Chapter 272: Nagoya’s Mudflats (4)
It had already been a week since Stardust left for Japan.
Only a week.
And yet somehow, it already felt like an entire month had passed, so Dusty Han Yooyoung was binge-watching their old self-content videos to soothe her loneliness.
By now, she was already watching <Santa, Please Take Care of Rudolph> for the third time.
Watching this again really made her realize just how much bait Doubles had thrown out at the end of the year.
“Ah, how am I supposed to wait….”
After the Japanese promotions ended, and then the tour ended too, she would still have to endure several more months before their Korean comeback date.
She knew comebacks came back in the blink of an eye, but for some reason this hiatus felt especially long.
With a gloomy face, Han Yooyoung logged into the community site.
Click-.
The moment she entered, one post at the top immediately caught her eye.
It was the post currently receiving the most comments in real time.
[This is the local reaction to Stardust’s Japanese debut]
They entered the Oricon Chart Top 10 immediately after debuting
and they seem to be doing pretty well appearing on variety shows and music broadcasts
their album sales are good too
along with the existing fanbase from Starf, their fandom seems to be growing a lot too
their visuals definitely suit Japanese tastes lol
But why is their character interpretation completely different from ours
Especially Jin Sehyun;; just how is he managing his image over there??
“Jin Sehyun is so cute, Sehyunie is a baby squirrel www he gets too shy to even speak properly, our baby squirrel www”
“I watched the variety show and honestly Sehyunie must definitely be an angel!!”
Look at this
I think something has gone very wrong with the character interpretation….
* Who can’t speak properly??? Our Sehyun is the type to say what he wants even with a knife at his throat
└ Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ this is killing me
└ What is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is he some kind of Jeong Mongju type?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ If Sehyun had been born in the Goryeo era he would’ve stormed into Gyeongbokgung swinging a mace
└ Holy shitㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ I’m another fandom but what kind of image does this guy even have…. Why are all the interpretations like this?
└ Our Sehyun? A cute baby squirrel
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Spicy baby squirrel (capsaicin flavor)
* He’s not shy, his Japanese is just awkwardㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ this is so funny
└ A misunderstanding caused by the language barrier
└ Japanese fans, your interpretation is wrongㅠㅠ
└ Shyness? Jin Sehyun would never have that;; he’s a born-to-be idol
* Jin Sehyun is a baby squirrel…? We used to think that too once….
└ Sehyun is actually a tough gray stray cat though
└ He’s honestly closer to being the one ripping squirrels apart…ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Jin Sehyun tears apart Do Seohan ㄷㄷ
└ Why do you guys keep tearing Seohan apartㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅠㅠ Our boy is not a punching-bag hamsterㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
* They’re calling Sehyun an angel and asking what kind of image management the fans are doingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s hilarious because why aren’t you guys on Sehyun’s side?
└ Our boy is not an angel
└ If anything he’s closer to a fallen angel
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That idol and those fansㅋㅋㅋㅋ They absolutely aren’t wrongㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Looking at the surrounding Starfs, they all had clear-eyed-madness vibes…. Extreme Js who are insanely good at business but seem like the type to calmly drop brutal truth bombsㅠㅠㅋㅋㅋ
* Did nobody tell them Jin Sehyun isn’t a baby squirrel?
└ They did, but they got ignored
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why would you even go over there and tell them thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ I don’t know, their character interpretations are weird;; they called Kang Siwoo a tiger
└ Tigerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ that’s not even moe-ficationㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ The crazy part is that they skipped cat entirely and went straight to tigerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ My idol is too big to fit into a pocket
“Sehyun-ah, what exactly have you been doing over there….”
It felt like their gray baby stray cat had returned as a fragile squirrel.
Seeing this new interpretation of Jin Sehyun, something they hadn’t seen since the early days of Starf, made her laugh.
Even if it was another country, at least there was plenty of debut bait to enjoy.
Han Yooyoung giggled for quite a while before standing up.
There was still some time left before the jointly purchased Japanese debut albums arrived.
“Ah. The photocards this time are apparently legendary.”
Before waiting for the package that would be delivered all the way from a distant foreign country, Han Yooyoung decided to watch the Japanese variety show uploaded to YouTube today.
<Action! Variety Real Trap>.
It was Stardust’s official first Japanese variety show.
First things first—food before sightseeing.
“I should watch while eating dinner~.”
Han Yooyoung rummaged through the drawer, pulled out a cup rice meal, and heated it in the microwave.
Leaning against the sofa, she placed the iPad on top of her lap.
A fan-edited version of the variety show had already been uploaded to YouTube.
She picked the subtitled version and pressed play.
Along with the slightly unfamiliar editing style of Japanese variety shows, a Japanese MC she had never seen before shouted energetically,
‘Well, well, who do we have here? K-pop idols! Their name is… their name is! I’ve definitely heard it somewhere before. First, please introduce yourselves briefly!’
‘Shine bright! Hello, we are Stardust!’
‘Oooh, Stardust…! Do you know where we are today?’
‘Nagoya.’
The mudflats stretched out behind them.
Beeep.
