Idol Hides His Military Service

Concept Evaluation.

‘What are they trying to make us do this time.’

All of us, myself included, had our eyes fixed on the stage.

Behind Jang Junseok, staff members were bustling around, bringing in placards, and the screen installed on the stage had the words “Concept Evaluation” displayed on it, so you couldn’t help but focus.

“Up to now, aside from Spotlight, the program’s theme song, all of you contestants have been performing songs by your senior artists.”

Once preparations were apparently finished, Jang Junseok continued the announcement.

“But for this Concept Evaluation, you’ll have to put on stages using brand-new, unreleased songs created solely for Idol Ground 100!”

“New songs?”

“What, are they seriously brand-new tracks?”

“They’ve lost their minds, seriously···.”

At Jang Junseok’s words, the contestants’ reaction in the auditorium went past murmuring straight into uproar.

“Isn’t it a good thing if they’re new songs? Why’s everyone freaking out like this?”

“You’re really brave when you don’t know anything.”

“You’re looking down on me again, Sluggish Ryujin.”

“New songs are on a different difficulty level. This is a seriously hard mission.”

I didn’t really get what Seo Ryujin meant when she said that, that new songs were on a whole other level of difficulty compared to existing tracks when it came to preparing a stage.

But,

“It’s way harder to make something from 0 to 1 than from 1 to 10.”

“Exactly. Up until now, we just had to modify songs that already existed, but this time we don’t have anything to reference.”

“Bang! Bang! Love! was especially hard because we didn’t have any original choreography to use as a reference, so we had to create it ourselves, right? But with new songs, there’s nothing to reference for the vocal side either, so from the very beginning we have to build it all up ourselves, and that’s what makes it tough.”

Once I listened to the explanation that followed, I started to get a feel for it.

‘This really is going to be hard.’

It sounded a bit wrong to say it myself, but honestly, the reason I’d been able to do well on Idol Ground 100’s stages so far was, no exaggeration, because I was good at following.

If I learned from the contestants who were good and followed them, it was possible, with effort, to more or less do it similarly.

But this time, the Concept Evaluation stages were for brand-new songs, so even copying what the skilled contestants did would take time until they themselves got used to them.

Only now did I understand why, at the announcement that the Concept Evaluation would be done with unreleased new songs, the contestants had all started sighing first.

But separately from that,

‘This sounds fun, though?’

I was actually kind of excited.

To be honest, whenever a song was revealed before, it was mostly a situation where everyone but me already knew it, so I always felt like I was playing catch-up.

This time, we’d all be practicing songs we were hearing for the first time together, so once I thought that we’d be starting from the same starting line, my heart started pounding for some reason.

‘How much have I grown, I wonder.’

Episode 4 of Idol Ground 100 that I watched during the break.

Maybe it was because I had some personal bias, but when I saw Lucid Dive A’s stage on screen, it looked pretty darn convincing.

Especially my own appearance, singing while dancing to match the other team members’ choreography—it was glaringly obvious how much I’d grown compared to Entrance Ceremony, when I couldn’t even feel the beat and was a total mess.

And in that moment, a feeling I couldn’t put into words wrapped around my whole body.

I hadn’t let it show because I didn’t want my teammates to notice, but if I’d been alone, I might really have replayed that stage scene dozens of times.

Well, I did end up watching just the stage video dozens of times on my home computer anyway.

“And for this Concept Evaluation, five of the very best producers in Korea have created songs, and from here on, you’ll have to choose one of those songs!”

As if he’d already predicted that the contestants would start buzzing, Jang Junseok continued the proceedings through the chaos in the auditorium.

“Can you all see the placards behind me right now?”

Where he gestured, five placards had been placed, and the unusual part was that they were all covered with stickers.

“Would the contestants who placed 1st through 5th at the last ranking announcement please come up to the stage!”

“Huh?”

“Suddenly telling us to come up··· I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Let’s just go.”

By coincidence, 2nd-place Seo Ryujin and 3rd-place Ryu Ayeon happened to be near me, so we headed up to the stage together.

The others, Big Entertainment’s Park Garam, who’d taken 4th, and Doodream’s Kurosawa Yuri, who’d been 5th, also came up to the stage.

‘Those two have insane popularity too.’

On Idol Ground 100, it definitely wasn’t just me and the contestants around me who were a hot topic.

Proof of that was that even if Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon were currently holding 2nd and 3rd with a pretty large vote gap, if there hadn’t been benefits involved, Park Garam and Kurosawa Yuri wouldn’t have been that far behind them—those two were drawing tremendous popularity too.

