Rockstar Again - Chapter 102



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Episode 102. A rolling stone gathers no moss (2)

In Korea, everything is fast.

I’m not just talking about being a people who move quickly.

This refers to things that are widespread across society, such as the ultra-fast economic growth known as the Miracle on the Han River.

There have been remarkable developments in architecture and social infrastructure, and the cultural sector is also growing rapidly as we enter the 21st century.

While the growth of the music industry has been steep, the growth of fans has also been remarkable.

Even just 30 years ago, the idea of ​​paying money to see a singer perform would have been close to absurd.

A crazy change considering the passion and engagement of 21st century fans.

There are several characteristics of Koreans that made such a drastic change possible.

Kim Do-ah had only one idea in mind.

“This is crazy, everything… … !”

It’s the first time I’ve heard this song. How can I follow it?

Even Lee Dong-ha said that this was an unreleased song that he was revealing for the first time today?

Just follow along and see.

That’s either good or bad.

Quick to accept.

I lifted my heel and looked in the direction where the A-Fly fans were, and it felt like they were going crazy, whether it was A-Fly or X-ral.

If you’ve experienced the typical idol culture, you’ll know that this is something that absolutely cannot happen.

The Korean fandom is one that treats everyone as a fucking idiot except for their oppa, so what is it about Blue Porcelain that drives A-Fly fans crazy?

‘Golden axe, silver axe… …!’

It’s not exactly like a fairy tale, but the first thing that comes to mind is a golden axe and a silver axe.

I thought the silver axe was the best and lived with it, but there’s a gold axe?

Same use, same size, same shape.

But the values ​​are completely different.

The word gold is not enough.

A phrase that I heard used as a meme somewhere comes to mind.

‘Diamonds are forever… … De Beers… … .’

I don’t know if De Beers is the name of a diamond, a person, or a company, but I know that there is something more precious than a diamond.

So, whether you’re an A-Fly fan or not, you can’t help but go crazy and jump.

Of course, what makes all this possible is one person’s ridiculous stage presence, skills, and shining face.

“Dong-ha oppa… … ! I believed in you… … ! What do you mean Egypt… … .”

Kim Do-ah clasped her hands together and shook them like an otter.

Ultimately, it is the idols that make teenage girls dance.

Although idol is the English word for idol, in Korea the word idol has become a noun referring to a specific type of person.

I think the word ‘idol’ is more appropriate than ‘idol’.

“Move! Move!”

Before we knew it, the fans in the audience had become one and were chanting for Lee Dong Ha instead of We Are the World.

Kim Do-ah also joined their ranks.

Here, in this place, I will die.

I will return to heaven and shout.

That day, the sky was very blue.

Kim Do-ah, filled with emotion, recited a poem in her mind and shouted for Lee Dong-ha at the top of her lungs.

Moving his hands away from the guitar, he pulls the microphone out of the stand and heads towards the synthesizer.

“Who’s here?”

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

This is no longer TVK’s media center performance hall, nor a band’s stage.

It’s a revival meeting.

A religion called Blue Porcelain led by the leader, Lee Dong-ha.

“No! You idiots! Who is this guy here?”

“Hong Young-pil!”

As the fans in the audience shouted the keyboardist’s name, Lee Dong-ha ran to the center of the stage as if he was satisfied.

Holding a microphone and singing.

At that sight, the meerkats in the audience all moved their necks in unison to follow.

The followers, who had confirmed the leader’s wishes, shouted out for Hong Yeong-pil.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

It seems that they all thought that if it was a band led by this cult leader, they would personally invite even an old grandfather pushing a wheelchair.

If it’s Hong Young-pil, I’m embarrassed.

Unlike before when he appeared on variety shows, his appearance also seems to have become more intense.

At this point, Kim Do-ah thought, she could even look like a friend from the school next door.

The bean pods are so scary.

“Hong Young-pil!”

“Hong Young-pil!”

“Hong Young-pil!”

While the frenzied believers were chanting Hong Young-pil’s name, Lee Dong-ha walked to the corner and stood next to the bassist.

Of course, while holding the microphone and singing.

This is no longer a performance for evaluation.

How do you rate this?

In the middle of the performance, the vocalist takes a break from singing and says what he wants to say.

This is ‘just’ a show.

Dominated by one singer.

Then he stops singing again and says this.

