Chapter 93
“Hey, you, you. Did, did you get 3rd place?”
Yunha asked Juha again as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Can’t you read numbers? I’m 3rd, Taeri is 1st.”
“Eoltae is obvious, but damn, at this rate aren’t you really going to debut? Until last time you were still Sipoh…”
Mother hurriedly poked Yunha’s side and covered her mouth.
After the 2nd competition, whenever Lee Juha-da members tried to promote Juha, rival fans would inevitably appear from somewhere and call Lee Juha “Sipoh.” Even though they had declared clean voting, they couldn’t prevent rivalry between fandoms.
“You did well. You were 15th last time and now you jumped up to 3rd place in one go.”
“Oh my, I really lost ten years of my life. This is the first time in my life I’ve been this nervous.”
Father clapped by himself and mother busily wiped away tears. This was completely different from the parents who had sat him down in front of them trying to convince him to prepare for college entrance exams.
“It’s nothing.”
With even the usually quiet father showing such an intense reaction, not to mention mother, Juha felt awkwardly embarrassed.
Taeri found Juha’s warm family heartwarming, but couldn’t hide the bitter taste in his mouth. Choi Junghyeok who would make him break his contract even if it cost billions if he wasn’t 1st place, versus Juha’s family who were happy as if he’d won a grand prize at year-end awards shows just for 3rd place. If he had lived with a family like this, would he have been able to live wholeheartedly in everything like Juha, without knowing what deficiency was? Taeri tried hard to hide the bitter emotions rising up.
After the ranking announcement ended, interviews came on. This interview’s highlight was especially the questions about which participants each trainee wanted to debut with and which they didn’t want to debut with.
Jo Munseok picked Yoo Youngin as someone he wanted to debut with, and Na Junho as someone he didn’t want to debut with. Although they achieved team 1st place together in the last competition, it seemed he answered that way because Jo Munseok and Na Junho could easily create a rivalry storyline due to their past connection. Also, even now Jo Munseok seemed to be devoted to Yoo Youngin, which made my heart ache for no reason.
Admirably, Seo Eunwon picked both Lee Juha and Jang Chaemyeong as participants he wanted to debut with.
The screen alternately showed Eunwon following Juha around like a baby duck, Juha taking care of him and bringing him along like a real younger brother, and Chaemyeong and Eunwon sticking together like real twin brothers both on stage and in daily life.
‘You have to pick just one.’
When Eunwon picked two people, the staff cut him off sharply.
‘Uh, can’t I do two? Please do it for me… please? Please…’
Eunwon held up two fingers like making a ‘V’ and clasped his hands together as if praying, speaking earnestly. Eventually the staff couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Unable to force an answer anymore, the staff moved on to the next question. Eunwon picked Jo Munseok as a member he didn’t want to debut with. The reason was because he was scary.
‘Jo Munseok is indeed scary.’
Juha chuckled, remembering Jo Munseok intimidating Nam Suchang with “the democratic principle of majority rule.” Although Jo Munseok was handsome, his facial features themselves were scary, which was rare for an idol trainee. No wonder fans called him “gangster behavior captain face.”
He had maintained upper ranks so far because there was quite a demand for that type, but even Jo Munseok needed a breakthrough moment to make it to debut.
After several interviews passed, this time Lee Juha and Yoo Youngin’s interviews appeared split on one screen. The left side of the screen was occupied by Juha, the right side by Youngin.
‘Please choose the trainee you most want to debut with excluding yourself, and the trainee you least want to debut with.’
To the staff’s common question, the two people on the split screen answered in turn.
‘The person I most want to debut with is Choi Taeri/Na Junho.’
‘What about the trainee you least want to debut with?’
‘Yoo Youngin/Lee Juha trainee.’
It seemed like they had answered after some consideration, but the production team edited it mercilessly as if they hadn’t hesitated for even a second. Then Juha quickly made an awkward smile and answered, “Youngin hyung, you’re so pretty. It’s the first time I’ve been envious of someone’s looks,” and Yoo Youngin hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
‘He’s secretly perfect. He has the skills and performs well on stage too. Being with him makes my confidence drop a bit.’
‘Huh?’
Yoo Youngin’s expression when answering was sincere, not pretending to be nice or making excuses.
Juha’s face instantly flushed hot.
“Wow, what’s this. Yoo Youngin said all that?”
Even Yunha threw out her words in surprise.
After their interview passed, Juha’s gaze dropped slightly.
‘My interview didn’t air.’
The interview where he expressed gratitude to Lee Juha-da was ultimately edited out. Well, if mentions of individual fans appeared in the main broadcast interview, there would be fairness issues, so he understood, but he felt bad that he couldn’t convey his feelings.
‘Since my tongue was tied anyway, I can do it again next time.’
Thinking about shouting “Let’s love!” at the end of the interview, Juha’s face still burned hot.
Finally, Na Junho and Choi Taeri’s interviews appeared on split screen.
