CH 144

Testar came down from the stage and sat down on the talk show’s guest sofa.

But the person holding the microphone… was Cha Eugene.

‘Is that okay??’

Even though she knew that Cha Eugene was the most fluent in English, she naturally began to worry.

But Cha Eugene was skillful.

[Welcome! What was your first impression of my show?]

[Hmm, it’s full of color, cheerful, and has a really nice impression~ I like your yellow tie. It’s 127  Section mark!]

[Oh, thank you! This is the first official product that was sold on May 11th on 127 Section’s official site. I bought it with difficulty, but I wear this for the first time for this special occasion.]

Her younger brother teased her.

“Do you understand them?”

She didn’t. She was just listening.

But the atmosphere was good.

‘Cha Eugene, speaking English makes his atmosphere different.’

He looked much more relaxed and mature.

On the screen, the short small talk was coming to an end.

[Right, you really look like a Californian! I understand now. You seem to be the type who like surfing, am I right?]

[Haha, is there anyone in San Diego who doesn’t?]

[Yeah… In that case, hmm, maybe you don’t really care about stuff like this. Yep.]

The host deliberately shrank and looked around. Laughter erupted from the audience.

[No, no, this is a new and fun experience. And 127 Section is a fun game!]

[You’re so kind~ All right, so let’s talk about your role in the game.]

Then, Park Moondae, who was sitting next to him, immediately picked up the microphone.

[Actually, we’re singers, and most of us have no experience in acting. It was a short time, but playing a game character in the music video was fun and new.]

Neat English flowed smoothly.

“Heol?”

Kim Raebin’s solo fan… No, the college student who was also a fan of Park Moondae almost shook the monitor.

“Wow, he’s f*cking good at English?”

“He is!!!”

Unlike the college student who was excited about his unexpected English skills, Park Moondae on the screen calmly continued the conversation.

[Oh, so you’re not the one who inspired the creation of those colleagues?]

[We got inspired by them and made a song. Mainly, this guy. His name is Kim Raebin. You can call him Raebin.]

[Oh~ …Hello, Raebin? You really look like a composer! The eyes of a musician!]

[Hello.]

Kim Raebin on the screen awkwardly greeted the host.

‘He’s taking care of Raebin.’

She didn’t know the detailed context, but that much was obvious just by listening to the video and words. The college student watched the scene with satisfaction.

[What part of the characters inspired you? Whoa! I didn’t say anything bad, it’s just a good question! Someone, please tell him!]

[Oh, that guy has a strong impression, right? But if you look into your eyes, you would know he has a very gentle soul!]

[It’s still scary!]

Becoming close with the host who was immersed in the nerd concept, Cha Eugene made excuses for Kim Raebin’s eyes, then Kim Raebin’s words were interpreted through Seon Ahyeon.

[Their narratives made a lot of influence. …It was a tragedy, but it captured the beauty and intensity of the characters’ goodwill… I tried to save that feeling.]

It was stained with French accents.

‘He seems different when he speaks a foreign language, too.’

Just like in his recent public appearances, Seon Ahyeon hardly stuttered even while speaking a foreign language. The slightest hesitation could be interpreted as shyness.

[That’s right! That’s how I felt when I watched the trailer after finishing Chapter 1! Oh, now I see your soul, Raebin!]

[Hahaha!]

Kim Raebin tilted his face with a blank face, probably not understanding the situation well.

“Ah, cute!”

“That’s cute? He looks like he’s going to tear apart some sh*t.”

“Shut up.”

The college student focused on the screen, ignoring her younger brother.

[Then, is there any plan for a new OST for 127 Section?]

Originally, this question was about the ‘plan for the reappearance of the colleague characters’, but it was modified following Testar’s previous answer.

Park Moondae calmly gave an answer he had prepared in advance.

[We had a lot of fun working on the first song, but even if a new OST comes out, I don’t think it will come from us.]

[Why?!]

Cha Eugene abruptly intervened.

[Because I’m curious about what kind of OST other artists will compose! You feel the same, right?]

