Chapter 193

Chapter 193

The Gold Disc Awards was held over two days, with categories for both digital sales and physical album sales. As male idols tended to be stronger in the latter category, they often took awards in album sales rather than the former.

This was true of TeSTAR this year, since the album containing “Present” had ranked in the top seven best-selling idol albums of all time, setting an incredible record. While the digital sales had been great as well, breaking a million in album sales had an entirely different meaning.

They were now without a doubt considered a top-tier male idol group, even if there was still one group they couldn’t hope to surpass right above them.

- They still can’t get the daesang because of VTIC LOL. I pity them

- Didn’t the ToneA awards give them Artist of the Year, at least? It’s T1’s awards ceremony, so I knew they would get something haha

- TeSTAR doesn’t deserve a daesang yet. Maybe they’ll get one after VTIC run themselves into the ground next year

└ LOL what are you saying? They kicked out the problematic member a while ago. You’re just a hater and a fan of a hopeless group, get f*cking lost

└ You VTIC fans are disgusting

“Sons of b*tches!”

A VTIC fan fumed as she threw her phone on the floor.

Goddamn it... All because of that f*cking criminal. She’d hated the member in question anyway because he’d been good for nothing, and with how things were turning out now, she was about to lose it.

What did the other VTIC members do to deserve this? Everything on their schedules had been canceled, and they’d been forced to go on hiatus for an unspecified amount of time. They hadn’t even appeared at any of the end-of-year shows because of it.

The early reveal they’d released had teased that they’d prepared something amazing for their comeback. She couldn’t believe it had been delayed for so long and was only now about to be released. He’s never once made any trouble since he debuted...

This fan, who was particularly supportive of a single member, wistfully thought of her favorite idol.

Jaehyeon... Her bias was the leader, Cheongryeo.

My Jaehyeon... He goes to volunteer his time at dog shelters when he’s not working. I can’t believe how hard it must have been to have a member on your team who was always hanging around a damned nightclub… The fan decided to think of his eviction from the group as a good thing.

Okay. We got rid of the incompetent member, so the remaining four can go on to reach further career highs. After giving such a scathing mental review to the member who’d been booted from the group, she logged onto her social media. The accounts belonging to VTIC fans who’d been quiet during the hiatus were now bursting with energy.

Everyone seems excited. She needed whatever was going on to bring good results for the group, so the fan looked closely through all the posts to make sure there wasn’t any malicious nuance tucked away somewhere. She licked her lips when she realized there were a lot of fans missing.

I guess they moved on to a different group. A few accounts she’d chatted with in the past had disappeared entirely. They would be replaced by new ones once the group resumed activities, but it was inevitable that some had left.

“Maybe they went over to that group instead?”

The fan felt odd as she considered the group in question, who had been all the rage for a while. One of its members had seemed quite close with Cheongryeo. Of course, she was thinking about TeSTAR, from season three of Idol Inc.

She’d actually watched their reality show recently, since she was somewhat interested in Park Moondae, who was friends with Cheongryeo, and everybody on the internet seemed to be talking about it.

A specific clip from the show that was crammed with all the elements people liked, ranging from mukbang to national pride, had attracted even ordinary people and older WeTube viewers who were not usually interested in idols.

- LOL hotteok with ice cream? That’s the GOAT

- Handsome young men from our country promoting a delicious Korean snack! They seem really good at making them and look lovely to boot. Rooting for you :)

- LOL look at the foreigners’ reactions when Park Moondae sings along to the song playing in the shop. I think I’d react the same way if a foreign cook making a kebab suddenly began to sing like that

- Oh no, what if they think all Koreans look like that? I don’t know if this is a good idea anymore (laughing emoji)

The show had caught on to the point that a cable TV channel belonging to T1 planned to begin airing it starting next week.

VTIC would be really good at that, too. Cheongryeo’s fan grumbled, envying them for having a corporate-owned broadcaster on their side. She couldn’t deny, however, that the show was fun. The group’s distinct characters made even in the unimportant, filler scenes pop. One example was in the later part of the second episode, when TeSTAR were forced to close up shop because they were hit with an unexpected number of sales.

