WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

I'm a Reporter, Please let me get off the Stage

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Chapter 13

“We need to find Tae Oh.”

“All of a sudden? Did you manage to get in touch with him?”

I couldn't answer Chae Ire's question.

“Does he have a house in Seoul? It would be a relief if he's still in Korea.”

Baek Gyeom added.

As far as I knew, Tae Oh was a solid member with a non-divisive image.

He was over 180cm tall, 24 years old – a year older than Baek Gyeom –, and a devout Christian.

He spoke Korean a bit awkwardly but fluently.

He had clear, dark and deep-set eyes which gave him an exotic look, with a long, straight nose and a wide, refreshing smile like Yoon Sanho’s.

His appearance and demeanor gave off the impression of someone well-bred and well-educated.

Fans even praised him as a model citizen.

“……It’ll be really hard to convince him to stay, won’t it?”

“Honestly, we can’t blame him even if he has already left the country.”

Leaving the country…… Why did that bastard have to say something so ominous!

Baek Gyeom and Yoon Sanho took turns adding fuel to the fire in my mind.

These kinds of comments were as good as telling me ‘You’re as good as dead.’

The only one who tried to comfort me in my distress was our youngest, Chae Ire.

“Tae Oh Hyung really liked Korea. Don’t you think he might have been upset since you suggested disbanding?”

“Right, he must have boasted a lot about us to his Lord……”

“Ah, Gyeom Hyung, that’s a little...”

Even though Yoon Sanho was pretending to scold Baek Gyeom for his nonsense, I could see him trying to hold back his laughter.

Chae Ire gently placed his hand on my shoulder, continuing to comfort me.

“Honestly, since you woke up, what can I say…… that radical change you underwent…… I really like it?”

Baek Gyeom nodded in agreement.

“Me too, I only knew you were definitely Ahn Yuyoung when you told me to leave out the pickles from the tuna kimbap.”

Detecting fakes by their food preferences…… It kind of didn’t seem like Baek Gyeom, but he also had a sloppy side to him, huh?

“I didn’t know you thought so much about us.”

Chae Ire said with a laugh.

“Right. If you really want to continue, don’t you think Tae Oh Hyung would understand?”

Yoon Sanho also began to comfort me.

“You guys……”

Isn’t this kind of touching?

“Oh, and”

Yoon Sanho added.

“……You promised to release my solo album, right? You said you had a plan, right?”

……This is why one shouldn’t make promises to kids so lightly.

I was starting to feel this sense of responsibility as Yuyoung of WEEKANIZ, even though I hadn’t even lived his full life……

I patted my backside and stood up.

Three pairs of eyes followed me closely.

Although my resolve had faltered a little……

A sense of responsibility as a leader?

There’s no way I could fully embrace that role after less than a month in this body.

In times like these, maintaining a cool head was crucial to find a way.

Alright, let’s refocus.

I need Tae Oh with us, or else I’ll ‘die’.

Just as I had proposed a solo album to Yoon Sanho as a bargaining chip, I needed something to bait Tae Oh as well.

After some thought, I looked at the members standing before me and spoke with a deliberately solemn voice.

“……I’ll convert.”

“What?”

* * *

A clear winter morning.

The sun shone brightly, but the cold wave hadn’t yet receded.

Baek Gyeom was stomping his feet, hands buried in his pockets.

I silently descended a short flight of steps with my head lowered.

So far, we have visited three churches.

……We were currently scouring every church we could find.

Reflecting on yesterday’s events.

‘……Convert?’

Yoon Sanho’s voice nearly cracked in his disbelief.

‘Hyung…… Aren’t you a buddhist?’

Baek Gyeom pointed out a certain fact (that I had been unaware of).

‘To catch a tiger, you have to enter its den.’

‘Tae Oh Hyung turned into prey.’

‘No, he hasn’t.’

I opened the navigation app on Ahn Yuyoung’s phone.

When I searched for ‘church’, about eight results popped up within a 5km radius of the dorm.

There were so many…… Korea really was the land of churches.

If my head wasn’t working well, then I had no other choice but to move my body.

Tae Oh didn’t have any other place to stay besides the dorm provided by the company, so he wouldn’t go to a church too far away from the dorm.

‘Does Tae Oh have a girlfriend?’

‘Erm, I don’t think so. He always came straight back to the dorm.’

Then could he be at a friend’s house? A relative’s house?

But he was going to depart the country the day after tomorrow.

