Chapter 157: Because It’s Instinct:

A hotel in Malaysia.

BK’s Han Gabin caught his breath and spat out his words.

“Hey, let’s take a break.”

“Let’s do that, I’m dying here.”

He let out a wail and leaned against the wall.

Just before leaving for Malaysia, one of the members dropped out due to enteritis, so they were hurriedly adjusting their formations after arriving.

Since they had come all the way overseas, of course they wanted to show a great stage to their global fans…

But more than that, a different emotion took the lead.

“They’re in the lineup.”

His teammate Taekyung brought it up.

Even without hearing the rest, he already knew what the follow-up would be.

“Stardust.”

“What a coincidence.”

Losing last week’s first place had also hit BK hard.

They hadn’t expected to lose the top spot to a rookie group just one year into debut.

Even if seniority didn’t matter in this field, it was a bitter pill to swallow to lose the third-week first place just as their group was starting to rise, even if Stardust had made a comeback a week earlier.

Moreover, their opponent was a project group who had gathered audition fans from the start—it stung even more to think about it.

Han Gabin frowned and muttered under his breath.

“I even heard we’re doing a joint interview with them. That’s uncomfortable.”

“Is it that big of a deal? What, did you fight with them or something?”

“No, it’s not that.”

They weren’t idols from the same generation, so reporters wouldn’t deliberately frame it as a rivalry, but just being lumped into the same space was unpleasant.

Especially since the last memory of bumping into them in the hallway still lingered uncomfortably.

He had said sorry with his mouth, but the look in his eyes had been fierce.

Was his name Kang Siwoo?

“Their leader looked scary.”

“Hey, he’s way younger than us.”

“I got a little scared, seriously.”

Han Gabin added nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

At a glance, it sounded like a joke, but there was some truth mixed in.

Taekyung let out a dry laugh and added,

“Don’t mess with the kids these days. It’s different from our time, especially the big agency ones—they’ve got pride and will push back.”

A junior that was both uncomfortable and hard to deal with.

It was true he had first picked a fight to intimidate the hot rookie…

“…Yeah, probably.”

But Han Gabin wasn’t the type to be overly combative. Instead, he trailed off quietly.

“I don’t really want to get involved.”

While Do Seohan had dozed off for a bit,

Seo Ian had gone next door to wrap up the discussion on the ‘Maknae Seohan Birthday Party cum Teasing Plan’.

The heat of the discussion had practically resembled a new song meeting.

‘They’re seriously this into it?’

Seo Ian, who had joined the meeting late, was a bit skeptical at first, but soon sat in a corner of the bed, nodding diligently.

‘So the idea is to lie and say we got cast for a variety show, right?’

‘If PD-nim says it, he’ll probably believe it.’

‘Let’s make a list of concepts that would make Seohan freak out just by hearing them. Number 1: haunted house experience. Number 2: deserted island survival variety. Number 3: idol dating program…’

‘Number 3 might make Seohan blow up the broadcasting station.’

‘Seohan even raises baby chicks as males~’

Now that he thought about it, it did sound fun.

‘The least suspicious one is number 2. Let’s go with that?’

‘Should we add a setting where the company forced him to go?’

‘Come on, our company doesn’t force people~’

‘Seohan! You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but the CEO hopes you do.’

‘Gyaaak! We’ve decided to call that “forcing” now!’

Perfect realism, too.

The meeting ended successfully once they even got Do Seojun PD’s agreement to participate.

Creak—

Seo Ian carefully opened the door and peeked at Seohan, who had the blanket pulled all the way over his head.

Tension stiffened Seo Ian’s shoulders.

“…Are you asleep?”

He whispered, but got no response.

He quieted his footsteps and moved toward the single-size bed on the left.

“……”

He’s really asleep.

He seemed so deeply asleep he wouldn’t notice if someone carried him away.

As Seo Ian relaxed and reached to turn off the lamp on the table—

Spring—

Seohan shot up like a spring.

And he even shouted out loud.

“I remembered!”

At the same time, Seo Ian also bounced up from the bed.

He had already been on edge, so the shock hit him hard.

“Jeez, you scared me….”

How long had he been awake?

Clutching his chest, Seo Ian cautiously turned to face Seohan.

“Seohan, were you not asleep….”

But then—

“……”

Ssshhh—

Do Seohan melted back down just as he had been lying before.

I really thought he was awake.

“Was that sleep-talking….”

How absurd.

I remembered it during the night.

As I dry-washed my face, I muttered softly.

“Yeah, that was it.”

Music Bank in Malaysia.

I’d had a weird sense of déjà vu, and it wasn’t just my imagination.

