Chapter 262

Chapter 262

There was a certain style of performance that people had come to expect from TeSTAR and thus the new music video when it first dropped.

- Will it have a cute dance?

- I bet it’ll be classic and sweet. Jeans with white T-shirts or school uniforms T_T

- A gentle, invigorating feel? Like with “Picnic”

And the performance they were seeing now was the… complete opposite. Their black outfits glittered against the black stage, under the neon LED lights and white spotlights. At the start of the song, every member roughly tossed aside the animal masks they were wearing as they came to the center, revealing their handsome faces. The eyes of the animal masks glistened in the moving spotlights.

Good luck! Come on inside.

Step on it today, go faster

Run, hurry up, take your strides

A giant lights the flame

The night is neverending

The seven wore perfectly fitted leather jackets and pants and crossed back and forth across the dark stage, crisscrossing with exciting and smooth moves. The fluorescent glow-in-the-dark paint in the background flashed from behind among the moves and collisions, imposing combat boots stomping to the rhythm. One of the members even kicked their animal mask aside with their booted foot after taking it off, like it was a part of the choreography—namely, Lee Sejin.

The power and confidence in the kick added a sense of mischievousness to the performance. Colorful hair colors appeared every time an animal mask was taken off for every member, not just for Park Moondae, who had gone first. The colors were vibrant, contrasting against their dark outfits.

The emotions fly up like embers

The pistons fly

The engine’s about to explode

The song was a combination of extreme elements strung together—a melody consisting of very low or very high notes and rap, but the hook and composition were addictive.

Run faster

Split the air

This is a dance that overwhelms the night

The racing sense of speed that had been escalating right until the drop in the pre-chorus suddenly shifted with a long, drawn-out call.

Yeaaaaah

As the accompaniment and voices died out, the silence was broken next by whistling. Then everyone moved in an iconic choreography that made them look as though they were a single entity. A riff melody that went perfectly with the song made it both addictive and rhythmic. The whistling noises and the extra beats were all utilized fully, mixing with moves that seemed like playful miming.

Jump off

Eugene, the only person with black hair, stood in the center and grinned. He’d always had his hair dyed before, but now he was the only one with black hair. It made him stand out. He even wore bright red colored lenses in his eyes.

No parachute is necessary

On the contrary

Just run. I’m coming in, coming in

The scratching noises that his hard boots made against the smooth surface of the stage were caught by the microphones. The whistle melody was quick and cheery, but the single key made it seem somewhat precarious and roguish.

This night, tonight

Is the time to wake up

Just run. I’m coming in, coming in

Sirens that sounded like screaming rode the melody, turning into a beat.

Like a drill

Warning, warning, emergency

The members clambered over each other’s arms and legs, posing delicately before falling apart again. It made for a powerful effect. There was nothing divisive about the performance—in fact, it was survival-show-level stuff.

That’s my thrill. Ha!

The rapid pace of the song quickly arrived at its end. The dancers brought out new animal masks and put one on Seon Ahyeon, who was at the center for the last dance break, with a flourish. In the meantime, the other members, now also wearing animal masks like him, got into formation for the ending.

They tilted their heads to the side like wooden dolls in a move that was both powerful and playful. Sounds like brakes screeching on a bike echoed across the stage, and the lights suddenly went out.

Drill

The song had ended, but the audience was only just starting to react.

***

- I’ll be damned

- LMAO

- TeSTAR! TeSTAR! TeSTAR! TeSTAR!

- LOL this is nuts

Screams, marveling, and incredulous laughter were heard from the audience seats, the posts covering the show in real-time, and a variety of other places. There was no elegant interpretation or meaning to the music. It had been a wacky performance made with no other intent than to wow the audience, and it had people excited.

That was the purpose of the song, after all.

- I love it! TeSTAR are f*cking legends on stage

- I was not expecting that

- What was with Park Moondae’s rap? And their hair color? I can’t get enough!

- I got goosebumps when they took off their animal masks. It’s embarrassing to admit, but it was amazing

The performance had scored on all three fronts—power and fun, its suitability for public consumption allowing for even slightly over-the-top elements to be interpreted as unique, and the element of surprise that fans loved.

When the fans calmed down a little, they re-watched the performance with excitement, enjoying the new release from their favorite group well into the night. The mood in the fandom had sunk following Youngrin’s simultaneous release, but things were heating up again. In their eyes, this second song was a twist that was as pleasant as it was appropriate.