Right as she took the perfectly heated cup rice out of the microwave, Han Yooyoung turned her gaze toward the screen.
MC Yuito continued energetically,
‘That means today’s mission! If you catch 30 razor clams within one hour, the production team will prepare a luxurious Nagoya seafood feast for you.’
Was this some kind of documentary work-experience program?
The mission completely contradicted the healing variety concept she had known before.
Han Yooyoung unconsciously clicked her tongue briefly.
“It’s cold outside too, and they’re making the kids suffer….”
But she ended up laughing at the scenes that followed.
Seo Haim running around the mudflats like it was a playground in front of his house, and even Sundubu Ian looking unusually hyper.
‘Uwaaaaah! Mud worms! Aaaagh!’
‘This is my first time seeing Ian-hyung scream like that….’
‘That’s basically haunted house-level decibels.’
‘Aaaaaah!!’
“The kids are having fun.”
Even if they didn’t openly show it, the nonstop schedules must have been suffocating.
For members like them, maybe overseas schedules could feel refreshing in their own way.
Maybe because they were finally getting some fresh air after so long, the members’ faces were overflowing with genuine excitement.
Of course….
‘Guys… at this rate you’re gonna fall over….’
The weight of leadership was heavy.
Kang Siwoo, who looked like he had aged a year in that short span of time, barely managed to calm down the hyperactive Seo Haim.
Han Yooyoung grinned as she stuffed a spoonful of cup rice into her mouth.
“Ah, they’re so cute I could die.”
She quickly skipped through the Japanese interview segments and mostly watched the members fooling around in the background.
In the drought of content, it was something she could fully enjoy.
If there was one disappointing thing….
“Huh? It’s already over?”
Was it just her imagination, or had the razor clams gotten more screentime than the members’ faces?
It had been fun, but the lack of screentime left an unsatisfying aftertaste.
“Please film one more week….”
Completely unaware of how intense the filming had actually been, Han Yooyoung muttered thoughtlessly.
.
.
.
.
And then.
Everything exploded the next day.
[Did you guys see this?]
That Japanese variety show Stardust appeared on
Apparently one of the assistant staff members working there uploaded this, saying they edited out way too many scenes
They originally showed it to friends because the members were polite and cute, but it leaked and apparently things are blowing up over there now
I thought everything they filmed was already shown but apparently there was way more;;
The salt used to catch razor clams was originally part of the mission too
No but the kids are literally rolling around all over the mudflats
Is this even real????
(video)
You can literally see the members getting physically exhausted, but they made them suffer this much and then edited it all out?
The distance to the flag looks insanely far too, and they seriously told them to swim through that sinking mudflat to get there;;;
Are the production staff insane?
* Holy shit what is that
* I wondered why they were covered in mud while catching razor clams, I thought our kids were just having fun running around… I didn’t know they were being worked that hard….
└ Wow I’m actually losing my mind right nowㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ 2222 Please treat our kids carefully, no Korean variety show would ever treat our kids like that
└ So THAT’S why Seohan kept pantingㅠㅠㅠㅠ
* I saw this late and now I’m so pissed I can’t even control myselfㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Apparently this isn’t even everything???
└ What else is there?
└ Holy shit what now
[Watch the clip around the 2:04 mark, it was almost completely edited out in the broadcast]
The punishment for the two who caught the fewest razor clams was soy sauce rice
But if you look carefully, that’s actually vinegar soy sauceㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Are these crazy bastards for realㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
They made our Sehyun and Seongbin mix rice with vinegar soy sauce?
* ??????
* They seriously made them mix rice with vinegar soy sauce?
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They’re insane
└ If you’re gonna feed them sushi sauce then at least let them catch the fish too;;;;
* No wonder their expressions looked bad wow…. They literally couldn’t eat it so they were just eating plain riceㅠㅠ Ha… I’m so pissed off what do I do
└ Watching our kids get treated like that in a foreign country genuinely makes my heart collapse
* I think the reactions in Japan are exploding too
└ Yup yup yup apparently they kept cutting off the foreign members before they could even answer
└ I saw that too, people are saying it’s rudeㅋㅋㅋㅋ Even locals think it crossed the line
└ Japanese fans are losing it too
* Who’s the PD for that program? I wanna know that psycho bastard’s name
└ NHD Broadcasting Station’s Producer Ryuhei, there’s even a Stargram link attached
└ The comments are already locked
└ Wow… this seriously blew up….
└ The fact they aired this without realizing it would become a scandal means they completely lost their minds
└ At this point the academic consensus is that even the staff got pissed and leaked it
└ If they were a Stardust fan… honestly that might actually be trueㅋㅋㅋㅋ
As the leaked footage uploaded by an assistant staff member spread around, the situation snowballed in an instant.
There was one thing Producer Ryuhei had overlooked.
Stardust’s popularity in Japan itself was already rapidly rising.
And once Korean public opinion piled onto it too, he must have realized how bad things were becoming, because he locked down his personal SNS accounts.
Leaving aside the brutal local comments….
Naturally, Korea’s reaction looked like this.
[Fuck this, if they’re gonna treat them like this then bring our kids back to Korea]