After one lighthearted joke, the fans, who had been screaming like crazy, finally uttered a few words of praise after some time had passed.
“You’re so pretty!”
“Handsome!”
The compliments directed at Han Seungbeom’s face were not for me, so I simply smiled softly, bowed my head slightly, and turned to finish preparing for the stage. Then a clear voice boomed out from the middle of the crowd.
“Who put my cat over there! It’s calling me right now!”
The voice was so loud it sounded like she was using a megaphone, and all the Muses in the vicinity burst into laughter. I, too, couldn’t hold it in any longer and let out a soft chuckle.
The broadcast station staff gave disapproving looks at the fan who was making personal remarks, but they didn’t kick her out of the standing area. It seemed they were willing to overlook it this once, as such amusing comments could be aired as behind-the-scenes video.
I exhaled in relief and addressed the fans, who were now looking at my changed hair with sparkling eyes.
“This hair color was made with color-correcting, but the blue tint will fade away after just one shower. Since I need to go back to blond for the Heracles stage, I’m going to stop using the color-correcting shampoo starting today.”
1
“Aaaaah!”
Fearing that they might be expecting more, I informed them, and as expected, the fans let out a collective disappointed sigh. However, remembering the Apollo styling from the music video, they seemed to think it was still okay and nodded in approval.
Just as the conversation between me and the fans was coming to an end, Do Yuda, who had been waiting for the right timing, shouted out.
“Earlier, Kiryang-hyung cried! ! He said he was scared and worried that our Myumyus wouldn’t like him!”
“Ah, no! You shouldn’t tell them that!”
Baek Kiryang was caught off guard by Do Yuda’s sudden revelation and tried to stop him, not sure how to respond. However, the Muses seemed more upset that Baek Kiryang had been anxious for that reason, and they exclaimed, “Aaaah!” in anger.
Then again, someone in the middle of the crowd shouted, representing everyone’s feelings.
“Who says they don’t like it! It’s so good that I can’t get enough!”
2
“Hahaha!”
“Please refrain from making personal comments.”
“Yes…..”
At those words, the members and the rest of the fans burst into laughter, but the fan, who ended up getting scolded by the station staff, gradually shrank back with an expression like a crying cat.
“Everyone, do you know the concept of
Pet Talk
? Our members become the pets living in Muses’ homes.”
Woo Kangwon, perhaps wanting to keep the fans from feeling dispirited, quickly brought up the topic of the song. When the fans cheered loudly, expressing that they knew about it, Zen, who had been standing blankly next to him, joined the conversation.
“Leada is Coco. Kangwon-hyung is Cookie. Bambi is Bambi. Mister Lee is Nabi
3
. Yu-chan is Badugi
4
. For the Korean names, I received help from Lee Danbi.”
It was the ridiculous name that he had been making up with Lee Danbi in the waiting room.
‘What nonsense is Coco.’
As I shook my head at the ridiculous animal names that had been mentioned, Lee Hwayoung clicked his tongue with his back turned to the fan club section. Perhaps because the fans were right in front of him, he skipped his usual “
Be quiet
” or “
Noisy
” comment.
The fans, who had been giggling at our subtle reactions, seemed to grow impatient as the crew began hinting that the recording would soon be underway. In a desperate tone, they asked Zen, “What about Zen?” and “Tell us Zen’s too!”. Zen, who had a serious look on his face as if he’d been waiting for it, stretched out his arms and answered in theatrical tone, as if performing in a musical.
“Zen Andersen Lupin Alexander IV.”
“…….”
“We’re going to start the rehearsal, please stand by.”
With the staff mercilessly cutting off that nonsense, the rehearsal began immediately.
A warm and cozy light cascaded from above, and the MR began playing on a stage set up to resemble a charmingly decorated room.
“Waaaaaah!”
With a loud cheer, fans waved their lightsticks, and began cheering in earnest according to the pre-announced official cheering instructions.
“Kangwon, Kiryang, Nicky, Seungbeom, Yuda, Zen, Danbi, woof woof, hoop hoop, meow meow
5
, Pet Talk! Pet Talk!”
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
As the lively ticking sound of a toy clock echoed, the camera panned around to capture each of the members, who had our right hands stacked on top of each other.
Then, with a shout of “
Yeah!
“, we all raised our hands high, and with perfect coordination, scattered in different directions.
“Seven P.M.
