The Sunbae Who Paves a Flower Path

There was never anything like this before.

No matter how hard I stared, the hidden text did not reveal itself.

Right. As if there could be anything here that made sense by my standards. This was a bizarre phenomenon that vanished and reappeared whenever it felt like it.

“Hey. Long time no see?”

The quest window gave no response to the casual greeting.

“Flower Path, didn't you miss me? I actually missed you a lot sometimes.”

Still nothing.

This thing had never been something I could communicate with in the first place. It only delivered tasks I had to complete one-sidedly.

At first, I had thought the “failure penalties” the quest window spoke of were absurd.

But looking back, every penalty the quest window had announced in the past had been perfectly reasonable.

For example, Young Ace winning five grand prizes, which had been the final quest.

The penalty had been Young Ace's permanent disbandment.

If we had failed to sweep those grand prizes back then, Young Ace would never have been able to renew our contract with K-Dom on such extraordinary terms.

Later, with only six months left before our contract expired, K-Dom grew desperate. In their determination to keep us, they essentially said, “We'll create an entire division for you and let you do whatever you want, just don't leave!” Then they established a new division and handed the division head position to our leader, Kwon Taeyoung.

It was an extreme move, entrusting every single activity entirely to the members' own decisions.

The six of us accepted those terms and all stamped our seals on the renewal contract.

Thinking of it that way, the claim that failing to win five grand prizes would lead to permanent disbandment made sense.

...Then that means if Gowon fails to debut, I really will lose everything I've achieved. And... Kwon Taeyoung really will die.

“Don't talk fucking nonsense...”

Why did that kid's success or failure have to drag us into it?

Of course, it did look like Gowon had some kind of price to pay too.

After all, the penalty “Gowon: ■■” was written above the loss of my abilities.

But what am I supposed to do about that?

Honestly, since he was a complete stranger, even if something terrible happened to him, it did not move me as much as Kwon Taeyoung's life being on the line.

Staring daggers at the letters on the translucent window changed nothing, so I scrubbed my hands over my face again and asked,

“Fine. Since I'm experienced, let's say this continues from stage 119 instead of stage 1. ...No, fuck, why are the numbers like this too? Anyway, if I force my brain to accept this, you're saying that since I benefited from quests in the past, I should donate some talent now, right?”

I would not go as far as making the pathetic excuse that I had talent for creating music even without the quests.

I could not deny that the quest window had steered that talent toward success.

“But... even with talent donation, I need at least some decent treatment for it to feel worth doing. My life is basically on the line in the failure penalty, but the success reward is just ‘successful debut’ and ‘Rookie Singer title’? That really doesn't motivate me.”

If I could not avoid it, shouldn't I at least rip out as much as I could get?

“Isn't this way too unfair? Flower Path, why did you get so stingy while we weren't seeing each other? You disappeared without a word, then suddenly came back and pulled this. I'm honestly hurt.”

As I brazenly grumbled, new text began to appear.

Success: Successful solo debut of singer “Gowon,” obtain title [Rookie Singer]

Additional Reward: “Baek Hanje” obtains title [Cool Senior]

“Oh, you crazy—”

The wordplay was so bad a curse slipped out of me automatically.

Just then, an alert appeared on my monitor.

Something had arrived in my work inbox.

chat

Kwon Taeyoung | [Division Five] Sending internal distribution materials for rookie singer “Gowon’s” debut album

They were the materials on Gowon that Kwon Taeyoung had sent over in the meantime.

“Yeah, I get it. I have to debut this kid even if it kills me. Now get lost.”

Flick.

The quest window disappeared, as if it had already been about to leave anyway.

I opened the attachment in the email that had just arrived.

chat

Name: Gowon. Currently twenty years old.

Age at first broadcast appearance: eighteen.

After half a year of fierce survival competition, he was preparing to debut in the year he turned nineteen, but the corruption scandal involving the producer of <Debut Chart! 100> broke out, dragging him through every kind of hardship before his debut fell apart.

His ranking progression on <Debut Chart! 100> was 47th—16th—3rd—and finally 1st.

He was completely edited out of the first episode, but his individual camera video went viral.

Because of his flawless looks.

And his catastrophically ruined skill level.

But Gowon, who had been clumsy at both dancing and singing, showed improvement with every new round of competition.

The off-the-record story from the program was that he had originally been an ordinary person with no connection to the entertainment industry at all, only to be grabbed by a producer while working a delivery job at the broadcast station.

The producer had an eye for people, so why the hell did he commit corruption?

