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Seon AhHyun didn't stutter.

—...

He spoke slowly and paused a few times to rest and take a deep breath. There were also a few times where he dragged the pronunciation of a word to connect it to another sentence, but he never stuttered.

Behind AhHyun, who finished the last sentence of his speech safely, the members exclaimed to raise the emotional atmosphere.

But it wasn't necessary. Fans were in a whirlwind of shock and excitement.

—AAAAAH!!

—Well done!! Great!

—Oh God!! AAAAAH!!

Even those who watched the live broadcast could hear the cheers from the audience echoing from TeSTAR's microphones.

Oh hahahahaha I can hear the fans just fine hahahaha

Ahhyun fans will be breathless from yelling so much

Hahaha, I'll tell you a secret: I'm touched

L You're not the only one hahahaha ㅠㅠ

L Hahahaha, will it be an effect felt by all the shareholders?

Seon AhHyun, you were so cool ㅠㅠ

It's amazing, I don't think it was easy to achieve

Congratulations, Star. Of course they deserve it!

In this way, TeSTAR won and they were verified by the public.

Unlike at the end of last year, this time the boys did not receive any ridicule or negative criticism from people.

* * *

After receiving the award, we returned to our seats giving words of praise to AhHyun.

—AhHyun, congratulations on achieving your goal!

—Congratulations!

Hearing them, her face flushed red.

—T-thank you…

Yes, he deserves to be congratulated because he has been striving for a long time to achieve it.

“He practiced… about a month and a half.”

AhHyun started treating his stutter just as we were terribly busy with rehearsals for the year-end ceremonies performances.

Since it was the beginning stage of her therapy, he was told to make a short-term goal of doing a little dialogue that wasn't hard to pull off, but AhHyun got it differently and his goal was to give a thank you speech at some award ceremony. without stuttering.

So we hear him mutter that speech all day, whether in the apartment, the practice room, or the car.

“...Even our managers memorized the speech after listening to it often for a week.”

And it didn't take long for all of us to treat his mumbling as semi-asleep ASMR.

Regardless, it's definitely impressive that he succeeded after patiently practicing for a long period of time.

"Now that he's done it, he'll continue to do it with greater self-confidence."

It would be good for the group if the possibility of AhHyun's status abnormality being activated again disappeared.

I also gave him a compliment.

—I told you there would be no problem if you couldn't deliver your speech as practiced, but there was no need for me to tell you that. It went very well for you.

—...!! I-it wasn't like that… There were parts where I-it took me a long time to catch my breath. I'll do well next time...!

—...

No… he did well. Why is he giving me excuses?

But before he could correct him, he struck back first.

—T-thank you for insisting… that I go for a consultation…

Well, that was something to be thankful for. I nodded my head.

—No problem.

—Oh, that's so comforting.

—The atmosphere of our group is really good.

The controversy disappeared and we were able to win the “Rookie of the Year” award. With no more worries, we go smiling at the seats reserved for all the singers.

However, my mood was ruined as we approached the seats.

Next to our designated seats was VTIC.

"Why would they put a rookie group by their side?"

Therefore, every time we moved from our seats, we had to bow our heads as a respectful greeting to the seniors, but it was fine.

—Congratulations~

—Thank you!

The problem is that every time he greeted them, CheongRyu smiled and stared at me.

"Shit."

Anyone who sees him will think that he is smiling happily.

This is because he has been pretty good at handling his social media posts that sparked controversy over the “Rookie of the Year” award.

Every time he appeared on a year-end show, he would upload a lot of photos on social media of him, and add a phrase similar to the one he put on his first post and related to supporting Onyx.

In other words, it was a smokescreen..

NT: "Smokescreen" is a set of facts or circumstances with which it is intended to hide reality and divert people's attention.

Thanks to his constant posts, in the end, fans believed that the Onyx case was a simple coincidence and soon forgot about it.

… I'll just say that the comments that said “It's weird, I thought he was close to Park MoonDae~”, were the most annoying.

—...

After greeting them, I slowly walked over and sat on the chair farthest from them. It's not something very significant, I just did it to feel a little better.

Shortly after, the first part ended and a few minutes of advertising commercials began.

And an advertisement appeared on the electronic screen.

—Waaaah!

—No, please…

Seeing their dark story (currently ongoing), the members cried out and leaned their heads against the table. The terrifying Russian roulette was back.

The victim this time was Bae Sejin.

Her performance with the CG of hamster ears on his head made his image look very natural, but his current reaction made it totally erase that pretty image.

—...I-I'll go to the bathroom.

He stumbled up from her seat with a flushed face and ran in a hurry.

We laugh and feel sympathy at the same time.

—Hahahahahaha!!

