Free Web Novel[LYNX’s song is #5 on the music sites. Can our girls beat that?]
「This is my first time being an idol fan, so I don’t even know if that’s a high rank or not.」
↳It’s fucking high. In the first place, for rookies, just charting is usually considered a huge hit.
↳That’s for some tiny-ass agency. Since it’s TSP, charting is the bare minimum, and they should be inside the top 10.
↳Even factoring in that it’s TSP, a rookie girl group hitting #5 with their debut song is still a big deal.
↳For real. Even taking fan bias out, if our girls just make top 10 it’d be a massive hit.
↳But stop posting stuff like this. It’s basic manners not to mention other groups, and later they’ll search it up and come here and start a whole shitshow.
The Iam Gallery, where Iam’s fandom gathered, was currently in battle mode.
Iam’s music video and digital release were scheduled to be released at midnight today.
Because of that, the fans were gathering in the gallery and getting ready to go on a coordinated push the moment it released, to drive up the music video views and stream the track.
But there was still a little time left, so the fans who had gathered in the gallery were chatting, each in their own way, talking about Iam before the coordinated push began.
And because of that, talk about LYNX—the biggest competitor for Iam—also came up now and then.
Even though some fans tried to rein it in and tell people not to bring up other groups, it wasn’t an easy situation.
Because there was no way people wouldn’t talk about how the most anticipated rookie girl groups of the second half of the year had overlapping debut schedules.
[Why did their debut have to overlap and make us suffer like this]
「If they’d debuted in a quiet period, I could’ve supported them with peace of mind, fuck.」
↳Honestly, LYNX is still the “could be worse” version. Be glad they didn’t overlap with a huge boy group.
↳Huh? If it’s a boy group, isn’t that better since it’s not even the same kind of girl group?
↳Bullshit. If Iam’s debut song ends up being insane and they even get #1, we’ll get attacked by that fandom until we retire.
↳For real?
↳Yeah. The only thing that can fight a huge boy group is another huge boy group.
Quite a lot of fans were lamenting that the debut timing overlapped with LYNX, but fans who’d actually done this before knew that, compared to the alternative, this was the better situation.
If you asked what girl group fans avoided the most, it was overlapping promotion periods with a huge boy group that had an overwhelmingly powerful fandom.
Iam’s fandom, Yours, was mostly made up of new fans who had come in through Idol Ground 100, so right now, because they didn’t really know how the idol scene flowed yet, other fandoms were treating them like an empty shell that was nothing but numbers.
But thanks to a few experienced fans stepping up and taking charge, it was solidifying into an idol fandom shape at a fast pace, despite how it looked.
Of course, even if the fans worked hard on their own, it was extremely difficult for a “proper” fandom to form this quickly, but—
[KJ Entertainment is honestly legit enough to count as a real top-tier agency]
「At first I thought these guys were just some nobodies trying to leech off the hype, but these motherfuckers move different.
The quality of their weekly in-house content—stuff even major agencies won’t do—is insane.
And I’ve never seen an official account run this packed and consistently in my life. Yours basically hit the lottery just by pulling this agency.」
↳I came here after stanning another group, and yeah, this is true. Over there, those crazy bastards reported fan-made channels that were trying to bring in new fans and got them taken down.
↳Iam’s in-house content is seriously popular. I’m in high school, and I’ve even seen kids at school who aren’t fans watching Iam’s stuff.
↳Honestly, even without fan bias, they make it well.
↳For real. Even other fandoms say our girls are funny on variety, so they watch.
Because KJ Entertainment, despite being a new agency, kept making content for fans and consistently communicating, a decent-looking fandom could form in a short period of time.
In particular, Iam’s in-house content was getting praised not only by fans but also by the general public.
[Iam Story ep 3. Picking a Leader]
(Lee Sion’s blank, devastated expression after the video of her own crimes was revealed, and Seo Ryujin being elected leader by unanimous vote.)
↳How is something as simple as picking a leader this funny? That’s cheating.
↳I literally laughed the entire time, nothing else. Lee Sion talks so well, I caught myself nodding along in the middle.
