Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 133

#133.

“Number one?”

“Number one?!!”

“You’re saying number one?!”

From the phone Louis held up, Gyuseong, Hongmin, and Woocheol exclaimed in great surprise, in that order of proximity.

“Yes! We got number one, yaaaay! Yeaaah!”

Louis shouted and, filled with excitement, leaped and bounded across the practice room.

“Moo-yah-ho! This is when you say moo-yah-ho! Yee-haoooo!”

Woocheol, equally thrilled, jumped up and down following Louis.

Eventually, the two grabbed hands and began spinning around like they were performing a Ganggangsullae dance [a Korean circle dance traditionally performed by women on the night of the full moon].

“Ah! Too fast!”

“Ehehe! This is fun!”

Louis complained of dizziness as the speed increased like a spinning ride, but they couldn’t stop easily because of the rotational force already built up.

Dojae checked the music charts on his phone and murmured in a voice filled with emotion.

“‘Remember’ is number one…”

6 PM.

MOST’s title track finally reached number one on the music charts.

Suddenly, Jung Gilju burst through the door.

“You guys… saw it!”

“Yes, we saw it, hyung [older brother or male friend]!”

“Congratulations, everyone!!”

“Thank you!”

The members shared their joy with Jung Gilju, who had worked hard with them.

The practice room was filled with happiness.

Later, they exchanged congratulatory greetings with trainer Yangmal, the dance team, and staff from Planning Team 2 who happened to pass by.

The members’ spirits were at their peak, and the Korean beef set that Dojae had received seemed like it would be put to very good use.

***

“Has our oppa [term of endearment for an older brother or male celebrity]… become too much of a superstar?”

Sunmi muttered as she checked the daily charts on the music site.

Yesterday evening at 6 PM.

‘Remember,’ which had reached number one in real-time, maintained its position until today, eventually topping the daily charts as well.

And that wasn’t all.

‘Dynamic,’ which had appeared on the music charts after the Saenal University performance, had entered the top 30.

Sunmi was so happy that she began to seriously and happily worry whether MOST had become too much of a superstar.

“But… our oppas were always superstars. Since their debut.”

“In my heart?”

Sunmi asked back at Heera’s words.

Heera looked at Sunmi as if she was dumbfounded.

“Hey, I almost put the sticker on wrong because you made me laugh.”

“Look. No? I put it on okay? I think you have a talent for this. It’s pretty. Post it on Tweety [likely referring to Twitter/X] when you’re done. I think the reaction will be good?”

“Okay, I think I have some talent too.”

The two were gathered in Sunmi’s room, decorating ‘top loaders’ with various stickers.

Top-kku. Short for top loader decorating.

Top loaders are transparent plastic cases that are good for storing thin and easily damaged paper cards.

Because of this, fans have recently been using top loaders to better preserve the photo cards that come with albums.

They weren’t just storing them.

Decorating the surface with photo cards, like decorating a diary, had become a culture.

Sunmi and Heera, who had carefully kept their photo cards in Polaroid albums, had recently joined the top-kku craze.

Of course, the two were too much of college students to be so enthusiastic about top-kku, but it reminded them of the old days and they liked it.

It seemed to suit their hobby.

At first, they started collecting photo cards and then got into top-kku, but now there were times when they collected photo cards to do top-kku.

“It’s surprisingly fun once you get into it.”

“Right. I bought a sticker of Gyuseong oppa’s fan artist drawing all the members as bears last time… When is that coming? I want to decorate with that too.”

“Ah, that one. It was so cute. Why are all those fan artists so good?”

After briefly talking about stickers, Sunmi and Heera returned to the topic of whether MOST had become superstars.

“Oppa’s… I can’t say they were huge superstars from the start… but they’ve had a really smooth road.”

“I know.”

Heera nodded in response to Sunmi’s words.

MOST was constantly breaking records that Kingdom, classified as a small to medium-sized agency, could not achieve.

As a fan, there were many reasons to consider MOST’s success.

First of all, the appearance of all the group members was above average.

Half of the members were classified as the visual line, so there was no need to say more.

That’s not to say that the appearance of the members who weren’t on the visual line was lacking.

If they were ordinary people, they would be more than just ‘handsome guys.’

And what about their skills?

Vocal line and rap line. There were no weak links, and everything was standardized upwards.

The dance members were also excellent, and the overall dance skills were good.

So they became a group capable of gorgeous performances and live performances…

Most importantly.

A song that was worth such skills.

Starting with Director Lee Jung-yeop, Kingdom had thought of raising MOST more popularly than Big Boyz, and the songs were good enough to reveal that.

In addition, each and every member.

Everyone had a strong personality, but no one was doing anything to be hated.

It was also clear that they were close to each other, and their hearts for the fans were overflowing with sincerity.

Because the other person was sincere, once they became interested, the fans also couldn’t help but be sincere to MOST.

‘But I thought this album would only go this far…’

The fandom had grown, so winning first place on music shows was easy, but winning first place on the music charts was a different story.

No matter how good MOST’s music scores were, it was always close to being number one, but not quite.

Partly because the competition was fierce, but sometimes it was more difficult for idols to win number one on the music charts than on music shows.

So Sunmi thought that she would have to be satisfied with this level of performance for this album.

‘People who are meant to be successful will be successful.’

That’s what MOST was like.

Having many success factors doesn’t necessarily lead to success.

But MOST was different from the beginning.

‘It’s like they’re overflowing with the energy of someone who’s going to be successful. Doesn’t someone have a really good fortune?’

This suspicion felt reasonable.

So it was the same this time.

She thought she would have to be satisfied with entering the top 5 on the music charts, but in the end, she made it to number one.

