TeSTAR’s new album was, naturally, overflowing with anticipation from fans.
But at the same time, some fans were worried.
It was because of the announcement that there would be solo songs for each member.
-Ah, why are they already doing solo songs? What are we going to do about people ranking themㅠㅠ
-Just thinking about trolls going “reordering the ㅌㅅㅌ member rankings” is already stressing me the fuck out
-They made such a huge fuss trying to turn everyone into all-member fans, so why are they suddenly abandoning that direction?
Of course, the digital performance of the solo tracks wouldn’t directly represent each member’s level of recognition.
Since they would all be released as part of the same album and exposed under the group name anyway, their rankings would ultimately differ according to how much the public liked each song.
Still, given the nature of a group born from a survival show, it was inevitable that people would provide live commentary on “the digital performance of each TeSTAR member.”
While that slight concern grew amid the swelling anticipation, TeSTAR’s teaser was announced.
It was a scheduled video premiere using WeTube’s Premiere feature.
In other words, the video would be released one day later.
[TeSTAR ‘Procession (present)’ Official Teaser]
It appeared with a thumbnail that offered little in the way of hints: an arrow embedded in a tree in a dark forest.
It wasn’t particularly attention-grabbing, so people reacted rather lukewarmly.
-Looks like it really is historical-drama style
-Are they doing this on purpose?
-An arrow? lol
But the situation changed completely once people checked the video information.
The video was a whopping eight minutes and twelve seconds long.
-You said it was a teaser! You said it was a teaser!
-There’s a group dropping an eight-minute trailer??
-Guys what the hell is going on, I’m fucking dying to know
-Isn’t this uploaded wrong? What kind of teaser is eight minutes long;
K-pop music video teasers were usually short, under a minute.
Eight minutes was extraordinarily long.
Of course, being long wasn’t exactly a fatal problem.
These days, teasers served less as pure promotion and more as a way to satisfy fans’ anticipation anyway.
Still, among fans who cared about performance metrics, some were disappointed.
It was already true that fewer non-fans watched teasers, and with this one being eight minutes long, its view count would obviously suffer.
Especially now, when their appearance on an American program had gone well and an influx of overseas K-pop fans was expected, some fans wanted to see clear numerical indicators as soon as possible.
-Even if teaser views aren’t usually used as data… shorter probably would’ve been betterㅠ
-I feel like it might’ve been better to split it up and release several videos, but I don’t know.
-Please tell me this isn’t some boring melodramatic T1-sensibility story MV? Please tell me it isn’t
-I did think it was about time for them to screw something up, but I hope not. Please tell me they spent the money intelligently
Naturally, since no one wanted to dampen the mood right before the comeback, fans pushed the atmosphere in public communities and on SNS with relentlessly positive comments.
-Eight minutes, I love it. We’ll get to look at their faces for ages just from the teaserㅠㅠ
-Wait, does this mean we might get to see our Bae-hamster acting??? Aaaaaah I’m so excited
-How the hell am I supposed to wait twenty-four hours
-Imagine waiting for the Premiere and then it ends after thirty seconds, I’d lose my mind. They’re giving us eight whole minutes, TeSTAR really is the most generous group ever
Hoping desperately that all this anticipation wouldn’t evaporate the moment the teaser came out, the fans waited anxiously for its release.
And then came the day of the premiere.
The people waiting in the teaser video’s live chat collectively freaked out.
-????
-What is this
Just as the fans had guessed, the teaser really was an extremely elaborate historical-drama-style production.
But the roles played by the members weren’t human.
The video began with a vast royal palace and seemed to be sucked straight inside it, turning corner after corner before opening one paper sliding door.
It was a library filled with books.
The camera followed one old-fashioned, worn volume that had fallen open on the floor.
Inside it was a roughly painted ink-wash image of a single arm rising from the seashore.
At that instant, the video cut to a real beach.
Flutter.
The screen plunged underwater in an instant, revealing a figure lying atop a massive rock beneath the surface.
It was blond Seon Ahyeon, loosely dressed in a white dopo.
Sunlight pierced the blue seawater and rippled over his pale face on the rock.
It was beautiful, yet uncanny.
White subtitles appeared at the bottom in an old-fashioned typeface.
[Breathing]
It was the title of a song that had appeared on the released track list.
Then, accompanied by the wistful sound of a gayageum, Seon Ahyeon’s solo song began to play.
At that moment, Seon Ahyeon pushed himself upright and slowly began dancing underwater.
It wasn’t choreography set to the song.
It was simply beautiful movement.
