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[Identity of the ‘May Groom’ just revealed on <My Singer>]
: TeSTAR’s Park Moondae
Came out dressed exactly like the hologram
(screenshot)
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-Holy shit
-I doubted my own eyes while watching
-Oh my god lololol
-It WAS Park Moondae, you bastardsㅠㅠ
‘As expected, they’re posting in real time.’
I checked the rapidly multiplying comments for a moment before eventually giving up on escaping and turning back toward the TV.
On the dorm living-room TV in front of me, the reveal of the ‘May Groom’s’ identity was right in the middle of airing.
[Park Moondae of TeSTAR??]
[A surprise appearance from the nation’s stock idol…….]
[Audience and judges thrown into shock]
I turned on my smartphone because it was hard to watch those captions and that editing with my eyes open.
If I were alone, I’d just sit through it.
The problem was that right now…
we were watching it as a group.
“I-It’s okay, Moondae, you look cool…!”
“It’s an impressive piece of direction!”
“Wow, Moondae~ You really committed, huh? You even prepared the outfit? Nice~”
Big Sejin poked me repeatedly in the shoulder.
Even then, another caption appeared beneath Park Moondae’s words on TV.
[Please introduce yourself!]
[Yes. Hello. I’m Park Moondae, the main vocalist of the group TeSTAR.]
[May’s rosy smile… melting women’s hearts]
“Rosy…!”
“Wow, these captions are seriously…….”
The people around me couldn’t take it anymore and began lowering their heads while suppressing laughter.
When an exaggeratedly edited montage of TeSTAR’s promotions briefly played on-screen, apparently it was embarrassing enough that none of them showed any sign of raising their heads again.
‘Is there even any point in monitoring it like this?’
I’d expected this the moment everyone said they wanted to watch together, but I was starting to want to go into my room and watch alone.
Fortunately, the broadcast soon moved on to announcing the winner.
[<The Singer I Made>, the very best singer character is…….]
[Park Moondae’s ‘May Groom’!]
Confetti burst across the screen.
“WOOOOW!”
“Of course he won after singing like that!”
Bae Sejin shouted excitedly.
“……?”
What’s with him?
The moment Bae Sejin made eye contact with me, he cleared his throat and subtly turned his head away.
I remembered him telling me, with the stiffest face imaginable last week, that he’d enjoyed ‘Winter Night.’
‘Guess he likes that kind of dramatic singing style.’
Anyone would think he was watching a race.
Then again, the MC on-screen was making just as much of a fuss.
[Ah~ Moondae-ssi, please tell us how you feel!]
[Hmm…… While controlling the ‘May Groom,’ I had a lot of fun. That alone made it a meaningful experience… so I’m really happy there were people who enjoyed it. …Thank you very much.]
That was true.
I’d started it as something to clear my head, but the result had been better than I’d expected, so…
I was a little surprised.
‘I got lucky.’
I couldn’t expect that kind of lucky break every time, but it had still been a fresh experience.
“Moondae hyung, your physique is extremely similar to that of the ‘May Groom’ hologram. Did you plan this reveal performance from the beginning?”
“Weren’t the flowers on your face uncomfortable?”
…I managed to answer obediently.
“…Yeah, I planned it, and of course they were uncomfortable.”
“As expected!”
“Uncomfortable is bad!”
It was a little burdensome, but I should at least indulge them this much.
They had probably put up with my bad condition, knowingly or not, for nearly a month.
“Watching this makes me want to start promotions for the new album already~”
“Y-Yeah.”
With the members chattering after getting stimulated by the monitoring session, my segment on-screen was nearly over.
[Unfortunately… our ‘Fried Chicken with a Ribbon’ takes second place!]
‘That was the guy from Goldie #1’s group.’
While the old-fashioned fried-chicken character who’d finished second continued with his interview, Ryu Chungwoo asked,
“So does that mean Moondae will appear again next time too?”
“Yes. I’ll show up again starting from the semifinals the week after next.”
