translation by mourningmoor
The airplane was noisy.
A woman’s scream had come from somewhere in first class.
Sitting up groggily after being woken up, Kim Chanyeong let out a scoff.
“What a shameless bastard.”
“Shameless, my ass.”
I chuckled and pushed the blanket aside before calling a flight attendant.
Kim Chanyeong still looked displeased.
“Did you hit her?”
“No, I sent an invitation.”
“What?”
“There’s such a thing.”
When the flight attendant approached, I asked for a glass of water and some ramen.
“You should eat too, Director-nim. Ramen tastes the best on an airplane.”
Kim Chanyeong, who had been nagging about how I could even think of eating ramen in this situation, scrunched his face in irritation.
“You should eat too, Director-nim. Stop worrying about the kids.”
Then, I put on a rather satisfied expression.
“Now that woman won’t be able to take pictures even if she wants to.”
Just earlier, I had given Natalie Grace a firm warning.
The erased magic circle was an invitation.
I told her to deliver the message properly to that perverted Master of hers.
[See, I’m the kind of person who wants to live quietly, so I know when to be just cowardly enough. If you don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you. But you keep messing with me, huh?]
Natalie Grace, who had been screaming just moments ago, suddenly clamped her lips shut.
What lay in those blue eyes was, without a doubt, fear.
[I really, really hate it when people touch what's mine.]
If only they had stayed put instead of poking at me.
A married couple, taking turns harassing my people.
[Go ahead. Call your Master and whine about it. Tell them that some crazy bastard just erased their 9-circle magic circle.]
It was a test.
Could I erase a magic circle like hers with my current power or not?
I had a feeling that I could. And turns out, I really could.
I pressed my thumb against the magic circle and just barely smudged the outer edge.
I was curious if even that much would cause a fire.
[Oh, maybe a fire will start. You know about that, right? How Lim Jingyu’s ring had an issue and suddenly burst into flames?]
The woman’s blue eyes wavered, as if caught in a storm.
That was probably what mana providers feared the most. The price of betrayal.
The Master’s execution by fire.
[I did that too.]
Now that I had planted enough fear, it was time to give her a solution.
[But I spared Lim Jingyu. I even kindly put out the fire and treated his burns. At least he never messed with us. If anything, he actually liked us.]
According to Lim Jingyu, those who survive the execution by fire are granted freedom.
It was an algorithm created because hunting down every mana provider scattered across the world one by one was impossible.
But so far, no one had ever survived unscathed.
Lim Jingyu was the first.
[But you? I don’t feel like doing the same for you. Still, don’t go bursting into flames here. We’re on a plane, and that’d be dangerous.]
With that, I returned to my seat.
And now, it’s like this.
Loud screeching while I’m just trying to eat ramen.
Still, I felt pretty good.
“Director-nim, did you know?”
I called out to Kim Chanyeong, who was eating his ramen deliciously despite acting like he wasn’t going to eat any.
He blinked wide eyes at me.
“What, what?”
This guy gets on guard the moment I open my mouth.
“I’m 9-circle now.”
“What?”
“Just saying.”
And then, I enjoyed my ramen.
When I get back, I need to brag to that demon king bastard, Yoo Noah.
* * *
The North American tour is 40 days away.
That means we’ll be staying in the U.S. for over a month.
Until then, we need to focus as much as possible on domestic activities.
As soon as we arrived in Korea, we appeared on a music show, and from there, our schedule was packed again.
Our digital single <Hades> received overwhelming support from the Filaments, securing first place in its first broadcast.
Despite the album score being 0, we still won first place, making PD Pyo smile from ear to ear.
And while we were away, the first episode aired.
The reaction was very positive.
Especially, it seemed like Kim Wooyoung’s performance was becoming a hot topic.
“Establishing dominance. That was good.”
In Episode 1, Kim Wooyoung took the lead, and in Episode 2, Seo Hanul would likely steal the spotlight.
We had set things up well enough that there was no way TVH would miss the opportunity.
One thing that felt off, though, was the possibility that HS might try to pull some tricks again.
There was a high chance that they had bribed the PD to give Jeong Yoobin and a few other trainees more screen time.
Just from watching the first episode, it was clear that Jeong Yoobin got a lot of focus.
Maybe everyone else was thinking the same thing, as their expressions while monitoring weren’t exactly bright.
But Roa was different.
“Hyungnim, you gave Wooyoung-hyungnim great lines. In terms of buzz, we’ve got this in the bag.”
More than screen time, we had the power of public interest.
“That first episode went live, and SNS was already flooded with pictures. The two hyungs eating together.”
Then, he handed over a tablet.
On Twittle, there were five or six photos posted along with a short caption.
Kang Ichan kept his promise with Kim Wooyoung.
The killing point is him pouring cola into a soju glass. The way Kang Ichan playfully pours the cola, and Kim Wooyoung receiving it with both hands—both are totally adorable.
The attached photos were from the day we ate dak-galbi with Kim Wooyoung.
Thanks to those pictures, Filaments were reacting positively to Kim Wooyoung.
The violent image and perpetrator label that had clung to him were crumbling away.
“This is going around too.”
