Chapter 217

Chapter 217

A cover performance was when artists performed a song that had been released by another group or artist. As was to be expected, there were some unspoken rules about this practice.

One of them was that idols usually avoided covering songs belonging to newer artists since it would become very awkward if the cover performance was lackluster in comparison. Even if they pulled off a good cover, criticism was often quick to follow.

Covers were typically performed after only a few days of practice, and the risk was simply too great. Many of the idols being featured on the variety show made by the Idol Inc. production team had already reached the peak of their popularity.

Wait, there are so many idols in this who are too good to be doing year-end cover performances! This meant that nobody in the audience had expected they would cover a recent hit from a rookie idol group.

Whoa. Relevant social media posts that began appearing all betrayed similar feelings of confusion. Cheongryeo’s fan, however, immediately understood what was going on.

I guess there would be too few songs available to choose from if they limited themselves to idols older than Jaehyeon. Only a very small number of idols older than VTIC remained and had produced a hit within the last five years. And it was boring to dig too far back, since older songs had already been covered plenty of times.

A song by a rookie girl group… This is guaranteed to be good! She realized that she hadn’t seen Cheongryeo perform a female idol’s song since the same year he’d debuted. Her heart began to race at the prospect of receiving such a rare gift out of nowhere. She was only reacting this way because it didn’t even occur to her that Cheongryeo might fumble. All these thoughts flew through her mind within a matter of seconds.

We gonna fly high

The camera stopped zooming in, and the performance began. Ringing string instruments, distorted with a digital synthesizer, played over drums and bass. Idols who were wearing close-fitting leather harnesses darted across the purple stage, beginning their performance.

The sense of disharmony that came from seeing members of different groups perform together soon melted away. The smooth skills they’d gained from years of experience played a part in this, but the key reason was the person at the center of the group—Cheongryeo, of course.

Shout it, high up

Fly up into the sky

The chains, shoot ‘em up

Escape from the paradox

Whoa!

They’d started off with a powerful chorus. Cheongryeo’s fan found herself groaning.

“Damn, I like this so much…”

Cheongryeo connected his moves perfectly, one after another, as he completed the intro, which lasted a little less than half a minute. There was no time to think about the original song—the performance flew past in the blink of an eye. His skill was incredible.

No way! Similar reactions were flooding the fan community sites, though these posts didn’t growl like animals or shout Cheongryeo’s name at the top of their lungs like she was doing.

- Cheongryeo is so f*cking good

- He’s world-class material

- He only changed the key, but it sounds like a different song

Cheongryeo hadn’t just changed the key. The nuance of the song had changed. High Up, Miry-nay’s debut song, was based around a metaphor—it was about a caterpillar caught in a spider’s web, which built a cocoon and eventually escaped as a butterfly. There was a light sorrowful feel to it, born from its retro feel while also being sophisticated and rhythmical, making the song well-suited to recent trends and propelling it into popularity.

The song had been the perfect debut song, with moves suiting a rookie group and emotional touches added here and there, but all of this also meant the song had its own unique color. The metaphor itself was a reference to the team’s determination to rise above the controversy and trouble that followed them after the fourth season of Idol Inc. The older idols, who were far too experienced with such things, didn’t fall into the trap of trying to mimic that unique feeling in their cover stage.

Tear the off the skin, throw it off

Take off, take off, take off

I’m taking off right now

They simply focused on delivering good energy as they performed the song in their own way.

“Goddamn.”

There had been an unavoidable stiffness to the song, something unique to debut songs and inevitable, but that was gone, replaced by an expressiveness that came from how relaxed the idols were. What was more, the way Cheongryeo had altered the choreography made sure that this relaxed mood did not come off as arrogant. As a result, the performance was both intense and eager, while differing from the original greatly. In a word, it was the perfect example of the powerful, but charming concept that global K-pop fans loved so much.

And because they were all from different groups, the competitiveness between them only built upon this effect. This became all the more apparent during the chorus.

