An Insincere Idol’s Blank Slate

Chapter 4

The trio began muttering in response to my question.

“Are you asking because you really don’t know?”

“I think he really might not know. Isn’t it a good thing that at least he picked up on the mood and asked if he said something wrong?”

“Hajoon, you’re so understanding. If that’s progress? How bad was he before...?”

I can hear everything, you bastards.

I wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong with what I had said. My main concern was understanding why my Sincerity Level was being deducted for causing discord among the members.

As I gazed down at the three heads below me, Hajoon tapped the floor in front of him. “Alright, Eden. Would you come here and have a seat?”

Damn, I shouldn’t have asked that question.

Hajoon would often drone on for around thirty minutes, but the length of his monologues had decreased over time. But I was curious, so I sat down.

My old friend gave me a serious gaze with his deep brown eyes. “Do you remember how hard we worked and struggled in preparation for our debut album?”

No. It was seven years ago for me, so I can’t remember the details.

Hajoon, however, interpreted my lack of response as affirmative and continued. “Do you think it’s appropriate to ignore all the work we’ve done and mock us for dreaming too big? That’s dismissive of your own efforts too.”

So my mocking tone was the problem?

I scratched my cheek, still not fully understanding the problem. I had just been honest.

Now that I thought about it, Hajoon had stopped nagging some time before my first regression. It felt oddly satisfying to hear his nagging for the first time in a while, but I couldn’t stop myself from yawning as he carried on with his lengthy monologue.

“He doesn’t seem to be reflecting on his mistake at all...”

“Be quiet, Dobi.” I pushed Dobin’s head down, stood up, tousled his hair, and addressed Hajoon. “I’m going to take a shower and then come back. If you can get your point down to three lines, you can tell me again before bed.”

As I headed towards the bathroom, I heard Jaehee asked Hajoon, “Wooow, that’s what progress looks like?”

“Well, he used to plug his ears and run to the bathroom whenever I opened my mouth. So I’d say this is quite an improvement, don’t you think? At least he agreed to hear the three-line summary,” Hajoon recounted.

“I mean, does he think you’re his mom?”

I shut the bathroom door and took a deep breath, Unconcerned with hearing the rest of their conversation. I had to mentally prepare myself.

“Status window,” I murmured under my breath, and it appeared. The flashing “Weekly Quest” window caught my attention, so I clicked on it.

[Check Your Weekly Quests]

[- Upload selfies and post on the official social media account 5x a week minimum (Sincerity Level +2)]

[- Check fan reactions at least 6x a week (Sincerity Level +2)]

[- Upload posts on the fan blog FROM’s bulletin board at least 4x a week (Sincerity Level +2)]

[*If you complete all quests, you will receive an additional Sincerity Level +10]

[*Expect changes or new additions to the Weekly Quests list every week!

[*Failing to finish at least two weekly tasks will result in a penalty]

“Why do I have to deal with all these annoying tasks?” I grumbled as I scanned the quest list.

I’d rather write another song than tackle this stuff, damn it.

There was even a penalty for failing to complete the tasks as required. I was rendered speechless by the difficulty presented. However, before I went back into the living room, I remembered something. They were all tasks that Jaehee, recognized for his devotion to his fans, had been doing on a regular basis.

Did Jaehee really do all of this without expecting any reward? Or could it be that he actually regressed before me and was under system control?

[The sincerity rekindling project is designed exclusively for ‘Yoon Eden’]

Oh, alright. I got it. Was it really wrong to doubt someone’s devotion to his fans?

I tsked at the system’s swift rejection of Jaehee being under its control and turned my attention back to the weekly quest. If I could complete it, I could earn sixteen sincerity points per week. Since it was the beginning of my career, I had probably been assigned simple tasks, so it didn’t make sense to skip any.

I’d be happy just to stop losing points.

As long as I didn’t completely deplete my sincerity points throughout the week, there was hope for recovery. As long as I retained one point until Sunday, I could stop the next regression.

After cleaning up in the bathroom, I went into the room that Hajoon, Yehyun, and I shared, lay down on the mattress, and signed in to the official social media account provided by the agency.

REVE_official @LnL_reve

[Yoojae Dream]

Hey there fans, Yoojae from Reve checking in for the first time to say hi.

Did you enjoy our first performance today? It feels like it’s truly happening, hehe. Looking forward to engaging with fans while we promote our album in the near future!

I hope we can stay connected for a long time! (hamster emoji)

#Reve #Yoojae

(Photo)

Shares 1 Quotes 1 Likes 3

I was impressed by the youngest member of our group, who had already uploaded a selfie and a greeting message on the group’s official social media account. The “Dream” in the username was a play on words, using the English term for “dream” (which was also the meaning of “Reve” in French) as well as the Korean term “from” that sounded like dream.

Jaehee’s approach had become standard, and other group members started writing in a similar fashion whenever they published content on their official accounts. I supposed I could simply follow his lead.

As I was skimming through the text, my eyes lingered on the hamster emoji.

