Chapter 18

“Wow—are you trying to buy your way out of the punishment with money, junior?”

Yeomin sneered at Taeoh, who was taken aback. Dansol stepped in for Taeoh.

“It’s not like that, senior. Taeoh’s fans sent it.”

“Oh, an idol. Well, thanks for the food? But you’re an idol too, right? Don’t you have anything?”

Yeomin said this while looking at Dansol. With no suitable response, Dansol kept silent.

Doohyun, who had been lingering by Yeomin’s side, muttered something under his breath. Yeomin chuckled.

It was too quiet for others to hear, but Taeoh and Dansol, standing nearby, caught it clearly.

“Hyung, they’re a failed idol group.”

“Failed idol.”

Dansol wasn’t ignorant of the term. It was a term that had lost its sting, one he could even joke about now.

Still…hearing it from someone else, especially from Yoo Doohyun, was the worst. He could feel the emotions he’d been suppressing surging inside him.

Even though the cameras and lights were shining brightly, and he knew he shouldn’t react, Dansol couldn’t control his rising emotions.

No, he couldn’t hold it back any longer. Unlike before the regression, he was no longer afraid of people hating him.

“Senior, your comment is out of line. Apologize.”

“What?”

Yoo Doohyun reacted sharply, as if he had heard something unbelievable. He also had a grudge against Dansol due to past events with Yiyeon.

“What’s going on? Why?”

As the tension between them grew, people started to gather. Although it happened earlier than before the regression, it was a familiar scene to Dansol.

With the crowd forming, Yoo Doohyun suddenly put on a kind face.

“It seems like Dansol misunderstood… Do you have any grievances with me?”

As expected, his acting skills were top-notch. Even Dansol had once been deceived by this performance.

“Yes. You called me a ‘failed idol.’ I heard everything you said to senior Yeomin. Apologize.”

“…Huh. You must have misheard, Dansol. I never said that. What’s a ‘failed idol’? I don’t even know what that means.”

“Really, you don’t know?”

“I don’t. I never said that. Senior, did I say that?”

“Uh… I don’t know? I wasn’t really paying attention…”

Thinking that Yeomin’s vague response meant support, Yoo Doohyun grew even bolder.

“Dansol, are you feeling insecure about this?”

“…”

“I mean, it seems like you might be overthinking things and misheard.”

Yoo Doohyun’s words clearly aimed to crush Dansol’s pride. Just as Dansol wondered if he needed someone to fight for him, he pointed towards where the staff were sitting.

“We can ask the audio director.”

Before the regression, cameras and audio set up everywhere had captured everything, proving Dansol wasn’t wrong. But none of the staff stood up for him.

Dansol still didn’t trust people, but he started trusting his instincts instead.

When cornered, Yoo Doohyun would definitely…

“Well… if you felt bad because of something I said, maybe I was unclear. It’s my fault, I apologize.”

Dansol had expected this ambiguous attempt to escape.

PD Choi, watching the argument, now had a twinkle in his eye.

No matter how powerful Yoo Doohyun’s agency was, with PD Choi’s expression, this scene would likely air.

PD Choi was stubborn at best and eccentric at worst. He would push through any pressure to air a scene he deemed necessary.

Dansol had seen various agencies struggle to manage such situations before the regression.

As a producer, PD Choi had admirable qualities, but as a person, she was quite ruthless.

Dansol’s agency had learned this the hard way, suffering due to Choi’s unyielding methods.

“I’m not trying to fight. I just want to confirm. If I misheard, I’ll sincerely apologize. Let’s check?”

“I said it’s my fault! I’m sorry. Isn’t that enough? We’re all waiting because of you. Come on.”

“Yes, the staff are waiting. So, let’s just check the audio—”

“Goddammit, why can’t you understand? I said I was wrong! And hey! Did I say anything incorrect?”

‘Nice.’

Dansol cheered internally. Over the past three years, he’d had to monitor countless replays and community discussions, even if he didn’t want to.

Through this constant review, Dansol realized that the once intimidating Yoo Doohyun was just a few years older and no more than a child.

Yoo Doohyun was malicious and cunning. But he could only hide his true nature better than others his age. He was emotional and hot-tempered.

Dansol figured he could use this to create a dramatic scene.

“…Yes, I’m a failed idol. But that’s something I say about myself. I don’t want to hear it from others. I may be like this, but my members… they’re talented and will do well in the future. So, please… don’t speak carelessly.”

Dansol bit back his tears and turned away.

He had been so nervous for that one brief statement that his clenched fists had turned white.

After speaking confidently, he turned and trembled so desperately that no one dared to speak to him. He managed to walk to the bathroom in his room before he could finally breathe properly.

***

Early that morning, PD Choi, who usually left the trailer editing to the assistant director, sat in front of the computer for the first time in a long while.

After much deliberation, he added split-screen shots of Dansol and Doohyun in the next week’s preview and applied a mosaic filter.

Then, he included Doohyun’s comment, “A failed idol,” and Dansol’s “Apologize,” with altered voices. After pondering for a while, he pressed enter.

After the preview, which looked like a scene from a news program, aired, the message board for “RO Match Survival” crashed due to the overwhelming traffic.

***

[RO Match Survival in Island Portal]

White shirt, shorts, and shoes—those are all outfits that Doohyun owns.

(Evidence of failed idol Doohyun.jpg)

⤷Whoa… I thought Doohyun was a good guy. So disappointing.
⤷But hasn’t it been confirmed yet? It might just be a bait. We should stay neutral until it’s clear.
⤷LOL, it’s obvious. Unless the production team edited one letter at a time, it’s clear that Doohyun is in the wrong.
⤷But who is saying “Apologize”? Taeoh?
⤷No, no. It looks like Dansol.
⤷But honestly, if it’s Dansol, Doohyun isn’t entirely wrong, is he?
⤷Right. Dansol was indeed a failed idol. Who knew about Joo Dansol before RO Match?
⤷Stop deflecting. Even if he’s a failed idol, should you say that to his face? Do failed idols not have human rights, you crazy person?
⤷True. Just because someone is not popular doesn’t mean they can be treated poorly.
⤷And now Dansol isn’t a failed idol anymore; he rose in popularity after RO Match.
⤷Agreed. I don’t get why they didn’t make it big with their member lineup. If the producing was just a bit better, they would have been popular by now.
But I think the one who called Dansol a failed idol was Taeoh.

Doohyun and Dansol have no reason to fight. If you look at the footage, it seems like Doohyun was whispering to someone next to him, and that person looks like Yoon Yeomin. Yoon Yeomin and Taeoh have been paired together, but they don’t get along well and seem to hate each other from the first episode.

It might have been the day Taeoh was supporting, and Yoon Yeomin was mocking, with Doohyun assisting. Dansol might have been blamed while trying to cover up for them.

I’m really scared that it was our Taeoh who called him a failed idol…

I’ve felt our actors getting ignored at award ceremonies for a while now. If they said that to Taeoh, I won’t stay quiet.

⤷It seems like they were talking to Dansol.
⤷Honestly, it can’t be Taeoh. Taeoh is more popular than Doohyun. Who would call who a failed idol? Haha. Doohyun’s fan base is tiny compared to Taeoh’s.
(Comparison of Doohyun’s tiny fan base vs. Hera’s fan base.gif)
⤷Unless Doohyun was on drugs, it seems like it was directed at Dansol.
⤷Actors looking down on idols isn’t new, but Dansol is actually pretty good at acting.

It was at that time, while numerous speculative posts were being uploaded to identify the two people blurred in the preview.

Someone claiming to be a staff member of “RO Match Survival in Island” appeared.