WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

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

_________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 43

“Yes, reporter. Please go ahead with your question.”

Even though I couldn’t see his face clearly from this distance, that dark aura was definitely Kim Heetae.

From my long experience, nothing good ever came out of that bastard opening his mouth.

I braced myself.

“As far as I know, WEEKANIZ joined the program at a later stage. Is that correct? If so, I’m curious about the reason behind the delayed decision. Ah, I’d also like to hear PD-nim’s response to this.”

‘This bastard……’

How the hell did Kim Heetae find out about that?

I quickly glanced at PD Kim, but he also looked slightly caught off guard, as if he had never leaked any information about this.

“Ah, then shall we hear from PD-nim first?”

Great. Now the person with the most power to control the narrative had the first word. Hah, I’m nervous.

“Ah, yes. It’s true that WEEKANIZ was the last to join. But there’s no special reason behind it. Hmm…… Yuyoung-ssi made a very strong case for his group, and I saw potential in that. As you all know, our program places great importance on passion and determination.”

PD Kim-nim, thank you.

Just this once, I’ll actually use nim to address you.

How could he give such a clean answer? Say what you want about him being a pretentious boomer, but at least he was a veteran who wouldn’t publicly smear his own name.

However, his expression was a little stiff, clearly conveying something like ‘I may have said that, but I’m still kinda pissed about it.’

What do you want me to do, dude? Don’t blame me.

“Then, Yuyoung-ssi, could you share a few words as well?”

“Ah, yes. As PD-nim just mentioned, I really wanted to participate in <Ultimate Idol>, so I personally expressed my strong interest to the director.”

Reporters hated these kinds of parroted responses, but this time, I didn’t really have any other choice.

What else was I supposed to say? That I twisted the PD’s arm into letting us on the show?

“I see, Reporter-nim, does that answer your question?”

“Hmm, then let me ask one more thing. Were you and PD Kim personally acquainted before this?”

What was with that sly line of questioning?

“Yes, well…… I suppose so. Yes.”

PD Kim answered before I could even open my mouth.

Probably because he had no clue when or where he supposedly met me, so he just mumbled his way through that one.

Made sense. How could he remember something that never even happened? Haha.

“Hmm…… I see. Understood.”

There was something off about Kim Heetae’s tone.

What was with that extra emphasis on ‘Understood’?

However, regardless of my unease, the event carried on without pause.

Kim Heetae didn’t ask any more questions after that.

That somehow made all of this even more terrifying. Still, I got swept up in answering a flurry of other questions, so the tense exchange with Kim Heetae faded into the background.

And when I say ‘a flurry of questions’......

Thanks to that brutal highlight reel, the intensity of the questions shot through the roof.

As both a reporter and an idol, I didn’t think I had ever seen a press conference like this in my life.

“I have a question for all five idol leaders. What were your thoughts after watching the highlight video?”

‘Thoughts’ my ass……

Reporter-nim, how would you feel if your company gathered all your biggest screw-ups, compiled them into a PowerPoint presentation, and presented it to a hundred of your coworkers?

“I just feel deeply apologetic. All I can think about is how I need to do better for our fans and work even harder.”

Our Job interview ace Yeojun responded calmly.

Hmm…… Not a bad answer.

However there was no hook in it. Nothing that would make a reporter go ‘That’s the headline’.

“…… Honestly, I feel humiliated.”

Flash—!

A burst of camera flashes exploded the instant I said the word ‘humiliated’.

Reporters loved it when you dropped provocative words like that. It made the articles become more ‘clickable’.

And they weren't wrong. These kinds of articles did rake in views.

By that logic, words like ‘I apologize’ or ‘I’ll work harder’ were words that were already splatter across thousands of headlines.

And all of those articles? They would soon get swallowed by the algorithm, buried in an endless sea of duplicate content.

The key was simple. ‘Use words no one else is using’.

“……However, because I feel humiliated, I’m actually grateful to <Ultimate Idol>. If I had just kept going like this, I would’ve stagnated without realizing it. I’m deeply thankful to the program and production team for stepping in and giving me a chance to break free from that.”

“Wow, what a fantastic response. Oh, looks like the staff members in the audience are applauding! Shall we all give a round of applause?”

[Many people have been moved by your words. Eloquence has increased!]

Oh, I didn’t expect this to have such an impact……

I could feel my face heating up for a whole different reason now.

The others also answered in the usual apologetic, regretful and don’t know what to do kind of way.

“I feel like I should drop to my knees.”

It made sense coming from IONER’s Yeeun or Loop7’s Heerae, who should have been on their knees.

But the fact that Chanstin’s Yuho said, ‘I feel like I should drop to my knees’ piqued my interest.

Because Chenstin wasn’t even in the highlight reel.

Yuho could have easily let this slide since he had nothing to apologize for, but he ended up saying something so dramatic.

In Korean society, standing alone in a sea of screw-ups and coming out looking good was really dangerous.

Maybe he was deliberately trying to blend in with us to avoid standing out.

He seemed to have some brains, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something sly about him.

From what I could remember, Chenstin’s members were all around Ire’s age.

Even in a recording set full of seasoned, washed-up idols that had been around for at least 3 years, they stood out.

And now one of them was putting on this cunning little act, which was highly suspicious.

“We’ll now take our final question. Ah, yes, the reporter seated toward the back on the left. Please go ahead.”

“Yes, Hello. I’m reporter Lee Hwikyung from Buyeon Daily.”

Huh?

