Chapter 340

Chapter 340

The public’s reaction regarding the copycat controversy between “All-Star Music” and TeSTAR’s Kim Raebin bore some looking into. To be more exact, I was examining the people who were excited they had an excuse to curse out TeSTAR—or so they thought—and categorizing them.

The first category could be dubbed the “I saw this coming” sort.

- There were so many people who insisted Kim Raebin was a genius and all that… Look how that turned out. Disgusting

- I’m so shocked. I didn’t know a daesang-winning idol could stoop so low T_T

- I’m so disappointed in TeSTAR. Will people start making fun of Korea now?

They all emphasized that they’d never hated TeSTAR until now, but that recent events left them deeply disappointed. Doing this same thing the opposite way around was also great fun, of course, and that led me to the second category. They were dubbed the “I told you so”-ers.

- Look at his face. It’s shady as well

- I didn’t think it was all malicious editing during Idol Inc. No wonder the fans were so eager to make him seem innocent

- This sort of nonsense usually ends with the person doing drugs… The way Kim Raebin rambles… I don’t know guys, but this looks mighty suspicious

All kinds of accusations and rumors that would have been shot down violently under normal circumstances were being allowed, which was extremely fun for them.

Then there was the third category, who were arguably the most important. These were the people who liked to praise All-Star Music, since the more the victim was praised, the more satisfying it was to criticize the wrongdoer.

- The songs by All-Star Music are so good. No wonder TeSTAR copied him

- LOL I study music. I can tell that All-Star Music is the person who came up with the original music. Kim Raebin has been using their music as reference for some time, and it seems only recently that he took it a little too far

- So he was pretending to be a genius, but All-Star Music is the real genius

“So, if we were to predict Kim Raebin’s reaction, the core member behind All-Star Music who is currently being praised as the Mozart of today’s generation as well as a genius…”

“He’ll be grateful?”

“Yep, that’s it,” Big Sejin said.

The other members sighed or laughed incredulously. Raebin had been about to upload to social media that All-Star Music was TeSTAR, but we’d stopped him and gathered in the dorm as soon as we got back to Korea.

“What about Raebin?”

“H-he’s sleeping just fine.”

“Okay.”

“But why stop Kim Raebin?” Eugene asked. “Let’s quickly tell them it’s us! Give them a taste of justice!”

“Hmm. Eugene, it’s best to prepare a little bit first when it comes to things like this,” Big Sejin said with a wry smile. “They’re the ones who misunderstood, but some of them will think we deceived them and get all angry.”

“Boo… That is ridiculous.”

“Yeah, it is.”

He was right. The moment that we revealed All-Star Music was actually TeSTAR, and mainly Raebin at that, the public’s overall opinion would shift immediately. But depending on how we went about revealing this, there could be some very unnecessary side effects.

I crossed my arms and said, “They might even think that we did it on purpose, to gather attention.”

“Yeah, that’s another possibility.”

Some might even claim that we’d made the WeTube account as soon as we signed the contract for the soundtrack and started uploading songs related to 127 Section after that.

- They reacted so quickly. It just doesn’t seem like a coincidence

- Hmm… So they signed a contract to do the soundtrack for a movie based on Ruins Factory’s universe, and then made a channel and started uploading arrangements of Ruins Factory’s songs? LOL

- This just stinks of lies. Those T1 idiots LOL

We had no reason to leave room for doubt like that.

Chungwoo added with a serious expression, “We can’t leave this alone for long, though. They’ve been criticizing Raebin too much.”

“Yes. It’s a really serious misunderstanding.”

If we waited for too long trying to work out a solution, the situation would only grow more heated.

They won’t want to apologize. Most of the people who had hopped on the bandwagon accusing us of plagiarizing would not want to admit they were wrong. That meant they would search for reasons to blame us instead, in any way possible.

Ahyeon looked sad. “E-even if it’s a misunderstanding… Th-this is not fair. They didn’t even wait for Raebin to explain first…”

“Yes. It’s messed up of them,” I said, nodding. “And a side effect of the song being too popular.”

Perhaps things would not have gone down this way if it had just been one of our normal song releases, but this soundtrack currently had every Korean citizen feeling proud of their nationality.

Their vicarious sense of pleasure has been interrupted, and now they’re feeling shame instead of pleasure. People were even more angry because this meant people overseas might ridicule the whole country now. This was the backlash that came with the whole “proud to be Korean” thing connected to the song right now. The internet would not have been so worked up even if one of our title tracks had been involved in the same sort of controversy.

“Phew.”

I laughed incredulously at how incredibly heated everyone was, and at how the subscriber count on the All-Star Music channel kept skyrocketing.

Big Sejin pushed his head close to mine and seemed shocked at what he saw. “No way. Over a hundred thousand subscribers?”

