Chapter 140: Desty, Daisty
140. Desty, Daisty
The afternoon sun lost its scorching heat as a cool evening breeze began to blow.
Through a pre-drawn lottery, the first team to take the stage was the one led by Seo Tae-hyun.
Their team name was "Daisty"—a combination of "Diving" and "Desty," meaning "We'll dive into Desty's embrace." The name was Joo Eun-chan's idea.
And then, that Seo Tae-hyun added another layer of meaning to the already clever name.
—Desty!! Daisty♡
With the perfect pronunciation of "daisuki" (大好き, "I love you" in Japanese), which he had learned from Yuki, their Japanese teammate, he made the whole team chant it together. His expression and gestures were so sickeningly sweet that it made you want to bite into them (!).
This was only possible because Seo Tae-hyun, Yuki, and Park Jae-young—who had already shown off their adorable charms in the previous "Candy Crush" team—were all in the same group again.
—Da... Dai, Daisty!
Of course, the sight of one massive black panther (Joo Eun-chan) and one eagle (Kim Won-ho) suffering amidst a bunch of tiny, cutesy animals was painful to watch...
—Aaaah! Kim Won-ho is so cute!!!!
—Eun-chan!!!! My not-so-little baby king cat!!!!!
...But since the Desty fans loved it, let's move on.
Now, back to the stage.
"......."
"......."
A cold tension seeped sharply into the air.
Joo Eun-chan, looking more serious than ever, lowered his thick lashes and bit his finger in thought.
Opposite him, Kim Won-ho stood stiffly, frozen in nervousness as he stared at Eun-chan.
Beside them, Seo Tae-hyun, Park Jae-young, and Yuki stood in a row, hands clasped together like a pack of hungry puppies begging for food, their eyes shining with desperate anticipation as they waited for Eun-chan's answer.
"Alright, Trainee Eun-chan. It's time for your answer."
Choi Yeon-woo, who had been watching the scene with great amusement, began the countdown.
Eun-chan, who had been scrutinizing Won-ho with his eyes, finally picked up the mic.
"The answer."
"Yes, what is it?"
"Hmm... I think his wristband changed."
At Eun-chan's careful response, Choi Yeon-woo, who had been wearing a meaningful smirk, burst into a bright smile and shouted—
"The wristband changed... Correct!"
"Aaaah! We did it!"
"Eun-chan!!!!"
"Hyung! I believed in you!!"
The moment the correct answer was announced, Eun-chan's proud smile was captured on the broadcast screen. The remaining teammates rushed at him, engulfing him in a group hug.
The heartwarming sight drew cheers from the Desty fans. Choi Yeon-woo deliberately waited for the cheers to die down slightly before delivering the final announcement.
"Yes, Team Daisty! You've successfully cleared all the Desty Missions, earning today's special effects, stage LED, and lighting. Congratulations!"
"Thank you!"
And so it was.
All this commotion unfolding on stage was part of Park Woong's promised "Stage Production Mission."
Based on a pre-concert survey, each trainee was assigned one personal mission and one team mission.
—Teams get three chances at their mission. For personal missions, only a majority of members need to pass for success.
—But unlike personal missions, which have clear outcomes, team missions are judged solely by Desty.
—So you'll need to think carefully about which items to stake on which missions.
Since the missions were only revealed on stage, the key was how they distributed the three items across them.
Team Daisty, having one more member than the other teams, decided to stake the most crucial item—stage lighting—on their team mission and the remaining two on personal missions.
Their team mission, which had stage lighting on the line, was... "Relay Aegyo."
Seo Tae-hyun sacrificed Kim Won-ho and Joo Eun-chan's dignity to secure the stage lighting with his sickeningly sweet performance.
"Watching them makes me wonder what our mission will even be."
"Right? It definitely seems tailored to each trainee's personality."
Sitting in the waiting room, I watched the broadcast on the prepared monitor and tried predicting our Desty Mission with Jung Si-woo.
"What did they do earlier?"
"Yuki gave a speed quiz in Japanese, and the members had to answer. They passed that."
"Won-ho's mission was... guessing ice cream flavors?"
"Yeah, he loves ice cream. But he mixed up B-Big and Bam-Bam and failed."
"Those two aren't even similar... He must've been really nervous."
Si-woo tilted his head, still unable to comprehend how anyone could confuse B-Big and Bam-Bam.
(For the record, those two were Si-woo's favorite ice creams—a TMI I'd learned after teaming up with him a couple of times.)
Anyway, the Desty Missions all seemed to follow this pattern.
Joo Eun-chan, infamous for his poor observational skills (...), had to play "Spot the Difference"—identifying what had changed about his teammates while his eyes were closed.
Shockingly (...!), Eun-chan got it right, so they didn't even have to attempt Tae-hyun's mission, which was "Find the Camera."
He had to locate the camera with the red light among several and make eye contact within three seconds. Honestly, he probably would've passed even without trying.
"How the hell did Seo Tae-hyun not debut before?"
"...I don't even know how to answer that."
