“Wow, this is so fucking annoying.”
Past midnight, Kim Raebin’s solo fan was engrossed in the internet while tearing pieces off a loaf of bread.
The TeSTAR Saturday concert she had attended before midnight—the middle day of the concert run—had ended safely and successfully, just like the first day.
-The members seemed more relaxed so it was even better. They talked a lot more too, and they were all grinning during the encore. Just 100% happiness
-Today’s punishment team: Seon Ahyeon, Cha Eugene, Bae Sejin, and Kim Raebin again lololol
-Loviewers were trying SO hard to get the quiz answers wrong, isn’t that seriously too much? No. They’re doing great. Tomorrow everyone needs to get the punishmentㅇㅇ
-Kim Raebin rabbit ears three-hit combo (photo)
There was still no question that public opinion was overwhelmingly positive regarding the quality and enjoyment of the concert.
Which meant the noise surrounding that day had come from other factors.
The first was, naturally, the company’s announcement concerning Park Moondae’s stage equipment.
It was a statement focused on future countermeasures instead of an apology.
If they had been a company dealing with consumers of manufactured goods, perhaps that approach might have worked.
But naturally, it did not work in the entertainment industry.
-Are they insane
-So the kid really did pass out, you fucking bastards
-It’s been a long time since I saw a statement so full of dodging responsibility. Every damn sentence is “the artist~” “the artist’s wishes~” lol are you crazy
-Equipment malfunction or whatever, Park Moondae is seriously insane for saying he’ll keep doing it through Seoul. I’m already looking forward to the final concert
-So as expected, it wasn’t because Gom-meo was still injured, the agency just didn’t do its job lol T1 stop running your mouth and hurry up and reinforce the equipment so Gom-meo can do every stage he wants
-I seriously can’t believe they’re only now saying the agency assigned an expert. Then what the hell were they doing until now? lololol
-So you made the kid pass out and now you’re saying the equipment would be a waste, so you’re going to make him keep doing it through the Seoul concerts? Wow
There were people who seemed ready to send trucks and bamboo spears to the agency building at any moment, and people who were relieved that they would still get to see the performance themselves.
Just like when the initial rumor had spread, a variety of reactions appeared.
But this time there was one clear thing they all had in common.
No matter which side they were on, their assessment of the agency had fallen below rock bottom.
Whether it was concern for Park Moondae or contempt for the agency’s incompetence and shamelessness, everything converged into one point and created a sharp atmosphere.
-I thought they at least had money, but apparently they don’t have any to spend on their artists’ safety
-T1 die, please just die
-Just give the company to Moondae
And once things reached this point, even people who had been cynical began developing an attitude along the lines of, “Yeah, beating the agency over this is fair.”
-Honestly even a nonfan can see this one is completely justified, right?
-Practice injury, actual-performance accident, announcement fiasco. Three strikes, you’re out. Damn, T1 is a shitty little agency wearing the skin of a major corporation
-Instead of having to verify every little thing one by one next time too, it’s better to beat them into shape properly now
Kim Raebin’s fan was on this side as well.
Though her thinking also contained a certain fixed preconception.
‘You have to beat an agency before it listens.’
In any case, all those opinions were flowing in one direction, seemingly ready to erupt into a full-scale public issue the moment the concerts ended.
The only reason people were waiting at all was to avoid causing harm to Park Moondae and to prevent fights with the other members’ solo fans.
The atmosphere was burning hot enough that even some of Park Moondae’s fans who simply wanted to enjoy the concert in peace felt slightly uncomfortable.
And the second concert began in the middle of that fire.
“And then it all disappeared.”
Kim Raebin’s fan muttered sulkily.
Once the second-day concert actually began and ended, the vicious atmosphere had noticeably subsided.
There was only one reason.
…Park Moondae at the concert had looked comfortable and happy.
Of course, while also throwing himself intensely into the performances.
-Even through the shitty low-quality stream Moondae looks like he’s doing well..
-Moondae-puppy taking the slogan during the encore (photo)
-Moondae looks so excited, there’s no Tibetan Moondae today, only puppyㅠㅠ
-Park Moondae got choked up with their arms around each otherㅠㅠ our apple rice cake’s waterworks are overflowing againㅠㅠ (photo)
His solo performance had even been more forceful than on the first day.
