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Chapter 108:
Chapter 108:
Chapter 108:
Meanwhile, the atmosphere at Floss’s dorm was tense.
They had gathered at the dorm for their weekly group live, which they rarely did, so Yu-geon couldn’t escape from this troubled situation.
‘It’s too annoying to ignore.’
They were a group that couldn’t even get the first place on the music show, let alone the king of the industry, unless their fans threw prizes and gathered voters.
He didn’t think it was that serious, but he couldn’t pretend not to know as long as the fandom fight continued.
Every day, countless posts of discord were uploaded on various communities.
Most of them were sparked by Floss’s fans, but some were troublemakers who wanted to fuel this fight.
The reason was simple. They couldn’t stand to see the ones who debuted by dropping their favorite candidates do well.
There were anti-fans who did similar things by spreading manipulation rumors right after their debut.
They had filmed about 30 CFs in six months. Their debut concert with 20,000 seats was sold out.
He had the confidence to not care at all back then.
Who else was a rookie who started with a million sales for their debut album? They had unprecedented numbers that no one could ignore.
It was a time when the two-year contract period felt endlessly long.
Although they were from different agencies, they debuted through the same program as their senior girl group, Winirand, who was doing well as a first-tier idol in their first year.
We thought we would naturally follow the same path as we watched Winirand’s last year, but it was downhill all the way.
The lead vocalist, who was accused of receiving special treatment due to the repeated controversies of devil’s editing and angel’s editing, faced a school violence scandal, and it got worse.
There were also other incidents such as staff abuse, and they eventually declared disbandment without fulfilling their planned contract period of one year and seven months.
It had been almost a year since then, but all the members had been labeled as ‘past their prime idols’ for a long time.
‘I realized for the first time how fatal it was to lose the freshness as a rookie.’
They must have thought they could taste the popularity of their heyday again if they just returned to their original agencies, but the reality was not like that.
They all switched to solo, group, or acting, whichever they wanted, but none of them achieved any results.
[- Floss is honestly starting to decline now lol They’ll follow their senior group, what can they do]
The sentences that were dismissed as nonsense half a year ago were slowly approaching as a realistic threat.
That was also why the fans were desperately trying to block Climax, who was starting to revive.
It hadn’t been two years since they debuted, but they had consumed their image for almost two years, including the airing period of My Idol Stage.
Just when the anxiety was swirling around. They received a notice that the sub-manager who supported Floss was going back to the main team.
‘It was fun working with you.’
The manager, who left cheerfully as if working with Floss had been a great ordeal, turned out to be originally dedicated to Climax.
Some of the members felt like the fear of being threatened by Climax one by one was becoming a reality.
“Ah, what are you talking about? Why do I have to go to the survival show?”
Shim Naru, who had been complaining all along even though he received the benefit of the survival show twice, grumbled nervously.
“The fans don’t like it either. There’s no one who welcomes us, and we only suffer. If we can’t win, they mock us for being first-tier idols, so we should obviously refuse, right?”
Yu-geon didn’t particularly like Shim Naru, but he agreed with what he said.
It was more of a loss than gain to go out there. Unless it was Climax.
The groups that had nothing to lose and the groups that had a lot to lose had different premises for appearing.
Just like the teams that barely broke even and the teams that made a profit no matter what.
“Nobody here wants to be on this show, so keep it down.”
Hwijin, the leader, shut Naru’s mouth as if there was no one here to put up with his annoyance.
If they had a dedicated manager, he would have been worried that Naru might say something stupid on live TV and tried to please him.
But the main manager had left for an urgent matter, and the sub-manager who had returned to Climax’s side was replaced by a newbie who had just finished his probation.
He couldn’t say anything in this fierce atmosphere.
“I have an appointment right after this, so don’t drag it out and finish it as soon as possible.”
Jinhyung, who had been fiddling with his phone all along, snapped at them and the other members gave him a hard time.
“Going out again?”
“I have to go out while I can.”
“This guy is unbelievable…”
Another member, who had been dissatisfied with Jinhyung’s irresponsible attitude, was about to start a fight, but Hwijin stopped him.
“Just do one verse. We’re going live soon, so please watch your mouth.”
Hwijin had a headache from having to deal with these crazy bastards who had no idea what cooperation was for another six months.
Unlike his trainee days, when he thought everything would go smoothly once he debuted.
Everything was a mess after he debuted.
The only things that looked perfect were the surface performance and the amount of money they earned. Everything else was unsatisfactory.
It was a dilemma whether to keep the group as it was or to disband it. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation.
“Don’t feed the trolls if there’s any hate about Climax in the chat.”
Hwijin firmly told them to be prepared for any possible situation, and Naru pouted his lips and whined.
“Ugh, fine.”
None of the members didn’t know that Naru was blatantly conscious of the main vocalist on the other side.
It was the same when they aired My Idol Stage before their debut.
He competed with the same position without any restraint, and he would have been labeled as unlikable if it wasn’t for the angel’s editing.
Yu-geon glanced at Naru’s face, which was full of complaints, and remembered what happened during the last activity of ‘Love by Love’.
‘His expression was priceless then.’
He was also quite surprised when the sub-vocal of Climax, who was too naive for his own good, ran up to him to say hello.
He had been in touch with Cheon Ise after the radio appearance, but it was the first time he met this guy since then.
