Park Moondae continued rising into the air. Though his arms and legs hung loose in midair, his reclined body maintained a dramatically graceful line.
And he kept singing.
-Until all this yearning love melts away
Until not a speck of hope remains
Burn and break it apart
Until it becomes drifting dust
Just like the chilling lyrics, it was a performance that was static yet intense.
The fansite master, who had been staring blankly at the sight, suddenly realized something.
‘So that’s why he’s wearing a headset mic!’
From the moment he had been sitting in the chair, he had been wearing a headset microphone instead of using a standing mic or handheld mic.
‘I thought he wasn’t holding one because being tied up in the fabric suited the atmosphere…….’
But that wasn’t it.
It was because of this insane performance.
And that wasn’t even the end of it.
-Still, I will wait
The instant the final chorus surged in—
The accompaniment abruptly changed into a slow string solo.
Amid that mournful sound, the fabric that had bound the singer’s entire body came loose and began fluttering in the wind.
At the same time, a cloudy night sky appeared on the giant screen.
“……!”
Brightly colored strips of fabric swayed against a dark, overcast night in which even the stars were difficult to see.
And in the center floated a figure in white.
Even though all the fabric that had been tied around him as if it were pulling him upward had come undone, Park Moondae was still floating in the air with nothing but his body.
‘Insane.’
There wasn’t even time to think about how he was doing it. Every element of the scene created such a dramatic contrast that it almost looked like a piece of modern art.
His white costume glittered beneath the lights.
The song continued beautifully, without the slightest tremor.
-Until the day you finally come
Until the day you call me truly lovely
Unlike the original song, which had felt as though it were burning, both the singing style and the accompaniment made the sorrow come across with crystalline clarity.
-I will wait
The sound of an orchestra playing together resonated through the venue. It was being performed live from below the stage.
Park Moondae’s body slowly descended through the air along with the melody.
And in the next moment—
As though nothing at all had happened, Park Moondae was sitting quietly in the chair.
The loosened strips of fabric lay spread across the floor like a pattern.
Click.
Without warning, the lights went out.
The stage was over.
Waaaaaaah!!
The screams and cheers shaking the concert hall were loud enough to make backstage vibrate.
And even while stacking the fallen luggage, the one-day temp staff kept glancing at the monitoring screen, all secretly impressed.
Seeing the giant-screen feed head-on made them think this really was the kind of performance worth paying money to see.
The disgruntled temp worker who had kept fiddling with his smartphone felt the same.
‘It must be even more fucking amazing in person…….’
But since he had only seen it indirectly through a monitor, the magic of the performance wore off quickly.
‘…Still, isn’t all of that basically just the equipment doing the work?’
Honestly, the professionals who made the stage were the ones who did well. The singer had only sung.
‘And it might not even have been live like earlier.’
The temp worker deliberately ignored the impression it had left on him and went back to halfheartedly moving the luggage.
Though he did briefly wonder whether, since that guy at least seemed to be trying hard, maybe he wouldn’t write anything bad about him.
Just then, a murmur came from far down the passage.
It was louder background noise than anything he had heard during the performance so far.
“What happened?”
“Was there an accident?”
Mixed into it, from a distance, came a faint shout.
“Hey, oxygen mask!”
But Lee Sejin’s performance began soon afterward, and the background noise became almost impossible to hear.
‘Damn it.’
The temp worker, who had been straining his ears in hopes of picking up something he could turn into a “story,” clicked his tongue.
But a short while later—
Some of the newly reassigned people helping with the luggage whispered around him about what they had overheard.
“They said some equipment pressed the wrong place and he passed out?”
“Whoa.”
“Park Moondae?”
“Probably, based on the order? It sounded like the staff were going, ‘Then why didn’t he give us a signal?’ and stuff… I got chased off while eavesdropping.”
“What a waste.”
“…!”
The temp worker, who had been pretending not to listen while eavesdropping, realized it too.
‘So the guy who did that aerial stage earlier collapsed?!’
The name had been appearing often in WTube’s popular videos lately, so even the temp worker knew it.
Park Moondae, who had debuted in first place.
Collapsing only after finishing the stage was the kind of passionate professionalism you only heard about in heartwarming stories.
‘…But if he collapses like that, what’s he planning to do about the rest of the concert?’
Wasn’t that actually pretty thoughtless?
