Ryu Gunwoo did not look at the electronic display board. But words continued to flow from there.
[Our Gunwoo has said he wanted to be an idol before, but neither mom nor dad knew that he was actually appearing on a program like this and showing off his cool side.]
'Really… !'
Why did broadcasting stations invariably prefer such peripheral, low-dimensional ways to attract attention?
Bae Sejin gritted his teeth under his mask. And whether he did it or not, speculations such as 'Ryu Gunwoo must be moved' spread well through the comments.
[Let's debut and meet in person. Fighting, my son!]
Ryu Gunwoo held both hands tightly and did not raise his head. And in Bae Sejin's opinion, the electronic display board moved at a cruelly slow pace.
'Ha… .'
A short message left by Shin Jaehyun's mother passed by, touching background music gently filling the filming set, and the president's comment appeared
.
[Please share your thoughts on seeing messages from your family on stage like this.]
The camera sequentially took close-ups of several participants accepting the microphone.
Kim Raebin sniffling with tears in his eyes was quite pitiful and cute, but the problem was the moment the microphone was passed and finally reached Ryu Gunwoo.
Ryu Gunwoo held the microphone with both hands and remained silent for a long time, almost reaching the limits of what was and wasn't acceptable during a live broadcast.
And only then did he open his mouth.
[…Thank you.]
He bowed his head deeply, then raised his head quite courageously.
But there was a hint of agitation in his voice.
[I will definitely debut and show you my good side.]
The response was good as if they were words that could be directed towards his parents and the public at the same time, and it seemed like he was shaking with emotion.
Ahhh~!
As if it was sad or cute
Exclamations.
However, Bae Sejin, who knew the truth, was confused.
'It must be difficult.'
It looked like he was biting his lips because he was moved, but he was actually holding back sadness or shock…
… Huh?
'Wait a second.'
Bae Sejin recovered from the moment of falling into sentimentality and looked at his expression again objectively.
Park Moondae chewed the inside of his lip.
He was purely clenching his teeth.
A vulgar expression of anger.
"… ??"
'All the way to his head… He's pissed… ?'
On stage, Ryu Gunwoo stood upright with bright eyes.
His eyes were inexplicably overflowing with motivation.
-I guess he's in high spirits because he hasn't seen his parents in a while. ㅠㅠ That's right, model student
-Gunwoo, please debut.
-Lee Sejin, why is he so shocked and in a daze? It's so funnyㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Thanks to this, regardless of Bae Sejin's confusion, the finals moved forward steadily.
The president thought he had made a decision after careful consideration with the people involved, but in fact, he announced a list of successful applicants whose direction was already determined by the influence of someone who knew the future.
The number of people was announced one by one with appropriate pauses.
[Shin Jaehyun.]
People were cheering as they were called one by one.
Ryu Gunwoo, Jin Chaeyul, Jung Woodan, Cha Eugene, Oh Yoonshin…
[I put a lot of thought into this participant, but I was greatly impressed by the fact that he gained a lot of trust from his colleagues in such a short period of time.]
Even Ryu Chungwoo.
When the odd number of 7 people looked to be the perfect amount, people were anxious, wondering if this was the end, and the hope on the remaining participants' faces died.
'It was a priceless experience!'
No, to be exact, that was the look on the faces of the rest of the contestants except for Kim Raebin, who was already overcome with lingering emotions.
The president pretended not to be very dramatic and then said the last additional successful participant.
He was planning to wrap it up, but after going through the 'Orchestra Collaboration', he couldn't resist his greed for the group's perfection, so he made this choice.
[Kim Raebin.]
[… !?]
[This is the last member of the group.]
Kim Raebin jumped out of his seat and almost received the microphone upside down.
[M-m-m-m-m-me? … … … Yes!]
- ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Why does Raebin look like that? ㅋㅋ
-It looks like my face when the professor suddenly calls on me during a lecture
Kim Raebin's violent expression turned into that of a steamed bun, with a big smile growing on his face. He ended the presentation on a touching note.
Half VTIC, half TeStar.
'It's a tie.'
