As expected, the dance-introduction ceremony where the two of us had abruptly turned the attack back on the MC wasn’t cut.
The whole thing aired intact.
[DJ left speechless by the flood of praise]
[23 years devoted solely to variety entertainment—overwhelming defeat at the hands of first-time pink fairies]
The editing mostly framed it as making fun of the MC, but we still got plenty of impact out of it.
[Are all rookies like this these days?]
[Scary… Too scary!]
…We even got CG of our wings burning fluorescent colors, along with captions like that.
After making a vow not to burst out laughing every time we appeared, the members restored the sound and kept coughing while the corners of their mouths twitched.
“Haha, hm, you did well on variety.”
“That was excell—khm—excellent!”
“Hyung is a scary person. That’s cool!”
“…Uh, thanks.”
I think Cha Eugene had creatively interpreted the caption “scary” as “threateningly impressive.”
Anyway, setting the embarrassment aside, it had come out well.
The viewer reactions being checked in real time were pretty good too.
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why are YOU guys doing thatㅋㅋㅋ
—DJ Choi is deadㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—What the hell are these lunatics
—I can hear the staff laughingㅋㅋㅋ
—What are those wingsㅋㅋㅋ Are they insane, this is so funnyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Wow their nerve is insane
—They could probably roast VTIC alive
Right on cue, the two VTIC members appeared on-screen and performed a cool dance.
Then, exactly ten seconds later, they were crawling around because they couldn’t withstand the lines being thrown at them.
“……Hmm.”
That’s kind of funny in its own way.
‘VTIC fans should be reasonably satisfied too.’
As I generously evaluated them, the doppelgänger team battle began with its twist.
[You share the same body, so of course you have to receive the punishment together~ You’re doppelgängers! That’s why it’s <Two Hearts, One Body>!]
It was entertaining, but there wasn’t anything especially worth extracting as a best scene from the first thirty minutes of the games.
There were just a few natural cuts of us earnestly playing the games, plus reaction shots of us looking flustered by VTIC’s self-destruction.
“Why aren’t you wearing the wings??”
“They took them off because they’d be dangerous during the games~”
“Aha!”
With conversations that mild, monitoring this week’s <Saturday Party> came to an end.
“You two did very well on variety.”
“I-It was fun…!”
It was generous praise, but it felt slightly premature when next week’s footage hadn’t even aired yet.
“Oh my, thank you! Please watch the live broadcast next week too~”
“Haha, all right.”
Ryu Chungwoo laughed as he answered Big Sejin’s exaggerated request.
His face showed no idea what sort of sight he’d be witnessing next week.
Online reactions also stopped at an appropriate level, mostly fans looking forward to next week.
Even among ordinary viewers, thanks to the strong entrance, the dominant reaction was favorable impressions along the lines of, “Those two TeSTAR guys are funny~”
Hmm.
Perfect.
The effect would be better when people weren’t expecting too much.
I stretched and stood up from in front of the sofa.
‘Guess I’ll have to wait another week.’
As long as no major problem occurred, everything was going extremely smoothly.
But afterward, the situation I’d been worried about finally happened.
Public opinion around me began to waver.
While Park Moondae waited for the next episode of <Saturday Party>, the internet became noisy again.
Just as Park Moondae had expected, the incident involving the person who leaked Choi Wongil’s recordings hadn’t been properly wrapped up.
This time, the accuser posted an actual written statement.
Along with supposed proof that they had been a staff member, they testified about Choi Wongil’s notorious behavior on <Idol Inc.>.
—Whoa, so they were staff
—They say the recording wasn’t stitched together, the conversation got cut because they kept pressing the record button on and off
—Choi Wongil is scary, what if Moondae was threatened?ㅠ
—Might have to blacklist that agency
But it didn’t last even a few days.
Metadata the accuser had failed to delete exposed their identity.
========================
[Holy shit, Choi Wongil’s accuser is garbage]
: (screenshot) See the original image URL in the corner here? The end looked like an ID, so I googled it and their entire history came up, fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋ
They’re an unemployed pathological liar known for mocking dead people
The staff proof was stolen too
(screenshot)
========================
And immediately afterward, the company posted a notice announcing legal action.
The prevailing conclusion was that “the person spreading it had never even met Choi Wongil, and happened to overhear and record the conversation while working a one-day temp job.”
At the same time, Choi Wongil’s agency began anonymously uploading correction posts to various communities, publicizing the identity of the rumor spreader in the most provocative way possible.
[Choi Wongil Rumor Spreader = Infamous User Known for Mocking the Dead]
[The Horrifying Identity of Choi Wongil’s Accuser Is Worse Than You Imagined]
Once that work was done, public opinion finally began looking at Choi Wongil with sympathy.
—Disgusting as fuck, I feel bad for Choi Wongil;
—This is seriously scary. It’s been forever since Idol Inc. ended and the evil editing from back then is still ruining this kidㅠㅠ
—Listening to Recording 1 again now is so sad.. how much did he suffer for a kid to end up like that
Naturally, as public attention moved elsewhere, the sympathy toward Park Moondae and the high evaluation of his personality began to fade.
