To explain how the hell things had ended up like this, it went something like this.
This time, TeSTAR’s roommate assignments had been decided through a territory-grabbing board game disguised as a card game.
“All right, all right! Yeouido now belongs to my ‘Red Radish Coin Faction’! Everyone, hand over one coin each~”
“…H-Huh??”
“Already? Sejin’s really good at this.”
“Haha~ Thank you!”
For reference, this unfamiliar game had complicated rules, took a long time to play, and most importantly had almost nothing to do with roommate assignments.
As it turned out, it was a new board game using the IP of ‘127 Section,’ which we had collaborated with before.
Must be PPL T1 shoved in.
I was used to it by now.
Anyway, in order to somehow force the game to fit with roommate reassignment, the production staff let us pick our roommates in order of our ranking in the game.
And this was the result.
“Coming in first with thirty-six spaces is Eugene’s… ‘Blazing Biker Gang’!”
“Yeah!!”
“Aww~ So close!”
Cha Eugene had pulled off a comeback victory right at the end.
Three sixes in a row.
Thanks to Cha Eugene’s insane luck, by the end everyone had stopped caring about winning and was just sitting there yelling like they were watching some kind of gambling match.
And this bastard Cha Eugene… picked me as his roommate without even a split second of hesitation.
“Moondae hyung, let’s be good roommates! Please take care of me!”
Why the hell?
Since when had we gotten close enough for this?
Even the option of sticking another guy into the room and spreading out the responsibility had been blocked.
“Ahem, then first-place Eugene gets to choose his room….”
“Number one!!”
A two-person room.
“Oh~ Moondae’s going back to Room One? Congratulations~”
“…Oh.”
Nothing about that made me happy.
Of course, I had no intention of doing something insane like openly showing it.
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything particularly enthusiastic, but at least I was giving Cha Eugene plenty of positive physical signals like high fives and pats on the shoulder.
You can’t provoke Cha Eugene’s fans.
Those people wouldn’t laugh this off as a joke. They’d wring me dry and turn me into a bullying instigator who harassed the maknae and drove him into isolation.
So calm down and think about the benefits of sharing a room with this guy….
“…….”
…Were there any?
“Then what’s second-place Sejin’s choice?”
“Yes, my choice is… drumroll, please. Our handsome Raebin!”
“Ah, thank you!”
“Haha! Ah, I think a three-person room would be nice for us.”
“Hmm, Moondae’s third, so we’ll skip him… and conveniently, fourth-place Raebin is next to choose a roommate. Raebin, what do you want to do?”
“I would like Seon Ahyeon hyung to join us as the final roommate!”
“…! M-Me?”
“Yes! There are several matters I have wanted to ask you about since the last time we were roommates….”
While the others steadily paired up as roommates, I kept thinking.
But I couldn’t come up with a single advantage.
There was only one thing I knew.
“Have some gummies!”
“Sure.”
For a while, going to sleep early and getting a good night’s rest was going to be impossible.
And that assessment turned out to be correct.
A few days later, in the waiting room of a music show, the stylist fixing one of my costume accessories asked me a question.
“Moondae, are you okay? You look out of it.”
“I’m fine.”
Although if there hadn’t been any Bacchus, I would not have been fine.
That lunatic Cha Eugene didn’t sleep until two in the morning yesterday.
That part alone was fine. Everyone had their own habits.
The problem was that he had been actively doing things until two.
While talking to me.
“……Haa.”
Actually, I had gotten ahead of him and given Cha Eugene a few requests in advance.
-I’ve been managing my stamina recently… so outside of exercise time, I’d like to lie down and rest whenever possible.
-Oh… Hyung, are you tired?
-It’s not that I’m tired. I’m trying to conserve my energy, so try not to make me get out of bed if you can.
-Understood!
And Cha Eugene, making all my worries about a bombardment of questions look ridiculous, had cleanly agreed and genuinely started being careful afterward.
Well… careful specifically about the condition that I ‘wouldn’t have to get out of bed.’
-Wow! Look at this, hyung!
