Chapter 46
“Ah……”
The trainees nodded in understanding as soon as they saw the screen. Recently, there have been frequent cases where groups that hadn’t been popular suddenly achieve reverse hit myths for unexpected reasons. Particularly, reverse hit myths were the epitome of ‘holding on’ that Koreans love, so the public especially liked them.
This program had also borrowed that theme.
“For this mission, you must choose one song that hasn’t entered the top 50 on the music charts in the past two years and create a stage. The team leaders will be the trainees ranked 1st through 8th. Now, let’s start with song selection first. Trainees up to 8th place, please come forward.”
Following Park Jusung’s guidance, eight trainees including Choi Taeri and Yoo Youngin came to the center of the stage.
Everyone couldn’t let their guard down, given the production team’s judgment that had created that childishly brilliant game for the death match last time.
“Staff members, please show us the prepared mission!”
When they removed the partition, obstacles that appeared to be for obstacle racing were sparsely set up. At the end of the course, eight flag containers were placed. It seemed like a course where you do obstacle racing and pull flags.
Though it was a short course of about 30 meters, the obstacles were no joke.
Park Jusung grabbed the microphone and explained the racing course one by one. In short, the process was to do a forward roll once at the start, get up and vault over the pommel horse, take a bite of a snack hanging in the air, then run and spin a hula hoop 10 times, reach the end of the hall and grab a flag.
They didn’t know what songs would be in the eight flags with famous agency names written on them. They could only predict that the more famous agency flags they pulled, the easier songs would come out.
‘Serona is there too.’
Juha looked at the yellow Serona flag with an indifferent expression. While not one of the big 3 agencies, he expected it would be included since they had quite a few decent groups.
He didn’t know what kind of elementary school sports day course this was, but the expressions of the trainees standing at the starting line were determined. Especially seeing Taeri standing with his eyes gleaming like an Olympic track athlete, Juha couldn’t help but laugh.
The starting sound rang out and all eight began with forward rolls simultaneously.
“Wow, trainee Choi Taeri is almost at the level of a physical education student.”
As Park Jusung said, Choi Taeri did a forward roll as light as an aerial somersault, then vaulted over the pommel horse as if flying. His movements were so agile that you’d wonder who had injured their ankle.
Other trainees with good stamina chased after him, but it wasn’t enough.
“Ah, this is bad. Trainee Yoo Youngin is falling behind.”
After doing a forward roll, Yoo Youngin was already dizzy and barely managed to climb over the pommel horse like he was hugging it. It seemed like he knew that such clumsy appearance would throw bait to the fans.
Choi Taeri, who left the other contestants far behind and came in first place, grabbed the Fandom flag of his own agency. And the flag that Yoo Youngin, who came in last, grabbed was Serona – Lee Juha’s former agency.
‘Of all things to choose.’
Since the cameras were rolling, Juha tried to maintain his composure. When you dislike someone, everything they do bothers you.
“Now then, trainee Choi Taeri who came in first! Please show us the song!”
Following Park Jusung’s words, Taeri opened the flag.
“It’s a Delfino song!”
Park Jusung’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the song title. It was ‘Peppermint Girl,’ one of the B-side tracks from Fandom’s representative group Delfino’s album.
That song had shockingly childish and nonsensical lyrics like ‘You’re cold but refreshing, you’re like peppermint. Then I, I, I want to be chocolate. We two are mint chocolate together. Don’t call it toothpaste, mint chocolate together’ with a strong beat, to the point where even Delfino’s fans wouldn’t stream it. They thought that if they streamed such songs, the agency would make more shitty songs like this.
Still, it was definitely the best song for this mission. Since it was a song by Delfino, a first-tier idol group, it would be easy to reverse hit. Juha analyzed it seriously as if he had chosen the song himself.
The introduction of songs picked by other trainees also proceeded step by step. There were various types – groups that failed without a trace, groups that achieved moderate success or more, and B-side tracks from first-tier idols like Taeri.
And the song Yoo Youngin chose.
