Wednesday Music Pre-Recording
“First… I think we should decide on our roles.”
Baek Yuri looked around at the rest of the team. Then he smiled a little helplessly and said, “I think I’ll have to handle the choreography.”
With Woo Cheong and Ha On-ha in Round 3, he’d been able to relax and leave things in their hands. But no matter how he looked at this team, he was the only one who seemed capable of creating choreography from scratch.
Everyone nodded in agreement with Baek Yuri’s assessment.
“Does anyone want to write lyrics? I don’t think I can because of the choreography.”
Baek Gi-yeom and Yeo Do-bin raised their hands. Their genres were different, but both of them had experience with songwriting and composition.
“Then maybe the two of you can talk it over and make something together.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, please…!”
Just like that, the lyric problem was neatly solved.
“Then… does anyone want to be leader?”
Baek Yuri hesitated for a moment before asking.
Even if it was a little hard, he could have taken on both choreography and leadership. But since his ranking had dropped in the third round, he wanted to focus only on the choreography and use the rest of his time to improve the quality of his stage.
It was dangerous if his rank fell any lower. If he wanted to debut, this was the moment to take a gamble.
Fortunately for Baek Yuri, Lee Gal-chae quietly raised his hand.
“…I’d like to try.”
So far, no matter which team he’d been on, Lee Gal-chae had tended to stay quietly in the background without taking on any particular role. That didn’t mean he’d been passive in discussions, but he had always kept himself cautious, careful not to draw too much attention.
But after falling to eighth place, he’d started thinking that he needed to step up and do more. His eyes had sharpened with a new fire, burning with the determination to raise his rank and debut no matter what.
He had hesitated a little because he was the youngest in Team A, but he’d summoned the courage anyway.
With no objections, Lee Gal-chae was chosen as leader.
“Good. Leader Gal-chae. What should we start with?”
Baek Gi-yeom clapped enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear. The rest of Team A all turned to look at Lee Gal-chae. Under everyone’s attention, he awkwardly cleared his throat and began.
“Yes. Ahem. Then I’ll start by deciding the concept. It’s a free topic, so it’s a little tricky, but since this is the final round, I think it should feel like the last stage. It’d be even better if we could leave a big impact.”
Baek Gi-yeom added to his explanation, “It should match the song too. Right?”
“Yes. Um… should we listen to the song again?”
“Sounds good~”
Lee Gal-chae played the track.
Even listening again, it was still such a bright, cheerful song. It felt like rabbits and deer from a fairy tale would hop out of it, with princesses and princes dancing together in a sunlit forest. More than a graceful waltz, it felt like a lively polka.
Lee Gal-chae looked over the team members, who didn’t match the song’s tone in the slightest, and said, “…Could we do a major rearrangement?”
“Uh, I think we’d need the composer’s permission for that… Should I ask?”
Yeo Do-bin asked in return. Baek Yuri, however, was against doing anything too drastic.
“We can ask whether rearranging would be all right, but… the passengers chose this song for our team because they wanted to see a certain picture, I think. Their expectations are pretty clear, so I don’t think we should change the mood too much.”
“…That’s true.”
Lee Gal-chae agreed with him.
The team gathered their heads together and thought hard. A lively, sweet confession song. A fairy-tale prince cosplay concept. An anime protagonist feel. And so on.
Neoul also rested his chin in his hand and pretended to think very seriously.
I really am a prince, but if I act like a prince, does that mean I’m playing myself?
Just then, a ring dropped onto the table with a soft clink. Neoul startled and looked up.
[Ah. My mistake.]
Baek Namu the Grim Reaper!
[Hello, mermaid prince. You’ve survived this long? You’re really making it to the end, huh?]
Neoul looked at him happily. Baek Namu, his black robes fluttering as he appeared, glanced around and asked,
[But why are you all so serious? What’s the problem?]
Neoul gave a faint nod.
“Neoul. Why are you suddenly acting like that? Is there something above us?”
Baek Yuri and the others looked up too. But there was only a ceiling hung with lights; not a fly or a mosquito in sight. The ring Baek Namu had dropped was invisible to everyone except Neoul.
“Oh, so Gal-Neoul thought of something? Last time you suddenly looked up and said we should do a ‘ghost’ concept, remember?”
Baek Gi-yeom said this with a laugh.
Neoul picked up the ring Baek Namu had dropped and put it back on his hand, then opened his mouth.
“Yes. I have thought of something.”
The moment he saw Baek Namu, one scene came to mind.
“An amusement park.”
The lights that had glittered in all colors when they turned on. A fantastical landscape decorated with string lights and lanterns of every hue. Ghosts, young and old, all laughing as though they had become children again.
“What do you think of an amusement park concept?”
At Neoul’s words, the team’s eyes lit up. Baek Yuri murmured, “An amusement park parade.”
“Wow…! Parade…!”
“A parade sounds good.”
“It does feel like it would suit the song, and it’d be fun.”
Yeo Do-bin, Baek Gi-yeom, and Lee Gal-chae all reacted positively.
Neoul had never seen a parade himself, but he nodded slowly. If the others were all this excited, then it must be something truly enjoyable.
The end of the Hanpuri Concert that Neoul had seen had been a sea of tears, but it had still been an unforgettable sight. And then Neoul remembered one of the lyrics from the song Baek Namu had sung.
I’ll tell you that this isn’t the end, but the beginning.
Neoul said to the others, “Rather than singing about endings or finality, I think we should sing about a beginning.”
If they passed the final round, Idol Travel would end. But like the lyrics of the song Baek Namu had sung, this was not a complete ending—it was also a new beginning.
“I want to sing that it isn’t over, that the real start is from here.”
