Chapter 174

Chapter 174

A simple summary of the current situation went something like this. Some of Cha Eugene and Park Moondae’s personal fans had started to fight, and there was danger of the drama spilling over into mainstream discourse.

This is annoying as hell. Hmm… I have to keep calm. I would normally have simply turned a blind eye, but the public could start finding us tiring as a group again if things escalated any further. As such, I wanted to attempt to fix things.

That’s why I’m going to do a W Live. We’d become roommates and the fighting hadn’t spread yet, so it wouldn’t really be obvious if I decided to act like I didn’t know anything was going on. There were a few things I needed to watch out for if I was going to hold a livestream with Eugene under the current circumstances.

Firstly, neither of us should be seen as teaching the other. It would create an implicit hierarchy that people were bound to find fault with. For example, comments like His heart’s not in it when he’s teaching the other guy, or He’s overbearing.

As such, we can’t do a stream where Eugene teaches me English, for instance, or I teach him to cook.

Secondly, work-related topics were to be avoided. The moment we chose a topic related to dancing or singing, people would start comparing us, and that would only set the stage for even more conflict.

And finally, we could not compete against each other, whatever we picked to do on stream. People who sided with one of us might get upset with other viewers.

So no bets, card games, or anything of the sort. Those are all out. What activities remained to them, then? It was simple.

It’s best that we show them our teamwork. Whatever they did, it shouldn’t feel forced in any way, and it should be something the viewers could laugh at and enjoy. It would be even better if failing was funny. That was why I chose this.

“Yeaaah!”

It was a horror-themed escape room.

F*ck. I had no idea I’d one day waste money voluntarily this way, but I found an escape room cafe that was about to undergo some remodeling. After paying a hefty sum, I arranged a contract in no time at all over the phone. I’d had no time to haggle, so I’d probably paid a little more than I should have.

Good thing the agency offered to foot the bill. Not that this really meant anything—they would just detract it from my pay. In any case, this was why I ended up doing an escape room on one of our rare nights off.

A sad-looking staff member trailed after us as well, of course, carrying the camera.

Sorry about that. I hadn’t foreseen this outcome, either.

“Whoa! Moondae, your head! Watch out!” Eugene, on the other hand, seemed very excited. It made no sense.

“I thought you were scared of this sort of thing, too?” I asked.

“It’s all so fake! It’s not scary at all! There are no ghosts!”

He seemed to mean that compared to the haunted house we’d gone to for a reality show in the past, this was child’s play.

This is rather cheap-looking, for sure. Perhaps there just weren’t enough staff working at the cafe, but there was no one positioned around the place role-playing as ghosts or monsters. Even the props and the wallpaper looked tacky.

No wonder they’re about to undergo renovations. There were few demanding puzzles, though, which meant there was little opportunity for people to criticize us for being stupid. All they did was turn out the lights from time to time to scare us.

As long as I can stay moderately calm and nimble—

“Moondae! There’s blood here!”

“I-it’s crayon. Melted crayon.”

“Ah, okay!”

I wished I could just smack him over the head, but I couldn’t do that in front of the cameras. I need to push that thought out of my mind.

For better or for worse, the escape room got scarier the closer we got to the end, and we were soon able to forget how tacky the whole thing was. In fact, when a mannequin popped into view at the end while lights washed the room red, even Eugene was scared, making for a pretty entertaining show.

“What the—”

He even nearly swore. Well done. By the time we escaped, we were feeling like men who’d gone through hell and come out the other side.

“You two escaped with six minutes and twenty-one seconds to go!” the staff member announced.

“Wow! Look! We escaped!”

“You’ll get something nice to eat... on the way back.”

- LOL look at them, they’re so scared

- Surprisingly similar haha

- LOL congrats on escaping!

- (clapping hands emoji)

The staff member let us take a glimpse at the real-time reactions, which were amazing. We had plenty of viewers as well, just as many as when we hosted group streams.

Will that do it? At least we’d succeeded at making some good content.

“Thank you for watching.”

“Thanks, guys!”

The stream ended right before midnight.

“I’ll collect the cameras now.”

Today’s broadcast would be edited together with footage from other cameras installed in the room and uploaded to the W App separately. I nearly passed out when I was told it would be titled, “Puppy and Kitty overcome their fears,” but I accepted it nonetheless.

I’d rather people were distracted by wild titles like that. It’s a good thing… I sighed and checked my phone again.

- They made the two of them go to a horror escape room? Whoever’s in charge of their W App content is evil LOL

- The reality horror experience has returned

- I’ll bet both of them were missing Big Sejin

- Look at the kitty and the puppy quivering haha (screen capture)

- Moon Puppy was smart for a moment there, then he shriveled up in fear (comparison of screen captures)

“What are you looking at?” Eugene asked.

“How fans liked the stream.”

“Oh.” Eugene nodded.

I’d already explained to him why we were doing this as we prepared for the stream. I’d also told him in simple terms that some of our fans were aggressive.

He’s probably figured out the situation by now. He’d been pretty tactful during Lee Sejin and Bae Sejin’s falling out, and apparently, that hadn’t just been a fluke. I found it relaxing that he wasn’t trying to win in this.

“Did they like it?”

“Yeah. Seems everything’s okay.”

