Prince from another dimension becomes an Idol chapter 74

[MOST’s ‘Yours’ Soars to Number 1, Member Gets a Nosebleed]

[New Idol Group MOST Returns with ‘Music Story’… Takes 1st Place, Beating Sindia]

[Nosebleed from Excitement, MOST Tops Both Search Rankings and Music Shows!]

[MOST’s Passionate Nosebleed! Achieves 1st Place Right After Comeback]

– MOST finally got 1st place, congrats!

– Too bad for Sindia, if only they had held on for one more week it would have been a seven-week streak.

 – Sindia’s fans don’t see it that way. Go MOST! Congrats on the 1st place!

– With a nosebleed, they deserve to win!

– With such good album sales, I thought they might get 1st place, but their digital score is high too.

– For an idol group, MOST’s digital performance is really impressive.

– Their new song is good.

– What’s with the passionate nosebleed? Is that member okay?

 – There was an accidental collision with another member on stage, they’re fine according to the article.

– MIN oppa, please take care of your health.

 – He’s not seriously hurt.

– I thought the nosebleed was staged and criticized it for being too sensational… Sorry.

– I was so shocked watching the broadcast.

– Congrats on the 1st place!

– Are they a group that wins 1st place right after their comeback?

 – Look at their results, not getting 1st place would be strange.

 – But I don’t think they’re at the level to beat Sindia… I don’t even know their songs.

 – Stop discussing if you don’t know.

 – Seriously, I just don’t know.

 – You must be ignorant then.

 – The song is just okay, it’s weird their digital score is so high.

 – Is it rigged?

 – The song is good, people call it rigged if they don’t like it.

– The passionate nosebleed was memorable.

– But they handled it well.

– After watching today, I think we can trust their performances.

 – They really perform well.

 – Kang Dojae’s acting was amazing, he could be an actor.

 – He has the face for acting.

..After the broadcast ended.

The MOST members came down from the stage, covered in confetti, feeling on top of the world.

Heungmin’s regret over the mishap on stage was wiped away by the joy of winning first place.

Thanks to this, Heungmin took pictures with the 1st place trophy and even made jokes in his tweet.

@most#_official

[MIN] It’s MIN! Can’t believe we got 1st place right after our comeback! It’s all thanks to our Bests (fans)! Don’t worry about the nosebleed… just saw stars for a moment… I’m perfectly fine now! Didn’t it look cool to have a nosebleed on stage?!

“You were so embarrassed earlier…”

Woochul clucked his tongue after seeing Heungmin’s tweet.

Heungmin’s confidence had returned, not just because of their 1st place win but also thanks to Sindia’s support.

*

After the announcement of the 1st place, Sindia approached Heungmin to congratulate MOST.

“Congratulations on the 1st place!”

“Haha. Th-thank you.”

“But, are you okay after the nosebleed?”

“Y-you saw?! I’m fine, but I’m so embarrassed to have shown such a messy side…”

As Heungmin started to feel self-conscious, Sindia waved it off.

“Oh no, don’t say that. You worked hard on stage. I’m just glad you’re not seriously hurt.”

“Haha, thank you so much, senior!”

Though they were the same age, Sindia had debuted four years earlier and was considered a senior.

As Heungmin bowed his head, Sindia gave him a reassuring smile.

“I really enjoyed your performance.”

Her words filled Heungmin with pure joy.

The singer he admired had praised his performance, making him incredibly happy.

“Thank you. Thank you!”

With Heungmin’s enthusiastic gratitude, Sindia smiled slightly before heading backstage.

Seeing her up close, Heungmin realized she possessed a calmness and an aura of an artist that he lacked.

It was an aura that filled the stage even when she was alone, explaining why she reached the top at such a young age.

‘I wonder if I could ever be like that.’

Heungmin thought.

Right now, it was challenging enough to handle being 1/6th of MOST.

The other members compensated for his shortcomings.

But one day, he wanted to do more than that.

‘Like Dojae or Kijoon hyung.’

He wanted to be someone who could fill the stage and the team without any gaps.

Kijoon constantly criticized Heungmin’s rap-making, pushing him to exceed his limits.

‘I need to keep surpassing myself.’

That was the realization that to fulfill his role, and more, he had to keep improving.

Sindia hadn’t just given him confidence; she had inspired him.

*

The next day, MOST won 1st place again on [Top Songs] broadcasted by SVS.

Their joyous embrace was broadcasted once more.

At the restaurant where they went to celebrate, the members boisterously congratulated each other on the win.

Having rented out the whole BBQ place, they could fully enjoy the moment with their dancers and staff.

“Manager.”

Kijoon quietly called out to Manager Seokchul, who was sitting next to him.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I was thinking we should get another display cabinet for the dorm.”

“A display cabinet?”

“Yes.”

Manager, initially worried about what it might be, soon nodded lightly.

Dojae, who was listening, smiled.

“With the increasing number of trophies, it makes sense that there’s not enough space in the current cabinet.”

Kijoon blushed slightly and nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Woochul, who had recently become addicted to checking the music charts every hour, shouted.

“Wow… Our ranking just went up again!”

MOST’s song had climbed to 3rd place.

