"..."

There was a moment of lying silence.

The director asked back as if he had heard an absurd joke.

"Magical girls? The ones kids watch? Like Sailor Moon?"

"Yes."

Park Moondae quickly cleared up the situation, before the director could get offended.

Snap.

"Obviously, I don't really mean the magical girls for little kids."

As the PPT went over to the next slides, small cuts of dreamlike colors were seen.

Classroom windows twinkling in the glow of sunset.

The sky wallpaper on the cracked feature phone.

A classroom clock with a purple effect.

....

"However, if we take only the symbolic motif of the genre and reconstruct it, it is competitive enough. Retro sentiment is popular these days, so it's also a choice that can catch both popularity and pioneering eyes."

"...Hmm."

Park Moondae presented examples of retro marketing on several PPTs. Among them there was one that went viral on social media that was carried out by T1, the parent company of the agency.

"Also, if the dreamy atmosphere of the song and the keywords 'Youth' and 'Magic' are combined, I think we can take artistry from the composition of art films."

Art.

It was to stab the weak part of a high person like the director.

When he talked about self-produced idols, Park Moondae noticed what kind of image he expected from this agency's business.

'He wants it to be seen, so it's bound to work.'

Since he's been talking about popularity a lot now, enough excuses for commerciality has been made.

"This is the related image reference and a draft of the arrangement."

Park Moondae changed to the next PPT screen and showed additional image materials that were selected with the members.

And lastly, the song number seven was played briefly. It was the chorus part.

However, the song felt different from the demo.

"...!"

"We want to proceed with the overall arrangement in this direction."

Kim Raebin, who stood there together, looked at the presentation materials and nodded slightly.

Seeing the person, who took the lead in the arrangement satisfied, gave a sense of comfort, so the rest of the members were relieved.

'I couldn't sleep a wink because of that.'

It was fortunate that Ryu Chungwoo had a car and a driver's license. We could just text the manager to inform him and go to the studio. Though the manager was startled when he woke up in the morning and saw the text.

"Oh..."

The director gave a strange exclamation, and soon nodded.

Then he applauded.

"Ah, we definitely need to have young and talented friends like this. Just in one day! You even prepared a presentation~"

'He must have liked it.'

Park Moondae held back a scoff.

The director talked to the staff while giving compliments that didn't sound like a compliment, 'I think they are better than the ones who are joining the company these days', and then finally talked about the main point.

"Okay~ Let's proceed like this."

"Thank you!"

"Oh, I'm agreeing to this, because it's me we're talking about. The other directors, those old people don't understand these things well~"

Park Moondae smiled as earnestly as possible as he looked at the condescending director. It was the same vibe as dealing with a college professor.

The members who saw the smile exchanged glances from behind as if saying 'Just how much does he want to do the song seven?'

"Yes. Trusting the director, there's one more thing I would like to talk about."

"Hmh?"

Park Moondae turned over one more PPT slide, that was thought to be over already.

"It's the opinion of the song that the company gave us."

"...?"

"Oh, we really liked the baseball team concept, right?"

"That's right!"

"I've always wanted to try it!"

"We heard that director chose that for us. Thank you!"

Park Moondae and the members eagerly exchanged responses, that they had planned in advance.

'It's over before these company people can come to their senses.'

"So, to make it more like a traditional baseball team, why don't we add another genre instead of disco?"

Park Moondae smiled faintly.

"How about using Rock?"

* * *

Two weeks before the debut date of TeStar, which was confirmed by the agency.

An article was posted on the portal site.

Although the date was about five days later than the previous Maginot Line, which was set as the debut period, the reaction of the fans were intense. Because there hasn't been any news for the past week.

//TN: According to google 'Maginot Line is a catchphrase to describe a barrier that provides a false sense of security.' No idea what it's supposed to mean in this context.

Some fans were slightly concerned about the overlapping schedules with VTIC. However, they couldn't ask to postpone the debut date, which has already been announced, so they were content with this reality.

Fans talked about this and that with the line of news. It wasn't that there weren't fans expressing dissatisfaction, but most reactions they had was to wait and see.

And a week later.

It was less than two weeks left until the comeback.

The people exploded.

There was a terrifying feeling that a statement could be issued at any moment. The agency's website, which was urgently put together, was inaccessible due to traffic overload.

Then on the day the LAN cables were about to be torn apart by the explosion of anger of the netizens.

The teaser was released at midnight that night.

* * *

"..."

Two hands streched out towards the sky were hovering in the thumbnail. The sky was a subtle mixture of yellow and purple which attracted attention.

But when you clicked play, a black screen suddenly appeared.

Click.

English narration flowed along with subtitles.

Whirrrrr - click.

There was a sound of a film being played.

At that moment, the sunset sky filled the screen.

Golden, purple, and red rays of sunlight collided.

The sound of the music box rang out.

♫♪♩♪-♫♪♫♪-♪♩-

The two scale notes were dreamy like water drops.

Suddenly, the camera started moving back and forth. A white border encircled the whimsically colored sky. It was a window frame with fluttering curtains.

Then, a figure could be seen leaning on a window sill and sleeping.

A back view of a dark-haired boy in white school summer uniform.

