Little Pink Starfish

[At first, I thought Sion-hyung was scolding Onsaemiro-hyung. Onsaemiro-hyung kept giving way to him, watching his reactions.]

[But judging by Sion-hyung’s expression, it seemed more like he was thinking, “What’s wrong with this guy?”]

[Maybe it was something like this:]

[Sion-hyung speaks bluntly, but sometimes he compliments just as bluntly. And when that compliment hits you—it sends a jolt through your whole body.]

[Chances are, Onsaemiro-hyung got hit with that jolt yesterday. They were both at the studio—without me.]

[Anyway, I’m glad they finally had a reason to get closer…]

“Choi Jaesung!”

“Yes!”

“Come here. Time to watch episode 3.”

Choi Jaesung, who’d been writing in his journal, quickly shut his notebook at Han Sion’s voice.

Today was the broadcast of Coming Up Next episode 3, but for the first time, they wouldn’t be recording a reaction segment.

That meant the members could just watch it casually, together.

When Jaesung walked into the dorm’s shared living room, everyone was sprawled out in comfortable clothes.

Han Sion was sitting naturally in the center, flanked by Onsaemiro and Lee Ieon.

‘This is my first time seeing the three of them in one shot like this.’

Sure, he’d seen them sitting in the order of Sion—Ieon—Onsaemiro before.

But that was a fake trio.

Sion-hyung had to be in the center for it to feel like the true trio—the real “3-On.”

Come to think of it, Sion-hyung is a strange guy.

He doesn’t seem that interested in the other members, yet he’s completely at ease in the center.

As if he was born to be there.

‘Still… these days, he does seem a little more attentive to us.’

He did think hard about Ieon-hyung’s vocal tone, and gave that wild compliment to Onsaemiro-hyung too.

As he sat down, Jaesung said aloud,

“No muk-bait today? What a shame.”

“…That’s a shame?”

“Of course! Sion-hyung, what’s the tastiest thing among the food we’re eating right now?”

“The chicken breast sauce.”

“See, you’re blessed. You’re allowed sauce now and then. But I’m more of a prototype human—I don’t get spicy, flavorful things at all.”

“So?”

“So, even if I can’t swallow it, just having a mouthful of juicy meat… how delightful would that be?”

“……”

You could almost hear Han Sion’s brain short-circuiting in real time.

As Jaesung understood it, Sion was incredibly smart—but bad at dealing with “illogical logic” disguised as reason.

There was a reason for this.

Most smart people can easily dismiss nonsense. Not Han Sion.

He took the other person’s argument seriously, no matter how ridiculous.

Even if he couldn’t understand it, he considered that the logic might be valid in another framework.

To him, it wasn’t wrong—just different.

But when he couldn’t extract any kind of objectivity from that “logic,” that’s when he’d break.

And watching that break happen… was kind of fun.

Like the satisfaction of watching a genius get wrecked by a stupid joke.

Sure enough, when Jaesung looked around—

“……”

“……”

Everyone was silently observing Han Sion.

With faces that might as well have been ‘ㅎ_ㅎ’ emojis.

Even Onsaemiro, who usually didn’t care, was watching.

Honestly, to Jaesung, Han Sion had many layers.

Sometimes he seemed numb and indifferent, like someone worn down by life.

Other times, he was as sensitive and delicate as a teenager.

He could suddenly get depressed, and just as suddenly snap back to cheerfulness.

If Goo Taehwan was someone who understood people through sharp logic, Jaesung understood them through social dynamics.

That’s why Taehwan thought Sion was unpredictable, while Jaesung just thought he had many sides.

“Ah, hyung! I was kidding, obviously.”

“You were?”

“Of course. Who would seriously like muk-bait for that reason? It’s horrible!”

“Knew it. If it were for calorie acquisition, I could understand though.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Think about it. We burn more calories than we take in. We’re always hungry.”

“True.”

“But if you put food in your mouth, there’s bound to be some absorption. You might accidentally swallow a bit. Or maybe it gets absorbed through the oral mucosa…”

“……”

“Wait, can the mucosa even absorb food? At least the oils, maybe?”

“I… I’m not sure?”

“So from that perspective, maybe there’s some merit to muk-bait.”

“R-Right.”

This time Jaesung was the one who short-circuited—but it didn’t last long.

Because it was clearly time to end this baffling conversation.

“It’s starting.”

On the TV screen, the title COMING UP NEXT appeared.

---

-Will they finally talk about Chris Edwards on today’s episode??

-Y’all still trust this show? These bastards dragged out Han Sion’s song pick for 30 minutes. Episode 4, mark my words.

-Kang Sukwoo went on M-Show and now it’s all cable-style editing. So annoying lol

-Didn’t they have to show the take scene for Sion’s song pick?

-Exactly, they dragged it out. Take scenes are boring af.

-Is it just me or is Take Scene getting pitiful? Even the message boards are all about Han Sion.

-At this rate, Team B’s gonna debut for real.

-Not happening with Cho Daehosaurus in charge.

