WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

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

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Chapter 66

Shit.

“Are you okay?”

“……?”

I saw Haram’s looking worried and Seo Haedun looking rather confused. Both of them were staring at me.

“If you’re sick, shouldn’t you go to the hospital? They’d let you go to the hospital, right?”

I could hear Baekgyoem’s voice.

“Then I’ll go tell the writers……”

“……No!!”

My head had been hanging low.

But as soon as I heard the word ‘hospital’ leaving Chae Ire’s mouth, I slammed back my chair and shot to my feet.

“……What’s wrong? You seem to be really sick. Headaches can have many causes, so early diagnosis is important.”

Tae Oh started to reason with me, trying to be logical.

“That’s right, Hyung. Have you even been sleeping lately?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just…… nothing.”

Haram was overflowing with concern.

But there was no way. I had actually been sleeping pretty well.

Even when I had a million things on my mind, I could easily fall asleep.

Even if I had a hundred dreams.

“But you’re clearly in pain. Hyung, could it be that you’re scared of hospitals?”

“……Taunting me won’t work.”

I spoke while staring at Yoon Sanho.

Fortunately, the piercing headache from earlier had started to fade.

It felt like the worst of it was passing.

Maybe it was because the fans or general viewers who had been cursing at me had gotten distracted and moved on from spamming insults.

Thank goodness that it was already over. If this headache had lasted for three days straight, I probably wouldn’t have been able to function at all, only writhing in pain.

“It’s really not that bad. I’ve always had mild headaches from time to time, and I get regular checkups.”

“……”

“……I’m really grateful for your concern, but I’m seriously fine. If this happens again, I promise I’ll let you guys know.”

“You have to tell us. If you ignore your symptoms, your illness will only get worse.”

Haram already seemed to have compiled a list of 100 worst-case scenarios in his head.

At this point, judging by the way he said ‘illness’, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had already mentally admitted me to a 6-person hospital ward……

This guy was way more of a worrier than I thought.

“I told you, I don’t have some secret illness.”

“Then why do you hate hospitals so much? Do you have some birth secret or something?”

“God, I wish. At least then I could recover some hidden property under my name or something.”

I had already gotten used to Baekgyeom’s baiting attempts.

I let out a tiny sigh, then turned to face the members.

“Let’s head back. You guys worked hard today. The performance was amazing. Even though we placed third, I think this was still a solid start. Let’s keep up this pace! No matter what challenges come, we’ll face them at our own pace.”

I tried really hard to reassure the members.

But honestly what I wanted to say was:

‘If you don’t wanna die, don't look back. Just keep your eyes on the first place and sprint like maniacs!’

……Not that ordering them to do this would have been enough.

But seriously, today’s performance was incredible.

Baekgyeom and Sanho had done their part, so they were probably feeling pretty proud.

And the rest of the members had been practicing so hard, they were probably completely drained.

On top of all that, their leader suddenly was about to collapse, so they had to be pretty exhausted.

“Alright, let’s get going. The staff said we should go straight back to the dorms after the broadcast and meet at the studio by 7 am tomorrow.”

I stood up and even held the door open for them.

Only then did the members finally relax and start leaving the waiting room one by one.

“Don’t be late tomorrow!”

“Hyung, aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll clean up the waiting room first.”

“Oh, what a responsible leader.”

Baekgyeom gave me a thumbs-up before walking off.

Wow, he had enough energy to praise me, but not enough to even ask to stay behind and help?

What an eccentric guy.

“Can I help?”

“I’m good. I’ll just drink some water before heading out. The production team called me, anyway.”

“Ah, then, I’ll see you back at the dorm!”

Haram nodded obediently and disappeared down the hallway.

Of course, the last part was a complete lie.

The real reason I had stayed behind was because I needed time alone to reassess my entire plan.

As soon as the members were gone, silence fell over the waiting room.

I sank deep into the couch and let out a heavy sigh, pulling it from the depth of my abdomen.

“Haah……”

I had let my guard down, thinking nothing of this broadcast.

I was also aware that this surge in notoriety had damaged my body, and it wasn’t anything light either.

“……Just why did I let this happen?”

There was only one answer.

I had gotten overconfident.

In the first episode, Baekgyeom was late, and I had an unexpected crisis during the audition reenactment.

But in the end, we nailed the <Totter> performance.

The response was also much better than I had expected.

For our second performance, sure, we had been stuck with that ridiculously edgy B-side (Sorry, not sorry, Baekgyeom).

And sure, we had gone through a lot, but ultimately, the results had been decent.

And decent was a pretty big deal.

It meant that we didn’t fall behind.

It meant that I had enough strength to go on with this.

But now?

My breath was ragged, my head was throbbing, and my hands and feet were going numb.

If my notoriety had climbed even a bit higher, I would have collapsed on the spot.

All because of one bad edit.

All because some editor decided to cut a few seconds of my statment.

It was infuriating.

And honestly, it seriously pissed me off.

Ever since I came here.

Ever since I woke up in this body.

Every single day had been exhausting, frustrating, and sometimes even somewhat entertaining……

However, at its core, my life had been a constant cycle of running around aimlessly, not even knowing why.

