“F—ck.”
[ Condition 18│A perfect idol does not make reckless remarks or act carelessly anywhere. ]
Ah, please.
Go Youngin clamped his mouth shut. The last nightmare rose in sharp detail. He was definitely going crazy.
‘How did I live forgetting this?’
[ However, if there is no one around to hear you, leniency will be applied. ]
So generous it almost brought tears to his eyes. The status window was clearly insane. And the fact that he felt relieved by a line like that made him pathetic.
So it wasn’t a hallucination? Or had he finally gone mad.
‘Reset. So that’s what reset meant?’
After standing rigid for a long time, Go Youngin suddenly looked around.
It was indeed his room—though not the apartment of a twenty-something just discharged from the army, but the house he’d lived in as a kid.
Just like this, with no sign at all? And the day after discharge of all times? Surely this wasn’t happening because he refused to be an idol, right.
[ Try becoming the best idol! ]
“So it is. I’m going to lose it……”
Why now, after all that time with nothing.
‘No matter how I think about it, it picked the day after discharge just to screw me.’
The army was bad enough. If it was going to reset him anyway, it could’ve done it sooner.
With nowhere to vent his silent fury, he clutched his hair for no reason.
This lunatic status window hadn’t given a single warning. It had been a day like any other.
All he’d done was sleep in his bed and wake up. The only “crime” he’d committed was satisfying the basic human need for sleep.
By now he had a feeling. If he said he wouldn’t be an idol like before, the same thing would happen again.
It wasn’t just a feeling.
It was total certainty.
He couldn’t guess why this was happening to him, or why—out of all the jobs in the world—it had to be “idol.”
The only thing waiting for him was the fact that, if he didn’t want to go through this again, the only option for now was to follow the status window.
And so, just like before, he was naturally street-cast by DD, Double-D Entertainment.
There was no need to say his answer this time wasn’t the same as in the past.
***
Of course, his trainee life did not go smoothly.
In fact, “not smooth” didn’t begin to cover it—it was the worst.
His second reset happened not even three days after the first.
Because after entering the agency’s basement practice room to begin training, he managed to rack up “5 Warnings” in less than an hour.
He’d walked in truly unprepared.
On top of that, his stats for being an idol were as lousy as they came.
Kang Bada, who’d scouted him on looks alone, was so flustered she watched the CEO’s expression.
His singing was average; his dancing could have gone toe to toe with one of those floppy, air-drained tube mascots swaying outside a new store.
Sense of rhythm? It would’ve been a miracle if he had any.
As for his only decent stat after his face—“stage flair”—it crumpled like a dented tin can the moment a camera was on him, so he couldn’t even show that properly.
The fact the agency didn’t kick him out on the spot and instead gave him a grace period to see if he could be trained was a miracle in itself.
─Ding
[ Condition 2│A perfect idol must possess skills that would not embarrass them in anyone’s eyes. ]
[ Caution! ]
[ Caution! ]
[ Caution! ]
[ Caution! ]
[ Caution! ]
[ Accumulated: Cautions 5, Warnings 0 ]
[ ‘4 Cautions’ will be converted to ‘2 Warnings.’ ]
[ Accumulated: Cautions 1, Warnings 2 ]
Because he’d shown sub-par skills unfit for a perfect idol, he got bombarded with warnings; and with the penalties that arrived alongside those “2 Warnings,” he rapidly filled the remaining warning slots on the spot.
[ Condition 18│A perfect idol does not make reckless remarks or act carelessly anywhere. ]
[ Condition 32│A perfect idol must be skilled at managing facial expressions. ]
[ Condition 40│A perfect idol always avoids half-hearted answers. ]
With just those three conditions.
And idol work wasn’t easy enough to make his forced start as a trainee feel forgiving.
It was a jungle where it was hard to survive no matter how hard you tried; dozens of truckloads of trainees dropped out or quit without ever debuting.
Among people who endured bone-grinding pain night after night chasing the single dream of “idol,” there was no way someone like Go Youngin—who’d never wanted it and never cared—would do it well.
