Chapter 143

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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First, I requested the company staff to give us some time to talk among ourselves.

Then, we started the discussion.

“What do you guys think?”

“I want to go to the US!”

“Okay. I’ll take Eugene as a ‘yes’ and talk a bit more with the hyungs.”

“Yeah!”

At the moment Cha Eugene was about to be excluded from the discussion by Ryu Chungwoo’s gentle words, Keun Sejin cut in.

“Hold on a sec~ Eugene-ya, have you heard of this show?”

“? No!”

It was the name of the show for which the appearance request had come. . And Cha Eugene truly seemed not to know the name.

“M-maybe it’s because it was created recently that Eugene doesn’t know it…?”

“Right. They said it’s rising these days, right?”

The members all chattered away. I took out my smartphone.

“Moondae-moondae, are you going to search it?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh~ Let’s see.”

If someone saw us, they’d think he was a guy who didn’t have a smartphone in his pocket.

Anyway, I proceeded with the members hovering around and peeking at my smartphone screen, probably because they were too lazy to search it themselves.

After doing a quick search while running a translation program, the show’s identity was revealed.

“Ah, the page is up.”

Naturally, it wasn’t a famous, mainstream American talk show.

But was it a completely marginalized small program? Not really.

“Oh, that’s interesting.”

“It feels very specialized.”

It was a show with a cheerful atmosphere, conducted in a format that parodied famous talk shows.

And the content was… so to speak, subculture.

It seemed to mainly cover games, comics, and superhero movies, and as the company staff had said, its WeTube views were quite high.

“Eugene-ya, do you want to see this? Is it fun?”

“What is it?”

Cha Eugene stuck his head into my smartphone screen where a talk show clip was playing.

After watching the screen for a moment, he let out a small snort.

“……?”

Did this guy find a problem?

“I-is it not fun…?”

“I don’t know. I don’t watch stuff like this. So nerdy.”

“U-uh?”

…It seemed it just wasn’t to his taste. Cha Eugene pouted.

Keun Sejin asked with a mischievous face.

“But if you want to go to the US, you have to go on this show~? You have to come out and sing the game song!”

“It’s okay to appear. I just don’t watch it.”

What a professional attitude.

‘The question is whether we should go.’

Looking at it, it seemed like a decent program with a fair amount of buzz.

However, I wasn’t sure if we should appear on this as our first US stage.

‘I don’t want to get further involved with the game.’

Long-term, the risk was significant.

TeStar was a K-pop group and would continue to make K-pop albums.

But even if we did well here, we could end up being saddled with the image of just being game character avatars for no reason.

Then, when we eventually advanced overseas with a real TeStar album later, there would be a considerable discrepancy with that first impression.

That had a high probability of turning into ridicule or a sense of betrayal.

‘If we don’t have much intention of advancing into the English-speaking world, it’s a good choice for media play….’

At any rate, appearing on an American program wouldn’t be bad for articles.

‘It would help in shedding the domestic-only image.’

It was a smokescreen to say, ‘We’re also doing great with our global advancement.’

In this case, we didn’t need to care much about the public opinion in the game community.

Even if talk came up about using the game for media play, it would quickly die down as long as we didn’t do any new collaborations.

But the members didn’t seem to think that way.

They just accepted it as a career opportunity.

“Shall we try it? It’s a rare opportunity.”

“…I don’t mind.”

“I also think it’s a proposal worth challenging. I would be happy if we could let them hear our song, even if it’s a game collaboration track.”

It was a very progressive and rookie-like attitude. Hmm.

What was surprising was that Seon Ahyun brought up a concerned opinion.

“B-but will it be okay? M-Moondae said back then… that it wouldn’t be good if we did another collaboration…… so will this be okay…?”

The last part was a question asked while looking at me.

Keun Sejin cut in here as well. However, this guy was also on the side of agreeing.

“Eh~ It’s not like they’re asking for a new collaboration, so won’t one stage be fine? We just have to do it coolly and leave a good impression~”

He wasn’t someone who didn’t know the importance of a first impression, but it seemed his ambition to advance into the US had overcome the risk.

