Chapter 33
Juha’s hand gripping the tie trembled violently. Having run too hastily, several strands of Juha’s pomade-styled hair had fallen down to cover his forehead.
His desperate wish for Taeri not to run was so intense that Juha’s clenched jaw caused his jaw joint to tremble.
“Haak, haak.”
Unable to accept the incomprehensible ending, Taeri glared at Juha while breathing heavily.
Having run around for the entire 5 minutes on stage, sweat beaded profusely on Taeri’s forehead, and streams of sweat flowed down between his open shirt. As if dying of frustration at being caught, Taeri’s shoulders heaved up and down irritably.
Though the stage had ended, the tension hadn’t dissipated. The two still looked at each other as if they wanted to kill one another. Choi Taeri’s eyes said ‘Why?’ while Lee Juha’s eyes said ‘I told you not to do it.’ Even after the music disappeared, they were still trainer and beast.
Especially Taeri’s eyes were filled with dissatisfaction toward Juha, who had changed the ending as he pleased.
“Wow!”
“Amazing!”
The judges’ applause and exclamations cut through the frozen atmosphere between the two.
“Whew……”
“Huh……”
Only then did Juha and Taeri break out of their stage characters and relax their postures. Juha loosened his tie and wrapped it around his hand.
“Thank you.”
“Thank you.”
The two faced forward and bowed in greeting.
‘Are you okay?’
Juha glanced at Taeri and asked with lip movements. After finishing the stage, all he could think about was worry for Taeri’s ankle.
‘Yeah.’
Taeri nodded slightly in response. Juha lifted the corners of his lips in a bitter smile. Taeri, who had a somewhat stubborn streak, was the type who would tell Juha he was fine even if his ankle was broken right now.
After catching his breath, tension covered his body again.
In the first stage competition conducted as death matches, eliminated and qualified contestants are decided by the masters immediately after the stage ends. After that, the ranking of those who pass is determined by 50% master evaluation and 50% viewer votes.
In any case, the eliminated contestant would be decided right now.
Dance master Niki grabbed the microphone first. Meanwhile, Taeri gripped Juha’s hand tightly. Don’t be nervous, Taeri’s thumb stroked the back of Juha’s hand soothingly.
“Trainee Lee Juha, I was really so surprised. Even during the mid-evaluation, I was a bit worried. I gave you harsh words too. But how could you change your dance lines like that in such a short time?”
Niki’s voice was full of excitement. It was a completely different attitude from the mid-evaluation when he’d spoken in a tone that said ‘don’t try so hard.’
“Thank you. Taeri taught me.”
Juha answered calmly while catching his breath. Since it was true that Taeri had helped him, Juha gave him the credit without hesitation.
“Trainee Lee Juha cleverly used his lack of power to his advantage in a very smart stage. As for trainee Choi Taeri… hmm, it seems like you didn’t demonstrate 100% of your skills from practice, which is disappointing. You wavered a bit in the latter half too. Well, of course I enjoyed watching. It was truly worthy of your reputation.”
Niki finished his brief evaluation of Taeri and passed the microphone.
‘Huh?’
It was a completely unexpected evaluation.
Both Juha and Taeri’s eyes shook. Taeri’s hand holding Juha’s could be felt twitching.
They’d rather believe they’d heard wrong. Compared to the praise Niki had given Juha, his evaluation of Taeri was close to dismissal.
Next, rapper Hisan grabbed the microphone. Though he started as a hip-hop musician, he was a master more famous as a record producer.
In particular, the stages from the label he ran were famous for their high level of immersion.
“Actually, for idol stages, dance and singing skills are important, but the most important thing is establishing a concept and perfectly executing that concept. I was honestly really surprised by trainee Lee Juha today. I think I said ‘Can that actually work?’ to myself dozens of times. How should I put it, it’s like food with all the supposedly delicious ingredients thrown in tastes bad, but I felt like I was eating a Michelin three-star dish that brought out the true flavor of a single ingredient? I enjoyed it.”
“Thank you.”
“Trainee Choi Taeri also worked hard. It was amazing. I really thought a tiger had been released onto the stage. But maybe because I had high expectations, it fell slightly short. Ah, of course that doesn’t mean you did poorly. Having high expectations means you have to bear that burden.”
Having left just those words, Hisan put down the microphone. It was an ambiguous evaluation with the nuance of wanting to find fault but not wanting to be criticized for it.
‘What is this?’
Juha became rapidly anxious. This wasn’t right. Although Taeri had made a small mistake when landing from his solo dance, it wasn’t very noticeable. Throughout the entire stage, Taeri had been perfectly immersed in his character, and except for that one mistake, there was nothing to fault. From what Juha could see as an ‘observer,’ Taeri had completely embodied the character at least 90% or more. Above all, Choi Taeri’s fundamentals themselves far exceeded the average of the trainees here. It didn’t make sense for someone like Choi Taeri to receive such an evaluation.
No matter how much Juha and Taeri were trainees and the judges were 10-year veterans in this industry, they couldn’t dismiss a stage they’d put their hearts into like that.
Composer Blue Eo’s evaluation was the same. Extreme praise for Lee Juha compared to a lukewarm evaluation of Taeri.
Finally, main master Lee Cheong grabbed the microphone.
“Trainee Lee Juha.”
“Yes.”
“You’re really good at taming.”
Lee Cheong said with a pleased smile.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve praised trainee Lee Juha so much already, so I’ll keep it brief. This stage felt like an art piece rather than an audition for selecting idols.”
“Thank you.”
Juha bowed with a reluctant expression.
