Free Web Novel"Okay, we’ve had our break—starting this afternoon, let’s begin practicing the Final Round song!"
"Yes!"
At Hyeryeong’s words, the contestants answered in loud voices and, all at once, each of them flopped down into place.
Practice for Spotlight, the program’s theme song, which had been going on all morning.
At first, since it was a song they hadn’t practiced in a while, it was chaos and everyone was all over the place, but soon enough, as if their bodies remembered, the survivors quickly found their timing together.
Thanks to that, they finally got a passing mark from Hyeryeong and Jungyoon, who’d come as trainers, and were barely granted a break.
'This is seriously fascinating.'
Soaked in sweat, Nayeon leaned back against the practice room wall, taking a short rest as she looked over toward one corner of the room.
"Gahyeon, you’re not swinging at all right now."
"What are you complaining about again?!"
"It’s like I can feel the arrogance in the choreography? Like this vibe of, ‘As if I’m ninth,’ is just pouring off you."
All the other contestants were exhausted from the nonstop practice all morning—either leaning against the wall like Nayeon or sprawled out on the floor.
But Lee Sion, as if not tired at all, had gone over to Lee Gahyeon to mess with her.
'How does she fall for it every single time?'
Even now, with Sion joking about Gahyeon placing high at the earlier rank announcement ceremony, Gahyeon’s face had turned bright red.
She snapped back, insisting that wasn’t it at all, grabbing for Sion as if to punish her—
'She’s not catching her.'
Even in perfect condition, Sion was hard to catch—like a flying squirrel. There was no way an exhausted Gahyeon could catch her by herself.
-Nayeon, from now on there’s a bomb collar around your neck.
Watching that, Nayeon was reminded of something from the past.
Smack!
"Ow!!! Nayeon, why did you hit me?!"
"Because you’re obnoxious."
"Huh?"
So Nayeon smacked the upper arm of Yunkyung, who’d been resting beside her, with her palm.
'How did that exact lineup make it all the way to the Final Round?'
Remembering when they’d first gathered as Class F, Nayeon still hadn’t forgotten the outrageous things Sion and Im Yunkyung had done to her back then.
Sion, who’d stirred up a mess on her own, saying she’d put Nayeon up as leader even though Nayeon didn’t want it, and Im Yunkyung, who’d faithfully played henchman right at Sion’s side.
And even Lee Gahyeon, who’d stepped ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) down as leader because of those two.
Honestly, fine—Nayeon had been forced into the role. But who would’ve guessed that Gahyeon, who’d basically been coup’d by Sion, would end up like this with her now, messing around and joking?
Nayeon couldn’t tell which was more impressive: Sion, who could do something like that and then stroll back in like nothing happened, or Gahyeon, who’d gone through it and now seemed to have forgotten all about it.
Sure, if you watched that process as a broadcast, it was basically a comedy—but for the person it happened to, it had genuinely been a crisis-level moment in Nayeon’s life.
But still—
'Because of it, I did make it this far.'
In truth, Nayeon thought that if Sion hadn’t stepped in back then, she probably would’ve been eliminated from the program by now.
Because after Nayeon ruined the entrance ceremony due to stage fright and fell into Class F, if Sion hadn’t delivered that extreme “drastic measure,” even if it was a bit much—
It was obvious Nayeon would’ve kept tensing up on stage.
"Ugh...! Catch her, Nayeon! Catch Sion for me!"
Still, being grateful was one thing, and being obnoxious was another.
"Let go! Kim Nayeon, how can you repay kindness with betrayal?!"
"That mouth of yours is begging for a beating!"
At Gahyeon’s urgent plea for help as she panted and chased after Sion, Nayeon forced herself up and grabbed Sion as she tried to flee toward her.
'Thanks, Sion.'
Watching Sion get caught and brutally punished by Gahyeon because of her, Nayeon couldn’t say it out loud, but she told her thank you in her heart.
If she said it directly, Sion would grin smugly and brag about it for ages. Better to keep gratitude as an inside thought.
***
"The song you’ll be singing for the Final Round is a track called 'Our Spring Isn’t Over Yet.'"
