Idol Hides His Military Service

♬

A street performance looks romantic, but in reality, it wasn’t exactly a good stage environment.

"What, who came?"

"Why are there so many people today?"

"Ah! Stop pushing, please!"

Not only could you hear the noisy conversations from the street as-is, but without even considering sound—and since it was outdoors—ordinary speakers and amps could easily turn it into noise pollution if you messed up.

But,

Even if every plan goes off the rails

It’s perfect, this mood right now

Even if the first page is nothing but blanks

It’s already pretty enough

Even so, the reason performing on the street is attractive is that, unlike a normal stage, the singer is right in front of you.

"Wow··· I didn’t know the Iam kids could dance this well."

"They sing well too. Honestly, this is totally raw live right now, but they’re singing better than I expected?"

"They’re pretty even in those weird outfits. Real celebrities really are different when you see them in person."

Iam’s recognition was high enough that it was hard to believe they were rookie idols.

And that made sense, because Idol Ground 100—the show that debuted them—was a cable broadcast, but it still went over 20% ratings.

Plus, variety activities including The Guy Next Door, and even if ratings had dropped a lot, they’d been steadily doing music broadcasts for the past four weeks, so if you were in your twenties, most people had at least heard the name.

But that was exactly why Iam felt less like “idols” and more like “famous celebrities.”

The moment I first saw you, hold on

The place the light keeps spreading

This is just the first scene

But it’s already special

However, even though they were performing in ridiculous outfits right now, everyone watching was recognizing Iam not as just celebrities, but as idols.

In fact, at Myeongdong Plaza, where Iam’s cosplay fan signing was being held right now, it wasn’t only Iam’s fans who had gathered.

Of course, there were plenty of fans who came to see Iam, but even more than that were ordinary people who just came because they heard a celebrity was coming and wanted to take a look.

And most of them were people who came to Myeongdong without knowing anything, then saw the commotion because a crowd had gathered and came over to watch.

Because of that, if anything went wrong, the atmosphere on site could turn into the coldest kind of disaster.

Unlike a music broadcast, where fans who like you—or people who like idols—gather, the public could give an ice-cold reaction the moment they decided it wasn’t worth watching.

"Waaaaah!!!!"

But Iam was captivating that majority of the crowd with nothing but their stage.

Clearly, the sound wasn’t good, and the outfits weren’t stage outfits—Iam’s performance was unfolding under all kinds of bad conditions, but the people gathered in the plaza couldn’t take their eyes off Iam.

Usually, until someone sees an idol stage in person, there are a lot of people who don’t understand why fans go to TV stations at the crack of dawn, or spend expensive money ticketing for concerts.

Since you could watch idol stages on TV, or on YouTube through your phone as much as you wanted, why would you have to spend time and money to see it in person? That was the thought.

But, 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The moment I first saw you, stay there

Enough to stay in my memory

Awkward, and also transparent

This feeling, I like that

Just like Iam was shining even with several bad conditions overlapping, the moment you actually saw idols matching choreography and singing on stage, that kind of thought disappeared.

Idols were, honestly, a really strange existence.

"Idols are the essence of Korean culture that bloomed inside irrationality."

To borrow something Raon, the producer, had said to the Iam members at some point, idols were the essence of Korean culture that bloomed inside irrationality.

"Back then, being good at just one thing was enough, but these days, one thing isn’t enough. You have to sing well, dancing is basic, and of course you have to be good-looking too. The world’s full of such irrational requirements."

In the past, you could be recognized if you were outstanding at just one thing, but now the public demanded idols be great in every area.

And amazingly, idols were evolving to match those demands.

People who, dreaming of becoming idols, chose the trainee path—giving up everything—while other students spent a normal school life.

They had to grind themselves down until their bodies broke, competing to debut, and in that process, cruelly, their effort might not be rewarded.

But maybe because of that?

"So cool···."

The stage of an idol who made it to debut had a kind of magic that bewitched the viewer.

Clearly, when the stage first started, the audience had been smiling like they were watching a variety show, because of Iam’s ridiculous outfits—yet now they were standing there with mouths open, eyes gradually widening.

"Haa···."

Finally, when the Iam members finished the stage of their debut song, Something Feels Like It’s About to Start, and held their ending pose while breathing hard on the stage set up in the plaza, even that rough breathing was clearly heard by the audience.

A vivid sense of being on-site that you couldn’t feel on TV.

The dazzling group choreography seven girls carried out nonstop for three minutes.

And the harmonious voices that rang across the plaza, pushing through the noise of the scene and the poor sound environment.

Clap clap clap.

