Chapter 227
Chapter 227
The moment Kim Rae-bin’s individual fan checked the thumbnail, she froze.
Kim Rae-bin, with ornate chains wrapped around his ears and arms, was wearing a frayed black knit sweater while locking eyes bewitchingly with the camera.
“Gasp!!”
The atmosphere and his face were incredible, but there was a deeper sense of overwhelming emotion…
It was because Kim Rae-bin’s fans had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
An era where Kim Rae-bin was the center!
‘The others have been hogging it for way too long! Honestly, even the guys less popular than Rae-bin got to be the chorus center!’
Every time a part distribution chart for a title track came out, Kim Rae-bin always hovered between 4th and 5th place.
And every time those statistics were released, there were individual fans who would pour out curses.
‘Isn’t it practically a universal rule that the producing member gets flak for hogging all the parts…?’
They would grit their teeth, wondering why he was the only exception to that rule.
While they certainly found Kim Rae-bin’s lack of talent for social politics charming, it was also true that it was frustrating to watch.
But finally, the moment had arrived!
‘With a face like that, they should’ve made him the center ages ago. Let’s go.’
Without a second thought, the fan clicked the video. It was an almost reflexive action.
“…….”
A dark, black-and-white screen.
TeSTAR’s new song teaser began with a slow-rising, hazy, smog-like smoke.
Black text appeared.
—CALL it.
Beyond the smoke, light bulbs hanging from black wires were seen swaying, moved by a pale hand with distinct knuckles.
The moving lights left behind blurry afterimages and trails of smoke.
However, there was no sound.
“……??”
Between the mysterious scenes, which had an aspect ratio reminiscent of a black-and-white silent film, black cuts were inserted with text laid out like dialogue.
It was a contradictory situation—a preview for a song with no sound.
—Sometimes.
It will CALL you back.
Then suddenly, color bled into the video.
Pale yet brilliant shades of cyan and magenta from the light bulbs flickered, tinting the smoke.
And within that haze, the members revealed themselves one by one.
Every single one of them wore strange, atmospheric accessory pieces—chains incorporated into various parts of their bodies—as if they were being restrained.
Through loose tops and dark hair, primary-colored glints of bright yellow or blue flashed from their eyes.
Short, expressionless cuts of them in different poses passed by intensely, accompanied by symbols that felt cunning and sly.
And the final shot was the one from the thumbnail.
Kim Rae-bin, staring at the screen with a purple glint in his eyes.
But suddenly, six hands lunged from off-screen and grabbed Kim Rae-bin’s body.
“Hic.”
Yet, Kim Rae-bin remained composed.
Instead of reacting, he parted his lips slightly and whispered something.
[…….]
However, the video was still silent. It was following the silent film style.
Instead, another dialogue cut like the ones before appeared.
“……!”
And that was when the sound finally broke through.
Over the black screen, a low, resonant voice and a high-pitched, beautiful tenor rang out.
—Welcome, welcome
This is the sound calling you
The melody line, mixed with airy breaths as if whispering, was infused with a slightly ominous feeling.
And beyond that, there was an element that felt like a deliberate appeal.
‘It’s sexy!!’
Kim Rae-bin’s fan threw her mouse.
The short teaser had already ended, but that was enough. Anyone could see this was a decadent sexy concept!!
From the blatant close-up of the hands at the beginning to the members’ outfits, everything was screaming that this concept was a lethargic, decadent sexiness!
‘So that’s why Rae-bin was the center…!’
Faced with such an undeniably excellent choice, the fan slammed her head onto her desk.
At that moment, reactions began to spread like a volcanic eruption across fan communities.
Just as Park Moon-dae had thought while preparing for the third team match in Idol Inc., if done properly, there were few concepts as intense and effective as this.
Furthermore, the teaser, which mixed in artistic references to avoid being too blatant, even managed to soothe the hearts of those who liked to act a bit pretentious.
Thanks to that, the teaser became a hot topic in various entertainment communities beyond just the fan circles.
