Chapter 219

Chapter 219

The video began with Ryu Chungwoo sitting completely still under a pine tree. Night had fallen over the pine forest visible in the background. His eyes, which glowed blue, fell closed. At the same moment, the screen flickered and then fused footage of the past and future together, settling into what was clearly a flashback. The sun was shining now, and Chungwoo loosed an arrow, lowering his bow with a smile.

The video then cut to an expressionless Chungwoo holding a black musket, and a bullet was promptly launched from the gun. The camera followed the bullet in slow motion, then cleverly cut to a gold coin of a similar size, which Lee Sejin was flipping up and down in front of his face.

The close-up of Lee Sejin’s hand then morphed, zooming out as the same hand performed an elaborate move while dancing inside a palace of some kind. The colorful cloth fluttering in the air around him transformed into a faded cord. Park Moondae was wearing this cord like a bracelet.

In this way, scenes that would not have looked out of place inside a music video appeared one by one in sequential order, with a classical arrangement of the “Present” instrumental accompanying the footage.

- What? What is this?

- I’m guessing they filmed all this during “Present” and “Spring Out.”

- Waiting for someone smarter than me to figure this out

Fans were confused by the video but enjoyed the cinematography and seeing new footage of the members they hadn’t seen before. It could have come off as just a collection of B-roll footage, but the shots had been arranged in such a way that it seemed to be telling some kind of story.

As the video unfolded, some viewers began to figure out what was going on.

- They’re appearing in the same order they did in the “Present” teaser, but backward

└ Oh my god

└ I’m getting shivers

This was correct. The footage of the members appeared in reverse order when compared to the order their solo songs came out during the “Present” teaser, something that didn’t happen just once. Footage of Seon Ahyeon reaching toward the surface of the water appeared, just like he had at the beginning of the teaser, and then the shot swapped to Chungwoo, who was spinning the musket and snatching it out of the air. The beginning and the end were connected.

The video continued, the flashback clearly not over. The scene changed over and over, gaining incredible speed. The artistic shots kept on changing, one after the other, before stopping as suddenly as they’d begun. Cha Eugene helped a bound Chungwoo to his feet, and the camera closed in on the citizenship application in his hand.

Then the video froze, and the camera suddenly moved to Bae Sejin, who was standing behind Eugene. The camerawork was slow and peaceful, like the kind of closeup shot that might appear in a movie. Bae Sejin’s expression was troubled, seemingly indicating that the flashback, expressed through countless clips whisking by, had belonged to him.

[“Hahaha!”]

Bae Sejin turned away from the members, who were laughing and running around joyfully with the applications clutched in their hands. He began to walk slowly away. His footsteps slowly sped up, and the laughter faded away. Then his surroundings changed. He was standing in front of the broad window that he’d looked down on the vast city through in the previous music video.

The city was just as vast and vibrant as ever, but there was a document on the window now that the last music video had neglected to show in any detail.

“Instructions for responding to citizenship applications (yokai)”

On the wrinkled paper were the words, “Actively refuse any requests,” circled many times with red ink, meaning the offer of citizenship had been nothing but meaningless bait.

[“Phew.”]

Bae Sejin sighed and tore the document down. Hesitating, he stared at the paper, then out the window. In the bottom corner of the window, the excited members could still be seen. His inner conflict didn’t last long.

The melody of “Spring Out” began, played on a single-stringed instrument. Bae Sejin slowly let the paper fall to the floor and produced a shabby strip of cloth from his pocket. He covered his eyes just as he had in “Present.”

A smooth, clear voiceover played over the scene.

[If I were ever to be born again…

I would like to be someone like you.]

Bae Sejin reached toward the window, still blindfolded. The camera zoomed in slowly, and the music slowly built in intensity. The moment he touched the window, the music distorted and the image changed.

Darkness and white noise filled the screen for a moment. A dark-haired Park Moondae now stood in a school uniform and was removing his hand from the window. He was inside a school. Turning around and looking into the camera, he smiled. The sun was setting behind him. It was a very familiar scene for the viewers.

Chimes could be heard.

