The First Party
"Ye-chan, you're surprisingly good at checking the internet reactions."
After a brief silence, Shim Sang-rok's voice carried a faint trace of laughter. If he still has the strength to laugh like that, he's okay for now. When true burnout hit, even tears refused to come, let alone smiles.
From years of experience, Ye-chan knew this sort of thing never fixed itself with time alone.
"Hyung, do you have a minute?"
Even after checking the clock nearing midnight, Ye-chan grabbed the jumper draped over his chair without a second's hesitation.
"Make time even if you don't."
What should I do?
Ye-chan leaned his head against the taxi window, turning the problem over. His thoughts raced as fast as the Seoul nightscape blurring past.
Shim Sang-rok had been a trainee for seven years—coincidentally the same length as Ye-chan's own trainee period before the resets. A long trainee life made anyone restless. Living differently from ordinary peers, endless competition, adults who saw you as a product instead of a person. Whether you would ever debut, and whether success would follow if you did, all of it hung in a thick fog of uncertainty.
Through Choose My Prince, Sang-rok must have believed he had finally taken a step out of that dense fog. But before he could even try anything, the hate comments poured in. Of course he was shaken.
Ye-chan and the other members of Lee:Spirit had all lived through similar experiences, so he could picture the feelings clearly. It was a problem he had solved multiple times across every reset.
He pressed his thumb hard against his temple. The real issue is that the solution always meant fixing things before the problem ever appeared.
In the past, Ye-chan had wrapped the Lee:Spirit members in cotton wool until they naturally understood that debut was only the starting point of a long, grueling road. Hate comments and tabloid trash inevitably clung to any popular celebrity. Until they accepted that fact, he had every piece of feedback—including comments—filtered through staff. If something slipped, he simply reset and tightened the net. It took effort, but it was never difficult.
Right now, that method was impossible from the start.
When the taxi stopped, Sang-rok hurried over, the tip of his nose red from the cold.
"Ye-chan."
He must have come straight out the moment the call ended; his clothes were far too thin. Tsk. A trainee's body is his capital.
"Was the trip hard?"
"I took a taxi, so I'm fine. Let's go inside and talk, hyung."
The unmanned café they had chosen sat in a residential neighborhood, so thankfully no other customers lingered at this hour. Ye-chan sat the unusually restless Sang-rok down and stepped up to the drink machine. Too late for coffee. An ade would be cold, so skip that… Not like we're eating at this hour. Bringing plain water would be crossing a line, right?
After a moment's thought, Ye-chan pulled two cups of warm milk and returned to the table. He set one in front of Sang-rok and sat across from him before the older trainee could even finish saying thanks.
"Why did you call me?"
"You're the one who suddenly asked to meet, and now you're asking that?"
Sang-rok warmed his chilled hands on the cup and let out a dry laugh.
"You already figured out why I called."
Ye-chan nodded without dodging.
"Yeah, I know the reason."
Getting slapped by a sudden wave of hate comments and wanting to vent to someone in the same industry—that much he understood.
"But I don't know why it was me."
Why choose someone he had known for barely two weeks?
Sang-rok's lips moved as if searching for words, but Ye-chan didn't wait.
"Hyung, do you want to debut with me too?"
The straight pitch, packed with no room to dodge, left Sang-rok briefly startled before he nodded.
"…Yeah. It might sound hasty, but I think it'd be good to debut with you."
Got him. Ye-chan cheered inwardly at how smoothly things were going, then smoothed his expression into calm neutrality. He had no intention of digging into the why. Anyone with working eyes would naturally want to debut with me.
He continued with a serious face.
"Then can I take that earlier call as you already thinking of me as a teammate and leaning on me?"
"Mm… yeah."
Perfect.
In Ye-chan's memory, Sang-rok was the kind of trainee who performed above average no matter which team he joined. Yet the stages that truly "tore it up" only ever appeared when he was grouped with the lowest-ranked trainees. Back then Ye-chan had assumed the guy just needed to hog the spotlight and clashed with talented members. Meeting him in person now, Ye-chan revised the judgment: it was Sang-rok's crushing sense of responsibility that created those results.
Sang-rok always received early push, so the moment the quiet backbiting started—just like now—his mental state must have cracked. When teamed with skilled trainees, he simply blended in and never stood out. But with the bottom ranks, the responsibility to carry everything kicked in and he produced results that shattered his limits. So that's why his debut rate was high whenever he got stuck with weird teammates.
Having naturally bound himself and Sang-rok into one team, Ye-chan clapped once in good spirits.
"Great. Then let's talk openly as future teammates. First—the comments bothering you are the ones saying you only became center because of the Olympus or Jupiter connection, right?"
