Chapter 63
Chapter 63
“…I will recruit a new team member.”
“Ah!! Participant Park Moon-dae has made his choice!”
At the MC’s shout, the prize money display vanished from the electronic screen, replaced by the words <Recruit New Member!> expanding to fill the frame.
The screen cut to shots of the audience cheering and the judges clapping in delight.
I almost grit my teeth.
‘Thirty-nine million won...’
Gone into thin air.
Still, looking at the long term, it was the only choice.
Adding one more participant meant the group’s fan base would grow. And in this industry, growth isn't just addition; it’s multiplication. The scale of the money we could earn would be on a different level.
In the long run, it was an investment that would yield far more than 50 million won.
The problem was what came next.
“Then, who is the final member chosen by Participant Park Moon-dae?”
The remaining participants tensed up again, their faces captured on the monitors.
“The participant I have chosen is...”
No matter who I picked, this was the perfect moment to earn the resentment of the fans of those who narrowly missed the cut.
So, I dodged it.
“...The 7th place participant chosen by the Shareholders.”
“Ah!”
A low murmur rippled through the crowd. Most people seemed to find it reasonable or felt a sense of relief.
‘...The production crew looks pleased, too.’
That part was a bit annoying.
“Participant Park Moon-dae has left the choice to the Shareholders!”
The MC glanced at the prompter, skillfully dragging out the tension, and soon the candidates for 7th place appeared on the screen.
And the guy who made it was...
“Congratulations! Participant Lee Se-jin!”
I almost choked on my own breath.
‘How the hell did his rank skyrocket like that?’
He probably benefited from high public recognition due to his past as a child actor; people who only tuned in for the final episode likely sent him their text votes.
‘...Nothing I can do about it now.’
The die was cast. I stepped aside to make room for Lee Se-jin as he stumbled up onto the platform.
“...Thank you.”
Lee Se-jin managed to squeeze out a few words of gratitude before hanging his head low. It was enough for fans to cover for him, assuming he was just out of it because he hadn't expected to win.
The MC guided Lee Se-jin to join the winners' seats. As he brushed past me, he whispered under his breath.
“...Thanks.”
I just nodded. I guess he really did want to make it.
‘I want to sit down, too.’
My legs were starting to cramp.
Just how long were they planning to keep me standing here?
However, the MC continued the proceedings with me still standing by his side.
“Now, only one thing remains! The group name for the participants debuting through <Re-listing! Idol Inc.>!”
A cliché explanation followed about how they had gathered opinions from the Shareholders online.
Then, a brilliant logo flashed onto the screen.
A capital ‘T’ and an open-topped triangle merged subtly, with flashy glitter effects bursting from the sides and top before settling into a small diamond mark.
“The group name selected by the Shareholders is... TeSTAR!”
“……”
The name had changed.
As far as I knew, the original name for the boy group debuting through this program was ‘STier.’
I’d seen ‘Star + Tier’ listed as a candidate on the website with a full explanation, so I figured it would be the same this time.
Perhaps because the lineup had changed significantly, including myself, a different name had emerged.
It seemed the name had been decided by a narrow margin last time.
‘...Wasn't STier better?’
I never expected to end up in a group where the word ‘Star’ literally took up more than half the name.
I was a bit dazed, but... well, as long as the group name wasn't exceptionally weird, it was fine.
“The seven members of TeSTAR will be presented with trophies engraved with the group logo!”
Young-rin then came up and handed me a trophy. There was only one trophy, shaped like a graph soaring toward the sky.
‘So they kept me standing here to do this.’
I suppose my job was to carry it over and hand it to the guys.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
I shook hands briefly with Young-rin and received the trophy on its cushion.
Young-rin looked at me with a gentle smile in her eyes.
“I hope you have a great career ahead of you.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I muttered my thanks repeatedly.
Then, I walked quickly toward where the winners were standing.
Perhaps swept up in the atmosphere, the winners were already on their feet.
“Whoa!”
“We get a trophy too?!”
Without hesitation, I handed the trophy to the guy standing closest to the front.
Immediately, they all huddled together, putting their arms around each other’s shoulders and making a fuss over the trophy.
‘My shoulders hurt.’
The area around my back, where Cha Yu-jin and Keun Se-jin had taken turns hitting me, was throbbing.
From my shoulders to my feet, everything felt numb, but thanks to the adrenaline, my brain was still sharp.
I heard the MC’s voice from a short distance away.
“Congratulations on your debut, TeSTAR!”
Confetti cannons exploded brilliantly for the stage effect. Surrounded by the trophy and the other members, I listened to the roar of the crowd.
And in that moment.
A status window popped up.
[Successful Debut!]
You have successfully debuted through a famous audition program!
! Time Limit: Met (Great Success) !
! Status Effect: ‘Death if Not Passing’ removed!
[Reward: Truth Verification ☜ Click!]
‘...Really?’
I opened the status window. The status effect was gone. It was over.
For some reason, it didn't feel real.
Perhaps it was because I didn't know the purpose of the status window, so I had been plagued by the grim prediction that it might find some excuse to extend the status effect.
‘To think it would disappear so cleanly.’
I blankly closed the status window. Then, the text at the very bottom of the remaining pop-up caught my eye.
