174

Let me briefly summarize the current situation.

Some of Cha Eugene and Park Moondae’s solo fandoms had started fighting, and it was right on the verge of becoming a public controversy and blowing up.

This is driving me insane.

…Hmm. Calm down.

There was also the option of pretending not to know and letting it pass, but if this rose any further above the surface, we could end up being branded by the public yet again as a ‘tiresome group.’ So for now, I was at least going to try lightly smoothing things over.

That’s why I’m turning on WLive.

We had become roommates, and things hadn’t blown up badly yet, so if we pretended not to know anything, it wouldn’t look too obvious.

There were, however, some precautions.

If I was going to do any kind of broadcast with Cha Eugene in a situation like this, there were several things I needed to keep in mind.

-First, it must not be framed as one person teaching the other.

In that kind of setup, an implicit hierarchy would form because of the situation, and people would find something to nitpick no matter what.

Examples would be, ‘He’s going out of his way to teach him, but his attitude is so insincere,’ or, ‘He’s teaching him too aggressively.’

Therefore, things like <Fun Cooking Class with Cha Eugene> or <Fun English Class with Park Moondae> are rejected.

-Second, do not choose anything related to work.

The moment we picked a topic related to dancing or singing, people would start comparing us with ‘who’s good’ and ‘who’s bad.’

Perfect conditions for the conflict to explode all over again.

And… finally, the third.

-Do not choose competitive content.

People emotionally invested in one side could end up getting offended by the other.

Therefore, bets, card games, and the like are out. Delete.

Then what kind of thing was recommended?

Simple.

It would be best to show the two of us working together as one team to accomplish something.

Something where the implication was subtle enough that it didn’t feel forced, and people could simply watch and laugh.

Even better if it would still be funny when we failed.

So this was what I chose.

“Waaaaah!!”

Namely… a horror-themed escape room.

Fuck.

I never thought the day would come when I willingly wasted money on something like this, but I found a room at an escape-room café that was about to undergo remodeling and, after paying a fairly large amount, hurriedly finalized the booking over the phone.

…I think I got ripped off a little because I had no time to haggle.

At least the company said they’d process it as an expense.

Of course, the fact that it counted as an expense meant the amount would ultimately come out of my settlement.

Anyway, that was how I ended up coming to do an escape room with Cha Eugene late at night, during one of the few gaps in our schedule.

Naturally, a staff member followed us too, holding a smartphone camera with sorrowful eyes.

I’m sorry.

I didn’t know this would happen either.

“Whoa! Hyung, your head! Watch out!”

Cha Eugene, however, seemed extremely excited.

Unbelievable.

“Weren’t you scared of things like this too…?”

“It’s too fake! Not scary! Ghosts aren’t real!”

Apparently, compared to the house we had visited for the debut reality show, this was child’s play.

It definitely is… pretty shoddy.

Maybe it was because of labor costs, but there wasn’t even an employee playing the role of a ghost.

On top of that, the props, wallpaper, and everything else had a strange whiff of bargain-bin cost efficiency.

No wonder they’re about to remodel.

There weren’t many sections where we had to use our brains, either, so there was no room for people to nitpick with things like, ‘You can’t even solve that?’

Every so often they turned off the lights to scare us, so as long as you had a moderate amount of nerve and quick reflexes, it was fine—

“Hyung! Blood here!”

“……Cray—crayon. It melted.”

“Aha!”

I must not let my desire to hit him even once show.

Forget it.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the setup became creepier as we progressed, making it possible to forget how cheap everything looked and actually get immersed.

Even Cha Eugene got scared when a mannequin appeared under red lighting near the end, so visually it turned out pretty well.

“What the…!”

He even held back the swear.

Good job.

As a result, by the time we escaped, there was a strangely close atmosphere between us, as though we had survived some enormous hardship together.

“You two successfully escaped with six minutes and twenty-one seconds remaining~”

“WOOOW!! Look! We escaped!”

“On the way back… we’ll eat something good.”