When it’s time for you to come
My heart is pounding, thump thump
“
The first verse, like most of Pantheion’s songs, started with me.
I stretched out my arm so that the jelly paw on my sleeves could be seen in front, and following the choreography, I opened and closed my hands while singing the song.
‘Yoo Jay and Choi Jeokhyeon, aren’t they going to faint from laughing?’
The fans screamed and were very happy with my cute choreography, which was a good thing, but I was a little nervous about the two people who knew my true identity.
“What kind of fun things are going to happen today?
How many happy hours can I spend with you?
I waited for you all day thinking about that
“
“Woo, woooo.”
What’s going on, Muses?
Up until the part where they were just shouting together, it was definitely fine.
But as soon as the chorus chants started, it was clear something had gone wrong.
Mainly, in regards to pitch.
“You’re alwaaaayss~”
“…….”
The dissonance was so overwhelming that Baek Kiryang’s pupils shook wildly. From the look on his face, clearly saying “
What is this?
” it seemed like he was genuinely surprised by the Muses’s singing. I hurriedly gave him a glance, instructing him to focus on the stage for now.
“I want you to stay by my side”
“Woahhh. Nanananana.”
‘…Oh my goodness.’
But even as I maintained my composure, the chorus was heading for disaster.
And apparently I wasn’t the only one who sensed it, as the Muses began to look at each other in bewilderment.
This is not the fault of just one or two people, so why are they all trying to find the cause?
[The first idol in the world to hand out sheet music for fanchant]
[Dividing into sections and building up the harmonies, is this possible? ㅜㅜ hahaha]
[Aren’t you overestimating us too much, Captain?]
I was a little nervous when we first revealed the cheering guide, because everyone reacted as if they weren’t confident. But I never expected them to be this bad.
[We’re doomed.]
I closed my eyes tightly as I remembered the most upvoted comment.
I’m guilty.
I am the worst piece of trash in the world.
Look at those Muses’ expressions.
They were all trying so hard to sing, and it was getting weirder and weirder.
If only they hadn’t tried so hard, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.
There were people in this world who were a little inexperienced in singing, but I didn’t realize their existence. I had gotten so used to bossing Prism and Pantheion’s members to death that I failed to properly consider the perspective of ordinary people.
“This should be fine. While every fandom has different atmospheres and skill levels, this is something that can be sung as long as you have basic singing skills. The guide was also recorded very helpfully.”
The comment I heard when I received the approval from the company employee flashed through my mind, but I desperately tried to erase it from my mind.
I can’t hear it. I can’t hear it.
Our Muses should only listen to good things, not such bad words. Our Muses sing well.
“…….”
…Thank goodness it was pre-recorded.
.
.
.
“….Muses.”
After clenching my teeth and finishing the performance, I opened my mouth heavily after a great deal of hesitation, and laughter erupted from the fan club section, which sounded like they were about to crawl away in embarrassment.
Even in this situation, the cheerful Do Yuda was joking around, acting so serious that it was obvious he was just pretending.
“Myumyu … are you okay? What’s going on!”
Then the Muses laughed nervously again, desperately avoiding my gaze.
They looked quite cute, but this situation couldn’t continue.
After all, the performance had to be done right now, and we couldn’t go without the cheering.
After making a rough calculation, I looked at the Muses with warm eyes. Then, the color drained from Do Yuda’s face, which had just been smiling, and Zen muttered, “Oh, no”.
“It’s okay. Our Muses are capable of anything, right? Shall we give it a try?”
That’s how the hellish practice session began.
***
“…….”
I burned them.
6
I burned them to pure white ashes.
I gave them short, intense tutoring to cover up their weaknesses and make as many improvements as possible. In the end, I managed to elevate the Muses’ skills to a level good enough to be aired, and then proceeded with the performance.
“Hyung, please forgive the Muses now. The Muses’ HP is 0.”
By the time it was almost over, even the station staff gave me a round of applause filled with awe, so there was no need to explain how extraordinary the scene must have been.
“Zen Andersen Lupin Alexander IV is going to the bathroom.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
After a successful recording, I finally got some break time and picked up my phone, thinking of our Muses who had suffered. I opened the fan community app to leave a message thanking everyone for their hard work.
Beep.
But just as I was about to touch the app, I received another text from an unknown sender.
[I told you not to get close with the members, so why aren’t you listening? Do you think my words are funny?]
You can support this translation through Buy Me a Coffee!
