Chapter 144

Chapter 144

TeSTAR came down from the stage and sat down on the talk show’s guest sofas. Out of the norm, it was Cha Eugene who picked up the microphone.

Is this going to be okay? The first thing she felt upon seeing this was worry, even though she knew that Eugene was the best at speaking English in the group. He handled things smoothly, contrary to her fears.

[“Welcome! How do you like my show?”]

[“Hmm. It’s full of color, very exciting, and you look great! I like your yellow tie. That’s the 127 Section emblem, right?”]

[“Wow, thanks! This is the first piece of merchandise that they sold on the official 127 Section website on May 11. It was difficult to purchase. I’m wearing it for the first time today since you’re our special guests.”]

Her brother said mockingly, “Can you even understand him?”

Of course, she couldn’t, but she was paying close attention, nonetheless, and the vibes were good so far.

Eugene seems different when he’s speaking English. He seemed much more relaxed and grown up. The small talk was winding down on screen.

[“Yes. You really feel like someone born in California! Now I get it. You like surfing, don’t you?”]

[“Haha! Who doesn’t love surfing in San Diego?”]

[“Uh... In that case... I guess you might not be all that interested in stuff like this.”]

The host shrank back dramatically and looked around him. There was a burst of laughter from the audience.

[“No, of course, I like it. This is something new and exciting. And 127 Section was a fun game!”]

[“Okay! So you’re being generous. Why don’t we talk about your roles in the game?”]

Park Moondae, sitting next to him, picked up the microphone.

[“We’re actually singers, and none of us have much experience with acting. Though it was very short, it was a novel and exciting experience to play the game characters in the music video.”]

Moondae seemed to be having no trouble speaking English, his pronunciation was very neat.

“What the hell?” Raebin’s fan—though this moment had well and truly made her Moondae’s fan as well—nearly seized her monitor and shook it.

“Holy sh*t, he’s good at English?” her brother said.

“I know, right?”

Moondae continued to speak calmly, in contrast to the flustered college student, who was thrilled by this surprising discovery.

[“Oh, so you weren’t the inspiration for these characters, then?”]

[“Well, the song was inspired by them. It was mainly our member here who made the music. This is Kim Raebin. You can just call him Raebin.”]

[“Wow! Hello, Raebin. You certainly look like a composer! You have a musician’s eyes!”]

[“Hello.”]

Raebin awkwardly greeted the host on the screen.

He introduced Raebin first. Though she couldn’t keep up with all the details, that seemed certain based on what she’d seen of the video and the words she’d been able to pick up. She watched with a proud smile on her face.

[“What was it about the characters that inspired you? Whoa, now! I wasn’t saying anything mean! It was a friendly question. Someone tell him that, please!”]

[“He does look really intense, doesn’t he? But if you look into his eyes, you can tell that he has a very gentle soul!”]

[“He’s still scary, though!”]

As Eugene sidled up to the host, who seemed to be doubling down on his loser persona, and explained that Raebin was actually very nice, Seon Ahyeon translated Kim Raebin’s response.

[“He says their story impacted the music a lot. Their story is... a tragedy, but he did his best to bring to life the... beauty and intensity of their goodwill.”]

There was a trace of a French accent when Seon Ahyeon spoke English.

He feels different too, when he’s speaking a foreign language. As was becoming the norm in his recent public appearances, he hardly stammered even when using English. The short pauses in his speaking just made him seem a little shy, nothing more.

[“Yes! That’s the same emotions I felt after finishing the first chapter and re-watching the trailer! I can see into your soul, Raebin!”]

[“Hahaha!”]

Raebin cocked his head to the side slightly, apparently not following the conversation.

“Gosh, he’s so cute!” Raebin’s fan squealed.

“You think that’s cute? I wouldn’t want to meet a guy who looked like that on the street.”

“Shut your mouth.”

She ignored her brother and focused on the screen.

[“Is no additional music for 127 Section planned, then?”]

The original question had been regarding whether the companion characters would ever return, but it had been revised given TeSTAR’s previous response. Moondae calmly gave the rehearsed response.