Roa showed me another one.
It was a four-panel meme of us trying to recruit Kim Wooyoung.
Wooyoung-ah. → Where do you think you’re going? → I came to get you, so what are you doing going somewhere else? → You have to come to me.
“This is getting an insane response, hyungnim.”
Yeah, the response was insane.
Filaments were going wild.
What the heck. What the heck. Kang Leader. Wooyoung-ah, what’s with those eyes?
└ Wow. He wasn’t even talking to me, but my heart almost exploded.
└ Isn’t this way too sweet? If someone looked at me like that, of course I’d go.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Everyone’s thinking the same thing. Everyone’s pretending to be Kim Wooyoung.
└ There was no way Kim Wooyoung could stay on The Music. How could he reject this? He had to go.
Wow. That homme fatale. He’s killing everyone.
└ His expression is seriously ㅎㄷㄷ (T.N. Korean slang for "horrifyingly impressive"). ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ Kang Ichan needs to be sued. Either a marriage certificate or a lawsuit—he has to accept one of them.
Being jealous of Kim Wooyoung, seriously ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ This sinful man. What are you going to do, Kang Ichan? I’m really going to sue you.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Everyone’s talking about suingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Yongsan Police Station is going to wear down their doorstep because of Filaments.
It wasn’t intentional, but there was nothing better for generating buzz.
“Not bad.”
I nodded slightly with a smirk and patted Roa’s shoulder before standing up.
“With that in mind, let’s do our best today too.”
Today was the day for the studio recording.
After finishing our makeup in the waiting room, we headed to the studio for filming.
We had appeared as judges for the preliminaries, but starting from the main round, we were both masters and mentors, working together with the participants we had chosen.
It was like being a coach standing by the bench in a sports game.
So, we paid extra attention to our outfits.
Without a doubt, the most popular idols right now—T.I.ONE and us—would be leading this program.
Idols understand idols best. Two teams with strong real-world experience would be the perfect mentors.
Of course, HS would try to disrupt that balance. Melody and The Music wouldn’t just sit back either. That made it even more fun.
As we entered the studio, Kim Hyunsoo, who had arrived earlier, greeted us warmly.
“Ichan-ah. Did you have a good trip to Hong Kong?”
Then, he greeted Siu and Roa as well.
Kim Hyunsoo’s attitude was a good measure of our current standing.
Before, he would only greet me, but now, he greeted all of our team members. Even the way he addressed us had changed from ‘Mr. So-and-so’ to our names.
He knew he had to get along with our entire team.
That meant we had grown. No one could ignore us anymore.
After our record-breaking successes in Japan and Hong Kong, where our names were repeatedly mentioned in the local news, the response in Korea had also changed.
Even people who didn’t know us started taking an interest, and in the process, our fanbase was growing at an alarming rate.
“Hey, my mom is a fan of Siu.”
For the first time, Kim Hyunsoo spoke to Siu in a friendly manner.
He had always just exchanged greetings before, but this was different.
“She says you’re better looking than me and that you should become an actor.”
Then, he told us to wait a moment and came back with a piece of paper.
“Can you sign this? I have to get a signature before Kim Jeongsoo does, right? I’m still your hyung.”
This kind of thing is happening all the time now.
Earlier, an FD had asked if we could sign something because their nephew was a fan.
“Yes, I’ll do it.”
“Write it ‘To Jeomsun-ssi’.”
“Yes.”
Siu shyly took the paper and carefully signed it.
Meanwhile, Roa brought over a piece of paper from The Music’s master, Yeom Byungwoo.
“What’s that for?”
“He said his son is a fan and asked if we could sign.”
“Of course.”
I happily scribbled my signature.
It was a hassle, but it was perfect for isolating HS.
And so, the second recording began.
* * *
The introduction started with the masters.
As we, the fifth masters, were introduced, the three hundred judges erupted in cheers.
Kim Hyunsoo, looking slightly flustered, raised the microphone.
“This is absolutely not because we brought in members of L.I.T’s fan club? The three hundred judges here today are employees of Samsun Electronics, who applied in advance to be here. Please don’t misunderstand.”
At that, Yeom Byungwoo raised his microphone.
“No, but with this kind of reaction, shouldn’t L.I.T at least put on some kind of talent show? You gotta earn that applause.”
This old man, he’s got ulterior motives.
This is an event for his son.
If a scene of us doing some kind of performance makes it to the final cut, he’s planning to boast that thanks to his dad, L.I.T got a lot of screen time.
And of course, the PD eats that up without hesitation.
“Ichan-ssi, could you show us a performance? Is there anything the three of you can do together?”
The PD, momentarily pausing the recording, asked the question.
Since this is a pre-recorded broadcast rather than a live one, things like this will probably happen all the time.
It was a bit of an unexpected request, which made it slightly tricky, but there was no way we could refuse. We had to cooperate as much as possible to lead our team to victory.
Besides, we couldn’t disappoint the three hundred judges who were filled with anticipation. And if we were going to do this, we might as well make sure it helped out Jung Yoobin, who was holding his breath like he’d been caught off guard.
“How could we not? We are L.I.T’s special unit…”