“I Like Waiting,” which the contestants had performed on <Idol Inc.>, was a stage that continued to steadily gain views even now thanks to its distinctively Eastern, wistful atmosphere.
Of course, aside from that song, TeSTAR had quite a few successful team-battle stages of their own.
Naturally, while they were preparing for the concert, all sorts of opinions came up about which stages they wanted to try again.
—The hero concept seems the best suited for scaling up into something concert-sized!
—A, A New World… I, if we did it again, I think we could do it better…!
—Vampires! I want to do that one!
—Guys, don’t any of you want to try performing a VTIC sunbaenim song? I think we could actually do it now…….
—…Calm down, hyung.
But most of them were eliminated at the discussion stage. Too many of the members involved had changed.
If they weren’t careful, people could accuse them of “stealing even the songs from eliminated contestants.”
But this song, which Big Sejin had pushed for enthusiastically, had none of those concerns.
—Haha, all our members are still right here, aren’t they~?
Except for Goldie #1, every member of the Moon Rabbits had successfully debuted as TeSTAR.
And Goldie #1, who would be debuting soon himself, had even happily given permission over text on the condition that he got to use the song at his own concert too.
And so TeSTAR had been able to prepare the stage with great enthusiasm.
And now.
Seven figures dressed in dark durumagi appeared at the front of the stage.
The sound of a daegeum rang out.
Wooooong—. Wooowooooong—. Woo-wooowooo—.
An elegant, sorrowful sound.
Every single person in the audience had heard it at least once before.
At that moment, one figure gracefully turned around. Then, with the hem of his durumagi flying, he kicked off backward into the air.
That long, startlingly clean line soared even higher than it had before, then dropped forward.
Beneath the fluttering navy-blue durumagi, a brilliant golden dragon-robe pattern gleamed.
“……!”
The audience failed to understand what they were seeing for a moment, but the instant the screen captured the details of the rabbit mask, screams erupted.
“Aaagh!”
“Holy shit!!”
Following the earlier talent-show spectacle, the nostalgic rabbits had appeared again.
Only this time, they were lavishly adorned.
—At every turn where I wait for you
There I am, always full of anticipation
Beneath the rabbit masks the members flipped upward, ornate jade norigae swayed.
The costume details were easily twice as dazzling as they had been during <Idol Inc.>, creating beautiful arcs and flashes of light every time the tall figures moved.
And TeSTAR brought back the strange atmosphere of that old stage, along with its faintly inhuman synchronized choreography, exactly as it had been.
No.
If anything, it had become even more intense.
—I like waiting
My waiting is long
And always joyful
Thanks to the increased number of performers, even the formations and overall movement in the chorus choreography had become far grander.
—When this waiting ends
I know I’ll meet you
My heart is already bright
Park Moondae cleanly delivered the chorus’s high note. On the face caught by the screen, a little of the glitter from his unit stage still remained.
And the second verse, which had been cut during <Idol Inc.> because of stage-time restrictions, continued this time without being removed.
The new friends who had joined the Moon Rabbits took on the new lines.
—With every moment that flows by again
My focus stops on you
Cha Eugene grinned, then created a dazzling series of movements with light footwork. Even the very ends of his durumagi became part of the choreography.
—I don’t mind even if you brush past me
Because I already know, I definitely—
The Moon Rabbits expressed the song as though they were so overwhelmed they didn’t know what to do with themselves, and the audience caught the exact same feeling, groaning helplessly as they enjoyed the stage.
The concert hall burned hot with delight and the joy of seeing something beloved again.
Then came the bridge.
—A vivid déjà vu
Telling me that you, too, have been waiting for me
The Moon Rabbits ran all the way out onto the extended stage as they delivered the line, which carried a sugary sensuality.
Each of them held a fan they had pulled from inside their durumagi.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Ughaaagh!”
The screams coming from the nearby standing section sounded downright desperate.
At the end of choreography that had them sweep the floor with their whole bodies as they stripped away the durumagi, they were left in shirts.
Shimmering cord ornaments hung in colorful strands over white wrap-style shirts tied at the waist.
And at last came the end of the final chorus.
As though they were once again happily waiting for someone, the choreography continued with humming and buoyant footwork.
—Hum hu hu hum— huhu
DDu-ru Du-ru Du Du
The audience enthusiastically hummed along.
