NOVEL NEXT Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Since there were far more fans than the cast, they entered earlier and exited later. It wasn’t as if they could move around freely either.
Finally, after the shoot ended and the set was being cleared, the time for the fans to leave also arrived.
“Ugh, my back…”
“It’s probably going to take forever to get out too, right?”
“There’s no way it’ll be worse than getting in.”
“Still, it’s a relief that it ended before the teaser dropped.”
“Oh, that’s right! The teaser’s supposed to drop soon! I saw them in person earlier, and I can’t wait to see it again!”
Even though they had shouted in support, waved their light sticks, and poured everything they had into the day, it wasn’t over for the Colors.
Every evening, the teaser images of the members were released.
Luckily, because the shoot ended just in time, they didn’t have to worry about anything else and could fully enjoy the new content.
And then, finally, simultaneous notification sounds went off in the Colors section as they waited to exit.
“It’s up!”
As if on cue, everyone’s eyes dropped to their phone screens.
[CONCEPT IMAGE #MONOCHROME #monochrome #Myung Jae Min]
“?”
For a moment, a sense of cognitive dissonance swept over the Colors section.
It was definitely the official Monochrome account.
But it wasn’t Jun-hae.
Myung Jae Min…? That Jae Min?!
After a brief moment of silence, the sound of several people gasping in shock filled the air.
As the atmosphere in one section of the fan seats suddenly changed, the eyes of the other fans waiting to exit naturally turned toward them.
The Colors were all so stunned that they couldn’t speak, but the murmurs that began soon spread like wildfire.
“What is this…?”
“Is it really Jae Min oppa?”
“This isn’t some old photo being re-uploaded, is it…?”
“Oh my god. Jae Min…”
The other fans had no idea what was happening.
“What’s going on?”
“Did someone faint?”
Some staff members, thinking there was an emergency, approached but quickly left after confirming there was nothing wrong.
Since everyone around them was just holding their phones and looking shocked, it seemed like some major news had broken, but of course, there was no such news. To the Colors, though, this was the most shocking news of all.
Being gathered in one space, the other sections gradually started to become puzzled.
Even though they were close by, fans from different fandoms usually didn’t mix much, and the Colors were too flustered to explain.
So, news spread faster through online communities and social media than the physical distance between them.
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Is something going on with the Monochrome fandom? ;; I’m here watching the Idol Sports Championship, and suddenly there were screams from that section.
└ I heard someone fainted, but I guess not?
└ Nope, I just saw the staff leave after checking.
└ I think something popped up on their official account earlier; maybe it’s that?
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“What’s going on?”
“They say there’s news about a former member.”
“Did someone else leave?”
“No, they say a member who left has come back.”
“Wow. No wonder they screamed.”
The online communities, which had been abuzz all day with live updates from the Idol Sports Championship, quickly shifted focus.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Did a member who left just come back?
└ No, there was another member who left before.
└ ;;; Was the group not always like this?
└ Wow, that group’s been through a lot.
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Monochrome’s returning member isn’t Chae Yunhwan but Myung Jae Min!
Please make sure to differentiate between them. I’m a Yunhwan fan, so why do we have to be dragged through the mud again ㅠㅠ
└ Both of them are former members, so it might be confusing for some peopleㅋㅋ;
└ We seem to get mentioned more after leaving the group than we did while in it. What is this struggle?ㅋㅋ
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~Monochrome’s Former Members Returning Summary~
Originally, there were five members when they debuted.
The member whose photo was just released was injured at the Idol Sports Championship three years ago and had to halt activities. The reason wasn’t disclosed, but they eventually left the group.
After that, a new member was added, and they recently left.
And then today, suddenly, a photo of the member who got injured at the Idol Sports Championship was released.
One-sentence summary: Member 1 left -> Member 2 was added -> Member 2 left -> Member 1 returned.
└ Wow, today was the Idol Sports Championship filming day, wasn’t it?
└ The company is really messing with us by releasing that todayㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ No way, today our idol also went to the Idol Sports Championship and nearly slipped on the floor.
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Did Monochrome also show up at the Idol Sports Championship today?
└ Yep, they did.
└ Only four of them appeared.
└ I was there in the audience too, and just when we were about to leave, the news dropped, and their fans went crazy.
