Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 261 The Moment It Was in My Hand (1)

The more I thought about my family, the more suffocated I felt.

How could they be so irresponsible? Did they not realize that their decision would affect the entire company and the employees who depended on it?

Or did they not care if the lives and families of each individual collapsed as long as they were not affected?

Either way, I felt cold-blooded. Even if they had to change the supplier of raw materials due to the price issue, they should have given some time and gradually switched the suppliers who would be shaken by our loss of volume.

But they had thrown away hundreds, thousands of jobs in less than a year and still lived comfortably. I was so angry that I gritted my teeth.

‘I’ll expose these bastards and make sure they can’t live in peace.’

As I clenched my fist and waited for Jinwoo’s contact, the caller ID appeared on my phone screen.

[Kang Jinwoo]

010-XXXX-XXXX

As soon as I answered the phone, Jinwoo told me the news about my brother.

“He just arrived in Korea. He said he’s going to stop by his house and sort things out before the general meeting. Wait for him right now.””

There were only about three hours left until the general meeting. I left the cafe where I had been waiting near the address Jinwoo had sent me and stood in front of the entrance of the house where my brother lived.

Of course, the door lock was locked since the owner had not arrived yet.

Jinwoo had found out the password for me through the door guard.

‘He wouldn’t have changed the password by now.’

I had checked it several times. It was not a temporary password that he had changed to let the security staff in, because I remembered clearly when he had started using this password.

After my father’s remarriage, he changed the password without consulting me, a young child, because he was afraid that the family of his late ex-wife would barge into the house. I still remembered vividly how I had to wait outside in the cold until my father came home from work after school.

It had been decades since then. But I wished I could forget those memories, because they came back to me as if they had happened yesterday.

‘It’s all in the past.’

I shook my head and chased away the negative memories in my head.

Was I too nervous? I was afraid that he might change the password in that brief moment and a security staff would come.

As I calmed my pounding heart and checked the time, it was already less than two hours until the general meeting.

‘If I waste more time here, I might run into my brother outside.’

I could be arrested by the police in a mess, attracting the attention of the people around me.

‘Let’s get inside quickly.’

At that moment, when my heart was racing and blood was rushing to my head.

Beep-.

The system message that had been silent all along popped up.

As if to prove that I had less than 10 hours left until my disappearance, it was so transparent that it was hard to identify, let alone disappear.

[You can try to switch to Cheon Ise (Lim Hyun-seong). Do you want to try?]

[Yes/No]

Even that was flickering like a broken fluorescent light, as if it would turn off at any moment.

“…!”

Why now of all times? What happened to Cheon Ise all of a sudden?

I let go of the door lock and asked the system window.

“If I try? Can I definitely go back to Cheon Ise?”

[After examining the possibility of recovery from various aspects, we estimate that if you use up all of your remaining mission period to attempt recovery, you will have a 27.321238% chance of continuing the event ‘Idol Cheon Ise’.] R

It was a complicated explanation, but the conclusion was not very hopeful. The probability of success was very low, and the possibility of failure was much higher.

And whether I tried or not, neither option was satisfactory.

I would rather hope for a miracle with that small chance, thinking of the Climax members and the label staff, including Offbeat, who were waiting for ‘me’.

‘But if I fail and disappear anyway. It would be better to stop my brother for sure…’

The system window kept blinking and urged me for an answer.

[Do you want to try to recover?]

[Yes/No]

Of course, I had prepared thoroughly, but if I said I would go back to Idol Cheon Ise now, I would not be able to save Joyoung Food with a high probability.

Even if the crimes of the Saju family were exposed and punished, if my brother went to the general meeting today and met the requirements, the company would be sold to foreign capital.

It didn’t matter if they were exposed or not. Once the company was sold, there was no turning back.

My brother had to be absent today so that the requirements would not be met and the general meeting would be dissolved, and then the Saju family would step down from the management front and the management rights would be transferred according to my ‘real’ will.

It was a problem that I had to choose between the life of Cheon Ise with a despairingly low probability and the lives of thousands of company employees that I had led as Lim Hyun-seong.

‘Why now of all times…’

I wished the system had not asked me until the end. It was annoying that it was talking about the possibility of going back to Cheon Ise now.

The time I had lived as Cheon Ise for less than a year passed by me again like a revolving lantern.

Kyunghwa, Yi-jun, Seong-won, Seon-woo… Hwijin, Yu-geon, and Naru of Swift.

