Chapter 99
“It’s a set with mine.”
Taeri said, pointing to his own ear. It was a chocolate-colored earring that fit snugly to the ear, making it difficult to assume it was a couple earring with Juha.
“Thank you.”
Anyway, how cute. Juha thought to himself and smiled broadly.
“Give it here, I’ll put it on for you.”
When Juha held out his palm, Taeri picked up the small earring and grabbed Juha’s earlobe.
“Ugh.”
As the earring was inserted into the hole, Juha unconsciously let out a low moan. The unfamiliar feeling of penetrating through a hole that had been blocked for a long time made his brow furrow.
“Done. It’s pretty.”
After putting on the earring, Taeri gently caressed Juha’s earlobe. At the sudden touch, Juha’s shoulders automatically shrank.
“I’m always just receiving things.”
Juha muttered while awkwardly touching the earring. Moreover, since it was almost his birthday and he hadn’t prepared anything, he felt especially sorry today for only receiving things from Taeri.
“It’s fine. I’m doing it because I want to. You must be tired, so sleep a little.”
“No, I don’t want to sleep.”
“Then lean on me.”
Taeri gently pressed Juha’s head to lean against his shoulder. Juha unnecessarily rubbed the earring against Taeri’s shoulder. Whatever happened in this competition, it felt like he was wearing a good luck charm to get through it.
The bus crossing downtown Seoul suffered from terrible traffic congestion. The fatigue from yesterday’s practice combined with lack of sleep, but rather, he felt his mind becoming clearer.
* * *
“Juha, let’s get up. We’ve arrived.”
“Mmm……”
At Taeri’s voice gently caressing his shoulder and whispering in his ear, Juha woke up pleasantly from sleep. He had loudly declared he wouldn’t sleep, but apparently he had fallen asleep at some point. The bus had entered a building complex. Inside, three white 3-story buildings stood facing the river.
“Huh? Where are we?”
Juha’s eyes snapped open seeing the scenery that appeared outside.
“Seems like it’s near Gapyeong.”
“Didn’t you sleep?”
Juha asked Taeri while blinking his sleepy eyes.
“I slept a little. Don’t worry.”
He had been sleeping soundly earlier, but as soon as Juha opened his eyes, he was worrying about Taeri again. Taeri chuckled and playfully brushed Juha’s face with his palm. As the bus slowed down, other trainees also stretched and got up.
As Taeri said, the place they arrived at was a small resort in Gapyeong.
It was connected to the river so water sports could be done, and inside the resort there was also a large swimming pool. Inside, there was a large hall that could accommodate more than 50 people and four small seminar rooms, and each of the three buildings had 15 rooms.
After filming the trainees’ intro exploring the resort, the trainees gathered in the large hall.
“Before the 3rd mission, we’ll announce the results of the last team mission ‘Love and People’. Master Lee Cheong, please come out.”
Lee Cheong grabbed the microphone wearing a vacation look with her waist stylishly exposed.
“Before announcing the results of the last AI team mission, we’ll check the team mission scenes on screen.”
The video of Team 4, Kim Namhong and Yeom Sangyeop’s team, began. They were extraordinary from their entrance. They somehow got reserve soldier caps and walked in perfect step.
‘Attention!’
Following Yeom Sangyeop’s command, the team members snapped their heels together and stood.
‘Right face, salute toward your future seniors!’
When reserve soldier Yeom Sangyeop familiarly shouted the command, the team members smoothly turned their bodies and saluted with ‘Loyalty!’
‘Future seniors……’
Juha got goosebumps watching. Unless they were exempt from military service, all the participants gathered here except reserve soldier Yeom Sangyeop would enlist. But seeing that scene, he could imagine a future where everyone would shave their heads and enlist, giving him chills.
‘Hello, juniors! I am Reserve Sergeant Yeom! Sang! Yeop! Hoping that today’s performance will bring small vitality to your military life, Loy! Alty!’
Yeom Sangyeop greeted on behalf of his team members. The soldiers sitting in the audience had indifferent expressions but seemed to reluctantly applaud at the mention of being a reserve soldier.
However, the atmosphere in the audience changed instantly with the song that followed. They had slightly remixed ‘My Job is Idol’ with a popular famous girl group’s song. Moreover, instead of the original’s strong choreography, they changed it to a cute and fresh feeling.
While it didn’t draw as much interest as an actual girl group coming, just arousing the soldiers’ interest was a remarkable achievement. Especially Yeom Sangyeop, the only reserve soldier, should have been embarrassed but seemed accustomed to standing in front of soldiers, leading the stage shamelessly well.
‘They really gritted their teeth and did it.’
Well, everyone was ready to do anything for the individual voting’s 10,000 votes.
Second was the ‘elderly’ team with Andrew as team leader and Jang Chaemyeong, Seo Eunwon, etc. as team members. They visited a senior welfare center in downtown Seoul with many users. Each wearing headbands, they simplified the dance lines and changed it to a stage where they acted cute for the adults. If they had kept the high-difficulty dance lines as is, it might have looked chaotic to the elderly instead. Andrew’s soulful voice stood out too much, but watching the elderly smiling as they watched their cute grandchildren-like performers was a heartwarming scene.
Third was Na Junho and Yoo Youngin’s children and youth team.