↳If Seo Ryujin hadn’t played the video, Lee Sion would’ve actually become the leader.
↳If Lee Sion became leader, who’s stopping that executioner?
↳I’m a Lee Sion fan, but I agree the leader should be Seo Ryujin.
↳The funniest part is KJ Entertainment’s CEO making this moved face watching Seo Ryujin’s speech. What kind of agency has even the CEO doing variety?
Among fans, Iam’s in-house content was already at the level where people said it was “trust it and hit play,” with enough completion and fun that even fans of other groups were, without realizing it, keeping up with it.
And it wasn’t just the in-house content—Iam’s reality program airing on MPlay was also pulling strong ratings, proving Iam’s popularity.
In a recent episode, Hyeryeong and Lee Jungyoon, who had been judges on Idol Ground 100, made a surprise appearance and shocked people.
-Kids, now that you’re debuting and going on variety shows, you’ll have to prepare things like personal talents too.
The latest episode of Iam Story—aired under the name of “variety boot camp”—broke its own highest ratings and proved that Idol Ground 100’s popularity wasn’t a bubble.
[So if idols want to survive through variety these days, this is the level they have to hit]
-I prepared voice impressions as my variety talent!
-Yeah? Show me.
-Jungyoon, do you want to be an idol?
-···.
(Lee Jungyoon’s face going blank after Kurosawa Yuri’s voice impression.)
-I prepared a famous drama line!
-Oh! Show me.
-I lived as a minister of Shu in life, so I will be a ghost of Shu even in death!
-···What drama is that?
-It’s a line from the Guan Yu death scene in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, episode 83. And the reason it’s a famous line is···.
(Even though it was played at fast-forward speed, Lee Sion’s Three Kingdoms explanation scene went on for a pretty long time.)
↳Iam variety boot camp? That’s like trying to teach Faker how to play League.
↳Hyeryeong’s got variety mileage too, but after seeing Iam’s talents she got flustered and just turned into a reaction bot.
↳Jungyoon’s stunned face after Yuri’s voice impression is legendary.
↳Ryu Ayeon, that crazy bitch··· What kind of person does random play dance for over twenty minutes?
↳Ryujin, you really need the boot camp. Why are you still unfunny even here?
Maybe because of that, Iam’s reality show went beyond being something only idol fans watched, and was being treated like MPlay’s flagship variety program. It hadn’t even ended yet, but people were already seriously talking about Season 2.
[The girls’ Instagram is up!]
(A photo of the Iam members huddled together in front of a computer with a cake in the middle.)
↳It’s real! They’re holding a cake?
↳Looks like the girls were waiting for the music video to drop too.
↳Sion dyed it black again.
↳The other girls are all black-haired too?
↳Since the background for this music video is a school, they matched the concept. Everyone looks good.
In the middle of Iam Gallery buzzing with all kinds of talk about Iam, one post went up.
Seeing the photo of the members waiting for the music video release on the official Instagram account, fans could feel that the release really was right in front of them now.
-It’s midnight, so why isn’t it up?
↳YouTube always goes up a little late. Music sites go up right away, though.
↳I want to listen to the track too, but I want to watch the music video too, I’m losing my mind.
But as if to torture the fans, even after midnight hit, the music video was still private, and Iam Gallery was one step away from a riot.
-It’s up!
As if it had noticed the fans’ feelings, Iam’s music video suddenly switched from private to public.
Click.
The fans immediately hit play.
***
[Iam - "Something Like It’s About to Begin" Official Music Video 2016.05.04.]
「Riiing.
A girl with her blanket pulled up over the top of her head reaches out toward a noisy bedside alarm clock on the table to turn it off.
Tap.
After flailing through the air a few times, the girl finally finds the alarm clock with her fingertips and turns the alarm off.
-Phoo.
As if turning off the alarm woke her up, the girl squirms under the blanket, while warm sunlight from outside the window shines gently on her.
Soon, the girl kicks the blanket off, and her appearance is revealed.
A girl with messy black hair and blue eyes, a look so mysterious it almost felt unreal.
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she heads to the bathroom with a headband on.
