Chapter 110: It’s a Malicious Edit

[‘Starf’ Lee Junhyeok: “I’m back” SBC Boy’s Dream set to air]

TBN Stardust Project alum Lee Junhyeok appeared on Boy’s Dream.

The Boy’s Dream team planned to upload a pre-release video introducing the boys on YouTube on the 29th of this year.

When the list of boys participating in Boy’s Dream was revealed, all eyes turned to Lee Junhyeok’s name.

Following him, The Core’s Ray and Stardust Project finalist Lee Dokyung also made the list. Boy’s Dream was scheduled to air this July.

Below that, articles kept popping up one after another.

It seemed like the article wanted to bait clicks using the name of Lee Junhyeok, the first-round dropout who got heavily criticized during Stardust Project, but in reality, there was an even more major cast member.

“Ray hyung’s articles are blowing up.”

“The Core’s Ray on Boy’s Dream…? Why is that sunbae appearing?”

Jin Sehyun clicked his tongue as if he couldn’t understand.

I was in the same boat, completely in the dark.

I hadn’t heard a single thing.

And on top of that, why was Lee Dokyung showing up here again?

At this point, aren’t they survival show addicts?

You could call it a downright flashy lineup.

Jin Sehyun started naming the lineup one by one.

“Lee Junhyeok, Lee Dokyung, Ray sunbaenim…”

And that wasn’t the end.

“Apparently that guy’s there too. Seongbin hyung’s classmate.”

I also knew that Jang Juwon, who had posted a rumor post on a secret account about being Cha Seongbin’s classmate, was a Boy’s Dream contestant.

Jin Sehyun let out a laugh through his nose.

“What is this, Minefield Dream?”

Yeah, every new name was more explosive than the last.

If I remembered correctly, my hyung was supposed to join the show as the youngest PD…

Wondering what was going on, I pulled out my phone.

But—

“Huh?”

“Why, what happened?”

“My phone’s on fire.”

Over a dozen missed calls had piled up.

They were all from my hyung.

He wasn’t the type to call often, so he’d also sent some urgent texts.

—Pick up the phone.

—Do you know Lee Junhyeok?

—Are you close?

What was that supposed to mean?

Boy’s Dream “3-Minute Self-PR Video.”

PD Do Seojun was pressing on his throbbing temples as he edited the video.

Well, “editing” was a generous term—it was more like just watching.

It was a mission where each trainee had to appeal to the viewers within a set three minutes, so there wasn’t much room for editing tricks.

So really, what was he supposed to do with this?

On screen, one trainee lowered his head slightly as he sat down.

His subtly sharp gaze met the camera.

—Hello, I’m Pop Entertainment trainee Lee Junhyeok.

After being let go from Doubles Entertainment, Lee Junhyeok had joined another small-to-mid-sized agency, looking a little thinner than before.

Do Seojun had thought he’d gone into hiding after the huge scandal on Starf, but it seemed he hadn’t been able to give up on his idol dream.

Not knowing the details, PD Do Seojun hadn’t thought much of it at first.

After all, being in the same industry, he knew Starf wasn’t exactly an angelic editing kind of survival show either.

The guy probably had his own grudges.

It looked like he’d come on Boy’s Dream because he desperately wanted to debut again.

But—

Things changed when an unexpected name came up in Lee Junhyeok’s PR video.

That intense gaze into the camera.

From Lee Junhyeok’s mouth came a person’s name.

—The senior I personally respect the most is Stardust’s Do Seohan.

“Hm?”

At the familiar name, Do Seojun unconsciously scooted his chair closer.

With a faint smile, Lee Junhyeok continued.

—He’s young but perfect in skill… a very versatile artist with a broad musical spectrum.

That much was fine, but—

—Most of all, he was a friend I relied on a lot during my hardest times… He’s younger than me, but I respect him a great deal.

In his precious three-minute PR time—

He spent it talking about a former coworker as his so-called role model?

“What’s he trying to pull?”

PD Do Seojun frowned as he muttered.

Do Seohan?

Lee Junhyeok had just name-dropped the center who’d debuted in first place on Starf—right before he himself had been eliminated.

From there alone, the buzz was bound to be huge, but what he added next was even more absurd.

‘During my hardest times,’ huh…

“Sounds like he’s trying to claim he was the victim of a malicious edit.”

From Lee Junhyeok’s perspective, this might have been his only desperate move to change his image.