When the stage ended, it was like time stopped, and silence drifted through that noisy plaza—then someone’s clap spread like an infection and began to ring out.

***

"Sion! I voted without missing a single time since Agbaek!"

"Such a commendable kid. Then I’ll give you one praise sticker."

"Wow! If I get this, is it a good thing?"

"Of course. If you collect ten, Sion Santa will give you a present."

"I’m really going to collect ten!"

"Try it, rookie."

"Yes!"

Middle school girls’ fussiness really was number one in the world.

'They’ve got so much energy.'

A warm memory came back—back in middle school, kids in my class would summon pterosaurs in the classroom every break, so it was hard to get any sleep.

"Next person, please sit down."

"Y-yes··· yes!"

While I was briefly reminiscing about my middle school days, a young man in a military uniform with a buzz cut came next after the middle school girl, and sat down shyly in front of me.

"Hello, thank you for coming today like this!"

"No! You’re seriously so pretty!"

"Oh, come on, why would you say something like that··· no, thank you!"

Seeing how tightly wound-up he still looked with discipline, I was about to say something a little playful to help him relax, but PD Raon sent a ventriloquism-style message from behind me.

"Sion··· please. Let’s respond to fans like idols."

"Yes, coach."

I remembered Raon’s signing-event crash course from yesterday.

Before today’s Myeongdong signing, yesterday the members and I had to receive intensive training from PD Raon to prepare for a fan signing.

At first, I thought, what a hassle, why do we have to do this too. Don’t we just meet fans, chat lightly, and sign?

But,

"If you do that, it’s one hundred percent going to be a disaster!"

PD Raon said fan signings were one of an idol’s important tasks, and we needed to steel ourselves, so she taught us disaster cases.

For example,

"Ah, really? Banned!"

A disaster that became a topic because some boy group member, during a fan signing, hit one fan with seventeen straight "Ah, really?" responses.

"Since you talk to dozens at least, and sometimes hundreds of people in one day, your focus drops, and without realizing it, you might give an insincere answer."

PD Raon said that member probably didn’t do it on purpose, but the important part wasn’t that.

"But you have to remember! Fans who come all the way to a fan signing have been waiting for the day they meet you. To you, they might be one out of hundreds, but to them, it’s only you. Idols can never forget that feeling in a fan’s heart."

PD Raon emphasized that we could never forget that an idol can’t exist without fans.

I agreed with that so much.

'We’re doing this as an event this time, but to join a real fan signing, I heard it can cost over a hundred···.'

Normally, idol fan signings chose winners either through random drawing, or based on how many albums you bought from a designated seller during a set period.

If you were lucky, you could win buying just one, but if you weren’t lucky, you could buy dozens and still not get in.

So when I heard that to win reliably for a popular idol group’s fan signing, you had to spend over one million won, the shock I felt was indescribable.

One million won?

These days, online, people treat it like pocket change, but one million won was definitely a big amount.

To spend that big amount purely to meet an idol you like.

'I’ll devote myself.'

From then on, I could steel myself with a firm resolve to devote anything for the fans.

"So, you’re going to memorize all the lines we handed out that are good to use when talking with fans today, and after that we’ll practice responses by situation."

And maybe because she sensed that firm resolve, the fan-signing practice that followed under PD Raon’s lead—

"I came after going to a salon and even getting my hair done today to meet Gahyeon."

"Really? That was done at a salon? Where is it! °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° I’ll go argue with them for you!"

"Um··· the back part wasn’t bad, but the fan could still feel hurt, so let’s empathize a little more."

"Yes···."

Starting from the most common fan types.

"···."

"Thank you for coming to today’s fan signing!"

"Yes."

"Among our members, who do you like the most?"

"Hm···."

"···."

We even had to deal with the CEO, who played the role of a silent ascetic.

"Shinyu, you’re so cute again today··· huuk huuk."

"You’re super cool too!"

"For real?"

And even Manager Yunsik dressed up as a pretty manic male fan.

Company employees took on various fan-type roles and did one-on-one training with the members.

During that process,

"Ryujin··· yeah, you just do the absolute basics."

"Huh? Why? At a fan signing, we have to make fans have fun···."

"Fans will be happy just seeing your face and hearing your voice."

Seo Ryujin getting banned from jokes and improv and getting a bit sulky also happened, but it was definitely practice that helped a lot.

Thanks to that, even the other members besides me were, in their own way, carrying out their first fan signing pretty well right now.

You could tell by how the faces of the fans lined up beside me were full of blooming smiles.

"So you used leave to come to our signing?"

"Yes! That’s right."

"But can you even apply for leave that suddenly?"

