During the tedious waiting time for pre-recording of music shows, one of the VTIC members was scrolling through their phones and called out to Chungryeo.

What was shown on his phone was the ninth most popular WeTube video in real-time.

A WeTuber news content creator was excitedly talking about the showcase's water bottle incident and attaching their personal opinion.

"Isn't that him? From Idol Co."

"...Ah."

Chungryeo looked at the screen and remembered the ridiculous psychological test.

"Park Moondae."

Just then, the video showed a fancam with a vague quality (due to copyright issues). It was a clip where Park Moondae gently settled the situation.

"He seems really smart."

"I know."

"But it's kind of not working well for them. After all, they happen to be at the same time as us..."

Other members who were watching from the side also stepped in and clicked their tongues.

"It's not the first time for Tnet to do reckless things."

"Their indicators are good, but it must be sad not to get first place."

The slightly sympathetic tone was based on the confidence that they would win even in the second week.

In fact, it was inevitable.

It was the daily ranking of the largest music site in Korea.

Since the music chart was organized in a way that the real-time numbers were not visible, it was impossible to break through the existing rankings and immediately top the charts without a lot of effort.

'No matter how fast they grow, it takes at least a week.'

The same could be said with TeStar's music, which will be released at midnight.

TeStar could only expect to win first place on a music show if their album sales would surpass VTIC's second week's triple score. Unfortunately, the initial album sale period overlapped with VTIC for about a day.

They were meant to lose unless TeStar's side sets a record crazy enough to exceed all expectations.

Of course, it was also absurd to mention that a new male idol group would take the number one spot on the music chart no matter how well they did in the audition show.

"Ah~ Forget this! If we have time to worry about our hoobaes, then let's just do our best!"

"That's right!"

VTIC members quickly returned to their own respective interests.

But Chungryeo rested his chin on his hand and thought.

'...We could lose though.'

* * *

The debut showcase ended successfully in a frenzied atmosphere.

However, there was no special after-party.

"We just debuted, so we can't come out on TV looking like a dumpling bun. This isn't a big deal~"

"Dumpling buns are delicious!"

"Your face should be good-looking, so you shouldn't become chubby just because you want to eat it."

"Aha!"

Cha Yujin was immediately convinced. I admired Keun Sejin's amazing communication skills for a while, but then the topic of conversation came up again.

"Still, Moondae's achievement is the real after-party."

"Th-that's right!"

"You were great."

"...Yes. Thank you."

"Haha, he's getting shy."

"..."

I have been listening to the phrase 'Park Moondae's quickness is the best in the world' ever since the showcase ended.

Now, I'm more uncomfortable than embarrassed. Especially since Keun Sejin, who has been doing it on purpose to make me more embarrassed, was starting to slightly piss me off.

"You all worked hard. Let's... rest for a while."

"Yay!"

"Finally."

Anyway, we received a short break instead of an after-party. At Ryu Chungwoo's words, the members scattered to the dormitory, showing various reactions from relief to joy.

I went to sleep. Lee Sejin, who shares the same room also went to sleep and the quality of our sleep improved.

'I miss the ability of not having to sleep.'

However, the reality show cameras were still running. Because of this, we had to gather in the living room again after a short personal time.

"Everyone seems to have had a good rest."

"Hehe."

Cha Yujin, who obviously had his face stuffed with snacks, laughed.

And we all looked at Ryu Chungwoo's smartphone together.

"I'm excited because it's already the release date."

"I-I'm nervous..."

This is because the debut album will be released at midnight.

We're not looking on our own phones, but all watching on one phone together... Well, it's probably to make the picture seem cozy.

"Oh! It passed!"

The time on the smartphone soon changed.

"D-did the song appear?"

"Can you see it now?"

Kim Raebin stiffly explained.

"It takes an hour or more for the scores to be accumulated before it shows up on the 24Hits chart."

"An hour..."

Lee Sejin disappeared into the kitchen with a sigh. Seems like he went to get some water.

'...There's a high probability that it won't show up even after an hour.'

This is because we have to compete with a song, whose score has only been counted for an hour, among the other pieces that have been counted for twenty-four hours.

Even VTIC had only ranked 87th in the 24-hour chart after one hour.

It seems that Kim Raebin was going to explain that fact further but then he made eye contact with me and soon closed his mouth.

"...?"

It would have been fine for him to explain this time, though?

Keun Sejin said with a smile as if trying to offset the tense atmosphere.

"Then...how about we watch the music video of 'Magical Boy' first?"

"Ah."

Right. We haven't seen that yet.

We had just returned to our dorm and received a break so we barely had time to think about it.

'The reality show staff asked us to film a lot of reactions for this too.'

"That's a good idea."

"Let's watch it on the big one!"

Cha Yujin quickly grabbed the remote control and changed the TV screen to Wetube.

There was no need to search since the music video was on top of the real-time list.

"Yeah!"

"Uwah."

The members looked at the screen as if they couldn't feel it and finally came to their senses.

"Oh. Moondae's on the thumbnail."

"I-it came out well."

The thumbnail showed Park Moondae looking back in front of the classroom window.

Behind the white curtain, the sky coloured in scarlet and purple shone with a backlight.

'Is this the 1st place treatment?'

