Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Keun Sejin grumbled for quite a while.
“Man, they’re so cold. It’s not like I was asking for a girl group member’s number or anything.”
“…….”
If you had, it wouldn’t have been glucose tablets flying at you, but something else entirely.
Anyway, Keun Sejin seemed to feel better after finishing his candy, and once we were in the car, he started teasing me again.
“Ah, I get it. Moon-dae, is there a girl group member you’ve been wanting to see?”
No, you jerk.
‘I saw plenty of them at the events, so what’s the point?’
I gave a short laugh and shot back.
“What about you?”
“Oh, me? I’m married to the fans~ Girl groups? What are those again?”
Ryu Cheong-woo let out a chuckle at Keun Sejin’s shameless remark.
Kim Rae-bin chimed in with total sincerity.
“That is correct. Regardless of gender, we must strive not to let our guard down too much around other groups.”
“Huh?”
“Because girl groups are also our competitors…!”
“……?”
Because Kim Rae-bin had shouted so suddenly and passionately, everyone was speechless for a moment.
Taking that as a signal to continue, Kim Rae-bin went on with an even more serious explanation.
“Think about it carefully. Being an idol is a long-term competition. However, the pool of people who like idols is limited. Therefore, regardless of gender, as idol groups persist over a long period and attempt various concepts, their target audiences will eventually overlap…!”
Seon A-hyun looked genuinely shocked.
“I-I see…!”
“Exactly! That is why we must never lower our guard against any idol group whose demand might overlap with ours!”
“…….”
“……Umm.”
A brief silence fell over the car.
‘Let’s just… go along with it.’
I forced myself to speak.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“…!! Right?!”
Kim Rae-bin’s eyes sparkled as if he were savoring a moment of victory. Ryu Cheong-woo smoothly handled the situation.
“Rae-bin is quite smart.”
“Thank you!”
Behind Kim Rae-bin’s energetic voice, I heard Cha Yu-jin mutter quietly.
“Is he an idiot?”
I see, it’s just a bunch of fools looking down on each other. Got it.
The music show recordings continued every day until Sunday.
After doing dawn pre-recordings—which required preparing in the middle of the night—every other day, my head started to spin.
At least for Friday’s music show, the pre-recording started at 9 AM, so I could catch my breath a bit, but since we had to be there by 7 AM, it didn’t make much of a difference.
If I, with the ‘Bacchus 500’ trait, felt this way, the state of the others was obvious without even looking.
‘Lee Se-jin almost collapsed yesterday.’
Fortunately, he just slumped over inside the car, so he didn’t get hurt. The agency must have been startled too, because after that, the strict, fat-free diet loosened up a bit.
In the midst of this, having to film reality content in the evenings meant our physical strength was being ground down to nothing.
‘…To think we have to do this every week.’
The only good part was the exact moment we were on stage hearing the cheers. It was a remarkable system where both fans and idols had to endure hours of suffering for that brief window of time.
It felt even more so when I considered that there were far more kids crying because they never even got this opportunity.
‘It really squeezes the life out of you.’
I let out a sigh.
“The winner for the third week of June on Popular Music is… Congratulations, VTIC’s Night Sign!”
At any rate, the final music show of the weekend was finally over. I mechanically clapped for the winners.
‘I got some sleep today since they didn’t give us a pre-recording slot.’
From what I overheard, it seemed like they were hazing us a bit for being from a cable audition show.
No wonder our turn was in the early-to-mid section of the lineup.
Of course, there were pros and cons. Without a pre-recording, there were limits to the stage production.
This was because the performance had to be finished in a single live broadcast.
‘For the first week of promotions… it really is more useful to have a pre-recording.’
It was absurd even as I thought it, but if there’s no work-life balance anyway, I figured it’s better to at least have a better result.
“Should we take some photos?”
“Sounds good!”
“Moon-dae, how about a selfie?!”
As soon as we returned to the waiting room, the requests for photos started.
‘For social media uploads.’
This was something that had to be done. Without a word of complaint, I took the smartphone and turned on the front camera.
I adjusted the angle so that all seven of us were visible from the waist up, showing our costumes, and took a burst of photos.
This way, they’d happily pick and upload them themselves.
Sure enough, some of them started bickering over which photo to post.
“Look, isn’t number three the best? It looks good because you can clearly see all seven of us smiling~”
“My mouth looks weird. Use the next one!”
“Do not listen to him. Using a photo where only one person looks good is an irrational act.”
“T-They all look good…….”
Seon A-hyun’s attempt to mediate was, of course, completely ignored.
In the end, two photos were uploaded: the one Keun Sejin chose and the one Cha Yu-jin chose.