The spot where the reward should have been written.
‘...Wait.’
What is this?
[Truth Verification ☜ Click!]
Truth?
Reflexively, I clicked on the phrase.
“Moon-dae?”
In an instant, my vision distorted.
And then, darkness.
A scrawny high school student was lying on a mattress, holding an old smartphone.
The mattress creaked every time he moved.
A WeTube video was playing on the cracked screen of the smartphone. The quality was poor because he was barely managing to use a public Wi-Fi connection.
However, thanks to the skill of the person behind the camera, the charm of the singer on screen still managed to catch the eye.
‘That was fun.’
The high school student, Park Moon-dae, looked regretfully at the video that had finished playing.
The latest fancams uploaded to this account ended with the ‘2X0412 Re-dawn Han River Festival’ he had just watched.
This account, ‘Gun1234,’ was one that mainly uploaded fancams of singers and idols.
He specifically focused on those with low recognition, yet he somehow made them look cool.
‘It feels like he’s recognizing them.’
It felt good, as if he were cheering for people who seemed like nobodies.
‘I hope he uploads often.’
There weren't many things left that allowed him to spend time happily without spending money.
Even on WeTube, where you could watch just by viewing ads, it was the same.
There were hardly any videos he could watch with a racing heart despite the low quality and the constantly stuttering Wi-Fi.
He had heard that the ad revenue from fancams went entirely to the singer, so the uploader made almost nothing, yet he was grateful that they kept uploading consistently.
After some thought, Park Moon-dae scrolled down and wrote a comment.
He knew this account had never really given feedback to viewers before.
The uploader hadn't even left a single comment when Young-rin’s fancam went viral.
But since they might be watching, Park Moon-dae checked his spelling and hit the post button.
A few replies were posted, making him feel a bit embarrassed.
He thought about replying back but suddenly lost the inclination and stopped.
‘It’s not like I have anything to say even if I do...’
Whenever he tried to talk about himself, he found himself at a loss for words.
The house—no, the room that was embarrassing to even call a house—was silent.
He didn't really have a daily life.
When he tried to remember the last time he had done anything with enthusiasm, he thought back to when everything was normal.
Back when his parents were still around.
It felt like it was just yesterday, but in reality, years had passed.
And for years, he felt like he had been stuck somewhere. Or perhaps he was actually in the middle of a dream.
The boy thought that might be why he focused so much on the videos uploaded by that account.
Watching people sing and dance passionately even when their situation showed no signs of improving gave him a sense of comfort—a sort of vicarious satisfaction.
‘...Let’s sleep.’
Tomorrow would probably be Monday.
Park Moon-dae shifted slightly on the mattress and closed his eyes.
And time continued to flow. Unlike his surroundings, which kept moving on, Park Moon-dae himself somehow remained unchanged.
Something terrible happened at school. He could just quit, so he did. Even after quitting, nothing changed.
Well, then couldn't he just quit living, too?
‘I guess so.’
But he didn't particularly want to die, either.
Park Moon-dae looked for part-time work, but the work soon dried up.
And the video uploads from ‘gun1234’ stopped as well.
‘Why...?’
After some deliberation, Park Moon-dae eventually sent a message to the account information. It was the day he had failed to find a new part-time job. Naturally, no reply came.
And a short while later, all the videos on the account disappeared.
Only a short post remained on the empty page.
=========================
[Quitting to play games. Bye.]
=========================
Games.
Park Moon-dae tried installing a mobile game. He didn't have the money to buy a desktop or a console.
However, his old smartphone couldn't run the mobile game properly; it overheated terribly and then broke down.
For some reason, Park Moon-dae felt incredibly exhausted.
Even though he hadn't done anything, so there was no reason to be exhausted.
‘I’m tired.’
He was tired of living.
Park Moon-dae canceled his service for the broken smartphone. And he didn't renew the contract for his shabby one-room.
He ate a proper meal for the first time in a long while. After that, the money he had left was exactly enough.
It meant he could get a motel room and buy sleeping pills, and that would be it.
‘They say a lot of people die in motels.’
The weather was too cold for him to jump into the water or climb a mountain. He was afraid he would give up halfway.
If he died in his own room, he felt like he would be left to rot for over a month.
‘I’m sorry.’
As he took the room, Park Moon-dae repeatedly apologized in his heart to the blunt owner.
After entering the room, he lay down on the bed and swallowed the sleeping pills.
Sleep came like death.
A moment later.
The one who opened his eyes while gasping for breath on that dirty motel bed was...
Me.
“Gasp.”
I exhaled sharply.
“A-Are you okay?”
Someone patted my back. I turned my head to see Seon A-hyun’s worried face.
“...Just, for a moment, I felt exhausted.”
I managed to make an excuse and straightened my body.
It seemed like hardly any time had passed. Thanks to that, it probably just looked like I had stumbled for a second.
Because the other winners were surrounding me, it seemed no one else had even noticed; the atmosphere remained the same.
I wiped away the cold sweat. My mind was a mess.
The owner of the video account that the original Park Moon-dae liked, ‘gun1234.’
‘It was me.’
It was the account I had deleted when I started studying for the civil service exam.