37. Camera (1)
The next day, I woke up in an unfamiliar place and got up out of bed in a daze.
When I focused on my pupils, I realized that this was the inside of the pension where we had come to film.
'So yesterday..... After break time, we played a board game on the bed and slept. Yes, I remember it well. It's okay.'
I took a deep breath and clenched my fist. The feeling was... still Yoo Young's body.
"What are you doing?"
"...Aram-hyung? Are you awake?"
"Oh, woke up. I have to wake up the kids."
The staff immediately gave a signal. It meant that it was almost time to wake up.
I turned off the alarm I had set and woke up the guys who were dozing off.
"Ah umm...."
"Walk with your eyes open. You'll get hurt."
"Yes."
We gathered in the front yard of the pension in a half-asleep state and stretched. The refreshing air swirled deep into our lungs.
Baek Han-gyul patted his stomach and stared at the PD. It seemed like he wanted to eat but was holding back.
'This feeling right now is........ they're going to give a quiz.'
As expected, the PD laughed heartily. It was a tired smile, but it was also eerie, unlike what he said.
"I'm going to give you a pre-meal quiz from now on! Meal will be provided if everyone passes the quiz."
"Huh."
It wasn't surprising because it was a familiar and common pattern. The only one who was flustered here was Baek Han-gyul.
Baek Han-gyul trembled with a strange sense of betrayal. And he ended up frustrated with every quiz that followed.
"Can we eat breakfast...?"
"..."
In the end, after many twists and turns, thanks to the writer's consideration, we were able to finish filming after eating breakfast.
Considering the Koreans' characteristic of valuing food, if they hadn't fed us, they would have been criticized by the fans, so I guess there was nothing they could do.
"Mr. Yoo Young, two more shots of Americano, right?"
"Yes, thank you."
After coming up to Seoul, we stopped by the shop for the next schedule. Ji Youngheon looked much more relaxed as he had slept a little yesterday, and handed out drinks he bought at the cafe to the members.
While waiting for my turn for makeup and drinking Americano, the shop employee who was putting makeup on Ahn Jungwoo let out a gasp.
"Oh, right. Intro Love Over was on the music charts. Congratulations on your debut song."
"Huh...?"
I almost spit out my Americano for a moment. It was such an unexpected situation.
I blinked slowly and looked at Ji Young-heon. He avoided my gaze and nodded. He didn't say this during filming because he was afraid the kids would get excited. I asked calmly.
"Where is it...?"
"Mango chart top 100. Oh, didn't you know?"
I didn't know.
I returned my phone during filming and hadn't looked at the music site since Intro debuted.
It was because I couldn't bear to accept the fact that the song I composed wouldn't even make it on the charts.
It was definitely going to be like that.
'A male idol is on the top 100 right from their debut song? That doesn't make sense.'
Male idols compete on album sales rather than music.
As I said before, male idol songs are performance-oriented and have strong individuality, so people don't listen to them. The perception that they are minor also played a part.
Hwang Bo-kyun, who checked the music site first, jumped up.
"It's really on the Top 100 chart, our song here! Thank you for letting us know!"
"Oh, what? I thought everyone knew."
"We didn't expect it at all......."
We really didn't expect Top 100.
Mango, the largest music site in Korea, had two chart systems.
The HOT100 chart ranks recently released songs in real time, so it's relatively easy to enter. Our Hot 100 even reached #1.
'But...
The main is TOP100. This reflects the number of users for 24 hours (daily) and the number of users for one hour (real-time), so it's difficult to enter.
You have to push out existing songs that have already settled on the chart, and since it includes daily results, you had to have a huge fandom, a popular pick that went viral, or luck to get on board.
Fans can join forces and do a full-scale streaming of music (*concentrating their firepower on playing songs and downloading music to climb the charts at a certain time for music score), but rookies who just debuted don't have enough firepower because their fandom is small.
That's why I was grateful to the fans just for getting #1 on Hot 10.
'This is a bit awkward.'