Lee Se-jin watched the process with an exhausted expression and shook his head.
He seemed to have completely forgotten that he was the one grumbling yesterday about them uploading a photo where he looked bad.
‘Haha, this team really runs well.’
I was just glad that the presence of cameras prevented it from escalating into a real fight.
Anyway, it seemed the first week of activities was wrapping up like this.
‘…At least the reaction to the performances is good, so that’s a relief.’
I had been checking whenever I had a spare moment. Both the view counts and the overall reviews were very decent.
‘I guess investing in dance was the right move after all.’
Actually… right before filming the music video, I had invested my last remaining point into the Dance stat.
This was because my stage presence was larger than expected, not just in vocals. It was likely a side effect of being 1st place.
‘Since I’m frequently in the center for the formations, I couldn’t afford not to.’
I had debated between other stats until the very end, but I decided that prioritizing the compensation of my weakest area was the right call.
‘It would be a headache if I got stuck with a mockery meme.’
Thanks to that, my current Dance stat is ‘B-’.
It means I’m at a level where people think, “Oh, he’s a pretty good dancer.”
‘…Of course, since three of them have A-grade dance stats, I didn’t gain a huge advantage.’
Since this wasn’t an individual competition anymore, I decided to be satisfied with jumping to a level where I could contribute to the overall quality.
…Well, it was also fun to see the fans enjoying themselves in Park Moon-dae’s individual fancams.
“Great job everyone~”
“The first week of activities ended safely!”
Before leaving the waiting room, the members and staff smiled and congratulated each other. The manager added a word.
“Congratulations on making it into the top 10 on the digital charts too~”
“Hahaha!”
It was true. Just as the manager said, the digital rankings were rising encouragingly.
I recalled the screenshot of today’s 24Hits ranking that had been posted in the group chat.
[10th: Magical Boy ▲4]
[13th: Hi-five ▲3]
‘I guess the music show buff really is a thing.’
What surprised me a little was that Magical Boy had overtaken the other track.
It was probably thanks to the stage performance, but the fact that the song was easy to listen to repeatedly likely played a part.
‘People who found Hi-five a bit too noisy to keep on repeat probably found Magical Boy okay.’
I was satisfied that my new trait for choosing songs seemed quite effective.
…Of course, VTIC was still firmly holding the #1 spot on the charts. They really were monsters.
‘Hmm, is a win on a major public broadcast out of reach for this promotion?’
Looking at the situation, it seemed like the agency would give us another album within the year, and since this album’s performance was good, it wasn’t something to worry about to the point of trembling.
…Though, it would have been better if this god-awful situation of the sudden death timer being renewed didn’t exist in the first place.
A deep irritation I had forgotten during the busy schedule tried to flare up, but I barely managed to push it down.
Getting angry wouldn’t change the situation, so I needed to stay calm.
‘…Should I be satisfied with having put us on a smooth trajectory?’
I shrugged and packed my bag. Beside me, I heard Ryu Cheong-woo asking the manager.
“Are we heading straight back to the dorm today?”
“Ah… actually, a meeting was urgently scheduled for today.”
“What?”
“You guys said you wanted to go on variety shows. It’s a variety show!”
When the manager spoke brightly, a few of the guys took the bait despite their fatigue.
“Oh~ what kind of variety show is it?”
“Is it a fun one?”
The manager nodded confidently.
“It’s a program called Humans at Work!”
“…?”
“It’s a new show being launched by TVC. You guys know them, right? All the variety shows they’ve made have been hits~”
“Ooh!”
A few members nodded, looking intrigued. The manager added more.
“It’s a variety show where you experience unique jobs. The PD is a great person, and everyone has high expectations. They specifically said they wanted to work with TeSTAR, so let’s work hard!”
“…….”
…Ah, I can already tell.
‘I knew something was off the moment he started talking too much.’
TVC is a broadcasting station under the T1 umbrella. In short, since they’re launching a new variety show within their own family, they want to use TeSTAR for the buzz.
Furthermore, it was a program I hadn’t even heard of three years into the future.
‘They’re sticking us in because the show looks like it’s going to flop.’
Right now, other broadcasting stations are probably playing a game of chicken with variety show casting because TeSTAR hasn’t hit #1 yet, making it awkward to send love calls to cable audition stars.
‘And they’re wasting our first variety show special on this instead of waiting for those deals?’
It was absurd to see the company people making a choice that had zero productivity for the group just to serve their "big picture."
However, the clueless members were responding to the manager with bright and energetic voices.
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
“……Yes.”
I eventually nodded as well.
Fine. What’s the point of arguing when the cameras are rolling? It’s not like rookies have the right to refuse a schedule, so let’s just do it without a word.
