Free Web Novel“The contestant, Kurosawa Yuri, is the only foreign contestant remaining in the final twenty-five, and with outstanding vocal skills, as well as an unexpectedly quirky side, brought positive energy into the program...”
The announcement of Idol Ground 100’s final debut lineup.
The first member was Kurosawa Yuri, who had taken sixth place.
The moment Jang Junseok called the name, Yuri’s face appeared on the screen.
‘I’ve never seen that expression before.’
Yuri, whose default had always been a smile, was crying—sobbing bitterly for the first time instead of smiling.
One by one, the contestants around Yuri lifted a hand to wipe away tears, patted Yuri’s shoulder, and guided Yuri to walk slowly out to the exact center of the stage.
When Yuri finally reached the center, Jang Junseok held out the microphone.
Yuri’s hand, taking the mic, was shaking hard.
“···After I came to Korea from Japan, I fell asleep every day dreaming about debuting as an idol. Sometimes it was so hard and lonely that I wondered if I should go back. But because I had that time···I was able to participate in Idol Ground 100!”
-Everyone, thank you for loving me like this!
Only Yuri’s voice echoing through the Gymnastics Arena, and the applause from the stands answering it, circled the stage.
Watching that scene, my feelings were strange.
Of course I was happy Yuri survived.
We’d been on the same team before, and lately we’d gotten a lot closer, so if Yuri had been eliminated, I would’ve been pretty sad, no question.
But at the same time, the cruel reality that there were only six spots left now squeezed at my chest.
“Next, we will announce the contestant who recorded fifth place. Fifth place is contestant Im Yunkyung, who received so much love from everyone with an always lively and cute charm throughout the program!”
Clench.
At Jang Junseok’s next call, I clenched my fist without realizing it.
‘Hoo···.’
I barely held myself back, worried it would show if I looked too happy, and turned my eyes toward where Yunkyung was.
And I saw Yunkyung jumping in place, thrilled—
“Captain!!!”
What happened next was something even I couldn’t have predicted.
Yunkyung sprinted at full speed and threw herself into my arms.
“Hey! Your stage remarks! You have to go do your stage remarks first!”
“Ah! Right!”
I whispered it at Yunkyung like ventriloquism while Yunkyung was hugging me and bouncing, and only then did Yunkyung come back to reality and scamper over to Jang Junseok.
“Uh···honestly, I didn’t expect I’d place fifth···so I’m really happy, and also, even though I’m lacking, the fans who always supported me, and the older sisters who helped me···hngh···there are so many people I’m grateful to···.”
“Contestant Yunkyung, calm down just a little···.”
Maybe Yunkyung truly hadn’t expected to be called, because Yunkyung’s remarks came out rambling and disjointed, and laughter leaked from the contestants’ mouths, mine included.
‘To think I’d make it this far with the kid.’
The Yunkyung who’d met me in Class F and followed right behind me everywhere—seeing Yunkyung now, standing proudly among the final seven, felt new even to me.
The kid who called me “Captain” and got excited and joined first every time I did something—when had the kid grown up like this?
Back then, it felt like something terrible would happen if I didn’t keep Yunkyung at my side, but today, on the Starlight Umbrella stage with the other contestants, Yunkyung had grown so much I didn’t need to worry anymore.
Of course, since Yunkyung was still young, Yunkyung couldn’t control emotions and was bouncing around, but that was also Yunkyung’s charm.
Even Jang Junseok, a veteran celebrity, seemed to have no method for the tear-mixed rampage of a fifteen-year-old kid—he looked like he was trying to soothe a niece, and the audience also found themselves smiling without meaning to.
“Thank you! I’ll work hard!”
After that winding mess finally ended and Yunkyung’s remarks were over, Jang Junseok let out a relieved breath, gripped the mic again, and continued the announcement.
“Next, we will announce fourth place. Fourth place is also a contestant who recorded a surprising jump in rank compared to the previous rankings announcement ceremony.”
Jang Junseok stopped mid-sentence.
And at that explanation, I hurriedly ran through candidates in my head, but—
‘A huge rise in rank... someone who was outside the top ten?’
Since even Yunkyung, who’d just been called, was a case of a big jump, it was hard to guess who it was from that alone.