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Their company’s got guts. To bring back the member who got injured at the Idol Sports Championship on the day of the event, no less. ㄷㄷ
└ Isn’t their company not even that powerful? Maybe it’s possible because they’re a smaller agency…
└ Did they really need to avoid the filming date? That would be even more of a power move;
━━━━━━━━━━━━
With the news of Jae Min’s return, concerns about the safety of the program also began to surface, and complaints arose among fandoms worried all day about their idols getting injured during the shoot.
*
The fans weren’t the only ones waiting for the teaser to drop.
Since the parking lot was bound to be chaotic, Monochrome stayed in the waiting room for a while longer.
As the members, who had been preparing to leave, gathered around the tablet I was holding, everyone stopped what they were doing.
“It’s up.”
Right on time, Jae Min’s teaser image was posted on the official SNS account.
Soon after, the murmur of voices inside the gymnasium filtered through the walls and slightly reached the waiting room.
They all gathered to see it together, but it wasn’t like they were planning anything. They were just confirming that the teaser had been uploaded.
Without a word, Woohyung, who was sitting beside Jae Min, pulled him into a hug.
Even though it had been weeks since the decision to bring him back was made, everyone must have been feeling a bit anxious.
“You’re officially a member of Monochrome now.”
“…It’s really true.”
The moment when the four became five again.
Everyone quietly but deeply reflected on the fact that this moment had truly arrived.
I didn’t plan to check the reaction immediately. I just wanted to quietly embrace this moment.
There would be a lot to handle starting tomorrow, but for now…
“Let’s go. We came here with four members, but we’re leaving with five.”
At my words, even the staff donned their coats and grabbed their bags with a sense of resolve.
When we opened the waiting room door, we saw that a staff member from another team passing by was shocked to see us.
“Hey, look, look.”
“That member is here with them?”
“Unbelievable.”
Maybe because we were in the same industry, the rumors spread quickly.
The other idols and staff members, who were also getting ready to leave, didn’t just glance at us—they outright stared.
Receiving all those gazes, we surrounded Jae Min like bodyguards and moved out.
“I feel like I’m being released from prison right now.”
It seemed that Jae Min also wondered if all this secrecy was necessary.
Indeed, there was no real need to hide him. It’s just that we naturally formed this protective formation because we didn’t want to be immediately exposed to the curious stares.
Today was a significant day for us, and we didn’t want it to be lightly consumed as just another piece of gossip like, ‘I saw Myung Jae Min at the Idol Sports Championship lol.’
“Just enjoy it, like you’re the main star of the exit scene.”
After all, when would we ever be this noticed again? No, as idols, we had to make sure we were noticed from now on. Hopefully for better reasons in the future.
Still, looking at the other teams, it was clear that our staff was significantly smaller.
The upside of having fewer people was that we could escape the crowded venue faster.
‘We’re still short on staff.’
We had tried to hold onto those who were about to leave and recruited new ones, but we still had a long way to go.
We needed more people on our side.
*
Because of the Idol Sports Championship shoot, many group names were trending on and off the real-time keyword lists throughout the day.
Monochrome’s name also briefly appeared on that list…and then disappeared.
‘So, this is the importance of recognition…’
For us, it was a monumental event, but to the public, it was just a fleeting piece of news.
Even so, in the online communities filled with idol fans, the discussion about it was still relatively active.
It was the biggest move I’d made since arriving in this world, so to be honest, I was scared to see the reaction.
But checking was part of my job.
The first thing that caught my eye was a flood of tears, a deluge of ‘ㅠㅠㅠ.’
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The portal site also updated the member count to fiveㅠㅠㅠ
*(Screenshot)*
└ It’s trueㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ I still can’t believe it. That we can see him as a member again..ㅠ
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To be honest, Jae Min was always my sore spotㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Actually, because of that, I couldn’t watch our boys at the Idol Sports Championship for yearsㅠㅠ
└ Same, every time Idol Sports Championship season came around, I couldn’t stop thinking about itㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ I bet there were people wondering what he’s been up to these daysㅠㅠ
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I wasn’t in the fan section, just in the general audience, so I left a bit early, but I think I saw the members with Jae Min.
They were all huddled together, and now I realize it was probably because Jae Min was there.
└ Wow, so they were together the whole time ㅠㅠㅠ
└ Ugh, why did it have to be at the Idol Sports Championshipㅠㅠㅠ.. I wonder what he was feelingㅠㅠㅠ
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Who would’ve thought that fans would notice us so quickly in that brief moment?