* * *
After the meeting, Baek Gi-yeom and Yeo Do-bin immediately got to work on the lyrics. Lee Gal-chae carefully organized the concept in a table, attached references, and left to hand everything over to the production staff.
Baek Yuri was playing parade videos from amusement parks over and over, gathering inspiration for the choreography. Neoul watched the parade videos beside him.
People dressed in bright costumes marched and danced, some played instruments, and others stood atop enormous moving structures, waving elegantly to the crowd. The music was bright, light, cheerful, and loud.
[We do parades sometimes too.]
Baek Namu leaned in over Neoul’s shoulder and watched the video with him.
[Usually when there are a lot of child ghosts, this kind of thing helps. It soothes them.]
“……”
[We’d blow up balloons, wear mascot costumes… dress up as princesses or princes too. We put on all sorts of shows.]
Neoul listened quietly to Baek Namu’s story. So the work of a Grim Reaper really was varied, and there was so much of it.
[But the most effective thing was just hugging them. Pat, pat.]
“……”
A breeze stirred. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, Baek Namu began to fade away. He had probably only come to check whether Baek Yuri was all right.
Neoul glanced at the empty space where Baek Namu had been, then turned his eyes back to the video.
On the screen, families, couples, and groups of friends were all enjoying the parade with the same bright, childlike smiles. They looked happy.
“Teacher Baek Yuri. Have you ever seen a parade in person?”
“Yes. I was in elementary school then, so I don’t really remember it well.”
Without taking his eyes off the video, Baek Yuri went on, “I remember my legs hurting because I’d been running around and having so much fun, but the moment I saw the parade, I don’t think they hurt at all.”
Neoul took in the sight of the close-knit families flickering past on the screen.
If he had once watched a parade like this with his family and now had to see one alone after dying, it would probably feel terribly sad. Did the Grim Reaper who had taken Baek Namu away hug him when he died too?
Neoul hoped so with all his heart, and thought of his own family. How wonderful it would be if he could take his father, now healthy again, and his younger brother to an amusement park to watch a parade together. Could a day like that ever come…?
“Participant Gal-Neoul! We’d like to get a quick interview~”
“Yes.”
At the interviewer’s call, Neoul shook off his thoughts and rose from his seat.
* * *
Wednesday. Neoul had to get up very early that morning, because they needed to go film the music broadcast for FLu, the channel that aired Idol Travel.
— To the team that receives All Perfect from all three judges, a special benefit will be awarded. And that is…! You’ll be given the chance to perform your third-round self-composed song on Wednesday Music!
The Breakwater Team had taken first place in the third competition and even won the special benefit. Thanks to that, they’d earned the opportunity to film for the music show.
They wouldn’t stay until the live broadcast; they would only complete the prerecording and then head back to prepare for the final round.
“Whoa. The cheering is insane.”
Another idol group was still in the middle of prerecording in a hectic rush. The Breakwater Team was given a brief chance to observe a senior group’s stage.
The performance itself was fun to watch, but what really stood out was the sight of fans holding the same lightsticks and shouting their cheers in perfect rhythm, all as one voice.
After the first recording ended and the senior group went down to monitor their stage, Yeo Do-bin said gloomily, “When it’s our turn, there won’t be anyone here, right…?”
“Probably not~”
Ha On-ha answered.
“Haha. I mean, it used to be normal for nobody to be here. But now that we’ve actually done a few stages, thinking about singing in an empty place feels kind of… sad.”
“……”
“Still, Ha On-ha, you’re already getting spoiled. What’s there to be sad about~”
Ha On-ha chided himself, saying he needed to remember his original intentions. Baek Yuri stared endlessly at the waving lightsticks in the audience seats and murmured in a very small voice, “I’m jealous.”
What had begun as a thrilling, almost floaty excitement at filming a music broadcast gradually sank into silence as they faced the thought of having to sing before an empty audience.
Woo Cheong couldn’t stand the heavy mood any longer and shouted, “Hyungs. Aren’t you going to debut? Then we’ll debut, and come back here with the fans!”
“Right, right. Woo Cheong, you’re so smart.”
Rogan agreed.
“Exactly~ We can come back again~”
“Mm-hmm…! Let’s all come back together…! We all will! We have to!”
“Should we do our fighting cheer?”
Ha On-ha and Yeo Do-bin held out their hands. Rogan and Woo Cheong hurriedly stacked theirs on top. Neoul tapped Baek Yuri, who was still staring at the empty seats, on the shoulder.
“Teacher.”
“Hyung, hurry!”
“Ah….”
Neoul put his hand down first, and Baek Yuri placed his on top last.
“Ready! Let’s debut!”
Some shouted upward, some downward. It was still a thoroughly messy cheer.
The Breakwater Team put on their name tags, waited for a while after rehearsal, and then went back onstage for the prerecording.
But to their shock, the audience seats were full.
“Huh…?”
“Waaah! Breakwater Team! We’re cheering for you~”
“So cute~”
“Are they rookies?”
“Idol Travel! Trainees!”
The people filling the seats were holding a variety of different lightsticks. They were fans of the senior idol groups who had performed in prerecordings earlier that day. The Wednesday Music staff had asked fans of other idols to fill the seats.
“Thank you…!”
“Thank you!”
Completely unprepared for this, the Breakwater Team stood awkwardly at a loss and bowed deeply to the left, right, and center, over and over again at ninety degrees.
“Don’t cry, Yeo Do-bin. We have to sing.”
“Yeah. I know….”
Yeo Do-bin didn’t cry. Instead, he smiled brightly.
“We’ll start recording right away!”
“Yes!”
They snapped into formation at once. Ha On-ha stood at center. Neoul and Baek Yuri held handheld microphones.
The moment the music began, the lightsticks of every design started swaying together.
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