Old gloves and baseballs were scattered around.

The boy flinched slightly. The sunlight was pouring through.

♫♪♩♪-♫♪♫♪-♪♩-

The moment the boy's white school uniform was dyed pink from the sunset. The fluttering curtains unfolded and seemed to shine bright and shattered like crystals.

Shaaa...

The transparent crystal fragments poured down the boy's back, and the purple sunset scattered all over the place.

It was a feast of dazzling colors.

And then.

The screen turned black.

A short thirty second video, that was all.

But the staggering number of views proved the response.

It was crazy.

It is said that it took less than a day to reach three million views.

Considering the fact that TeSTAR had no foundation overseas, it was at a flagship level.

"How is it?"

"D-do people... like it?"

I nodded.

"Yeah."

"I-I'm glad...!"

Ahead of our debut, some members, who were doing an Internet detox for the sake of their mental healths, fell to the floor.

The nervousness was eased and the fatigue seemed to darken their eyes.

'That's understandable.'

To be honest, if the reaction was not good, my mental state would have also melted away. Since I have been working like a horse with insomnia for twenty-five days.

'...Still, the date is getting close.'

In fact, the teaser was supposed to be released a little later because the editing of the music video for 'Magical Boy' had not been finished yet.

However, if we waited any longer, the people who were waiting would vomit blood from the stress, so we all tried our best to make it happen.

'The agency seems to have finally gotten a little scared.'

Anyway, the response was overwhelmingly... good.

None of the fan's small dissatisfied comments were noticeable. It meant that the reviews were good enough to wash away all the dissatisfactions.

I also think the teaser came out well.

The parts of the song to be revealed were well chosen, and the directing was appropriate.

'It was a good choice to make it hard to tell who appeared on the video by showing only the back.'

You don't know what would happen if only one person was picked and could be seen in the debut teaser of a group debuting through a survival show.

And above all, the visual aesthetics in which a lot of budgets was poured in, was outstanding. It was like making up the lack of time with money.

'I think people's expectations have grown too high... but the song is good, so it can be covered.'

Additional content will continue to appear in the next few days, so fans won't have to be nervous.

"...Come on, guys. Let's get ready again."

"Yes..."

At Ryu Chungwoo's tired voice, the members dragged themselves up like zombies. I also threw my smartphone to the side and joined.

"Great job. Now for the music video... It will be finished after shooting this song."

"Wow..."

"The schedule will then go back to focusing on the choreography practice."

"..."

There was no other schedule as hellish as this.

"Yes!"

In the excruciating silence, only Cha Yujin's answer resonated with excitement.

Then, the staff came.

"The setting is complete~"

"Yes!"

Filming for the second music video was slowly coming to an end.

In fact, considering that filming should usually start at least a month in advance, there is no other schedule as crazy as this.

'...Meaning all the people involved are finalizing this all night.'

For your information, the music video director, who filmed 'Magical Boy' is also filming this one.

'The working-level staff are definitely doing a good job in this company.'

No matter where the music video director came from, they hired a famous new director almost instantly. It was probably intercepted in the middle through personal connections.

It was a career-like move ambitiously gathered at T1.

...The problem is that we do not know when the unexploded bomb that is the company's chaotic system will explode with the ambitious director leading it.

In particular, I would like the higher ups who are blinded by the comments like 'that's TeStar's agency' to resign immediately especially after publishing articles of us making a debut within a month.

...Let's just erase this from my head from now. There's work to do, but I'm just stressing myself out for now reason.

"Has everyone familiarized their filming portions?"

"I don't have anything in particular to familiarize with."

"Me neither!"

"Ah, that's right~ We didn't have anything in particular. Sejin hyungnim must be having a hard time, though?"

"...Not really."

Lee Sejin answered bluntly, but did not seem uncooperative.

Somehow, there are storylines included in both music videos we were filming, so we decided to make the former child actor's acting skills to good use.

'Hmm, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put on airs more when possible.'

I spoke to Lee Sejin.

"To be honest, I was quite impressed by what I saw... You were really good."

"..."

They weren't completely empty words. There definitely wasn't spare time. Among the cuts, his was the only one that didn't look amateurish in an unedited state.

"I understand how Moondae feels. Since he's embarrassed that the cut that only shows the back of the head in the teaser is his own."

That bullshit came from the wrong guy.

When I turned my head around, Keun Sejin quickly looked away and avoided my eyes. This guy is really...

"...It's something I was going to make a living from, so I'd have to do well."

"What?"

Lee Sejin didn't answer any further. He just followed the staff with a slightly restrained face.

'You're like that even when I compliment you?'

I held back my sigh. It was a waste of energy to become annoyed.

"Come on, let's start with the group choreography scene~"

"Yes!"

I adjusted my posture according to the choreography formation, and reorganized the schedule in my head.

Originally, the concept photo should be released first, but the schedule was delayed due to the release of the teaser video, so it was not scheduled to be released until around the time the album was to be released.

'Then maybe... the reality show will come out first.'

To be honest, I thought the video trailer would be released the week before at the latest, but I still feel like it's very late even now. Since there are only a few days left before the show airs.

And as expected, the reality show trailer came out that night.