[Park Garam is seriously so charming, it’s just that she lost to Seo Ryujin because they were rivals this time; if it had been anyone else she would have absolutely won]

[Yuri’s personality is seriously so nice. At first I was like, can she really do well when she’s Japanese, but she’s skilled too, so I end up cheering without realizing it]

I myself had felt a pretty strong charm watching new sides of contestants I hadn’t been close to before seeing the broadcast, so viewers wouldn’t be any different.

Once the five of us, the contestants from 1st to 5th, had all come up to the stage, Jang Junseok asked us to each choose one placard and stand in front of it.

We did as we were told and stood in front of the placards.

“Then, from now on, please remove the stickers attached to the placards!”

At Jang Junseok’s words, I grabbed the edge of the sticker attached to my placard and slowly peeled it off, and when I did, the letters hidden beneath the sticker were revealed.

– Girlish Pop –

“The five concepts with their different kinds of appeal in front of you right now are what will be used for this third mission!”

This was the moment the concepts for the third mission were revealed.

***

– The five concept songs in front of you right now are each ones personally created by some of Korea’s very best producers.

Starting with the “Girlish Pop” written on the placard I’d peeled the sticker off of, there were placards for five concepts: EDM, hip-hop, trap pop, and girl-crush pop.

– First, Producer Ahn Seongho, who serves as a judge on Idol Ground 100, EM, famous as a composer-idol and member of WTX, Tenji, SY’s legendary producer, and L-sign, a composing team from the U.S. who recently worked on A-teen’s album and made headlines, and lastly, Producer Park Taesu, TSP’s CEO and the creator of countless hit songs!

When Jang Junseok revealed the producers in charge of the songs that would be used for this Concept Mission, the cheers from the contestants, the likes of which I’d never heard before during the program, rang through the auditorium.

“Suyeon, is this a huge deal?”

“Of course it is! Unni, everyone MC Jang Junseok just mentioned is someone the current agencies are practically dying to beg to please write them songs!”

Having finished my role and come down from the stage, I asked Suyeon next to me for an analysis.

Then Suyeon, excited, started introducing one by one just how amazing the people who had made these songs were.

There were some I didn’t know and some I’d at least heard the names of even as someone ignorant about idols, but seeing Suyeon making such a fuss as she explained, they all seemed like incredible people.

“If you tried to commission a song from them, it would probably start at tens of millions of won!”

“For real?”

“You might not be able to get one even if you paid tens of millions. They’re all that popular···.”

I should have learned composing instead of idol work.

Come to think of it, maybe Shinyu was the one with real foresight.

When I pictured a future where Shinyu had become a hot producer and was making a bed out of stacks of cash to sleep on like a baby, I thought I really needed to treat Shinyu even better.

“What should we pick this time?”

“Mm··· I think we should avoid the girl-crush concept for now.”

“Why?”

“Because it overlaps too much with your previous stage, unni.”

“Ah··· true.”

What Suyeon said was right.

Back in the Position Evaluation, Bang! Bang! Love! I’d chosen was a girl-crush hip-hop track, so choosing a similar concept to before wouldn’t be that good a choice.

“Then, Suyeon, which song do you want to pick?”

“I actually want to pick the producer more than the song.”

“Who?”

“Tenji-nim! That producer is SY’s in-house composer, so it’s really rare for Tenji to give songs out externally! And their songs are just so, so good.”

“Hooh··· yeah?”

Seeing Suyeon like this, liking Tenji so much, I started getting interested in that producer too.

While I listened carefully to her explanation in front of me of what kind of producer Tenji was and what kind of songs they’d written, I found my heart gradually being pulled in that direction.

But,

“But we have no way to know what kind of track that producer wrote, right?”

The problem was that production hadn’t told us which producer had written which song, so there was no way to know.

“That’s true, but I have a feel for it.”

Suyeon looked full of confidence, like she had some idea.

“The hip-hop is definitely going to be by senior EM from WTX. EDM is most likely Producer Ahn Seongho. And CEO Park Taesu will have done the girl-crush pop. Trap pop should be by L-sign.” freewebnσvel.cøm

“How do you know that?”

“Because those are the kinds of tracks they usually make! And Tenji-nim has been making girlish pop since way back, so it’s highly likely that girlish pop is Tenji-nim’s song!”

As expected of my Zhang Liang, Kim Suyeon—her analysis was sharp.

‘Yunkyung and Shinyu would probably suit girlish pop really well too, wouldn’t they?’

My heart was gradually tilting toward girlish pop.

It helped that I was curious about this producer Tenji that Suyeon liked so much, but above all, it was because I thought it would also go well with my subordinates.

For Yunkyung, that unique cute image of hers felt like a perfect fit, and Shinyu could use her solid producing ability to help the team members interpret the song.