I was pretty happy with the comments. Because people were busy watching the video and uploading posts that sometimes trended, the fighting that was going on under the surface had already been forgotten. Nobody was even going to take notice of it anymore, except for the individuals who had directly been involved.

Eugene’s fans and mine can really pack a punch when they go all in at the same time. The edited version would go up in a few days, by which time someone might try to raise another stink. The new upload would end the matter for good.

“So do we get to eat something nice now?”

“Tomorrow. It’s late, so have a diet soda.”

“Right…”

I found something slightly concerning after we got in the van to return to the dorm, however. Some of Eugene’s malicious fans, the ones who’d been involved in the online quarreling, had taken refuge in an anonymous site and uploaded some posts.

- Wow, look at that! Great timing again, huh?

- Son of a b*tch, it’s so obvious he’s really worried about what people think

- Moondog being Moondog again. Let CE go already

- LOL Park Moondae will be frantically searching the internet to find our comments. I just know it

So it’s happening. I’d assumed someone might say things like this.

I handled a few problems too smoothly. Every controversy that had arisen had been smoothed over, and it wasn’t surprising that someone would start to think that I was doing it on purpose. But there had never been any evidence of this, not even circumstantially.

I preferred taking anticipative action, and my responses had always been ahead of the curve or simultaneous. Most people would find it hard to believe that I’d been responding to controversies—they would simply assume my timing was great.

And because I never explicitly mentioned such things, even those who suspected would simply assume that the agency was responsible for all the strategizing. That was why most simply thought that I reacted wisely to things and was lucky to boot. Which was sort of… hilarious.

They don’t even believe their own accusations. They were just upset, and flinging around anything they could come up with. I was concerned, however, that if this continued, they would be able to gather enough examples that their claims would actually start sounding credible.

And they would be right, too. I shrugged. I didn’t want to let them win, even so. So I considered what I should do.

How do I get rid of comments like this? I wanted to uproot any potential for controversy while I was at it.

The best way to do it would be to push them to fight among themselves. Or maybe encourage them to jump ship to a new group. In the long run, it would be better if these fans were to lose their influence, even for Eugene. So that means...

“Moondae! Want some?”

“Huh? What?”

I turned around and saw that Eugene was getting into the van holding a small bottle of diet soda—he’d bought one after all.

“The soda. Would you like some?” he repeated. He seemed to think I hadn’t understood him the first time around.

“It’s fine. You drink it.”

“Oh, all right! Are you worried about something? You look tired.”

“Well, it’s pretty late.”

“That’s not it! It’s like there’s a… psychological weight on you.”

I was at a loss.

He noticed that? Cha Eugene? I looked him over doubtfully, then sighed. I would answer him, however briefly.

“It’s just that I was a little on edge looking into how the fans are reacting. It’s nothing.”

“Oh! So lots of people hated it?”

“No, but… some did.”

“Aha!” Eugene gulped down his soda and said gravely, “Don’t worry so much, Moondae. We can’t change how other people think.” He shrugged. “My mom once told me that there will always be haters in life! You just gotta ignore them and keep going, you know? Don’t get stressed out!”

Hmm. This was shockingly reasonable advice. It cooled my racing thoughts. I considered the situation once more. Would there actually be a problem if I didn’t root out the bastards who’d holed up in some anonymous website?

Maybe, but maybe not. And if the problems that I feared actually arose, would it be hard to deal with?

The answer to that is no. It probably wouldn’t be all that hard to sort it out even if I had to handle it later rather than now.

What was more, was there even really anything to lose from people learning I monitored reactions online closely? At worst, a few people would say they were disappointed in me. In fact, if I made a mistake while trying to fight these guys to the death, the situation might only get worse. I had to admit it.

I was… overreacting. This wasn’t the sort of problem I’d usually have concerned myself with, but apparently, I’d really hated the idea that someone had almost managed to figure me out.

Have I become a control freak or something? I was living in someone else’s body and working a job that required me to meet many people. Maybe it had caused me to lose sight of the bigger picture.

“Phew.”

I exited the anonymous site on my screen, then tossed my phone into the next seat.

Then I said, “You’re right. I shouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“Great! I was right, wasn’t I?”

He seems very confident.

“Oh, Moondae. One more thing. Don’t forget, you can always sue them as a last resort!”

This was such quintessential American advice.

“Right.”

“Good!”

Who would have guessed he would be the one to give me this advice? I grinned and leaned back in my seat.

Maybe I’ll get some sleep. This would also allow him to drink the whole bottle of soda without having to worry about sharing it with me. The moment I closed my eyes, however, someone slapped me hard on the shoulder.

“Oh, Moondae! Inspiration! We should do a circus subunit stage!”

I wasn’t sure that I would last half a year as his roommate.

***

And so, after suffering from intermittent loss of sleep, I blackmailed, bribed, and coerced Eugene with snacks to get him to shut up. A few days following this, the topic of making new content naturally arose as we talked to the agency about the upcoming concert.

I didn’t think it was a bad idea. If there was more for the fans to enjoy, the nonsense the trolls cooked up would easily be swept under the rug. The agency’s ideas were slightly... different from mine, however.

“We’re planning new reality content.”

Reality shows were good. It would have been great if we had done one at the same time as releasing our album, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to make up for the inactivity during a tour—

“We’re thinking about going to the US to film it!”

“...?”

I should have realized then and there that the new director who was replacing the yes-man was... obsessed with America.