‘He wants to grab recognition first, no matter what it takes.’

To make matters worse, Seon Ahyun nodded with sparkling eyes.

“S-shall we? I-I hope we can have a cool stage…!”

He must have wanted to do it deep down.

And as the others joined in, an enthusiastic atmosphere began to form.

…It couldn’t be helped. I shook my head.

“…Fine. I like it too.”

“Ooh!”

“However, I’d like to do it in a way that shows the group as much as possible.”

“T-the group?”

“Yeah.”

They might have wondered what that broad statement meant, but after the explanation, everyone understood.

“Good!”

“Hmm~ We’ll have to prepare well.”

“I’m glad our recent schedule has some leeway.”

The group discussion ended in an excited atmosphere.

And when we met the company staff again, opinions similar to my earlier statement were relayed.

A bit more specifically.

“First… we’d like to be able to sing one of our title tracks as well.”

“Ah~ Ah! Of course. We’ll definitely discuss that!”

“Yes. Thank you. As for the stage, the program only requested the song selection. Would it be correct that we prepare the rest?”

“Yes. That’s right. If there’s a concept or setting you want, we’ll try our best to match it. Within what’s possible in terms of time!”

“That’s good to hear.”

The timing would be quite fine. I smirked.

“We’re planning to do a live band performance.”

“Ah! That’s great.”

“And we don’t need costumes.”

“……? Yes?”

His face said, ‘What kind of nonsense are you talking about?’ It seemed like it was time for another explanation.

* * *

The news of TeStar’s appearance on an American program hit the main entertainment news once and then faded.

Just in case the reaction after the appearance was bad, making media play difficult, the agency had simply snatched the opportunity as soon as the casting offer came in.

The news also reached the fans, who were happily enjoying the fan cams of TeStar’s May university festivals and the video of Seon Ahyun’s surprise birthday party.

-Wait, US advancement??

-It was about time for talk of overseas activities to come out, but I thought they’d go to Japan first… As expected of TeStar, the target population is different.

-Ah, finally I can see Cha Eugene speaking English to my heart’s content. That cheerful and sexy Cali boy accent ㅠㅠ

-To watch it in real-time, I have to take a day off. Okay, I’m scheduled to get food poisoning that day.

Rather than worrying about neglecting domestic activities due to an overseas tour, the atmosphere was dominated by, ‘The whole world must know about my idols who are this great.’

This was because TeStar had a structure where they had far more fans domestically.

However, after the exact details of the program and the casting process were revealed, it cooled down slightly.

-Ah, so they’re singing the game collaboration song… No wonder the vibe of the broadcast was a bit like that lol ㅋㅋㅋ.

-They say it’s the first time K-pop is appearing on that show. It’s a sufficiently meaningful achievement.

-I heard our kids also gave a lot of opinions on the game collaboration, so it’s good to see it bear fruit.

-It might even work better locally than a title track. For one thing, that collab song even made it onto Billboard (Capture).

-But if those nerd bastards who play the game throw a fit again because of this, I won’t stay still. Damn, what can we do if our babies are geniuses and made the collab song a masterpiece too? ㅎ

The last one was written by a personal fan of Kim Raebin, pouring her anger into every single character on her private account.

‘Those bastards are really making me mad!!’

She slammed her keyboard.

It was because memories of a dogfight with a malicious game user who spouted utter nonsense came to mind.

‘When they first launched, they were praising them to the sky as God-Star, but now that the game is a hit, they’re cutting ties!’

The fact that the situation had changed and the user base was very different from back then had little meaning to the angry fan of Kim Raebin.

‘I’d rather it just fizzled out. Hah!!’

She wanted to completely cut ties with this game!

In fact, strictly speaking, TeStar doing well overseas was far from her own benefit.

‘If they happen to do well because of this, they’ll be touring and won’t appear on music shows much. Either way, it’s not good for me!’

…But despite saying this, on the day of TeStar’s appearance on , she was once again waiting to watch in real-time.

