From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

The dorm was filled with laughter as another commercial rolled in. Even Uno, who wasn't easily amused, let out a loud chuckle.

"Oh gosh," Seven said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "That was legendary."

"Did he just say he loves balls?" Dos asked, still not believing what he just heard.

"How much did they pay him to do this?" Ocho asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

"I wish there was a replay button for it," Seven said, still laughing.

"Thankfully, there's a thing called social media," Tres smirked. "I bet it's the talk of the town right now.

Indeed, EVE's cheese ball commercial became a trending topic in the country after it was aired. Multiple clips were already circulated online, all of them having one thing in common—they were clowning June.

- I was babysitting my nephew when the commercial suddenly came on. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw EVE with bouncing cheese balls.

- I'm already calling it. June's 'I love balls' is going to be the meme of the year.

- As expected, Cheeze does not disappoint with their commercials. Now, I know that June loves balls!

- Please, someone make a short clip out of it.

- The brand just posted an HD version. Time to meme the hell out of it!

- I'm dying! Why the hell did they let him say those lines at the end?

- Can we talk about his acting, though? I think we should all agree that he needs to stay away from the acting industry!

- It's a good thing he's a good singer and dancer.

- June, do a good job at being an idol because you can't be an actor!

- I just sent the clip to my friends, and they sent it to our school's group chat!

- EVE, you're going to become even more famous. Thanks to Cheeze for making it happen!

- Can they quickly restock the pink cheese balls, though? They're already sold out in my local grocery store!

Meanwhile, the members of EVE couldn't contain their laughter after the commercial finished airing. At first, they were all silent, cringing at their own acting.

However, it was quickly replaced with amusement when they saw the last clip of June saying he loved balls.

"That's why you didn't want to tell us about it?" Zeth chuckled, slapping his knee.

"I'm so grateful it wasn't me," Akira said, tears spilling from his eyes. "Gosh, I want to see it again!"

"Luther also likes balls," Casper added.

"Man, every time you open your mouth, you say something weird," Sehun said.

"But he does like balls," Casper defended. "He likes chasing them around."

The members ignored them and went back to the original topic.

"Hey, there are clips circulating online already. Damn. There's already a 24-hour edit about it!" Jaeyong exclaimed.

Ren looked at the video with wide eyes. "What the hell? Are these people magicians or something? How can they do that in minutes?"

Jaeyong chuckled. "I honestly don't know. Our astras are on another level."

Then, he cast the 24-hour loop of June's 'I love balls' on the screen.

June groaned in annoyance, closing his eyes and covering his ears.

"Are you guys having fun torturing me?" he exclaimed.

"Very," Akira said. "I'm going to make this my alarm from now on!"

"Look at the comments on the video," Zeth chuckled. "They're having fun torturing you too."

June finally had enough, so he stood from the couch and glared at all of them.

"Don't speak about this ever again, or else," he warned them.

"Or else what?" Akira stuck his chin up. "Are you going to kick us in the balls?"

June closed his eyes in frustration and went over to where Akira was sitting. He then placed his hand over his pressure point and pressed firmly, causing Akira's body to fall limp on the couch.

"What the hell?" Zeth exclaimed in shock. "Did you just kill him?"

"He's going to wake up in a few hours or so," June said. "Whoever speaks about this incident will suffer the same fate as him."

With that, he left the living room and locked himself inside his door, leaving his teammates silently afraid.

Then, he plopped on the bed and closed his eyes.

"Let's just sleep," he muttered under his breath. He fixed his position on the bed and evened out his breathing, but in the end, he couldn't sleep.

His line, like a haunting melody, echoed in the back of his mind.

'I love these balls.'

'I love these balls.'

'I love these balls.'

June groaned and covered his face with a pillow. "Get out of my head!"

***

In the end, June wasn't able to sleep at all. His phone rang with notifications the entire night, but he simply ignored them.

However, as the sun finally rose and filtered through his curtains, he picked up his phone and finally decided to check it.

June could already hear his members' voices outside the room, with Akira's being the loudest. He was still repeatedly saying, 'I love these balls,' so June knew he hadn't learned his lesson.

He opened his Navel app and first went to his profile.

99,000.

Only 1,000 followers left until he finally reached his goal, yet he wasn't happy at all.

Why? Because almost all of the posts on his feed were related to their cheese ball commercial!

- Can you imitate June's 'I love these balls' line, please?

- Have you seen EVE's commercial? If not, go watch it right now. We're trying to stream it to a million views!

- I don't think we even need to stream it, girlie. The general public is already streaming it for us.

- You're right. It's so close to a million!

Overnight, June became a sensational meme, especially with the younger generation.

June shook his head and left the app to check his texts instead. However, it seemed like the situation with his texts wasn't any better.

Jay: You're a star! Congratulations for making it this far.

Gun: Do you really love balls?

Hana: I thought you were a good actor, but it turns out you just love balls.

Jangmoon: I can't judge you. Balls are the best!

There were multiple other texts that contained similar content. June was about to stop scrolling through his text messages when he saw something that appeared different from the rest.

It was from Grandma.

Grandma: June, I know you're busy, but can you please come to Seoul Hospital? Minjun's currently injured.