“I look forward to working with you.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
Chanhwi's greeting rang loudly across the set.
Compared to before, Yujin was now able to greet everyone naturally as well.
“Wow, they're seriously handsome.”
While most of the staff reacted that way, someone approached the two through the crowd.
“Goodness, Sun & Moon. It's nice to meet you. This is my first time meeting you together as a complete group, right?”
Sun & Moon had been chosen as the first guests on <Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem>, the new program helmed by Park Jeong-gi, the executive producer of King of Mask Singer.
To be precise, it was part of a deal arranged in advance, but no one except Park Jeong-gi knew that.
Of course, even Park Jeong-gi did not know that Chanhwi had engineered it.
“Yes. It's nice to meet you!”
“Goodness. You're spirited, unlike Yujin. Your name was Chanhwi, right? I look forward to working with you today.”
“Yes. I'll do my best!”
“And Yujin.”
After shaking hands with Chanhwi, Park Jeong-gi turned to Yujin.
“Yes.”
“Oh, our good-luck charm. I'm counting on you again.”
“?? Yes......”
Yujin did not know why the man was smiling, but he nodded.
By the time Sun & Moon appeared on <Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem>, Crescent Moon had earned a second crown on Park Jeong-gi's regular program, King of Mask Singer.
Suspicions that Crescent Moon really was Yujin had deepened with the second crown. After Crescent Moon defeated both the former Mask King, Lee Mu-won, and the latest challenger, Lee Hwan, known as the Prince of Ballads, skilled singers had begun taking the Crescent Moon Challenge to see if they could beat him.
Even skilled singers who rarely appeared on variety shows were coming on, and contrary to expectations, the ratings had soared to 14.6 percent.
“Oh, now that our good-luck charm is here, this show will be a hit too.”
Perhaps that was why Park Jeong-gi had complete faith in Yujin.
“All right, let's get ready!”
***
<Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem>
Hosted by the nation's MCs Yoo Jae-cheol and Jo Se-yong, the program featured them learning the work of a particular field under an expert.
The two hosts traded remarks as they looked around a room lined with mirrors on every side.
“Yes, this entire set is covered in mirrors. What kind of place could it be?”
“Ah, Jo Se-yong, you don't even know that? It's a practice room.”
“Ahh. The kind where you practice dancing?”
“Yes, this is the nation's finest dance studio, One Cillion Dance Studio. And that means?”
The two faced each other and spoke at the same time.
““She's going to appear?””
At that moment, a loud voice came from off camera.
“Yes, I'm here!”
The camera swung around, capturing a tall, slender woman.
“Nice to meet you. I'm Rina Ahn, director of One Cillion Studio.”
Rina Ahn, who held the title of the nation's top female dancer, was the expert who would be teaching the cast today.
The two hosts, who already knew Rina Ahn, greeted her warmly and began joking with her.
“Goodness, Rina. You put a lot of thought into your outfit for today's broadcast, didn't you?”
“Compared to you two, I'm dressed modestly.”
The two men wore suits trimmed with white lace for a swan concept. Anyone could see that they had gone overboard, drawing laughter.
After the three explained why she had joined the program—to introduce dance to a wider audience in a more approachable way—Yoo Jae-cheol spoke up.
“Now, Rina isn't the only person here with us.”
“Oh, there's someone else?”
“Yes. Two people, in fact. They're a pair who have been making waves lately, and they'll be learning to dance with us. Come on out!”
At Yoo Jae-cheol's call, <Sun & Moon> entered the practice room wearing suits with the same swan concept as the hosts.
“Wow!”
They were clearly wearing the same clothes, yet Sun & Moon seemed to radiate a white aura.
“Oh, that's annoying.”
“Exactly. We put them in those outfits as a joke, so why do they look so good?”
At the two men's teasing, Chanhwi grinned and signaled to Yujin.
“One, two.”
““Hello. The first star you see. We're Sun & Moon!””
They had just delivered their greeting when Yoo Jae-cheol and Jo Se-yong suddenly stood on either side of Chanhwi and Yujin.
“All right, again.”
“? ......Ah, yes. Hello! The first star you see. We're Sun & Moon!”
The two MCs thrust out their hands beside Yujin's and Chanhwi's.
Yoo Jae-cheol then asked the staff.
“How is it? Don't we look the part now?”
“We're wearing the same clothes too.”
“Yours are made from a different fabric than Sun & Moon's.”
At Producer Park Jeong-gi's witty answer, Chanhwi burst out laughing, dropped to the floor, and snickered.
“Chanhwi, you laugh at jokes like that?”
“But are they really different? Seriously? Ah, I suppose they did look rather posh.”
As the jokes kept coming, Chanhwi laughed until tears streamed down his face and begged, “Stop, please stop.”