- Here’s a rundown of the hair colors

00:26 Park Moondae - pink / 00:38 Lee Sejin - ash blond / 00:51 Kim Raebin - silver / 01:02 Seon Ahyeon - light purple…

- I love Bae Sejin’s blue hair. It makes him look so cool, like ice cream T_T It’s perfect

- I didn’t think Chungwoo would look good with dyed hair, but he looks like a duke from a fantasy novel! The gray hair is amazing. Let’s stick to the wolf mask. Get rid of the falcon

- I compared the accompaniment for this with their other song. There are quite a few overlaps, including the lyrics. I’m guessing there must be some connection

- Gimme the music now! The agency needs to be pulling out all the stops right now while they can

Before the fans’ enjoyment had fizzled out, TeSTAR revealed a new music video precisely at midnight.

[TeSTAR “Drill” | Official MV]

- No way

- Are you kidding me?

- Already?

- Whoa. The music’s available for streaming, too haha

- So they’re finally being timely huh?

The popularity of the stage performance was only amplified by the music video, and the amount of buzz surrounding it exploded once more. The music video focused purely on the charm of good cinematic presentation and the group dance.

The members were in a nighttime amusement park flashing with fireworks and glow-in-the-dark paint, wearing stylized employee uniforms. In it, they fired guns and showed off their wild dance moves. They also raced through a fairy-themed square, wearing their animal masks and riding on wild motorcycles that had sirens attached.

- So it’s an amusement park concept, but there are night and day versions

- This is exactly what I needed. Idol music videos are all about the group dance

The members had plenty of playful energy, filling the video with charismatic charm, none of them showing any embarrassment whatsoever. The video was fun because it was slightly unsettling and odd, and there was plenty of eye candy as well.

Naturally, there seemed to be no universe attached to this video—nothing that seemed immediately obvious, anyway—but it wasn’t entirely disconnected, either

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

[Okay. The music video is nuts.]

Scenes in the two music videos can be linked on a timeline.

(Link) The merry-go-round, the Ferris wheel, the mirror—they’re all shot with identical compositions.

I think I could find more if I tried

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

- That is nuts

- They really linked it like that?

- No way! I had this idea after reading this post. I had my doubts at first, but check it out… Play the bridge for “Drill” backwards, and you get the chorus melody for “Wheel” (file)

└ Holy cow

└ No wonder the bridge felt so odd… Wow… just wow…

└ Oh my god! I can’t get enough of this! When is my album arriving? I need to get my hands on it right now T_T

The two title tracks were symmetrical. Seeing the mystical, crisp day turning into an aggressive, night of revelry was very interesting to watch. And TeSTAR had no intention of abandoning the first title track, which they had revealed early.

On the second day of ToneA, since the ceremony was held over two consecutive days, they also performed “Wheel.”

Give me back the wheel

So I can fly again

The performance featured huge stage equipment that made it seem as though an amusement park had been built right onto the stage. The camerawork was leveraged to its maximum effect, making for a lovely, compelling performance.

The reaction, which would have been moderately good under usual circumstances, was more pronounced because of its contrast with “Drill.” It also elevated TeSTAR’s reputation.

- TeSTAR has such a broad spectrum of music. It must be fun being their fan

- Wow. You’re supposed to make the two songs fairly different if there are two titles, but… I’ve never seen two songs that were so radically different

- Artists who excel at their craft are simply amazing…

- Wow, they staked out a part of the charts for themselves, huh? It’s not easy to do with a surprise midnight release… Congrats!

TeSTAR’s strategy to get people talking about them as much as they could, even if they couldn’t reach first place in the music charts, was a massive success. The person who had taken the lead in planning this, however, was in the midst of tutting regretfully.

***

The mission wasn’t cleared. I frowned at the mission window, where the countdown was still progressing. We’d actually gotten a daesang at ToneA—the Artist of the Year award.

It was possible because the daesang was split into three categories. The award for best album had been given to VTIC, and the one for best song to Youngrin. We’d also been given one. Even this, the VTIC fans believed we’d stolen from VTIC thanks to our company connections, but perhaps this was to be expected. It was similar to what had happened with the Rookie of the Year awards.

The public has to agree that we deserve a daesang. In other words, we needed to be at the very top of our field—like VTIC was right now. TeSTAR was still in the position of challenger as of now.

We’ll have to push as far as we can this year. Perhaps it would be possible following our upcoming album.

