Just as Jion had aimed for, or rather, a reaction several times stronger than what Jion had aimed for came back. Seonwoo Jin’s bright smile that appeared with the refreshing intro captured the hearts of viewers who had no information or expectations about the nobodies called BNCZ.
“Wow, hyung. Seriously, every community I go to is talking about you.”
Eungi, who hadn’t put down his phone for even a moment since finishing the stage, showed Seonwoo Jin his screen with a surprised face. Just as Eungi said, videos and screenshots of Seonwoo Jin from the intro were circulating on various female-dominated communities, YouTube, and SNS. Jion, whose tension had relaxed and who now had some leisure, also watched the Seonwoo Jin shorts that had taken over YouTube.
『Shall we go together?』
Though no one had instructed him, whether his hidden talent exploded when he got on stage, or whether it was a strong declaration of intent to seduce even the women beyond the screen to achieve ‘Seonwoo Jin and three thousand palace ladies,’ Seonwoo Jin in front of the camera looked very relaxed. Despite not looking the type, he was packed with aegyo, even cutely closing one eye and tilting his head.
“Wow, guys, our fan cafe has passed 5,000 members too.”
Ryu Geon showed them the fan cafe screen with a shocked face. The daily visitor count, which had been only ten people before the music show stage, had also increased to 390 people. They were all people who’d been drawn in by Seonwoo Jin’s face. Jion cheered in triumph.
After the brief viral moment from the last Six-Clove Garlic Festival died down, Jion had researched in his own way about methods to keep the public’s attention for a long time. And after Ryu Geon’s shirtless incident, Jion vaguely realized how to maintain attention once it flowed in, how fan sentiment was created and how it was maintained.
It wasn’t over just by being chosen by the algorithm or being exposed to the public’s view by spending on promotions. To turn that temporarily created attention into favorable feelings required continuous exposure. But at the same time, repeatedly showing the same content could make people feel bored and tired of it.
Just as stock prices rise when trading volume increases. Idols also need something to deeply consume after the initial taste for fans to form. Eungi’s vlog, which was uploaded steadily even though viewers didn’t reach 200, was a cash cow.
People who like idols first get hooked on appearances that suit their taste, then like to analyze the relationships within the group centered on their bias member. The vlog where BNCZ members’ relationships were filmed raw was literally a gold mine.
Eungi’s vlog, innocently and plainly edited, soon became new future food for idol fans who were slowly getting tired of their oppas.
[ㄴㅂㄴ) Shirtless guy is well-behaved]
Must be in charge of cooking in the groupㅇㅇ
Naked apron ㄱㅂㅈㄱ
Anonymous 1
Excuse me, our shirtless oppa isn’t someone who exercises naked and stuff
[ㄴㅂㄴ) I wondered why BNCZ’s maknae is so bright]
You can feel the hyungs doting on him because he’s the makнae ㅋㅋㅋ
The member who nags at every other member doesn’t say anything to the maknae
Failing idols raising the kid without a crease despite having nothing
Anonymous 1
Saying other people’s kids have nothing ㅇㅈㄹ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Anonymous 2 Well it’s true ㅋㅋㅋ
└└ Anonymous 12 Seriously every time I see their vlog captures the wallpaper makes me nauseous mold bleh
Anonymous 3
Our kids have everything so why are they so fucking creased personality is fucking what
That’s right. Among the existing idol fans who became interested in Seonwoo Jin and started to taste BNCZ, those with the sharpest angle of departure were the fans of the boy group VENƏM (Venom), which had peaked in popularity two albums ago and last album and was currently in a frozen pollack eyeball state.
Venom from a prestigious major agency idol family was a five-member group like BNCZ, and though they’d released numerous hit songs, in this album they tried to digest a concept somewhat imbued with pretension and superficial flair with insufficient practice, causing indigestion, plus with various attitude controversies and minor fuck-ups, dissatisfaction within the fandom was gradually building.
Especially after Park Homin, who belonged to the popular members, had his first DMs to female influencers excavated, and since causing controversy by pulling the “are you serious” move at a fan sign event requiring 275 album purchases, they were also facing their biggest crisis since debut.
While reading posts on sites where idol fans gathered, Jion noticed that all posts with the prefix ‘ㄴㅂㄴ’ were written on Venom’s fan board.
“So this means ‘not Venom.'”
He’d wondered what it meant since every post talking about them had the initials ‘ㄴㅂㄴ’ in front. Having solved his curiosity, Jion didn’t check that board’s posts anymore.
[ㄴㅂㄴ) A basket of fresh fish stew has arrived]
(Photo)
Look at those eyeballs, so fresh.
Though Jion had wanted to become a popular idol, he’d never had a fandom, so he knew halfway about idol fans’ habits but not perfectly. That this flow of posts was a harbinger of large-scale fan defection and migration.
The attention that gained momentum appeared as a surge in music ranking. The music ranking rising from outside the daily chart’s 999th place to 362nd was a metric that hit much harder than fan cafe membership, personal SNS followers, or YouTube view increases. It was a career high.
“Wow!”
Eungi, who checked the ranking before their second music broadcast, let out an exclamation. It was a 180-degree different appearance from when they did their first music show a few days ago. The members were all smiles at Eungi’s joyful voice. Ryu Geon went to pat Eungi’s head then went “oops” at his styled hair and touched the air instead while laughing.
“Happy?”
“So happy! Totally! I hope we’ll be in the top 200 after we do today’s stage! Top 100 after the last music show!”