The temp worker tried his hardest to be cynical about it.
But eight minutes later—
The final solo stage, Ryu Chungwoo’s, ended, and the group began another song.
[Spreading Midnight
The distorted focus
Trembles, making time ache]
Park Moondae on the monitoring screen was… performing his part with a perfectly normal expression.
“…!”
There was no trace whatsoever of someone who had just collapsed.
And somehow, witnessing that gap firsthand… hit something directly inside him.
‘…That is pretty impressive.’
As though all the tension suddenly drained out of him, the temp worker felt strangely lighter.
Seeing someone grit his teeth and work that hard actually made his inferiority complex subside.
“Let’s head back!”
“Yes~”
After they finished cleaning up all the spilled luggage and he returned to the backstage passage where he had originally been stationed, the temp worker remained lost in thought for a moment.
“…….”
Then, with the noisy concert in the background, he pulled out his smartphone and wrote a post.
=======================
[Boy-group concert staff mid-show review]
There are a shitload of fangirls. They scream fucking nonstop, there’s no time they don’t.
Still, that stage where the guy floated in the air was insane. He was alone but worked his fucking ass off.
Something went wrong, so the second the song ended he put on an oxygen mask and passed out, but honestly this bastard has my full respect.
=======================
There had been no malice in the post.
But the comments were brutal.
-You a TeSTAR temp or something?
-Fangirl, your desperate effort brings tears to my eyes
-Don’t care
-Even back in the fucking eighties nobody would’ve done promo this obvious. Next fake lol
“You bastards…!”
Enraged, the temp worker took a picture showing his vest while standing in the passage and proudly uploaded it as proof.
‘Now they can’t say that shit!’
And thirty minutes later—
“Who uploaded this?”
‘Huuugh.’
Immediately identified, the temp worker was dragged away by security for violating the confidentiality agreement.
It was a farce.
Read only on MUGEX
But regardless of that situation unfolding on the outskirts, the concert continued smoothly until it finally reached its mid-show break.
It was time for the talk segment.
[This is TeSTAR’s second concert!]
[Once again, thank you to everyone who came to take part in <Enchanted ME>.]
[Waaah~]
The members smiled and applauded at Ryu Chungwoo’s hosting.
Most of them were still sweating, catching their breath, or drinking water after the performances right before this, but that had its own charm.
Just then, as she zoomed in on Lee Sejin and Park Moondae sitting side by side, the office worker holding the camera thought indifferently,
‘If they’re at it, they might as well let Lee Sejin host too.’
She was the fansite master who had recently started running the twin fansite “Puppy Bear” for the two of them.
‘According to the leaked set list, there aren’t even any unit stages.’
What a shame.
She had been wanting to photograph the two of them doing a stage together soon… no, to see it.
After quickly doing the math in her head, the office worker still felt quite pleased.
‘The scale of the followers coming in is completely different.’
In only six weeks, the account had already surpassed the follower count of the fan account she had originally run for a male idol from a small-to-mid-sized agency.
Thanks to that, there was no longer any reason to test the waters. She had shut down the old account and moved over completely.
‘This is why you take pictures.’
The office worker thought in a thoroughly calculating manner that yes, it was definitely best to latch onto popular idols.
‘Lee Sejin in particular is the type who’ll last a long time.’
At that very moment, the person in question began speaking.
[Ah! By any chance, while watching today’s concert, were any of you thinking, Ah~ our section was totally neglected! They didn’t even make eye contact with us!?]
Me!! Me!!
Here!
Powerful shouts echoed around the concert hall.
Lee Sejin smiled brightly and pointed toward every place he heard voices from, asking, “Here? Here?”
With the faintest smile, Park Moondae made a suggestion.
[Then should we go around and greet everyone once before we continue?]
[Ah, an excellent idea~ Stand up!]
[Hello!]
[Let’s have fun together.]
TeSTAR rose all at once and walked around the edge of the stage, greeting people both above and below.
The venue grew warm with laughter and cheers.
The office worker kept her camera stubbornly trained on them and smacked her lips.
‘Would be nice if someone showed their abs.’
She was confident she could capture it cleanly even if it flashed for only an instant before being covered again.
Unfortunately, nothing like that happened, and the talk continued naturally.
[Have you been enjoying the concert?]
“Yes!!”
