The Conditions for Becoming a Gentle Idol Leader 83
After the idol stage ended, two actor M.C.s dressed in gowns and tuxedos stepped out in front of the stage with their cue sheets in hand.
They were famous faces who appeared on television all the time. One of the M.C.s took the lead, cueing his partner.
"Na Yeon-seo, shall we get to the awards?"
"Yes! This is the Best Potential Energy Award. And the winner is—"
The actress called Na Yeon-seo peeked at the envelope containing the winner’s name, then announced it with a bright laugh.
"Zero One and DTD, co-winners. Congratulations!"
They had already won Rookie of the Year in their debut year, and unless they had something tangible to show for themselves, most awards were like this now.
This was a newly created award for the year, and DTD shared it as a co-recipient. In the end, their careers were close enough in age that they were bound to cross paths often.
Cheon Sa-yoon caught the eyes of M.C. Na Yeon-seo and smiled softly as he accepted the bouquet and trophy. DTD received their award right after.
At least they’d won something. Better to take home even a small trophy than nothing at all; it gave them some face before the fans.
With no separate notice from the staff, this was the end of their awards for the night.
The remaining winners were almost exactly as expected.
Apparently the song had been a bigger hit than anyone thought, because the track Na Woo-ri had been so passionately explaining earlier won Popular Trend Music, while veteran idol groups already well known to the general public split the Popularity Award and the grand prize between them.
This year’s ceremony didn’t even have a single grand prize. There were multiple daesang awards, and they were distributed generously among the senior groups.
The communities online had plenty to argue about, but it had nothing to do with Zero One.
And so the ceremony passed without incident. The moment they returned to the waiting room, they uploaded a brief thank-you post about the award.
For a group that hadn’t shown much and had only promoted for a short time, it was a meaningful result.
However hastily it had all been put together, an award was still an award. Even if it meant nothing to some people, it could be precious to someone else.
Go Young-in took a photo holding the trophy. As he typed the text he would post on social media, Kyeon In-woo suddenly leaned in and spoke.
"Hey, you’re about to do it, right? The Go Young account."
"Yeah. We won an award."
"I know, so hurry up and post it. I want to post mine too."
He could just post first himself, so what was he doing, leaving his phone sitting there? It was ridiculous to even care about order for something like this.
After uploading a selfie with the trophy, Go Young-in suddenly realized something. Kyeon In-woo turned out to be surprisingly persistent. Ever since he had posted that full-body selfie on social media, he’d been showing up there pretty often.
He always liked to be the first to do things, muttering that he couldn’t arrive later than Cheon Sa-yoon. So as soon as Go Young-in posted, he followed right after, determined to win by sheer speed.
Meanwhile, Cheon Sa-yoon probably didn’t even know Kyeon In-woo was doing this…
No, even if he did, he wouldn’t care.
In fact, he was disturbingly proactive about it.
Sometimes his eagerness was a little too much, but that was a problem in its own right.
"What the hell? Hey, Go Young. Why’s it suddenly doing this? It was there a second ago, and now it says I can’t check it?"
"...Looks like they were surprised."
It seemed Kyeon In-woo was planning to wipe out every Zero One fan account today.
He had no idea why, but Go Young-in had once done the exact same thing in a previous round when the System ordered him to communicate with the fans, and he had ended up blocked by dozens of fan accounts.
Not everyone reacted that way, of course. There were fans who welcomed him too. But when he saw how startled the others got, he’d stopped doing it any further.
He’d gotten a taste for it, and that was enough. Even if he was excessive, the frequency at which he kept showing up was increasing, so that was a good thing.
Anonymous 202N.12.11 │ Views: 808
Come to think of it, once their popularity had really started to surge and the fandom’s firepower was gaining momentum, incidents and accidents began piling up, and they’d never been able to win anything as major as a Popularity Award or a Grand Prize.
Popularity awards usually included paid voting. In other words, they were the kind of awards you could say were won purely through the fans’ effort and love.
But after scandal after scandal kept breaking out and dragging fan morale straight into the dirt, that was only natural.
...We should repay them with our music.
He repeated a line that a celebrity with a habit of causing trouble would probably use as an excuse, and then felt awkward for no reason.
It was better if at least one of them was proactive. At least Kyeon In-woo was trying to do something. As for Cheon Sa-yoon and Lim Se-bin, they were the type to take care of it on their own when it mattered, so he could let that pass.
That leaves Pyo Jae-ho.