“Who is here?”

“I don’t know!”

Amongst most of the shouts, I could hear a specific name: Yoon Tae-joo! … …

That bassist must be pretty famous… … Kim Do-ah thought again.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t know your name, since it’s my first time seeing your face.

‘Isn’t that right…? I think I’ve seen it somewhere.’

Then, moving again, he shouted.

“Shout out because it’s Yoon Tae-joo!”

It’s the beginning of a revival meeting again.

“Yoon Tae-joo! Yoon Tae-joo!”

Kim Do-ah also shouted, “Don’t be so shocked.”

I don’t know who he is, but he’s better than Hong Young-pil.

He looks quite old, but he has the looks of a father… … .

Stylish and sexy.

Of course, even that is a situation where movement compensation is applied, but anyway.

“Is Yoon Tae-joo that Yoon Tae-joo?”

Some believers came to their senses and raised questions, but they were quickly suppressed.

If Lee Dong-ha says Yoon Tae-joo, you can just say Yoon Tae-joo! Does it matter whether it’s that Yoon Tae-jun or that Yoon Tae-jun?

“Doa… …! My heart feels like it’s going to burst… … What should I do?”

Since the ticket was for two people, I could hear the voice of the friend who came with me.

A friend from the practical music academy who prepared to advance to a music school after moving to Seoul, a girl with an unusual last name named Ra Hee-yeon.

Now that I think about it, I had forgotten.

Even the fact that my friend was right next to me.

“Me too. Do you have a defibrillator?”

“maybe?”

A little chat is just a way to get some momentum going again.

The two of them sang along to Idoha’s song again.

It’s good because it’s the semi-final stage.

I heard you’re playing three songs today.

As we approach the climax of the first song, Astronaut.

After moving, the drummer who was sitting on a fairly high platform stopped drumming.

Lee Dong-ha glanced behind him and then looked straight ahead again… … .

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

“Move!”

“Oppaaaaaaah!”

Is it because they’re a rock band, or because they’re new? The company didn’t have a fan manager, and there wasn’t a unified chant, so the fans just shout whatever comes to mind.

When I see Lee Dong-ha singing with a smile on his face, I get the feeling that this is what it means to descend…

The drumming begins again.

As expected, the drummer is seen lifting his heels with all his might and stretching his neck while shouting, “Stretch, stretch!” and taking off his mask and sunglasses.

One thing that was a bit disappointing was that the lighting was focused on Lee Dong-ha, so the drummer’s face wasn’t clearly visible. It was just a bit disappointing out of curiosity, but it didn’t really matter.

Because Lee Dong-ha’s face is clear.

As Lee Dong-ha walks towards the drummer while singing, the lights move and the camera’s neck turns to follow him.

The camera captured the faces of Lee Dong-ha and the drummer on the large screen behind the drummer at the same time.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa… … … … … Pa?”

Kim Do-ah’s cheers ended in a questionable manner.

Ra Hee-yeon asked Kim Do-ah, “Is the small talk over yet?”

“what?”

“dad……?”

“dad?”

“… … Yeah… … . Ah… … Pa.”

I’m 17 years old this year.

By the new standards, he’s fifteen, not even his birthday yet.

Kim Do-ah lost her Korean skills late in life.

‘Why is Dad there…?’

I said I was doing some music with my friends.

I didn’t know it would be this serious.

As the sky spins and Kim Do-ah’s sense of reality blurs.

“This is Kim Dong-sik, our drummer. Do you all know him now?”

At Lee Dong-ha’s words, the audience sings in unison like a group of friends from the sprout class.

“Yes, yes!”

“Then shout! Why are you just answering?”

“Kim Dong-sik!”

“Kim Dong-sik!”

“Kim Dong-sik!”

People call my dad’s name.

My friend Raheeyeon too.

“Kim Dong-sik! Kim Dong-sik! Oh! That guy is smiling! He’s cute!”

“… … .”

Rahee Yeon also calls my dad ‘oppa’ because she’s a bit ignorant.

* * *

Not long after TVK’s live broadcast began.

It was literally chaos.

It may be a bit of a cliché, but how else can you describe this?

“PD-nim. The viewer ratings have now surpassed 20%… …!”

Na Tae-pyeong’s sweet voice is heard in An Chi-seop’s ears.

It’s a heavenly sound.

cable.