And then her putting on her school uniform is shown,
(Oh-oh) yeah, yeah
(Oh-oh) I can feel it, first vibe
At the same time, a bright, upbeat sound of music begins to ring out.」
"Wow, watching Lee Sion pretend to be well-behaved is so painful."
"With that face, the boss really looks like an idol!"
"If you told me Sion was an actress, I’d believe you!"
Mm.
It had felt like that while filming too, but seeing it on video somehow made it even more embarrassing.
-Sion, right there—just rub your eyes a little, like you just woke up!
It was what I shot as directed by the filming director, but who would’ve thought it would come out looking that “soft little girl”-ish?
It wasn’t surprising the members were horrified when they saw it.
Right now, we were all gathered in the living room, watching the released music video together.
-They’re going to take reaction cuts and upload them to YouTube.
The content team had come in with no crew, just plopped down a single camera, told us to watch the music video together, and then disappeared.
"Oh! That scene’s coming up!"
It was awkward, but since it was our first time watching the finished product too, we were watching it and having fun in our own way.
The scene on screen now was the one where Lee Gahyeon and I ran into each other.
At the bus stop on the way to school, Lee Gahyeon was leaning against a streetlamp with headphones on, wearing a bored expression. When the video showed me awkwardly greeting her—
"Gahyeon really is a cold-city-woman type if she just stays still."
"The ‘stays still’ part is really irritating, Ryujin."
"But why is Sion so good at acting all timid like that?"
"Maybe it’s real-life experience from school?"
With all that slander getting thrown at me, I needed to explain the proper motive.
"That’s me copying Kim Nayeon when she was in her timid era, exactly."
"Ah! When she first dropped into Class F?"
"Yes! Nayeon was exactly like that back then!"
Seeing the members who had witnessed Kim Nayeon’s timid era in Class F with me—like Lee Gahyeon and Im Yunkyung—nodding and saying it was exactly the same made me feel weirdly proud.
'Later she was like Seo Ryujin, ready to tear me apart because she couldn’t stand not being able to, but at first she was so innocent. Our Nayeon.'
While I was thinking about Nayeon for a moment, I remembered when we filmed the music video.
In this music video, the concept I was assigned was a timid student, and in a way, it was basically the main role—the main content of the music video was me meeting the other members one by one.
"Oh! It’s my part now!"
At Shinyu’s words, I focused on the TV again, and this time, Shinyu—with short bobbed hair—was on screen.
A scene where I greeted Shinyu, who was perched on the classroom window frame, silently staring out the window.
"Oh! Geum Shinyu!!! She’s got a vibe."
"It might be a little cringe, but Shinyu made it look amazing!"
"I really think Shinyu’s new hairstyle suits her so well!"
"Aren’t you praising her a little too much?"
Shinyu looked shy at the members’ compliments and just fidgeted with her hair, but even to me, Shinyu’s current hairstyle fit her really well.
Even in the music video, Shinyu appearing and disappearing behind curtains fluttering in the wind (for the record, a staff member was holding and shaking them from a blind spot) looked incredibly atmospheric.
And then the members kept appearing one by one.
Seo Ryujin appeared in a scene where, despite being a freshman, she was acting like she was some kind of student council president, standing in for the gathered students on the field and reciting an oath.
And Ryu Ayeon appeared leaning against the back-row lockers in the classroom, wearing gym clothes instead of her uniform on the very first day of school.
"The director really saw straight through to Ryu Ayeon’s essence."
"What?"
"That natural-born delinquent energy is definitely something that comes from experience—"
"Do you think I’m you?!"
For a moment, the music video viewing got interrupted by Ryu Ayeon’s rage, but after a peaceful compromise (the members said it was my fault and offered my back to Ryu Ayeon), we continued watching.
"Yuri looks good with pigtails."
"Somehow, Yuri feels like she really would’ve been that energetic at school too."
"No! Yuri was a super quiet, model student back in school!"
Yuri shamelessly said something that was obviously a lie no matter who heard it.
After Ryu Ayeon, Kurosawa Yuri appeared as the popular social butterfly type, running around the classroom greeting everyone brightly with pigtails.
