It was obvious what the management of Gold 1's agency was thinking.

They were thinking, 'we wouldn't win first place either way even if there was impact'.

Anyway, no matter how good their song was, it would be hard for that group to get first place.

Even if they made a good impression with their debut song, the success was only within the reach of those who were interested in idols.

Male idols who were not from the big three companies had low public awareness.

It meant that there were far more people who didn't even try to listen to these guys' songs.

'That's why it's worth it for them trying to make a framework.'

It would have been beneficial for these guys to connect with TeStar somehow.

While emphasizing the fact that they had the same IdolCo status, they would put the effort to create a structure of being TeStar's challenging rival using the media play to have a similar composition as at the time of VTIC and TeStar's simultaneous activities.

It was a move worth going for even if they got some glares from TeStar's fans and were being kept in check. As there were many people, who wanted to put TeStar in trouble somehow, they would be supported on the contrary.

Of course, if they didn't perform well, they would end up being laughed at.

'...Seems like they're confident in their song.'

From the time of Choi Wongil's issue, their agency's skills have been excellent so far.

If only our company's higher-ups had been a bit more quick-witted, but judging from the experiences so far, let's be grateful for the present where we had an approval bot sitting there with idle expectations.

Bzzzt.

At that moment, my phone vibrated, and a notification pop-up appeared on the screen.

...Speaking of the devil, it was a message from Gold 1.

"..."

He was... a good guy.

Perhaps, even if he was vaguely aware of the situation, he probably thought that this wouldn't cause any damage to TeStar.

He would mostly feel grateful and embarrassed.

'It can't be ignored anyway.'

Right now, TeStar's social position was way superior to Gold 1. The moment one of TeStar's members showed any discomfort to Gold 1, that agency would elatedly quickly attach an image of 'suddenly being divided into classes and excluding people.'

'Well, should I just gloss over these promotions?'

After all, as this season went by, the other suitable group could take the opportunity while we would go to the winning picture. After raising the bar, we should show the taste of victory to make the narrative pretty.

Besides, to be honest... I was confident in TeStar's album this time.

'We made it well.'

It wasn't simply just about the level of completion, but I thought that the charm as an idol has also been sufficiently worked on.

First of all, as expected, the responses to the teaser that was released just now were extremely good.

'I think this is the high point of our career.'

I had a strong hunch.

I replied to Gold 1's message in the group chatroom, predicting the results of these promotions.

And a few days later.

I got to hear good news in the waiting room even before the first pre-recording of the music show.

"850.000 copies?"

"That's right! You guys did amazing!"

We already passed the first week's sales number of the previous album on the fourth day.

If I were to calculate the future sales volume based on inclination... there was a very high chance that the first week's sales could exceed 1 million.

'We're at tier 1.'

Now, we had really reached a level where we could be placed in the top four or five of the male idol groups in Korea.

It seemed that the member who also thought about it that far was Keun Sejin, but the rest of the guys were happy enough.

"Oh my god..."

"If I dare to guess, I think that overseas sales have increased! As the concept this time is very traditional, it would appeal to the existing K-pop fans' preferences..."

"The album is cool! That's why!"

They got quite excited and it turned into a collective monologue, but soon went in the direction of cheering.

"Let's do a great job on our comeback stage and show why our album is selling so well."

"Oooh!!"

"You said it extremely well~"

"I-I want to show our cool image...!"

They were full of enthusiasm. It was a good atmosphere to have right before going out on stage for recording.

"Ah! TeStar will show them something today!"

"Let's go!"

'That's almost become an official slogan.'

We shouted the slogan that didn't even feel embarrassing anymore as the frequency of using it increased, and we went up to the recording site.

Waaaaah!

I could hear the familiar shouts.

It was the pre-recording for a music show which felt like it had been a very long ago.

* * *

'This album isn't ordinary.'

Park Moondae's homepage master tried to calm herself down.

'What's with the overseas orders!'

It was a joyful scream.

And the indicator wasn't just the album sales.

