Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Translator: Penny
Chapter 54
We wrapped up filming by having each member show their chosen slip of paper to the camera.
As soon as the staff collected the slips and cleared out of the cramped dorm, I collapsed onto the sofa.
Ryu Jaehee was already buzzing with excitement, practically dying of curiosity, while Gyeon Hajun pretended not to care but was clearly anticipating the reveal. In stark contrast, the person whose name I'd drawn couldn't have been more indifferent.
Wow, this really takes the fun out of picking a gift.
"So, we have to keep who we picked a secret until the music video shoot? How much time do we have left until then...?"
"Our Dobi is asking the obvious again. For your information, it's D-7 until the shoot."
"That's tighter than I thought. Whoever picked me, please just give me cash. Preferably two Shin Saimdang bills."
As I clicked my tongue at Kim Dobin, who had collapsed after specifying the exact amount, Ryu Jaehee raised his hand and proposed, "Let's make some rules: no asking what the other person needs, no being too obvious when observing them, and no revealing what the gift is!"
"What if we order it online? The invoice will give it away."
"Then no online orders... we have to buy it in person?"
"What about overseas purchases? Are we supposed to fly abroad to buy it?"
"What if we have the package delivered to the agency's address?"
"Ugh, going all the way to the agency to pick up a package is such a hassle. It's not even a ten-minute walk from our dorm, but it's still so annoying. I already have a mountain of work to do, and now I have to go to the agency just for a package? Seriously, what a waste of time and energy."
"Alright, let's just handle it as we see fit."
Having successfully thwarted Ryu Jaehee's pointless idea, I fell back into contemplation.
Seo Yehyeon's remarks during the shoot had given me clues about his preferences, making it easier to choose a gift that suited him. But...
Is it really okay to give him a money envelope as a gift...?
For me, it would be the easiest thing in the world—just withdraw the cash from an ATM.
My mind raced, trying to predict what would happen if I gave Seo Yehyeon the money envelope he wanted for Christmas.
First, since he had explicitly stated his preference, any misinterpretation of my intentions as "insincere" would be quickly clarified. However, the mere possibility of controversy was exhausting, so I decided to avoid it altogether.
Sprawled on the sofa, I scrolled endlessly through online gift ideas for men in their twenties.
Since Reality was covering 50,000 won, I figured I could comfortably spend between 100,000 and 200,000 won.
Being too frugal would only make me look cheap, and there wasn't much worth buying for around 50,000 won anyway.
Even if the recipient was Seo Yehyeon, if I was going to give a gift, it might as well be a good one.
I picked two safe, budget-friendly options and jotted them down in my phone's memo app.
Gifts are supposed to reflect the giver's sincerity, so it was a bit embarrassing that I'd chosen one in less than ten minutes, considering all the talk I'd given.
Well, investing ten minutes for that guy is my own kind of sincerity, right?
"Dobin, have you finished revising the choreography for the special stage?"
"Of course, I've already choreographed everything you asked for. We've perfected the routines to the point where they won't look awkward even when we perform them, so don't worry about that."
"What was the audio file I recently sent you?"
"Come to My Universe."
"Then logically, what choreography would I be asking about?"
"...Come to My Universe."
"Have you finished revising the choreography?"
"We're working on it right now."
Does this guy not understand priorities? The collaboration stage with Adora, the KICKS performance, and the Swap stage—obviously the latter takes precedence, right?
Besides, our group has both the originator of the new choreography and a walking mistake machine!
"We need to start practicing in two days, so finish it by then."
"Psh, we'll definitely be done by then."
Kim Dobin nodded confidently.
With that settled, everyone headed to their rooms early to get some rest, as we had a photoshoot scheduled for the next day.
Perhaps because the songwriting was finished and I no longer had to stay in the studio until late at night, lying on my dorm bed at this hour felt strange.
"The year-end is almost here," Seo Yehyeon murmured, a face mask plastered across his face.
"Award shows... Ha. I wonder if we'll win anything. I saw we lost the WAMA vote by a narrow margin."
I was catching up on today's Weekly Quests when I kindly responded to Yehyeon's listless remark.
"WAMA doesn't matter anyway. The voting score only counts for 20% or 30%, and the judging criteria are completely arbitrary. Even if we'd won the vote, we might not have gotten the award. Plus, the voting closed during our comeback week."
"Then why did you make it sound so important?"
"Just trying to motivate us to work harder, you know? Besides, that was the only vote open at the time."
I replied by diligently tapping "May your health be well" on my phone.
Phew, just one and a half more lines to meet the minimum requirement.
"I've heard the Silver Disc and the Come to My Universe Music Awards are the most credible, but are they even open for voting right now? Anyway, we'll have to monitor the trends here to get a better idea."
Even if we didn't win the Rookie Award, I had no intention of resetting. Seriously, starting my idol career from scratch just because we missed out on one Rookie Award? No matter how I looked at it, that was just insane.
It's not like there's never been a group that won the Grand Prize without first winning the Rookie Award. If we miss out on the Rookie Award, it'll be disappointing, but we can just keep working hard and aim for the Grand Prize later.
If you keep resetting every time you fail, it'll become a habit, you know?
Of course, if the System issues a Weekly Quest with a -99 Original Intent Score penalty for not winning the Rookie Award, I'll immediately leak Choi Hyeonmin's underage smoking photos online to eliminate the competition.
But it feels like wasting a valuable card to play it here.
We had no idea how terrifying seasoned fans could be...
