Time to Fill the Moon
"We'll begin entry now!"
Finally!
Exam-prep student Choi Mo-yang felt her heart was about to leap straight out of her mouth.
At some point the popularity of Choose My Prince had shot past the sky and rocketed all the way into outer space. She had never once imagined she would actually win a lottery ticket through the sea of competitors just to watch the performance live.
I only applied out of habit, but when the winning text came I nearly fainted.
The free slogan they handed out on-site was higher quality, so the handmade one she had stayed up all night making stayed carefully tucked in her bag.
If I weren't an exam student I would have shared snacks and goods too…
The announcement had come only a week before the performance, so she regretted not preparing more. Gritting her teeth and promising herself next year, Choi Mo-yang began slowly following the people ahead of her.
She did not forget to take a manners shot holding the snacks she had just received together with her carefully decorated unofficial photocards.
Even though she had left early claiming she was going to the study room, the line in front of her stretched endlessly. She heard that a considerable number of fans had stayed up all night from the day before.
Once the CSAT is over…! Ah, by then they'll have debuted, so it'll be picketing time!
Thinking all sorts of things, Choi Mo-yang entered and the moment she saw the installed stage every worry from a second ago vanished. She clamped a hand over the scream that tried to burst out; her gaze locked onto one spot and refused to move.
A thrust stage! Insane!
She had half-given up on properly seeing Ye-chan after reading venue sightline reviews, but now that hope blazed back to life. The stage clearly showed far more care than before. There was a screen, of course, and even a small thrust stage had been built. Even someone who entered around the middle like her would probably get chances to see Ye-chan and the trainees on the big screen.
If they had not confiscated her phone she might have posted her feelings on SNS right that second.
No. Pull yourself together. Spoilers are banned.
She gathered her scattered wits and waited with a pounding heart for a long while until the lights in the hall went out.
It's finally starting…!
Choi Mo-yang swallowed dryly.
A single spotlight lit the host's seat, and the familiar MC's voice flowed through the speakers.
"Hello, princesses. This is Butler Andrew. It is a tremendous honor to serve the princesses again today."
"Aaaah!"
Whether it was adrenaline flooding their systems, an enormous roar poured out. The MC waited a moment for the audience to settle, then explained the number of votes and the method.
"Princesses, did you enjoy the stages prepared by each prince candidate? If so, please press the circle button on the remote you received when you entered! If you did not enjoy it, simply press nothing."
He held up the remote for them to see and continued.
"And when you return home to the castle, please write the name of the prince candidate who shone brightest today on the paper we handed out at entry."
"Noona has no home so take me home!!"
"Hae-sol!! This princess returns to the army tomorrow!!"
Even the over-immersed "return to the castle" line only made everyone cheer louder.
So among the remaining trainees we only pick one?
Choi Mo-yang frowned. With this system, quite a few lower-ranked trainees would probably get no votes at all. It left her uneasy.
Ye-chan would never have that problem… but aaah, I'm already worried about the atmosphere when they announce the results.
Online voting had also changed starting from this third performance, from nine votes down to three. As a result the vote percentages of everyone outside the top ranks had been almost completely shattered. The filler votes people used to cast just to keep the top ranks in check had disappeared. The official site that once showed raw vote counts had switched to percentages at some point, and now only displayed them for three days right after each broadcast before locking them private again.
Thanks to that the fans are so anxious they're betting their lives on voting…
Even an exam student like Choi Mo-yang opened her eyes every morning and voted first thing, so that said everything.
"Then we will begin the first stage! Candidates Gi Tae-rang, Ryu Gyu-bin, Park Jin-hyeong, Lee Min-gyu, and Im Chae-jin with 'Domino'!"
Tae-rang and Chae-jin!
She had rewatched the second-round practice and stage videos edited to only Ye-chan's parts so many times that she had grown fond of them; seeing them made her happy.
The stage lights came up. While she looked back and forth between Gi Tae-rang, who had pushed his hair back with a headband, and Im Chae-jin, who had pulled a hood over his cap, the song began.
Oh, not bad?
She had not expected much, yet they had put together a surprisingly fun stage. If you held them to a professional standard you might tilt your head, but if you thought of them as trainees it was a level you could call commendable. Especially impressive was Gi Tae-rang energetically running all over the stage.
Tae-rang really works hard. Honestly his face is the super-energetic type so he's not my taste, but he's so diligent I hope he does well.
When the song ended the trainees finished a short interview with the MC and went down from the stage.
"Princesses who liked the 'Domino' team, please vote right now!"
Choi Mo-yang fiddled with the remote in her hand. Looking only at the stage itself it had clearly been enjoyable, yet she could not easily decide whether it was circle-button worthy.
It's the first team so I don't really know what level this is. And… I have to push Ye-chan's team.
"Voting closes in five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. Voting closed!"
Tae-rang! Chae-jin! I'm sorry!
In the end she did not press the button and offered a short silent apology.
"Then I will introduce the second stage. Candidates Kim Dae-yeong, Bae Sae-byeok, Yoon Ji-woo, Jeong Ui-tak, and Jin Yong-ho with 'For Seven Days'!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Sae-byeok!"
