Chapter Text
HYUNMU BASE @hyunmubase
Choi is joining Dream Idols Inc. Season 1 as the host!
The news came to Soleum like a drop of rain in a desert.
Two years of enlistment. One month of no activities after. At last.
Choi is finally beginning his activities.
Soleum immediately opens his fan account to like and retweet posts about Choi’s return. With a grin on his face, he grabs his laptop and plays Choi’s first solo mixtape—the very reason why Soleum became a fan.
It’s been almost four years since Soleum first heard of Choi’s mixtape and learned that he is an idol and the leader of the then-three-year-old boy group Hyunmu. He was really going to be a casual fan. Soleum was content of supporting Choi by streaming, sometimes voting, and watching his self-produced contents and variety shows.
But when he had the chance to see Choi right at his university festival, Soleum took out his old camera, wanting to snap a few HD photos of Choi as he watched him live.
However, upon seeing the photos he had halfheartedly taken, Soleum changed his mind.
Choi, simply put, is a blessing graced by the lord to mortal humans like Soleum.
And those who see Choi’s beauty must bear the duty and spread the word.
It was the day Soleum decided to become a dedicated fanboy. Along with his reliable camera (he had upgraded to a better one after saving up), Soleum became one of the known Choi fansite masters, going by the name Podo on the internet.
For someone whose favorite is Choi, it was an incredibly frustrating and boring two years where the only news he could get was the occasional updates from the military. That was why he couldn't let go of this chance to see Choi, whom he hadn’t seen for two years. Soleum will explode if he doesn't see Choi when he's already out of military.
He never watched the idol survival show’s first episode, nor the other videos they had, but a quick search reveals that a live recording session will happen soon. It was natural for Soleum to fight to death and pray to every saint in existence just to get a ticket to watch live.
Heowoon-ah, let’s debut @starheowoonie
everyone who won the lottery ticketing… at least tell me how my heowoon did TT
Indeed, the saying that “non-fans have better chances of seeing idols” was true. Soleum won a ticket against thousands of fans who want to watch their picks. His luck in winning lottery ticketing had never failed in his ten years of being a fanboy.
Soleum stands out in the sea of fangirls. His Choi picket is getting questionable looks from a few trainee fans, while he himself is being stared at. He was used to it, long enough that he could ignore them; fanboys who like male idols always get looked at by other fans.
The lights on the stage gather at the center. And there he goes. Hyunmu’s Choi, the best vocalist of his generation, Soleum’s one and only favorite idol.
Choi takes the center stage. He smiles and waves his hand, and loud squeals from fangirls cover the recording studio. Soleum doesn't squeal because that's not appropriate of him so he just mutters his sentiments quietly.
“Choi-hyungnim, you’re as handsome as ever…”
He almost tears up as he waves his picket high enough for Choi to see it. Soleum ignores the glares of the fans behind him, as well as the menacing stare from the staffs before him. Who cares about them? He just wants for Choi to know that there's a fan before him, eager and excited for his return. Soleum eventually puts it down when Choi sees him and waves back. If Soleum squeals, that is just between him and the fangirls near him.
As Soleum sneakily points his camera at Choi, the first team of trainees enters the stage. They don’t matter to Soleum; all he wants is a photo of his debonair Choi hyungnim in his glorious embroidered black suit.
The angle is just right, the camera is in focus, the lighting perfectly captures Choi’s face, and no shadow hides his handsome features. Soleum knows it’s the best time to click the shutter, and a new, legendary photo of the effulgent Choi will come trending once again.
That is, until a brown-haired trainee enters the viewfinder.
… Eyepatch?
Soleum’s camera loses its focus on Choi.
“This is Team Agent’s performance, with trainees—”
Choi’s voice barely registers in his mind as he follows the trainee in the viewfinder. He’s moving to the center along with his teammates, moving farther away from Choi.
“... and Baek Saheon!”
The instrumentals begin with heavy percussion. The suits, the eyepatch, some weird harnesses, the team name…
“Spy?”
For a team doing a spy concept, they were too tacky and lackluster. The arrangement is bad, the rappers rap like they’re reciting a poem, the vocalists suck, and the trainees cannot even dance in sync. To Soleum, who only likes veteran idols and has been supporting the seven-year boy group Hyunmu, those rookies were more than bad. Actually, everyone is bad in his standard (namely, Choi).
This is why Soleum never follows rookie idols and survival shows. Even Hyunmu was already in their third year when Soleum started becoming a fanboy. He mutters an apology inwardly. He doesn’t have the patience to watch rookies. Sorry, Choi-hyungnim. I’ll just watch your clips online…
The beat is quieting down, slowing, and almost fading into silence when a low voice comes. It was that eyepatch trainee.
His voice is low, flowing smoothly that it almost turns his rap into a murmur. Still, his diction remains clear enough for Soleum to understand that his rap verse is an agent’s whisper of love, containing his willingness to betray work for love.
Quite romantic, he thinks. It was probably an original rap verse; Soleum has listened to the song they're performing and is certain there wasn't a verse like that.
The trainee’s verse ends under twenty seconds. It was just one verse of rap. Four lines.
Yet it was the only decent performance he saw from this group.
Soleum can admit. That trainee is okay. He is decent.
They end up losing the team match. The trainee whose name he still didn’t know ranked the highest in his team.
Although all of them get pushed back in Soleum’s mind when Choi returned to the stage with a pale blue suit. It’s rare for Choi and the Hyunmu members to wear light-colored suits, so Soleum wants to take at least one hundred photos to compensate for the lack of them.
After toughing it out for five hours in the studio and commuting home, Soleum is finally done for the day. He loves Choi, really. And he wants to support him as much as he can. Besides, it's not often that he gets MC opportunities, so it was nice to see him as the host of that show.
But still, he can't do it again. Watching mediocre and bad performances, long waiting times in between each performance, and Choi only appears every now and then to introduce and interview the trainees.
Soleum could only complain inwardly. Hyungnim, you should have just made your solo comeback…!
He knows a comeback would still be in the near future, only after this show. Choi made a promise to the fans after all—a subunit with another Hyunmu member after they both finish their military services.
So for now, he puts on his glasses to check the photos he took and bask in the joy of seeing paragonic Choi.
While humming his favorite Hyunmu B-side track from the album Team 1, a solo song of Choi entitled “Rescue”, Soleum transfers the photos from the camera to his laptop.
He bursts into a smile when a bunch of Choi photos flash on his screen.
The ones on the topmost were Choi in his light-colored suit—it was really beautiful. If his agency, Disaster Management, has proper working brains, they will give Choi more light-colored clothes. If not, they should just close and burn in hell.
Scrolling down a little, he reaches the photos of Choi wearing a full black suit. Choi hyungnim, he really is a streak of sunlight escaping the dark clouds…
His hand stops at a specific photo, which he clicks to open.
In a photo of the effulgent Choi in his embroidered black suit, stood a trainee with an eyepatch before him, leaving Choi blurry and out of focus.
What was supposed to be another legendary fan shot of Choi looking blithesome turned into a photo of this rookie trainee whom he doesn’t even know.
“... Who the hell?”