Chapter Text
Badump. Badump. Badump.
The stage begins with the slow rhythm of a heartbeat. On the last beat, it ceases and an electronic soundtrack mixed with violins takes its place. The spotlight turns on and reveals Shin Oh, the lead rapper of VTIC, walking forward to the extended stage.
"In the endless night
The wolves are growling
At the sight of hunt
And the prey soon dead"
He leads into the song with a strong rhythmic voice, ending it by sharply reaching straight towards the audience. Next, another ray of light reveals Kim Raebin, the lead rapper of TeSTAR who half dances to the left of Shin Oh. The audience wildly screams, ecstatic at the revelation, the fanlights frantically being waved.
"In the darkest sky
The wolves are howling
At the shine of the moonlight
Beware! Beware!"
More spotlights turn on, revealing Ryu Chung Woo and Ju-Dan, who slowly walk towards their respective group members, while singing the next verse in harmony, before pausing in their poses.
"Watch out, before the wolves
Tear you apart
Come now, together they'll
Call, call, call for light"
TeSTAR's main vocalist, Park Moondae also slowly made his appearance on the centre stage, taking his place beside Ryu Chungwoo.
"On this moonlit night,
The stars won't shine
He ends his part and looks up, reaching his hand towards the moon prop that hangs above them.
"As they grieve and cry
For the lost, passing memory"
Chungryeo begins walking in, singing his part as he walks to his position.
In the background however, unbeknownst to the staff, members, and the watching fans of VTIC, the high hanging moon meant for the stage of the new song, "Moonlit" creaked, swaying unnaturally and threatening to fall on its prey. In its final swing, the wire snaps and the moon begins its descent, to VTIC's unsuspecting leader.
All, except one, knew.
"CHEONGRYRO!"
***
But let's start from the beginning.
***
"MoondaeMoondae~ What's for breakfast?"
"It's Pajeon. Sit down and quietly eat. Seon Ahyeon and the others are still sleeping."
I served up 3 pieces of freshly cooked pajeon to the noisy early riser. If it's the same as always, the next few people who should be arriving are…
"Morning, Moondae-hyung! The food smells delicious! Time to eat~!"
"Mm, as expected."
Cha Eugene and Ryu Chungwoo. I served up the usual amount to them and returned to the frying pan, frying up a few more pieces for the late risers before keeping the apron and settling down to eat my own portion.
I picked up my phone that I had left on the table and began monitoring. It was currently our rest day but that doesn't mean our prior activities wouldn't be talked about. We just released a new song, after all.
"So, Moondae, how's the response?"
"Mm, pretty well received. Most were surprised at our decision to go with a sexy concept."
Suddenly, a text notification dropped down and it immediately soured my mood.
'VTIC Cheongryeo-sunbaenim'
What does this bastard want this early in the morning?
"What's wrong?"
"It’s nothing. Give me a moment."
I opened up the chat and was greeted with a disgusting text that clearly doesn't match his image.
'Hey, hoobaenim (◕ᴗ◕✿)'
He's surely doing this on purpose.
I quickly typed a curt response.
'What?'
I took another bite and soon received his reply.
'Would TeSTAR like to do a collaboration song with VTIC? (✷‿✷)'
"Cough!"
"Moondae! Are you okay?"
I put down my chopsticks and phone, gently massaging my throat. Has this bastard gone insane? Is his new obsession messing with me?
Cha Eugene offered me a cup of water. Downing the cup, I contemplated what I should do next, holding my temples before sighing. Why couldn’t he just approach our manager?
I should at least inform Chungwoo about this.
"Cheongryeo…no. VTIC is offering to create a collaboration song with us."
"...What?"
A new voice belonging to Bae Sejin, echoed from the corridor. Great.
“Reject it.”
“Why should we?”
“We shouldn’t associate with him!”
“But why?”
Cha Eugene innocently tilted his head as he took another bite. Bae Sejin quickly walked towards where we were having our breakfast.
