The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol

alled Jiheon.

“You little bastard.”

“…So you did get mad, huh?”

“Tell me quickly.
Before I lose my patience.”

Actually, my patience was already at rock bottom.

Jiheon definitely knew something, as it was clear that he saw something I didn’t know about at that time.

But Jiheon just swirled the ice in his drink with a straw and grumbled indifferently.

“I’d like to tell you, but honestly, there’s nothing to say.
I really don’t know.”

As Jiheon held his drink, a bracelet jingled on his wrist.
I figured that the power he had that day originated from the bracelet.
As my gaze focused on it, Jiheon turned his eyes to follow mine, then touched the bracelet.

… I rubbed my tired eyes and then blurted out.

“Jiheon, you’re right.
I was originally 33 years old, and of course, I wasn’t an idol.
As you know, I’m not from here… I don’t even know if I’m a ghost or a human.
It’s complete bullshit.”

“Hmm…?”

Jiheon slightly tilted his head.
His reaction was strangely uncomfortable, but I moved on.

“Listen well: To return to my original world, I have to clear this scenario, this quest.”

It hadn’t been a problem until now, yet it was undoubtedly strange from the start.
Why did I have to come here? What was going on with me?

“So, if you can explain what this system is—”

“What do you mean by ‘returning to your original word’?”

Jiheon interrupted my words and asked an unexpected question.
I furrowed my brows, taken aback.

“The world I was in, of course.”

“…Ah~.”

Jiheon let out a belated exclamation.
Then he closed his mouth and looked me up and down for a moment.

What was he on about?

“…Anyway, your explanation—”

“Hyung.”

As I was about to continue, Min Jiheon interrupted me again.
I was slightly pissed off but held my tongue as Min Jiheon cautiously laughed.

“Well, I’d like to help too.
It’s just that…”

“…”

“This is a bit too strange for me to help with…”

This guy…

I stared blankly for a moment, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Calm down, Seo Hoyun.

Right now, I felt like I had met a top-notch, complete creature for the first time in a long while.
No, it was also because Joo Woosung and Lim Hyeonsu were such pushovers.

Min Jiheon seemed to be no pushover, so I kept wavering…

I am Seo Hoyun.
I’m telling you, I am Seo Hoyun.

Let’s just do what I’ve been doing until now, just like that.

I took a break for a beat and looked straight at Min Jiheon.

“Huh, Min Jiheon.
Don’t you want to continue being a celebrity?”

I laid out the card of threat.

Of course, I knew nothing about Min Jiheon, but…

Let’s just throw it out and see.

“Are you going to be able to hide it forever…?”

Honestly, it was a long shot, but I thought it was worth a try.

“Will you be able to hide it forever?”

“…!”

That’s right.

There was a reaction when I threw it out.

Well, of course, there was no one in this world without a single speck of dust when you shook them enough.

Min Jiheon stroked his chin with a troubled expression.

“Damn it…”

“I can keep quiet if you just tell me the answer I want to hear.”

Min Jiheon looked straight at me and sighed.

“Well, I guess I can’t hide it forever.”

Finally, a response came.
With a gloomy expression, Min Jiheon noisily sipped his straw.

“Actually…”

“…”

“I eat a lot.
Minimum 10 servings.”

Ah…

As I glared at Min Jiheon with my clenched hands trembling, he wore a distant gaze and started to list other TMI.
(Though none of them were damaging, they were actually elements that would ignite a fan’s heart.)

“My mom thought I had a parasite in my stomach, so we went to every hospital we could find.
But there was nothing.
They said I was just fine.”

“Hey.”

“I was just a pig….”

The pig rested his chin on his hand-made flower stand and grinned.

“But hyung… um, you’re threatening me now, right?”

“Do you want me to threaten you in reverse?”

I looked at him with an expression that said, “Go ahead and fucking try, you think you can do anything?” but Min Jiheon shook his head.

“What? No, I like hyung quite a bit.
I really hope it goes well.
I enjoyed watching the Shining Star rerun… I support The Dawn and like Hyung’s subtly slippery personality too.”

…Slippery?

If the system window could appear right now, it would have frantically displayed question marks.
Thanks to that, my plan to “spread false rumors about Min Jiheon by manipulating data” flew right out the window.

“Anyway….
I was just asking because…”

Min Jiheon mumbled, making crunching noises with the ice in his straw.

“If you want to hear the answer, isn’t asking for a favor more normal than threatening….”

“…”

“I just thought that was the sensible thing to do…”

He was talking about the standard, common-sense thing one would hear, not something a crazy person would go for.

…After racking my brain, I realized that was the case.
If I had nothing to threaten him with, it was best to just give him something to hold onto.

But it was shocking to be pointed out in such a common-sense way by someone who looked like they had no common sense.

Should I give up on Min Jiheon and look for another, another… more fascinating person?

No, no.
Where’s the guarantee that they’ll know something if I do that?

Min Jiheon really does have some skills.

That damn bracelet and those eyes that occasionally grazed me strangely were proof.

An item? He was someone who could even make the system window malfunction, so it wouldn’t work.
And given his intuition, the chances of it being blocked if I tried now were even higher.

In other words, he was someone immune to all the strategies I had at my disposal.

I glared at him and asked,

“What do you want?”

Then, let’s try persuasion.