Chapter 76

Over the week of vacation while everyone at Miro, at the production company, and Hajin himself was busy in their own corner, plenty was going on online, too.

To start with, Miro Maze's first teaser dropped.

- yo wasn't this supposed to be one of those cookie-cutter k-boy-group in-house debut survivals

In other words — the Miro set, now (needlessly) even more grandiose thanks to expensive CG and flashy editing, had been unveiled to the world at large.

- why are these guys filming a life-or-death survival ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

A teaser at a more serious scale than anyone had expected set off short bursts of chatter across SNS and community sites. Shorts and viral ads carrying keywords like 〈today's boy-group survival that looks like they dumped all their capital into it〉 flooded the timeline.

The first to catch on — auto-alerted the moment posts started going up peppered with #my-babies hashtags — was Miro's senior-artist fandom.

handle: @U_pia_zip name: The Upia Only I'm Missing.zip (Miro Maze Seo Taeil interview clip) [photo] the sunbae aura at the hoobaes' debut survival is INSANE engagement: shares 3,821 · quotes 4,409 · hearts 5,081

Then, making the rounds right after — a fan-community post titled [omfg park woong actually excited about finally getting hoobaes], with a live-broadcast clip of an Enderway member mentioning Miro Maze attached.

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- woong-ie's so freakin cute he's making a station-by-station food-spot list to give the hoobaes when they debut - that list he got passed down FROM the u.p.a teachers themselves when he was a rookie ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - looks like our kids are gonna show up on the broadcast too? honestly no way they wouldn't > yep 100% > sounds like they're doing a mission with our kids' songs! the j.w. teacher upstairs spoiled it > wait THAT teacher STILL has no chill lmaoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ > spoiler-no-chill is just a miro house trait...you can see it in choi yeonwoo posting an insta story about running into taeil-teach after forever ㅎ - y'all sorry for the tangent but why do you all call the senior groups teacher? ㅠ sorry i'm a late fan… ㅠ > np np! there's a huge age gap and when our kids were trainees the sunbaenims actually gave them lessons so the kids call them teacher!! > oh thank you ㅠㅠㅜ can i ask one more thing ㅠㅠ? so even after the sunbaenims debuted they kept giving the kids lessons?? > yeah ㅠㅜ the company was… it's not so bad now but back in the day it was seriously a hole-in-the-wall… ㅠㅜㅜ it's really so much better now… > oh… i see ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜㅜ thanks so much for kindly explaining!!

With not just a small artist roster but a shit-tier small-time company running a grand total of two acts, Miro's senior-junior fandoms tended to get along unusually well. Upia's fandom, I.dea, had smothered the first juniors they'd ever gotten with downward affection from debut on — that had a lot to do with it.

And the age gap was wide enough that turf-guarding wasn't really on the table to begin with.

- cheering on the hoobaes! - wonder what songs of ours they'll do, probably Mood Night or Sparkle Day? - wait so now we get to see seo tae in his crocodile-pd mode in a different outfit every week? this is a win - cheong hansol did a live and said the hoobaes are cute and doing good so just support them but no cheating on us ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 13 years in and still policing fan loyalty, love that from a boy-idol ㅎ

With the whole 'Miro is one family' line and vibe locked in so thoroughly, senior-fandom reactions to 〈Miro Maze〉 skewed mostly warm.

I.dea, having already once watched a junior group be born, sat back like grandparents watching the grandkids play. On the other side, And With U — Enderway's fandom — couldn't hide their anticipation and excitement over the first juniors they'd ever get.

Not everyone was on the same page, of course.

- han sew0n why the FUCK did he suddenly lose it and decide to do a played-out survival, guess he just wanted to flex how much money we've made all that money OUR oppas earned you piece of shit why are YOU the one splashing cash… - pleeeease stop with the lookalike talk sfb they DON'T look alike they DON'T!!! every damn thing it's miro-face-type miro-face-type fucking sick of it there's literally only two groups in the company what miro-face-type - look i did think the next-next group was probably coming soon? but still isn't this a little early… feels kinda off… honestly we're only 4 years in ㅜㅠ

The negative takes were mostly from the freshly-joined And With U's.

Most of them knew Enderway's tearjerker rookie-era stories — debuting only to find out they were the second son of a mom-and-pop firm, with the eldest being legendary-tier idol group Upia — only as folktales handed down.

Which meant that even I.dea's ocean-deep downward love was something they'd only heard tell of, never actually felt. They'd just joined the fandom, seen the atmosphere, and kept quiet about it.

Throwing a stone at what was already the mainstream mood would only end with the stone-thrower getting stoned back.

So to them, 〈Miro Maze〉 was just a smug newbie muscling into an already-tiny company to snatch food out of their kids' bowls.

- to whoever keeps dragging the hoobae group onto my TL — sorry but muting for a while~ i don't wanna see other idols - stop with the shitty family framing i like endup not (middle-finger) miro (middle-finger) - so fucking stressful stop using our kids' names ;;;; keyword alerts always going off and every time it's about that hoobae group - if it's like this before they even debut, imagine after debut, how much are they gonna piggyback tlqkf it already pissed me off getting our kids linked with old-ass senior idols everywhere they went and now brand-new baby ones are gonna be in the mix too

As those voices got gradually louder, the existing fans — the ones who remembered clear as day the grace they'd received from the senior group starting from debut — began to split too.

- wait, y'all saying the hoobae group shouldn't debut now — is this your first time being a fan?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ big companies drop a hoobae group on a 3-year cycle usually, do people not know? we came out abnormally late because Miro is a small biz, what are you even… - huh so people don't like the hoobae group? i love it ㅋㅋㅋ our kids are so excited about finally being seniors - idc i just want our comeback to actually come out properly, but going by how it's playing out it doesn't look like it will and that's what's annoying - we're only just getting our footing and hoobaes are already coming out — you can be a bit hurt over that. muzzling people about it for real? - the teaser looks like they dumped capital into it, kinda salty ngl… they should treat us like that - can we just stop with the hoobae group talk already? tired of it now

Threads that started out of interest in 〈Miro Maze〉 kept ending in And With U infighting.

