Damn Idol Episode 122
One of the prejudices people have is that classical musicians look down on popular music.
Of course, there are those who do.
Treating popular music as low-quality fast food, believing they enjoy a higher-dimensional musical culture.
But those who genuinely enjoyed popular music were far more numerous than such people.
Among actual classical musicians, there were even those who answered “Madonna” when asked, “Who is your prima donna?”
Though it was a joking answer filled with wordplay, it was a response impossible to make if one thought popular music was vulgar.
Likewise, there were many Korean classical musicians who liked popular music.
Especially classical majors currently attending music school liked K-pop idols.
Before they were classical majors, they were youths who went crazy for stars.
However, that didn’t mean they praised the musical completeness of the idol groups they supported.
Honestly, there were many moments where lacking points were visible.
But that wasn’t meaningful.
Because what they supported wasn’t perfected musicians, but desperate strivers.
But then...
Sedalbaekil appeared.
No one had paid attention to the debut of this group with an ambiguous name from the start.
But as Coming Up Next gradually gained popularity, and the music released there began charting, the situation changed.
“Wait, what’s with the main theme rhythm?”
“I’ve never seen counterpoint used like this in popular music before.”
“Who’s the guitarist?”
“This is in sonata form?”
Music that left classical majors bewildered poured out.
Of course, Sedalbaekil’s music wasn’t difficult or abstruse musicologically.
Loops (LOOP: section repetition) unique to popular music were frequent, and the melody’s utilization felt aimed at easy listening.
Nevertheless, the techniques subtly embedded in the music were incredible.
But more surprising than anything was that the public liked it.
Being deeply studied in knowledge doesn’t mean one can write good popular music.
Because those without any professional education often become star composers through pure talent.
In that sense, Sedalbaekil’s music was fascinating.
It exuded high-level skill, but without showing it off at all, captivating the masses.
So the music students didn’t believe that Han Sion had taught himself music.
Because this wasn’t something you could do through self-study.
He had clearly learned professionally; he just wasn’t revealing it for some reason.
In fact, their thinking was correct.
Han Sion had once challenged classical music.
Conductor Herbert von Karajan had album sales exceeding two hundred million, and Luciano Pavarotti, called the Prince of High C, had sold over one hundred million albums as a tenor.
But this was truly a world of geniuses.
One where even a regressor could not reign as an unrivaled existence.
Moreover, in the classical industry where teacher-student relationships were important, a twenty-year-old aspirant entering the mainstream was nearly impossible.
So he had challenged it for exactly three performances before giving up, but he had achieved much in his music during this time.
Of course, at the present point in time, it hadn’t happened yet, and it wasn’t that important either.
Because no matter what, what mattered was that the music was good.
Around this time, among classical majors, Han Sion’s nickname had become “The Idol of Music Students.”
Thanks to Han Sion, many had begun stanning for the first time, and even those who had a favorite unconditionally had Han Sion as their second favorite.
Male performers were the same.
Listening to Sedalbaekil’s songs felt like learning the answer to how to use classical techniques so that the public would like them.
There was no reason not to like them.
Park Sangu, a violin major at a famous music school, was the same.
He definitely liked Han Sion’s music.
His feelings toward the team called Sedalbaekil were close to fondness as well.
But he had never once in his life thought of joining a boy group’s fan club...
Yet somehow, he ended up joining.
The “somehow” here was in order to talk naturally with a classmate he had a crush on.
“Hmm.”
So Park Sangu made an ambiguous expression as he looked at the package that had arrived at his dorm.
It seemed the kit they gave out for joining the fan club had arrived; he felt he had to quickly open it and hide it before his roommate saw him like a madman.
After that, he would send her a KakaoTalk message pretending to be excited.
“What the hell am I doing...”
Muttering, Park Sangu grabbed a box cutter and plunged it into the large delivery box.
It was behavior that would make true fans gasp in horror.
Who cuts open a package so brutally without knowing what’s inside!
But Park Sangu, without a thought like that, roughly disassembled the package and tore it open with force.
What was visible inside was...
“Huh?”
A deep blue box that seemed to have had a lot of effort put into its design.
There was writing on the outside, but it seemed to be a time capsule.
That thing where you put items in, bury it in the ground, and open it years later.
‘Why did they put it in a time capsule?’
Park Sangu, who didn’t know Sedalbaekil’s lore, thought that as he ran his hand over the box.
The material looked sturdy and luxurious, quite nice.
He thought it might even be fine to put socks and underwear in it?
But looking closely, the way to open the box was by turning the gear attached to the right side.
It even seemed to have a spring; when he turned it, it opened automatically.
“Hmm...”
Looking at it quietly, it seemed a bit of a waste to store socks in it.
Rather, it seemed more fitting to put meaningful items like diaries or photos.
Putting letters they would exchange if he started dating the girl he liked looked good too.
Park Sangu thought such thoughts as he began checking the contents inside the automatically opened box.
He had absolutely no prior knowledge about fan club kits, but he could tell there was an enormous amount of stuff.
The girl he liked had definitely said she was upset because of internet reactions saying Sedalbaekil’s goods weren’t anything special.
‘Could even this be lacking?’
Then again, that might be possible.
Because he had no idea how other groups’ fan club kits were composed.
Anyway, there were so many items that Park Sangu started by checking the manageable small items first.
The luxuriously packaged keyring, card holder, and stickers were all deep blue in color.
It was the same color as the box; maybe one of the members was a deep blue enthusiast.
After roughly scanning the stickers placed beside them, Park Sangu tore the transparent packaging of the thick photobook.
