Chapter 45
The viewership rating for episode 4 of ‘My Job is Idol’, which had caused tremendous controversy, was 4.4%.
For a first competition, this was an exceptionally high figure. Moreover, when combined with YouTube clip views and reruns, it was clearly showing signs of being a huge hit.
No matter how tired people were of survival audition programs, once dozens of young, handsome men appeared on TV doing nothing but cute things, the remote control would stop. And if that wasn’t enough, adding tearful, thrilling, provocative editing would naturally draw attention.
The production team, whose only goal was to generate buzz, threw Choi Taeri into a crocodile pit and then casually started preparing for the second competition as if nothing had happened.
On the first day of the training camp for the second competition, they first began with the ranking announcement ceremony for the previous competition.
The first competition rankings were composed of 50% judges’ scores and 50% text voting, with each person allowed to vote for up to 5 trainees.
Thanks to turning the first competition into a death match that cut the participants in half, there were currently 43 remaining members.
Like during the previous training camp, Choi Taeri sat to Juha’s left, and Seo Eunwon to his right.
The ranking announcement proceeded according to the voice of Park Jusung, a tension-filled presentation expert. Each time a name was announced, Juha felt like he was missing a step and falling down a staircase. As they entered the 20s, Juha’s heart rate began to increase.
‘I should rank higher than 24th, at least.’
This was the extent of Juha’s initial expectations. He had received quite a lot of attention during the photo shoot mission and death match, so at the very least, his ranking wouldn’t drop.
Fortunately, Juha’s name wasn’t in the 20s. That meant his ranking had improved from before. As the trainees’ names were called out by rank, Juha’s heart rate continued to rise.
Just as he was nervously hoping his name would be called a bit later, it was announced.
“15th place, Lee Juha.”
‘Huh…?’
Juha’s head shot up. It was earlier than expected. The trainees all began murmuring.
“Lee Juha is 15th?”
“Only 15th?”
“Maybe 5th, but 15th?”
Even the trainees were greatly shaken.
Juha tried hard to maintain his composure. Initially, he had just hoped to rank higher than his previous position, but now he couldn’t easily accept his current ranking.
‘Was I too arrogant?’
He had thought only of the worst-case scenario to avoid expectations. However, Juha and Taeri’s stage had received an overwhelmingly positive response compared to other trainees. Even if he couldn’t make it into the top 5, he had hoped to at least be in the top 10, but it was merely a 9-step rise.
The judges’ scores were good, but his voting scores were terribly low.
While Juha was lost in self-reflection, the rankings continued. There were certainly many changes from the initial rankings. Seo Eunwon was an impressive 9th place. Na Junho, who had been 3rd in the first episode, dropped to 10th after choosing the wrong death match partner.
There were also quite a few trainees who had been in the top 10 initially but had fallen in rank. And their places were filled by unexpected figures who had been outside the top 10.
Though there was a big difference from the fan reactions he felt, the rankings had many questionable aspects for what was supposed to be the most important first competition results.
And the final 3.
“3rd place, Choi Taeri.”
“Gasp!”
“What?”
“Really?”
As soon as Taeri’s name was called, the trainees went into an uproar. No matter how he had fallen in the death match and climbed back up, Eoltae was still Eoltae. But he was 3rd, not even 2nd.
Thanks to that commotion, Choi Taeri had dropped all the way to 3rd place, but there was no change in expression on Taeri’s face. Juha, standing closest to him, could read his mind.
In this competition, I’ll make sure they can never play games again.
Choi Taeri was someone who had the talent to do exactly that.
2nd place was Kim Namhong. A skilled trainee who had been 6th in the initial rankings and had attracted quite a few fans during the last death match.
And finally.
“1st place, Yoo Youngin.”
Juha forcibly held back a sigh that was about to escape.
While he could accept getting 15th place himself, he was furious that Choi Taeri had gotten 3rd. But what made him angriest was that Yoo Youngin had taken that spot.