The leader of VTIC, who was the first to be called, felt a brief emotion as he recalled his bet with Park Moondae.
So to conclude overall, the 〈Wise〉 final was successful.
The two additional eliminated candidates brought about disappointment and sadness, but the prevailing opinion was that the president made a pretty good selection anyway.
In fact, it could be said that even those who were eliminated were understandable choices.
It was because the selected participants had already proved themselves as good idols.
[Idol Survival Show, said to be the best combination ever]
[List of final successful applicants for LeTi's survival show who completed the competition]
[Wise's new group name appears]
However, TeStar's Park Moondae was thinking about something else while flowers were fluttering and fireworks were exploding…
His mind was still boiling coldly.
'Fuck. Bastard.'
Because he had a newfound speculation.
• * *
-Keun Sejin: Moondaemoondae worked hard. It was great! (thumbs up emoticon) Get a good rest today!
I checked the gift card he attached. And I replied with 'I will'.
A pop-up appeared quietly.
[Hyung… are you okay?]
I answered calmly.
"I'm not okay."
[]
The pop-up stopped as if it didn't know what to say. I knew what he was assuming, but that wasn't why I wasn't okay.
It was because of the frustration of being caught up in some bullshit.
"It's a lie."
[… What?]
"It's a lie that my parents are alive."
I couldn't believe I got caught in this joke.
I kept muttering, ignoring the pop-up that was vibrating like crazy and churning out typos.
"It doesn't make sense."
There were too many logical loopholes.
"It doesn't matter if they can't make phone calls in the first place, but if they can receive emails, it means they have internet."
Then…
"There's no need to connect via voice call. It would have been better to receive it via video or request a video call."
(TN: Since it wasn't mentioned as clearly before, the message Moondae received from his parents earlier was only an audio message, not a video message.)
No matter how slow the internet was, was there really any reason why they couldn't send a video?
It was a very cautious reaction.
[Could it be that your parents refused to reveal their face… ?]
"That could be a reason why. But that's not all I suspect."
I turned off my smartphone.
At first, I couldn't find a reason because I was shocked, but the moment I saw the information on the electronic board that said 'Letter from the Antarctic Base', an idea occurred to me.
"Are my parents actually researchers?"
[!??]
"In my head, I thought it was true, but for that matter, I don't have any memories related to my parents' work."
They wouldn't have suddenly become researchers out of the blue.
"At the very least, they'd have some sort of passion, hatred, or other feelings for their line of work like everyone else, but now it's just a plain cycle of going to work and leaving."
It was like a setting that was added secretly at the end.
"It's not normal. Never."
The pop-up didn't respond for a while, but soon it started pouring out small messages.
[Actually… I also had similar questions. Being a researcher is a stable job. Still, it doesn't seem like hyung inherited any money… …]
"Yes."
I actually doubted that too. Being a researcher was a high-income job, but I didn't remember them losing money through kleptomania or stocks, so I inherited almost no property.
I didn't even remember having any doubts about it.
"Therefore… There is a high probability that my 'parents' who are researchers at the Antarctic base here are lying."
[…]
"It's all made up."
I didn't know what happened when the system crashed, but it seemed like the 'researcher' story was planted inside of me beforehand so that I naturally accepted it.
Since I had lost all my memories of meeting the real Park Moondae in my original life, I could make that deduction at the very least.
"But it doesn't seem natural enough to cause discomfort."
[… Because hyung voluntarily noticed it now, right?]
"That's right. Perhaps I'd feel even more uncomfortable if I saw them in person, so the system isn't allowing me to visit them in Antarctica."
Also, it was afraid that I would feel more suspicious when I came across pictures of my parents who became researchers, so it blocked out all visual information.
The pop-up was distorted.
[It's disgusting and evil.]
The system had messed up once or twice, so this was nothing new. I was just annoyed that it was able to trick me.
'It's even more infuriating that it played with someone else's memory.'
And… these memories wouldn't last much longer anyway.
No, let's not get sentimental. There was no time for that.
