Debut or Die

Chapter 82

WeTube algorithm.

I didn’t know exactly what was the criteria, but it was a video algorithm that showed recommended videos.

And the preview video of <Man who only needs to say it once> starring Testar… For unknown reasons, it was chosen by the algorithm.

It first appeared as a recommendation related to overseas prank humor videos.

These people clicked excitedly, surprised by Korea’s professional surprise camera entertainment that appeared after a long time.

– ???Our country makes this again? It’s very good

– I hope a lot of famous guys come out and get frightened. It’s my fetish

????????Celebrity’s reactions are so much fun

– Please be successful?? I’m tired of healing variety shows??

After that, it appeared under various TVC entertainment clips. Similar sensibilities had led to more influxes.

– Is this a new TVC variety show? ????Testar is so cute!!

– We need Testar’s talk show and healing trip… They have to come out and show off their friendship and drive me crazy?? Ah, TVC, why aren’t you quickly recruiting them~~

– It’s Idol Inc kids kyaa I was out of my mind then, but the memories keep coming back… I miss the spicy chicken flavor. I’m going to watch the show

Lastly… Strangely enough, there was an influx coming from animal videos.

This was because the bizarre birds on the banner that were caught in the thumbnail were classified as animals by AI.

There were many people who clicked in bewilderment at the unexpected otherworldly emotional thumbnail.

-? I came to criticize why such a monstrosity is recommended in the cute puppy videos, but it’s fun…?

??????????

?Heol, there’s someone who thought the same thing as me??

– Is it because of that baby bird that it came up in connection with the bird’s eating video? It’s ridiculous, but it’s funny… It hurts my pride??

– All the cast members were cast beforehand, right??? I’m worried because they seem so surprised

Thanks to this, the preview of the second episode of<Man who only needs to say it once> began to soar endlessly

And in the process, the BGM that fit perfectly with the craziness of the video began to attract attention.

It was Testar’s ‘Magical Boy’ modulated vision.

– The background music sounds like a cat stomping its back paws in a distraught mood

?????????Look at that metaphor

?That’s right, it’s exactly like this????

– Does anyone know what the BGM is?

?Testar – Magical Boy~ It’s the latest song of the idol group that appeared here!

– Aha thank you~

– Heol idol song???? Is their concept crazy?????

?No, the original is a great song!?? (music video link)

?Oh, I saw it and it’s cool?

?I can’t believe they changed the song like this???

And again, people flowed into the ‘Magical Boy’ MV through the chain of related videos.

– Who came here after being chosen by the algorithm???

– I was definitely watching a video of a fountain installation for migratory birds, and when I came back to my sense, I was already watching the boy idol music video

– They’re so cute, but the music video is so cool! Press ‘like’ and go?

– Heol, Idols are doing this kind of song these days. I didn’t know because I wasn’t interested in it after graduation… The song is nice

– Fans, are you having fun? I am curious

?Make sure to remember that these guys are debuting

?It’s fun, but you’ll get pissed off, shed tears, and want to break the monitor. Recommended!

?????

This series of processes had an unexpected butterfly effect.

It was an opportunity for the people who were not interested in idols or the latest songs to be interested in their songs.

In conclusion, it brought a slightly significant rise in the music charts.

[5th place: Magical Boy / Testar] ?1

‘Magical Boy’ which had been stagnant in the 6th to 8th places, made a slight leap forward.

And a good song was bound to speed up its rise once it gained momentum.

This was because once exposed to the top five, the number of people who ‘try to listen’ even if they had prejudice increased significantly.

As a result.

[3rd place: Magical Boy / Testar] ?2

The next day, Tuesday. ‘Magical Boy’ rose by two spots again.

For your information, a few days ago, VTIC gave up the top spot to a strong rapper after a long reign.

This thought began to occur among Testar’s fans, who were streaming like crazy.

‘Perhaps?’

‘No way?’

And as always, they impossibly hold onto it.

* * *

The third week of the music shows was coming to an end.

“Wooow!”