The sight of Yuri walking up to me, who was crumpled into a corner of the classroom, and greeting me with a huge smile, looked surprisingly fitting—even if it had nothing to do with the real Yuri.
And finally, Yunkyung—
-Hi.
She played the cute classmate who spoke to me first.
And the moment Yunkyung greeted me and I, flustered, awkwardly returned the greeting—
Tap.
The TV showed Yunkyung grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the classroom.
At first it was a fast walk, then before I knew it, her steps got faster and faster.
At the moment we first met, breath in
Even without words, I can hear it all
Through unfamiliar air
A transparent tension seeping in
In sync with that, the song started moving into the highlight.
Soon, as Yunkyung and I sprinted down the hallway, the members gathered around us one by one.
As if time inside the school had stopped, only we—Iam—ran down the hallway, dashed up the stairs, and finally arrived at the rooftop.
When we opened the rooftop door that should’ve been locked, a blue sky that felt like it could clear your insides appeared, and we ran up onto the rooftop where that blue sky was spread out like a blanket.
Tap.
Lee Gahyeon threw off the headphones she’d been wearing, Shinyu tossed the novel she’d been holding, and the other members also threw something—uniform jackets, ties, whatever—while forming up into position.
And then,
The members reached a hand out toward me, still standing there blankly.
Grin.
Only then did I smile for the first time in this music video and run to the members who had already formed up.
At the moment we first met, stay there
As if time slowed down
Something like it’s about to begin
This feeling, I like that
And then the highlight burst out.
The scene that I and the members had filmed for this moment alone—dozens and dozens of times—played on screen, and the music video came to an end.
Clap clap clap. freewebnσvel.cøm
As the music video finished, the members started clapping and cheering in their own ways.
Sniff.
From somewhere, I heard the sound of someone sniffling.
'Is it Lee Gahyeon?'
I didn’t even need to turn around.
The only member among us who would cry over something like this was Lee Gahyeon.
"Gahyeon, don’t cry."
"What’s wrong, unni, our music video came out so well···."
"Gahyeon···."
Just as expected, the other members gathered around Lee Gahyeon, trying to soothe her, patting her and saying things one by one.
'This has to hit her differently.'
When I turned my head and looked, I saw Lee Gahyeon crying while being held by the members, her eyes brimming with tears.
It wasn’t like I didn’t understand.
Lee Gahyeon was the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) oldest among us, and she was already in her fifth year as a trainee—so the pressure she’d felt all this time had to be on a completely different level compared to the others.
Even I, who looked like I was going to debut without even having trainee life, felt my throat tighten up a little when I watched the music video and old memories came back.
But—
"Gahyeon, don’t cry."
"···Lee Sion."
Lee Gahyeon looked at me with a dazed expression, like she hadn’t expected me to comfort her.
"Because you’ll get ugly."
"What?"
Of course, just like Lee Gahyeon expected, I wasn’t saying it to comfort her.
"Today is our showcase. If your dark circles get worse and your eyes swell up, what are you going to do?"
I walked up to Lee Gahyeon and wiped her tears with my thumb as I spoke.
Then—
"We’re just starting. It’s too early for tears."
"Lee Sion, do you not have emotions?"
"Sion, that’s too much!"
"Boss, right now you’re supposed to comfort her!"
"Sion is really cold-blooded!"
When I snapped Lee Gahyeon out of her sentimental moment and yanked her back into reality, the members started attacking me, but this was necessary.
"I’m still hungry."
"Huh?"
They were rookies, so they didn’t seem to know this famous line yet.
Me—no, us—Iam still had a long way to go, and we’d only just taken our first step, so it was way too early to be crying and pouring out emotions already.
"Let’s cry after we reach the top."
Only then did the members stop grumbling and stare at me with wide eyes.
I thought of the fans who had supported us consistently through Idol Ground 100. freeweɓnøvel.com
The fans who spent their own money to run billboard ads, who voted desperately every broadcast hoping we would survive, who cheered for us with everything they had.
From the moment I met those fans on a real stage, my destination had already been decided.
Right now, I was going to climb to the top with these members.
