Chapter 193

A few days later.

Along with a proper timetable, all Kairos members' official profiles were freshly updated.

- in-in-insa-a-a-ane white tee and jea-a-ans

The members had unified on dark hair and matching outfits, but the appeal each of them projected through the photos was completely different.

Released in both black-and-white and color, the profile shoot delivered four photos per member: one straight-on chest shot in ID-photo style, plus three free cuts capturing each member's personality and character. As a bonus, a brief self-intro interview video shot in the profile outfits was thrown in on top.

handle: @rossy_1017 name: Rossy Day guys look at the wall-jumpers' pose differences doha — arms crossed, chest pushed out hajin — arms stretched back, leg pushed forward they know their physical strengths dead-on [photo] [photo] engagement: shares 1,093 · quotes 233 · hearts 3,100 title: [rounded up the kairos guys' self-intro info!] - here's the info from the Introduce Myself vid, summarized ordered by age, same-age guys sorted by birthday! 1. Jung Siwoo (head tilted at a diagonal, making eye contact with the camera) Birthday: July 4 Height: 177.6cm Hobby: honestly nothing when he's off, but if forced to pick — guitar MBTI: hasn't done it so idk but hajin said he seems like ESTJ or ISTJ! Fav color: light purple Fav food: not picky, eats anything and everything Today's TMI: first time ever in an animal onesie, secretly liked it, plans to take it home >> so they filmed something in animal onesies imma pass out AAAAAA 2. Lee Doha (sitting in a chair, arms crossed, upper body slightly leaning in) Birthday: February 14 (not an early one!) Height: 185cm, tallest in the group Hobby: watching movies, working out MBTI: doha hadn't done it either and said he wasn't sure, hajin pipes up from the side going 'guessing INTJ' and dips ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Fav color: nothing in particular but when he buys stuff it's mostly khaki or black Fav food: anything as long as it's not sweet Today's TMI: been learning dance from yugeon lately, got told yesterday he'd improved a lot 3. Kang Hajin (photo caught mid-grin, looking off to the right) Birthday: November 30 Height: 182.0cm, been this height since year 1 of high school Hobby: games, movies and manga, writing MBTI: nobody believes it but he's been ENFP since birth, though T and F run pretty close Fav color: burgundy or blue tones Fav food: chicken, desserts, tteokbokki << taehyun swoops in noting spicy sweet savory all covered ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Today's TMI: watched Disney's Rapunzel with taehyun and doha yesterday, all three cried at the same scene <ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 4. Seo Taehyun (knees together, arm raised, face resting on it) Birthday: July 23! celebrated in the practice room with the members and filmed a k:log for it♡ Height: 174.6cm, recently overtaken by haru so officially confirmed as kairos's shortest and depressed about it ㅠㅠ Hobby: solitary walks, likes time to think MBTI: INFP Fav color: his birth flower is red rose so he's gotten a lot of red presents since he was little, might be why red is his favorite Fav food: spicy chicken feet, sad he can't have them often because of management <<is it because it's red too, hajin snarks Today's TMI: exposed hajin as the first to cry during movie night yesterday ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 5. Lee Yugeon (both hands in pants pockets, gaze fixed on the distance) Birthday: September 1 Height: 183cm MBTI: hasn't done it either. Even MBTI-scholar Kang Hajin shook his head — really no clue about yugeon ㅠ Fav color: black Fav food: eats pretty much anything, but really really hates ramyeon Today's TMI: today's lunchbox was so good he asked the manager-hyung for the brand 6. Ju Eunchan (seated on the chair with legs tucked up, body leaning slightly) Birthday: May 5 Height: was 176cm when he measured before miro maze, but recently measured 178.2cm. wants to break 180 so he's eating well and sleeping well these days MBTI: took it recently, got INFJ, read the description and it said only nice things so it was kinda much Fav color: sky blue Fav food: salmon nigiri Today's TMI: doing the human pyramid with the hyungs was pretty fun <〈ok what were they even doing that day I need to know ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 7. Dan Haru (photo taken grinning wide at the camera) Birthday: December 31 Height: was around taehyun's height but recently grew a bit — 175cm! MBTI: hyungs said he's still too young for accurate results, so try again when he's older ㅋㅋㅋ So for now he's decided to just push HARU as his MBTI... Fav color: really loves sunset skies but too hard to name it as one color, so pass Fav food: birthday cake on special occasions Today's TMI: every day feels so new and fun lately, first time ever bought a diary and started writing in it! god finishing this took literally 2 hours....ㅠ - god that's so much work ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ - thanks for the roundup! i was at school and couldn't watch the vid, gotta check this out ㅎㅎ - the cherry-kang bros bickering literally every chance they get is killing me ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - wait so why exactly did they do a human pyramid in animal onesies, would it be reasonable to suspect this was a reality shoot? 〉 yo just spam 'fr lol' for now > fr lol > fr lol

Before the reactions to the profile photos and interviews had even cooled, Miro was already onto the next move.

〈Today's Kairos EP.00 ∥ Where am I? Who am I? The tale of how sweet-cutie rookie boy idols suddenly became Power Ranger animal warriors〉

The first reality show episode had gone live on Kairos's official YouTube.

