The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 172
The reason she hadn’t been able to attend the 4th round of Targeting Star live was enough to plunge NBML into gloom. Now, watching the round unfold through the rapidly updating SNS timeline on her phone and the tablet streaming the stage, she pressed a hand to her forehead.
“God, it’s too much. This is more exhausting than being at work!”
It was understandable.
<Trainee Kim Chunyong fiddling with his hair—he looks like he has a lot on his mind…>
—“You want to change your hair color? …To what? Got anything in mind? Hold on, let me bring up the color palette first.”
<And the mentor Kim Chunyong sought out was none other than our very own Moon Yun Ha!?>
“Oh my god, Chunyong! Why! Why would you change your hair color today of all days—when I couldn’t go?!”
Her ultimate bias, who’d been sticking with mid-length black hair all through rehearsals for this stage, had suddenly appeared onstage with dyed red hair.
[IfellinlovewithaChineseman@alwaysliuuway
Until Ryuryu addresses it officially, let’s not engage with rumors!
@GLAEMFEK Please block and report this account!
I’ll compile the PDF myself]
[⎿Are you serious? If he speaks officially about being engaged, that’s just confirmation they’re getting married soon, what the hell]
[⎿⎿Take down the post.]
And the trainee she’d once pushed as part of a dance-line pairing with her fave had now set SNS trends ablaze over an engagement scandal!
“At first I thought it was just another rumor like Chunyong’s… told people on my main to stop spreading baseless gossip… and then this happens?!”
The message Gao Xiumin had giddily sent—clueless of the weight of the situation—had already become a massive meme across SNS.
[ClimbingToStardom @Workingcl_ass
She’s too big a woman for Korea to contain. I need grilled pork belly and soju for dinner just to restore emotional balance.]
[⎿Let’s be real, grilled pork belly’s not even that big a deal.]
[MentalBreakdownTillIDie @mennnnheeriS2
Our Liuliu is too big for Korea to hold! Amazing that he’s in #TargetingStar’s debut lineup (≧∇≦)/ Sounds like the team name might be ARROWS lol can’t wait!]
[⎿ARROWS, lmaooo. Was that really the best they could do? Still, you throwing shade at the trainees that got a song from your own Jeong Yeon Woo is kinda low ㅠㅠ]
“Great, fight more. Ugh, I’m so tired of this… And to think this nonsense is part of daily life for idol fans now. It’s why I’ve only ever stanned survival trainees.”
Letting out a long sigh, NBML rubbed her forehead and tapped back on her tablet to re-capture the moment Kim Chunyong had flashed by.
—“It’s said you went along with Jeong Yeon Woo seonbaenim to deliver gifts to the other trainees! How did it feel, Chunyong trainee?”
—“Ahh, I was so nervous since it was in the car of such a legendary seonbaenim… haha, I guess I should keep the details secret, right?!”
—“Oho, you’re keeping it to yourself? Sounds like someone’s learned how to play for the camera!”
Red hair fluttering, Chunyong grinned through the post-performance interview with Choi Gaon—his face sparkling like always.
Just watching him in that moment was enough to wash away the stress NBML had been absorbing from SNS—the insults, the backbiting, the desperate cries for attention.
Lightly brushing the image of red-haired Chunyong on her screen, she narrowed her eyes and muttered in a low voice.
“…Yeah. What matters most to me is that Chunyong debuts.”
Even if the dance-line dream she’d had of Liu Wei and Kim Chunyong was no longer likely, this scandal might actually push Chunyong closer to debut.
Especially since the 4th round “Groggy” performance hadn’t scored that much lower than the winning “Teen Spirit” team in on-site votes.
“So now, I’ve got to finish what I started…”
Springing up from her bed, NBML marched over to her desk.
The blinking screensaver disappeared, revealing the dual monitors she had bled money to assemble after painful price comparisons. On one screen, part of a project she’d been working on was paused.
[KIM ‘SPRING’ YONG▷ NOW]
Her promotional video for Kim Chunyong, prepped as a WeTube ad ahead of the upcoming live voting round.
“The cost was a bit steep, yeah… but worth it. I’ll send over the final file by tomorrow, and if I start running it a week before the live broadcast, it’ll be perfect.”
But that wasn’t all she had planned.
With other fans of Kim Chunyong with similar usernames, she’d coordinated a new subway LED billboard ad, bus stop ads, SNS giveaway events—and even custom-designed handheld fans to distribute at the live show.
Among her friends, this level of dedication had stirred quite a bit of chatter.
“Honestly, I think you’ve lost it. You weren’t like this before. You were the type to squeeze everything out of trainees and move on without a second thought.”
“When are you referring to exactly? Really, ugh?!”
“When? When? Hey, just from the ones I know—ugh!”
“Shut it. People in the café are all staring at us now.”
Kim Chuyong’s ranking is close now, but one might ask: Why go this far for a trainee whose rank is still unstable? Who might not even debut?
Why not just enjoy it like before—see what you like and leave it at that?
But.
Because she had named Kim Chunyong her “miracle,” NBML wanted to do everything she could for him.
‘I’m doing this because I really, really care about you. Because I like you, and I want good things to happen to you. That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing more than that.’
“Our Chunyong just needs to make his debut…”
And maybe—just maybe—that wish of hers had made it through.
Because at that very moment, in a trainee dormitory somewhere in Seoul, Kim Chunyong…
…was doing everything he could for his debut, and for his redemption.
kcyfan1000
AHHH NBML CHAPTER
My girl, I loved you, I missed you
Thanks for the translation <3
Beees
Thanks for the translation (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
Tbh, I can only imagine NBML’s video of Chunyong like one of those edits about characters.