Chapter 182

Chapter 182

Asking Ahyeon for help with a performance had already proven to be a good strategy. Even back during the Idol Inc. evaluation, when we’d barely known each other, he’d been happy to be asked and eager to help out. The conversation, however, didn’t go as I’d expected.

“N-no!”

“...?”

Ahyeon’s attitude changed as soon as I explained my situation. Has a competitive side finally awakened in him?

I stared at him, nonplussed.

He flinched a little but continued without relenting, “Y-you’re hurt. You shouldn’t be doing that sort of thing…”

Oh, so that’s the problem?

“It’s fine. I’m not going to start practicing it right away. I’ll start after I’ve recovered a bit more.”

Since I’d been working out regularly before the kidnapping, I’d focus on planning and memorization and only start really practicing when there were only two weeks left. I wasn’t an unrealistic TV character who was able to jump into action the very next episode after being shot. Of course, I’d planned to give myself time to recover. Despite explaining my plan in detail, Ahyeon didn’t look too pleased.

“S-still... I think it’ll b-be a strain on y-your joints… M-maybe you should reconsider?”

“Hmm...”

“Y-you’re already so good at s-singing! Y-you don’t need to do something like this…” He looked pretty stressed.

I guess he’s sensitive to injuries. I’d assumed it was because he was a dance major, but his desperation to stop me suggested there was more to it.

“Well.”

In any case, it seemed like it was going to be difficult to change his mind. I decided to try a different approach.

“I think you’re right.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. I should be more careful. I don’t want to get hurt.”

Ahyeon visibly brightened.

I added carefully, “I’ll just use a stage device briefly, then… Oh, I know. Just to be safe, do you mind telling me about the safest posture for using one?”

“Y-yes!”

There.

Ahyeon was nodding.

I showed him a video on my phone. “I’m talking about this part here, where I’m supposed to relax...”

Tricky nuance was the name of the game. Upon second thought, he’d realize that I was saying I had no intention of changing my plans. But given his personality, I knew he’d just think I’d accepted his advice.

After getting a few practical tips from Ahyeon, I even managed to get him to agree to show me how it was done in the practice room.

“Thanks.”

“D-don’t mention it.”

Ahyeon only realized something was amiss when we arrived at the huge practice room we’d rented for concert practice. The agency was acting quickly for a change, and it had already rented the device I needed.

“Huh? What?”

There was practically a visible question mark over Ahyeon’s face, but it was too late for him to argue.

“I-I thought you... you weren’t going to...?”

“You said you’d teach me, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes, but...”

I shrugged. “You don’t have to if you don’t feel like it. An instructor is here, so I can just take my time asking him instead.”

“N-no! I’ll show you!”

“Thank you.”

Ahyeon gave me a demonstration. He seemed to have used it before since he did a perfect demonstration of it even without the instructor’s advice. However, there was something special about the way he did it.

It’s definitely different when he does it… This was what I had to learn.

“Wow!”

Eugene came in midway through, excitedly declaring that he would try it himself. Other than nearly slamming his face into the floor, everything went well. A few of the members were quick to question me, though.

“Moondae, did you see the doctor? Did he clear this?”

“Oh, yes,” I said, nodding to Chungwoo’s careful question. “I’ll only attempt it after I recover, and I’ll try not to push myself too much.”

“All right… You should still be careful, though.”

I really was all right. I was already taking time off from the many items on our schedule, and this body recovered much more quickly than my original one.

Is it the Energy Drink trait? Fatigue accumulated slowly for me, and the skill seemed to boost the speed of my recovery. I folded my arms and studied the device Eugene had just gotten off with a grin on his face.

This will look good, as expected. I finally felt like I had something worth showing, and it felt good. I was looking forward to the concert quite a lot.

***

“This… is to our success.”

“Too right it is! Cheers!”

Park Moondae’s fansite master was drinking beer with her friend, the graduate student.

Yeah, baby! The two of them were feeling great because they’d successfully secured tickets for TeSTAR’s second concert not too long ago! Both of them had been successful, which wasn’t always a given.

“These are standing seats, right? Do we have to stand the entire time?”

