Chapter 71
“Ah…”
It was an answer that even Juha himself had never thought of.
Juha hadn’t been aware of the response he had just given. He had said he wanted to see Taeri, and Juha had gone because he was in a situation where he could go. However, thinking about it now, rather than being in a situation where he could go, he had made it so that he could go if at all possible. Because he had wanted to see Taeri.
“When I said I wanted to see you, you were the only person who said ‘I’ll come’ without any conditions.”
“Hmm. Then I should enjoy being favored a bit.”
Juha smiled mischievously and kissed Taeri. Taeri closed his eyes tightly and embraced Juha. When Juha tried to pull away, Taeri’s lips kept drawing him in deeper, feeling particularly wistful today.
Even though Taeri was pretending to be bright, Juha’s heart still ached.
Although Juha had confirmed Taeri’s feelings more than enough until now, there was an unknown anxiety in one corner of Juha’s heart. No matter how much Taeri had liked Juha from before, Taeri was too perfect a person to like him, and Taeri’s feelings were always bigger than what Juha imagined.
But after hearing about the life Taeri had lived until today, Juha understood everything. The occasional loneliness that showed in that bright and cheerful person.
After seeing the bare face hidden behind his glamorous appearance, Juha felt even more tender toward Taeri.
After small conversations shared quietly and long and short kisses, the two fell asleep around dawn.
* * *
‘The overall reaction is good, but this time too, the vote count is the key issue.’
After episode 6 finished airing, Park Hyeji finished monitoring even the reruns and went through the My Idol fan account posts one by one, falling into deep thought. Our Lord’s screen time was enough to be called a PD pick.
Thanks to Park Hyeji’s meticulous leadership, the Juha residents had developed enough solidarity to stick together even if aliens invaded. Our Lord’s flower boy stage gave their faith certainty. Now no one could throw stones at Our Lord saying he lacked charm.
‘But he can’t debut at 15th place.’
Park Hyeji looked over the last ranking table once more. Due to the severe strategic voting, the discrimination was poor and the upper rankings were a complete mess. If things continued this way, only random trainees would debut in droves, and the group would definitely flop.
‘He needs to settle into at least the top 5 this time to enter the safe zone during the 3rd and 4th competitions.’
It was possible if Our Lord didn’t cause any major problems, and looking at Our Lord’s personality and past history, it seemed like things would go smoothly unless the production team did some seriously evil editing.
The problem was strategic voting like last time.
The trainees with the most fans currently were still Choi Taeri and Yoo Youngin.
While Yoo Youngin’s fans were more aggressive, Choi Taeri’s fans were truly scary people. They were upset that Choi Taeri had placed 3rd last time, so they were obviously going to come at it with fire in their eyes this time.
‘If even one side’s fans don’t do strategic voting, Our Lord’s top 5 is achievable.’
Although climbing rankings gets harder as you go higher, you need to get into the upper ranks first to compete for the debut group.
‘How do we stop strategic voting?’
Our Lord embraced Yoo Youngin for a perfect stage. But if she told the Juha residents to embrace Yoo Youngin’s fans, there would definitely be chaos. Even Park Hyeji herself wasn’t keen on that.
Yoo Youngin’s fans had made enemies of all other fans, so they were having a mental victory in their own little world. But in reality, they were trembling this time, worried that other fans would all cast strategic votes against Yoo Youngin at once.
“Huh?”
Lost in thought, Park Hyeji mindlessly clicked on a new post uploaded to “Lee Juha Land” and unconsciously let out a “Huh!” sound.
[This is Our Lord, right? Please tell me it’s him.]
‘Got lost near Cheongdam and saw someone who looks like Our Lord coming out of a hair salon.
He got in a car right away so I couldn’t take a proper photo, but it definitely seemed like Our Lord.
But, the hair color… the hair color… don’t be shocked.
The hair color was ash blonde ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
I zoomed in as much as possible so don’t complain if it’s pixelated.
OurLordRealLife.jpg
OurLordRealLife_Zoomed.jpg
It’s Our Lord, right? It has to be. How could I not recognize Our Lord?
By the way, I felt this during the fan meeting too, but Our Lord’s proportions are really amazing, so he doesn’t look 178 but really looks like a male model in the late 180s.’
└What? That’s Our Lord, right? Ash blonde????????
└Our Lord ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ You’re trying to kill me…
└He really went ash blonde???
└(This is a comment from a member who has already died)
└Ahh. I’m so curious. I want to see properly. Show us the preview first!
└^^…I’ll faint for a moment, so wake me up when the show airs.
└Even if this isn’t Our Lord, Our Lord needs to do this hair now…
‘Our Lord changed his hair.’
Even though the pixels were broken, Park Hyeji’s eyes couldn’t be fooled. That was Our Lord even if she looked at it upside down.
Park Hyeji recalled Our Lord’s ambitious eyes she saw at the end of the 2nd stage. Thinking of Our Lord who had now truly decided to push forward with his looks made her feel overwhelmed and even solemn.
That’s when the silence was broken and the representative account email of ‘Lee Juha Land’ rang.
[Hello. This is Lee New from young inside of you.]
‘Huh? Isn’t young inside of you Yoo Youngin’s fan club?’
