Chapter 24

Chapter 24

It was time. I closed out of the comments section under the video of October 31’s performance I’d just been watching.

First of all, if I had to summarize things… we’ve gone viral, so much so that it’s almost scary... That was really the only way I could describe our current situation.

Everything from the view count to the number of comments written about us on various articles all across the internet outnumbered the other teams in episode 3 by at least five or six times. Ryu Chungwoo’s team had also generated a lot of buzz—though for different reasons to us—and it seemed as though we were benefitting indirectly from this as well. In any case, as long as we didn’t monumentally screw up, it was very likely we’d pass the second evaluation without trouble. Meaning the next day of filming was of utmost importance. I’d experienced firsthand the power of editing, so I knew I’d have to be even more careful going forward. I decided I needed to consider what might be useful to me during the next filming.

Navigating to the search bar, I input a new term.

[Park Moondae individual fancam]

The search presented the official fancam that had been uploaded the day before at the top of the list. I’d resisted watching it or checking the comments for an entire day, waiting until it gathered a large enough pool of reactions so as to be objective. The view count exceeded even my wildest expectations.

[Views: 320,000]

Considering dancing wasn’t my strong suit, this number was much higher than I had anticipated it might be. Other contestants’ videos were shown below the video as related content.

“30,000, 120,000, 7,000, 20,000, 60,000… Hmm.” Not many videos had surpassed mine in views. In fact, more than half of the contestants had less than fifty-thousand views each. In terms of views, at least, I was pretty sure I ranked within the top twelve. Considering that our performance had already gone to air prior to the fancams being uploaded, this outcome was even more mind-blowing.

But the view count isn’t everything. I sorted the comments in descending order by how many likes they had and skimmed through the top posts.

- Look at the way Park Moondae expresses himself during each part. He’s a genius, born to be an idol T_T

- It’s surprising how well this concept suits Moon Puppy

- He’s the master of POP☆CON, chicken feet, and even horror. He is a god

- My ears are in heaven, the bridge is amazing

- Moondae, you were all excited by yourself when you heard you’d be performing a Marshmallow song LOL It was so cute!

That final comment, though… I felt like a misunderstanding had taken place, but decided to be thankful since they were paying me a compliment. The other comments were also mostly positive. When sorted by most recent, I could see a few nasty comments here and there, but even those were soon lost in a flood of English comments.

Next, I swapped to social media and searched my name as “Park Moondae” and “Moondae.” Posts accompanied by videos and images instantly filled the screen.

- Moondae’s such a cutie (GIF of fancam)

- How did he think to incorporate horror? Moondae’s got talent, a great personality, and unparalleled good sense T_T

- Park Moondae’s a good singer, but I don’t know if he’s actually anything all that special. His looks are definitely doing it for me though. (Photo from solo live stream)
- Moondae is Moon Puppy, bark bark! I love to eat food, give me lots of love♡ (a picture from the mukbang with a puppy photoshopped onto it)

People were getting worked up about all sorts of odd things and I was frankly a little taken aback by it all. My looks, voice, facial expressions, shoulders, and even the way I ate… People online found habits that I didn’t even know I had to be cute. I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly as I read the comments.

It was a little embarrassing, but it actually felt pretty nice. I was grateful, and the strange wave of motivation that washed over me was nice. But of course, the internet dialogue couldn’t consist of only positive comments.

I thought for several moments. Let’s see, if I wanted to change “Moondae” into a keyword that could evade the search engines… I didn’t have to think about it for long.

[Moondog]

It was a slight variation on my nickname, made to sound more derogatory. Back when I’d been in the fancam business, this had been how people hid malicious comments. It wasn’t hard to guess what key term they’d use.

As expected, there were plenty of results.

- Moondog is ugly, and he’s terrible at dancing even a stupid song like “POP☆CON.” Obviously, the editors have a hard-on for him LOL I hate him I wish he’d f*cking die

- Honestly, I’ll bet they’re fixated on him since nobody else is a decent singer on that damned show. His voice sounds so boring. It’s too clinical. Ugh.

- Moondog pretends to be a Marshmallow fan, but I can see through him

- I want to see his chest. I hope he takes off his shirt next time

- Moondog’s an amateur? LOL like we’d fall for it. He was probably a trainee at some seedy agency before being picked up by the show. I’m willing to bet my account on it. Everything he does looks so scripted

There were plenty of malicious comments, full of juicy tidbits. Wow. Even though I prepared myself for something like this, it’s still super confronting. One of the comments was rather strange… I supposed they’d called me “Moondog” since their comment fell into the realm of sexual harassment.

