Assembling the Party
⊳ The more party members who debut alongside you, the greater the privileges you'll receive!
⊳ Fail to debut together, and a terrifying penalty awaits…
⊳ Ha Ye-chan (Party Leader)
⊳ Shim Sang-rok
Yet another bizarre rule had been added.
Having woken up late, Ye-chan sat cross-legged on his bed, staring a hole through the party window.
Since Choose My Prince 99 debuted nine members, it seemed the party could hold nine people including himself. Whether "choose" is even the right word is debatable. If Ye-chan truly got to pick, Kang Hae-sol and Beom Se-hyuk's names would already be sitting there.
The fact that Shim Sang-rok had become his first party member out of nowhere meant mutual agreement was probably required.
Having sorted his thoughts, Ye-chan stretched lightly. There was still time before Chumaf's first broadcast that evening — he could afford to take the rest of the day easy.
Roughly ten minutes before the premiere of Choose My Prince 99.
A certain Miss Choi — a prospective college exam-taker who had been glued to her study-room chair since morning — quietly shut off her online lecture and opened the N-net live streaming app.
Given the choice, she would have preferred to watch her husband on the big living-room TV. But the thought of her family grilling her over whether a high school senior had lost her mind made this the safer option.
Why did it have to be this year?! Last year or next year would have been fine! Then she could have gone to yesterday's EnCountdown stage in person. Remembering how Ye-chan had sparkled even brighter on the live stage than in the pre-release performance, she felt a prick of tears welling up from sheer injustice.
She checked her earphone volume to make sure no sound was leaking out, then discreetly scanned her surroundings. Plenty of students were still burning the midnight oil with bloodshot eyes, but there were also people slumped over asleep and others silently laughing at their phones.
Right. I studied hard all day, so this much of a break is fine. Nodding to herself, she focused on her tablet with a lighter heart.
The endlessly long commercials finally ended, and episode one of Chumaf began.
"Hello, Princesses. I am Butler Andrew, and I will be with you for the next two and a half months."
This insane concept!
Miss Choi bit down hard on her lip. The thought of hearing that "Princess" address for the entire program made her hands and feet curl in secondhand embarrassment.
The Korean-American MC Andrew, dressed in full butler attire, continued his lines with absolute seriousness.
"Princess beyond the screen — take your prince's hand."
The camera cut to the studio. The trainees' faces flashed by in brief close-ups, tension written plain across every one of them.
Aaaah! Ha Ye-chan! I'm not ready for this yet!
While Miss Choi silently screamed and marveled at the fleeting glimpse of Ye-chan's face, the trainers serving as judges each delivered a few tension-building remarks, setting the mood.
Then the first grade evaluation began.
Why am I this nervous over something I already know? She already knew from the pre-released stage that Ye-chan would take the spot right next to center, but her heart was pounding all the same. Before she realized it, she had folded her hands neatly over her chest and was fully absorbed in the program.
"You've had quite a bit of time since registration. I'm curious what you've been doing with it."
"Your position is listed as vocal — does that mean singing is what you're good at, or just the thing you're least bad at?"
"Why are you crying? Crying doesn't change a single thing."
Okay, the stage was a mess, but isn't that a little too harsh?
As the trainers' merciless critiques continued — so brutal she wondered if this was even allowed — Miss Choi's face gradually went pale.
What if my husband gets that kind of treatment too? Already claiming Ye-chan as her husband, she trembled.
Not a single trainee escaped the scathing reviews. And then, at last, Ha Ye-chan took the stage.
Please, please…!
Even in the sunken atmosphere of the set, Ye-chan looked utterly unfazed — almost indifferent.
Even better…! Miss Choi forgot her nerves entirely and cheered inside. That handsome face with its cool, sharp light, paired with a deadpan personality — he was her ideal type incarnate.
Then the instrumental intro rolled, and Ye-chan's head snapped up.
"Hah!"
The sight of him playfully pointing a finger at the camera nearly made her shout out loud, study room be damned.
Insane, insane, insane!
This was no mere grade evaluation. The ever-shifting expressions, the completely natural gestures, the choreography that flowed like water — and above all, a vocal performance that rivaled the original. The place where Ye-chan stood was already a music-show stage, the very center of a concert hall.
The roughly four-minute performance she wished would last forever came to an end. Unable to tear her eyes from the screen, she slapped her own cheek hard.
"Hup!"
The sharp sting confirmed it wasn't a dream. Pride swelled in her chest until it felt ready to spill over.
If anyone trashes this, the judges must be wearing their eyes as decorations!
"Trainee Ha Ye-chan, what grade do you think you are?"
Composer Gye Jeong-yeop asked the customary question. Recalling how every previous trainee had been torn apart no matter what answer they gave, Miss Choi waited for Ye-chan's reply with her heart in her throat.
Her idol, wearing a look of pure boredom, raised a finger.
Ack! It felt as though the Ye-chan on screen was pointing straight at her. In an instant all her tension vanished, replaced by a fluttering heartbeat, and his pleasant mid-low voice flowed into her ears.
…
Huh?
She barely had time to doubt her own ears before the trainers and trainees on screen wore the exact same blank expressions she did. Only Ye-chan stood on that stage without a single change in his face, utterly unbothered.
