With the third music show performance, all of BNCZ’s official schedules for their third single album were completed. However, this didn’t mean the end of this single’s promotional activities. Thanks to the miraculous reverse run, places gradually began seeking them out despite the music show activities having ended.
While waiting for BNCZ’s first radio schedule commute, Hayeon looked around at the women waiting with cameras alongside them. She saw several fansites whose faces she’d recognized from the Venom scene or seen at major music shows and event schedules.
“All familiar faces.”
Hayeon muttered in a small voice. Seeing several soulless data sellers mixed in, it seemed there were quite a few fans attempting to change their main groups in step with the era of major disasters among first-tier boy groups.
Still just a handful. They were almost all people who had come to dip their toes in before switching over from other scenes, and since there seemed to be no one who had seriously switched over like Hayeon, Hayeon felt pride that only she had recognized BNCZ’s true value and come to taste them first.
Unaware that everyone gathered there was holding their cameras with the same mindset, BNCZ’s vehicle stopped in the parking lot for the radio schedule. The naive members who had never had fans didn’t even think that the crowd waiting with cannon-like cameras might be their fans.
“Whoa!”
Naturally thinking there must be another famous idol with a schedule at the same time, Ryu Geon, who got out of the car first, was startled by the flood of flashes as soon as he opened the car door and covered his face. The fansites who were used to following only first-tier idols accustomed to strong lights and flash barrages found a strange sadism, pleasure, and desire to conquer in such clumsy, raw reactions from those steeped in complacency.
“Jinyeong! Look here!”
“Seonwoo Jin! Seonwoo Jin!”
“Eungi! Eungi!”
As the flustered members began getting out of the car one by one, the hyena-like fansites frantically pressed their shutters while shouting their bias member’s name. They knew that now, when even a single fan was precious, was the opportunity to imprint their faces on the oppas.
“Oh, guys. First… first, let’s go in! Or not? Should we say hello before going?”
The manager, who had only experienced elderly people blocking the way at traditional markets suddenly asking for photos or autographs, or grandfathers who’d had a shot of soju and barged onto the stage swaying their bodies to the live band’s performance, was flustered and didn’t know what to do in front of the sudden young fans—a swarm of women in their 20s and 30s at that.
“Uh, um……”
And this situation was just as bewildering for Jion, who was in his second life. Jion also knew how to produce better music and how to live more diligently, but he didn’t know how to live as a popular idol.
Naturally. Because he’d never been popular. Jion, who got out of the car last, was flustered by the huge lenses aggressively pointed at him and reflexively grabbed the arm of Seonwoo Jin walking ahead.
“Huh?”
But soon Jion made eye contact with one of them—the only person not covering her face with a camera. It was Hayeon. Jion reflexively thought he’d seen her somewhere. It might not be true, but since they’d made eye contact anyway, saying hello wasn’t a losing business. Jion smiled at Hayeon as if giving an eye-smile to a parent who came for free career counseling.
“Hello!”
It was an eye-smile that made even Seonwoo Jin’s heart flutter, who lived seeing his own glamorous face in the mirror every day. Oh really, after looking at Venom’s dead fish eyes for so long, Hayeon’s thoughts stopped at the greeting that felt not just vivid but fresh and sincere.
“Thank you for coming!”
Jion entering the broadcasting station with a bright greeting was so beautiful. Hayeon, whose legs lost strength, crouched down in the parking lot flower bed until the radio schedule ended, lost in thought.
If love can start from making eye contact with oppa in a photocard, isn’t making eye contact with a living oppa a revelation?
The ‘made eye contact disease’ that any fan who’s been to even one standing concert catches. It was a cold-like illness that Hayeon had also suffered from several times while following Venom. However, after experiencing the ‘real thing,’ she realized that all the eye contact she’d experienced in the Venom scene had been her delusion and illusion.
Right. This is really a revelation from the idol gods telling me to switch.
Hayeon, who received Jion’s calling, took out her phone as soon as the radio broadcast ended. And without any lingering attachment, she left a final greeting on the SNS account she had operated with affection for so long.
Non-toxic Venom @vnm_no_poison
The non-toxic poison life has been fun until now.
―CLOSE―
And in less than 5 minutes, along with a newly created email account, the first Jion fan account in the BNCZ scene was born. It was the start of a new fangirl life.
Hello Jion @hi_jion
Hello, first greeting.
This is an account supporting BNCZ main vocal Seong Jion.
Along with the BNCZ fan account that Hayeon created, fansite accounts photographing BNCZ members began to emerge one by one. Among them, several were Venom scene fansites who came over due to Hayeon’s persuasion, and other accounts were fansites of unpopular members of other first-tier boy groups.
Fansites who failed to catch their bias or succeeded in catching a popular member but failed to secure a well-known position always prowled around looking for small or mid-sized rookie idols or unknown idols where they could occupy a well-known position. And BNCZ, caught in their eyes, was truly a goldmine.
Hearing the news that the rising scene didn’t even have a proper fansite master yet, let alone well-known ones, fansites began swarming like hyenas. And the fan accounts springing up like mushrooms after rain also began actively collecting and broadcasting content to bulk up. As Hayeon had made the first start of a fan account, she poured all her passion into fangirling every day to not miss the top position.
