A few days before Chanhwi met Eun-hee at the pre-recording.
After our first pre-recording, while we were riding home in the car, our manager spoke to the two of us.
“You know you have a fansign this weekend, right?”
“Ugh.”
“Yes.......?”
I groaned reflexively at the manager's question, while Yujin seemed unsure why I had reacted that way.
Back before my regression, when I had just made my solo debut and knew little about the industry, I had gone into my first fansign excited and determined to do absolutely anything my fans asked.
Some were true fans who came because they genuinely liked me. But there were also fans driven by the expectation, “I've spent this much money on you, so you can at least grant a request like this, right?” A senior had warned me that those people would immediately switch to another idol if I refused them, so I had to grant every fan's request.
I had not been very popular at the time, so I thought the fans who came to see me were all I had and did whatever they asked. Some of them made requests that came close to outright sexual harassment.
The worst request I remembered was to put on a baby's bib and show my abs. Even thinking about it now made me shudder.
In the end, the experience left me with nothing but bad memories of fansigns, and for several years afterward, I only held them online instead of meeting fans in person.
Of course, I was not the only one.
At some point, Yujin, who was staring blankly at me from beside me, had also stopped holding in-person fansigns and switched entirely to online events. Perhaps something similar had happened to him.
“Um, Manager Lee.”
“Yes?”
To prevent that from happening this time, I told the manager about the precautions we could take at the fansign.
After hearing me out, the manager stared in horror and spoke as if she could not believe it.
“Come on. Even so, no one would do anything that awful...... Really?”
When I nodded with a completely serious expression, the manager nodded back in understanding.
“All right. I'll take care of it. But you really are remarkable. First, you taught me the tricks of being a manager, and now this. How do you know all of that? You're rookies, so you can't know many celebrities yet. Oh, has the CEO been teaching you?”
“Ah, that's right.”
Without meaning to, I used the CEO's name as a shield.
Kim Dae-myeong, now the head of an agency, had been the leader of [Beat], a group that was popular with our parents' generation. Claiming that he had taught me all the ins and outs of the entertainment industry made for a good excuse.
Lee Eun-ha appeared convinced and nodded.
“True, the CEO has been paying a lot of attention to you two lately. You have two shows booked after this fansign, and he arranged both of them.”
When celebrities founded agencies, it was common for them to approach producers they had met during their performing careers and ask them to put the idols they were raising on television.
CEO Kim Dae-myeong was doing that now, just as KG Entertainment and PZY Entertainment had done in the past.
Given his position, though, he had his subordinates make the requests instead of going in person.
“You must be working hard, Manager Lee.”
“Ha ha. Thanks for noticing. I mean it.”
The dark circles under Manager Lee Eun-ha's eyes looked even deeper than usual today.
***
On Sunday, Sun & Moon arrived at a fansign venue located not far from the station that hosted the music program. As I sat in the prepared waiting room, snacking and watching Netblicks on a tablet, Yujin spoke to me.
“You're not nervous at all?”
Yujin's face was full of worry as he asked.
For the past few days, he had only looked down at fans from his position as a singer onstage. Meeting them face-to-face on equal footing would be a first for him.
I reached toward his neck.
Yujin's eyes widened at the hand coming toward him without warning, but his expression soon relaxed when he realized I was only loosening his tie.
“Why did you tighten your tie until it's uncomfortable? Of course that makes you more nervous.”
We were holding the fansign in our stage outfits as it was, so the fans would forgive us for wearing them a little more comfortably.
“Didn't the CEO give you any precautions or advice?”
He seemed to have completely believed the excuse I had given in the car. He looked desperate to hear that the CEO had told me something useful.
What was I supposed to tell him? Do not repeat stock questions like, Really? Is that so? Seriously? He was not the kind of person to do that in the first place.
“Just treat them so well that they'll be glad they came and won't leave with regrets.”
Before my regression, an entire year had passed between my first fansign and the next one I held in person.
At the time, however, I was still wary of my fans, so I treated them mechanically.
“Wow, oppa, you're so slim!”
“Am I?”
“Your new song, ‘Black Swan,’ is so good. I listened to it the entire way here.”
“Really?”
I rattled off every response commonly considered taboo at fan meetings, and the fans left disappointed. Fortunately, nothing happened at the fansign that day, so I thought that was all I needed to do.
Until I saw that the number of fans at the next fansign had been cut in half.
When I panicked at the smaller turnout, a fan who had supported me since my debut told me this.
“Please don't put up such a high wall between us.”
Just one sentence. That one sentence made me feel sorry.
