The More They Hate, the Better
We came back to the waiting room after finishing the stage.
"Wow, the lights were insanely hot."
"Seriously, they were so bright I could barely see anything."
"Can I take my makeup off now?"
"I'm sleepy... When can we go home?"
The boys who had ended the performance looking so cool were suddenly loud and rowdy the moment they returned.
"Not for a while. We can't leave until the music show is completely over."
"Man, that's rough. I want to sleep..."
When a music show ended, it was tradition for them to announce this week’s number one song. At that point, every team that had appeared that day had to take part in the so-called all-stage finale and go up onstage together.
Today, because of the strike, they weren't holding the usual vote for first place, but the all-stage finale was still happening.
The guys, already worn out from exhaustion, all wore sullen expressions, but there was nothing to be done about it. A little later, they huddled together in a corner and dozed off one by one.
Normally, if this stage had aired, we'd have spent the time arguing over what kind of crap people would say about us, how much more famous it might make us, or what our next move should be. But we'd been running around since too early this morning.
"Seoha, why don't you get some sleep too?"
"No, I'll nap later if I get sleepy."
I was just killing time on my phone when the waiting room door opened.
The person who came in was Jo Hyeonwu.
"Hello, senior."
"Didn't I already greet you earlier? Sit down. Hey, you guys were great up there."
Jo Hyeonwu lowered his voice when he saw the sleeping boys.
"Thank you. We're still lacking a lot."
"Lacking? What are you talking about? You were amazing."
Jo Hyeonwu's eyes shone as he spoke.
No, it was more like he was smacking his lips while he talked.
It felt a little disgusting, but I decided to take it as high praise.
"Let's work on something together sometime. Even something casual."
"Wow, that would be such an honor."
I meant it.
Even in my previous life, he had walked a path musically different from mine.
But Jo Hyeonwu's reputation and achievements were the kind that made even the best musicians look up in admiration.
"And, well, if you ever need help on the broadcast side of things, let me know."
"Yes, thank you."
He looked like he wanted to say more, but then he patted my back a few times and headed over to Jo Hyeonseop, the studio owner. I stepped aside and moved toward the corner.
The thought that I could finally rest made my whole body go slack.
The two of them were talking about something, but they were whispering, so I couldn't catch much of it.
Probably just something like, let's arrange a meeting with the kids sometime later.
I wanted to listen more closely, but sleep was creeping in, and my eyes were starting to close on their own.
While OKTOP slept, the two middle-aged men exchanged their impressions of the stage.
The astonishing performance OKTOP had shown today was enough to thaw the hearts of the two adults who had long ago gone stiff from life.
That was the sort of thing you could only do when you were still young.
They had kept showing up at Banwol Park no matter how cold it was, no matter how scorching the sun, no matter the rain or snow, and they had done it with constancy.
With their excellent musicianship, they had made it onto an entertainment program. And perhaps partly thanks to luck, they had even landed on a music show without a company behind them.
Of course, these two didn't realize it wasn't luck.
Then, without stopping there, they had even pulled off a live performance on a music show, something that was notoriously difficult to do well.
Not only that, they had done the stage beautifully.
OKTOP's march had shown the frightening force of youth in no uncertain terms.
And the finale was Rendezvous, a song that sang of youth itself.
Jo Hyeonseop and Jo Hyeonwu couldn't help but think of their own younger days in the face of such an incredible story.
Their youth had been nothing but reckless momentum, driven purely by grit and nerve.
They were grateful to OKTOP for making them remember a time they'd forgotten they even had, and tucked away in one tiny corner of their hearts was a little nostalgia, along with a little ache.
Lost in those memories, the two men kept talking, and the conversation stretched on until it reached this point.
"Hyeonwu, if any good opportunities come up, try pushing the OKTOP kids onto a broadcast or two. They're hardworking."
"But when you mentioned working on a song together earlier, your eyes practically lit up. You didn't look interested in broadcast stuff at all."