Shout it, high up

(High up, up, up, up)

Go farther, go higher

“Incredible!”

It left the viewers breathless. Led by Cheongryeo, the group was suave and perfectly in control of their movements, creating a mesmerizing sight. One of the greatest rules of choreography stated that the fine control of the center member affected the quality of the overall performance, and was being faithfully adhered to here. Those who’d zeroed in on the performance as soon as the third episode dropped were probably already making GIFs.

Oh, they’re going to catch some criticism for this! Cheongryeo’s fan could easily picture some people getting upset, but the smile refused to leave her face. Such was the impressive charm of their performance. The lyrics were sung so powerfully that when they sang about their intention to fly, it sounded more like they were ready to destroy everything in their path.

High up!

They moved into the second verse of the song. A dramatic melody suddenly kicked in, an audio cue that someone with killer vocals was about to step up. Naturally, it was Park Moondae who took over. This was also the part that had originally been performed by Miry-nay’s center, the girl who’d gotten first place in the fourth season.

She’s also a great dancer. As Cheongryeo’s fan considered the #1 contestant of the fourth season, who was a genius of many talents, she felt automatically anxious watching Moondae appear on the screen. Moondae was quite good at dancing by now, but there were plenty of non-fans who doubted his dancing ability. The “POP☆CON” performance from his first appearance on Idol Inc. had left a lasting impression.

“Hmm.”

But her worries were unfounded.

No wounds, no pain

Can stop us now

<THE WAY OUT>

Can’t let us down

“Whoa!”

Park Moondae’s dancing was vivacious. The way his body bent and straightened was extremely skillful.

He’s good! The audience’s surprise was all the greater because he seldom danced in the center during TeSTAR’s title tracks, at least not in a major dance part like this. Cheongryeo’s fan nodded to herself, thinking to herself that this must be because TeSTAR had so many members who were great dancers.

But why do I get the feeling… he’s dancing a little like Cheongryeo? Before she could pinpoint the source of this feeling, Moondae’s voice caught her ear.

We gonna fly high!

We’re fighting these chains

Say goodbye

The audio had been post-processed, that much was for sure, but this version was also far more dramatic than the original.

“Oh, man.”

She could certainly hear the difference between a member who was a jack-of-all-trades and a member who specialized in singing.

He’s really good. Cheongryeo’s fan looked at the screen with some surprise, then felt an odd tug in her chest at the sight of Moondae’s smooth, young face. She was also filled with rage, reminded once more of a certain someone.

That incompetent bastard. It makes me so upset to think about what the members must have gone through because of their main vocalist… The guy had hardly any charm, either, and often hid from the camera.

To hell with supporting every member! We should have cursed him out early on and shocked him to his senses! Cheongryeo’s fan ground her teeth, thinking of the foreign fans who still left comments like, “VTIC needs five members to be complete T_T.” In any case, the performance had been so mesmerizing that her anger soon cooled.

“Phew.”

She was happy, since Cheongryeo hadn’t done such a typical concept-driven rookie idol song in so long.

We’re gonna find

<THE WAY OUT>

After her idol all but grew wings on stage, Moondae took center for a brief moment during the final chorus.

“Hmm.”

She fully believed that Cheongryeo deserved that spot, considering how good he was compared to everyone else, but she decided not to complain—Moondae had made quite the impression on her. She was only being so forgiving because Cheongryeo had gotten plenty of lines in the performance.

“That was fun…”

Cheongryeo’s fan lay in bed, satisfied and saving photos and GIFs of her idol as they came up on her timeline. It had been a while since fans had gotten such fun, informal content. In the process, she also saved a few gifs of Moondae as well.

Well, he’s cute. He seems to get along with the VTIC members pretty well. Maybe he’ll sign on with LeTi after TeSTAR disbands.

Her day had come to a satisfying end.

A few days later, when the behind-the-scenes video was uploaded, she caught sight of Cheongryeo personally giving advice to Park Moondae about his dancing and felt proud of her sharp eye.