Thanks to word of mouth spreading overseas, they gained great interest in Korea as well.

And even the Saenal University festival video.

“If this keeps up, I won’t be able to go to a fan signing event forever? I’ll have to work three part-time jobs to barely go.”

“Maybe. I gave up from the beginning… but you’ve been going to fan signing events since your debut…”

“Haa… I really want to go at least once during this promotion. I have something to give to oppa.”

“What is it?”

“My heart.”

“Sunmi… shouldn’t you stop giving it now? Does oppa even want it?”

“…”

The two, who had been sticking stickers and having a pretty good conversation, stopped at the same time.

“Tweety is up!”

“Ack!”

Sunmi screamed and immediately checked her phone.

“It’s Dojae oppa!”

“Ooh… Dojae oppa is the first one today.”

MOST had won first place on 〈Music Town〉 a little while ago.

The MOST members, who were flying around on stage because they were in good condition, were very happy after winning first place and expressed their infinite gratitude to BEST [MOST’s fan name].

It was clear that the number one spot on the music charts had also affected the members.

Thanks to this, during today’s encore stage, the members could be seen giving a deep bow of gratitude in the middle of the choreography.

Even though they should be used to being number one now, seeing the members always being so grateful made the fans even more.

Even more. They had a growing desire to make them more! Successful.

“Hey, Sunmi. Hold your heart and check the picture.”

“I’m used to it, I’m used to it… Ugh!”

Sunmi, who had been joking that she was used to being shocked by Dojae’s beauty, couldn’t continue her words.

Then, she coughed as if she was really suffocating.

“What is really going on.”

Heera muttered, clutching her chest.

Today’s stage costume was an ‘elite agent’ concept.

In the photo, Dojae had his hair neatly swept back and was wearing a white shirt and fitted black suit pants.

“A full body shot!”

“So this is what it means to be perfect from head to toe.”

“Isn’t oppa taller? He was already tall.”

“He’s too perfect. Dojae-nim [honorific suffix]. I want to kneel in front of oppa.”

Sunmi made a fuss in a crying voice.

The indifferent expression and pose.

Even the leather belt, which was deliberately lengthened and hung down to the thigh area, was perfect.

He looked like someone who came to steal hearts, not an agent catching criminals.

And yet, the message he posted on Tweety was like Dojae, who was called ‘Scholar,’ ‘Your Majesty.’

As always, it was a carefully chosen article with every single word.

“Oppa wrote another masterpiece.”

“Wow… that’s why I have no choice but to increase my part-time job again. I have to go see oppa.”

Around the time when BESTs all over the country and around the world were roaring with joy, including Sunmi and Heera.

“Haa… Shit. I feel so bad.”

In the car.

Yoo Myungwoo, who had just made his comeback today, cursed in a low voice.

It had been a week since MOST made their comeback.

The next comeback runner was Yoo Myungwoo.

After being hit by Hwang Juho’s incident, The Origin was active in secret, excluding Hwang Juho.

Even then, it was difficult to do full-fledged activities as a group.

Even though he wasn’t a popular member, The Origin had to be aware of public opinion to some extent since Hwang Juho was self-reflecting.

It was even more so because the incident broke out before the fandom was completely solidified.

That’s not to say that all the members of The Origin could be left to play.

So what New Ent chose was individual activities.

While scheduling other members mainly on radio or cable broadcasts, Yoo Myungwoo was made to release a solo album.

They didn’t expect great public success.

It was New’s strategy to capture Yoo Myungwoo’s fandom, who was the most popular among The Origin.

After releasing this album, they planned to build recognition by having Yoo Myungwoo appear on major entertainment shows.

“What’s wrong… you did well on your comeback today.”

The manager in the driver’s seat said, watching Yoo Myungwoo’s mood.

“Of all things, those damn beggars had to get first place…”

“…”

The manager kept his mouth shut.

Because it seemed like no matter what answer he gave, it wouldn’t please Yoo Myungwoo.

“Did you see their faces after those bastards got first place?”

The manager even knew that Yoo Myungwoo was particularly 신경쓰다 [ 신경쓰다 (singyeong 쓰다) means to be concerned or 신경쓰이다 (singyeong 쓰이다) means to be bothered] about MOST, Kang Dojae.

He didn’t show it in the very early days of his debut, but he became increasingly sensitive to the point where he couldn’t help but notice.

Among the New employees, it was already rumored that the trainees, including the members of The Origin, had 괴롭히다 [괴롭히다 (goerophida) means to bully] Kang Dojae, and that’s why Kang Dojae went to another agency even after being selected for the debut group.

‘Tsk… it seems like they don’t even 신경쓰다 [신경쓰다 (singyeong 쓰da) means to care] about you anymore.’

The manager swallowed the words he couldn’t bring himself to say.

For a while, MOST seemed to be 신경쓰다 [신경쓰다 (singyeong 쓰da) means to care] about Yoo Myungwoo and The Origin because of the bullying incident.

Not anymore.

He could tell exactly when he met them by chance today.

Even while watching Yoo Myungwoo’s comeback stage right in front of them, the MOST members, especially Kang Dojae, couldn’t read any personal feelings in their eyes.

The difference had already widened to the point where they didn’t have to 신경쓰다 [신경쓰다 (singyeong 쓰da) means to care] anymore.

It wasn’t necessarily because The Origin’s activities had slowed down.

MOST, which had gained momentum in popularity, was busy moving forward without shaking.

“Hoo…”

Yoo Myungwoo, who was sitting in the passenger seat, closed his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh.

It was the manager who wanted to sigh.

Because if he knew that ‘Kang Dojae’ and his members were coming to the 〈Passion Man〉 filming location they were going to now, there would definitely be a mess.