After lunch and a short break, we gathered back in the practice room.
According to the plan, starting in the afternoon we were scheduled to practice the new song we’d perform on the Final Round stage—
"Raon?"
"It’s really Raon!"
"I never thought I’d get to see her in person!"
"This is insane... how did they even book her?"
But the person who greeted us was someone unexpected.
Raon.
A female solo singer who represented South Korea—she’d been famous since her debut, famous enough that even I knew her name and her songs.
I hadn’t seen her on TV for a while, so I didn’t know what she’d been up to. I never imagined I’d end up meeting her as the Final Round producer for Idol Ground 100.
And it wasn’t just me who was shocked—other contestants were busy whispering too as they stared at Raon standing in front of us.
"It’s a song I made, and since this is the Final Round, I wrote it to capture the feeling of growth and graduation, and a new beginning. Let’s listen once first, then we’ll talk."
Even with our over-the-top reaction, Raon simply wore an expression like we were cute and calmly continued her introduction.
Then she clicked the mouse, and a voice filled the practice room.
"It’s a ballad."
"Now you can tell the genre just from the melody. You’ve grown up, Sion."
I quickly pinched Seo Ryujin’s side as I listened.
Ryujin shot me a look like she wanted to kill me, but since this was training time, she couldn’t do anything to me.
A perfect surprise attack.
On the playground washed in sunlight
We ran like we did that day
In every little breath
Our dreams glittered into being
'Mm... it’s really gentle.'
Starlight Umbrella, the song we sang for the previous girlish pop concept, was closer to a ballad too if you wanted to classify it—but the new song Raon was playing now, 'Our Spring Isn’t Over Yet,' felt different.
"There won’t be choreography for this, right?"
"Huh?"
"If we’re being strict, this is a straight-up traditional ballad. If you force dance onto this, it’s going to turn into nothing but cutesy gesture-dancing."
At Ryu Ayeon’s comment as she listened, at first I didn’t get what she meant—
Even if you fall down and cry, it’s okay
Because that’s who we were
Clumsy days piled up
And made me who I am now
—but the more I listened, the more I understood.
As I heard the song, the image that rose in my head was me standing quietly onstage, singing it.
This song didn’t need choreography. It needed vocals—and the emotion Park Taesu had emphasized so much. I could feel that instinctively.
Even when the cherry blossoms fall, spring remains
Blooming inside our hearts
At the end of this road that looked like the end
There’s another beginning again
The song moved toward its climax.
'I thought it was gentle—why does my chest sting like this?'
If Starlight Umbrella felt like being sad but forcing a smile, then this song, even with its bright melody, kept making me feel like I might cry.
Should we run forward through time
So we can smile like we did then
With our hands tightly clasped
Our spring isn’t over yet
And then, 'Our Spring Isn’t Over Yet' ended.
"So? What do you think?"
"..."
Raon asked us for our impressions, but no one could answer.
"This is our story."
"She really just used a cheat code."
Because what we’d just heard—'Our Spring Isn’t Over Yet'—was a song that wrapped up everything we’d been through during this program.
Sniff.
Some of the more emotional contestants were even sniffling.
"As you can tell, this song is a ballad. So there won’t be choreography."
Maybe satisfied with our reaction, Raon kept explaining the song with a bright expression.
"Also, since all 25 of you have to participate in this track, the parts will be very small. It’ll probably end up being just one line per person."
Now I could see it—Raon had a talent for saying terrifying things like it was nothing.
'It’s hard just to get a single line? What are we supposed to do, then?'
Up until now, even if we were competing through the missions, there’d always been enough parts for each member to show something. But now it was only one line—an insane declaration.
Maybe that was why the contestants’ faces were full of obvious shock.
"That means you can’t stay like you are. From here on out, think of it as becoming real idols. We’re going to take time to change you—newly."
"Change us?"
"Yeah. Starting now, it’s styling time for each of you!"
With Raon’s sunny smile, she handed us another mission.
***
"Pay me back a million times later."
"Thanks, Hyeryeong."
Watching Hyeryeong act cute and thank her, Raon let out a sigh like she couldn’t deal with her.
