Overlap
My mouth had gone dry in an instant.
I gulped down cold water, trying to beat back the thirst burning my throat.
Was I nervous?
Yeah.
I guess I was nervous.
And what happened to the me from ten minutes ago, the one who said not to get tense and just enjoy the stage?
Was I really this fragile?
The pressure kept building until it felt like my head might split open.
I wished someone would just knock me out already.
Then the general producer beside me shouted, “How’s the intro video?”
“It’s broadcasting without any issues.”
“If viewers flood in all at once, the stream could still crash, so keep watching it closely.”
To.Any’s music video played on the live monitoring screen.
It was the result of Director Choi Jeong-eun’s two months of painstaking work, each frame earned by grinding her bones down to nothing.
My gaze shifted to the monitor right next to it.
I could see the chat from viewers who had entered the live stream to watch the debut showcase.
-Oh, what is this?
-The music video isn’t bad.
-This is intense, whoa.
-The girls are pretty.
-Wait, who’s the one with the black hair??
-The center visuals are insane.
-It’s been a while since we got a visual girl group.
-The song’s not bad, haha~
-And they can dance too?
The reaction wasn’t bad.
No, it was better than I’d expected.
I let out a breath and checked the viewer count.
The audience count, which had been zero, had already climbed past ten thousand.
It was moving faster than I’d originally expected.
The corners of the general producer’s mouth twitched as he watched the showcase we were handling.
“Not a bad reaction.”
I barely parted my lips to answer. “It’s growing faster than I expected.”
“As long as the momentum keeps up.”
Right.
We’d gotten off to a strong start, but what came after that was the real problem.
Unlike a livestream or a drama, idol showcases lose viewers fast.
That was only natural.
Unlike dramas or live streams, a showcase couldn’t keep serving up constant stimulation.
That was simply the limitation of the format. A showcase was, after all, a stage meant to introduce rookie idols.
What keeps viewers from dropping out is fan devotion.
But To.Any wasn’t a girl group with a thick, established fanbase.
There wasn’t some famous idol-survival-show alum in the lineup, and no well-known influencer had joined them either.
For To.Any, there shouldn’t have been any devoted fans to begin with.
To be blunt, the viewers we have right now are here because of Baekhak’s eight-million-subscriber channel.
If things went in a plain, uneventful direction, the audience would be more likely to leave than grow.
So I needed to make a strong impression from the very beginning.
That’s why I changed the order of the performance schedule.
Would that intention make it through to the viewers?
I turned back to the stage.
-Bang!
Pyrotechnics and smoke burst outward as To.Any appeared.
At that instant, a hard-driving beat flooded the concert hall.
Some viewers jumped and shouted in surprise.
-They’re opening with the title track?
The first stage of the showcase, the first title song, Attention.
As the powerful beat swallowed the stage, the chat began to move faster and faster.
Once we moved into the main performance, my lips went dry all over again.
The tension had tightened my muscles so much I could even feel a dull ache.
Which meant I couldn’t focus on the stage at all, but...
Things seemed to be going well.
“Ohhh...”
“Wow, they’re even better than during rehearsal.”
“Maybe it’s because they’re rookies? They’ve got real fire.”
The general producer, the camera director, the audio director.
Everyone in the production team watching from the control room was letting out impressed exclamations.
The chat room was no different.
-Wow... the song’s good.
-I thought they were just a visual girl group, but they can sing and dance too lol
-This song is addictive... I have a mock exam coming up, is it okay to be listening to this???
-Attention~ Attention~
-That hook is killer lol
-The song is gooooood!
The chat was heating up fast.
There were so many messages flying by that it was hard to follow them with my eyes.
The heart emojis that kept popping up told me enough: the reaction wasn’t bad.
Attention, all eyes on me,
Attention, this moment belongs to me.
When the shining spotlight falls on me,
Attention, I’m the star in your heart.
...Watching the flow of things, it seemed my plan had landed exactly the way I’d wanted it to.
Still, I didn’t let my guard down.
With my eyes, I watched To.Any’s stage and the viewers’ reactions.
With my hands, I searched for To.Any articles.
-[Exclusive] The emperor of the entertainment industry, Baekhak’s girl group To.Any, reveals title track Attention...!
-Viewer reaction explodes! Rookie girl group To.Any shows both skill and visuals!
-Breaking: Rookie girl group To.Any turns concern into admiration with Attention...!
The promised praise poured in.
But why was it?
To me, this praise felt sincere.
Like they really meant it when they said the stage was good.
Then Nova’s sharp punchline rang through the concert hall with a bang.
-Shining spotlight, I take it all, focus your eyes here, shout my name louder!
“!”
The general producer beside me flinched and muttered, “That short-haired girl’s verse is no joke.”
