Chapter 112

Chapter 112

The “BETTER ME” music video began with a shot of Park Moondae’s face, eyes staring into the camera. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt and his eyes were purple, just as they’d been in the trailer. He silently reached for the camera and adjusted it. There was a clicking sound and the video rewound, showing the scenes from the trailer in reverse.

There was the water tank, then the sewer, a mannequin, a falling gun, and the biohazard symbol. Then the video reached the point where a hand was holding a ragged fabric doll—the hand belonging to Cha Eugene. This was where the original trailer had begun, and the rewinding images stopped here.

Then the song began.

Do not trust it

There is no justice

Oooohh...

The scene shifted suddenly, and now there was a completely different doll clutched in Eugene’s hand. The camera zoomed out rapidly, showing his surroundings. He was sitting in an ordinary classroom, where students were sitting in their seats mid-class. The TeSTAR members were visible, scattered around the room at their desks.

They seemed to be focused on listening to their teacher. As a rhythmical Moombahton accompaniment began to play, however, the mood in the classroom changed. There was a burst of static as all the students disappeared with the exception of the TeSTAR members. A phosphorescent, dripping graffiti X appeared on each missing student’s desk. The scene cut to the group performing the powerful choreography, set against the dark classroom as the background.

No amount of looking back

Umm

Can tell me what happened

In between the dancing scenes, there were cuts of each member alone in different parts of the school, such as the music room or the gym, as they sang their solo parts. Each space, however, had received a peculiar makeover that was visually connected in some way to each member’s ability, as assigned to them when “Magical Boys” had been released.

The members, all wearing techwear outfits similar to the ones in the concept photos, appeared to have created their own areas, similar to mini-boss regions within a game.

Target target target

GOT IT

Make a run for it, grab it

They looked both compelling and apathetic as they sang in their respective spaces. But the thunderous riff that had been in the trailer started up, and everything changed.

DDVVViiiii—!

A short scene where TeSTAR was running away from monsters dressed in school uniforms flew past, and a class motto hanging above the blackboard was shown. The letters were black, but drawn over with red graffiti.

[WINNER TAKES ALL :)]

[LOSERS SAY GOODBYE :(]

There was blood splattered over the word “GOODBYE.”

The chorus began.

BUT

It’s just confusing

I don’t know when it started

I’m just confused

Umm

Where is this taking me?

A fierce game of survival that seemed out of place in contrast to the melancholy chorus continued. The lyrics seemed to take on more meaning within the video itself, and as the song continued, the members’ actions grew more and more violent. The fighting scenes became more frequent, and the tension reached its climax as the final monster was killed.

Raebin turned to look behind him, raising his awl, and at that same moment, Chungwoo shot him in the back.

Umm

The music video then began to focus more on shots of the choreography that was only growing more frenzied, and the members hunted each other, a subtle and chilling game of cat-and-mouse playing out on screen.

As the bridge—the second verse—began, the camera closed in on Bae Sejin, who hadn’t appeared much thus far. He was in the middle of singing his part when he suddenly got up and left the front entrance of the school, which had been his designated area up until that point.

It’s our impossible paradox

When the line is cut

The payback is even greater

I want out of this reversal of our own making

Bae Sejin ran down the corridor and stood at a door at the very end. Inside was a completely ordinary classroom, but the camera turned and caught the dripping red graffiti over the class motto. Bae Sejin flung an item that had been clutched in his hand, and the final chorus burst into life.

BUT

It’s NOT confusing!

I know who I am

I’m NOT confused by my musings

Oh!

I’m going to find the BETTER ME

He’d been holding a heavy metal lock. It soared in an arc and shattered the glass covering the class motto before it clattered to the ground. The frame holding the words broke apart in slow motion.

As the pieces fell to the floor, a Moombahton accompaniment started up, and Bae Sejin grinned.

A better me

Accompanied by intense choreography, the timeline in the video began to mend itself.

Raebin froze holding the awl above his head after slaying the final monster, pausing upon hearing a flurry of camera shutter sounds from Moondae’s phone. The TeSTAR members broke apart wearing irritated looks on their faces.