Jaehee is pushing himself as the hamster.

At the moment, he was the shortest member of the group with an adorable face, making the hamster emoji a fitting choice. And yet, in two years time, a nineteen-year-old Jaehee would experience a substantial growth spurt to become the tallest person in the group. His previously soft features would transform into more defined features, completely erasing any resemblance to a hamster.

But the fans still insisted on calling him a giant hamster.

It was really strange. I would feel terrible if someone called me a giant hamster, but he liked that nickname and bragged about it to others. Was it just a difference of taste?

But it’s not like I can tell him not to use it because his future self doesn’t look anything like a hamster. I don’t know. He’ll figure out whether it’s a hamster or a rat.

While scrolling through the feed, I noticed it was mostly empty, apart from the debut news link from an unknown source, the concept photos of the debut song, and Jaehee’s post, which caused my expression to change. I had rarely visited the official social media account before my regression. I just shared pictures of Jaehee embracing me in any of the images he posted.

Given that the requirement was to make five weekly posts on the official social account, I also decided to make four weekly posts on the official fansite. Since Jaehee hadn’t made any posts there yet, I would be the first to do so.

[From. Eden]

(Photo)

Hello, this is Reve Eden. I look forward to engaging with you.

I published the message with a kind greeting and a selfie from my phone’s gallery that I presumed was snapped during my time as a trainee. It was the longest post I had ever written on the official account. In the past, I would let my audience know that I was still around by posting snippets of lyrics from pop songs that I was into.

[An insincere post of less than two lines was detected on the official account]

[Sincerity Level -1]

I grimaced as the sharp pain stabbed my body again. The system was starting to creep me out. It detected my language, my gaze, and now it was monitoring my posts. I pressed the edit button while contemplating the reason for the Sincerity Level deduction.

I have nothing to say. What am I supposed to write? It’s not like we have any fans right now.

It was so annoying. How had I ended up here? I wished to return to the period when I could simply jot down lyrics from a song.

Can I just go back to being an established idol with seven years of experience?

I squeezed out what I wanted to say and barely extended the greeting to three lines, sighing after each sentence, then went back into my shared room.

“Hey, sighing makes you age faster. Once that happens, your skin and facial appearance start to deteriorate,” Yehyun told me as he put on many indistinguishable products such as creams, eye cream, and moisturizers in succession.

I wondered what kind of reaction it would garner if I were to take a photo of him in the middle of his beauty routine and share it with our fans. Would they think he was doing too much, or would they praise Yehyun for taking such good care of himself? I would put money on the latter.

“Oh, I’m good because of my talent, while you have to rely on your physical appearance,” I replied.

I grimaced from the stabbing pain that shot through me as soon as I finished speaking.

[Words that incite discord among the members were detected]

[Sincerity Level -1]

Yehyun is so petty. I realized it when he ignored all the hard work I had done to enhance his skills and cursed me out while drunk, but he’s also upset by a comment like that?

I mean he’s in this group because of his appearance, not talent, right?

In order to prevent regression, I made the decision not to be honest with Yehyun and to just offer him compliments as if he were a five-year-old. My sincerity points had dropped by two points because of him.

Yehyun clenched his jaw and muttered as he slammed the lids of his skincare products shut. “I’m sorry for not having any talent.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I mean, I’m going to push you until people stop saying you don’t have any talent.”

Yehyun stared at me for a moment before plopping down on the bed. Despite seeing him daily, his good looks were undeniable. “You should work on changing that awful way of speak—”

The door swung open, cutting Yehyun off. Jaehee pushed his face and my phone through the narrow opening in the door and into the room.

“Huh, what? Eden, did you post something on the fan blog?”

“What? Am I not allowed to post something?”

“Ugh, I wanted to be the first to post! The title of ‘fan-loving member of the group’ is supposed to be mine!” Jaehee whined.

“You can take it. Go ahead. Take the title of a fan-loving member or a nerd. You can take it all,” I said, lobbing a pillow at our youngest member, who was spouting nonsense and adding to the distress of someone who was already annoyed.

The title may be your motivation, but it’s a matter of survival for me, you bastard.

***

The end of the first week of Reve promotion was quickly approaching. There had been a small increase in the number of members who started following the official account and joining the fan cafe during the week, but it wasn’t anything substantial.

I had put in significant effort to finish the weekly quest, but the only search results for “Reve” were our official accounts and a few comments like, “Who are these guys? ‘Reve’?” When I searched “Eden,” all I found was information on places and people named Eden.

“Hello, experienced members of the music industry! We’re a new group called Reve! Nice to meet you!”

In the reception area, I saluted the mid-career team that had recently returned, stooping at a right angle to demonstrate respect as I handed them our debut album. Naturally, right after I handed it over, our album was flung onto the waiting room table.

I engaged in small talk with the more experienced band members, getting a pat on the back and some phony praise about their great performance before moving on to the next room.

“They’ll be performing for Arario TV and Showdown soon, too.”