Interestingly, many of the accounts uploading such malicious posts were using Cha Eugene’s photo as their profile image. I guessed that a lot of people were just using his picture as a smoke screen since Cha Eugene was a popular contestant, but some of them were probably really his fans. An odd tension had been created where people who were fans of the contestants on the same team in the first battle were attacking the other teams. This was par for the course in audition shows like this one, so it wasn’t all that surprising.

I’d experienced something similar myself when I was selling fancams. People would buy footage of the contestant they liked as well as of the contestant they hated. Then they would throw the latter in the trash so it never saw the light of day.

And it seemed to me that Cha Eugene and Park Moondae had now somehow been cast as enemies. I guess this is the side effect of the team battle performance going so well. In any case, I could live with it, so I decided to just move on. I had to read through all the mean comments and see if I could glean anything from them.

First off, I can ignore the comments about my voice. I had objective stats that told me how good my singing was and as I appeared more and more on the show I would only continue to prove it. The thing they mention the most often after that is the way I’m portrayed on the show.

The most recurring comments were that I seemed fake or insincere and that I wasn’t good-looking enough. Wait, so I can’t even have an interesting character if I’m not handsome? I didn’t particularly like the way the edit painted my personality, anyway. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I quickly realized that I didn’t really have any reason for feeling this way.

I’ll simply improve my looks. The next recording would be the ranking announcement. About a month would pass between episode 4 airing, which would happen soon, and the filming. That meant people would be less likely to notice if my looks changed.

“Status window,” I said. I poured all my remaining points into the physical attractiveness stat without hesitation. After a moments’ thought, I took out my phone, opened the group chat, and sent a message.

[Me: Can anyone recommend any good beauty shops?]

I was going all in.

***

All sorts of rumors, each claiming to know spoilers for the upcoming ranking announcement, spread everywhere in the days leading up to episode 5 airing.

[Spoilers for Id*l Inc rankings]

I’m a staff member on the show (hazy picture of filming set)

1st Cha ***jin

2nd Ryu Cheong***

5th Kim Rae***

6th Seon *hyeon

The child actor LSJ dropped below 10th. Cried during filming.

- This feels fake, but I hope Lee Sejin drops from the rankings soon LOL An actor has-been doesn’t belong on an idol survival show HAHA

ㄴ Screenshotted this.

ㄴ LOL yeah whatever

- So Cha Eugene came out in first place in the end?

- Ryu Chungwoo got to second thanks to the editing. Isn’t that nice

ㄴ F*cking idiots, this is fake. Don’t pretend like you believe this sh*t, it’s disgusting

ㄴ But doesn’t the photo prove this is legit?

ㄴ That photo is a behind-the-scenes photo of another show from last year (link)

ㄴ Wow…

More often than not, the posts were proven to be false in this way and ended up deleted. The production team worked their asses off to keep spoilers from spreading online, and their efforts were successful, though a lot of it was only because they got lucky.

What this meant was the viewers were entirely in the dark and very excited prior to episode 5 going to air. A woman sat in front of her desktop computer, feeling that same excitement bubbling inside her. She clasped her hands together and muttered a silent prayer to herself, Please, Moondae deserves to go to the moon!

In a different tab, her fancam of Park Moondae taken during the press conference was being uploaded to the internet. Indeed, this was the same person who’d been in the audience during the first team battle wielding a hidden camera, who had fallen in love with Park Moondae.

After the live stream and the following episodes, her transformation into his loyal fangirl had been made complete. She’d even become a fansite master, uploading the photos that she’d taken of him. Today was the much anticipated day of the ranking announcements.

She thought nervously to herself, Moondae can’t have dropped in the rankings, but he needs to get a good ranking here to cement his position in the competition. Those who came out lower in the rankings would have a hard time of it after this since the rankings didn’t tend to change all that much once set.

That’s why the first ranking announcement is so important. She used her phone with one hand to upload a new post on her account.

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

Full Moon Baby

Here’s a fancam of Park Moondae at the first press conference (WeTube link)

#ParkMoondae #BuyParkMoondaeStock #IdolIncParkMoondae #MoonPuppy #Moondae

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

The post had the link to the fancam she’d just uploaded attached and people instantly began sharing it. Good. She watched in satisfaction, then quickly edited the post, adding an encouraging message.

- Give our Moondae lots of love! :D ♡ (link to purchase Idol Incorporated stocks)

By the time she’d finished, the last pre-show advertisement was ending. The episode would begin in five seconds. Her feet tapped nervously against the ground as she stared at the logo on screen.

