Chapter 157
“Good job, everyone.”
Kwak Sang-hyun said this to us, exhausted after the excessive mental strain from cooking together like rowers looking in different directions.
“It’s a pity. I thought we could make it to the finals…”
Kang Ji-woo expressed his disappointment blatantly.
We were eliminated in the first round of the idol variety show competition finals, losing to Cheristine from Orca, who succeeded in making food that was at least edible.
The taste of the risotto Seo Moon-gyeol made…
For the sake of our mental stability, let’s not describe it further than saying it was terrible.
The judges, who had initially looked at us with eyes full of expectation, sighed heavily by the time we were done.
Or they were either amazed by Seo Moon-gyeol’s spectacular knife skills following Gyun Seong-ha’s strength show.
Except for the strict Chef Go Gun-min, the judges were lenient, considering that this was a variety show meant to be funny rather than a serious cooking show.
At least Seo Moon-gyeol, who meticulously carved fruit until the end, was more serious than anyone else there.
The panelists, including Chronicle’s Kim Sung-young and comedienne Park Mi-ri, repeatedly praised Seo Moon-gyeol for looking handsome and cool as he skillfully wielded a small but sharp knife.
It would have been great if the event was about crafts instead of cooking.
I might suggest on the viewer’s board that next year’s idol variety show competition be about crafts.
Anyway, what more could we say to Seo Moon-gyeol besides “good job”?
“…”
In fact, Ban Yo-han, who was frustrated to the point of going crazy during the entire risotto cooking process, seemed like he wanted to say more, but he held back because it would only aggravate himself further.
“The collaboration between Orca’s Cheristine in the second round was truly perfect… No one there could have predicted such a disastrous outcome.”
This was what Kim Sung-young said, and if this aired, I’m sure there would be a comparison shot of Seo Moon-gyeol’s bizarre performance in the finals and Kang Ji-woo’s skillful display in the preliminaries.
At least, the PD and the production team of the idol variety show competition seemed to think highly of us.
By the end of the finals’ filming, the PD and writers, who had treated us formally during the preliminaries, were all smiles, personally telling us that we did well for our first variety show and thanked us for our hard work.
“You guys are really good at variety shows.”
“Thank you!”
“Especially Raon, I thought you’d hold back because you’re the best-looking idol, or even among all celebrities I’ve seen.”
PD No Gyu-beom, who had earlier praised Ban Yo-han for his famous line ‘I am pure,’ gave me a thumbs-up too.
“Holding back? How could I do that in a sacred variety show? Being funny doesn’t make me any less good-looking.”
“Haha, this guy is really funny.”
“I’m still just a beginner in variety shows.”
“Beginner? You could start running. Hahaha!”
“Then should I try flying? Hahaha!”
“Hahahahaha!”
[PD No Gyu-beom feels more favorable towards you. No Gyu-beom’s favorability +1, current favorability +23]
PD No Gyu-beom even promised to invite Orca to their company’s variety show, but I’m not sure if that promise will be kept.
In our relationship with the broadcasting company, we were still at their mercy.
* * *
Mid-January.
Finally, Lifteen, composed mainly of top trainees from Pick Heart3, debuted.
Yoon Myung-soo, who had the earliest birthday, took the lead, and Kim Jun-woo, Jing Xiao, Ok Do-yoon, and Nagase Ritsu, who were top trainees from Pick Heart, were also members.
Additionally, new faces Jio and Vain joined, making Lifteen a seven-member group.
Lifteen, which had been running an official SNS account and shooting reality shows like us even before their debut, seemed to be a hot topic among idol fans. However, due to the time that had passed since the unfortunate end of Pick Heart, their public popularity seemed a bit lower than ours.
Well, Orca had me and Ban Yo-han, who were confident in our domestic popularity.
And Kang Ji-woo and Gyun Seong-ha, who had already made their faces known to the public through impactful entertainment activities.
Even Seo Moon-gyeol was recognized by those interested in the entertainment industry, thanks to his memorable stage performances.
Unfortunately, because he was introduced as ‘Moon-gyeol’ back then, many people still knew him as ‘Seo Moon-gyeol.’
‘That damn birdbrain…’
Anyway, Lifteen’s debut song had a strong, intense, and slightly destructive dark concept, which seemed to garner more reactions overseas than domestically.
I sent congratulatory messages to the trainees I knew from Pick Heart, who were now respectable idols. Later, I received a call saying they hoped to meet at music shows or events.