And there were people who had been waiting for exactly that moment.
========================
[Opinions are currently divided over Park Moondae and Choi Wongil]
: This is behind-the-scenes footage from Idol Inc. uploaded after the show ended (screenshot)
During the first team battle, the bridge originally belonged to Choi Wongil but Park Moondae ended up taking it
Scene where Park Moondae says he’s going to arrange this part solo and glances at Choi Wongil
For reference, he arranged this section into an ultra-high-note saintess part for himself and Park Moondae blew up because of it
(screenshot) Choi Wongil looking flustered
“Park Moondae intentionally screwed Choi Wongil over”
vs.
“It’s just your imagination and wild speculation”
What do you think?
========================
—Here comes the bullshit again
—Why post something like this now? Trying to start a fight?
└Do I need to time my posts according to fan reactions?
—Where exactly are opinions “divided”ㅋㅋㅋㅋ You just wish they were.
The dominant reaction was mostly people telling them not to bother with nonsense that obviously wouldn’t work.
But there was also plenty of malice trying to ride the momentum.
—Oh, Park Moondae is more unsettling than I thought…
—I thought everyone knew he was basically a fox pretending to be a bearㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—He’s seriously good at image management. Honestly I think even posting that clarification for Choi Wongil this time was something he did after calculating all the profit and loss
└Yeah, there’s something kind of sneaky about him
└He has that specific vibe of someone who grew up without being loved??…
—Park Moondae fans kept saying Choi Wongil definitely picked a fight out of nowhere in the recording… Honestly there was probably context behind all of it
└I thought the same thingㅋㅋㅋ
—Choi Wongil said he wanted the chorus so they switched it for him, what the fuck are you talking about, you’ve reversed the entire context
└You want to blame Choi Wongil again?
Of course, the post was soon deleted after reports and counterarguments.
But there was no helping the unpleasant aftertaste it left among the fans.
After that, posts maliciously twisting Park Moondae’s past actions would suddenly appear among popular posts, spark a fight, and disappear again.
The reaction they were aiming for was this.
[Everyone made such a fuss saying Park Moondae had a good personality, but he doesn’t. How shameless.]
Thanks to Park Moondae’s quick response and TeSTAR’s own star power, the backlash never reached that level, but it was a precarious few days.
Fans passed each day worn down by tension.
And right at that timing, the second episode of <Saturday Party> featuring Park Moondae began airing.
‘Please, just let one thing hit.’
‘Please, even if it’s boring, let nothing happen.’
With those two contradictory wishes crossing each other, the second <Two Hearts, One Body> episode of <Saturday Party> began.
At first, it was simply reasonably funny.
[Wow~ It never ends!]
[Why is everyone so good??]
The sight of idols and actors fiercely throwing themselves into the games and working hard was wholesome and easy to watch.
The program also warmly highlighted Big Sejin taking care of an actor returning from a punishment, joking that “they’re already best friends.”
The strange signs began with the next game.
[The next game is~ ‘Stay Completely Still’! The person who remains completely unmoved no matter what happens and can hold out the longest~ wins!]
The team of the person who could hold a mouthful of bottled water without spraying it out for the longest time would win.
And Park Moondae alone survived at the table, which had become a disaster zone of sprayed water.
[…….]
[No, Moondae-ssi, you are awake, right?!]
[How is this possible??]
Even when a staff member suddenly screamed and started doing a sexy dance, when a monkey jumped out of the DJ booth, or when a performer rode past in front of him on an elephant while juggling fire, he showed no reaction.
Park Moondae’s face, staring peacefully into empty space without the slightest disturbance, was serenity itself.
Because compared to the insane situations Park Moondae had already experienced, something like an elephant was nothing.
‘At least elephants actually exist in the natural world.’
Such was the sorrow of a fantasy-novel protagonist being threatened by a Status Window.
And for the first time in a while, that caption appeared over Park Moondae’s head.
[Calm—Serene]
A Tibetan fox CG even appeared behind him.
Thanks to his cheeks having expanded somewhat from the water in his mouth, the resemblance was astonishing.
[※Unprecedented situation]
[We’re told that the production team… the production team has run out of things they prepared!]
[Wow!!]
[That’s seriously incredible!]
It was a complete victory.
Park Moondae swallowed the water and bowed repeatedly to everyone around him.
And in return, he gave viewers entertainment.
—Fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—This is seriously hilarious
—Park Moondae really never changes… amazing
—Nothing changedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Tibetan fox overwhelming victory
—He’s so cuteㅠㅠㅋㅋㅋ
But it didn’t end there.
The MC finally began making his move.
His target was Big Sejin.
[All right, then today’s punishment recipient is… Lee Sejin-ssi!]
[What??]
[Come on, that’s not fair!]
[Three people were eliminated before Sejin!]
[That decisive moment! When you got eliminated there, your team’s strength collapsed~ Ah~ Look here! Sejin-ssi bursts out laughing and then two people right after him laugh too~]
Using plausible-sounding logic, the MC tried to steer the situation and draw out Big Sejin’s flustered reaction.
