Genius Idol’s Strategy to Conquer the Entertainment Industry

Chapter 280

The official website received a surge of membership applications, and Airy fans who managed to grab the official kit, filled with various benefits, were elated.

Even though the precious music broadcasts were cancelled one by one due to the Asian Games coverage on the following days.

– “Watching the Asian Games volleyball match, the thrill of cheering every time they score is unparalleled!”

“Yeah, music shows should make way for the Asian Games.”

– “Congratulations to Gyeon Yu-seong, the pride, hope, and miracle of Korean swimming, for winning the gold medal in the 200m freestyle!”

“By the way, any chance you could spare one of those gold medals for your little brother? I understand that the gold is precious, so an Olympic silver would do just fine. You have so many medals already, might as well give one to your brother’s friends too… How about it? Haha!”

┗ “Hey, the last part is the main point, isn’t it? LOL”

┗ “It’s not too late; let’s change the law to allow military exemption transfer within the next 10 years before the eldest siblings enlist.”

┗ “Comment deleted for violating community rules. (Reason: Political comment)”

┗ “Who reported that? It was clearly a jokeㅡㅡ”

┗ “It’s funny that the admin accepted the report, but you guys sounded too serious.”

┗ “Caught.”

Including broadcast scores and real-time text votes, they might have beaten the female solo artist reigning at the top of the charts and taken first place on the terrestrial music show with their first week’s album sales.

– “I can’t forgive Seed fanatics for this comeback timing. You should’ve done it when no one could take first place. So frustrating.”

– “Wasn’t your first place win also during an empty schedule? Just thinking about how trolls will use this to mock us makes my blood boil.”

A hilarious yet sad event occurred when a post by an Airy student who had taken an exam went viral, causing the value of ‘Again’ photocards of Ban Yo-han and On Raon, taken with an honor student concept, to skyrocket.

– (Photo) “As a retake student, I took my Sumanseosu photocard and American card to the exam, hoping for a miracle, and it turned out to be a jackpot. I’m taking them to the CSAT as well.”

┗ “LOL this is so funny. Best of luck on your CSAT!”

┗ “So effective.”

┗ “If you don’t want to cry tears of blood, don’t bring Ban Yo-han photocards to your midterms.”

┗ “On the contrary, sneak Yo-han’s photocard into the bag of the student above you.”

┗ “Even the devil cried, Yo-han cried, and the homeroom teacher cried too.”

┗ “Why is the teacher crying instead of the student? I mean, they can cry, but usually it’s the student who cries, right?”

┗ “My child didn’t cry.”

┗ “At that time, the sick student was lying in bed, worrying about the future during the exam period, and when they went to school the next day, the teacher cried on their behalf. This is a firsthand account.”

┗ “That’s some otherworldly mental strength.”

– “Someone who messes up midterms while focusing on early admissions is a third-rate.”

“Someone who clings to their school records trying to revive their dead early admissions is second-rate.”

“The one who gives up early admissions altogether, focuses on regular admissions, then takes a break and debuts as an idol, winning first place on a music show… That person is first-rate.”

┗ “No, that person is truly first-rate.”

┗ “Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing a joke failure in real-time.”

…Nevertheless, they were happy.

* * *

After winning first place on Music Round, I was flooded with congratulatory messages and questions about how I managed to pull it off so seamlessly.

Teacher Muk: [Raon, congratulations on your first place. I’m glad to see your happy smile. I’m surprised this title track is your song, but don’t get too caught up in the reactions around you and continue to be humble in your career (truncated)]

Gyeon: [Senior, congratulations on your first place. I’m happy to have heard such a meaningful and good song before anyone else. Take care and see you at the next shooting.]

Lifteen Myung-soo hyung: [Raon, congratulations on your first place!!! Juno, Ritsu, and Xiao also asked me to convey their congratulations.]

Lifteen Myung-soo hyung: [Actually, on the day you won, everyone except Gio and I had their phones taken away… If the manager finds out about this, we’ll be in trouble, so it’s okay if you don’t reply (crying emoji) See you next time!!]

Shining Jena, God Jena, Emperor Jena: [Raon, congratulations on your first place! I’m really proud to see you growing every day! It’s good to smile in front of fans, but if you’re having a hard time, make sure to talk about it. Fighting! (cheering emoji)]

MBS Ten to Ten PD Yujin Jung: [Raon, how have you been? I heard you won first place, so I’m sending congratulations and checking in ^^ I also heard you recently moved to a new dorm. Are there any plans for solo activities or independence?]

There were so many people contacting me, including broadcasting officials and idols from the cheer practice for the Idol Sports Competition who had exchanged numbers, that it was hard to reply to everyone without repeating myself.

At one point, I even considered the absurd idea of just inviting all these people to a group chat and sending a single “Thank youㅎㅎ”.

Anyway, today was a day without a music show, so we held a long fan signing event.

“Gyeon Yu-seong! Gyeon Yu-seong!”

“Waaaaaaa!!”

The cheers of more than a hundred people watching the live broadcast on the screen echoed through the hall where the fan signing event was being held.

Gyeon Yu-seong had just won the gold medal in the 200m freestyle at the Asian Games.