"He's just like that."
"Ah, so he avoids broadcasts that much?"
"Pretty severely. And I can't even figure out his criteria. A few program invitations came in, but he turned them all down and came to this music show instead."
"That's kind of strange."
Normally, a band would refuse a music show and go on something else instead.
OKTOP's moves were definitely unusual.
"Geniuses do whatever they want, don't they?"
"I guess so."
After seeing OKTOP's performance today, who could possibly say they weren't geniuses?
There had been controversy even before the stage started, and then there was their quick thinking to pull it off on the spot.
Each instrumentalist, and the vocalist too, had shown off real skill.
For Jo Hyeonwu, the complete data he had on OKTOP amounted to this one stage and nothing more.
It had only lasted a moment, but it was enough to catch the eye of a veteran like him.
What kind of future would kids like that show him?
The unexpected arrival of a genius rookie had already set his heart racing with anticipation.
After all the schedules for the music show were finally over, we could only go home after even washing the makeup off Kim Jihoo, who had been whining all day.
Jo Hyeonseop drove each of us home one by one before he finally headed back to his own place.
I wondered if, once I made enough money later on, I ought to buy him a nice car or something.
The moment I got home, before I’d even had the chance to shower or change, I had to sit through my grandmother’s deeply sincere, wildly enthusiastic praise for her grandson.
I’d told her ahead of time, so she had faithfully watched K-Countdown live.
My grandson sang well, looked handsome, wrote good songs, was easy to film, was kind, was good at sports, had a solid body, was cool... and on and on.
I could listen happily for about an hour, but once it passed two, it got a little hard to handle.
Only after Grandma finally went to sleep did I finish getting ready for bed.
Two big plans were finally over.
We'd appeared on Mun Gayoung's variety show, and then made it onto a music show too.
After getting through those two huge events that an indie band should never have been able to pull off, I was completely drained.
But I still couldn't sleep.
I wanted to know right away just how much hatred we were getting.
All right, then. Shall we open the comments and get this exciting little fire going?
The YouTube comments were overwhelmingly positive.
And inside that flood of goodwill, there were definitely people trying to muddy the water too.
And the people who loved OKTOP, ironically enough, started attacking the fans of the band scene, which was the very root of OKTOP itself, without mercy.
There was also a place where the exact opposite fight was breaking out.
How crazy must the band community be right now?
Or maybe they hated us so much they didn't even want to pay attention.
Fortunately, that wasn't the case.
Wow. It was pretty vicious.
OKTOP had been getting a lot of support on YouTube, and the band scene, apparently unhappy with that flow, had exploded in outrage.
The ratio of hate comments to praise had to be something like ninety-eight to two.
What mattered was that, whether they were insulting us or cheering us on, they had seen us.
"So what do you guys think?"
"Think about what? It's the same as last time."
"Yeah. Honestly, I'm glad it's going the way we planned."
I was relieved to see their expressions weren't dark.
Then I guess this was about the right time to stop.
Now we needed to release the album soon and finally show our true identity.
From my perspective, it already felt like we had done enough...
"So, where are we getting hated on next?"
"Huh? More?"
For a second, my brain just stopped working at Heo Junseong's words.
"Yeah, I think it should be a little more."
"Right. If we're going to overturn the whole field anyway, it might as well be even more decisive, don't you think?"
"Me too!"
These guys really had no bottom to their greed, did they?
That was kind of scary.
Was this what high schoolers' nerve looked like?
If they’d been an idol group, this probably wouldn’t have been so easy.
As expected, indie-band nerve was on another level.
Still, I was happy if it made things more interesting for me.
"So you want even more hate, huh?"
"Of course!"
"Good. Then let's get to album work first. I'll go dig up more jobs."
Watching the boys cheer at my words, I started turning things over quickly in my head.
Right, he had said to let him know if I needed help on the broadcast side of things, hadn't he?