"Dragging a retired person out here and making her suffer."
"But you’re not retired yet."
"If you haven’t promoted in three years, that’s retirement. What else would you call it?"
Two months ago, when Hyeryeong called and asked her to do the program together, Raon had ended up accepting.
'Was I destined to come back to this world anyway?'
Raon and Hyeryeong, from the same agency.
By the time Hyeryeong entered as a trainee, Raon was already a top star, but the two were surprisingly close.
They’d both been the type to live trapped in the practice room every day, so as they passed each other here and there, they naturally grew close.
To the point that Hyeryeong was one of the very few people Raon stayed in contact with even after her voluntary retirement.
So Raon couldn’t refuse Hyeryeong’s request, and ended up participating as the Final Round producer for Idol Ground 100.
"But now that I’m here, there really are a lot of kids who stand out."
"Right? The more I watch, the more my eyes keep going to them."
Maybe because she was seeing trainees who reminded her of her own past for the first time in a while, Hyeryeong was feeling more interested than she expected.
"This song is really good."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Honestly, I want to put it on my album."
Raon shook her head at Hyeryeong’s words.
"No way. This is a song you can only sing in that exact stage of life—fresh like they are right now."
"What? Are you calling me old?"
"You didn’t know? You’re about to hit thirty."
"Please, can we not..."
Even while trading jokes with Hyeryeong, Raon’s gaze stayed fixed in one direction.
Where Raon was looking wasn’t anywhere else—it was the contestants getting styled for the Final Round.
"Dyeing it?"
"Yeah, Sion. Black hair looks good on you, but since it’s the Final Round, what do you think about dyeing it this time?"
"Mm... have you ever heard 'your body, hair, and skin come from your parents'? You’re not supposed to damage what your parents gave you."
"You’re already pretty, but the Final Round is going to be like an open concert, right? Then because of the stage lighting, you won’t stand out as much."
Among them, one contestant caught Raon’s eye more than anyone.
Raon stared at Lee Sion, who was whining at the stylist, asking if there wasn’t another way besides dyeing.
"Why?"
"I’ll be back in a bit."
To Hyeryeong, who asked if there was a problem, Raon said she’d step out for a moment and walked toward the area where the stylists were working on the contestants.
Then—
"Let’s bleach it first to lift the pigment, then dye it silver. And plain silver is a bit boring, so we’ll add soft lavender highlights throughout."
"That sounds like it’ll be pretty!"
"What?"
At Raon’s sudden suggestion, the stylist brightened while the contestant, Sion, reacted in horror.
"Silver? How am I supposed to do something that weird?!"
Startled by the color Raon proposed, Sion jumped and raised her hands to cover her hair like she was defending it.
"Is your eyesight good?"
"Huh?"
"I don’t think you wear contacts—are your eyes naturally blue?"
"Ah... yeah, I was born like that."
"Really?"
Sion’s resistance wasn’t important to Raon in the slightest.
'Her hair is long, so bleaching it will be a pain, but silver would suit her. Then after dyeing... should we try colored contacts too?'
Raon was already thinking about how she wanted to transform Sion.
"She’s obsessed again."
"Ms. Hyeryeong, please stop this!"
Sion desperately begged Hyeryeong, who’d come over at some point, but it was useless.
If anything, Hyeryeong joined forces with Raon, exchanging excited opinions about how to change Sion.
"Hyeryeong, you said the stage setup list came out, right?"
"Yeah, but why?"
"Bring me one copy. I think I need to check the outfits too."
"Okay."
Raon was excited, for the first time in a while.
'So this is the kind of raw gem that makes everyone fall in, huh?'
Raon had already been given full authority by the production team over the Final Round stage.
Starting with Sion, styling and producing all 25 contestants however she wanted sounded like it was going to be pretty fun.
***
[Predicting the seven]
"I’m thinking Lee Sion, Seo Ryujin, and Ryu Ayeon are locked in for sure
Even if other contestants climb, those three feel way too solid
But from fourth place on, it’s hard to predict
The rankings keep changing
But watching consistently, doesn’t it feel like Park Garam, Kurosawa Yuri, Lee Gahyeon, and Yoo Jihye are the most likely next four?"