Maybe it wasn’t only me who couldn’t figure it out and felt frustrated—when the other contestants and even the audience glared at Jang Junseok with fierce eyes, as if demanding he announce it already, Jang Junseok finally opened the mouth again.
“Fourth place is the contestant who showed outstanding producing ability in the group battle mission and made viewers take notice, and then in the concept mission tried a new change and showed a good side of···Geum Shinyu!!!”
Waaah!!!
The moment Shinyu’s name was called, an enormous cheer erupted from one section of the stands.
Women’s voices were especially loud.
“What is that, Shinyu’s family?”
“It’s Shinyu’s fandom, you little golden one.”
“Little golden one?”
I flinched at Seo Ryujin’s words, shocked that those passionate voices belonged to Shinyu’s fandom.
“Shinyu switched to the rap position in the last concept mission and got a ton of female fans. They call it ‘pretty-handsome’—I guess Shinyu hit that fandom’s exact taste.”
I learned something I hadn’t known.
‘Shinyu really is pretty, but there is kind of a handsome feel too.’
I didn’t know the word Seo Ryujin used before, but I understood the vibe right away.
Shinyu had especially strong androgynous charm among the contestants.
Maybe because of that, a lot of female fans latched on and the rank shot up.
“Thank you! To stand here today, so much has happened. To the fans who supported me, and···to our Lucid Dive Team A members who reached out a hand when I lost myself and struggled, especially Sion— And lastly, Grandma, I finally went and debuted, y’know. I’m so happy, you hear!”
Shinyu delivered the remarks slowly.
When my name came up in the middle, I jolted in surprise, but when Shinyu turned around, met my eyes, and looked at me, I couldn’t help but smile. freewebnσvel.cѳm
And—
“That’s my first time hearing Shinyu’s dialect.”
“When Shinyu first joined Logic a long time ago, Shinyu got yelled at like crazy by the team lead for that, and the kids teased Shinyu too. After that, Shinyu never used it again, but···.”
If I had to pick the one who grew the most during this program, I would pick Shinyu without hesitation.
Even if people asked, Shinyu never did it—yet now, saying that dialect in a public place, Shinyu’s expression looked more confident than anyone’s, unlike the way Shinyu had seemed cowed when we first met.
“Idol Ground 100’s final debut lineup. Now, only four spots remain. From here, we’ll announce the contestant who took third place among them!”
With Shinyu’s remarks done, now only four seats were left.
I patted Shinyu’s head after Shinyu returned to my side and focused on Jang Junseok’s announcement.
***
“Who do you think third place is?”
“Third? Seo Ryujin.”
“That’s «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» unexpected. Seo Ryujin kept taking second place.”
In the system control room behind the Gymnastics Arena stage.
This was an important place where you could see the stage and the stands at a glance, and unless you were staff, entry was absolutely prohibited, but.
Today, two outsiders had come into that system room.
“My gut says so. For us, gut feeling is important, you know?”
“Thank you for rating Ayeon so highly.”
“What? I didn’t say second place was Ryu Ayeon.”
At the man’s words, the other man let out a hollow laugh.
“You have no talent for jokes, Teacher.”
“Drop the ‘Teacher.’ Lee Seyeon, you and I are only ten years apart.”
“Ten years makes it a little awkward to call you ‘hyung,’ doesn’t it?”
“Let’s not talk.”
Lee Seyeon, the CEO of SY, one of the Big Three idol agencies, and Park Taesu, the CEO of TSP.
The two of them were watching Idol Ground 100’s Final Round stage together, on good terms, from the system control room.
Since both of them were more famous than most idols, if they watched normally from the audience seats, articles would obviously pour out, so MPlay had arranged VIP seating for them.
From the moment the first stage began up until this rankings announcement ceremony, they had watched everything there.
[The contestant who took the long-awaited third place in Idol Ground 100 is Seo Ryujin!!!]
“You were right.”
“There probably wasn’t a big difference. It’s just that Seo Ryujin has a little more general appeal, and Ryu Ayeon probably had a slightly stronger core fandom. That’s the difference.”
Park Taesu agreed with Seyeon’s explanation.
‘Yeah. If Seo Ryujin is the type who’ll be popular anywhere, Ayeon’s color is pretty strong.’