"The day the signing notice went up on Instagram, I immediately requested an interview with my company commander and begged desperately to please let me go, and I got it."

"Kkh··· to use such precious leave···."

"Uh··· how do you know that?"

"I know··· I know everything."

I also signed while listening to the soldier fan’s heartfelt story in front of me.

The story—too painful to hear without tears—about how he made a deal with his company commander to come out by splitting up his final leave for this signing, made me want to give him something, anything.

But I remembered PD Raon’s warning that you must never favor a specific fan at a fan signing, so all I could do was pat his back and sign with care.

"What’s your name?"

"Lee Hakyeon."

"I think it’s a good name. Korea is blood ties, school ties, and regional ties."

"If it wouldn’t be rude, could you also write ‘Jiyeon’ in small letters down here? My younger sister’s name is Jiyeon, so···."

"Normally I can’t, but I’ll do it for you secretly."

After I carefully signed for the Hakyeon–Jiyeon sibling pair, the next fan in line immediately sat down.

"Hello, thank you for coming today like this!"

"···."

I let out the welcome line that was now stuck to my mouth and poured out smoothly without getting blocked, but it was my voice that just drifted sadly through empty air like an echo in the mountains.

Seeing the male fan with his cap pulled low, giving no answer and not even making eye contact, I didn’t panic.

'Hm··· so they really do exist.'

He was the exact typical “no-response fan” already in yesterday’s manual.

"Surprisingly, it’s not rare."

A no-response fan who, despite spending expensive money and time to come to a fan signing, didn’t answer no matter what the idol said, and just silently took the signature and left.

According to PD Raon’s experience, it was a type you could meet more often than you’d think, and while the reasons varied, the best method was to lightly talk about various things without putting too much pressure on them, so I was doing exactly that.

"Do you know why the weapon for my Liu Bei cosplay is twin swords?"

"···."

"Actually, there isn’t anything properly confirmed about Liu Bei’s weapon, but in Romance, the weapon Liu Bei made together with his brothers was two swords called twin-stock swords. So···."

"Shut up···."

"Sorry?"

"I said shut up."

Hoh.

I hadn’t expected a reaction like this to my enthusiastic cosplay talk, so I was a little flustered and looked at PD Raon standing behind us to ask what I should do in moments like this.

Swoosh.

PD Raon just shook her head, sending a silent signal to just let it go.

And since this body is very good at doing what it’s told, I said nothing, just signed and handed it over, and decided to focus on the next turn.

"Time’s up. Please move."

After that, the first moment since the signing started where I kept silent passed, and this time a female fan appeared, so we could return to the original mood.

"Sion, why are you making that face! You look like a born idol, but every time you open your mouth, all that comes out is Three Kingdoms!"

"It’s kind of unfair··· Three Kingdoms isn’t just old men’s taste. It’s an ensemble drama packed with joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure."

"Next time you cosplay, pick something prettier."

"Hm··· not easy."

"What is it!"

Sadly, this fan didn’t know the true charm of Three Kingdoms, but I was thinking it was still good that we could talk, when—

"Give me your number···."

"Huh? What number?"

"Phone number. Your phone number."

"Uh··· I’m sorry, but that’s not something I can do."

I heard Shinyu and the fan having a weird conversation from the seat next to mine.

"That question is banned."

Maybe it wasn’t just me who sensed something off, because the guard next to us moved in to restrain the fan—

Clack!

"Fuck!"

A male fan who was trembling—no, a lunatic—pulled a knife from inside his clothes.

"Kyaaaah!!!"

The signing site erupted into chaos in an instant.

Tap.

In that moment, my body moved first.

'Shinyu’s in danger.'

The guard also ran at the man right away, but because the lunatic had suddenly pulled out a knife, they were flustered for a second, and the reaction was a little late.

Thinking Shinyu could get hurt like this, I judged it was right for me, who was right next to her, to move.

And—

"Sion, the school-violence mess luckily passed well, but from now on, you absolutely can’t say things like you hit people, or you spun someone’s jaw! Don’t!"

I also remembered what PD Raon had clung to me and warned me about during the training period before debut.

'I’m not repeating Lee Sion’s mistake.'

Since I’d vowed as an idol that I would never swing my fists carelessly again, I wasn’t going to summon Haan-dong Kim Duhan this time.

Instead,

Whoosh.

I lightly grabbed the lunatic’s knife hand with both hands in a flash and yanked it, making his armpit touch my shoulder.

"Huh?!"

A scream escaped the man’s mouth like he was shocked, but it was already too late.

BANG!

Because my shoulder throw had already gone off.