Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 120

#120.

A table was beautifully set with side dishes sent by the members’ families and *Tteok-mandu guk* (떡만둣국, rice cake and dumpling soup), a Korean soup, made by Ki-joon.

The members, who had been staying up until dawn at the practice room until the previous day, watched the ‘Idol Star Athletics Championships’ while enjoying a late lunch.

“Ah! I’m on!”

“Oh, oh! I’m there too!”

The opening ceremony was in full swing on the broadcast.

With so many idols participating, it wasn’t easy to spot themselves on screen.

“Ah…. It seems like the preliminaries that Hyung [older brother or male friend] and I ran in were edited out.”

Woo-cheol muttered in disappointment after seeing the results of the short-distance race.

Woo-cheol and Do-jae’s race was simply summarized with a subtitle stating that they both won and advanced to the finals.

“That was my only chance to shine individually.”

Kyu-sung patted Woo-cheol, who was pretending to cry.

“Why… There’s also the futsal [a variant of soccer played on a smaller hard court] game.”

“Sun-wook will be the only one highlighted in that, and we’ll barely be seen.”

Kyu-sung couldn’t find a proper response to Woo-cheol’s words.

After that, the broadcast featured matches between female idol groups that the members weren’t participating in, so they focused on eating.

“Hyung, the dumpling soup is so delicious! Can I have another bowl?”

“No. That’s all there is.”

“Ah, that’s too bad…….”

Heung-min voiced his disappointment.

The other members also emptied their bowls and thanked Ki-joon.

“Thank you for the meal, Hyung! It was really delicious!”

“Thank you for the meal.”

Do-jae also smiled with satisfaction as he spoke.

It wasn’t comparable to the royal family’s New Year’s breakfast or dinner, but it felt like he had eaten proper New Year’s food for the first time in a while.

“Hyung. You should show off your cooking skills more often.”

Ki-joon shook his head with a dumbfounded expression at Woo-cheol’s words.

On the TV screen, the archery competition was already underway.

Woo-cheol asked, as if reminded of Infinite Boys after seeing them.

“Ah. But Sung-chan and Yoon-hoo Hyung, who we competed against, seemed to know all the choreography for ‘Don’t Mess With Me’ when they did their goal celebration. Did our promotion periods overlap?”

“That’s right. I hope that celebration makes it on the broadcast without being cut.”

That way, there would be a short promotion for ‘Don’t Mess With Me,’ which would be beneficial.

Since the atmosphere was cheerful, it wasn’t impossible for it to be broadcast.

Lui exclaimed, “Ah,” at Woo-cheol and Heung-min’s words.

“I taught them the key choreography! I guess they remembered it all!”

“You? When?”

Heung-min asked, wondering when Lui had time to teach them the choreography, even though he knew they were close with the Infinite Boys members.

Lui found a video on his phone and showed it.

“When ‘Don’t Mess With Me’ was released, they told me through KakaoTalk [a popular Korean messaging app] that the song was great and the dance was cute.”

“…So?”

“So I filmed a video and sent it to them so they could learn it.”

It was a video of Lui wearing the ‘Don’t Mess With Me’ stage outfit and briefly singing the chorus and dancing the key choreography alone in the waiting room of a music show that he didn’t even remember when it was.

“You… filmed this and sent it to the Infinite Boys *sunbaes* [senior colleagues or mentors]?”

“Yes. They liked it. They said they would watch it and practice, and they really did. As expected, they’re good *hyungs*…….”

“Wow, Lui. You’re really the best.”

Woo-cheol raised his thumb after watching the video.

Kyu-sung, Ki-joon, and Do-jae also had impressed looks on their faces.

This was more than just friendliness.

“If ENFP [one of the 16 personality types in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)] became a human, wouldn’t it be Lui?”

Kyu-sung muttered from the other side, and Lui tilted his head and smiled.

“I’m already human, though.”

“No, you’re a fairy. Kim Lui.”

Lui chuckled at Woo-cheol’s words, saying, “Ah, that’s right!”

“If the celebration gets on the broadcast, it’ll be thanks to Lui.”

Heung-min muttered.

While the members were talking, the archery 5th round match between Lui and Illusion’s Yoon Jung-hoon began.

“Wow, wow, let’s watch!”

