Finale (4)
After Team B, which had been the last to perform, left the stage, the final interview video appeared on the screen as voting continued in real time.
[Q. If you debut through Idol Travel, what kind of idol do you want to be?]
After the question flashed large across the screen, the faces of the contestants appeared one by one, beginning with the 15th-place finisher from the previous ranking.
— Un-gu, you’re not a friend, you’re a baby..
— More like childcare than stanning...
Not knowing what the chat was shouting about, the screen showed fourteen-year-old Ko Un-gu, his baby fat still round in his cheeks, smiling brightly. Then Wang Huiying appeared.
Next came the ninth-place contestants. Their answers were a little longer.
By contrast, sixth-place Logan’s answer was short and punchy.
As the contestants in the top five appeared, the chat sped up even more. Viewers joining the live chat were cheering on their votes or spamming “T_T” as they started crying.
— Four comebacks a year is actually so good
— lol Yeo Do-bin is so random
— No, Do-bin, don’t do four comebacks or you’ll die laughing T_T
— Daily concerts... not overseas tours, just do them in Korea.. please
— An idol thinking about repaying fans’ kindness even before debut, what do you call that
— An idol who repays kindness... T_T
— Don’t let your guard down until the very end!! Vote!
After Galleoul, Ha On-ha appeared with a far more serious expression than usual.
With a crooked smile, he covered the camera with his palm, and the video came to an end.
Then all the contestants returned to the stage. The time until voting closed was steadily approaching.
“Passengers! There is one final minute left until voting closes! The final ranking will be decided by adding the benefit points from the final round and the number of votes received.”
Jeong On-do looked straight into the camera lens and urged one last round of voting.
“Who will be among the final seven survivors? Please stay with us until the very end!”
The numbers on the screen fell by the second: 36, 35, 34... Countdown began.
...3, 2, 1.
Voting closed
The contestants’ fate had been decided.
* * *
After removing his in-ear monitor and microphone, Neoul waited with the rest of the staff before going back onstage at their signal. The fifteen contestants stood in a straight line across the stage.
MC Jeong On-do flipped through a cue sheet and lifted his microphone.
“Just now, all the votes have been finalized! Thank you to all the passengers who took part. Then, before we announce the final ranking... first, the group name that the final seven survivors will carry into their debut! We’ll reveal it now.”
“Whoa! A group name!”
Woo Cheong’s eyes shone with excitement. The others were the same. Everyone steadied their nerves, half tense and half eager, and waited for the announcement.
“The group name was chosen by FLux, the agency that will be signing the final seven survivors.”
A blue hologram sparkled in the middle of the concert hall. As though written stroke by stroke with a brush, the name slowly rose into view.
「Jjo」
“Huh? Jjo...?”
Someone murmured above Neoul’s head. Neoul tilted his head slightly at the familiar voice and the jingle of chain earrings swaying. It was a sign of affection.
Baek Namu, the Grim Reaper.
When had he gotten into the concert hall? Had he just appeared? He must have come to see whether Baek Yuri-sensei would survive the final ranking announcement or be eliminated.
「Blue」
The hologram text finished forming. Seeing the floating group name, the Grim Reaper Baek Namu stamped down beside Neoul and shouted,
“What is that! It’s awful!”
Baek Namu made a dumbstruck face and pointed accusingly.
The giant screen showed the contestants’ reactions one by one. Most were busy looking confused or trying to keep their awkward expressions under control, but Baek Yuri seemed to like it, his eyes shining all by himself.
“Hey! Look at Prince Merman! Look at Baek Yuri’s sparkling eyes! That’s exactly his taste! Pure Korean words and all that! But even so, what kind of idol name is Blue? It sounds way too much like a college club name, doesn’t it?”
Baek Namu turned to Neoul, looking for agreement, then grimaced.
“Ugh. I asked the wrong person.”
“...?”
“What would Prince Merman know about what makes a good or bad idol team name? He probably hasn’t even been to kindergarten, let alone college. Tsk tsk.”
Neoul merely tilted his head.
Several of the foreign contestants reacted much the same way Neoul did. Logan could be seen asking Ha On-ha,
“Hey, bro. How do you read that? I don’t know.”
“Jjo-bbit~”
“Joke Beat?”
“Jjo. Bit.”
“Joke Beat! Okay! Joke rhythm!”
“Pffft!”
Ha On-ha burst out laughing, then hurriedly clamped his mouth shut. Baek Namu clicked his tongue again.
“What’s so okay about that? This is a comedy by itself.”
