Free Web NovelThe mid-check for Idol Ground 100.
This time, out of the three judges, Hyeryeong and Lee Jungyoon, who were respectively in charge of vocal and dance training, were each leading their own teams and conducting the mid-check.
“This choreo isn’t fitting together. If you were going to do it like this, you shouldn’t have picked a by teen song.”
“Pick one and focus. Either go as hardcore as a boy-group stage or turn it into a girl-group version.”
“What was your reason for choosing this song? Don’t tell me you picked ‘Glass Flower’ just because the headcount is small and you wanted to stand out?”
Among them, Jungyoon had brought choreographers from her own dance academy to examine the teams.
‘The kids are in their element, huh?’
Watching the choreographers under her give the participants ruthless evaluations, Jungyoon was secretly satisfied.
And she had every reason to be. Honestly, if she could train the participants every day herself, she would have taught them with kinder words and a softer touch.
But since she could only come once, at most twice a week, and squeeze in watching the teams’ practice in-between, giving them strong feedback each time she saw them was more effective.
On top of that, the participants knew the careers of the choreographers who had come with Jungyoon, so more than anyone, they understood in their bones that what they were pointing out weren’t just nitpicks but real issues.
Starting from “Exy,” called the pinnacle of third-generation idols, to recently rising “Boyvicious” and “WTX,” there wasn’t a single famous idol group that hadn’t received choreography from Jungyoon’s team.
The participants knew very well that, when it came to idol dance in Korea right now, the people standing in front of them were the top experts.
For the moment, it was a little pitiful seeing the participants deflated by the choreographers’ sharp critiques, but most of them would grit their teeth and come back having practiced to show improvement by the final check—that was the Idol Ground 100 participants for you.
‘The kids have some bite after all.’
A trainee without bite could not debut.
Even idols who looked like they wouldn’t hurt an ant on TV had fought their way through trainee-level competition so fierce it made your skin crawl.
“Next is the Bang! Bang! Love team?”
“Oh, I’m curious about this one.”
“What were the production staff thinking when they picked this song?”
While they were on a short break after finishing one team’s check and before judging the next, one of Jungyoon’s academy choreographers, looking over the song list, spoke in disbelief.
Hearing that, Jungyoon flinched a little.
-How about Bang! Bang! Love as a dance-position mission song?
In truth, she had been the one to recommend that song.
‘It’s hard, but that song has crazy potential.’
Unlike the other mission songs, Bang! Bang! Love was the only one that was fundamentally a vocal song, but the fun part was that even though it was a vocal track, it had such a good groove that your body moved on its own, so it was well-suited for choreography too.
It was to the point that, as soon as she heard the song, Jungyoon had tried matching choreo to it on her own even though no one had asked her to.
‘Ryu Ayeon, Yoo Jihae, Kim Nayeon are good, and Geum Shinyu, Lee Gahyeon, Im Yunkyung are a bit lacking, and Lee Sion? I just can’t get a read on her.’
Looking over the Bang! Bang! Love team composition, Jungyoon was pure confusion.
Starting with Ryu Ayeon, three of them were participants with top-tier skill among the group, while the other three were weaker in terms of ability.
But those three had shown a more charming stage than the upper three in the last Group Battle Mission, so it wasn’t like there was nothing to look forward to.
And the participant who could practically be called the protagonist of that stage, and the final member of the Bang! Bang! Love team, Lee Sion.
‘She was definitely a complete beginner.’
Sion’s Entrance Ceremony stage had been pure shock and terror, so it still remained burned into Jungyoon’s mind.
-Didn’t Lee Sion just hide her skills?
Once Idol Ground 100 began airing and viewers only saw Sion’s improved skills through the broadcast, people had started saying she’d pretended to be bad to build an underdog narrative.
But,
[Current working choreographer here (evidence attached)]
「I won’t reveal detailed personal info since that could cause controversy, but I’ll attach only the emails I’ve received requesting choreography drafts from agencies as proof.
These days, there’s talk that Idol Ground 100 participant Lee Sion is hiding her true level.
It sounded like an interesting topic, so I watched and analyzed it myself.
To jump straight to the conclusion, participant Lee Sion really is a beginner.
First, if you look at her Entrance Ceremony stage, ‘Pink Spell’···」
↳Ugh··· this is too hard, someone give me a three-line summary···
↳Skimming it, they’re basically saying that even if an experienced person tries to pretend to be bad, certain postures always show through, and Sion doesn’t have any of that.
↳Yeah yeah, looking at the email proof, seems legit. What the hell, she’s got mails from all the famous agencies.
↳Isn’t that Photoshopped?
↳You can tell if it’s doctored in Photoshop.
↳How would you know?
↳Last time someone tried to fake their academic history with Photoshop and got caught.
↳Then fair enough lol
thanks to a writeup someone had posted, the controversy had died down.
And to Jungyoon’s eye, Sion was indeed a beginner.
‘But her growth is absurdly fast.’
Sion’s skills had started skyrocketing starting from Spotlight, Idol Ground 100’s first song and theme track.
Back then her skill had still been lacking, so despite Hyeryeong’s strong recommendation, Jungyoon had stubbornly opposed bumping Sion up to A class.