—It's alright, Sejin-ah. Kujujuju!

There were all kinds of reactions, from those who clapped their hands to those who laughed so hard they doubled over and put their heads on their knees.

"As long as it's not me, it's fine."

The moment I brought the water bottle to my mouth, someone sat on Bae Sejin's seat and asked me.

—Have you made a commercial for each member? It's fun.

—Pujuk.

Water almost came out of my nose.

"Shit."

It was CheongRyu.

My companions, who used to laugh, were surprised to see him and greeted him.

—Hello!

—Yes, hello. I'll talk to MoonDae for a moment.

—Okay!

If you feel uncomfortable too, make it obvious, you bastards.

However, there was no one to do that because Bae Sejin wasn't here. Damn.

By the way, Keun SeJin seemed almost certain that CheongRyu intentionally uploaded that content on his social media, but now he was smiling and nodding.

In fact, it was fine for him to do that.

"There are cameras installed near the seats."

Also, someone from the audience must also be recording at this time.

Whether they are fans of VTIC members or TeSTAR, the current situation will definitely be caught by at least twenty cameras.

"I must look calm."

It doesn't matter if we speak here, as the music and cheers from the audience are so loud that I don't think my classmates will hear our conversation unless I deliberately speak loudly.

—What do you want to talk about?

—I told you in the last call we had… Don't you remember?

Oh, I guess he means that he didn't upload content to his social media account with bad intentions.

In short, he wants to give me a long explanation of "I didn't mean to tell you to fuck off."

If he says something like that, I want to cut off his explanation by saying “Oh, I see. I understand”, but there is a problem.

—...I'll explain everything to you within the duration of the commercials.

—Oh, it's fine. I hear you.

CheongRyu smiled and nodded.

—You should die right now.

—...

—At first, it was difficult for me to make that decision even though I thought about it carefully for a long time. I was reluctant to start over.

CheongRyu hit the table.

—But once you do, you realize it wasn't a big deal. From that moment on, everything will be easier for you.

—...

—...

I finally found out the reason why he is crazier than I had imagined.

"Wow, he's not kidding."

I went back to my water bottle and took a drink.

The palms of my hands were sweaty.

—There must be something you didn't achieve and you feel sorry for, right? Come back and fix it. When you do, you will no longer feel pressured…instead, you will have a sense of accomplishment.

—Wait.

I put down the water bottle.

—So it's true that you were trying to make us fail to get the “Rookie of the Year” so that I would die once and for all.

—Do you think I did that so you wouldn't get that award? It's not like that... I just did it to tease you.

CheongRyu kindly added an explanation.

—The public opinion of your group was not good at all and the situation you were in was very bad, so I thought you might want to start all over again.

—...So, you tried to help me move forward by lowering my resistance to dying?

—Yes.

—Hmm, don't lie.

—... What?

—Whether or not it facilitates my progress, it has nothing to do with sunbae-nim, so there is no reason for it to "help" me.

—...!

Just because I have a very favorable relationship with this guy, it doesn't mean that he acts with altruistic intentions without getting a benefit in return.

He was going to listen to everything he wanted to say to me, but at this point I couldn't predict what kind of crap he would say anymore, so I cut him off.

CheongRyu's face paled slightly.

—Well, based on my own experiences, I thought you'd consider choosing that option.

—...

—I didn't mean to affect my hoobaes… I was just curious.

CheongRyu slightly bowed his neck.

—I wanted to know if I would also restart in case you died.

—...!

—That's right. No need to go back in time to the date I was going back to... It's okay to go back to the point you came back to. There are some things that happened in the first half of this year that I would like to fix.

This bastard is completely insane.

He has reboot syndrome.

—Oh, of course, I'm not insisting that you go back to start all over again... But it would definitely be nice to experience it and know what to choose knowing in advance everything that will happen next, or am I wrong?

—Hang for a minute.

I started to think that if I say or do something wrong, this bastard will cause a scandal in VTIC after burying me.

NT: He means that CheongRyu will kill him, but since he cannot go back in time, even though he tries to hide his body and the evidence, at some point a scandal will be discovered and will seriously affect VTIC for become a murderer.

"It makes me too angry."

…I didn't want to say this, but I think if I do, it will be less risky.

For now… I think he's still reasoning, so I'll tell him as logically as possible.

—...First of all, if I ever fail, it will be the end of me.

—...Hmm?

—I have that feeling, that's why I think everything will end when I die.

I couldn't tell him about the status window, so I confronted him by claiming my senses, though it's true.

"My status abnormality has 'death' as ​​a condition."

It doesn't have any terms related to "regression" as its status abnormality...

“That indicates that I only have one chance or it will be the end of me.”