His hair and dopo traced fluid lines through the water.
-Wowㅠㅠㅠ
-He’s seriously so handsome
-Are they insane, they filmed underwater
People were impressed.
And they thought:
Seon Ahyeon’s solo song is the intro!
But the moment the beautiful underwater performance ended, the camera met Seon Ahyeon’s eyes through a cloud of bubbles, then shot upward and out of the sea.
It approached a strange circular design drawn in mother-of-pearl across the sand.
In the dim light of sunset, a figure curled up inside the pattern unfolded and stood.
It was Cha Eugene, one hand covering his mouth.
Old Hangul in an eerie script glowed like patterned markings across his cheek, collarbone, and the back of his hand, shimmering in multicolored mother-of-pearl.
Ti-di-ding, ting-ting, ti-ding!
A new song with a powerful beat began alongside the sound of a kkwaenggwari.
[Rhythm]
It was Cha Eugene’s solo song.
-Huh?
-This is insane
-Holy shit, don’t tell me
-Fucking hell Cha Eugeneㅠㅠㅠ
Reactions to Cha Eugene’s performance and intense speculation about what was happening tangled together chaotically as the live chat exploded.
And their guesses were correct.
In exactly this fashion, every member’s solo song was introduced one after another.
After Cha Eugene came Bae Sejin, sitting atop an old tree with his eyes covered as he sang a ballad.
A soft pyeonjong sound had been mixed into the melody.
Then the camera entered a cave in the forest, where it found Kim Raebin using the light from lanterns like neon.
Kim Raebin’s solo song was future bass built around the sound of a saenghwang.
After that, the camera emerged from the cave and headed toward an old thatched cottage in one corner of the forest.
Strangely colored lengths of fabric, completely out of place, were wrapped around the cottage’s half-rotted paper doors.
Park Moondae was sitting on the wooden porch.
And then came the already familiar sound of the sogeum from “Flower Dark Moon.”
-Wedding clothes!! Holy shit thank yuoㅠㅠ
-As expected, you really need to see Moondae’s face
Finally, the video returned to the lavish palace, in stark contrast with the thatched cottage.
At its center, Lee Sejin danced acrobatically to the sound of drums with a huge tail-like ornament attached to his waist.
It was a lively easy-listening track.
Naturally, the fans were delighted.
-Hey all the songs are good
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Hair makeup styling good
-My god the cinematography
-Ah I want the album alreadyㅠㅠ
-Please full versions
-The most productive eight minutes of my life
But once Lee Sejin’s dance ended and he turned away with a grin, disappearing into the palace, the screen went dark.
-???
-Where’s Chungwoo
-You’re not showing the title track? lol
-Is this actually a teaser?
One member hadn’t appeared at all, and it seemed like they weren’t going to show the actual title track either.
The confused fans breathed a sigh of relief when the screen came back on.
-Is it a traffic error
-Ah thank god
-This is the problem with Premieresㅠㅠ
But the screen once again showed Seon Ahyeon underwater.
The same gayageum sound from his solo song played behind him.
-Huh
-Again?
-It really is looping because of an error
It wasn’t an error.
Seon Ahyeon on-screen stared at the camera briefly before disappearing, and the shot switched to Cha Eugene on the beach looking into the camera.
Next came Bae Sejin.
But even as the person on-screen changed, the traditional instrumental sounds playing in the background didn’t disappear.
They remained, accumulating one by one.
-Huh?
The members’ solo songs had each taken one traditional instrument and inserted it into their own beat and melody.
Now those instruments entered harmoniously from the sides, one after another, and a completely new beat and melody began to form.
Finally, when the screen showed Lee Sejin, drums could now be heard as well, giving the song a full skeletal structure.
The instant modern instruments filled in the space between them—
The music abruptly stopped.
And when the screen returned…
A hand appeared.
[…….]
A large, sturdy hand picked up the book lying on the floor.
It was the same volume from the beginning, the one containing the strange ink-wash illustration.
The camera caught the spine of the book.
[Record of Yokai Investigations]
“Will you be heading out?”
The camera followed the hand upward and revealed its owner.
Ryu Chungwoo, dressed in a cheollik.
-He’s so fucking handsome
-Aaaah Chungwoo
Whatever the comments were screaming, the Ryu Chungwoo inside the video dusted off the book and tucked it away with a complicated expression.
Then, with clear eyes, he answered someone beyond the frame.
“I should.”
As the camera caught Ryu Chungwoo from behind while he turned and left the library, the melody exploded.
