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Chapter 99

Damn Idol-Chapter 99

9 min read2,239 words

Damn Idol Chapter 99

* * *

- LOL, fuck, look at Han Sion’s nerve lolololol

- That’s insane.

- Hyeonseok-hyung, snap out of it lolol

- He’s frozen lololol

Lee Hyeonseok was doing a stream where he watched together with his personal broadcast viewers.

The atmosphere was pretty good.

Sedalbaegil had yet to reveal their agency, had not opened any social media accounts, and had no channel through which to communicate with fans.

Naturally, Sedalbaegil’s fans tended to flock to Lee Hyeonseok’s stream.

In other words, about 60 to 70 percent of the viewers on Lee Hyeonseok’s personal broadcast were Sedalbaegil fans.

Of course, outsiders still came in to stir things up.

But while doing internet broadcasts, Lee Hyeonseok had come to realize something about people.

Most trolls were people who wanted attention, and the best way to deal with them was not to give them any.

But this was a bit…

- What do you think? From your perspective as a composer, Hyeonseok-hyung.

He had gained popularity by taking a position of supporting Han Sion, but the reason he supported him ultimately came down to music.

He genuinely liked Han Sion’s music.

But “Selfish” really was an incredible song.

It could not be called a classic yet, but as time passed, it would join the ranks of classics.

In terms of musical completeness itself, there was not a huge difference between and “Selfish.”

But when it came to the public appeal brought by its melodic progression and elegance, “Selfish” had the advantage.

In the end, Lee Hyeonseok decided to be honest.

“I think the musical completeness is similar, but in terms of public appeal, I think ‘Selfish’ is the better song.”

At Lee Hyeonseok’s words, the comments began to churn.

Then, suddenly, a question occurred to Lee Hyeonseok.

‘Why did Sion answer like that?’

Han Sion was a cold and levelheaded guy when it came to music.

What Lee Hyeonseok admired in particular was his objective self-assessment.

Just as the saying went that a monk could not shave his own head, even star composers often made strange mistakes.

They left parts in their own songs that they would have coldly cut out had they belonged to someone else.

Because they could not see them clearly.

But Han Sion was different.

Lee Hyeonseok had felt it clearly while watching the production process for .

Han Sion had made a total of two versions of .

The first was a cover version that did not touch the MR at all.

The second was a remake version where he completely recomposed the MR.

What was surprising was that when Han Sion made the remake version, he boldly deleted many of the parts that had received a lot of love in the cover version.

Of course, that choice had been correct.

Because in the end, the remake version was the better song.

But if it had been him, he did not think he could have arranged it so boldly.

Because composers inevitably grew strongly attached to the parts the public liked.

He was that levelheaded, so…

‘Did he really not know?’

That was what puzzled him.

It might have been different if Han Sion had sung alone.

Fortunately, the issue soon died down in the chat.

Because the next question came out.

But this one was even more of a problem.

[Between NOP and Drop Out, which team do you support more?]

[NOP.]

* * *

“Wow, even watching it knowing what happens, it’s horrifying.”

“Look at the live chat. It’s going crazy.”

At Choi Jaeseong’s words, I shrugged.

To be honest, people’s reactions were far hotter than I had expected.

Unless I was an idiot, I knew that if I said something like that, fans of Drop Out or NOP would find it unpleasant.

America was no different.

A rookie taking shots at established players was something that easily drew criticism.

But the situation and nuance mattered quite a lot too.

Nikki Sixx, the bassist of Mötley Crüe, carved the words “Kill Bon Jovi” onto his bass and came out onstage.

Eminem attacked Britney Spears on his debut album, and Migos took aim at Joe Budden, an old giant of the hip-hop scene, in a joint interview.

Their actions were criticized, and they were also supported.

Because depending on how one interpreted the situation and nuance, they could be viewed in different ways.

In that sense, I had even wondered whether my actions might not have that much impact.

Everyone knew what kind of program was, and I was someone who had been hooked up to a lie detector and asked a binary-choice question.

I had thought that giving a personal answer there would not be enough to send me into the abyss.

But I was wrong.

This was a far colder and more brutal arena.

You could tell just from Choi Jaeseong’s analysis.

“That’s because, hyung, in the end, everyone is a potential competitor. If they get a chance to drag down the competition, there’s more of the pie left for the singer they support.”

“They calculate all that?”

“I don’t know if they go as far as calculating it, but they probably think it instinctively.”

Idol fans truly were amazing.

I was not being sarcastic. I sincerely thought they were amazing.

I had felt it before when NOP’s fandom went wild thinking I was a member of the next group, and I felt it when Way From Flower’s fans attacked me too.

At this point, it went beyond the concept of support and was almost like fans and idols becoming one.

If I called it “idol-unity” and found it funny, would that show my age?

Most of the questions that followed after that were ones I handled well.

In truth, the easiest direction for them to attack me would have been to ask about my relationship with Coming Up Next or Lion Entertainment, but the program avoided that.

Gu Taehwan, who had been watching the video, asked,

“How on earth are you dodging them that well?”

“Why? Does it not look like the lie detector is catching me?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t feel like you’re being one hundred percent sincere, but the detector isn’t reacting.”

In truth, Gu Taehwan was right.

I had a way to avoid the lie detector.

I simply had to recall the life in which I could give the most appropriate answer.