"Huh? Uh… yeah. Calling them hate comments feels a bit much. I'm just overreacting because I feel guilty…"
Exactly as expected. There were shameless bastards like Jung Chan-yang who stole everything and strutted around without a care, and then there were people like Sang-rok who still floundered even while benefiting from the past they had built themselves. The world really was twisted.
"What is there to feel guilty about?"
Ye-chan cut him off in a firm voice. Sang-rok was under a massive misconception.
"We're not taking some school exam. If they only wanted to rank us by pure skill, they'd just drag in a karaoke machine and score us. Why make a whole program like this?"
Ye-chan sighed and shook his head.
"Unless you lied about being an Olympus trainee, what's wrong with getting attention through connections? And that day, the Jupiter senior was the one who acknowledged you first. Ah—I think it was smart that you didn't approach him first. If some random trainee had blatantly clung to a top-tier idol, the hate you'd be getting now would make this look like a gentle tickle."
Sang-rok could only blink at the unbroken stream of words.
"…Ye-chan, you could be a rapper."
"Talking fast doesn't make someone a rapper. Don't underestimate rappers."
Ye-chan pulled out his phone and set it on the table.
"Did you see the online vote results? You've been first place from day one until now. You know that, right?"
"Huh? Y-yeah."
Sang-rok trailed off, embarrassed. Ye-chan ignored it and opened the Choose My Prince voting page. Among the ninety-nine trainees, Sang-rok's ID photo sat right at the top.
"People are like that. One insult sticks harder and bothers you more than a hundred compliments."
Ye-chan leaned back and shrugged.
"But if you live like that, you won't last long as a celebrity."
Sang-rok swallowed, tense about whatever came next.
"If hate really doesn't suit you, quitting would be the right call—but you already decided to be an idol with me, so that's off the table. No choice, then. From now on, don't look up anything else online. Just check this voting page."
"…Huh?"
Sang-rok's face flooded with bewilderment. Ye-chan found that expression far better and let out a short laugh.
"Why the surprise? We know the cause, so we remove it."
"Your point makes sense, but… shouldn't I still check article comments or SNS in case I'm actually doing something wrong?"
"If there's something you absolutely need to know, the company will tell you. Or I'll tell you."
"You will?"
Sang-rok's eyes widened. Ye-chan shot him a sidelong look.
"We already decided to be a team. It's a hassle, but I'll do that much for a teammate."
He said it with deliberate nonchalance. If it meant debuting cleanly with Sang-rok, the effort was more than worth it.
"So you hold back on the internet for the sake of the 'team,' even when you're curious."
"…Okay. I got it. Thanks, Ye-chan."
Watching the soft smile form on Sang-rok's lips, Ye-chan drove the point home one more time.
"Sang-rok hyung, when I said I want to debut with you, I meant it. And I always do what I want."
Ye-chan's eyes gleamed.
"So you give it everything you've got and keep up."
The rather shameless demand made the tension drain from Sang-rok's shoulders.
"Isn't this the part where you say you'll help from the side and we'll work hard together…?"
His voice even sounded a little hollow. Ye-chan's face turned serious.
"We're already short even if we both run full speed—what's this three-legged race talk? You think that pace gets us to the top of the industry?"
"The top, huh. You're greedy, Ye-chan."
Fully relaxed now, Sang-rok leaned comfortably against the backrest and chuckled.
"Of course. If I'm doing it, I only do first place."
"Even in Choose My Prince?"
Ye-chan deliberately crossed his arms and lifted his chin higher.
"Isn't that obvious? Are you going in with some half-hearted 'I'll just aim for eighth or ninth' mindset?"
"It's not that, but…"
Sang-rok hesitated. The theme song center and current online vote leader was lacking fire.
"You aim for first place too. That kind of heart is what makes a good stage. Idols speak through the stage above all else."
"…You're right. I'll try with the mindset of taking first."
Sang-rok nodded in agreement, clearly liking the words.
Having resolved the problem cleanly, Ye-chan called a taxi with a light heart.
"See you at the dorms, then."
"Yeah. Get back safe."
Against the dark street, Sang-rok's expression as he saw Ye-chan off looked noticeably brighter.
Well, managing a baby chick trainee's mental state is simple enough once you're in my hands.
The moment Ye-chan cheerfully fastened his seatbelt in the taxi—
You have created a party for the first time. A reward has been granted.
⊳ +1 Point added!
Holy—!
Ye-chan, who had completely let his guard down, barely swallowed the curse that tried to leap out. A party? What now?
Pushing down the rising irritation, he summoned the Status Window. A new entry he had never seen before had appeared.
Glancing at the taxi driver, he casually tapped the suspicious new line under his name. A fresh window opened.
⊳ Ha Ye-chan (Party Leader)
⊳ Shim Sang-rok
What the hell is this.