He thought he would just nod at him, but he unexpectedly hugged him and Yu-geon stepped back and hid behind the other guests.
‘Wow, hello! I’m so happy to see you!’
He looked like Na Seon-young’s younger brother.
Seeing Seon-woo greet him with a bright smile, he felt a stark contrast to Naru’s crumpled expression and enjoyed the spectacle.
If Floss had members like Seon-woo or Cheon Ise.
Even if they had debuted as a project group that only competed with each other, would they have been able to boast such a strong friendship?
He couldn’t answer that question, and it only hindered his progress. Yu-geon smiled and erased his thoughts.
Another week flew by in the blink of an eye.
The final activity period for Climax was confirmed to be three weeks. We didn’t have much to complain about, since they had extended it by a week from the original two weeks.
The popular groups got more than four weeks, but we weren’t at that level.
According to Kyunghwa’s opinion, three weeks was enough for a group that had just achieved some meaningful results.
“So, does that mean we’re not going to disband after all?”
It was a rare day off.
None of us had the energy to go out, so we stayed in our rooms until it was time for lunch. As soon as we came out, Seon-woo blurted out.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Yi-jun at the same time.
“Why? Why are you looking at me?”
Yi-jun seemed surprised by the unexpected attention, and he quickly hugged Pposili.
[?Yi-jun is ‘flustered’.]
“You’re the problem, aren’t you? You said you got an offer from a hip-hop label.”
“Ah~.”
Yi-jun acted nonchalantly and fiddled with his phone. Then he showed us the text message he had sent.
“I turned them down already. Did you think I had no loyalty?”
The screen he showed us revealed that he had replied in September, a month before our comeback.
?????
[Me] I’m sorry, hyung. I appreciate your offer and I know you meant well, but I want to stay with the members a bit longer. 7:34 PM
?????
“This bastard, he told me he was still thinking about it.”
Kyunghwa snatched Pposili from him and threw him on the floor. Then he punched Yi-jun in the jaw.
But unfortunately, Yi-jun had trained as a boxer before, so he was faster at protecting his jaw.
“Ow! No violence! Use words, words!”
“Do you think you can understand words?”
“Ack! Ise hyung, save me!”
Do you think I want to save you? I focused on scooping out some anchovy stir-fry and tofu stew from the side dish container.
“I’ll put down my spoon!”
Seon-woo was annoyed, but he decided not to shield him this time. He sweated and moved away from the spoon holder.
Seong-won had ignored Yi-jun from the start, so there was no need to argue.
“You’re the reason I’m losing my life, my life!”
“Ugh, why are you so strong? Hyung, I can’t breathe!”
No one rescued Yi-jun from the chokehold. Haaam-. Aeongi, who had been sleeping quietly on Seong-won’s lap, yawned and flicked his tail, as if he was bothered by the noise.
“Come on, let’s clean up and eat.”
I put the kimchi stew, which I had boiled with some noodles, on the burner on the table. A white steam rose up.
“Put Aeongi down.”
Seong-won nodded and got up to get a plate.
Plop, Aeongi lost his seat and moved to the sofa. The meal officially began.
“Wasn’t it next Wednesday that we were going to stay at the hotel and come back?”
I barely escaped from Kyunghwa’s grip and gulped down some cold water to calm myself.
“Hey. It’s a two-day trip. We’re going to eat and play all day with a vacation concept, so take care of yourself in advance.”
There was no need to nag me, since I had already finished the intense management because of the comeback.
“There’s an indoor pool and an open-air bath, right?”
“They said we’re only going to film in the indoor pool and the foot bath.”
That’s what the first draft of the script said.
We would start with a lunch buffet, then tour the indoor pool and various facilities, read fan letters we received during this comeback, and so on.
It was literally full of fun things, including the barbecue lounge party in the evening.
“I wish I could take Pposili and Aeongi with me.”
“Cats get stressed when they go to a new place, you know.”
Pposili might be possible if we requested a pet-friendly room.
But Aeongi and Pposili had become quite close, so we couldn’t leave Aeongi alone even if someone came to look after him.
‘I wish I had an electronic dog to keep him company.’
Anyway, that’s why I had to send him to another house for adoption. I brought a dog home in a hurry, so it was a long story.
“Come on, let’s hang in there for one more week!”
We all had the same thought. The song was also stable in the 30th place, so we could hope for a long run.
We could relax a little now that we were out of the threat of disbandment. We all decided to enjoy this peaceful time.
???-
Then, the phone that was on the table started ringing.
“Huh? It’s the manager hyung.”
Seon-woo said, checking the screen.
Yi-jun sighed and said.
“Hyung never has a day off. He was happy that he got out of the Floss support, but.”
It seemed like he always called when we were resting.
I agreed with Yi-jun’s words and answered the phone on speaker.
“Yes, hyung. What’s up on your day off?”
“Well, yeah. Sorry to bother you while you’re resting. It’s not anything else, but you know the group survival program I told you about last time.”
It sounded like he was talking about the competition program. Maybe Floss refused and we were the only ones going. Or maybe we couldn’t go either.
“Yes. What happened? You said Floss wasn’t going, right?”
“Um… Well…”
The manager had a bad habit of beating around the bush. I asked him impatiently.
“What are you saying?”
“Well… Floss and you guys both decided to appear.”
“What?”
“Huh? What’s that?”
What the hell was that? Why were they going there? Kyunghwa and Yi-jun exclaimed in shock.