“Yeah,” I said.

The controversy was turning out to be good marketing. I wondered if I would have to tell them soon to register for ad revenue and collect the money minus the copyright fees.

- Hang in there!

- I just subscribed. Your songs are incredible

- ☆★☆★☆Over here, Limestone. He’s the real creator of the songs. Use this genius right here☆★☆★☆

- It’s incredible. I hear he’s only a college student. I guess talent isn’t about age at all

Bae Sejin, who’d been reading the comments, muttered with a wry look on his face, “Kim Raebin’s getting recognized just as much as he’s being criticized…”

“Y-yeah…”

It was an absurd situation that left us confused about whether we should be happy or sad.

Eugene stretched. “Whatever. If we do great with the next one, they won’t have anything to say! Let’s just tell them the truth!” He never changed.

Surprisingly, Chungwoo opened his mouth with a serious look on his face. “My opinion is similar, actually.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Maybe I’m being a little too optimistic… but I don’t think there will be any more trouble if we’re just honest about it.”

Hmm.

“Honest?”

“Yes. We can explain why we made that account in the first place. It’s not a bad thing to tell people, you know.”

“Hmm.”

The standard way, huh? It was admittedly the most correct way to go about it—explaining the situation as it was.

“So why don’t we make an official statement through the agency?” A low voice came from behind me.

“Uh… I agree.”

“Whoa!” Bae Sejin said, shocked.

“Sorry!”

I turned around and found Kim Raebin standing awkwardly behind Bae Sejin.

“I-I thought you were asleep!” Bae Sejin said.

“I woke up a few minutes ago. I just wanted some water, but you seemed to be chatting, so I tried to make as little noise as possible. Then I ended up overhearing the conversation!”

“Oh…”

We were the ones who should feel guilty for talking about him behind his back, so why was he the one making excuses? In any case, we decided that since he was up anyway, we should ask for his opinion.

“So… This is what you want to do, Raebin? Be honest and tell them everything?”

“Yes,” Raebin said, sitting down among us. “Frankly, we started that channel because you wanted to help me overcome my slump. I want to tell people that.”

“R-Raebin…”

“It won’t be possible for us to continue running the channel as a hobby, of course… but I’ll try to find a different, healthy outlet!” Raebin said, balling his fists.

Well.

I smiled. “Okay. Let’s just be honest, then,” I said.

“…!”

I heard murmuring from beside me.

“Moondae?”

“Is he drunk?”

I ignored them.

“Raebin is right. Honesty always works. I think it’s best to be honest about it.”

“Thank you!” Raebin said.

“Wow!”

Big Sejin looked at me as if he didn’t believe a word of what I was saying.

You bastard. I did have something more to say, though.

“But let’s not go through the agency. Why don’t you make the statement yourself?” I said.

“Oh, you mean our social media account?”

“No, not there.”

“…?”

“Then where?”

I continued to smile as I raised my phone in the air. It would maximize the impact.

Let’s go.

***

It had been half a day since the copycat controversy had begun. Conversation on the internet was still very heated. All kinds of rumors from Raebin’s past were in danger of being dug up and combined with the recent drama. The soundtrack was doing extremely well in the charts regardless, and people were review-bombing it and endlessly generating more things to talk about.

- No way, All-Star Music started a livestream

The victim had shown up in person.

[Here’s what I have to say regarding the recent controversy.]

New fuel for the fire had emerged, and people excitedly began clicking into the video right away. A black thumbnail appeared, then faded away, replaced by the video.

[“Hello, it’s me, TeSTAR’s Kim Raebin. I run this channel.”]

- ??

Wait, what? The chat immediately filled with question marks.

Kim Raebin was sitting in his room in the dorm wearing casual clothes, a serious expression on his face. He continued to read from a piece of paper he was holding.

[“First of all, I would like to thank all the fans of the channel, and apologize for the recent controversy.”]

- What in the world is going on?

Why was the person being accused in the controversy thanking people on the channel of the victim?

Is he trying to say that he reached a settlement with the victim? If he forced the owner of the channel to let him appear here, that’s a low blow.

Kim Raebin continued to speak.

[“Last fall, I experienced a slump in my composition career… The members made time for me, though time is a rare commodity, and put together a little retreat for us.”]

[“While it’s sad that this happened in the process, the blame is solely my own. I would like to assure you that the other members have done nothing wrong.”]

The humble tone he’d adopted meant that people immediately assumed that Kim Raebin was about to apologize for copying someone else’s music.

The cursing began in the comments.

- So you copied someone else’s music at that camp?

- What do we care about some stupid camp? LOL Just apologize already.

- What the hell are you doing going live on some ordinary person’s account? Just use your agency, damn it

- Ugh

[“It was my mistake for getting the samples mixed up…”]

Suddenly, a member crept out from the corner of the room. It was Seon Ahyeon.

