Chapter 147

"Nothing to be done about it, though. Words already out of my mouth."

For someone who claimed to be scared to death, Kang Hajin's answer came out remarkably easy.

Honestly, right after saying it, he'd wondered if he'd let his emotions run the show a bit too much…. but once he'd watched what happened to Team Raebingyu after that, his thinking had settled firmly into even if I catch heat for it, glad I said it.

"Already caught an earful from Team Lead Suho today, so if you're going to nag, save it for tomorrow."

"Who said I was going to nag?"

"Sympathy and encouragement too — save those for tomorrow…. Maybe old grandpa's just running low on stamina, but tonight, sleep is coming down on me for real."

"Grandpa, if you sleep here, your mouth's going to twist right off. Nights are still cold, you might just up and pass on us."

"This kid's straight-up killing me off now."

Whether he really couldn't hold back the exhaustion any longer, or he just didn't feel like talking about this anymore —

as Hajin mumbled on in a half-drowsy voice, Taehyun — voice pure disbelief — shook him awake. Getting rocked back and forth by Taehyun's arm, Hajin finally hauled his heavy body up with effort. Taehyun wasn't wrong — if Hajin closed his eyes right now, he really could sleep for the next ten hours straight.

"Wasn't going to nag, so hurry up and go sleep in your room."

"Then what were you going to say?"

"Nothing much. Was just curious how you ended up thinking to say that, so I asked. That's all."

Taehyun trimmed his words down as he got up. Hajin knew for sure there was a lot more Taehyun was carrying in his head, but didn't press further.

"Alright — heading in first."

"Yeah. Today's stage was great. Good work. Rest well."

"Yeah. Taehyun, you go to sleep soon too."

Still with the white sheet mask stuck to his face, Hajin shuffled out of the lounge. Taehyun watched Hajin's back until he was gone, then dropped onto the sofa and leaned his tired body back into it.

"'Words already out of my mouth, so what am I gonna do about it,'" huh….

Turning Hajin's answer over in his head, Taehyun let out a small, self-mocking laugh.

"How does that hyung make everything look so easy?"

…jealous.

Muttering it under his breath, Taehyun got up off the sofa and turned toward his own room.

Bzzz—,

Just then, the phone in his pocket buzzed softly. Probably from a community app he had keyword alerts set on. Any other day, Taehyun would've opened the app the second the alert popped and gone through every post about them.

…yeah. What am I gonna do about it. Stuff that's already happened.

But if — as Hajin had said — this was stuff that was going to happen either way, then for tonight, at least, he wanted to fall asleep in peace.

Taehyun pulled his phone out and held the power button down.

The little world inside the small rectangular screen went to sleep just like that. And that quiet — Taehyun found he liked it quite a lot.

---

Just as Taehyun and Hajin had worried, the internet world after the guerrilla concert ended was pure, absolute chaos. Since the show had been free and held in an open venue, reactions and reviews of every kind were pouring out from every direction.

title: [is ju eunchan's face irl for real??] [photo] he actually looks like this??? - i'm losing it - wow what - if this is a trainee's face k-pop's future is bright - saw eunchan irl and he's more of a cold-handsome type than that, even better looking ㅠ photos can't capture that aura or whatever, in person all you can do is stand there going oh my god > OP) even prettier than THAT????? that's overkill title: [wow look at the crowd at today's mrmz guerrilla] [photo] turnout is insane ㄷㄷㄷ title: [the miro kids really are legit good tho] was curious today so i watched the online broadcast, they're all damn good ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - ㅇㅇ honestly even the ones being called weak in there would be above average anywhere else ㅋㅋㅋㅋ - agreed, been a while since i heard raw live vocals like that and since it was live there wouldn't have even been any post-processing - the kids all speak well and have variety instincts too, i think concerts and stuff will be fun when they debut ㅋㅋㅋ even live today i was surprised there wasn't as much mic-fumbling as i'd expected > 22 forreal, for trainees they handle broadcast well plus the skill's there

Everything from the Desti missions to the stages with each team's distinct color came up for discussion.

Reviews and praise of all kinds came pouring in.

Team Youth-Never-Dies' stage, the team Hajin was on, also became a hot topic.

title: [what song is this?? info — mrmz] - (embedded tweet — @ice_ciu, Jeong Shukream) watching on the subway and out of nowhere the dam broke, turned into a woman with a backstory... the lyrics are so pretty ㅠㅠㅠ what's this song in the middle where they go butterfly? was curious and listened to the where am I original but there's no part like that, is it an original composition?? the song's just too good ㅠㅠㅠ [video attached] > Anonymous 1: it's a song by the father of that trainee playing guitar there, jung siwoo! i'm listening to it on loop rn too ㅠㅠㅠ sadly there's no official audio ㅠㅠㅠㅠ > OP: ah really ㅠ? shame... happened across it and it's just my style so i wanted to dl the audio ㅠㅠ > Anonymous 1: if you're ok with that version instead of the original, on the timeline of the person who just posted it there's an audio extraction! that's what i'm listening to too~ > OP: heol thank you!!! that version's good too ㅠㅠㅠㅠ ty ty ㅠㅠㅠ > Anonymous 1: hehe glad i could help! have a good day! handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D turns out my kid was actually a setting-overloaded youth-manga male lead this is exhausting for me too hajin honey the whole webnovel-hero routine was still a bit; [photo] [photo] engagement: shares 2,198 · quotes 380 · hearts 4,621 title: [team youth-never-dies' stage really is youth itself] the sunset sky, the white-and-blue coord too... the fact that they played the instruments themselves was so cool when the kids looked at each other while syncing the harmonies i got so choked up for real personally i saw seok in a whole new light this time always liked how earnestly he grinded, hope this stage helps him blow up - i cried too ㅠㅠㅠ the lyrics just felt like they were about me - the other stages were great too but folk-vibe? stages like this are so rare that this one hit even harder, mashing the two songs was truly a stroke of genius - was that actually live instruments???? heol i just assumed it was hand-sync > nn the kids really did play them, they even did sound check on site, and midway when seok stopped for a second because he was crying you couldn't hear the violin