“Why haven’t kids with faces like this blown up yet?”
Hayeon sighed in regret while carefully capturing screenshots from Eungi’s vlog. Before promoting Seong Jion, Hayeon was in the process of processing the numerous self-content released so far into a form good for spreading to communities in order to increase the influx of people into the fandom and solidify the all-fan tone.
Eungi’s vlog was optimal as a casual meal companion, but unless you were an idol enthusiast who even dipped into unset tables, it was material you wouldn’t bother watching. These days, idol fans are a generation raised on boneless chicken, so even their fangirling needs to be spoon-fed. Hayeon adjusted her blue light blocking glasses and captured each cut so the subtitles were clearly visible. Not forgetting to laugh alone, overwhelmed with emotion.
“Ah, so cute.”
While capturing dozens of cuts carefully selected for scenes where Jion came out pretty, then choosing the prettiest cut that wasn’t blurry, Hayeon caught something.
“Ah, what is this?”
It was a large, heavy male shadow that made it difficult to capture Jion alone. Seonwoo Jin. No, he’s handsome and tall and all good, but why is he stuck to our Jion like this in every cut? Hayeon carefully checked all of Jion’s screen time she had captured so far.
“Um……”
Hayeon found that in every scene except for a few, Seonwoo Jin’s arm was wrapped around Jion’s shoulder or waist. It wasn’t some chimera, so how could their sides be stuck together this closely? But Hayeon, accustomed to long idol fangirling, soon resolved the suspicion and doubt on her own.
“Hmm, the company is pushing this pairing?”
Hayeon understood on her own, recalling the official couple pairings that Venom’s agency pushed. To her, the two’s excessive skinship—that is, two adult men who’d have bushy pubic hair if you pulled down their pants hugging each other and sleeping on that narrow single bed, or sticking together like a Korean hip-hop rapper and his girlfriend at every moment, looking at one side with honey-glazed eyes—seemed like directives from the vicious agency.
Since there were actually many large agencies that practiced such B-gay-per strategies, Hayeon’s understanding couldn’t be blamed. And the veteran unnies in this scene judged that this visual and relationship pairing was quite a delicacy, so they began to dig into that part intensively.
So when Hayeon struggled to remove the homo delusion filter and completed screenshot content aimed at muggles, fans dipping their toes in, and other idol fans who were looking around, the YouTube BNCZ search results had already been occupied by fast-moving homo women.
≫ Human intertwined branches
≫I believe in the innate goodness of human nature
≫Mom look at these kids;
≫Mencius hyung’s patient wait victory declaration
≫Woojin-ah Jion is falling apart
Although there was a fierce standoff over distinguishing top and bottom, seeing both sides pulling out pretty decent view counts made Hayeon’s taste bitter. Should I have taken that route too? But Hayeon soon came to her senses.
“No. I’m competing with wholesome content……”
To not be embarrassed when facing Jion at in-person fansigns and such, it was right to compete with wholesome content. Hayeon steeled her resolve and began uploading the BNCZ content she had captured. Soon heavy uploaders would carry it to various communities, and Hayeon was confident in the direction she had chosen.
* * *
For an idol to be imprinted in the public’s mind, several stages were necessary. First. Being overwhelmingly handsome. Second. Getting stuck in the public’s ears with easy listening. Third. Appealing friendliness with comedic elements.
The first two were laid down by Seonwoo Jin and the members under Seong Jion’s command. From then on, the role of the agency or fandom needed to be backed up. And exactly two days later, the screenshots Hayeon made began entering the popular post rankings of various communities.
[Unknown idol having a pork belly company dinner after hitting career high (feat: daily 98th place)]
The post Hayeon created contained images of members excitedly grocery shopping at a mart and grilling pork belly while sitting on newspaper spread on the floor of their old dorm. To muggles tired of agencies getting heated about gold spoon marketing and passionate fans promoting how young and rich our unnies and oppas are, and to rebel fans who had nothing, BNCZ’s modest appearance brought a hot response.
Fringe fan 1
NewspaperㅋㅋㅋㅋIt’s like MTㅋㅋㅋ
Fringe fan 2
Still, isn’t within daily top 100 objectively good results?
└ Fringe fan 5 ㅇㅇ Pretty good for an unknown
└ Fringe fan 9 The song is easy listening so it’s muggle material
└└ Fringe fan 8 I’m tone-deaf but it’s good to listen to while driving ㅇㅇ
Fringe fan 3
Ah but lolㅋㅋㅋraw shabbiness…… They look so poorㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Fringe fan 6 They live in a villa with no elevator so the episode about buying bottled water is the funniest
└ Fringe fan 7 Ah at least install a water purifier pleaseㅠㅠㅠ
Unlike their neat appearance, their poor-looking actions and the state of the dorm that was swept and wiped clean but couldn’t be hidden received attention, and latecomers stimulated by Hayeon’s content also began capturing Eungi’s self-content at a nano level. It was truly the beginning of the BNCZ great beggar era.