- ?

He waved frantically at Kim Raebin, but soon realized that it wasn’t working. He slowly walked over, whispered something to Kim Raebin, and then disappeared again. Kim Raebin’s eyes widened, and he nodded at the camera.

[“Oh! Did I not tell you yet? Sorry about that.”]

- Sorry about what? LOL

[“I’m All-Star Music.”]

Question marks filled the chat again.

[“Sorry. I should have started with that, but I wanted to explain in detail…”]

Confusion and screaming seemed to be the general response. Not that any of that mattered—Kim Raebin didn’t even know he could see the real-time chat.

[“To be more exact, this account was used to post the work we produced at our music composition camp.”]

[“Thank you for all your encouragement. Even recently, your comments have made us feel very good about ourselves!”]

- What?

[“I want to tell you which members had the biggest part in which songs… Oh, but wait. I nearly got distracted from the point. Once again, I apologize!”]

- Tell us right now!

- What! What! What! What!

- This can’t be real

Spelling errors and unreadable messages appeared in the chat, but Kim Raebin simply continued to explain the details of what had happened, just as he’d planned. The only unnecessary comment was the following:

[“And thanks to the positive response from all of you, we even used the videos on this channel to put together a portfolio while we were in the discussion phase for the soundtrack deal.”]

This line had been suggested by Park Moondae, in order to stop people from even speculating that the songs on the account had been made after the soundtrack deal. Raebin, of course, thought he was just conveying his thanks to the channels supporters and so delivered this line with perfect sincerity.

- Wow.

- I had no idea

- So All-Star Music is Kim Raebin, the genius and Mozart of today’s day and age

- LMAO what is even going on

The chat instantly transformed, taking on a more positive vibe. This twist in the story was fun. Kim Raebin wasn’t blaming them for cursing at him, and instead was apologizing for acting in a way that lent easily to misunderstandings.

The chat began to laugh and poke fun at those who had cursed and riled up the public even worse than they had themselves, assuming a single identity—supporters of All-Star Music. The trolls who had come into the chat equipped with genuine hatred for TeSTAR grew cautious or simply vanished.

- Where are the people who were so eager to curse? They’ve all run off

- This is so much fun.

- This is pure “I’m powerful, but I’m not bothering to show it” energy

Raebin followed up by explaining in detail how he had worked on the soundtrack, and why the samples had overlapped.

[“We had a tight deadline, and we only had four days to complete a demo. I mistakenly used the same sample as one of the songs…”]

Even this was easy to sympathize with for modern audiences.

- So a deadline…

- You were being worked to death for quality’s sake

- LOL he works this hard and composition is a hobby for him? That’s so unreal

- It’s not easy being an idol, is it?

The mood was cheery as people simply hung around to hear how the soundtrack of a successful movie had been made.

Raebin had prepared a statement that took about five minutes to deliver. If it became too long, it would have the opposite of the intended effect, so the stream was drawing to a close.

There was a knocking sound.

[“Oh!”]

Raebin turned around to face the door, which was partly visible in the corner of the shot. The other TeSTAR members slowly crept inside.

- No way. TeSTAR!

- Amazing!

- Why are they acting like that? LOL

They seemed embarrassed, as if they were showing up late for a meeting. The chat filled with laughter again. Dressed in casual clothes, they gathered around Raebin and all quickly bowed their heads.

[“We apologize for causing controversy!”]

The scene looked like something that might be used as a thumbnail for an apology video, and the chat was filled with laughing emojis in response.

[“Sorry! It was my idea to give him a chance to enjoy composition as a hobby!”]

[“We didn’t know this would happen! Raebin’s done nothing wrong!”]

They were obviously being very sincere, which made this all the funnier.

- LOL no, we’re sorry

- They probably lost sleep over this

- It can’t have been easy LOL. This is so hilarious!

The light-hearted mood encouraged people to just relax and apologize, even. It was at this moment that the controversy became an amusing passing incident, nothing more.

[“We’ll see you next time, preferably without making any of the same mistakes!”]

The camera shook clumsily for a moment, then the stream ended. The comments, however, were still swarming in the aftermath of the unexpectedly wholesome stream.

- This is insane! LOL

- They are so much fun

At the same time, similar posts appeared all over the internet because of how hilarious the situation was.

[Wonder who All-Star Music is?]

[Kim Raebin and Kim Raebin reach amicable settlement regarding controversy…]

And only after these posts had spread did TeSTAR upload proof of their trip to their social media account like it was in retrospect.

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We can finally tell you about… the ginseng liquor that Moondae drank in the mountains during our composition camp

(Photo)

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It was all a matter of timing. What Moondae failed to foresee, however, was that this time, the timing was even more perfect than even he’d anticipated.