#48

Jang Myungwoo's gaze gleamed strangely.

"Year-end awards?"

"We're betting on the Rookie of the Year award."

It seemed my words were rather amusing.

Suddenly, Jang Myungwoo threw his head back and laughed heartily, showing his Adam's apple.

"Next year, we'll see Ichan at HS, huh?"

With a confident look on his face, Jang Myungwoo lowered his voice and whispered.

"At this rate, MuteSeven will win Rookie of the Year this year."

How quick-witted he is, filling his head with plans for the second half in such a short time.

He used to boast about disbanding them, but now his mind is packed with where to align with TVH, KBC, SBN, MBS.

Even in the midst of all this, he never once considers how to win through skill. Truly, in many ways, he's an impressive person.

"Fine, see for yourself. If you can."

If he already thinks it's a game he can't win with skill, the conclusion is practically set. He won't be able to surpass me with any underhanded tricks.

Unless a demon comes back to life and uses some kind of mind magic, it's decided. Once I've set my mind on something, the year-end award trophy is mine.

I'll give it my all.

"However, if we win, we'll reveal that HS's secret weapon, Who's M, was actually Kang Ichan. Also, return my laptop."

I gave a cold smile, shoved the chair in the break room loudly, and immediately stood up.

"Well then, good luck."

* * *

It was when PD Pyo Cheonhee walked into the TVH M&E Center, carrying snacks for the kids.

As he walked toward the elevator, a familiar shadow passed by the break room on the first floor.

"Kang Ichan?"

It was definitely Kang Ichan. And walking a few steps ahead of him was HS's CEO, Jang Myungwoo.

PD Pyo, having handed the snacks to a staff member and sent them to the elevator first, walked toward the direction where Ichan had just disappeared.

The M&E Center was eerily quiet as midnight approached.

Sneaking down the hallway, PD Pyo easily found Ichan.

Through the glass doors of the break room, the side profile of Ichan facing Jang Myungwoo was clearly in view.

A straight back, a haughty chin lifted high, and arrogantly lowered eyelids.

"Ha, kid. Not even backing down in front of Jang Myungwoo, huh? That's impressive."

And before I knew it, I overheard their conversation.

At first, a surge of anger towards Jang Myungwoo bubbled up.

How dare he make a scouting offer to my artist? I felt something like that.

But then, a sense of unease crept in.

Originally, Kang Ichan had been with HS. That meant he wasn’t completely closed off to them. He must have been tempted enough to train there.

For some reason, he was excluded from the debut group, broke the contract, and left the company. But now, that same company is calling him back?

He couldn’t help but waver. On top of that, Jang Myungwoo had cast a proper bait. He brought up the topic of housing.

A dorm, a dorm... the guy who used to sing.

As my anxiety ignited, sweat began to pool in the palm of my hand.

"What should I do? But I don’t have any intention of joining hands with HS."

Through the glass door, Ichan's voice softly floated out.

At that moment, emotions swirled within me.

Gratitude for him clearly expressing his intentions, the dizziness of almost losing Kang Ichan.

And if I were to add one more thing, it might be the realization that, to me, Pyo Cheonhee considers Kang Ichan very precious.

Just as I was getting moved and overwhelmed by that feeling, a shocking statement came through that made the back of my head feel numb.

"Do you want to make a bet?"

"A bet?"

"If MuteSeven beats us at the year-end awards, then I'll go to HS."

Ichan had recklessly made a bet with Jang Myungwoo.

Even with the year-end award's "Rookie of the Year" at stake.

"Kang Ichan, this kid... what does he think he's doing?"

It seems like this young kid doesn't realize how extremely unlikely that is. Whether it's because of tradition or the power of the big agencies, historically, the Rookie of the Year award has always gone to artists from large agencies. They even take turns, sharing the honor every year.

It's literally their own league.

That’s when it happened.

"What are you doing here?"

At some point, Ichan had been staring at him intently.

Pyo Cheonhee, who had been eavesdropping on the situation inside the break room, sticking to the wall in a pitiful state, let out a helpless sigh.

He was embarrassed to have been caught but, at the same time, relieved that it wasn't Jang Myungwoo who had discovered him.

As if seeing through his thoughts, Ichan narrowed his eyes at him, looking at him with a gaze full of disdain.

"This is why people call you a small agency. Let's act with some confidence, shall we?"

Right, he should’ve done that. Instead of secretly eavesdropping on my artist, he should’ve at least shouted out loud.

It felt a bit embarrassing to have overheard like a sneaky cat.

It seemed like that inner feeling showed on his face.

"Ha, our CEO even makes that face."

Ichan let out a hollow laugh and gently patted PD Pyo's back.

The young kid was being annoyingly arrogant in his consolation, yet strangely, it didn’t feel bad. In fact, his cocky comfort was slowly warming PD Pyo's heart.

"Don’t worry. I’ll show you that even a small agency can win the Rookie of the Year award."

On top of that, every word he threw out was dripping with confidence... Damn, it was cool. But still, the mention of being a small agency made something in his chest sting.

"Let's go. Let’s show the power of a small agency."