She had even gone as far as sitting in front of her desktop because she felt her smartphone screen was too small and error-prone.

‘Phew…….’

A light sense of reality check took over her shoulders.

It couldn’t be helped. Kim Raebin and Park Moondae were held hostage by this pathetic program…….

“Whoa, you’re watching those guys again?”

“Yeah, get lost.”

“Yeah, you too.”

“If you call me ‘you’ one more time, you’re dead, for real.”

After flipping her younger brother off, she ignored him. But her brother hovered around and peeked at her computer screen.

“Is this that? Singing the game song in the US? Are they coming out in cosplay?”

“Hey, get lost.”

“That’s so over the top~ Whoa! Argh!”

The brother only ran away to the sofa after being mercilessly hit on the back.

Because had done so well, the brother had also played the game quite deeply and knew the news here and there.

‘Already talk of it being over the top? That makes me even more annoyed.’

Kim Raebin’s personal fan gritted her teeth and glared at the computer screen.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the program started.

[Welcome to the Show!]

[This is… nerdy!]

[Oh, I mean, Andy~]

“What is he even saying.”

Very American B-grade sensibility CG and captions were flying around.

And for another long while, English poured out of the speakers. On top of that, there were mid-roll commercials every few minutes.

In a word, it wasn’t fun.

The only things she could recognize were several superhero movie characters.

‘What on earth am I doing….’

She felt deep regret, thinking she should have just finished her assignment and watched the edited version later.

But she kept watching because it felt like a waste to turn it off now, and fortunately, the preview for TeStar came up.

To be precise… it was a preview for the performance of the OST.

‘Damn it…!’

Aren’t they just promoting the game to their heart’s content?

Feeling a chill, she kicked her feet. While she was ignoring her brother talking nonsense about King Kong or whatever, the commercials ended.

And the stage was shown.

“……!”

In the place where TeStar was to appear… there was a full band.

‘Looks like they’re doing a live band performance.’

She focused on the screen for now.

Before long, TeStar came up onto the stage.

However, they were…… in casual clothes.

“Huh?”

No, they were neat for just casual clothes. But they weren’t conceptual like their usual idol stage costumes either.

“Huh? They’re not in cosplay?”

Just as her brother said, they weren’t in the game characters’ costumes or hairstyles either.

TeStar was just natural. They looked like they would appear in a reality video.

Cha Eugene grinned and grabbed the standing mic.

-What makes people live? …CHOICE!

And with the band’s live performance, the trailer song stage began.

DOOOM DOOOM DOOOM DOOOM ZZZZ-ING!

-I’m gonna survive,
Like you did before.

Park Moondae entered the high-pitched intro very refreshingly.

TeStar sang the song while holding their own standing mics and adding ad-libs.

“……!”

It was… better to listen to than the digital track.

The brother shrugged.

“They’re pretty good at singing?”

TeStar was originally good at singing live.

But this was the first time they had a performance that just let the audience hear the song like this, without any other elements.

In fact, the majority of the fans watching the program now had internally guessed that TeStar would somehow add production or choreography to this stage.

But there was none of that.

It was just a clean and refreshing stage where one could enjoy the song.

They used their expressions well and their gestures weren’t awkward, so that alone carried the stage all the way through.

-Choose your way.
Choose your side.

Confidence was felt.

-Survive!

TeStar brilliantly presented the game collaboration song not as character performers, but with the image of orthodox singers.

Following the sound of applause and cheers on the screen, the siblings also gaped.

“Wow…….”

“Oh~ I’ll acknowledge this.”

Instead of answering, ‘Who are you to acknowledge it or not?’ Kim Raebin’s fan tapped her desk in rising excitement.

‘Anyway, they’re really good on stage!’

It was a complete drawing of a line.

A shout that said, ‘We are not a part of the game, but who made this game OST!’

And because their capabilities as singers were sufficient, the line was drawn naturally and brilliantly.

[Wow~ That’s awesome!]

This dynamic was also revealed in the small talk segment after the first stage.