“Nice. Congratulations. Hmm… then, hold on.”
Ryu Chungwoo smiled and stood up.
At that, the two youngest immediately sprang to their feet after him.
“……?”
It was unnatural no matter how you looked at it.
‘…Ah, don’t tell me.’
The three who disappeared into the kitchen reappeared almost instantly.
Cha Eugene was holding a cake.
[<CONGRATS> TeSTAR 1st Anniversary <CONGRATS>]
[Well done! Awesome!]
“……!”
As expected.
…Actually, today was June 18.
TeSTAR’s first debut anniversary.
‘Though there’s less than an hour left.’
It was already 11:20 p.m.
The commemorative content had been filmed long ago because of editing time and uploaded at midnight earlier today, so I’d momentarily forgotten.
“We released the video at midnight, but… I thought it’d be nice if we did something among ourselves too.”
Ryu Chungwoo smiled as he ruffled the hair of the two youngest members.
“I prepared a little something with these guys.”
“I like cake!”
“We discussed the wording written on top together.”
It certainly looked like something the three of them would come up with.
But the wording wasn’t really the important part.
‘…Did they wait until my monitoring was over?’
Well, this was…
Should I call them admirable?
Just as a strange feeling came over me, Big Sejin jumped in.
“Wait, wait! Let’s at least take a picture first~ Moondae!”
“…….”
Why are you shamelessly holding your phone out to me?
“Come on, Moondae takes good pictures~ Huh? Don’t tell me you’re not confident with selfies. Is that it?”
“Give it here.”
“Ooh~”
I’ll let it slide.
I snatched the phone out of Big Sejin’s hand and switched it to selfie mode.
I stretched my arm out as far as it would go and adjusted the angle until all seven of us and the cake fit inside the frame.
“Taking it.”
“Yes~”
Click, click, click.
Naturally, I took several shots at one-second intervals.
Then, a moment later.
“Okay, let’s eat the cake!”
“…Are we sure it’s okay to eat this? The coloring on top…….”
“It’s good!”
“Cha Eugene! Let the hyungs eat first!”
“…….”
Apparently giving up, Bae Sejin shoved cake into his mouth.
I shrugged.
‘…It tastes pretty good.’
For a designer cake, it was genuinely decent.
And so, thirty minutes before June 18 ended, our first anniversary passed with us simply chewing on cake together.
“You all worked hard this past year. Let’s keep doing well together.”
“Ah, obviously~ Let’s keep going until we win a Daesang~”
“We’re not even promoting right now, eat properly.”
“Y-Yes, yes…!”
I didn’t dislike how modest it was.
Read only on MUGEX
While Park Moondae and the members peacefully shared their cake,
Park Moondae’s fans were letting out triumphant roars.
-AH THE MAY GROOM IS PARK MOONDAE!! (BOOMING VOICE)
-I feel like I’m standing under a showerhead getting blasted by a waterfall of soda, thank you my idol
-Haa I thought I was going to die from how frustrating this was, finally I can introduce my husband. This is Groom Park Moondae
└Ah, get in line please, your turn is way later
└LOLOLOLOLOLOL
After being forced to keep quiet and restrain themselves for so long, posts flooded SNS and communities at a ridiculous rate.
[Comparison of ‘May Groom’ and Park Moondae’s movements]
[Identity of the May Groom that everyone who knew, knew.jpg]
[Absolutely chilling <My Singer> final performance]
After pouring everything out as though settling a grudge, the fans finally moved on after one wave and began openly obsessing over Park Moondae’s new content properly.
-Park Moondae you insane bastard seriously how do you even think of something like that… my baby doesn’t know the meaning of brakes!! That’s why I love you!!
-You’re telling me he put in the Groom profile that once he meets his bride, his flower head changes into her ideal type, and then HE magically appears in person? What are we supposed to do with that narrative
└That’s a proposal, right? Pretty sure that’s a proposal. We need to go register the marriage
-I can’t tell what’s a flower and what’s a faceㅜㅜ Aren’t Park Moondae and bouquets basically synonyms?
