The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

The audience opened their eyes wide. All of Siren’s five members were standing in a line on the stage and looking down at the audience. The stage setting gave off a melancholy atmosphere, and the chilling and cool sensory visuals gave them goosebumps. The big moon rising on the electronic display sprinkled blue light everywhere, and the members, dressed in blue dopo[1] stared at the camera with steadfast eyes.

Their performance certainly felt different from the previous stages performed by other groups. The hanbok and moon set it apart, but rather than these obvious differences, they gave off a calm and collected vibe.

‘What is it?’ They didn’t give off a raw and unpolished feeling of a new idol group but rather of veteran performers. They seemed a bit nervous and tense, but it wasn’t nervousness that came from lack of skills but the light nervousness mixed in with anticipation that came from performing on stage. Rather, their emotions brought the stage to life even further.

—On a deep dark night, I lay wide awake

—The boundless azure sky, bluish moonlight

—Softly envelops me and drives me to the streets once again

Main vocalist Woo Yeon-Hoon stepped up to the center of the stage and sang. His hand waving in the air was sensual as if he was stroking something. As he spread out his arms to the side, the members standing behind him jumped out one by one as if he was spreading his wings. Soon, the members raised their arms high in the sky like a bow. It was obvious what the curves created by their connected arms represented.

‘A crescent moon!’ It was a crescent moon hanging in the night sky. The crescent moon cracked, and in between, main dancer Lee Woon burst out.

–I long for your beautiful gaze

–I thought our distance couldn’t get any further

He made a light waving movement as if he was walking in place, but his soft and accurate movements reminded the audience of a rippling lake. After Lee Woon, Park Dong-Jun came out and sang the next part.

–But my longing is getting deeper

–Under this moonlight, the memories of that day

–Of you and I are shining blue

His soft and fair voice spread across the stage. After his clear voice with long reverberations ended, the group’s maknae, Bong Tae-Yoon came out.

–Like a sad flower that blooms under the moon.

–Like a cruel tragedy that happens in the middle of the night

–I remember the stream of blood that flowed down your hand

–All those moments beyond my control

Every word he sang had strong power inside them, as if he was deeply immersed in the song. After Bong Tae-Yoon’s part ended, Woo Yeon-Hoon, who was hiding behind, jumped forward. The formation of the members changed rapidly. They surrounded Woo Yeon-Hoon in the middle. Soon, the members spread across the stage widely as if a flower bud was opening. The formation they created was that of a full moon. At the same time, the moon, which was shining blue on the electronic display, turned upside down.

‘Red Moon?’ The atmosphere completely changed.

–Moon, dear moon, don’t chase me down

–I’m looking for my dear who has run away

–I’ll search through this forest once again

Woo Yeon-Hoon spoke with a lonely yet sad voice.

–Night, dear night, don’t come back

–I’ll go find my dear who has left

–To return to my side again

At that moment, the song stopped playing and then—

–Awooo-!

A wolf’s cry reverberated on the stage. Only then did people realize what the song was about. The audience, who had merely thought this song was about a scholar who missed his lover, watched the stage with their mouths slightly open. Main dancer Lee Woon came forward and started the chorus choreography.

–Fleeing the moonlight shining at night

–Fleeing the night you ran away

–I endure this night again and again

–for you who ran away from me

–And for my precious self

He threw away the blue dopo and wiped off the red rouge around his mouth. The atmosphere instantly changed as if there was a bloodbath. This was actually not a song about a scholar who could not fulfill his love but a wolf disguised as a scholar. In short, it was a story of a werewolf in the Joseon dynasty. The audience, who thought Siren would be singing a historical drama cliché of a scholar who couldn’t fulfill his love because of social class differences, gaped in shock and stared at the stage.

‘It wasn’t because of differences in social class but race?’

The girl already liked the fact that they wore hanbok to a historical drama-style song. Siren not only showed the blue light of the moon but added the concept of a werewolf. Some might say their concept was excessive, but the different elements were appropriately harmonized on the stage. But most of all, her favorite conceptual topics were seamlessly tied together.

“Wowwwww!” A genuine exclamation broke out. Everything was a home run for her. She had thought that no idol would be able to perfectly fit her taste, but she felt tingles all over her body, and her heart stopped as if someone had shot right to her heart.

* * *

Producer Park Soo-Chul gaped in shock as the atmosphere heated up more than he expected. His wide-opened mouth curved upwards and stretched into a wide smile. He was grinning from ear to ear. When he saw Siren’s rehearsal, he thought they had done a good job. It was to the point that any annoyance he had felt about them hiding the fact they self-produced their songs instantly melted away. However, the real performance was much better than their rehearsal. Usually, groups became more anxious in front of an audience, but—

‘They’re eating the stage up.’ Each member was performing much better on stage. There was a difference just by the way they were using the stage’s space. They were using a lot more space with ease, and if they hadn’t felt at ease, their movements would have become smaller, and their movement size would also decrease. However, in the case of Siren, their movements were not only big but accurate. Therefore, it was even more enjoyable for the audience to watch them.

“OMG!”

“What?”

“Kyaaaahhh!”

“Ahhhhh!”

The moment it was revealed that the stage was not about scholars but werewolves, the audience who had only cheered and clapped ceremonially, sincerely cheered and screamed. Park Soo-Chul wondered how to edit this scene to avoid accusations about the show favoring Siren. While thinking this, he kept looking at the stage.