After TeStar became quite a hot topic in the overseas K-pop community through the American talk show, the number of social media followers of Park Moondae's homepage master increased at a faster rate than usual.

And then, after this comeback started, the number of shares on Park Moondae's pictures almost doubled.

English subtitles were added to various TeStar content on WeTube, and the humorous video edits made by fans in English had a rise in views.

And above all...

'The music video views skyrocketed...'

It exceeded 10 million views in 26 hours.

Although it wasn't at the level of the first-class male idols of the same weight class in Korea, it was still encouraging.

Even through the word of mouth, the rate of increase in views was still considerable. At the same time, the number of views for the teaser was also increasing.

'I knew it.'

When the homepage master recalled the music video of this album's title song 'Present', her heart was filled with excitement.

'It's really the best.'

Although it was a pity that the center of the music video wasn't Park Moondae but Ryu Chungwoo, the music video itself came out very well.

'Ryu Chungwoo is going to rise up quite a bit this time??'

There was no need to compare rankings between individual members anymore, but like a habit, she had those thoughts as she prepared to cheer.

'They're coming soon!'

The light sticks with a tied long string printed with album cover patterns could be seen here and there.

It was a mini daenggi ribbon included as an album pre-order privilege to decorate your light stick.

//TN: Daenggi is a traditional hair ribbon that you can use to tie braided hair or can be used as an accessory with clothes.

Since the light stick looked like a pure magic wand, they seemed to come up with that accessory to make it correspond with the song when the fans were cheering. It was very pretty.

'It's cute and nice!'

However, the homepage master's moderately satisfied thoughts disappeared the moment TeStar stepped on stage.

TeStar was wearing a suit outfit with some elements of a hanbok pattern. And there were fabric ornaments tied to their wrist, necks, and earrings.

It was the same kind of daenggi ribbon that the fans hung on their light sticks.

"Uaaahhh!"

'Who is their stylist?!'

Thank you so much to that person.

Fortunately, instead of rushing straight to the performance, they lightly greeted the fans, whether or not they had time to spare or weren't ready for filming yet.

"Yeeaah!!!"

"Yes!!"

"I loved it!!"

TeStar, who came up on stage, took the time to appropriately talk. A year had passed so far, so compared to the beginning of their debut, they seemed much more proficient.

'He's really so cute...'

The homepage master muttered warmly and couldn't take her eyes off Park Moondae.

Just as it was already shown in the music video, Park Moondae's hairstyle has changed.

Thanks to her experience, she could hold back excessive screaming.

'It's been a long time since he had black hair...'

The homepage master was drunk on the nostalgic first memory of the press conference.

Park Moondae had black hair that was quite a bit longer than average. His hair wasn't long but the fact that his bangs were long enough to slide them to the side gave a subtle beautiful classic look.

'It's fantastic...!'

She swallowed all the silly comments and waved the light stick to Moondae who was waving his hand.

"It's good!!"

"I love it!!"

The homepage master couldn't stand it any longer and shouted loudly. Similar sounds came from all over the place.

Moondae, who had asked with an indifferent Tibetan fox-like face, smiled a little at the response.

'It's the best!!'

The homepage master wildly cried as she said that this was the exact reason why she would come to the studio.

But the highlight of the day has not even begun yet.

It was the performance.

After exchanging signals with the staff, TeStar quickly settled down after waving their hands to the fans.

The members gathered in a semicircle and crouched with their arms hanging down.

On the stage set consisting of pine trees and black and red fabrics, the performance began.

Tatadang, tangtangtang, tadadang-

The instrumentals, which began with the gong and the drums, started to play with a very modern composition with the sounds of modified Korean traditional instruments.

It was trap hip-hop.

At that moment, the choreography unfolded with their legs stretched out on the floor.

The choreography looked like four-legged animals moving.

The moment they went into a triangular formation with the strange movement, Cha Yujin jumped out after the prelude.

It was a song that maximized the rhythmic and grooviness of iconic K-pop idol dance songs.

However, because of the unique sound of Korean traditional musical instruments, a very peculiar sound was added to it.