“Nope! There are seats! You can sit briefly whenever you feel like it.”

“Oh, I see!”

The graduate student smiled cheerfully. She’d purchased a nice seat toward the front of the standing section, only this section was actually fitted with lots of simple chairs.

Didn’t she say it was really difficult to get the time off to go? The fansite master looked at her friend with some pity before glancing at her phone, which had just vibrated. She grabbed it as soon as she saw the words on the screen.

“No way! Moondae uploaded a post!”

“Whoa!”

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

Hey, Loviewers!

It’s me, Moondae (puppy emoji). This is my dinner. I made it.

(Photo) (Photo)

Chungwoo took the photos for me.

Have a nice meal, Loviewers!

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

One of the attached photos contained a pretty respectable home-cooked meal that included some spicy bean paste stew and fried eggs. The other one was a picture of Park Moondae taking a photo of the table with a serious look on his face.

He’s driving me crazy! The fansite master felt like pulling her hair clean from her head, she was so happy. Park Moondae really was the best, but he was pushing himself too hard.

Get some rest already! He’d probably been given time off to recover. So why was he cooking food? There were various elements in the photo that concerned her upon second inspection.

The graduate student pointed out with worry, “He’s still wearing the wrist guard…”

“I think he’s wearing a back brace, too. I can see the outline through his clothes.”

It had already been a week since the news had come out about his injury, but they couldn’t help still being worried all the same. Their excitement deflated a little.

“But Moondae’s solo song doesn’t require a lot of movement. I think he should be fine performing at the concert. He sang it while just standing still on Bespoke Singer.”

“Yeah. He’ll probably sing it seated this time.”

They made a few reasonable assumptions, guessing that he might be left out of the group choreography as well, if necessary.

He’ll be disappointed. After watching him for more than a year, the fansite master had surmised that Park Moondae loved performing on stage, though he wasn’t obvious about showing it. She decided she should send some red ginseng to his agency to pass along to him, and resisted the urge to sink into gloominess.

“Still… This concert will probably be more fun than the first one! The venue is bigger, too!” the graduate student said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Hmm… Y-yes.”

The fansite master tried to react with some enthusiasm, though she couldn’t help but feel concerned. Happy that they’d both successfully bought tickets, they’d forgotten one important fact.

Why does it have to be the Gocheok Sky Dome, of all places? The last concert had been at a gymnasium with thirteen thousand seats. The upcoming one was going to be held at Gocheok Sky Dome, which has twenty-one thousand seats. Given the impressive rise in TeSTAR’s popularity, the agency was right to broaden the reach of the concert, but the fans didn’t particularly like this new venue.

We won’t be able to see them very well. She wanted to protest and demand they stay at the gymnasium, extending the concert to two weeks, but she knew that wasn’t possible because of their tour schedule.

Darn it… She wouldn’t be able to go with the group on every step of the tour, given the demands of her real life, and she drank down the remainder of her beer just thinking about it. I’ll have to buy fancams from other people for a few of the events…

The beer tasted amazing. It was with considerable effort that she redirected the conversation to a more cheerful topic. “Award ceremony season will come around not long after the concert. We’ll get to see them a lot, even if they go on tour!”

“Whoa! You’re right!”

They had pretty big expectations for TeSTAR’s results at this year’s award ceremonies.

There’s also a chance VTIC won’t take part. One of their members had been embroiled in a pretty vulgar scandal that had taken place at a nightclub, delaying the entire group’s comeback.

VTIC had come out with a pre-release, but nothing more, and their fans seemed anxious. After they’d ejected the member in question without mercy, they’d maintained radio silence on their official social media account—they’d remained silent even on one of the VTIC members’ birthdays.

I think it was Cheongryeo’s birthday. It was hard to tell if he was subtly trying to screw Moondae over or if they were actually friends, but Cheongryeo was the one she was most familiar with. She soon cast the issue from her mind.

They’re top-tier idols. I’m sure they’ll manage to extricate themselves from this mess. Even without taking VTIC into account, TeSTAR was going strong. Park Moondae, in particular, had enjoyed a sharp spike in popularity. This was only made more obvious by the multiple fansite masters that had sprung up to post and spread his content.