♬♪♩♪- ♬♪♬♪- ♪♩-

They were playing “Magical Boys.”

The image of Moondae then melted away.

[Still enchanted]

[See you in that dream]

With these words, the video came to an end.

- What the actual hell?

- What did I just watch?

As expected, TeSTAR’s fandom was overwhelmed for the next three days as they tried to wrap their heads around the massive revelation concerning the connection between the group’s separate universes.

***

“Excellent.”

It had been a superb choice to drop our vlog closely followed by the official shared universe video. I scrolled through the many social media posts filled with various theories.

Let’s see. They’re saying all sorts of things.

- Parallel universes? I dig.

- It’s like a dream within a dream, you know? I think the correct order is Present, then Magical Boys, then Better Me, then Airplane.

- Come to think of it, weren’t there odd flashbacks to the previous music video in Picnic? Was that intentional, too?

- So they wanted to be humans, not yokai T_T. But they were yokai to start with, which is why they have all those abilities

- So the next album is going to return to the “Magical Boys” universe, right? (Please let that be the case)

The video had been so packed with hints of different things that there was a lot to talk about, including Bae Sejin’s role and the ordering in which the various music videos came. This only seemed to excite the public even more.

While I’m relieved that a lot of people are finding it interesting… There were plenty of fans who didn’t really like connected universes as a rule, of course. I supposed people who held this opinion hadn’t been too impressed over the past few days.

- TeSTAR, don’t take this too far

- This is getting excessive. How far are they going to go trying to connect all of this?

- Just put on suits and do a sexy concept for us. The bastards at T1 won’t know when to stop if we praise them for all this universe-linking

- I get that TSuns are focused on delivering concepts, but things are getting out of hand. This is just tiring

- I’m just going to go and watch Moondae brush his teeth again. See ya

For this crowd, we would soon be releasing content surrounding our move and the roommate selection game. Our fans would be back to their usual happy selves within a few days.

And there’s no chance that Ahyeon will get dragged into that nonsense again, either, from the looks of it. It seems we’d accomplished at least two goals with this tactic. I shrugged, looked around the inside of the van, and immediately closed the tab on my phone.

I should stop looking now. Given what I’d promised, I would make a conscious effort for the time being to ignore what people were saying about us anonymously. This was a topic that had actually come up when I’d asked if we could have a short meeting about releasing the universe video early.

“S-so… Moondae has promised not to keep such a close eye on the internet from now on!” Ahyeon had announced.

“Well done!”

“Good. I was worried, actually, since Moondae seemed to be searching out people’s opinions online so often.”

“I’ve heard it’s healthy to cut down on device usage. This is a good choice!” Raebin said.

Kim Raebin didn’t seem to have really understood what was going on, but at that point even Big Sejin had shrugged, apparently thinking to himself, That’s just how he is, I guess. I’d had no idea that all of them were so concerned about my mental health.

They’re making me seem like someone who’s addicted to the internet, like I can’t live without it. In any case, I’d had no choice but to just nod at them.

I’ll just satisfy myself with animal videos on WeTube for the time being, I thought lazily, opening the WeTube app. Because I’d turned viewing history off, while also refusing the app permission to collect information, no algorithm-populated feed appeared. I was going to watch dog videos in descending order of popularity.

It just so happened, however, that the video in fifth place on Trending was about TeSTAR.

[TeSTAR’s big picture? Americans are about to fall for K-pop hard!]

The thumbnail showed foreigners with captions like, “Idol Inc?” and “What universe?” It was so clearly content meant to cater to Korean audiences that it was almost hard to watch. I recognized the name of the WeTuber, however.

Their videos are usually pretty informative. The WeTuber in question basically summarized overseas internet sensations, usually from a pretty biased viewpoint.

This is a trending video… so it’s fine if I watch it, right? It had the sort of thumbnail that would make even the most uninterested person click on it.

It’s probably pretty complimentary toward us. There was nothing to fear, really. Coming to a conclusion I was happy with, I tapped on the video. Skipping the introduction, wherein the WeTuber greeted, “Hello, viewers on WeTube!”, I jumped to the meat of the video, playing the footage at 1.5x speed.

