VTIC’s Cheongryeo.
Is this the first time since the vacation?
Honestly, just as expected, I didn’t feel much of anything.
Considering how quiet he’d been all this time, the chances of him pulling any more pointless bullshit were probably low now too.
I can just let it pass without making a big deal out of it.
Sure enough, all I heard were the other guys talking. Maybe because they were conscious of the noisy awards venue, they seemed to have raised their voices.
“I’ve been enjoying your reality show!”
“Thank you.”
Since their comeback had been postponed, they must have spent their time quietly at home consuming every kind of video content under the sun.
But the VTIC guy apparently misunderstood my lack of reaction as me thinking his words were just empty pleasantries, because he unnecessarily continued.
“No, seriously, we all watched it together, and it was really fun!”
“Right, hyung? You thought it was fun too, didn’t you?”
“…!”
One of them prompted Cheongryeo to agree, dragging him into the conversation.
Just go already.
Until a second ago, I could have written this off as harmless socializing, but now the atmosphere was about to go to shit. If this got caught on a fancam, it would turn into a rumor factory.
These bastards are seriously annoying.
Just as I was inwardly sighing, my eyes met Cheongryeo’s.
“…….”
He gave a slight nod.
That was all.
Oh.
It was such an appropriately measured response for the situation that I was actually a little surprised.
For a moment, I wondered if getting his head bashed in had finally knocked some common sense back into his skull.
“Ah~ Sunbaenim, thank you so much! We’ve been watching a ton of your stages lately too~”
“Oh~ That’s a little embarrassing!”
“Seriously!”
“So today, we even brought cushions so we could concentrate in a truly reverent posture!”
“Wahaha! Is that why you brought those?”
“Of course~ Sunbaenim, fighting!”
“Yes, hoobae-nim, fighting to you too!”
Big Sejin smoothly took over the conversation and brought it to an end.
Should I buy him a cow or something?
He’s earning his keep.
I’d say Bae Sejin was earning his keep too, if only because he wasn’t glaring over at VTIC.
The instant VTIC headed toward their seats, Big Sejin immediately covered his mouth so the audience couldn’t see and spoke quietly.
“…Where did he get hit so much? I can’t see any marks.”
“Back of the head. Neck.”
Cheongryeo was wearing a black turtleneck.
He clearly hadn’t been able to get rid of the scarring yet.
For a moment, Big Sejin made an indescribable expression, then quickly erased any sign of it.
[Good evening, everyone. At the beginning of a new year, we gather to look back on the achievements of the year gone by….]
At that moment, the MC’s opening greeting began from the stage.
The live broadcast had started.
This is going to be boring for a while.
Without making it obvious, I let some of my weight settle against the backrest.
It was time to operate the reaction machine.
It went without saying that having a stretch of time in the middle of a busy schedule when all you had to do was sit still was comfortable.
However, having to do absolutely nothing except watch the stage while looking intently focused was also considerably uncomfortable.
Still better than the first recording of Idol Inc.
At least everyone performing onstage now was going to have some kind of award-winning record to their name.
Waaaaaaaah!
I applauded along with the cheers for the group whose stage had just ended.
They had added a dance performance incorporating a moderate amount of contemporary dance, but honestly, aside from the one person standing in the center, it wasn’t interesting enough to really enjoy.
If I converted every recognizable idol into the ranking system from Idol Inc.… they were probably somewhere between Gold and Silver.
Hmm.
Let’s hear the expert opinion of someone who actually majored in this.
“How was the stage?”
“M-Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Um… th-they worked really hard, so I think it looked cool. Um, the extensions… were pretty.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say they were good.
Understood perfectly.
And so, after enduring while maintaining reactions that were just enthusiastic enough not to look rude on a fancam:
[Loviewers, I love you!]
[Thank you. Thanks to all of you, we were truly able to have a very happy year of promotions.]
An hour and a half later, immediately after giving our acceptance speech for the Main Award, it was finally about time for us to prepare for our stage.
“Move, move.”
“Okay.”
And this stage wasn’t something we intended to let pass as just one of the many special stages of awards season.
