Chapter 143

Chapter 143

We asked the employee to give us a moment to talk it over privately, then began to discuss it.

“What do you think?”

“I want to go to America!” Eugene cried enthusiastically, his response immediate.

“Right. So you’re for going, then, Eugene. Let’s discuss it some more, though,” Chungwoo said gently.

“Yeah!” Eugene was about to be excluded from the conversation when Big Sejin interrupted.

“Hold on. Eugene, have you ever heard of this show?”

“The Nerdy Andy Show? Nope!”

This was the name of the show that had asked us to appear. If Eugene didn’t know about it…

“M-maybe it’s a n-new show, and that’s why Eugene d-doesn’t know it?” Ahyeon suggested.

“Yeah. It’s supposed to be popular these days, right?” Big Sejin said.

The members each chimed in with their take. I pulled out my phone.

“Moondae, are you going to look it up?” Big Sejin asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay! Let’s take a look.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t have a phone in his own pocket. Regardless, the members all crowded around my phone, perhaps finding it too much effort to look it up themselves. With the assistance of a simple translation app, I was easily able to figure out the details of the show.

“Look, the page is loading.”

Naturally, it wasn’t a famous American talk show, but it wasn’t a tiny niche show, either.

“Wow. That’s pretty interesting.”

“It seems really specialized.”

It was a cheerfully themed show that seemed to parody famous talk shows. Their content usually focused on... subcultures. They mainly delved into gaming, comics, and superhero movies, and, as the agency had informed us, their videos had a lot of views on WeTube.

“Eugene, can you take a look at this? Is it fun?”

“What is it?’ Eugene shoved his face closer to my phone as a clip from the show played. He stared at the screen for a moment, then scoffed quietly.

Don’t tell me he sees something wrong with the show?

“Y-you think it’s boring?”

“I don’t know. I don’t usually watch stuff like this. It’s so nerdy.”

“Huh? What?”

I supposed it just wasn’t his cup of tea. He was pouting now.

Big Sejin asked mischievously, “But you’ll have to agree to go on this show if you want to go to America. You’ll have to sing the game collab song!”

“I don’t mind being on the show, but I won’t watch it.”

It was a pretty professional attitude to take, I guessed.

The problem is, will we actually agree? The show seemed all right and got a moderate amount of attention, but I wasn’t sure if this was a good choice for our first appearance in the US.

I’d rather not strengthen our connection to the game anymore either. In the long run, it was quite a big risk. TeSTAR was a K-pop group, and we were going to release K-pop albums. Even if we did well on this show, we might end up coming out of it known as game avatars.

It would make things seem quite strange to foreign audiences if we actually released one of our albums overseas as TeSTAR later on. There was a high possibility that they might feel betrayed or mock us.

It would be a passable choice if we just wanted press coverage but didn’t have any plans to expand overseas... It was an American show, so it would certainly generate a few articles about us.

It’ll help us shake the idea people have that we’re only popular in Korea. It would be a smokescreen to give everyone the impression that we have a fanbase globally. If we were going to do this, we wouldn’t have to pay any attention to what the gaming communities thought of it, either. Even if they claimed we were using the game for media coverage, things would die down quickly as long as we didn’t do a new collaboration.

The members didn’t seem to share my concerns, however, simply seeing this as a good career opportunity.

“Should we give it a go? It’s not an opportunity you get every day.” Chungwoo asked.

“I... I don’t mind either way.” Bae Sejin replied.

“I think it’s a challenge worth trying,” Raebin said. “Even if it’s our game collab song, I’d love to perform our music for them.”

This was a very progress-driven thing to say, worthy of an enthusiastic rookie. Hmm.

I was surprised to hear Ahyeon putting forward a concern. “B-but do you think this will work? M-Moondae said... doing another collaboration would be a b-bad idea... Does this count?” He asked this last question while looking at me.

Big Sejin spoke up as well, though he was for the idea rather than against it. “Oh, come on. It’s not an entirely new collaboration, just one performance. We’ll do a great job and leave a good impression!”

