Final Prep
When the ranking announcement ended, the departing contestants and the surviving contestants mingled together, exchanging goodbyes. Park Dahan said farewell to the people from his previous teams, as well as those he had worked with on the artist team.
Yeo Do-bin had already been crying a moment before, so his eyes were swollen, and now he was shedding tears again as he saw Park Dahan off.
"Ah, stop it already! Everyone, don't cry! Seriously! I'm not crying, so why are you crying, hyung?! Am I dead or something?!"
"I-I won't cry. Sorryyyy...."
Yeo Do-bin tried to hold back his tears by forcing his eyes wide open, but his face quickly crumpled again. In the end, he pulled his shirt up over his face and hid behind it.
After greeting everyone in turn, Park Dahan came over to Neoul.
"Oh, right, Neoul hyung! Thank you. For that time."
He was talking about the time during the first round of rehearsals, when Neoul had abruptly challenged him to a running race after Park Dahan got angry at Baek Yuri.
"It helped me snap out of it. If I hadn't come to my senses then, I would've messed up the stage and been eliminated even earlier. And if that had happened, I think I would've felt awful for a really long time after getting cut...."
Park Dahan said it with visible relief.
"I feel really clear-headed now. The artist team stage was fun, and the third round was fun too. Getting eliminated isn't that heartbreaking, really. Just a little disappointing, that's all."
He had looked extremely tense earlier, but his complexion was much better now. Once he had heard the results and put aside his greed, he seemed to have relaxed at last.
"Let's all eat together next time, hyungs."
Neoul nodded.
"Do well on the final stage as well. Not that I need to tell you, since the hyungs will do well anyway.... I'll vote for you."
Park Dahan grinned and left.
After the eliminated contestants had gone, only fifteen surviving participants remained in the studio, and it grew much quieter than before. Everyone wore a thoughtful look.
Joy at having survived and won in competition. Sadness that they could no longer continue with the friends who shared the same dream. Pride at having made it all the way to the final round. Fear of tomorrow, uncertain whether they could truly debut.
In the swirl of those feelings, preparation for the final round began.
After changing locations, Jeong Ondo once again took the microphone.
"The team composition for this final round, as well as each team's song, have been decided by the passengers."
Huh?
By the passengers?
The contestants buzzed and reacted in surprise.
In fact, about two weeks earlier, a special event window had appeared on FLu, slightly different from the voting window. It had come up while the contestants were in the middle of wrapping up rehearsals, right before the third-round stage.
* * *
[Passengers! What kind of idols did you discover on this trip? Build your ideal idol group with whatever combination you want!]
The production team let viewers directly compose the "contestant combination they hoped would debut in the same group."
The number of people in each combination could be freely chosen, up to a maximum of ten.
Some people picked just two or three contestants they absolutely wanted to stick together and hit the confirm button. Others filled all ten slots, saying they couldn't let anyone go.
And then.
[Please select a song that suits the idol group you want!]
Highlights from demo tracks created by three professional composers were released. From the melodies alone, viewers had to choose which of the three songs they wanted the contestants they had picked to perform.
The first song had a languid beat and a sexy feel. The second had a bright, fairytale-like fantasy atmosphere. The third was a very fast, hot, and passionate song.
Won Hasin and Dong-dong each took out their phones and joined in too.
Won Hasin built a team out of all the contestants who had once come to his place for a reaction shoot.
"Hey, you insolent Dong-dong. What kind of song do you think suits a fish?"
"The first one?"
"All right. Then I'll pick the second one~"
"You earth fish! Why did you even ask me?"
"Kekekeke!"
After his first pick, Myeong I-dam, had dropped out, Dong-dong had lost all motivation and simply put Neoul alone on his team before choosing a song right away.
Won Hasin asked,
"That's not a team anymore, is it? That's a solo act."
"As long as the prince debuts, who cares about anyone else? If that young lord I-dam isn't here, then something like this has no meaning at all."
"Good grief.... You're sick too."
"Sob, sob. Young Lord I-dam...."
"But you said the first song suited him, so why did you pick the third one?"
"Because destructive things are exactly how I feel! I'm going to... break everything!"
"Aaagh! Dong-dong has gone mad! Wait! That's a limited edition! There are only twenty in the whole world!"
* * *
Based on the survey of the viewers' preferred team combinations and songs, the final round teams and tracks were decided.
Three team lists appeared on the screen.
A Team: Gal Neoul, Yeo Do-bin, Lee Gal-chae, Baek Gi-yeom, Baek Yuri
B Team: Ha On-ha, Logan, Wang Huiying, Choi Liam, Kim Ji-rok
C Team: Woo Cheong, Daiki, Ko Un-gu, Son Ji-seong, Son Ji-hu
After each team lined up,
"Hyungs! Hrk....!"
Woo Cheong stretched his hand out from far away with a sad, wistful expression. Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom both reached back toward him. Yeo Do-bin also waved to Woo Cheong.
Ko Un-gu and Daiki, who had once been on the "Give me a rice cake and I won't eat you" team with Baek Gi-yeom and Neoul, followed suit and dramatically stretched out their hands toward Woo Cheong.
Neoul watched them and tilted his head, wondering what on earth they were doing, then shrugged and offered a light word of encouragement.
"Do well."
Logan and Ha On-ha exchanged a high five.
"Let's do great as a team! Bro!"
"Yeah! Let's do great~"
Ha On-ha accepted the greeting with a picture-perfect smile.
Neoul also greeted his teammates.
