May 6th, 8:00 PM.
A grand evening.
With a total of 90,000 live viewers, the mbers successfully unveiled their new song.
Their vocals had already been proven ti and ti again, so that wasn’t a concern. What was a concern was the choreography—specifically, the two mbers who weren’t Rain and Dora.
But thanks to CAT’s professional choreographers, their skills had improved dramatically...
[🥔Nutube]
Finish Line | Parallel Another (feat. Fan_C) - Official MV
Parallel Official | 281K subscribers
620K views | 3 days ago | #Parallel #CAT #finish_line
442 comnts
@Giadan 3 days ago
Nice to et you...
ㄴ @Sonsainai_kioku 3 days ago
Ugh... my head...
ㄴ @zolzak 2 days ago
Why are they like this?
ㄴ @red_drug 2 days ago
Fan_C = illegal duet, F contestant = M_J_A
@MJADISK 3 days ago
"Standing at the starting line again, heading toward the next destination" — This lyric makes think of soone about to start a new journey...
ㄴ @flareflaretantan 2 days ago
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ @dr.hirorok 2 days ago
When do you think people die...?
Three days in, and the song had already hit trending status with over 600,000 views.
The growth rate was nearly double that of previous releases.
Even the official channel’s subscriber count saw a huge jump.
As soon as the new song dropped with CAT, the channel gained 30,000 subscribers in just three days.
To put that into perspective: it had taken us six months and every strategy in the book to grow by 120,000.
This was insane acceleration.
Of course, our existing fans’ support was a given. But more importantly, a new audience—one that primarily listened to mainstream idol music—was starting to pour in.
And yet, I couldn’t shake a small sense of disappointnt.
With CAT backing us, I had expected an even bigger explosion.
VTuber idols had already proven their global marketability thanks to VachuVachu.
Their success was what allowed us to be chosen by CAT in the first place.
But at the sa ti, VachuVachu’s sheer presence seed to overshadow us just a little.
Honestly, deep down, I had expected our song to have already hit 1 million views by now.
They were on a different level.
You don’t just accidentally reach 100 million views in a year.
That takes serious strength.
Catching up imdiately? That was impossible.
And, as Eоna—who knew the music industry inside and out thanks to her father—had told , it wasn’t sothing to be overly optimistic about.
The initial view surge was natural—just a result of releasing under CAT’s label.
But if we couldn’t sustain this montum, we’d barely break even.
Fortunately, our production costs were lower than a traditional idol group’s, so our break-even point was around 10 million views—only a third of the usual 30 million benchmark.
But unlike regular idols, whose biggest revenue ca from album sales, VTuber fans relied more on downloads and streaming.
So when an idol company says “we need at least 30 million”, they still have album sales to fall back on.
When we say “we need at least 10 million”, it ans if we don’t hit it, we’re screwed.
In other words, we weren’t as pressured as a traditional group—but we weren’t relaxed either.
We needed to hit 10 million.
That ant:
No major scandals.More sponsorships.More cover songs and side content.The first-gen mbers would be facing more pressure than ever to deliver on the music front.
They had to step up.
***
Of course, none of that mattered to the mbers in this mont.
After all, 600,000 views in three days was already a massive milestone.
They were too busy celebrating to worry about long-term performance.
When we had worked on our first-anniversary song, One Others, we had also gone all-in with vocals, choreography, and an MV.
But back then, we had barely scraped everything together, struggling to make it work.
This ti, everything had clicked effortlessly.
Like going from stumbling across a rocky path to suddenly gliding across a smooth, carpeted road.
So naturally, the mbers were feeling it.
"Did we finally make it big?"
I, of course, was there to ruin the mood.
As the four of them buzzed with excitent, I shut them down before they got too carried away.
I was used to being the bad guy.
“...It’s great and all, but don’t forget—this is a test from CAT.”
The reaction was imdiate.
Four pairs of eyes narrowed as their utensils froze mid-air.
An expression I had seen far too many tis.
“Hey. Why do you always have to be like this? Mood killer.”
“Ugh. What kind of manager doesn’t even say sothing nice for once?”
At least Dora half-defended .
“I an~ Gia isn’t wrong~ But wouldn’t it be better to let us enjoy this for a little while~?”