The production team had trimmed what had originally been a roughly 30-minute episode 1 — the praise-prison hidden-camera experiment — down to under 20 minutes and released it as an "episode 0" teaser. A snap play to land another hit before the profile reactions cooled off.

The thumbnail — members in animal onesies on a white set, doing a human pyramid and sentai poses — was already enough on its own to hook the Destis. The extracted cutouts of Hajin's and Taehyun's dumbstruck faces layered on top were the finishing touch.

One by one, people started clicking through.

The opening scene of Today's Kairos episode 0 was, predictably, the members getting called up as the final debut lineup at the Miro Maze finals.

- watching it again and I'm crying all over again ㅠ - feels like a past life for real

Tearful acceptance speeches passed by in a cross-cut montage, followed by the article confirming Kairos's debut and the production team getting the request for the debut reality show.

> A new reality show for Kairos, confirmed! > And so the pitch meeting for reality show ideas began Alright, if everyone's got ideas, want to start throwing them out? For this reality show.

A camera angled to carefully crop out faces panned across what looked like a meeting room. PD Kwon — whose voice had already come through many times over Miro Maze — took the lead, and the staff seated in a circle started offering up ideas one by one.

The safest option is a 1-night-2-day getaway, right? Barbecue, mafia, karaoke, some role-play stuff.... telling each other 'good job,' cheering each other on a bit. But they haven't even debuted yet — going on a getaway and doing pep talks feels like they don't quite have enough shared time yet... doesn't it? The agency also said with them deep in prep right now, blocking off two whole days might be a little much. Since it's their first official dorm life, we could install cams in the dorm and show off some roommate chemistry, how about it? They said the guys are never at the dorm. Practice. Ah....

The pitch selection was rough from the jump, and the meeting kept dragging on. Eventually, with opinions still not converging even at 2x speed, PD Kwon lightly tapped the table and cut the flow.

Let's not overthink this — keep it simple. What do these guys need most right now? Let's think about that.

What Kairos needs most?

As the staff mulled it over, AD Park — recently graduated from being the office maknae — quietly raised a hand.

Um.... Yeah, Suyeon. What they need most... isn't it, maybe, praise?

Praise?

Sensing the huh? going around, AD Park hurried to add:

The members were being evaluated all the way through the survival, right. And even now, with debut prep, their confidence in themselves can drop a lot too.... When you're stanning, people always say your bias needs to be locked in a praise-prison with nothing but pets and 'good job's. Something like that — a proper open cheerleading episode? Feels like it'd be nice to have one... I think.... - right right - our kids really do need infinite praise, infinite cheering ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

At the AD's tumbling-out speech, both the viewers and the staff on screen threw enthusiastic support behind her.

Right. They say praise makes even a whale dance. Who doesn't like praise? A praise-bomber prison — kinda fun. What about having the guys read the praise lines themselves, something like that? Wouldn't hurt to have one warm one. Destis have been watching nothing but competition — they've probably had enough....

Against the Destis' expectations, the meeting was heading somewhere perfectly normal and generic.

Just as it looked about to be locked in as warm-healing content — fun for fans, easy on the guys, but with an extremely high chance of ending up as ultimately no-fun....

Actually — I'm kind of curious about that. Yes?

Writer Ko, who'd been quietly listening beside PD Kwon, opened her mouth.

Does praise really make a whale dance? Out of nowhere? I love praise. So much that once people praise me nonstop I start throwing out completely absurd ideas — I actually tell the people around me not to praise me. ...... Aren't you curious? If you pour nothing but praise on a person, how far can they go? Let's actually lock the guys in a praise-prison for real. ...!

The staff stirred at Writer Ko's idea. Then PD Kwon, sitting beside her, folded her hands on the table and said in almost a whisper:

Huh? That could be fun.

〈And so, the first item for Today's Kairos, decided!〉

〈How far will Kairos go if you lock them in a praise-prison!?〉

The production team got to work in earnest, setting up to lock the members inside a praise-prison.

> Kairos Bureau Chief: Ah, yes, yes. Hmm.... So on XX day, we have the guys' profile shoot. > Kairos Bureau Chief: How about we run it that day? Should give the guys' energy a lift at the same time.

〈Schedule for the experiment, confirmed!〉

> Photographer: Sounds fun. Actually feel like I could just do it myself. > Staff: You'd do it yourself? > Photographer: This is my job either way — the output has to be plausible or the members' immersion won't hold. > Staff: Would that be okay? Of course, we'd write out all the lines for you.... > Photographer: Truth is my daughter's a fan of these guys. > Photographer: If I just borrow what my daughter says all day, I feel like I could pull it off?

〈Photographer to deliver the praise-bombing lines, secured!〉

- okay this isn't a praise-prison this is literally just 'we want to mess with them' ㅠㅜㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - could tell they were unhinged the moment they said MRMZ production crew ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

And then, a bit later, the members walked into the studio, oblivious, calm as anything.

〈Finally, the day of〉

〈Members, still unaware of what's about to happen, filing in one by one…〉

The camera director, disguised as making-of crew, panned over each member's face as they cheerfully greeted him. The last one caught was Hajin — even with a tired face, bowing at a full ninety degrees.

Hello! We'll be counting on you today! Sure~ we'll be counting on you too.

The curtain was rising on Kairos's hidden-camera prank — dressed up as a praise-prison.