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↳Looks like all the teams show their stages today
↳But why is the editing cut up this much?
↳What the hell are those outfits on the gallery master’s team?
Click.
Lee Hakyeon had recently made it a routine to browse the Lee Sion gallery during his allotted time at the computer room.
‘How is there endless stuff to look at?’
For Lee Hakyeon, who had thought watching the main broadcast of Idol Ground 100 was all there was, fan communities were nothing short of a whole new world.
[Agbaek (Agbaek—fans’ shorthand for Idol Ground 100) Episodes 1–3 gallery master screentime compilation]
「Episode 1: 1:13–1:21, 5:32–5:36, 6:...」
There were data posts neatly organizing Lee Sion’s stage appearances so people wouldn’t have to hunt for them individually.
[Analyzing the concept through Lucid Dive Team A’s stage outfits]
「Anyone who watched the teaser already knows, but the gallery master team’s stage outfits are no joke
Episode 3 ended right when they started talking about the concept, but from what I can see, Lucid Dive Team A’s concept is...」
There were also plenty of posts that analyzed previous episodes and the teaser to make convincing predictions about what would appear in Episode 4.
[Gallery master unreleased photo collection]
Not to mention photos of Lee Sion that hadn’t even appeared on the broadcast—no one knew where they’d been obtained from.
[I was in the same middle school as the gallery master]
(Graduation album proof photo)
↳Damn, so jealous... was the gallery master famous even in middle school?
↳Yeah, famous from the moment she enrolled. Kids from other schools used to loiter at the main gate just to see Lee Sion.
↳Holy shit, then you must’ve seen her all the time.
↳Nah, it was actually hard to see the gallery master’s face.
↳Did she skip school or something?
↳If you walked past her classroom and glanced in, she was always face-down on the desk, so you could never see her face.
↳Was she good at studying?
↳Rumor was she was pretty good.
Stories from Lee Sion’s classmates during her school days would pop up like this.
Of course, there wasn’t anything particularly concrete, but there was something strange.
[What is this, Schrödinger’s Lee Sion?]
「I’m reading all these classmate stories and none of them match
A kindergarten classmate says they thought “so this is what a genius looks like”
But a high school classmate says Lee Sion was a notorious troublemaker at school??
↳An elementary school classmate said she was famous for being smart
↳A middle school classmate said she was just “pretty good,” nothing crazy
↳So if we put it all together, she’s been regressing over time?
↳What the hell, why is every story different?」
[After reading the classmate stories, I tried deducing things]
「Seems likely the gallery master really did come from a gifted education program
A kindergarten classmate testified, and she was super famous for being smart in elementary school.
But the higher the grade level gets, the fewer study-related stories there are, so
Just like the Entrance Ceremony introduction said, maybe the gallery master’s mom was too strict, and she lost motivation to study?
Kids forced to study from a young age usually turn out exactly like this」
↳This would’ve been a totally reasonable theory if you hadn’t watched the show
↳Did this bastard not watch the Agbaek YouTube clips?
↳lol an abused kid breaks into Seo Ryujin’s dorm and steals chocolate
↳She even hangs out with contestants you’d never expect her to be close with
↳At this rate she might even get close with Ryu Ayeon lol
↳Okay that one’s a stretch
As Lee Hakyeon read the high-quality posts piling up in the Lee Sion gallery, the limited computer-room time inevitably flew by in an instant.
‘Ah... it’s already almost over?’
Seeing how little time was left, Lee Hakyeon began to feel restless.
There were still plenty of posts he hadn’t read yet, and he also needed to drop by Sionism and read the posts there, but the time he was given was far too short.
‘I should at least watch the teaser.’
Idol Ground 100 Episode 4 was scheduled to air today, and ever since morning formation, Lee Hakyeon’s heart had been fluttering.
He even found himself worrying for no reason about what he’d do if the duty officer didn’t allow TV lights-on tonight.
The Group Battle Mission stage—the highlight of Episode 4.
Curious about what kind of stage Lee Sion and her teammates would show, time felt like it was crawling.
Click.
Having endured the long, boring daily schedule with only Idol Ground 100 and Lee Sion on his mind, Lee Hakyeon now clicked the teaser link while thinking of his younger sister.
—You’re pitiful, oppa, not knowing how cool idols are!
He remembered how he used to fight with his sister every single day over TV and computer usage before he enlisted.
Back then, he couldn’t understand his sister at all when she begged to use the computer just thirty more minutes to watch idol videos.
Now, he understood her position painfully well.
Back then, he’d even wondered if his sister was possessed, watching the same videos over and over again—dozens, no, hundreds of times.
Yet now, Lee Hakyeon himself was looping Lee Sion’s videos dozens of times without even realizing it.
—Idol Ground 100 Episode 4!
Thinking he should be nicer to his sister next time he went on leave, Lee Hakyeon stood up after confirming the teaser had finished playing.