“If you watched my previous video, you’ll know that I explained the reason TeSTAR received such a boost in popularity in English-speaking countries.”

“A survival audition meme sparked interest in Idol Incorporated, which then led people to watch ‘Spring Out.’”

The WeTuber made a fuss over how our mentioning of the old times had somehow got mixed up with a meme about Southeast Asian culture and how we’d gotten press because of it.

“The Asian steampunk universe excited many American K-pop fans. And then came the new K-pop variety show, K-NOW.”

“Made by the same people behind Idol Inc., it was a NetFlux original, which made it very accessible to audiences all over the world. Americans who were interested in TeSTAR and Idol Inc. naturally flocked to the show.”

They hadn’t necessarily flocked to it. People who were already interested enough in K-pop to watch Idol Inc. had been hooked, was all. I was starting to get bored when they finally had something more interesting to say.

“But that’s not all. K-NOW was more of a hit overseas than anyone expected it to be!”

Now, this was correct. The harsh K-pop boot camp created by the makers of Idol Inc. had become quite a success in America, from what I’d heard. It had done well for a NetFlux original, so it wasn’t as popular as a real TV hit, but it had generated buzz on the internet, at least.

This WeTuber left that part out, of course. What they had to say next was actually quite observant, though.

“And this show pulled in a variety of demographics. The old-timers who had grown interested in TeSTAR and then Idol Inc. thanks to the meme did some heavy lifting here!”

“They were actively recommending to general audiences in America that they give watching Idol Incorporated and TeSTAR a try.”

Now, this was news to me.

I haven’t heard this take before. I’d simply assumed that the variety show had given us a minor leg up in popularity overseas, but apparently, there was more going on under the surface.

“Viewers who loved K-NOW then watched TeSTAR’s music videos and Idol Incorporated, becoming K-pop fans themselves!”

“This was a smart, powerful move that not only excited existing K-pop fans but increased the size of the K-pop pie generally speaking.”

I was willing to bet my next paycheck that the production team hadn’t done this intentionally, and that the agency had not seen this coming either. Not even we had thought that deeply about it. The WeTuber seemed completely confident about their theory, however.

“Then how far does TeSTAR’s great plan go?”

“Just yesterday, we got a new video about the TeSTAR combined universe. It connects all the past songs TeSTAR has produced.”

“View stats show that it is leading people to go back and watch their debut song, ‘Magical Boys!’”

*As of the making of this video*

Is that right? The graph in the video was a bit exaggerated but mostly correct.

“And on Monday, TeSTAR completed their promotional cycle and entered a hiatus. What will they surprise us with next in their upcoming album?”

“That’s all for today’s video.”

Hmm. I rubbed my chin. There was a lot of exaggeration and over-the-top embellishment, but putting all that aside, there were a few interesting points worth thinking about.

The next album will be important. This was always the case, but this time we’d need a title track that would turn people who were mildly interested into fans, both domestically and abroad. While it was nice that we were growing without setbacks, now wasn’t the time to take it easy.

Maybe I’ll have to look into this a bit more. We couldn’t ignore the needs of existing fans, after all. The more data we had, the better. I found myself opening a new tab, so I could start looking into it.

“Uh, M-Moondae, are you looking up TeSTAR?”

“Oh, this is just…”

Ahyeon continued in a small voice, “Y-you said you wouldn’t anymore… but no. You can do what you want. Still, I’d rather you didn’t spend too much time looking us up…”

This is a trending video though…

“Y-you promised…”

Yeah, sure.

“Sure.”

“Y-yeah!”

I locked my phone, repressing the urge to sigh.

What do I do now? We were entering our hiatus, so there was no schedule to think about. I was starting to feel a little restless when my phone vibrated, indicating I’d received a text message.

[Instructions for applicants of School Qualification Exam for 202X (biannual)]

Oh, right. I applied for the test to take it while we were on hiatus. I guess I’ll go and try it out. With a nonchalant look on my face, I tossed my phone aside. I didn’t realize that the members seated next to me at the time had seen the text by accident.