Chapter 63
"The number one on this week's Music Station is! We:uS!"
Pyaaaat-
Firecrackers exploded along with the MC's words.
And then, an even greater cheer from the fans began to ring out, louder than the firecrackers.
Waaaaaaaah-
Honestly, I had been half-doubtful.
No matter how much BlueRed didn't have the momentum they used to, were they really opponents we could beat this easily?
I hadn't seen the exact numbers, but the digital score was almost identical.
What decided the victory was the live text vote score.
In the text vote, We:uS beat BlueRed by a large margin.
'Is this the power of an idol born from an audition?'
While feeling bewildered, I still waved my hand enthusiastically at the fans who were cheering.
And then, the status window message appeared before my eyes.
-You have achieved first place on a music broadcast for the first time.
-Level increases.
The second level increase since debut.
[Name: Sunwoo Rin]
Level: 11
Stamina: S-
Vocal: B-
Dance: A-
Appearance: A
Charm: B
Remaining Points: 1
Trait Points: 2
Traits
- Heart-to-Heart Connection, God-Given Physique, Novice Choreographer, Charisma that Overwhelms the Public
Compared to when I first obtained the status window, I could see the tremendous growth in my abilities.
I wanted to savor this feeling a bit more, but.
Before I could even find the time, the microphone was passed to me first.
"Please give your acceptance speech!"
"First of all, to all the We:uS fans who have given us so much attention and love since our debut... and who made us a number one spot that we truly don't deserve! Thank you so much..."
While I was giving my number one acceptance speech, I kept hearing sobbing sounds next to me.
"Representative Shin Younghak, Director Choi Iseok, and everyone who helped with our activities..."
As I was wrapping up my speech, I looked around to find someone to pass the microphone to.
'There's no normal person here.'
Woo Jungwoo was already wailing.
Kang Ajin, Shim Sungha, and Baek Sihyun seemed to be trying hard to hold it in, but the redness around their eyes looked serious.
I passed the microphone to Park Hanhui, who was right next to me, between the relatively okay-looking Yujin Kim and Park Hanhui.
"Uh... Once again, thank you to all the staff involved. And to all our fans... we really love you!"
While Park Hanhui, who looked surprised when I passed the microphone, answered calmly with a trembling voice.
'First, the vocal.'
I invested the remaining point I couldn't use earlier into vocal.
'Finally B rank...'
Actually, while doing music broadcast activities, I was always conscious of the fact that vocal was my lowest stat.
No matter how much I was a member of an idol group and had my own position, in the end, idols are singers too.
I didn't want to hear that I was a singer who couldn't sing, so I put in personal effort during the audition as well, but my vocal stat particularly refused to rise easily.
Eventually, after debut, I had half given up on raising my vocal stat since my experience and levels weren't going up well anymore.
'I didn't know I could raise my stats this quickly.'
When I was admiring my vocal stat that had risen two stages in an instant and achieved B rank.
Before I knew it, the acceptance speech had moved from Park Hanhui to Yujin Kim and ended.
"Now then, this live broadcast of Music Station..."
With the MCs' closing remarks, the encore time arrived.
'But are these guys okay?'
Right now, the only normal people were me, Park Hanhui, and Yujin Kim.
Even then, it was only relatively normal; Park Hanhui and Yujin Kim's nose tips had also turned slightly red.
At this level, I was worried about whether they could pull off the live performance.
'I need to finish the first encore properly at least.'
I couldn't do anything about the crying members, but I snapped to my senses, thinking that I at least had to finish the encore stage properly.
Finally, the accompaniment of 'HERO' started playing.
-Faintly felt sensation at the fingertips
In this stopped time
Blooming gray lilacs
The moment I sang the first verse, my voice, which felt about three times upgraded from the introduction I had sung before, came through my in-ears.
At that moment.
A subtle confidence that this might be enough to sing the chorus as well slowly rose from my toes and began to fill up to above my trapezius muscles.
