NOVEL WEB Chapter 302
Chapter 302. Phantom Pain (1)
—
[Issue ‖ Timeline Summary of the Ongoing *Boy’s World* Manipulation Scandal.jpg (512)]
1. Beginning of the Incident
<“The Boys Who Will Change the World Are Coming”… NTV Announces *Boy’s World* Season 2 Production>
<“Cherry Boy Returns”… Kairos’ Seo Taehyun Mentioned as a Candidate for *Boy’s World* Season 2 MC>
At the end of February, news broke that NTV was preparing for *Boy’s World* Season 2.
Among the speculation about the MC and cast, an article emerged mentioning Kairos’ Seo Taehyun as a candidate for the MC role.
>> This raised the first question.
*Boy’s World* already has two derivative groups, *Bilight* and *Believer*, composed of contestants who passed the first season.
Seo Taehyun gained popularity as “Cherry Boy” in *Boy’s World* but was ultimately eliminated in the finals.
So why was Seo Taehyun being mentioned as the MC instead of one of the members of the derivative groups?
Some fans raised doubts, but the matter was brushed aside due to a lack of evidence.
2. Development of the Incident
The night before last, a post briefly appeared on the personal SNS of Ham Saebyuk (a contestant eliminated from *Boy’s World* Season 1) before being quickly deleted.
To summarize:
‘*Boy’s World* 2 offered me another chance to appear, but I declined because I realized *Boy’s World* 1 was all rigged.’
Ham Saebyuk placed 24th in *Boy’s World* and made it to the semifinals. He had a considerable fanbase but left his agency and the entertainment industry altogether after being eliminated from *Boy’s World*.
>> Fans of Ham Saebyuk started questioning if there was manipulation during the *Boy’s World* production process.
>> Fans who meticulously rewatched *Boy’s World* began to notice strange details.
(……)
4. Climax of the Incident
Yesterday evening, a former *Boy’s World* staff member anonymously posted evidence of manipulation in *Boy’s World* 1.
(Screen captures of the production team’s group chat discussing edited footage and rigged rankings.jpg)
(Production program sheets and scripts used for verification.jpg)
The post was a confession of guilt but was deleted by the administrators shortly after.
The post revealed the following:
– There was deliberate manipulation of contestant screen time by the production team.
– There were contestants favored and pushed by the production team.
– There was discrimination against certain contestants in interviews and individual content.
– Some contestants who should have been eliminated were advanced for their buzz factor.
This sparked rumors that the last contestant mentioned—the one who was advanced for buzz—was Kairos’ Seo Taehyun.
Indeed, Seo Taehyun was one of the most talked-about contestants during *Boy’s World* and, after his elimination in the finals, immediately signed with Miro Entertainment.
> Last year, Seo Taehyun debuted as the first-place winner of *Miro Maze*, Miro Entertainment’s internal survival show, which was also aired on NTV.
> He is currently active as an MC on NTV’s *A-Countdown*, which happens to be produced by the same main PD who was on the production team of *Boy’s World* 1.
> He was also first mentioned as a candidate for *Boy’s World* 2 MC.
These details led to suspicions that Seo Taehyun had been a beneficiary of NTV’s favoritism.
Currently, members of *Believer* and *Bilight* have stated they will not be commenting on the matter, and Miro Entertainment, Seo Taehyun’s agency, has remained silent.
The situation might escalate to a police investigation, but nothing is certain yet.
5. Conclusion
– Possibility of manipulation in *Boy’s World*: O
– Suspicion of NTV favoritism towards Seo Taehyun: O
– Possibility of *Bilight* and *Believer* also being beneficiaries of manipulation: O
Decide for yourself.
—
After reading the summary post word for word, my reaction was simple.
“This is absolute crap.”
It was a circus, a complete and utter circus.
Amid the foggy speculations, Seo Taehyun had become the primary target, taking all the blame squarely on his shoulders.
He was taking even more heat than the members of *Bilight* and *Believer*, who actually debuted through that survival show.
Why?
‘Because he’s the most successful right now.’