Translator’s Corner:
Color-correcting shampoo (보색 샴푸)
, or
complementary shampoo
, i guess some people called it bleach hair shampoo too. It’s a
toning shampoo designed for blond hair
. This violet tint shampoo acts as a color correcting toner that neutralizes yellow or orange tones that tend to revert to light hair over time. It works because
purple is the complementary color of yellow
, so it counteracts yellow
.
The deep violet pigment in the shampoo coats the hair and neutralizes the brassy tone, making blond hair look like it was just dyed with a cool tone.
You know how kpop idols change their hair color often right, fans want to see a lot of colors beside their natural black hair. But if you dyed you hair too often and too long, it will damage your hair. So, in the recent years, the kpop industry kinda developed this colored shampoo. If your hair is in light color or gray, you can use it instead to color your hair. Not dye, but shampoo so it’s healthier for the hair. I heard it can even restore damaged hair?? Anyway, how often you use it and how much you apply is varied, depending on your need, but if you use it too often, your hair will turn purple.
Seungbeom’s hair right now is dyed blond. and only for this pre-recording, he used this blue-tone colored shampoo that makes his blond hair became platinum. But the shampoo he used will make the color fade after he washed his hair, so he needs to apply it again if he wants to continue the platinum hair. But since his concept in Hercules is blond Apollo, he can’t do that. He only used it this once to make platinum hair color that suits his cat concept (MC likes white cat the most).
Anyway idk anything about beauty industry, so if you want more detailed info, I think there’s a lot of video about it on Youtube and Tiktok. ↩︎
The word used here is 없어서 못 먹어. Literally it means something like “
I can’t even eat it because I can’t get one
“. It means that
something is so popular or in such high demand that there’s not enough of it
to satisfy everyone who wants it. Like a popular item that got sold out fast. It means bunny Kiryang is so on demand that there’s no way there’s someone who would dislike it.
That’s why everyone is laughing, because it’s so funny they’re saying “
I can’t eat it
” … I was wondering if I should just translate it literally to suit the humor, but idk. It sounds strange without context …. ↩︎
Nabi means butterfly. ↩︎
Badugi (바둑이) is a common name given to
a dog with black and white spots mixed in its fur
. It’s because the black-white spots fur looked like “바둑” (baduk), the Korean name for the game of
Go
, in which round black and white stones are placed on a board.
If you ask why others get called cute things but Do Yuda got called like this, idk ask Zen. ↩︎
The fanchant is 멍멍뿅뿅냥냥. 멍멍 (Meongmeong) is sound made by dogs (Kangwon, Yuda), 뿅뿅 (pyongpyong) is rabbit hopping sound (Kiryang, Danbi), and 냥냥 (nyangnyang) is cat sound (Seungbeom, Nicholas, Zen). ↩︎
The word is
불태우다
. It’s like burning yourself by working so hard on something (the burn is like, burning passion. That kind of expression). ↩︎
The words they used to call Muses in cute way is 뮤뮤, can also be written as Mumu but when spoken, it’s more like Myumyu so I just kept is as Myu since it’s cuter.
Anyway, music show is a show that aired once a week where idol group / singer who has a comeback is promoting their new song. The duration of promotion varies, can be just 1 week or almost 2 months, it depends on how shitty is your company, how busy is your schedule, or how much can you afford it. Yes, idols need to be able to afford it, setting up stages require a lot of money you know. If you saw pretty comeback stage, their company poured a lot of money for it.
To attend it, there’s either two way: through broadcasting station’s ticketing system or through the artist company’s fan club. The fandom of a singer appearing is given a specific quota so their fans can cheer on them, and they will distribute this by their official fanclub (you need to sign up, and for some pay membership fee, to join official fanclub). The ticket given by official fan club usually have really strict standard like purchasing album receipt, etc.
Anyway, those selected fans usually attend since early morning, 3 or 4 in the morning because they need to do the pre-recording. The stages that being aired are mostly not done live. Like, the music show airs at usually 3 or 4 in the afternoon. But what’s mostly done live during the time is the artist interviews, the first place announcement, and some live stage. In the early morning, the singers already have rehearsal and recorded some performance. Like, for the groups that can afford it, they usually promote 2 songs (either it’s a double title track or title track + bsides). They could pre-record both of them, or just pre-record one and the other is for later. This is why you can see a group performing a song in A outfits, but when the song ended and continue with another song, they’re already in B outfits.
