Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus Chapter 135

Lime

 

“Kingdom, fighting!”

 

“…….”

 

“Good luck! Kingdom, fighting!!!”

 

“…….”

 

As I was quietly walking up to the stage….

 

I heard that voice.

 

“You can do it! Hang in there, Kingdom!”

 

Anyone listening would think…

 

‘Is he mocking me or what?’

 

His tone sounded like pure mockery. It wasn’t my imagination. It rang clearly in my ears as a taunt. There was something irritating about his tone—something that felt as though he were looking down on us. It sounded like he was saying, ‘Let’s see how well you can do it’ or ‘Let’s see if you can even hope to beat us’.

 

It was the tone of someone absolutely certain that [Kingdom] could never defeat <Fantasia>, no matter how much we struggled.

 

‘So, they’re gloating because they just finished a great set?’

 

Their album was selling well, their digital rank was high, their NewTube views were great… and now they were humble-bragging about how they just tore up the stage?

 

My insides began to boil. An indescribable hostility flared up. It wasn’t even a sense of rivalry anymore. It was pure irritation. I wanted to snap back at him. I wanted to turn around and glare. 

 

No, eventually, I couldn’t help but look. Naturally, Lee Unha’s face entered my vision.

 

And….

 

I saw a face completely devoid of malice.

 

‘What… is that…?’

 

He really looked like he was rooting for [Kingdom]. In the smile blooming on that radiant face, I couldn’t feel a trace of ill will or hostility. There was no emotion other than a pure message of support for a colleague walking the same path. 

 

To exaggerate slightly, it was an expression only a child could make.

 

‘Is he really cheering for us?’

 

“…….”

 

‘Is he actually rooting for us?’

 

The answer was already there. More precisely, it was right in front of me. He looked like he truly, sincerely hoped [Kingdom] would finish their stage succesfully… that [Kingdom] would give a great performance and come back down.

 

I had to look away from Lee Unha’s gaze. For a moment I wondered why I couldn’t meet Lee Unha’s eyes, but in truth, I already knew the answer. 

 

I just didn’t have the confidence to keep looking at that face. I couldn’t bear to look at those eyes, that smile. A crushing sense of self-loathing welled up inside me.

 

‘What am I doing right now?’

 

Even as I slowly walked up onto the stage, various thoughts filled my mind. 

 

‘What am I doing here?’

 

It was the same after the standby signal was given. Even though I was instinctively taking my position, various thoughts were tormenting my brain.

 

‘What on earth… are we doing?’

 

It didn’t take long to realize that I’d been interpreting a sincere gesture of encouragement as something malicious. Blinded by jealousy and <Fantasia>’s success, I was desperately trying to ignore the pure support Lee Unha was sending. Because I thought it was impossible for a human being to be that way, I was desperately hoping Lee Unha was a bad person.

 

The reality was….

 

‘The reality is that we’re the ones in the wrong.’

 

Strictly speaking, we were the bad guys here. I had just been closing my eyes to it. There was no way I didn’t know what [Crown] and [Kingdom] were doing. In the first place, it was an order directly from the CEO. 

 

He told us to watch Lee Unha and study him. Whether it was legally wrong or not, everyone understood that it crossed an ethical line. In fact, some of our members were severely shaken by the current situation. Some had even repeatedly asked whether it was really okay for us to keep doing this—what more needed to be said?

 

Now, some members were saying they didn’t want to do this kind of performance anymore, and others complained that they wanted to do our own thing. Everyone knew the truth. Everyone knew Kingdom was desperately clinging to <Fantasia>’s coattails. Even Lee Unha himself must have known.

 

And yet,

 

Despite all that….

 

‘How can he still cheer for us?‘

 

There had to be a limit to how kind someone could be. A limit to how pure someone could be. It felt even more so considering there had been a major scuffle right before we went on stage.

 

‘How can he still root for us?’

 

My head was spinning; I was confused.

 

“…….”

 

‘No. I have to harden my heart.’

 

“…….”

 

‘I did this knowing everything. Lee Unha has nothing to do with me. I’m just one step away from success.’

 

“…….”

 

‘Whether it’s morally wrong or not… it doesn’t matter. I can crush them. What do we have that’s worse than <Fantasia>? We trained longer. I’m a better singer and dancer than Lee Unha. [Crown] is way bigger than that tiny company <The World>. Yes. We are the rookie boy group from the Big 4 agency, Crown. I don’t need to be intimidated or mentally shaken just because we’re slightly behind in the metrics right now. We’re still pushing viral campaigns and counter-viral campaigns. The same goes for the stage. I just need to stop being nervous and do it right.’

 

“…….”

 

‘Don’t be nervous… just do it right.’

 

But….

 

‘Don’t be nervous. Just do what you have to do.’

 

My head already felt heavy.

 

‘I have to focus on my expressions. Right, keep smiling. I have to look at the fans with the exact same feeling as Lee Unha, the exact same expression. That’s what the CEO wants.’

 

Contrary to my thoughts, my face wouldn’t cooperate. The expression of Lee Unha that I had practiced hundreds, thousands of times in the mirror wasn’t coming out right. I kept trying to recall that face I saw moments ago, but I couldn’t find an image in my mind that could reach that expression.

 

‘Am I doing this right? Are we doing this right?’

 

My pitch wavered in a section where I’d never made a mistake during practice. For a split second, I even lost the beat.