‘Oh no……’
Juha grasped the problem as soon as they started their stage. Most of their audience, children and youth, were already fans of My Idol. Rather than changing choreography or music to create variation, they stuck to the original, which had absolutely no individuality or inspiration.
Yoo Youngin followed along well matching other team members, but compared to the last team competition, his fear of cameras was visibly noticeable.
Their stage was textbook in a word. The audience response was good enough to break through the sound system, but it was questionable whether the judges would give points to a stage that had skill but no individuality.
And finally, Taeri and Juha’s team.
“Wow……”
As soon as they dramatically swept off their pure white cloaks, exclamations burst out among the trainees. Juha unconsciously swallowed dry saliva. Even as the person involved, the atmosphere was different from other teams.
The flower bud blooming formation that overwhelmed the audience from the start, and the movement naturally changing from the bamboo hat formation to the straight line formation were also professional. Not only did they create three-dimensionality by sitting and standing according to formations, but despite the rapidly changing movements being potentially overwhelming, all team members moved accurately without being hasty. Since it was a judging video, the audience’s expressions weren’t captured and only the front of the stage was shown, but their sharp angles and powerful performance were not at the level of just a volunteer performance.
Most of all, each team member’s capability was outstanding. Not only Taeri and Juha who were in the extreme upper ranks, but also Jo Munseok and Nam Suchang with solid fundamentals, Choi Musin, and the youngest line Go Suhyeok and Baek Cheonsan also matched well with their hyungs’ level to create the stage. Watching the stage, Juha remembered that time. It was so difficult he felt like he’d collapse on stage from lack of breath, but on screen, no one showed signs of struggling.
Juha found the members who overcame the especially physically demanding practice together and succeeded with the stage to be particularly admirable. And inexplicable confidence welled up.
‘If we do well, I think we can get 1st place.’
When Juha looked at Taeri and spoke with his eyes, Taeri answered with a confident smile.
“I’ll announce the team mission rankings.”
Lee Cheong grabbed the microphone again and spoke.
As Juha watched the stage nervously, Taeri gently held his hand.
“Don’t be nervous.”
Thanks to Taeri whose hand and even voice were warm, his tension gradually subsided.
“4th place, Team 2. MVP is trainee Na Junho.”
The Team 2 members facing the dismal ranking bowed with forced smiles. Team leader Na Junho also bowed in all directions, unable to hide his complicated feelings.
‘They ended up in 4th place.’
Na Junho’s team, which targeted the easy audience of ‘children and youth’ but thoroughly preserved the original song and choreography of ‘My Job is Idol’ while abandoning creativity, ended up in last place. It was a result that would seriously hurt the pride of Na Junho, who was ranked 2nd individually.
It wasn’t that Team 2’s practice was insufficient. The result wasn’t bad either, and every night Team 2 member Yoo Youngin returned exhausted. Since other teams desperately clung to freshness to convince their audiences, Team 2’s stage, which lacked novelty, relatively received lower scores.
“3rd place, Team 4. MVP is trainee Yeom Sangyeop.”
“Oh?”
“Wow?”
3rd place in team rankings couldn’t be called a good result, but considering their performance venue was a military base, it was fortunate they didn’t come in last.
When his name was called, Yeom Sangyeop suddenly raised his head. Even Yeom Sangyeop himself couldn’t believe the result. Though he’d made it to the 3rd round, this was the first time Yeom Sangyeop had received such attention.
But the team MVP being 21st-ranked Yeom Sangyeop instead of Kim Namhong, who had the highest individual ranking among team members, was a surprising result. Probably due to the military base’s characteristics, votes were concentrated on Yeom Sangyeop who boldly revealed he was a reserve soldier.
“Thank you.”
Yeom Sangyeop bowed and greeted. Then the next ranking was announced.
“2nd place, Team 3. MVP Jang Chaemyeong.”
“Huh?”
As soon as the announcement was heard, this time Jang Chaemyeong’s eyes widened. Everyone had noticeably surprised faces. Yeom Sangyeop was one thing, but Jang Chaemyeong was too unexpected. No one had predicted that Jang Chaemyeong would beat Andrew Son with his distinctive voice and Seo Eunwon wearing an ox headband.
“Ah……”
Juha suddenly had a feeling. Since they were elderly, all the boys’ cute antics looked adorable like grandchildren, but especially Jang Chaemyeong wore big rabbit ear headbands and focused on making eye contact with the elderly while smiling brightly. After that, when voting happened, many votes went to Jang Chaemyeong with the most noticeable rabbit headband who smiled brightly.
‘He really was like a rabbit grandchild.’
It was luck if anything, but Juha became curious about how Jang Chaemyeong would create his first team. His musical sense was outstanding and Jang Chaemyeong also had quite good ideas.
Only one team remained.
“The 1st place team of the AI ‘People and Love’ team mission, each receiving 10,000 individual votes, is Team 1, and the MVP is trainee Choi Taeri.”
Team 1 members smiled brightly and exchanged greetings. When Taeri tried to hug Juha, Choi Musin slipped in between them and all three hugged together. Jo Munseok and Nam Suchang also laughed together and comforted each other for this moment.
All team members securing individual 10,000 votes was also a great achievement, but Taeri being the MVP of the 1st place team was the most reassuring. Not only did it increase the probability of being on the same team as Juha, but it also meant his family could confirm the results of the performance at Semun Hospital.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
