“Tears come when they come.”
I replied indifferently and took another sip of beer.
“Why? Weren’t you happy? If I were you, I’d be crying tears of joy thinking about the royalties that will come in.”
Royalties, huh. I couldn’t help but smirk at Kim Do-bin’s words.
‘…Do you even know how much I used to earn in royalties before I regressed?’
Before the regression, I was in the top 10 for music royalties in Korea.
Thinking about the royalties I lost because of the forced regression brought tears to my eyes.
Not out of joy, but out of frustration and anger.
This damn forced regression gave me the joy of performing but took away the earnings and royalties I made.
It was a ridiculously perfect equivalent exchange.
For someone like me, who once owned all of that, the royalties coming in now were peanuts.
“And this is our first 1st place. Weren’t you surprised, hyung?”
“Not really… I always believed we’d get 1st place.”
Suddenly, a warm atmosphere settled in.
I wanted to clarify that I believed in the big data from before the regression, not in their abilities.
But I knew better than to say that out loud; being honest would just ruin the mood. So, I let the members enjoy their victory.
To be honest, we got lucky this time with the lack of competition.
Our rival, KICKS, had a song that was clearly of lower quality than ours.
Thinking about how happy our pre-regression competitors must have been when they heard our song made me gulp down the rest of my beer.
If we had made our comeback in January as originally planned, the song wouldn’t have been buried as it was before the regression, but we wouldn’t have even dreamed of getting 1st place.
I can’t rely on getting lucky with the chart items from before the regression every time.
This time, we barely managed the comeback schedule, so we used the proven success formula from before. But there were limited songs on the USB, and only one song was tailored to the members’ skills and vocal ranges.
As of now, idol culture was mainstream, and male idols were at the forefront.
From REVE’s fifth year, idol culture started to become more niche, and the mainstream shifted from male to female idols.
So, it was only possible to top the charts and achieve reverse charting now.
TikTok and private messaging hadn’t emerged yet, but returning to a time when male idol songs easily topped the charts at least indicated the system wanted to end my regression.
If we debuted in our seventh year as a rookie idol from a no-name agency, I would have been stuck in endless regression for a thousand times.
‘Maybe I should focus more on producing for the next activity. Should I ask G1 for a collaboration?’
Lost in thought, a beer can suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Are you thinking about arranging work again? Just leave the work burden for today and enjoy the 1st place celebration.”
Seo Ye-hyun said lightly, offering me a beer can. He seemed embarrassed, avoiding my gaze awkwardly. Scratching the back of my head, I accepted the beer can.
Seo Ye-hyun, staring at the can in his hand, hesitated before adding,
“You always say you have no doubts about the success of your music. So, what’s the worry?”
His comment, missing the point of my concern, made me chuckle as I opened the beer.
“Of course, I never doubt the success of my music. But the song I’m working on now is for KICKS, not for us.”
“If you arranged it, it’s your music too, isn’t it?”
“Haha! Well, you’re not wrong.”
For the first time in a while, our conversation wasn’t sharp but rather comfortable.
It seemed the problem wasn’t me but that guy.
“Yeah, that’s it, hyungs. Just talk like this.”
Ryu Jae-hee clapped and chimed in with a grateful tone, making both of us scowl.
“Now I want to fight, thanks to you.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me that I had a cheesy conversation with him, Jae-hee.”
“Why do you guys live like this…?”
Ryu Jae-hee sighed dramatically.
Even when I try to be less prickly, I still get complaints.
“Forget it. Let’s toast. Maknae, give us a toast.”
At my request, Ryu Jae-hee brought his hands together and held them out to me.
“If the gods grant me a beer can, I’ll give a fantastic toast-”
“Cut it out. No unnecessary drama, and you, the underage one, just drink your juice and be quiet.”
Instead of giving him a beer can, I ruffled his hair.
“Aww… I was going to give a really cheerful toast.”
“Fine. If the mood gets too dark, who do you think will suffer indigestion from eating chicken?”
“Okay, I’ll give the simplest and most spirited toast! When I say REVE, you all shout Fighting!”
Holding a glass of orange juice, Ryu Jae-hee stood up and shouted.
“REVE-”
“Fighting!”
Five voices echoed loudly in our cramped basement dorm.
Unlike the previous times when we were out of sync, this time our voices came together quite well.
Three beer cans and two juice glasses clinked lightly.
Watching the two youngest fight over who gets more chicken and Seo Ye-hyun steadfastly sticking to just the chicken radish, I laughed and brought the beer can to my lips.