Kim Jun-woo’s voice sounded very tired, but he seemed much happier than when it was decided that they would debut as Breaker.
And three days after Lifteen’s debut…
True also saw the debut of the rookie boy group Huntred, which included Oh Hyun-jin.
Not only Oh Hyun-jin, but Han Do-kyung and Lee Eun-gyu, whom I met separately before, debuted in the same group.
Huntred was a large group with ten members, and I cautiously guessed that having a lot of people from the start made it less of a problem to add Oh Hyun-jin later.
Huntred also gained recognition overseas, rather than domestically, by broadcasting a reality show filmed in the United States even before their debut.
True, being a large company even in decline, already had a decent level of international recognition, and our company staff said that they benefited from having four foreign members.
However, they added that despite this, their immediate performance wasn’t very impressive.
I think their initial sales barely exceeded 30,000 copies.
Compared to us, who sold about 67,000 copies in the initial period and ranked second in debut album sales, or Lifteen, who sold close to 60,000 copies likely due to fans being conscious not to lose to us as fellow Pick Heart alumni, their numbers seemed modest.
While album sales are not the absolute standard for evaluating a group’s value, and to major groups selling hundreds of thousands of copies, we and they might look similar, the gap in visible results was undeniably significant.
It seemed that the fanbase characteristics of Orca and Lifteen, both containing many members from survival shows, differed significantly from Huntred’s, or it was simply a fundamental difference in fanbase size.
I didn’t delve deeply into this analysis since it was the job of our staff.
Isn’t it better to focus on doing well with our fans and our work instead of analyzing others’ fandoms?
Yes. We should focus more.
Our goal for this year was the Rookie of the Year award.
Unless in special cases like transitioning from project groups like Yours or Upon to new members and new groups, this award was an opportunity you get only once as an idol.
The rarity made it all the more meaningful.
Of course, Lifteen and Huntred would also aim for the same.
Many predicted early on that one of these three groups among male idols would receive the Rookie of the Year award.
Honestly, it was quite challenging to beat those two groups and win the Rookie of the Year award.
If we asked if it was possible or impossible, it was possible.
We were certainly within reach.
But it wasn’t guaranteed.
Even if it seemed like we had a slight advantage by starting a bit earlier, the landscape could change drastically within a year.
And I couldn’t bear to see the Rookie of the Year award go to True, even if a knife was held to my neck.
There was only one Rookie of the Year award that Orca wouldn’t receive due to the counting period, which could go to Lifteen.
It’s absurd to think I would miss out on the Rookie of the Year award with this face.
[Larry is impressed by your miraculous leap in logic. Larry’s favorability +??? Current favorability +???]
After disabling most of the system last time, Larry, who seemed to have nothing to do, babbled nonsense whenever he got the chance, but I didn’t have time to deal with him.
Until now, I had held back a bit, worried that I might stand out too much in the group because of the last broadcast image of Pick Heart, but now I thought it wouldn’t be bad to promote Orca more actively, even if I had to do it alone.
And was it because we were spurred by the debut of Lifteen and Huntred?
The members, led by Kang Ji-woo, brought up the idea of presenting our opinions to Joo Yeol-eum for the next album.
I had thought about it once or twice too, so I actively supported the members’ suggestions.
Idols or singers don’t necessarily need to perform with concepts, songs, or choreographies they came up with themselves.
But it’s true that if they can manage it, it becomes much cooler.
“We’ll probably make a comeback around late March or late April, which is right in the spring.”
“The entertainment industry usually goes a bit ahead of the seasons, so we need to keep that in mind too.”
“What comes to your mind when you think of spring?”
“Cold snaps.”
“Fine dust.”
“Yellow dust.”
“…Can’t you take this seriously?”
The somewhat chaotic meeting seemed like it could go on all night.
It was a bit strange.
Usually, Ban Yo-han would step in to keep things on track when it dragged on too long…
‘What time is it?’
While Seo Moon-gyeol stepped out to go to the bathroom, I pointed to the nail sticking out of the wall.
“Where did the clock that was there go?”
“That? It broke, so I threw it away.”
“It was fine until the afternoon.”
I was about to check the time on my phone instead, but Gyun Seong-ha, who had seemed unusually restless lately, suddenly grabbed my hand and started reading my palm.
“You’ll live a long life. You’ll have lots of wealth, and your fate line is clear, so you’ll live well…”
What’s up with him?