By selling the name of a successful rising star, he could restore his image and emphasize that he was the victim of Starf’s malicious editing.

“Ha…”

PD Do Seojun let out a short laugh and took a sip of his Prim coffee.

He had prepared this quite meticulously.

Flick—

Flipping through the self-introduction Lee had submitted, even there he had written Stardust as the senior he respected.

This crazy guy had made it impossible to take back.

PDs probably didn’t even have the authority to tell him to tear it up and rewrite it.

If Lee Junhyeok later started going around “exposing” things, it would turn into a headache.

The youngest writer, Lee Yuna, who had been cautiously watching PD Do Seojun’s reaction for a while, finally opened her mouth.

“What are you going to do about this?”

“That’s what I’m thinking about.”

PD Do Seojun sat there frozen in thought for a moment before suddenly standing up as if he had made a decision.

‘This is crazy.’

It wasn’t like he was about to grab TBN by the collar.

Well, if he was going to shoot a survival program anyway, grabbing someone by the collar once for real might not be such a bad thing.

But he didn’t want his younger brother’s name being used in something like this.

After some thought, he went straight to the person with final say, Boy’s Dream’s main PD, Kang Minsik, whose desk was right next to his.

Holding onto the monitor with one hand, PD Do Seojun leaned over slightly.

“Wouldn’t it be better to reshoot?”

“Why?”

“It’s probably going to be a problematic statement…”

“Buzz is good, though.”

A man crazy about buzz.

Main PD Kang Minsik replied without even a moment’s hesitation.

“Keep it as is.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“We’re already losing the buzz race to that other survival. We might as well get in with some noise marketing.”

Even last month, comments like this had started popping up:

[Boy’s Dream is going to flop?]

What do you think?

—Just the title alone sounds like a flop.

└Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ the name reeks of failure.

└Starf was lame too, but Boy’s Dream? Makes me think of ‘Goose’s Dream.’

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Goose’s Dream ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└How do you even come up with a title that lame?

—Title aside, terrestrial survival shows have always flopped.

└Agreed.

└As much as I hate to admit it, Lee Youngchae’s “mala-flavor” editing is insanely goodㅠㅠ I was worried because it was an in-house survival, but either Doubles didn’t interfere or her

unique editing style shone through.

└Lee Youngchae went in swinging her knife.

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ so that’s why my pick’s screentime got cut?ㅠㅠ

└Don’t even mention Starf, gives me PTSD.

They clearly had a bit of a victim complex toward TBN, the “survival show powerhouse.”

But was it really necessary to sell the names of kids who had already debuted?

In the battles between broadcasting stations, it’s always the rookies who get crushed.

‘Damn. Should I just quit?’

The curse rose to his throat, but he managed to swallow it down.

It felt like only yesterday he’d busted his back studying to land this job.

It would be too bitter to resign already.

‘I’ll just endure a few more years.’

PD Do Seojun clenched his teeth, then suddenly smiled.

He would follow the will of his “respected senior.”

“Well, guess we have no choice.”

Nodding, PD Do Seojun spoke.

“Shall we make it really buzzworthy?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Sounds good.”

Time to take the editing knife to it.

.

.

.

Tap-tap-tap-tap—

Click-click-click—

“Uh, excuse me?”

Tap-tap-tap!

“Yes?”

“Your keyboard…”

“Ah, right.”

PD Do Seojun stopped his fingers, which had been flying furiously over the keyboard, and looked up.

Turns out he was tweaking the pre-release video that would be going up on YouTube.

The youngest writer, Lee Yuna, gulped as she watched him nervously.

‘He’s pissed.’

It probably hadn’t gone well when he tried talking to Kang Minsik earlier.

After coming back to his desk, he had been editing nonstop like a man possessed.

She was about to ask what he was doing when PD Do Seojun spoke first, his voice stiff and monotone.

“Writer Lee Yuna, do you know the three most important things in editing?”

“Scenes? Direction…? And…”

“Scenes, captions, and music.”

Do Seojun counted them off on his fingers, smiling slyly.

“The most important is the last one.”

“Huh?”

Depending on how you use the BGM, even a cheerful scene can turn into a horror thriller in editing.

Lee Junhyeok had tossed out bait—

And all he had to do was cook it up into something delicious.

“They said they wanted buzz, so I’ve prepared it with plenty of mala-flavor.”