This scene was quite different from the past when we were too overwhelmed by the uncertain future to look after each other.
It wasn’t bad at all.
***
“The number one song for the fifth week of November on Music Center is ‘All Right or Night’ by REVE! Congratulations!”
Pop! Confetti rained down from above. Despite winning first place yesterday, everyone maintained a composed expression.
Except for Kim Do-bin, who was bawling his eyes out again.
He had always wanted to give a first-place acceptance speech, and he took the microphone naturally, listing all the people he was grateful for as if he would mention everyone he knew. I nudged Ryu Jae-hee lightly in the side, signaling him to wrap it up.
Even with a list of more than twenty names, our Kim No-hope representative’s name didn’t come up.
On our way to greet the CP after the encore song, we ran into KICKS purely by chance in the hallway.
There were no people around, and KICKS, except for one member, was glaring at us like they were looking at their worst enemies.
Seeing them like that, Seo Ye-hyun muttered loudly enough for them to hear.
“Wow, look at those murderous glares. Anyone would think we stole their trophy.”
“Hyung, keep your voice down. What if they hear?”
“Hmph, did I say something wrong? Let them hear. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Hyung, are you good at fighting?”
“We have Yoon Eden.”
This guy even outsources fighting. I wondered what gave him such confidence, but of course, it wasn’t himself.
“Yeah, Ye-hyun hyung. Just let it go.”
As if he expected me to back him up, Seo Ye-hyun looked at me with betrayed eyes. I patted his shoulder lightly and continued.
“They’re just bitter because a group that got lucky took first place from them.”
When I threw back the words KICKS’ leader had said before their comeback, his face twisted in annoyance.
“Getting all cocky just because you won while we were off guard?”
Just then, Gyeon Ha-jun, who had been quiet, spoke up.
“Yoon-seong hyung, no matter how much you criticize us for winning by luck, why put your own group down in front of your members? You’re just demoralizing the guys who worked so hard.”
His voice was soft, as if genuinely advising, but the content was sharp, making me open my eyes wide in surprise.
‘Was he always like this…?’
Gyeon Ha-jun was never one to jump into these power struggles.
Even KICKS seemed shocked that the usually quiet Gyeon Ha-jun would throw a stone at them, staring at us in disbelief.
Feeling his grip on my arm, I understood why he acted out of character.
He was preemptively stepping in before I could react.
Having spent seven years in the entertainment industry before the regression, I had learned to think before acting. But Gyeon Ha-jun, unaware of this, still saw me as an impulsive rookie.
Silently applauding Gyeon Ha-jun for his unexpected freestyle diss that further soured the already tense mood, I smirked.
“What can I say? Since you lost, I can’t admit that our success was just luck. Try to win next time, so I can acknowledge it. Fighting.”
I even struck a fighting pose, making the KICKS leader’s scowl deepen.
Just as he was about to say something, footsteps echoed down the hallway, and he immediately clamped his mouth shut.
As murmuring voices approached, I leisurely started walking, ending the standoff.
Before passing by, I glanced over at KICKS and met eyes with their parachute member.
Though he had been an internal informant before the regression, at this reset point, he was just an awkward acquaintance. As I tried to break eye contact, he flashed a seemingly friendly smile. My eyebrow twitched involuntarily.
…What the heck?
—
-Oh, I really wanted to get my boys a first place before the year ended…
-Damn, they’re having a festival over there. Why is the KICKS fandom acting up when our group didn’t even put them down?
-Any hope for next week’s 1st place…?
└Noㅠㅠ Our album release was a week later, and the gap in digital scores is wideningㅠㅠ
-Let’s at least get them the Rookie of the Year award even if we can’t get them 1st place.
-If they lose both 1st place and Rookie of the Year, I won’t be able to face the guys…
-WAMA voting is over, so let’s focus all our firepower on voting for Rookie of the Year on Naoun and Sildee.
└Right, WAMA awards don’t even count for much nowadays. People will just say it was all decided by the agencies, but winning Rookie of the Year would leave no room for criticism.
└True, that fandom is already gearing up to downplay our win by saying their comeback week aligned with the WAMA vote closing.
-By the way, is it true that Eden and Hajun were supposed to debut with KICKS?
└I’m not sure about Hajun, but Eden, yes. He was close to Yoon-seong.
└Why did he leave? If he had stayed, we wouldn’t have been pushed back musically.
└It wasn’t leaving, he got kicked out, right?ㅋㅋㅋ, who in their right mind would leave Newborn for a no-name company? ㅋㅋ
***
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