On top of that, if this time I finally took the charismatic character spot away from Seo Ryujin, and added my Zhang Liang—Kim Suyeon, our strategist—to support me, it would be no different than Lü Bu getting Red Hare.

“Just you wait, Sluggish Ryujin. It’s time for me to stand in the heavens!”

It was time to strike down the traitor Seo Dongtak* (her personal name for Seo Ryujin, after Dong Zhuo from the Three Kingdoms).

***

“Why···.”

Lee Gahyeon had expected that they might choose some other concept.

After all, there was something huge hanging off Lee Gahyeon that didn’t suit the pure vibe of girlish pop, so she’d thought it was highly likely they wouldn’t come.

However,

– Contestant Kim Nayeon’s choice is trap pop!

– Contestant Im Yunkyung has chosen the EDM concept!

– Contestant Geum Shinyu has picked the hip-hop concept!

When all the remaining kids seemed to avoid the girlish pop concept I was in as if they’d made a pact beforehand,

I almost collapsed on the spot from the shock.

It was such a shock that it brought to mind the sight of a subordinate company troop member who’d been coaxed by the former headquarters company commander into transferring to another company.

“Unni, relax your face a bit.”

“Suyeon··· you’re all I have!”

“I get it, so please let go of this. I’m not going to run away!”

“Lies! You say that and you’re going to run away too, aren’t you?!”

“I’m not!”

Once the choices of all fifty contestants—down to the 50th-place contestant—were finished and we were given a brief break,

I hugged Suyeon so she couldn’t escape and glared at the traitors who’d gathered near me but couldn’t meet my eyes.

“Captain, this isn’t betrayal!”

“That’s right! I thought Sion unni would praise me···.”

Im Wiyeon—Im Yunkyung—and Geum Lü Bu—Geum Shinyu, our berserker—the vanguard of betrayal, started making excuses at me, but they weren’t convincing.

“Why did you choose the concepts with Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon and abandon me?!”

“Because we want to do better!”

“I thought I could do well if it was a hip-hop concept too!”

Wanting to do better—I just couldn’t understand it.

At least Lee Gahyeon and Kim Nayeon had experience, so no matter how tough things got, they’d probably find their own way to survive, but those brats were obviously going to suffer.

I felt anxious even with them next to me, and I had no idea why they’d gone out of their way to pick other teams and leave me.

“Stop making a scene, Lee Sion.”

“‘Making a scene,’ you say?!”

“They’re also clearly contestants on this program and skilled enough to have survived until now.”

“But···.”

Smack!

“Augh! This wasn’t a timing to get hit, though?”

“It was. You still haven’t come to your senses, have you?”

Usually my secret to taking hits was reading the signs before I got smacked and bracing for it, but this time Lee Gahyeon’s surprise palm strike landed before I had any chance to prepare, and I let out a scream.

Then she continued.

“You said you wanted to go all the way together, didn’t you? But if even you can’t trust the kids, do you think the viewers will be able to trust them?”

“···.”

Those words shocked me a little.

‘Have I been trying too hard to wrap them in cotton wool?’

Now that I thought about it, I really had been doing the missions with the same contestants over and over.

I’d been with Lee Gahyeon and Yunkyung since F class, and with Shinyu since the Group Battle mission.

Honestly, even back in the Position Evaluation, it wasn’t entirely unrelated that these brats weighed on my mind when I chose Bang! Bang! Love!, and they were the ones who’d first been happy at that choice but later felt guilty, saying I’d chosen a difficult song because of them.

Maybe that incident had been a shock to them.

“Captain! I’ll go do well!”

“I’ll come back having grown more!”

Seeing Yunkyung and Shinyu smiling brightly at me, telling me not to worry, made my head a jumble.

“I’ll pay you back double for the betrayal later!”

With that, I hugged Suyeon to my chest and moved away from the other team members—no, from my now ex–team members.

“Unni, are you crying?”

“Suyeon, you’ve been hanging around Seo Ryujin lately and now you’re fabricating lies!”

“Your eyes just sparkled, though?”

“My eyes always sparkle.”

Pinching Suyeon’s lips lightly for spreading such outrageous lies, I headed toward ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) where the members of my new team, the girlish concept, were gathered.

“Sion! They just told us to move to the practice rooms by team now!”

The other members of Girlish Pop, who had already gathered and were waiting for me and Suyeon, greeted us.

“Okay! Let’s go!!!”

It seemed like the brats had thought it through more than I’d expected and made their decision, so accepting that was the proper duty of an adult.

In that case, what I had to do from now on was to work with my new team members to carry out the imminent third mission excellently.

Only then, later on, could I tease my ex–team members, asking why they hadn’t just followed me.

With that resolve, I headed to the practice room together with my new team members.