[TeSTAR’s new song teaser causing a stir as soon as it was released]
[Collection of reactions to TeSTAR’s new song ‘Call (Nightmare)’ teaser]
[TeSTAR’s teaser seems to be going all-in on a sexy concept this time]
[TeSTAR member getting explosive reactions for black hair and body chains]
It reached the point where WeTube review videos analyzing ‘why the reaction is so good’ were popping up.
This was the first time a reaction had been this heated since the ‘Haengcha’ teaser.
Even then, that had been more like an 8-minute music video introducing solo songs made with full effort, so it was almost embarrassing to compare the two.
However, as always, opinions were divided once it left the fan communities.
-
Half of it was lies.
Since even excited international K-POP fans were clicking the teaser like crazy and signs of an unprecedented hit were showing, forces trying to dampen the mood had mixed in.
Of course, there were also people whose tastes truly didn’t align.
The main reason was that the concept felt too heavy and mature for a group in their third year to pull off.
It was a situation where talk could have broken out even among fans. However, most fans had something to believe in.
It was the activities TeSTAR had shown so far.
‘As long as the company provides the funding, our boys will definitely do well!’
That belief, which was close to inductive reasoning, was spread among the fans like a quiet sense of pride.
Thanks to that, TeSTAR released various pre-comeback content according to the schedule, absorbing expectations without any significant backlash or noticeable public concern.
It was an atmosphere where success would be a massive hit, but failure would likely cause more damage than imagined.
And on the day the music video was released.
‘Hurry up and come out.’
‘Release it now.’
Before the bloodshot eyes of the fans whose expectations were already sky-high, the short and impactful five-minute music video was unveiled.
Drrrr.
The video began with Park Moon-dae dragging a white bed into the frame within a format that looked like CCTV footage.
It was the moment he let out a small sigh and lay down on it.
[Whew.]
The bed sank deep.
Then, without warning, the colors of the screen inverted to black and flipped upside down.
Thud.
Park Moon-dae, with black hair, fell from the black bed onto a bronze-colored ceiling and landed lightly on a cracked floor.
And the moment he tilted his head, a classic silent film-style dialogue cut was inserted.
[…Dream?]
Park Moon-dae smiled and fell backward.
Diiing—
Diiing—
Didididididididi—
As if an alarm were ringing, a strange riff melody filled the screen, and the song began.
[Take a good bite.
The slightly sweet taste of
Your final thought]
There was no particular storyline.
The camera simply moved slowly through this bizarre space like an amusement park attraction, capturing the members as they popped up one by one.
And the members simply appeared in alluring or intense ways to perform their parts.
However, the way the focus shifted was mysterious.
Swish.
A member being filmed would be pulled away and disappear by a white hand that appeared out of nowhere.
Then, like a continuous motion, a cut of a new member—who seemed to be the owner of that white hand—would appear through the smoke as if the focus had been cut and pasted.
When that dreamlike, chaotic composition merged with the members’ dark and lithe appearances, it felt somewhat dizzying and strangely stimulating.
[Dreams can be horrible
But it won’t be like that now
Call me, can you hear it?
My voi-ce]
And in between, the choreography that used many lines, the outfits with bold props, and even the vocal directing…
As everyone had guessed, it was a concept aimed at sexiness. However, it wasn’t too heavy, as some had feared.
[Call- it
Call that name now
It’ll stick like honey and won’t come off
Nananananana- name.]
This was because they had mixed in star quality in all the right places.
It could sound a bit lethargic due to the singing style, but because the beat and bass were prominent, the greasy feeling wasn’t excessive.
Based on that, the members’ individual characters popped out in each cut, so the bizarreness of the space—where reality was inverted—wasn’t overwhelming.
That didn’t mean they completely ignored the eerie and lethargic weight shown in the teaser.
Those elements were pushed into the short and dense bridge toward the end.
To satisfy the expectations of those who were looking for that kind of pleasure.