“Congratulations, trainee Yoo Youngin! You’ve taken first place in the first competition.”
At Park Jusung’s words, Youngin bowed 90 degrees to all the cameras with an expression as if he owned the world. He was so polite that anyone watching might mistake him for a naturally well-mannered and humble person.
* * *
As soon as the ranking announcement ended, Taeri and Youngin were dragged to the interview booth. Youngin seized the moment as an opportunity to cling to Taeri with a sly grin. Without showing any sign of being conscious of the cameras, Taeri conversed with Youngin no differently than usual. This poker face was one of Taeri’s advantages in survival auditions, but it was also what made Juha’s blood boil. Since cameras were rolling, he couldn’t openly snub him, so Yoo Youngin had probably approached knowing this.
During break time, partitions were set up on one side of the main hall and staff busily prepared something. While cameras and sound equipment changed the hall setup, other trainees gathered in front of the detailed score sheet attached to the back of the main hall. Due to all the controversy online about rigging, they showed each judge’s scoring points and vote counts per trainee accurately by capturing images from the voting program.
A few years ago, a PD from another network’s survival audition had been arrested for vote manipulation, so they seemed more sensitive about it.
‘So they won’t manipulate vote counts even if they manipulate the program operation?’
Anyway, manipulating the program and editing would also affect vote counts. Powerless trainees could only either accept it or give up.
Juha stood blankly in front of the score sheet with bitter thoughts. His judges’ scores were good enough to be in the top 10, but his voting scores were so low they nearly matched 20th place.
He couldn’t understand it at all. If Taeri was a victim of evil editing, Juha had been the biggest beneficiary of the previous episode’s editing.
‘What were those reactions I saw?’
Did the fans who had been making a fuss about Juha on fan pages not follow through with votes?
There were quite a few trainees ahead of Juha whose fan reactions had been lukewarm. Considering the buzz from the photo mission and first competition stage, Juha’s vote count made no sense no matter how he thought about it.
“Ugh, how pitiful Lee Juha is!”
Meanwhile, Yeom Sangyeop approached Juha, clicking his tongue. His first competition ranking was 21st.
With most of the health boys he used to hang around with eliminated, Yeom Sangyeop had stuck to Juha’s side again.
“Why?”
Juha looked at Sangyeop with puzzled eyes.
“I spent the whole break period digging through fan reactions. I could probably write a thesis on idol fans now.”
“But why am I pitiful?”
When Juha asked, Sangyeop looked at him with truly pitying eyes.
“Ugh. Our Juha, it’s still hard for you to know about such things. But how did you end up earning the hatred of not one but two trainees’ fandoms?”
“…What are you talking about?”
Juha didn’t understand what he meant. He just wished he’d get to the point instead of beating around the bush.
Yeom Sangyeop glanced around to check camera positions, then moved closer to Juha.
“There are 5 votes per person, right? It’s standard practice for Yoo Youngin fans to vote for the least popular, most hopeless trainees excluding Youngin. They check all the ones who might make it to the top. So you probably didn’t get a single vote from all those Youngin fans.”
Juha had roughly seen from online communities how much chaos people presumed to be Youngin fans were causing. But even if Youngin had many fans, it wouldn’t be enough to drop Juha to 15th place.
“But do you know whose fans are an even bigger problem than them?”
“Who?”
After asking, Juha swallowed hard. Looking at Yeom Sangyeop’s expression, he felt an ominous uneasiness.
“Choi Taeri.”
Yeom Sangyeop’s face whispering carefully with wide eyes looked like a horror movie. And Choi Taeri of all people.
“What?”
It was such an unexpected name. Seeing Juha’s reaction, Yeom Sangyeop excitedly continued.
“There’s a saying: the real obsessive fanatics aren’t Choi Taeri, but Choi Taeri’s fans. They foam at the mouth and attack anyone who threatens Taeri’s position, no matter who it is. There’s no friendship or anything for them.”