The office worker instinctively answered along with everyone shouting around her, then felt slightly embarrassed.
But it couldn’t be helped.
‘It really has been fun.’
The equipment was even more elaborate than at the first concert, and there were more segments designed to highlight the individual members’ abilities, which made it even easier to get absorbed.
In particular, the solo stages of Park Moondae and Lee Sejin, one after the other, had been extremely good.
Putting Lee Sejin’s flashy, energetic stage directly after Park Moondae’s extremely still, artistic performance had doubled the satisfaction.
‘It’s absolutely not because I run a fansite for both of them. Objectively speaking, those two were the best…!’
The office worker stanned with perfect composure.
[Ah, we worked really hard to prepare, so that’s a huge relief!]
[Thank you.]
[Actually, we prepared one more stage that we’ll put together on the spot!]
Huh?
Murmurs rose here and there.
‘Please don’t do anything stupid.’
The office worker had seen more than one idol concert become painfully solemn after attempting some kind of “improvised stage,” so she clenched her teeth.
But the members continued speaking excitedly.
[Before that, everyone, a sentence is about to appear on the screen! If you think the answer is YES, could you leave your lightstick on, and if you think it’s NO, turn it off?]
[Should we try it once? All right, turn them off!]
Some audience members looked puzzled, but in an instant, large portions of the venue went dark.
[Wow, this is kind of scary??]
[Since there are more than twenty thousand people here, I expected it would naturally have a significant effect.]
[That’s true.]
[Actually, I’m scared too, so could you turn them back on quickly? …Haha, thank you, thank you!]
The explanation that followed was simple.
They would hear a statement about one member. If they thought it was true, they should keep their lightsticks on. If they thought it was false, they should turn them off.
[All right, here’s the question… Oh, “Seon Ahyeon likes dogs more than cats!” What do you think?]
Sparkle, sparkle.
Most of the lightsticks remained on, swaying in place.
[Oh~ We don’t even need central control or anything! Everyone says YES!]
When Lee Sejin made a big show of it, Ryu Chungwoo laughed and announced the answer.
[The answer is… YES!]
[No, how are all of you so good at getting these right!?]
Seon Ahyeon bowed shyly.
The members applauded, while laughter and cheers rang through the audience.
Questions about each of the seven members continued in the same way.
The audience got more than half of them right, but of course they got some wrong as well.
[Ah, too bad. All three of those are emojis Raebin uses in the group chat. That’s right! Everyone, Raebin is such a mature friend.]
[I’m good at swimming! Loviewers, do I look like I can’t swim?]
Amid the continuing bursts of laughter, the final member’s turn arrived.
It was Park Moondae.
Park Moondae had been relatively quiet throughout the talk, but once his turn came, he read the words on the screen in a soft voice.
[Hmm. “The largest amount Park Moondae has ever cooked was seven servings.” What do you think?]
Flick.
Quite a few lightsticks went dark, but more than half remained on.
‘There are seven members, so seven servings does seem most likely.’
The office worker left hers on too.
[The answer is… Ah! NO.]
What?!
After the members each made a comment about how close the audience had been, Park Moondae raised the microphone again.
[There’s never a time when I stop at one serving. Usually, I make a generous twelve servings.]
Aaaah~
The audience was quickly convinced.
‘That one was our mistake.’
‘How did we not think of that?’
After that half-joking understanding, the question-and-answer game finally ended.
[All right, then… the members you failed to get right were Kim Raebin, Lee Sejin, and Park Moondae!]
[Ah~ What a great combination!]
When Lee Sejin roasted himself, the other members snickered.
[These members will now receive a punishment!]
“…??”
“Punishment?!”
They had assumed this was just something to fill time during the talk segment before the next stage, but apparently there was more prepared.
[Yes. Everyone, please wait just a moment~]
At the same time as the members stood up in a crowd, the stage machinery began moving, and enormous boxes rolled in from the right and left sides.
[See you in a little while~]
The members whose answers the audience had gotten right ran toward the box on the right.
The three they had gotten wrong ran toward the left.
The box on the right had a magnificent castle printed on it.
And the one on the left… had an illustration of a tissue box with some kind of stuffed animal drawn on it.
“…??”
The audience burst out laughing and murmuring at the obviously suspicious sight.
Then, suddenly, an accompaniment began to play.
It was an ominously fresh and cheerful intro.