-…….
When I craned only my neck off the bed to look at Cha Eugene’s smartphone, a video was playing of a Siberian husky communicating with a baby through bizarre howls.
-[Isn’t it so cute and funny?? A baby and a puppy. They always make my day happy.]
-Yeah. Nice.
At the time, when I gave him a positive response, I had no idea that variations of this exact pattern would continue repeatedly until two in the morning.
When we had a music-show prerecording the very next day—Friday—no less.
-Hyung, hyung! This hippo….
-Stop.
In the end, it took me saying some variation of ‘Be quiet and go to sleep’ about three times before Cha Eugene finally went to bed.
If he’d pushed me just a little further, I would have smacked him across the back of the head and put him to sleep by force.
This is driving me insane.
Of course, he wasn’t like this every single time.
There were days when Cha Eugene went to bed early. The problem was that it happened entirely according to his whims.
Judging by his attitude, he did seem to be trying in his own way to follow what I told him. The problem was that he was the type who couldn’t store anything in his head if it seemed insignificant by his own standards, so he forgot every damn time.
Should I scare him into behaving?
Obviously, that was a joke. The instant Cha Eugene showed even the slightest sign of being intimidated by me on camera, it would become ammunition for rumors that we were on bad terms.
Normally, that would be insignificant enough to ignore, but the problem was that only a few months ago I had left behind footage that could make me look uncooperative toward Ryu Chungwoo.
That summer package.
Not good.
Therefore, for now… I would endure it.
Though judging by the pattern so far, these roommate assignments would probably remain fixed for at least half a year. I had no idea whether I could go that entire time without showing this bastard even the slightest sign that I found him annoying.
How did Ryu Chungwoo survive being his roommate in the beginning?
Hmm. Now that I thought about it, Big Sejin had been there too, so all Cha Eugene’s aggro must have gone in that direction.
“Hyung! Cookie, cookie?”
“I’m good.”
“They’re good!”
“Then eat plenty.”
Now Cha Eugene had started talking to me much more frequently even outside the dorm.
If he was feeling extra attached because we were roommates, I would prefer to decline.
“TeSTAR, please move over and stand by right away~”
“Yes!”
Anyway, we were performing next.
Roommates were roommates. For now, I should focus on work.
Waaaaaaaah—!
The cheering reached me through my in-ear monitors.
The rumbling sound forcing its way even through the tiny pieces meant to block outside noise had a strange way of lifting a person’s mood.
Maybe because it clears out all the useless thoughts.
Especially with songs packed with difficult, intricate performances, that surge of adrenaline was pretty useful.
But with a song arranged more loosely in places, like this one, it was actually better to force yourself to think a little.
If you just let yourself flow through it, the performance could easily turn bland.
The easier it was, the more attention you had to pay to keep it from looking dull.
Wait a little here… then gesture.
-Cool breeze, sweet coffee
Pour in plenty of syrup
Just like me, yeah
Take a seat
The camera with its light on caught the movement of me resting my chin in my hand perfectly.
This feels strangely easy.
It felt as though the delay—or perceived gap—between thinking of something and expressing it had become smaller than before.
Is this the power of the Charm stat?
It was pretty fun.
A few times, I added expressions and gestures I hadn’t planned beforehand—changing my facial expression or making a pair of glasses around my eye with one hand—and I could hit the timing properly without hesitating.
Oh.
Interesting.
-Now just relax and wait
(Hold on a second)
I’m coming to pick you up
The stage ended with us standing or sitting back-to-back with one another.
“Thank you!”
“Thank you!”
The guys bowed repeatedly as we came down from the stage, all looking remarkably fine.
“Monitoring, monitoring~”
“Watch out for that cable!”
There was a fairly playful dance break near the end, but it wasn’t exhausting enough to make anyone feel like their lungs were going to burst out of their chest.
The B-side is a ballad too.
The funny thing was that even though the difficulty of our promotions had gone down, the digital performance was better than ever.
The manager came running over the instant we finished monitoring the stage and shouted.