“It sticks in your head right away...”
“Her basics are rock solid.”
“Even if they boosted it with AR, she’s good.”
“Wouldn’t that still be hard to fake with AR?”
As the production staff marveled, my eyes drifted back to the chat.
-Oh, what the hell lol
-Damn, that verse is killer
-The rhyme’s landing clean, too?
We’d caught the flow properly.
I could feel the audience’s reaction changing from a question mark to an exclamation point.
-These girls are really high quality overall.
-I think I’m already getting pulled in lol
-I haven’t been into girl groups for a while, but these girls are goooood
-The one who looks like the maknae position is seriously pretty lol
-I think the girl with the brown hair has a cute voice.
Chae-i Seol’s overwhelming presence as the maknae, Rei’s charming voice.
Nova’s rap, sharpened to a fine edge since before debut by grinding it out in the underground scene.
It was a shame Ga-eul hadn’t exploded yet, but it seemed To.Any’s charm had reached the viewers properly.
At that moment, I felt the tension snap loose all at once.
The audience count, which had been climbing in thousands, had reached close to twenty thousand by the end of the first stage.
Right then, while my heart was shaking from excitement instead of nerves, Ga-eul called out in a bright, forceful voice. “...One, two, three. Two steps to the top! Hello, we’re To.Any!”
A faint smile touched my lips.
Best possible start.
If this momentum held, this showcase would end successfully.
Ga-eul, whose real name was also Ga-eul, passed the handheld mic to Nova beside her and caught her breath.
This is chaos.
The first live stage I’d ever stood on was rougher and faster-paced than I’d expected.
Thankfully, I hadn’t made any mistakes, but I still hadn’t performed as well as I’d hoped.
There were still chances left, but could I really make use of them?
Then Kim Chang-hoon, the MC for this showcase, shouted, “All right, the viewer reaction is great and the mood is great too, so let’s move into a Q&A with the questions fans are probably most curious about!”
He turned to Nova and asked, “Nova, I heard you used to be an underground rapper. Is that right?”
Nova lifted one shoulder. “Hah.”
“?”
“It’s a little awkward to say this about myself, but... yeah. I was a rapper making some noise in the underground.”
“Oh? So you were a talented rapper without much name recognition?”
“That’s right. My stage name in the underground was Purple Tiger, but...”
The Q&A started with Nova’s quick wit and lively banter.
MC Kim Chang-hoon burst into laughter and kept the energy high.
Because the questions had been planned in advance, maknae Chae-i Seol and Rei, the Japanese member, moved through their turns without trouble.
Finally, Kim Chang-hoon handed the mic to Park Ga-eul.
“All right, last one. Leader Ga-eul, To.Any finally debuted after a long struggle, so is there anyone who helped you most while you were getting ready to stand on this stage?”
Ga-eul’s lips moved.
“First, Director Choi Jeong-eun and the choreography teacher helped us very...”
The answer she’d rehearsed before the showcase flowed out smoothly.
If she just answered like this, the Q&A would end without a problem.
But why was it?
Ga-eul frowned slightly, feeling uneasy.
The person who helped us the most to get to this stage...
It wasn’t the people she was naming now.
It was Manager Kwon.
Kwon Chan, the manager from Management Team 5.
The man who had dropped out of the sky and built this stage.
No, had he only built the stage?
In truth, Park Ga-eul’s dream hadn’t been to become an idol.
She’d wanted to be a producer who made songs.
But the wall facing professionals was steep and merciless.
In the end, she’d decided to compromise with reality and become an idol trainee.
It had been a path she chose only after compromise, but at some point she found herself thinking it wasn’t such a bad road after all.
Even if she wasn’t singing a song she’d written herself, she could still win people’s love by singing with her own voice.
But she still couldn’t let go of that lingering wish to be a producer.
That was why she made Youth Travel.
When she gathered up the courage to show it to To.Any’s general producer, Director Kim Jang-hun, he’d responded positively.
“This is good.”
“!”
“We’ll need to revise it a bit, but... I think I’ll tweak it and put it on the album as a B-side, Ga-eul.”
It had felt like she was floating.
Sure, the song had to pass through Director Kim Jang-hun’s hands, so she wouldn’t be credited as the original creator, but Ga-eul had still been satisfied.
The shape of it was strange, but it meant she could realize a dream she’d already given up on.
But happiness didn’t last long.
Then the accident happened without warning.
It didn’t just steal away the future; it also robbed her of the debut she’d spent five years preparing for.
Was this what it felt like when the sky came crashing down?
Park Ga-eul wanted to give up on everything.
Then Kwon Chan appeared.
“Your debut is confirmed, so don’t worry.”
Kwon Chan, from Management Team 5.
Honestly, her first impression of him hadn’t been good.