The members already knew the results, but they were still curious about how it would be edited on the broadcast.

The members focused on the TV screen.

***

-Someone tell me what Kang Do-jae can’t do

└I said he can’t do what he can’t do ㅠㅠ

-10 points. Was it that easy to shoot?

└If it was, everyone would have shot 10 points

-Wow, even Earth was too good for him

-What is Kang Do-jae? Is he from Taereung [the location of the Korea National Training Center]? Did he go to Taereung?

└Taereung missed out on another talent after Sun-wook;;;

-Shouldn’t Earth and Kang Do-jae hold hands and go to Taereung to train?

└There are so many people who are good at archery in our country. It’s too much to get excited over an unofficial match between idols with a short distance

└Here comes the serious guy

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋI’m going crazy. If you’re going to be this serious, don’t use the communityㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-King Do-jae’s arrow seems to have pierced my heart too

└How are you still alive?

└I’m a ghost

-Is it real that he broke the camera lens twice?

└ㅇㄱㄹㅇ (*ㅇㄱㄹㅇ* is an abbreviation for ‘This is real’ in Korean)

└ㅁㅊ (*ㅁㅊ* is an abbreviation for ‘crazy’ in Korean)

└He’s a sharpshooter

-Earth and him were tied until the 3rd time, but when he shot the 4th time, our house lost power

└Our house too

└Isn’t it silence, not power outage?ㅋㅋ

└Ah, sorry for the typo because I was too excited ㅈㅅ (*ㅈㅅ* is an abbreviation for ‘sorry’ in Korean)

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋBut I understood everything and you made another typo;

-I knew our country was good at archery, but are we really the nation of archery? Even idols are shooting tens

-I suspect manipulation

└They just say it’s manipulation for everythingㅋㅋㅋㅋ Life is pathetic

└Are you saying even King Physical Education is manipulated?

└Why did he suddenly become King Physical Education

└Because they gave a lot of close-ups of King Do-jae

-His face was really gracious

-I somehow felt honored. I felt like I had to kneel

-If I asked, ‘Am I destined to be a king?’ he would definitely bow down

-Does a face feed you? I’m already full. I feel like I’ll get cut by his nose before the bow

-I feel sorry for the opponent, but I couldn’t help but cheer for Kang Do-jae because of his face

└Damn lookism

-I think I know why Kang Do-jae is popular

As the archery competition was broadcast, the online community was buzzing with talk about Do-jae, the archery winner.

It was similar to when Earth won last year, but also different.

In fact, even if Do-jae hadn’t hit the target, he would have become a hot topic the moment his appearance shooting the bow was broadcast.

Do-jae had already caused a stir with just the fan-taken photos that fans secretly uploaded.

That’s how perfect Do-jae’s profile was as he concentrated with the bow in his hand, like a sculpture.

Moreover, even though it was an indoor gymnasium with no wind, his posture and expression were so perfect that it was reminiscent of a scene of him shooting a bow in a wide field.

And his skills were surprisingly perfect.

The Idol Star Athletics Championships itself wasn’t a program with high viewership, but it had considerable online buzz.

Do-jae immediately achieved the number one spot in real-time search rankings.

It wasn’t just Do-jae.

After Heung-min and Woo-cheol’s match scenes were broadcast, Heung-min also rose in the real-time search rankings.

Heung-min’s performance was also a factor, but many people searched for Heung-min after learning that MIN’s real name was Heung-min.

As ‘Heung-min’ rose in the search rankings, those who didn’t know searched for ‘Son Heung-min’ again, creating the unique scene of MIN and Son Heung-min simultaneously rising in the real-time search rankings.

Thanks to this, internet media outlets that write articles based on real-time search rankings even published articles related to it.

Heung-min’s name truly lived up to its ‘name value.’

The fans, for their part, were busy editing and sharing short clips of Heung-min running to Woo-cheol, saying, ‘As expected of our members,’ and showering them with affection.

As the overall fandom grows, individual fandoms also become solid, and there tends to be a subtle power struggle between the fans of each member, but the MOST fandom has had less of that atmosphere so far compared to its size.

In the end, fans often follow the subtly revealed atmosphere between the members, and MOST had no power struggles, victim mentality, or inferiority complexes among the members.

Since the members are close to each other, there are fewer issues among individual fans.