“What do you mean, why? He’s…uhm…”
Hey, don’t look at me for help.
“He’s a bad person!”
Bae Sejin frantically finished his words with a rather weak argument.
“Hm, is that so? Let’s not do it then!”
But Cha Eugene is simple like that.
Bae Sejin breathed a sigh of relief before settling down for his portion of breakfast. At least that problem is out of the way. Now to deal with this. I stood up and headed towards the veranda, my finger hovering over the call button. I took a deep breath.
I tapped the screen and waited for the line to connect.
Click
“Have you gone crazy?”
I chided him the moment he picked up. I could hear him chuckling over the phone.
“No, I haven’t. I’m perfectly sane, sober too.”
“Then, what’s with the idea? You know anti-fans will come after our group for this.”
“But wouldn’t it still be good publicity?”
I held my head.
“Tell me who knocked out your rationality.”
“It’s still there, don’t worry, hoobaenim. The request actually came from LeTi who just told me to ask you.”
“Why couldn’t they just contact our manager?”
It’s faster to talk to the one in charge of the company rather than a proxy, no?”
This bastard…
“...Fine. So what does LeTi want?”
“Considering your recent album concept and our rather close relationship, LeTi thought of promoting that friendship to boost public opinion of the relationship between the companies.”
He had the gall to say that we have a close relationship considering the things that had happened between us.
“...It was your idea, wasn’t it.”
“The other members and LeTi seemed to like it.”
“But we sure don’t.”
“It’s not like only LeTi is benefitting. It’ll help TeSTAR too, you know.”
“Help? More like it’ll spread the opinion that TeSTAR is going under LeTi.”
“But when fans of our respective groups see the others’ name and hear their talents, wouldn’t they be inclined to check it out too?”
While it was true that we had gained some fans from VTIC’s fan base through the donation stream, that didn’t mean that they would be fine with us fully collaborating. We had to consider what the anti-fans would say too. There’s too many cons in this.
“No, it’s too risky for us.”
“Well, that's the company's standpoint. How about I tell you the real reason why I suggested it in the first place.”
What?
“...Wasn’t it just one of your whims?”
“That’s part of it. Search up ‘TeSTAR, VTIC collab’ and you’ll see.”
I minimised the call screen and did as he suggested. This guy can be so cryptic in the most annoying of ways.
Immediately, I could see there were at least 2000 posts on the topic. The first post I saw was something that I had briefly read the title of while monitoring earlier but didn’t deeply look into.
— Ahhhhh, TeSTAR’s new album is so good! Didn’t think they would be able to pull off the sexy concept as well as VTIC…Replaying the MV for the 100th time!
∟It’s TeSTAR, what do you expect lol
∟Did you not watch their season of Idol Inc?
∟With this, I lowkey want TeSTAR and VTIC to do a collab or something since they have the same concept this time
∟lol are you crazy? They’re competitors, you know.
∟Yeah, but didn’t VTIC appear on TeSTAR’s donation stream? Moondae and Cheongryeo seem to be close too.
∟That doesn’t mean their companies would allow that…right?
∟Ahh, we can only dream.
— I watched TeSTAR’s donation stream that day and I can never forget the concert… It felt so fresh seeing VTIC cover their song! I’m craving for TeSTAR covering VTIC’s song now… I wonder how they would arrange it.
∟Another hopeless dreamer lololol
∟Hey, let them have hope hahaha
∟Kim Raebin would probably do a damn good job at the rearrangement
∟As a Tika, I agree
∟As a Loviewer, that's a fact, isn't it
∟The only reason I would accept a collab is for VTIC to get a song composed by the hands of Kim Raebin
…Surely he's not crazy enough to suggest this because of the online reaction?
"You can't be serious. Are you sure you're Cheongryeo?"
"Of course, when am I never serious?"
Ah, I really want to smack him with a hammer right now.
"I don't suggest things without proper benefits."
