Chapter 342: Text Voting
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 342: Text Voting
As soon as he hung up, Jeong Seong-bin summoned the members. The boys, who had been getting ready for school the next day—since action school is still a school—scurried into the living room.
“I just got a call from Chan-yeong Hyung. He said he might be getting ahead of himself, but we should probably know about this.”
“What is it?”
Lee Cheong-hyeon asked, sitting hunched over on the floor. I glanced at him, and he straightened his back on his own, so I didn't bother nagging.
“Season 2 of Idol Dynasty Annals is starting in the second half of the year, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Apparently, a spot opened up this season, so they’re planning to pick one additional team from last season’s participants.”
“What?”
Lee Cheong-hyeon furrowed his brows as if the idea was absurd.
“Wasn't Parte Sunbaenim the only ones from our season going? They did take first place, after all.”
“A spot opened up regardless of them. Chan-yeong Hyung doesn't know the reason either.”
“How are they picking the new participant?” Kang Gi-yeon asked.
Logically, Spark—having placed second—should be the one to go. However, doing that would be like advertising that there was a problem in the casting process, so it was unlikely they’d just follow the rankings.
“They’re putting it to a vote for the group people ‘want to see again’ on Idol Dynasty Annals.”
“Ah…”
Park Ju-woo let out a low groan. Even this innocent kid seemed to have grasped how the industry worked by now.
It was a situation where we were being forced onto the grill before we even had a chance to refuse, but there are very few agencies that can turn down a notice from a broadcasting station. Especially if the company is small and the idols are rookies. In short, when they say jump, you say how high.
Those broadcasting bastards found a decent excuse. This way, it looks perfectly fine on the surface.
“Then it’ll be decided by fandom size,” Choi Je-ho said airily. Have you learned nothing from sharing a room with Park Ju-woo?
“If it’s an internet vote, the nerves between fandoms will be intense. Just like the Rookie Award voting.”
“The fans suffer too, having to do alliances and verifications. It weighs on my mind that they’ll be offering prizes to encourage voting just to get us on the show,” Kang Gi-yeon and Lee Cheong-hyeon added, having experienced survival programs and year-end voting systems. Their sentiments didn't differ much from mine.
And above all…
“The second-half comeback… is…”
…It would be hard to release an album. Just as Park Ju-woo feared.
It might be possible if I split my soul into ‘Survival Iwol’ and ‘Administrative Iwol’ and worked double shifts, but there was no way these guys would allow that.
“We should prepare for it.”
At my words, the boys’ expressions turned bitter. It seemed the message—that the probability of appearing wasn't zero—had been received. They’re smart kids, after all.
The company wasn't sitting idle either. The next day, we received a set of alternatives through the dedicated team.
“Since everyone is sacrificing their golden promotion period to appear, there’s a high chance the finale will be a new song performance, just like Season 1. We released Market Price Song as a digital single, but this time, let’s assume we’re releasing a physical single and start working on the B-sides together.”
“If we do end up joining, we’ll negotiate for the best possible terms. Even if you win the vote, if we decline citing internal schedules, they’re the ones who’ll be in a tight spot. We might ruffle some feathers, but since they’re the ones demanding forced participation without prior consultation, they’re the ones who have to back down. So, I don't want you to feel like you must go.”
I had nothing to add, so I just listened.
“Hyung, you didn't sweep the floor with your back this time?” Lee Cheong-hyeon whispered, making sure Jeong Seong-bin couldn't hear.
I replied with a smirk. “Everyone is doing a good job, so why would I?”
Lee Cheong-hyeon smiled back. Unlike his usual dissatisfied face during meetings with Yu Han-su, he looked worry-free.
*
Less than a week after the notification, a voting notice appeared on the Idol Dynasty Annals Season 2 website.
The online communities went wild. The comment section on the MeTube announcement board became a literal war zone.
≫ A group we want to see again? That’s a nice sentiment lol
≫ Usually, don't they just bring the 1st and 2nd place groups? It’s weird that they’re voting again.
└ It’ll probably be fairer! If they just went by view counts, people could just organize mass streaming.
While the general public had reactions like that, the idol fans were…
≫ You f*cking bastards, stop making us vote.
I was going to take a sabbatical year, why do I have to be dragged back out by my hair?
Go have fun with your half-assed survival show that looks like it was planned on a single sheet of paper.
└ They tried to act like they weren't just riding the survival show hype, but it was basically just a Joseon Dynasty cosplay, wasn't it?
└ The writers seemed to be doing such a sh*tty job, I’m surprised this show even got a Season 2 lol
└ Anyone who watched Season 1 knows… lol Spark carried the whole thing on their backs lol
└ Fr, if it wasn't for Kim Peps’s fighting spirit despite his injury, the last episode wouldn't have been glorified that much.
└ Peps didn't just have fighting spirit, he literally put his life on the line ㅠ
≫ They say they’ll only accept verified votes to prevent macros, but they opened paid voting lol
The show hasn't even started and it’s already so tacky ㅠ
└ They haven't even released a single new track for the program, but they’ve already revealed the streaming pass packages. It’s obvious lol. They’re definitely including international fan votes this time.
└ I can see it now… a script about ‘Dispatching Envoys to Joseon’ or some sh*t… A situation where they do a remote interview with Yur while one of the Hellas members is on an overseas schedule…
└ Is the person above an Awangsil writer?
≫ Has this vote been agreed upon with each group?
