Chapter 45

Of the two—Yusang with his brow furrowed and Gowon looking utterly indifferent—it was Yusang who turned away first.

“Wow! Sten, what’s that?”

Jung Yusang pointedly addressed the person who had returned with Gowon, not Gowon himself, even though Gowon was the one carrying the box.

“They’re microphones.”

“And the things behind them are... microphone stands, right?”

“Hey, look at the shape! They’re exactly like the one under the teacher’s desk!”

Having pieced together the clues to their escape one by one, the group set up six standing microphones at the front of the classroom.

“Since they’re standing microphones... we probably don’t have to dance, right?”

“How am I supposed to dance when my hands are stuck like this?”

“But whose song are we supposed to cover?”

“I have a suggestion.”

“Hm?”

“There are six of us, so how about Young Ace?”

The suggestion came from Gowon, the guest who had spent the entire broadcast silently working.

His voice carried a distinctive weight, and he had barely spoken until now, so his opinion inevitably felt more significant than anything the others had said.

“Young Ace sounds great!”

“Hey, Cursed Idol Academy or whatever you call yourself. Unless you want to shut down tomorrow, you’d better not deny that Young Ace are the greatest idols.”

“That’s right! Spades all over the world are watching!”

Convinced that they had found the key to escaping, they freely taunted the school’s PA system—and the production crew behind it.

—The graduation performance of Class 4, Grade 3 will now begin.

The instrumental intro started playing.

—♬♪

“...What is this?”

“W-wait.”

Confusion spread across their previously confident faces.

“...Is this... a Young Ace song?”

“No, weren’t we going to sing <Night Flight>? You submitted the request form earlier....”

“Heh... heh heh heh....”

At that moment, one of the cast members lowered his head and began laughing ominously.

“Heh, hee hee hee! You’ll never get out! You’re going to stay here and perform with me forever!”

“W-what...?!”

It couldn’t be.

One of the cast members who had been plotting their escape had betrayed them...!

Worse still, the traitor was the middle-aged man frozen in the flower pose—the one who had said earlier that if he had married young, his child would already be old enough to become an idol.

Bang! Bang!

The idol ghosts pounded violently against the windows and doors, eager to turn the students who failed the mission into their new companions.

“I know this one! Isn’t it the song that’s always on short videos? That angel hip-hop song set in a ruined world?”

“I can do the meme part that goes, ‘We are the heirs to peace!’ But....”

“I’ve heard it too!”

Their panic lasted only briefly. Recalling the melody they had heard in short videos, they grabbed the microphones again.

But there was one thing they had overlooked.

The parts that never appeared in short videos were far longer than the famous part.

And the song even started with a rap.

“Damn it, we’re screwed. I should’ve known something was wrong when he suddenly volunteered to submit the form...!”

Then—

—We pray for peace, not fear.

Ruins cradled in scorched wings

They taught us how to fight (No)

Resisting salvation, we’ll build Paradise ourselves.

A low voice sharply struck each line of the rap.

—Scriptures that each tell a different story

What is an angel supposed to follow?

6 Angels betray a god

No more heaven, no more hell

While everyone else had given up, Gowon carried the entire rap section.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“I—I know it from here!”

Yusang quickly took over when the vocal section began, and everyone joined in for the pre-chorus and chorus made famous by the meme.

And so the mission they had believed was doomed to fail ended in success.

“Nooooo!”

Only the traitor was dragged away by the ghosts, who laughed chillingly and urged him to perform with them forever.

—Congratulations on your graduation. Please continue striving to become outstanding idols.

And so the remaining five escaped safely.

“Gowon, that was incredible. How did you know all of that?”

“I know almost every Young Ace song. I listen to them often.”

“I only got confused about the rap for a moment...!”

As they walked away, the traitor could be seen through the window, now completely assimilated among the idol ghosts.

And so the Cursed Idol Academy waits at all times for its next class of new students....

Watching the lingering ending through the screen, I twisted my entire face in disgust.

“That thing really comes back from the dead every time you think everyone’s finally forgotten it.”