But Big Sejin smiled brightly.
[Ah, sounds good!]
[…!?]
[Sejin?]
[You’re an idol, are you really okay with having your face drawn on?]
[The team’s victory is more important than that!]
[?!]
Through the bewildered captions, Big Sejin pointed his index finger at Park Moondae.
[Moondae!]
[……?]
[If you keep doing well, I’m going to make absolutely sure I get punished!!]
[…!!]
[Even if the team wins, you’ll get every punishment too! Think carefully!]
It was madness for the sake of victory.
[Sacrifice…?]
Even the captions were confused.
But Park Moondae wasn’t.
[Fine. We’ll take every punishment, then.]
[!!!!]
[Winning as a team is what matters. We have to catch the doppelgänger.]
[Guys, you’re way too invested!!]
[You know this is a variety show, right??]
[Let’s make sure we win, catch the fake, and get out of here.]
[Sure, the fake matters! But you know this footage is going to follow you for the rest of your lives?!]
[If we don’t catch the fake here, our team doesn’t have a future.]
[Good lord.]
There was no getting through to them.
The two walked out side by side and had cat whiskers and raccoon markings drawn onto their faces.
They looked cute, but their eyes were burning.
[True madness]
With even the captions burning, the next round began.
Read only on MUGEX
[This round is~ ‘Pop Music Encyclopedia’! What year is it now? It’s 1988~ Listen to songs released this year and guess their titles!]
And Big Sejin, who had predicted this type of game from the program’s patterns and studied in advance, began sweeping up the answers.
[Correct!]
[Yay!]
Just when victory for Big Sejin’s team seemed certain—
This time, Park Moondae began self-destructing.
[Ah… Moondae-ssi, wrong!]
[…Hoobae-nim, what are you doing……?]
[I’m going to record the highest wrong-answer rate so I receive the punishment.]
[!!!!]
Beyond captions collapsing in shock, Park Moondae clenched his fist.
[The better Lee Sejin does, the more punishment he’ll taste too.]
[Wait.]
[Guys, this isn’t what the rule was created for!]
It was a catastrophe.
Eventually, as the games continued, the other cast members were dragged into it and fully embraced the method of targeting anyone who performed well by self-destructing so they’d be punished.
Viewers lost their minds.
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ What is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—I laughed so hard I feel like I’m gonna throw up
—Are they insane, why did it turn into this
—I’m losing it
—The catastrophic disaster caused by overinvested rookiesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
It was clearly framed as sacrificing oneself for team victory, yet because everyone was absurdly overinvested in a variety show with no realism whatsoever, the entire situation had become bizarrely hilarious.
[Hey, let’s go.]
[Sigh.]
Even the veteran cast members got swept up in the atmosphere and voluntarily sacrificed themselves.
The sight of them walking off for punishment with arms around each other’s shoulders and expressions of complete resignation was pure comedy.
And as the finishing touch, another incident happened during the final game that would decide the ultimate winner.
Marshmallow’s Sohyun abandoned her threat of self-destruction at the very end.
[I’m sorry, Moondae-ssi! Youngrin unnie is afraid of heights! I don’t think we should do this!]
[!!!!]
That was how their overinvestment ended in betrayal.
Youngrin successfully raised the flag and delivered victory to her team.
[And so the real team is… the Party Team!]
[Waaaaaaaaah!!]
Park Moondae’s blank face, wearing a desolate expression as his soul left his body, was genuinely hilarious.
—He burned himself completely white….
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ fuck he’s cute
—Don’t get this invested in stuff like this, idiotㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Ah seriouslyㅋㅋㅋ this is so funnyㅋㅋㅋ
—He’s really cuteㅋㅋㅋ This level of insane chaos is only possible because they’re rookiesㅋㅋㅋ
—He was way too serious about the broadcast on Idol Inc. too and he’s doing it again hereㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
And the TeSTAR-focused clip from the episode shot into WeTube Trending almost instantly after it was uploaded.
[(Saturday Party) ‘Pummel That Damn Doppelgänger!’ TeSTAR’s Overinvestment Compilation.zip | Legendary <Two Hearts, One Body> | SBC]
The image anti-fans had painstakingly been building of “Park Moondae, the calculating creep who subtly needles people while pretending not to” was shattered beneath the wave of “overinvested Tibetan-fox oddball Moondae-at-it-again.”
‘Done.’
I turned off my smartphone with a sigh that carried several complicated meanings.
It was…
Extremely embarrassing, but I was satisfied.
‘The atmosphere’s been firmly established.’
Asking VTIC to deliberately make a bigger fuss around me had definitely paid off.
Thanks to that, TeSTAR’s behavior had looked even more unusually bizarre.
It was the reaction effect.
And now that this comedic image had become firmly attached, I didn’t think public opinion would swing around over trivial things for a while.
That made something suddenly occur to me.
‘…I can move forward without worrying now.’
I thought it would probably be fine to slowly begin the thing I’d been planning since the start of these promotions.
Then I needed some preliminary work first.
‘Let’s start by organizing the settlement amount.’
It was finally time to see what last year’s results had earned us.