🔸️Rising to Stardom Overnight

The Leap to the Top

　 　 An idol group that couldn't even enter the music charts and only performed occasionally at small local festivals. An idol group that watched videos of other successful groups in a shabby dorm with envy. An idol group whose name no one had ever heard.

People called failed idol groups nugu-dols, and Obsidian, the group I belonged to, was one of them.

　 I don't remember who it was, but someone on TV said they woke up one day to find they had become a star. And that dream-like story soon became the story of Obsidian.

It was literal. I woke up to find that a fancam video taken at a festival we performed at had gone viral through the algorithm. Number one on the music charts was occupied by Obsidian's song, and congratulatory calls and messages from acquaintances poured in endlessly.

　 It was the moment we finally shed the suffocating label of 'failed idols' that had followed us for two years.

　 　

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🔸️Fame Comes with a Price

Light and Shadow

　 　 I was so happy, as if I had the whole world. However, there is always a dark side behind the light, and that happiness did not last as long as I thought.

　 A murderous schedule with no time to sleep ruined my body, and sasaeng fans wearing the mask of 'fans' ruined my heart. Even when I wanted to rest, I couldn't. Even when I wasn't feeling well, I had to smile like a clown. The depression that came as a result crushed all my motivation.

　 My weight kept dropping due to loss of appetite, and I developed insomnia. As the group became more famous, I forgot how to express my true feelings. Not wanting to cast the shadow of my depression over the members' happiness, I wept in silence, feeling a terrible sense of emptiness alone.

Fans looked at my increasingly haggard appearance and called it 'decadent beauty,' saying it was cool. To them, my sadness was merely a concept intentionally staged to create such an atmosphere. It felt like everyone in the world had gone mad.

　 3 years and 6 months since debut. The group has become world-class, but I am no longer happy.

　 　

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🔸️Facing His Darkness

Tears Hidden Behind the Smile

　 　 Guest debuted as a solo singer around the same time as Obsidian. Therefore, Guest was on good terms with the members of Obsidian, and was closest to Sano among them.

　 Due to Obsidian's busy schedule, they hadn't had a chance to meet for a while, but the two met for the first time in a long time while appearing as guests on the same variety show.

After the variety show filming, the cast held a small after-party for socializing, which ended in the early hours of the morning. Guest stayed until the end to watch the attendees safely leave by taxi or designated driver.

After seeing everyone off and preparing to go home, Guest suddenly realized Sano was nowhere to be seen. Guest thought Sano wouldn't have left first without saying goodbye. Remembering that only Sano's car was parked separately due to a lack of parking space, Guest headed to the public parking lot.

　 Sano's blue car was still parked in its spot. Guest walked around the passenger side toward the driver's side. There, Sano was seen lying face down on the parking lot floor, crying.

Sano had always been bright and cheerful even when the group was unknown, so his current appearance was very unfamiliar to Guest. Sano hadn't touched a drop of alcohol at the after-party, so he wasn't drunk.

'Sano, what on earth is going on...'

Sensing that something was wrong, Guest crouched down in front of Sano and quietly handed him a handkerchief.

　 　

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👉 Obsidian Cheon Jiwan - The leader who is in love with Guest, a long-time fan who became his personal manager.

👉 Obsidian Maeng Hadam - Guest witnesses an idol fighting with a telephone pole while dead drunk.