“……?”
“…??”
When someone said, “I don’t really know,” during the Daesang acceptance speech that was supposed to be the finale of the day, the venue naturally froze over.
It wasn’t even phrased like something that had slipped out in a rush of emotion and confusion.
His tone was simply gentle and mildly puzzled.
This bastard hasn’t actually snapped and started spouting bullshit, has he?
A chill crawled down my spine.
Of course, even that bastard had to know that if he so much as mentioned Park Moondae, an article would immediately go up with the recording of VTIC’s Cheongryeo attempting murder.
At that awkward moment, when probably most people watching the stage were frantically darting their eyes around—
Cheongryeo continued.
[I truly don’t know. There was a time when I wanted to stand here so desperately that I spent sleepless nights crying, nights I couldn’t endure.]
Even as the members beside him froze stiff, Cheongryeo continued speaking slowly.
[And the time that once felt as though it would never come finally passed, and somehow, I made it all the way here.]
Cheongryeo tilted his head to the side.
[I still don’t really know what realization that desperation gave me. But now, more than any realization, there is a feeling that has remained.]
The audience held its breath.
Cheongryeo smiled.
[Thank you. For keeping me from giving up.]
That was how his speech ended.
Only belatedly, once people realized it had turned into a reasonably warm and moving conclusion, did normal applause begin to break out.
The fans had naturally been responding enthusiastically from the start.
They probably assumed the speech had come from the recent scandal involving the former member that had made the crime pages.
Though… in reality, the sentiment probably came from other experiences.
“…….”
I quietly sat down along with the other guys.
Onstage, the VTIC members were wiping away tears and awkwardly patting Cheongryeo on the back.
Apparently it wasn’t something they normally did.
Still, with the title track from their Daesang-winning album playing, VTIC remained onstage until the song ended.
Only a long while after the camera lights went out did they slowly leave the stage.
“Hmm.”
I think someone over there greeted me just now, but they were too far away for me to be sure.
Not that it mattered.
Anyway, the awards ceremony ended amid cheers.
“I want a Daesang!”
That was what Cha Eugene muttered somewhat sulkily the instant we left the venue and got into the car.
Apparently, after coming down from the stage all excited with the Popularity Award, only for VTIC to immediately win the Daesang, the idea had lodged itself firmly in his head.
“Why~ We already got one. Artist of the Year at ToneA!”
“That one wasn’t real! Our network gave it to us!”
Surprisingly sharp.
But Big Sejin didn’t so much as flinch.
“Hey, we still got it~”
“No. We win it fair-fair and square.”
Hmm.
About time Kim Raebin jumped in.
“You mean fair and square.”
Knew it.
“Same thing.”
“No it isn’t!”
“Yes it is!”
It was fortunate there were no outsiders around.
Ignoring the two who had somehow started arguing with each other and completely forgotten about the Daesang, I picked up my smartphone.
This was hardly the first time they had done this.
Even without anyone stopping them, they would quiet down on their own eventually.
“A-Are you reading the comments?”
“Among other things.”
I had been planning to monitor reactions out of habit, but there was something I needed to sort out first.
[You have new messages +34]
There was a mountain of text and message notifications.
They were probably congratulatory messages.
Since TeSTAR had defied expectations and won the Popularity Award, it was obvious that the news had gotten fairly large coverage.
Nothing urgent.
Most of them were probably just people I barely knew sending messages out of courtesy because we had exchanged numbers.
Without much interest, I skimmed the text and message notifications.
…And among all the congratulatory messages, I spotted one text that felt out of place.
[Brought them home.]
There was no explanation before or after those words.
Just that short message, with a photograph of some grimy-looking dog attached.
Curled up asleep in one corner of a sofa, it looked like some kind of retriever mix.
“…….”
Well.
I figured that was enough.
I moved on without deleting the message.
And just as I was about to start monitoring again, a shout loud enough to rupture my eardrums came from behind me.
“Moondae hyung! Do you not think Cha Eugene’s statement about winning a Daesang is a rash and reckless display of immature bravado!”
“We need dreams! Kim Raebin is small-minded!”
He knows the word small-minded?