She subtly shifted behind , as if taking on the role of my guardian.
“Wow. If you take Gia’s side like that, what does that make us?”
“Traitor. Traitors must be eradicated—that is the rule of the battle race!”
Komari, however, threw a dose of reality back at Rain and Maru, who were whining about my bluntness.
Being the most practical and cynical of the group, she didn’t sugarcoat anything.
“Honestly, Gia’s not wrong. CAT took a gamble on us. If our numbers tank, even I wouldn’t want to work on a second song with us.”
Just like that, the conversation split into two sides:
Komari/Dora vs. Rain/Maru.
“O-our song is good, okay?! Look at the views! We’ll hit 10 million in no ti!”
“Yes. Be silent, Komari. We are already soaring!”
“Yeah! We haven’t even hit trending yet!”
“If you get your hopes too high, the disappointnt will hit even harder~.”
“She’s right. Now’s the ti to stay humble.”
Was this so kind of internal crisis before our biggest breakthrough?
Of course not.
This was just normal for Parallel Another.
Maru: Completely lacking sha or embarrassnt.Rain: Loves the thrill of burning energy, so she naturally follows Maru’s lead.Dora: Calm and does her own thing, no matter what.Komari: Observes, waits, then smacks Maru with reality when needed.It was perfect.
Since none of them were actually fighting, it was just like watching four kittens paw at each other.
And of course, since I was the one who had started this little spat, it didn’t take long for their eight eyes to land back on .
Maru, acting as the group’s representative, spoke up.
“So. What’s with the sudden generosity? Why are you buying us dinner? Let guess. You finally feel guilty for being so distant?”
Saying that after already eating half the al was hilarious, but sure, let’s roll with it.
If she hadn’t looked so smug, I might’ve answered honestly.
But since she did...
A rebellious spark flickered inside .
“No. I just wanted to prepare you all for this weekend’s collab.”
“...Prepare? Prepare how?”
The four of them stared blankly for a mont before Komari was the first to put the pieces together.
"Wait. Are you saying... you’re hosting the weekend collab instead of the CEO?"
I nodded.
Maru’s face instantly turned pale.
"No way. The CEO actually allowed that?"
Their individual reactions made their personalities all too clear.
"Kya-ha! Fucking surprise! This is gonna be fun!"
"Sobody’s definitely gonna end up crying this weekend~."
"Sigh... I’m already worried about what kind of ridiculous things she’s gonna say..."
"We’re Really Close, I Swear."
Despite its title, this segnt often turned into a chaotic battlefield.
It was ant to showcase the mbers’ friendships, but what it actually showcased was how much they wanted to rip each other apart.
And ironically, that was exactly why it worked.
After all, nothing screams "we're best friends" like bickering over the dumbest things possible.
It was far more effective than pretending to be close.
I an, just look at what happened earlier.
I laughed while watching them squabble, right?
Fans reacted the sa way.
As long as nobody was throwing actual punches, the audience simply saw it as proof of closeness.
The core concept?
1. "Let's Read Each Other’s Minds."
Each mber gets a keyword and has to align their thoughts with the others.
Since all four of them have wildly different personalities, chaos is guaranteed.
Soone will bring up an embarrassing personal habit.
Another will claim, "You literally talk about this all the ti!"
It will escalate into an argunt, and before you know it, hell has broken loose.
2. "We Rember Everything."
Each mber gets a vague hint about a past stream and has to recall which one it was.
For example:
"Which stream had Maru crying for an entire hour?"
If they get it right, it’s a miracle.
If they get it wrong, it’s hilarious.
In so cases, they still end up fighting.
"So you can rember that, but not any of my birthdays?"
"Oh, so you don’t rember when we got our first sponsor, but this you rember?"
Once again, chaos.
"The CEO only let you host because she wants to change things up."
As expected, this show wasn’t just for fun.
It was also a way to directly address whatever drama was floating around.
Whenever a rumor blew up, we tackled it head-on during one of these sessions.
For example:
A while back, there was a rumor that Komari and Maru had secretly fallen out.
They killed the rumor in one Naore stream.
"Why are you playing like that?"
"Why do you always talk like that?"
"Next ti, just tell when you’re diving!"