Just then, I locked eyes with Keun Sejin, who was nodding with a smile.
“…….”
That’s the look of someone who thinks this is crap but knows there’s no other choice.
Later, when I asked him quietly after getting in the car, he said the reaction to the first episode of Humans at Work, which had just aired, was disastrous.
‘I knew it.’
I thought I had sufficiently given up on my expectations for the company, but I must have needlessly regained some hope while preparing for the album.
I should throw away even more of it.
“Hello there~”
Whether the appearance had already been finalized with the agency or not, there were cameras at the meeting for Humans at Work.
‘They’ve already coordinated everything among themselves.’
“We’ll just ask a few preliminary questions first.”
“Yes!”
Perhaps because the next filming was right around the corner, the meeting ended hastily after exchanging about ten questions and answers without any pleasantries.
True to the title Humans at Work, the questions were mainly about what kind of work we wanted to do.
‘…Not working is the best.’
But since I couldn’t write that given my current profession, I gave a few reasonably unique jobs as answers.
‘They’re in a rush.’
The production crew hurriedly collected all the desired Q&As and ended the meeting.
It was obvious they were busy as hell.
‘The reaction to the first episode must have been so bad that people are being replaced.’
Anyway, thanks to that, we were able to get back in the car heading to the dorm before it was completely night.
“Now, everyone, wave your hands~”
While I was dutifully waving at Keun Sejin, who was filming a video to post on social media, my pocket vibrated.
‘I have a bad feeling about this.’
After confirming that Keun Sejin had finished filming and turned off the camera, I checked my phone.
[VTIC Cheong-ryeo Sunbae: I’m texting first since I haven’t heard from you. Is this Park Moon-dae’s number? ^^]
“…….”
Wow, this really feels uncomfortable.
‘Is he subtly digging at me for a rookie not contacting him first?’
I knew very well that he hadn’t taken my number because he truly wanted to become friends.
Still, I couldn’t ignore him given the hierarchy of seniority, so I sent a reply for now.
[I don’t check my phone often, so my reply is late. I apologize, Sunbaenim.]
A reply came back instantly.
[VTIC Cheong-ryeo Sunbae: Nothing to apologize for. I just texted to say we should stay in touch.]
I’m exhausted.
I sent a short reply along the lines of ‘Understood, thank you,’ and turned off my phone entirely.
‘I’ll just change my status message tomorrow to say I’m slow at checking messages.’
I was already getting annoyed by weirdos who had somehow found my number and kept sending messages.
I’d block calls from numbers not in my contacts and change my status message while I was at it.
‘Anyway, for today… is this the end of the day?’
Just as I was about to drift off to sleep in the car, I heard Ryu Cheong-woo’s voice.
“Guys, our choreography timing is starting to drift apart a bit. Since we have some time now, shouldn’t we get it back in sync?”
“…….”
That woke me right up.
Looking around, everyone had “I want to rest” written all over their faces. But because he was right, no one could bring themselves to argue, and a silence of implicit agreement followed.
I held back a sigh.
‘…End of the day, my foot.’
I guess I’m going to practice.
While TeSTAR was navigating a murderous first-week schedule, the fans were having a happy time with the overflowing content.
That fact also served as the driving force for TeSTAR to quietly follow their schedule.
Since the contract with TeSTAR wasn’t short-term, the agency focused on creating an atmosphere where people liked the group as a whole, rather than using marketing tactics that encouraged individual competition between members.
And that effort was beginning to take root within the fandom.
The fact that the group used only one social media account and frequently posted photos of them together was now accepted without much backlash.
However, there was one area where that couldn’t be the case.
It was the random photocards included in the albums.
Since they were directly linked to album sales, the photocards of the members were included randomly according to traditional commercial tactics.
As a result, people who wanted to bash TeSTAR swarmed the related comparison posts and chatted away excitedly.
=========================
[TeSTAR Photocard Trading Price Ranking]
: Cha Yu-jin >= Park Moon-dae > Seon A-hyun > Kim Rae-bin = Keun Sejin >= Ryu Cheong-woo >> Lee Se-jin
+) These are statistics from Junggo World. I’m not accepting any denial of reality~ (Link)
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No matter how much fans reported or ignored them, there was a limit. The jealousy and anger poured onto a "rising star" who was "just about to become unimaginably successful" were at a level that was hard to understand rationally.
Because that mockery was poured onto all the members across the board, it actually formed a strange sense of solidarity among the fans.
Among them, they weren’t just expressing it formally; a true identity as ‘group fans’ was slowly forming.
And right around that time, a special event was approaching.
It was TeSTAR’s first fan signing event.