translation by mourningmoor
As soon as we made our comeback, we swept first place on music shows.
The album’s pre-order sales alone totaled 980,000 copies, making it a million-seller in just one day. It was an incredibly fast pace compared to our last mini album release.
Our digital streaming performance was also insane.
The streaming numbers were so high that you could literally see our real-time rankings rising.
Not to mention, we were trending on global social media, and fan votes were overwhelmingly in our favor.
With both ARCHE and T.I.ONE currently on hiatus, there was no one to compete with L.I.T.
Announcing our first concert, winning first place on music shows, and hitting a million-seller status in just one day—our appearances on variety shows were airing one after another amidst all these huge milestones.
The funny thing was that every time we appeared on a show, our numbers would skyrocket even more.
And when I appeared on <Gentleman>, it seemed like we hit our peak.
The viewer ratings were high, of course, but what was even crazier was how our album’s streaming numbers shot up right after the show aired. It must have left a really strong impression on people.
And it seemed like our members also got a strong impression from <Gentleman>.
“Wow. Looks like Junhee got almost entirely edited out. His screentime is so short.”
Everyone was curious about what exactly I had done to get revenge on Junhee, making him call me in the middle of the night.
But they couldn’t find anything.
Instead, there were only scenes of me approaching Junhee and speaking to him kindly or patting his shoulder to encourage him.
Hanjoon, who was looking at this with clear disapproval, quietly spoke up.
“You say it like you’re smiling, but actually, you were probably like, ‘If you don’t get it together, I won’t let it slide,’ right?”
At that, Siu waved his hand.
“Ayy, hyung. No way. Do you really think Ichan would do that?”
“Hey, no way? Do you not know what kind of guy this punk is? That’s exactly something he’d do.”
Bingo. That’s exactly what I did. No, I actually did that.
Not just at the beginning—I made sure to threaten him throughout the entire thing.
I just muted the audio and only provided the video, so the broadcasting station ended up editing it into something that looked really heartwarming.
Like I was comforting the guy.
Well, at least the viewers’ comments on both the official site and the Uverse board were all positive.
Junhee seemed to be in bad condition that day, but it looks like Ichan really took care of him.
As expected, L.I.T and Möbius have a good relationship. The way he looked after him was just like he would with his own members. Maybe it’s because he’s close with Jeongsoo.
I love how he’s also so natural around Youngbin.
These were all comments from Möbius fans—Mövings.
Of course, the Filaments had a different reaction.
Wow. A true saint. I thought he’d at least deck the guy once, but he still looked after him. Kang Leader.
I applaud your patience.
You could tell he hesitated when approaching Junhee at first, probably because he was trying to control his emotions. But once he did, he treated him well. Kang Ichan is a saint.
Seriously, if he ever pulls that kind of stunt on Jaewon again, I won’t let it slide.
But unfortunately for Junhee, that was the only screen time he got.
The part where he was bawling, nose running, sobbing out apologies—that all got cut.
In the end, his presence in the show was only felt in his first appearance, and once the real competition started, it was like he had been erased from the program.
Well, from the broadcasting station’s perspective, it was probably an unavoidable decision.
If they had aired Junhee’s scenes, the viewers’ message board would’ve exploded.
Out of the twelve prepared games, Junhee only managed to attempt seven before he gave up, shaking in fear.
The Copycat Room incident was honestly nothing compared to that.
Hanjoon asked.
“Junhee not getting any screen time at all. That was you, wasn’t it?”
It was a sharp question.
“What are you saying? How could I even do that?”
“Hey. Gyuhyung-hyung said Junhee gave up on the game and went down to the central headquarters, and he cried so much that he couldn’t even calm down.”
Then, lowering his voice, he continued.
“Gyuhyung-hyung said that every time you showed up on the monitoring screen, Junhee cried even harder.”
“That hyung, accusing me without proof.”
I was the one who did it, but there was no evidence that I did.
Every time Junhee entered the ‘Room of Horror’ to play a game, I tampered with all the questions and traps to corner him.
Of course, I did some things directly too. Like grabbing him when he tried to run away and forcing him into the ‘Room of Horror’?
Even that wasn’t done in an overly coercive way, and in the flow of the broadcast, it all seemed natural.
Since it was a horror special, and with all the creepy devices and effects set up by the broadcast station, Junhee ended up in a complete panic.
By the seventh room, he even started making a confession toward the camera.
He said he had no talent.
That seeing overly talented idols his age made him angry.
That one of his friends is absurdly gifted, blah blah.
That having too much talent makes life miserable, blah blah.
Daring to talk about Jaewon in front of me—so I made sure it ended in that room.
It just so happened to be the ‘Mirror Room,’ and since there was a special device that let me write on the mirror, I borrowed it for a bit.
<What you lack isn’t talent. It’s qualification.>
<If a sincere apology isn’t enough to be forgiven, then you’ve lost your qualification forever.>
Junhee burst into uncontrollable sobs.