[“We had a lot of fun with the first track, but I don’t think any future soundtracks will come from us.”]

[“But why is that?”]

Eugene answered this time.

[“Because we’d love to see what songs other artists can come up with! Isn’t that right, everyone?”]

The enthusiastic question prompted the crowd to cheer back.

[“Yes, of course. But still, that’s a pity! ‘Bonus Book’ is such a good song.”]

[“Thank you.”]

[“You know something, sir? You have very fine taste!”]

[“Do I? Hahaha! I guess you could say that!”]

The host laughed hearing Eugene’s compliment, and all talk about the game ended with that. Only then were a few introductions and greetings exchanged, and the interview entered its final stages.

[“Your performance earlier was amazing. You still have another one for us, am I right?”]

[“Yes. We thought we’d show you a little of the music we usually perform.”]

[“That’s great! Please go ahead whenever you’re ready. Is the Andrew Band ready?”]

The band responded by playing their instruments, indicating their readiness and the members laughed as they got up from the sofa. Then they took off their shoes.

[“Whoa!”]

“Huh?” the college student exclaimed.

“Quick, look carefully. Are they shorter without their shoes?”

She didn’t even have time to slap her brother for his nonsense.

In the meantime, TeSTAR had taken off their cardigans and jackets and were draping them over the sofa. Staff quickly appeared and took them away. Now they were all wearing white T-shirts with jeans, and barefoot as well. This was a development no one had expected, and people in the audience whistled.

TeSTAR took their microphones with them as they moved into formation, and then the lights went out.

Oooh- Ooh- Ooooh-

The band’s music sounded slightly staticky, and a slow, gloomy piano tune played over it. Then the choreography, something that resembled modern dance, began.

Time slowly sinks

into the deep night

I don’t want to leave it

Their simple outfits, the jazzy sound, the English lyrics, and the band’s live music combined with the modern dance all worked together to make TeSTAR’s performance feel more artistic than conceptual. Even elements that could have seemed unfamiliar or uncomfortable to foreign audiences were obscured by this combination, meaning the audience only noticed how high quality the performance was.

What was more, the power of K-pop, with its focus on being both entertaining to watch and listen to, was in full effect here—especially when the group was more than capable of fully realizing their music. TeSTAR was one such group.

It’s when I met you

Midnight

And next

As a result, the audience applauded when the song was over and the lights came back on again, having thoroughly enjoyed what they’d just seen.

The host popped out as well, clapping his hands.

[“Now that’s what I call art! That was ‘Midnight, and Next’ from TeSTAR’s album, Time to Go. See you in our next corner, everyone!”]

And so, their appearance, which began with the game 127 Section, ended while etching the group TeSTAR in people’s minds. The image on screen transitioned to an ad, but the impact of the stage lingered.

That was perfect. The college student slammed her left hand down on her desk, then raised it into the air. The rest of the public reacted in much the same way.

***

Now that we were in the US, our schedule was filled with things for us to do. By the time we were done with a few of those things, The Nerdy Andy Show episode featuring us had already aired. I lay back on my bed in the hotel and checked over the reactions from our fans and the general public back in Korea.

There were a few perfunctory articles describing it as a successful appearance and widely praised. TeSTAR also appeared in a video from a popular WeTube channel that reviewed overseas reactions.

[(Overseas reactions) TeSTAR brought K-pop to American audiences! Collection of reactions | Korean subtitles]

I guess the response isn’t bad, then. Judging by the huge amount of these videos, it seemed we hadn’t simply been met with mockery by foreign audiences. I looked up the video of just our performance from the show.

It has quite a few views. Even the video that didn’t contain the 127 Section song had a similar number of views. I hadn’t been expecting it at all. Both videos mostly had English comments, but I had no trouble gleaning the vibes from them. I’d been studying English a lot in my free time during this promotional cycle.

I can’t let this trait go to waste, can I?

[Trait: International Student (A)]

- I understand what you mean.