There have been no problems with the distribution of song parts, which is the most common cause of fights in other group fandoms.

Surprisingly, voices of dissatisfaction occasionally came from Do-jae’s fandom…….

But it hasn’t become a big problem yet.

***

At that time, when Do-jae and Heung-min were constantly rising and falling in the real-time search rankings due to the Idol Star Athletics Championships,

Han Yu-na, who was once an intern in Planning Team 2 but is now a full-time employee, got up from her seat at the sound of her phone alarm and went into her room.

“Unnie [older sister], where are you going!”

“Ah, *Nunaaa* [term used by younger males to address older females]! Please do this quickly!”

Her cousins, who came to visit for the Lunar New Year, desperately called out to Han Yu-na from the living room, but Han Yu-na locked the door and hurriedly turned on her laptop.

Once you’ve set foot in the entertainment industry, you can’t be completely free from company work even during holidays.

The entertainment industry is a place where weekends and holidays are ambiguous; you work day and night, and you’re even paid poorly.

The work itself is not easy, both physically and mentally.

Big companies have their own problems, and small companies have their own problems.

It’s no wonder that entertainment industry workers are waving red flags in anonymous *직장in* [office worker] communities like ‘Job Plant’ or ‘BlaBla,’ telling people not to come here at all costs.

‘I was really lucky.’

Kingdom was a place I hesitated to join because there weren’t many reviews, but the reason there were no reviews wasn’t because it was bad.

The employees didn’t really have a reason to write on such anonymous communities.

In Han Yu-na’s opinion, Kingdom was almost like a unicorn company in the industry.

It seems like everyone didn’t know about it before because it wasn’t famous, and now that Big Boys and MOST have succeeded one after another and the working environment is rumored to be good, everyone is just waiting for them to hire employees.

‘It’s the same with no holidays…. But I can’t help it. When I think about the MOST members, I want to work even harder.’

The members were always kind to Han Yu-na, who was an intern, and thanked her for taking on the work.

Han Yu-na, who took over Lee Jung-yeon’s work and became the SNS manager, connected to the cloud and downloaded the photos.

And she immediately started updating the downloaded photos on Facenote and Tweetie [fictional social media platforms, similar to Facebook and Twitter].

It was a Lunar New Year *hanbok* [traditional Korean dress] photo that the members had taken in the studio in advance.

“Done!”

Sky blue, pink.

The faces of the members wearing *hanboks* with soft light were radiant.

Han Yu-na looked at the photos with a satisfied look.

It was after she updated the video of them bowing at the end.

***

The fans, who were suffering from the Idol Star Athletics Championships drought, became noisy once again at the members’ *hanbok* photos.

Even those who clicked on the real-time search rankings got to see the members wearing *hanboks*.

Thanks to the many articles that were published.

-Why do they look so good in *hanbok*?

-Ah, so cuteㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Lui looks like a baby master

-What’s with Lee Ki-joon’s newlywed vibe?

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋRealㅋㅋㅋㅋHe looks like a newlywed. Why does he look so good?

-It looks like they’re coming to greet my house

└No, it’s not your house

-Do-jae shouldn’t be here. He should go to Gyeongbokgung [main royal palace of Seoul]

-King Do-jae is conquering the holidays

-There’s so much content, I’m so happyㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-But didn’t they say the kids are coming back soon? When will they come back?

-I knowㅠㅠㅠㅠ There’s been no news, so I wonder if they’ll even come out

-I thought they would come out in January, but it’s been pushed back, right?

└ㅇㅇ (*ㅇㅇ* is an abbreviation for ‘yes’ in Korean) I heard from an insider that it was pushed back internally

└Do you know why?

└Aren’t you a phone reporter? There’s no reason for the kids’ album to be pushed back. The senior group will only come out in April

-There’s not even a single spoiler and it’s too far away if they’re going to do it next month

-Last year, the fan meeting announcement came out around this time, so I knew the comeback date

-Kingdom, work! Work!

-Please work like a cow, Mostㅠㅠㅠㅠ I’m going to spend money like a dogㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

The Besties [MOST’s fandom name] were happy with the new content but were also thirsty for a comeback.

Then. On Sunday night, as the holidays were coming to an end.

Just as it was about to turn midnight on Monday, MOST’s comeback teaser was uploaded.