The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Siren’s fan felt like her heart would burst as soon as she saw Yeon-Hoon’s face. Even when she had gone to a fan sign event, she had never seen him from so close-up. Because of the guards and how formal and public the place had felt, she didn’t dare to get closer. Yet, there weren’t any guards wandering around here and because of how dim the lights were, the place felt private. All that made her heart pound harder.

‘This is insane…crazy…’ She thought if her heart was beating this hard and fast, other people could hear it too. It was then, Yeon-Hoon spoke again.

“Do you not want to hold hands?”

“No!” In fear that she would never get the chance to grab his hand again, she screamed. Belatedly, she realized that she had made a loud noise in a public setting. She felt sorry for the people in her surroundings when she realized it wasn’t necessary.

‘Ah…’ Each of the four other people who came with her was facing a Siren member. She had been too focused on Yeon-Hoon to realize that the other members had also appeared on-site. She realized then why the booth had let only five people come inside at a time.

“Let’s go.”

“…Sorry?”

It was then Yeon-Hoon grabbed her hand and led her someplace else. She wondered what was going on and realized that Yeon-Hoon was guiding her to the next corner. Unlike the previous corners, this place seemed to have been decorated with much brighter lights. If the previous spots had felt like parts of an ‘exhibit’, this place felt more fitting for a ‘marketing booth’. There was a variety of racks on the walls and Siren goods were presented neatly on top of the racks.

“We are going to begin our activities again on July 25th. It’s quite early, isn’t it?”

“…No! If possible, it would be great if you all could work for 365 days a year…!”

“Hahaha! Really? Thank you.”

While they moved, Yeon-Hoon carried on the conversation while being careful to not leak any spoilers about their upcoming activities.

“But even if we do work 365 days a year, you will love us every day and watch over us, right?”

“Of course!”

While conversing, Yeon-Hoon stopped at the last corner. This was the place that gave away limited-edition goods for people who went through this entire exhibition. There was a limited-edition poster that could only be found at this pop-up store and showed the Siren members on a yacht as they had appeared in the previous exhibition space just before.

“Should I sign right here?”

“Yes!”

She couldn’t believe that was getting Yeon-Hoon’s signature on top of this limited-edition poster. This moment far exceeded a fan meeting, but Yeon-Hoon’s fan service didn’t end there.

“There’s an additional event I prepared with my members yesterday. Should I give it to you now?”

“What is it?”

“Give me a moment.”

Yeon-Hoon took out something from the bottom of the shelf.

“Look! Isn’t this Polaroid so pretty?” Yeon-Hoon took out a small Polaroid camera and took a picture on the spot. Then, he wrote the date and signed his signature on it.

“Since this is a super limited-edition Polaroid picture that hasn’t been released anywhere else, please take care of it well,” Yeon-Hoon said and handed her the picture.

While receiving it, the employee thought to herself, ‘I should…place this inside a safe box.’

Though she had taken many breaks and days off while working for the last five years, there had never been a more fulfilling and happy time off. She walked to the last gateway where she was supposed to ‘upload a feed on sns’ and ‘get a confirmation for subscribing to Siren’s channel’ and left the pop-up store. By just passing this one door, she felt like she was back in reality after being inside a fantasy world until now. The fantastical feeling she had wear off a bit while standing in the scorching heat.

‘No, this is enough.’ Energy seemed to seep out of her a bit, but perhaps, it was because she had felt a happiness that she couldn’t completely contain, she felt as if she could overcome any hurdle coming her way.

***

After the pop-up opened, people began to upload their reviews on SNS. People’s attention especially focused on the reviews that claimed to have met the Siren members in real life.

—I literally thought my heart was going to drop when I heard Yeon-Hoon’s voice behind me. I turned around and saw a super handsome prince with a tiny face and sharp features staring at me…haaa…I barely held myself back from screaming

—I was admiring the members’ faces on the screen and staring with my mouth gaping when Tae-Yoon asked me if the video was all right from behind. I was so shocked but damn how can he be just nineteen years old? He feels so like an oppa. Anyways, I got dragged around by him

—Haa…Dong-Jun is 200% cuter in real life than in videos…It was as if a puppy was talking to me, smiling at me, and genuinely worrying about my well-being…please everyone, open your wallets and go to a fan meeting…

—I was blessed with the presence of princess Woon…Princess looked so beautiful…I think he would be prettier than me if he just grew out his hair…He talks so softly and gently that I feltl like I would end up telling him my bank account passwords and everything if I keep listening to him. I’m certain that he’s a sorcerer

—Everyone, Kang Do-Seung is seriously huge in real life. I’m not lying. He’s not a cat but a jaguar. I could tell he was Do-Seung from 100 steps away. He suddenly talked to me in a low voice from behind and no joke but I saw a shadow enveloping me because of how big he was.

Perhaps, it was because Siren members appeared from noon to evening at various pop-up booths from Seoul to districts in the Gyeong-gi area, but social media feeds were overflowing with posts about seeing Siren in real life from the first day of the event. Though it hadn’t been long since they ended their first activity period, Siren members continued to dominate Bluebird’s top trending ranks.

