Chapter 23: The Weight of Being Seen

After reading the status window, Shim Eun-chan frowned after a brief pause.
It was one of those moments where he was reminded of a life truth: whether things turned out well or badly, it was usually better to speak up first.

“……”

The reward of having his luck increased sounded nice, but that wasn’t the real issue.
The problem was that there had been no stat called “Luck” in the status window he’d checked.

It was reasonable to suspect that something was being hidden.
And it wasn’t like asking about it would get him an answer.
If they were going to tell him, they would’ve shown the Luck stat from the start.

Eun-chan checked the mission currently in progress.

[<It’s no fun if only one person thrives in a world we live in together.> Applied.
Upon success, the mission target’s stat will immediately increase by 1 rank.
Upon clearing all missions, you may select a stat and upgrade its grade. (1/5)
However, failure will trigger a penalty.]

One out of five was complete.
Four remained.
If he succeeded in all of them, he could raise a stat of his choice.
Eun-chan opened his own status window.

[Name: Shim Eun-chan
Star Power: A
Vocal Ability: B
Performance: B
Appearance: A
Mentality: SS (Before Adjustment: F)
Traits: Regressor (??), Soft Steel (Mental reinforcement effect / SS), Human Catnip (Affinity boost effect / S−) Active.]

He wondered if he should start thinking now about what to raise once everything was cleared.
Should he further strengthen his advantages, or should he compensate for his weaknesses?
It wasn’t an easy decision.

As he fiddled with his lips, lost in thought, Eun-chan felt an itch on his cheek.
When he turned his head, his eyes met Hyun Woo-young’s.
Eun-chan tilted his chin as if asking what was wrong, but Woo-young shook his head from side to side.

If it was important, he’d come back and say something.
Thinking that, Eun-chan didn’t ask.

He opened Cosmos, the fan communication app.
He realized he hadn’t been able to send proper messages for a while because of their packed schedule.
A huge number of unread messages had piled up.
He skimmed through them quickly.

There were fans cheering him on, fans worried about—or cursing over—Lee Hae-min’s situation.
All kinds of reactions were mixed together.
He also noticed messages mocking him for staying silent for so long.
There were plenty of kind words too, but the sharp comments were the ones that caught his eye and lodged themselves in his chest.

Thanks to his SS-rank mentality, he could brush them off now.
But in his previous life, he had brooded over each message, sinking into depression as if heavy weights were tied to his heart.
Back then, he hadn’t realized that reacting to those words was exactly what the people who wanted to hurt him desired.

He wanted to reply to every single message, but physically, that was impossible.

After letting out a sigh, Eun-chan typed quickly.

[Hi, PamPams. It’s been a while, right? Today is the Idol Athletics Championships filming day. Thank you to the PamPams who came to cheer for us, and to those supporting us from afar. I’ll do my best and come back without getting hurt!]

There was no official fan club yet, but there was a fan café.
Its name was “Companion,” chosen by vote when the café was first created, meaning “walking together with B the 1.”
The members affectionately called the fans “PamPams.”

After sending the message, Eun-chan put his phone down.

The recording of the Idol Athletics Championships began.

The competition among idols for camera close-ups was fierce.

Even in events they weren’t participating in, the B the 1 members clapped enthusiastically and reacted loudly.
Part of it was the hope of being caught on camera, even for a single cut, and part of it was because the broadcast staff had asked everyone to be responsive.

The recording proceeded with frequent breaks, and during those breaks, the idols went over to where their fans were seated.
B the 1 had been assigned a very small fan section, located on the third floor and pushed into a corner, so it was hard to see their fans’ faces clearly.

The same must have been true for the fans as well.
Eun-chan felt sorry that they’d come all this way only to see such tiny figures.
He wished they were a popular team whose fans could wave light sticks and cheer from the much closer second-floor seats.

Compared to big-name teams, their twenty fans were barely a handful.
But because of that, every single one of them felt precious.

Even from afar, Eun-chan could wave toward where they were sitting, and he could hear them calling out the members’ names.
Maybe because this public schedule came right after a difficult period, it felt like the fans’ desire to show their support was riding through the air toward them.

It felt strange.

Why hadn’t he properly felt this before?

He couldn’t quite put it into words.
His chest just felt overwhelmingly full.