"I DID—oh, wait. Never mind, I muted my mic because I was pissed."
They bickered nonstop for two hours, and then at the end, Komari casually invited Maru out for cake.
Boom. Rumor dead.
Now, a similar thod would be used to shut down the current drama:
"Is Gia quitting Parallel to debut as a utaite? Is there internal conflict?"
Completely absurd.
"By the way, during this collab, you can ntion all you want."
Maru—who had been on the verge of a ntal breakdown—snapped out of it instantly.
"Seriously? We’re not supposed to focus too much on the host, though."
"CEO gave the green light. You don’t have to force the conversation away from anymore."
I didn’t ntion the drama directly.
These girls were honest to a fault.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
If they knew about the rumors, they might overact and end up sounding too scripted.
But this—this casual, natural banter—was exactly the vibe I wanted.
I teased them.
They fired back.
Everything flowed naturally.
That’s how we should approach this.
After all, I wasn’t the main character here.
The focus needed to stay on them.
"Relax and have fun. The CEO just wants to shake things up a little by adding into the mix."
The mbers exchanged glances. Then, Dora was the first to speak.
"In that case~ How about we add a special segnt just for Gia?"
The second she said it, everyone pretended to act normal.
But I could already tell.
They were planning sothing.
They weren’t even trying to hide it.
They wanted revenge.
And honestly? I couldn’t bla them.
I’d always been the one playing tricks on them.
Now that I was stepping into their territory, they wanted to turn the tables.
"Fine. Talk to the CEO about it. I’d rather not know the details."
***
The Next Day: 1st Gen eting with CEO Cheon Do-hee
At a café near the office, the first-gen mbers formally pitched their idea.
To make it extra official, Maru even dressed in a full suit and handed Do-hee an actual printed proposal.
The CEO raised an eyebrow.
"So... You’re saying you want to add so special 'Gia questions' to the 'We Rember Everything' segnt?"
"Yes!"
"And the goal of this?"
"Each of us will prepare a ridiculously hard trivia question about Gia. If she gets one wrong, she has to collab with us individually."
In short:
A "you’re guaranteed to lose" quiz with forced punishnt collabs.
The idea was simple—if Gia willingly agreed to multiple collabs despite her busy schedule, it would prove she genuinely cared about the first-gen mbers.
Do-hee rubbed her chin.
"This is because of the Nutube comnts, isn’t it? All those people freaking out, asking if Gia is quitting to beco Fan_C?"
Maru hesitated.
"Uh... yeah. I an, Gia is Fan_C, but the public doesn’t know that. And she doesn’t want them to. If the rumors get out of control, we might slip up during a stream."
Do-hee sighed.
"Yeah, makes sense. All it takes is one leading question and you’d crack like an egg."
"H-hey! I’ve gotten better at handling those kinds of questions! ...But yeah, you’re right. Sorry."
None of them wanted Gia to deal with unnecessary rumors.
She had always been there for them.
If all this stress ended up pushing {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} her to quit, that would be the worst-case scenario.
So this ti, it wasn’t about pranking her.
It was about helping her.
Do-hee could see that.
"Alright, I get what you’re trying to do. But there’s a problem."
"What is it?"
"Gia is too smart. She’s going to get all of your questions right."
A pause.
That... was a valid concern.
Gia had an insane mory. Even difficult questions wouldn’t trip her up.
"So here’s my suggestion," Do-hee continued.
"Make the questions even harder. Reduce the audio hint to only one second. And instead of making her collab with just the person who stumped her, she has to collab with all four of you if she misses even a single question."
The mbers gulped.
"One second? Isn’t that way too difficult? Wouldn’t that seem unfair?"
"Then just make sure you suffer just as much. If she gets them all right, you guys should take a major punishnt too. That way, no matter what, we get good content."
If Gia aced the quiz, the audience would be shocked and start defending her.
If she failed, it would just lead to fun collabs with the first-gen mbers.
Either way, mission accomplished.
Maru exchanged glances with the others.
"Alright. Then if we lose... we’ll do 'Black Warning' as our punishnt."
Do-hee’s eyebrows rose.
"The horror ga where you have to collect trash?"
"Yup. We’ve never played it before. So... it should be good content, right?"
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