[“This tastes heavenly. I want another one of these ice cream hotteok, please.”]

[Bae Sejin: O-okay.]

Bae Sejin, who’d been carefully drizzling chocolate on the pancakes, tensed when an American customer suddenly approached him and awkwardly went to the kitchen.

[Bae Sejin: We need another pancake… An ice cream one.]

[Lee Sejin: Whoa. We just ran out of dough!]

[!!!!]

The screen shook as the camera zoomed in on Bae Sejin, causing his face to quiver.

[Bae Sejin: O-oh. O-one moment...]

[Lee Sejin: Oh, I’ll tell them! We’ll give them a bunch of ice cream for free or something!]

[Bae Sejin: No... I’ll do it!]

An energetic fight song began to play as Bae Sejin scooped out a massive bowl of ice cream.

[“Wow! Thank you!”]

[“Ahem... Y-you’re welcome.”]

The situation was handled after the customer communicated their approval, and Bae Sejin looked proud of himself. The show continued to be both cheerful and funny in the after-hours meeting that followed.

[※Forced to close up because of too many orders!※]

[※The discussion begins※]

There was a drum roll.

[※The recipe faction※]

[Kim Raebin: We had enough dough for fifty, but we only made forty. This points to a lack of experience. I’ll practice after we close so I can ensure we produce fifty each time!]

[※Korean generosity (?) faction※]

[Lee Sejin: It’s not like these are all that costly. Let’s give them bigger hotteok! Let’s show them Korean generosity!]

[※“Let’s just make some money” faction※]

[Park Moondae: No matter how you do it, don’t stop making the dough. We need to have stuff to sell.]

The members eagerly put forth their own conflicting opinions, but they seemed to get along well despite their bickering. Their different personalities came through clearly as well.

Bae Sejin, who seemed shocked by every little mistake, and Kim Raebin, the broken pancake machine, had become cute internet memes. It was clear they were charming celebrities who had won over the public.

That’s why people jumped ship from our fandom... Cheongryeo’s fan believed, however, that would end today. Now that their hiatus was over and VTIC was making a comeback, they would gather popularity again at a frightening speed!

They just have to put out a good song, and they’ll shoot back to the top! In fact, the recent loss of a member had garnered interest, as people wanted to see how well they coped or simply wanted to cheer them on through a difficult time. And since his debut, Cheongryeo had never once let down his fans.

A sound came from the TV.

“Oh, it’s starting.”

A PG-13 rating appeared on screen, as she focused her attention on the TV.

Time to watch their award ceremony comeback stage! Footage of artists taking their seats played briefly. It seemed to have been pre-recorded. After some point, TeSTAR appeared.

“Whoa.”

Cheongryeo’s fan wasn’t marveling because TeSTAR had appeared—that would have been pretty random behavior for her. It was the correct time for them to make an appearance, anyway.

They were slapping the cushions they’d bought at the theme park down onto their assigned chairs. The sound of them dropping down on the chairs was quite rowdy. They’d even taken care to hide the theme park’s logos printed on the cushions. The camera then zoomed in on the animal faces that appeared on each of the cushions for some reason.

What in the world is going on? She suspected she knew and quickly pulled up the internet, where real-time viewers were filling the chat with laughing emojis. The scene was funny even to those who hadn’t seen TeSTAR’s reality show.

And those who had were getting a kick out of being in on the joke.

- LOL they brought those here? I can’t believe it

- What? Are those cushions special?

- They were in TeSTAR’s reality show

- LOL they spent a thousand dollars on impulse purchases. But they’re making good use of the cushions, at least

- I strongly recommend watching TeSTAR’s Idol Working Holiday. They sell hotteok to pay for their trip to the US!

“Wow...”

As she waited for VTIC to appear on screen, Cheongryeo’s fan was forced to admit that TeSTAR were naturals at playing the idol game.

***

“I’m using the cat cushion.”