It was our first performance since the successful airing of the reality show.
We had to pull the public attention we’d gained through variety entertainment back toward our performance at least once, so that the goodwill could settle on us as an idol group.
In the end, you have to be good at your actual job.
So we had put some real weight behind this one.
- The day has finally come
Haengcha
Grrrrr—Woof!
At the moment the choreography split into two groups and collided onstage amid a crowd of dancers, brightly colored banners painted with ink landscapes and beasts fluttered through the air.
Then came a sharp dance break using laser effects that looked almost like a ball.
Brilliant colors and movement locked together with the aggressive arrangement.
It was a performance adapted from mounted polo, a traditional game said to have been played by military officials during the Goryeo and Joseon periods.
The cheers pierced straight through my in-ear monitors.
WAAAAAAAAAH!!!
AAAAAH!
We had added it onto a shorter, simpler variation of the dance-break section we’d performed at the concert, and the response was pretty good.
Had I thought this before too?
It was funny, but now I could roughly distinguish how a stage was being received just from the atmosphere while standing on it.
Whether it was merely acceptable enough.
Or whether it was genuinely worth watching.
This one was definitely the latter.
“Phew.”
“The floor was slippery, but everyone did well.”
“We were great, weren’t we~”
Even as Big Sejin said that, he glanced upward with a hint of dissatisfaction.
Apparently, he hadn’t been able to show movements as aggressive as he had planned.
“Yeah, good work. It’s been a while since we performed domestically, right?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s fun!”
There hadn’t been any mistakes, and judging from the camera lights, it looked like the performance had been captured more or less according to rehearsal too.
Everyone caught their breath with fairly satisfied expressions and returned to our seats.
As it happened, VTIC wasn’t nearby.
Were they about two stages away?
The live broadcast was almost over now, so the final act had probably gone off to prepare.
The only awards left were the Popularity Award and the Daesang.
If they win at this timing, they’ll probably come running out from backstage.
I’d seen that setup a few times before, but honestly, it had less impact than getting up from your seat and walking out.
Thinking that the structure of this year’s awards show was a little sloppy, I waited for the VCR on the screen to end.
And a short while later.
[The winner of the Golden Disc Popularity Award is… Congratulations, TeSTAR!]
The presenter called TeSTAR’s name.
“…!!”
“Huh?? H-Huh?!”
The guys who had been sitting a little limply after our performance all shot upright.
Understandably so.
This was…
Honestly, something I hadn’t expected.
Not long ago, after criticism that the award “encouraged unhealthy competition,” the live Popularity Award voting standings had been changed to a private format that displayed only the total number of votes cast.
Still, you usually have a sense for these things.
The Popularity Award often went to whoever won the album Daesang as well.
This was the age of streaming services.
An artist whose fans went out of their way to buy physical albums in huge numbers?
That meant the artist themselves was popular, not just one song.
And yet this award, determined one hundred percent by votes without any organizer interference under the pretext of “expert judging,” had gone to TeSTAR instead of VTIC.
Even if VTIC’s fans participated less than usual….
I knew VTIC fans had assumed the group wouldn’t attend this ceremony either, so they hadn’t gone all-out on the voting until nearly the end.
Even taking that into account, it was a surprising result.
There had to have been a last-minute rush after the attendance article came out.
In other words…
Didn’t this mean we had finally reached the point where we were within striking distance?
A strange rush of exhilaration brushed across my back.
Calm down.
Anyway, separate from that thought that flashed by in an instant, my body had already reflexively risen from my seat and was bowing repeatedly.
The other guys were the same.
“Wow…….”
“Wooow!”
There was everything from guys standing there with dazed expressions to guys practically bouncing out of their seats, but one way or another, nobody looked like they had particularly expected this.
Naturally.
The organizers didn’t say anything either.
Maybe they wanted a good shot of us looking genuinely surprised.
Sneaky bastards.
With the cameras enthusiastically taking close-ups of us, we awkwardly made our way onto the stage.
“Th-Thank you…!”
“Thank you!”
However, because the formation naturally broke apart while we greeted the fans waving at us, the handheld microphone extended by a staff member ended up going not to the leader, but to completely the wrong person.
