Free Web Novel“Why are you popping ours, too!”
“Come on, let’s help them a little. We can go without.”
Seo Ryujin had the urge to pinch Lee Sion’s shameless lips, but she endured it with superhuman patience.
‘Well, it wasn’t bad, anyway.’
Right before the game ended, Lee Sion popped the balloons Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon were wearing.
Both of them were so dumbfounded by the sudden move that they couldn’t even speak, and while they were at a loss, Sion picked up the notes that fell from the balloons and, as if it were the most natural thing, said there were nice things in them as expected and went around handing them out to other contestants.
“Then what did we work so hard for in this game?”
If this was the plan, they could have just given them out from the start; thinking about how seriously they had played made her feel a bit embarrassed.
Ryujin felt the gazes of the contestants looking at them were filled with resentment.
It made sense; influenced by the rampaging Lee Sion, Ryujin, before she knew it, had been going around ambushing other contestants as well, so it was her own karma.
“Sluggish Ryujin, be honest, weren’t you just having fun?”
“What?”
“Lately it’s been written all over your face, ‘I’m having a hard time,’ you know? When that happens, you have to move your body without thinking like this.”
“No, it’s not!”
Ryujin couldn’t help but flinch a little as if Sion had hit the nail on the head.
‘How did she notice that?’
In fact, just as Sion said, Ryujin had recently been feeling a bit overwhelmed.
People say Seo Ryujin is more mature than her peers, but that’s only compared to her peers; she was also still a high school girl who hadn’t even become an adult yet.
But from the beginning of the show until now, among contestants who constantly placed expectations on her, she had taken on a leader’s role, so it would be strange not to be tired.
On top of that, this concept mission required competing even among teammates, so unlike before, they hadn’t listened well to her, and Ryujin had been quietly worn out.
‘Did it show?’
She thought she’d hidden it and behaved just like usual, but it seemed visible to Sion’s eyes.
“Contestants, did you all enjoy the event we prepared for today?”
“Yes!!”
While Sion and she were bickering like that, Jang Junseok’s lines announcing the end of the game began.
And the contestants’ response to his lines was very different from the start.
At the beginning, perhaps because of the aftermath of the mid-check, quite a few contestants couldn’t hide their dark expressions.
Now, as if they were on a picnic, everyone answered loudly with joyful faces. freёwebnovel.com
Seeing that, Ryujin had no choice but to admit Sion’s words had some truth.
“To those of you who obtained notes today, the prizes written on the notes will be provided, and to the viewers who voted, prizes will also be provided by drawing!”
“Wow!!!”
At Jang Junseok’s words, Ryujin was slightly surprised.
‘They’re spending a lot of money, huh?’
In the notes that came out of the balloons Sion had popped while ambushing contestants together with her, there had been many quite expensive products, and to hand them out like this—
It made her think the program’s influence was bigger than she’d thought.
Come to think of it, when she brought Lee Sion and Ryu Ayeon to the company during the last break, the employees’ reactions hadn’t been a joke.
—Ryujin, don’t you dare leave us for another agency!
It must have been a joke, but compared to before, their attitude toward Ryujin had completely changed.
Even before, Ryujin had been a trainee at Logic Entertainment whose debut was certain, so they had cared for her in their own way, but recently, she could feel they were caring for her almost at the level of an already-debuted idol.
‘Where is she planning to go?’
Finishing her thoughts, Ryujin looked at Sion, who was mumbling something beside her.
Unaffiliated private trainee.
A trainee who had been running first place all along on an idol survival program being unaffiliated—what a staggering situation.
It was certain that countless companies were eyeing Lee Sion.
Even Ryujin had been asked by the company’s head of development if she was close with Sion and if she could ask whether Sion might come to Logic after the program activities ended.
‘If we did it together... it would be fun, I guess.’
Originally, if she had heard such a proposal, she would have been in a bad mood over the insincere remark of bringing up another trainee in front of her, wondering if she was being ignored; strangely, she wasn’t.
In fact, Ryujin sometimes thought it would be nice to debut on the same team as Sion.
Of course, it wasn’t something that would happen just because Ryujin wanted it, so she shook off idle thoughts and focused on the program again.
Then, as if he had been waiting, Jang Junseok continued the proceedings.
“And today’s event is not over yet!”
“What is it? Is there more?”