"Neoul....!"
"Yes, I am glad to see you as well. Yeo Do-bin."
Yeo Do-bin grinned so widely his eyes nearly disappeared, glowing with excitement.
"I am glad we are on the same team once more, Teacher Baek Yuri. Teacher Baek Gi-yeom."
"Please take care of us again this time."
"Oh, our team's good, isn't it?"
"Baek Gi-yeom, have there ever been times when you weren't good?"
"Um.... Nope?!"
Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom had never once been on the same team before, but this was their first time together. Perhaps because he was with his old friend and cousin Baek Gi-yeom, Baek Yuri looked much more at ease.
"Galchae! Please take care of us!"
"Yes."
Yeo Do-bin and Lee Gal-chae were also exchanging rather friendly greetings. Neoul addressed Lee Gal-chae too.
"It is nice to meet you, Lee Galchi."
"...It's Galchae, not Galchi."
After everyone had finished greeting one another, Jeong Ondo picked up the microphone again.
"Very well, then. We'll now reveal the final round songs chosen directly by the passengers! Here is A Team's song!"
♩♪♬~
A lively, cheerful accompaniment flowed out. A fairytale melody, a catchy tune. Just listening to it felt as if one might be pulled into the world of childhood.
A Team's song was the number 2 track that Won Hasin had chosen.
"It's a good song, but... it's really bright and cheerful."
Baek Gi-yeom muttered to himself.
"Aren't we a little... far from bright and cheerful?"
Yeo Do-bin, with his icy face so cold he looked almost like a Grim Reaper.
Baek Gi-yeom, who had spent his childhood as a swimmer and had built up his muscles through constant training, giving him a fierce, beastlike aura.
Gal Neoul, towering so tall and broad he had even earned the nickname Humpback Whale.
It was a combination that seemed better suited to destroying childhood innocence than preserving it.
At least in terms of appearance, Baek Yuri and Lee Gal-chae might have seemed fitting.... But their moods were both very calm and solemn.
Neither of them had often smiled a clear, unclouded smile since losing family members.
After losing his parents, Lee Gal-chae had become the head of the household as a boy and lived under the crushing weight of reality, while Baek Yuri had suffered for a long time after losing his twin brother.
The one saving grace was that both of them had become so skilled at managing their expressions that it had practically become second nature.
"Hmm...."
Neoul looked over his teammates' faces. Everyone listened to the song while tilting their heads or tapping along to the beat, their expressions puzzled yet attentive.
They had no idea what kind of image the passengers wanted, or why they had chosen this song for them.
Without lyrics, it felt even more frustrating.
"This final round, too, is self-produced. Lyrics and choreography have not been prepared. You may use the song as is, or consult with the composer and arrange it if you wish."
Another self-produced stage. It felt like they were teasing them, as if to say, "You've done it once, so this one should be easy, right?"
"There is no theme for this mission. Please complete the song entirely on your own and prepare the stage however you like."
A Team - Song 2 (Composer: Konkon)
B Team - Song 1 (Composer: WW)
C Team - Song 3 (Composer: Eunto)
They now had to move for their team meetings. Just as Neoul was rising from his seat, he suddenly paused.
Eunto...?
Neoul looked back at the composer's name on the screen. There it was, a name he recognized.
Rabbit candidate number 3...!
Neoul recalled the list he had made after sorting through possible reincarnations of the rabbit.
Number 1 was Baek Yuri. Number 2 was Ju In-ae, the center of a six-year girl group and MC for a terrestrial music show.
And number 3 was Eunto, the leader, youngest member, and producer of Dunkiss. He was from the same group as the Idol Travel judge Woo Yongdam.
Neoul had written down the rabbit candidates in roughly the order of who he might be able to approach quickly after debut.
Idols went on music shows after debut to make themselves known, after all. So he had planned to start by finding out whether Ju In-ae, the MC of a music program, was the rabbit or not.
And yet the composer of song number 2 had turned out to be one of the rabbit candidates.
Maybe I'll be able to meet Teacher Rabbit Number 3 much sooner than I expected.
Outstanding looks that drew the eye wherever he went, a rabbit-like face, a sturdy build, and clean skin. Like Baek Yuri, Eunto also fit every condition.
If only there were more specific, distinctive clues....
Some mole on his face, a mark proving he was a rabbit, or at the very least, some holy trace of the elixir the rabbit had eaten that Neoul could sense when he got close.
Unfortunately for Neoul, there was no such convenient condition.
There were so many people in the entertainment industry who looked like rabbits that sorting through the candidates had taken a great deal of time and effort.
The rabbit candidates Neoul had narrowed down to numbered six in total, excluding Baek Yuri. Four of them were idols, one was an actor, and one was a comedian.
He had excluded anyone who had articles about "worsening health" or "suspending activities due to poor condition."
The ones that remained on the list were people who had spoken about themselves in variety shows or interviews as being "robust," "healthy," "never having been sick," "born with strong teeth," or "strong enough to split logs because they were built like a bull."
Reincarnated rabbits are said to remember their past lives no later than age twenty-five.
Eunto was twenty-five now. If he was a rabbit, then he would definitely possess memories of his past life.
Without those memories returning, he himself wouldn't know about his own past life, so no matter how much Neoul probed, there would be no way to tell whether he was the rabbit or not. But if the memories were there, wouldn't it be easier to figure out?
Teacher Rabbit Number 3. We will meet soon.
Neoul straightened his knees and stood, then followed the others to move out.
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