[Welcome, welcome
This is the sound calling you]
The chorus, which felt like a strange whisper, remained the same.
Then, a bridge in the style of the intense teaser video followed, where one felt like they might collapse and suffocate in the black-and-white smoke that suddenly blew toward the camera.
Grab.
A large hand grabbed a face with a rough tone, like a beast or a ghost. And eyes flashing between those fingers.
It was a decadence that was almost sensual.
Furthermore, at the climax, they poured in gorgeous choreography cuts with immense visual beauty, as if telling the audience to forget the bridge.
As if trying to keep their gaze pinned.
Thanks to that, it was just around the time the viewers were completely focused and had their hearts stolen by that lavishly produced, bewitching spectacle.
The choreography stopped, and the song ended abruptly.
Then, as if they had been interrupted, everyone stared at the camera simultaneously like a painting.
Swish.
In that moment, without any lingering resonance, the screen suddenly turned black.
The sound of breathing could be heard in the silence.
[Haa.]
Bae Se-jin, wearing a white round T-shirt, opened his eyes on a white bed. He gasped for breath as if shocked by a nightmare.
But soon, that expression in the close-up faded away and turned into a faint smile.
As if he were possessed by something.
And the video ended with him slowly tapping his sweat-drenched ear with one finger.
[Call me]
Leaving behind only these words, which could be interpreted symbolically but were very easy to understand intuitively.
It was a music video that felt like a set piece of primal stimulation.
And the fans, whose high expectations had been met, began to pour out posts like a lightning strike.
“TeSTAR, we hear this comeback is already creating a huge sensation!”
“Oh, thank you so much!”
The interviewer this time was quite an energetic person. Thanks to that, the voices of the guys who were dying from lack of sleep rose in tone as well.
And the well-wishes were actually true.
‘…I didn’t expect the reaction to be this good.’
It had only been half a day since the music video was released.
Setting the song aside for a moment, seeing all sorts of edited GIFs being shared and hitting the trending posts one after another, I could feel the power of this concept.
I did have a bit of a lukewarm feeling that the song might be getting sidelined, but I guess we can see about that after we perform.
Anyway, for now, let’s deal with this interviewer who’s excited by the good reactions.
“…So, is there a meaning behind the music video and these piercings you’re wearing now?”
“There’s no special meaning, but I’ve been consistently maintaining them because having many piercings broadens the range of choices when pulling off various concepts!”
“I see~”
I glanced at Kim Rae-bin, who was participating enthusiastically in the interview, and nodded with a smile without saying a word.
‘They said they’d be filming this.’
Since it’s a standard media interview, they’ll likely focus on the internet article, but it doesn’t hurt to manage the behind-the-scenes footage too.
Well, even so, the questions are only at the level of ‘Everyone seems to have a lot of piercings for this album, did you actually get them pierced?’
Ah, it’s finally my turn.
“Now then, what about Moon-dae-ssi?”
“Mine were all ear cuffs.”
“I see. Is there some kind of personal belief…?”
“No, I’m just scared of the pain.”
“Pardon? Hahaha!”
Actually, I gave up because it’s a hassle to maintain and I felt a bit awkward about making holes in someone else’s body, but this would be a more appropriate answer.
“Moon-dae is surprisingly a coward~ He can’t even watch horror movies!”
“Really? No, but this music video is quite chilling. How did you monitor it…?”
“Yes. I watched it with my eyes covered.”
“Hahaha!”
As I roughly admitted it with a look of resignation, people were laughing heartily here and there.
Right, I hope the people watching the interview feel the same way.
Actually, I’ve become so used to these minor schedules that they don’t require much effort.
Surprisingly, the questions people ask are often standardized like a routine.
The things that require the most effort are the stages and variety shows.
And… there’s something special I have to do for this comeback only.
‘It’s about time to implement it.’
I smiled slightly, thinking of the ‘Official Document for the Formation of a Dedicated TeSTAR Team’ I had checked this morning.
I’ll find a way to wedge myself in and take control.