And as if they had been waiting for the chance, news of Bleshu’s debut getting postponed was released. But the news was buried under the posts about Siren and only spread across Bleshu’s fans. Like that, news of Bleshu's postponement naturally died down while feeds about Siren kept popping up. Since the quality of the exhibition was also high, many people were also talking about the pop-up booths themselves.

—This is the space you reach after coming out of the darkness, and I almost screamed when I reached here. The picture doesn’t do justice. It’s a hundred times prettier in real life (Ocean exhibition.jpg)

—As soon as you go in, things that look like fireflies go around and make you imagine a summer vacation you didn’t even go to

—The moment my feet touched the sand, I felt teary. I don’t know why

Reply: Same, I felt the same way

Reply: It made me wonder how long it has been since I went to the ocean and made be feel sad

—But the really nice thing was that they didn’t just beam an ocean video on the screen and finished it off like that, but they put down real sand, smartly set up the sound, ocean smell, and wind so that it really felt like I was at the ocean

—I seriously think this booth is worth going to even if you aren’t a Siren fan.

—My review of a male idol group’s pop-up zone. It felt really like the summer

—Collection of pop-up zones worth going to at least once.zip

The booth began to spread as a hot place that was worth going to even if you weren’t an idol fan by word of mouth.

—Wow it was soo pretty

—Where is this place?

—That was the station at Hongdae?

—I should try going there during lunch time

—Is it a pop-up zone for marketing idols?

—Companies do marketing like this these days?

Because posts and reviews about the pop-up began to spread across people regardless of gender, news of Siren’s ongoing activities spread wider and wider. It was to the point that the waiting line for these pop-up stations became longer than on day one. On the first day, it was possible for one to enter the booth after waiting 20 minutes, but from day 2, it only became possible after one hour of waiting.

Because of that, there was a side-effect in which the sales of nearby stores dramatically increased. Nevertheless, countless reviews stated that the pop-up booths were worth waiting for and it was rare for a free exhibition of this quality to exist. Though the waiting period increased to two hours on the third day, it became possible for people to save their spots online and the stores in the booths’ vicinity simply overflowed with people. On the fourth day, people began to raise questions about the main topic at hand.

—So, when is Siren going to do their comeback?

Reply: Hahaha should this even be considered a comeback?

Reply: They are going to do a comeback in just one week? Haha

—What are they planning to do that they are doing something of this scale?

—Yeah, I know, right?

—I don’t think they are going to really release an album. Maybe they are marketing something with a company?

Reply: But for that to be the case, there is no sign of product or company marketing

—What if these guys are coming out on a reality show or something?

Reply: Oh, that’s a possibility

Reply: No, I know someone from Next Wave but they said Siren is coming out with a new song

—Seems like we will have to wait until July 25th

—Aren’t Siren going to get the Grand Prize at the end of the year at this rate?

—No matter how much I think about it, I think they are really aiming for the Grand Prize

—But how can a rookie group get a Grand Prize on their first year of debut? Haha

Reply: ? There’s a girl group that already achieved that

Reply: But Siren debuted in June

Reply: Maybe that’s the exact reason why they are going so hard

Reply: Ah you have a point

At this point, people began to be more interested in the group, ‘Siren’ rather than the ‘exhibition’ even if they weren’t Siren fans. Stronger and more passionate responses poured out from the Siren fandom.

—Is something really going to happen at this rate?

—I dreamed of a dragon today. The dragon bit Siren and flew up to the heavens. Siren will get the Grand Prize.

Reply: Didn’t the dragon actually…kidnap Siren…?

—July 25th…Next Wave…what in the world are you really planning…? If you are trolling us here, you will gain the hatred of the entire nation…get to your senses

Fans made a fuss saying that something big seemed to be happening while others warned Next Wave to do their job properly to avoid disappointment. Like that, as many people’s attention focused on this event, time flowed towards July 25th.

***

I sat on the sofa and monitored the public’s response about the pop-up booths and then, placed my phone down. The current time was 1 am. My members were all asleep during this time and I was the only one awake. The reason for that was simple.

“The pop-ups are really…creating a buzz…” The attention that pop-up zones attracted was stronger than I expected, so I thought I could modify some of my original plans. I had two ongoing missions right now. The first mission was to simultaneously get first place in the music show charts and to achieve Triple Crown All-Kill; but since I would definitely have to place first in the music charts to get a Triple Crown All-Kill, this mission was basically just getting a Triple Crown All-Kill.

The other mission was to enter the Billboard Hot100. The risks for failing the mission were the following: the death of Dong-Jun, Woon, and Do-Seung and the separation of their world lines. Both of the missions came with grave risks.

“Haa…” I was trying to accomplish a ‘quantum jump’ of sorts. While so much attention on us with the pop-up zones, I thought we could achieve a massive hit with our song, ‘Blue Ocean’.

‘Then this is our opportunity.’ The biggest opportunity came at the biggest crisis. I planned to use the missions that the system gave me to kill me in reverse.