With that positive encouragement, the audience responded reflexively.

[Yes, yes, of course. It’s a pity, though! Because ‘Bonus book’ is a really good song.]

[Thank you.]

[You know what? You know it, hyung-ssi! You have great taste!]

[Me? Hahaha, that’s right!]

The host laughed at Cha Eugene’s praise and the talk of the game ended like that.

A few words of self-introduction and greeting were exchanged, then they reached the closing phase.

[The performance I saw earlier was really cool, but did you prepare another performance?]

[Yes. I thought it would be nice to show you a piece of music we usually do.]

[Good, that’s great! Then, please. Andrew band~]

As the band made a get-ready sound, Testar members got up from the sofa laughing.

Then they started taking off their shoes.

[Oh~]

“Huh?”

“Hey, didn’t they get shorter?”

The college student couldn’t even afford to hit her younger brother who was babbling nonsense.

Meanwhile, Testar on the screen took off their cardigans or jackets and modestly left them on the sofa. The staff came out and quickly cleared out the sofa.

Then, the outfit was unified into a barefoot figure wearing jeans and a white short-sleeved T-shirt.

Whoop!

In response to the unexpected full-scale preparation, the sound of reactions from the audience could be heard.

As if to respond to that, Testar moved while holding the microphone and formed the choreography’s formation.

The lights went out.

Uuuu- Uu- Uuuu-

A slow, melancholy piano climbed above the sound of the band, which was rattling from the touch of the transmission.

And movements close to modern dance began to unfold.

– Slowly falling asleep

Time to night

I don’t want to escape

Modern dance choreography unfolded in simple clothes, jazz sounds, foreign languages, and live band sounds.

Everything gave synergy, and Testar’s stage looked more artistic than conceptual.

Even the elements that were unfamiliar or repulsive in this place were buried in it, so that it was accepted as ‘high quality’.

In addition, the strengths of the K-pop genre, which polished the joy of watching and listening with the utmost care, were certain. Especially for a group that could pull it off well.

And Testar was such a group.

– I met you

Midnight

And next

Thanks to this, when the stage was over and the lights were turned on, the audience seats were filled with applause corresponding to ‘good viewing’.

The host also jumped out with applause.

[It’s like art! It was ‘Midnight, and next’ from Testar’s album <Time to go>. Everyone~ See you in the next corner!]

Thus, their appearance, which began with <127 Section>, ended with ‘Testar’.

The screen turned into an advertisement, but the impression of the stage didn’t disappear easily.

‘It was torn.’

The college student hit the desk with her left hand and lifted her hand up.

And this reaction became public opinion.

* * *

Since we were in the US, we got a lot of schedules to do here and there. After roughly finishing a few things, the <Nerdy Andy Show>, that we appeared on, aired.

Lying on a hotel bed, I checked public opinion in Korea.

First of all, there were a few cliche articles such as ‘Successful Appearance, Hot Response’, and hmm…

Testar appeared in a video on a popular WeTube channel that reviewed overseas reactions.

[(Overseas reaction) Testar showed the taste of K-pop to white otakus! Collection of responses with Korean subtitles]

‘I guess the reaction wasn’t bad.’

Seeing that there were a lot of videos like that, it seemed we hadn’t been blindly ridiculed by the locals.

I found the stage video uploaded on <Nerdy Andy Show>.

‘The view count is pretty high.’

Even the performance beside the 127 Section had similar views. I didn’t expect that.

Both videos were lined with English comments, but getting a rough look at the atmosphere wasn’t too difficult.

Because I had studied English in my spare time during this activity.

‘It’s a characteristic already have, but I can’t waste it.’

I was conscious of this.

[Characteristic: International student (A)]

– I understand what you said.

: Foreign language proficiency +200%

Because it was about the speed of mastery, the faster I learned, the easier it would be to replace when the next characteristic came out.

Of course, I didn’t have a lot of free time so I didn’t learn much. I just learned enough to make the words I had memorized didn’t feel awkward.