“Trainee Yoo Youngin. Ah, you picked Serona Entertainment Metabolic’s ‘Butterfly Dream’!”
‘Damn it.’
Juha cursed inwardly. ‘Butterfly Dream’ was Metabolic’s debut song that Juha had practiced with high hopes for debut.
The appearance of this song couldn’t be welcome to Juha. The production team would definitely want to create an awkward picture by linking this song with Juha.
Metabolic was the biggest wound in Juha’s short life and an absolute taboo that should never be touched. Even at home, when this song occasionally played on the radio or TV, his family would be startled and quickly change the channel.
Regardless, it was definitely good prey for the production team. Lee Juha’s sad story in music on the rise. Thinking of the production team who must have intentionally included this song made Juha’s teeth chatter.
After all mission songs were revealed, Park Jusung continued the proceedings.
“For this team formation, the trainees who ranked 1st through 8th will pick team members they like one by one in order of ranking.”
Then Yoo Youngin would pick team members first, and Taeri could pick team members third. If the obstacle race ranking had determined the picking order, Taeri could have picked first, which was regrettable.
‘As long as I don’t do it, it doesn’t matter.’
Juha was more concerned about Metabolic’s Butterfly Dream than the team composition.
Since Yoo Youngin wouldn’t form a team with Juha, who was a thorn in his side, Juha wouldn’t have to do Metabolic’s song. He planned to get by without much complaint as long as only a scene or so of story-selling appeared. Above all, he had no generosity to help others with a reverse hit for the song that had made him lose his dreams and taste hell.
Meanwhile, Juha and Taeri briefly made eye contact. Without knowing Juha’s feelings, Taeri smiled with a ‘hee.’ By now, Taeri seemed to automatically smile whenever he saw him, like a reflex.
‘I’ll pick you.’
When Taeri mouthed the words, Juha chuckled softly and nodded. Seeing his face, the hatred for the misdeeds committed by Taeri’s fans completely disappeared. While it’s common in the idol world for the person involved to be hated because of extreme fans, it was impossible for Juha to hate Taeri.
The deeper the adversity, the firmer Juha’s resolve to debut with Taeri became. With the production team being like this, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t experience the nightmare of the death match again. Juha needed to become stronger.
To do that, they needed to create a stage together this time too and make an impression on the fans. Since neither Yoo Youngin nor 2nd place Kim Namhong would pick Juha, it wouldn’t be difficult for Taeri and Juha to be on the same team.
Juha also liked Delfino’s song that Taeri picked. Because the beat was strong, they could create an impactful stage. In Juha’s mind, he had already finished planning Delfino’s ‘Peppermint Girl’ that he would create with Taeri.
“Trainee Yoo Youngin, please choose your first team member!”
While Juha was lost in thought, Yoo Youngin, who had been observing the contestants, finally opened his mouth after making his decision.
“The first trainee I’ll pick is Lee Juha.”
“Wow!”
Everyone was shocked to the point of fainting at Yoo Youngin’s words.
Juha slowly raised his head. He couldn’t readily believe this situation. He wanted to believe something was wrong or that Yoo Youngin was joking.
To hide his surprise, Juha blinked rapidly.
“Trainee Lee Juha is incredibly popular in the upper ranks. What’s your reason for picking trainee Lee Juha?”
Park Jusung asked Youngin.
“Because he’s the trainee who best suits the song I chose. Since he’s so skilled, I think he’ll be helpful in many ways.”
Youngin’s answer was concise.
Since the camera was on Juha, he smiled, but his mind was noisy. The trainee who best suits a Metabolic song. There was no reason to curse Yoo Youngin. Juha performing that song would be a picture everyone would want to see.
This industry was originally like this. In a place where deceased parents and sick siblings all become subjects of story-selling, a trainee who was cut from a debut group recreating the stage of a group he almost could have debuted with was just appropriate entertainment.
‘Let’s get it together.’
He couldn’t give up easily just because his team changed. Though it felt like entering a fox’s den, Juha wasn’t the type to just take it lying down either.
