Chapter 63

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“…I will recruit a new team member.”

“Ah!! Participant Park Moondae’s choice has come out!”

At the MC’s shout, the prize money item disappeared from the electronic board, and the text expanded to fill it.
Scenes of audience members cheering and judges clapping and having fun flowed on other electronic boards.

I almost gritted my teeth.

‘Thirty-nine million won…’

Flew away into the air.
Still, looking at it in the long run, it was an unavoidable choice.
An additional participant meant an increase in fans who liked the group. And such things usually grow by multiplication, not addition. The scale of money that could be earned would change.
In the long term, it was an investment that could earn more than 50 million.

The problem was what came next.

“Then, who is the final member chosen by Participant Park Moondae?”

The remaining participants becoming tense again was reflected on the electronic board.

“The participant I chose is…”

No matter who I pick, it was a perfect time to buy resentment from the fans of the participants who narrowly failed.
Therefore, I evade.

“It is the 7th place participant chosen by the shareholders.”

“Ah!”

The murmuring of the people grew louder. Most seemed to understand or feel relieved.

‘…The production team was having fun too.’

That was a bit irritating.

“Participant Park Moondae, who left the choice to the shareholders!”

The MC glanced at the prompter and pulled the proceedings hard, and soon the 7th place candidate appeared on the electronic board.
And the one who made it was….

“Congratulations! Participant Lee Sejin!”

I almost choked.

‘How the hell did he surge?’

It seemed like he benefited from the people who only sent a text vote during the final episode because his public recognition was high due to his child actor activities.

‘…It couldn’t be helped.’

The milk was already spilled. I made room for Lee Sejin, who was stumbling up to the platform.

“…Thank you.”

Lee Sejin squeezed out a few words as if barely wringing out his feelings and bowed his head deeply. It was enough for the fans to cover for him, saying that he was out of his mind because he hadn’t expected it.

The MC guided Lee Sejin to join the successful candidates’ seats. Lee Sejin passed by me and mumbled softly.

“…Thank you.”

I just nodded. I guessed he had wanted to make it.

‘I want to go in too.’

I felt like my legs were about to cramp soon.
Exactly how much longer were they planning to make me stand?
However, the MC continued the proceedings while still keeping me standing by his side.

“Now, only one thing remains! It’s the group name of the participants who will debut as !”

Commonplace explanations that they had collected opinions from shareholders through the internet followed.
And a magnificent logo appeared on the electronic board.
The capital letter ‘T’ and a triangle whose top did not touch were subtly combined, and brilliant sparkling effects popped out from both sides and the top before settling down as a small diamond mark.

– Your proven investment.
– Your idol, your star.
– TEST + STAR
–

“The group name selected by the shareholders is… TeSTAR!”

“…”

The name changed.
As far as I knew, the name of the boy group that was supposed to debut through this program was ‘STier’.
Seeing that it was on the candidates list with a clear explanation as ‘Star + Tier’ on the website, I thought it would become that this time too.
Perhaps because the members had changed quite a bit, including me, a different name came out.
It seemed that the name had been decided by a narrow margin last time.

‘…Wasn’t STier better?’

I didn’t expect to have a group name where ‘Star’ overtly occupied more than half of the name.
I was a bit dazed, but… well, as long as the group name wasn’t extremely strange, it was fine.

“A trophy engraved with the group logo will be awarded to the seven members of TeSTAR!”

And Youngrin came up and handed me the trophy. There was only one trophy shaped like a graph soaring into the sky.

‘So they kept me standing to make me do this.’

I guessed it was over if I carried that and passed it to the kids.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

After lightly shaking hands with Youngrin, I received the trophy along with the cushion.
Youngrin faced me with a smile in her calm eyes.

“I hope you have good activities in the future.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

I mumbled thanks repeatedly. And I quickly walked toward where the successful candidates were standing.
Perhaps caught up in the atmosphere, the successful candidates were already jumping up from their seats.

“Wow!”
“They even give a trophy?!”

Without hesitation, I passed the trophy to the guy I saw first at the very front.
Then, this time, they began to make a fuss around the trophy, putting their arms around each other’s shoulders.

‘My shoulders ached.’

The area around my back, which had been hit alternately by Cha Yujin and Big Sejin, was stinging.
There was no place from my shoulders to my feet that wasn’t tingling, but only my brain was fresh thanks to the adrenaline.
The MC’s voice was heard from a short distance away.

“Congratulations on your debut, TeSTAR!”

Firecrackers for stage effects exploded brilliantly. I heard people’s cheers while being stuck between the trophy and the successful candidates.

And at that moment.
A status window popup appeared.

[Successful Debut!]
You have succeeded in debuting through a famous audition program!
!Time limit: Satisfied (Great Success)
!Status Abnormality: ‘Debut or Die’ removed!
[: Check the Truth ☜ Click!]

‘…Really?’

I turned on the status window.
The status abnormality was gone.

“…”

It was over.
For some reason, it didn’t feel real.
Maybe it was because I didn’t know the purpose of the status window, so I suffered from an ominous prediction that the status abnormality might be extended by somehow being unreasonable.

‘To think it would disappear so cleanly.’

I blankly turned off the status window. Then, the text at the very bottom of the remaining popup caught my eye.
The position where rewards should normally be written.

‘…Wait.’