“This kind of program doesn’t seem like something fans would particularly enjoy…… Given the nature of the show, ‘evil editing’ is practically unavoidable, right? The atmosphere between the contestants also feels quite tense and negative rather than fun. How do you plan on addressing these issues?”

Reporter Lee Hwikyung……

I knew that guy.

We worked for different companies, but we’d met on-site, exchanged business cards, and hit it off quite quickly.

We were the same age and joined the industry around the same time, so we often shared drinks and venting about work.

Meeting him again like this…… No, I guess it was inevitable that we would end up crossing paths someday.

But after my body, mind, and entire timeline got wrecked beyond repair, I hadn’t thought about him much, so I felt both a strange sense of familiarity and distance.

“The idols on this show are all approaching filming with a positive mindset. As for the ‘evil editing’ you’re concerned about, we’ll be mindful of that as well. In fact, once you watch the show, you’ll see that there’s barely any editing involved. We won’t be repeating mistakes over and over just for the sake of it. But of course, we’ll be carefully refining the footage to showcase the moments we want to highlight.”

To sum up PD Kim’s half-assed answer in one sentence:

‘Yeah, we’re gonna edit the hell out of it, so look forward to it.’

He never actually said he wouldn't manipulate the footage. If anything, he practically confirmed that they would be making the edits as artificial as possible.

Nevertheless, PD Kim looked pretty pleased with himself.

Suddenly, he spun around and swept his gaze over the five of us.

“Isn’t that right, everyone?”

I could feel the unspoken pressure from that smiling face of his.

“……Yes!”

We had no choice but to grin and answer loudly.

* * *

“Ah~ that was exhausting.”

“Seriously. That was scary……”

As Loop7’s Heerae stretched and muttered, Yeojun responded in his usual calm voice.

After the production press conference ended, the five of us returned to the waiting room for a bit.

The plan was to stay here for a while before heading back to our respective vans and return to the same place we came from.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Hah, the news is already going crazy.”

Yeeun mumbled to himself as he scrolled through his phone.

I picked up my own phone to check the news as well.

<‘Ultimate Idol’ Yuyoung “I feel humiliated…… I’ll work harder”>

<‘Ultimate Idol’ production crew “These days, Idols have no passion”>

<Chenstin’s Yuho at ‘Ultimate Idol’ press conference: “I feel like I should go on my knees” What’s going on?>

What an absolute mess.

Looking at these headlines alone, you’d think the idols at the press conference had committed vandalism or something.

“Hyung, seriously, why did you say ‘humiliated’......? You could’ve just said you were sorry and moved on.”

Heerae was lightly scolding me.

“Well, it was how I felt. I just wanted to be honest.”

I gave him a sheepish smile.

Kid, if you think ‘just enough’ is the answer to everything, you’re sorely mistaken.

The five of us are sitting in this waiting room because we settled for ‘just enough’.

I turned back to my phone, scrolling through the flood of articles.

Now that the tension had worn off, I could feel a dull headache.

[Notoriety : 55

Notoriety Keywords : PR Disaster]

……So it was because of my Notoriety Score.

And the keyword was ‘PR Disaster’.

It didn’t even specify what kind of PR disaster, just that it was my fault.

But I didn’t feel particularly wronged. And it wasn’t just my imagination.

With articles like these flooding the internet, most people were bound to feel at least a little negatively toward me, even if only a bit.

It wasn’t like clicking on these titles would bring up some well reasoned defense pieces or something after all. They weren’t trying to explain the situation, but to amplify it.

Most of these articles were stuffed with provocative words like apology, humiliation, wrongdoing, kneeling and so on, making it sound as if the idols at the press conference had committed some massive social scandal.

<‘Ultimate Idol’ Production Team – Why was Yuyoung allowed to join Late? ‘Personal connections’>

……The sheer dedication to manufacturing rumors was honestly impressive.

<(By Kim Heetae, Senior Reporter at Atstar News) The reason behind idol group WEEKANIZ participation in KCN’s new survival program ‘Ultimate Idol’ has been revealed to be because of their ‘personal connections’ to the production team.>

Wow. His ability to spew nonsense with confidence was still going strong.

Let’s read more.

<On the morning of the 9th, KCN held a production press conference for <Ultimate Idol> at XX Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

According to our sources, WEEKANIZ’s Yuyoung was not originally part of the ‘Ultimate Idol’ lineup.

However, for reasons unknown, he was added as the final contestant and appeared at the press conference.>

This article. The tone was dripping with ‘Wow, can you believe this guy?’, seriously pissing me off.

Let’s just keep reading.

<At the press conference, our reporter asked Yuyoung about how he ended up joining the show.

To this, PD Kim explained simply. “ Yuyoung made a strong appeal."

When asked by the reporter “Were you originally acquainted with him (Yuyoung)?” PD Kim responded somewhat awkwardly saying “Well… Yeah, I guess so.”

Considering both our own investigation and the statements made at the press conference, it ultimately appears that Yuyoung, driven by his ‘strong determination’, personally reached out to a PD he was already acquainted with to request for a spot on the show.

For a survival competition that should uphold the highest standards of fairness, is casting based on personal connections truly the right approach?

Furthermore, with a team joining through ‘Personal ties’, can the production team really be trusted to judge the competition fairly?.>

“Hah…… Should I just kill him?”

“……Hyung?”

The reason Kim Heetae wrote this article was painfully obvious.

It wasn’t about mocking me or even because he seriously believed I shouldn’t be on <Ultimate Idol>.

“Alright, all five of you, time to head out!”

No, he was asking for more.

More entertaining information.

Join our Discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/wetried