The Idol: A TWICE Story

E10 : Rewind

A/N: Here we go. See you on the other side.

Min-sik didn't like working for Song, but it was a great distraction. Song kept him busy, and busy kept him from thinking about Seoul.

Min-sik came up with some ideas to improve Song's business. He set up a Facebook account, put up some flyers around town, and posted every dish they made on the page. Min-sik spent some time afterwards biking around the town, telling everyone who had a Facebook to follow the page and telling everyone who didn't to make one.

Song, in return, put Min-sik through hell. The old woman had a different form of torture planned for him every single day, to the point where Min-sik wasn't even sure if he could replicate the dishes he'd made already. By day seven, Min-sik had cooked twenty-five of the sixty-six dishes on the menu, and Song had expected him to memorize every single one.

Min-sik usually took the long way back home from work. The paths were empty most evenings, and Min-sik could watch the moon rise over the water, if he was lucky. Tonight wasn't one of those nights. Instead of the moon at dusk, Min-sik ran into a group of kids his age wandering drunk through the streets.

Min-sik hesitated as they stumbled past him, entirely oblivious of his presence. The last two weeks had felt like months. He shook himself from his thoughts—there was no point dwelling over things past.

Min-sik threw open the door to Sang-il's house. "I'm home—" He stopped. Sang-il was sitting in one of the wooden chairs, sans glasses and sans book. "What's wrong?" Min-sik asked.

"I called the company," said Sang-il.

Min-sik vaguely heard the door close behind him. "Oh."

Sang-il knit his eyebrows. "I cannot believe you didn't tell me. You got fired because you got drunk and went clubbing?"

"You told me it didn't matter!"

"If you had waited just three more months, you wouldn't be in this situation! I thought you got kicked out for an actual reason!" Sang-il bellowed. "Because you weren't good enough!"

"I'm not," Min-sik muttered. "Obviously."

"Boy, when you told me you wanted to leave, I thought you were running away from your mother. And hey, maybe you were, but that doesn't matter. You were running to something, and I could tell from the look in your eyes that it mattered to you. It doesn't matter if you're not good enough, it matters that you cared enough to do it, at all."

"I don't know if it did matter."

"And this does?" Sang-il gestured around. "You want to spend the rest of your life going nowhere?"