* * *

–Moon, dear moon

–Shining blue

–My heart that I couldn’t tell you in the end

–I’ll bury my heart in this night and take my leave

The performance was over. The girl stared blankly at the five Siren members on stage. Only she was in a daze, and everyone else was still screaming their hearts out. The reason why she was in a daze was because she had screamed so much that she had quickly lost her strength. The last person who decorated the outro was rapper Kang Do-Seung. After Kang Do-Seung sang the outro, Lee Woon came back to the stage center again and made the ending pose. It seemed as if Lee Woon was the center for their performance this time.

While this fact didn’t seem to matter, picking Lee Woon as the center had been the decisive factor to lift the performance to its full potential. Lee Woon’s delicate and flexible dancing and eyes that seemed a bit out of the world made the stage come alive.

‘It was this.’ It was then the girl finally began to solidify her decision to stan this group. For a while, she hadn’t felt excitement or butterflies for a long time while being a K-pop fan, and at some point, she began to watch only the most famous performances. After her bias, who she had been a fan of for a long time, caused all kinds of problems and fell from stardom with a splendid crash, a lot of top-tier fan website moderators and fans began to fall out of the fandom for her all-time favorite group.

During this process, she got weary and felt a lot of disappointment towards the idols. However, she had loved K-pop for a long time, so she kept wandering around the K-pop scene like a ghost, trying to find the next group to stan. There were a lot of handsome idols and those who were good at singing and dancing well, but strangely enough, she didn’t feel drawn towards them. She found them enjoyable but hadn’t felt truly happy while watching them, but that wasn’t the case today.

‘I love it!’ The girl had never imagined that she would find a new group to stan in a program that garnered doomed idols. Of course, it was still too early to jump to conclusions as this could have just been a legendary performance from them, and there was no guarantee that they would be able to perform at this level in the future. However, that didn’t matter as she was already in love with Siren at this very moment. Even if this feeling might disappear by tomorrow morning, she wanted to enjoy this moment to the fullest.

It had been too long that she felt this way—the feeling of wanting to keep watching even while watching them in front of her eyes. The feeling of wanting to treasure every gesture and movement. Maybe it was because she had been out of the loop for so long, but even in her own opinion, she was fangirling too hard. However, that also didn’t matter as her desire to stan a group was probably running wild after being repressed for so long.

It was now time for Siren to film the ending fairy cut. Even though the stage was over, the members stood in position and stared at the camera. The audience watched each member’s ending expression one by one.

As expected, it was Lee Woon who caught her eye the most as the main dancer’s ability included skilled facial expression. He looked determined and calm but as if he felt overwhelmed with emotions. It was an expression that skillfully expressed the sentiments of the performance. Lee Woon was about to carve deeply into her heart when—

‘What?’ Strangely, her eyes moved to the member next to Lee Woon. It felt as if he was pulling all the attention to him.

She wondered who it was and thought, ‘Bong Tae-Yoon?’ It was the group’s maknae. Although he was handsome, he wasn’t her type as she liked more bright and innocent types. But strangely, her eyes kept being drawn to Tae-Yoon.

‘What’s up with him?’ Bong Tae-Yoon’s eyes seemed to be shouting, ‘Look at me!’ While Lee Woon’s expression was reminiscent of a scholar, Bong Tae-Yoon’s expression was reminiscent of a werewolf. Since he had a ‘wolf-face,’ the girl had expected him to fit the concept very well, but there seemed to be something that went beyond fitting well with the concept.

‘Ah…’ Her personal type was Woon, but the maknae wrecked her bias and kept catching her eyes. On the other hand, it wasn’t just her, as she could hear people talking around him.

“Wow…”

“His expression is amazing…?”

While she was torn by these strange feelings, the stage ended.

—Thank you! We are Siren!

“Oh.” She regained her senses as if coming out of a trance; she had been too focused on their performance without realizing it.

“Woooooooooow!”

Just in time, cheers poured out from all sides.

* * *

At the end of the stage, it was time for us to strike the ending pose. I didn’t have much thought about it at first. I was relieved that we finished the performance well today, and I thought that it came out just as I expected. But when the close-up camera’s light came on for the ending, I remembered what Woon had told me earlier.

‘Hmm.’ He told me to use my eyes more. I had forgotten about it during the stage but recalled his words at the end. I was going to pass it off because I thought it might become an embarrassing, cringy memory later on if I suddenly tried to change my expressions but—

Ziiing—

‘What?’ Insight was suddenly activated without my will. I was flustered, but even while thinking this, I could clearly feel and understand how I should look at the cameras and what kind of expression fit this concept and stage. I relaxed my facial muscles, and my expression changed at the same time. I just decided to go along with it as it was already underway, so I stared at the camera with the expression I made through Insight. Then, at that moment, I heard these words below the stage:

“Wow…”

“His expression is amazing…?”

I felt slightly embarrassed but couldn’t relax my expression now.

Flick.

After the camera lights went out, Insight naturally stopped. I looked around and made eye contact with the members. Perhaps because they were all satisfied with the performance, their expressions were bright.

“Thank you! It was Siren!” We all said our greetings together and were about to go down when—

“Woooooooow!” We heard cheers pour out from all sides. The cheers made by 150 people were deafening to say the least.

Gasp!

“My gosh.”

“Hmpph!”

We all froze for a moment at the sheer might of the cheers and then everyone looked at one place at the same time—the target was Yeon-Hoon. Considering his personality, after hearing this kind of cheer, he would definitely–

“Huack…! Bawww….” Be moved to tears.

“Hey, hey!”

“Yeon-Hoon!”

“Don’t cry!”

Yeon-Hoon’s tears were on the verge of bursting like a faucet.

1. Dopo is the overcoat in hanbok. ☜