They couldn’t hear us because the microphone was off, but the members moved their mouths to left a greeting, waved their hands, and ran backstage.

Colorful lightsticks swayed below.

“I-It was fun…!”

“Today’s outfit was great and the shoes were comfortable, so it was really nice!”

When Kim Raebin shouted, shaking off his summer clothes and fancy jewelry, a friendly laugh broke out.

“Haha!”

“That’s right!”

They were going to laugh no matter what he said. The sweaty faces were smiling.

Cha Eugene chipped in.

“Winning first place is great!”

Yes. We finally won first place.

‘Of course, it’s not broadcasted.’

We won first place on Tnet’s music show ‘Music Night’ this week.

Am I upset? Honestly, I am. This was because a big singer would make a comeback this Friday and the chance to win first place with this activity was all gone.

Moreover… Um, first place on Music Night wasn’t very credible.

‘…Honestly, it’s favoritism.’

I checked and it was pushed by the broadcast score.

Anyway, the mood was good, there was no need to spoil it, so let’s just clap and nod.

We hadn’t been able to sleep, so there had to be a sense of accomplishment during our activity.

Even Lee Sejin added a word.

“…I wish it hadn’t been canceled.”

“S-Still we got the trophy!”

“Right, we’re going to receive a trophy for this activity!”

Ryu Chungwoo smiled and stretched.

I also felt relieved that we finished the week well.

And a little later.

“In the first week of July, the number one popular music is… Yes, congratulations! Testar’s Magical Boy!”

“…?”

We suddenly got another trophy.

“…??”

The stage fireworks exploded in front of the confused members.

Tap, tap! Pop!

No one was in a sound state of mind as the MC presented a bouquet and the trophy.

Me included.

‘What the hell is going on here?’

Moreover, the person who received the microphone was Kim Raebin.

“Uh…Thank you…”

Kim Raebin, who was out of his mind because he hadn’t prepared anything, looked around with eyes asking for help, and made eye contact with me.

“…”

‘Hey, I can’t either.’

Sorry, but I didn’t know what to say either. My head stopped for a moment as I was confused by the sudden escape from death.

Fortunately, the microphone usually went to the leader next…or so I thought.

“…Thank you. Unexpectedly, we won first place… First of all, thank you to the fans. And thank you to the staff who work together…”

Ryu Chungwoo calmly mentioned all the people that should be mentioned, and suddenly burst into tears. It felt like a sense of reality had returned.

‘I’m going crazy.’

Honestly, it was understandable that he’d cry. All this time, Ryu Chungwoo had been taking care of the kids… He did like half the manager’s job.

Fortunately, Keun Sejin received a microphone from Kim Raebin and diligently continued the speech.

“Director Kwak Shinkyun and Team Leader Kim Hyejung. Also, thank you so much to everyone who made this album together! And most of all… Fans, I love you so much! We really didn’t expect this… Thank you so much for giving us first place!”

“Aaaah!!”

“Congratulations!”

Fortunately, a strong reaction came back from under the stage. Thanks to VTIC not coming out this week after 3 weeks of domestic activities, live booing was avoided.

…Wait, that’s right.

‘How the hell did we beat VTIC?’

However, the score had already disappeared because of the prompter, and instead, it was right before the encore began.

“Yes~”

MCs slowly came out with microphones to leave ending remarks. It meant they were going to wrap this up.

At that moment, Cha Eugene, who grabbed the microphone before we knew it, blinked and shouted a word of appreciation.

“Shareholder-nim? Thank you!”

“Cough.”

It was a broadcast accident.

In front of the members who hurriedly suppressed Cha Eugene, the MCs steadfastly finished the ending remarks.

“Haha, when you want to listen to a popular song?”

“Live popular music!”

“Come to listen to it next week, too.”

And the prelude to ‘Magical Boy’ began to flow out.

After sending various glances to Cha Eugene who was full of question marks, the members let him go.

I barely started singing.

“…Tomorrow, I think of you who I met today and tomorrow…”

Maybe it was because of my mood, but the sound of the music box sounded exceptionally like in the preview video of the first variety show.