I looked at the thumbnail nervously, then operated the remote control that Cha Yujin was holding and pressed the play button.

"Oh."

The music video for 'Magical Boy' was played against the background of Cha Yujin's bewildered voice.

The video started with a thumbnail screen.

Meanwhile, Park Moondae was looking out the window at the sunset.

The moment he looked back and made eye contact with the camera.

The song started.

The scene changed.

The old and run-down campus was clearly exposed under the midday sun, and suddenly purple and shiny bubbles poured out.

And in the common everyday places of the school, the images of the members performing unusual actions passed by each part.

Cha Yujin was alone in the rundown classroom and sitting by the table.

He lined up the animal-shaped clockwork doll around the corner and turned the clockwork. Due to the shadows and lighting, the doll looked like a small creature.

Seon Ahyun, who was sitting on the infirmary bed, ripped the pillowcase. Things like shiny dandelion fluff flew out instead of cotton and sparkled in the air around the bed.

Ryu Chungwoo shot at the flower bed with a toy gun. Instead of bb marbles or water, rays of light burst out and blue petals soared.

And a camera zoom unfolds on the rooftop with a purple sunset.

The interlude that came out after the chorus was split into more beats, and following that was a colourful dance break.

The cross-edited midday rooftop scene deepened the subtlety of the purple background.

"Everyone worked hard with the new makeup."

"That's right! Everyone, if you look closely... There's a difference in the outfit and makeup taken in the sunset!"

Keun Sejin explained to the camera.

It was true.

While filming with the daytime in the background we had a more natural look and during the sunset scene, our makeup had glitter and blush under the eyes. Our outfit also had more accessories.

'Everyone must have felt like dying filming it all in a day.'

Fortunately, with everyone's hard work paying off, the scene came out well.

And then came the second verse.

After the strange hypnotizing finger movements were over, Kim Raebin came out from behind.

He rapped to the melody with a slow and complex rhythm.

Intersecting in the hallway was Kim Raebin, who was sitting on a pile of broken cabinets while throwing around an icepick.

"Oh!"

"Your voice is good."

"...Thank you."

Kim Raebin replied while feeling a bit shy, but he couldn't hide the fact that he was proud of himself.

"But why did you choose such a scary thing like an icepick, Raebin?"

"...Because it's cute...?"

"...?"

Keun Sejin closed his mouth to the answer that was beyond his imagination. Instead, I happily responded to him.

"Let's just say so."

"Sure. It's cute, Raebin-ah."

After confirming that the music video turned out well, the reactions became more comfortable out of relief.

In the next scene, Lee Sejin was the last one to appear.

Lee Sejin was standing inside the school building, looking at the front entrance. The school grounds could be seen through the glass door.

And the flowing bridge before the last chorus.

The sound of the riff melody, the music box, was lowered in tone and the vocal melody followed the same way.

Lee Sejin broke the glass door.

At that moment, the sound of a film rolling could be heard and the scene slowly rotated.

With a strange whisper passing by, the tape seemed to be turned back and a scene without music was inserted.

Park Moondae walked into the campus from outside the school.

After a moment, he stopped in front of the school's front door and reached out both of his hands to grab the handle. And then.

Clack.

He put a lock on it.

...Click.

As the film rotated, the choreography and the last chorus broke out.

All of a sudden, the rooftop area where the choreography took place turned into an unrealistic space.

The railing surrounding the rooftop broke forming transparent crystals and distorting the light like a prism.

The choreography became more complex and the contortion became stronger as the light seemed to disturb the background.

The last part of the choreography. The members naturally changed the formation to a circle. The song ended as soon as they laid their heads together on the rooftop.

Puff.

Purple bubbles burst out.

And then the black screen appears.

While the slow-arranged instrumental version of 'Magical Boy' was flowing, a classic ending credit rolled out like a short film

Only then did the members start talking again.

"Woah!"

"Didn't it turn out really well?"

"Thank you, director."

"I-I think it came out great..."

It became a strange situation in which no one spoke by the books at the same time.

But no one cared and chatted happily.

"It's very um, it's fun that it came out meaningfully."

"I think our fans will have fun looking for various details."

"Ah, we liked it, so I hope the fans like it too~"

The atmosphere became so warmly affectionate that it couldn't become any warmer than that.

'It was a good start, so we're just excited.'

Thanks to this, we weren't uncomfortably nervous to check the music charts.

And the results.

"Wow! We entered it!"

We were ranked 85th and 88th.

'..One song is ranked slightly higher than VTIC's did.'

The popularity of the audition program, which was a nationwide hit, was more than just an open thought.

'This is crazy.'

However, the members were just happy, perhaps because there are more people who are used to saying things like 'No.1 in real-time'.

Even if you know it in your head, what you can see right now is the top 80.

So a more intense reaction erupted next.

"All, all of our songs..."

"Gasp!"

On other music sites where real-time charts are still alive, both TeStar's title songs took first and second places side by side.

Even all four songs released on the album were included in the top 7.

Of course, after a while, VTIC will overtake it again. Still, this was crazy.

The members, who realized it only then, continued to look at the smartphone screen in shock.

"Let's- let's take a screenshot."

"That's a good idea."

This was a good signal to the beginning of our promotions when we haven't even appeared on the music show yet.