Chapter 39

Chapter 39

“Is something bothering you?” I asked, being purposely vague. I hoped he had the good sense to be equally vague in his response. Eugene, however, began to sob with the chocolate bar still shoved in his mouth.

Oh my god... Are you serious? Were people in the entertainment industry all this emotional? Or maybe it was the struggle for survival on the show that was getting to him. I’d seen too many people crying recently.

“They’re all fighting... It’s s-scary just trying to talk to them.”

“Hmm...”

He looked utterly defeated. The happy-go-lucky guy who was always firing off random comments was nowhere to be seen. It really seemed as if his team had run aground in a single day.

They’re the puppy team, right? Guess this team’s really turning out to be a b*tch. I could already picture the mocking they were going to get on the internet in conjunction with their team name.

It would be silly for Park Moondae to offer Cha Eugene any sort of advice, though. A single comment taken the wrong way could turn the entire internet against me, with people uploading all sorts of negative opinion pieces on community websites. We were on different teams, after all.

I’ll just send him back after he calms down a little. I chose to skirt around the subject while still keeping my tone appropriately serious. “Want some more chocolate?”

Eugene nodded. I pulled out another handful of chocolate bars from my bag and handed them to him.

Good thing I brought a lot. I still had another bag of the large bars left. It wouldn’t do to seem like I was only begrudgingly parting with my snacks. We sat in silence accompanied by the sounds of the shower running in the background, Eugene munching on his chocolate.

He soon got up, both hands full of the bars, and bowed to me. “Thank you.”

He seemed to be ready to go back. I could have kissed him for not divulging any details about his situation. Though I wanted him gone immediately, I decided to be nice for the sake of the cameras.

“You sure you don’t need to see Raebin?”

“Yeah... I’ll be fine.”

“All right.”

The crying seemed to have lifted some of the burden off him. He already looked more put together.

Isn’t he just sugar-high now? I wondered if he would be back once the sugar’s effects had worn off, but for now, my priority was to get the ticking time bomb that was Cha Eugene out of here. I watched as he trudged away back down the corridor, then closed the door, sighing with relief.

As if we’re not already busy enough as it is! I can’t be dealing with ticking time bombs like that as well.

Now that we had passed the halfway point in the show, I needed to be extra careful to avoid catching any flak. If my popularity were to drop now, there might not be enough time left for me to recover it.

The only problem was, merely being careful wasn’t going to be enough to guarantee my safety. I just need to make sure I don’t stand out... If I can maintain my current pace, I’ll make it to the finals, at least.

Reminding myself of this, I stretched out on my bed. Before I knew it, I was asleep. I only realized the next morning that I’d fallen asleep without even taking a shower.

***

As the contestants were busy trying to cobble together a performance from scratch and suffering through the creative process, Episode Eight of Relisted! Idol Incorporated aired in the outside world.

- Oh my gosh

- Why him?

- No way LOL

- ??

As the higher rankings were revealed, shock after shock hit the viewers, generally leaving them stunned. It was the reward given to the winners of the last team battle that elicited the most violent response online, however.

[Stock Sales Ignored]

The fact that only a select few contestants were able to avoid the cruel system of stock selling angered the viewers.

- LOL is this for real?

- I was so stupid to spend money on this show

- The production team is trying to push for a certain contestant to win, I’m certain of it. And he’s on the winning team. It makes no sense to give them immunity like that!

Ironically though, the most rage was targeted at the contestants themselves, rather than the production team, who had come up with the new voting system and the reward.

Choi Wongil, who had been slated for disqualification but was saved by the team battle reward, was being torn to shreds in the court of public opinion. The viewers’ anger did not end there. All the members of the winning team whose ranks had skyrocketed thanks to their reward suffered a massive dip in popularity.

- Seon Ahyeon got past Cha Eugene. He’s seriously in second place?

- Why is he crying again? Such a crybaby

- Must be nice to be able to ignore any votes against him. My bias is thanking the viewers despite his drop in rank, but that guy is fricking crying after getting boosted up? I hate his guts

- I feel sick. Seon Ahyeon, the guy with the stutter, is in second place? I guarantee he’ll barely be able to talk even if he wins. People giving him pity votes really need to get their sh*t together

└ Dude, are you nuts? You’re kind of crossing the line here

└ Hey, we’ve got another one of the stutter fans, guys

└ You people are disgusting. I have no words

└ You’ve got no logical response, so you resort to insults. Y-y-you don’t really think he deserves second place, do you?

As emotions got out of hand, crude insults that had yet to surface up until this point began to appear in the comments. Many people were shocked by the cruelty of it all, but the way the internet worked was that aggressive opinions always got the upvotes.

As a result, however, the contestants who had calmly accepted their rankings dropping due to the new voting system and the winning team’s reward experienced a boost in popularity.

- Nice work, guys T_T

- There are sunny days and there are rainy days. Ignore the losers casting votes against you all. You guys still got this :)

- Thanks for staying so strong, it must have been hard

Park Moondae, who’d had a higher rank before the correction, was lucky enough to avoid any critical backlash even though he experienced an increase in rank. In return, there was a shift in his fans’ dynamic, however.

The people who’d been fans of Moondae’s entire team from the first team battle were intimidated by the criticism and fans of his second team took over as the majority.

