Chapter 149

78%.

The truth was, Kang Hajin — for someone who'd gone and stuck his neck out like that — had a card up his sleeve.

For starters — the regression alert didn't go off, right?

Back with Lee Yugeon, well before the elimination angle had started to shape up, the sudden mission had come and, right alongside it, an alert flagging a spike in regression probability.

But this time — even now, a fair stretch after he'd said what he'd said — there'd been nothing. Which had him guessing, maybe this whole thing wasn't going to swell up big enough to threaten his standing.

So you just went with your gut, then. (ʘ言ʘ╬)

"……."

At the sharp look Thirteen was leveling at him, Hajin, without a word, cut his eyes away and made a show of finding something else to look at.

But Thirteen — refusing to let it go — went so far as to blow that damned bluish-purple system window up (大) huge and shove the pissed-off emoticon right in his face, and by the time Hajin had been backed all the way to the edge of the sofa, he had no choice but to start rambling out excuses.

"I mean — words already out of my mouth, can't take 'em back…. And it's not like I can grab hold of my fans' hearts and steer them this way or that, so what am I supposed to do? On top of that, watching that Selreg brat also sit quiet through all this, I figured — maybe this isn't as serious as the round-3 situation was, is all…."

(ʘ言ʘ╬)

"So then what! Am I just — what, stand there and not say what needed saying?! Did I say something I shouldn't have? Because let me tell you, I could've said way worse — and I dialed it down as far as I could and still got the point across…."

(ʘ言ʘ╬╬)

"Bottom line — worked out fine, didn't it? Things are trending the good direction, so it's all good!"

Clutching the sofa armrest like a lifeline, Kang Hajin defended himself for dear life. They were inside the Unconscious Space right now anyway, so shouting like this didn't cause any problems.

Once the identity of the 'villains' — the ones who'd led the guerrilla-concert misbehavior from the front more than anyone else — went public, the situation shifted, once again, fast.

With even the accounts already out in the open, people didn't hesitate to hand out punishment to the 'villains.'

Another round of cyberbullying, this one going by the name 'justice,' got underway. The person who'd posted the callout did belatedly take the videos down, but people had already screencapped the clips and started identifying and slamming the individuals in them.

In the process, someone with no connection to the group ended up on the receiving end of a wrongful witch hunt.

title: [ngl this is getting kinda funny ㅋ] it's not like it was only those five in that square, you all shouted fail together thinking it was hilarious and now you're pinning it on them and playing dumb ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ yah, you did the exact same thing, where do you get off dodging - honestly not many real destis left here rn...? feels like the only ones sticking around are the ones who just wanted to cuss someone out

As the whole thing overheated past the point of decency, the general public got sick of it, and the Destis wore down.

At this rate, even after debut, the animosity between individual fandoms would sour beyond fixing — and in the worst case, new joiners or light fans, put off by the fandom's early atmosphere itself, could just walk away from the whole scene.

If that happened, the fandom's firepower would inevitably get cut in half, all-fans would vanish, and only the fight-picking bias-only accounts would be left behind, calcifying into the stagnant remainder.

For a rookie group just about to debut, that was a fatal outcome.

The moment absolutely called for something to clear the air.

And that was exactly when Hajin's remarks got a second look.

title: [wait about kang hajin's last remark tho] (full video of hajin's closing) (full transcript of hajin's closing) it was getting called fan-hating and getting bad-faith'd for that but now that it's come out that the core group who was throwing personal-mention insults and mocking other trainees at the guerrilla concert was actually kang hajin fans, it's getting reinterpreted like — wasn't he warning them because he knew they were his own fans? ㄷㄷ on top of that even after he said this they still didn't get it and went and dragged team raebingyu into it too, and kang hajin's the one who gets the fan-hater label slapped on him ㅋㅋㅋㅋ - honestly should we count it as a win he didn't just straight-up cuss them out? - ugh...watching my fan holding my slogan trashing my friend right in front of me would've been genuinely soul-crushing you can feel him holding it in and choosing his words ㅠ - even after he said this they're STILL out there grabbing each other by the hair fighting - honestly i wouldn't be able to be proud of them either ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - honestly hope all the mentally-ill ones in hajin's fandom drop off after this, there's way too many people here who just half-ass fake-stan for clout and only run their mouths > 222 for all you kids whining that hajin was a fan-hater this time around please just go~~~~ you weren't actually really stanning hajin anyway ㅠ

When Hajin monitored fan reactions again a little later, his remarks had somehow gone from 'a face-off with his fans' to 'a principled statement politely reining in fans with no sense.'

Position-flipping to fit the situation wasn't anything he hadn't seen plenty of — not just in the idol scene either — so it wasn't especially a problem for him.

What Hajin was more worried about was who this endless Russian-roulette trigger was going to swing toward next. From how things were shaking out, the odds were high that the next target would be his own fans.

title: [seriously so sick of this whole "blame the whole fandom" thing] it's not like all kang-stans are like that, it just happens that the ones who threw the fit at the venue were kang-stans, and now everyone lumps it all together as "kang-stan problems" ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

And, sure enough — exactly as he'd predicted — as Hajin watched every arrow start raining down on his own fandom, he just wanted the whole situation to somehow, some way, come to an end.

The most frustrating, most infuriating part was this:

The helplessness of being unable to do a single thing about any of it, unable to change a single thing.