“Looks like the production is going all out today.”
“They’ll let us eat first, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ right? I burned way too much stamina running from Lee Sion.”
“Thanks to Lee Sion, I think I’m going to have nightmares for a while.”
At Jang Junseok’s words, the contestants began to buzz.
Having just gone through a pretty big event, they had thought it would end there, but hearing that there was another event left, the contestants once again focused their eyes, waiting for Jang Junseok’s words.
“Yesterday’s concept mission mid-check.”
And as if he knew their expectations, Jang Junseok started talking slowly in an extremely teasing way.
‘People probably don’t know he’s even more teasing in person than on TV, right?’
His hosting, already nicknamed the Devil of 60 Seconds, was notorious not only among viewers but also among contestants.
“According to the mid-check results, contestants were split into 5 who will go up on stage and 5 who will not.”
The moment he brought up the mid-check, which they had barely forgotten thanks to today’s event, the contestants’ reactions rapidly sank.
But their eyes weren’t drooping like before.
Because everyone was thinking there was no way he would bring it up in this situation just to confirm they were dropped.
“However, even for those who did not make it onto the stage, there is still a chance!”
As expected.
When Jang Junseok’s tone rose and he said there was a chance for the contestants who failed the mid-check, sparks began to fly in the eyes of the contestants—more precisely, the ones who had failed.
***
Doing outdoor activities for the first time in a while made my head feel clear.
‘So people really do have to work their bodies?’
Back when I was an officer, whenever it snowed in winter, the very first thing I did was dunk people.
—Company commander, can we really dunk the platoon leaders?
—I authorize it.
As soon as I thought the snow had built up a bit, if I commanded the soldiers and buried the company’s officers in the snow, the tedious snow removal would end quickly.
And after that, somehow the company became lively.
Of course, our elderly first sergeant got buried and caught a cold the next day, but he was still laughing, so it was fine.
“Sion-chan, how could you attack me so mercilessly?”
“Yuri, that’s not what’s important right now.”
“Then what is important!”
Yuri didn’t give me even a moment to indulge in nostalgia.
But it really wasn’t important right now that I had pretended to target Yuri and, while acting like I would pop her balloon, poked my fingers between her ribs.
“I was too generous.”
“Huh?”
I must have gotten too carried away during Battle Field: Ground Zero in the morning. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
I’d gone crazy thinking I should hand out prizes that would let the disqualified promote themselves—starting with Suyeon and Sojin—and I threw away countless general prize notes.
Of course, it felt great when I was striking a pose while handing out promotional notes to the kids, but now it was behavior I really regretted.
“My iPad... my air conditioner...”
Whether the production dug up a gold mine somewhere or what, this game was full of expensive items as prizes, and those things were shimmering right in front of my eyes now.
‘If I’d taken those alone, Ms. Sukja would have treated me to braised short ribs...’
The truth is, even as I coveted them, the reason I generously threw them around was because of a sense of indebtedness.
I wanted to give at least something to the ones who failed.
So I went around all the more generously scattering them, and—
—A stage for the contestants who failed! A live on-site stage is scheduled!
That behavior of mine lost its shine.
As soon as Battle Field: Ground Zero ended, Jang Junseok followed up by telling us there would be a separate stage prepared for the disqualified.
The contestants who made it passed would perform on a stage that would be aired as before, while the production had prepared a separate stage for the disqualified.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a broadcast stage; it was opportunities to perform at various event stages, but he said the performance videos would also go up on YouTube, and the expressions of the disqualified had brightened noticeably.
On the other hand, I was sick to my stomach.
“Sion-chan, look at this, they’re giving a kimchi fridge!”
“You can’t even eat kimchi!”
“That’s racism!”
Even Yuri, who had lost to me, was boasting with a kimchi refrigerator as a prize, and I alone was empty-handed.
Something was very wrong.
“Still, it’s a relief.”
“Huh? What is?”
“We can practice with our whole hearts.”
If there was any good side, it was that I finally didn’t feel hung up on the others.
To be honest, everything had been nagging at me—from the ones who betrayed me and went with a different concept, to Suyeon, who failed this time—so I had felt uneasy all along.
Now I was fine.
Contrary to my worries, the Lucid Dive trio had all passed the mid-check and would be able to go up on stage, and since Suyeon wasn’t without chances either, it would be up to her from here.