Ddu-dduru-dduru-ddu-ddu~
It was a group singalong with such painfully honest pronunciation that not a single syllable was wrong.
Caught off guard by the unexpectedly cute situation, the Moon Rabbits ended the stage with smiles much wider than the ones they’d planned.
—Wait for me
Even Big Sejin’s final line somehow became a group singalong.
Big Sejin grinned, folded his arms, and let his head drop against the enormous tree trunk on the extended stage.
Even after the stage went dark, the cheers did not stop.
WAAAAAAAAAH!!
According to the planned sequence, this was where a VCR was supposed to follow and foreshadow a new stage. Still buzzing from the afterglow of the previous performance, the audience eagerly anticipated what came next.
But even after several seconds, the stage remained completely dark.
Some of the cheering audience members soon began murmuring in confusion.
“Hm?”
“Huh??”
“What is it?”
Just before the crowd could start getting restless, wondering whether there had been a stage accident—
The lights abruptly came back on.
Click.
A single enormous spotlight.
Its beam illuminated…
The giant stump on the extended stage!
“…!!”
It was where the tree had stood.
But as though the trunk had been violently ripped away, everything above it had vanished, leaving only the stump behind.
And sitting on that stump…
Were two black-haired people with their heads lowered.
“……?!”
A slow string solo began to play.
The two gradually raised their heads.
Their faces were completely hidden behind rabbit masks.
But parts of the masks’ heads were broken, and paint trickled down from the damaged areas.
“…….”
Before the vast audience, now quiet beneath the ominous atmosphere, the song began.
—Je te donne des fleurs que……
Over the accompaniment of a chanson rendered somewhat grotesque by extreme pitch manipulation—
The third unit stage began without warning.
“Hey, aren’t Chungwoo hyung and Raebin seriously amazing?”
Back below the stage again.
Even while hurriedly changing clothes with several people’s help, Big Sejin started talking to me.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“What do you mean, why? They’re up there right now with no choreography at all, competing with nothing but their own arrangement and voices. Look at those guts. Isn’t that insanely cool~?”
We barely had time to breathe, yet here he was suddenly praising guys who weren’t even present.
‘What’s he thinking?’
But when I turned my head, I saw the camera filming behind-the-scenes concert footage.
‘Of course.’
So that was it.
The guy really was consistent.
Impressed, I answered.
“Well, yeah.”
Ryu Chungwoo had probably considered exactly what Big Sejin said, including the risk inherent in doing something like that at an “idol concert.”
Kim Raebin, on the other hand, probably hadn’t needed any particular courage.
‘He probably just thought, the arrangement came out well and the live vocals work, so what’s the problem?’
And the arrangement really had come out well.
He’d broken apart and rearranged a classic chanson released decades ago, turning it into the kind of indie style that performed well on recent digital charts.
If a concert album came out, that one would probably do the best.
Big Sejin grinned at my agreement.
“Right? Ah, of course, Moondae had incredible guts too. That ribbon headband was unbelievable~”
“……Uh, sure.”
There’s a camera beside us.
Don’t forget that.
“Moondae, Moondae, don’t you have anything to say to me? You saw the cowboy, right?”
“Yeah. It was cool.”
“Say it again like you actually mean it from the bottom of your heart~”
Ignoring his bullshit, I listened to the sound coming from the stage.
…A bright, piercing riff melody laid over a gloomy beat.
—…A wound that never dries
Tears harden like scabs
Leaving traces down below…
Then came the rap.
That was because everything except the iconic intro and chorus had been entrusted to rap.
It was a structure people were already familiar with, so it would probably be even easier on the ear.
Still, I wondered whether the particular magic of a song that relied entirely on rap, vocals, and atmosphere would actually work at a concert.
‘The atmosphere should help a lot.’
We’d decided to use the stage set and lighting almost theatrically to create a strong narrative.
And on the screen, the meaning of the chanson’s lyrics would have appeared in black, like splattered ink.
—To you, my love
I offer these flowers
Today is a special day
Laughter fills the streets
—Insignificant moments
Pile up like dust
And shine like jewels
Even now, I can feel you breathe.
Lyrics that would have sounded bright and refreshing in the original took on an entirely different feeling when paired with the gloomy beat and rap.
