[LYNX’s song is #5 on the music sites. Can our girls beat that?]
「This is my first ti 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 so 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 ntion other groups, and later they’ll search it up and co 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 mont it released, to drive up the music video views and stream the track.
But there was still a little ti 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 ca up now and then.
Even though so 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 sa 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 lanting 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 co 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 extrely difficult for a “proper” fandom to form this quickly, but—
[KJ Entertainnt is honestly legit enough to count as a real top-tier agency]
「At first I thought these guys were just so 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 ca 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 Entertainnt, despite being a new agency, kept making content for fans and consistently communicating, a decent-looking fandom could form in a short period of ti.
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 cris was revealed, and Seo Ryujin being elected leader by unanimous vote.)
↳How is sothing as simple as picking a leader this funny? That’s cheating.
↳I literally laughed the entire ti, 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 beco the leader.
↳If Lee Sion beca 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 Entertainnt’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 na 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 .
-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 .
-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 ti.)
↳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 sothing 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 mbers 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 mbers 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 imdiately hit play.
***
[Iam - "Sothing 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 tis, 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 ssy 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 sa ti, 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 Sion was an actress, I’d believe you!"
Mm.
It had felt like that while filming too, but seeing it on video sohow 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 co out looking that “soft little girl”-ish?
It wasn’t surprising the mbers 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 co in with no crew, just plopped down a single cara, 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 ti 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 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 , I needed to explain the proper motive.
"That’s 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 mbers who had witnessed Kim Nayeon’s timid era in Class F with —like Lee Gahyeon and Im Yunkyung—nodding and saying it was exactly the sa made feel weirdly proud.
'Later she was like Seo Ryujin, ready to tear 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 mont, I rembered when we fild 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 eting the other mbers one by one.
"Oh! It’s my part now!"
At Shinyu’s words, I focused on the TV again, and this ti, Shinyu—with short bobbed hair—was on screen.
A scene where I greeted Shinyu, who was perched on the classroom window fra, 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 mbers’ complints and just fidgeted with her hair, but even to , 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 mber was holding and shaking them from a blind spot) looked incredibly atmospheric.
And then the mbers kept appearing one by one.
Seo Ryujin appeared in a scene where, despite being a freshman, she was acting like she was so 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 sothing that cos from experience—"
"Do you think I’m you?!"
For a mont, the music video viewing got interrupted by Ryu Ayeon’s rage, but after a peaceful compromise (the mbers said it was my fault and offered my back to Ryu Ayeon), we continued watching.
"Yuri looks good with pigtails."
"Sohow, 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 shalessly said sothing 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 , who was crumpled into a corner of the classroom, and greeting 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 first.
And the mont Yunkyung greeted and I, flustered, awkwardly returned the greeting—
Tap.
The TV showed Yunkyung grabbing my hand and pulling out of the classroom.
At first it was a fast walk, then before I knew it, her steps got faster and faster.
At the mont we first t, 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 mbers gathered around us one by one.
As if ti 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 mbers also threw sothing—uniform jackets, ties, whatever—while forming up into position.
And then,
The mbers reached a hand out toward , still standing there blankly.
Grin.
Only then did I smile for the first ti in this music video and run to the mbers who had already ford up.
At the mont we first t, stay there
As if ti slowed down
Sothing like it’s about to begin
This feeling, I like that
And then the highlight burst out.
The scene that I and the mbers had fild for this mont alone—dozens and dozens of tis—played on screen, and the music video ca to an end.
Clap clap clap.
As the music video finished, the mbers started clapping and cheering in their own ways.
Sniff.
From sowhere, I heard the sound of soone sniffling.
'Is it Lee Gahyeon?'
I didn’t even need to turn around.
The only mber among us who would cry over sothing like this was Lee Gahyeon.
"Gahyeon, don’t cry."
"What’s wrong, unni, our music video ca out so well···."
"Gahyeon···."
Just as expected, the other mbers 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 mbers, 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 ti 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 mories ca back.
But—
"Gahyeon, don’t cry."
"···Lee Sion."
Lee Gahyeon looked at with a dazed expression, like she hadn’t expected 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 sentintal mont and yanked her back into reality, the mbers started attacking , but this was necessary.
"I’m still hungry."
"Huh?"
They were rookies, so they didn’t seem to know this famous line yet.
—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 mbers stop grumbling and stare at with wide eyes.
I thought of the fans who had supported us consistently through Idol Ground 100.
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 mont I t those fans on a real stage, my destination had already been decided.
Right now, I was going to climb to the top with these mbers.
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