“Ah, trainee Choi Taeri. You look slightly tense. Is it because your soulmate was stolen?”
“A little, haha.”
Meanwhile, Park Jusung approached Choi Taeri annoyingly. Taeri must have been flustered too, but he didn’t show it at all.
As if he had thought of a backup plan, Taeri picked 13th place Kim Jinhyeon. He was a trainee with a tall and slender build similar to Juha’s image, but who hadn’t gathered many fans yet.
In the subsequent team member selection, Yoo Youngin picked Na Junho and Jo Munseok. Even that was incomprehensible to Juha.
Both were 22 years old, former national youth taekwondo representatives, and even 187cm tall with muscular bodies – their characters overlapped so much they could be considered twins.
‘Why did he pick Jo Munseok’s rival of all people?’
Yoo Youngin had been abandoned by Taeri and stuck with Jo Munseok. Since their friendship had been hot among fans recently, picking Jo Munseok was understandable.
However, Na Junho was rather close to being Jo Munseok’s competitor. Though his ranking had dropped significantly after receiving harsh words from judges for not matching well with his partner in the last mission, Na Junho was also one of the contestants with many dedicated fans.
‘There’s definitely something.’
Meanwhile, Taeri chose Yeom Sangyeop. Yeom Sangyeop stiffened as if he hadn’t expected Taeri to choose him at all.
Because the rankings were mixed up and each trainee had different characteristics, the team formation went strangely. Those with close relationships were often separated, and even high-ranking trainees couldn’t expect fan loyalty.
The next trainee Yoo Youngin chose was 17-year-old Jang Chaemyeong, ranked 32nd, who despite his low ranking and lack of distinctive features, was a trainee specialized in producing.
‘He chose well.’
Juha would have been satisfied with Jang Chaemyeong too.
While professional producers are assigned for each audition stage, the basic concept must be created by the trainees themselves. Jang Chaemyeong had dropped out of high school and devoted himself entirely to music producing, making him the most skilled at handling music among the trainees on this program.
Though he was on the shorter side and lacked beauty or marketability, he was a necessary member to enhance the completeness of the stage.
And surprisingly, the last trainee Yoo Youngin chose was Seo Eunwon.
‘Seo Eunwon……’
Yoo Youngin’s team member selection was incomprehensible in various ways. As far as Juha knew, Yoo Youngin and Seo Eunwon were like a hyena and a newborn hamster. Yoo Youngin could just grab Seo Eunwon’s tail and swallow him in one gulp.
Taeri chose Korean-American Andrew Son as his last member. Though his skills and looks were decent, he was a trainee who had ruined the last death match because he couldn’t communicate due to his poor Korean. Initially full of enthusiasm, Andrew Son gradually became timid because of people who laughed mockingly whenever he spoke Korean.
Though he made it to the second round, he seemed quite lacking in motivation, making him somewhat of a problem child in the show. Taeri choosing him was not an easy choice, but there weren’t suitable people left.
While harboring full suspicion, all the team members for each group were decided.
“Well, the teams are formed quite interestingly. There will be many interesting scenes in this sub-mission, right?”
“Sub-mission?”
“What is it?”
At the word ‘sub-mission,’ the trainees started murmuring again. Trainees who realized that the more reactions they showed, the higher their chances of screen exposure, reacted dramatically to even small things, almost theatrically.
“This sub-mission is……”
As Park Jusung finished speaking, text appeared on the screen.
[One Body]
Along with the text, a cute Frankenstein illustration with bodies tangled together was drawn.
“The team members working together must move like one body throughout filming. Sleep together, eat together, and of course practice together.”
“……”
Juha bit his lip without showing it. They’re really doing all sorts of things.
“Look at the team members next to you. For the next ten days, these are the brothers you’ll live with like one body.”
Juha looked at Yoo Youngin with a forced smile. Yoo Youngin made eye contact with Juha while showing an exaggerated reaction with a ‘wow’ sound.
The blade hidden in their exchanged smiles made even the air cold.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