They were already revealing the lineup for Season 2, so it’s suspicious that they’re suddenly doing a vote for an additional participant…
└ No way. Look at Parte—MYTH’s IR materials from last year already disclosed their plan for Parte to appear on Awangsil in the second half of this year… I don't know exactly when filming starts, but picking another participant through a vote at this point instead of contacting them is showing zero consideration for the team that’ll join.
…And so it went. People who know their stuff are always the scariest because their insight is incredible since they understand the internal workings. Thanks to the overwhelming support, even if Spark ended up in Season 2, they were likely to get a lot of sympathy votes.
“How would you guys feel if you ended up going on Idol Dynasty Annals?” I asked the boys while they were stretching, and I got a variety of answers.
“I’d be grateful, but… it feels daunting. The preparation period is shorter than Season 1, but the seniors we’ll be competing against are more experienced.”
“That’s true. The company said they’d support us as much as possible, but our resources will be split compared to when we’re just working on one album.”
Kang Gi-yeon and Jeong Seong-bin tended to view the situation rationally. Perhaps because of that, shadows hadn't left their faces since the voting notice went up.
“I’m trying to think positively. It’s not that I don't feel the pressure, but objectively, there’s no better way to show a variety of stages in a short period, right? Fans are worried because they think we’ll have a hard time, but I think they’ll enjoy seeing a lot of cool performances! And we’ll be on TV a lot.”
“Me too. I like being able to sing a lot of songs…”
Lee Cheong-hyeon and Park Ju-woo, who liked trying different things, showed a favorable attitude.
“And this time, I’m going to sing 『New World』 too…”
“You know that going to the position battle doesn't mean everyone gets to sing 『New World』, Ju-woo.”
Park Ju-woo looked visibly dejected. I’d have to make sure he got to do it during this position battle.
Just as I was about to give them a lecture on not begging for votes or complaining through communication channels like Live or Bubble Pop, just in case…
“Guys.”
Manager Chan-yeong opened the practice room door and walked in. He was holding a phone with the screen turned on.
“You should get ready for Idol Dynasty Annals…”
“Why?”
“The voting… hasn't it only just started?”
*
Even though a contingency plan had been made, I thought the probability of Spark actually taking first place was fifty-fifty.
Spark did perform well on the show. Considering the theme of ‘stages people want to see again,’ it would be right for us—the owners of 『Market Price Song』, which held the overwhelming number one spot in views among all Awangsil performances—to go.
It’s just that the market doesn't always operate objectively.
The fandoms of All-over, who were on an upward trend, and Log, who had many fans in their 20s and 30s with great streaming power, started promotional events the moment the voting notice went up.
There were even idols who became the subject of heated debate after showing themselves voting for their own groups while looking at the live voting status on a stream.
Reactions were sharply divided between ‘They know the fans aren't happy about this, so why are they being so draining? It’s obvious they’re playing the pity card’ and ‘Our bias is going this far, and you’re not voting? Are you even fans?’
Amidst all that, Spark was quiet. The Sparklers were indignant, but they focused on quietly raising the vote count in official spaces. This was because both we and the fans knew that nothing good would come from a group that had already received so much attention from Awangsil and held the number one video in views speaking out.
In a society where the protruding nail gets hammered down, Spark, who stayed quiet simply because they didn't want to get swept up in controversy, ironically benefited.
≫ No matter how sh*tty other groups have it, could it be worse than SPK?
They set the tone early on and raised the quality of all the stages.
They were the only ones who got sh*tty malicious editing.
They bled because of a fight with their own company PD while filming this show.
In that situation, they didn't say a word about the program being hard, created two stages with 5 million views, and even placed 2nd in the end.
And now they’re stuck in this vote again, putting them in an awkward spot.
└ Even if they win 1st, they probably don't want to come out.
└ Seriously… looking at the behind-the-scenes stories other kids tell after the broadcast, it seems like these guys did the most work even during the camp.
└ Yet Spark barely even mentions Awangsil lol… It was an activity where they were just too unfairly targeted…
└ The part about bleeding is for real, they literally bled… Even if the show pays for the showcase, they probably don't want to do it.
≫ I bet the production team wants Spark to win too.
In a program with no roots, they’re the group that at least gave it an identity.
If I were the PD, I’d be praying to the gods for them to take 1st.
└ If the PD truly cared about the program, he shouldn't be praying, he should be buying 100 paid voting tickets a day and voting for Spark.
└ This is the way lol
└ They say true feelings are expressed with money lol
≫ Isn't it weirder if Spark doesn't take 1st?
There was already a lot of talk about Parte taking 1st at the end, but if Spark isn't 1st even without Parte?
Does the ‘stages people want to see again’ even mean anything then? lol It’s just a popularity vote.
└ Don't you know survival = popularity vote?
└ It’s been a while since fair results lost their meaning… That’s why it was amazing that Spark got those results back then.
└ It was before they even got this famous, but both the idols and the fans were doing literal feats of strength lol. The program itself was boring, but I ended up watching Spark’s stages separately on MeTube.
Whenever a few fans were about to get excited by this flow, other Sparklers would appear from somewhere, holding a lightstick in each hand. They would then leave behind the image of ‘No putting down other groups,’ saying we must maintain our current stance.
As other groups repeatedly self-destructed and we alone received a wave of public sympathy while silently accumulating votes…
“Spark is already the runaway leader.”
…It was as if the ‘Winner Confirmed’ tag had been slapped on us, in terms of election broadcasting. It felt like only yesterday we were using every trick in the book just to get scouted. It was quite the rise in status.