-My eyes were spot on, right?
But after watching Sion’s skills continue to develop like a runaway train, she’d had no choice but to acknowledge her.
And with someone like Sion on the Bang! Bang! Love team, she was curious how much growth she would show this time.
While she chatted with the choreographers during their little break, the Bang! Bang! Love team entered the evaluation space where Jungyoon was waiting.
“Hello! We’re Rainbow, the team that chose Bang! Bang! Love!”
“Rainbow?”
“Yes! There are exactly seven of us, so we named ourselves Rainbow, because the seven of us, with our different charms, combine into one like a rainbow.”
It was cliché, but it was a textbook team name.
“Then, shall we see the stage?”
“Yes!”
At Jungyoon’s words to show the stage, Team Rainbow formed their formation.
Centered on Ryu Ayeon in the middle, three members stood to each side in a standard formation.
Tap.
Once they were in place, a finger snap sounded and the song began.
Heartbeats racing like a drum in the night
Your eyes lock on me, I can’t hide
Fire’s burning, set me on desire
One touch and I’m taking you higher
As Kim Nayeon, in charge of the intro, stepped forward, the other members moved quickly to rearrange into formation again.
Then Nayeon and the rest of the team all snapped their shoulders and hips sharply as # Nоvеlight # they struck a pose.
‘Nice.’
Following the pose, moves emphasizing the hip line and body line came out, and on top of that, their hands weren’t idle either, taking aim with gun-shaped gestures and trying a variety of expressions.
When the song moved into the chorus, Sion stepped forward this time, spreading both arms wide and jumping together with the members.
It was choreography with a lively mood that synced perfectly with the song’s climax.
At the same time, the other team members, excluding Sion, were throwing their upper bodies back and swinging their hips wide, putting on a stage that exploded with energy.
Finally, in the rap part, Ayeon came forward, riding the bounce; with moves where she dipped and raised her upper body, and using her hands to slap the floor or jab the air, she showed charisma like the famous female rapper who’d sung the original.
“Haa···.”
Just like that, the Bang! Bang! Love team finished their stage to the song.
Because the choreography was so intense, once they were done, all the team members were breathing hard.
“Thanks for the performance. Who made the choreography?”
“Haa··· I did.”
Without a moment’s break, Jungyoon threw out a question before moving on to the evaluation.
In the line, Ayeon raised her hand and answered, still gasping for breath.
“The choreography isn’t bad. No, I’d say it’s actually good.”
This was the assessment of Jungyoon the choreographer, not the judge.
Watching the choreo for the Bang! Bang! Love stage they’d just performed, it made her think, if she’d been the one assigned this song, this was about the feel she would’ve gone for.
But the evaluation as a judge was different.
“The problem is, there are only two members in this team who can completely pull this choreography off.”
“···.”
“You and Sion. If I’m being generous, I could add Jihae and Nayeon in there too.”
No matter how good the choreo’s quality was, if it didn’t suit the team, then it wasn’t good choreography.
In practice, whenever one of her drafts was accepted and she became the official choreographer for an idol group, Jungyoon would always adjust the choreo to match that group’s skill level.
“Yoo Jihae, you’re the leader, right?”
“···Yes.”
“If the leader isn’t even good enough to set an example, how are you going to lead the team?”
“···.”
“And Kim Nayeon.”
“Yes!”
“Was it over once you got bumped up to A class? Why don’t I feel any power from you in the choreography?”
“···I’m sorry.”
Jungyoon didn’t think Jihae and Nayeon were dramatically weaker than Ayeon in terms of skill.
Precisely because of that, she had to call them out.
‘Even if not at Ayeon’s level, they should at least be at Sion’s.’
Of course, her scolding didn’t end there.
“Lee Gahyeon, Geum Shinyu, Im Yunkyung, it’s not that I’m not saying anything because you did well. To put it really harshly, if the three of you weren’t here, this stage could’ve been one of the top stages in the entire program.”
“···.”
The lower three had done better than expected, but even so, she couldn’t just gloss over the fact that their objective skill level was low.
“Ayeon, nothing’s changed from last time.”
“···I’m sorry.”
“If you’re going to make the choreography however you want, what’s the point of having a team?”
“···.”
All the judges tried to evaluate the participants objectively, but inevitably there were participants they were attached to.
For example, Hyeryeong kept an especially close eye on Sion, and producer Ahn Seongho cherished Geum Shinyu, saying she matched his preferred music style.
And the participant Jungyoon treasured most was none other than Ryu Ayeon.
‘Her skill is great and she practices to the point of being scary.’
But for some reason, Ayeon couldn’t seem to mesh with those around her, and her eyes were filled with a ruthless determination to succeed no matter what.
Seeing that look made Jungyoon’s heart waver, because it reminded her of her own younger days as an unknown backup dancer.
But precisely because of that, she judged Ayeon all the more harshly.
Remembering how she herself had only realized her shortcomings and improved further after forming a team instead of just being individually good, she wanted Ayeon to learn the importance of teammates too.
“I’m sorry. I asked Ayeon to choreograph without worrying about the difficulty level.”