“Something blew up, didn’t it?”

About eight years ago, an article with a provocative headline had been posted on Stargram.

It had become quite a hot issue, and I remembered the comment section blowing up—

It was probably the egg-throwing incident targeting a K-pop idol.

[K-pop under fire — Idol hit by egg at overseas concert]

Naturally, public sentiment at the time was at its worst.

“Ffs can we please take care of domestic fans first lol what’s the point of raising them with care if they go abroad and get treated like that? Do you even protect the artists? You let our kids get hit with eggs?”

└ “They’re insane. These bastards don’t protect the artists at all lolol.”

└ “I thought my heart was gonna drop when I saw the news. I wonder how shocked Taekyung must’ve been, haㅠㅠ.”

└ “This happened and they’re still silent lol is the agency’s response real?”

└ “Start by wrecking the broadcasting station.”

└ “No way… don’t tell me they dragged the kids there by force?”

“What the hell was the security team doing lol. If it was a rock instead of an egg, were they just supposed to get killed?”

└ “If it were a rock, that’d actually be lucky ^^ Overseas, they freaking have guns.”

└ “Seriously, no plan at all.”

It happened during the interview process right before the stage.

The performance went ahead without cancellation, and when domestic fans found out afterward, chaos broke loose.

The one who got hit with the egg back then…

Was it BK’s Taekyung?

It was probably the eldest of that team.

Since BK wasn’t that big at the time, it almost passed off as just a minor incident.

But when it was labeled as a rejection of the entire K-pop culture and an article was published, the fire blew up.

Later, it was revealed that the culprit was just mentally unstable.

Wherever you go, there’s always at least one crazy person.

It was just an egg, not even a rock.

The person involved might’ve been a little startled, but that was about it.

And yet—

“…Wait a sec.”

Wasn’t today’s interview with BK?

“BK! I love you! I’m a fan!”

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Stardust! I love you so much!”

The interview scene was packed with a heavy crowd.

Reporters from Korea were busy trying to capture the local reaction and interview footage.

It was a public interview held with around a hundred K-pop fans, and once the reporters got mixed in, the order quickly turned chaotic.

If the security team hadn’t been there, we might’ve been swept away by the crowd.

Cutting through the thunderous screams ringing in my ears, I followed the security team onto the red carpet.

“Stardust is coming through!”

“Yes, yes, please move aside!”

Thirteen seats were arranged on top of the red carpet.

The interview room had been set up hastily and crudely, and the distance from the fans was closer than expected.

I could kind of understand how the incident had happened.

Even as I took my seat following the local MC’s guidance, I stayed alert.

It’s just an egg, I thought.

But knowing what I did, I couldn’t help but keep my gaze on the audience seats.

Because it was instinct.

If something flies at you, it’s a little scary, you know?

Meanwhile, the completely clueless BK members were smiling brightly in response to the enthusiastic cheers.

I briefly made eye contact with BK’s Han Gabin in the middle, but strangely, today he avoided my gaze.

“Shall we begin the interview?”

The local MC began in English, and the interpreter next to us translated in real time.

“Yes!”

“Hello, we’re BK!”

“Shine bright! Hello, we’re Stardust!”

In our team, the members who could speak and listen freely were Kang Siwoo and Cha Seongbin.

My English ability was very much a product of rote education, but I could manage listening to some extent.

“It’s a K-pop music program. How do you feel about Music Bank being held in Malaysia? I’d like to hear from both teams.”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

After every sentence, loud cheers echoed through the scene.

It was surprising to realize again how many foreign fans loved K-pop.

Kang Siwoo smiled and took the mic.

“We haven’t had many chances to perform overseas, so we’re really excited to be able to meet our global fans through this great opportunity.”

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“Please continue to love K-pop!”

A textbook answer.

Then the mic was handed to the BK side.

It seemed like the member with the best English was the eldest, as BK’s Taekyung took the mic.

Gulp.

I swallowed and subtly scanned the surroundings.

“……”

The one who got hit by the egg was BK’s Taekyung.

If someone were to throw an egg, they’d likely do it while he was speaking—that thought made me tense up a little more than before.

I had deliberately taken the seat next to Taekyung during the earlier seating.

He might’ve found it uncomfortable, wondering why I sat so close….

“I heard there are a lot of K-pop fans here in Malaysia as well. We’d like to show them a great performa—”

Right at that moment.

“……!”

Something flew into my line of sight.

There was no time to think.

I instinctively reached out my hand.

And then—

“Uh… uhhhhh!”

Thwack—

With the sound of an egg bursting, it bounced off far away.

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