Chapter 301: Crash Landing (1)
Emily Lailyn.
She had been the host of the Lailyn Show for seven years and was well known for being a huge K-pop fan.
Music from an unfamiliar country. It wasn't a genre that people in America could easily come across.
So naturally, she hadn't liked K-pop from the very beginning.
At least, not until her cousin came running to her with news about some variety show and begged her to vote together.
She desperately clung to Emily's arm.
‘Ah, please. Just watch this once?’
‘What is it?’
‘It's an amazing Korean survival audition show!’
<Stardust Project> had become a modest hit even in America at the time, so her cousin, who was truly passionate about K-pop, had been watching it faithfully from Episode 1.
At first, Emily answered indifferently.
‘I don't watch audition shows.’
‘You don't have to watch it. Just vote! My favorite has to debut!’
Her cousin's one-pick was Lee Dokyung. Since he wasn't safely within the debut range, it seemed every single vote was precious.
‘Do you know how handsome Dokyung is...? If you keep looking at him, you'll seriously get hypnotized!’
‘Hmm. He's not really my type....’
‘Just vote!’
Unable to brush off such a desperate request, Emily finally agreed.
Since she was overseas, even the voting process was troublesome.
Apparently she had to sign up on some website, choose several contestants, and vote every day.
‘The voting period ends this week, and since this is only the First Ranking Announcement, you don't have to vote for just one....’
‘So I just pick the handsome ones?’
‘But you absolutely have to include Dokyung!!’
When she entered the website, all she saw was a long lineup of unfamiliar boys' faces.
At that point, Emily still had no real interest.
As requested, she gave one vote to Lee Dokyung, then casually picked a few boys who looked handsome for the remaining spots.
She found out later that among those choices were Ha Junseo, Seo Ian, and Do Seohan....
Perhaps Emily had always had remarkably consistent taste.
The problem came after that.
As if YouTube's algorithm had somehow detected everything, Starf suddenly began appearing all over the YouTube videos she usually watched.
One video with an eye-catching thumbnail ended up getting pushed by the algorithm.
[An Idol Trainee Who Seriously Imitates a Cicada?!]
Since she was already voting anyway, she absentmindedly clicked on it....
‘Who is this weirdo?’
And just like that, she fell into the fandom.
‘He's completely my type...!’
That's right.
The video that pulled Emily Lailyn into the fandom was Do Seohan's Cicada Impression.
When a handsome guy even cried adorably, how could anyone possibly look away?
Even the guy on the same team named Ha Junseo seemed anything but ordinary.
‘Byeoldol, say hello to our global fans!’
‘HELLO!!!’
He's so cute!
Emily Lailyn had a habit of falling for unexpected little moments.
That was how she completely lost herself in the addictive madness of a K-survival show for the very first time.
A tiny spark lit by YouTube's algorithm.
Later, unlike her cousin, whose enthusiasm for K-pop faded after Lee Dokyung failed to make the final debut lineup, Emily became a fan of Stardust after their debut.
She couldn't keep up with every single activity afterward, but she quietly held onto her affection and occasionally looked up their performances.
And after time passed....
Now Stardust was finally appearing on the Lailyn Show!
Inside the Lailyn Show waiting room.
As preparations for the upcoming recording continued, Emily smiled brightly.
“Stardust is next week, right?”
“That's what I heard.”
She said next week, but there were only about three days left.
Her stylist chuckled.
“You're practically smiling from ear to ear.”
“I've liked them for quite a long time. Three years, you know. I've always wanted to invite them, but I never thought today would finally come.”
Until now, the Lailyn Show had only invited a K-pop artist once.
Even then, it had been a solo female singer, and that was already five years ago. Since this market was somewhat resistant toward K-pop, arranging schedules had always been difficult.
Although Lailyn had some say in casting, it wasn't something she could decide on by herself.
Above all, ratings came first, so trying something experimental required caution.
Only now, after the show had established itself, had an opportunity like this finally arrived.
Lailyn smiled sweetly.
“I'm already excited. It'll be my first time seeing them in person.”
“Who are you looking forward to seeing the most?”
“Ha Junseo.”
Her taste hadn't changed at all over the years.
“Is he really that handsome?”
“Go look him up.”
Without much thought, her stylist searched Ha Junseo's name on her phone before suddenly covering her mouth.
“Oh!”
—A common trait among Ha Junseo fans: they're incredibly proud of his face.
Emily Lailyn recalled seeing that sentence on social media once before and wholeheartedly agreed.
Her voice naturally filled with pride.
“So? Handsome, right?”
“This is insane! Should I bring binoculars next week?”
As the MC, she had the privilege of seeing Ha Junseo's incredibly handsome face from the front row.
She happily hummed to herself.
Right then, the back door opened.
“Ah, Ms. Lailyn. There you are.”
A staff member from the Lailyn Show hurried inside looking for her.
“Is something wrong?”
“Well....”
Then came news like a bolt from the blue.
“It looks like Stardust won't be able to make the schedule.”
“What?”
“We just received a call from the company.”
Only three days before filming.
An unforeseen complication had arisen that hadn't been discussed beforehand.
The staff member hesitated awkwardly before speaking.
“They said there was a problem with the plane landing because of the weather....”
Powerful winds had been battering New York for the past few days.