“Eugene, you’re the one who destroyed the other cat cushion! You should be content with the dolphin one.”

“I don’t like the dolphin one.”

Eugene had been after Raebin’s cushion ever since he saw it at the shop. Just watching them makes my head hurt.

I raised mine in the air. “You can have the puppy one, if you want.”

“Great!” Eugene happily took it and politely handed me the dolphin seat cushion in exchange. It was ugly, that was for sure, but I’d be sitting on it so it didn’t matter.

Phew. I sat down on my seat cushion, and I could hear the other idols around us doing their best not to laugh.

Laugh all you want. Their amusement was a good sign since viewers would no doubt be laughing, too. The appearance of our unexpected cushions would serve as good promotion for the reality show. It was now time for us to focus on the awards ceremony, though I couldn’t say I liked the seating arrangement.

VTIC is right next to us. TeSTAR had gotten even more popular since last year, so it was inevitable that we’d been given better seats. However, it wasn’t Cheongryeo I was worried about—it was the member of my group seated right next to me.

What’s the matter with him? Bae Sejin looked extremely grave as he sat in the seat next to mine. It was a good thing most people would just think it was on account of the ceremony. Otherwise, the internet would have been coming up with all kinds of wild guesses already.

I withheld a sigh, and covering my mouth just in case, I said quietly, “Hey. Smile.”

“Oh!” Bae Sejin immediately adopted his usual calm smile. He certainly had a talent for acting, that was for sure.

And as for Big Sejin… I don’t have to worry about him. He was grinning as he made fun of Eugene, and seemed no different from usual. This wasn’t surprising to me, since I’d spoken to them just yesterday.

“I’m not all that worried, but just in case something goes wrong, I’d like you to be ready to cover for me.”

“H-how?”

“Uh… If you get the sense that something uncomfortable is incoming in the middle of a conversation, could you change the subject for me?”

Given their stats, I was talking more to Big Sejin than Bae Sejin, but I included the latter just to be polite.

“Okay!”

As expected, Big Sejin had nothing more to say on the matter. Bae Sejin, however, seemed to have walked away from the conversation with a strange sense of duty or something.

“Hem. All right. Don’t you worry!”

On the way to the ceremony, he’d been tense and on guard like he was looking after his younger brother who’d been bullied at school.

I hope he doesn’t do anything unnecessary. I was beginning to think I shouldn’t have told him the truth. But it was nice that he was trying so hard on my behalf, so I decided to take a roundabout approach to helping him relax.

“Come to think of it, Sejin, your cushion has a bow on it.”

“Yes. That guinea pig is cute, Sejin.” Chungwoo agreed.

“Yes, I suppose it is...”

“Sure is. Did you purchase it because of that VOD reaction video?”

Bae Sejin flushed bright red. I was referring to the videos we’d filmed reacting to the first concert rehearsal, included with the VODs for our recent concert.

They were meant to promote the VODs. And Bae Sejin had been mortified when doing the reactions, since the rehearsal video they’d played for him to react to had been for the unit performance when he had worn a jean jacket with a giant bow on his.

The making film’s production team had commented throughout the video.

“The bow looks great on you!”

“Uh… It’s not…”

Bae Sejin ran away in the video, and Eugene had laughed mercilessly. Bae Sejin seemed to have recalled the same scene and shouted, “No! It just looked similar to a hamster—”

“Oh, a hamster.”

“I’m not saying I’m a hamster! The f-fans call me that!”

“Are guinea pigs just big hamsters?”

“Darn it!”

Bae Sejin was defenseless against the harmless teasing from the members. He would be sulking in his embarrassment for the rest of the night. It probably made us look close to anyone watching, so the interaction had served the purpose of killing two birds with one stone.

I smirked and turned away from Bae Sejin only to lock eyes with two people at the next table who were approaching to take their seats.

“Oh! Moondae!”

It was the two VTIC members I’d filmed a variety show with. They waved and smiled at me. Right next to them was the criminal who’d tried to crack my skull open with a sledgehammer.