↳Write your diary in your diary. How would Lee Gahyeon get into the top seven?
↳Looking at Gahyeon’s upward trend, it’s totally possible. If anything, Park Garam looks like she might drop.
↳Park Garam?
↳Yeah. After the vote count dropped, Garam’s votes have been falling off a cliff.
↳Yoo Jihye’s votes have been falling steadily since early on too.
↳For real, honestly, you can’t predict it.
"Lee Sion, Seo Ryujin, and Ryu Ayeon are definitely locked, right?"
"But even that isn’t guaranteed. After it changed to one-person-one-vote, the vote share is literally shifting in real time."
"It’s so hard, seriously. We can’t let our guard down either."
Two women were sitting at a cafe table, getting worked up as they talked.
A large camera sat on their table.
"Ms., this photo is good."
"Yeah, I like that one too. Sion came out really pretty."
They were Jiyeon, an admin of Sion’s fan cafe, and Hyejeong, Sion’s fansite master, both gathered today with a very specific purpose.
The two, who used to be core members of the D-P fandom, had regrouped around Sion once again.
-Starting today, online voting is limited to one vote per person.
Ever since yesterday’s notice about the voting method change, the fandoms for Idol Ground 100 contestants had been in chaos.
When it dropped to three votes per person, it had been chaos too—but now it would continue as one vote per person all the way to the finale, so there was no such thing as alliances anymore. Everyone was busy promoting the contestant they supported.
As a result, no matter where you went, communities were overflowing with posts promoting contestants.
[Don’t you need someone leader-like for a team to run properly?]
"DubDub are great, but honestly, if they become leader, the team becomes a total mess, agreed?"
↳That’s true lol. Even Seo Ryujin, the obvious leader type, got influenced by Sion—did you see last broadcast?
↳Seo-Leader is shutting down. From now on it’s Seo-Chaos.
↳Ryu Ayeon was even more wild than Sion last broadcast though.
↳If you look at that, it kind of feels like Lee Gahyeon is quietly leader material.
↳Our Gahyeon may look like that, but she takes care of the girls and she’s really considerate. Please vote for her!
[Im Yunkyung is perfect for the maknae position]
"Im Yunkyung just radiates ‘loved and raised well.’
No matter what team she’s on, she makes the vibe softer."
↳She’s gotten a lot better too.
↳Even if she’s still a little lacking skill-wise, she’s young—doesn’t that mean the growth potential is the highest?
↳I heard Im Yunkyung’s family is crazy rich. Is that real?
↳Stop watching YouTube. Why are you falling for garbage rumors like that?
[If you’re Korean, please vote for Kurosawa Yuri]
"Kurosawa Yuri is cute."
↳That unhinged Japan-obsessed loser again...
↳I’m not Japan-obsessed, but I voted for Yuri.
↳Honestly I think a team needs at least one Japanese member.
↳A Japanese member who can communicate in Korean? I can’t resist.
There were openly promotional posts, and there were also posts subtly nudging people to vote.
If you looked at the comments, you could often see an arena opening—people demanding you pick the contestant they supported.
"What the—Ryu Ayeon’s fandom is doing a vote-proof event and raffling off a hundred Cyberburger sets!"
"Why are there so many rich people over there?!" freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
It was so intense that behavior that would’ve been flagged as illegal if this were a real election was happening constantly.
In a situation like this, Sion’s fandom couldn’t just sit still either.
"Then we’ll use these photos for the bus wrap?"
"Yes. An oppa I know already posted the fundraising thread in the cafe and communities. We can sign the contract with the money raised so far, then cover the remaining balance later with the fundraising money."
"Then send me the fundraising link. I’ll put it up on my site too."
Among Idol Ground 100 fandoms, in sheer numbers, Sion’s fandom wasn’t behind anyone.
They’d already made a plan to wrap ten Seoul city buses with Sion’s photos and dye Seoul in Sion.
"From now on, Seoul is Sion’s land."
"Should we cover Busan next week too?"
"We still need to take Incheon."
Somehow, the fans were starting to resemble their favorite.