 

I was not the only one flustered. All the members were wavering. As I, the center who was supposed to be the anchor, began to lose my footing, I could feel the performance—the dominoes—collapsing. 

 

‘Are we doing okay? Please tell me we are. Please.’

 

Without realizing it, I looked toward the audience. I was desperate to know how [Kingdom]’s performance was being perceived. It was an instinct born from desperation.

 

Some fans wore expressions that suggested they didn’t know how they were supposed to react. Some fans were cheering at the top of their lungs. But some had worried looks.

 

‘No… this is….’

 

The rest of the audience was the same. In fact, <Fantasia>’s fandom, <Aether>, looked like they didn’t even acknowledge [Kingdom]’s existence.

 

‘I just have to do it right from now on.’

 

We’re better. We’re superior. No, I’m better. I’m superior.

 

‘Lee Unha just got lucky.’

 

He just happened to appear on a hit show like Idol Classism….

 

‘He just happened to catch people’s eyes… he just… got lucky….’

 

He’d never really struggled the way I had… Do you know how many years I spent as a trainee? Do you know how hard I worked to stand on this stage? At most… at most, he only trained for half a year at QR….

 

But I couldn’t shake it off. No matter how hard I tried to push it away….

 

I couldn’t erase that face. I struggled and struggled, but I couldn’t get that face out of my mind. Even until the final moment when the camera was focused on my face at the end of the stage, I couldn’t get rid of it.

 

Finally….

 

“Pffft.”

 

I heard a scoff that shouldn’t have reached me.

 

[Anonymous: [Music Bunker] Ep. 1121. <Fantasia> vs. [Kingdom] Performance Comparison GIF Collection]

 

[Video of <Fantasia>’s Lee Unha smiling, GIF of [Kingdom]’s Lime smiling]

[Ending pose of <Fantasia>’s Lee Unha, ending pose of [Kingdom]’s Lime]

[Group choreography of <Fantasia> members, group choreography of [Kingdom] members]

 

↳ [Anon]: Excuse me… but could you take this post down? They’re both hardworking artists. Dragging Kingdom down while comparing them like this is rude to Fantasia too.

↳ [Anon]: Your artist committed the rudeness first. Wait, can they even be called artists? They’re just copy-and-paste machinesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: Even the word copy-paste is too kind. I was horrified watching the music show this week. I was embarrassed for them; my own face was burning. Even the fans didn’t look like they could cheer properly ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: Honestly, L-M has been looking shaky. Ever since debut, it’s like he’s lost his own identity. After their first-week sales turned out decent, he got arrogant or something. I’ve never seen an idol lose their original mindset within a week of debut.

↳ [Anon]: I can’t even watch it. It’s way too obvious he’s forcing himself to imitate him… and look at how he won’t let go of Una until the very end. Seriously… does he have a disease where he dies if he doesn’t copy LUH?

↳ [Anon]: Is the difference really that big?

↳ [Anon]: Yeah, whatever, copycat-dol~

↳ [Anon]: I told you, calling them copycat-dols is too generous. If you’re going to copy-paste, at least do it properly ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: I see what Crown was trying to do, but this was the absolute worst move. Setting Kingdom aside, I was shocked because Fantasia was so good. Seriously, it looked like the kids were all possessed.

↳ [Anon]: The atmosphere at the venue was no joke either. Even fans of other groups were clapping and cheering. I don’t know if they were rooting for them because of the current drama or because the stage was just that legendary… but anyway, it felt like a performance that will go down in history.

↳ [Anon]: I heard the fan club membership shot up after the broadcast. Probably a lot of people joined right there at the venue.

↳ [Anon]: The solo fancams are exploding, the NewTube views are insane, too. Hilariously, Kingdom’s views are rising too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ though it seems people are just going to see how bad they were. I wonder if there’s ever been an idol fancam with this many dislikes. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: This is so refreshing. I was so stressed out by people questioning Fantasia’s talent ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: It’s hilarious how the viral marketing shills all vanished ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Even they knew it was a lost cause. Praising Kingdom while dragging Fantasia down ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ To see the people who were all “Kingdom, Kingdom” disappear in an instant gives me goosebumps.

 

[Anon: The more I look at Lime…]

[The more he looks like Unha bought off at Temuㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

↳ [Anon]: Lee Unha from Temu ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: Is ‘Lee Unha from Temu’ for real ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

↳ [Anon]: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

[Anon: But… is it just me?]

[I don’t know if they deserve this much hate. It feels a bit overheated. If we’re assigning blame… Crown is the one who messed up most, so I don’t get why Kingdom and Lime are getting all this hate… It just leaves a bitter taste..]

 

‘Wait… I don’t feel bitter at all?’

 

“…….”

 

‘If anything, it feels incredibly satisfying.’

 

It was my transparent, honest truth.

 

<< Emergency Quest >>

[You, with a 1% contribution to the Demon King’s defeat. Assist the Hero Joo Wooyoung, who had a 99% contribution, and overcome the challenge from [Crown]’s rookie group.]

<<Penalty for Quest Refusal or Failure: Return to the Other World>>

< You have cleared the quest. You obtain a random reward immediately. >

[……]

[……]

[……]

[……]

<< Succubus’ Eye >> has been promoted from << C-Rank >> to << B-Rank >>.