Young Ace’s debut song, with its atrocious title, lyrics, and concept, now circulated like some kind of meme. As a result, it kept reminding the people who actually wanted to forget the past of their most embarrassing era....

Now that Young Ace had succeeded, people seemed to package it as merely the charm of that particular period.

I shuffled out of my room and encountered Gowon in the living room.

“Hey.”

“...Yes?”

“Do you know what you should never do at a funeral?”

“What...?”

“Come back from the dead.”

“......?”

Thanks to you, that song’s lifespan has probably been extended by another year....

As usual, Gowon subtly avoided my gaze the moment he saw me and appeared to be calculating his escape route.

How long is he planning to keep this up?

“Gowon.”

“Yes?”

“Have you eaten?”

“No....”

“Is there anything you want?”

I couldn’t be bothered to go out, so I opened a delivery app to order something. Gowon remained frozen in place for a while before hesitantly approaching me.

He stopped with about two steps between us. It was the closest he had come to me in days.

When I raised my head, I saw him wearing a remarkably determined expression... while staring at my phone.

“...Brother, may I use the kitchen and make us dinner?”

“You know how to cook too?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm....”

Honestly, I wanted to say that cooking was a hassle and we should just order something. But this was the first time in a while that he had spoken to me instead of running away....

“Go ahead.”

Surely he could make something decent enough for one meal.

...Or so I thought as I sprawled across the living room. But the delicious smell gradually grew richer.

“What are you making?”

Unable to suppress my curiosity, I wandered over to the kitchen. An orange-tinted soybean paste stew, a rolled omelet, and fluffy rice were all nearing completion.

“We actually had rice?”

“Yes. I found it in one of the lower cabinets.”

“Wow. You’re more like the homeowner than I am now.”

“...Please sit at the table. It’ll be ready soon.”

Gowon carried the finished dishes to the table. Once everything had been arranged, the meal looked even more impressive.

The moment I took a spoonful of the soybean paste stew, my eyes flew open.

“Hey, this tastes like my mom’s. That’s incredible.”

It was the exact flavor I had whenever I went down to Daejeon.

“I made it the same way.”

“What?”

“I made it the way your mother does.”

“How do you know how my mom makes it?”

“You called her and asked when you appeared on that camping show years ago. I followed the exact recipe.”

How long ago had that been? The son who had asked and the mother who had answered had probably both forgotten it by now.

Did that old show resurface too?

Maybe the weather was warming up and camping season was approaching, so the algorithm had started recommending it again.

Why had Gowon bothered clicking on something like that when he probably wouldn’t be able to dream of going camping for quite a while?

Gowon watched me eat for a moment, then appeared relieved as he scooped up some rice for himself.

Sitting across from him reminded me of the variety show I had just monitored, where Gowon had known every word of our disastrous album.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“You filmed that show with a Newton member. Nobody gave you a hard time again, did they?”

“Oh. That.”

He could recite other people’s variety shows from years ago, yet when it came to his own show that had aired just last week, all he had to say was, “Oh. That.”

“The senior artist I appeared with is younger than me.”

“What does his age have to do with anything?”

“Nothing happened that you need to worry about. He just....”

“Just what?”

“When I look at him, he reminds me of my younger siblings....”

If a rude little bastard like that reminded him of his own siblings, did that mean his siblings pushed him around too?

“.......”

“What? Why?”

Gowon kept glancing at me instead of eating. I could have simply ignored him, but for some reason it bothered me.

“...I was asking if there was anything else you wanted to eat....”

What?

Quest window.

Gowon

Current Status: ■■■.

The fragments of Gowon’s thoughts that appeared intermittently remained difficult to understand.

Lately, the way he looked at me was neither prickly nor obedient. It only left me confused.

***

“Gowon, should we start preparing your new song?”

Gowon had been summoned to the division head office after completing the day’s training.

A short breath escaped him, and his eyes widened.

“Thank you....”

He had never imagined he would hear something like this so soon after being severely reprimanded for the mistake he had made backstage.