From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

The eight members of EVE, along with Jay, went back to their dorm, all with indecipherable expressions. They wanted to retaliate when Mr. Ong revealed they were going to represent a cheese ball brand, but Jay quickly got them off before they could.

Jay looked at the absent-minded members and sighed.

"Alright, you can speak now," he said, closing the door behind him.

"Cheese balls? CHEESE BALLS?"

"OCTA gets a soda ad, and we get cheese balls?"

"I love cheese balls. I could eat a thousand of those bad boys in one sitting, but being in a cheese ball commercial is where I draw the line."

"I've never even had a cheese ball!"

The room was filled with complaints, and Jay sighed impatiently as he waited for them to finish.

"Are you guys done now?" he asked after a while.

The members breathed heavily as they finished their rants. Meanwhile, June, who was still hung up on the title track of their next album, was silent all throughout the ordeal.

"No, I'm not yet done," Zeth said. "How can they make us do a cheese ball commercial?"

"It's a famous cheese ball brand," Jay defended. "Almost everyone buys it for their households. You can't deny their influence in the country, and being a part of their brand means you'll get more exposure from the public."

"Moreover," Jay continued. "All of their commercials have been great hits because of the unique concepts."

"You mean that one time the child was getting chased by little cheese ball monsters?" Ren asked.

"Or that one time they had a guy drown in a pool of cheese balls, and the only way to save himself was to eat all of them?" Sehun added.

"Oh, and don't forget that one time a woman divorced her husband because he was cheating on her with a lady made of cheese balls!" Zeth said.

"See!" Jay exclaimed. "You remember it! This means they're really memorable."

Zeth massaged the bridge of his nose. "Oh no," he started his rant. "I'm going to lose my 'cool guy' persona. What if people think I'm funny or something?"

"Gosh," Ren scoffed. "He's really self-absorbed."

Jay sighed. "Well, I don't think you have a choice. The company has already signed an agreement. Besides, a cheese ball commercial would be fun to film! Isn't that the most important?"

The others were still skeptical, so Jay pointed at June.

"Look at June!" he exclaimed. "He seems very amiable to the idea. Do you love cheese balls, June?"

June finally snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "Uh, yeah, sure. Whatever you said."

"That's the spirit," Jay excitedly said. "This is your very first group brand deal, and you're fortunate enough for it to be a big brand. Cheer up!"

Zeth groaned. "I guess it's alright. Just as long as I still come out handsome in the commercial, then it's fine by me."

Ren sighed. "I do really like their product."

"Let's give it a try," Sehun said, convincing his other members.

Jay's smile widened.

"That's what I'm talking about! I don't know the full details of the commercial just yet, but it's going to be short. They're going to send us the script tomorrow, and then the filming will take place the day after."

***

Jay gathered the boys for a meeting with someone from 'Cheeze,' the cheese ball brand they were going to represent. Compared to the day before, they were definitely more excited. It seemed they had finally accepted the fact they were going to film a cheese ball commercial.

They were in a conference room in Azure Entertainment, waiting for the representative from 'Cheeze' to personally explain the concept of their commercial.

June was pretty wary about it. The team watched the previous commercials from the brand, and they were…different.

The door opened, revealing a woman with unruly curly hair and a t-shirt that said 'Cheese balls rocks!'

She greeted them excitedly as she entered.

"Oh gosh. I felt like I just entered heaven. Look at the handsome men surrounding me!" she exclaimed.

EVE smiled and bowed respectfully as she sat down.

"Well, my name is Parmela, but you can call me Parm," she introduced herself. "I am the head of the marketing department of 'Cheeze.' I was also the one who suggested you to become ambassadors of our brand. I really liked your performance during the year-end show!"

"Did she just say Parm? Like parmesan?" Akira whispered by Jaeyong's side, so the latter nudged his side.

Then, Jaeyong respectfully smiled. "Thank you for granting us this opportunity, Ms. Parm."

"It seems like you were made for this, Ms. Parm," Jay said.

"Oh, tell me about it," she smiled. "I have been a cheese lover since birth!"

Jay chuckled, a bit weirded out. "That's great. So, is there already a concept or storyline for my boys right here?"

"Of course," she answered. "I've been formulating the commercial ever since I saw the boys perform and came up with the perfect concept for them!"

She brought out a stack of papers from her bag and started distributing them to the boys.

The members of EVE were definitely expecting the worst; however, when they saw the title of the project on the cover page, they weren't too appalled by the idea.

It actually seemed pretty cool! Compared to the other commercials they had put out, it was quite tame.

"Basketball?" Jay asked.

"That's right!" Ms. Parm exclaimed. "For this year's commercial, we decided to employ a sports theme because the Olympics are coming up. Moreover, it's a good thing that cheese balls kind of look like basketballs!"

Zeth smiled, obviously pleased with the concept. He thought he wasn't going to have the opportunity to act cool for the commercial, but he might actually get to do so!

"It's going to be a short commercial, less than a minute, and it would feature the boys playing basketball against a formidable team," she explained.

"Please move to the next page," Ms. Parm said.

The members followed her instructions, already excited about the storyline. However, when they read through the next page, it felt like the room was drenched in ice cold water.

It was stupid for them to think it was going to be a normal commercial.