The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Our music show schedule for Tuesday passed smoothly. Because we had already showcased the title song on the pre-recording a couple of times, we didn’t feel that pressured. And like last week, we also had to choose a representative among us to say soapy lines with the hosts. I thought we would have to decide on who would take the role by playing hot potato, but the broadcasting crew specifically picked out Yeon-Hoon and requested him to do the job.

“Mr. Yeon-Hoon, please go up now!”

“Yes, sir! I will be back guys.”

“Good luck.”

“No need to feel nervous.”

Yeon-Hoon seemed to have wanted to do this task and looked happy to have been chosen. And after sending him off, we went to the waiting room and watched Yeon-Hoon through the monitor. Members of new groups had to showcase key dance moves from the choreography of their title songs.

“Oh! It’s Yeon-Hoon!”

“Senior Kang Hyun-Sung came out for Only One.”

Since Only One and us were debuting at the same time, two teams were also doing the same show. As expected, there was no way that the broadcast station would lose its chance to show more rivalry.

—We have leaders from two teams who made quite the spectacle with their debut! Ohhh!

The stage was set up so that Yeon-Hoon stood at the left and Kang Hyun-Sung stood at the right, slightly facing each other. This setup didn’t seem like a big deal, but it actually had an effect of strengthening the rivalry between the two teams. Furthermore, the show began with the teams’ rivalry as its main focus.

—Siren and Only One are both two teams that debuted through The Showcase. You both have been tied as rivals for quite some time now, how do you each feel about it?

The host blatantly brought up the topic.

—We think it’s a great honor that we can even be considered rivals with such amazing performers!

—Because we keep getting set up with such a cool and skilled group like Siren as rivals, it pushes us to work harder.

Yeon-Hoon and Kang Hyun-Sung appeared to verse each other on who could say the most humble lines and boosted each other up. Truthfully, it was the scriptwriter who gave them these lines, but I thought this was the only right direction to take. If they went any harder on the rivalry angle than this, it could just sour the mood.

—Then, could you both show a key dance move from your choreography?

This was the time for the two to explain their key choreography points.

—Our key dance move is to wave your palm like this and jerk your head sideways

—Ah, like this?

—Yes, yes! Isn’t it simple?

—Haha! Yes, it’s a simple and cute move.

The choreography we had this time was one that could be copied quickly and was easy to understand. Of course, it wasn’t like this choreography was just simple and easy since Woon had poured out his blood, sweat, and tears to make such easy moves suitable for an impressive performance; and our real choreography was about five levels harder than the key dance move that Yeon-Hoon showcased.

—What is Only One’s key dance move?

—For ours, you have to point to the floor with your finger and stomp once, then, slide to the side.

—Oh, it’s simple but very cool

Kang Hyun-Sung also showed an easier version of his group’s choreography.

—I can’t wait to see the rest of your performance, but unfortunately, I think it’s time to let you two go. Then, can you two explain the next performance?

This was the highlight of this section. It was their time to introduce and explain the next stage. Though I could see Yeon-Hoon doing aegyo[1], I couldn’t bear to see Kang Hyun-Sung do the same. I felt sick to my stomach and tried to turn my head away.

“Hey! Bong Tae-Yoon! Do not turn away as your comrade is dying!”

“…No.”

Dong-Jun clutched my head and fixed it towards the screen.

—Ah so hot~ Mr. Hyung-Sung! It’s scorching here! Should we try to find somewhere cooler?

—Really? I don’t feel all that hot.

—What?

—I said I’m fine.

—Why?

—It’s because we have Happiness’s ‘Cool Summer’

—It’s a refreshing and bright song that would cool your ears!

—Let’s begin Happiness’s ‘Cool Summer’~

The two finished their stage introduction with all their might.

“…Wow.” I was genuinely impressed. Yeon-Hoon appeared to have been hesitant at times in embarrassment, but…

‘Kang Hyun-Sung…is the real deal…’ There wasn’t a hint of hesitation, embarrassment, or awkwardness in his behavior. He sounded so natural as if he would turn on Happiness’s ‘Cool Summer’ instead of the air conditioner to cool himself.

Though I was shocked by Kang Hyun-Sung’s brazenness, my other members reveled in Yeon-Hoon’s suffering.

“Hahaha!”

“Look at Yeon-Hoon’s face…it looks like it would burst…”

“I should tease him about this later.”

About this time, I went to Bluebird to monitor the comments.

‘…Hm?’ I was a bit taken aback by how aggressive the comments were.

***

I did expect some people to be overly invested in the rivalry storyline between Only One and us at our debut. Yet, I expected that to be a very small minority and what happened mostly under the surface. Furthermore, I knew that we couldn’t only expect good responses with our current game plan, and some bad responses would naturally follow behind. Yet, I had prepared myself to not concern myself about the setbacks too much.

‘But why is it so out there…?’ There wasn’t just a ‘little’ bit of bad responses. Perhaps, it was all my miscalculation. I expected some negative feelings and energy since we and Only One were debuting together, but I didn’t think they would become so firmly rooted between the fandoms like this.

—Sh** did the broadcasting station really put them with our guys?

—Don’t they know the fan responses? Why the hell would they put them together then?

—His comment with Kang Hyun-Sung wasn’t even funny; it disgusted me

Of course, these types of responses still couldn’t be considered the majority in terms of the total number of feeds coming up on sites. Yet, the problem was that even I could ‘see’ them. I purposefully didn’t follow accounts that poured out aggressive comments since they didn’t accurately reflect the actual situation and followed accounts that I thought well-represented the common idol market consumers.

