Chapter 107

Chapter 107

A few days had passed since the song went live on Monday. Soon it would be time for our first stage performance. The agency, seemingly conscious of the incident at the debut showcase, announced there would be no showcase this time around. A different sort of content had been arranged in its place, however.

“I never thought we’d be doing our own comeback show,” Chungwoo said, sounding slightly stressed out.

“I’m so excited!” Eugene exclaimed, shifting the tone of the conversation entirely, as was his way.

Regardless of their differing reactions, as Chungwoo had said, we’d been allotted exclusive time following Music Bomb next Thursday for a comeback special. This was probably in part due to how well our previous album had done, but also because we had roots in Tnet.

We’re as homegrown as anyone can get since we debuted through Idol Inc. In any case, we’d already finished filming most of the footage needed for the special.

“Isn’t it nice that we don’t have to perform ‘Shining Star’ anymore since we have songs of our own now? It feels like we’ve cemented our position as a group! Haha!” Big Sejin didn’t bother to hide the fact that he was in a great mood. The comeback show seemed to be fulfilling one of his personal goals or something.

That’s good. I shrugged and just continued what I’d been doing. I’d been meaning to check this particular item off my to-do list much earlier, but there hadn’t been time.

“Y-you’re t-taking a look at the album?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yeah.”

I wanted to check what the albums looked like post-production. The agency had given us copies to look over, but I’d pre-ordered one for myself in addition to this. I’d learned with our debut album that the physical albums often had flaws in the packaging or the printed material inside because everything had been done in such a short timeframe.

I hope that doesn’t happen again. There was no helping it if I got lucky and my copy was fine, but I still wanted to see for myself.

“Huh? Moondae, are you doing an album unboxing? Want me to film you?” Big Sejin offered.

“No, it’s fine,” I said, ripping away the bubble wrap. The huge box the album came in was revealed.

“Whoa...”

“Can that thing even be called an album?” Bae Sejin muttered. I noticed that he’d taken off his ankle cast entirely.

The box was roughly the same size as an entire cabinet drawer. There was a good reason for this, though.

“Oh, is that the set that came with the lightstick?”

“That’s right.”

The lightsticks had finally been released and they were being sold as a package set with the album.

Let’s see how it turned out. I opened the box and was shocked at what I found.

The lightstick, which was slotted neatly into the left side of the box surrounded by packing material, was much more extravagant than I’d expected it to be. The huge glittering diamond within glittered with the colors of the northern lights was especially eye-catching.

It’s even more fancy than it was in our final design... It certainly felt like the designers had really pulled out all the stops.

The others, who’d been watching from the side, seemed taken aback as well.

“Wow... Wow!”

“It’s... r-really big,” Ahyeon said.

“It’s so glittery!”

Looks like Cha Eugene’s expanded his Korean vocabulary a little more again.

“Does that thing go over the lightstick?”

“I think so,” I said, taking out a black cylinder lying next to the lightstick. The baseball bat design had been set aside since it was deemed difficult to make it easily detachable in the given production timeframe and budget.

Even so, this is better than I expected. I slotted the cylinder over the lightstick, changing its shape, and after ensuring that it was attached securely in place, I removed it again.

Now for the album. To the right of the box were two imposing albums that rivaled hardcover textbooks in size.

“They’re... so big.”

“I think it’s because of all the photos,” Raebin offered.

“They’re big enough to be weapons.”

I lifted out the two albums in turn and looked them over. One had a white background with summery watercolor scenery, and the other had a black backdrop with glowing graffiti. The basic design was the same for both albums, giving the impression that they both belonged to the same set. To my relief, they were both very well-made, and the print quality seemed on point.

“Oh! You’ll drop the photo cards!”

“I c-caught them!”

The photo cards that slid free of the pages featured a selfie taken by Ahyeon and one of Chungwoo taking off his gas mask, both with a classroom visible in the background. I let the members in question keep their own cards and finished looking through the album.

“Ahyeon looks so good. How does he look like that when he’s so bad at taking selfies?”

“T-thanks, I guess?”

It wasn’t surprising since he’d leveled up to S- in looks recently. After I was done, it was time for us to get ready for a pre-recording that would air as part of the comeback show.

“Save your energy when you can, since we have a few songs to record,” Chungwoo cautioned us.

“Okay!”

After a few equipment checks, we went onstage to record our first song. We were greeted with the sight of five hundred lightsticks and a roaring crowd. I’d expected this, but they were far brighter than I’d thought they’d be. It was like every person was holding a tiny mirror ball.

Won’t they get in the way of the fans seeing the performance? I had a feeling that it wasn’t a good idea to have such a bright light source in their face like that. The lightsticks looked lovely from onstage, of course, but what use were they if the audience members holding them found them uncomfortable to use?

After the members said a few words to the fans, I took the microphone myself to speak to them.

“How do you like the lightstick—”

“It’s beautiful!”

“We love it!”

“That’s good, then...” I said. If they were happy, then that was all that mattered.

***

In the early morning hours following TeSTAR’s filming of the comeback show with the fans—which took up the entire day—posts written by audience members started going up. Some of them were uploaded to anonymous fan community sites specifically for Park Moondae.