***

- Moondae, when did you become such a good dancer? You’re a genius puppy, for sure! Your IQ is over three hundred!

- He’s the best husky in the world (GIF of Park Moondae dancing to the chorus)

- Nobody does concepts like Park Moondae. There are very few performers who can express themselves well in any environment. And Moondae is one of them, for sure. (Photo)

- Hey, there’s a reason he won the third season. He won during the show’s heyday, so he’s made of different stuff haha

The comments online seem pretty positive. I nodded to myself, watching the reactions to the performance that had gone live. The song was from a rookie group backed by T1, so nobody was complaining about the song choice.

It was obviously the production team who made the decision. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there were surprisingly few complaints about T1 trying too hard to promote Miry-nay.

The performance made a really favorable impression, I guess. If the results were good, all other details tended to become justified in people’s eyes. Because the people in the performance had been from different groups, there was quite a bit of subtle competition going on regarding who’d done better. In most cases, the most popular person won, as could be seen in the following comments.

- Look at Cheongryeo’s face. He looks so young, You could say he debuted just yesterday. He doesn’t look like he’s been at it for ten years

- Cheongryeo’s still the genius youngster

└ He’s too old to be called that T_T

└ Your favorite idol has the face of an old man, right? I feel bad for you… Cheer up!

- Cheongryeo’s a thousand-year-old idol

I don’t know about a thousand years, but he’s probably been at it for around fifty years by now… I dismissed the social media page with a wry expression. Though I didn’t want to admit it, he’d had the biggest role in the performance as the indisputably most popular person among us. I had nothing more to say about that.

But we succeeded, I guess. The WeTube video that had been uploaded of just our performance was gaining views at an incredible speed. The variety show was turning out to be a success, and Miry-nay was getting more publicity. The agency was probably dancing for joy at the moment.

And we didn’t lose out by doing it, either. As the variety show caught on overseas, the TeSTAR members who’d gotten attention early on as mentors were seeing a boost in popularity as well.

The special performance I was in got rave reviews, too. Ahyeon’s team would air next, and the trend was likely to continue since Youngrin was part of the team. Though not as much as Cheongryeo, she also had a large fanbase overseas. Ahyeon would no doubt benefit from that. There was such a huge gap between their debuts that there was no risk of any dating rumors arising between them.

The song was from a hybrid group, I think. From what I’d heard, they were covering a song from a mixed-gender group produced by a successful agency. The song had been pretty popular overseas. I’d performed the song once during an impromptu performance while on tour, so I was familiar with it. It was a great song, and the vibe of it suited Ahyeon well. No doubt, his performance would turn out great.

He was right next to me, monitoring my performance, as it happened. Apparently, the video had ended, because he said, “M-Moondae. That was so good!”

“Was the dancing okay?”

“Yeah! It was really energetic!”

Cool. So his advice was really helpful.

“Thanks. I think yours will turn out great, too.”

“Y-you think so?” Ahyeon smiled sheepishly. He seemed to also be of the opinion he’d done pretty well.

So we were right not to change teams. I was pretty confident he’d done great, but I’d monitor the episode next week, anyway. I locked my phone screen.

Contrary to my expectations, it was not smooth sailing until the next episode. A few days later, after the trailer for the second special performance had gone up, a post began making the rounds online.

[A post from Coolit Choi Gieun’s private social media account]

[Choi Gieun’s private posts leaked guys]

A secret account belonging to some random guy I didn’t even know had leaked. However, he just so happened to be on the same team as Ahyeon.

I didn’t even spare a thought for him, since Youngrin was the only one that merited any attention. Honestly, what he got up to was none of our business. We would have stood to gain if the controversy caused the producers to cut his screen time.

The problem was, as usual, that people were throwing random guesses around.

- Isn’t this part about Seon Ahyeon? (screen capture)

- Seems like the timing is right. They probably filmed together that day

I guess it’s that time again. I was going to exterminate some vermin.