After the heated atmosphere cooled down a bit, I, who had been cheering hard, felt somewhat dumbfounded and said,

“No, but who cheers for the Asian Games at a fan signing event? And it’s not even a team sport like soccer or baseball, but swimming?”

My words made the deeply engrossed members and fans burst into laughter.

“We are idols who live and breathe in the water, so we need to stay loyal to our shark-like brother, Yu-seong.”

“You’re looking at idols who are completely consumed by their concept.”

For the record, we had already finished signing autographs, answering questions, and holding photo sessions before we started watching the swimming competition. By then, we had already exceeded the average fan signing event duration by a lot.

The only reason we extended the fan signing event was out of greed, so no one complained about the added time.

Also, we didn’t force anyone to stay; we told them they could leave freely before we started watching, but no one did.

To show our gratitude for cheering with us for Gyeon Yu-seong and to commemorate our first win, we bought each fan a chicken.

Thanks to that, the fan signing hall was filled with the smell of chicken until we left.

“Everyone, you seemed really excited to see my brother earlier.”

“……”

The Airy fans, who had been laughing, suddenly went quiet and avoided our gaze at Gyeon Seong-ha’s pointed remark.

“Seong-ha, are you jealous?”

“Why? Can’t I be?”

Fans squealed at Gyeon Seong-ha’s grumpy yet playful response.

‘Is he crazy?’

As soon as I heard his blatant flirting, I started choking and coughing.

No one noticed me struggling since they were all focused on Gyeon Seong-ha, who threw that crazy comment.

Unfortunately, Airy fans were looking at me, and with several cameras aimed at me from the start, I realized that a video of me being surprised by Gyeon Seong-ha’s words would be widely spread by tonight.

“Well, his body is quite impressive. Those muscles are something else.”

Airy fans laughed quietly, understanding my attempt to change the subject.

“Should we also start building muscles like that?”

“No!”

“Absolutely not!”

Not a single person was okay with the idea.

We also laughed and nodded, understanding their feelings well.

According to Joo An, an experienced idol, no matter how youthful an idol is, they need to build at least minimal muscles through exercise as they age for health reasons.

But that didn’t apply to us, who were at most twenty-two years old.

“Who do you prefer then, Yu-seong or Seong-ha?”

Most fans immediately answered Seong-ha, but a few playful fans said Gyeon Yu-seong.

“Alright, got it.”

The fan signing event ended with Gyeon Seong-ha pretending to be sulky and over a hundred chicken bones.

* * *

In the car on the way back to our temporary dorm.

“Wow, Yu-seong’s military exemption is really enviable.”

With five Olympic medals and already two gold medals at this Asian Games alone, Gyeon Yu-seong was far more famous than us in terms of public recognition and favorability.

“He’s not exempt.”

“Really? I thought Yu-seong wasn’t going to the military. He won several medals at the Olympics two years ago.”

Kang Ji-woo tilted his head in confusion at Gyeon Seong-ha’s statement.

“It’s not an exemption…”

Ban Yo-han explained instead of Gyeon Seong-ha, who was struggling to find the right words.

“Seong-ha is right. It’s more accurate to say he’s serving as an arts and sports personnel. He doesn’t have to do military service.”

“That’s right. It’s not an outright exemption.”

“I think you could achieve the same if you start training now and get exempt like Yu-seong.”

It was a joke, but Gyeon Seong-ha seemed a bit hurt despite Seo Moon-gyeol’s comforting words, which helped him recover from feeling down earlier.

“Do you want me gone?”

“I want you to stay.”

Since his favorability had increased, it seemed his sulkiness wasn’t a big problem.

If he retired and found another job during that period, he’d have to serve as an active-duty soldier to make up the remaining time. Ban Yo-han concluded that it would be best for him to coolly complete his military service even if Gyeon Seong-ha won a gold medal at the Asian Games.

“Why are we envying the person who should be the most envied among us?”

Kang Ji-woo’s words made the car atmosphere a bit gloomy, even for Ban Yo-han, who had just suggested Gyeon Seong-ha should serve coolly.

‘Guys, I’ve already done my service.’

Instead of saying such an absurd thing.

“Now that I think about it, many people showed me character drawings today.”

I changed the subject, and Kang Ji-woo showed interest.

“Character? Because they resemble you?”

“Yeah. Usually, they bring animal characters, but this time it was human characters, which was interesting.”

“Oh, I saw that too. They weren’t exact lookalikes, but the hair color and vibe were similar.”

“Isn’t that considered looking alike?”

“I’m curious now. Should we ask on the fan café?”

* * *

Since ‘Again’ wasn’t a strong concept that would typically appeal to Southeast Asia or the West, Seed Entertainment had focused this promotion on building a domestic fandom. However, the response came from an unexpected place.

Japan.

Aside from the occasional Japanese subtitles on Orca’s YouTube channel, there hadn’t been any specific promotions targeting Japan.

Seed Entertainment was puzzled by the recent surge of interest from Japan and sought to understand the reason.

“…What is this?”

– (Photo) “The real-life Suzumiya Nagi from Korea is in Korea! The three-dimensional Nagi is real!”