The fans who remained at the time said they had stayed because they understood my circumstances.
I realized how badly I had treated people who traveled from Busan and Jeju Island just to see me for a few short minutes.
Even in that brief time, they smiled at me and showered me with one-sided affection.
So I gave those people my sincerity, hoping they could leave smiling even after only a few minutes.
Another year passed before I realized that when I gave my heart sincerely, that sincerity came back to me.
“Give them your whole heart.”
***
At first, she thought they were merely handsome part-timers at a barbecue restaurant. Then, one day, who should the NeoTube algorithm show her but those two young men?
‘So they were trainees.’
She had thought they were only handsome, but they sang and danced better than expected. She liked watching them work hard alongside their sole teammate and had always cheered them on from behind the screen.
-[muggle1128] Why are these guys so good... I'm kind of shook.
Then she heard they were debuting.
‘With talent like that, it would be stranger if they didn't debut.’
Was it because she had cheered them on through NeoTube? The thought that the children she had practically raised through her comments were debuting made her decide that she should at least attend their showcase.
‘Wow, holy shit. Look at these boys. Now that's fan service.’
As she watched the two of them radiate entirely different charms, Seo Min-jeong fell headfirst into the fandom.
Although work kept her from attending the entire pre-recording, she used the financial power of a working adult to clear the fansign cutoff and win a place at the event.
Better yet, the number she drew today put her in the very front row. Thinking she had hit the jackpot, she quickly sat down in case someone somehow took the seat, though that could not actually happen.
“Hello~”
There was still time before the event began, so she had been looking only at her phone when the person beside her spoke.
“Captain!”
When Min-jeong saw the middle-aged lady fan she had met at the pre-recording, she broke into a broad smile.
Min-jeong and most of Sun & Moon's other fans called her “Captain.”
At their first pre-recording, the turnout had been smaller than those of the other fandoms because Sun & Moon was still new. Just as their spirits began to sink, she cheered louder than anyone else, and all the Sun & Moon fans had begun following her lead.
Min-jeong spotted the middle-aged man sitting beside the Captain and bowed her head.
“Hello. It looks like Father came with you today.”
It was an open secret among the fans that the Captain was Chanhwi of Sun & Moon's mother.
“Our daughter wanted to come today too, but she sulked when I told her she couldn't.”
“Oh, does your daughter like Sun & Moon too?”
“Hmm, she hasn't fallen for them yet. I think she's still in denial. She usually complains about her brother nonstop, but she always watches his performances.”
“Then it won't be long before she gives in.”
Min-jeong could only envy Chanhwi's younger sister. She got to see that face, the ultimate daily perk, every single day, didn't she?
“Did you see the boys' uniforms on the community today? They'll come wearing those, right?”
“Wouldn't you think so? But I'd like to see them in casual clothes too.”
They chatted for a while, and when an event staffer announced that the fansign would begin soon, the fans stared at the stage with excitement.
“I told you to give them your whole heart, but that doesn't mean you have to grant every request they make.”
Before going onstage, Chanhwi continued what he had not finished saying earlier.
“If someone says something you think crosses the line or touches you inappropriately, tell me or Manager Lee.”
As Chanhwi had asked before the fansign, the agency had announced precautions in advance to protect its artists. Fortunately, the company had accepted our suggestions, so it seemed unlikely that anything like the past would happen again.
Setting the tone from the very first fansign would show fans what to be careful about and help foster a healthier fan culture going forward.
After listening to the end, Yujin replied curtly.
“Do you think I'm a child? I know that much.”
He always had to act like this even when I was trying to look out for him. Forget it. I should stop talking.
“Let's do well. It's our first fansign.”
Chanhwi patted Yujin on the shoulder and drew back the curtain to the fansign venue.
The fans' passionate cheers filled the hall until his ears rang.
“One, two. Hello. The first star you see. We are Sun & Moon!”
After delivering their group greeting, the two took their seats.
“Yujin, look over here at noona!”
“Chanhwi-oppa! Over here!”
Hearing cries from every direction demanding his attention, Yujin looked around in confusion, unsure where to direct his gaze.
I tapped Yujin on the shoulder and pointed in one direction.
“If you don't know where to look, start with the people who already have their cameras pointed at you.”
The people holding enormous telephoto cameras stood out more than anyone.
Someone carrying a camera that large was likely a fansite master. The company had said a few fansite masters it had arranged would be at the fansign, so there was no harm in starting with them.
“We'll begin admitting fans now.”
Chanhwi nodded at the staffer's words.
Starting with those seated in the first row, the fans lined up and began coming onto the stage one at a time.