Apparently, the fans had been preparing for the release to drop, since our sales were through the roof. We had sold 700,000 copies in just preorders, which was far more than “Nightmare” had managed. I supposed the sales tactic that involved making four versions of the album and selling a special pre-order edition had something to do with it as well.

The composition of the album was pretty good, so people wouldn’t be unhappy, at least—we’d included a photo book, some special unreleased videos, as well as a key ring that had been modeled after our animal masks.

Things are going well in the charts as well. Our tactic to draw attention through our performances seemed to have worked. “Wheel,” which had been released first, was climbing up the charts. It didn’t surpass Youngrin’s song, of course, but what mattered was public perception.

This makes us look like we’re very popular. The more famous the songs from this album became, the less backlash there would be when we took first place. This was perfect, as we needed people to think that we deserved to land first place even if we didn’t beat Youngrin in the charts.

People were already starting to say similar things.

- TeSTAR should have revealed “Drill” first. What a pity

- I think they would have gotten higher ranks in the charts if they’d announced they were releasing the music beforehand… Too bad

- The way I see it, their promotional strategy failed. If they’d gone ahead with “Drill” first, then released “Wheel,” they would have won in the charts, too

└ This. Totally

Our strategy had succeeded, but it was made even better by the fact that people believed TeSTAR’s plan had failed.

Good. We would have no trouble getting first place in the music shows and building up traction. I decided that was enough for me. In truth, even if it wasn’t, there wasn’t enough time to do anything more.

“Your animal mask is so cute!” Eugene said.

“Yeah, yours too,” I said.

“Mine is cool, because it’s a tiger head!”

It’s actually a striped cat. I ignored Eugene, who wasn’t particularly persuasive, and got into formation. We needed to use free time like this between schedules to film choreography videos, practice, or memorize scripts.

“Done looking at your phone?” Big Sejin said.

“Yes. The reactions online are good,” I said, pushing my phone into the corner.

“Is everyone happy with the music as well? I’m curious how many similarities between the two songs they were able to find!” Raebin said.

“They’re really good at detecting them. Analysis posts are already appearing.”

“Is that right?”

“That must make you happy, Raebin!”

I watched as Big Sejin and Raebin cheerfully tidied their dyed hair at the great news and began to put on their animal masks. I was actually looking at their light-colored hair.

Less of their dye is going to bleed out, I guess. Everyone’s hair seemed to be in good condition at the moment—perhaps their hair roots were really healthy. The annoying thing, though, was that our sweat was taking on the color of the dye. It was the case with all seven of us, and it was a straight-up mess every time we did anything. The insides of the animal masks would be covered in hair dye by the time our promotions were over.

It’s going to be tough to maintain this look. Our bathrooms were going to be a mess for the time being. It was a challenge we didn’t regret taking on, however, since everyone seemed happy with it.

The fans seem to like it. That was good enough for me. We just needed to put up with the hassle for a couple of months. As for my hair… It generated static electricity a lot more often after dying it.

Hi

I shrugged and executed the choreography cleanly as the music played.

A new plan was revealed as we spent several days packed with work.

“Oh! A spring tour!” Big Sejin said.

“So we’re finally holding concerts again.”

“Th-that’s exciting!” Ahyeon said.

We were informed of plans for our concert tour for this year. I could understand why plans were being made, since we’d canceled last year’s, so we were overdue. The scale of the tour was a problem, though.

“It’s a… dome tour?” I asked.

“Yes!”

In Japan, we were set to perform in domes that could seat more than thirty thousand people. I thought it was a joke at first.

An arena is probably the perfect size for a group like us. It wasn’t a joke.

“Starting in Tokyo and ending in Osaka, there will be six concerts…”

“Wow…”

The agency bastards had actually reserved the domes. As it turned out, the executives at the agency had apparently gotten nervous after reading the financial statements for last year’s fourth quarter. The tour had been canceled, and that, coupled with our hiatus, had diminished profits. The director had decided to estimate the demand for this year’s TeSTAR performances, culminating partly in the Japanese dome tour.

Uh… This isn’t going to work. We weren’t popular enough to fill domes.

“Huh? We’re sold out!”

“…?”

However, much to my shock, we were able to sell out the domes. Our album seemed to be popular in Japan as well, and the director’s irrational decision made the year before had actually proved to be useful. This didn’t only happen in Japan, either.

What is going on here?

It all began with a promotional idea put forward by Eugene.