Chapter 14: Unprecedented Surge and a Surprise Live

Habitually checking social media as soon as he woke up, Jemin shook out his disheveled hair and sat up.

‘Am I not fully awake yet?’

Jemin blinked continuously while staring at the search results screen for the keyword [Yu Jemin].

The more he swiped up on the screen with his thumb to check the search results, the wider Jemin’s eyes grew.

“Why is the scroll… not ending?”

Although there had been a slight influx of fans lately, it was still to a degree where he could catch up on all posts with just a bit of time invested.

Going to sleep for a short nap was certainly not supposed to make catching up on the timeline this difficult.

Sensing that something was unusual, Jemin logged into another online community.

• Did you see the marsh snail festival fancam?

• I really thought I was leaving K-Pop for good, but I just rejoined the fandom again…..

• 4evers, please escape Q2P….

Searching for 4ever usually brought up results unrelated to the idol group ‘4ever’, but that was not the case right now.

HIT! [An idol’s tear-inducing title track whose fancam has been reverse-climbing the charts since last night.jpg (237 Comments)]

Seeing setting the community on fire once again, it truly was about the group Jemin belonged to.

“Is this a dream?”

Jemin pinched his own cheek with one hand while opening a video streaming site with his other hand.

“Ouch!”

Jemin yelled while cupping his reddened cheek.

“What’s with you all of a sudden?”

On the video streaming platform, fancams from 4ever’s marsh snail catching festival event were completely dominating the trending list.

Jemin checked once more to make sure he was not looking at his own subscriptions list.

Even the view counts had exploded exponentially.

Unlike usual, the views were not hovering around two-digit numbers.

“Is this a DDoS attack or something?”

Otherwise, there was no way this could be happening.

With a half-doubting expression, Jemin clicked into Woohyung’s fancam video.

Even though Jung Woohyung had danced like his bones were breaking that day, Jemin never expected this level of reaction.

Jemin read through the comments one by one with his own eyes.

[What’s this, I searched for marsh snail rice wrap but came here because it showed up in recommended videos; but I just joined the fandom; unbelievable | Likes 2361 | Comments 12]

[Woohyung’s veteran charm is taste-wise better than marsh snail rice wraps | Likes 1623 | Comments 3]

[Before watching: Where is this unknown algorithm taking me? After watching: This is a divine revelation | Likes 1242 | Comments 6]

[~4ever STAN~ Anybody international fans? | Likes 421 | Comments 1821]

It was not just Woohyung’s fancam that blew up either.

The dual-shot fancam of Jemin and Eunhan was ranking almost as high as Woohyung’s performance video.

James and Yunbin’s fancams were not quite at that level, but they still ranked within the chart.

Only after thoroughly scanning the entire internet was Jemin convinced that this momentum was undeniably extraordinary.

“Hey, everyone wake up!”

Annoyed by Jemin going around waking up the members early in the morning, James buried his face in his pillow and swore in multiple languages.

When Jemin slapped his back to wake him up, Eunhan sat up with puffy eyes.

Meanwhile, even though Woohyung seemed to be awake, he stubbornly kept his back turned and stayed lying down.

Yunbin barely managed to get up and rubbed his eyes, speaking to Jemin.

“Why…? Our schedule today is in the evening.”

That was true.

Even before the fancam exploded in popularity, 4ever already had a scheduled event.

At six o’clock in the evening, they were slated to appear on a popular food recommendation show frequently watched by mothers, serving as reaction shuttles.

“We made it.”

Jemin spoke in a trembling voice.

Only then did the members show a meaningful reaction to Jemin’s words.

“What now? Did Woohyung-hyung get into an attitude controversy?”

“Eunhan, did you make a slip of the tongue?”

When Eunhan loudly pointed at Woohyung, Woohyung, who had been pretending to sleep, sat bolt upright and interjected.

Seeing them shift the blame onto each other looked truly like a shared-destiny community, quite a beautiful sight.

“It’s not that!”

Jemin showed them the trending videos list with trembling hands and spoke.

“Look at this. Our fancams blew up!”

Four small heads of the members clustered closely together in front of Jemin’s phone.

A moment later, Yunbin, having grasped the situation, covered his mouth in shock.

James was clicking heart on every single comment.

Woohyung raised an eyebrow slightly and asked Jemin.

“Is this really that big of a deal?”

Jemin, wearing an expression as if he knew Woohyung would react like this, tapped on his phone screen and said.

“Look at the view count.”

Reading the view count through half-closed eyes, Woohyung asked Jemin with a hypothetical question mark floating beside his head.

“Didn’t it usually come out to around this much?”

“When it performed well in the past, it was 146 views at best, what are you talking about?”

And in the first place, that was an official performance video.

Fans who filmed fancams were a very recent addition.

“The moment where effort pays off has finally arrived. I didn’t expect it to come this fast.”

Yunbin looked around at the members with eyes filled with welled-up tears.

He had felt hopeless thinking about going through seven years with these guys who lacked teamwork, but indeed, life always leaves a way out.

Despite the signs of exploding popularity, Woohyung’s expression was not bright at all.

“Insane… If we want to repay this favor, it feels like we’ll have to go to the marsh snail catching festival every single year.”

“Why? I liked it! We got to eat ginseng chicken soup at the rest stop too!”

It was a collaboration between an ridiculously cynical guy and an ridiculously optimistic guy.

Jemin smiled as he watched Woohyung and Eunhan.

Either way, it did not matter.

He felt like he had boarded a rocket when he thought he was about to fall off a cliff, so for today at least, Jemin could even find Woohyung cute.

“Let’s turn on a surprise live stream or something.”

Jemin looked at the members with ambition-filled eyes.

“Shouldn’t we tell the CEO first?”