“Ah…”
Now Juha understood this situation.
While other fans criticized Choi Taeri’s attitude controversy, Choi Taeri’s obsessive fans stormed Gnet headquarters.
They completely trashed the message boards demanding all the production staff and judges be replaced and even filed a petition to the Blue House.
But the result was Choi Taeri’s explanation statement.
At that time, Choi Taeri’s fans were angry enough to kill someone. And that anger was directed at none other than Lee Juha, who was closest to Choi Taeri.
“You bastard, you beat Taeri in the photo mission and got first place, then beat him again in the death match and made Taeri fall this time. Because of that, the ankle injury, the explanation statement… those obsessive fans wouldn’t just sit still, would they?”
Juha nodded silently. To Choi Taeri’s fans, for whom Eoltae was their life’s greatest pride, Lee Juha had dealt them an unbearable humiliation. Even if it wasn’t Juha’s intention.
He thought they’d just write insults about Juha on message boards, but they had systematically pushed Juha out.
The fan wars outside the ring were rougher than expected. Lee Juha’s fans were mostly muggles (general public) or converts from other fandoms, so their solidarity wasn’t very high yet. So they just cast one vote for Juha without engaging in any major fights. Rather, some fans probably just watched from the sidelines, tired of the trolling.
It wouldn’t be easy to form highly loyal fans with just the first competition.
In the end, Lee Juha dropped to 15th place due to his passive fans, Yoo Youngin’s fans, and the malicious strategic voting by Choi Taeri’s fans.
“Choi Taeri’s fans are usually pretty generous. As long as you don’t climb up to threaten Taeri’s position.”
Yeom Sangyeop casually threw out the words as if giving another tip.
“What about Yoo Youngin’s fans?”
“They’re hopeless. They’re professional trolls who just pick someone to target and bury them by digging up graves regardless of facts.”
Listening to his story, Juha recalled the convenience store incident. The event where buying four cans of beer made him “morally bankrupt crazy Juha.”
That was also likely the work of Youngin fans’ fabrication.
“I guess I should just focus on doing my job well.”
Juha said matter-of-factly.
“Ugh, doesn’t it bother you at all?”
“It’s not something I can do anything about.”
“Right. That’s better.”
Yeom Sangyeop reluctantly nodded.
In the distance, Taeri came out of the interview booth after finishing his interview. Youngin, who had been waiting outside the booth first, clung to him pretending to be friendly. Seeing the fox-like Yoo Youngin should have made him angry, but watching the two of them, Juha recalled what Yeom Sangyeop had said.
‘Of all people to get involved with, they all have amazing core fandoms.’
He felt lost about what attitude to take going forward. Whether as a trainee then or now, the thought that ‘just working hard is enough’ was just comforting talk.
* * *
After about an hour of break time ended, the main hall was set up for filming. Room assignments hadn’t finished by then, so the trainees were in chaos. Several trainees tried to peek around to see what the production team was so busy preparing, but it was blocked by high partitions.
As soon as Taeri spotted Juha, he started to shake off Youngin and come over. Juha weakly shook his head and stopped him with his eyes.
Taeri hesitated and smiled awkwardly, but Juha’s thoughts were firm. It would look too unseemly for Taeri to suddenly run to Juha while talking to someone else. Even that scared Juha.
What Taeri’s fans had done to Juha wasn’t Taeri’s fault. But since they were filming now, he couldn’t throw tantrums or engage in personal friendliness. The most important thing was to naturally finish filming during the training camp period.
The hall was organized and Park Jusung came up on stage. When the cameras started rolling, the chaotic interior of the hall also quieted down. The trainees paid attention to what would come out of Park Jusung’s mouth.
“The thrilling, heart-pounding first competition is over. You’re curious about the second competition theme, aren’t you?”
“Yes!”
The trainees answered in unison.
“Let’s look at the screen!”
[Reverse King: Become the King of Reverse Hits!]
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
