"...I will recruit a new member."

"Ah!! Park Moondae has made his choice!"

At the MC's shout, the prize money text disappeared on the electronic display, and the text was enlarged.

The audience cheered and the judges happily waved their hands while having fun was shown on the display screen.

I gritted my teeth.

'Thirty-nine million won...'

It flew into air.

Still, it was an inevitable choice in the long run. The addition of one more member meant that the number of fans who liked the group increased. And this is usually multiplication, not addition. The amount of money you can earn will change. In the long run, it was an investment that could earn more than 5000.

The problem was what came next.

"Then, who is the last member chosen by Park Moondae?"

The display screen showed the remaining participants looking nervous again.

"The contestant I choose is..."

No matter who I choose, it's the perfect time to be antagonized by the fans of the eliminated contestants regardless of who I choose. So let's avoid it.

"The 7th place contestant chosen by the shareholders."

"Ah!"

The murmur of the people grew louder. Most seemed to be convinced or relieved.

'...The production team seem to be happy too.'

That's a little upsetting.

"Park Moondae participant who left the choices to the shareholders!"

The MC glanced at the prompter and worked hard, and soon the 7th place candidate appeared on the electronic display.

And the one who was shown...

"Congratulations! Participant Lee Sejin!"

I almost choked.

'Why did this go a bit worse?'

Perhaps because of his activities as a child actor, he was highly recognized by the public and he seemed to have benefited from the people who voted just in the last episode.

'...It can't be helped.'

There's no use in crying over spilt milk. I gave way to Lee Sejin, who staggered up to the podium.

"...Thank you."

Lee Sejin said a few words, barely squeezing out his feelings for the speech and then bowed his head. It was enough that the fans covered it up by saying that he couldn't think straight because he didn't expect it.

The MC guided Lee Sejin to the seats of debuting members. Lee Sejin brushed past me and softly mumbled.

"...Thank you."

I just nodded. I guess he must have really wanted to debut.

'I want to go in to sit too.'

My legs were about to cramp.

How long are they planning to keep this up?

However, the MC continued the process with me still standing next to him.

"Now there's only one thing left! It's the group name of the participants who will debut through !"

It was followed by an obvious explanation that the opinions of the shareholders were collected from the Internet.

And then a flashy logo appeared on the display screen.

A capital letter 'T' and a triangle that do not touch the top are cleverly merged, and a brilliant glitter effect splashed off the sides and top, and then sits down as a small diamond mark.

"The group name chosen by the shareholders... It's TeStar!"

"..."

The group name changed.

As far as I know, the name of the male idol group who was originally going to debut in this program was called 'STier'.

Looking at the website, I thought it would be the same this time as it was listed as an option with an explanation of 'Star + Tier' on the homepage.

Maybe it's because the members have changed quite a bit, including myself, and a different name came up.

Apparently, the group name was decided by a narrow margin last time.

'...Isn't STier better?'

Honestly, I didn't know that the group name would have the word 'star' that took up more than half of the group name.

I was a little confused but... Well, as long as the group name isn't too weird.

"The seven members of TeSTAR will receive a trophy with the group logo on it!"

Then Youngrin came up and handed me the trophy. It was only one trophy that symbolized a graph soaring into the sky.

'They made me stand here to do this.'

I guess it's over when I carry this and pass it to the other guys.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

After lightly shaking hands with Youngrin, the trophy was handed to me on a cushion.

Youngrin calmly looked at me and smiled.

"I wish you good luck to your future activities."

"Yes. Thank you."

I mumbled a series of thanks and then quickly walked towards the place where the other candidates who succeeded were standing.

They had already stood up from their seats, perhaps because they were drunk on the atmosphere.

"Woah!"

"You're giving me the trophy!?"

I handed the trophy to the guy in front of me without hesitation.

Then this time they all put their arms around each other's shoulders and started making a fuss around the trophy.

'My shoulders hurts.'

I felt pain around my back after being hit alternately by Cha Yujin and Keun Sejin. There is no place where I didn't feel numb from my shoulder to my feet, but thanks to adrenaline, my brain was lively.

I heard the MC's voice from a little distance.

"TeStar, congratulations on your debut!"

The fireworks for stage effect went off splendidly. I listened to the people's cheers, while sandwiched between the trophy and the other successful candidates.

And at that moment.

A status window pop-up appeared.

"...Really?"

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

It's done. Somehow I didn't feel it. Because I didn't know the purpose of the status window, I was suffering from the ominous prediction that the status abnormality might be extended by force somehow.

'I don't know if it would disappear so cleanly.'

I blankly turned off the status window. Then, in the remaining pop-up, the bottom line caught my eye. Where the reward is supposed to be written.