-But what if Cho Daehosaurus is also a certified dumbass?

-Hoooh, probability increasing.

-These ads are never-ending.

Viewers were scrolling through the real-time message boards to kill time during the ads.

Lots of posts, lots of comments.

And then—suddenly, silence.

Even those who weren’t watching the show but just monitoring reactions were taken aback by the stillness.

-?? Where did everyone go.

-Server crash? Threads aren’t refreshing.

-Guess the episode started?

-People don’t go that quiet just because it started though.

The reason for the silence was simple.

Episode 3 of Coming Up Next opened with a scene no one could look away from.

Chris Edwards.

Of course, just appearing wouldn’t have caused this level of shock.

If anything, people would’ve gotten louder.

But the production team shoved a flaming hot potato straight into the viewers’ mouths.

🎶 ♬ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ~

Chris Edwards is playing the piano.

You feel it immediately.

This is Flowers Bloom.

More precisely, it’s an early version of Flowers Bloom, composed by Chris Edwards—one only Han Sion had recognized.

Over the gentle melody, a pre-recorded interview with Chris Edwards is layered in.

[I once traveled to northern Norway. Everything was blanketed in cold snow.]

[But I was mistaken.]

[Life existed everywhere.]

[A yellow flower blooming sorrowfully amidst the white snow.]

[I wrote this song after seeing that.]

Then the subtitle appears:

Norway Flower

The interview fades, and the piano plays on—joined by another sound.

Flowers Bloom—no, now it’s Falling Flower (낙화).

Han Sion’s performance track.

The sound wasn’t a perfect match for the version Sion had sung.

But the vibe was incredibly similar. The melody structure, nearly identical.

It was the perfect moment for viewers to slam their keyboards.

-Holy crap, Sion what the hell.

-Wow, amazing. It really was based on an original. Even the name “Norway Flower” is cool af.

-But it doesn’t quite mesh, does it?

-Balance is off. They slapped Sion’s vocals on top of the original piano.

-Yeah but I kind of trust it more because of that rawness.

-LMAO so BalQ took this song and butchered it?

-No wonder the flower stans are pissed. Why’d they raise the key to a female range?

-Is it just me or is Sion’s version better?

-22222 I like Falling Flower more too.

-Hipster Sion really is a genius. No wonder hipsters are obsessed with him.

-Just an indie fan passing by… I think I just got hit by a car named Han Sion…

-That’s called getting bias-wrecked, bro lol

-Han Sion’s mysterious hit-and-run story LMAO

In truth, there was some trickery to this scene.

Yes, Norway Flower and Falling Flower are similar.

But not that similar.

So the producers carefully selected the most alike parts from both songs for the broadcast.

The mismatched sections? Covered up with interview footage.

They even asked Chris Edwards to perform a version that felt more like Falling Flower.

Surprisingly, he agreed right away.

“Don’t forget, I’m part of this show too.”

“Okay, okay, stop talking.”

“Then let me arrange just one more song.”

To settle a personal debt with Han Sion.

Thanks to the producers’ invisible efforts, viewer reactions exploded.

After the piano, we saw the first on-camera meeting between Han Sion and Chris Edwards.

In truth, they’d already talked at length the day before.

So the scene looked slightly awkward—but not fake.

It would be weirder if a Billboard composer and a Korean idol trainee were chummy from the get-go.

[How’d you think of that?]

[I heard the first line of the song, and an idea just struck. Like, what if it started eight steps lower?]

[And?]

[As soon as I tried that, the whole melody fell into place. That’s when I thought, oh—this is the original version.]

[Your name’s Sion, right?]

[Yep.]

[You’re a genius. No doubt about it.]

“Genius” is an overused word in showbiz.

At least one person a year gets marketed as one.

So many people are tired of it.

But this time, it felt different.

You didn’t need to mention that Chris Edwards composed the score for a Korean box-office smash.

Or that he won a music award at a major ceremony.

You could literally find his name at the top of the Billboard charts not long ago.

A musician like that calling Han Sion a genius?

It was basically a notarized endorsement.

-Genius ㄷㄷ

-No point saying he was paid to hype him. Apparently he donated his whole appearance fee.

-He was paid. Genius my ass.

-LMAO future sight unlocked

-Wait Sion’s English??? That accent’s lethal…

-Did he live abroad? That’s not Korean school English.

-Coming Up Next is too honest. No tragic backstories, just pure music. It’s infuriating.

-Why infuriating?

-Because I wanna know everything about Han Sion ♡♡♡

-LMAOOO the whiplash in these comments

-They’ve hit three major topics already: streetlight stage, Flowers Bloom, and Chris Edwards. No time for backstories.

-(Info drop) They can’t milk the sob stories yet. B-Team hasn’t been confirmed.

-At this point, the whole country is pretending not to know as part of some prank show lol

So no one minded that the first 10 minutes of the broadcast were all about Han Sion.

No one questioned it.

Because like it or not—

Han Sion was the center of gravity in this whole game.