Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Seon Ahyeon hesitantly took the balls Park Moondae was holding out to him, and this scene was followed by an interview.

[※Seon Ahyeon: I... I can’t eat instant f-food, actually.※]

A clip filmed from a fixed-angle camera mounted in the dormitories began playing—a flashback. In it, Seon Ahyeon was lying with his face buried in his pillow, looking sick, the room illuminated only by the little light trickling in from the bathroom.

[※Park Moondae: Are you okay?※]

[※Seon Ahyeon: I-I’m okay…※]

[※Park Moondae: Give me a second.※]

Moondae left the dormitory, then returned accompanied by captions on screen.

[※Contestant Park Moondae brings back digestive medicine.※]

This had actually happened early on, during the grade evaluation. “Sleep is for the Dead” had been active at the time, meaning that Moondae hadn’t felt sleepy even though it was late at night and he had plenty of free time as a result.

Buying medicine had just been as a thank-you for the chocolate Ahyeon had given him, and to ease his conscience. Incidentally, Moondae had forgotten about this incident altogether by the time the live streams had rolled around.

Ahyeon, who had no way of knowing this, looked both grateful and apologetic in the interview.

[※Seon Ahyeon: I-I-I think he traded with me because he knew I have a weak stomach.※]

[※Seon Ahyeon: Th-thank you, Moondae.※]

[※Park Moondae: (Nods)※]

That last clip of Moondae had been taken from a completely different interview, of course, but it came across as convincingly heart-warming.

- I wasn’t expecting that

- Wait, the chicken feet guy is so good-natured. So he’s only gruff on the outside?

- I’m starting to like this guy LOL

The average viewers were reacting in this way, which meant Moondae’s fans were even more touched.

- Moondae doesn’t finesse things, so it’s easy to misunderstand him and think he’s a mean guy, but I think he’s the caring sort.

- Our puppy… He’s as loving as a real puppy

- Moondae, you idiot T_T The chicken feet were a good choice, but you shouldn’t have given all of them away like that T_T

- So Moondae found the flower crown, huh?

- Moon Puppy is so kind

Park Moondae’s fansite master was overjoyed that the editing and everyone’s reaction were so favorable to him, but she was also a little nervous. What if they try to pitch Moondae as the perfect guy?

Such an image very easily came toppling down, especially if a show was nearing its conclusion. One contestant had to fall for another to rise in their place. A report of a small misdemeanor during a contestant’s school years was often enough to crush them entirely. This was why it was a risky angle. Some of the contestants had already had their graduation photos leaked.

Come to think of it, we don’t know anything about Moondae’s background at all. Was it because he had been a quiet student? Perhaps he’d grown up overseas or in the countryside. She imagined Park Moondae sitting under a gazebo, surrounded by rice paddies, an apathetic expression on his face.

It suits him! When someone had just become a fan of an idol, that idol tended to look perfect to them in any setting. While she was contemplating this, the show continued on her computer screen, a montage of contestants was now preparing for their live streams.

Kim Raebin had created a logo song for “Idol Incorporated” after picking the electric keyboard as his product and Big Sejin had danced to random popular idol songs, all the while promoting a pair of sneakers. There were quite a few interesting scenes, but these were the contestants at the front of the pack. Some of the contestants hadn’t managed to find any balls at all and were also briefly shown.

“Those who did not succeed in finding a product to promote can instead promote our show, ‘Relisted! Idol Incorporated!’”

Most of them failed to get higher than 33rd place and struggled to get through the initial ten minutes allocated to them. It was impossible for all of the live streams to be fun, since dozens of people were doing the same thing at once and the premise wasn’t even remotely interesting.

The contestants who had chosen rather odd products to promote were also shown briefly, and Moondae was of course one of them. Even the captions were perfect over the footage of Moondae preparing his chicken feet before the start of the stream.

[※Park Moondae (loves chicken feet) aka Rising Mukbang Star※]

[※Cha Eugene: It was incredible※]

A brief clip of Cha Eugene, looking astounded, was included. Her social media timeline was once again flooded with comments like “He’s so cute.” Her own comment joined the flood.

- Moondae is so cute T_T Eat those chicken feet nom nom

The live stream section concluded on a warm note as if the event had gone exactly as planned. In reality, a few of the contestants had exposed other contestants’ secrets by mistake, and a few sensitive issues on set had been discussed during the streams, but thanks to the magic of editing, it was as though none of that had ever happened.

Some contestants had been figuratively dragged through the streets on the internet and two of them had even voluntarily dropped out of the competition as a result of the live streams. Now that the show was proving to be popular, there was no reason to drag those controversies up again, though.

Because the viewers had already been expecting this from the production team, most of them just focused on the next part of the episode after making a few sarcastic comments. Finally, the long-awaited announcement ceremony for the individual votes was beginning.

“Hello everyone! Do you remember the reward that will be given to the contestant who received the highest number of votes after the first team battle?”

“Oh...”

“It was immunity against elimination during the first ranking announcement!”

Several contestants were caught on camera desperately hoping they would be the lucky winner. One by one the winner of each town was announced, the whole process drawn out thanks to the emcee’s attempts to stall with cliche banter. Most of the contestants, of course, at least tried to look happy for the winners.

“Wow!”

“Congratulations!”

Ryu Chungwoo’s team members, who’d been the subject of a lot of negative gossip, did their best to not look offended when Ryu Chungwoo was named the winner. In the episode that aired, however, they were portrayed as less than enthusiastic.

“Oh…”

“Congrats.”

“Yeah, thanks. I know you all worked really hard… Sorry.”

