It seems like our music video is causing quite a stir.
Even outside of idol-related communities, there were plenty of discussions about the State Of Mind music video.
There were especially many comments where people shared their own interpretations of the storyline in the music video.
The setting for this music video was created together by all the members.
Among us, Choi Jaesung had the most influence.
He’s the one who pondered most deeply about the concept of our time travel.
But it was me who took that setting, created the storyline, and made the storyboard for the direction of the video.
Naturally, I have a knack for music videos.
How many music videos have I shot in my life? Of course I wouldn’t leave all that work to someone else.
I think I started studying video direction seriously after being inspired by Eminem’s 8 Mile and Lose Yourself, which led me to attempt an autobiographical film.
Not the shooting part, but the directing part.
So, the final music video was something I carefully curated based on the feedback from the members.
-Feels like it has no meaning and is just pretending to be cool lol
-Just threw in some fancy-looking elements lol What is this, writing a thesis? Put that passion into studying lol
So these kinds of comments on the internet are all wrong.
Every single movement, every symbol, I gave them all meaning.
If the shooting schedule hadn’t been so tight, there were parts I could have emphasized more, which is a bit regrettable.
But still, I wasn’t going to go around explaining what kind of meaning our music video has.
“Wow, reaction videos are already up.”
“Already? It’s only been an hour.”
“Yeah. But the subscriber count is super low, and they just filmed their reaction raw without any editing.”
“Still, the views are pretty high, huh?”
“I think it’s because it’s the first one. But there are tons of hate comments saying it’s boring. I feel kind of bad that they’re getting hate because of us.”
“Exactly…”
I laughed, dumbfounded as I listened to On Saemiro and Choi Jaesung’s conversation.
Why would we feel bad about that?
Anyway, I’ll speak up when people have had enough time to enjoy interpreting it.
It’s boring to give away the answer to a quiz too soon.
“Alright, let’s all get some sleep. It’s almost 2 a.m.”
“Shion hyung, isn’t our music show in two days?”
“So what?”
“So… can’t we delay bedtime a bit? We’ll have to be up early that day anyway.”
“Stop talking nonsense and sleep.”
I snatched Choi Jaesung’s phone as he scrolled through YouTube comments while spouting ridiculous logic.
No matter how good your content is, you can’t avoid hate comments.
I’m pretty indifferent to them, but it’s better if the members don’t see too much of it.
“Yeah, Shion is right. Let’s all head to bed.”
Under Eon hyung’s lead, the members split up and went into their respective rooms.
I have my own room, but the others share two per room.
For the record, Koo Taehwan and Choi Jaesung, who won the room assignment poker game, share a 4-person room between the two of them.
On Saemiro and Lee Eon share a double room.
Once everyone had gone in, I entered my room and sat on my bed.
I’m feeling good, having achieved what I wanted.
The music video came out well, we’ll promote on music shows, and soon the album will drop.
There’s already quite a bit of buzz about our album, and people are going to lose it when they see that it’s a full album with 13 tracks (14 if you count the hidden track) and the list of co-composers.
In fact, some are already talking about State Of Mind’s co-composers.
-Hey, Lucid Bean is one of the co-composers for the new Sedalbaekil song!
-Who’s that.
-You don’t know Lucid Bean? The absolute king of punk in this era. 8-time Grammy winner. Two of those are major categories.
-It’s a sample, you idiot. Ever heard of sample clearance?
-It’s not a sample clearance, dumbass. To clear a Lucid Bean sample would cost a fortune lol
-Yeah, it’d cost more than the music video.
If they find out that the Lucid Bean they’re talking about actually participated in our album, not as a sample but with an original composition, they’ll flip out.
And if they find out that Yankos Greenwood, Moscos, Eric Scott, Lutz Robby, Mary Jones, Donald Magus also participated?
Ah, I forgot Eddie.
Chris Edwards too.
Korea will go wild.
So I should be happy, and I actually am happy.
But.
I’ll probably have a nightmare tonight.
It’s always like this.
Whenever I take a proper first step, I always feel depressed.
The greater the joy and excitement, the greater the emptiness and sense of loss.
Because I know too well how I’ll feel if all this crumbles to nothing.
Some might say, can’t you just imagine the joy of success?
Impossible.
Because I’ve never succeeded even once.
The countless cycles, too many to count, have always ended in failure.
How much closer did today’s step bring us to the goal of 200 million?
1cm? 2cm?
…Damn it.
It’s no one’s fault.
It’s not Sedalbaekil’s fault for doing their best, nor is it the Time Travelers’ fault for loving us.
It’s just my fault.
Because I’m a capricious regressor.
“…”
I won’t sleep tonight.
I’ll monitor the charts instead.
As of 2017, most artists release their music at midnight, and consider the real-time chart rankings until 1 a.m. to be very important.
