| Episode 122. Rumors (1)
The stage began with a graceful piano melody.
I Cheonghyeon moved his hands as if playing a piano in midair.
As the piano sound was absorbed into the original song’s accompaniment, the movement flowed naturally into the choreography.
“The windswept field
The gentle sky
I stand there
Waiting for the stars to rise”
I Cheonghyeon hadn’t included a single line of rap in this stage. Instead, he took part as a vocalist too.
He was a decent singer, but after practicing rap for so long, he had to know it could become a risk. Even so, he refused to back down.
When I told him he didn’t need to abandon his strengths for the sake of perfection, I Cheonghyeon said this.
“I don’t want to be afraid of challenging myself.”
The faint smile he’d worn then still lingered on his face now.
If his falsetto hadn’t been smooth, I wouldn’t have allowed it. I’ll let it slide just this once.
“You don’t know
How much time
Flows along the Milky Way”
With a gesture of slightly pushing up his glasses, Park Juu also handled his part splendidly.
“I wonder why the night sky
Is so dazzlingly bright
The darkness shines
So beautifully”
I slung an arm over his shoulder.
With my other hand, I made a telescope and brought it to my eye, looking up at the sky.
“And so I
Have no choice but to dive in
With all my heart”
Jeong Seongbin gazed endlessly into the dark audience, his eyes shining.
The glitter sparkling on his cheeks contrasted with his low-saturation, vintage-feeling outfit, creating an even more mysterious atmosphere.
As they carried the original song, the six of them put their heads together in thought and looked up at the sky together.
And when the second verse came to an end.
A portion of the third movement of Piano Concerto No. 5, the music I Cheonghyeon had personally chosen, began to play.
The owner of this part was I Cheonghyeon as well.
While he had stepped back to the edge of the stage, I Cheonghyeon lifted the plastic lightbulb he had prepared in advance.
The bulb, made to open with only the slightest touch, burst from I Cheonghyeon’s fingertips with the sound of a switch.
Golden paper confetti, packed full inside the bulb, scattered over I Cheonghyeon’s face……
And the stage’s screen and floor were covered in celestial bodies.
Between the white, shining stars, multicolored galaxies flowed.
It was the moment the star he had searched for so desperately finally appeared before his eyes.
The media art, into which we had poured the budget for three whole stages, shone brilliantly. I had seen it several times during the simulation, the confirmation, and even rehearsal, but it was still a spectacular sight.
Amid the shower of paper stars, I Cheonghyeon smiled brightly.
That expression was the one that had made me decide to put I Cheonghyeon in the center.
The smile I Cheonghyeon had worn when he finished this arrangement.
If that wasn’t joy, if that wasn’t ecstasy, then what was?
I didn’t know what he had realized, but at least among Spark right now, I Cheonghyeon was the closest to “an enthusiastic scientist who has discovered an unidentified planet.”
I could only hope that happiness would somehow reach the audience as well.
After that, the orchestral accompaniment, which hadn’t been connected between parts, continued exquisitely.
It was time for the group choreography, led by Choe Jeho and Gang Giyeon, closer to dance than ordinary idol choreography, to begin.
“I’m being careful because I don’t know much about classical music.”
“Hm?”
“But this piece feels a bit unique.”
That was what I said when I first heard the song I Cheonghyeon had chosen.
And when I Cheonghyeon asked why, I think I explained it like this, with my inadequate ability to express myself.
“It doesn’t feel like any one instrument is taking the lead. It feels like they’re exchanging things with each other. Especially in the third movement.”
“Right?”
What I wanted was splendor and elegance.
But I Cheonghyeon seemed to want to say something more with it.
“That’s why I like this piece.”
I Cheonghyeon stroked the corner of the screen the video was playing on, as if handling something truly precious.
“Because it feels like everyone is making the song together.”
I don’t know whether I Cheonghyeon, performing onstage together with us now, was feeling that past sense of unity again.
But I hoped he wouldn’t regret it.
I sincerely hoped he would enjoy making music.
* * *
There was no upset.
Spark took first place in the second round as well. Parte came in second, following close behind.
The atmosphere inside UA was……
What more needs to be said? It was a festival.
Even the production team, who had been ground down like millstones, heard the news and, in turn, told us we’d worked hard.
Because the quality of the stages had gone up overall, this vote was fierce compared to the previous round. The difference in votes between ranks wasn’t large.
UA seemed proud that Spark had taken first place even in that kind of environment.
This would probably be the last first place Spark could take on Idol Dynasty Annals. The fourth round had a special format, and online voting was scheduled to be reflected in the final round.
Spark didn’t have much chance of winning on those two stages. Especially not in the final round, where online voting would come in for the first and last time.
So it should be fine to let them enjoy it until now. I watched with pleasure as the Spark guys were lavishly praised by the staff.
Between those guys and me, the system appeared.
+
[SYSTEM] An instruction from the “person in charge” has arrived.
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, in society, standing out isn’t always the answer.
+
The system’s words were much shorter than usual.
But they were strange. A single sentence, only a few words long, felt oddly unsettling.
My uneasy premonition was not wrong.
+
[SYSTEM] “Party B” is being notified of an “internal regulation violation.”
.
.
.
▷ If actions excessively different from the existing history are detected, “Party B” will be deemed to have violated the duty of fairness.
