Chapter 64
Along with the first music show win, WeUs's fandom name was decided.
"Wish doesn't seem bad, right? The fans all seem to like it too."
"Right, it's definitely better to have the fans choose it themselves rather than leaving it to the company..."
Woo Jungwoo agreed with Kang Ajin's words and chatted excitedly, but suddenly looked around and swallowed his words.
"Hmm, the CEO isn't here today hahaha..."
It seemed like he was conscious of the CEO who had appeared after the last W App live broadcast.
"Hmm... The time right now is, like, what time is it... The CEO is here!"
"Sungha, please finish eating before you talk."
It was Sim Sungha, who was still devouring the food prepared to commemorate our first win.
'Anyway, the time...'
As Sim Sungha said, it was quite late.
Of course, while doing music show stages, we had already forgotten about concepts like time management.
"We have to prepare for tomorrow's music show too, so let's wrap it up, guys."
"Ah! I haven't eaten properly yet..."
At my words, Sim Sungha frantically inhaled the remaining food.
Seeing Baek Sihyun sitting next to him with a happy expression, also eating away, it seemed unlikely we'd be returning to the dorm quickly.
"Rin, how about letting everyone eat comfortably today. From tomorrow onwards, we won't be able to eat properly again anyway."
With Park Hanhwi saying that too, it became ambiguous to insist on going back quickly.
"Alright, we got our first win. Let's eat to our heart's content today."
When I finally raised the white flag and sat back down, the manager waiting outside observed our actions, then gave me an okay signal before disappearing to another place.
Seeing the manager who couldn't even go home because of us, I thought being a manager was truly a difficult job.
'When the settlement comes in later, I should at least gift them some red ginseng...'
"Alright everyone, let's toast to commemorate our first win!"
"Cheers!"
Beside me, I could see the members toasting with cola and cider.
I quietly moved next to Yujin Kim, who was watching the scene with a smile.
"Yujin, are you okay not eating?"
"If I eat like this at this time, my face will swell tomorrow."
At Yujin Kim's words, I could see Sim Sungha, who was inhaling food excitedly, flinch slightly.
"I don't swell easily even when I eat at night, so it's fine."
"Who was it again that ate ramen before sleeping and came out looking like a loaf of bread on camera...?"
"What? Who ate ramen at the dorm and slept?"
"Ah, today is a happy day. Why bring that up..."
While I was watching the members chatting away excitedly, Yujin Kim spoke to me from beside me.
"By the way, hyung, did you know the encore stage video was a hot topic today?"
"Encore stage video? Why?"
"Because your singing skills suddenly improved, hyung."
While I was inwardly stung by Yujin Kim's words, the other members, having heard our conversation, added their own comments one by one.
"Now that you mention it, Rin's singing skills really improved."
"That's right! I was listening from the side during the encore stage today and was really surprised."
"Even during the W App broadcast earlier, people kept saying Rin hyung's singing improved!"
"As expected of Rin hyung! Practicing singing even while busy with activities...!"
Unable to handle the members' praise any longer, I hastily changed the subject.
"Anyway, if we get first place again, I think it would be nice to have some kind of first place promise."
"A first place promise?"
"Hmm. That's right, other senior artists also did a lot of fun first place promises."
Fortunately, the conversation started flowing in the direction I wanted.
The members began to seriously consider what to set as our first place promise.
"Since we're still rookies, something too drastic might be a bit risky."
"I guess so... Then is there something safe we can do?"
"How about switching parts when singing?"
"Oh? That's not bad?"
When the suggestion of switching parts came up, the other members started adding their own opinions.
"Then should we change the choreography too?"
"Can everyone do the choreography too?"
"Hmm, that might be a bit difficult? Actually, we could get first place tomorrow."
When I brought up tomorrow's music show, the members' attitudes suddenly changed.
"If we get first place tomorrow... our first public broadcast music show win...!"
"If we want to get first place on a public broadcast music show, we have to prepare something! Let's practice the part switching and choreography starting now!"
"No guys, there's no guarantee we'll get first place tomorrow..."
I tried to stop the members who were suddenly burning with enthusiasm, but.
"Alright! Then let's go practice quickly!"
The members had already banded together and were heading toward the practice room.
'Didn't they all say they were going to die from exhaustion after today's stage?'
Did the weight of a public broadcast first place hit them harder than I thought?
Even Yujin Kim, who would normally be indifferent, was joining the other members heading to the practice room, so it seemed like they were really going to practice properly.
When I first brought up the first place promise, I didn't know the members would react this much...
"Rin hyung! What are you doing, aren't you coming?"
"Huh? I'm coming!"
Hearing them call me as I headed to the practice room, I couldn't help but feel worried inwardly.
'After preparing this much, what if we don't get first place?'
Unlike my worries.
"KBC Music Power broadcasting live! This week's first place is WeUs!"
The next day, we took first place again.
With an even larger score gap than yesterday's difference with Bluered on Music Station.
With this, two consecutive days of first place. And that included a public broadcast music show.
It was such incredible momentum that I wondered if this was really okay.
"Wish! Thank you everyone so much!"
"We love you, Wish!"
While preparing for the first place encore stage, we endlessly sent our gratitude to the fans.
The cheers of the fans watching WeUs grew louder and louder.
And then the first place encore song stage finally began.
But Seonwoo Rin, who was supposed to handle the first part, was nowhere to be seen in the center of the stage.
When the fans noticed something was off and focused on the stage.
-Faintly felt sensation at the fingertips
In this stopped time
Blooming grayish lilac
Along with the sight of Kang Ajin handling Seonwoo Rin's part.
The WeUs members could be seen dancing to each other's different movement paths.
The appearance of WeUs leisurely handling the encore stage after only their second first place. It now seemed awkward to simply label them as a rookie group.