Resetting didn’t grant any great boon. At first he was just dazed, like someone who’d woken from a dream.
After the 10th reset, he gradually learned the conditions one by one.
Around then, with repeated memories blending together, he started babbling nonsense sometimes.
On days when he was approaching 5 accumulated warnings, he even tried staying awake without sleeping to avoid the reset, but no matter how he struggled, the reset happened.
After the 13th, he began organizing his memories in a notebook and keeping records.
When he’d been back so many times he couldn’t even remember the count and still saw no progress, a single word was added to the warning message.
[ When warnings accumulate 5 times, you will ‘die’ and then reset. ]
After that, he stopped organizing his memories in a notebook.
In any case, to avoid dying, he committed to trainee life for real.
As time passed, the intervals between resets lengthened, and his skills started to improve. He slowly grew older.
By the time he safely became a high-schooler, he grew suddenly, sharply anxious.
He’d somehow made a debut lineup, but his team luck was so bad it felt like a cosmic joke.
It started when teammates in the lineup caused trouble and the debut was indefinitely postponed.
After that, members kept dropping: injuries, covert contacts from other agencies leading to transfers, and so on.
In the end, the debut lineup collapsed.
Even after that, he got several chances to debut, but he kept slipping, unlucky every time.
He needed to debut soon—so why wasn’t he?
He practically lived in the practice room, never caused any big problems. Was his skill lacking?
Luck… definitely seemed lacking.
The only time he’d reset without five warnings was the very first time.
Since he’d reset as an adult, if he failed to debut after becoming an adult again, who knew when he’d be sent back next.
So he had to debut before adulthood.
‘F—ck, no more resets.’
Because he’d so often triggered warnings with curses, he developed the habit of keeping the cursing in his head and not letting it cross his lips.
He even broached the topic with Assistant Manager Kang Bada, who’d brought him in.
But seeing how she was even more regretful and apologetic than he was took the wind out of his sails; he couldn’t say what he’d planned.
In the end, if you’re thirsty, you have to dig the well yourself. He personally went around with Kang Bada scouting people who could be idols.
He was truly racing the clock.
More than anything, looks and skill were the most important. There wasn’t time to find someone who also had everything else.
Even if they had a little less flair!
Even if their personality was a little lacking!
If they had a great face and solid skills, wouldn’t it look fine on the surface?
Of course, he would come to regret his foolishness bone-deep later.
Anyway, they invested another two years to barely assemble a lineup, then spent time practicing to mesh as a unit.
The hastily assembled team—almost as if all his past suffering had been a dream—became a debut lineup far too easily,
and at last he debuted in a five-member K-pop boy group called “Zero One.”
Since he’d debuted, if he just didn’t violate the conditions and endured until the agency contract expired, maybe something would change?
He began to hope again.
Of course, the status window had never once said anything would end when the term expired, but without drawing a finish line like that, he might have gone insane.
But his hopes were, once again, neatly overturned.
Setting aside the minor issues, the team that had gotten by without “big” scandals started to blow up after their second debut anniversary.
***
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🔥HOT! [Entertainment Issues] Zero One member-by-member screw-up controversy link comp [999+]
anon 202N.01.21 │ Views: 64,222
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[ Im Sebin ]
— My friend’s older sister works at a hospital; says that guy SB got brought in there, looks like a suicide attempt, fr
— Is this psych ward admission certificate real? Photo attached
— I was Im Sebin’s classmate lol his germaphobia is insane and he’s picky as hell about people; like if you brush his hand he glares coldly and wipes the spot like it’s contaminated and swears
— Im Sebin attitude controversy — failed expression control on air, cold stone face in front of a big senior
[ Kyeon Inwoo ]
— Are all Kyeon Inwoo’s buddies Hongdae try-hard hip-hop druggies? Living up to the name, truly vile
— Stop telegraphing you won’t re-sign and try hanging out with your team like that; your members are suffering
— Summary of today’s collab stream with BJ/rapper “5-Un”: G Yin won’t re-sign + regrets being an idol; long rant + backhanded digs at teammates
— Dude, lay off the clubs and hostess bars; your bones are dissolving
[ Go Youngin ]
— Clout-chasing center hog attention-seeker moments (+updating)
— Is G Yin not on good terms with the others? I’ve never seen him stick to anyone
[ Cheon Sayun ]
— Sayun, is being an idol a joke? Stop baiting fans and tone down the dating
— Stop broadcasting that you’re dating Na Yeonseo, get a grip get a grip get a grip get a grip get a grip get a grip
— Caught “actor disease,” neglecting idol work (subject obviously CSY)
— Instead of acting practice, maybe try singing practice; encore live controversy
[ Pyo Jaeho ]
— Zero One’s Pyo Jaeho “fan-hate” thread link
— That guy who power-trips fans—at this point it’s a proper noun, right?