: +200% to your ability to learn foreign languages

It increased my learning speed, which meant the faster I learned, the easier it would be to give it up when a new trait came along. I hadn’t had much time, so my skills weren’t anything amazing. I could say whatever I memorized and make it sound natural enough, though.

But I picked it up way faster than I thought I would. If I’d had something like this in college, I’d have spent at least half a year doing nothing but studying in the library.

Setting those thoughts aside, I skimmed through the comments.

- They have a definite musical identity. That’s interesting.

- K-pop? *Mind blown*

- They’re so amazing! Their live performance was something else!

- I think I’m into them now. The WeTube algorithm keeps on showing me new videos

- Public opinion: TeSTAR was underrated as far as K-pop went. Nobody expected that it would be the nerds who discovered them.

Most of the comments went something like this, except for any regarding 127 Section. What I didn’t foresee was that the viewers of the program would be really into “Midnight, and Next.”

I thought they would think it wasn’t masculine enough and hate it. That was what those kinds of audiences often said about K-pop. I knew that much. But it seemed we’d benefited from the genre of this particular song. Many of the show’s viewers were apparently software engineers, so lo-fi jazz was popular among them.

- I added this to my coding playlist

- They seem like real musicians! I wish they’d do the soundtrack for Fallin, too (face with tears emoji)

- This is great, calming music. I should listen to this when I’ve been coding all night and there hasn’t been a single bug (face screaming in fear emoji)

In any case... it was a huge success. I checked Korean gaming communities just in case, and their ire seemed to have died down completely. In fact, some were even growing nostalgic about how things had been at launch.

I guess it’s a good thing we set some clear boundaries. We probably came off as unlikely to drag out our connection to the game or the soundtrack, and we’d given a great live rendition of the collab song. This had probably restored us to their good graces. Even the TeSTAR fans who’d been on the verge of turning against the 127 Section gaming community seemed much calmer.

“What are you looking at?”

“Just surfing the net.”

“Our performance? We did good.” Big Sejin flopped onto the bed next to mine after his shower.

We’d randomly swapped roommates so we could film content for WeTube, and I’d ended up with him.

He’s not as unpleasant to share a space with as I thought he’d be. He was a bit of a pain and loud, but we kept similar routines.

Big Sejin asked cheerfully, “Do you think our next album will do better than ever?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.”

“Yo, you should always say yes to that kind of question!” He guffawed, then turned his attention to his smartphone.

Well, the odds are high it’ll be a success. The videos that came out of The Nerdy Andy Show had gotten great reviews, and I could tell that overseas K-pop fans were quickly growing interested in TeSTAR. This was probably because we’d won recognition in a niche that wasn’t familiar with the genre.

That’s just how people are. At this rate, we might even get a massive amount of views for the next album’s music video.

I shrugged and said to Big Sejin, “I’m going to bed.”

“Okay. You can turn the lights out!”

I did so and lay in bed, checking my phone again. I was done with looking into how our performance was being received, but I wanted to see how things were going back in Korea. This was how I learned some interesting news.

As TeSTAR had begun nibbling at the overseas K-pop pie, someone else was making waves in Korea. A new male idol group’s debut song had hit the music charts jackpot. Goldie #1’s group had finally debuted successfully.

Wow. Just a glance told me they were doing great on the charts, though not as well as TeSTAR had done when we had debuted. The overwhelmingly popular opinion was that the song was fantastic.

They’ll hit it big if they keep this up. This was great news since Goldie #1 was such a nice guy. I was reminded of something—my status abnormality. If Cheongryeo was correct, my fourth status abnormality—the next one I would receive—would be my final mission. Given how things had gone thus far, the difficulty would likely only rise.

Should I just get it now, then? Our reception overseas and the new group hot on our tail made me think that the next year or so would be our career high.

Or, of course, we might be like VTIC and continue to grow without an end in sight. But no one could be sure of that in this unpredictable industry. Still, I had a feeling that we’d do just fine, at least for this year.

Hmm. I brought up the status window.