Damn Idol
Episode 113
* * *
The busking wrapped up nicely.
We performed the songs we’d prepared, plus a few more that were requested as encores.
For reference, we got a lot of requests to sing NOP and Drop Out songs as encores, but we didn’t.
Because that was a losing proposition either way—if we sang them well or poorly, it’d be a problem.
Either way, overall, the busking went exactly as I’d envisioned.
Except for that busker who came up in the latter half.
“So that wasn’t intentional?”
“How do you make someone else cry on purpose?”
“No, not that. I mean recruiting that busker on the spot.”
“I just did it.”
The reason I put that man on stage was simple.
I didn’t want our busking to look like a public nuisance.
No matter how much we avoided the peak hours, we were still busking in full force.
Far more people showed up than I’d expected, to the point that the busking area was paralyzed at times.
That meant there were people suffering because of us soon enough.
I called him up on stage because it was something that could damage the group’s image.
There was no grand reason.
“Isn’t that plenty considerate?”
“Hyung, when I watch you quietly, you do kind things while pretending to be rational about them.”
I shrugged my shoulders at Choe Jaeseong’s words.
Now it was I Ion’s turn to chime in.
“You can’t call it a scheme when it’s hyung.”
“Saying it’s a scheme to hyung…….”
I Ion, whose line had been stolen, made a bewildered face and then asked.
“Then what was that song? Did you arrange it on the spot?”
“I did, but…… I came up with the concept yesterday.”
I’d gone to Hongdae yesterday to scout the location in advance.
When using multiple speakers, you have to be careful about sound wave cancellation and interference, so I figured it’d be good to check the place beforehand.
While I was there, I saw the busker from earlier perform.
Yesterday too, he was singing Node’s “Love On Me.”
It wasn’t that I was impressed by the busker’s singing or deeply moved.
If anything, I felt negative about it.
I couldn’t understand why someone with such a good tone and skill was singing in that manner.
So when the opportunity came, I helped him.
Should I say I gave him a guide on how to sing from now on?
He had the talent to seize great opportunities if he sang powerfully, yet he was performing in a way that suited him the least.
“Oh, so you can see that kind of stuff, Sion?”
“Well, he did the same to me. Told me to become an intro master.”
“Knowing Hyung, he was probably thinking ‘intro slave’ in his head.”
“…….”
Choe Jaeseong seems to be getting smarter by the day.
Having returned to the lodgings like that, we applied for a permit to use Ttukseom Hangang Park for tomorrow’s busking.
But when we woke up, an unexpected situation had unfolded.
The busking video from yesterday’s Hongdae performance had become somewhat of a hot topic.
In particular, the scene with the unknown busker and me was the biggest topic.
-Who is that man?
-They say he’s just a busker. Han Sion recruited him on the spot.
-?? Han Sion plays guitar too??
-People who are good at composing usually play instruments well.
-No, that’s another level, though? I play guitar as a hobby too... that’s pro-level.
-Pro my assㅋㅋㅋㅋ it’s just decent amateur level.
-Bullshit, no amateur plays like that.
-Wasn’t this all staged?
-That guy busks there all the time at that hour. I see him around Hongdae often, yeah.
Of course, it wasn’t a blazing-hot topic.
It didn’t hit the YouTube trending charts or real-time search keywords.
But it felt like it was quietly spreading through communities.
There were quite a lot of posts on communities used by the general public with screenshots and clips of the video uploaded.
Thanks to that, it seemed people were seeking out our busking fancam videos too.
-Wtf, Sedalbaekil sings fucking wellㅋㅋㅋ
-I saw kids claiming it was tuned by a machine, but it’s not at all?
-The kids saying that are Drop Out and NOP fansㅋㅋ you know how obsessive fans are creepy.
-Why them? Shouldn’t they like Han Sion since he wrote their songs?
-Because Sedalbaekil is higher than their oppas on the charts.
-Ahaㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Hmm.”
I’d expected a certain amount of buzz, but it had more impact than I’d anticipated.
If this kept up, the plan I’d set out to do from the start would likely become easier.
Still, what needed to be done didn’t change.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“We’re not stopping by the shop today?”
“No. We stopped yesterday because it was the first day; today, let’s go a little more naturally. It is the Han River, after all.”
“Then guys, let’s put on sunscreen thoroughly.”
At I Ion’s words, Onsaemiro shrugged.
“I have bad memories of sunscreen…….”
He’s talking nonsense even though his face tans the easiest.
* * *
After that, Sedalbaekil went on busking tours for a week straight.
We did it briefly at Hongdae on the first day, but not from the second day onward.
We sang at 2 or 3 places per day.
We especially frequented the Hangang Parks scattered around Seoul, and even amid the sweltering July heat, those who visited the Han River parks were able to enjoy Sedalbaekil’s performances.
Given the situation, many fans of Sedalbaekil would dash out as soon as they heard news of the busking.
As the busking progressed, the fans had picked up on Sedalbaekil’s movement patterns.
When Sedalbaekil started its first busking at Ttukseom Hangang Park, they would move around nearby locations like Ttukseom Resort or Seoul Forest.
So if you just kept a close eye on SNS, you could take a taxi there and enjoy the performance in no time.