Seeing the subject line, Park Hyeji clicked on the email with curious eyes.
「First greetings to the settlement chief of Lee Juha Land!
I am ‘Lee New’, the operator of ‘Young Inside of You (shortened to Young-in-ssa)’.
Are you staying healthy despite the increasingly hot weather?
I’m writing to make a proposal…」
”Young Inside of You’…’
If you read ‘Young Inside of You, Young Inside of You’ out loud repeatedly, it naturally creates a strange Möbius strip-like name where ‘Yoo Youngin’ connects in the middle. Moreover, the abbreviation was Young-in… ssa… They probably meant to say Youngin was an ‘insider’, but when spoken out loud, it was an embarrassingly suggestive name.
The email contained the detailed situation of Young-in-ssa that any My Idol fan would know. The main point at the end of that long text was to propose joint voting between Lee Juha and Yoo Youngin.
‘Hah, really.’
She was dumbfounded by the shamelessness of making Lee Juha 15th place with strategic voting in the last ranking vote, and now grabbing onto her pant legs.
Park Hyeji continued to read the last paragraph of the email.
「If our Young-in-ssa has made Lee Juha Land uncomfortable in any way, we sincerely apologize.
From now on, our Young-in-ssa wants to become fans of Youngin-nim who are fair and square without shame.
We look forward to your positive reply.
Thank you sincerely for reading.」
“Hmm…”
Park Hyeji glared at the email with her arms crossed. Honestly, she was a bit tempted.
If Yoo Youngin’s fans with their large numbers and Lee Juha’s fans with their high loyalty joined forces, it wouldn’t be difficult for both Lee Juha and Yoo Youngin to settle in the upper ranks.
‘Could Our Lord and Yoo Youngin debut together?’
Questions and doubts followed one after another. As well known, Yoo Youngin’s strength was having solid core fans, but now having no more problems that could get worse was also a big advantage. Rather, there was a high probability of the story going from bullying victim to debuting as a top idol.
‘Rather than worrying about Yoo Youngin’s debut, I should think about Our Lord settling in the ranking first.’
Recalling Our Lord’s ambitious eyes, Park Hyeji resolved once more.
She would make Our Lord debut by any means necessary.
But Yoo Youngin’s fans were just as black-hearted as Yoo Youngin herself. Park Hyeji first sent a reply with just one sentence.
「How can I trust that?」
Then a reply came as if they had been waiting.
「Young-in-ssa doesn’t speak with two tongues.
We simply proposed a method for Yoo Youngin and Lee Juha trainees to debut together.」
Park Hyeji glared at the email and racked her brain. Even if they formed an alliance and somehow debuted through joint voting, it would inevitably become controversial as fraudulent voting. No matter how much debuting was the goal, if the means were dishonest, Our Lord would obviously suffer from hate comments as soon as he debuted.
‘Our Lord is someone who will become great. Our Lord is also careful about everything, so we can’t cause problems. Especially if the target is Yoo Youngin’s fans?’
If they got wrongly entangled with ‘Young-in-ssa’ and got screwed over, the image of Our Lord and Lee Juha Land that they had built up would crumble in an instant.
After serious consideration about the future of Our Lord and Lee Juha Land, Park Hyeji sent an answer to ‘Lee New’ and posted an announcement on the ‘Lee Juha Land’ board.
[Important Notice – There’s something I want to share with the Juha residents.]
‘Hello, this is the ‘Settlement Chief’ who founded ‘Lee Juha Land’ and currently manages it.
Today I received an email from a fan club operator of a certain trainee (I’ll call them Y for convenience, please refrain from speculation.)
The content was a proposal to link Y trainee with Our Lord for joint voting. Though Our Lord always shines, since his ranking isn’t high yet, after repeated consideration about what choice to make for him, I’ve made a major decision.
Our ‘Lee Juha Land’ will absolutely not respond to abusing actions that could cause problems in My Idol voting, namely joint voting and strategic voting.
We will approach all competitions and voting fairly and squarely, and do our best for clean voting.
Historically, those who ascended to the throne through dishonest methods always faced storms of blood.
I hope Our Lord steps only on pretty flowers with every step he takes, and that beautiful fragrance remains on the paths he’s walked.
I made this decision because I have not a shred of doubt in my conviction that Our Lord will debut.
If the Juha residents trust and follow me, I made this decision believing that Our Lord will surely repay us as well.
As much as I believe in Our Lord, I believe in the good influence of all the Juha residents.
Please, for Our Lord’s flawless debut, for the flower path he’ll walk after debut, I await the right choice from the Juha residents.
Furthermore, I deeply appeal to other fans who deeply cherish My Idol.
Though the trainees we each support are different, our stance of supporting shining youth and passion should all be the same. But everyone, would making your bias debut through unfair methods really be good for them? If they debut with unverified members due to strategic voting, joint voting, and other fraudulent voting, it won’t be a good result for the trainee you support either.
A talented person will shine. An awl in a bag will eventually pierce through the bag and stick out. We who love My Idol must all take responsibility so that people with outstanding talent can shine.
I’ll specially allow the above post to be shared on other sites.
Thank you.
-From Settlement Chief-‘
This presidential candidate speech-like post spread like waves to countless My Idol fans in an instant, even late at night.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
