-19-
It wasn’t that he had solidified his choice to debut, but rather that he wanted to show himself that he had changed from before. As if to refute the fact that he had been cast for his face, he desperately wanted that.
The casting manager spoke to Bunhong.
“Kim Bunhong-kun?”
“Yes.”
“You must be very nervous?”
“……”
“You don’t have to do anything at all. Just think of it as showing your face and coming out. Ah, you’re a high school student, right? If we’re talking about high school, it’s just like the attendance check during morning assembly every day, and it’s a private audition anyway~”
He poured out words like a waterfall without stopping, but his tone seemed to have no expectations whatsoever for Kim Bunhong. His face showed not a trace of anticipation.
“……”
The casting manager probably couldn’t even imagine it. In fact, Kim Bunhong had already experienced this situation once before.
The training period of only about 3 months and the debut that immediately followed – recalling that period was close to a nightmare. Could you understand if it felt like being thrown into an unfamiliar place without knowing anything?
He had to learn how to run before he could walk, and even while constantly falling without rest, he had to get back up. Because even if he fell behind others, he couldn’t become a dropout.
“Want to take some Chungsimhwan?”
It seemed this man thought Bunhong was being quiet because he was afraid.
“No. I’m fine.”
“Aren’t you nervous? It would be good to take some.”
Actually, that wasn’t it. How many years had he spent glued to the practice room after debut? The number of times he practiced so as not to forget choreography or lyrics? Countless.
That all his efforts until now could be used like this – Bunhong sighed inwardly that life was truly a series of unpredictable events.
No matter how big the stage he would soon stand on, could it be more intimidating than the countless large and small stages he had climbed before regression?
Back then, every time he stepped onto a stage, it felt like standing on thin ice. There was no way today’s audition could be more nerve-wracking and painful than that.
Even though he had said he was fine several times, just as Bunhong was about to refuse again as the man kept shoving Chungsimhwan in front of him, someone came running over in a hurry.
He just watched indifferently as a man whispered in the casting manager’s ear about some urgent matter, but then he shouted with a shocked expression.
“The private audition has been switched to a public one?!”
“Th-that’s……”
They turned around and started whispering between themselves while glancing at Kim Bunhong who was sitting there dumbfounded.
‘I’ve already heard everything. Why bother whispering?’
But Bunhong could roughly grasp what kind of situation this was just by reading the flow of the atmosphere. His accumulated experience in the entertainment industry told him. Roughly something like ‘Originally it was a private audition, so they could have easily slipped Kim Bunhong, someone with only a shiny face, in as a trainee without any problem despite AT Entertainment’s overwhelming competition rate and excellent applicants befitting their reputation, but due to some circumstances, it has become a fair and just evaluation.’ Something like that.
Honestly, it didn’t matter to Kim Bunhong whether today’s audition was public or private. He was just deeply flustered by the situation flowing differently from before regression.
‘As I remember, back then it was definitely an audition that proceeded smoothly without any problems, so why?’
Bunhong was lost in thought for a moment, feeling something strange, when suddenly his body was flipped around. What was it – there were trembling hands gripping his shoulders, trying to comfort him.
“Bu-Bunhong-kun. Don’t panic. This is, well……”
While telling Kim Bunhong not to panic, he didn’t seem to know how pale his own face had become.
The casting manager’s face was so pale it had turned white rather than just being pale.
“That bastard Jeong Ido……”
Kim Bunhong reacted sensitively to the name that passed by briefly. The casting manager looked at him with pity as he raised his head in surprise and hurriedly asked.
—How well can you dance and sing?
At the same time, Bunhong thought it was truly ridiculous. It was a question that should have been asked much earlier. Much before now, before casting him.
Still thinking to himself that they should have asked first whether he had any talent or interest in this field before drawing him in, Kim Bunhong stood up from where he was sitting, brushing dust off his knees.
‘Maybe everything is finally going properly now.’
The opportunity he had gotten for free, ignoring all procedures, had not been lucky for his past self, at least.
With less than an hour left until the audition, he looked straight at the casting manager who was only now asking what song he had prepared for today and said calmly.
“Don’t worry.”
But in a corner of his heart, Bunhong was equally confused.