Which meant that idol-scene users who'd been drawn in or paying attention purely for 〈Miro Maze〉 started backing off from the subject bit by bit. It wasn't even first-broadcast yet, and nobody wanted to get dragged into a dogfight already.

Right when they should have been throwing on more fuel to build anticipation, this was a fatal turn.

That was around when Hajin's Sudden Quest reward was auto-received.

title: Sudden Quest The greatest ally in this world is you. Believing in yourself starts with knowing yourself! Let's get to know 'Kang Hajin.' Success reward: — Recruit 'Kang Hajin' as a companion: Voucher to view one designated person's traits (received) — Confirm 'Kang Hajin's traits: Free skill-upgrade voucher (received) — Confirm 'Kang Hajin's stats: An unexpected stroke of luck (Cat's Repayment 2), (The Teacher's Grace) (not received) Unreceived success reward being auto-received. - omg yeonwoo went live

Enderway's unshakable center, Choi Yeonwoo, had opened up a live broadcast.

—Hi And With U's. I was about to have dinner and stopped in for a sec. Wanted to eat together.

The start was a plain dinner mukbang. He couldn't stay long, he said — let's just chat while I eat. It was around thirty minutes in that the broadcast started to take a turn.

—Huh? You're asking what the hoobaes are like?

—Woong-ie was excited about it, that we're getting hoobaes. Ah, did he already come by and stir up a ruckus?

Choi Yeonwoo laughed as he passed along his groupmate's reactions, then, sweeping back his mussed front hair, propped his chin in his hand — his eyes turning a little wistful.

—Mmm. But honestly, it did feel weird. You know, back when we first debuted, it was… seriously, dogshit hard.

—Sure, compared to the Upia teachers we had it really, really good, but still… there was a lot of worry, pressure, all of that. Because, honestly, the teachers were just so amazing.

—Either way, we were the first juniors.

—And this time seeing the hoobaes on that survival show — the set was really cool and their stages were so good and… seeing something all built up like that, out of nowhere I got this really strange feeling.

Chopsticks set aside without his even noticing, Choi Yeonwoo lowered his voice to something warm and thick.

—Like… ah, we did do a good job after all? I was really proud, actually.

—The way I see it, our hoobaes could come out because we did our part.

—So I was proud, and I thought — I want to be good to those kids. Because I remember, in the very beginning, how well the teachers took care of us. I've got to be that kind of solid senior too….

Choi Yeonwoo's remarks about 〈Miro Maze〉 took up barely three minutes out of a nearly hour-long live. But the ripple those three minutes set off was surprisingly large.

- god i heard yeonwoo's live today and cried

The And With U's — who'd been throwing knives all day, roasting each other on main — got hit dead-center by rookie-era nostalgia in those three minutes. Even the And With U's who'd had zero interest in hoobae-group talk went into full soft-stan mode all at once, and a proper fandom-mood cleanup began.

- re-watching yeonwoo's live and there's just too much on my mind now… when the kids first debuted, how scared and how hard must it have been for them. - the member himself is literally saying this and there are still ppl roasting hoobae group on main, are they ok ㅋㅋㅋ do they seriously not know what it means to our kids to be getting hoobaes?

Around the time the rookie-nostalgia-drunk And With U's public opinion was gradually settling into 'even if you can't cheer for the hoobae group, don't rain on their parade,' one post uploaded lit a proper fuse under this mood.

This time it was on the Upia side.

title: [I.deas how are y'all feeling?? (long post warning)] - i got into them through the myeongdong street busking case? like, back before the kids even debuted, i saw taeil doing that busking gripping his teeth through the rain and i've loved them all the way from then till now (of course i took some breaks in between… job-hunting was hard ㅠ) but we really had it rough right y'all know… small-among-small company back when the staff was just 4 ppl, so much getting dissed on broadcast, and the kids talked so many times about how hard it was not having any seniors to show them the ropes ㅠ even when they took no.1 on music shows or went to award ceremonies, our kids were always just kind of dumped there by themselves and that seriously broke my heart sometimes, i mean the kids are so close and tight with each other and that's great but even so ㅠㅠ so honestly when the company's first hoobaes (the disciples) debuted i was really really happy the activity periods didn't overlap much but whenever they did the two sides always cheered each other on real talk when it was just our kids they were literally the young household breadwinners keeping the company alive, they couldn't even properly rest and you could see them white-knuckling it, but after the disciples debuted our kids seemed to let some of that pressure go and for the FIRST time got a proper vacation ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ ah i'm crying again anyway then i heard another hoobae group's coming out this time and i was scoping out the tidbits and out of nowhere the feeling is just so so weird taeil saying he's really confident, putting his own name on it — i got choked up… he looks so at ease… ah idk ㅋㅋㅋㅋ just at that miro?? there's a next-next group???? that thought ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ anyway that's why i wrote this post to see how everyone's feeling… i'm in maximum-upia-love mode right now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ let's be together for a long time seriously… even longer than that… all the way to the retirement gala together….

Uploaded to a fan community in the pre-dawn hours when post-generation was relatively slow, a long piece like this would normally have no reason to make waves.

- as of this moment, i withdraw my support of the Miro house.

Meaning… normally.

- from today we depart from the supporter-supported relation the Miro house and i become one body any attack on the Miro house is considered an attack on me - who's gonna dare mess with our nieces and nephews?

The 'unexpected stroke of luck' had started to run wild.