Even the fans who had watched anxiously right up until the stage began found the sharpness in their hearts melting away around the middle because of his ease and momentum.
-Insane insane Park Moondae is insane
-A visualization of the greatest idol skyrocketing to the top
Facing an idol who had created an excellent stage and was looking at them with a happy expression had the effect of making the audience share those feelings.
It felt like sharing an utterly successful moment together.
The happiness transmitted from the person himself cooled their overheated heads slightly.
As a result, Park Moondae’s fans began adjusting the intensity of the feedback they planned to send the company.
From burning them at the stake down to solid criticism.
-I’m the organizer of <Park Moondae Space>. The statement for the agency is currently being drafted based on an anonymous vote, with emphasis placed on safety. (draft attached)
-We need to make it clear how far the boycott will go if something happens again later
-If there’s even the slightest sign of this happening again, I’m boycotting even T1 steamed buns, seriously
T1 Stars, which had been monitoring things as though ready to chew its fingernails off, breathed a sigh of relief and began preparing an appropriately groveling response to the feedback in advance.
‘Seriously.’
Kim Raebin’s fan, who had been searching every possible combination of keywords involving “Park Moondae injury” and “Park Moondae accident,” snorted at the cooling atmosphere.
‘Whether Park Moondae enjoyed the concert or not, you still have to beat the agency~ Why are you all projecting yourselves onto Park Moondae??’
She grumbled that they should have taken the opportunity to squeeze the agency dry.
But inwardly, she too was relieved.
========================
FullMoon Baby
: XX1207 ‘Magic Is You’ Preview
(Photo) (Photo) (Photo) (Photo)
I love you, my star
#ParkMoondae #TeSTAR #TeSTARConcert #Enchanted_ME #MoondaePuppy #Moondae
========================
‘…Well, he does look happy.’
The university student’s expression softened as she looked at Park Moondae’s sweat-dampened face while he sang the fan song during the encore.
It felt like her fighting spirit was being sucked straight out of her by low-resolution photos.
But immediately afterward, she changed her stance again.
‘No, but if he looks happy, doesn’t that mean I should beat the people who almost stopped him from being happy even harder?’
Huffing irritably, the university student forcefully refreshed her timeline over and over, intending to see whether anyone else was saying something similar.
And then, out of nowhere, she saw the post.
-There were so many cameras at the best seats right in front of the extended stage that I thought they were for the VOD lol turns out it’s Idol Inc. 4 filming, wow… (photo)
“…!!”
The attached picture clearly showed a camera with the <Idol Inc.> Season 4 logo on it.
The real source of noise that day—the news that the <Idol Inc.> Season 4 contestants had attended the concert—began being shared around as a popular post.
It started appearing not only on fans’ SNS feeds, but on communities all over the place as well.
[Idol Inc. 4 Final Contestants Spotted at Today’s TeSTAR Concert.jpg]
[TeSTAR Concert Appearing on Idol Inc. 4?]
“What the hell?”
Read only on MUGEX
The finishing touch came when the <Idol Inc.> production team, delighted that the topic was “going viral,” did what they always did and deliberately stirred up attention.
[<Relisted! Idol Incorporated Season 2> Nation’s Idol TeSTAR Cheers On the Finalists☆ A Bling-Bling Concert as a Bonus! (EP.14 Preview)]
They released that video as a “finale preview” in the early hours of that very night.
I took a sip of cold beer.
There was another concert tomorrow, so I had no intention of drinking heavily.
It was just to loosen up.
‘So this is how it turned out.’
After the concert.
The public reaction I checked while lying in the dorm bathtub was running wild.
‘First of all, the announcement was decent enough.’
We hadn’t bothered explicitly mentioning any lingering effects from my injury, only the equipment malfunction.
And we had gone ahead with the stage through the Seoul concerts.
Both decisions had been intended to patch over needless differences of opinion among the concert audience.
Whether someone was concerned about whether Park Moondae had fully recovered or worried about whether they would get to see that particular staging themselves, the goal was to satisfy both groups to a reasonable degree.
‘Basically, we split things up so the argument itself wouldn’t become the main topic.’
As expected, discussion of that issue slowed down.
And to prevent any more controversy from arising, I tried to make myself look as stable as possible during the concert.
…Though I hadn’t realized there would be this many people who cared about my mood in a positive way.
Could Park Moondae looking happy really have this much of an effect?
“……Hmm.”
