Chapter 212
A new group name, new members.
In this moment of facing everything new, Kim Chunyong wasn’t the only one feeling confused.
Anon @WHAwhfflekd
[No, it’s not like I don’t understand the ToZ debut lineup?? HowIsAnIdol’sNameKimChunyong(New!) < We know his last-minute sprint was insane lol
But how the hell was the mission-based scoring even calculated? Don’t we all know which trainee went absolutely crazy during the missions?]
[└ Honestly, that guy from Hong Kong didn’t have the skills to debut, did he? ;]
[└└ I know what you mean, yeah. But they said that counts toward the score too, right? Skill or whatever, since they said all of that factors into the points, they need to reveal the scoring method]
ONLYONE! @onehyeopAA
[I saw how the eliminated trainees’ final rankings at the end were flashed so fast you’d need 0.75x speed to even read them. It’s really upsetting. You can’t even show that much courtesy to the trainees who filmed alongside them all this time? #MusicDays_Reflect #TargetingStar_NoManners]
[└ (This account has been blocked by the poster) Aww, wipe your tears haha. Your boy ONE-hyeop is heading to the military now!]
(Interest check ~9/19) Harin♬ @HArinnnnne
[Binged that idol survival show that’s been all over my timeline today, and what even is this?
Pushing agency trainees is a given, and in the end, half the debut members are from the agency too lol…
Plus they keep comparing our genre characters to this Son Jae Ha or whoever that debuted at #1. So damn rude. Idol stans are always like this]
[└ The rude one here is you, posting his full name out in the open where he could search and see it!]
[└└ Here we go again… And thus began the era of new boy idols]
Complaints about how the debut members were selected, anger aimed at the show, and even posts scrounging for any excuse to sling mud.
Even people who had no idea about the murky, secretive inner workings of Targeting Star were reacting this fiercely, so how must the person at the center of it all have felt?
“Ugh. My head feels like it’s going to split, seriously….”
Having sneaked a peek at the social media reactions, Kim Chunyong pressed his hands to his forehead and groaned.
He’d barely taken a single step forward, and already things were this exhausting and grueling.
As for PD Joo Cheol Yeong, who’d orchestrated these exact reactions… Well.
‘He’s probably cackling with glee, saying people need to keep talking about it so his next show gets promoted, but….’
‘The other people who have to see all this would beg to differ—seriously!’
“Mmrrrgghh….”
Kim Chunyong finally buried his face in his pillow and started letting out muffled screams.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
And whether Kim Chunyong’s state was highly amusing to it, messages from X had been pouring in nonstop for a while now.
“God, you’re being so loud!”
“Kim Chunyong, you’re the loud one! Stop screaming, you punk. If the neighbors file a complaint, are you going to take responsibility?!”
“Ah—sorry, Noona.”
The voice that had actually been louder was Kim Bomi’s shout from outside his room, but that was a fact of little importance to Kim Chunyong.
So, naturally, that fury was redirected….
– Kim Chunyong: Are you insane?
– Kim Chunyong: Hey, why are you sending over 100 messages??
– Kim Chunyong: I’m a person with a private life too. There are times when I want time for myself
– Kim Chunyong: But that damn notification going off! At all hours! Notifications!
– Kim Chunyong: I can’t exactly fold this phone in half and be done with it
…toward the one who’d caused that scolding in the first place.
However, the culprit only grew more excited and fired off even more messages.
– X: But Chunyongie, if I don’t do this, you don’t pay me any attention… T_T
– X: Ah, but now that I think about it, this really pisses me off?
– X: How much have I? Helped you, huh?? And this is what I get, huh??
– X: You ungrateful bastard. Now that you’ve debuted, you can’t see anything other than yourself!
– X: Oh wait, no, you were always like this to me
– X: Then what should I say…? Yeah! You good for nothing brat!!
– X: You haven’t even checked the Objective window since yesterday!
– X: Kim Chunyong you are seriously unbelievable
– X: This is my job too, you know? I have to keep my Contractor informed of important updates and hand out Rewards and stuff, okay?
“Job, my foot. If this were a real job, you’d write a proper report and send it….”
Kim Chunyong grumbled, but still tapped into a different category in the app.
Toward that Objective window—the one he’d been deliberately ignoring because he’d been a bit reluctant to face it.
[Objective Window] [1]
Current Goal: Win Rookie of the Year at a popular music awards ceremony (Progress: 1%)
Final Objective: The greatest idol in K-pop history (Progress: 6%)
On Failure: Return to pre-contract state]
For all the fuss X had made, not much had actually changed.
The Current Objective had shifted to “Win Rookie of the Year,” and the Final Objective’s percentage had gone up just barely.
“What is up with this progress, seriously? If this were a game, the servers would’ve shut down ages ago.”
Even so, it was also true that the corners of Kim Chunyong’s mouth were subtly curling upward.
Because the Status Window right beside the Objective window was markedly different.
[Status Window]
Name: Kim Chunyong (Idol Group ToZ, Main Dancer)
Vocal: 68 (Idol Vocalist)
Rap: 65 (Idol Sub-Rapper)
Dance: 89 (Idol Main Dancer)
Appearance: 80 (Good-Looking Idol)
Charm: 80 (Charming Idol)
Skills: Idol’s Aura (A)
Dance to Overwhelm Opponent (B)
Will of the 6th (F)
You Still Like Me Though, Right? (C)
Don’t Cry, Stay Strong (B)
No But Hear Me Out (C)
A 45-Degree Angle is Essential (C)
Fortune Cookie (B)]
Stats fully restored to their original level through Archive Rewards painstakingly accumulated throughout the survival show, plus the Skills stacked up below them.
Especially thanks to the [Memory of the Second Debut] unlocked after yesterday’s debut, the [Idol’s Aura] Skill had reached A rank.
Thinking back to when it had started at F, the sentiment was impossible to contain.
‘And I’m sure… the person standing beside Shooting REX was the same one I first met in the private practice room.’
The first fan he’d met as Chunyong after coming back, and the person who could be called Rex’s last fan… Together in one place.
“…I need to work hard.”
Translation Notes
[1] ↩
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