They looked relieved for reasons unknown to the viewers. The screen shifted back to Eugene with the ragged doll, but this time, he didn’t wind it up.

[♬♪]

Whistling a tune, he threw the doll into the corner and began walking down the devastated corridor. A stationary camera caught the cheerful skip in his step from behind, and the words “BETTER ME” floated above the screen in white letters.

BETTER ME

With that final hook, the video was over. The TeSTAR fandom was now met with an unexpected new preoccupation—a wave of music video analyses.

***

“Hey, what are you looking at?” Eugene asked.

“An analysis of our music video,” I replied.

“Why would anyone analyze it?”

“Hmm... Would you like to watch one with me?”

“Yes!”

It would be easier to let Eugene join me rather than get caught up in answering an infinite loop of his questions. I connected WeTube to the TV and played the video I’d been watching.

A plump duck character appeared on the screen.

[“Hello, friends on WeTube! I’m Duck Potato, the duck who interprets music videos for you!”]

[“Today we’re diving into the game and idol group on everyone’s lips! TeSTAR has released their new music video ‘BETTER ME,’ and I’m here to explain it to you.”]

[“A quick disclaimer. I’ve been playing this game myself, and it made me cry. Please understand that this video will not be entirely unbiased.”]

[※ There are spoilers for 127 Section in this video.]

[“Here we go!”]

The duck went on to describe the “BETTER ME” music video’s rather simple plot but then started going into finer detail.

[“The monsters in school uniforms who appear in the middle of the video seem to be the same students that were in the classroom with them before.”]

[“If we zoom in here, you can see that they are wearing name tags. These same nametags, right down to the coloring, are visible in the peaceful classroom from earlier.”]

This was generally how the rest of the duck’s explanation went.

They’re pretty perceptive, I thought, watching with interest. The duck then suggested something rather shocking as soon as he’d finished describing the contents of the video.

[“Actually, there’s a hypothesis regarding the TeSTAR universe I’d been considering since the release of ‘Airplane.’ I became certain of it after seeing the ‘BETTER ME’ video, however, and I’d finally like to tell you about it.”]

[“In the TeSTAR universe, Park Moondae and Bae Sejin are likely the same person.”]

Bae Sejin, who’d been walking out of the kitchen sipping his coffee, choked on his drink. Eugene’s eyes were filled with keen interest as he waited for the duck to continue.

[“They’ve been acting as opposites since ‘Magical Boys.’ If you remember, Moondae locks the school entrance, while Bae Sejin breaks it down.”]

[“In the ‘BETTER ME’ music video, Moondae turns time back by rewinding the film, while Bae Sejin destroys the class motto picture frame that symbolizes the bad timeline.”]

[“You can see that their abilities are complete opposites, too. Why do I think they are the same person, you ask? That’s because their abilities actually belong to the same spectrum.”]

[“Both deal with restrictions of time and space, but Moondae’s ability creates these restrictions, while Bae Sejin’s destroys them.”]

“What does that mean?” Eugene asked.

“Our abilities work similarly,” Bae Saejin answered, sinking into the sofa. He seemed to have become invested in the video.

[“As I told you in my last video, Moondae’s magical device looks like a book, but how he actually controls his powers is through sleep. He either sleeps or covers his eyes to mimic sleeping in order to return to the past.”]

On screen, a hand uncovered the camera and I appeared, standing at the school entrance. Then I was shown opening the door and running inside. This was a scene from the “Airplane” music video.

[“Doesn’t this scene look familiar to you? That’s right. It was in the ‘BETTER ME’ music video as well.”]

[“Only this time, it’s Bae Sejin instead of Moondae.”]

The video now showed Bae Sejin running down the corridor instead. The composition of the scene was exactly the same.

[“Next, Bae Sejin throws something at the picture frame holding the class motto. What is this object? It’s the same one that Moondae put on the door in ‘Magical Boys.’”]

That detail had been added on purpose.

[“Based on these findings, I’ve come to the conclusion that these two might actually be two different personalities belonging to the same person.”]