— He’s an idol but looks down on idol music, classic “artsy disease”
— New song produced by Pyo Jaeho — plagiarism controversy involving a well-known freelance composer
— Now he openly dodges his own teammates like they’re gross; from “fan-hate” to “member-hate” lol
This is what comes up with a cursory search.
Kind of amazing how they manage to generate steady controversy.
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[ 999+ comments ]
Some of these aren’t actual screw-ups, just forced hate posts;;
└ Dragging up old stuff on repeat is disgusting
└ I can tell which stan of which member wrote some of these; compare how “transparent” it is next to posts about other members lol
└ There aren’t any for the others because they don’t cause incidents
└ < Comment deleted by administrator. >
Hello? I clicked thinking there were new updates and got excited for nothing. You brats—when are you doing a full-group comeback
└ lmao laugh-not-laugh
Aren’t these the “chicken-rib idols”?
└ Yeah, those “good-character idols,” right
└ lmfao knew someone would post this
└ Too talented to shelve, but too trash to push—Double-D’s unofficial “chicken-ribs” lololol
For real… they never run out of ways…
└ 2 Same. I lived all this in real time and still couldn’t unstan; I’m the legend
└ Zero One’s hell-revolving door is brutal; every time a controversy pops I cool off, then I see their faces and my blood boils again
└ Ngl, visuals and physique like that aren’t common in this industry
└ Every night I unfollow/follow the official account on loop—can’t unstan, I’m the idiot, it’s me
Wild how they’re more popular than my faves even with all this mess..
└ Plenty to be disillusioned about. Skim and move on. Touch grass, teacher
And they’re still not total flops…? Are their fans saints? Did you all go on a temple retreat? Why are you still here…?
└ Like singer, like fans. The core won’t be rattled by much.
└ It’s word games—most of these “controversies” are forced. It’s not like they hit crimes-page headlines. Did they do school violence, drugs, DUI? Compared to that, they’re saints
└ Fan-baiting to the extreme—what saints, all the saints are dead
└ When those faces stop being useful, I’ll discard them without mercy (been saying this for n years)
If I were born with those looks and specs, I’d be a god-tier idol. Just make me an idol instead
LeaveZeroOnePlease @xojtWbSaUQ
Why their nickname is “Mental Ward,” for real
Hipster disease / fan-hate disease / can’t-lose-my-girl disease / just-plain-crazy / about-to-go-crazy-because-of-my-members
Shares 851 Quotes 2,945 Hearts 1,010
│
DontUseCrazyTerms @no_jungB
Replying to @xojtWbSaUQ
Please don’t use “crazy/mental” wording.
│
LeaveZeroOnePlease @xojtWbSaUQ
Replying to @no_jungB
Shut up, f—ck. I’m about to die from going crazy because of them.
DamageDealer @misAeCUaOkjaz
Fact: no matter what happens, people will keep simping as long as the faces and skills are good.
Look at other groups’ visual level these days. How could you not stan lol
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LeaveZeroOnePlease @xotYWbSaUQ
Why their nickname is “Mental Ward,” for real
Show this thread
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Shares 896 Quotes 3,112 Hearts 973
The flood you get just by searching was only the beginning.