Big Sejin probably knew the importance of a strong first impression. His eagerness for us to debut in the US meant he was overlooking the risks. He wants us to gain some recognition, regardless of what shape or form it takes.

To make things worse, Ahyeon nodded, his eyes glowing with excitement. “Y-you think so? I-I hope we can d-do a great job!”

He’d probably secretly wanted to do it, too. The others agreed as well, and the mood in the room became one of general excitement.

Can’t be helped, I guess. I shook my head.

“Fine. I’ll go along with it as well.”

“Wow!”

“But I’d prefer that we focus on showing off our group.”

“Th-the group?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yes.”

It might have seemed like a vague request, but everyone agreed after I explained.

“Sounds great!” Eugene said.

“Hmm. We’ll have to rehearse a lot for this.”

“Good thing we’ve had some free time on our hands recently.”

Our enthusiastic group discussion came to an end. When the agency employee came back, he was given the same suggestion I’d delivered to the others, but slightly more in detail.

“First of all... We’d like to be able to sing one of our title tracks, too.”

“Oh! Yes. Of course! We’re going to discuss that with their side no matter what!”

“Yes. Thank you. The show requested that one song, so does this mean we can prepare anything else on our own?”

“Yes, that’s right. If you have a concept or a set you’d like to try, we’ll try and make it happen. Given there’s enough time, of course!”

“That’s great.” There would be more than enough time. I grinned at him. “We thought we’d perform with a live band.”

“Oh! That sounds great.”

“And we won’t need any stage outfits prepared for us.”

“I’m sorry…?”

He seemed to think I had lost it. It was time to explain my plan a little more.

***

The news that TeSTAR would be making an appearance on an American show made it to the front page of celebrity news, then was promptly forgotten. Taking advantage of any press coverage generated would be difficult if the show itself didn’t make any waves, so the agency had just gone public with the invitation immediately.

The fans who’d been occupied with excitedly consuming fancams from TeSTAR’s May college festival appearance and Ahyeon’s surprise birthday party quickly heard about this as well.

- No way. So they’re launching in the US?

- It’s about time they started looking overseas, but I expected them to start with Japan... That’s TeSTAR for you. They go for the big fish!

- So we can finally see Cha Eugene speaking English. His California accent is so sexy T_T

- I’ll have to take a day off work to watch them live. Okay, I’ll call in and say I have food poisoning that day

Most people weren’t yet worried that their domestic activities would suffer because of an overseas tour. Instead, they seemed to want their lovely idols to get recognition worldwide, since TeSTAR already had an overwhelming number of fans in Korea.

When the exact content of the program and what song they’d been requested to perform on the show were revealed, however, enthusiasm cooled slightly.

- Oh, they’re singing that game collab song? No wonder the show seemed catered to that sort of thing haha

- K-pop has never been featured on that program before. That’s pretty meaningful

- The TeSTAR members apparently had a lot of input in the game collab. It’s great to see that it’s popular

- I guess that song must be more popular than the title tracks in the US. It made it into a SongBoard chart, for starters (screen capture)

- But I’ll be so pissed if those game nerds lose it over this again. It’s not their fault Kim Rabbit is a genius and made the collab song so good haha

This last comment had been uploaded from a private account, posted angrily by a solo fan of Kim Raebin.

God f*cking damn it! She slammed her fists against the keyboard, thinking back to the online dispute she’d had with a malicious gamer who’d said all sorts of atrocious things.

They sure were happy about TeSTAR when the game launched, but now they want the group out because the game is doing well! That the user base had shifted considerably since then didn’t hold much significance for this Kim Raebin fan.

I’d prefer it if they canceled the appearance! Ha! She wanted nothing more to do with the game! In truth, TeSTAR being successful overseas was also the opposite of what she personally wanted.

If this goes well, they won’t be on as many music shows because they’ll be busy going on tours. I don’t like that, either! Despite thinking this way, she was still waiting to watch their appearance on The Nerdy Andy Show live. She was even seated in front of her desktop because her smartphone was too small and caused too many problems.