‘It’ll definitely leave a strong impression.’
And because of those lyrics, in fact, the next song had been decided unanimously in the first draft of the set list we’d made.
We’d planned to follow it immediately with the title track from the new album.
‘The lyrical contexts were similar.’
I thought it was a good structure for building things up.
But the company rejected it.
The problem was stamina and the time required.
—Raebin and Chungwoo look like they’re going to collapse?!
—If they do all this back-to-back, I feel like someone’s going to make a mistake changing clothes. That could be fatal for the new-song premiere stage, so wouldn’t it be better to avoid it as much as possible?
Every single point was painfully correct, so I shut up and agreed.
That was why a short talk and audience-interaction segment had been added, though whether doing a talk after that song would preserve the atmosphere was…
I wasn’t sure.
‘It feels like talks should come after an exciting song or something lyrical.’
We didn’t have a large enough song pool to arrange things any other way, but it was still a little disappointing.
I clicked my tongue, finished having my outfit and hair fixed, and moved through the hallway along the designated route.
Not long afterward, the people who had finished the third unit stage joined us.
“Ooh~”
“How was it?”
“Yeah. It was even better than I expected.”
“I think we managed to express everything we wanted to show you!”
Their faces were bright as they answered.
The reaction must have been quite good.
‘The cheering lasted a long time.’
Without any particular cause for anxiety, the concert was proceeding smoothly.
“Going up! Be careful when you sit down!”
“Yes!”
The seven of us sat side by side in seven chairs and rose onto the center stage through a lift mechanism.
Before my eyes, countless lights filled the enormous space, glittering and rolling like waves.
Waaaaaaaaah—
The cheers sounded almost like the noise the lights themselves were making.
‘…This is no joke.’
It wasn’t quite as bad while we were actually performing, but sitting here abruptly with a completely clear head made me dizzy.
When I thought about how well over ten thousand people were sitting here, one person behind each of those lights…
No.
Enough.
‘Just getting through the script is hard enough.’
I saw Ryu Chungwoo lift his microphone to begin the first talk.
[It’s good to see you again, everyone! Are you enjoying the concert? How were our unit stages?]
[Oooh~ Hyung, can you hear that? Everyone says they’re having fun. They loved it!]
[That’s wonderful!]
I brought my own microphone to my mouth.
[Which stage did you like best?]
Words surged in from all directions like a tide.
All of them!
They were all good!
Rabbits!
The wire!!
Moondae’s stage~!
Those expressions, without a single sharp word among them, rang in my ears.
“…….”
Without meaning to, I fell silent for a moment.
……The answer I’d prepared came a beat late.
[…I liked all of them too.]
[Ah, Moondae’s totally moved~]
[I’m moved too!]
[This is rarer than you all probably think, everyone.]
After becoming the target of some light teasing for a moment, we continued.
[All right, then… we’ll begin the <Things You Want to Say to TeSTAR> segment!]
And just as we were about to properly begin the prepared content with the questions we’d selected—
The lights surrounding the stage suddenly dimmed.
“…?”
That wasn’t planned.
My eyes met the other members’, who looked slightly flustered.
‘What is it?’
‘An accident?’
Then, all at once, light poured in from behind us.
It was coming from the screen.
I reflexively turned my head and saw an unplanned video playing across it.
…It was TeSTAR’s debut showcase.
[My singer who came to me like magic]
[Thank you! I love you!]
With the captions, the video continued.
The past nine months of activities appeared chronologically on the screen.
From our first terrestrial-network stage to the year-end performances, cuts of TeSTAR in all kinds of outfits flashed by.
Then the screen turned to the audience.
At some point, identical pieces of pale lavender cloth had appeared in people’s hands.
Those were…
Slogans.
On the enormous screen, the words appeared clearly.
[Sent flying to TeSTAR]
[Loviewers’ paper airplanes]
And suddenly, the accompaniment to a song we already knew began to play.
…<Magic Is You>.
TeSTAR’s first fan song.
Today I feel good, as if
Something good is about to happen
In the blink of an eye, the concert hall filled with countless voices.
If it’s you, everything will be okay
It may feel unfamiliar, but somehow it’ll be good
Ten thousand people singing.
Countless voices came together in layers, pouring down from every direction like shooting stars alongside the lights.
My breath caught.
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