It was only natural that people would analyze Seo Taehyun’s every move. He was the most active of all the *Boy’s World* alumni.
Some members of *Bilight* had started individual activities, but their performances were lackluster. *Believer* was doing relatively well, but they were completely overshadowed by us and Lanion at the recent year-end awards.
Simply put, they weren’t interesting enough to attack.
And maybe that’s why the comment section was filled with people tearing Seo Taehyun apart.
– Wow, if this is true, it’s really creepy.
– People who were into NTV’s picks knew Seo Taehyun was one of them, right? It was mentioned on fan forums during *Boy’s World* that he seemed like the PD’s pick… I just never imagined it would extend to rigging the rankings, lol.
– Honestly, every time people went wild over Cherry Boy, I thought, “Really? Is he that good?” But the rigging thing is a shock.
└ 2 Same here. I never really understood why people liked him so much, lol.
└ Omg, same… I thought the world was lying to me.
└ I figured he had buzz, but now I’m starting to think it was just media play all along.
– Shouldn’t we be questioning *Miro Maze* too? Seo Taehyun winning first place << That feels suspicious.
└ But *Miro Maze* was an internal survival show from the agency, and no one questioned the debut team, so it’s a bit off to say that.
└ By that logic, there were no problems with the debut team from *Boy’s World* either, lol. Your logic’s flawed.
As more and more people added their own opinions to the plausible accusations and the so-called evidence, they began piecing together a distorted version of the truth.
They acted like detectives in a mystery novel, bringing up the clues they thought they’d found, forcing together puzzle pieces that didn’t fit.
[But what if there really was something between Miro and NTV? (Long thread warning)]
I never understood why Seo Taehyun joined Miro.
After *Boy’s World* ended, Seo Taehyun’s popularity was huge—every major agency must have contacted him.
But Miro was completely opposite to Seo Taehyun’s style at the time.
It was only after he joined Miro that we found out he and Yupi of Utopia were distant relatives, so it couldn’t have been a connection through that.
What if Seo Taehyun really had some kind of deal with NTV?
What if they took him to the finals, eliminated him, and then handed him off to Miro?
Remember when Kairos debuted? People were questioning why Miro suddenly held an internal survival show out of nowhere + it was aired on NTV + Seo Taehyun debuted as #1.
Then there was the sudden special stage on *A-Countdown* by Seo Taehyun’s #1 team, *Shout to You*.
That same week, Utopia won 1st place on *A-Countdown*, but instead of a music video, they got an encore performance by the trainees from *Miro Maze*.
Considering Seo Taehyun became an MC for *A-Countdown* right after debuting, doesn’t it seem like something was going on?
– Anonymous1: Stop writing fanfiction, dude. Don’t go too far with your delusions.
└ OP: I’m just writing what I think could be true, lol. But doesn’t it all fit together too perfectly for a fanfiction?
– Anonymous2: Why would Miro do that? If they’d wanted Seo Taehyun, they would have debuted him in *Enderway* instead, lol. What’s the point of making him rot for three years without any activities and then debut him through a survival show?
└ OP: But wasn’t Seo Taehyun too young for *Enderway*? Maybe they were thinking of debuting him later. I’m just speculating.
– Anonymous3: But it’s kind of plausible. Miro should make a statement.
└ Anonymous4: Yeah, it was strange how he suddenly joined Miro, but I’m not sure. I’m staying neutral for now.
└ Anonymous5: 2222 There’s nothing but suspicions, so this is all giving me a headache.
“This is driving me crazy.”
My head felt like it was going to explode.
People had pieced together random bits of information and twisted them into a completely different story. The sheer amount of misinformation was staggering, but what made it worse was seeing the number of comments getting swayed by these baseless speculations.
Finally, I slammed the laptop shut with a loud *thud*.
“So, what’s the company doing? Are they not planning any response?”
“According to Wook hyung, the director is in contact with NTV to
figure out the situation. While we’re sure most of this is false, we don’t know what really happened during *Boy’s World*.”
Doha answered, massaging his neck, his face lined with fatigue. Yugeon, who had been angrily glaring at the laptop, chimed in with frustration.