If, like before, multiple voting had been possible, Seo Ryujin would’ve stayed in second, but Park Taesu thought the change to only being able to vote for one person was what created today’s flipped ranking.
“Isn’t it fascinating?”
“What is?”
“That there are this many raw gems, outside of the trainees we picked and picked again—us, you guys, and YH.”
“That’s true.”
If you dreamed of becoming an idol, the places you applied to no matter what were the Big Three agencies.
Because of that, the Big Three picked talented people from among them, and through their companies’ networks, collected talented people again—on the street, or at academies.
So being selected as a trainee at a Big Three agency was, in the entertainment industry, talented enough to function like a kind of calling card.
And the fascinating part was that even outside of those carefully chosen people, talented trainees still popped out of nowhere.
“It’s really fascinating. How, on this tiny patch of land, kids keep coming out who are pretty, dance well, and sing well.”
Listening to Seyeon, Park Taesu recalled the contestants’ stages that had unfolded today.
They weren’t perfect, but strangely, there was a charm that pulled people in.
‘There was something we couldn’t see in our kids.’
Even if Park Taesu told the trainees under TSP to put on the same kind of stage, Park Taesu wasn’t confident they could show something better than what Idol Ground 100’s contestants had shown today.
In terms of skill, they wouldn’t lag behind at all—but Park Taesu felt there was something those contestants had that the company trainees didn’t.
[We will announce first and second place. The two contestants we call now, please come forward to the front of the stage.]
As they were talking, the two of them turned their eyes back to the monitor at Jang Junseok’s words that he would finally announce first and second place.
“MPlay is really shameless.”
“Seriously. To kick out TSP, SY, and Logic.”
Watching the two contestants walk to the center of the stage, the two CEOs couldn’t hide disappointed expressions.
It was because KJ had rejected the two CEOs’ offer to take over managing the project group, and instead said KJ would establish a new agency.
‘The more I think about it, the more I regret it.’
In Park Taesu’s case especially, even if it meant delaying the debut of TSP’s rookie girl group Lynx by a year, Park Taesu had wanted to bring Lee Sion and Ryu Ayeon in no matter what, so the regret was even bigger.
“We should get revenge.”
“What?”
Park Taesu, who’d been briefly trapped in regret over the Lynx lineup Park Taesu had envisioned, looked at Seyeon in surprise at the sudden words.
At first, Park Taesu thought it was a joke.
But when Park Taesu checked Seyeon’s face, Park Taesu realized Seyeon wasn’t joking.
“Actually, we had a group we were preparing to debut too, but we’d been talking about delaying it because it might overlap with yours.”
“SY’s new girl group, then···.”
SY’s rookie girl group, which had been avoided so it wouldn’t overlap with TSP’s Lynx.
“But I’m going to just crash head-on. I’m going to beat you guys, and beat KJ too, and stand at the top of this fourth-generation girl group era.”
“···.”
If entertainment reporters heard it, it would be instant chaos—a statement that could cause a seismic shift in the current idol scene—yet Seyeon stared back at the monitor as if nothing had happened.
***
“Before we announce first and second place, we will reveal seventh place, which will take the final spot of Idol Ground 100.”
At Jang Junseok’s words, not only the audience but the contestants held their breath.
Since first and second place already had owners—either me or Ryu Ayeon—people honestly weren’t that interested.
Everyone’s interest was focused on seventh place.
-Kim Nayeon is the obvious pick, right?
↳Yeah, but earlier Kim Suyeon was seventh, so you never know
↳There are too many candidates for seventh
↳Yoo Jihye, Park Garam, Kim Suyeon, Kim Nayeon, Lee Gahyeon, Choi Sojeong—whoever gets in, it wouldn’t be weird
↳These insane bastards, holding seventh place hostage so people won’t change channels because first and second are obvious—first time I’ve seen that
↳ㅋㅋㅋ Honestly it worked. I’m most curious about who seventh is right now
-MPlay’s official site posted that if five million people sign within 24 hours, they’ll do a revote
↳f*** what template is this again?
↳I don’t know whose fan you are, but just today, understand it. How hard must your heart be pounding?
↳I never thought I’d live to see the day I regret not promoting idols in my life.
