It was the week before the next episode of <The Singer I Made>, which would feature the semifinals and finals.
Thanks to an impressive hologram character appearing for the first time in a while, there was some light discussion online.
-I guess they’ve finally run out of usable character ideas because lately it’s been nothing but beating every possible athlete concept to death, so it’s fun seeing something creative again
-The profile and concept art come out this week, right? I’m looking forward to it. It’s been so long since terrestrial TV made my heart race that I’m honestly confused…
-I was surprised because his vocal tone was so good, then he completely demolished the next stage. How am I getting butterflies over a bouquet head?
-From the first performance that seemed to symbolize a spring groom itself, to the next performance filled with tragic beauty. I enjoyed all of them. (link)
-He sings insanely well, he’s definitely winning this lolol
Because the quality had been excellent across the board without any obvious shortcomings, positive reactions naturally dominated.
And of course, most Park Moondae fans had already guessed.
That the ‘May Groom’ was probably Park Moondae.
-Honestly it’s dead obvious
-If you’re a fan and can’t tell, you don’t have eardrums
-No but he actually improved even more. You could tell his voice quality had gotten dramatically better since that American show, but how is this even possible?
└The academic consensus is that he’s a genius
-Honestly the character too… anyone can tell it’s exactly his taste. I wondered the second I saw it, then heard the voice and yep lol
└THIS, that Magic Boy experience didn’t go anywhere lololol
But they didn’t bring it out into the open.
After experiencing all sorts of vicious attempts to keep them in check, the fandom had developed a tendency not to loudly insist on something when public opinion disagreed.
The identity reveal would settle it anyway.
The fans held back even among themselves and simply looked forward to the reactions afterward.
It was also to avoid lunatics who might screenshot their comments and try to mock them later.
Then came the long-awaited day when the second half of <The Singer I Made> aired.
People who had been anticipating the ‘May Groom’ even waited for the live broadcast of the variety show for the first time in ages.
Among them were these siblings.
“Watch. It’s Park Moondae.”
“Yeah, your delusion level is insane~”
It was the university student who was a Kim Raebin fan and her younger brother.
The moment he teased her, the younger brother braced himself for the profanity his sister would normally throw at him.
But nothing happened.
“……Haa.”
The university student held herself back once, then dismissed him with nothing more than a scoff.
It was the confidence of someone who knew the answer.
“What the hell is with you?”
“Whatever. Just watch the show.”
The inexplicably irritated high schooler huffed and turned back toward the TV.
Still, the moment the program began, the siblings forgot their argument.
That was because the ‘May Groom’ appeared in the very first semifinal match between the three remaining contestants and one winner from the previous episode.
[Murmuring audience]
[Wow~ I’m looking forward to this.]
[I have no idea what kind of stage he’ll show us!]
Those were reactions full of anticipation from the audience and judges, who had learned what to expect from the previous two performances.
As captions and comments alternated across the screen, the ‘May Groom’ finally appeared onstage.
“Whoa.”
“He’s out.”
The university student noticed that the flying butterflies and the patterns on the veil and gloves had become more detailed and natural.
It seemed they’d upgraded the hologram slightly.
‘Guess they spent some money after seeing the reaction?’
A first-tier idol group’s main vocalist had appeared.
Of course they should.
The university student snorted.
“Hey, he’s starting, he’s starting!”
“Be quiet!”
On the dark stage, only the hologram glowed.
Then the accompaniment began.
Sweet, clear violin and oboe filled the space.
The stage became flooded with bright, gorgeous light.
Flowers swayed as the groom raised his right hand and gently rested it over the microphone.
-My world
Is a place without sorrow
Only perfect joy
I’ll share with you
“Huh? That song….”
“Shh!”
After the first sweet line came another, slightly lower and more earnest.
-In my world
There is no darkness
Bright starlight
Will shine upon you
“Wow…….”
This time, the siblings forgot even to shush each other for being distracting and stared at the screen with their mouths open.
The ‘May Groom’ was singing a duet meant for a man and woman all by himself.
It was a famously romantic song, known for its fairy-tale lyrics and lyrical melody.
And it had one other defining characteristic.