Phew... She felt a little guilty. It couldn’t be helped, though. Kim Raebin and Park Moondae were being held hostage by this stupid show.

“Wow. Don’t tell me you’re watching them again?”

“I am. Get lost.”

“Right back at you.”

“If you say that one more time, I’m going to kill you.” She gave her little brother the finger and ignored him.

However, her brother hovered nearby, staring at the screen. “Is this the show where they’re going to sing that game song in America? Will they be cosplaying the game characters?”

“I said get lost.”

“I can see I’ve overstayed my welcome. Ow! Ouch!”

Her brother fled to the sofa after she smacked him a few times on the back.

Because 127 Section had been such a hit, her brother had logged quite a bit of playtime and was familiar with the latest news surrounding it.

People are already saying they’re overstaying their welcome? That just makes me even more angry. Kim Raebin’s fan ground her teeth as she glared at her monitor. Thankfully, the show began before long.

[“Welcome to the show!”]

[“This is… Nerdy!”]

[“Oh, I mean, Andy!”]

“What the hell?” she said.

There was something so American about the over-the-top computer graphics and captions. A bunch of English poured out through the speakers, as well as interim ads that came around every few minutes. In short, it wasn’t very fun. The only things she recognized were a few characters from superhero movies.

What am I even doing? She deeply regretted that she hadn’t just started her assignment and found clips later, but she’d watched too much to turn it off now. A teaser of TeSTAR played—or rather, a teaser for the performance of the soundtrack for 127 Section.

F*ck... Was this entire thing going to be advertising the game? She stomped her feet, feeling a chill go down her spine. Her brother made a silly comment about how she resembled a monster gorilla, and she ignored him.

The ad soon ended and the stage appeared on screen. Instead of TeSTAR, there was a band setup filling the stage.

I guess they’re going to perform with a live band? She turned her attention to the screen for the time being.

Before long, TeSTAR came up on the stage dressed in casual clothes, surprisingly.

“Huh?”

Their clothes were too neat to be considered everyday wear, but they weren’t costumes geared toward a specific concept, like the ones they usually wore.

“Huh? No cosplay?” her brother said.

He was right. They weren’t wearing the clothes or hairdos of the game characters. They’d simply come dressed normally as if they’d come straight from the set of a reality show.

Eugene grinned and grabbed a standing microphone.

What makes people live? …CHOICE!

The band began to play the song from the trailer.

DOOOM DOOOM DOOOM DOOOM ZZZZ-ING!

I’m gonna survive,

Like you did before

Moondae sang the high-pitched intro with extreme ease. Each member had a standing microphone of their own as they sang, each adding a bit of personal flair to their performance. It was even better than the recorded version.

Her brother shrugged.

“They’re pretty good singers, huh?”

TeSTAR had always been great at performing live, but this was the first time they’d focused solely on singing. Most of the fans watching this program had expected that TeSTAR would incorporate props or choreography somehow, but nothing of the sort was happening.

They were simply allowing the audience to enjoy the music and nothing more. Their facial expressions and gestures weren’t awkward, and that alone meant they were a pleasure to watch.

Choose your way

Choose your side

They exuded confidence.

Survive!

TeSTAR performed the collab song perfectly, not as avatars from the game, but as legitimate singers. The siblings stared with their mouths open wide as the audience on the screen cheered and clapped.

“Whoa...”

“Wow. Okay, I’ll give it to them. They nailed that one.”

Instead of snapping a nasty retort at her brother, Kim Raebin’s fan banged her desk with excitement.

They’ve always been so good on stage! They’d just shown the world that they were artists who’d made the soundtrack for the game, not people who should be remembered for their collab with the game alone. And because they had the skills to back it up, this strategy worked like a charm.

[“Wow! That was awesome!”]

The effectiveness of this was obvious based on how long the brief interview that followed the first performance lasted.