“Huh?”

PD Do Seojun smiled faintly and turned toward the next desk.

The ears of Main PD Kang Minsik, sitting not far away, perked up.

“The backlash will be on you, sunbaenim, not me.”

“What, you punk?”

The main PD’s name wasn’t going to be tied to mine.

Exactly.

The mistake had been throwing the fish to the cat in the first place.

PD Do Seojun shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

“I’m going to go all out.”

With the first pre-release video of Boy’s Dream, each boy’s 3-minute PR video was also released.

The Core’s Ray, Starf’s Lee Dokyung, Lee Junhyeok.

There were trainees like those three, whose names were already known to the public, and there were chick trainees just taking their first steps into the entertainment industry.

But without question, the one who monopolized all the buzz from the first video—

Was Lee Junhyeok, who had an unmatched talent for stirring up trouble.

[Did you see Lee Junhyeok’s interview???]

Copy-pasting it here.

Junhyeok: The senior I personally respect the most is Stardust’s Do Seohan. He’s a friend I relied on a lot during my hardest times… He’s younger than me, but I respect him greatly.

—While saying this, he looked the camera up and down with this intense glare.

Seems like he wanted to claim three things:

I’m close with Stardust’s Do Seohan.

Starf gave me a malicious edit.

I personally respect Do Seohan.

Did the definition of “respect” change without me knowing?

Is it short for “I’d love to bury him deep in awe”?

To top it off, the BGM was heavy and ominous, making it feel like a noir film.

—I’d love to bury him deep in awe, holy crap ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└No, I think that’s exactly itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Do Hamjji is only eighteen, why the hell are you dragging a baby hamster into your politics…

└Do Seohan: Me? Respect? Why?

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Honestly, he probably is thinking exactly that.

└I can just picture Do Seohan dropping his spoon while eatingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└A bolt from the blueㅠㅠ

—All I know is, the PD seems to hate Lee Junhyeok too? Otherwise, how could they slap such an intense BGM on it? You think he’s going to debut like this?

└Agreed. If you just read the text, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong…

└?? Nothing wrong?

└It’s hella problematic.

└That’s straight-up a jab at Starf. You think it’s just praise for Stardust on the surface? Anyone can see it’s a backhanded diss.

└I didn’t think much of the PR video alone, but the pre-release made it feel way more hostile… guess it’s the editingㅠㅠ

—Is he even close with Do Seohan? From what I saw during Starf, they didn’t seem close at allㅋㅋㅋ

└The scandal blew up because he got caught digging into Do Seohan’s past;;

└He claims that’s a malicious edit.

└How is that a malicious edit?

└Yeah, Lee Youngchae is trash, but wasn’t that a fan’s expose?

└I don’t knowㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Lee Junhyeok is just beyond saving. I have no idea what he’s so bitter about.

—Leave my boy out of thisㅠㅠ Why are you dragging an innocent kid’s name around?

└Since when did Boy’s Dream become Gangster’s Dream…

└Private Investigator’s Dream…

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is insaneㅠㅠ

└A PI agency idol debut projectㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Private Investigator’s Dream…

Whatever reaction Lee Junhyeok was aiming for, the public sentiment wasn’t good.

Especially for one person whose name got dragged in at this timing.

Fans of Do Seohan were starting to get PTSD.

A Dusty whose bias was Do Seohan muttered a curse as soon as she saw the community post.

“Wasn’t this bastard a normie now?”

I thought he’d quit being an idol and live as a civilian, but here he was on public TV, complaining about his injustices.

Every time I rewatched Starf’s first group mission and saw our youngest looking pale and gaunt, it made my blood boil—

“Is my boy some kind of punching bag?”

They were beating on him like he was a percussion instrument.

The Dusty took a deep breath to calm herself and logged into JjaekJjaek.

Myomyo @14nvsksl9

Why the hell is Lee Junhyeok acting like that over there…

Her fingers had just typed that when a post from one of her mutuals appeared in her feed.

It was the perfect anger suppressant.

Bipbip @bipbip23_0

Universe Dust’s 2nd album concept photos are out!!!

Huh?

Her gaze froze midair.

“Concept photos?”

The newly released Stardust concept photos.

Underneath, replies from excited Dusties were flooding in.

Soon, her eyes widened as well.

2nd album concept photos…

—Holy crap, Do Seohan with black hair??

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