“Well, it's good to meet you, Chanhwi and Yujin. You're the talk of the town these days, aren't you?”
At Yoo Jae-cheol's question, Jo Se-yong abruptly grabbed his face and said.
“I may believe that all people are born equal, but I think some Mask Kings are nobler than others.”
At that line, Yujin's face reddened and he lowered his head.
Seeing that, the two MCs wore sly smiles and began teasing him.
“Wow, it really was incredible. Don't you agree, Se-yong?”
“Yes. Crescent Moon really is so bright. Don't you agree? Yujin?”
“I'm not sure.”
Everyone who knew anything already knew Yujin was the current Mask King, so the MCs teased him with lines he had said on King of Mask Singer.
“And Chanhwi—your dancing, wow. Actually, you're the reason we invited you today.”
“Thank you. I'm getting famous like this thanks to Yujin too.”
After Yujin became Mask King and went on a winning streak, driving up Sun & Moon's views, the agency uploaded videos of Chanhwi's mirrored choreography.
Thanks to those, interest in Chanhwi had risen to the surface as well.
“I'm looking forward to it.”
Rina had seen those videos too, so she was very intrigued by the pair's invitation.
“Then what should we learn first? Teacher!”
Rina clapped her hands and answered Yoo Jae-cheol's question.
“Yes. The first song we'll learn today is PTS's ‘OFF.’”
“Teacher, wait a moment. Isn't that song incredibly difficult? I'm friends with Jin from PTS, so I heard a little about it from him.”
“Oh, come now, Jo Se-yong. Don't flaunt your connections at a time like this.”
“No, I'm not flaunting anything...!”
When the two MCs began bickering, Rina clapped again to draw their attention.
“Yes. As Jo Se-yong said, this is a very difficult song. But if all of you can learn the dance easily, the viewers will take more of an interest in dancing too, won't they?”
“Yes. That certainly makes sense.”
“I'll do my best!”
Rina's gaze then turned to Chanhwi.
“Before the lesson, it would be better to show everyone what kind of dance it is, right? Chanhwi, would you dance with me?”
“It would be an honor.”
Chanhwi smiled and took his place beside Rina. Soon, music began to play.
-I feel like I'm about to lose my mind.
“Woo!”
The MCs cheered when the dance began, but as it continued, their mouths fell farther and farther open.
“Teacher, I don't think I can do this?”
“Neither can I. But why does Yujin look like that?”
“I can't do it either.”
“What?”
A few minutes later, when the pair finished dancing, Rina turned around and asked.
“How was it? Pretty easy...... Where did they go?”
When she turned in the direction of the camera, she found the three of them standing near the practice-room door.
“Goodbye!”
“See you next time!”
Yujin had quietly slipped between the two hosts.
“All three of you, get back here right now!”
In the end, Rina's dance lesson began one way or another. Having danced just as well as Rina, Chanhwi served as an assistant instructor rather than a student and corrected the other three's posture.
“Now, tapping the floor with your big toe in this position is called a point. Tapping with your heel is a flex. What was the first move? From here, do an inward flex, then turn to the right twice. Then kicking your foot like this is a kick.”
Rina threw herself into the lesson so earnestly that she forgot it was a broadcast.
THUD—
“Oh dear, teacher. I can't go on!”
“Teacher, look at that. Yujin has completely turned into a robot.”
“......”
“No, Yujin! That's not how you do it there...... Ah, come on, not again!”
The screen showed them falling over, tattling, floundering, and getting angry, and the first episode of <Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem> ended with A-Block's ‘Mayhem, Mayhem’ playing as background music.
The ratings released the next day came to 9.1 percent, an astonishing figure for a variety show's premiere.
Producer Park Jeong-gi beamed as he thanked Sun & Moon and told them he would invite them again.
[Seriously, there wasn't a single moment worth cutting from MMM's premiere.]
[Photo],[Photo],[Photo]*20
Our Sunny and Moony are both so cute and coolㅠㅠ Bringing Sun & Moon in for the premiere was seriously a stroke of genius.
↳ No, but Chanhwi. Are you an old man? You laugh at jokes like that?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
↳ Yujin getting embarrassed by his own line was so freaking cuteㅋㅋ
↳ I never thought Yujin would be such a terrible dancer. But even that was cute.
↳ Now I can imagine how much Chanhwi must have suffered while practicing ‘Prince.’ Chanhwi... It's funny and sad.ㅠ.^
↳ That final messㅋㅋㅋ So that's why it's called Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem.
The explosive response spread by word of mouth, bringing a rush of new fans to Sun & Moon.
The snowball that had been rolling ever faster finally reached its destination.
***
“Yes. The first-place winner for the second week of June on K Countdown is...... Congratulations, Sun & Moon!”
One month after their debut, they rode a resurgence up the charts and succeeded in taking first place.