What’s this?

[: Check the Truth ☜ Click!]

Truth?
I reflexively clicked that phrase.

“Moondae-ya?”

Instantly, my vision distorted.
And then, blackout.

* * *

A scrawny high school student was lying on a mattress holding an old smartphone.
Every time he moved his body, a creaking sound echoed from the mattress.
On the cracked screen of the smartphone, a Whetube screen was playing. The quality was not good because he was barely using the public Wi-Fi.
However, thanks to the skillful filming of the person who held the camera, the charm radiated by the singer on the screen still caught the eye.

‘It was fun.’

The high school student, Park Moondae, looked regretfully at the video screen that had finished playing.
The latest fancams uploaded to this account ended with ‘2X0412 Reloaded Hangang Water Festival’ that he just saw.
This account, ‘Gun1234’, was an account that mainly uploaded fancams of singers and idols.
It especially focused on people with low recognition, but even those looked cool.

‘It somehow felt good because it felt like they were supporting people who didn’t seem like much.’

I wish they would upload often.

There weren’t many things left now where he could spend time happily without spending money.
It was the same on Whetube, which he could watch just by seeing advertisements.
There were almost no videos that he could watch with a pounding heart even though he was watching in low quality on Wi-Fi that kept cutting out.
He heard that there was almost no profit since all the advertising profit from fancams went to the singer, but he was grateful that they uploaded consistently anyway.

After contemplating, Park Moondae scrolled down and wrote a comment.

– BigMoon: GUN1234-nim, I am always enjoying your fancams. Thank you for uploading.

He knew that this account had never given any special feedback to viewers so far.
He hadn’t even posted a single comment when Youngrin’s fancam became a huge hit.
But since they might be watching, Park Moondae checked if his spelling was correct and pressed the create button.

– This person attends every time lol
– Seems like a hardcore fan.

A few replies were attached, making him a bit embarrassed.
He thought about replying, but he suddenly didn’t feel like it, so he stopped.

‘Even if I post, it’s not like I have anything to say…’

When he tried to talk about himself, he was at a loss for words.
The inside of the room, which was embarrassing to call a home, no, a room, was silent.
There was no such thing as a daily life.
When he thought of when he had done anything with motivation, he thought of the time when everything was normal.
When his parents were around.
It felt like it was just yesterday, but in fact, several years had passed.
And he felt like he had been stuck somewhere for several years. Or maybe he was actually dreaming.
So the boy thought that might be why he became focused on the videos uploaded by that account.
When he watched people singing and dancing passionately even though there was no sign of the situation getting better, he felt comforted, or rather, it was vicarious satisfaction.

‘…Let’s sleep.’

Tomorrow would probably be Monday.
Park Moondae closed his eyes right there on the mattress while squirming.

And time passed again. Unlike the surroundings that flowed and flowed, Park Moondae himself somehow didn’t change.
Something terrible happened at school. Since he just had to quit, he did so.
Even if he quit, nothing changed.
Hmm, then wouldn’t it be fine to quit living too?

‘Right.’

But he didn’t particularly want to die either.
Park Moondae looked for a part-time job, but work soon cut off.
And the video uploads of ‘gun1234’ also cut off.

‘Why…?’

Park Moondae contemplated and eventually sent a message to the account information. It was the day he failed to find a new part-time job.
Naturally, no reply came.

‘…’

And after a while, all the videos on the account disappeared.
Only a short text remained on the empty page.

========================
[Quitting because I’m playing games. Bye.]
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Games.
Park Moondae tried installing a mobile game. He didn’t have money to buy a desktop or a game console.
However, the old smartphone couldn’t run the mobile game properly and broke down after terrible overheating.

“…”

Park Moondae somehow felt very exhausted.
Even though there was nothing to be exhausted from since he had hadn’t done anything.

‘I’m exhausted.’

He was exhausted from living.
Park Moondae terminated his broken smartphone. And he didn’t extend the contract for the old one-room either.
He ate a proper meal for the first time in a while. Thus, the remaining money in his possession fit perfectly.
It meant that if he grabbed a motel room and bought sleeping pills, it would be the end.

‘Since they say many people die in motels.’

The weather was so cold that he couldn’t bring himself to fall into water or climb a mountain. This was because he felt like he would give up halfway.
If he died in his room, he felt like he would be left for more than a month and rot.

‘I’m sorry.’

While taking the room, Park Moondae repeatedly apologized in his heart to the blunt owner.
And after entering the room, he lay on the bed and swallowed the sleeping pills.
Sleep came like death.

“…”

A moment later.

“Ugh…”

The one who opened his eyes while taking a breath on top of the dirty motel bed was….
It was me.

* * *

“Huff.”

I let out a breath.

“A-are you okay?”

Someone patted my back from the side. When I turned my head, I saw Seon Ahyun’s worried face.

“…Just for a moment, I was exhausted.”

I barely managed to gloss it over and straightened my body.
It seemed that almost no time had passed. Thanks to that, it seemed that I only looked like I stumbled for a moment.
Because the successful candidates were surrounding me, the others didn’t even notice, and the atmosphere was the same as before.

I wiped off the cold sweat. My head was messy.
The owner of the video account that the original Park Moondae liked, ‘gun1234’.

‘It was me.’

It was the account I deleted when I started my life as a civil service exam student.

***