They were all very precious to me, and experiences that I could not ignore. But…

I knew they could each do their part without me.

I made up my mind quietly.

Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought of being gone forever from the future they would create.

But I couldn’t weigh them, who could live well without me, against the thousands of jobs that depended on my survival.

‘I’m sorry.’

[No]

I clenched my teeth and held back the tears that threatened to burst out. I grabbed the door handle and entered the familiar code. I closed the keypad of the door lock.

Beep-.

My heart started pounding wildly as the lock opened effortlessly.

“Ha…”

The house was cold and devoid of warmth, as if no one had lived there for days. At the same time, it was luxurious, as if to prove that I had been living lavishly all this time.

There were top-notch appliances that seemed barely used, a coffee machine with options that most people wouldn’t buy, and even a massage chair.

They were all bought with money that was stolen from me, I thought, feeling my blood boil.

I went into the bedroom and opened the dressing room. There were designer brand clothes and suits that I had never worn in my life, filling the spacious closet.

‘This is how he lived, after ruining the company.’

I gritted my teeth. What was more absurd was that there was no trace of my father in the house.

The only things that filled this big house were my half-brother and stepmother’s belongings. There was nothing for my father, who was almost seventy years old.

How could he be happy with this? He had abandoned his eldest son, whom he had with his late wife, like a stranger.

And he had killed that son and inherited his fortune, thinking he could live well. But in a short time, he had lost his wealth and been kicked out.

Maybe he didn’t know. Maybe he was no longer in this world, just like he had killed me without anyone knowing.

Murder was hard the first time. But once he had succeeded, he might have thought it was easy to do it again, without anyone knowing, without any punishment, without any remorse.

‘I can’t call this a good life.’

Blood was blood, even if we had a bad relationship. He should have lived well after leaving me, not living miserably.

I ignored the sting in my eyes and took out all the clothes from the closet. I poured cooking oil over them and threw all the appliances that could be broken to the floor.

I was worried that the security system might go off, but it seemed to only detect external intrusions, not internal ones.

I turned the whole house into a mess and had less than an hour left until the bomb went off, when I heard a car approaching and entering the garage.

The engine was loud even though it had slowed down. It seemed he had changed his car to a sports car.

‘He enjoyed everything with my money.’

Well, that was it. My half-brother saw the shoes scattered at the entrance and shouted towards the inside.

“Mom, if you’re going to throw a tantrum, do it moderately. Aren’t you ready? Why are you doing this again…?”

He seemed to not expect any thieves or intruders, and calmly walked inside. He saw the broken appliances and gasped, running further in.

“What the hell! What happened to the house! Oh my god! These are so expensive. It’s a robbery!”

Click, the front door closed and he went to the balcony to look for signs of intrusion. That’s when I came out of the room without hesitation.

“…! Who are you! A robber!?”

He saw me and stumbled back, as if he was about to open the door and run away.

That wouldn’t do. I blocked his way to the door.

“Yikes! I’m calling the police, so get out of my house and stop messing around!”

He hurriedly opened the zipper of the golf bag that he had thrown on the floor and took out a club. He swung it at me as if to threaten me.

“Don’t, don’t come near me!”

He looked pathetic, swinging it around. I took off the hat that I had pulled down to cover my face.

“…You seem to have lived well.”

He looked at me with disbelief, doubting his own eyes.

“What is, what the hell…”

He had been shouting and swinging the club at the intruder, but he dropped it with a loud clang.

It made a noticeable dent on the wooden floor, but he didn’t notice it. His face turned pale.

“You don’t have to answer, I can tell you’ve lived well. How does it feel to take my company, my wealth, my position?”

The answer was obviously NO. If he could handle it, the company wouldn’t have gone downhill in less than a year.

He ignored and demoted the employees who spoke the truth, and kept only those who flattered him. It was inevitable that the company would collapse.

As I approached him with a blank face, he screamed and backed away.

“Go, go to hell if you’re dead…! What! What do you want to do…!?”

What I wanted to do was to stop his nonsense that ruined many people’s lives.

The more I approached him, the more he backed away. He soon decided to run away to the balcony, and turned around to run.

I seized the opportunity to run towards my brother as he turned his back.

“Let go! You bastard, how dare you drag a mountain man into this!”

As if to make one last struggle, he suddenly thrust something at me.

‘Is that a self-defense weapon?’

I quickly squinted and closed my eyes, but I didn’t feel anything sprayed on my face.

‘What is it?’

I cautiously lifted my eyelids in tension.