Wh… what is this?
Her ideal type — the cool face, the elegant bearing, the indifferent personality — shattered into a thousand pieces. The fist Miss Choi had been clenching trembled.
This made no sense. This was… this was…!
Way too good?!
That face with a four-dimensional personality?!
Miss Choi scrubbed every ideal type she had ever pursued clean out of her memory. That was the day she discovered a brand-new preference.
Mortifying.
It had been a very long time since watching a program he appeared on made him feel like this. Ye-chan suppressed the urge to abandon the monitoring session and hurl his phone across the room.
Objectively speaking, though, it wasn't bad. Being the first S-Grade revealed, he would have left a fairly strong first impression on the viewers. The camera work had been better than expected — the director had transferred over from music-show production — and even with that godawful line he'd delivered, the editing felt almost generous toward him.
Aside from Woo Hwi-gyum, who had received a similar amount of screen time, and Shim Sang-rok, who had scored the single best minute of episode one, there weren't any real competitors worth noting.
Shim Sang-rok and Beom Se-hyuk's stages had appeared in the next-episode preview. The production team had shown Lee Ga-won and Shim Sang-rok's reunion, teased Sang-rok's stage as if they were about to air it any second, and then shoved it to next week after all. No matter how many times he watched, their editing instincts were absurdly sharp.
Once the preview — which even included a glimpse of the theme-song stage — finished, a message notification popped up at the top of the screen.
Shim Sang-rok. Stating the obvious like that — what a goofball.
Ye-chan moved his fingers with a blank expression.
Despite the cynicism in his heart, Ye-chan sent a polished, sociable text worthy of a well-adjusted adult.
A few days after Chumaf's premiere, the second training camp began.
"Ye-chan!"
"Hello, Ji-yu hyung."
Running into Nam Ji-yu in front of the dorm again, Ye-chan fell into step beside him as they headed inside.
"Looks like they haven't assigned rooms yet this time." Nam Ji-yu shook his head after scanning the walls for a posted roster like the one from the first camp. Quite a few other trainees seemed to share the same thought, glancing around the entrance.
"Trainees, leave your luggage in the hallway and gather in the auditorium."
MC Andrew's voice flowed through the speaker by the entrance. They propped their carriers roughly against the corridor wall and headed to the auditorium, where Beom Se-hyuk — already there — called out in recognition.
"Ye-chan's here? Feels like it's been a while."
Jeong Ui-tak of Rubel Entertainment, standing beside him, offered a short bow in greeting. Ye-chan returned the nod, then met eyes with Woo Hwi-gyum standing behind them. Hwi-gyum greeted him with nothing more than a look, no particular expression on his face — though the way he kept clenching and unclenching his fist suggested he wasn't entirely comfortable.
"Prince candidates, I'm delighted to share the second training camp of Choose My Prince 99 with you. I am Butler Andrew."
The main PD had handled proceedings during the grade evaluations and the previous camp, so this was the trainees' first time meeting the concept-butler MC Andrew in person. As a Korean-American entertainer taking on the main MC role of a program for the first time, the extra energy he was putting in was plain to see.
"The theme of this second camp is the Position Battle."
The trainees stirred at the MC's words. At the same time, the Chumaf logo on the roll screen mounted on stage vanished and the display changed.
Vocal: 6 teams. Rap: 5 teams. Dance: 6 teams.
Exactly as Ye-chan remembered — though he put on a faintly surprised expression for the cameras.
"You will be divided into three fields — vocal, rap, and dance — form teams, and practice. Five days from now, you will perform before one thousand Princesses gathered on site and receive their evaluation."
The mention of live audience voting was new this time. But everyone seemed to have expected something of the sort; the reaction was more "here it comes" than genuine uproar.
"There will be two types of votes: one for the best team in each position, and one for the best candidate within each team."
As the MC spoke, the roll screen behind him changed again. The trainees' eyes locked onto the neatly diagrammed display. After a brief pause, the MC continued.
"Every member of the highest-voted team in each position, as well as the highest-voted candidate within each position, will receive an additional 30,000 votes. The highest-voted team overall will receive 50,000 votes. And the highest-voted trainee among all contestants will receive an additional 100,000 votes."
In theory, taking both overall team first place and the individual top vote would net a total benefit of 210,000 votes. In practice, though, the team that ranked first usually had so many strong trainees that the votes got split — meaning the individual top scorer often came from a different team.
As Ye-chan remembered it, the vocal-team songs were all tracks that struggled to deliver the kind of impact dance or rap numbers could. Even winning team first place wouldn't generate much buzz. It might actually be better to end up with a mediocre group, snag the overall individual first place, and pocket those 100,000 votes.
The first ranking announcement has tight vote margins — 100,000 would be meaningful.
Of the ninety-nine trainees, thirty-four were vocals. Among them, only three held S-Grade status, including Ye-chan. He decided not to be greedy — as long as he avoided the other two S-Grades, and Woo Hwi-gyum in particular, he'd be fine.
"Hello, I'm Park Na-gil from Bitnarim Entertainment."
"Woo Hwi-gyum."
"…Ha Ye-chan."
Of course, the heavens were not on Ye-chan's side this time either.