Like that, WeUs was rapidly approaching the word 'trend' within just two weeks of debut.
***
WeUs's second first place.
And the news of a public broadcast music show first place spread.
Even for those who weren't WeUs fans, if they had any interest in idols, an atmosphere was formed where the name WeUs was acknowledged.
-Where did all the people who said WeUs could never get first place on a public broadcast go?
-LOLOLOL WeUs shows it with results!
-Getting two music show wins in the second week of debut, isn't that impossible unless you're from a major agency?
-It's not like it was an empty house either, the opponent was Bluered, so with these results, it's time to slowly acknowledge them. WeUs is the trend these days.
Like that, posts about WeUs were continuously generated throughout the day and spread to other sites.
Meanwhile, reactions to WeUs's encore stage and the surprise part switching also poured in.
-WeUs is an encore restaurant LOLOL Lately I didn't watch encore stages because they were boring, but WeUs seems worth looking forward to.
-Guys, when did you prepare the part switching... You must have been busy with activities.
└And it's high quality on top of that... ㄷㄷ Up to the first verse it's almost perfect?
└Of course from the second verse it completely fell apart... LOL
The video of WeUs members' part switching prepared in just one day.
The choreography that was spot on until the first verse, started creaking from the second verse.
-Rin and Ajin collision accident! LOLOLOL
-Kang Ajin flying away like a piece of paper.gif
└Ajin, are you safe...?
└Fortunately, there were no casualties hehe
-From after Ajin and Rin collided, can you see the other members slowly inching away from Rin's side? LOLOLOLOL
└If you collide, you die... Its name is Rin human weapon...
Accidents occurred due to imperfect choreography memorization, but the public cheered even more at those sights.
-It feels good seeing everyone working hard.
-Yeah, rookies should have this kind of charm LOLOL You can see everyone putting in intense effort.
-But is WeUs not doing any public broadcast variety shows? If these kids go on variety shows, they'll probably fly.
└I think they filmed a variety show last time? Saw pictures uploaded on SNS.
└Really? When does that broadcast?
└Well, probably next week?
***
After taking the first public broadcast music show first place, we won first place a few more times.
I thought many things would change. But due to our busy schedule, we barely had time to properly feel our popularity.
However, there was one thing I felt physically.
'The fact that the way people look at us has changed a bit.'
The numerous fellow artists we would see when going out on music shows.
From the initial gaze of thinking we were just a slightly successful audition-born idol, I could now feel eyes looking at us warily, as if we were competitors they needed to beat.
'This is still the wariness stage, right?'
Seeing groups that couldn't even send wary glances toward Bluered, openly directing their gazes toward us WeUs.
I thought we still had a long way to go.
'And the goal of overwhelmingly defeating Bluered hasn't been achieved yet either.'
We were slowly widening the gap in results with Bluered, but it was true that it was still insufficient to say we had overwhelmingly defeated Bluered.
Right now, we were on our way back to the dorm after finishing Sunday's music show. The music show schedule ended faster than expected, so we had time to briefly stop by the dorm.
And there was one thing different from usual today.
"When does the broadcast start?"
"It seems like it'll start as soon as we get to the dorm?"
"Seeing the preview reactions, they were pretty good."
"The kids are just that cute."
As the members were saying, today was the broadcast day of the public broadcast variety show we filmed for the first time. 'My First Childcare' WeUs episode.
Having arrived at the dorm, we all sat in front of the TV with nervous hearts.
Soon our appearances started coming through the TV.
"Ooh! We're on!"
"Mom! I'm on TV!"
"Everyone please be quiet!"
The members could be seen making a fuss.
Personally, the broadcast was quite entertaining. Rather than us being funny, the very existence of the quintuplets was overwhelming to begin with.
"After the broadcast ends, the twins' popularity is going to explode."
"They were cute when we saw them in person too, but the kids are really good on camera. They're literally angels."
While we were falling deeper in admiration of the twins' cuteness as they appeared on the broadcast.
The broadcast was already rushing toward its end.
"Ah, I feel like something's missing. It would have been nice if it was a two-week worth of content."
"I know, we filmed all day but so much got edited out."
"But the grocery shopping scene at the mart seems to have been completely cut...?"
"That's... understandable..."
When Yujin Kim answered with difficulty, recalling that time.
The final scene of the children returning to their parents appeared.
"Seeing that makes me want to see the twins again."
"If we get a day off the next day, it seems like we could film again..."
"Is it over now?"
With the final greeting, a black screen appeared briefly.
Then words appeared on the screen.
[A message of thanks to the WeUs uncles.]
"Huh? What's this?"
"It looks like they prepared something separately?"
The screen brightened, and a video that looked like it was filmed with a phone appeared.
In the video, the five twins could be seen standing in a row wearing cute performance outfits.
[WeUs uncles! We missed you all!]
After the children, who greeted brightly, waved at the camera.
A piano accompaniment started flowing from the video.
"Huh?"
"Our Spring?"
[I believed it would come someday
I waited while enduring the cold winter]
In the video, the children started singing 'Our Spring' together.
"The kids sing so well..."
"Wow... that's touching."
While we were being moved watching the five twins singing 'Our Spring' earnestly on the screen.
"Uh...?"
An exclamation burst from Yujin Kim's mouth beside me.
"Something seems unusual...?"
"Huh, what?"
"The broadcast reactions."
"Why? What are the reactions like right now?"
Yujin Kim, who looked at his phone a bit more, answered carefully.
"The reactions... are explosive..."
"Explosive? To that extent?"
"Then are we completely superstars now?"
At Sim Sungha's words, Yujin Kim shook his head and answered.
"Superstars, that's right, but... not us, the five twins."
"Huh? Why the twins?"
"The five twins... seem to have become stars."