The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 94

As October arrived, information about CENTIX’s debut album began to be released in earnest.

The first start was, as expected, the release of individual teasers and solo concept preview cuts.

Since there were 6 members, it was possible to efficiently utilize the time of one week.

On October 8th, the individual teaser and concept photos of Ryu Si-hwan, the protagonist who took 1st place in 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, struck the world.

Not only his visual aspects but also the intro that played for just about 10 seconds drew a lot of attention.

—I got distracted by Si-hwan’s face and couldn’t listen to the music properly… I need to listen again

—No seriously lol, I only heard 10 seconds but the song is amazing, this absolutely cannot fail

└Deep house pop paradise, for real, my personal taste hit the jackpot

└I was worried Rave might bring out something weird, but if it’s this style, I totally welcome it lmao. Ah, please show us at least the album jacket quickly~~

—What’s the exact schedule for this? I really don’t have any idea to find the information for this, sorry

└Starting today, individual teasers released in ISL ranking order, group teaser comes out on the 14th after individual teasers

└Group teaser absolute survival mode

└The song title already has swag, [Chronic] ha…… Beat up this sister’s heart, you guys

There was probably no one who doubted CENTIX’s visuals.

However, Rave, which still had many question marks attached, was the problem.

The news that they had decided on deep house genre, which is a hot trend these days and also frequently appeared in 〈ISL 2〉, as the title track completely raised MILLENNIUM’s happiness index.

As individual teasers and concept photos were released according to the final rankings of 〈ISL 2〉, they drew even more attention from fans.

The result of continuously perfect quality that would be strange not to anticipate was everyone waiting desperately for only the 14th.

Although MILLENNIUM had strong individual fandoms, this time it felt like a great unification was happening.

The most noticeable change occurred on Seong-hwi’s individual fandom side.

Cases where people enter a specific idol group based on all members are extremely rare.

It’s typical to first look at the bias who caught their eye and settle into the main base while going along.

In CENTIX’s case, formed through a national survival audition, this characteristic was inevitably more pronounced.

Especially Seong-hwi’s fans, who had to be satisfied with 2nd place after being ranked by Ryu Si-hwan, whom they had considered a competitor until the end of the broadcast, showed even more self-defensive tendencies.

So even until the official announcement of CENTIX’s debut song 〈Chronic〉 came out, there were many forces on the internet trying to disparage Ryu Si-hwan through what’s commonly called ‘anonymous accounts.’

—Why do we have to hear bean sounds because of RSH lol. Ah, so pissed

—He looks like he has no motivation and came out with his returnee title acting all high and mighty, how does it make sense that they gave 1st place to a kid like that~ lol. Didn’t they manipulate the internet voting or something?

—The scenes where he’s inwardly annoyed at Hwi but has to pretend to care for him since they became the same team for image management were disgusting lol. Usually he had no expression at all but always tried to act deeply moved after stages, so fake

└For real lol. He acts like he’s some saint, all those face-obsessed girls going “father~” and praising him gave him delusions of grandeur lol

Obviously it was a scene of forced criticism to anyone who looked.

No matter how extreme Seong-hwi’s fans were, anyone who watched all 12 episodes would know that their relationship was completely fine.

But there was no one trying to argue against anonymous accounts showing severe aggression with the mindset of ‘even if I get suspended, it’s just a sub-account anyway.’

However, as CENTIX’s self-produced content and Rave Entertainment’s high-quality official news were released one after another, the firepower of general tweets naturally surpassed the brainless forced criticism of anonymous accounts.

—Si-hwan’s individual fans, you know all those hateful comments are just trolls, right? We also naturally like Si-hwan just as much. Hwi-hwan brilliant forever~

└Lol you don’t need to say that, any MILLENNIUM with their head screwed on knows hehe. Don’t think about upsetting things and let’s just talk about our babies’ teasers

└Oh, by the way, I don’t know whose idea it was but “Hwi-Hwan brilliant” is good lmao

└There’s also “princely-ones” and “vocal line” as sister products

└I’m pushing “3SH-s” lol. It’s nice that the kids’ chemistry names come out so variously

—From someone who’s been rolling around in fandom for ages, those kinds of anonymous accounts are better to have than not lol. Of course I never want my idol to see such trashy posts, but it’s also proof that they’ve become famous enough

└That’s true, kids with no weight class don’t even get those kinds of people attached…… because no one knows who they are……

└Still, I wish those people doing brainless hate-play would disappear T_T I empathize really well so I’m scared Si-hwan might see those posts and get hurt

└We can just bury those things by talking about other stuff~ The individual teasers all have good quality this time and even though we only heard a bit, the song seems good so my ordinary friends’ reactions are also okay hehe

└That’s definitely better. I should write one more letter instead of worrying for no reason

Thus even the individual fandoms of Ryu Si-hwan and Seong-hwi, who had been most at odds, united against anonymous accounts and achieved integration.

All Rave had to do was deliver the final blow to continue this virtuous cycle.

The [CENTIX 「Chronic」 Official Teaser] uploaded at 6 PM on October 14th succeeded in mobilizing firepower beyond imagination.

‘……What am I watching right now.’

Ryu Si-hwan’s homma, who had been sitting in front of her computer since 5 PM waiting for the teaser, blinked her eyes while checking the exponentially rising view count in real time.

200,000 in 10 minutes.

400,000 in 20 minutes.

600,000 in 30 minutes.

CENTIX’s teaser was on a terrifying rampage, on track to hit 1 million views within an hour of release.

‘Again. I need to watch it again.’

The homma, who had just been staring blankly at the screen at first, slapped both cheeks and straightened her posture.