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ scaredy-cats

-Aren’t they unexpectedly soul twins?

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ congrats on escaping congrats congrats

-(clapping emoji)

The live reactions the staff member discreetly showed us were extremely positive.

The number of viewers was also as high as it usually was for a full-group WLive.

Did it work?

At least as content, it seemed successful.

“Thank you for watching.”

“Thank you! Thank you guys~”

And just like that, the WLive ended shortly before midnight.

“Then I’ll take the camera back.”

We also agreed that today’s broadcast would later be edited together with footage from cameras installed at different angles in the room and uploaded separately to WLive.

…I nearly recoiled when they told me the title would be [Puppy and Kitty Overcoming Their Fears], but I accepted it.

Better for the attention to get pulled in that direction instead.

Actually, that’s better….

I sighed and checked my smartphone again.

-They made these two do a horror escape room? The WLive staff are evilㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The return of the reality-show horror experience

-They both probably missed Big Sejin

-The trembling puppy and kittyㅋㅋ (screenshot)

-Moondae-pup looking clever for one second and instantly shrinking the next (comparison screenshot)

“What are you looking at??”

“Fan reactions.”

“Aha.”

Cha Eugene nodded.

Actually, while preparing this WLive, I had explained why we were doing it.

Just to the extent that some of our fans didn’t get along very well.

He probably understands the situation roughly.

Apparently, the way this guy had read the room and kept the game moving during Lee Sejin and Bae Sejin’s fight before hadn’t been a coincidence.

With his pointless competitiveness completely gone, he was easy to work with.

“Does everyone like it??”

“Yeah. Looks fine.”

Anyway, the reaction was quite satisfying.

People were so busy enjoying the content that related posts had already taken over real-time trends and popular-post lists, pushing the fight happening beneath the surface completely out of the conversation.

At this point, anyone other than the people actually fighting would have trouble even noticing it.

Cha Eugene and Park Moondae fans have pretty strong instant firepower to begin with.

And in a few days, right around the time someone might try raising their voice about it again, the edited version would be uploaded.

At that point, the whole thing would basically be over.

“Now we eat something delicious?”

“Tomorrow. It’s late today, so drink a Zero Coke or something.”

“Yes…….”

…However, after getting into the car to return to the dorm, I found something slightly unpleasant.

Namely, posts written by a few of Cha Eugene’s toxic fans who had been involved in the fight and fled to an anonymous site.

-Wow~ amazing, look at that timing againㅎ

-He really makes it so obvious that he watches public opinion. Creepy bastard

-Bearhead doing Bearhead things again. Leave Eugene alone

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Park Moondae probably searches himself X-ing obsessively and spies on everything. extremely reasonable suspicion

There it is.

I had expected someone might say something like this.

I’ve handled too many incidents with suspiciously perfect timing.

Since I had managed to smooth things over reasonably well whenever controversy erupted, if someone connected the dots, it was entirely plausible for them to think, Does this bastard know everything that’s happening?

Still, whether this time or before, there wasn’t a single piece of circumstantial evidence.

That was because I preferred acting first, so I often moved one step ahead or at the exact same time and crushed things before they spread.

People usually wouldn’t interpret that as, ‘He reacted because a controversy broke out.’

They’d simply think the timing had worked out well.

Moreover, since I never personally mentioned incidents like these, even someone suspicious would find it easier to assume that the company was the one arranging things.

That was why the evaluation of me always ended with something like, He reacts appropriately, or, He’s lucky.

So this was a little… funny.

They probably don’t even believe what they’re writing themselves.

They were just pissed off, had found one convenient circumstance, and were stubbornly insisting on it.

Still, there was one concern.

If enough convenient details accumulated over time, wouldn’t they eventually have a sample size large enough to weave together a plausible story?

Well, it is true.

I shrugged.

Still, I didn’t want to give those bastards even one win.

So I thought.

Then how do I get rid of this too?

Since I had already started, I wanted to rip everything out by the roots so there would be no room left for noise.