“Sion, you did?”
“Yes, I really wanted our stage to be good, so even though Ayeon tried to hold back, I pushed and insisted we go ahead. I’m sorry.”
But when the harsh words aimed at Ayeon came, Sion stepped up first and claimed it was her fault.
And almost like they’d coordinated it,
“I’m sorry, Jungyoon-saem. Ayeon tried to lower the difficulty, and I stopped her and said we should still give it a try. As leader, I didn’t lead the team well.”
“Ha···.”
This time, the team’s leader, Jihae, came forward and insisted it was her fault.
Jungyoon let out a short, disbelieving laugh—not because she was dumbfounded or angry, but because she was pleased.
Come to think of it, the only one hanging her head at her harsh criticism was Ayeon.
The other team members, wearing expressions full of confidence like they had something solid to rely on, were watching Sion and Jihae, who had stepped up on Ayeon’s behalf.
“Okay, I got it. But let me make this clear: this isn’t just Ayeon’s fault. Looking at you now, you seem like you’ll pull it together among yourselves, but can I look forward to the final check?”
“Yes!”
“All right, you worked hard getting ready. You can go.”
At Jungyoon’s words, the Bang! Bang! Love team bowed and left the practice room that served as the evaluation site.
“They’ve got guts. I don’t think I could step up like that with Jungyoon unni in front of me, she scares me too much.”
“That’s because you’ve got no loyalty.”
“Come on··· if you think about the knee joints I’ve wrecked for unni’s sake, you should cut me some slack even if I don’t have loyalty, shouldn’t you?”
As soon as the participants disappeared, the choreographers who had just watched the stage together each let out a comment.
It seemed they’d found the Bang! Bang! Love team pretty pleasing too.
“But the choreography really felt like they’d put a lot of thought into it. It’s a shame.”
“What is?”
“I mean, they’ll definitely lower the difficulty to match the rest of the members’ level, and when they do, I feel like it’ll lose its flavor.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Huh?”
At the choreographer’s comment that they’d probably come back with an easier version of the choreo, Jungyoon tilted her head and denied it.
Lee Sion.
Thinking about everything Sion had shown so far, she had a feeling Sion wasn’t going to bring something that obvious.
***
‘It’s all my fault.’
Saying she was going to pop into the bathroom, Ayeon separated from her teammates after the evaluation.
-Ayeon, this isn’t any different from the Group Battle Mission.
Judge Lee Jungyoon’s sharp words still echoed in Ayeon’s head.
Shaaah.
Even as she stood at the sink, turning on the faucet and ducking her head under the water, those words wouldn’t leave her.
-Ending up on the same team as you was the worst thing that’s happened to me in this whole program.
From the Group Battle Mission—no, even back to the debut lineup selection stage at her previous agency.
The only things rising up in Ayeon’s mind were the cutting words she’d heard.
She hadn’t wanted to accept them, but by now she had.
‘No matter how well I do by myself, I can’t become an idol alone.’
G.G, the group that had made her dream of becoming an idol.
If you asked Ayeon why G.G had been so special, it was because on stage, not just one member, but every single one of them shone like a star.
But when people did stages with her, everyone lost their shine and fell apart.
That was why Ayeon had wanted to change.
So she’d tried talking to her team members first, eating with them even though she normally wouldn’t, and even when she had nothing to say and would’ve rather been practicing, she made herself stay with them.
‘It wasn’t as bad as I thought.’
And those times hadn’t been useless, contrary to what she’d thought.
By learning what her teammates were good at, what they struggled with, and what they liked, she’d been able to understand them a little better.
And that was where she made another mistake.
She’d thought, with this choreography, if they practiced together with the team, maybe they could show the best possible stage.
So once again, without realizing how hard the team members were struggling, she’d insisted on perfection all by herself and built a wall.
Thinking that if she’d made the choreography easier, or shaped it in a better direction, they might not have gotten such harsh criticism at today’s mid-check, she felt like she couldn’t even look her teammates in the face.
-I was the one who asked her to make it.
-I was the one who pushed Ayeon.
Her teammates had stepped up in front of Jungyoon, taking responsibility for things they hadn’t even done.
‘Just yell at me instead.’
Even after the evaluation, instead of blaming her, they just said,
-What shall today’s lunch menu be?
-Grilled yellow croaker, commander!
-Today is the moment to attempt the convenience-store Great Escape we’ve been holding back on all this time··· who’s coming with me!!!
and walked to the practice room, laughing like nothing had happened.
And that was what made things even more painful for Ayeon.
If they’d ostracized and bullied her like the trainees at her old agency, her feelings wouldn’t be as tangled as they were now.
“Ayeon-ss, so this is where you were.”
“···Lee Sion?”
As she stood at the sink, not knowing what to do with her swirling thoughts, a voice called her name.
There was only one person who called her “Ayeon-ss,” so Ayeon knew exactly whose voice it was without even turning around. freewebnøvel.coɱ
“You’ve been stripped of the title Ayeon-ss.”
“What?”
“From now on, you’re Ryu Wuss.”
Just like that, Ayeon had a nickname she’d never even wanted taken away from her.