The design of the photobook, which seemed to be hardcover, was quite luxurious.
If he started dating the girl he liked, it would be nice to put photos they took together here.
He didn’t have any particular impression of the Sedalbaekil photos inside.
Yi Ion was just crazy handsome.
But personally, he preferred Gu Taehwan or Han Sion to someone burdeningly handsome like Yi Ion.
Gu Taehwan looked like the prickly ace of the athletic club from a sports manga, and Han Sion looked like a band club leader.
‘What would it feel like to look like this?’
Next, what Park Sangu opened was a palm-sized case made of brown leather.
A quick glance revealed it was a photocard.
Park Sangu had heard from the geeks around him, so he properly knew what photocards were.
He had heard they were sent randomly when you bought albums or goods, and people bought or traded them to get their favorite member’s photocard.
He had also heard that for famous idol groups, the prices of popular and unpopular members’ photocards differed enormously.
Come to think of it, when joining Sedalbaekil’s fan club, there had been an option to choose whose photocard to receive.
At first, he had tried to get three Han Sion cards, but that wasn’t allowed, so he chose Han Sion, Gu Taehwan, and Yi Ion.
Han Sion and Gu Taehwan were Park Sangu’s ranking of preference, and Yi Ion was his crush’s favorite.
Wouldn’t she like it if he gave her the cards?
So he checked the photocards inside the leather case, and there weren’t three but six.
Looking closely, there were two per member: one was a close-up shot and another was a full shot.
But there were strange numbers written in the upper left.
Han Sion:
1
9
9
7.
Gu Taehwan:
2
0
0
7.
Yi Ion:
????.
Wondering what it was, he figured it was probably a concept year.
In the full shot, Han Sion was wearing clothes that looked to be from around 1997, and Gu Taehwan was wearing skinny jeans that were trendy at the time.
It was a detail Park Sangu wouldn’t have thought of, but the members’ makeup also evoked the feel of that era.
But Yi Ion was a bit different.
He was wearing an enormous basketball jersey that looked to be XXL, with nothing underneath.
“Ugh.”
He felt an instinctive male aversion, but thinking his crush would like it, he looked closely and saw the body was quite good.
If it wasn’t retouched, the guy must work out quite a bit despite his looks.
Park Sangu examined the remaining items after that.
There were figures made in the likeness of all five Sedalbaekil members, a deep blue tumbler, and a mini humidifier.
‘Is it okay for them to give out this much?’
Even if the unit price went down due to large production volume, it seemed to easily exceed forty thousand won.
He checked to see if the membership fee had been one hundred forty thousand won, but it was correct that forty thousand won had been charged.
Park Sangu tilted his head for a moment, then let it go.
Surely they wouldn’t do business at a loss.
They must be doing it because they had a way to recoup it all.
But he felt quite good.
Wondering why he felt good, unexpectedly, there had been fun in unboxing.
Except for the photobook, everything had been wrapped in opaque packaging, so each time he opened one, there was something unexpected inside.
Moreover, the quality was such that it could be used in daily life.
“Ah.”
Looking closely, the kit box had been scratched by the box cutter.
As he was running his hand over the box, he saw something he had failed to notice.
There was a deep blue-colored envelope still tucked near the entrance of the automatically opening box.
It was an envelope that looked exactly like a wedding invitation; curious, he looked inside and found a membership card and a laminated handwritten letter.
There was a QR code on the back of the letter.
He had no particular interest in the letter’s contents, but when he scanned the QR code, it connected to some homepage’s registration screen, which seemed to be the fan club’s official website.
“Wow.”
The homepage was slick too.
It reeked of money being poured in.
He was contemplating whether to sign up or not when his phone vibrated.
“...!”
It was a first message from his crush.
Park Sangu jumped up from his seat and checked the message with a reverent posture.
[Heyheyheyheyheyhey did your kit arrive?]
[Did you unbox it????]
[What's inside by any chance??]
Photos?
He took pictures of the photobook and sent them, so a reply flew back asking not this but to show the photocards.
‘Are the photos all different?’
Without much thought, Park Sangu took pictures of the six photocards and sent them.
Immediately, a call came in.
Feeling his heart drop, he took a deep breath and answered the phone.
And Park Sangu learned just how lucky a person he was.
It turned out the photocard years were sent randomly, and the probabilities for each year were different.
2017 with ninety percent probability.
2007 with nine percent probability.
1997 with one percent probability.
And a special cut with zero point one percent probability.
In other words, Park Sangu had received three cards with probabilities of nine percent, one percent, and zero point one percent.
Because Yi Ion’s photo with ???? written on it was the special cut.
Curious, he calculated and it was, amazingly, a zero point zero zero zero zero nine percent probability.
At this level, it was easier than drawing the rarest item in the online game he played.
Park Sangu decided to give all six photocards to his crush on the condition that she buy him chicken and beer.
-Reallyreallyreally thank you! I’ll buy you chicken and beer ten times! No, I’ll buy it for you whenever you say! And I absolutely won’t sell these! I really promise!
It was a voice that sounded like she was almost crying.
No, she seemed to be crying.
Hanging up like that, Park Sangu felt curious and connected to the internet.
Seeing her say she wouldn’t sell, there seemed to be some demand; he was curious about the price.
But the moment he searched “Sedalbaekil fan club kit,” an absurd number of search results poured out.
Looking closely, it was number one on real-time search trends, and it was all anyone was talking about.
‘What the?’
Confusing.
He had definitely seen people say online that Sedalbaekil was a broke idol group that couldn’t even get into a mid-sized agency?