↳Hyungsoo! If you pretend you didn’t see it and increase the debut members to 25, I’ll pretend I didn’t see it too
↳This guy’s on a different level ㅋㅋ Not 9—25, damn. What’s the group name, Triple S or something?
With six members already selected and only one seat left—excluding first and second, which weren’t finalized—since nobody could be sure who that last seat would go to, people had no choice but to wait for the results with trembling hearts.
Because the probability that the contestant you supported could be seventh place wasn’t zero, you could easily find audience members clasping their hands and praying.
“The contestant who recorded seventh place is someone who sometimes showed a sexy side, and sometimes a cute side, showing viewers a twist charm···Contestant Lee Gahyeon!”
Ah.
The moment Lee Gahyeon’s name came out of Jang Junseok’s mouth, a sigh escaped me without realizing it.
And at the end of my gaze, which turned without me meaning to, was Suyeon.
Suyeon wasn’t saying anything, just staring up at the ceiling.
“Congratulations, Gahyeon!”
“Gahyeon, good work.”
“You did so well.”
While a few contestants comforted Lee Gahyeon, who had collapsed to the floor and was crying, I headed toward Suyeon.
“Suyeon···.”
“Unni···.”
There was wetness in Suyeon’s voice.
The vote gap between Lee Gahyeon and Suyeon probably wasn’t big.
I patted Suyeon’s shoulder and turned my eyes again.
And then I saw Nayeon and Yoo Jihye.
The two of them were just staring down at the floor, wiping at the corners of the eyes with the backs of the hands.
“···,···.”
As I walked up to the two of them and hugged them without saying anything, I heard Lee Gahyeon’s remarks, delivered as Lee Gahyeon was carried—almost dragged—by the other contestants toward center stage.
So nervous that it looked like the legs were still giving out, Lee Gahyeon’s legs were trembling like a newborn fawn’s, but Lee Gahyeon still clutched the mic, crying, and continued the remarks.
“Idol Ground 100’s Final Round, with only the final first and second place remaining!”
As soon as Lee Gahyeon’s remarks ended, Jang Junseok pushed on as if there was no more time to drag it out.
“First place is contestant number 100, Lee Sion!!!”
Tap!
At the same time as the announcement, Ryu Ayeon patted my back.
When I turned my head to look at Ryu Ayeon, Ryu Ayeon didn’t say anything—just lifted a thumb and showed it only to me.
Heh.
Seeing it, a laugh escaped me without realizing it.
‘Yeah. I have to do what I have to do.’
When I slowly stepped toward the center of the stage, I could see the people in the stands pouring cheers toward me.
Some people were crying as they cheered, and some were clapping with the brightest smiles—strangely, it all looked vivid, like a camera zoomed in.
Hold.
Jang Junseok held out the microphone to me as I briefly took in those people.
“Ah.”
I let out my voice lightly into the mic.
A habit that leaked out from my old days as a company commander, right before speaking in front of the troops.
I probably wouldn’t be able to fix it for the rest of my life.
“I think I am standing here today representing the one hundred contestants.”
The remarks I had prepared earlier were all wiped from my head.
The obvious stuff—my mom and dad, and my fans including Sionism, and thanking the production staff including my aunt.
“We are stars. Out of one hundred stars, seven stars shine today, but I hope everyone doesn’t forget that stars only shine at different times, and that the same moment when they shine will come to everyone someday.”
I paused, turned around, and looked at the contestants.
The twenty-four contestants besides me who had remained until the Final Round.
And even the other contestants who’d been eliminated but still came all the way here to support us—I carved them all into my eyes.
“I won’t stop until we stand at the top, carrying everyone’s wishes.”
For the first time in this life, I had a firm goal.
“And with that, from first place to seventh, Idol Ground 100’s debut members have been decided.”
Now the program was racing toward the end.
When I finished my remarks and stood lined up with the six members called before me, Jang Junseok stepped out in front of us, extended a hand, and shouted.
“The name that will become the girl group of the nation···.”
-Revealed in 60 seconds!
Jang Junseok shouted “60 seconds” with absolute confidence.
From where I stood, it felt like Jang Junseok should probably watch out for a terror attack soon.