- Moondae, congrats on fourth place. Good work T_T (Video of Moondae being congratulated by his team from the second team battle)

- Moondae’s expression after being asked “Whatcha doing?” three times in a row LOL. “What’s a cat doing acting that way around a puppy...?” (Video of Moondae and Cha Eugene) (Humorous meme of a cat and a dog)

- It’s hilarious Moondae became so popular with the other guys against his will LOL

- Look at this clip. Moon Puppy is giving out snacks in the corner T_T He’s an angel... (Short video)

Fans of the other two contestants, who’d had no one to ally themselves with before, saw their chance—that was to say, the fans of Cha Eugene and Kim Raebin.

- Moon Puppy, Kim Rabbit, Cha Kitty! That’s three cute animals together. What an adorable team. Come on, let’s get the hype train going (Picture)

- These guys look like they would ignore a nobody like me on the street, but they’re such soft-hearted cuties in reality T_T (Edited clips from the show)

- Animal heroes to the rescue! (Fan art)

Sometimes the comments on social media even brought Ryu Chungwoo into the mix. As those who had only discovered the show after the second team battle began to clash with the fans who were angry and resentful toward the contestants, the arguments intensified.

It was an all-consuming topic for many people, causing pandemonium all over the internet. The situation was made even worse since the show was now more popular than ever before. Communities from all corners of the internet contained posts about Idol Inc. even if they were not specifically geared toward celebrities and idols.

And every post was met with an avalanche of emotion-charged arguments in the comments.

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[Take a look at this contestant from an audition show that’s really popular these days]

(Picture) His name is Cha Eugene. Do girls these days really like such feminine-looking boys? Tsk... What has the world come to?

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- His eyes... They remind me of a mountain lion... Not the luckiest sort of face, I’ll say that much...

- Don’t be so rude, you old man

- What’s wrong with him? He’s handsome. My daughter loves him :)

- This show is popular with young people these days. One of them is an excellent singer. I’m going to vote for him in the finals.

└ You must mean Park Moondae. He seems to be the laid back sort... But a singer needs to sing well. That’s what matters.

- Get your sh*t together, old man. You’re so out of touch. Cha Eugene is a very clever lad. And the guy who used to be an archer is very nice, too. I’m rooting for both of them.

└ You sound like a middle-aged woman drooling over a young idol kid? Get a life already

Once the comments descended into aggression, someone would take a screenshot and post it on social media, continuing the same argument with a fresh group of people. This same scenario repeated itself dozens of times a day.

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[Boomer’s reaction to Idol Inc.]

(Screenshot) Take a look at this, guys. Some old guy posts an unpopular opinion and a boomer dukes it out with him LOL

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- LOL Cha Eugene’s a superstar now. Every old geezer my age has already saved a pic of this 5’11” tall baby kitty!

- I can’t believe Seon Ahyeon is in second place. He isn’t even mentioned in this post.

└ Don’t be absurd. This post doesn’t represent the entire internet

└ Seon Ahyeon shouldn’t be mentioned at all. The moment you criticize him, his fans get super aggressive

└ This isn’t just criticism. You’re insulting him. What did Seon Ahyeon do wrong, anyway?

└ See? I told you LOL

And it was at this time that the contestants were exposed to the ongoing online riots.

***

Frankly, the first thought that came to my mind was this:

Phew. I survived. I’d been lucky enough to avoid receiving a lot of backlash, and my fans weren’t acting so crazy about me that people were beginning to hate on me for it. My current position was perfect.

People were even beginning to group me with high-ranking contestants I’d been considering forming alliances with so to speak. But I didn’t feel proud of this result, so much as just relieved.

I rubbed my phone screen with my thumb, scrolling through all the malicious comments.

This doesn’t feel right... To be honest, none of the contestants who were being bashed on the internet were bad guys, with the exception of Choi Wongil.

Most of them were just hardworking dudes. I didn’t think they deserved all this hate. It had nothing to do with me, and I only stood to gain if the others lost popularity, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

And why does this have to happen now, of all times?

“Here are your phones back, so you can use them for research!”

Because we had to craft our performances for this team battle from scratch, we’d been given back our phones so we could access the internet. Using our phones was usually prohibited for the duration of a shoot, which meant the contestants hadn’t been aware of the public’s opinions while on set. But during this team battle, that would not be the case.

And because the show was such a hot topic right now, it was impossible to avoid seeing some article or other about it as soon as someone accessed the internet. This meant nearly everyone had immediately looked up posts about themselves.

Our room was silent as each team member stared at their phone. I supposed the same thing was probably happening with all the other teams at that very moment. Unfortunately, we had a member on our team who was catching the most flak—Seon Ahyun.

What if he cries? I had a feeling I should check on him since he was currently situated in the bunk bed below mine, but I was sweating just thinking about it. I had a bad feeling about this.

What if he has a meltdown and his special trait is deactivated? If his “Fortitude” trait turned off, his “lack of self-esteem” status abnormality would become active once more.

This would devalue all of his stats by two levels. I wasn’t sure Seon Ahyeon could even perform properly working with such a crippling penalty.

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if our entire performance and the way it was edited were about to take a fatal hit. I sighed silently.

No wonder I had such good luck with my team formation. No team battle was ever fated to be easy, it seemed. I have to check on him.

“Ahyeon,” I called, leaning over the edge of my bed and looking down at him. He’d been sitting on the edge of his mattress. Looking around at the sound of his name, he said,

“Y-yeah!”

Why does he look totally fine?