10 Minutes Until Debut!
I showed up at the company loaded with anticipation after hearing it called the greatest ever.
Except... Hoyeon?
"Why are we driving past the office?"
"Ah. I forgot to tell you. Today's rehearsal isn't at the company — we rented a separate venue. We'll rehearse and perform there."
And you thought now was the time to mention something that important?
"I forgot too. The schedule got shuffled at the last minute."
She sounded so apologetic that pushing any further would've just made things weird. I muttered that I got it and quietly let her take me to the rented space.
The venue we arrived at was at least three times bigger than the set I'd filmed at yesterday.
Yesterday we'd only needed to sing and talk, so a smaller space had been fine. Today we had to dance on top of the singing, which meant we needed a certain amount of room.
"Still... this is pretty huge, isn't it?"
"We weren't planning on renting something this big either. Apparently this was the only size they had. Not like we could just build one ourselves."
"Fair enough."
Renting it alone ran close to a hundred thousand dollars.
If we tried to install a set like this ourselves? Tens of millions would vanish without breaking a sweat.
Sure, if it looked like we'd actually earn that much back, investors would show up. Short of that, building it ourselves would've been a stupid move.
"Unnies! And Tsuki too!"
I waved toward Yuwol and Jina, who were sitting in a corner of the set.
Tsuki was already connected through a tablet off to one side. I'd heard they were renting a venue on the Japan end and getting ready over there too.
Having to fly all the way to Japan just to handle this... entertainment staff really did have one of the more brutal jobs out there.
"Welcome. Did you enjoy bowling?"
"Yeah! It was so much fun. It's been a while, so... my arm's a little sore, but I'm fine!"
I gave my right wrist a light rub to show I was in one piece.
The worry faded from Yuwol's face, and she nodded.
"Good. Glad you're okay. Still, be more careful next time. If something's wrong with your body, there's no stream, no nothing."
"Yes~ I'll be careful. Oh, Tsuki! Did you watch yesterday's stream?"
I'd meant to message her right after, but three hours of streaming had left me a wreck, and the second I got back to the dorm I dove straight into bed.
I'd said I'd contact her and then hadn't. I was a little worried she might've been hurt.
I wasn't that wiped out.
I'd just had too many things to keep track of, so the mental fatigue had piled up. Physically, I was fine.
If anything, I was a lot healthier than I used to be.
All thanks to that Welcome to Hell, First Timer? training I'd done with Hoyeon.
Ugh. Never again.
"I'd rather skip a meal... no, half a meal? No — I'd skip a snack."
"That bad?"
Jina looked genuinely stunned by the statement. Fair enough. I had just volunteered to skip snacks. Of course she'd be shocked.
"You'll die like that. You're already this skinny... wait, actually, Jiwoo, you could stand to skip a little."
"What? What do you mean—"
"No, look at this chest. It's all fat piled up right here."
Jina gave my chest a light squeeze, then her face fell as she compared it to her own meager assets. On the verge of tears, she pulled her hand off and threw herself into Yuwol's arms.
"Unnie... Jiwoo's bullying me..."
"Excuse me... I was the one who just got groped? I'm the victim here?"
"Haa... Jiwoo, don't make Jina cry."
"What? I'm the victim! How did I become the perpetrator?!"
"Well... that's just how it turned out."
I don't get it.
I was clearly the one who got groped. My chest got grabbed and squeezed.
Okay, and what's her problem?
Tsuki suddenly flared up and started getting angry. I had no idea what kind of chaos this even was. My head was spinning.
"You kids. Today's rehearsal script... what are you even doing?"
Thanks to Hoyeon's perfectly timed entrance, the situation resolved without further casualties.
"Everyone take one."
"What's this?"
"A lunchbox?"
"Jiwoo... how does this look like a lunchbox to you?"
It could be a thin lunchbox... or not.
"It's today's rehearsal script. No guarantee the live show will go exactly like this, but memorize it anyway. Tsuki's already been memorizing since yesterday."
"Then why didn't we get—"
They only gave it to us today?
"Jiwoo collapsed yesterday, so we couldn't give it to you."
And before that I'd been too busy prepping for the stream to receive it anyway.
"Jina and Yuwol were too busy paying attention to Jiwoo's stream to have their heads on straight, and after that... you know."
"Ah..."
"Right."
So the three of them had some secret I wasn't in on.