I continued my reasoning, and Keundal also continued to busily tell his reasoning.
[Then… This definitely isn't the past? Is it like a dream? Like that daydream I created.]
"I don't know about the latter, but I'm sure about the former."
I muttered quietly.
"Seeing as how people who don't already exist in real life can't come out, it's probably not like we've returned to the past at all."
Because all the settings were mixed up from the beginning.
[…]
"It could be a good thing."
The motivation would definitely be there.
[Hyung.]
I made a decision.
I shared this information with Cheongryeo without necessarily hiding it.
About the imperfections of this place.
The guy who was sitting in the waiting room of the soon-to-be-demolished filming set listened to me and then commented without much agitation.
"In the end, there is no change in our goals. Right?"
"… That said, you might need to be more careful when choosing what to do."
I frowned.
"If there is an error in your memory, you may make the wrong choice at a critical moment."
No matter how small it was.
Minor points that may seem insignificant could change and cause a butterfly effect.
'I need to check once in a while to see if I feel anything unsettling.'
However, Cheongryeo had a sad face.
"Hoobaenim. It's okay as long as you remember the information you need to proceed. The more memories accumulate, the more they become distorted."
"…"
"What you need to be wary of is… It's an additional effect that comes from memory."
What?
"Emotion."
"… !"
"As long as you have information, reason, and judgment, you can't make a mistake. There will be no chance for it. In the end, you just have to focus on one thing."
The guy declared.
"Your goal."
"…"
"Right?"
"Right."
I never thought I'd say this, but it felt like my head was clearer after talking to this guy.
I gritted my teeth and declared.
"I'll definitely get the grand prize as soon as possible and get out of there. That's the goal."
"I guess it's your habit to repeat the obvious, hoobaenim."
He was noisy.
I straightened up and sat down.
I got to the point quickly.
"First… It's about our debut concept."
The trembling in his face disappeared slightly. I crossed my arms.
"The main idea of VTIC's first album was for our group concept to build up."
"TeStar was no different."
"Well. Because our music rankings were high."
"Haha, it looks like you came from a survival program that had double-digit viewership ratings."
I guess he wanted to say that you couldn't even dream of getting a high rank unless you started off with a survival show.
"… Anyway, your debut concept was for mid to long-term use, so would it still work for short-term usage?"
"Hmm. There was definitely a good response overseas."
… Really? I only took pictures of male idols because I didn't have to watch their debut song's music video or analyze their outfits.
"What exactly was your concept then?"
"The afterlife."
"Ahem."
I almost choked on my spit.
I barely responded.
"That's too much."
"Haha, did you say that to TeStar?"
"…"
"If there's enough investment, it won't be 'too much'. The important thing is completeness."
"…"
[That's what hyung said…]
Oh, I know, so be quiet.
"Anyway, aiming for popularity at this time is not a very good strategy."
Cheongryeo tapped his chin and continued speaking.
"LeTi has traditionally had good support in the overseas KPOP fandom, so we should grab that and go for it."
"Overseas?"
"Yes. The English subtitled version of 〈Wise〉 uploaded to WeTube got quite a lot of views. It's also the best report card I've ever received through the survival show."
The guy laughed.
"Let's go overseas like this and go based on album sales."
"Wait a minute."
How could he decide this on his own?
"If we select the right song, we can achieve good results in Korea. Isn't it still a good time for male idols to be popular?"
It was hard to expect success in music unless you were a solid group a few years later, but wasn't this the time when there were still quite a few guys showing good results?
"That won't work."
What?
The smile disappeared from Cheongryeo's face, and annoyance returned.
"The efficiency is the worst."
"…"
"There are groups that are already enjoying all the fun that comes with popularity."
And then I realized who this guy was talking about.
"… T-Holic."
In reality, they were just senior idols who maintained their group through entertainment.
I had also appeared on their entertainment show. They were an old group that didn't expect much from their musical achievements and filled that gap with their sense of entertainment.
But not now…
Here… T-Holic was very active.
"Yes."
Cheongryeo nodded his head.
"Our opponent is T-Holic at their peak."