Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 75

#75.

Turning around, it was the landlady who lived upstairs.

She had a broom in her hand, probably cleaning the hallway.

“Perfect timing!”

“Ah… hello.”

She was the one who always bothered Son Jeong-gi whenever they ran into each other, asking if he was having a hard time living alone as a bachelor.

She would often hand him things like boiled sweet potatoes, fruit, or red pepper powder.

Son Jeong-gi nodded insincerely in greeting.

He certainly wasn’t in the mood to talk to the landlady.

But then, he suddenly felt awkward about the way the landlady was addressing him.

She used to call him the young man from 301.

Son Jeong-gi, the reporter.

It was a familiar title to him, so he didn’t realize it right away.

“Right? The *Nara Ilbo* reporter who wrote the MOST article?”

“What? How did you…?”

Son Jeong-gi frowned in bewilderment as he asked.

He didn’t want to hear MOST’s M or ‘ㅁ’ [the Korean consonant ‘m’].

“I saw the article and… I thought it might be you since you have the same name, live in 301, and are a young reporter.”

“Ah….”

What was she trying to say?

She must have a lot of free time to read all the internet articles.

Son Jeong-gi thought cynically and tried to avoid the landlady.

“Then I’ll go inside…”

“No, 301! I thought you were living diligently, but you’re not living life right!”

The landlady blocked Son Jeong-gi from entering and shouted.

“Excuse me? What are you saying, ma’am?”

“Young people these days! They sing well, dance well. I wish my son was like that… I’m a fan of those kids! What did they do so wrong that you write such articles? 301, huh? If I knew you were a trash reporter, I wouldn’t have rented to you. I would have signed a contract with someone else.”

Son Jeong-gi was stunned by the landlady’s barrage of words.

The landlady, who had been kind to him, was now pointing her finger at him, calling him a trash reporter.

He had only heard the term “trash reporter” a lot online, but this was the first time he had heard it directly in person.

It was quite a blow.

‘They said those guys are popular in mom cafes… it’s true?’

He thought he had written the article based on one or two complimentary posts, but he was dumbfounded that even the landlady was a fan of MOST.

“They’re good kids who even volunteer at the hospital. Huh? You can’t be so mean-spirited! How can you write things that aren’t true as if they are? Do you think you can sleep soundly?”

She was getting more and more heated, and as if she couldn’t stand Son Jeong-gi sleeping soundly, she poked at him with the broom.

“Hey, what are you doing! Ma’am! Stop it!”

Son Jeong-gi dodged comically as the broom poked around his feet, and quickly pressed the door lock.

Then he quickly escaped behind the door.

“Take out the trash on time! I won’t let it slide again!”

A voice filled with resentment could be heard from outside the door.

***

Seon-mi and Hee-ra, two fans of MOST, sat in a cafe with determined faces and turned on their laptops.

“Ready?”

“Of course. They’re all dead!”

Already huge fans of MOST, the two had been spending their days thinking only of MOST, putting aside all their “real life” after the fan meeting.

They spent every day in the blink of an eye, obsessing over the new album and music show performances in one-second increments, and reviewing previous videos.

The affection for MOST, who had won first place at the same time as their comeback, was breaking records every day, and Seon-mi had even increased her part-time jobs to two in preparation for the fan signing event, which would be more competitive as their popularity increased.

It was only natural that the two were furious about the recent music chart manipulation issue.

[Rumors Got You Down?! MOST to Sue Reporters and Haters Alike]

And the moment Kingdom Entertainment came out strongly, saying they would sue not only reporters but also haters, the two decided to take action.

In particular, Seon-mi was anything but an ordinary activist.

“I’ll capture screenshots from DC Inside [a popular Korean online forum], you capture the article comments.”

“Okay. But how did you even think of joining that?”

“Why? When the kids got their first public broadcast win…”

“Yeah.”

“There was a ridiculous rumor that Do-jae’s father was the president of SVS, right? Turns out Do-jae’s father isn’t even around.”

“Oh, right, right. That happened.”

It was a rumor that disappeared so quickly that it was faint in their memories.

“After seeing the interview where Do-jae said his father wasn’t around, I was so angry at those who wrote those comments! So I searched and looked through the records… and they were fans of The Origin.”

“Ah. Seriously?”

As the years changed, the relationship between the two fandoms, The Origin and MOST, had deteriorated quite a bit.

The relationship between the fandoms wasn’t bad from the beginning.

In the beginning, The Origin’s fandom didn’t need to pay attention to MOST.

Even though they were rookies, they thought the level of The Origin, who debuted from New, was different from that of MOST, who debuted from Kingdom.

However, problems arose as MOST gained popularity.

The Origin’s fandom felt a sense of crisis as MOST, who they thought was on a different level, gradually gained popularity.

From the time MOST won first place on public broadcast for the first time, The Origin’s fandom openly checked MOST.

Then, when they were competing for the Rookie of the Year award, many MOST fans began to dislike The Origin and their fans.

Even though MOST was more popular, they continued to ignore and antagonize them, so they couldn’t help but dislike them.

“Anyway. So I thought these guys might do something someday, blinded by jealousy.”

Seon-mi also had a hunch.

But she also had some confidence through past experience.