It was after checking the encore video that night that I realized that I even got the lyrics wrong.

There was no party crazier than this.

* * *

“Understand? If you are going to say something on a broadcast in the future, make sure to ask the hyungs first!”

“Yes…”

Cha Eugene was depressed after being nagged by the manager for 30 minutes. But at the same time, as he kept glancing at the trophy, it seemed his heart wasn’t in it.

‘Saying more would be useless.’

It seemed he was reflecting so I had to do something. I sighed and spoke.

“Hyung, I think we need to take a picture of this, too.”

“…Alright, go ahead.”

“Yes!”

Cha Eugene ran quickly and tried to lift the trophy like a baboon boasting a baby lion.

I stopped Cha Eugene.

“Hold the trophy and hang your head down.”

“Yes?”

“You should reflect.”

“Yes…”

Cha Eugene lowered the trophy with a sullen face.

The photo composition would come out well. I took a few pictures and sent them to Keun Sejin who was preparing to upload SNS.

“Write on the postscript that he’s reflecting on himself.”

“Okay~…Um, but it doesn’t seem necessary?”

“…?”

“Look at this.”

I checked the popular SNS posts on the smartphone screen that Keun Sejin held out.

[Is it true that Testar monumentally won first place on a music show but doesn’t have a stable fandom name yet???? It must have looked like they were shaking a carrot^[1]shake a carrot = a Korean meme. Something like (“If you’re in danger, shake/draw/show a carrot!” .]

“…”

“The atmosphere is fine.”

“Wait a minute.”

I took over the smartphone from Keun Sejin and started searching in detail.

And I found the answer in the number 1 most popular post in the community.

[Testar’s first place commotion?? (feat. the restraint of survival that can’t be escaped)]

When I clicked, the previous encore video was already uploaded with captions.

They added effects with all kinds of subtitles, so the figure of the members who were confused and out of their minds was expressed in a funny way.

…For your information, the cut of us avoiding helping Kim Raebin was combined with the ‘robot turning its eyes away meme’, and at the end, the wrong lyrics were cross-edited with the original stage and received countless ‘?’ captions.

[Testar’s first 1st place award becomes a dark history.]

By the way, it was the title.

‘I’m going crazy.’

Anyway, right here, Cha Eugene’s courteous ‘shareholder remark’ was edited and uploaded like the highlight of the joke.

[Shareholder-nim? Thank you!]

[!!!!!]

The caption was ‘Idol Inc spirit is never too far’.

“…”

Below the video, among the laughing and congratulatory comments, there was some resentment from fans who wanted to beat up the Idol Inc spirit.

– My kids debuted and got 1st place, but why is the only name used to call the fans is shareholder??

– Still, idols, fans, and everyone suffers from Idol Inc PTSD, are you not working in an agency????

– I, too, want to hear the kids say ‘I love you ()’ <I want to hear the name of the fans here…

– The kids are going to have fun playing around with fan names, right…?

It didn’t end here.

Opinions recently uploaded to SNS or communities had begun to take a step further.

– Neither the light stick nor the fan color came out, right? Isn’t their operation has been a hit-and-miss? Honestly, it had been weird since they made a comeback within a month, but I didn’t say anything because I was afraid it would hinder the kids’ debut.

– There are no additional schedules for the kids’ variety shows, and instead of holding an event, they’d rather have a f*cking concert. With a boy group of this scale, you’ll make more money, but you don’t know that either????

– Come to think of it, the members also came up with the concept of the first-place song. And Moondae did a PPT presentation. But isn’t it ugly that they started like this and produced it within a month? How much of the kids’ work did you change?

“…Um.”

All of a sudden, they were approaching the truth.

• 1. shake a carrot = a Korean meme. Something like (“If you’re in danger, shake/draw/show a carrot!”

I have finally found out a way to make footnotes in a way that wouldn't distract from the story. Also, I forgot to say this but since a few chapters ago, I use Italic to indicate that the word is originally English.