"Hey, stop with the small agency talk. You're making the small agency CEO upset."

In the end, he managed to shake off the awkward situation with a joke.

And PD Pyo made his resolve once again. He was going to bring Ichan's group L.I.T to the very top, no matter what.

* * *

At the audience gathering time for the pre-recording, Filaments were exchanging information with each other.

"So, no one was able to take a photo of them coming to work today?"

They had been guarding the M&E Center since early morning, but no one had seen L.I.T. arrive.

Worries began to spill out from all directions.

"What’s going on? Are they not performing today?"

"No, they said they’d be performing starting from today’s music show finale, right?"

"Yeah, and they even posted the audience recruitment for the pre-recording and live broadcast on the official website."

It wouldn't make sense for Blade Entertainment to post an audience recruitment notice if L.I.T. wasn't performing.

Everyone reassured themselves, thinking it couldn’t possibly be the case.

"Huh? Aren’t they Muse?"

Looking at the shape of the light sticks they were holding, they were Muse, the fan club of MuteSeven.

"That's right. Muse."

"Weren't they the ones who just wrapped up their last performance a few weeks ago?"

"Really?"

MuteSeven had already ended their current album activities a few weeks ago.

Seeing TVH even prepare a special stage for their last broadcast, everyone had been envious, thinking that the big agency had it really good.

"But why are they here?"

Recently, some members of Filament and Muse had been engaging in a power struggle across various online communities. As a result, the two fan clubs weren't exactly on good terms.

Still, Filament usually stayed quiet in such situations, but Muse, on the other hand, tended to escalate matters by supporting the malicious comments made by solo stans.

Amidst all this, the two fan clubs had to face each other offline, and sparks flew from the glances exchanged.

"Unnies. At least we’re not outnumbered anymore, huh?"

If that could be considered fortunate, then it was indeed fortunate.

On the day MuteSeven had their last performance, Filament’s numbers were only half that of Muse’s.

Naturally, they couldn't compete in terms of the volume of support.

But now, the numbers of both fan clubs were nearly equal.

"All we need is for the light sticks to come out. Hurry up and finalize the design."

"Come on, Blade. Get to work."

"Remember when they did the survey last time? They asked what’s most important for a light stick. I wrote 'brightness' there. It has to be brighter than theirs, right? Even if we have to make a huge fuss about it."

"Anyway, when it comes to brightness, we’ll be the best. Just look at the fan club name to see how obsessed the company is with brightness."

Laughter broke out among the Filaments. As expected, Muse couldn’t keep quiet and started blabbering nonsensical things.

At that moment,

The notification sounds from the Filaments' phones rang out all at once.

And someone shouted out loud.

"Hey, a photo just got posted on SNS."

In that instant, Muse was no longer the Filaments' concern.

Thanks to the four fresh photos that had just been posted on SNS, the Filaments' minds no longer had room for anything about Muse.

"Oh my gosh. What do we do? Looks like they spent the night here. Jaewon posted the pictures."

#JJAN #M-start_preparing_for_final_stage #Thank_you_Filaments_waiting_for_us #Let’s_do_well_on_Dance_Battle_today #Leaders_Möbius_Jeong_Soo-hyung_Our_God_Leader_King_Ichan_fall_in_LOVE #Filaments_Love_you

Under the string of hashtags, four neatly arranged photos were displayed.

The first photo showed L.I.T, Möbius, and MuteSeven all mingling and doing something together.

The second was taken somewhere inside the M&E Center, looking down outside.

The third was a picture of Roa, Jaewon, and Ichan practicing their dance.

"Gasp, our shining stars have a dance battle today."

"Jaewon took a picture of us from up there. Amazing."

Emotional exclamations erupted from all directions.

And the last photo.

The Filaments, staring at the photo, collectively held their breath for a moment.

Kang Ichan, lazily gazing straight ahead, with Kim Jeongsoo's head leaning heavily into his face.

It seemed like Möbius' Kim Jeongsoo had begged Ichan to take a selfie together.

From just that one photo, all the Filaments could read Jeongsoo's deep admiration.

"Ah, I’m losing it. What is this? Is Möbius' Kim Jeongsoo a Filament too?"

While Ichan’s expression looked as if he found everything in the world annoying, with just a slight smirk lifting the corner of his lips, Jeongsoo was beaming with utter happiness.

That single photo sent the idol community into a frenzy.

LMAOㅋㅋㅋㅋ Jeongsoo’s face looks like he’s dying of happiness, but what’s up with Kang Ichan’s expression.

The love is too one-sided, way too tiltedㅋㅋㅋ

Jeongsoo-oppa looks like he’s on cloud nine, but Kang Ichan is so cold-heartedㅠㅠ It’s heartbreaking.

└ Möbius fans, let’s not feel bad. That’s King Ichan’s ultimate form of emotional expression.

└ Yeah, with this, Jeongsoo is definitely being loved. So jealous of Kim Jeongsoo.

King Ichan’s image is totally like a blue lightbulbㅋㅋㅋㅋ So cold, so icy.

And just like that, Kang Ichan unofficially gained blue as his symbolic color, entirely unrelated to L.I.T’s official color.