Then she turned on a screen recording program and played the 1 minute 6 second long teaser.

Click, click.

The clock hands turned sharply.

A Milky Way filled with white stars flowed very slowly while drawing an inverted triangle.

When the pendulum moved six times, the stars that fell below all changed to sky blue in unison, drawing a different Milky Way.

Click, click.

Swoosh—

The rattling sound of clock hands stopped and raindrops took their place.

The two Milky Ways forming perfect symmetry faded out.

That shape transformed into an old hourglass.

The moment the dreamy bass characteristic of deep house began to be heard over the sound of falling rain, the camera was suddenly sucked into the point where the white and sky blue stars met.

A dark space where nothing could be seen.

The bass beat still playing in the background was reminiscent of a heartbeat.

In the space where lights turned on one by one, six figures lay without any movement.

♩♪♬♪♬♪♩……

As if gaining momentum, the bass gradually increased in BPM.

When a synthesizer mix was added on top, creating an even richer sound, a beautiful hourglass filled with light slowly descended over the shadow lying in the center.

Then, as if drawn by something unknown, that figure slowly reached out his hand.

The moment his fingers touched the hourglass, the screen went dark again and only one text flickered.

[You can save me]

[Will you save me?]

[Save me]

The music that had stopped returned powerfully and the darkened screen also brightened.

Moving to what was clearly the chorus part that anyone could tell, CENTIX in black and white mixed formal wear showed their beautiful synchronized dance that had already become a trademark with light body movements.

「The moment our two breaths touched

I know everything will end」

「My love is chronic, chronic

And only you can save me

SAVE ME」

When Ryu Si-hwan in the center dropped his hand downward, the teaser also ended like a film being cut.

[Chronic – Oct. 23rd. 18:00] remained on the black screen for a while before disappearing with a pop.

After confirming the video had been properly captured, the homma tried to compile the information in her head one by one.

First, the song is good. 〈Chronic〉 had received favorable reviews even when only about 10 seconds of melody came out in the individual teaser without proper lyrics. This time in the group teaser, the entire chorus came out, making it even more certain to read the song’s path to success.

A pop dance song mixing deep house beats with synthesizers. What young generation wouldn’t like this?

Second, of course it’s the costumes that elevate the members’ visuals by another level.

The homma also had continuing question marks about Rave Entertainment like other MILLENNIUM, but faith was gradually building through profile photos and concept photos.

And this teaser confirmed it.

Ah, I can feel relieved about the coordination team.

It was really a scene that appeared briefly, but the outfits in the scene where all six were lying still were definitely harnesses.

All scenes used in teasers should be considered as definitely appearing in the music video.

So that means at least two outfits—harness & formal wear—are confirmed.

Rave, who seemed to perfectly understand fans’ hearts, was just praiseworthy.

Third was…… an extremely biased opinion, but what could she do when he had become her bias. It was expected that Ryu Si-hwan would have quite a lot of center portions in this debut song.

The formula that survival 1st place privilege guarantees the center position is widely established, but there are not few cases where they only shine briefly in the center position during the intro and then their presence gets buried.

But it was revealed that Ryu Si-hwan was in charge of center during the chorus and ending too, which brought tremendous relief.

‘There will be more video editing sources too. Good, good.’

The homma turned on her video editing program and cracked her wrists.

The teaser length itself was only 1 minute 6 seconds, so if she edited just the parts where Ryu Si-hwan appeared, it would barely be a few dozen seconds.

Very short videos couldn’t even be used for NeoTube monetization.

But by now, the homma’s loyalty had completely transcended monetary factors.

* * *

Two days had passed since the teaser was released.

October 16th. According to CENTIX’s promotion schedule that had been released in advance, today was the day the track list/album cover/highlight medley would be revealed.

A day like a comprehensive gift set.

“I hope the fans like it, right?”

“They’ll definitely like it. Don’t worry, everyone.”

Rave Entertainment’s practice room was in full operation from the afternoon.

Now there was really only one week left until the debut show.

Music video filming was also finished and album production was complete.

I declared a brief break and gave the members time to catch their breath.

Meanwhile, Yu Ha-woon turned on his phone to check real-time reactions.

“Brother Si-hwan, how many views do you think the highlight medley will get?”

“Mm, honestly wouldn’t about 2 million be grateful enough.”

“Our teaser is over 4 million now, so won’t it be more?”

Ma Si-hyeok loosened his sweat-soaked wristbands and sat next to me.

The scars on his wrists were still clearly visible.

Currently Ma Si-hyeok was in a very stable state, but just in case, he was taking medication every night.

“Teasers are teasers so the attention goes up more, and highlight medleys are mainly watched by our core fans, so the view count itself will be lower.”

Chae Ha-ru also flapped his t-shirt and plopped down on the floor.

Chae Ha-ru, who had even pierced his ears this time saying he wanted to try a style change, looked good in whatever he did probably because his base was so overpowered.

“I wonder how great it would be if the B-side tracks also chart.”

“I think it would be good if 〈Winning Shot〉 had a reverse run again.”

“〈HIT〉 too! I was so excited recording it after such a long time.”

While the guys were saying they hoped the other tracks would also blow up, I was thinking something else alone.

Right, since it’s our first debut album, how much interest accumulates toward the tracks is also important.

But as Chae Ha-ru said earlier, videos like highlight medleys had a strong feeling of being exclusively for MILLENNIUM, who would definitely raise both hands and feet for CENTIX.

Broadcasts that come out on TV channels, not NeoTube.

In other words, the reaction from mediums that even ordinary people can easily access is most important.

Like tomorrow’s first broadcast of CENTIX’s reality program, 〈TIME WITH CENTIX〉.