At once, a junior soldier waiting behind him slid into the seat with an excited expression and began using the computer.
Soon, a YouTube video related to Ryu Ayeon appeared on the monitor.
‘So that one’s a Ryu Ayeon fan.’
Lee Hakyeon was a Lee Sion fan, but that didn’t mean he was completely uninterested in the other contestants.
“Kim Suyeon is the real deal, I’m telling you.”
“Seriously! Corporal Park, Lee Gahyeon’s vote count is shaky this week, you have to vote for her.”
Leaving the computer room, Lee Hakyeon noticed his company members in the hallway, deep in serious discussion.
‘These days it feels like all they talk about is Agbaek.’ freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
They’d always talked a lot about female celebrities—especially girl groups—but lately, every gathering turned into nothing but Idol Ground 100 talk.
Promoting the contestants they supported, debating who would make the debut lineup—these conversations were everywhere.
“Look, girl groups live and die by their lineup. And Ryu Ayeon, Seo Ryujin, and Lee Sion are basically locks already, so now we need to push other trainees to complete the combination.”
“Then wouldn’t Yoo Jihae be good? She’s already debuted with May Girl.”
“No way, Kim Nayeon has to be ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) in. Did you not see her F-class stage?”
“But honestly, Im Yunkyung is cute, right? You need at least one girl like that on the team—”
“And you need a producing member too. Geum Shinyu isn’t bad.”
Even while cleaning the barracks and assigned areas, the Idol Ground 100 talk never stopped.
Lee Hakyeon joined in the discussions while finishing cleaning with the others.
Then, using the short gap before evening roll call, he grabbed a canned coffee he’d stashed in his locker and headed to the command office.
Friday.
The day Idol Ground 100 aired—he was going to ask for permission to turn on the TV lights.
“TV lights-on? Yeah, it’s Friday, so you can have it. But if it gets noisy, lights off immediately. I heard you were shouting last time in the barracks.”
“Absolutely not this time!”
“Alright, go.”
Lee Hakyeon, who had even prepared a bribe just in case, realized his worries had been pointless.
The duty officer was already watching Idol Ground 100 clips on his phone.
***
“Good work. You should head home first, Yumi.”
“How can I leave when you haven’t finished yet, sir...?”
Toward secretary Yumi, who shook her head with a troubled expression at his instruction to leave early, Park Taesu replied that it was fine.
“I’m staying a bit tonight to take care of some personal matters. Don’t worry about me—go on ahead.”
“Yes, sir.”
In the end, Yumi agreed reluctantly and left the CEO’s office.
At the same time, Park Taesu moved to the sofa in the office, turned on the TV with the remote, and pressed a familiar channel number.
MPlay.
Whenever there was a debut or comeback stage for one of his company’s artists, Park Taesu always checked it alone through broadcasts in the CEO’s office.
‘Has Ayeon improved a bit...?’
But the reason Park Taesu was watching TV alone tonight wasn’t to see a music show.
Idol Ground 100.
The variety program that had recently caused an enormous stir, not just among the general public but within the industry as well.
—So disappointing. If we’d known it would do this well, we would’ve sent a few of our kids too.
—Exactly. Who would’ve guessed it’d blow up like this? I thought MPlay was just burning money.
—The agencies that sent trainees there are basically throwing banquets right now.
Before it aired, most agencies had been reluctant to send their trainees to Idol Ground 100.
There was no guarantee the program would succeed, and if trainees performed poorly, it could negatively affect the image of their future debut group.
Even doing well wasn’t pure upside.
—The seven finalists of Idol Ground 100 will belong to KJ Entertainment and promote as a one-year project girl group.
Even if trainees gained a positive image by winning, the real beneficiary was MPlay’s parent company, KJ Media Group.
However—
—CLI Research: “Most Influential Program #1, Idol Ground 100”
—Top buzz among non-drama TV programs! Agbaek ranks first!
—Advertising requests flood in! Did an idol survival show raise KJ’s stock price?!
—Idol Ground 100 sweeps individual fanclubs, community reactions, and buzz!
What no one had expected was Idol Ground 100 not just succeeding, but hitting it big.
A level of popularity that recalled the peak days of past audition-show booms.
If anyone had predicted an idol survival program would achieve results like this, that would’ve been the strange thing.
‘Come to think of it, that was made by MPlay too.’
With Idol Ground 100’s growing influence, Park Taesu’s feelings lately had been complicated.
—You should try looking around you a bit more.
Ryu Ayeon, a trainee under TSP—Park Taesu’s company—was participating in Idol Ground 100.
When Park Taesu first decided to send Ryu Ayeon onto the program, everyone from executives to the training team had fiercely opposed it.
Some had even been angry at Park Taesu, saying it made no sense to cut her from the debut lineup.
Above all, TSP was the only one among the big three agencies to send a trainee to Idol Ground 100, which raised worries about damaging the company’s image.