“Guys! ‘Picnic’ went up again! It’s number seven on 24Hits!”
“Wow!”
It was an achievement that was hard to believe on only the fifth day after release.
On a chart where one listener could play the song repeatedly but would still only count once within a twenty-four-hour period, we were the first male idol group besides VTIC to rank this high this year.
It’s doing more than twice as well as <Procession>, our immediately previous album.
It was rising at about the same pace as Youngrin, who had much stronger public appeal on the digital charts, which meant the song had genuinely turned out extremely well as easy listening.
Big Sejin casually brought it up.
“It’s because Raebin arranged it so well~”
“R-Right. The song is really good…!”
“N-No! I believe the actual reason we were able to achieve such a result was the quality of the original demo and the excellent opinions contributed by my fellow team members!”
What was this, an acceptance speech?
His face has brightened up.
Kim Raebin was smiling broadly, looking far more relaxed than he had a few days ago.
Hmm. He still looked intimidating as hell.
“Make lots of songs! Give them to me.”
“Songs aren’t something you can simply churn out like that. You need a certain kind of yeonggam to come before you can work—”
“Yeonggam-nim? Your grandpa?”
“Idiot! Not that kind, um…….”
I sighed.
“…Inspiration.”
“Ah, thank you, Moondae hyung!”
“Thank you!”
…Looking down at the crowns of these two idiots’ heads as they bowed to me, I suddenly began to suspect that Cha Eugene had picked me as his roommate because he wanted to use me as a translator.
That theory had some real persuasive power.
“Guys, ending stage!”
“Ah, yes!”
In any case, amid the frantically busy schedule of comeback week, chances to properly organize my thoughts didn’t come easily.
So I only discovered Cha Eugene’s true motive a few days later, during our free time right before bed.
[Doesn’t matter what the forecast says~ It’s a day when I want to see you.]
Late Monday night, one of the few times we actually had free.
I was lying on my bed watching fancams.
It was the official vertical fancam uploaded by the music show where we had performed on Friday.
[(K-cam) TeSTAR Park Moondae Fancam ‘Picnic’ 2X1018]
The thumbnail was a close-up of me resting my chin in my hand, and the video had already accumulated a decent number of views.
Apparently, people on community sites and elsewhere had been casually talking about it while comparing it to my very first fancam from Idol Inc.
That… <Shining Star> grade-evaluation fancam.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, I skimmed through comments plastered with things along the lines of ‘Park Moondae is a deep-learning AI puppy’ and finished watching my fancam.
It definitely improved.
The control over intensity was clear, and I liked how the feeling I wanted to express came across distinctly without becoming awkward or overwhelming.
Hmm.
At this level, even the old me might have looked at this guy and thought he could make money.
I could probably allow myself a little self-congratulation.
But that thought was temporarily rejected when the next video autoplayed.
[(K-cam) TeSTAR Cha Eugene Fancam ‘Picnic’ 2X1018]
It was Cha Eugene’s fancam from the same day.
This bastard really is a monster.
It wasn’t merely natural and good. Every single movement carried some strange, distinct flavor.
Hmm. Chewy?
That kind of word seemed to fit.
He didn’t just dance well—he brought every movement fully to life.
He’ll be worth analyzing.
I left Cha Eugene’s fancam playing for a while.
Then a head suddenly popped into view beside mine.
“Hyung! You’re watching my video??”
“Yeah. You’re good.”
“Hehe.”
Cha Eugene looked delighted and immediately poured out a stream of English.
[What do you think? Like, are you watching it because it’s fun?]
“That too. I’m also comparing it with mine and doing a little studying.”
“Oh!”
Cha Eugene’s eyes lit up, and he thumped my bed several times.
Read only on MUGEX
[Hyung! Then I think we could share some tips! If you teach me about singing, I can teach you about dancing!]
“Really?”
“Yes!”
Just as I was thinking I couldn’t imagine this guy having much talent for teaching and therefore wasn’t expecting much, Cha Eugene finally got to his real point.
[And what if we do a unit performance? At the next concert!]
Oh?