‘Eyes really are everywhere…’
In a place full of fans, stories about sightings were already popping up, and it was almost surprising that no news about Jae Min had leaked out while he was still a former member.
‘This must also be… due to a lack of recognition.’
It felt like the fandom was being pulled back to three years ago, just like us.
[Back from living my horrible life after seeing Jae Min…]
[Is there anyone who remembers me? I used to be active as JaeminiMini three years ago! #ColorsAreBack]
[My sore spotㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ #WelcomeBackJaeMin #Let’sNeverPartAgain]
[What is happening? My old fandom friends are starting to come backㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Colors Reunion happening soon. Reunion chairman -> #ColorsAreBack]
As expected, though, there were also various ripples of discontent.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Did they kick out a member and then replace them again?
└ Please make some sense.
└ That guy left on his own, you knowㅋㅋ;; If you don’t know the details, maybe just stay out of it.
└ What kind of pull does Newma have to kick out someone as important as Yunhwanㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is ridiculous.
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Newer fans are confused.
└ 22 Yeah, it feels a bit awkward.
└ I’ve seen past videos, but honestly, it feels unfamiliar to me…
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I kept supporting the group because of Yunhwan, but now it feels like a different group, so I’m honestly feeling a bit distant…
└ But it’s not a different group. They’re just back to the original lineup.
└ I know that, but… Yunhwan’s time in the group was important to meㅠㅠ It was the era I loved.
└ I also feel a bit sad… like the Monochrome I knew is being erased.
└ That’s exactly how the older fans felt three years ago.
└ It’s only natural to feel a little distant at first. After all, Yunhwan and the returning member were both in the group for about the same amount of time.
└ Judging by the way you said ‘the returning member,’ it seems you’re just a Yunhwan fanㅎ
└ Let’s not fight. Both sides have a point. This is the way it is now, so what can we do?
└ Everyone’s just going to go their own way…
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Leaving the spot empty forever might be too much to ask, but I could understand why some fans were feeling unsettled.
It’s like seeing the room you used to use in your parents’ house being turned into something else after you’ve moved out.
With so many changes happening, some people were bound to return, while others would leave.
I couldn’t even begin to gauge how many, and that’s what made it more terrifying to check.
Seeing fans who seemed ready to drift away wasn’t good for my mental state.
I couldn’t imagine how Yun-hee had handled this all along, nor what the members who were directly involved were thinking as they endured it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Aren’t they going to disband once the contract is up?
└ Next dumb comment, please.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
‘Haa. How long will these rumors about disbandment keep going?’
But disbandment was such an absurd notion that these kinds of suspicions didn’t really bother me.
Typically, an idol group’s contract period starts with the release of their first album, but in Monochrome’s case, the contract started on the day my tutorial began, so the fans didn’t know the exact timing of the contract period.
I wondered how the fans would feel if they knew we were already in the middle of the renewal period. They were always talking about leaving Newma.
Until the teaser for Jun-hae, the last in line, was released, all sorts of rumors were flying around.
When his photo was finally uploaded, there was a brief lull as everyone rushed to devour the new content.
I felt a bit sorry that Jun-hae, being the last in line during this situation, ended up being posted last, but in a way, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it garnered more attention.
An hour later, a live clip and the song were released.
Some fans rejoiced over the long-awaited content, while others were in turmoil; it was chaos, to say the least.
In one corner, the confusion even escalated into a fight between Yunhwan’s fans and the Colors.
‘Ugh… this is tough…’
Could we really get through this?
I was wrestling with this seemingly unanswerable question when this difficult situation was abruptly resolved by Yunhwan quietly liking Monochrome’s new song release on SNS.
We hadn’t had any contact since he left, so I was honestly surprised that he responded out of the blue.
It made me realize just how influential celebrities can be.
‘One like, and the fans went silent.’
He probably saw the fans fighting with each other.
I remembered the moment when Yunhwan, with a sunken voice, had squeezed out his last words as he went through the process of terminating his contract.
‘He must have been going through hell too…’
This action could lead to some backlash somewhere, but he had chosen to quietly step forward, accepting the responsibility.
Even though it was a tough situation, it was somewhat comforting to know that there were people out there who were acting in the same direction as us.