I even gave Suyeon a 1-minute PPL note for the main broadcast that I had gotten from my balloon, as a special favor.
“Then, shall we practice now?”
And then, as if reading my mind, a voice came.
“Just give the order. Right now I could take down anyone!”
“Don’t take them down; let’s just beat them back. This time I want to be first, too—for our team.”
I nodded at Jang Yuna’s words—she had passed in the same girlish pop concept team as me.
As Jang Yuna said, there was a reason we had to win first place for this performance.
—For the team that wins first place in this concept mission performance, a benefit of 100,000 votes will be given. And that benefit will not only be for those who performed on stage but will be split with the entire team as 10,000 votes each!
With the surprising news that the first-place benefit for this performance would be shared among the whole team, each team’s atmosphere heated up.
And not only that; the teams of disqualified contestants who would go to an on-site stage would also receive votes through YouTube, and the first-place team there would be given a benefit as well, and that would also be distributed to the whole team, Jang Junseok said.
Thanks to that, we were burning with motivation.
Only if everyone did well could the team win, and that would return to our own benefit.
“Okay, then let’s match it from the top!”
“Yes!”
Jang Yuna, Park Jiho, Kurosawa Yuri, Yoon Jaei.
With those four plus me, the Starlight Umbrella stage unit was complete.
Since the mid-check, various things had happened, so today was the first proper practice with all five of us.
♬
Starlight Umbrella began with the voice of Jang Yuna, who was in charge of Sub-Vocal 1.
‘Her voice really is good.’
I’d felt it when practicing together before, but Jang Yuna had a truly good tone.
Though Yuri and I were taking the main vocals, for the intro, no matter how much we practiced, it felt like it had to be that signature Jang Yuna voice.
More than anything, what made Jang Yuna’s intro outstanding was—
With hands together under the small umbrella
We really laughed so much back then
—the way it fit perfectly with the voice of Yoon Jaei who followed.
When Jang Yuna and Yoon Jaei came together, the melody of Starlight Umbrella really made you feel the excitement of first love.
‘So that’s why they built the combination like this?’
While practicing Starlight Umbrella, I was learning many things yet again.
Thinking back on previous stages, the first song we learned—the program theme, “Spotlight”—was a song that emphasized energy over the precision of movements or vocal technique.
Thanks to that, even when I was still lacking in skill, I was able to rise to Grade A.
Next, in songs like “Lucid Dive” or “Bang! Bang! Love!” the compositions were built to highlight each person’s ability, so I had focused on improving my own skills.
In this Starlight Umbrella, I was learning harmony.
“Sion, in that part you need to pull back a little. Since Jaei is stepping forward, you align with me in the formation and move.”
Park Jiho whispered a small bit of advice to me during practice.
“Okay.”
At Park Jiho’s words, I briefly checked the formation and continued the moves.
Every time one person stepped into the center like now, the other four had to support that one with the same move from the rear line, and this was harder than it seemed.
In this Starlight Umbrella choreography, even a small misplacement or angle error stood out unusually much, so we had to keep checking the others’ positions at every moment as we danced.
‘This is drill.’
I remembered when I first learned drill at the military academy.
Three hundred classmates gathered on the parade ground to train basic drill movements; how hard we worked to practice until we moved as one.
What I realized then was that you have to move by anticipating, not by watching and matching.
If you look to the side and follow, you’ll be a half beat late, so you observe in advance how the person next to you moves and at what timing they start the motion, then match that beat with your own breathing.
So right now, during practice, I kept checking the movements of Park Jiho, who was on the same line as me.
‘It’s fun.’
And I was surprised at myself for finding that process fun.
At first, because I didn’t know, and frankly, because I underestimated them, the world of idols.
But the more I learned, the more fascinating and amazing it was how so many elements were hidden in this short stage.
And just when I thought I’d learned a lot, new things to learn appeared again.
It would be understandable to say that working several days—no, several weeks—through the night to show one stage was hard, but strangely, it wasn’t hard.
It felt similar to when I binge-watched a Three Kingdoms drama all night without getting sleepy.
It was fun.
And I wanted to do even better.
I wanted to see the judges’ and the audience’s faces as they were surprised or made expressions of admiration after watching this performance.
Because my interest right now was idols.