How many switched over to him, I wonder? She’d noticed fansite masters of other groups silently switching allegiances in the real world, and more than once, at that. There just so happened to be a fansite who nabbed a seat in the same section as her at the upcoming concert and ticked this box.

She’s a fansite master for both Moondae and Big Sejin! She had been filming Big Sejin subtly, as if testing the waters. During the “Loving the Wait” performance, she’d taken extremely high-quality eye contact photos and released them on an anonymous website, apparently. The thing was, she’d then gone on to actually open a fansite and released alternate versions of the same photos as well, including pictures of Park Moondae with Sejin!

I thought she would only take photos of Big Sejin... Who would have thought she’d end up also uploading content for Moondae? It sparked her competitive spirit somewhat. She would take much better photos at this concert than that new double fansite master who’d originally been a fan of a different idol! She resolved this to herself, ignoring the fact that she herself had once been a different idol’s fansite master.

“I’m going to take some really amazing pictures.”

“That sounds great! Show me, too!” the graduate student said cheerfully.

Then she ordered more beer.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

They clinked their glasses again, hearts racing at the prospect of the upcoming concert. They couldn’t have imagined that on the first day of the concert, they would scream at the top of their lungs and wave their lightsticks to the point of breaking them.

***

The day of the concert arrived, and TeSTAR was rehearsing.

“Please move this right away!”

“Yes!”

A huge amount of people were bustling about before the show. Many were part-time staff who had been hired urgently to fill in since more hands were needed.

This is damned hard. One such temporary staff member tossed down the armful of things he’d been carrying. He’d applied for the job upon seeing that the day’s pay would be seventy thousand won, but the endless amount of work had tired him out.

He looked around him before carefully bringing out his phone and starting an angry post for an anonymous website.

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

[I’m a staff member at a male idol’s concert, don’t ask me anything]

: Just got a job loading and unloading delivery trucks. They pay you minimum wage but expect you to go the extra mile. There are so many fangirls outside already. They need to get a life.

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

That ought to get some people fired up. His post caught some people’s interest, since a few comments appeared. They weren’t very nice ones, however.

- LOL you haven’t tried working with cargo, have you?

- Staff? My ass. You’re probably a temp worker there

- LOL you must be an idiot. Just because you’re a temp worker doesn’t mean you don’t have to do work

- The fangirls you mentioned have money. OP gets paid minimum wage.

Sons of b*tches! The guy fumed as he locked his phone.

“You there! What are you doing?” someone asked sharply.

“I’ll be right there...” he said cautiously, beginning to move the cargo again. The other temporary staff like him, who’d been working hard, glanced at him. But he’d already lost the will to work.

Maybe I’ll just bounce. He was quietly getting ready to just leave the place when he heard a bit of a commotion in the distance.

Huh? He peered down the hallway and recognized some famous faces.

TeSTAR had come out to do their final rehearsal. They moved quickly down the corridor surrounded by their staff, bowing as they went.

“Hello!”

Lee Sejin made eye contact with him and smiled. He vibed well-maintained, with a muscular frame and handsome face.

“Let’s go,” Park Moondae said, nudging Lee Sejin along.

“Got it!”

They bowed a few more times before they were on the move again.

“They’re all so handsome.”

“Wow.”

“That was pretty cool.”

The other temporary staff whispered excitedly behind him, but the guy who’d been preparing to leave was offended.

It’s not like they’re doing anything all that special. He felt inferior to the young idols. These people who were a similar age to him had already accomplished so much, and he hated being confronted with it. He no longer felt like running away, though.

Let’s see what they can do. They’d gotten their success from a TV show without putting in any prior effort. They had to have flaws, either in character or skill. A single well-timed post full of evidence could prove a lot of things these days.

They won’t even know who wrote it, since it’s all anonymous. With that thought in mind, he began cooking up delusions in his mind, which were decidedly unsavory. Regardless of what this single individual might have been thinking, the preparations for the concert were finalized thanks to the hard work of many, amid much excitement.