Pyo Jae-ho still had no interest in any of this. It was one thing if he could bring it up, but he couldn’t exactly force him, and that made the whole thing difficult.
"Jae-ho, aren’t you going to post anything? If not, I’ll hand the trophy over to Trophy Manager."
Go Young-in gave the trophy in his hand a light shake. Pyo Jae-ho didn’t even spend a second thinking about it.
"Is there a need to post it again? I already uploaded the group photo."
Please at least pretend to hesitate...
Still, this wasn’t just any event—it was an awards ceremony win. Even Lim Se-bin, who hadn’t uploaded a photo, had at least written something and posted it. Couldn’t he write literally anything and put it up?
Well... it was his own choice. It wasn’t like Pyo Jae-ho would die if he didn’t.
Even aside from that, their personalities were different, and it wasn’t even something that was legally wrong. He knew that, which was why he’d let it slide without saying much until now.
But now the status window was stepping in and telling him to take care of the members, so he didn’t have a choice.
As long as he didn’t hear anything too strange, that was enough. The fact that they weren’t even this proactive right now made it feel strangely surprising that he had participated in album production last promotion cycle.
Starting with the first year-end awards show, Zero One went on to receive several awards at the other ceremonies they were invited to afterward as well, including the Global Celebrity Award, the Hot Artist Award, and the Best Dance Performer Award.
As expected, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Pyo Jae-ho never once visited the fans, let alone posted even a minimal congratulations message.
* * *
It had already been nearly a month since they filmed the group variety show.
At midnight, a week before broadcast, the pre-release clip and teaser were uploaded to the video-sharing platform.
The title alone was outrageous. He hadn’t exactly expected the crying to be edited out, but he hadn’t expected it to be the main attraction either.
He sank into the sofa that had by now become his designated monitoring seat and brought the teaser up on the TV screen. Then, as if he’d somehow sensed it, Kyeon In-woo came ambling out of his room.
He sat down beside him carrying some kind of plastic container, popped open the lid, rummaged around, and pulled out a lollipop to hand over.
"The comeback date should be getting set soon, so we need to start taking care of ourselves. Stop snacking."
"Wow, damn. So cheap, getting stingy over a single piece of candy."
Was that really something to say when he’d brought not one candy, not one bag, but a whole damn container?
Kyeon In-woo grumbled while crunching on the lollipop, then pulled out a new one, tore off the wrapper, and thrust it at Go Young-in’s mouth with rough insistence.
"You need to eat more."
No... if you’re going to say that, at least buy me beef while you’re at it. Isn’t it kind of ridiculous to say that with candy?
It was a bit rich for Go Young-in to be talking about nutrition while accepting such an utterly useless sweet.
He obediently took the lollipop and scanned the room.
Come to think of it, what are the other members doing? Are they even bothering to monitor this properly?
Only two of them were sitting on the multi-person sofa, so it looked strangely empty.
Apparently he wasn’t going to be courteous about it after all, because the bedroom door opened. It was the room used by Go Young-in and Cheon Sa-yoon.
As if he were heading out somewhere, Cheon Sa-yoon came out wearing a long coat, his bangs that usually fell over his forehead neatly swept back.
If you’re going out, at least pretend to make an effort to hide your identity. Why are you strutting out so openly with your face fully on display?
The guy usually dressed well anyway. But suddenly showing up in outing clothes at this hour was suspicious.
Of course, that was only because he was the type who always sounded like he had some scheme going on.
Kyeon In-woo, who had turned his head at the sound of movement, scowled the moment he confirmed it was Cheon Sa-yoon, then looked back at the TV.
Knowing full well that Go Young-in and Kyeon In-woo were in the living room, Cheon Sa-yoon kept tapping on his phone as he walked past. Go Young-in stopped him.
"Where are you going, Sa-yoon?"
"Hey, Go Young. Why do you care? Leave him alone."
I’d like to do that too...
Of all times, he had to be going out just when Go Young-in was trying to figure out how to stop him.
Damn it. He couldn’t stop him from leaving, and following him out would be ridiculous too. He had no clue what to do with that walking time bomb.
Still keeping his eyes fixed on his phone, Cheon Sa-yoon answered lightly.
"I’ve got something to take care of at the company."
"At the company?"
"Yes. There’s someone I need to meet. I’ll clean up a few things while I’m at it."
He hadn’t received any separate notice, so the company... wait.
Who are you meeting, and what exactly are you cleaning up...?
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