‘If this is how these people feel, doesn’t it mean that it would be a huge mess in anonymous and aggressive accounts?’ By then, I realized the severity of the situation.

I was clearly the one to blame for all this. After all, these sorts of negative responses were destructive and soon exhausted fans.

—From now on, I just don’t want Siren to work at the same time as Only One

—I guess the company has their own plans…but honestly, it’s a bit tiring

—I don’t know why I have to feel stressed by just seeing Only One

It wasn’t unusual to find such posts. It was true that Only One and Siren ate up all the entertainment issues and attention with our rivalry storyline before our debut. Kang Hyun-Sung and our plan were very effective in this aspect.

‘…But maybe it was a mistake.’ I underestimated the negatives while only focusing on the positives. I felt sorry for my fans and felt ashamed of myself.

“It’s time for our performance now. Let’s warm up a bit,” Do-Seung said and got up.

I settled my mind and got up. At least for now, the broadcast came first.

***

The live show was over. Yeon-Hoon took the role of the ending fairy and created quite a buzz. The moment the camera fixed on Yeon-Hoon, there was a burst of cheer at the site. I later checked what happened in the waiting room and thought people’s responses then were understandable. On the screen, he heaved with a pure and beautiful face and smiled brightly. He gave off the look of a male lead from a high-teen romance movie that existed only in people’s imaginations.

“Yeon-Hoon is trending again.”

“Really?”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, but the trending keywords are a bit rough.’

‘Yeon-Hoon Damn Fucking Insane’ was the trending keywords. After that, Only One’s performance came next and changed the trending keywords again. The ending fairy for Only One’s performance was Kang Hyun-Sung, and even though he just stared at the screen blankly, he still got up on the trending list.

His trending keyword was ‘Kang Hyun-Sung’s face.’ I still didn’t know how Kang Hyun-Sung was supposed to be handsome, but he was someone who gathered fans with his face somehow. Yet, since everyone had their own preferences, I didn’t dwell too much on it. Soon afterward, performances from our senior groups continued until in the last stage, a girl group who had been in the business for quite some time finished their ending performance.

Then, all the singers got onto the stage to pick this week’s number one.

“Wow…we are finally standing on the stage we only saw through the screen.”

“It makes me strangely nervous.”

“Won’t they not capture us on screen? I bet someone else would take first place.”

“Well…the camera could shoot us when we don’t expect it.”

My members conversed as we got up on the stage. I also walked outside the waiting room following my members. Perhaps, it was because all the groups came out but there was quite some traffic in the hallways, and we had to wait in the middle of moving to our location.

“Good job today.”

“Ah, you surprised me.”

Kang Hyun-Sung whispered in my ear. It was a face I wasn’t happy to see. Since we had to wait in the hallway before going up on the stage, there were unfortunate encounters like this. I wanted to tell him to not just whisper in people’s ears like that since it was annoying but I was afraid to be labeled as the arrogant newbie and kept my thoughts to myself.

Kang Hyun-Sung also probably acted knowing I couldn’t do anything about it. All I could do was stare at Kang Hyun-Sung with some contempt.

“Ah? It’s moving.” It was then the traffic moved up, and people began to get up to the main stage one by one. As people’s footsteps sounded from everywhere, Kang Hyun-Sung asked out of the blue.

“You checked, right?” He asked without any of the main points. Yet, I supposed that he was talking about the drawbacks of pushing our two teams’ rivalry storyline. I quietly nodded. Though I checked the responses, I wondered if there was anything we could do in this instance. I thought I should do something but planned to discuss the plans after this music show was over.

“Don’t worry.”

“…?”

Kang Hyun-Sung acted cool all of a sudden. What was he telling me to not worry about? Did he have some kind of plan? I stared at Kang Hyun-Sung with more contempt than before, but Kang Hyun-Sung evaded my eyes and got up the stage.

“Let’s go.”

***

The candidates for first place this week was a senior member of a girl group, who started her solo activity with a summer song, verses a girl group that debuted about four years ago and also released their season song. I recalled that both candidates displayed good results and sales, and it wouldn’t be surprising if either placed first.

Before first place was announced, the top of the stage was adequately hectic and loud. It was then, I felt a strange foreboding feeling and turned.

“…?” My head stopped temporarily after seeing what I didn’t expect, and what Kang Hyun-Sung told me passed through my head. He told me not to worry, which meant that he would quell the rivalry storyline that was getting out of hand. I couldn’t get a sense of how he would do that.

‘…?’ Right before the first place was announced and the camera was on the entire stage, Kang Hyun-Sung whispered to Yeon-Hoon and smiled fondly. Yeon-Hoon’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Kang Hyun-Sung.

‘…What?’ Kang Hyun-Sung was acting all familiar with Yeon-Hoon all of a sudden as if he wanted everyone else to see. I thought he had a clear plan when he told me not to worry, but I didn’t imagine that to come on behalf of Yeon-Hoon.

‘…This…bastard…?’ I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In the meantime, Kang Hyun-Sung and I met eyes.

He looked down on me arrogantly and smiled at Yeon-Hoon again. ‘…Should I kill him?’ I thought.

‘Haa…’ I really just wanted to take a hard punch at the man.

1. Acting (sometimes overly) cutesy ☜