Chapter 81: Reunion (1)

Backstage after the showcase.

As soon as the door closed, the warm greetings from the older members poured in.

"Seohan, did you enjoy it enough?"

"You were happy during the informal speech game, right?"

I had done my best to dodge on stage, but there was no way I could avoid them in the waiting room too.

As a result, the moment I came down from the waiting room, Jin Sehyun grabbed me right away.

Ugh.

"Seohan, if I put you in a headlock right here, how much impact do you think you’d receive?"

"Go away, please."

It seemed he had a lot built up because of Kepler’s Third Law.

I flailed both arms and leisurely slipped out of Jin Sehyun’s headlock.

But then.

This time, the official softie Seo Ian stood in front of me, gritting his teeth.

Caught red-handed.

"Do Seohan, I think I got abs thanks to you."

"Well, congratulations."

"Come here."

Seo Ian swung his arms and seemed determined to drag me away by force.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t all that intimidating.

Honestly, I should just focus on avoiding Kang Siwoo…

—was what I thought.

The moment I thought that, Kang Siwoo came out after changing his stage outfit and blocked my path.

"……."

"Why do you look guilty?"

"Right? I didn’t do anything wrong."

I swallowed hard and nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders.

Being in Jerry’s shoes from Tom and Jerry, the anxiety was inevitable.

It was instinct.

Anyway, enough of this nonsense.

Kang Siwoo chuckled and pulled a chair slightly.

"Seohan, sit down."

"Sure. Shall we start checking?"

The sweet, fleeting moment of the informal speech time ended there, and I pulled out my phone from my pocket with a smile.

It was a forced smile to hide my nervousness.

"Haha… it must be out by now."

"It’s been out for a while."

Alongside the title track Love Myself, there was the Stardust era signal song, and even the concept evaluation track Touch Me and its performance.

After finishing an incredible first showcase, one task still remained for us.

With a trembling voice, Kang Siwoo carefully opened his mouth.

"The ranking… let’s see it."

"The ranking!"

The current time was 10:15 PM.

The chart rankings should’ve been out long ago.

Cha Seongbin, with his hands behind his back, glanced around at the members.

"Don’t tell me… none of you checked it earlier, right?"

"I really didn’t."

"It’s no fun if you check in advance."

Surprisingly, everyone had kept that promise to the letter.

Just looking at the genuinely anxious expressions, it was obvious no one was lying.

Seo Haim muttered in a nervous voice.

"Ah, I’m nervous."

"Let’s not get our hopes up too much."

"Still, I really want to make it into the chart…"

Though we debuted with the backing of Doubles and Starf’s reputation, we were still rookies on day one.

Since Melon’s ranking system recently changed, and the fandom’s streaming power had declined, honestly, we couldn’t even confidently say we’d make it into the top 100.

There were plenty of boy groups who sold albums well but were weak in digital sales.

Especially for freshly debuted idols, it was hard to expect strong chart results.

But.

It was a good song, and we thought it had mass appeal.

If it’s the Stardust I know… maybe we could at least get close?

"Sh-should we check now?"

Gulp.

Everyone held their breath and stared intently at Kang Siwoo’s phone screen.

When the green Melon logo filled the screen, Kang Siwoo asked the members with a nervous voice.

"Should I scroll down right away?"

"Let’s check from the bottom."

"Let’s scroll up slowly."

And then.

The Melon Top 100 chart window popped up on the screen.

Swish—

Kang Siwoo scrolled all the way down in one motion and, swallowing dryly, began to scroll upward.

Behind him, I stood on tiptoes, craning my neck to look down at the screen.

The green search window slowly moved up.

With a stuttering, trembling voice, Kang Siwoo spoke.

"100th… 90th…"

Ah, this is nerve-wracking.

Every time Kang Siwoo scrolled up, my lips felt drier.

"Hyung, scroll a little faster."

"If we rush, we might miss it."

"Ah, this is too much."

80th… 70th…

"60th… nothing… 50th…"

The rankings had already gone up to the 50s in one go.

No matter how much we scrolled, Stardust’s deep navy album cover didn’t appear.

"Uh, this one?"

"No, that’s a different album."

"What the—it's not here?"

Seriously, it should’ve appeared around now.

The members, flustered, began to murmur.

"Where are we?"

"Did we… not chart?"

"This is nerve-racking… really nerve-racking."

And just like that, while everyone was too dazed to focus, we had already blown past the 40s range.