‘But I learned faster than I expected.’

If I had something like this when I was still a college student, I would have been stuck in the library for half a year.

Anyway, I just skimmed through the comments.

– Their solid musical identity is interesting

– It’s K-pop? *Mind-blown*

– They’re great singers. The live performance was impressive!

– I think I’m falling for them. The WeTube algorithm keeps leading me to new videos.

– Popular opinion: Testar was underrated in the K-pop world and no one knew it was the nerds who finally discovered them.

Excluding the comments about 127 Section, the atmosphere was roughly like this.

But what I didn’t expect was that ‘Midnight, and next’ had worked for viewers of this program.

‘I thought you’d hate it because it looks gay.’

Isn’t that a phrase that comes up often when watching K-pop in that neighborhood? I knew that. 

But it seemed we had benefited from the genre of the song.

There were many programmers among the viewers of this show, and it was said that this kind of lo-fi jazz was popular in the neighborhood.

– I added it to my coding playlist

– They looked like true musicians! I wish they would do a fall-in OST too (crying laughing emoticon)

– It’s good calming music. I’ll listen to it when I work on the code all night and haven’t come up with any bugs (scared emoticon)

Anyway, overall… It was a great success.

Just in case, I also checked the domestic game community, and they had completely softened up.

On the contrary, a few people came out to reminisce about the atmosphere of the game in the early days.

‘It was useful to draw the line.’

It seemed we had recovered their favorability because we did a good job of showing the collaboration song live and didn’t look like we were having a hard time with the OST or the characters.

Testar fans, who were on the verge of sharpening their blades against the 127 Section game community, also completely subsided.

“What are you looking at so intently~?”

“The Internet.”

“Our stage?? Good~”

Having washed up, Keun Sejin lay down on the bed next to me.

This was because I got stuck with this guy when we had to randomly change hotel roommates for WeTube uploads.

‘It surprisingly isn’t unpleasant.’

He was a bit annoying and noisy, but our lifestyles were similar.

Keun Sejin in a cheerful voice.

“So, do you think our next album will do better?”

“Let’s see. We have to do it first for me to know.”

“Hey, at times like this, you should say everything’s going to be okay~”

Keun Sejin smiled coolly and started looking into his smartphone.

‘Well, there’s a high chance it’ll work out.’

With the video of <Nerdy Andy Show> receiving favorable reviews, it was noticeable that overseas K-pop fans were rapidly getting interested in Testar.

Probably because we were recognized in a field that wasn’t familiar with K-pop.

‘That’s how people are.’

With this momentum, I thought it would be okay to look forward to the view count of the next album’s music video.

I shrugged my shoulders and told Keun Sejin.

“I’m going to sleep.”

“Yeah, you can turn off the lights~”

I turned off the lights, lied down on the bed, and checked my smartphone again.

Since the monitoring was over, I checked how the domestic public opinion was currently working overall.

And as expected.

When Testar was slowly eating up K-pop overseas, there was an uproar in Korea.

A rookie boy idol’s debut song had hit the jackpot in the music industry.

It was Gold 1’s group that finally made their debut.

‘Oh.’

After checking it roughly, it wasn’t at the level of Testar’s debut, but it was doing very well on the music charts.

The general consensus was that the song was so good.

‘As long as they maintain their momentum, they’ll succeed.’

Gold 1 was such a nice guy, so it was a good thing.

And thinking that far, my thoughts went to the other side as well.

My status abnormality.

If Cheongryeo was right, the fourth status abnormality I received this time was my last mission.

And, judging by the flow so far, it would definitely require an even higher baseline.

‘…Then, is it better to receive the status abnormality now?’

I thought so when I saw reactions from overseas and the latecomers coming up from Korea.

In short, I thought the next year or so could be my career-high.

Of course, we could continue to do better with endless growth like VTIC. But in this unstable industry environment, I couldn’t be so sure.

Still, this year was almost certain to go well.

‘Hmm.’

First, I called the status window pop-up.