[Relisted! Idol Incorporated]

The screen shifted, and a short teaser for the episode to come played to get the viewers invested.

[※Who’s at rank 30 and 20? And who is in 49th place, only just making the final cut?※]

Clips of various contestants hanging their heads, biting their lips, and bursting into tears flashed past. It was obviously intended to have people on the edge of their seats, but she didn’t care about any of it. She’d just caught a glimpse of Park Moondae, and he’d been sporting a new smooth hairstyle.

“His hair… It’s blond,” she muttered blankly. As the realization sank in, she clapped a hand over her mouth. Moondae has blond hair!

It was closer to a golden brown, more of a subtle color than all-out blond, but that was beside the point. It suited him incredibly well. Looking good with dyed hair was an important part of being an idol, and apparently, Park Moondae had just proven that he could deliver in this regard, too.

It was clear that he had been fated to be an idol. She refreshed her social media timeline, hands quivering with emotion; unsurprisingly, there was a deluge of posts expressing similar sentiments to her own.

- Holy sh*t

- Whoa, his hair

- Is he nuts?

- Moon Puppy is out to kill today...

- It looks so good on him T_T

- Honestly, it’s widely believed that he always had blond hair and that he’s been dyeing it black until now.

It would seem that Park Moondae’s fans were extremely prolific and effusive. In truth, these comments were largely caused by all the points he’d invested in his physical attractiveness, but everyone believed that his change in appearance was thanks to his new hairstyle, so nobody was asking any questions. He looked so good in the single clip that had appeared on screen that the comments continued to go crazy for quite some time.

[Behind the Scenes: the Live Streams]

After most of the minor behind-the-scenes updates were finished with and before the ranking announcement, the show cut to footage of the contestants getting ready for their live streams. On-screen, the young men were shown wearing dismayed expressions on their faces as the emcee spoke.

“For the next fifteen minutes, you’ll be allowed to go and hunt for treasure balls!”

“What?!”

I was curious about this part. She turned her focus on the show again, hoping to learn how Moondae had come to select chicken feet in the first place.

“Yeah, baby!”

“Yes! A gold one!”

The only footage shown, however, was of the contestants rushing about in groups, finding the balls, and sometimes losing them to others.

Huh? Moondae isn’t in here at all. Park Moondae’s fans grumbled about the production team’s incompetence. Even the viewers who didn’t claim to be his fans were reacting similarly, oddly enough.

- Wait, so no clarity on the chicken feet guy’s story?

- My guess is that he had no better alternatives

- LOL

Their reactions would soon undergo a huge shift, however, since Park Moondae suddenly crept into the quiet cafeteria by himself.

- ??

- Huh? Why is no one else there?

- Why is he alone?

Park Moondae then gestured behind him, and a head peeked through the doorway.

[※Lee Sejin (B): There’s nobody here, right?※]

[※Park Moondae: Nope. Here goes.※]

[※Ha Iljoon: Okay!※]

The viewers were even more confused now.

- Huh?

- How did they get away from everyone else?

- Did they get some sort of special perk?

The captions did nothing to shed light on the situation.

[※What could they be doing here?※]

- Hey, that’s what we want to know

- Tell us, darn it!

The brief scene that followed showed the three contestants swiftly searching through the cafeteria.

Then the footage suddenly rewound.

[※◀◀◀※]

With a click, the video froze.

[※09:30 AM - The treasure hunt begins※]

The video resumed at the point where the contestants rushed into the building to start the treasure hunt. This time, however, the focus was on Park Moondae.

[※He heads for the back door?※]

Big Sejin and Goldie #1 had followed Moondae without asking if they could tag along, but the camera was far enough away that it wasn’t obvious that was the case. The three of them immediately began finding balls in the back side of the building, where there were no contestants to compete with them.

- LMAO no way

- Incredible

- Wow. He thinks so quickly on his feet

- Damn he’s smart

- I think he has an irritating personality, but gotta give credit where it’s due. He’s a damned genius. Which makes him even more insufferable.

ᄂ This. LOL

The three of them made a great team—they would quickly loot each location and move on whenever they heard the other contestants approaching. The viewers were amazed, and Park Moondae’s fans were ecstatic.

- That’s our Moon Puppy for you. Smart.

- The three of them are really fast. I’d expect no less from October 31

- But Moondae found so many balls. Why did he choose frozen food? LOL

My question exactly. Park Moondae’s fansite master clicked like on the most recent positive posts and turned her attention back to the show. She watched raptly as the next scene unfolded.

Park Moondae, having successfully collected so many balls, was giving all of them to Seon Ahyeon in exchange for only one bronze ball.