Do you know how much it costs to make a single idol?
Even excluding trainee-period training costs, at least several hundred million won just to make the debut album and music video.
Go all out beyond that, and it could run as high as several billion.
Because of this, it was commonplace for idols, even ones who'd made a fair name for themselves, to go years without receiving settlement payments.
In other words, the money I had now might not be enough to live on going forward.
The company doesn't cover all personal expenses like insurance premiums and phone bills, after all.
I considered putting a lump sum into something that would hit big, like the protagonists in dramas, and 'HODLing,' as the slang goes, but this option was quickly scrapped.
Because I couldn't remember at all which stocks hit the jackpot and which ones tanked around this time.
Isn't wiping out even my economic knowledge going too far? Assets matter so much for a one-person household.
Apparently it didn't want to see me living comfortably off unearned income.
For a hallucination living rent-free in someone else's brain, it's as petty as can be.
So I had no choice but to go to Kim Ji-su and ask whether I could combine debut team preparations with a part-time job.
"You think you'll need to get a part-time job?"
"I'm still very lacking, so I wanted to focus only on practice if possible. I'm sorry to bring this up all of a sudden."
"What's there to be sorry about? It's not like I don't know your situation."
Kim Ji-su, who let out a short 'ah' as if something had suddenly occurred to her, asked me.
"Seol-han, have you ever worked part-time at a café, by any chance?"
"I have."
Back in college, there was a period when I ran through every kind of part-time job because of living expenses.
Not just cafés, but logistics loading and unloading, convenience stores, a Japanese restaurant, handing out perfume blotter strips at a department store—I think I did everything I could at the time.
That's a memory too, I suppose. Not that I mean I want to go back to those days, of course.
"You know the café near our building? I caught wind that they're looking for a new weekend closing part-timer. I'll talk to the manager, so do you want to give it a try? The manager's really nice, so you won't get too stressed."
At a café, the closing shift is the hardest, but it can't be helped if I want to avoid practice time as much as possible.
And so I started a closing part-time job at a franchise café, working Saturday and Sunday, from 18:00 to 23:00.
***
'Beans Station,' a large franchise café close to the Solar Entertainment building.
Thanks to being right under their noses, it was a place Solar employees often bought coffee from on their way to work or after meals.
The store manager was on the nice side, as Kim Ji-su had said, and the shift manager who taught me the job was a better person than I expected, too.
After the storm of a group of customers who'd dropped by briefly had passed, the shift manager spoke to me.
"I heard you're a trainee at the building out front? Practice alone must be brutal, and you're doing a part-time job on top of that—impressive. To earn pocket money?"
"Yes. I feel bad always asking my parents for money."
Telling the truth would only earn me pointless pity, so I'd long since learned in my bones that it's better to just brush it off at times like this.
"How long are you planning to work here? About three months? The store manager did say you probably wouldn't be able to do it for long."
"It'll probably be about that long."
As we kept making all sorts of small talk like that, a big group of men came into the café.
"Wow, this place is cool and nice!"
...It was the PLUTO debut team guys.
Namgung Hyun, presumably a budding problem customer, walked this way with a thoroughly swaggering posture.
"Yes, would you like to order?"
"Young man, give me your best seller!"
"Would you like the Americano hot or iced?"
"Oh, come on, not that!"
I only stated a fact. How can he not know that the drink that takes the unshakable number-one sales spot every year at any franchise café is the Americano?
Ha Hyun, who had been standing at a distance watching the disgraceful scene, grabbed the arm of Namgung Hyun, possessed by the spirit of a problem customer, and forcibly dragged him to the kiosk.
"Hyun, don't give the staff a hard time. Let's order at the kiosk."
"No~ I'm telling you, I know the guy working here?"
"Be quiet. It's embarrassing."
Unable to stand it any longer, Go Yeon-gyu put a tissue on his palm and clamped it over Namgung Hyun's mouth.
This time, Seo Seo-jun, who'd been craning around here and there among the hyungs, crept over.
"What would you like, Seol-han-hyung? We'll put it in the dorm fridge for you!"
"I'm fine. Just buy yours."
"Even though we're buying with the company card?"
"By the time I get back to the dorm, it'll be time to sleep anyway."
Seo Seo-jun, instantly deflated at my answer, dragged his heavy steps back to the group.
The menu items on the receipt that soon came in were a hot Americano, an iced Americano, a six-shot iced Americano with only ice and no water, an Earl Grey tea, and a strawberry smoothie.
The young guys' effort to order things that took as little work as possible stood out. Except the strawberry smoothie.
When the drinks were soon ready, the debut team guys each took their own drink and went back to the dorm.
I'd wondered who on earth drinks something like a six-shot Americano with no water, and apparently it's guys like Go Yeon-gyu.
The strawberry smoothie in question was taken by Cha Min-seong. If it was Cha Min-seong... it probably wasn't a menu choice made with any malice.
From three months of observation, that guy didn't seem to like anything with caffeine much.
So he probably ended up with that while looking for something with no caffeine at all.
After that, it was a continuous process of taking apart the machines in time for closing, washing, wiping, organizing, and throwing out.
I finished the closing cleanup I hadn't done in ages and trudged back to the dorm, but the living room light was still on.
When I went inside, the three other than Cha Min-seong and Go Yeon-gyu were huddled together in the living room.
Beside them, the topper and bedding the guys seemed to have laid out in advance sat neatly arranged.