What made me realize this was the FBI summons I had thought about before.

There, I had to lie in front of a lie detector.

Honestly, I was not particularly scared.

Back then, my mindset was strong enough that I thought if things went wrong, I could just regress.

So I answered the FBI’s interrogation while recalling the past.

Because I had lived such a long time, it was not difficult to find appropriate memories.

Thanks to that, the FBI simply concluded that I was a madman and closed the investigation.

A get-rich-quick speculator who had gone all-in with most of his assets on unreliable penny stocks.

That was why, when I saw the format of , I thought this was it.

Meanwhile, round two ended, and round three arrived.

“Aren’t the round three questions pretty harsh?”

“Not really.”

From my perspective, round three, which asked about facts, was actually easier than round two, which asked about interpersonal relationships.

In the end, as the latter half went on, the live chat was even plastered with the word “boring.”

Well, my fans seemed to like it, though.

[What is this? It’s like the hopeful edition of .]

[I know, right.]

There was even a scene where the MCs said that.

As an aside, the production team had been flustered at first, but later they actually liked it.

They said that after watching my episode, a lot of celebrities who were stuck in an ambiguous downfall might contact them.

Around the time the program was wrapping up somewhat uneventfully, the official questions of came out.

There were two closing questions they asked no matter what guest appeared.

[Han Sion-ssi. What past moment do you most want to change?]

They dressed it up prettily, but they were asking me to reveal my dark history.

What did I want to change?

Of course, there was only one thing.

The traffic accident at the intersection.

That day, we had been about to go on a family trip.

So we were heading to Incheon to catch an early morning flight.

But I dawdled a bit.

We were originally supposed to leave at two in the morning, but I had fallen asleep in the early evening.

So my parents woke me up, but I fell asleep again, and because of me, we ended up leaving the house at two-thirty.

And thirty minutes later, the accident happened.

It was not as if my father had been speeding, but because I was late getting ready, I think he drove faster than usual.

So my parents’ accident was because of me.

If I had not been lazy, that would never have happened.

So I had no choice but to answer like this.

[There was a time when I overslept.]

[That is the moment I regret the most, and the moment I most want to change.]

My answer came out as true, but naturally, the MCs were not satisfied.

[What happened because you overslept?]

[I will use my right to refuse.]

There, I used the refusal card I had saved until the very end.

Maybe because I used it at such an absurd moment, the comment window was plastered with question marks.

- ??? He’s using that here?

- Lolol did he break up with his girlfriend because he overslept or something?

- Can’t a kindergartener oversleep a little?

- What does that mean?

- Go watch the earlier part. Han Sion’s ex-girlfriend came up.

The MCs, who had been briefly flustered, threw out the second official question.

Because the rule was that they could not comment on a question where the refusal card had been used.

[What is your ultimate goal, Han Sion-ssi?]

This was a surprisingly tricky question.

I had monitored the previous episodes, and a lot of people turned out to be lying here.

In truth, a person’s real ultimate goal could not be something like “to be remembered as a good actor” or “to repay the love of the viewers.”

For more than ninety percent of people, their true feelings were simply to make a lot of money and live comfortably without working.

But my answer was simple.

[To sell as many albums as possible with Sedalbaegil.]

[Until when?]

[Well. I’d like to keep doing it until I’m about seventy.]

In truth, this was my wish.

By simple calculation, selling two hundred million albums was not impossible.

If I released one album a year starting at twenty, then by seventy, that would be fifty albums.

Then I only needed to sell four million copies per album.

On top of that, there would be albums that hit it big along the way, and there would be portions filled by producing albums too.

We could release a team album in one year, and at the same time, release a solo album too.

But I had never put this into practice.

I could do it, but the members could not.

Not only groups that had ended unpleasantly like For The Youth, but every group had been like that.

Once they passed their fifth year of activity, they started thinking about what to do with the money they had earned.

They were not bad people.

Maybe the truly bad one was me, disappointed in the natural act of pursuing happiness.

But when it was revealed that my words were true, the live chat was plastered with similar sentences.

What did they mean by “until you do a dinner show”?

Wasn’t a dinner show a performance held in a large hotel hall?

I had done one in Las Vegas before.

Ah, did they mean they wanted me to become famous enough to do that kind of dinner show?

In any case, it seemed like a good thing.

And so came to an end.

* * *

[Han Sion of Sedalbaegil: “ Is a Better Song than ”]

[Netizens Angered by Han Sion’s Conviction-Filled Remark on Variety Program. Why?]

[The Interview of a Rookie Idol Who Was Far Too Honest.]

[Han Sion of Sedalbaegil Answers “NOP” When Asked Who He Supports Between Drop Out and NOP]

[Drop Out Achieves No. 1 on the Weekly Chart. How Did Sedalbaegil Perform?]

Articles related to Han Sion began pouring out.

The entertainment section had always been a place where articles with sensational titles were written, but this time, it was on another level.

As if the reporters had set their minds to it, they churned out provocative sentences, and the public reacted.

- Hul lolololol he’s crazy. What’s with that nerve?

- How is that nerve? He got a little popular on a program and now he can’t tell up from down.

- Didn’t Han Sion always feel a little off? Was it just me?

- Yeah. I thought everyone knew because he gave off such strong vibes of being full of himself.

From the moment giants like Drop Out and NOP became involved, this had also been the expected course of events.

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