From midnight to 1 a.m., the chart influence of the general public and idol fandom is balanced.
You can’t hit number one just by attracting the general public, and you can’t hit number one just by attracting the fandom.
So analyzing the data at this time can give you an idea of how the song will perform.
‘But that wasn’t the case for Resume.’
As Han Shion thought, when Sedalbaekil released Resume, this kind of analysis didn’t apply.
There were no teasers, no music video, no articles.
Aside from the content they produced themselves, there was no way to let the world know their song had been released.
The only reason Resume was able to reach number one was because the fandoms of NOP and Drop Out, exhausted from three consecutive weeks of streaming, clicked on the song.
The spark was ignited by issues related to Han Shion, and the fire was maintained because the song was good.
But this time it was different.
- State Of Mind (new)(hot)
Sedalbaekil’s State Of Mind, released at midnight on Monday, instantly took the number one spot on the real-time chart.
Considering the influence of the music video teased beforehand and the quality of the song, it was natural.
But what followed was a bit confusing.
From 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., when the general public sleeps, it becomes the fandom’s time.
From 1 to 2 a.m. it’s less so, but after 2 a.m. fandoms dominate the chart.
Sedalbaekil’s song dropped quite a bit during that period.
It didn’t fall out of the top 10, but fluctuated between 6th and 9th place.
This meant two things.
First, Sedalbaekil’s fandom isn’t fully solidified yet.
Han Shion once asked Choi Jaesung and Lee Eon about this, and they replied that their ‘our boys’ image was a bit weak.
“You guys don’t have any weaknesses. Especially you, Shion hyung.”
“Isn’t not having weaknesses a good thing?”
“Of course not, Shion. The thrill comes from overcoming thanks to fans’ support.”
Frankly, this was puzzling to Han Shion.
From his perspective, the Sedalbaekil members were far from flawless.
Choi Jaesung with no distinct charm.
Lee Eon with his terrible vocal tone.
Koo Taehwan who couldn’t carry an entire song alone.
On Saemiro is the only exception, currently at his peak form.
When given a part, he strives to deliver the best sound and best expression possible.
Though his natural talent has its limits, preventing him from reaching GOAT status.
Still, Han Shion thought On Saemiro was a better vocalist than himself during his first round, and with about ten regressions, could reach GOAT level.
To Han Shion, the members’ weaknesses were obvious, and he worked incredibly hard as a producer to cover them up.
Recently, Lee Eon had learned a way to overcome his tonal limitations.
But that only worked on songs Han Shion made.
If given a regular song, it wouldn’t happen.
‘So would it actually benefit us to show these weaknesses openly to the fandom?’
But both Choi Jaesung and Lee Eon shook their heads at this.
Maybe if they had started that way from the beginning, but now, it would hurt their image.
Especially since they even charted on Billboard.
“The only way is to engage in as much fan activity as possible to narrow the psychological distance.”
If the first issue was fandom solidification, the second was different.
Sedalbaekil was facing serious pushback.
At the moment, there were no blockbuster songs that could compete with State Of Mind.
The only competition was a decent-performing song released by TENX10N’s five-member unit not long ago.
Han Shion had also thought it was a decent song.
But everything else had done terribly.
So much so that people online were calling this a boring season for idol music.
But during the early morning real-time chart, those kinds of songs started stacking up above Sedalbaekil.
It was a clear sign that Sedalbaekil, having started very K-pop-style activities, was being targeted.
But once fandom time ended, the situation flipped dramatically.
From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
When general music consumption surges and interest in new releases peaks.
- State Of Mind (new)(hot)
Sedalbaekil reclaimed number one, and maintained the top position until the volatile 6 p.m. slot.
Then they also reached number one on the daily chart, representing general public preference.
At that moment, the cameras were fully set up in Sedalbaekil’s living room.
“Shion, you look tired.”
“I’m fine.”
“You didn’t sleep?”
“I just doze off and wake up repeatedly.”
In truth, Han Shion hadn’t slept at all, but didn’t want to worry the members.
As Han Shion shrugged his shoulders, the Sedalbaekil members gathered in the living room.
7 p.m.
The scheduled live broadcast time.
It wasn’t Sedalbaekil’s first live broadcast.
They did a few after Resume reached number one, and also when Yang Seokhun’s edited version gained popularity.
They even used those past live streams to create episode 3 of their self-produced content.
But today’s broadcast felt a bit different.
‘Yeah, it feels like promotion season now.’
Until now, their live broadcasts had felt like casual communication during off-seasons, but now it felt like promotion.
You could tell just by the stream title.
K-pop Struggle and SOM’s fanchant guide!
And they were going to talk about music show activities too.
‘Please talk about the light sticks!’
The moment the fans who won the prerecording lottery for Wednesday’s music show thought that—
The broadcast went live, and five men appeared on the screen.
Little Pink Starfish 
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