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[I went to the pre-recording for the comeback show]

: Moon puppy is crazy! He dyed his hair platinum blond. It was honestly more shocking than when they announced the winners of Idol Inc. He needs to keep his hair platinum blond forever.

The stage was great. Not telling you what it was about, though. Tune in for the show!

========================

- Whoa

- He’s gone back to blond?

- Blond! (Meme of Park Moondae landing in a way that resembles a puppy)

- Oh no, his scalp is going to hurt after that. He should have just kept the black hair... Doesn’t black suit the concept better?

└ Nope. Blond is the best color for Moon Puppy

- How many songs did he perform?

- Is this a fake post?

└ Doesn’t seem like it. Similar posts are saying the same thing in other communities, too

- Moon Puppy knows what’s up, just as expected haha. But don’t access this site if you’re looking for information about him. I don’t recommend it. If you’re already here, press the back button and don’t ever come back

└ What’s up their ass today?

- So idiots like this got to go because the pre-recording was on a weekday, huh?

The first comeback stage hadn’t even aired on TV yet and no matter how detailed the posts were, the most that fans online could really gather from them was that the members had changed their hairstyles. The first comeback stage was going live in the evening before the comeback special on Thursday. This meant the pre-recording for Music Bomb would occur early that same morning. Early mornings in mid-to-late October were quite cold.

“No pushing!”

It’s so cold! One of Kim Raebin’s fans grumbled internally as she filed into the audience area in front of the set. The post she’d read online prior to coming inside was still fresh in her mind.

Moondae dyed his hair blond again? I love it—I mean, blond just objectively looks better on him. She’d grown strangely conscious of Moondae ever since the second team battle, so she sometimes checked his fan community sites for news about him.

In fact, when her social media friends, who were fans of Kim Raebin, started making sarcastic comments about Moondae, she often found herself subtly trying to shield him.

- Did you see Moondog making Raebin uncomfortable? He got first place because he sold his tragic story to the older fans LOL. He’s a boomer at heart

└ At least Moondog gives him food. When he’s with Big Bird, Raebin always gets picked on

It always went something like this. Big Bird was the nickname Big Sejin’s anti-fans used in order to evade being discovered by search engines. Even so, she was still in denial about the feelings she was harboring for Park Moondae.

I should just concentrate on the performance, she thought, pushing anything else from her mind and taking out her lightstick. The way the black cylinder revealed a magical wand on the inside when turned on was, frankly, so much fun.

I just like the lightstick, that’s all. The fans waited with their lights at the ready. Before long TeSTAR was walking out on the stage.

“Hey guys!”

“Loviewers, hello!”

Deafening screams filled the set.

“You must be tired. Thank you so much for coming.”

“Yeah!”

“No, we’re not tired!”

It was a mess of noise, with some of the gathered admitting they were tired while others simply cried out encouragement to the group, but everyone was laughing because of the jovial mood.

TeSTAR seemed nervous, but they had no trouble speaking to the fans. Most importantly, their outfits were shockingly good.

What in the world? The members were wearing winter school uniforms with techwear-style jackets. They incorporated black leather, plastic, and bits of metal and worn over their school shirts and pants perfectly suited the concept in a way that wasn’t excessive at all.

I knew they’d come wearing something that felt a little different from what we had seen already, but even so! She hadn’t suspected that their styling would be even better than the clothing that had appeared in the concept photos. Better still, Kim Raebin had grown his hair out a little more and it was styled with half of it slicked aside.

Half of his forehead is showing! She loved that he was going for a rougher, more deviant look than something neat and sophisticated. She wanted to slam her lightstick against something to express all the feelings bubbling up inside her, but the fan section was packed with people, so she repressed the urge.

Then she looked down the line from Raebin and noticed Park Moondae.

He’s so good-looking! Why does he look so good? She could hardly believe her eyes. He did have a trendy charm to him and was objectively handsome, but he’d never been the sort to amaze with his looks alone before—today, however, he certainly looked that part.

Is it his hair color? His hair was practically colorless, it was bleached so white. And for some reason, it looked amazing on him.

Did he get plastic surgery? she wondered for a moment but wasn’t able to find anything markedly different about his face. She overheard a whispered conversation happening nearby.

“I heard they changed salons...”

“They must have made the right call. They look even more handsome than before.”

Oh, so that’s what it was, she thought, easily accepting this explanation. Whoever was doing their makeup now had to be an expert. In the meantime, TeSTAR finished up the short conversation they were having with their fans and got into formation.

As they turned around and each stepped into position, she waved her lightstick back and forth with excitement. Then she realized something.

Oh, the cover... She recalled that they’d been asked to keep the black cylindrical cover on when she came in.

Am I supposed to use this as-is? While she stared wryly at the black stick in her hand, a Bluetooth signal issued by the staff caused it to light up, revealing familiar glow-in-the-dark graffiti now wrapped around the cover. It seemed as if light was seeping out from inside, calling to mind neon signs.

“No way.”

She hadn’t been very interested in the cover and therefore hadn’t known it was capable of this. Most of the other fans seemed to have tested its capabilities out at home, however, and so kept their eyes glued to the stage.

Oh, right! She hurriedly turned her attention back to TeSTAR. There wasn’t time to waste on being distracted. At that moment, the lights went out, and a powerful prelude began to pound throughout the room.