‘Who do you want to debut with?’
‘Lee Juha/Lee Juha trainee.’
The two shouted Lee Juha simultaneously as if they had coordinated. Juha unconsciously held his breath with a “gasp.” He had expected Taeri to say that of course, but he never dreamed Na Junho would mention his name.
“Oh, oppa, are you close with Na Junho too? What, what?”
“Hehe, Juha is popular.”
Even father smiled along.
“It’s not like that.”
Juha felt embarrassed and glanced at Taeri. Taeri fixed his gaze on the screen with a sardonic smile as if saying “Yeah, it’s interesting so keep going.” Aside from being on the same team once last time, he had no particular friendship with Na Junho. Although they had exchanged phone numbers, they had never even sent a single greeting text. If only his family wasn’t there, Juha wanted to at least explain to Taeri.
First, a video about Lee Juha and Na Junho’s relationship appeared.
“Gasp!”
Throughout preparing for the stage during the last 2nd competition, Juha had secretly followed Na Junho around worried that Jo Munseok might cause him trouble. With wistful music as BGM over those scenes, it looked like Juha had a one-sided crush on Na Junho.
“I was always chasing after Lee Juha though…”
Taeri muttered in a small voice only Juha could hear, seeming quite disappointed.
And second, the scene on the Butterfly Dream stage where Junho and Juha hugged each other’s waists and exchanged mysterious gazes.
‘Oh no…’
Juha glanced at Taeri again. Taeri stopped drinking his cola mid-sip and stared at the screen intensely while holding his glass. It was a terrifying look as if saying “try one more thing.”
The third was a scene at the chicken galbi restaurant where Na Junho casually served food and placed it in front of Juha. The screen quickly switched as if to stop Taeri, who looked excited enough to immediately fly at Na Junho if he were right there.
Compared to the chemistry with Na Junho shown earlier, Taeri and Juha’s chemistry was diverse in both amount and variety. You could already clearly imagine fans saying they’d burst from eating up all the hints.
Starting with Taeri picking Lee Juha as his roommate from episode 1, kind Taeri covering him with a blanket at night in the penthouse, bull Taeri charging toward Juha in random dance play, the perfect death match stage, Juha running to hug Taeri on crutches after it ended, and even wearing the same brand clothes with mysteriously similar styles in the last Vlog video. There was so much they couldn’t show it all due to time constraints.
After seeing those scenes, Taeri’s face became comfortable as if he had bragged about “what’s mine” to the whole world.
It returned to Na Junho’s interview.
‘Is there a reason you want to be with Lee Juha trainee?’
‘I like his honesty that doesn’t know how to pretend, and his skills are good to begin with. His looks are good too…’
Na Junho listed Juha’s praises with his usual indifferent expression.
‘His looks are good too…’
Receiving such praise from Na Junho was cringey, but Juha had also made the blunder of saying “Youngin hyung is pretty” in his interview, so he had nothing to say.
‘You picked Lee Juha trainee from the beginning, is there a special reason?’
This time the staff asked Taeri.
‘Lee Juha is, Lee Juha is.’
Taeri kept calling Juha’s name, then fell into thought for a moment.
‘Actually, the reason I made it this far is all thanks to Lee Juha.’
‘Why?’
‘A year ago I happened to see Lee Juha practicing and fell for him, which made me dream of becoming an idol. If I hadn’t seen Lee Juha then, I might not be walking this path.’
‘Oh my, what a special connection? Does Lee Juha trainee know this fact too?’
‘Yes. So Lee Juha is always someone I’m grateful to.’
When Taeri’s face was close-up on screen with touching BGM, Juha’s family’s attention instantly focused on Taeri. Taeri seemed embarrassed and smiled awkwardly while looking at them.
“Well, that’s how it happened.”
‘Who don’t you want to debut with?’
To the staff’s question, Junho and Taeri on the split screen answered simultaneously.
‘Choi Taeri trainee/Na Junho trainee.’
‘Why?’
‘Any participant who can dance a bit probably thinks of Taeri as a rival.’
‘Because he’s a rival. Ah, in dancing of course.’
Junho and Taeri’s answers appeared sequentially on screen.
Although Taeri spoke without much thought, Juha could understand that resentment. Na Junho was firm enough about his territory to sleep with a partition in the middle of the bed when rooming with Taeri, but in My Idol he only opened his heart to Juha. Although Juha didn’t feel it at all, from Taeri’s distant perspective, he could clearly see that Junho cherished him.
After the interviews passed, the screen changed to the AI evaluation scene.
In first order, Taeri entered the evaluation room. Taeri looked around curiously then stared blankly at the screen. When the AI voice came out he flinched a little, but as if he already knew, he danced and sang perfectly to the “My Job is Idol” song.
Second was Na Junho. He stood in place with an indifferent expression and tilted his head. When the AI voice suddenly popped out saying it would take photos, Junho was startled with “Oh shit!” and backed away in surprise.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