But none of that mattered to Park Taesu.
‘Ayeon can grow.’
Ryu Ayeon was a trainee Park Taesu himself had scouted back when she was just a young kid.
From then on, she’d clearly had shining talent, and he’d never doubted she would one day become an outstanding idol.
But his expectations were off.
No—half off, to be precise.
In both looks and skill, Ryu Ayeon had grown beyond more than enough to become an idol.
Yet in internal aspects rather than external ones, she had a serious flaw.
Ryu Ayeon avoided interaction with others to an extreme degree.
Park Taesu knew there was a reason behind that, and he’d thought that given enough time, she would gradually improve.
But time passed, and nothing changed, and the moment for decision arrived.
LYNX.
The name of the girl group at TSP that was preparing for debut and had already begun work on its debut song.
Park Taesu had originally intended to include Ryu Ayeon in this group, but in the end, he decided to drop her.
It was not an easy decision.
The company had even suggested debuting her first and managing things carefully afterward so the team wouldn’t fall apart.
But that would have been cruel both to Ryu Ayeon and to the other debut members, so Park Taesu had no choice but to make a firm call.
—Ayeon, can you really do this?
—I’ll try.
“Ah...”
A sigh escaped Park Taesu’s lips as he watched the program.
Having followed Idol Ground 100 from Episode 1, Park Taesu believed that Episode 4—when missions truly became team-based—was where it really started.
He’d hoped Ryu Ayeon might change after meeting different people in a different environment.
But contrary to that hope, the Ryu Ayeon leading her team now looked exactly the same as she had at TSP.
Arrangements and choreography difficulty that didn’t take the team members’ skills into account.
As a result, the other members currently looked less like they were performing a stage and more like they were desperately trying to keep up with Ryu Ayeon.
Hyeryeong, the judge and vocal trainer, seemed to feel the same way, asking Ryu Ayeon whether things were really fine like this.
Yet seeing her still respond that she could do it, judging solely by her own standards, left Park Taesu sighing in regret.
“Hm?”
—A prince on a white horse!
—···.
(Lee Sion’s unfocused expression)
—How did you feel when you heard about the concept?
—I thought Shinyu must’ve been really upset that I picked her.
(Lee Sion flailing on the bed in the dorm)
—No count! The ranking sheet we submitted last time is no count!!!
—Please stop it... unnie.
“Pfft.”
Idol Ground 100 was now sequentially airing the practice and evaluation processes of the teams preparing for the stage.
Watching Lucid Dive Team A in particular made a chuckle escape Park Taesu.
‘Where did they even find a kid like that?’
From the very first Entrance Ceremony stage, Lee Sion had stood out.
Her appearance was so striking that upon seeing she was unaffiliated with any agency, Park Taesu had nearly rushed to the filming site to offer a contract on the spot.
Even considering the disastrous skill she’d shown at the Entrance Ceremony, he’d thought that with one or two years of intense training, something could be made of her.
Yet Lee Sion had grown at an astonishing pace, making those thoughts obsolete.
And now, in the team mission, although she looked playful on the surface, something else caught Park Taesu’s eye first.
‘Lee Sion is turning the team into one.’
Frankly speaking, Lucid Dive Team A had been a motley crew.
Kim Suyeon, a so-called “hexagonal” member, but with small edges.
Geum Shinyu, who could produce but lacked fundamentals in singing and dance.
Im Yunkyung, still weak in basics due to her young age, and Lee Gahyeon, whose skills also fell short.
Usually, with a team like this, members collapsed on their own before anything could begin, destroying the atmosphere.
—Behold, this is vibration! Ah~ ah~~ ah~~~.
—Why do you sound more and more like a goat?
—That’s because Seo Ryujin taught her wrong.
As Lee Sion naturally tied all the team members together, the once-disorganized group began to come together as a single team, each showing off their own charm.
‘There’s never been a trainee like this.’
In nearly twenty years of running an entertainment agency and producing everyone from solo singers to idols, Park Taesu had never encountered someone like her.
And then—
—Now, we will begin the stage of Lucid Dive Team A!
The Lucid Dive Team A stage by Lee Sion, finally unfolding at the end of the program.
A quiet night descends
When I close my eyes, I see
In the smile as I look at you
My heart sinks once more
It was astonishing.
Park Taesu found himself deeply immersed in the stage, unsure how long it had been since he’d last felt something like this.
Korean idols, bluntly speaking, were products manufactured by agencies, debuting already polished to a certain standard.
But Lucid Dive Team A had a story.
A team that had once been awkward to the point of shoddiness was now delivering one of the most impressive stages, born from effort.
How could anyone watch this without their heart racing?
Above all—
Even if I wake, I won’t forget
Dive into this night
The instant he saw the final scene of the stage, Park Taesu knew it instinctively.
After this broadcast aired, Lee Sion would once again drive people into a frenzy—making all previous reactions seem laughable by comparison.