It was often used as a wedding congratulatory song.
-Sometimes sorrowful days
May come to find us
But please remain in this world
-So that my love
May warmly embrace
Your world
And keep it safe
In the original song, two people passed the melody back and forth, allowing the lyrics to accumulate and grow firmer.
But with the ‘May Groom’ singing the wedding song alone, it had transformed completely into an act of courtship.
Unlike the neat proposal song from the preliminary round, the arrangement leapt lavishly between male and female keys like a peacock spreading its tail in courtship, captivating the ear.
‘This sounds seriously good.’
‘Why does this corny-ass song sound good?’
The siblings became completely immersed in the song and silently listened to the rest without making a sound.
Even the captions were going wild.
[The love delivered by the May Groom]
[Falling into that sweet voice…….]
Shots alternated between a judge listening with closed eyes and another staring wide-eyed straight through the stage.
“Finals, right?”
“Obviously.”
The siblings agreed for once as they watched the ‘May Groom’ bow again after finishing and slowly disappear.
And just as they’d predicted, the ‘May Groom’ advanced to the finals.
[The second finalist is… the ‘May Groom’!]
“Yesss!”
“Hey, if he didn’t make it, it’d be rigged.”
The siblings excitedly waved the remote at the TV as if they were watching a sports match.
Then the semifinalists’ profiles were introduced at somewhat greater length.
It was filler content meant to pad the runtime, but a well-made character profile could be fairly entertaining on its own.
The ‘May Groom’ was one such case.
-Holy shit… he can only sing love songs until he meets his bride;; what is this concept
-Then does that mean ‘Winter Night’ from the main round happens after he meets his bride and she dies, so he can finally sing a breakup song?
└Whoa
└I fucking love this interpretation
-Apparently every flower in the bouquet head only blooms in May… because he’s the May Groom… If he marries in a different month, the flowers change
└Please beat this dead horse at least through the June Groom, it’s literally June right now
└LOLOLOLOLOLOL
-If he gets married, apparently the flower head changes to match the bride’s ideal type. This is way too much lore but damn it’s tasty
Read only on MUGEX
The moment the profile appeared, the university student scrolled through SNS with a feeling of pride.
‘Park Moondae really is so good at this kind of thing!’
And she became certain all over again.
There was no way this wasn’t Park Moondae!
“What’ll you do if it’s Park Moondae?”
“If you keep this up and humiliate yourself, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Hey, loser pays a hundred thousand won. Deal?”
“Wow, thanks for the allowance.”
Right before the final stage, the siblings even made a high-stakes bet.
With no way back, the two stared seriously at the TV.
“Even if he screws up pretty badly here, he’ll still win, right?”
“In my expert assessment, yes.”
The two only half-watched the first final performance.
An old-fashioned whole fried chicken decorated neatly with silver-foil ribbons sang an upbeat samba, but neither felt much of anything.
And finally…
it was his turn.
The ‘May Groom’ appeared onstage once again.
[Waaaaaaaaah!!]
Red butterflies flew past as the bouquet became visible beneath the white veil.
The ‘May Groom’ held his standing microphone with both white-gloved hands.
Then the stage went dark.
Clank.
Several thin beams of light shot downward around the hologram.
They were a dark red.
“……!”
The lights trembled as though distorted.
Then an ominous sound began.
Shiiiiih— shiiiiiih—
The breathy whistle of a sogeum mingled with the frantic notes of a piri darting wildly up and down, creating a strange atmosphere.
A slow drum sounded.
Boom…. Boom…. Boom….
It was chilling.
Amid that eerie atmosphere, the ‘May Groom’ began to sing.
His white suit was stained in patches of red light.
-On the last night of April
Not even the moon can be seen
My beloved does not come
And love rots away
A slightly hoarse, scraping voice slowly echoed across the stage.
Perhaps because the lighting was trembling, the ‘May Groom’ seemed to be shaking his flowers.
As if they might wilt at any moment.
-Longing is this endless
Yet life is not as it should be
I open the window on a whim
And only tracks remain upon the road
The song raced without room to breathe over an anxious minor key.
The notes climbed steeply, as though they might plunge off a cliff at any moment.
Then fell.
