Jung Hae-won replied with a deep sigh. “It’s because they worry so much that I’m still doing this periodically. Everyone worries way too much.”

He said this while wondering how he could make them believe that his mental state was actually rock solid. After a moment, he asked the therapist a question.

“This is a bit of a strange question, but...”

“What is it?”

“Do you believe that unchanging love exists?”

The therapist looked puzzled but soon replied, “No. All emotions change.”

“I think it exists,” the client said with a light smile. It wasn't a smile intended to seduce, yet it possessed a natural charm that drew people in. He continued, “I didn’t think so when I was young, but I believe it now. That is a very significant change in my life.”

With those words, he left the consultation room.

Despite it being a private schedule, paparazzi were already waiting across from the hospital. In the heart of the metropolis, large billboards—paid for by fans—advertised his upcoming concert.

His face was everywhere; everyone knew who he was.

I had a long dream. A dream where I thought my life was already ruined, only to go ahead and ruin someone else’s life on top of it.

In the dream, even though I knew I wanted to stand on stage, I ignored that longing. Why was I so afraid back then to challenge the stage again after it had so coldly rejected me?

Despite that, I couldn't bring myself to leave the entertainment industry entirely. Perhaps if I had started a new life somewhere else, I wouldn't have failed so miserably.

In the dream, I founded an entertainment company and clung to a girl group called 'Square' that I couldn't manage to make successful. I struggled for years, dragging those kids through the mud with me, until I eventually died from overwork.

*Ugh, seriously.*

It was a dream devoid of hope. If I had known that would be the ending, I would have suppressed my fear and stood on that stage one more time.

But... was that really a dream?

It was so vivid that I’m confused.

“Aah! You hateful person!”

I barely escaped the nightmare to the sound of thumping music.

Because the dream was so realistic and I woke up completely hammered, I was struggling to distinguish between dream and reality. For the past two months, I’ve been drinking at lunch and dinner daily, so there’s probably more alcohol than blood running through my veins—it’s no wonder I can’t grasp the situation.

Unable to lift my head due to the alcohol and drowsiness, I heard people nearby talking about me, assuming I was still asleep.

“The ‘Idol Chosen by the Nation’? That survival show that was a craze the year before last?”

“Yeah, that one. I heard he was branded as a total ‘trash personality’ by the viewers and collected a mountain of hate comments. Manager Kwak was working there at the time, and I guess he stuck him here out of guilt.”

“Ah. No wonder, a twenty-year-old...”

“They figured if they sent a guy who dropped out of high school because of hate comments and spent two years holed up in his room straight into the military, he’d cause an accident. So they’re trying to make a human out of him here first.”

“Jung-tae is something else, too. I’d never hand the steering wheel over to a twenty-year-old shut-in.”

“He’s just such a good person.”

I raised my head once they were more or less finished talking. *Wow, they summarized my life perfectly... not a single word was wrong. Haha.*

Anyway, I don't know how my celebrity is letting a twenty-year-old who was a shut-in for two years drive him around. Maybe he's not just a 'good person,' but actually lost his mind from drinking too much...

Regardless, the dream is so clear that I still can't tell reality apart. It was too vivid to be just a dream—and more than anything, it was detailed. Since I’m not exactly the creative or brilliant type, it feels incredibly eerie.

Could it be... a prophetic dream?

Wait a minute.

Does this mean I just got spoiled on my life being ruined?

While my head was getting more and more complicated, Boo Jung-tae—the man who, in my dream, died of a myocardial infarction five years before I did—grabbed the microphone and shouted:

“If you can't finish your drink in one shot,

you can't get married! Aah! You hateful person!”

*TOC*