-May Moondoggy? Like this, right (country puppy wearing flowers)
-I’m seriously so proud… If listening to Park Moondae sing doesn’t fill you with national pride, you’re not Korean
And while they weren’t going quite as wild as the fans who had completely let loose, the ‘May Groom’ had also left a deep impression on regular viewers of <The Singer I Made>.
Every stage from the preliminaries through the finals had been good, and even the impact and structure of the identity reveal had felt polished and complete.
-Been a while since someone took Knockoff Singer this seriously. Maybe I’ve just seen too many bastards show up looking like some neighborhood baseball mascot and half-ass it
-Kind of a waste for someone who sings like that to be an idol. Aren’t they just going to keep giving him dance songs?
└Good grief, old man, everybody starts as an idol these days. Once he gets some seniority he’ll go soloㅇㅇ
-I couldn’t find an original version of the final song. If he wrote it himself that’s insane
-Other than the prelim being a little weak, he’s honestly a flawless winner. Don’t think anyone can argue
└He used the prelim to build the character, so strategically it was an excellent choice. I’m curious who directed him. If he did it himself, that’s honestly beyond idol level.
└At the end of the day those vocal cords are his, that alone is enough to 인정ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└True lolololol
Just as the regular viewers were almost unanimously positive, general viewers too—regardless of whether the character itself suited their taste—acknowledged one thing for certain.
‘That kid sings really well.’
Winning overwhelmingly on a terrestrial network’s prime-time music variety show that drew ratings around ten percent even had a mild effect on public perception.
It started appearing in some of the comments beneath the YouTube video revealing the ‘May Groom’s’ identity.
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[A Stage of Romance and Thrills, the ‘May Groom’! His Shocking Identity Is? | <The Singer I Made> | 202X0618]
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-The final stage truly sent chills all over me! The best!
-He is truly a great blessing to the nation… what a master singer with an astonishing voice! How does he sing so well? ^^
-Park Moondae! I shall await your next stage~ㅠㅠ
-Such a bright, handsome face too. Perhaps such a beautiful voice found its home because he has such a pretty face.
Middle-aged and older viewers had begun recognizing Park Moondae.
Because <Idol Inc.> had been such a huge hit, they had probably at least seen ‘Park Moondae’s’ face somewhere before, but not many had ever sat down and properly listened to him sing like this.
On top of that came the reactions of people who had simply fallen deeply in love with the ‘May Groom’ character itself.
-Proposal-Breakup-Courtship-Obsession. The narrative was god-tier all the way through this performance
-All kinds of delusions have refused to leave my head since last week, in my brain there’s already a full movie prequel about MayGroomie
-My beloved does not come, and love rots away. (May Groom fanart)
-It’s been a while since we had such a good nonhuman character… Never thought there’d be a fellow concept freak among idols
└LOLOL suddenly feeling this overwhelming sense of kinship!
└The fact that he showed up looking exactly like the hologram lololol he really seemed like the genuine article
-I seriously can’t stop thinking about him taking off the bouquet head, I’m losing my mind
└You too? Me too lololol Honestly I liked MayGroomie so much that I thought the fantasy would completely shatter once an actual human head came out, but surprisingly it was fine
└A good face really is the answer
-Please, I desperately need Moondae-ssi to reveal more MayGroomie TMI
No matter how much Park Moondae had created him, and no matter how much the character borrowed Park Moondae’s voice and motion, the character and Park Moondae could never be completely identical.
Even so, affection spread quickly.
There were simply too many things they had in common.
-I’m already so excited for the performance the week after nextㅠㅠ
He had just delivered an incredible performance on a program watched by a huge number of people, and his identity had only just been revealed.
It was the precise moment when all kinds of praise and attention toward Park Moondae would be at their most intense.
Of course, it didn’t end there.
[Park Moondae can just go solo now haha]
A predictable troll attempt.
For reference, it was about to get smashed to pieces.