If they got into the top 100, even at the very bottom, it would be a ranking visible on the music charts. Jion recalled that the idol group Contemporary had given their first song to achieved a final ranking of 32nd. Also that past events were happening again while being moved up slightly in timing.
“Met Sollin too…… and Hyeryun…… too……”
Was her name Hyeryun? Jion was so busy recalling Seonwoo Jin’s two-timing partner in his head that he didn’t notice the person in question was glaring at him. While Jion was suspiciously muttering a female idol’s name, Seonwoo Jin was glaring at Jion’s profile with scary eyes.
Clearly until Eungi was happy looking at the music ranking, Seonwoo Jin had been happy together with the other members too. But Seonwoo Jin’s joy turned into serious irritation the moment he discovered Jion not participating in the group’s happiness.
You’re being serious muttering a female idol’s name in the middle of us talking about our success? And specifically Sollin, who he said he was a fan of, and the name of whatever female idol he showed an especially big reaction to recently? He promised me, even acting cute, that we wouldn’t look elsewhere until we establish ourselves, but now at merely 362nd on the music chart he’s already thinking of other things.
As if the female idol’s name was some kind of spell, Jion’s very trivial action summoned an evil spirit to this place. Seonwoo Jin, thoroughly sulking, removed the arm he had on Jion’s shoulder and stomped away before flopping down on the waiting room sofa.
“You’ll ruin your hair.”
Jinyeong immediately warned him, but Seonwoo Jin pretended not to hear. Rather, he rubbed his head against the sofa armrest being petulant, but strangely no nagging came back. Seonwoo Jin, who side-eyed while pretending not to, discovered that Jion hadn’t even noticed he’d left and was making a serious expression alone, and sulked even more severely.
Let’s see when you notice I’m upset.
Frustrated, Seonwoo Jin pulled a cushion into his arms and turned his body toward the sofa back. It was an appeal for him to come quickly, notice, and stroke him.
However, even after waiting a long time while showing his back of the head with ruined styling, Jion didn’t come to soothe Seonwoo Jin. Unfortunately, making such a timid appeal like an 8-month-old puppy turning its back on its owner and going into a corner to show it’s upset wasn’t enough to stimulate Jion whose head was complicated.
“I’ll go out for a bit and come back.”
Contrary to Seonwoo Jin’s expectations, Jion had many things to do and many thoughts, so he couldn’t focus only on caring for an affection-deficient large puppy. Jion, who failed to remember the name of the boy group that had received their first song from Contemporary and achieved a successful debut before the regression, finally decided to call him and ask if there was another idol group he’d sold songs to besides them.
If Hyundae hyung didn’t sell a song to another group, couldn’t we be the protagonists of that success?
If Jion’s memory was correct, that group even stood on year-end stages with two songs they received from Contemporary. If, as Jion guessed, Contemporary hadn’t sold songs to other groups, there was a good chance they themselves could rise to year-end stages with this song.
“……Does it really get solved this easily?”
In the below-zero weather, puffing white breath like a kettle on a gas stove, too excited at the thought of doing a year-end stage, Jion failed to prepare for the immediate task ahead. He bumped shoulders hard with a man walking from across the hallway while also looking at his phone.
“Ah, fuck, what?”
“Ah! I’m sorry!”
“You walk around without watching where you’re going? Annoying.”
The asshole who bumped at the same time but hurled curses first was precisely the frozen pollack of frozen pollacks recently embroiled in various controversies, senior group VENƏM’s main rapper Park Homin.
Three years older than Jion, Park Homin whose early debut days’ venom-filled handsomeness had gone somewhere and whose jawline was somewhat sagging from partying weight, despite the fans’ sniping, exposés, mockery, and criticism overflowing on SNS, still believed in the handful of shielders left and was still exchanging messages with female influencers and BJs.
“I’m sorry.”
“Is sorry everything? I almost dropped my phone, ah shit.”
“I’m sorry.”
Though it was clearly mutual fault, to Park Homin who suddenly spoke informally and spewed profanity, Jion bowed his head and apologized politely. First of all, he was a senior idol and there were many eyes watching, so there was no need to cause trouble with him. If he stayed still he could play the victim, and if he unnecessarily talked back, he might follow along as a companion on Park Homin’s path to ruin.
“Who the fuck are you? What nobody bastard are you?”
But Park Homin was arrogant regardless of whether staff passed by in the hallway or not. Despite Jion having apologized, he reached out and grabbed Jion by the collar. Jion clearly heard people quietly gasping from the side.
The reason Park Homin was making such a big fuss was simple. He was currently wandering around looking for an easy target to vent on. Furious at being utterly humiliated by having his DMs to a stripping BJ archived, he’d kicked a trash can and caused a commotion in the waiting room, getting cursed at and kicked out even by his fellow members.
“Fucking never seen your face before, are you guys idols too? Huh?”
Park Homin, who had been feeling somewhat anxious as prominent fans were starting to noisily defect with continued fuck-ups, didn’t dare act out toward other members with more solid fanbases than him and relieved stress by picking fights with rookies or juniors, and today it was Jion who got caught.
Ah, fuck. Caught the wrong person.
Jion cursed inwardly while outwardly pretending to be pitiful, bending his slender neck like an arrow-shot deer and making a piteous expression. Not for Park Homin to see, but an expression made for the broadcast station staff watching the fight.
‘I, who am this pretty, am being humiliated like this.’, ‘Park Homin, who’s acting out without rhyme or reason toward someone as fragile, kind and pretty as me, is a fucking bad bastard.’ It was a kind of performance art to show this, and a follower moved by that all too excellent artistry appeared before them.
“What are you doing right now!”
It was Seonwoo Jin.