Anyway, Gowon, who had been nothing more than a filler contestant, scored a mega-hit with a sexy-concept performance song, and from that moment on, his fandom grew exponentially and his rank shot upward.

From then on, the broadcasting station began pushing Gowon with the idea that since he had no agency anyway, they might as well build him up and use him themselves.

And he did not let go of the faint spotlight that came his way.

Thus, he seized final first place by an overwhelming number of votes even manipulation could not touch.

From far away, it looked like the comeback drama of a poor student.

Up close, perhaps it was the awakening of a genius who had finally found where he belonged.

The materials flipped past with each turn of the mouse wheel.

I had more or less skimmed the artist's personal details and history, so now it was time to understand the album concept the company had intended.

Click.

The screen changed, and the album's concept photos appeared.

The moment I saw them, an audible “Hah” escaped me.

I immediately picked up the phone I had tossed beside the mouse pad.

I saw the materials.

This is insane, seriously insane. Shin Namwon pulled it off again;;

Team Leader Shin Namwon

Yeah, I know that better than anyone... damn it.

If that son of a bitch was going to cause an accident, he should've done it earlier. Why did he have to dump sewage on us at this stage?

“Yeah, no wonder he was pissed...”

Gowon, who had been sitting stiffly in the meeting room earlier, with a face somewhere between boy and young man.

In the concept photos, he was expressing himself in a way I never would have expected.

The title track was <DRIFT>.

The album name was <Go One>.

Gowon was dressed in motorsports gear.

The image zoomed in on a man with a helmet tucked under one arm, his head tilted so his damp bangs fell forward.

He wore a racing suit in the form of overalls, the top half peeled down to reveal the tight shirt underneath.

The way he glared sideways carried a youthful defiance.

It was a concept photo that captured both the provocative image of a rookie and the sexy image he had shown on the audition program at the same time.

***

Team Leader Shin Namwon

Ha... lol. Our Won had a whole life plan from here to forty...

What? What about me!

You never told me anything like that!

Make one for me too!

Team Leader Shin Namwon

lol

<Baek Hanzel Life Plan>

(Subheading: Follow this plan, and after death, you'll be included in biographies as a model idol of exemplary character.)

Drink and smoke where people can't see you, and only date publicly if it's the person you're going to marry...

ㅠ..... Not that. A concept...

Team Leader Shin Namwon

Hm.

Just...

Just?

Team Leader Shin Namwon

A delinquent second male lead who would rather die than give up looking cool...

Keep doing that.

***

“Other people get cool concepts. Why do I get something weird?”

My fingers, busy pouring complaints into the message window, stopped at the sound from outside.

Knock, knock.

“What?”

Anyone I was close to would have just opened the door and come in.

But whoever had knocked waited motionlessly for an answer from inside.

In the end, I got up and headed to the door.

“Huh.”

When I opened it, the pretty face I had seen earlier was there.

The studio had double doors for soundproofing.

Gowon, with his large frame, was awkwardly wedged between them.

His face was stiff with tension, and soon all I could see was the crown of his bowed head.

“Hello, Senior Hanzel. I'm Gowon. We met earlier in the meeting room.”

Why was he here?

I looked at him, standing there with his waist bent politely, and said,

“Yeees... hello.”

Maybe he had not yet learned how to manage his expressions, because when he slightly lifted his face, the stiffness in it was obvious.

Separate from that—

I had felt it earlier too, but seeing him again made me understand exactly why the company had approved the insane plan to snatch the winner of a survival program away from a broadcasting-affiliated entertainment company.

Gowon.

He was exactly the kind of guaranteed center face K-Dom had been obsessed with for more than a decade.

This was not an exaggeration. His looks reminded me of Cha Yensu during Young Ace's prime. Even back when Young Ace was being called a flop group, Cha Yensu's face alone had drawn attention.

And now, demand for beautiful faces was even higher than it had been back then.

Gowon was not merely pretty. His physical build was good too, which gave him additional points.

Judging by the fact that he seemed about my height or slightly taller, he had to be comfortably over 180 centimeters.

In short, he had the kind of face that would have gotten him scouted into entertainment eventually, even if he had been plowing fields in the countryside.

“What brings you here?”

“...You told me to come.”

“Pardon?”

I searched my memory.

You and I are talking later.

I might have said something like that.

Since there was a need to talk about the situation anyway, I moved my shoulder aside from the doorway to the studio.

“Come in.”

“...Thank you.”

Gowon seemed not to have expected to be invited inside.

He froze for a moment, then awkwardly stepped onto the studio rug.

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