Even as we steadily climbed into the top 30, the title Spacewalk from Stardust didn’t appear.

Was it really not going to show up?

Just when the anxiety began to creep in, wondering if we really didn’t chart—

Whir.

"Ah!"

A navy album cover, emblazoned with the [STARDUST] logo, flashed by.

Cha Seongbin let out a loud scream and jumped up and down on the spot.

"There it is! It’s there!"

"What? Are you sure you saw it right?"

"I’m telling you, STARDUST was written on it!"

As Cha Seongbin’s voice rang out in excitement, Kang Siwoo quickly scrolled back down to check the ranking.

The moment a corner of the navy cover came into view, Jin Sehyun exclaimed with a shocked face.

"Ah!"

"That’s it! Our album!"

So what rank is it?

Just as I was bouncing behind them, struggling to see the blurry screen—

From Kang Siwoo’s mouth came a trembling voice.

"21st…."

"Really?"

Only four hours after its release, the new track had ranked 21st on the Top 100 chart.

It was the record written by Stardust on the first day of debut.

"Crazy."

I instinctively covered my mouth.

Was this real?

[Our boys make me proud]

Melon Top 100 peak rank: 15th

Freezing: 31st

To think they achieved this with their first album during Melon’s boy group dark age ㅠㅠ

Our boys have a bright future ahead

Stardust, please bring order to K-pop

Let’s line up for the next album

*Freezing: ranking based only on 24-hour usage from 1 AM to 7 AM instead of real-time chart

– The competition for this year’s rookie boy group award is going to be fierce ㄷㄷ There’s also The Core, but these guys are insane too

└Who has better stats between The Core and Stardust?

└In terms of digital performance, seems like Stardust did slightly better?

└But The Core also sold 200,000 in first-week sales, so they’re no joke. Their debut album sales were legendary too.

└Since Stardust is from a survival show, their public appeal is stronger. The Core has a solid core fandom though ㅋㅋㅋ

– The golden age of boy groups is truly here. My K-pop heart is beating again….

└Is this Doubles vs. KJ?

└Move aside, it’s a pride battle between the big companies

└No doubt both sides came prepared to go all in

– These guys picked a killer song. If it catches on with the public, the rankings will climb even higher

└Billy Vinger composed it, right?

└Yeah yeah, Billy Vinger composed, Cha Seongbin arranged it

└222 Our Seongbin arranged it ㅠㅠ

└Cha Seongbin felt like a genius even back in the Starf days

└He really is a genius

└Also a face genius

└Doubles really nails their song choices ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└That exhilarating freshness unique to debut albums is there. It’s not just refreshing—it’s addictive and keeps you coming back

– Forget everything else, Byeoldol needs to bring order to K-pop

└Byeoldol ㅇㅈㄹ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Is there no other abbreviation? This is so lame ㅠㅠ

└Byeoldoljikㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Wasn’t “Space Dust” the official one? Why does it sound even more pathetic now….

[Stardust’s debut song is soooo good]

Since when did Doubles make such a public-friendly debut track?

The song’s so good I’ve been looping it for three hours straight

But one thing I’m curious about—why is the title ‘유영 (you young)’?

You guys may be young, but I’m old

– Is it seriously you young ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Ah damn ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ it’s not that kind of you young

– It’s that spacewalk kind of you young, when you swim ㅠㅠ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└I don’t care, I’m you old

└Please, Dusties ㅠㅠ

└Have you lost your minds?

└Saying you old here ㅋㅋㅋㅋ There are no sane people here, are there?

└If the fandom is already this wild from debut, I can’t wait to see how far gone we’ll be in a few years

└Imagine them doing this nonsense during Yui App, saying you young—they’d be so shocked

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Even I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face

└Seo Haim would probably think it’s real and go, “Oh~ so that’s what it meant?”

└Oh no ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I can hear her voice in my head

└Our pure Choco Pie ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

└Why are you calling her a Choco Pie;;

└Choco Pie ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s so natural I almost didn’t notice ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The next day, at the music broadcast set of Knet Broadcasting Station.

Though we were rookies, coming from a major agency meant we got assigned a fairly large waiting room.

I’d heard stories about having to wait practically on the street, so this was a pretty decent setup.

Of course, we barely had any time to actually rest in that room.

"Alright, is everyone ready?"

"Yes! All done!"

"Haim, wake up even if you’re sleepy. Sehyun, you too."