▷ Depending on the degree to which “Party B’s” actions have changed history, sanctions using the environment “Party B” is in may be applied.
[SYSTEM] “Party B” is being notified of sanctions according to an “internal regulation violation.”
▷ Details: Reputation score report processing
▷ Reason: Appearance and achievements on “Idol Dynasty Annals”
+
That night, my name began to be plastered all over every kind of community.
Along with dishonorable words like enforcing hierarchy within the team and workplace power abuse.
* * *
Apparently, every human has something called a reputation score. Like a star rating on Job Planet. That must be why a message had popped up before saying my attendance score was high, so I’d receive a good evaluation.
And like a corporation, the system seemed capable of filing reports against a human’s accumulated reputation and putting their reviews into a hidden state.
Until now, I had never done anything that could be nitpicked. Therefore, my reputation probably hadn’t been bad either.
But after that “reputation score report processing,” like a company review page with all the positive reviews gone, only negative posts about me started to appear.
≫ Am I the only one who feels like Kim Iwol enforces discipline?
1. Even during interviews, the kids look toward Iwol and straighten their posture. (They’re constantly watching his reaction.)
2. The composing member once said on a live that his progress gets checked every time.
3. On Idol Dynasty Annals, when they were giving scores for the self-PR stage, he spoke up by himself.
└ No. 1 lol Iwol didn’t even give them a look or anything, the kids just saw him and corrected themselves, so why are you dragging Iwol into it?
└ Then how do you explain No. 3? lololol
└ Characteristics of mindless defenders: when someone says something right, they run away.
≫ But even before the controversy about him ignoring seniors came out, I got a bad feeling from him.
Maybe it’s because he’s the oldest and a producing member.
Jeong Seongbin is the actual leader, but he uses his say in things to steer the team atmosphere.
└ For real. You don’t know how fucking awful that is unless you’ve been through it.
└ He keeps Choe Jeho in check too, even though they’re both in the oldest-line lol. He’s always been iffy to me because he acts deliberately rude only to Jeho.
≫ The members always say he’s the hyung who nags the most.
But honestly, does he even have the skill to nag anyone?ㅠㅠ
Iwol, look at your fancam views……
└ What the kids were sending were distress signals.
└ Is the difference in fancam views that big?
└ They’re pretty similar, but KimPep is always near the bottom.
└ Don’t fancam views not come out well unless you’re a dance member or the center?
└ Nope, doesn’t really matter.
└ Fancams are watched for the dancing, so why would it not matter? lololol Are you stupid?
The reaction was disastrous. There were quite a few things that were true, so even I was a little convinced.
That’s why I was trying to hurry up and step aside, but the system really isn’t helping me……
Still, it was fine up until these kinds of reactions started coming up. From the moment someone like me became an idol, I had already braced myself for the fact that I wouldn’t be hearing good things.
But this much was only the beginning.
The situation worsened rapidly starting that night.
While I was putting together the members who would compete in accordance with what the Idol Dynasty Annals side had sent us for the third round, a position battle, the dorm phone rang, which was rare.
The person calling at four in the morning was our manager.
—Iwol, have you been looking at the internet by any chance? Public opinion is bad right now…… I think we need to check a few things.
I hung up after saying I would check and contact him again.
SNS was nothing short of a sea of fire.
≫ Inside UA, KIW’s personality is already famous.
There’s been a lot of talk about how he completely ignores what staff say and does whatever he wants, and I guess it blew up this time.
I heard the CEO really pushes him.
└ Rumors spread everywhere that he had a lot of friction with the PD too.
└ If you look at how he’s the only one who trained for just one year before debuting, it’s obvious he’s being pushed.
≫ Why do you think they got that member a solo variety show first, leaving the center and the leader aside, you dumbasses?
It’s true that he’s getting special treatment, and it’s a fact that your fave is being left out in the cold because all the push is going to him;; please look at reality.
└ Every time I confirm things like this one by one, my heart hurts so much for the other kids that I cry…… They prepared for so much longer and have more skill than that member, but because of office politics, they’re being discriminated against, and it’s so upsetting.
└ Exactlyㅠㅠ My baby says he likes the members so much that I can’t say anything, but I wish he would work while making sure to get his own share too……ㅠㅠㅠ
From internal company stories close to the truth to an actual solo variety show I had filmed, once flesh was added to the facts, the credibility of the hypothesis increased greatly.
It wasn’t like I had gone on some solo drinking broadcast just to raise my self-PR score.
No, then Choe Jeho should’ve gone on that thing, damn it……
I tore at my hair as I read a few more posts.
The reckless controversy was a big problem too, but my manager wouldn’t have called at dawn over only this much.
After rummaging around for a few more minutes, I came face-to-face with an issue of a kind I had never even thought of.
≫ Fans praise Kim Iwol as a model student character.
But the funny part is that he actually lived his school life like a total delinquent lol.
He was exempt from all group activities like school trips, and even though his class rank wasn’t high enough, he got placed in the self-study room that only kids with good grades were supposed to enter, so there was a lot of talk about special treatment.
His family was well-off, and the teachers took such good care of him.
He himself knew he was all that, had no manners, and didn’t even talk to the kids in his class.
+ I’m verifying with my graduation album.
It was a controversy over special treatment, something I had never once received in my life.