And even if it were possible to return, I wouldn't risk it. It's good for my mental stability to think that death is the end.

But CheongRyu laughed out loud.

—Ah, at first it seems that way, but maybe it's not. Don't be afraid and try it.

This damn dog...

Enraged, I replied.

—No. I don't want to start over, I want to continue until the end. I like my group members and also my fans. There is nothing I want to change.

—...

CheongRyu fell silent and stared blankly into the air.

"...Did I go too far?"

Don't tell me out of nowhere he's going to pull out a hammer to break my crock pot.

NT: The denotative meaning of “뚝배기” is “clay pot”, but the connotative meaning is “head”. “Break my clay pot” is a slang expression that means someone wants or is going to kill you.

But he soon nodded.

—...I guess I don't either.

—...

—Hmm, okay. So that's it.

Did what I said work?

I was about to release my tension, but I held it. He could use any moment to stab me in the back.

However, CheongRyu had a slightly sad expression on his face.

—I'm sorry, I think I gave you a hard time.

—...It's okay. The next time you want to do something, ask me first.

—Yes. Ah, so should I tell you something to make you feel better…? Hmm, if so...

—...?

—I will tell you the criteria for choosing the winner of the "Rookie of the Year" award.

He laughed a little.

—HanDaeEum's “Rookie of the Year”

—...!

Han Dae Eum?

That “HanDaeEum”?

…It's the “Korean Popular Music Award”... where only musicality is judged, not commerciality.

NT: HanDaeEum is the (unofficial) short way of pronouncing the full Korean name of the Korean Music Awards (KMA, even though its Korean name is “Korean Popular Music Awards” (hangugdaejung-eum-agsang)). For legal reasons, Baek DeokSoo-nim has changed the last term a bit, making the name very similar so as not to forget the reference.

As far as I know, no idol has won the “Rookie of the Year” award there…

Wait, that means even this bastard couldn't win it.

—Haha! I'm kidding.

—...

Someday… when I no longer have my status abnormality, I'll punch this fucking bastard in the face with the trophy TeSTAR won today.

Fortunately, before my patience ran out, CheongRyu provided me with correct information.

—The most important thing after receiving the "Rookie of the Year" award, is to maintain public opinion.

—...!

—You managed to win the award you deserved, so you must take care that this reaction remains firm in public opinion in order to move forward. Of course, that will ensure that they will win more prizes at most music ceremonies.

…That's true.

"That means that 'Winning the Rookie of the Year award at the most prestigious ceremony' means that we have the full approval of public opinion."

That was understandable.

Somehow, the award we won at the “Gold Disc Awards” today didn't bring up the pop-up window indicating that I've overcome the status abnormality. Well, I don't think it's going to show up until February.

And the moment I came to that conclusion, Bae Sejin, who had sneaked into the bathroom earlier, came back.

—...! Excuse me…

—Oh, sorry, I'll be gone. MoonDae-ya, I'll call you back later.

—...

I didn't want to give him an affirmative answer, but I nodded my head in consideration of the cameras that were filming us.

CheongRyu greeted TeSTAR again and retired to his seat.

Sejin looked at him with a slightly gloomy face and then sat down on his seat looking somewhat uncomfortable.

—... Are you friends with that person?

For a moment I wondered why he hadn't called him “senior”, but then I realized that Sejin had debuted as an actor fourteen years ago.

I answered him seriously.

—No. We were talking about a job.

—...Job?

—Oh, that's MoonDae's social life~

Maybe I spoke too loud because Keun SeJin laughed when he heard me. He probably guessed that CheongRyu apologized for his posting on his social media account.

But Sejin whispered to me with a slightly serious expression.

—If he's bothering you, tell me.

—...

Maybe Sejin is thinking about his years of experience as a child actor and he thinks that he is a senior and has more power in the industry, but… Wait, I think he is right in a way.

Anyway, it was an impossible problem to explain, so I vaguely nodded my head.

—If he does, I'll tell you. Thank you very much.

—...You are welcome.

On that day, TeSTAR received the Bonsang from him, performed well on stage without making a mistake, and returned home.

By the way, the one who took the Daesang was VTIC.

…I hope they continue to win Daesang until the day my status abnormality completely disappears.

If not, a madman who believes in regression would be able to attack me in the middle of the night.

* * *

And the day after the Gold Disc Awards, even though I had been preparing mentally, we received some unwanted news.

Did he start working today?

The new General Director of our agency had been appointed.

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didn't I already sprinkled him holy water so that he'll stay away from Moondae-ya?! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ just kidding. Something bad will really happen to our Moondae. Oops, did i just- anyways, ig this is the start of the flag. The moment he stated regression, it appears to me that he'll do something very bad to our Moondae-ya.