Kim Raebin.
“Uh… Well.”
He panicked.
As expected, an impromptu acceptance speech was too burdensome a task for this guy.
But he already started, so he has to say something.
Just say thank you, I love you or something.
“Thank you.”
That’s it.
But apparently once Kim Raebin got started, he gained momentum.
He kept holding the microphone and rapidly poured out a long sentence.
“While preparing the Chakhogapsa album, we frequently worried about whether it would be able to succeed with the general public, but ultimately, having been able to receive this award because so many people voted for us makes me feel as though the choices our group made have been affirmed as not having been wrong.”
Please.
Use periods.
Still, even if it was long-winded, that much was passing-grade material.
If only he had wrapped it up properly there.
“And the adventurous choice of individual songs… Uuuurgh, I’m sorry!”
But Kim Raebin finally noticed the staff member frantically signaling from the front, recoiled in horror, and respectfully surrendered his microphone to me.
“…??”
Why are you giving it to me?
The leader is right beside you.
Laughter erupted from the audience.
Kim Raebin covered his face and courteously retreated backward.
Maybe that’s actually for the best.
More than half the audience filling the floor right now were VTIC fans, and at least the atmosphere on that side loosened up a little.
Seeing these fresh-faced rookies who hadn’t even reached their second anniversary win an award and then get flustered seemed to let them console themselves with a sort of, Fine, we’ll let them have this one.
I naturally tried to pass the microphone to Ryu Chungwoo, but he smiled and gestured for me to do it.
Maybe he was yielding because he had already given the Main Award acceptance speech.
I’m fine with that, though.
Feeling a little reluctant, I raised the microphone anyway.
“Raebin is very smart. I agree with everything Raebin said.”
A small ripple of laughter broke out again.
Then I calmly continued.
“Thank you to everyone who took time out of your busy lives to vote for us. We’ll come back with an album that’s even more worth voting for.”
“Thank you!”
“Loviewers, I love you! I’m super happy!”
Cha Eugene raised a thumb, bringing the acceptance segment to an end.
Read only on MUGEX
There were cameras even during the brief walk through backstage, so we still couldn’t have any detailed conversations.
But I think everyone had felt it.
TeSTAR was no longer merely standing at the gate of the top tier.
We had comfortably entered it.
That’s some solid motivation.
I even found myself thinking that, if things kept going well, maybe around next year the company staff would start dreaming the delusional dream of creating an outright rivalry between us and VTIC.
But a short while later—
After watching VTIC’s comeback stage, I figured the company had probably folded up that brief dream already.
AAAAAAAAAH!!
The roar from the audience was almost loud enough to tear my ears apart.
Understandably so.
They’re disgustingly good.
Even though the group had been reduced to four members, the dancers had been positioned perfectly, leaving no empty spots.
And the song itself was killer.
So this is what happens when a company actually knows how to do its job.
They quickly cut loose the member who had become impossible to clean up after, then took meticulous care of the remaining members throughout the hiatus without letting a single article leak out.
Even Cheongryeo’s injury had never become public knowledge.
Just from how they handled this one crisis, you could feel the company’s experience, competence, and vision all at once.
As a result, with public opinion neatly groomed in advance, it was obvious that this one flawless performance would smoothly pull VTIC out of the danger of a decline.
In other words, it stood in very sharp contrast to a certain agency.
Hmm. I want to quit.
As I recited the dream of every office worker, VTIC’s long stage soon came to an end, and the Daesang was announced.
Well.
It was obvious.
[The Daesang goes to… VTIC’s Insight!]
If we didn’t want to cause a controversy over our attitude, we had better stand up properly and applaud.
[Thank you so much! We… sniff, we’ll really do even better from now on.]
They must have suffered a lot emotionally too, because they were all in tears.
Sniffling could be heard not only throughout their acceptance speech, but from the audience too.
Hmm.
However, Cheongryeo’s face was dry.
Out of habit, he made a few gestures to comfort the others, then took the microphone last.
And in his usual casual tone, he began his acceptance speech.
[I don’t really know.]
Is this bastard insane?