“There’s a saying, ‘Can a mantis block an iron cart?’ I had doubts about this team, but I was wrong. Trainee Lee Juha wasn’t a mantis but a dragon.”
“Thank you.”
All Juha could answer was repeated “thank you.”
Of course he had worked hard and given his all to the stage, but overall the masters’ evaluations felt somewhat excessive.
“And trainee Choi Taeri.”
Lee Cheong’s voice turned cold. Taeri’s hand that Juha was holding tensed up sharply.
“Yes.”
“What happened today?”
“……”
Unlike when praising Juha, Lee Cheong’s expression and tone were frigid. As expected, it seemed like no praise would come out. Though the evaluation of Juha was already finished, Juha still trembled as if he were being evaluated himself.
“You know the expectations for trainee Choi Taeri are higher than for other trainees. Because of that, I’m honestly a bit disappointed. Trainee Choi Taeri is from the same company as me, so he’s a junior I’m fond of, and I know his original skills well, but today he didn’t demonstrate even half of his abilities.”
“……”
Taeri couldn’t manage any expression. He just lowered his gaze like a student being scolded by a teacher. Taeri himself would know best what kind of stage he had shown. And Taeri would be feeling in real time how nonsensical this current situation was.
“You did well. Really well. But trainee Choi Taeri has an obligation to show an even better stage proportional to the high expectations.”
Juha shook his head involuntarily as if he had received the harsh evaluation himself.
No. Choi Taeri knew the expectations placed on him, and that’s why he practiced even harder. Juha had watched Taeri’s stage from the closest position, but it wasn’t at a level deserving such harsh criticism. For Taeri, who had given his best without showing it even after his ankle twisted, those words were too cruel.
And overall, this current evaluation was ruthlessly cold to a degree they couldn’t understand.
“We’ll have a brief meeting.”
The four masters entered a meeting to decide the eliminated and qualified contestants. Meanwhile, Taeri and Juha stood on stage with anxious hearts like prisoners waiting for their sentence. Juha squeezed the hand he was holding and looked at Taeri. While sending Taeri a look that said everything would be okay, Juha was already shaken. He felt sorry for not noticing Taeri’s ankle until midway through the stage, and even guilt that it was all his fault that Taeri received this harsh criticism.
They had worked hard together, and Taeri had reduced his own practice time to help with Juha’s dancing. But as a result of the stage, Juha received all the praise while all Taeri got was indifference and harsh criticism.
Even when dancing, this was an unfamiliar moment for Taeri, who had always followed the elite path. Taeri comforted Juha instead, as if he understood all those feelings.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
To Juha’s question, Taeri answered with forced brightness.
With people facing a crossroads in life standing before them, the masters’ meeting went on longer than expected. In this situation where he could neither comfort nor sympathize, all Juha could do was stroke Taeri’s hand with his fingertips.
He wanted to have hope, but he didn’t know what hope it was.
Whether he wanted Taeri to advance, or whether he wanted himself to advance.
However, even after 25 teams had passed, there had never been a case where both team members advanced. The death match rule felt newly cruel.
“We’ll announce the results for this group.”
Finally, Lee Cheong grabbed the microphone. Juha and Taeri’s shoulders tensed up with nervousness as they waited for the result.
The filming staff, the trainees watching through screens, everyone focused on the words that would come from Lee Cheong’s mouth.
Lee Cheong looked somewhere between Juha and Taeri and opened her mouth again.
“Trainee Choi Taeri, eliminated.”
The word ‘eliminated’ echoed through the wide studio, creating an echo. Taeri’s face, which had been trying to smile, hardened instantly.
“Ha……”
Juha unconsciously let go of Taeri’s hand that he’d been holding.
It felt like time stopped and sound disappeared.
Choi Taeri eliminated.
It seemed like Taeri standing next to him was fading and disappearing.
“Choi Taeri is eliminated?”
“Taeri?”
“Choi Taeri is eliminated in the first round?”
As soon as the results came out, not only the production staff but also the participants were in uproar.
Choi Taeri had been a championship candidate from the moment he joined this program, and had been the center of attention throughout filming.
The early viewership ratings were secured because of Choi Taeri, and there were as many fixed viewers expecting Choi Taeri’s stage as the population of a mid-sized city.
In short, the masters had fearlessly eliminated Choi Taeri, who currently held the highest share of this program’s viewership ratings.
The most surprised person wasn’t even Choi Taeri but his competitor Lee Juha.
Though it was still the beginning stage of the program, Juha had never even thought of this program ending without Choi Taeri. Ever since first hearing Taeri say “I want to debut with you,” Juha had unconsciously assumed that if he were to debut, it would naturally be with Taeri.
But the current situation was Lee Juha pushing out Choi Taeri and advancing.
While preparing for this stage, Juha had realized how enjoyable it was to create a stage with someone compatible, but he couldn’t send Taeri away like this.
“Um, Taeri’s ankle was……”
As Juha tried to argue something, Lee Cheong cut off his words.
“Trainee Lee Juha, you don’t seem to realize it yet. This is a place where survival is at stake. The moment you speak for others is when you fall.”
Unable to continue his words, Juha bit his lips tightly.
“It’s okay.”
Taeri smiled awkwardly and patted Juha’s shoulder.
“Trainee Lee Juha, please move to the qualified contestants’ waiting room. Trainee Choi Taeri, please move to the eliminated contestants’ room.”
“Thank you.”
“……Thank you.”
Whether accepting the result or not, Taeri greeted with a composed face. Rather, it was Juha who felt more wronged.
However, just as they greeted and were about to move to their respective waiting rooms, Taeri’s steps collapsed.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
