From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

June finally lifted his head when he felt his members' gazes on him.

"What?" he asked.

"Were you even listening?" Akira asked.

"What?" June repeated.

"You're hopeless. Here we are, concerned for your career, but you're here without a care in the world," Akira said.

"What happened?" June asked, standing from his seat and sitting next to Akira.

"Idol Sniper made a video about you; it's not just any other video. It's one of his Friday specials!" Ren exclaimed.

"And so?" June asked. "Who is this guy?"

"And so…you're fucked," Akira said. "This guy is notorious for exposing idols for the pettiest things. It's not cancel-worthy, but it's something you'll be stuck with for the rest of your career."

June turned to Jisung. "Is he telling the truth?"

Jisung nodded. "Yeah, one time, he made an exposing video for a guy who repeats his underwear. He showed such convincing evidence that the guy is still on hiatus because of it."

"Oh," June said. "What's my video all about then?"

June wasn't too scared of having a hygiene issue since he was a pretty neat man…very neat, in fact. Now, he didn't know about Choi Joon-ho's hygiene, but it seemed pretty good since his apartment was well-kept when he first transmigrated into his body.

"I'm scared to watch it. What if you have to go on hiatus, too?" Jisung asked.

June sighed and reached his hand over to play the video. "How bad can it be?"

The video played with a sped-up K-pop song as the background music. It didn't have a voice-over, just pure text that transitioned with the chosen photos.

'Exposing your favorite idols pt. 23.'

'This week: June of EVE.'

'One of your most beloved idols has…'

The members held their breaths in anticipation. They were expecting the worst—maybe bad breath, a BDSM kink, an emo phase…

'Bad grades.'

They looked at the bold text on the screen.

Akira sighed in relief when it wasn't as bad as he imagined. "Oh, thank goodness," he said. "I thought it was something drastic."

June kept his gaze on the screen. A report card with his name on top was shown, and it revealed the grades he had when he was in his second year of high school. His highest grade was a C-, which definitely wasn't great. His overall GPA was 1.7, causing June to shake his head in disappointment.

Choi Joon-ho's grades were the lowest of the low. It was a miracle he even graduated high school with these grades!

"I thought Jaeyong was bad," Akira said. "But damn, you take the cake."

"Are kitties dumb?" Casper asked.

"Shut up," June said. "What do the comments say?"

Akira opened the comment section while the members brought their heads closer to each other to read it together.

- I finally have something in common with June.

- The grandmas are going to be mad about this one. They hate it when their grandchildren have bad grades.

- Us, grandmas, are disappointed.

- I can't believe young people idolize idols like this. They aren't great influences.

- That's why he became an idol, didn't he? He's not going to be a doctor. He doesn't need exceptional grades when all he does is sing and dance.

- I would hate for my daughter to become a fan of someone like him. He'll influence her to do even worse in school.

- Instead of scrolling here, go educate your daughter.

- I don't know why people are mad. It's just his high school grades. Who cares if he's dumb?

- My dumb pookie.

- We love dumb people!

- I don't think we should glorify dumbness. It's rooted in elitist perspectives, and it's also the reason why smart shaming exists!

"Hmm," Ren hummed. "Well, some are giving you backhanded compliments, some are disappointed, some find it funny, and some are making it too serious. It's just another normal day on the internet!"

"Agreed," Sehun said. "So, let's just ignore it."

June shrugged, not necessarily fazed by being called dumb. Maybe Choi Joon-ho wasn't able to do well in school because of all the shit that happened during that time. He was already a trainee, and his parents must have died around that time, too.

Just then, the door opened, and Chul made his way inside. He paused when he saw the boys' current position, shaking his head since he was assigned to a weird bunch.

"What are you guys doing?" he asked, sounding tired.

"Oh, we were just watching Idol Sniper. June was featured on his profile," Akira responded.

Chul raised his eyebrows in curiosity. After the toe-sucking incident, he distanced himself from June since he was afraid the idol would do something crazy if he pushed his limits.

However, he knew the Idol Sniper guy, and if it was something as embarrassing as his toe-sucking tendencies, then Chul thought it wouldn't be too bad to exploit it.

"What is it?" Chul calmly asked.

"Bad grades," Jaeyong responded. "His high school report card was exposed."

"Oh," Chul said, a bit disappointed. It wasn't as nearly as bad as his kink, so he quickly changed the subject.

"I'm just going to relay your schedule tomorrow before we leave. At dawn, you'll have your pre-recorded performance for another music show. Afterward, you're going to attend the live show in the afternoon."

"Sweet," Ren said. "So, we can rest while waiting for the live show, right?"

"No," Chul said. "You're going to gather in one of the practice rooms to film a dance practice video. Afterward, you're going to have a livestream."

Akira clicked his tongue. "After the music show, we can take a rest, then?" he asked.

Chul shook his head. "No, we need to go back to the Azure building because we have a meeting with the marketing team."

"What are we going to talk about?" Jaeyong asked.

"You'll know tomorrow. After sending you to the dorms today, I'm still going to meet with them for a preliminary meeting."

Jaeyong shrugged. "Can we know what the content of the live stream will be, then?"

"Oh, you're finally going to reveal your official greeting, fandom name, and fandom color!"