***
The live broadcast of Music Station ended.
The news of We:uS's first number one since debut quickly began to spread through articles and communities.
[We:uS takes first place on 'Music Station' in just 2 weeks of activities!]
[We:uS takes first place ahead of BlueRed! Has the trend passed now?]
[We:uS's 'HERO' achieves first music broadcast number one, while also cruising at number one on digital charts.]
[The tremendous impact of National Idol Season 2, We:uS achieves first number one about 10 days after debut!]
Around the time articles were pouring in.
The community's reactions were also mostly not bad toward We:uS.
This was partly due to BlueRed's negative image.
-In the end, the hero beat the villain lol
-Seeing BlueRed in 2nd place with sour expressions is so funny lolllll
└BlueRed didn't even clap properly this time either and ran away as soon as the number one announcement ended lol
-It's a good thing We:uS got number one. If BlueRed had gotten it, they would have celebrated among themselves full of confidence and turned on W App to cause a scene, right?
-We:uS deserves number one, above all they're much better than BlueRed.
Most importantly, the fact that they lost in a head-to-head match against a junior group was fatal for BlueRed.
-If they lost to We:uS, shouldn't we slowly remove BlueRed from the 3 major male idol groups?
-Actually, compared to Cross and Next, BlueRed was a bit lacking to be called one of the 3 major groups.
-BlueRed's first-week sales also dropped significantly compared to their last album. If they can't even get number one on a music show...
Of course, there wasn't completely no opposition to this public opinion.
-What's there to be proud of that a National Idol alum got number one on Music Station? Since when did Music Station number one even count as a real number one?
-It's not even first place on a public broadcast network, everyone's overreacting too much...
-We:uS still doesn't have the career to compete with BlueRed, shouldn't they at least get first place on a public broadcast network first?
Truthfully, Music Station, which aired on the cable channel MusicNet, had much less authority than music broadcasts on other public networks.
Furthermore, We:uS were alumni of MusicNet's audition program.
Music Station was bound to be a stage favorable to We:uS from the start.
So We:uS still had the task of getting first place on a public broadcast network.
However, unlike the heated atmosphere of the communities, the attention of We:uS's fans was focused elsewhere.
[Music Station Fancam] We:uS 1st Place Fancam 4K "HERO" (We:uS FanCam No.1 Encore)
The glorious first place encore stage.
A video was released showing the emotional We:uS members tearfully singing the encore song with difficulty.
In the video, instead of the members who were sobbing and unable to sing properly, Sunwoo Rin could be seen enthusiastically singing along from behind.
-With a hero... *sob*...
[Everyone... thank you so much!]
[We love you, fans!]
The chorus part handled by the main vocal, Woo Jungwoo.
However, Woo Jungwoo, who had been far from a normal state since the number one announcement, couldn't handle the song at all.
While the members hurriedly sent thank-you messages to fans seeing that.
Sunwoo Rin, who was softly singing along to the chorus from behind, soon began to sing the chorus in a loud voice instead of Woo Jungwoo.
-The gaze seen beyond the open door
You've already realized it too
At Sunwoo Rin's singing voice, the other members could be seen making surprised expressions even in their dazed state.
Then Yujin Kim's part started, and the harmony of Sunwoo Rin and Yujin Kim began to resonate throughout the venue.
Even after the chorus ended, Sunwoo Rin faithfully executed the choreography during his own parts, doing his best to carry on the encore stage.
Seeing Sunwoo Rin like that, the members who gradually came to their senses quickly began to join the stage.
In the end, a rare encore stage was created where all the members enthusiastically danced and performed live.
The encore video containing We:uS's appearance of giving their all even for the encore.
It quickly recorded views similar to the main performance and began to cause a huge buzz among We:uS's fans.
-Wow, did everyone see the Music Station encore video today?
-Rin is truly a born leader. It's their first number one encore so nobody would have said anything even if he didn't try that hard...