Making them fight among themselves would probably be the best way to break them apart. Or make them move on to some newer group.

From Cha Eugene’s perspective too, weakening their influence would probably be better in the long term.

So….

“Hyung! Do you want Coke??”

“…Huh, what?”

When I turned my head, Cha Eugene had finally managed to buy a Zero Coke and was getting into the car holding the small plastic bottle.

“Um, drink? Would you like to drink…? You eat?”

Cha Eugene diligently changed his wording.

Apparently, he thought my response meant he hadn’t communicated properly.

“I’m good. You drink it.”

[Oh, okay. But hyung, do you have something you’re worried about?]

“…!”

“You look tired, hyung.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

[Not that! Hmm… like, from psychological factors?]

“…….”

This bastard… notices things like that?

I gave Cha Eugene a suspicious once-over before finally sighing.

I might as well give him a moderate answer.

“I’m paying attention because I’m checking reactions. It’s nothing.”

“Oh, are there lots of people saying they don’t like it?”

“No. Well… there are some.”

“Aha.”

Cha Eugene gulped down his Zero Coke and spoke seriously.

[But don’t worry about it too much, hyung. How could you possibly change every other person’s feelings however you want?]

“…!”

Cha Eugene shrugged.

[My mom said there’ll always be someone who hates me somewhere in life! But you ignore them, and ta-da! You keep going. Don’t stress yourself out!]

“…….”

Hmm.

That was unexpectedly sensible advice.

It… cooled my head a little.

I thought it through again.

If I didn’t immediately deal with the people who had fled all the way to this anonymous board, would a problem happen?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Then, if that ‘problem’ did occur, would it be difficult to handle?

“…….”

No.

It didn’t seem like something that would be hard to solve even if I dealt with it after it happened.

Besides, even if people found out that I monitored things obsessively, how serious a problem would that really be?

At worst, some people would say it broke their image of me.

There was actually a higher chance of things becoming a bigger problem if I made a mistake while trying to uproot every last one of these bastards.

In the end, I admitted it.

I was being… overly sensitive.

Normally, this was the level of thing I would already have shaken off and stopped caring about.

Apparently, I simply disliked the idea of someone trying to figure me out.

What, did I develop some kind of control obsession?

After ending up in someone else’s body and starting work in a profession where, in more ways than one, I had to deal with an enormous number of people, perhaps my brain had stiffened up without me noticing.

“Haa.”

I closed the anonymous board on my screen and casually tossed my phone onto the seat beside me.

Then I said,

“You’re right. I need to pull myself out of it a bit.”

“Good! I’m right!”

He sounded extremely confident.

[Ah, hyung. There’s one more thing! Don’t forget that suing is always an option!]

And there came some very American advice.

“Sure.”

“Good!”

I never imagined I’d be the one hearing this kind of thing from him.

I snorted in amusement and leaned back against the seat.

Maybe I should get some sleep.

As an added bonus, Cha Eugene could comfortably drink my share of the Zero Coke too.

And the moment I closed my eyes, someone smacked my shoulder hard.

“Oh, hyung! I tell you today’s inspiration! We do circus for our unit stage!”

“…….”

Half a year as roommates….

I don’t know if I can endure it.

And so, after suffering from intermittent sleep deprivation for a few more days, I finally resorted to both threatening and bribing Cha Eugene with snacks until he shut up.

Then the company brought up the concert, and naturally, talk of new content came up as well.

For reference, I was positive about it.

The more things people had to enjoy, the easier it would be to bury any pointless nonsense that might come up.

However, what the company had in mind was… a little different from what I’d been thinking.

“We’re planning a new reality show.”

A reality show was good.

It would have been even better if we’d done it when the album was released, but using it to fill a content gap during the tour wasn’t bad either—

“We’re thinking of doing an America edition!”

“……?”

Read only on MUGEX

I should have realized it then.

The approval-bot was leaving, and the new division head coming in…

had a terminal case of America fever.