Every time my status window or some random person tried to screw me over I would get angry, but forced myself to calm down and think about it again.

But this time?

“Ah~ I’m really getting angry.”

Like hell was I going to sit here and take this. Did they really think I would just let some half-assed production team walk all over me?

I was still a reporter at heart, god damn it.

I had talked my way into manipulating an entire company’s CEO, you know?

“Ugh, seriously…… Just letting this happen feels so unfair……”

“What does?”

“Uwaaargh!!!”

“……”

This insane……

“You crazy-…… What the hell?”

“What?”

“Why are you still here?”

“Oh.”

Seo Haedun, that sneaky little bastard…… was sprawled out on the couch behind me like a damn rat.

I definitely checked to make sure everyone left.

Wait.

Did I?

Shit…… I couldn’t remember.

I had let my guard down again.

And thanks to that, I had completely lost track of what I was thinking about earlier.

“Why are you still here?”

“……”

Instead of answering he just stared at me, his expression almost screaming ‘Why are you asking me that?’

“Oh, for–…”

I sighed and tore my gaze away from him, sinking into the sofa again.

Alright, so what had I been thinking about?

Right, how was I going to fix this?

“……The production team?”

“What about them?”

I had just started focusing again when a low voice spoke from behind me.

……Was he seriously just sitting here to mess with me or something?

His face was covered in sweat, his stage makeup was only half washed off. He should be feeling gross as hell right now.

Did he enjoy bothering people that much? He didn’t look like that type of person though.

“Didn’t you say you had a meeting with them?”

“……I’m going.”

Shit, did he catch my lie?

What now? I didn’t have the energy to clean up every little mess.

“……Hey,”

“……”

“……Ahn Yuyoung.”

“……Huh?”

Oh, It seemed like Seo Haedun had been calling out to me while I was zoned out for a second.

“You……”

“……?”

His expression changed into something strange.

I had no clue where this was going, so I just frowned back at him.

That was one of the most frustrating things about Haedun. Unless he was really pissed off, he barely said aynthing.

Just speak properly.

Don’t just glare at me like that.

“What are you going to do?”

“……About what?”

I was so frustrated that my voice started to grow louder.

“……The broadcast. What are you going to do about it?”

“The broadcast? You mean the clip from earlier?”

“……”

Seo Haedun answered with silence.

Aah, I finally got what he was getting at.

He was talking about the monitoring clip.

The one that had completely twisted the narrative, that had left the members shocked.

I had basically shocked them twice. First, because of the bad edit, and then again, when I was suddenly about to collapse.

Now that I thought about it, the moment I started showing signs of being in pain, the others seemed to have completely forgotten about the bad edit.

And now Seo Haedun was dragging it back into the spotlight.

“Haah…… I’m sorry.”

Might as well apologize first.

I lowered my voice a little and looked Haedun straight in the eye.

There was no doubt that the edit had screwed me over and that I was now getting a lot of hate.

And since the current situation also wasn’t exactly good for the team, Haedun was probably calling me out because he was worried about the group.

“What?”

But Haedun’s reaction was different from what I had expected.

“……I said, I’m sorry. Why do you look so surprised? I’m apologizing.”

“……”

Was my apology too insincere?

Hmm, I guess just saying ‘sorry’ might come off as brushing it off too casually.

“I only said that stuff because I wanted the members to do well. But yeah, I wasn’t careful enough. I didn’t expect the edit to turn out like that. I’m the leader, so…… I should think more before I speak.”

“……That’s what you’re apologizing for?”

“……Yeah?”

Seo Haedun continued to talk nonsense.

However, his expression seemed even darker than before.

The status window stayed completely silent as well.

What kind of event was this now?

How the hell was I supposed to clear this Seo Haedun boss fight?

My head was in a complete mess, but once I started talking, I couldn’t stop.

“……Anyway. Right now, I’m getting flamed…… No, I will be getting flamed. I haven’t checked yet, but I can feel it. Obviously I will! The edit made seem as if I was jealous of you possibly going to EOO.”

“……”

“I don’t care if people hate me, but if I get attacked like this, I’m not the only one affected. It hurts the members as well!”

[Your Eloquence has decreased! Calm down and speak rationally.]

Shit, I got too worked up.

My thoughts were already a mess, and now I had to deal with this guy hovering around me for a simple apology, so I snapped without realizing it.

I took a deep breath and tried to slow my voice down.

“……Alright. I admit it. I was careless. I’ll be more mindful when I speak from now on. And I’ll remind the members tomorrow morning when we meet at the studio.”

“……”

After going so far, even that kid should back off now.

There was no way that he would tell me to kneel or take a hit, like something an elementary schooler would do.

Haedun stared at the floor for a long time, lost in thought.

I thought I saw a hurt expression on his face for a brief moment, but then he quickly stood up from the couch.

I had already instinctively stood up myself, when I was about to yell.

“……You’re seriously…”

“……Huh?”

That was all he said before he stormed out of the waiting room.

It had all happened in a single instant

“……What the hell is his problem?”

In the end, I was the only one left standing here, weighed down by this weird, lingering unease.

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