"No, but doesn't it make you curious?"
I'm dying to know.
Why the hell didn't he make it?
No matter how you looked at it, Seo Tae-hyun wasn't the type to get buried in that cutthroat industry.
'Next time I enter the Unconscious Space, maybe I should check his past timeline too.'
What if that bastard's a ticking time bomb hiding some massive scandal I don't know about?
At this point, stopping Tae-hyun from debuting was out of the question—and honestly, I didn't even want to.
So if Tae-hyun was a time bomb, I'd just have to carefully cut the fuse and throw it into the ocean (the bomb, not Tae-hyun) from now on.
With that in mind, I kept my eyes on Tae-hyun on the monitor.
—Thank you! We worked really hard preparing for today's stage, so please watch closely and enjoy!
True to his role as leader, Seo Tae-hyun wrapped up his remarks smoothly.
As the brief stage introduction and pre-interview continued, the staff set up for Team Daisty's performance in the background.
All they had to do was finish the interview well and successfully complete their stage.
That was when it happened.
"......?"
"What was that?"
It wasn't clear over the broadcast, but someone in the audience had shouted something very loudly.
It happened to be Kim Won-ho's turn for the interview, and the moment his face twisted in reaction, the camera quickly cut to a wide shot.
"What's going on, PD-nim?"
"Ah... We're checking right now."
Something was clearly wrong, so I asked the PD in charge of filming us, but even they seemed flustered, unaware of the situation on stage.
'Sipsam. Get out here.'
[System Alert: I already anticipated this and checked.]
[System Alert: (◉_<)☆]
...Is this a time administrator or just an all-purpose AI assistant?
Our ever-reliable Sipsam, who had already upgraded from cheat sheets to a live broadcast system, quickly relayed the situation.
[System Alert: Umm... Seems like there was someone in the audience who hated Won-ho.]
'What did they say? Just tell me.'
[System Alert: Well... They shouted, "Kim Won-ho, get off the stage."]
The moment I heard that, my face stiffened despite knowing the cameras were rolling.
I already knew that phrase was used by antis to mock and criticize Kim Won-ho for ranking high in the elimination round. That made it even harder to hold back my anger.
'...Was it just one person?'
[System Alert: No. They came as a group.]
[System Alert: They were whispering among themselves, then played rock-paper-scissors to decide who'd shout it.]
[System Alert: The one who yelled got dragged out by security, but the rest are pretending to be innocent bystanders...]
Sipsam let out a sigh (=3) CG, sounding even more frustrated than I was.
On the monitor, Kim Won-ho was fixing his expression as if nothing had happened, preparing for the stage. I forced myself to relax my furrowed brow.
Then, hiding my own suffocating frustration, I asked Sipsam one more thing.
'Sipsam.'
[System Alert: Yes?]
'...Whose fans are they?'
They had come all the way here on a weekday afternoon—not even central Seoul, but the outskirts. They couldn't just be random trolls. They must've come to see someone.
A gut feeling pressed at the back of my neck as I waited for Sipsam's answer.
After hesitating, Sipsam finally confessed what they had seen.
[System Alert: Well... The slogan they were holding was... yours, Fixed Regressor-nim.]
'...I see.'
[System Alert: B-But! They might've just gotten it from a giveaway! Or maybe they were using it as a decoy!]
[System Alert: Or—or maybe they're just rotten-minded trolls from the start!]
Sipsam scrambled to find another explanation, but both of us knew it was pointless.
Even if those people weren't my fans, they were undoubtedly someone's fans here.
And I already knew that among my own fans, quite a few viewed Kim Won-ho with disdain.
"......."
Human emotions are truly complicated.
Among the debut-line members, Kim Won-ho had the weakest position and fandom—and for some, that was reason enough to attack him.
If they were all just inferiority complexes with no meaning or joy in life beyond bashing celebrities, I could just cover my ears and close my eyes...
But some of them were well-respected professionals, beloved fans of other celebrities, or even people I interacted with daily.
The same people who cheered for me could openly insult and belittle my precious dongsaeng.
Morally and ethically, their actions were undeniably wrong.
But their boldness stemmed from the cowardly comfort of being part of a crowd—of knowing others shared their twisted mindset.
Still...
'If I met them somewhere as my fans, should I thank them?'
No—maybe I already had thanked them.
They might've been the anonymous accounts defending me in the "Kang Ha-jin Favoritism Controversy."
Or one of the countless names who had pitched in their allowances to fund my subway ads.
"Oh, the stage is starting."
At Si-woo's words, I turned my attention back to the monitor.
Kim Won-ho stood at the center of the stage, poised for the opening pose.
'...What's going through his mind right now?'
With the Comrade Recruitment still inactive, I had no way of knowing his mental state.
A stage he had to perform in front of people who despised him.
Clasping my hands together, I prayed desperately for him.
'Please... Just show what you've practiced without regrets. Just do your best and come back safely.'
I hoped his mental state hadn't been shaken too badly.
Amidst my worries, Team Daisty's stage began.