The winds were so fierce they seemed capable of swallowing airplanes whole, and now they were accompanied by torrential rain.
At this rate, Stardust probably wouldn't be able to come.
“......”
Lailyn's expression darkened.
“So... what do we do now?”
At Toronto Airport in Canada, Kang Siwoo swallowed nervously with a grim expression.
The other members looked just as stunned.
The weather was simply too terrible.
We were riding the plane, and the seats were shaking like crazy. I seriously thought, So this is where this life ends...!
The others were probably just shocked.
I had gone all the way to imagining heaven.
Ah.
My hands are still shaking.
I forced myself to calm down and assessed the situation.
“So... we're not going to America, are we?”
“With the current conditions, it'll be difficult. They said a hurricane is making landfall tomorrow.”
“This is legendary....”
Cha Seongbin grabbed his pounding head with both hands.
Then a mutter from beside us, sounding completely defeated, reached my ears.
“My Lailyn Show.... I worked so hard on the arrangement.... I really wanted to appear on it just once.... My song. My goal. My....”
“Seongbin-hyung, pull yourself together.”
“Ah... sorry.”
If Ha Junseo's way of comforting people was like a smooth café latte, then Jin Sehyun's version was dumping a bucket of ice water over them.
Instead of literally throwing cold water on him, Jin Sehyun simply handed him a cup.
“Drink some cold water and get yourself together.”
“Yeah. I feel a little better.”
“Let's think about what we're supposed to do first.”
Manager Lee Jaeyoon let out a long sigh before raising his head.
“The company said they'll try negotiating to move the show to next week, but we should prepare for the worst.”
There was no guarantee the other side would understand all these circumstances.
At Manager Lee Jaeyoon's words, Cha Seongbin's face darkened again.
“Ah... please....”
On top of that, we also had an MV shoot scheduled in America.
That was next week too.
Just thinking about it made my head spin.
“Alright, alright! Stay positive!”
Clap! Clap!
The one who brightened the mood with applause was our oldest member, Ha Junseo.
Even though we'd crash-landed in Canada, nothing would change if we just sat blankly around the airport.
I agreed that the first thing we needed to do was pull ourselves together.
But then—
“Let's start a livestream. Our fans are probably worried.”
“Should we film some self-content?”
“Isn't that taking it a little too far?”
“I'm serious!”
“Do we have a camera?”
“If we've got one, there's no reason we can't film~.”
Our members....
Even if you dumped them on a deserted island, they'd probably still be filming self-content.
[So did the Lailyn Show end up getting canceled?]
It was supposed to be next week, but the guys are in Canada right now lol.
I heard it got postponed, but I'm honestly wondering if it really did ^^.
Wasn't this just media play from the start since they couldn't even go in the first place?
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Isn't the hurricane just an excuse?
—What kind of nonsense is this?
└222222
└What are you talking about? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ So our boys control the weather now?
└Universe boys completely immersed in their concept... now they've summoned a hurricane (Breaking News)
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Now this is a creative hate comment;;;
—Won't the Lailyn Show just postpone it?
└That arrogant show? Seriously?
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Look at these idiots talking. Universe Dust haters are practically praying Stardust never gets on the Lailyn Show.
└None of these people are actual fans.
—It's because of the weather! A natural disaster!!! Your favorite group couldn't get on the Lailyn Show even if the skies were perfectly clear, so why are you picking fights? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Dusty started this first because The Way got canceled.
└Who asked?
└You guys bashed The Way like crazy too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It's karma.
└Don't feed the trolls.
“Ugh... they're fighting again....”
Han Yooyoung scrolled through the comments with a gloomy face.
Right now, she couldn't even bring herself to care about the subtle jabs from other fandoms.
Putting career matters aside, she was simply heartbroken.
“Ah... our boys were so excited.”
Just looking at the Private Messages from a while ago proved it.
Seongbin had uploaded photos while preparing the arrangement for the Lailyn Show, and judging from the way he talked about it, it definitely wasn't something he'd only worked on for a day or two.
Even she could see how excited they had been....
It was frustrating watching all of that effort turn into nothing.
Han Yooyoung clenched her fist and muttered quietly.
“I seriously want to punch this hurricane.”
Unfortunately, hurricanes couldn't be punched.
Knowing that only made her expression darker.
Damn it.
“The world keeps screwing over Universe Dust....”
Now, of all things, a hurricane had become the problem?
At this point, shouldn't Doubles hold some kind of shaman ritual at company headquarters?
Just as she was muttering about a folk belief she didn't even believe in—
Ding.
Ding.
A notification sounded on her JjaekJjaek.
It was a post from her closest Deokchin, Cloud (@gurum787).
Cloud @gurum787
Holy crap, Doubles actually pulled it off.
Looks like the Lailyn Show got moved to next week.
Thank goodness ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
“The Lailyn Show!!!”
Han Yooyoung jumped to her feet.
The schedule the boys had wanted so desperately wasn't canceled.
The Lailyn Show had shown tremendous consideration by postponing it for an entire week just to wait for Stardust.
“Ah... thank you so freaking much....”
And then—
Ding.
Another notification appeared.
Cloud @gurum787
But the boys are doing something weird in Canada;;;
“Huh?”
What was that supposed to mean?