I picked up my phone in a feeling of anxiety. I had heard and seen too much to be happy just because I had become popular.
In the entertainment industry, there is no such thing as luck without context.
"It doesn't feel real. Right?"
"Yes....... Even before our debut, Young-i said not to expect much from the music charts...so I really didn't expect much...... It feels good to see that we're on the charts."
I received the monitoring data from the company on my phone while the members were jumping around excitedly. I could have investigated it myself, but it was better to receive the prepared data to know the flow of things so far.
After reading the data like that, I forced myself to swallow my sigh.
'Ah....... This situation is a little dangerous.'
Thanks to that, I had a subtle expression that was neither smiling nor crying.
I calmly reviewed the series of events.
First of all, the recognition of Intro wasn't bad from the beginning.
To be exact, it's limited to idol fandom. It might be disappointing, but in fact, Intro was a decent start. In any case, it definitely appealed to idol fandom.
'But the variable that came in here was Rebel's Woobin.'
Most people aren't interested in idols. If they're not popular enough to stand out, they don't even know the group's existence, let alone their name.
However, Rebel frequently appeared on terrestrial TV entertainment shows as expected from a first-team group, and they've always been at the top of music charts, and they've lined up all the songs on their albums.
In other words, even those who aren't sensitive to trends would have heard their name at least once, and they have such popularity and influence.
And Woobin is a popular member of Rebel.
He mentioned Outstar openly that Intro is a promising junior. Only then did the 'public' recognize the group called Intro.
'..... Of course, it's okay up to this point. The problem is what happens next.'
People are just starting to recognize the group, and since they're new, they don't have any images built up until now.
In short, they lack the materials to judge us...... This is where one incident breaks out.
It's about a mysterious woman who jumped into a car and caused a ruckus.
Woo-bin, who gets many views just by mentioning his name, junior who says he's looking forward to it, and sasaeng fan. What if you connect these three and make them an issue?
There was no way that the NutTubers who make money from entertainment news would miss this.
'They've already made us into pitiful victims who have been harmed by extreme fans.'
Even if we try to hide it, the video has already spread, and when a provocative incident occurs, there are many who edit it to their liking.
The public who sees the video edited in that way thinks, 'Oh, the fans are the real deal. The idol is pitiful.'
Some of the malicious sasaengs have their faces sold, so some people noticed that the ones who caused the disturbance were sasaengs from other groups.
However, not many people listen to such claims. Because it's easier to believe that the fans did it and curse them without thinking.
'The ignorance of idol fandom that is hidden behind the scenes is also playing a part.'
Many people already look down on or don't understand the hobby of 'fandom' idols and curse them.
While they praise the positive aspects of idols' overseas expansion of K-pop and their good influence, they look down on the fans who supported them to achieve it.
This incident and situation also had that kind of tone. As a reaction, interest in Intro increased.
Ji Young-heon approached me while I was looking at my phone and checked my complexion.
"What's wrong? Is something wrong?"
"..... Nothing."
From the company's perspective, there was no immediate damage. So they just posted, "The artist is not hurt! It's okay!" and monitored without taking any special measures.
It's a problem that the agency can't actively address, but the more it happens, the more frustrated the fans are.
'And this situation is not good for us in the long run either.'
If you take the position of the victim like this, it's not easy to change their minds.
When you say 'Intro', the group's songs and performances don't come to mind, but rather, 'Oh, those poor kids who are being harassed by extreme fans?'
In addition, people's standards for judgment become stricter. Even trivial things are censored.
If you do something that deviates from your own image, you'll be disappointed, even if it's nothing, and in severe cases, you might feel betrayed.
It's similar to the reason why you shouldn't sell a celebrity's character.
'The reaction is even bigger because it's a time when Woobin is gaining attention.'
The timing was bad and it was entangled.
I went on SNS and checked the fans' reactions. It was peaceful on the outside, but complaints were popping up everywhere.
- It's crazy because of one mentally ill person. Is this going to get that big?