"What are you doing up?"
"Ah, we were waiting until you got back, Seol-han-hyung."
Ha Hyun said, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
I told the guys to hurry and go to sleep, then went into the bathroom to shower.
After a quick wash, I came back out to the living room, and an uninvited guest had gotten into my bedding.
"What's this?"
"I'm occupying this spot tonight, so you go somewhere else, hyungnim."
"Fine."
Namgung Hyun, who had boldly taken someone else's spot, said this while waving his hand as if to tease me, so I turned my steps toward the sofa.
Then I naturally lay down on it and closed my eyes.
"No, who said to lie on the sofa? I'm telling you to go inside and sleep!"
"If you don't like it, move."
"Seo-jun! Do something about that hyungnim!"
Seo Seo-jun, the pet younger member who faithfully listened to Namgung Hyun today as always, struggled to drag me off, pulling me this way and that, but the result was, naturally, a failure.
"Eugh, he won't budge......."
Namgung Hyun, who had been patting the despairing Seo Seo-jun on the shoulder, turned his gaze toward Ha Hyun.
"I've given this a lot of thought, and with that man, mental attacks work better than force."
Right after, the two exchanged whispers for a moment.
Before long, Ha Hyun, having finished talking with Namgung Hyun, came over beside the sofa.
"On weekends, go sleep in Hyun's bed. You'll be more tired than usual since you come back from a part-time job too."
"I'm not tired, so it's fine."
"I'm worried you'll wear yourself down like this. If the bunk bed is bad, my bed's fine too, so go inside anywhere and sleep comfortably......."
Ha Hyun looked down at me with his eyebrows drooping like a child about to cry.
...Damn it, how can I not get up when I see an expression like that?
In the end, I gave up the sit-in and, holding the shoddy mask I'd left in the living room, plodded toward the pigsty.
"Look at that, that hyungnim is secretly weak to this kind of thing!"
Namgung Hyun's jeers flew and struck the back of the loser who'd been driven out of the living room and into the pigsty.
When I fumbled the mask on and stepped into the room, Go Yeon-gyu, who was fiddling with his laptop as if in the middle of work, took off his headset and turned his head toward the door.
"Something to say?"
"No. I'm sleeping here tonight."
I crawled into the bottom bunk where Namgung Hyun usually slept and pulled the blanket up to my face.
"Don't tell me you're going to sleep like that?"
"Are you confident you won't have your day ruined if you turn your head the moment you wake up in the morning and see my face?"
Go Yeon-gyu, who had been staring at my face, let out a deep sigh that seemed to come up from his gut.
"...Forget it. Just sleep."
"Generous of you."
"Who knows what I'd hear from Ha Hyun if I made you sleep in that thing."
Having given that prickly answer, the guy swept up his bangs.
It seemed his reluctance to get on his friend's nerves had won out over his personal dislike.
Anyway, as requested, I took off the mask and lay there quietly, when Go Yeon-gyu, keeping his eyes fixed on the laptop screen, asked.
"Want me to turn off the light?"
"Aren't you working on something right now? Forget it. You'll ruin your eyes, so just keep going. I sleep fine with the light on."
"What on earth do you hate? You eat everything, and you don't care where you sleep."
"I'm not really sure myself."
Food is the same once it gets into your stomach, and a place to sleep is fine as long as I can lie on my back and rest.
Of course, this is strictly about me, and I have no intention of forcing this mindset on others.
Go Yeon-gyu, who had been working the laptop silently for a while, opened his mouth again.
"How broke are you, to do this?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I heard someone who doesn't even have enough time for practice is doing a part-time job too."
I thought about the answer for a moment, then tossed it out lightly.
"About the level where I'd be out on the street the moment the debut team fell through?"
I figured that if it was Go Yeon-gyu, he wouldn't worry as much as the other guys even if I said it like this.
At that, Go Yeon-gyu's gaze, fixed on the screen the whole time, shot my way.
"You're not joking, right?"
"Want me to show you my bank balance?"
"Can't you ask your parents? For a little help."
"Yeah. I can't ask. We've completely fallen out. I won't slack on practice because of the job, so don't worry about that part."
"......."
Go Yeon-gyu, who glared at me with a scowl for a moment, gathered up his laptop and headset.
And before leaving the room, he left a small packet on top of the blanket covering me.
When I picked it up and looked, it was a packet with a disposable heated eye mask in it.
When I sat up and looked at Go Yeon-gyu standing by the door, the guy flipped the switch beside the door to turn off the fluorescent light and said.
"Use it or throw it away, whatever you want."
Then he whipped his head away, quietly closed the door, and left.
The minors' conversation came from beyond the door.
"Yeon-gyu~ why'd you come out to the living room?"
"Just because."
"Is it so Seol-han-hyungnim can sleep well?"
"No."
"Aigoo, our Yeon-gyu's finally become a good house cat~ This butler is so happy he could cry."
"Hyun-hyung, I think Yeon-gyu-hyung is about to kill you...?"
"Hyun, stop teasing Yeon-gyu and go to sleep."
They're having a grand time.
I put the heated eye mask Go Yeon-gyu gave me over my eyes and went to sleep with the sounds from the living room as my lullaby.
Five months left until debut.
From now on, it'll really be one ordeal after another, but I'll get through it somehow.
And someday I'll wring the neck of the culprit who shoved me into this extreme situation with my own hands, without fail.
I firmly resolved that again today.