It was a little bewildering… but it wasn’t bad.
Though thanks to that, I think I pushed myself slightly hard during today’s concert.
‘Bacchus 500 should make it fine.’
According to my calculations, my stamina should recover properly by tomorrow.
It had gone in a slightly different direction from what I had predicted, but the criticism aimed at the agency had also paused once, settling back within the range I had expected.
‘Now even if some other incident becomes the final trigger and the bomb goes off, the company’s resentment won’t land directly on me.’
Because I wouldn’t be the final cause.
‘They’ll get destroyed because of <Idol Inc.> Season 4, so the agency will probably resent Tnet instead.’
And in fact, that bomb was already going off.
“Hmm.”
I pulled up the <Idol Inc.> finale preview Tnet had just uploaded.
[Hello, we’re TeSTAR!]
The familiar guys dressed in their concert outfits smiled and bowed.
Since we were doomed anyway, I figured we might as well go down spectacularly, so we hadn’t gone out of our way to refuse the interview cheering on the <Idol Inc.> finalists.
‘Though maybe they were at least trying to maintain some minimum line, because they didn’t film any shots of us meeting the contestants directly.’
Thanks to that, none of the members had particularly worried about it.
Even though they were completely exhausted after the concert, they had smiled for the camera and filmed words of support and encouragement.
But I hadn’t expected them to frantically edit the footage and immediately throw it into the finale preview at midnight.
‘Normally they could’ve taken the curses and converted them into buzz anyway. Too bad.’
The timing was terrible.
Because my situation had pushed the agency’s image to rock bottom even among the other members’ fans.
‘It’s the perfect situation for them to get cursed out together with the agency.’
This wasn’t a situation where they could smooth things over with some vague line like, “I guess they’re appearing as part of the concert-tour promotion.”
At the bottom of the video, where the dislikes already outnumbered the likes, all sorts of comments were piling up.
-Wow! A program that gobbled up thirty center seats in front of the console!^^
-I’m so sick of Idol Inc., stop dragging this thing out already
-Seats are already impossible to get, and a program we cut ties with ages ago comes crawling all the way into the concert lolol
-lol I joked about boycotting T1 steamed buns, but looks like I’m really going to have toㅠㅠ
And because TeSTAR’s fans were angry while linking it to the agency, the <Idol Inc.> Season 4 contestants were actually receiving less abuse than they normally would have.
Because the fans lumped them in while cursing the companies.
-These precious babies are being held hostage by this garbage program and suffering againㅠ You guys should all leave T1 too
-You send kids who haven’t even debuted yet to a boy-group concert and film them cheering? Ah, I can already see the editing. You’re going to pile all the cheering shots onto whichever kid you want to push, aren’t you? lol so obvious
-Just show the contestants one more time instead. Every single scene is precious at this point, who the hell wants to watch male idols?
The <Idol Inc.> Season 4 fans, not wanting to be attacked themselves, began diligently attacking T1 and Tnet together.
It was a somewhat strategic choice.
Their fandoms weren’t in the same weight class, and since they were obviously going to keep being entangled in the future, they didn’t particularly want to get on TeSTAR fans’ bad side.
Of course, they had also built up plenty of anger toward Tnet simply from watching <Idol Inc.>.
I clicked my tongue.
‘…Their phones must be exploding at this hour.’
I could easily imagine what the agency looked like right now.
I briefly felt sympathy for the regular company employees, then realized I had more than enough problems of my own and stopped.
‘Still, if we just get through this tour properly, I can easily fulfill the conditions for the Status Abnormality.’
And when that happened, I would….
“…Park Moondae! Are you in there?”
“…!”
A voice calling from outside the bathroom door pushed dully through the steam.
“Hmm. Yes.”
…Apparently I’d been sitting in here too long.
I got up from the lukewarm water.
Then I roughly dried myself off, got dressed, and walked out holding the empty beer can.
Bae Sejin was standing outside.
‘Did he need the bathroom….’
I had deliberately waited until the other guys were asleep.
Maybe someone else was already using the other bathrooms too.
I nodded to him and tried to walk past toward the trash can.
But he grabbed my shoulder.
“Y-You.”
“Yes?”
What?
Bae Sejin gulped, then glanced repeatedly toward one side as he spoke.
The empty beer can in my hand.
“Aren’t you drinking too much…?”
What was that supposed to mean?