Eun-chan turned around, waving and smiling toward the fan section, then dragged another member over to dance clumsily nearby.
The best thing he could do right now was show that they weren’t being shaken by Lee Hae-min’s departure.

Of course, it bothered him.
But what was done was done, and Hae-min was gone.
Leaving an empty space for someone who wouldn’t return wasn’t good for the fans or the members.
Besides, they had a new member now—Hyun Woo-young.

Even if they couldn’t act like nothing had happened, showing composure felt like the better choice.

During the recording, an announcement went out from the broadcast staff, calling for only the team leaders to gather.
Wondering what it was about, Jung Min-yu headed toward the meeting spot with a puzzled expression.

“What is this about?”
“I know, right? Maybe they’re deciding the order or something. Are they planning something weird?”

Not just B the 1—members of other teams also craned their necks, trying to see what was going on where the leaders had gone.
Then an announcement echoed through the venue.

“While we prepare for the next match, we’ll be holding a team singing contest! The team whose leader scores the highest will receive a special benefit.”

A low buzz filled the gym as idols exchanged bewildered looks.

They thought it might be a simple filler segment, but staff members were already wheeling in karaoke machines.
It hadn’t been listed on the previously distributed schedule.
At this point, it was clearly intentional.

The idols were divided into five mixed teams in alphabetical order, and within each team, a representative idol was chosen by drawing lots to compete in a singing showdown.

Preparing something like this out of the blue was absurd.
No one would’ve had time to practice anything, making it awkward.
It didn’t seem hastily thrown together, judging by the broadcast’s preparations, but whether it would actually be aired or not was unclear.
Still, since they were told to do it, they had no choice.

Eun-chan clenched and unclenched his fist, thinking about the mission he’d completed with Jung Min-yu earlier.
Whether by coincidence or fate, the randomly upgraded stat had been Vocal Ability.

With the added rule that they couldn’t choose a song from their own team’s discography, everyone hurried to pick songs they were confident in.

The first performer was Max Upfin.

It was an upbeat song popular in the 1990s, still often used as a cheer song even now.
Max Upfin’s fan section, with around three hundred people, was already erupting in waves of cheers.

• Like a shining star in the night sky, your face

• Run, fly through the sky, with all my heart and strength

“Kyyaaa!”

Because it was such a famous song, the entire gym seemed to bounce with excitement.
Max Upfin’s long career also helped draw enthusiastic reactions from other fans.
Riding that energy, they scored ninety-nine points.

One by one, the other idols performed, but unfortunately, no team managed to break the ninety-nine-point wall.
Still, since most had chosen energetic dance tracks, the atmosphere in the venue only grew hotter.

Then it was the turn of the leader from Tours, right before Jung Min-yu.
As the song began, a grand, dramatic intro filled the air, and the idols present fell silent, exchanging looks.

It was a representative rock ballad from the early 2000s, famous for its brutal high notes and millennium-era vibe.
The genre itself wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that it wasn’t exactly a suitable choice for this setting.

The members of Tours looked like they were collectively lamenting in silence.
It almost felt like Eun-chan could hear their desperate grumbling: “Ah, hyung… He was hung up on this song during song selection too, and now this again……”

To make matters worse, the singer cracked on the high notes.
The idols around him tried to hype things up, but there was no saving the steadily sinking mood.
By the time the song ended, the atmosphere had practically burrowed underground.
Except for the Tours leader, who looked satisfied with himself, everyone else wore unmistakably awkward expressions.
Even the applause sounded forced.

“Yes, that was Tours’ leader, Kim Hae-yoon.”
“That was a passionate performance.”
“This is a very famous song. I’m sure everyone has tried singing it at karaoke at least once, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”

Even the seasoned MC’s commentary wasn’t enough to revive the mood.

And of all times, Jung Min-yu had to sing after this.

Finally, it was Min-yu’s turn.
He accepted the microphone with a smile, but as a fellow member, Eun-chan could tell he was flustered.

Min-yu chose a safe dance track.
But after Tours had completely derailed the atmosphere, it seemed unlikely that things could be turned around.
Getting a good score mattered, but the overall mood of the venue was just as important.

The intro of Jung Min-yu’s chosen song began to play.