The duck had proof.

[“Did you catch that? There are only six beds in the ‘Airplane’ music video. In ‘BETTER ME,’ Moondae is sitting alone toward the back. That part of the classroom would usually be empty. What’s more, there has never been a single instance where anyone speaks to Moondae directly, other than Bae Sejin.”]

The members gaped at the screen.

“Wow.”

“That’s pretty convincing.”

They were right. The only problem was that this entire theory was a misunderstanding. The lock had been taken from the entrance, but the scene showing this happening had been cut out due to time constraints. The corridor scene had been repeated only because the director had liked it.

As for there being no shots of me talking with the other members... Well, Ahyeon hadn’t spoken with anyone, either, if I remembered correctly. The fans seemed to find this theory extremely fun, however, and the views and comments on the video were through the roof.

Maybe I’ll ask them to try and incorporate this starting with the next album. Pleasing our customers was always the first priority, after all. In any case, the video finished its exposition on the theory that Park Moondae and Bae Sejin were the same person and began an explanation of links within the TeSTAR universe.

[“Let me explain the timeline to you. Considering the time slip that occurred during Moondae’s dream, the videos in chronological order are as follows. ‘Airplane,’ ‘Magical Boys,’ ‘BETTER ME,’ and ‘BONUS BOOK’—that is, the trailer video.”]

[“It seems they intend to exclude the trailer video from canon, however, since Bae Sejin prevents the incident that spawns events in that video at the end of ‘BETTER ME’ and erases it from the timeline.”]

The video showed Eugene detonating his doll in the trailer, then another clip of him not doing so in the music video.

This is right on the money. We’d done this to make sure our universe wasn’t overly beholden to the game. We didn’t want to become too involved with the game’s plot, and the game developers probably didn’t particularly want to be sucked into our universe, either.

The trailer was a possible alternate timeline. Based on the reactions people were having to the game, doing so had apparently been the right choice. Quite a few people were deeply shocked and it would have been a bad idea if we’d included the sad events in our canon and made the fans all the more sad for it.

[“Now this might be a good thing, considering what happens to them in the game... but it’s sad that we’ll never see what might have happened to our first companions.”]

Along the bottom of the screen were the words, [The duck wailed when P11 died].

I stared. Apparently, the twist regarding their character’s fates had been more impactful than expected.

[“However, the abilities seen in the trailer could resurface in a future music video. I’m excited about that, for sure!”]

The duck gave a few quacks.

[“That’ll be all for this video. See you in the next music video analysis!”]

“See you!” Eugene sang at the screen.

“The duck is smart,” I said, handing the remote to him so I could scroll through the comments below the video on my phone.

- TeSTAR is killing it! Their universe is so dense

- I think they’re really the same person. I’m getting chills

- Thank you for your quality videos as always, Duck! It keeps me from having to figure all this stuff out myself

- BETTER ME did feel like a battle royale-type affair. This take on it is pretty intriguing. Thanks for the interesting video :)

It seemed that the theory outlined in the video had mostly been accepted as canon. There was no criticism of it at all, even when I sorted by the most recent comments.

Interesting. People online were coming up with their own theories because certain details had unintentionally correlated somehow. Some people in the comments were gamers, too.

- So what do we have to do to see P11?

└ You can follow Moondae’s social media account. He shows up often!

└ Oh, I’m more of a gamer. I was wondering if Moondae had done anything else as P11. Thanks for the reply, though T_T

└ Oh, okay.

“Hmm.”

This reminded me of something. There was one other piece of content that was set to be uploaded this week. It was just going up as fan service, but maybe the internet’s reaction would be more eager than I’d expected.

It might even be a bit embarrassing. I rubbed the back of my neck, turning off my phone.

At 10:31 P.M. the next day, a new video was uploaded to the official TeSTAR WeTube channel.

[TeSTAR |BETTER ME Choreography Video | Late Halloween Ver.]

It was a choreography video in which TeSTAR were wearing the outfits associated with their respective companions in the game 127 Section.