└Since Rin was working hard on stage, the members quickly coming to their senses and working hard together is also so cool
-Jungwoo trying his best to sing while holding back tears was so touching too, I almost cried seeing Rin take care of the members after the stage
Above all, Sunwoo Rin's singing ability, which handled the chorus part even if briefly, became a huge topic of discussion not only among fans but also among everyone who had watched National Idol.
-Sunwoo Rin sings well?
The video of Sunwoo Rin's singing shown in the briefly edited encore stage was soon uploaded to the community.
Positive evaluations of his singing ability, which had been pointed out as Sunwoo Rin's only weakness, began to pour in.
-Compared to National Idol, he really improved a lot.
-I watched the full video, and he handled the chorus section stably?
└Really? But why did Sunwoo Rin sing the chorus?
└Woo Jungwoo was wailing lolol Sunwoo Rin sang it instead from behind.
-Can singing skills really improve this much so soon after National Idol ended?
└Compared to before, it definitely improved for sure.
Like that, while We:uS's first number one and the encore stage were becoming hot topics together.
Not long after the music broadcast ended, We:uS's W App live broadcast started.
***
-Guys, congratulations on number one!!!
-We:uS is number one!!!!
-Everyone worked so hard!
-They turned on live right after the broadcast ended ㅠ
-Music broadcast and even W App ㅠㅠ
As soon as the W App live broadcast started, an enormous number of chats came up and the chat window almost began to freeze.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
"We achieved number one!!!!"
"I can't believe we're number one, thank you everyone~!!"
Today's W App broadcast started with the members' cheers, whose tension was exploding from the very beginning.
"Everyone, we need to give a proper greeting."
"Yes!"
"Now, let's greet them again, two, three!"
"Forever together! Hello, we are We:uS!"
With the proper greeting again, We:uS's first number one commemoration W App live broadcast finally began.
"Everyone! Today the representative told us to have a party and eat as much as we want!!"
"Wow! Party!!!"
"Looks delicious!"
"Let's eat quickly!"
As Shim Sungha excitedly pointed to the food spread out in front of us and spoke, Kang Ajin grabbed his stomach and said desperately.
-lolllllll Ajin is really hungry
-He has the expression of a dog that starved for 3 days... so cute...
-Guys, let them eat first!
-Please let our We:uS eat to their heart's content today!
"Then with thankful hearts to our fans... let's eat well!"
"Thank you!"
"Thank you, representative...!"
The We:uS members, who didn't forget their social etiquette until the end, began eating with all their might.
While the other members were enthusiastically broadcasting their eating, I looked at the chats in the chat window.
Most of the chat contents were congratulations on number one, followed by impressions of today's encore stage.
There were also quite a lot of compliments about my improved singing ability.
When a chat occasionally asked how my singing got this good, I felt a bit sheepish...
But there were also other chats that weren't compliments. Mostly questions about the fandom name.
-But what about our fandom name...?
-They should have decided the fandom name before getting number one.
-What's a bit disappointing today is that we couldn't give a speech with the fandom name. That was a bit disappointing...
Actually, there was a reason we rushed to the company after getting number one.
'We should have decided it sooner...'
There was a reason that we didn't know we would get number one this quickly, but regardless, it would have been disappointing for the fans.
I looked at the continuously appearing chats about the fandom name and spoke to the members.
"Everyone, actually there's one important piece of news today, right?"
"Mm, delishous..."
"Sungha, could you please swallow everything first before talking...?"
"Mmm... yes!"
At my words, the members briefly paused their eating broadcast, and in a slightly calmer atmosphere, I continued speaking.
"We've finished the fandom name submission contest that was announced last time. And finally, We:uS's fandom name has been decided!"
"Woooaaaah!"
"So, what's the fandom name...!!!"
Looking at the question marks and exclamation marks rapidly appearing in the chat window, I paused for a moment and then opened my mouth.
"We:uS's fandom name is... Wish!"
It was the moment when a proper fandom name, created with the help of collective intelligence, came to us.