It’s a music survival show, but the genre is rock.

2026.

When you combine all of these, what are the chances that the live viewership will be over 20%?

It converges infinitely to zero.

Gulp―.

An Chi-seop swallowed dry saliva.

There was also a hint of fear.

It’s like a poisoned chalice moving to Ahn Chi-seop.

An entity that you can’t control and you don’t know where it will go.

What if I get off midway again this time?

Unlike Nae-Pop-Idol, which sailed until the end thanks to the support of the fandom, it just ran aground.

But isn’t it a material that you can’t not use?

The fact that it showed such ripple effects even with its face covered was enough to make me think, “It’s moving, moving.”

But it was just enough, not overflowing.

If it were someone else, I would have been satisfied with that, but it’s Ahn Chi-seop and the other person is Lee Dong-wook.

The greed for viewer ratings is endless.

Isn’t it Ahn Chi-seop who knows the ripple effect of moving better than anyone else?

The ripple effect of moving is the face.

Anyway, evaluating someone is bound to be subjective, and Ahn Chi-seop’s evaluation of Lee Dong-ha is like that.

face.

face.

face.

Not just handsome, but somewhere between a rebel and a boy with an aura.

But the fact that he had wrapped his face so tightly and had no intention of wiping it down was enough to make me explode.

If it were any other group, they would have made a fuss and created the picture that Ahn Chi-seop wanted.

The opponent moves.

In addition, Chairman Yoon Tae-joo is in charge of the bass… … .

“What about the knight?”

At Ahn Chi-seop’s words, Na Tae-pyeong picked up his cell phone and moved his fingers busily.

“It’s pouring out now. There are already articles about how they found out who drummer Kim Dong-sik is. In particular, there are the most articles about Chairman Yoon Tae-joo and Lee Dong-ha. It’s a close race. Why on earth was Chairman Yoon Tae-joo playing the guitar there? Wasn’t Lee Dong-ha in Egypt? How did he end up here? Has he been fooling his fans all this time? Where did he start fooling them… … Oh my, there’s just too much. No, it’s not that there are too many, but right now all the media is watching us. Since they’re talking about us here and there, the viewer ratings keep going up.”

“… … .”

Instead of answering, An Chi-seop clenched his fists.

It’s a jackpot.

That would be an understatement.

Perhaps, something that will never happen again in Ahn Chi-seop’s broadcasting career.

“We got a call from outside. There’s a ton of press vehicles in front of our media center right now.”

“What do they say at our company? No talk?”

“The CEO just got off work and is in a hurry to get back. He asked me to tell the PD. Please wait for him. If possible, please hold on to him… .”

It can’t be helped because Chairman Yoon Tae-joo is here.

The fans here are half-blind and screaming without thinking deeply about who Yoon Tae-joo is, but many of the viewers who saw his face on the broadcast would have figured out which Yoon Tae-joo he is.

In the first place, it wasn’t difficult because we had already seen the face of Jaemin Group Chairman Yoon Tae-joo on the news and in the newspapers.

“also?”

“I stopped the chief from coming down to our entertainment department to ask for an exclusive interview. It was a live broadcast.”

“also?”

“The cell phones are going crazy. People are calling me asking me to throw something at them. Isn’t that the case with your cell phone?”

“I turned it off a little while ago.”

An Chi-seop clenched and unclenched his two hands.

I clearly have two hands, but I can’t even tell how many rice cakes there are.

‘I was not wrong.’

I remember the days when I would groan and lose sleep at night.

There were times when I was anxious because I had the best materials in my hands but couldn’t use them properly.

That was the extent of not being able to use it properly, but what if Ahn Chi-seop himself used it the way he wanted to? His greed as a broadcaster made him stamp his feet.

I was afraid that I would get kicked out if I brought it up for no reason, so I couldn’t do anything.

But today, the rugby ball, which I didn’t know where it would bounce to, scored a touchdown.

I didn’t even throw or kick the ball, it just flew by itself.

“Dongha-yaa! I love you!”

For the first time in his life, Ahn Chi-seop shouted during a broadcast.

FD Na Tae-pyeong looks at himself as if he has seen something ugly with his face distorted.

‘You’ll know how I feel now when you launch a pro with your own name on it.’

An Chi-seop is flying in the sky right now.

Not just the sky, but somewhere in heaven.