There wasn’t enough time to consider all the possibilities.

If he left without even saying goodbye to the members, then who might he want to say goodbye to in Korea?

The last person he would like to see before leaving Korea.

‘……His pastor.’

He might not be the last person, but he’d definitely be someone important to him.

Based on this hypothesis, we tried searching around, but it was just that, a hypothesis. It didn’t yield any results.

‘Excuse me, is it possible to meet with any of this place’s pastors? Or does anyone know if Tae Oh was here?’

‘Uhm…… I’m not sure. We have so many pastors…… and we don’t know all the members.’

In the end, Baek Gyeom, Yoon Sanho, Chae Ire, and I returned to the dorm without any significant leads.

‘Isn’t there any clue, hmmm.”

In response to Yoon Sanho’s question, I rubbed my chin as I pondered.

‘……Ah!’

‘What is it, Hyung?’

I suddenly remembered something. I hurriedly pulled out my phone and logged into my social media account.

‘Tae Oh probably went to church every Sunday if he had no other plans, right?’

‘If we didn’t have anything scheduled on Sunday mornings, I think so?’

‘Ire, open the calendar app.’

There were usually four Sundays in a month. That would make it eight in two months and twelve in three months.

It was unlikely that we would have schedules during all of these twelve Sundays.

I requested our schedule from Kim Kihoon, from September until now.

There were eleven Sundays from September to November in 2021.

So I searched starting with ‘210905 Tae Oh’.

Fans loved to document every little detail, even military enlistments and such. There might be a screenshot or photo of when he went to church or something.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the information I needed from the past three months.

……Not surprising. No sane fan would publicly post a private moment like an idol going to church. Doing so would make them a prime target for criticism.

I then entered Tae Oh’s empty room. Since I already laid out the groundwork with my talk of converting, this minor trespassing should be fine.

There wasn’t even a speck of dust left in any of his drawers, as if he really intended on leaving the country.

I actually had secretly searched the room last night while the others were asleep already, but found nothing useful.

“Hyung, are you searching through Tae Oh Hyung’s room again?”

“……”

Baek Gyeom was really fast on the uptake.

“Actually…… I found some information.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a member of Loop7 named Lee Chanyoung. It looks like he went to church with Tae Oh Hyung. While searching, I found that he mentioned Tae Oh Hyung on LiveJet..”

Wow, his search skills were as good as mine, huh?

I searched there as well, and found a few posts.

<@ Chanyoung mentioned WEEKANIZ’ Tae Oh on LiveJet today! It seems like they go to church together ㅠ0ㅠ They must get along well! Supporting their friendship ^^//>

“Does anyone have the contact info of Loop7’s Changyoung?”

What? No one?

I guess idols weren’t as close as people might think.

Even politicians, who were busy grabbing each other by the collar and flipping tables in heated arguments, would put their arms around each other and go out for a drink once the cameras were off……

I guess it was hard for young people to separate business from their personal lives.

Then I had no other choice.

I found Chanyoung’s personal social media account and sent him a message.

“Hyung…… Hyung!”

“Huh…… Huh?.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw Chae Ire trying to wake me up.

It seemed I fell asleep for a bit after I sent that message to Chanyoung, probably because I was so exhausted from running around since the early morning hours.

This body fell asleep so easily even though the situation was like this……

I would have to build up my stamina once I gathered up all the members.

I checked my phone and, fortunately, there was a reply.

<Hello, this is Ahn Yuyong, the leader of WEEKANIZ. I didn’t have your personal contact information, so I decided to contact you with this direct message.

I’m currently looking for our member, Tae Oh. I haven’t been able to get in touch with him so…… [See more]>

“……Hyung, why did you write him as if he’s your superior?”

It’s a habit. Just a habit……

Anyway, the reply was as follows.

<Hello there! It’s Jinrak Church in XX City, Gyeonggi-do… You can’t reach him? I haven’t contacted him for a while either ㅠㅠ I hope everything gets resolved quickly……>

Resolved……

Nevermind, what did I expect?

In any case, it looked like I had to go to that church.

I lay there, staring blankly at the white walls around me.

Then my eyes landed on the cross hanging on one of them.

It was a plain cross, something one might expect in a Christian's room.

He had taken all his belongings but left the cross behind.

At first I had thought it was just something ordinary.

Wait a second.

“……Ire, does that cross look strange to you?”

That cross seemed a bit odd.

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