And after walking all the way outside the palace wall, Ryu Chungwoo took the bow slung across his back and aimed into the forest.
It was a Korean traditional bow lacquered black.
[Now, he has appeared
Warning after warning
Approaching in a figure eight
Slowly, thrillingly]
The arrow flew with a sharp whistle and buried itself deep in a massive bamboo stalk.
[Me.]
The video ended on the arrow embedded in the tree.
The thumbnail.
-Fucking insane
-Wow
-Was that the title track just now??
-Aaaaaaaaah
-Are the other members yokai and Chungwoo is hunting them??
-I love you TeSTARㅠㅠ
-Are you fucking kidding, all the solo songs connect to each other!!1
The members’ solo tracks connected together to construct the title song.
And through the video, they had hinted at the story of the music video.
In a certain sense, it had faithfully fulfilled the purpose of a teaser.
And the structure made it obvious that they had thought carefully about the album’s organic completeness.
That became even clearer from the information they had deliberately added to the video description.
It included the complete list of lyricists, composers, and arrangers credited across the album.
-Why are the members’ names on every single song
-They really made it togetherㅠㅠ
Although they appeared farther down the credit order, different members’ names could be found on every song.
Including songs that weren’t their own solos.
Read only on MUGEX
And the deliberate decision to connect and display all of this starting from the teaser itself felt like a clear statement of intent.
The songs on this album are works we made as a group.
Even if people later ranked members based on fancam views, they had already provided a defense against comparing the members by the digital performance of the album tracks.
-The boys are seriously so sincere about being a group
-We’re staying together until the dinner show, okay? I’m going to see TeSTAR’s dinner showㅠㅠ
-Yeah, MV views are what matter. As long as we’re having fun with the teaser, who cares? Thank you guys, those eight minutes were packed
TeSTAR fans who liked the members broadly as a group, as well as less extreme solo fans, were mostly satisfied.
However, Ryu Chungwoo’s fans had mixed feelings.
Judging from the end of the teaser, Ryu Chungwoo seemed to be the center of the title track.
But his solo song was the one thing that hadn’t been introduced.
-Don’t tell me Chungwoo’s the only one without a video for his solo song?
-People chanting that he has no core fandom is already pissing me off, and now this bizarre neglect too lolol
-If we complain, Cha Eugene stans are going to throw a fit like “he got center, why are you bitching over a teaser?” right? lol I’m disgusted
-I hate even more how they set the mood so we can’t complain about screen time
A quiet fight broke out between You’re overreacting before the comeback has even started and His song literally wasn’t in the teaser at all, of course people are upset.
Fortunately, before screenshots could be spread around as A topic currently causing controversy within TeSTAR’s fandom, a post appeared on TeSTAR’s SNS.
========================
Hello, Loviewers. Did you enjoy the teaser?
Everyone kept encouraging me while we were working by telling me I have a big role in this promotion, so I’m a little nervous, but I hope you’ll look forward to the album.
Ah, I’m Ryu Chungwoo. (smiling emoji)
========================
The post carried the implication that there was no need to worry about Ryu Chungwoo’s share.
“Will this be enough?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, it might sound a little arrogant.”
“It doesn’t, so don’t worry.”
“Haha, all right. …Thanks.”
“…Don’t mention it.”
Ryu Chungwoo smiled and switched off his smartphone.
He didn’t seem particularly concerned about the response.
In any case, once more content was released with time, that sort of reaction would naturally settle down.
Still, I thought it would be better to reassure them once at this timing, so I’d suggested it.
That takes care of that.
After confirming that Ryu Chungwoo’s fans had more or less agreed on Let’s wait and see for now, I reopened the articles I’d been looking at earlier.
This is bothering me more.
They were articles about the group containing Goldie #1.
[Major Rookie Golden Age Begins Comeback Countdown]
[Golden Age, Former Idol Inc. Contestants, to Face TeSTAR?]
[A Turbulent August Music Industry… From TeSTAR to Golden Age]
In short, they were articles pointing out that this group’s comeback just happened to overlap with TeSTAR’s promotion period.
Naturally, one particular setup immediately came to mind.
Our debut.
TeSTAR’s debut, when we promoted at the same time as the undisputed top-tier VTIC.
This simultaneous promotion schedule evoked exactly that same composition.
Well, well.
I clicked my tongue.
Now I had a definite sense of what was happening.
These bastards’ agency knew how to work.
It would’ve been nice if the higher-ups at my own agency were even half as quick on their feet, but based on my experience so far, that was an absurd thing to expect.
I should simply be grateful we currently had an approval bot sitting there.