“Is this for real?”

Heungmin murmured in disbelief.

Despite checking the music site daily, the members still couldn’t believe it.

Since their comeback at the fan meeting, every day felt like a dream.

3 | Yours | MOST

Louis rubbed his eyes and double-checked the site several times.

After breaking into the top 10, the song’s ranking steadily climbed each day.

Spring, the season of falling cherry blossoms, loneliness, and more…

As “Yours” was consistently added to themed playlists, its rank kept rising.

“Why are you surprised? The song is good, so it keeps going up,” said Jung Giljoo, chuckling happily, urging the members to eat quickly.

Having just finished a performance, they were hungry, but just seeing the song’s rank rise was satisfying enough.

‘But we need to eat to regain our strength,’ Dojae thought.

Whether in the Korean Empire or the Republic of Korea, food was paramount for anyone of Korean descent.

Dojae took a big spoonful of white rice and added some meat on top. Across from him, he noticed Louis still glued to his phone.

“Unbelievable!” Louis kept exclaiming in amazement.

Dojae placed a well-cooked piece of meat on Louis’s plate. “Eat first,” he said.

Prompted by Dojae’s thoughtful gesture, Louis quickly put down his phone and picked up his chopsticks.

Saturday, Sunday.

Aside from a few minor incidents, it had been a pleasant weekend.

*

Monday morning.

In the quiet ‘Nara Daily’ office, only the occasional phone ring and the sound of keyboards could be heard.

Son Junggi, typing away at his keyboard, was interrupted by someone knocking on his desk.

Son Junggi paused and looked up at the person knocking. “Reporter Son, the manager wants to see you.”

“The manager?”

“Yeah. I heard you scored something big?”

“Ah… well.”

Son Junggi pushed up his slipping black-rimmed glasses and stood up, heading towards the desk where his boss, Park Dongman, was sitting.

Manager Park Dongman was engrossed in playing a game of Go-Stop on one of his dual monitors, the other showing a portal site’s main screen.

“Manager,” Son Junggi called out.

“Oh, Reporter Son, just a moment. Damn… Lost this round too. It’s all over,” Manager Park grumbled, finally tearing his eyes away from the screen to look at Son Junggi.

They were part of Digital News Team 3, a team that wrote articles based on trending searches and internet community issues, where no flawless individual would ever come.

Technically speaking, they didn’t really ‘write’ articles. Without much investigation or fact-checking, they would scrape together potentially high-traffic content and churn out dozens of clickbait articles.

‘It’s a waste to call this journalism. Most articles are posted by part-timers anyway.’

Even within the digital news teams, Team 3 was seen as the bottom of the barrel.

Despite covering entertainment, they were always a step behind other outlets in catching trends, resulting in poor traffic even with clickbait articles.

‘It’s a joke to call ourselves trolls when we can’t even stir up trouble properly.’

That was Son Junggi’s thought after a month in Digital News Team 3.

Originally, Son Junggi had been a well-known entertainment reporter, conducting many interviews and using his connections to scoop exclusive stories on celebrity scandals and weddings.

But after a mishap, he was temporarily reassigned to Digital News Team 3, essentially exiled.

Higher-ups promised they would call him back after a stint in Team 3, but being stuck in such an irrelevant position meant he would soon be forgotten, no matter how successful he had been.

‘There are plenty of reporters out there.’

So, after a month of biding his time, Son Junggi decided to make a move.

With no future at the company, he might as well go for a big score.

‘The timing was perfect.’

There was a suitable target—not too big, but with enough buzz to stir up the internet.

Manager Park Dongman, slurping the coffee next to him, praised Son Junggi.

“The article you dropped this morning is doing great. It’s been a while since we broke something first, huh?”

“Haha.”

“With all the work we have, when did you even prepare such an article?”

Son Junggi modestly smiled. “While browsing the internet, I noticed something odd about the sudden spike in rankings. There were suspicions.”

Manager Park, looking at the article again, asked suddenly, “The clicks are through the roof! But is it true? I didn’t expect even idol groups to manipulate rankings.”

He hadn’t checked the facts when the article was released, but now he was concerned about its accuracy.

Son Junggi sighed inwardly and answered casually, “They’re rookies.”

“Hmm. True. They’ll do anything to get famous.”

“And even if it’s not true, so what? You know how it works.”

The article wasn’t definitive. It suggested there were rumors and possible manipulation.

Once an article was published, followed by thousands of clickbait versions, it often became accepted as truth.

Manager Park, slurping his coffee again, smiled contentedly.

“Thanks to you, our Digital News Team 3 has regained some face. Keep up the good work!”

“Yes. Any other instructions…?”

“No, just called to praise you! I’m good at giving credit where it’s due!”

Thinking he had wasted his time, Son Junggi made a hasty bow and returned to his desk.

As he sat down, he saw the headline of his article clearly on his monitor.

The click count kept rising by the minute.

It was number one in the entertainment news category.

[New Idol Group MOST, Accused of Manipulating Song Rankings?]

‘Soon, they’ll probably tell me to take it down,’ Son Junggi thought, smirking as he stared intently at the phone on his desk.