-Still, I shall wait
In time with that low note, the accompaniment exploded.
“……!!”
Amid the rampaging minor-key traditional instruments, the ‘May Groom’ lowered his head and buried his flowers against the standing microphone.
-Until my heart rots through
Until my withered love melts away
Buried beneath the earth
Until every memory decays
Still, I shall wait
The melancholy melody began in an extremely low register, then climbed the notes with insane speed.
Within the repeated lyrics, every one of the countless metaphors ultimately ended at a single word.
‘Waiting.’
The screen didn’t show the audience’s reactions at all.
It focused solely on the ‘May Groom’ standing on the sticky-red stage.
It almost felt as though you could see the gaze that should have been impossible to see beyond the veil and bouquet.
Even through a screen, there was a desperate intensity powerful enough to overwhelm.
Then came the ending.
A high note like a cry lifted the lyrics of the final refrain.
-Until the day you finally come
And call me truly lovely
The final note continued as if he had stopped breathing.
The gloomy accompaniment chased after it frantically…
then abruptly stopped.
-I shall wait
“…….”
A single delicate strand of sogeum brought the song to an end.
Where fear and madness had disappeared, a stinging, sorrowful aftertaste remained.
The motionless ‘May Groom’ stood with his bouquet pressed against the standing microphone.
Then, the instant the accompaniment ended completely,
he vanished from the stage as though someone had switched him off.
[Huuuuuh!]
[Wow……!]
Only then did the audience fill with applause and exclamations.
The camera finally shifted fully toward the judges and audience members, capturing exaggerated images of people covering their mouths.
[An overwhelmed audience]
[People unable to take their hands from their mouths]
The siblings frozen in front of the TV finally came back to their senses too.
“……That was seriously insane.”
“Fucking gave me chills.”
“Moondae’s winning.”
“Now you’re crossing the line again.”
The stage of the ‘May Groom,’ who seemed to have gone insane waiting for a bride who would never return, left an enormous afterimage.
He had carried a performance that could easily have felt excessive with singing so frighteningly precise that everything fit perfectly.
‘I’m definitely watching live the week after next too.’
The high schooler, now convinced the ‘May Groom’ would win, made the decision internally.
Something like this deserved to be watched.
He was even beginning to think he’d buy the album and listen to it once the singer’s identity was revealed.
‘After seeing this one too, I’m calling it: band vocalist. He’s probably going to use some insanely obscure song.’
Which was why, immediately afterward, when the ‘May Groom’ revealed his identity,
the shock left him completely frozen.
[The identity of the person who created this hologram character, the ‘May Groom’…… will be revealed now!]
Just before announcing the winner, the contestants’ identities were revealed first so they could personally wait onstage beside their holograms for the results.
With the motion link disconnected, the ‘May Groom’ hologram stood neatly onstage.
It looked strangely demure for something that had just been used to perform such a devastating song.
The MC’s booming voice rang out.
[Now, please come out!]
At that moment, the floor beneath the stage opened and a person slowly began to emerge.
And people began making strange noises of astonishment.
“……!?”
Because the person rising from below was…
the ‘May Groom.’
“What?”
Once the physical ‘May Groom’ had risen all the way up, he tilted his bouquet head.
He looked exactly like the hologram.
It was creepy.
“Ugh.”
They had recreated animals or food in playful mascot costumes before, but there had never been a case this identical.
Normally, people created characters precisely because the characters could do things they couldn’t!
‘What the hell is this bastard?’
Amid the murmuring audience and judges, only the MC shouted cheerfully.
[This person is… none other than!]
The newly appeared ‘May Groom’ tore the bouquet off his head with his right hand.
“……!”
A thick mesh mask covered in flowers slipped down around his neck, revealing a sweat-damp face and hair.
[Park Moondae of the hottest idol group, TeSTAR!]
[!!!!]
The screen repeatedly replayed the screaming audience and judges deliberately exaggerating their shock.
And the high schooler went blank too.
“…….”
“Hey. Hey.”
The university student nudged her younger brother with her foot.
“Pay up. One hundred thousand won.”
“…….”
For reference, nearly identical scenes were unfolding across the internet in real time.