'...Wait a minute.'

What is this?

The truth?

I reflexively clicked on that phrase.

"Moondae-ya?"

In an instant, my vision blurred.

And then there was darkness.

* * *

A skinny high school student was lying on a mattress with an old smartphone. The mattress creaked with every movement.

A WeTube video was playing on the broken screen of the smartphone. The picture quality was poor because it was barely connected to the public Wi-Fi. However, thanks to the skillful filming of the person holding the camera, the charm of the singer on the screen still attracted attention.

'That was fun.'

A high school student Park Moondae looked sadly at the video screen that was turned around. The latest fancams posted on this account ended with the '2X0412 Lerodon Han River Festival' that he just saw.

This account, 'Gun1234', was the account that mainly uploaded fancams of singers and idols. In particular it uploaded mainly fancams of low-profile people and even that looked cool.

'It's like getting recognized.'

It felt like he was cheering for someone who didn't look like much, so it was nice somehow.

'I wish they could upload more often.'

There are not many things left that you can spend time happily on without spending money. It was the same with WeTube, where you can only watch videos with ads.

Even though he watched in low-definition on Wi-Fi, which was constantly cut off, there were few videos that he could watch with his heart pounding.

From what he heard, there is almost no revenue because all the revenue from fancam ads goes to the singers who have seen it.

Park Moondae, who was worried, scrolled down and wrote a comment

//TN: 'Keun dal' actually means 'big moon'

He knew that this account had never given any particular feedback to viewers so far. Even when Youngrin's fancam was a hit, there was no comment from them.

But just in case he was watching, Park Moondae made sure there were no spelling mistakes and pressed the write button.

It was a bit embarrassing because there were a few big comments.

He was thinking about writing a reply, but then stopped because he suddenly didn't want to do it.

'I don't even have anything to say...'

There was nothing to say when he tried to talk about himself.

A home, no, it was embarrassing to call the lonely place a home. There was nothing to say about daily life. When he thinks back on the last time he did anything ambitious, he remembers a time when everything was normal. When his parents were there. It feels like yesterday, but in fact, it has already been years.

And he seemed to have been stuck somewhere for years. Or maybe he's actually dreaming.

That's why the boy thought that he might as well be focusing on the videos uploaded by that account.

Seeing people singing and dancing passionately even when the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better was comforting, like a surrogate satisfaction.

'...Let's sleep.'

Tomorrow is probably Monday.

Park Moondae closed his eyes on the mattress and dreamed.

And time passed again. Unlike the surroundings that kept flowing, somehow Park Moondae himself did not change.

A terrible thing happened at school. He had to quit, so he did it. Even when he quit, it didn't change anything. Well, then shouldn't it be enough to stop living?

'Right.'

But he didn't really want to die. Park Moondae found a part-time job, but the job was cut short. And the video uploads of 'GUN123' was cut off.

'Why...?'

Park Moondae pondered, and eventually sent a note to the account information. It was the day he failed to find a new part-time job. Of course, there was no reply.

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

A game.

Park Moondae installed a mobile game. There was no money to buy a desktop or a game console.

But the old smartphone couldn't run mobile games properly and broke down after heating up terribly.

Somehow, Park Moondae felt very tired.

He has not done anything, so there shouldn't be a reason to feel tired.

'I'm tired.'

Tired of living.

Park Moondae cancelled the phone plan of the broken smartphone, and he didn't extent the lease for the old one-room apartment either.

He ate a decent meal after a long time. So the money left on hand was just the right amount. It meant that he could find a motel room and buy some sleeping pills and then it would end.

'Many people die in motels.'

The weather was so cold that he couldn't bear falling into water and drown or climb up the mountain. Because he would feel like giving up halfway through.

If he died in his room, it would have been left unattended for more than a month and rot.

'I'm sorry.'

Park Moondae got a room and apologized to the middle-aged man who owned it. And after he entered the room, he laid down on the bed and swallowed the sleeping pills.

Sleep came in like death.

After a while.

A person inhaled and woke up on a messy motel bed.

That person was me.

* * *

"Haah."

I exhaled.

"A-are you okay?"

Next to me someone tapped me on the back. When I turned my head, I saw Seon Ahyun's worried face.

"...I just, got tired for a moment."

I barely managed to vaguely answer and straightened up. It seems that time had hardly passed. Thanks to that, it only seemed like I had stumbled for a little while.

The atmosphere was still the same. Probably because other people didn't notice me since all the participants who succeeded were surrounded.

I broke in cold sweat. My mind was messed up.

The original owner of the video account that Park Moondae liked, 'GUN1234'.

'It's me.'

It was an account that I deleted when I started my civil servant life.