“Of course, it’s bullshit. How could they say he was a PD pick? He only got into *Boy’s World* because that guy, Cha Minseok or whatever, dropped out, and he got into Miro because of that.”
I nodded in agreement with Yugeon.
The claim that Seo Taehyun’s buzz during *Boy’s World* was fabricated by the media was absurd. If it had been manufactured buzz, Korea’s influencer market would have collapsed long ago.
‘What kind of PD pick gets a total of five seconds of screen time across an entire episode just to chew on a dumpling?’
Anyone could see this by looking up Seo Taehyun’s cut scenes from *Boy’s World*.
It had been a while, so people seemed to be collectively misremembering, thinking Seo Taehyun had more screen time than he actually did.
Moreover, *Miro Maze* was something I had planned myself to oust the former director and his nepotistic favorites, so there was no way this mess had anything to do with that. I was the one who had convinced Seo Taehyun to join *Miro Maze* after he ran off to Gangwon Province, swearing to quit everything!
‘If anyone deserves credit for making Seo Taehyun a successful idol, it’s me, not some NTV nonsense!’
I had pulled off the impossible, turning Seo Taehyun, who had always quit and abandoned his dreams in previous timelines, into the thriving star he was today. And now, thanks to this ridiculous rumor, all that hard work and storytelling was about to be destroyed?
“The more I think about it, the angrier I get….”
The problem was that I couldn’t think of an appropriate response.
If there really was some unknown manipulation that even Seo Taehyun wasn’t aware of during *Boy’s World*, it would be disastrous. And even if there wasn’t, there was too much confidential information involved to fully clear up the suspicions.
‘To clear this up, we’d have to explain that Cha Minseok was involved from Seo Taehyun’s initial audition for *Boy’s World* to his entry into Miro…. But Rene wouldn’t allow that to happen.’
Lanion was doing well overall, but the member attracting the most fans, both casual and hardcore, was their visual center, Cha Minseok. There was no way Rene would let him be dragged into a scandal like this, and I doubted Cha Minseok himself would cooperate either.
‘I knew I should have taken it easy on him back then…!’
They say life comes full circle. Ha.
But even if Dan Haru suddenly went crazy and decided to roll everything back and reset the timeline, there was no way I’d go to Cha Minseok with a smile and say, ‘Let’s build a good relationship for a future we might never see.’ Seo Taehyun wouldn’t want to reveal his past with Cha Minseok either.
‘Calm down, Kang Hajin.’
Taking a deep breath, I turned to look at Dan Haru, who was sitting opposite me.
“Dan Haru.”
“…Yes, y-yes?”
“If you even think about rolling back time again, you’re dead.”
Just in case, I drove the point home. Dan Haru, looking slightly startled by my harsh tone, frantically shook his head, his eyes wide.
“N-No, I won’t! I don’t even want to anymore!”
“Really?”
“Yes, yes. …Well, technically, I think I could still do it, but no, I won’t do it!”
“What do you mean you think you could still do it? You either don’t do it, or you don’t.”
“It seems like the power is slowly fading away…. But I really won’t do it! I swear I won’t!”
“…Alright, I’ll believe you for now.”
As I stared at Dan Haru, who was nodding fervently, my skepticism must have shown because he slumped his shoulders, looking pitiful.
I had suspected since the *Touch High!* incident, but it seemed like we’d spoiled him a bit too much. Was it necessary for him to look that defeated over something so trivial?
‘I don’t plan to raise him any stricter, though….’
Thinking that, I noticed Doha, who was also petting Dan Haru’s head with a similar expression, and asked him,
“So, where is Seo Taehyun right now? Wook hyung was supposed to bring him here, right?”
“Oh, about that….”
Doha hesitated, withdrawing his hand from Dan Haru’s head as he answered.
“He’s in Gangwon Province.”
“…Where?”
“Gangwon Province. He’s staying at his uncle’s pension.”
This cheerful Cherry Boy ran off to Gangwon Province again!?
At this rate, he’s going to end up traveling all around the country.
A sigh of exasperation escaped my lips.