The members of staryu were gathered in the living room.
The massive 85-inch television screen flickered to life. It was the special "Behind-the-Scenes: Road to Starlight Finale" broadcast.
"Everyone, quiet! It's starting!" Jae-hyun chirped, clutching a pillow to his chest.
For the first ten minutes, it was exactly what they expected: high-energy montages, tears of joy, and shots of them sweating in the practice rooms. But then, the music shifted. The bright, poppy synth-pads were replaced by a low, dissonant cello drone.
The screen cut to a scene from three days before the finale. Kang-joon was sitting in the corner of the practice room, staring at his phone. In reality, he had been coordinating with Ji-hye to stop the Director's sabotage. But the editors had stripped away the context.
They zoomed in on his face—eyes cold, lips set in a thin line. A subtitle appeared: [The cold calculation of a leader?]
The edit jumped to Gun-woo approaching him, looking exhausted.