‘Why is Ido hyung already here?’
Naturally, he recalled when he had encountered him a few days ago. In the elevator on the way to Oh Hangeul’s studio.
‘There was nothing strange about it then, so what?’
The casting manager’s voice urging him on squeezed into Bunhong’s confused mind as he was digging through his memories of that day, feeling like he had missed something.
“Bunhong-kun?”
“……”
“Bunhong-kun?!”
“……”
“Did you just faint while standing?”
When he came to his senses and raised his head at the suggestion that they should cancel the audition now using that as an excuse, the casting manager was looking at him with worried eyes.
When he finally responded, the casting manager whined that he really thought he had fainted and was about to call 119. Thanks to that, Bunhong, who was able to realize that this was reality, felt that he needed time to sort out this confused state of mind by himself right now.
Checking his wristwatch, he could see that there wasn’t much time left.
“Just the remaining 30 minutes until the audition starts…… please let me be alone.”
First, it seemed like the person chattering beside him needed to disappear. He needed time to think in a quiet atmosphere for a while.
Left alone in an empty room as he had requested, Bunhong tried to assess the situation.
‘Timing…… Let’s think about the timing.’
At that time, Jeong Ido was doing work in the amateur scene, and that scene was hell where you couldn’t earn a single penny.
Then somehow AT Entertainment’s board team happened to hear his demo song by chance and recruited him, and after long persuasion, an idol group centered around him was created……
Since Kim Bunhong was just about to audition now, it would be around the time when he had been at AT Entertainment for a little over six months.
He had been able to confirm his existence in the building of the studio where he went to meet Oh Hangeul.
But that didn’t mean Jeong Ido had been involved in this audition before regression either.
He had only heard rumors like ‘there’s someone like this,’ and Kim Bunhong had hardly seen him until he entered the company as a trainee and before officially becoming a debut group.
Even as fellow trainees, there weren’t many opportunities to encounter Ido, who took separate composition classes and mainly stayed in the producer’s room.
Moreover, the purpose of this audition was to select trainees, not to select team members for BLACK, the group.
‘But why?’
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand. Could it be……
Time passed quickly and about 10 minutes were left. Looking at the minute hand of his wristwatch ticking away, he thought he should go and check directly rather than sitting here meaninglessly.
As he moved his steps and opened the door to come out,
“Bunhong-kun!! It’s almost your turn!!”
He was led by waiting hands straight to the front of the audition room door.
Kim Bunhong, who had just thought to come out briefly to confirm Jeong Ido’s presence, scratched his head as he was dragged along.
The other applicants waiting in front raised their heads to look at them due to the noisy commotion. The casting manager’s voice was excessively loud, as if he had boiled a train’s firebox.
The applicants soon began murmuring among themselves.
“Wow. He’s handsome.”
“Is he a celebrity?”
“I heard one of the OORA members is coming to today’s audition too.”
There was quite a distance between where they were standing and the waiting area, so the content didn’t reach Bunhong’s ears clearly, but feeling that they were whispering about him, his shoulders automatically hunched.
It was because of painful memories from the past that were busy squeezing in whenever he showed the slightest opening.
-Kim Bunhong? Who’s that?
-Ah…… That incompetent one?
-Ugh, look at him making choreography mistakes again. ã…‹ Really, BLACK’s synchronized dancing is their lifeline but he’s ruining it all;;
-Seriously, if you have any conscience, leave BLACK even a day earlier. ã…‹ã…‹
Past malicious comments that kept surfacing over people’s whispering.
‘No, can I even call those malicious comments in the first place? Honestly, they were facts.’
“Applicant number 26, Kim Bunhong-ssi?”
Hearing his name called through the wide-open door, Bunhong entered inside as if fleeing from that spot.
Maybe because he entered as if being chased. Kim Bunhong ended up facing it again without any mental preparation. That face.
He hadn’t expected that he would even observe the audition. Since he had entered, he should either greet or introduce himself. No matter how much he tried to twist, his body absolutely wouldn’t move. Not just his body, but nothing else either.
As if bound to him, his limbs were restrained and his tongue was tied, so he couldn’t act naturally or say anything in front of him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