Part of it was his sharp, chiseled face, but more than that, it was his strangely distant tone and atmosphere.
And then, at some point, that distance disappeared.
“Youth Travel is a good song.”
“!”
“So I’m thinking of pushing it as a double title track.”
Yes.
That was probably where it started.
When Kwon Chan grabbed hold of the dream she’d already given up on and pulled it back up.
After that, Park Ga-eul no longer felt any distance from him.
“If you get too nervous and can’t show the stage properly, that’d be a waste.”
“If you make a mistake, I’ll cover for you, so go out there and enjoy it.”
“How about we all do a fighting chant together?”
No matter what it was, he was always the first person to step forward.
Because he’d pulled To.Any forward, this stage could finally come into the world, and so could Youth Travel.
At that moment, Park Ga-eul stepped off the path that had been laid out for her.
“...Lastly.”
She mentioned the name of the person who had worked harder than anyone to help her stand on this stage.
“I’d like to thank Manager Kwon Chan, who led us from the very front.”
MC Kim Chang-hoon clapped and wrapped things up.
“A warm ending deserves a round of applause, and now we’re going to meet the final stage!”
Ga-eul’s gaze dropped downward.
In the audience section, packed with dozens of reporters, a familiar man sat with his arms crossed, looking this way.
A faint smile slipped across Ga-eul’s lips.
“Before we watch the stage, could you give us a quick explanation of To.Any’s second title track, Youth Travel?”
Nova handed the microphone over to Park Ga-eul.
Ga-eul opened her mouth.
“Youth Travel is...”
If it hadn’t been for Kwon Chan, the song would never have reached the world.
“A vocal song about enjoying a difficult youth as a journey.”
That was why she was repaying him.
To that man now watching this stage.
“I hope everyone who listens to this song can find the strength to keep going.”
At that moment, Park Ga-eul was no longer nervous.
“To.Any’s youth starts now!”
Because for the man watching this stage, she had to put on the best show she possibly could.
After using Attention to lock down the opening atmosphere, the showcase flowed on like a sailboat catching a perfect wind.
“The member who’s the most annoying to deal with? Chae-i Seol!”
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who’s the most annoying to deal with.”
“Look at this! She’s talking back to her older sister without a shred of hesitation!”
Nova carried the Q&A while Chae-i Seol, the center visual, held the audience’s gaze and pulled it along.
Rei’s offbeat charm kept refreshing the mood in between, and Ga-eul anchored everything and guided the interview forward.
-These girls are weirdly addictive lol
-Why are they so cute?
-They really do feel like twenty-year-olds
-The song is good, and their personalities are super clear too
-Do they have a fan café??
-Their group name was To.Any, right?
-I really like calm Ga-eul...
The audience reactions stayed positive, and the showcase viewer count climbed past twenty thousand and headed toward thirty thousand.
I’d expected a peak of twenty thousand viewers, but they’d already blown past that record.
At that point, I let go of the last of my tension and decided to enjoy the stage.
I stepped out of the control room and moved toward the stage.
Ga-eul took the handheld mic and shouted, “To.Any’s youth! Starting now!”
With Ga-eul’s cry, the stage pyrotechnics and smoke painted the concert hall white-hot.
The four girls in white dresses began singing to the buoyant rhythm.
Youth, our own journey
Hearts full of excitement
Days filled with sunlight
Enjoy this moment now.
Watching them with my arms crossed, I thought, They’re good.
Once again, it hit me just how much To.Any belonged on stage.
How are they even better at the showcase than they were at rehearsal?
All the worry I’d carried until now suddenly felt pointless.
Then Ga-eul’s highlight part rang out, clear and thunderous through the venue.
“Wow...”
Yes.
This was Park Ga-eul.
I’d wondered why To.Any’s ace had been so quiet until now.
Then Ga-eul’s eyes curved into a beautiful smile.
On this night where stars are shining,
You and I can be together.
On the sea of youth,
Let’s ride the waves together.
Was it my imagination that our eyes met?
No, it wasn’t.
Ga-eul was looking at me right now.
I glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then subtly lifted my thumb.
Ga-eul’s lips spread into a million-dollar smile.
You and I can be together!
At that moment, I knew it.
“We did it.”
The showcase that had begun in anxiety and tension had ended in success.
That conclusion didn’t come from my intuition alone.
The final viewer count was forty thousand.
That was twice the number I’d originally expected.
The local reporters who’d watched the stage praised it generously, and the fans’ reaction was explosive.
Two months of effort had returned as clear, undeniable reward.
And then.
The debut team, To.Any, had become a real rookie girl group.
The next day.
The cheerful rebellion of the rookie girl group began.
The unknown rookie girl group had pulled off a chart sweep.