└What I'm saying is ㅋㅋ Because the kids are good looking, weird things keep sticking to them
└Ha... It's also a sin to like handsome and talented guys
- I know you're frustrated, but let's refrain from cursing too much. The more we do that, the more the artists get cursed at ㅠㅠㅠ
└What are you talking about? Right now, we're the only ones getting beaten up ㅅㅂ
- I just don't think about it. Where is that kind of fandom in the first place? When a lot of people gather, it's natural for assholes to mix in. Don't pay attention to aggro.
└That's true, but I think it's more chaotic because there's a saying that the perverted sasaeng from another group jumped in front of a car.
└Are they okay?
└Yeah. They're famous for ruining the fandom image from the beginning and moving on to another place when the fun wears off.
└It's not like they're throwing bombs or anything ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ But those kids always go looking for rookies or kids who just debuted.
- I hate Muggles who are really fangirls. They really don't give any money, but they still do a lot of nitpicking.
└I'm adding this because there are people who come here to swear, but this isn't about defending sasaengs, so don't cloud the issue and go away.
- I thought it was the right time, so how many guys are jumping out to take our child down? What do you want me to do? Just look at the cute Young-iㅎㅎ♡♡♡ (Yoo Young's photo)
└Wow, when was this photo taken? ㅠㅠ Young-i is so pretty - it came out so well
└This was taken on the way home from the music show this week! I'll upload links to other photos taken that dayㅎㅎ
At that moment, my hand vibrated. It was a call with caller ID blocked.
I put it on silent mode and continued monitoring, and the phone rang again. Soon after, the preview notification showed the text message I just received.
[Why aren't you answering?]
[What are you doing?]
[Answer me]
[Hey]
[Hey]
[(Attached photo)]
[Look at this, it's cute, haha]
[Where are you?]
[Answer]
[Missed calls: Caller ID blocked (5 calls)]
[Killing you]
[Missed calls: Caller ID blocked (21 calls)]
Ji Young-heon, who saw the content, was even more surprised than me and said in a trembling voice.
"...Wouldn't it be better to change your phone number?"
"Yes, I'm going to change it once this activity is over. Rather than that, is there any video or content that can bring our release date forward?"
"That... I'll check it out."
I organized my thoughts while watching Ji Young-heon contact the company.
First, I had to put out the urgent fire, so I thought we'd release various content that would also attract the attention of the fans.
In order to change the image later, it was better to send it as quietly as possible for now.
The important thing is not to go with the nuance of blaming the fans in every process. It's not their fault, and it's stupid to pour oil on the fire yourself.
'Tak Seung-min hyung did a good job with this kind of work and media play.'
My head hurts when I try to do it myself.
Ji Young-heon, who just got off the phone, came over and told me the company's opinion.
"We'll decide the details at the meeting scheduled for this week."
"Okay. Oh, all the cameras are going to be removed from the dorm today, right?"
Ji Young-heon nodded when asked to confirm. The members must have been nervous all this time, so I wanted to let them sleep without thinking about anything for a day.
"Yes, we're currently collecting the cameras and they'll be gone by the time we get off work."
"Thank you."
"Next, Mr. Yoo Young! Please sit here."
As I sat on the beauty chair and got my makeup done, Baek Han-gyul, who was sitting next to me and watching me, took a picture of my face with his phone.
"Wow, hyung-nim, your visuals are really amazing."
"Seriously~ Yoo Young kun will pull off any style."
"Thank you. Baek Han-gyul, you stay still."
"Okay."
The person in charge of Baek Han-gyul glanced at me and nodded. It was the first time I heard such praise, so I felt embarrassed for no reason.
'It seems like it was only yesterday that the shop staff were crying, asking me not to do a refreshing concept.'
I heard that the Planet staff would tear their hair out whenever they released a bright album because of my impression.
Especially the makeup and hair people.
"Wow, your makeup looks good today."
"It's because you made it pretty."
"How can you even be so pretty when you talk."
As I was lightly accepting the compliment, Lee A-ram poked me in the side.
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