He cried and cried, to the point of exhaustion. He cried so much that the staff didn’t know what to do. Möbius’ manager ran in, and Youngbin was flustered and at a loss for what to do. That’s when I approached Junhee.
And I told him just one thing.
[Why do all the messages coming to you today seem to point at the issue with Jaewon? Even ghosts would call you a bad person at this rate. That’s really unpleasant, In Junhee.]
And even that was only captured on video. Because I had turned off the audio.
To everyone else, it would have looked like I was comforting a panicked Junhee.
“I just comforted him. Taught him how to live like a decent human being.”
Yeah, I kindly taught him.
[Apologize to Jaewon properly. If you can’t, don’t ever show up in front of me again. I have a worse temper than I look.]
But Jaewon didn’t accept the apology, so that guy must still be in panic mode.
Well, whatever.
At least now, he won’t ever hurt Jaewon again.
“Anyway, forget it. Let’s focus on our next moves.”
Next moves.
And just like that, we entered our second awards season.
* * *
The year-end awards season begins with HAMA and PMA.
Of course, we were invited to both ceremonies.
Especially HAMA, hosted by H-NET, which takes place sequentially in Nagoya, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Unlike last year, this time we were attending all three ceremonies.
The awards season, which starts like this, continues until early January, and as soon as it ends, we go straight into our concert.
L.I.T’s first solo concert.
With our comeback, we announced that from January 27 to January 29, the concert would be held at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, and we released a <Concert Map> for our fan club.
It was a detailed schedule listing L.I.T’s activities in a map format up until the concert date.
That meant we had a tightly packed schedule ahead.
The first event was HAMA in Nagoya, Japan.
Arriving in Nagoya late in the afternoon, instead of heading to the hotel, we had to go straight to a filming location for a promotional shoot.
At H-NET’s request, we were filming an HAMA promotional video in a self-produced content format together with ARCHE.
“Wow. I-I’m a bit nervous.”
As soon as Roa got in the car, he clutched his chest and let out a deep breath.
“Variety show with ARCHE sunbaenim… Should I be honored or…”
Since ARCHE were senior idols and global stars, he seemed to be feeling a lot of pressure.
Hanjoon, however, bluntly cut in.
“What do you mean, honored? It’s nerve-wracking. If you don’t want to get eaten alive, you better keep your wits about you.”
He wasn’t wrong.
It was ARCHE, after all. Even the slightest slip of the tongue, and their fandom would tear us apart.
But our fandom wasn’t weak anymore either.
ARCHE knew that too, and they would be cautious around us.
Besides, I was here, so they wouldn’t dare act recklessly.
“Don’t worry. Our fandom’s grown too, so we’re not easy to mess with anymore. And all the ARCHE members have good personalities. None of them are too much.”
Ah, well. There is one. Yoo Noah.
That guy stands out the most and causes the most trouble.
“Well, those sunbaenim do seem to be pretty friendly toward us. Especially Jaewon—since he used to be a trainee there, they dote on him even more.”
Surprisingly, Siu summed up the situation neatly.
I gave Siu a small nod of thanks and patted the members reassuringly.
“Well, it’s just a simple promotional shoot, so let’s get it done quickly and head to the dorm to rest. We need to manage our condition for tomorrow’s stage.”
With that, we arrived at the filming location.
Looking around outside, Roa spoke in a serious voice.
“What’s with the sudden atmosphere? This place looks like an amusement park.”
Broadcast station bastards.
After watching the amusement park episode from our self-produced content with ARCHE—the most brutal one, honestly—they said it was fun, and in the end, they decided to include an amusement park in the promotional video.
Annoyance slowly crept up.
As soon as we got out of the car, ARCHE, who had arrived earlier and was waiting for us, greeted us warmly.
“Hoobaenim.”
As expected, Younghoon was the first to run over, all smiles.
Then, he explained the situation.
“I got assigned as a co-host for the Hong Kong HAMA, you see? While I was in the U.S., we did video meetings to brainstorm ideas, and our self-produced content came up in the discussion. And well, it got approved.”
So basically, they’re going to film it just like our own content. There will be games, punishments, and all sorts of scenarios.
Fine, whatever. Doing things like this for fan service is fine. But why drag us into it?
“Then why didn’t sunbaenim just film it with your own team? Why call us?”
I asked with a blank expression. Younghoon scratched his head awkwardly.
“Noah said he’d rather die than do it… but if it was with L.I.T, he’d do it.”
Ha, that bastard.
Clenching my teeth, I let my gaze settle on Yoo Noah, who was standing off to the side, watching us.
The moment our eyes met, he smirked coolly and shrugged his shoulders.
Younghoon, glancing between me and Yoo Noah, let out a sheepish laugh.
“Come on, hoobaenim. We’ll make it fun for you.”
Make it fun? We got dragged here against our will—of course, we’re doing it.
And the ones making it fun won’t be you guys. It’ll be us.
“No, we’ll make it fun for you. Let’s go.”
Since it’s come to this, we might as well milk this promotional video for all it’s worth.