The praise from the Destis who'd been at the venue wasn't all — the original composer of 'Where am I' had even uploaded the stage clip to his Onestagram along with a long comment. By any measure it had been a resounding success, and praise and reviews of Team Youth-Never-Dies just kept flooding the internet.

But — of the three stages at this guerrilla concert, the team that drew the most overwhelming support and reaction was a different one entirely.

— Lee Doha wrecked that stage.

It was the last team's — Team Raebingyu's — stage.

handle: @dohajin_luv name: Harang lee doha isn't a fucking crazy person right??????? [video] engagement: shares 5,100 · quotes 1,307 · hearts 4,082 title: [how was the venue reaction to team raebingyu today?] even through the clip i can tell they're killing it, curious how it felt in person - i thought i was at a rock festival, people were screaming so much - honestly the vibe was a bit off before their stage but on the way home literally everyone around me was talking about only them ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ fucking good - lee doha didn't just tear up the stage he put it in a blender and pureed it - no you HAVE to hear this live, the live energy is insane, apparently lee doha made the beat too, isn't he a whole genius????

The Destis were pouring out their reviews with some pretty heated language, cranked up to overdrive.

Over on iTube, countless hip-hop channels were cutting Team Raebingyu's stage into Shorts and uploading them. Those Shorts went viral all over again in amateur hip-hop communities, and the wave kept snowballing.

Of them all, the clip that drew the hottest reactions was this one:

title: 〈male-idol survival stage that's even more surprising because it's NOT staged ㄷㄷ〉 - the fact they didn't get the stage LED was a stroke of genius, gives real street-cypher vibes - how did those streetlights time up to come on at that exact moment ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - no i already thought lee yugeon was insane but lee doha ate everything after him - never thought i'd see real-deal hiphop like this on a male-idol survival, ㅅㅂ hyung don't be an idol

Team Raebingyu's stage — run in a cypher-style format.

The scene captured the exact moment the pass went from Yugeon's part to Doha's.

On a somewhat dim stage — no LED, only the standard broadcast graphics running — Yugeon fired off a gesture in time with the gunshot laid into the beat and spun away. And in the very moment Doha, at center stage, lifted the head he'd been holding down and gripped the mic, bam—! — the whole area lit up bright, in an instant.

The hour, already fully tipped into evening.

The countless streetlights ringing the plaza had, right at that exact moment, come on.

On top of that, Yugeon was getting a reappraisal for another moment that had the communities buzzing — when a pressure-nervous Shin Kyungho had briefly tripped on a lyric, Yugeon had caught the timing perfectly and casually thrown in a doubling to cover, without missing a beat.

Between the intense-beat stage set against the darkening sky, and Lee Doha's potential — steadily building up until then — finally bursting open, interest in their stage kept climbing skyward with no ceiling in sight.

And with that, some inevitable questions started to follow.

title: [but why doesn't team raebingyu have any stage effects??] saw the other teams had video walls and everything but why do these guys only have lighting??? - it was earned through missions but they failed so they didn't get them - failed the mission ㅇㅇ - even the stage lighting they only barely got because yugeon and doha managed to clear theirs ㅠㅜ

People started raising questions about how bare Team Raebingyu's stage looked next to the others'.

The proposition 'Team Raebingyu failed the mission and so didn't get the items' was, in itself, factually true — so on the surface, it didn't look like there was any real problem.

title: [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ so they're saying "they failed the mission so they didn't get it," huh] who MADE that mission fail though ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ turns out being unpopular really is a crime - literally, this is fucking frustrating - i'm so upset and drained right now - anyone who was there in person still calling it "the kids failed to earn the items" is straight-up bad-faith ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ they didn't fail to earn them, they were prevented from earning them ㅠㅠㅠ handle: @rossy_1017 name: Rossy Day held it in and held it in but this is frustrating enough that i'm going to speak up. i already know survivals run on personal-fan energy to begin with and there are so many young fans here so i've just kept quiet up to now but watching what happened today, i can't do it anymore. just because someone isn't the trainee you're rooting for, treating them however, cursing them, criticizing them, even sabotaging the very missions tied to the stage — isn't that really way too much? ...see more engagement: shares 1,099 · quotes 4,672

But the truth beyond those facts wasn't clean either.