TMMIB!

50

– Chunyong, are you okay? Feeling really bad?

“Ah! Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

“Oh! oh. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s no big deal.”

Surprised by X’s unusually concerned messages, I couldn’t help but snort. Less hate than before? As in less hate comments?

I quickly reassured my worried roommates outside and replied to X with a hollow laugh.

– Kim Chunyong: Even if I’m lying on the ground during the survival stage and rolling around saying I can’t do it anymore, I won’t get as much hate as before;;

What do they take the notorious malicious member of the past for?

When I think of the atrocities I committed before, I can’t even count them on my fingers.

Dating rumors, alcohol, conflicts with members and agency, getting banned from variety shows due to clashes with the directors, vomiting on stage, being found passed out drunk in front of the broadcasting station, and ultimately, even facing an emergency arrest.

…All of which I regret.

“Kim Chunyong, you crazy bastard, why did you really….”

Just as I was once again consumed by guilt, the first teaser of <Targeting Star> was finally released to the world.

* * *

At a bustling art academy district right after school, especially crowded with students preparing for art college entrance exams.

“Nari, have you seen this?”

Kim Nari, Kim Chunyong’s younger sister, was sitting there, half-listening to her friend’s excited chatter beside her.

“Oh, I should get tteokbokki before going home. Add fried fish cakes, make it for two. No, might still be too little. Better add some fried snacks to make it enough.”

Such were the thoughts in Nari’s mind.

Meanwhile, her friend, Choi Seo Yoon, was excitedly tugging at Nari’s art smock, her voice filled with excitement.

“Hey, hey, Nari! Look at this, please! It’s my one wish. Just look once.”

“I mean, what is it?”

“You know, that idol survival show that was in the news. The teaser just dropped.”

“Ah…?”

Nari realized that the video Seo Yoon was pushing in front of her was a preview of the survival program featuring her brother, Kim Chunyong.

“…Let’s see it then.”

“Eh, you who said the faces of AG’s trainees were just so-so are now willing to watch this? Be honest, you’re a bit interested, right?”

“It’s not really that I’m interested, but it’s not just anything, it’s family appearing after all….”

Instead of emphasizing “my brother is in it,” Nari simply leaned in closer to her friend’s arm, burying her head into the screen.

In the center of the palm-sized phone screen, Choi Gaon, the MC of the latest <Targeting Star>, appeared.

“Why is Choi Gaon appearing first instead of the trainees?”

“Well,  you have to put a stamp on the fact that a hot guy like this is coming out, so other idol fans will take a look, right?”

“Mmm…”

Solo artist Choi Gaon was Kim Bomi’s favorite singer.

He was a boy singer who succeeded as a solo artist at a young age.

“He is handsome. That’s probably why sis likes him.”

On the screen, Choi Gaon was holding something like a crossbow, shooting it off towards the audience beyond the screen.

– “Shoot towards the dream of debut!”

With Choi Gaon’s narration, the logo for “Targeting Star” appeared.

“Hey, Choi Seo Yoon. This looks a bit tacky. Is it always like this?”

“Just wait and see. Everyone ends up crying their eyes out over this eventually, so let’s critique it as much as we can now.”

While the two were engaged with the single phone, the production team’s laboriously crafted with their entire beings, motion graphics and subtitles flowed across the screen.

– The moment all star shooters have been eagerly waiting for

– ☆★ Male Idol ★☆ Survival: Targeting Star

– Who are we, you ask?

– Music Days is a corpse without the buzz

– Shall we check out our carefully selected ♡trainees♡ first?

– Then, let’s! Start▷ GO GO//

Faces of the trainees flickered past rapidly, each barely given 0.2 seconds of screen time.