“No, no… Don’t mention it.”

That’s such a tired edit. She was so used to this pattern of events that she honestly felt a little repulsed by it. Most die-hard fans of audition shows would probably feel the same way.

The winner of Park Moondae’s team, “October 31,” was also announced.

“And for October 31... Congratulations! It’s Seon Ahyeon!”

Ahyeon looked shocked as the members of October 31 gathered around him.

“Wow!”

“I knew you’d get it, Ahyeon!”

“Hey, congratulations!”

“Good work.”

“Th-thank you…”

The team’s reaction was portrayed as appropriately happy and encouraging. That’s a relief! Even though she was relieved, she also felt a little disappointed. Moondae could have won that.

She knew that the prize wasn’t all that useful and had the potential to even turn people against Moondae, but she couldn’t help feeling disappointed all the same. Similar reactions appeared on her timeline.

- Congrats, Ahyeon!

- It’s a bit of a shame, but I liked Moondae’s warm reaction

- They showed us quite a bit of Moondae’s golden hair! I’m so happy T_T

- Everyone did so well, it wouldn’t have surprised me if any of them had won T_T

- Good work, Moon Puppy!

She had a feeling that if she had wanted to look for the more caustic comments, she’d easily be able to uncover something like this:

- Moondae did the work to arrange the song and held the team together, but Seon Ahyeon steals the win LOL There’s no justice in this world

Such comments would only come from toxic solo stans though. Thanks to the footage of Moondae congratulating Ahyeon, his new hair glimmering under the lighting, everyone quickly moved on. She quickly took a close-up screenshot of Moondae and uploaded it.

- I don’t know who did his hair, but thank you for making Moondae blond… (screenshot)

On-screen, the emcee was explaining another twist that was unfolding.

“Tell me, what happens if a contestant who was originally a failure ends up passing?”

“Huh?”

“No way.”

“Everyone, the lowest-scoring contestants will be disqualified!”

The woman watching wasn’t at all interested in who was disqualified. Don’t call Moondae’s name too quickly! She was just nervous, hoping Park Moondae’s name would be called later rather than sooner.

“And here is the contestant in 47th place.”

She’d been planning on editing together a WeTube promotional video while the lowest rankings were announced, but she couldn’t seem to focus. Why am I getting so nervous about this? Unable to stand it, she fetched a soda and sat down again. The rankings had now progressed to the thirties after a boring drink commercial featuring the contestants had been played again.

There wasn’t a single clip of Moondae in that entire commercial! It was because he hadn’t so much as touched the drink after nearly spitting it out the first time, but the viewers didn’t need to know that. Only when the person in 31st place was announced did she find her interest piqued.

“In 31st place… Kwon Heeseung!”

It was the member of October 31 that Moondae mentally referred to as “Goldie #2.” Moondae was among the people he greeted on his way to the podium.

“Congratulations.”

Moondae offered an awkward high-five wearing a serious expression on his face, which she found extremely cute. The emcee made a sad attempt at humor:

“This is the first member of October 31 that will be progressing to the next part of the show! I wonder if that’s why he’s in 31st place?”

“That must be it!”

After Kwon Heeseung, October 31’s members were gradually called up one after another. Choi Wongil and Ha Iljoon—Goldie #1—came out a little higher than 30th place, and after that, it was a while before anyone else was called.

13th place was announced next.

“Congratulations. In 13th place, we have… Lee Sejin! Oh, there are two of you!”

Both Lee Sejins lifted their heads. One of them smiled awkwardly, while the other tensed and stared at the floor.

“Among the two of you… Lee Sejin B! Also known as Big Sejin! The leader of October 31.”

“Ahaha!”

Big Sejin laughed loudly as he held a hand out for Lee Sejin to shake, which Lee Sejin took reluctantly. Big Sejin climbed the podium to great cheering and a lot of falsely familiar commentary from the other contestants.

“Wow! 13! That number makes me think of our team. It must be fate.”

After a sincere thank-you and a short speech that came off as both serious and sincere, he stepped away from the podium. So Moondae is at least 12th place!

She swallowed nervously and waited for the next announcement. Park Moondae had basically been unknown by the public prior to the first episode's airing, so he was already doing amazing all considering.

“And in 11th place is Seo Hyuncheol!”

Moondae’s name still had not been called. Before long, she could count the remaining rankings

on her fingers.

“In 8th place is… Ah, he performed a Marshmallow song during the first team battle.”

There we go! She relaxed and exhaled. This had to be Moondae. She was convinced of it. The actor Lee Sejin had a reputation already before appearing on the show, and Seon Ahyeon was insanely popular thanks to their recent performance. She assumed that Moondae would rank lower than both of them.

“This contestant showed us that there’s plenty more to him below the surface…”

The remaining three contestants of October 31 were shown on camera for several long moments, then the emcee called out,

“Lee Sejin!”

Lee Sejin stiffly rose to his feet. Seon Ahyeon and Park Moondae, who were still in their seats, automatically congratulated him.

“Congratulations.”

“Con-congratulations…”

“Thanks…”

Lee Sejin smiled awkwardly at them. Moondae’s fansite master screamed loudly to herself. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute!” Her timeline was going wild.

- What the?

- No way, Lee Sejin

- I thought he’d rank 5th or higher

- 8th?

- People criticize his personality, but he works hard. I thought he’d maintain a high ranking

- He’s got quite a lot of new fans. This is kind of weird

- I guess the other contestants outshone him?

Lee Sejin bowed in thanks, stated simply that he would continue to give it his all, and left the podium. She grabbed her mouse.

Wait, what place is Moondae, then?