They were running a whole exclusion campaign and making me feel left out? If you're going to do it, at least be sneaky about it!
"Why are you pouting?"
"It's nothing... it's just a secret from me, that's all. And I'm not sulking."
"Nobody asked if you were sulking..."
"Ah! Jina unnie!"
The second I yelled, Jina bolted.
"You all seem to get along well."
That was when a familiar voice drifted out from behind Hoyeon.
"Wait... that voice?"
Way too familiar. Not just familiar — a voice dripping with the kind of cuteness that tickled your ears.
The real... the actual Aruru was standing right in front of my eyes.
Whoa.
Whoa...
"Jiwoo? You okay? Snap out of it?"
"Hey? Earth to Jiwoo~"
Yuwol waved a hand in front of my face.
"No way... the real Aruru-nim? I... I-I-I..."
"Did Jiwoo just break?"
"I've never seen her like this."
My brain refused to spin up any proper words. But I had to get this one out.
"I'm a huge fan of Aruru-nim!"
Even though it was a rehearsal, there wasn't much for us to prepare. All we had to do was read the script and dance once to the song.
The reason we'd shown up a whole hour early was entirely because the connection with Japan wasn't going smoothly.
"Ah... it dropped again? Okay, let's try matching it this way..."
Every time it happened, Aruru drew on her experience to keep the broadcast on track and keep trying to reconnect.
Tsuki's shoulders sagged under the repeated disconnects.
We all knew this wasn't her fault.
"It's fine! The staff are all working their hardest. We'll be connected in no time. So. Shoulders back! Chin up!"
"Ah. They say we're connected now? Okay, then we'll restart the rehearsal!"
I smiled a little at Aruru's voice from the side.
"See? Just like I said."
Huh?
The last part was too quiet. I didn't quite catch it.
"Is the connection dropping here too? Or is it a Wi-Fi problem?"
No idea. Anyway, finishing rehearsal came first.
"Then let's begin! Same as yesterday, you'll enter one at a time, hit your pose, and start the song!"
"Yesterday? Did you watch my stream?"
"Of course. I'm a fan of Kuro-nim too. And of actress Lee Jiwoo, obviously. But... wow."
Aruru's mouth fell open in a little gasp of admiration.
"I never imagined those two would be the same person. People would lose their minds if they found out... it's a secret, right?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, but... please keep it secret. I'm not planning to reveal it yet."
"Yet, huh... so there is a later?"
I just smiled without answering, and Aruru nodded like she understood.
At the staff's cue, I went back to my mark.
The rehearsal order was the song, then self-introductions and the team intro. A little back-and-forth, then another round of singing and dancing. After that, we'd take questions from the viewer chat.
Simple enough — but if even one piece slipped, the cracks would run all the way down the line. It didn't have to be perfect, but we had to catch every problem in this rehearsal so nothing would go wrong.
The staff's voice came through the in-ear monitor in my ear. At the same time the intro of the song started, and the members moved one by one.
The biggest problem was Tsuki, who wasn't physically here. They solved that by overlaying two screens with an AI system so it looked like we were all in the same place.
Every member entered the set and started dancing with the song.
When the song ended, the members gathered in front of the monitor to review the footage we'd just danced. Only three of us had actually danced on the set, but the monitor showed all four of us, Tsuki included.
"Ah... midway through, Tsuki's path overlapped with mine."
"Mine too... our shoulders almost bumped."
"Same here..."
Every one of us had overlapped with Tsuki's path at least once.
"That's not it. Tsuki, keep dancing it just like that. We'll try opening up the spacing a little."
Having the people who were actually here match the formation would be easier on Tsuki, and it would frame better on camera too.
"Let's try it one more time!"
And so, with only ten minutes left until six o'clock—
"W-we finally didn't overlap..."
We barely managed to finish rehearsal.
"The standby video's going up now, so everyone grab a quick rest in this window. Drink some water. Energy bars."
Hoyeon handed water and snacks to us as we came off the set, and in the same breath:
"You've all memorized this too, right?"
"Ah..."
"Right."
"I forgot..."
We'd completely blanked on the fact that there was even a script.
"There's still time, so memorize it. Skip the little stuff and just hit the important parts."
"Can we... rest just a little?"
"No. There's no time."
"Hiiing..."
Even my aegyo didn't budge Hoyeon an inch. We had no choice but to drill the script into our heads.
If the devil existed...
She'd probably look exactly like that.