“The CEO doesn’t have a sense for this. He’ll just tell us not to do it outside the agency.”

In a way, it was not that Jemin didn’t understand the CEO’s intentions.

The team had Woohyung, Eunhan, and James.

Since nobody knew where those three might go off the rails, there was no need to take the risk of doing a live stream.

However, in Jemin’s opinion, right now was the perfect window.

The exact right timing to bring in new fans.

“Anyway, shouldn’t we row when the tide comes in? Properly this time.”

“Alright. It’s just a broadcast to say thank you, so let’s just make sure not to make any slips of the tongue.”

“Eunhan and Woohyung, you two just say thank you. Don’t add any extra words for no reason.”

“Why me?”

“You are the most anxiety-inducing.”

Thus, led by Yunbin and Jemin, the fan live stream was initiated.

Fixing the phone camera in place, the five members sat huddled together in the narrow dorm living room.

“Wait a second! Everyone look in the mirror! At least apply some sunscreen. Check if your lips look purple!”

“Here he goes again….”

Woohyung muttered as if exhausted.

Although he spoke quietly, he said it right beside Jemin, so Jemin had no choice but to hear it.

‘Sure. Good for you that you were born with naturally good skin and lively lips so you don’t need management.’

Jemin meticulously applied lip balm and adjusted his facial expression.

“Hello! Everlasting 4ever! We are 4ever!”

With Yunbin’s greeting, the fan live stream began.

“When we woke up, we suddenly received so much attention that we feel completely stunned, so to speak.”

“Seriously f*cking… insanely surprised!”

Because of Eunhan blurting out nonsense right from the start, Jemin broke out in a cold sweat.

Smiling, he firmly grabbed Eunhan’s thigh while making an eye-smile.

It was pressure to watch his words.

“It seems everyone was really surprised.”

Worried, Jemin scanned the real-time reactions.

[Did you see HanJem just now? Insane, he grabbed his thigh]

[Are you crazy Yu Jemin? The members are right there, what are you doing; you merciless gay guy]

[HanJem puppy-owner moment ..again… A hybrid-species fanfic is practically completed instantly]

[HanJem shippers cut it out, the members are reading the comment reactions right now, don’t act like this here you sexual harassers]

Surprisingly, there was little reaction to Eunhan’s slip of the tongue.

Whether it was because Eunhan quickly corrected his words so people missed it, or because it was buried by Jemin grabbing his thigh, Jemin was unsure.

Although Jemin had only acted that way to cover up Eunhan’s slip, he felt relieved.

On the other hand, Woohyung looked at Jemin with a glare of contempt, seemingly thinking Jemin had deliberately touched Eunhan’s thigh to draw fan reactions.

“We started this live stream because we wanted to return as much love as we have received.”

“Thank you so very much.”

As Jemin and Yunbin finished speaking, James, who was at the very back, suddenly sprang up from his seat.

Yunbin’s eyes trembled at James’s unpredictable action, but fortunately, he let out a sigh of relief upon seeing James perform a deep bow to the fans.

“Wait, James-hyung, you shouldn’t bow twice!”

“Why?”

“You do two bows for deceased people.”

“If I bow three times, do they resurrect?”

Though chaotic, Jemin was calculating all of this on one side of his mind.

They’ll probably adore this clumsy, energetic image again as beagle-like idols, right?

“Let’s take a brief moment to communicate. Is there anything you’re curious about regarding 4ever? We’ll pick one question per member to answer!”

Even while reading the comments, Jemin intentionally puffed out his cheeks, striving to project cute charm while pretending it was completely unintended.

[As expected, Jemin understands the fans’ hearts best]

Seeing the comment, Jemin felt a swell of pride.

“Then shall we take turns where one member picks a question and the next member answers?”

“Is Yunbin-hyung an MC? The hosting is f*cking… totally clean!”

“Then Woohyung first!”

“Me?”

No matter how much he was told to stay quiet, if he were like Eunhan he would have just ignored it, but Woohyung truly had not uttered a single word throughout the entire live stream.

Yunbin, concerned about Woohyung, pulled him forward to give him a chance to speak.

“Hmm….”

Rather than focusing on what Woohyung would say, Jemin was contemplating how to turn other members’ fans into his own when his turn arrived.

Since Woohyung took quite a while, Jemin wondered what he was contemplating so deeply, but the question chosen did not seem deeply deliberated at all.

“Are Jemin and Woohyung on good terms? Or bad terms?”

What was his intention in picking a question like this?

Jemin was flustered.

Wondering if he was trying to publicly advertise their bad relationship, Jemin stared at Woohyung.

If he had overtly attacked to embarrass him, that would be one thing, but looking at Jung Woohyung’s thoughtless expression, he had likely just barely managed to read it because the comment section was moving too fast.

“We are called brothers, you know~ I think it’s because we’re truly like brothers. Originally, between brothers, sisters, or siblings, even while bickering, they are the closest to each other.”

Having barely dodged the crisis, Jemin felt like his lifespan had been shortened.

At the same time, he internally marveled at his own quick crisis management skills.

“Then I will choose Eunhan’s question now~”

Saying that, Jemin asked a question that had not actually appeared in the comments.

“What is a cute trait of Jemin-hyung that Eunhan observed?”

“Was there a question like that?”

“There was.”

Where does a guy with low dynamic visual acuity get off nitpicking?

Jemin glared at Woohyung for interfering with HanJem.

With his back turned to the camera, of course.

Jemin faced forward again and continued the fan live stream.

While the questions and answers made a full lap, Woohyung remained lost in thought in the corner.

“…They call us brothers?”

Come to think of it, it felt like James-hyung had called them that before too.

Woohyung wore a displeased expression.