Anyway, it seemed that after fighting for a while, they had somehow returned to the topic of the Daesang.
Where’s the leader?
I looked at Ryu Chungwoo.
He seemed busy talking to the manager about our next schedule.
Can’t be helped.
I nodded and opened my mouth.
“It’d be nice to win a Daesang.”
“Exactly!”
“But it might be better not to keep saying too often that we’ll win one next year.”
“Why??”
I gave a small laugh.
“If we talk about it too much, what if it makes the moment less emotional when we actually do win one? Right?”
“…!”
Behind the two stunned faces, Big Sejin snickered.
“Wow, look at Moondae’s confidence.”
“That’s cool.”
“Thank you for offering advice from a new perspective.”
You’re welcome.
In truth, if TeSTAR maintained this momentum, there was a fairly good chance we really could win a Daesang within a year or two.
Those VTIC guys will have to go to the military eventually too.
Of course, whether I would still be living as Park Moondae by then was another question.
Still, I had decided to try assuming that I would be.
“R-Right, Moondae. Let’s definitely work hard and win a Daesang…!”
“Yeah.”
“Daesang!!”
Excited, Cha Eugene began humming “Haengcha” with Daesang substituted into the lyrics.
Bae Sejin plugged his ears with his earphones and retreated into a corner.
Poor guy.
He’ll stay in a good mood for a while.
And it wasn’t only because of the Daesang.
“The day we finally go home, Daesang~”
Because the destination for our next reality-show shoot was Cha Eugene’s own home in San Diego, the place he had been singing about so insistently.
Just thinking about having to grill another several hundred hotteok in two weeks was already making my muscles ache in anticipation.
I had expected it, but food service really was hard labor.
Well, my arm is completely healed now.
I looked down at my wrist, where the bruising had almost disappeared.
Even the medical examinations no longer came with any warnings.
Which meant that by then…
I would probably be able to resume the performance for my solo song too.
Nice.
I was already looking forward to the Seoul encore concert.
Of course, before that, we first had to finish the remaining dates of the Japan tour in January.
TeSTAR’s Japanese concert tour was being held in arena-sized venues.
It was the size immediately below dome tours, commonly seen as the symbol of a truly massive artist, and it was an ambitious scale the company had booked before Idol Inc. began airing in Japan.
For reference, Park Moondae had bitterly remarked that the remaining tickets looked like they were going to end up being dumped at a discount.
But once Idol Inc. actually began airing, it turned out to have been an extremely accurate demand forecast.
[TeSTAR Sells Out All 8 Shows Across 4 Cities on First Japanese Arena Tour]
Concert ticketing, which was conducted through a lottery system, had shown fairly fierce competition in every city.
And the people who successfully fought through those odds to secure tickets continued to receive performances they had little reason to be disappointed with.
- They all opened the show smiling. So cool and cute!
- An idol otaku screaming at my bias’s solo stage right here (laugh)
- The instant the encore started, I realized this magical moment was ending, and that feeling made it impossible to hold back my tears… I’m still crying ･ﾟ･(ﾉД｀)･ﾟ･
- Even with sweat pouring off him, not even 1mm is out of place. He isn’t human, is he? He must truly be an angel descended to earth
No, where are the pictures…?!
Bang.
Kim Raebin’s solo fan slammed a fist onto the keyboard.
They were lucky if one or two fancams surfaced from a stage.
Quite often, there were no individual shots whatsoever.
And why are there so few reviews with detailed descriptions of the performances?!
This was why she hated Japanese tours, the solo fan wailed.
The restrictions were so strict that it was practically the same as having no schedule at all—a complete content drought.
Still, TeSTAR was one of the better cases.
========================
My beloved Loviewers, I’m hereee
(bear emoji)
Here are today’s punishment outfitsㅋㅋㅋ Still, everyone’s cute, right? I know! (prim emoji)
(photo)
========================
Because even during the tour, the members took turns consistently posting the day’s schedule and concert impressions on social media.
Big Bird, this bastard, really does seem to choose only the pictures where he himself came out well.
Kim Raebin’s solo fan complained for no reason, yet carefully saved the photo Big Sejin had posted of Kim Raebin and Park Moondae.