Sure enough, the audience reacted much the same way. There were murmurs of “What even is that?” and scattered laughter. The live chat was also explosively noisy over the group name.
— Their naming sense is seriously what is this;;
— lol
— I have a lot to say, but I’ll keep quiet.. actually no, what are they thinking?
— What is that even.
— ?? Why is everyone reacting badly..? I thought it was pretty and nice because it’s pure Korean.
— lol.. look at the kids trying to keep a straight face. If that had been me, I would’ve heard the group name and said, “I’m not debuting after all,” and then gotten cursed out for it.
— Joke rhythm lololol
— Um... these days everyone goes overseas, so they name groups in English or use alphabet abbreviations. It’s actually kind of unique and okay, right? T_T
— Where exactly did FLux come from, some no-name company...
— Is it FLu + X? They just slapped an X onto the channel name and made something new.
— A startup company that doesn’t even have a proper system yet... I feel like I’m getting PTSD. Hire experienced people, please.
— If it’s under the same MN Group as FLu... maybe the money’s pretty good..?
— It’s not even a startup. MN, a company worse than a dead-end small business, acquired it and only changed the name. I don’t even know if the chairman changed.
— Can’t they just take group-name suggestions as an event and let people vote?
— My own bias group name is trash too.. lol. I can’t pretend this is someone else’s problem T_T
— Anyway, even English group names sound weird if you translate them literally into Korean. Black Roulette becomes “Black Spinning Board,” and Dunkiss is “Gray Kiss.”
— ? I thought Dunkiss meant dawn kiss all this time.
— It’s not Dawn, it’s Dun! DUNKISS! It really is Gray Kiss~ It means “to kiss the ash-colored world.” Like, “Even if the world grows dark and fades to gray, we’ll always love it.”~
— B.A.D is short for Villain and Dance too... “villain and dance” lol
The reactions were mostly negative, with only a few positive ones. Some people expressed sympathy or brought up other idol group names.
But no matter who mocked it or chattered about it, the group name that had already been decided floated grandly in the air.
「Jjo-bbit」
The two syllables glowed an icy, beautiful blue. Jeong On-do continued,
“The group that will debut from Idol Travel will be called Jjo-bbit. Then, next! We’ll announce the team that won the benefit in the final competition! All three teams showed powerful, distinctive stages!”
The song titles of the three teams appeared on the screen installed at the back of the stage.
A Team —
B Team — Choose
C Team — Fireworks
“It says the winner was decided by combining real-time viewership, team votes, and the judges’ scores! We’ll announce the result now!”
Lights poured down over the contestants standing onstage. Different colors were used for each team, as if to make them easier to distinguish.
Instead of the screen, the contestants looked across at the seven chairs set up on the opposite side. First-class seats, upgraded from before.
Seven of the fifteen would debut, and eight would be eliminated. With the group name revealed, the atmosphere that had briefly loosened tightened once again.
The benefit score was 300,000 points.
The cumulative vote totals of the upper-ranked contestants had already broken into the millions, so 300,000 might have felt small, but if the gaps between them were not large, it was enough to flip the ranking.
“I saw your stage earlier, Prince Merman.”
Baek Namu stepped in front of Neoul and said,
“You were good. I’ll give you that for this round.”
Then MC Jeong On-do’s voice came out.
“And the winning team of the final round is...!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud. The background music sounded like a racing heartbeat. Everyone held their breath and listened to Jeong On-do’s words.
“The team that sang of a new beginning with solid, seamless vocal skills, and gave us such a joyful stage...!”
Please. Please.
Someone whispered desperately.
“Team A! Team A takes the benefit!”
Kyahhhhh!
The fans’ ecstatic cheers rang through the entire concert hall.
Baek Gi-yeom let out a whoop and grabbed Neoul and the other team members, spinning them around in his excitement. Neoul was dragged into an arm-over-shoulder huddle with the others and went around in two circles before landing back where he had started.
Baek Namu planted both hands on his hips and grinned, chin lifted. He looked as though he were saying, See? I told you. Didn’t I say you did well?
“Prince Merman has no idea how incredible it is to be recognized by me, does he? He needs to understand that. Among the Hanpuri team, the number of reapers who’ve been recognized by me can be counted on one hand.”
Perhaps it had been difficult to put together a concert with a bunch of Grim Reapers, because he shook his head as if still amazed by the memory. Then he looked at Neoul and added,
“Congratulations. You can debut now.”
At the praise from his first teacher, Neoul answered with a quiet smile.
“And now! We will announce the seven contestants who were found on this journey to seek the best idol, and the members of the group Jjo-bbit!”
At last, the final debut member announcement began.
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