Fans and fandoms were willing to do anything for their favorite singer.

That meant they could become anti-fans of other singers and slander them.

When they were competing for first place, when the fandom was growing, or when they felt they were getting less push because they were in the same agency….

Fandoms could always become hostile to each other, and when that happened, they were busy tearing each other down.

“Still, how did you think of joining The Origin’s fan page?”

In fact, the Origin fan page that Seon-mi joined was a membership-based fan page that required several stages of authentication to enter.

Of course, that’s why she was able to know how The Origin fans were talking about MOST.

When MOST’s music scores were good during this comeback, these fan page members arbitrarily predicted that they had manipulated the music charts and started creating evidence of manipulation.

“It’s like a Trojan horse. A Trojan horse.”

“Ah. So cool.”

The two moved their hands busily while talking.

The materials from the fan page called would be evidence of the existence of slanderous forces to Kingdom, and the comment captures were all for the purpose of suing.

“These guys are deleting comments one by one. I need to get them faster. I’ll make sure every last one of them gets sued.”

“Why did they write it if they were going to delete it? Other fans will be taking PDFs, so just take what you see for now.”

“Yeah. But they wouldn’t give them leniency, would they?”

“Kingdom doesn’t seem like they would, judging by how they immediately announced the lawsuit.”

“I like that they’re so decisive.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to capture screenshots until my fingers break so that Do-jae *oppa* [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend] can live in a hate-free zone!”

Seon-mi and Hee-ra burned with determination.

At the same time, they glanced at the clock.

The broadcast was scheduled to start at 7 p.m., so they planned to capture everything and send it by email within three hours.

And their goal was to go home and watch the live broadcast.

***

Seeing the reactions of people change 180 degrees after the article was published, the MOST members felt relieved but also inevitably empty.

“I’m glad it seems to be sorted out.”

“Me too……”

Gyu-sung replied quietly to Ki-jun’s words.

It was thanks to the company’s quick and decisive response.

The members felt grateful to the Kingdom employees, including team leader Kim Seok-cheol.

“But are we really popular in mom cafes and stuff?”

Hung-min asked team leader Kim Seok-cheol, as he had been curious since hearing about it yesterday.

“That’s what the Planning Team 2 employees said.”

Team leader Kim Seok-cheol didn’t know the details either.

Rather, Woo-cheol, who was getting his makeup touched up, said.

“So I joined a neighborhood mom cafe this morning! There was quite a bit of talk about us even in the bulletin boards where you can only lurk!”

“Seriously?”

Hung-min asked back in surprise, and Woo-cheol nodded confidently.

“You know how Gyu-sung *hyung* [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend] and Do-jae *hyung* performed at the hospital because of the Wang Puppy couple.”

“Ah. Could it be from then?”

“When I searched, there were posts saying that the kids they often see on the bus look good even before that.”

However, the video of Gyu-sung and Do-jae performing for pediatric patients at the hospital spread to mom cafes across the country, and it seemed that MOST was properly recognized by women in their 40s and 50s.

Most of them were parents who were busy raising their children, so they didn’t seem to be interested in idols, but surprisingly, that wasn’t the case.

Some were reminded of their memories of liking idols in the past and came to like MOST, and others felt proud as if they were looking at their own children.

Judging from the fact that there were often posts saying that they were so handsome that they were excited, it seemed that many people were definitely returning to the feeling of their younger days while watching MOST.

Anyway, to the MOST members, they were the same fans regardless of age, and it was something to be grateful for.

“Thanks to that, even the music charts went up……”

“The kimchi gifts that came to the dorm back then might have been from the mothers?”

Woo-cheol chimed in at Hung-min’s sudden remark.

“Ah. That’s right! But you know what? Do-jae *hyung* is the most popular even in mom cafes. They say he’s handsome and sings well.”

“What’s there to say……”

“Aren’t you curious about who’s next?”

“Me?”

“Nope. It’s me and Louis. They say we’re like immature and cute sons!”

Louis, who was listening to Hung-min and Woo-cheol’s conversation, interjected and asked.

Woo-cheol shrugged his shoulders and muttered that good is good.

Team leader Kim Seok-cheol interrupted the members’ conversation.

“It’s time for the first place announcement. Let’s get ready to go up.”

“Yes!”

“Yes, sir!”

***

“The winner for the second week of April is……!”

“Who will it be?!”

“MOST!”

As soon as the MCs announced MOST as the winner, cheers erupted from the audience.

It wasn’t the members’ imagination that the cheers felt louder than usual.

Since things had been settled to some extent, both the members and the fans were able to rejoice to their hearts’ content.

“Congratulations!”

“Congratulations!”

The MCs handed the members bouquets and trophies.

From the last music show, MOST had decided that the members would take turns giving acceptance speeches.

Today was Woo-cheol’s turn.

Woo-cheol, holding the microphone, stood in the center.

Woo-cheol, who was looking at the fan seats with tearful eyes, barely opened his mouth.

“Thank you. BEST!”

As he called out to the fans in an excited voice, cheers erupted once again from the fan seats.

“Thank you so much for first place…. Huh!”

Woo-cheol, who seemed to be continuing his speech normally, took a breath and suddenly knelt down with his knees bent.