“Cute….”
The punishment outfits for TeSTAR’s impromptu stage this time were kindergarten uniforms.
Collecting the one-line mentions scattered through Japanese fans’ reviews, it seemed they had rearranged “Shining Star,” the theme song from Season 3 of Idol Inc., as a children’s song.
Fuck…!
Last week, in Yokohama or Yoko-whatever, they had apparently even performed a song from some famous idol rhythm-game unit, but all they got was one blurry photo.
It made her stomach hurt.
The solo fan slammed her forehead onto her desk.
Thud!
Please come back to Korea…!
Read only on MUGEX
Fortunately, thanks to the overwhelming awards-show stage not long ago and the cute celebratory WLive, domestic fan sentiment was still good.
However, there was a faint undercurrent of anxiety that VTIC might swallow up all the new fans entering the scene this year.
Ever since their comeback stage at the awards ceremony, they had continued charging ahead and racking up first-place records.
That bastard really knows how to talk.
The solo fan’s eyebrow twitched as she remembered how Cheongryeo’s awards-show speech had attracted enormous attention while simultaneously turning fans into even more hardcore supporters.
It also reminded her of the fight she had gotten into with several VTIC fans who kept making subtly provoking remarks.
- ㅠㅠI think our boys feel bad for the juniors because there’s no generational change happening, they’re so nice to them…
- Can’t help it if the team that’s good keeps leading the whole scene. You follow ability! That’s why I think we’ll keep seeing ours at the top for a long time. Love you
└And that has been a statement from a TICA who gets scared of rising juniors succeeding through ability and beats the shit out of them
Even though she had managed to secure the final reply back then, Kim Raebin’s fan still hadn’t gotten over her irritation.
Guys, hurry up and release something domestically!
That was when it happened.
Ding.
A WeTube notification appeared on her smartphone.
[(Trailer) We’re Going to Sell Hotteok Instead of Lemonade at the Maknae’s House (Determined) | TeSTAR’s Idol Working Holiday Season 2]
“Holy shit!!”
At the appearance of the highly public-friendly content she had been waiting for, the fan tossed her Bluetooth keyboard into the air in celebration.
The morning immediately after we completely finished the Japanese arena tour.
I got a good stretch of sleep on the plane, and when I woke up, just as expected, we had arrived in Cha Eugene’s neighborhood.
We bought a few gifts and headed toward his house.
And once there, several things happened that I hadn’t expected.
Mostly because of the language issue.
An elderly woman came rushing out of Cha Eugene’s house, spread her arms wide, and shouted,
“Bienvenido cariño!!”
And Cha Eugene replied,
“Abuela, estoy aquí!”
“……??”
That’s…
not English.
Spanish?
Naturally, it was a language not a single member of the group had ever demonstrated any ability to speak.
While everyone froze at the unexpected language barrier, Cha Eugene ran forward and hugged the elderly woman.
Apparently, she was his grandmother.
Ryu Chungwoo hurriedly grabbed Cha Eugene.
“E-Eugene? Is that your grandmother?”
“Yes! Ah, use English! My grandma speaks English well!”
I’m more surprised by how casually you neglected to mention that you speak Spanish.
Anyway, after awkwardly introducing ourselves in English, exchanging welcome greetings and gifts, we finally began filming material for the reality show in earnest.
First, naturally, was a scene where we asked Cha Eugene’s family to taste the hotteok.
“What about your parents?”
“They’re working now!”
For that reason, instead of the other family members who hadn’t come home from work yet, his grandmother got the tasting shot to herself.
And she completely cleared a full plate.
“Looks like it suits her taste.”
“That’s a relief.”
While six fully grown men who had crowded into the kitchen just to cook one hotteok murmured among ourselves, Cha Eugene came back after talking with his grandmother and relayed her opinion.
[She says it’s delicious, but, um, it could be a little sweeter! Since it’s a snack!]
“Okay.”
I nodded.
Judging from breakfast earlier, people around here did seem to eat things generally sweeter than in Korea.
“Then let’s put dalgona on it too.”
“Pardon?”
“What?”
And a short while later, we concluded that we would sell the insane snack known as dalgona ice-cream hotteok.