"Mm… I’m so sleepy…."

Everyone was half-asleep, but the schedule marched on without mercy.

We had already wrapped up filming the included track Trace of the Stars in a pre-recording session and were about to perform the title track Spacewalk live.

“Okay, focus now!”

“Yes….”

It was practically a daycare center.

Manager Lee Jaeyoon was busy giving final reminders to the members before our first music show.

"You all know you have to keep your expressions in check and clap even during the final rankings, right?"

If you look tired and grumpy, it’ll be caught on camera.

We were only on our first day, and I definitely didn’t want to be immortalized online with dead fish eyes.

Just moments ago, Seo Haim had her eyes half-closed from sleep, but now they were sparkling again.

"Like this?"

"Pass."

There were plenty of other things to be careful about as well.

Manager Lee Jaeyoon unleashed a torrent of what could only be called nagging.

"Everyone here is your senior, got it?"

"Yes."

"Don’t do anything to stand out in a bad way, and you know you have to greet everyone you meet, right?"

"Yes, we know!"

Well, isn’t that obvious?

I brushed it off, thinking it wasn’t a big deal...

.

.

.

.

"Wow… this is exhausting."

It wasn’t just about saying hello when we happened to bump into someone.

There were a ton of teams appearing on today’s music broadcast, and we had to personally visit each and every waiting room to greet them.

"Shine bright! Hello, we’re Stardust! Please take good care of us!"

Easier said than done. Before even stepping on stage, we were already drained.

And not just from the greetings themselves...

There were always people like this.

"Oh, you’re the group that debuted this time?"

"A project group, right? When are you disbanding?"

Ha Junseo froze with a shocked expression at the blunt question.

In his past life, Ha Junseo may have had a timid personality, but he was a solid leader who smoothly ignored low-level bait like that.

Naturally, as a Day 1 rookie, Ha Junseo hadn’t quite developed his troll-slaying skills.

He was kindly responding to everything.

"Uh… we signed for seven years."

"Oh, really? Why?"

"…Sorry?"

They obviously already knew that the contract was seven years long because we were under Doubles, but they were starting a subtle power play just to rattle us.

On top of that, scanning each member up and down and asking for names one by one made them total jerks.

All while keeping their full fake confidence on display.

"Hey, what’s your name?"

"Se… Seo Ian."

"A rookie, huh… Your voice is quiet?"

"Sorry, I apologize."

"Alright, let’s see you next time."

They acted like big shots just because they were seniors, but it’s not like the age difference was even that big.

This industry’s brutal.

Sundubu came back after making a few rounds and poked my side with a pale face.

"Seohan, this place is really scary…."

"Wow, it really is like a jungle."

Someone once said the entertainment industry was a jungle, and I now fully understood what they meant—just from our first music show.

So this was what being targeted felt like.

A rookie who got recognition right from the start thanks to ‘audition hype.’

I could understand why they’d be bitter, but the way they acted was worse than I expected—pathetic, really.

If we ever take home a first-place trophy from a music show, they’d probably be frothing at the mouth to drag us down.

I’d rather lock myself in the practice room and be ground down for fifteen hours than go around doing these soul-sucking greetings.

I was going insane.

At this point, just hearing Manager Lee Jaeyoon call us made me flinch a little.

"Hey, guys. This way!"

"Yes, we’ll go say hello…."

It was just when we’d finished greeting nearly all the waiting rooms.

My head was pounding.

I grabbed my temples and took a shallow breath.

"This is the last one."

"We don’t have much time before the stage, so make it quick."

"Yes!"

One final waiting room left.

Seo Haim asked with wide, round eyes.

"Where is this?"

"Oh, this is The Core sunbaenim’s waiting room."

"The Core…?"

In that moment, my eyes moved to the group name posted outside the door.

[The Core]

A rookie boy group under KJ Entertainment.

They’d debuted about three months before us—our baby senior rivals, competing with us for this year’s rookie award.

They had already garnered attention by selling 200,000 copies in their first week with their debut album, and their comeback with a digital single happened to overlap slightly with our own promotion cycle.

Maybe that’s why.

Community posts were already overflowing with clickbait pitting The Core against Stardust.

"……."

Even setting that aside, both Seo Ian and I looked visibly displeased.

Of all things—KJ.

Of all companies—that one.

I swallowed hard and muttered softly.

"There’ll be some familiar faces here."

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