"Last I checked, only VTIC and LeTi will benefit from this deal. You seem to only want to pay TeSTAR in exposure."
"Well, you're not wrong. But I'm throwing in a little something special for you all too. VTIC will allow TeSTAR to make use of our recording equipment and team in the future. I could negotiate for other promotional related benefits as well. Of course, only when we're not preparing for our own comebacks. The usage can be kept under wraps as well. In any case, Kim Raebin seemed to be interested in how we compose our songs, no? "
Given the state of our company right now, the free pass to their equipment and team did sound enticing. It'll help us stay afloat on quality and promotions until we find a proper backing. This bastard can keep his mouth shut well too, despite his character.
"... We'll consider it."
"Text back when you've come to a decision. I'll arrange for a meet up."
Click
With that, he finally hung up. This bastard is shaving off 5 years of my life everytime he does something. I took a deep breath while covering my face before heading back inside.
"Moondae, are you alright? That was quite a long phone call."
Chungwoo approached me the minute I stepped in. I could see the last 2 members to wake up having their breakfast behind him.
"... Gather them around after they have their breakfast. It's about the collaboration song."
I could almost see the worry in his eyes. Not exactly unexpected considering we were talking about rejecting it prior to my phone call. In any case, it took a lot of energy dealing with that bastard alone this early in the morning so I headed back to my seat at the table and finished my breakfast.
***
"Moondae, you properly rejected him right?"
The members in the know were looking at me with expectant eyes while the others were still wondering what was going on.
"R-reject what? D-did an o-offer come for you?"
"Not exactly just for me. VTIC is offering the use of their recording studio and teams in exchange for doing a collaboration with them on a song."
"V-VTIC's recording studio!? Their team as well! Are you sure?"
Kim Raebin's eyes were practically sparkling.
"Oh! You decided to think about it? I thought Sejin-hyung said Cheongryeo-sunbaenim was a bad person."
"H-he is! M-Moondae, you should reject him."
"No matter what, we shouldn't be doing this with him of all people."
"The benefits he's offering aren't that great either."
"But why?"
How strange, I felt a sense of deja vu.
"Why is he even going through such lengths? Isn't VTIC successful enough?"
"If I had to guess,"
I put my hand on my chin.
"It's probably to stay relevant."
Since VTIC has been around for quite some time, it wouldn't be strange if fans stopped listening to them as they aged. New Kpop listeners would likely be looking for fresher groups too, like our own fans who watched us from Idol Inc.
TeSTAR is not an exception to this either. Sooner or later, we would lose our fanbase to the times and at most be labelled as 'nostalgic'.
Although, we could still trust Raebin to come up with songs…wait.
"...They want to use Raebin to keep their songs fresh. Both groups would be praised for the freshness of the collaboration concept too."
"M-me?"
I held back my sigh. It is true that TeSTAR is slowly reaching the end of its prime so a boost in relevance may not necessarily be a bad thing. We would also get more leeway with the things we do since we are no longer mere rookies.
I turned to look at the key figure in this whole deal.
"Raebin, do you want to do it? The song."
He fidgeted with his fingers, meekly looking at the other members.
"If…the other members don't want to do it, I'm fine without it too."
"But you are the one who would be the most affected, being the composer. What do you want to do?"
"I…"
There's no blaming him for being nervous. There were members who disliked Cheongryeo in the group on my behalf but I didn't really mind it. It was in the past anyway.
"I…want to do it. I want to try writing a collaboration song. If that's okay…"
"Alright, I'll tell him that, if everyone is in agreement?"
"Moondae, are you alright with that?"
Keun Sejin asked me but he might as well rope in Bae Sejin and Seon Ahyeon seeing how they're looking at me like that.
"I'm fine with it. It's okay."
"Collabs are fun! Artists in America are always doing it!"
"...Yes, it'll be a new experience."
Ryu Chungwoo, you don't need to force yourself.
I texted Cheongryeo.