From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

"Make sure to visit again," Grandma said, holding onto both of June's shoulders, giving it a light squeeze.

"Will do," June said, although he was unsure when they'd have a break the next time.

June glanced behind Grandma and saw Minjun, who was looking down at the ground.

"I'm sorry, too," June added. "I wasn't able to talk to Minjun properly."

Grandma smiled sadly. "It's alright, dear. At least you still tried."

"Call me when you have trouble with anything," June said.

"Oh, I don't want to be a bother," Grandma said. "Just focus on your work. I know you're very busy."

"Nonsense," June smiled. "Just call me, alright? I'll be sure to teach the little guy a lesson if he causes trouble."

Grandma chuckled despite the worry in her eyes. "Alright, get going now then. I'm sure your teammates are waiting for you! Make sure to let them taste the side dishes I've prepared."

"They will definitely devour this in less than a day," June said.

"Thanks, Grandma! See you in a while, Minjun," he waved at the young boy, but Minjun merely nodded in acknowledgment.

June sighed and shook his head before leaving their apartment complex.

***

June stood outside their dorms and clicked his tongue when he heard the commotion inside.

The others must have been back already, and he was dreading their chaos.

With hesitation, June entered the room and expected to see his teammates inside.

However, much to his surprise, an additional person was in the room. His hair was still slicked back despite the casual setting, which made June even more confused.

"What is he doing here?" June asked, pointing at Jay.

"Bro!" Jay exclaimed, standing from the couch and greeting him with a warm hug.

"Move away," June said, taking a step back. "I thought you wanted to maintain a professional relationship?"

"Oh, that's when we're working, of course," Jay smiled. "For now, I'm also on my break, so I'm going to act casual with you guys."

June shook his head and gave him the bags of side dishes Grandma had prepared. "Here," June said.

Jay looked through the bag, his eyes widening in delight.

"Sweet! We just ordered fried chicken, so this will be a great addition to the meal," he said.

"Sit, bro," Jisung said, patting the seat before him. "We're watching the special live broadcast of Quiz God."

June sat next to Jisung and shrugged. He felt tired, but for some reason, he wanted to hang out with the boys for a short moment.

"You would have destroyed everyone on the show if you won," Jaeyong said. "Zibo was already eliminated in the first round!"

"I probably would have been eliminated earlier on, too," June said, his eyes focused on the screen.

The participants this time ranged from long-time lawyers and talented doctors to young geniuses. June, although smart for an idol, knew he would only be ordinary among these people.

Zibo, alone, had already proved that.

In the end, June actually made a pretty good decision of deliberately losing!

Just then, Jay's phone rang, signaling the arrival of their fried chicken. "I'll head down to get our order."

As Jay left the room, June opened up the topic of Navel accounts.

"Hey," June started off. "You all have Navel accounts, right?"

"Yeah," Zeth smiled. "I've had it since we were trainees."

"How many followers do you have right now?" June asked.

"Around 500,000," Zeth said, causing June's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Damn, that's a lot," Jaeyong said. "I have 600,000, but that's only because I was already active on Navel when I was in RAVEN."

"I'm surprised your companies allowed you to have Navel accounts even as trainees," Sehun said. "I was only allowed to open one when I joined Rising Stars, so I only have around 250,000."

"Not too bad," Ren said. "Companies these days are more open to their trainees having access to social media—granted that they'd also have access to their accounts. I have around 400,000 followers now."

"Why do you guys have so many followers?" June asked in disbelief.

"That's not even a lot," Zeth said. "The truly popular idols have more than 3 million. Uno even gained 1 million followers already."

June pursed his lips, suddenly feeling competitive when he heard Uno's name.

"You don't have a Navel account, right?" Zeth asked.

"I saw him scrolling on Navel, though," Akira said. "He was scrolling through a bunch of cake decorating videos."

June pursed his lips as Zeth nudged his shoulder. "Don't tell me—you secretly like cute things, don't you?"

"Fuck off," June said. "I do have a Navel account."

"Why won't you use it then?" Jisung asked.

"I do use it," June muttered under his breath. "I've even posted on it during Rising Stars."

"Well, the fans must not know that it's you. Tell me your username so I can follow you," Zeth said.

June was about to type his username into Zeth's phone when he suddenly remembered Fu's first condition—the host must not get help from external sources.

June let out a frustrated sigh. "You'll know in due time," he cryptically said.

Zeth raised one eyebrow. "Alright, then. Whatever you want."

With that, their conversation came to an end. June continued coming up with a strategy to grow his social media account when Jay entered the room with four boxes of fried chicken in his arms.

"Time to eat!" he exclaimed, causing the others to cheer.

As they ate their greasy dinner, June continued to think about his Navel account. Currently, he only had around 15,000 followers—and those followers were people who thought he was a June impostor. Up to this day, he still got death threats from his own enthusiastic fans!

"Hey, June," Jay said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You know what's funny?" their manager chuckled. "I was looking through the emails on your group's professional account and found plenty of endorsement opportunities rejected by your past manager."

"What?" Jisung asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Yeah," Jay said, scratching the back of his head. "You were even asked by a soju company. That would have been such a huge deal."

"Thankfully, I was able to bag you a gig despite Chul's past rejection," Jay cheerfully added.

"What is it?" June asked.

The other members also paid attention.

"You know those special dance stages in those year-end award shows?" Jay asked.

"Yeah," June said.

"Well, you're not going to perform in those," Jay chuckled, making the others groan in annoyance.

"Instead, you're going to be performing a special vocal stage with a veteran in the industry!"