Chapter 87
As always, no matter how famous a singer or actor once was, if they stop working, the public will inevitably forget them.
However, there are also people who remain remembered by the public despite taking a long break.
If you asked what made them different from ordinary celebrities, the answer was that they hadn't merely been famous—they had been enormously famous.
It was easiest to think of it as a difference in tier.
Actors and singers who had dominated an entire era were not easily forgotten, even as time passed.
That was because, even if they stopped working, the intense memories of their past remained deeply embedded in the public's hearts.
In that sense, it had been two years since Seo Siyeon disappeared from the public eye as a singer, but the public had not forgotten her at all.
A monster who had appeared like a comet and dominated the charts for more than half a year.
She had even swept up nearly every award she could receive at the end of the year, establishing a milestone in Korean music history before disappearing.
The comments and likes that instantly piled up whenever Seo Siyeon posted something on YouTube or Instagram proved it.
Because it was New Year's, famous people's greetings were appearing in almost overwhelming numbers.
Some wore hanbok, while others dressed up stylishly before posting their greetings to their fans.
Naturally, people's eyes were drawn to the adorable New Year's greeting from one girl that suddenly appeared among them.
[s.siyeon]
(Various fusion hanbok outfits photographed in a studio)
Hello! It's a new year again, so I came to say hello once moreee!
We'll be able to meet someday, right?
***
Anyone who saw this post might have thought something like this.
‘What is this supposed to mean? Is she making fun of her desperate fans or something?’
But the fans who had followed Seo Siyeon for a long time and waited for her throughout her hiatus sensed it immediately.
Her comeback was finally approaching.
Until now, Seo Siyeon had consistently expressed her regret over stopping her activities. She had done so on broadcasts and on social media.
That was why, when she posted something like this, her fans were treating Seo Siyeon's comeback as a foregone conclusion.
Of course, they still didn't know whether it would be a return to television or the release of an album.
In the meantime, an unexpected rumor began circulating on a community site.
-Do you know Mikansei? Their voice sounds kind of similar to Seo Siyeon's… or am I imagining it?
Naturally, most social media users dismissed it as a conspiracy theory, and the person who first raised the claim was brutally flamed and banned from the community.
Around the time talk about Mikansei was circulating through Korean communities, the music video for ‘Edge over,’ the opening song of Empress of the Ice, was released on YouTube.
* * *
Historically, there has always been some connection between an anime opening and the anime's success.
Of course, there are plenty of exceptions, but recently, most hit anime OSTs have tended to be songs from hit anime.
Sometimes an anime's popularity drives the popularity of its OST, but the reverse happens quite often as well.
Sometimes a song becomes a hit first, and its influence spreads to the anime.
“…The numbers are climbing pretty alarmingly?”
There are two main indicators used to judge how well a song is doing in Japan.
One is Billboard Japan.
The other is the number of views on the music video on YouTube.
A week had passed since its release, and Edge over was performing phenomenally well.
The music video had surpassed four million views, and on the newly updated Billboard Japan chart, it had climbed all the way to No. 45.
Someone might think that was a slightly lower ranking than the songs released under Seo Siyeon's name, but Mikansei was practically unknown.
For a one-hit-wonder singer with virtually no fandom, this level of performance was incredible.
More valuable than anything was the fact that the rate at which the views were increasing was gradually accelerating.
The reason was simple.
[The animation in this new anime's opening is insane ㄷㄷ]
The production staff had poured their souls into polishing the opening animation, and its synergy with Edge over had made it go viral through Shorts and online communities.
Versions of the opening translated into Korean even appeared in my algorithm from time to time, and although many comments praised the animation team, there were also plenty praising the song.
“Heh. Nice.”
Among them, I came across a short video introducing the artist Mikansei alongside Edge over.
-…I’m looking forward to the music that monster rookie Mikansei will unveil from here on out!
I liked the Reel, then remembered that the account I was using was my main account and quickly removed the like.
“Tch… Should I make a separate personal account?”
I hadn't made one because I didn't particularly need it, but this was a little inconvenient. I couldn't even like Reels as freely as I wanted.
It was an incredibly inconvenient situation.
I mean, this was not something to take lightly.
Anyway, Mikansei was cruising along. I would have to wait and see when Billboard Japan and the YouTube Music chart were updated next week, but the chances of the trend continuing upward were high.
The response to episode one of Empress of the Ice wasn't bad, either.
Considering that the peak would come around episode four, perhaps I could look forward to something more then.
There was nothing else I needed to do under the name Mikansei.
The promotional Shorts animation and the short live video filmed in the recording studio had already been completed.
“…I’m only revealing my lower face, so no one’s going to recognize me.”
All I had left to do now was wait for the charts to be updated.
In that situation, I now had to return as Seo Siyeon.
“You can choose which of these programs you want to appear on.”
“…There’s only one.”
“Because there aren’t any options if we limit it to music programs…”
As expected, the first thing I had to do was choose a program for my return to broadcasting.
* * *
It was a real goddamn mess, but after going through the COVID era, domestic music programs had been utterly destroyed.
Produce 101, which had blown up over its vote-rigging scandal.
Singer Star, which had gone under because there were no longer any genuine hidden masters left.
Show Me the Money, which had gone down along with hip-hop's decline.
Thus, the three major audition programs had all but disappeared.
And after entering the new-media era, music shows had been losing their strength for a long time.
The restrictions on gatherings had also killed busking programs like Hokeumjoh, while most competition programs such as I Am a Singer and Immortal Songs, which had already invited everyone worth inviting, had died out as well.
The only one that was still barely managing to survive was…
“Masked Singer. This is the only one, right?”
Lee Ha-jun lightly nodded in confirmation.
In his opinion, Masked Singer, whose heyday had been the most spectacular and which still drew fairly decent ratings, was the only viable outlet for my comeback stage.
That made sense. Even if I made my comeback on a show that couldn't pull a single rating point, it wouldn't make much of a splash.
I let out a deep sigh.
My height had grown quite a bit and was now just over 140 centimeters.
Even so, being 140 centimeters tall was an extremely easy way to identify me. Someone this short who also sang well?
There would be no need to go as far as the online communities. The celebrity panel would call out Seo Siyeon's name immediately.
That meant I would end up circulating through Shorts as the singer whose identity was exposed faster than anyone else's in Masked Singer's history.
I wouldn't even make it to the first line of the song; my identity would be exposed the moment I appeared.
Well, that was its own kind of viral marketing, so I couldn't say it was a bad thing.
Still, since I was going to appear on the show anyway, I wanted to compete properly.
They always said that everyone worth having had already appeared on the show, but the reigning champion was usually a skilled vocalist, at least.
“Ah. About that problem. The production staff suggested settling it by making the heels of your shoes as high as possible…”
“Could I fall while singing?”
I decided to put that issue aside for the moment.
Now that the time had come, another problem had occurred to me: the time to enter middle school was also approaching.
Naturally, there was no way I could attend a school in Seoul while living at Neulneul Orphanage in Incheon.
So, unless I moved in with Yoo Seol-ha, I needed to find a place of my own.
And I had to do it within the two months remaining before enrollment.
Someone might ask why I had done nothing until the deadline was so close, but I had been extremely busy and hadn't had the time to worry about a home.
Yoo Seol-ha said she would be happy to have me, but I didn't want that.
I was sick to death of living in a dorm.
I could feel a powerful desire welling up inside me for a bathroom and bathtub of my very own.