Of course, it would be nice if Sedalbaekil gave advance notice, but realistically, they knew it wasn’t easy.
Because if they announced beforehand and fans flocked over, causing safety accidents, Sedalbaekil would get blamed.
So the best method was simply to run out as soon as word got out.
-Dude, it’s not like we’re on a five-minute standby!
-What’s a five-minute standby?
-Five-minute standby team. It’s military slang.
-Oh..... first time seeing a soldier fan.
-I’m not a soldierㅋㅋㅋ my brother isㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The ellipsis feels like it contains an infinite amount of confusionㅋㅋㅋ
-I don’t think it’s bad? Thanks to our kids, I’m getting fresh air too. Could this be the kids’ consideration, worrying about this old lady cooped up in a grad school lab?
-Get a grip, grad student.
-Just how much sin did you commit in your past life...
-I went yesterday too, it was funㅋㅋ the kids really welcomed usㅋㅋㅋㅋ didn’t have any goods or albums, so I brought a T-shirt and got it signedㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Oh, what was the vibe like?
-It was a weekday, but way more people than I expected. But I don’t think everyone was there to see the kids; it felt like there were a lot of regular visitors too?
-I’m kind of confused. I don’t know if I’m supporting an idol group or a college dance club.
-Definitely an idol group.
-Why?
-(photo) (photo) (photo) There aren’t five dance club members who look like this.
-Oh.... that’s persuasive.
-No but I want to spend money on our kids... want to buy albums... want to buy goods... want to go to concerts... want to go to fansigns!
There was all sorts of talk, but the fan atmosphere wasn’t bad.
They felt like they were doing something, and the public response to the busking was favorable.
For the time being, it wasn’t hard to find talk about Sedalbaekil’s activities on communities where the general public gathered.
But that was only for a moment.
Because another set of people who would rush out at news of Sedalbaekil’s busking had appeared.
YouTube hacks who lived and died by view counts.
The problem was that these hacks had no interest in facts and only cared about virality.
There were some who filmed the busking as-is and ended with “Sedalbaekil is good.”
But…….
-Ah, it’s ambiguous. It really is ambiguous. I can see why people say that too.
Far more of them deliberately stirred up the controversy to bait clicks.
They weren’t doing this because they hated Sedalbaekil.
It was because riding the coattails of the controversy sucked in way more views than praising Sedalbaekil ever could.
To the zealous fans of Drop Out and NOP.
Among the low-quality hacks, there were even those who deliberately damaged the audio quality of their busking videos.
They had caught on too.
What mattered wasn’t the facts anyway—it was having a source juicy enough to make the eyes of those attacking Sedalbaekil light up.
-Ah, I’m really exhausted. Where did all these lunatics come from.
-It’s so fucking annoying how they bring obviously tampered audio as evidence.
-Even if you give them the original link, they cover their eyes and ears. It’s like “the video you watched is evidence, but the one I watched is fake.”
-Can’t they really get on a music show?
-Isn’t there anywhere official they can sing? If they upload self-produced content, people will obviously bitch that it was tuned.
It was then.
News that left them bewildered arrived.
[An idol on the news pageㄷㄷ]
[Sedalbaekil is on the 8 o’clock news;;]
[Anyone who just watched the news?]
Society page. News.
Words that made fans’ hearts drop with a thud.
Startled Sedalbaekil fans checked the content in a flurry and blinked.
“Huh?”
What is this?
* * *
[Anchor]
Today marks Soseo, the solar term heralding the height of summer. Citizens are overcoming the heat each in their own way.
We’ll now connect to our reporter at the Han River.
[Reporter]
Yes. I’m reporting from Yeouido Hangang Park…….(omitted)
Additionally, citizens enjoyed refreshing music at the busking zones installed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, blowing away the summer heat.(B-roll)
With the monsoon season forecasted to begin next week…….
* * *
-lolol crazy Sedalbaekil lolol
-They busked like crazy and even hit the newsㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-No but why is the B-roll so long? Don’t these things usually pass by quickly?
-Maybe they treated them well because it’s the #1 song on the chartsㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But the angle was like they were filming an obscure indie band... the anchor doesn’t even seem to know who they are.
-The killer point is they sing fucking well even in that contextㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Guysㅋㅋㅋ go to the MBN news channel. The full video is up on News Behindㅋㅋㅋ
-lol MBN secretly loves stuff like this. Remember when it snowed, they uploaded a highlight of people slipping on icy roads?
-Ah I saw thatㅋㅋㅋ those crazy guys collected clips from cameras installed on the icy road.
-They said those were all MBN employees. Installed in front of the headquartersㅋㅋ
-Wow, these guys shook up the society page.
-No but how do you end up on the news instead of a music show?
People laughed it off lightly.
They thought it was just a curious happening born from a coincidence of coincidences.
So no one harbored any doubts.
Why of all scenes, the one where they were singing “Resume” was filmed.
Why of all moments, the chorus refrain they sang together was what made it to broadcast.
Why a scene that would normally be cut within 2–3 seconds was held for a full 7.
Why the full clip was immediately uploaded to the News Behind channel.
The same went for Sedalbaekil’s fandom.
They harbored no doubts.
They simply felt it.
‘This is it!’
Because they realized there was no content more credible and official than this.