The clear vocal melodies that went in from time to time were nice to listen to. Contrasted with the deliberately sharp rapping, the sound became ample.

Above all, no matter what part they did, there was no time to rest in the choreography.

'Shouldn't they fix that...?'

The homepage master reflexively thought while watching Seon Ahyun's part where everyone lay on the floor and bounced up.

But she soon forgot about it. Because it was a waste to even think about other things.

Ryu Chungwoo stood at the center of the formation which formed back into the shape of an arrow.

The tempo slowed down dramatically with the chorus. And the dauntingly static choreography suppressed the atmosphere.

Along with the beat drop, the instrumentals exploded.

Park Moondae's high notes and Kim Raebin's low rap overlapped.

Lee Sejin came forward from the side and nodded his head.

A dance break unfolded.

Thanks to the catchy beats of the melody that was generously put in, the song stuck well to your ears even during the parts with a dance break where only one word was occasionally spoken.

However, a flashier dance break caught the attention.

The choreography with moves within the formation, which seemed as if a huge beast was changing its posture, gave a strange feeling to the sound of sogeum flute and gayageum harp.

'This is crazy.'

Since the choreography was only seen in the music video, it was the first time for all the fans to experience the performance from beginning to end like this.

The energy was extremely powerful.

Even in the second half, there were difficult vocal techniques.

As soon as Park Moondae sang out a super high note at the bridge, the final dance break immediately followed.

'Aren't you taking a break, Moondae?!'

The homepage master who had never expected, that they would perform everything live until this point, was speechless with emotions and worries.

She was worried whether they would be able to keep performing this live in the future.

'I understand why this is a pre-recording!!'

Thinking that she realized why they decided to do a pre-recording for the title song instead of a sub-song, she looked at the stage with her mouth open.

However, they didn't make any mistakes until the end.

At the end of the explosive dance break, the choreography formation was organized as if it was rewinding and being sucked in.

Unlike the intro, which was like a four-legged beast, the ending was like a formal squad of soldiers.

The performance ended with Ryu Chungwoo at the center, slightly nodding his head in time with the sound of the taepyeongso wind instrument.

'I freaking love it!'

"Uwaaaahh!!"

It was the first time since TeStar's debut that a performance song was used as a title song. The fans were excited and cheered generously.

There were no disturbances in the recording that they did one more time, saying that it was a pity.

In particular, Ryu Chungwoo, who had good stamina, seemed more stable, perhaps because he was in charge of the intro and the ending of the chorus.

'I can understand why they gave him the center.'

Since the number of parts with Moondae was okay, she was able to nod her head without ill feelings.

After three shoots, TeStar finished the recording and left.

Perhaps because it was delayed in the beginning, there was no time for them to give ending comments since they had to step out quickly for the next team, but it was still enough.

Because the performance was good!

'Ah, this feels good!!'

Thinking that it would be nice if things continued like this, she put the honey cookie she received as a snack into her mouth as she left.

The honey tasted good!

If only Moondae's road ahead will always be like sucking on honey!!

* * *

The hunch came to happen.

'I couldn't suck on honey.'

I felt it the moment I heard the chorus of the title song of Gold 1's group that he sent asking, 'Please let me know how it feels'.

This song, it was much better than I thought.

//TN: Here are some of the fan-made (?) arrangements of the song I found

//TN: To explain the name of the title song. The Korean name of it is 'Haengcha' which means 'to journey' or 'to march' if it was roughly translated. To be specific, 'haengcha' is a march, visitation, or an arrival of a high-class person, like someone royalty or a higher position than you.

The title song's English name was 'Present' in the original version so I kept it as it is in the translation and tried to incorporate the word in the translation of the lyrics.

So, FYI, the song lyrics are not all literally translated but are my interpretation of the meaning. The same goes for all the past lyrics translations I've done.

//TN: I have also made some changes to the earlier chapters I translated since my Korean and grammar have obviously improved since then and there were a lot of inaccuracies. I also changed the names and such so that it would be more consistent with these later chapters.