The empty feeling of being able to do nothing but wait for some other incident to sweep the whole mess out of the news cycle, or hope that things wrapped up cleanly and his innocent fans didn't come out too badly hurt.

But Hajin's fans, as it turned out, had a much tougher hide than he'd given them credit for.

"…how do they come up with the idea to run a self-policing campaign among themselves."

The statement — put out jointly by Hajin's fancafe, his fan communities, and the named accounts on Bluebird — was more readable and clearer in its argument than most entertainment agencies' official statements.

The point person who'd drafted and organized it — wasn't her day job a lawyer?

Anyway, from the moment the statement went up the praise had come pouring in — takes after her fucking ult, writes way too well.

The statement broke down roughly into three components.

First. Apology letters written personally by the fans who'd made the problem remarks.

Second. A detailed statement of position on the incident.

Third. A fandom self-policing campaign, plus voting receipts for other trainees.

Getting apology letters directly from the fans in question alone would've already been enough to put part of the controversy to bed — but Hajin's fandom went further, spearheading the #BecomingAFanToBeProudOf campaign and staking everything on cleaning house from within.

…we, of course, cannot agree with the sweeping assumption that every act of ill will surrounding Miro Maze started from any one specific trainee's fandom.

But without question, our fandom was at the center of this incident, and we feel a deep sense of responsibility for the current situation — one where the trainee we support has had to personally speak up asking for restraint.

Accordingly, from today through the day of the finals, we, the Kang Hajin Fandom Alliance, will be running as a first step both fandom self-policing and a 'Miro Maze Trainee Support Campaign.'

Specifics are laid out in the table below.

…….

They voted for the trainees who'd been on the receiving end of it and left screencapped receipts.

They tracked down accounts posting clueless remarks, reported them, and either sent mentions to get the posts taken down or handed out warnings.

They also went to every Miro Maze clip that had gone up so far and left positive comments, hit likes, and actively led the charge in uploading posts of support for the trainees.

Beyond just the Miro Maze stuff, they even ran a movement under the hashtag #IllBecomeSomethingToBeProudOf, sharing receipts of donations and volunteer work.

Hajin's existing fandom had had a weak core, and the mood had been dominated by people who wore the mask of 'general public pick' while running double-picks, or roamed without a home base, casually consuming content and moving on. The clearest example of that was the results not showing up in the paid votes — the votes that actually mattered.

Clip views and community mention volume ran high, but the number of people actually voting for Hajin, cheering him on wholeheartedly, and holding him as their one-pick was crushingly low. A fatal structure.

title: [kang hajin's fandom is straight-up fucking cool huh?] they're personally tracking down the problem accounts and getting handwritten apologies out of them while at the same time warning against over-the-line attacks on those same accounts and putting up voting receipts for other trainees which honestly could be risky since it ties into kang hajin's own debut, like what more definitive apology could there even be if anything, feels like this whole thing sifted out all the hangers-on, honestly hope they take this as a chance to properly settle the fandom's mood, i've been rooting for kang hajin as a non-stan the whole time because i genuinely like him ㅠ - honestly starts with the fact that the point person's a lawyer.... > 22222 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋthis is what class is > 33 SO satisfying watching all the mindless trash-talkers shut up, and the statement is a legend of a writeup - i had zero interest in kang hajin before but that statement got my attention, whether it's the trainee or the fans, having conviction and standing on principle is honestly so cool - it's not easy for a fandom to move together with one heart like this...seems like they're keeping tight discipline while the group is still small

But that same structure was exactly what made this kind of move possible — that too was the two-sidedness of a fandom.

"…because the number of core fans isn't large, it's actually easier to align on one position. And with a good general-public profile, as long as the intent is good, you can pull an overwhelming majority into agreement."

Like he'd just experienced something brand new, Hajin sprawled long on the sofa and sank into thought.

Once the dam broke, other fandoms started joining the self-policing movement Hajin's fandom had kicked off. The first to make its stance clear was — of all fandoms — Lee Yugeon's, who would've been more shaken up by an incident like this than anyone.

handle: @2uuu_gunn2 name: Reasongeon #IllBecomeSomethingToBeProudOf sometimes the pen more than the sword, words that have no physical form at all, the ill will of the many trampling the goodwill of one person — i've watched it for too long already hope even now that vicious cycle ends (donation receipt in Yugeon's name)

Starting with Lee Yugeon's fandom, the fire spread out gradually to other fandoms.

Home-masters made photo and video data of trainees who weren't their own ults freely available; multiple trainees' fan pages joined forces to hashtag-blast and clean up related-search-term pollution. Support cafes and support ads for the trainees went up, and along with pdf collections on antis, a full-scale fandom crackdown got underway.

Miro didn't let the mood slip — to keep the positive flow going, they served up an unending stream of group content: unreleased tidbits, behind-the-scenes photos, and more. Four-cut photos of the trainees together, making-films of them celebrating a trainee's birthday, watching each other's practice — all of it got released.

The total time it took for all of this to happen: three days.

Just three days.

Kang Hajin — still sprawled long on the sofa — drew a curve at the corners of those pretty lips.

"…huh. So this is what people mean when they say it's worth being an idol."

Have you ever seen fans this proud, this cool.

For the first time, Hajin let out an easy, easy smile.