If you asked who’s crazy enough to attend a show at 3 AM … well, there’s a lot. That’s why local fans are important. You need people who can fill those audience when you’re making a comeback. Sometimes the company also provided basic food like sandwich and mineral water for fan. And when an idol reached success, they usually provided a “tribute” to their fans who attended this kind of event in some special occasion. Like when they got their first paycheck. Or anniversary. Or a special comeback after long hiatus. Or in a very draining events like ISAC. Or in a comeback after a scandal/misfortunes fell on the group. Basically it’s a way to thank fans for supporting them. The tribute usually consisted foods, drink, items picked by the idol, and most importantly … a special limited-edition photocard.
The photocard is very important because it’s only given to the audience who attended. It’s not like photocard from album where everyone can get it. That’s why for the top-tier popular idols, these kind of photocards are PRETTY PRETTY EXPENSIVE WHEN SOLD.
While it’s touching, it also has a problem. As a mentioned before, people can also get ticket from the broadcasting station, by first come first served or lottery system. The thing is, not everyone who applied for this ticket is actually the fan of the group. Some people just apply so they can get the tributes. Especially for popular idols, the tributes are usually consisting of expensive items. Recently, the K-POP legend G-Dragon distributed tributes to his fans, but there’s someone caught selling it online. The VIPs (his fandom) are pretty mad about this since it’s his first gift to fans after years of hiatus. GD himself posted a story asking fans please keep his gift, if they don’t like the scarf (there’s a scarf inside it), they can give it to their grandma or something.
Ah and just few days ago (2 days ago?), there’s this viral korean post about the audience of MBC Gayo Daejeon (year end shows), who were fans of another (boy)group, were cursing on aespa (directly in front of them) for not providing them foods. This kind of year-end show recording took a long time, and since there are so many artists appearing, there are a lot of fandom presents too. Usually fans only stayed for their own group pre-recording, but group with high popularity tends to attract other fandom too. But honestly idk what’s with that group’s luck. There were so many artist who appeared, but it was only them who got cursed. And not by their fans but another group’s fans, on top of that. (Apparently the broadcasting station didn’t provide foods, and they didn’t bring their own food). I’m not even following them, but that was the third time in 2024 I saw them getting cursed at by boygroup fans in three different occasion, went viral because it said right in front of their face … guys I thought we’re already leaving that boy crazy behavior in 2nd gen, so what is this … even the 3rd gen didn’t do this …. (Oh, and after reading the qrts, apparently it’s been a long time since aespa never provides tributes anymore because a lot of other fandom kept sneaking in their pre-recording in the past to get the tribute, making their korean fandom pretty upset for not getting the audience spot.)
About the cheering / fanchant, the official artist channel usually posted a “cheering guide” during the comeback so fans knew what to chant during the recording. It’s usually served as lyrics video with someone giving the example (sometimes it’s recorded by the artist themselves). Then, the fans who attend the pre-recording will use the waiting time to practice singing the fanchant together. If you ask if something like in this chapter actually happened in real life, well … it happened a lot.
The most viralest one I could think of is when GOT7’s fandom messed up the fanchant in Miracles ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tgS6qqJF5U&t=123s ). You should watch it tbh IT’S REALLY FUNNY, other groups are usually saying “its okay its fine you’re perfect just the way you are” but their youngest just straight up LAUGHING. Even the other artist in the backstage was bursting into laughter when they heard the fanchant (this was told by another artist that’s also promoting at that time). Now that I think about it, it’s really similiar to what happened here. It couldn’t be saved because it was a LIVE performance, but after they finished the recording for that music show, GOT7 had a fansign later in the same day, and in that fansign, the leader brought up this issue and teach them how to sing the fanchant properly. That’s why the fanchant for next day music show was succesful lol
Another idol who’s pretty serious about fanchant training, hmm, Do Kyungsoo from EXO. I think that man is running his fan like a navy … if the fanchant messed up in his concert, he stopped them to start again … and he’s really detailed in teaching them, like asking how some part to be sung in falsetto … like i don’t even know what falsetto is … I’m glad I’m not his fan … (Red Velvet is no better though, they even made a surprised look when other idols being off-key in the year end show closing, I guess korean reveluvs are working hard every comeback for the fanchant asdfghjkl)
Anyway that’s it. Wow I guess I really know a lot … doing idol novel makes all these useless knowledge become useful for once …