The music I had arranged reverberated through the practice room.
Since the main stage performance would be live, there was no need for AR. This demo version featured an MR track with Gyeon Hajun's guide vocals and my rap layered on top.
Should we have started practicing earlier?
I sank into deep contemplation as I watched Seo Yehyeon flail around, his movements barely resembling choreography.
I was almost impressed by my own foresight. Anticipating this disaster, I had persuaded the reality show producers to delay installing cameras in the practice room for another week.
Once this footage was captured on camera, there would be no turning back.
KICKS' performances were known for their intense, razor-sharp synchronized choreography.
Kim Dobin's revised choreography, which preserved this signature style, was like a bolt from the blue for Seo Yehyeon. Until now, he had been coasting through Reve's choreography, which was practically a free ride.
Thinking about it again just pisses me off. Some people get to coast by with great songs and medium-difficulty choreography, while others have to force themselves to rearrange shitty songs and drag a dancer with zero talent through high-difficulty choreography.
They should either give us some kind of advantage or penalize KICKS.
I watched Kim Dobin correcting Seo Yehyeon's posture in the mirror as I gulped down some bottled water.
I'd initially been worried that entrusting this to Gyeon Hajun from the start would give him a stroke from high blood pressure, so I'd asked Kim Dobin to at least get the basics down first.
When Gyeon Hajun approached me, I asked, "How's it going? Do you think you can get him up to speed before the Year-End Music Festival performance?"
"To be honest, I'm not confident, Eden."
Gyeon Hajun sighed softly, barely audible, before replying.
"I can manage to get him to follow the choreography, but the synchronized group dance requires perfect coordination with all the members. The real question is whether he can keep up with that."
"What else can we do? We'll just have to make him learn the choreography as quickly as possible and drill the group dance relentlessly until he gets it right."
"Hmm... I wonder if this Hyung can even learn it quickly."
Gyeon Hajun's tone was devoid of any optimism.
"We'll make it happen, even if we have to force it. I refuse to let KICKS outshine us."
As if by a magical spell that altered Gyeon Hajun's very being, the indifferent gaze he had been casting at Seo Yehyeon sharpened into a fierce glare.
"Right, I was being weak. This is a matter of pride—we have to succeed no matter what."
Ryu Jaehee, who had been listening to our conversation, had quietly slipped over to Kim Dobin's side and was now helping Seo Yehyeon learn the choreography.
"No, Hyung, that's not right! Your left foot needs to move first there!"
Hearing Kim Dobin's voice, sounding like he was about to explode from frustration, I tossed him a motivational line.
"Hyung, even KICKS Parachute can nail this choreography, you know? You don't want to be worse than Parachute, do you?"
"Isn't this choreography even harder than KICKS'?" Seo Yehyeon asked.
Hearing this, Kim Dobin, looking deeply wronged, retorted, "Seriously? What are you talking about? I only toned down the difficulty slightly from the original, making it barely noticeable, so Yehyeon Hyung could keep up! Are you just dismissing all my blood, sweat, and tears in one fell swoop?"
"No, I didn't know—"
"Do you have any idea how many loaves of bread and cartons of milk I had to bribe the most tight-lipped kids at school with just to keep the choreography video a secret?"
"I-I'm sorry..."
Seo Yehyeon finally apologized and resumed practicing under Kim Dobin's instructions.
"Oh, my package arrived."
Seeing the text message confirming delivery, along with a missed delivery notice, Ryu Jaehee let out a sigh of relief.
The last Christmas gift he'd ordered online had finally arrived.
It was the gift that had been stressing him out, as it hadn't shown up until the day before the music video shoot.
Ryu Jaehee handed Seo Yehyeon, who had collapsed from exhaustion, a bottle of water, his face brimming with anticipation.
"Come to think of it, tomorrow we'll finally reveal our gifts and partners, right?"
"So... we're not getting any Christmas presents this year? I always dreamed of setting up a tree and putting gifts under it..."
"Dobin, be realistic. How are we supposed to fit a tree in this cramped apartment? Let's wait until we move to a bigger place."
"Speaking of which, when are we moving?"
"I don't know. The CEO's suddenly obsessed with shamanism again. He says we have to wait until next month for a 'lucky day' without any 'ghosts' to choose a moving date."
From space obsessions to shamanistic fixations—our hopeless CEO really does it all. I shook my head in disbelief, and Ryu Jaehee cautiously asked, "Is it because of you, Hyung?"
"Are you saying I'm the one stirring this up?"
"No, but when you were setting our comeback date, you mentioned something about 'monthly fortune' and stuff. I just thought that might be why..."
Fuck. Is this really my fault?
After finishing practice and returning to the dorm, I found a file from Manager Hyung on my phone.
"The 응원봉 design is out," he'd texted.
The moment I opened the file, the Sporzando symbol flashed on the screen, making me blink.
Oh, right. I almost forgot about this.
"What is this supposed to be? A crowbar?"
"Wow, our agency is really something. They're calling this a 응원봉 design? It's just a glow stick bent at both ends!"
I recalled the 응원봉 from the previous comeback.
Didn't they initially release a crowbar design, get roasted by fans for treating them like suckers, and then change it?
Even that revised design had been... questionable, earning it a spot in the top 3 worst 응원봉 designs, as far as I remembered.
There was no way I'd let our fans wave around something like that. I pulled out my notebook and suggested, "Hey, let's just design it ourselves. That would be better."
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny