The logic of the comments claiming that TeStar should not be given the Rookie of the Year award had become more sophisticated than before.

This was because the focus had shifted to rookie idols and not TeStar itself.

//TN: Sajaegi = Bulk buying their own albums or items to manipulate chart rankings

'It's well put together.'

It looked like they didn't want to give a symbolic rookie of the year award since they couldn't really hold on to the group's results.

Through this, if we really didn't get the Rookie of the Year Award, based on that, they could also use it on the reverse by saying 'If it was really bad, you wouldn't receive the Rookie of the Year award'.

But that won't happen.

Even if they talked about it here, it wouldn't affect the actual award score-counting criteria.

'Well, it's not like there's negative voting like in IdolCo.'

In any case, the main public opinion was already established, so there was a low chance that there would be problems with the judges' scores.

It was possible that some communities would swear at us and not congratulate us for inevitably winning the Rookie of the year award... but it didn't seem like there would be any problems with winning the award right away.

Right now, this article was pushed back as time went by.

There were quite a few comments like that.

'Let's practice for the year-end award performance.'

I stopped monitoring for now. It was to avoid being unnecessarily influenced.

'...I hope the fans don't get too stressed out.'

For now, communication activities such as social media were suspended, so it was difficult to do anything.

Honestly, if you overdid it, you could turn the controversy around by writing things like, 'Then who do you think should get the rookie award instead of the TeStar?'

Then, if Park Moondae gets entangled in this, it would really be a scandal.

'I must do the performance properly.'

In the end, my thoughts returned to the practice. I accepted the conclusion with a sigh.

"One more time."

"Yes."

And soon after, the other guys became especially resolute about the practice.

'They all saw it.'

It looked like the articles inciting the controversy had spread quite a bit. I think I saw what the fans were lamenting about.

Thanks to this, the vigor to show something was almost the same as during IdolCo's team battles.

Ryu Chungwoo, who was on the verge of collapsing, muttered as if trying to grasp all the facts he already knew.

"Was the one we're practicing now... for SBC?"

"That's right."

Hearing Kim Raebin's answer, Bae Sejin muttered with a pale face.

"...I think this one is the hardest."

"That's right! It's fun!"

"..."

Bae Sejin looked at the cheerful Cha Yujin, looking like he wanted to hit him at least once.

Ryu Chungwoo smiled and sorted out the situation.

"Yes. Let's work hard and have fun showing the performance to everyone."

Perhaps because the agency was conscious of any additional controversies, the practice time increased a little thanks to a slight decrease in the external schedule in November.

So the end of the year award ceremony season came only after the preparations for various awards ceremonies were completed.

The first awards ceremony was ToneA.

* * *

ToneA. It was the largest global music award in Asia hosted by T1.

What this meant was that this was an award ceremony hosted by the parent company that was going to support TeStar with all their hearts.

Of course, TeStar won the prize according to the scores.

"The winner is... TeStar! Congratulations!"

I've heard this 4 times today alone.

We won the Excellence Award, Popularity Award, and even the Music Video Award.

And of course... we also won the Rookie of the Year Award.

"Thank you so much! We will think of this as an award given to us so that we won't forget our initial motivations in the future. We will be more careful and work even harder."

Keun Sejin deliberately gave the acceptance speech for the Rookie of the Year award. It was a matter discussed with Ryu Chungwoo.

As for the content, we talked to the company and finished it well in a way that would not cause controversy, so we would only get sworn at to some degree.

...But, as expected, the status abnormality was not resolved.

'Not that I expected it.'

Anyone who watched it would know that even if Tone A was the largest music award ceremony in Asia, it had no authority.

In any case, the members seem to be quite relieved after the first award ceremony ended safely.

"Thank you for your hard work~"

However, even when we won the award, it seemed that the sense of relief that we 'made it' was greater than joy.

'The feelings must have unraveled because of everything we've been through.'

It wouldn't feel very good to miss this timing when these guys could feel the most rewarding of their hard work of the past year.

"Guys, you've all worked hard."

"Hehe."

"I'm g-glad it ended well."

"Excluding other variables, I think we performed as well as we prepared for it."

There was a moment of silence at Kim Raebin's words.

'...We really worked hard.'

The performance here lasted for about 8 minutes.

Tnet wanted us to show off the fact that 'TeStar had released so many hit songs', so we bundled four songs into a medley.

Thanks to that, practicing it was relatively easy since there were only a few additional dance movements. The issue was that we had to find a respirator to breathe after coming off the stage since there were no parts in the middle of the performance where we could take a break.

Still, I think we did it well without any mistakes, but the problem was... the camerawork.

I only monitored the second half of the performances, but I had no idea what they were trying to capture.

What was even worse was that the screen was so dark that I couldn't focus on what I was watching.

'I'm pissed off.'

The data sellers were good, so I hoped that some of them filmed it well with a set camera. I would have to look it up later on WeTube.

"...Umm, it must have been delivered well to those who were at the scene."

"The cheers were good~"

First of all, everyone was evasive since we couldn't complain about the camera in the backstage hallway.

I could put up with the disappointment since there were still a lot of performances that we had prepared more carefully.

'Let's pick up my smartphone from the waiting room.'

I wanted to see if there were any other problems that popped up. I thought that it would probably end with just some swearing at one or two popular posts.

And as I got back to the waiting room, I saw a completely unexpected and unwelcome face.

"Hello."

"Oh! Sunbae-nim!"

"Hello!"

...It was Chungryeo.

'The grand prize winner was standing in front of a waiting room of a rookie group?'

It was like he was demonstrating this for everyone interested to see.

'Is he trying to make it impossible for me to avoid him?'

Anyway, the members, bewildered by the unimaginable situation, bowed their heads and poured out words of congratulations.

"Congratulations on winning the grand prize twice, sunbae-nim!"

"Congratulations!"

"Ah, thank you."

Chungryeo received the greetings with a smile. Kim Raebin asked with his eyes glimmering.

"What brought you to our waiting room?"

"I wanted to congratulate and see the faces of my hoobaes."

Chungryeo met my eyes.

"Congratulations on the Rookie of the Year award. Although, I don't think it meant much."

"...!"

"What?"

Chungryeo awkwardly added to Kim Raebin who was a little dumbfounded.

"I meant that since you won four awards, you are already too good to be considered rookies. I look forward to your future activities."

"Ah, thank you!"

"Then, I'll get going now that I've seen your face. Since I have a schedule."

"Yes, I hope it will go well!"

Chungryeo smiled and nodded his head slightly.

"Keep up the good work."

Then he walked down the hallway and disappeared.

I clicked my tongue in my mind.

'...He totally figured out that it was about the Rookie of the Year award.'

It was clear that he had similar conditions. Since he even threw out that ToneA's Rookie of the Year award was meaningless.

'This is unpleasant.'

This left a bad aftertaste since the information seemed to have passed to him one-sidedly without me gaining anything in return.

'I could have made a deal with the list of status abnormalities he went through.'

As I was making guesses, the other guys next to me started talking.

"Oh~ Moondae, did you make connections through variety shows?"

"A-are you... close?"

I almost stumbled on Seon Ahyun's question.

"...We just got acquainted."

"The-then can you ask something for me...!"

The last one speaking wasn't Seon Ahyun but Kim Raebin who intervened in the conversation. It seems that he stuttered because of excessive excitement.

'Come to think of it, this guy mentions VTIC quite often.'

Assuming that he was a fan, Kim Raebin, who soon came to his sense, earnestly said with a serious face.

"I'm really curious about the song arrangement program that VTIC sunbae-nim used for the title song of the last album."

"..."

I guess he was more interested in the contents than the person himself.

//TN: The original was 'He was more interested in the food offering than the ancestral ceremony' which basically means what I translated it as.

"I'll ask if I get the chance."

"Thank you!"

Kim Raebin was happy, not catching the meaning that the opportunity would probably never come. Well, I was glad that at least one person had fun.

'Let's check the viewers' reactions.'

In the car on the way back to the practice room, I lightly browsed social media and the community page.

Still, public opinion had not deteriorated, and there were more congratulatory opinions than sarcastic ones.

'...The fans are holding back.'

In order to not give room to the provoking comments, the fans tried to ignore them and gently push away those comments with congratulations.

This was because, in the end, the group with the most distinct status would lose if they got into an emotional fight.

Of course, their condemnation continued in personal social media accounts.

//TN: RCW = Ryu Chungwoo, IC = IdolCo. ...took me a while to decode what those initials stood for in hangeul.

From fans of the whole group to the spiteful fans of individual members, everyone was complaining out of exhaustion.

I started to feel indebted.

'...I wish I could tell them that I don't need to receive the award.'

It was bitter to have my mouth wiped for me in order to avoid sudden death.

'Still, it doesn't look like I'm going to die.'

The fortunate thing was that it didn't fall behind in public opinion, so it seemed like things were going to go up and down like this even in the future, and fade away at the end of the awards ceremony.

'Even in ToneA, we only took the award parts that were deserved.'

I was a little worried that we would take more awards but it ended at a sensible line.

Criticism didn't rise to the surface since the amount of it was just to the degree that anyone could take care of at a friendly awards ceremony.

'It's a shame that there wasn't much to gain from this performance.'

It seemed that waiting for the fancam would solve this to some extent. We still had the next performances left.

'It didn't work out but things like this can happen.'

When things calmed down a little, I should post something that would relieve the fans' stress.

I cleared my thoughts and turned off my phone.

No, I was about it turn it off but... I saw a title of a post that was registered as the latest popular post on the community site.

"..."

I clicked on the title right away.

Then, image postings in the form of card news appeared.

'Fuck.'

These bastards really got into work.

* * *

Chungryeo was looking down at his smartphone. There was a certain popular post that created a mess about the Rookie of the Year award.

"I'm curious."

"...Yes? About what?"

Chungryeo didn't respond to the member's remarks. He just opened his social media account on the screen.

'What will happen?'

Chungryeo uploaded several photos on social media that were taken today, adding some comments.

And in the meantime, he picked a picture and added it like it wasn't a big deal.

And he pressed upload.

The fuse was lit.