"Jeong Ui-taaak!"
"Yoon Ji-woo!"
Cheers incomparable to the first team poured from the audience. Choi Mo-yang also screamed Jeong Ui-tak's name like a madwoman.
Five trainees dressed like the very definition of autumn looks appeared on stage.
"Whoa, that's a crazy amount of noise?"
In the waiting room behind the stage, Seonwoo I-gyeong shrugged his shoulders as he heard the scream-like cheers from outside while doing final checks.
"Whose turn is it?"
"'For Seven Days.' Bae Sae-byeok."
Kang Hae-sol, whose already pale face had gone a little blue with nerves, answered dryly.
Lee Seung-heon, who had overcome his shyness after sticking together for practice for days, made a distant face.
"Ahh, that PiPiPi composer team…"
He seemed to be remembering how PiPiPi had bulldozed the atmosphere during the mid-check.
"PiPiPi came today, you know."
"Really?"
Lee Seung-heon answered in surprise at Seonwoo I-gyeong's words. Woo Hwi-gyum and Kang Hae-sol did not speak, but their expressions said they found it unexpected as well.
Of course Ye-chan had expected it, so he calmly adjusted his clothes.
With that personality, if Sae-byeok said that much he was 100 percent coming. And he probably also intends to drool over Jeong Ui-tak while he's at it.
Seonwoo I-gyeong fixed Kang Hae-sol's crooked hat and let the words slip.
"Sae-byeok has to do well and show the dignity of a center."
"He will."
Ye-chan properly turned the hat that had somehow become even more crooked and spoke calmly. Looking sheepish, Seonwoo I-gyeong exaggeratedly raised both hands in a surrender gesture and asked,
"Come to think of it, Ye-chan and Hwi-gyum were on the same team as Sae-byeok in the second round, right? From what I saw he improved a lot from the beginning—how is he?"
"Well… the kid…"
"The kid?"
"…is more fiery than I expected."
Ye-chan briefly turned his gaze toward the stage.
The night after episode eight finished airing, Ye-chan had stopped by the practice room after Jeong Ui-tak told him Bae Sae-byeok still had not come back to the room, and he had seen Bae Sae-byeok practicing. The sight of him dancing until his body was about to break, eyes blazing even at that late hour, was truly…
He completely ignored harmony.
Bae Sae-byeok had acted like someone who had decided to pretend the creaking teamwork simply did not exist. Beom Se-hyuk also had a tendency to stand out alone, but this was on a different level. Choreography and singing that ignored everything else and focused solely on making himself shine. And above all, his facial acting was incredible.
Because it was a team and not a solo he would never get a perfect score even if he died and came back, but it was a better choice than everyone sinking together on a disastrous stage.
Since recovering the relationships was already a lost cause, he thought it through well.
Restoring human relationships that had hit rock bottom in a short time and completely rebuilding the stage was beyond Bae Sae-byeok's ability. So how could he prove "center = Bae Sae-byeok"? In a situation with few cards to play, the current method was perfect.
If he comes out determined to shine alone, Jeong Ui-tak and the others have no choice but to go the same way. When the practice footage and mid-check air, the fact that the teamwork is a mess will get a certain free pass. And the order is right after 'Domino,' so they'll look relatively better and the reaction should be decent.
Right on cue, cheers poured out again from the audience seats where the stage was. Bae Sae-byeok probably had not calculated that far, but the result was a success.
Bae Sae-byeok's stats were far better than most trainees. In short, what he lacked was experience and will.
To have such a gentle face and then burn so fiercely the moment his territory was denied—an unexpected discovery. Ambition was better present than absent.
Hmm.
He now had a sense of how to handle Bae Sae-byeok after debut.
"Thank you!"
"Yes, that was the 'For Seven Days' team! We will now begin voting!"
The 'For Seven Days' team gave their final greetings and voting continued.
The next stage was the 'Raindrop' team, known among the trainees as "Nam Ji-yu and the Kids." Nam Ji-yu had been embarrassed that everyone except him was a teenager, but in truth Nam Ji-yu looked the youngest.
Having moved right behind the stage to go up next, Ye-chan quietly observed the performance. The 'Raindrop' team's stage was barely different from the mid-check. It looked like Nam Ji-yu had tried hard to encourage the little ones and somehow pull things together, but it had not worked well.
Nam Ji-yu benefited from the order during the mid-evaluation; he clearly knew it wasn't that good a stage, yet it's strange. The other members must have just wanted to settle.
The previous teams had been getting roasted so thoroughly that they probably did not want to change a stage that had already received good evaluations. But an idol who gave up on growth would only be left behind.
"Then princesses who liked the 'Raindrop' team, please press the button!"
While the MC gave the voting instructions, Nam Ji-yu and the 'Raindrop' members came down from the stage.
"Everyone worked hard. You did way better than in practice, hey!"
Nam Ji-yu brushed past Ye-chan and offered words of praise to the young members. Yet unlike his energetic voice, his expression was somehow dark.
Ye-chan clicked his tongue inwardly.
If you thought it wasn't good enough you should have pushed hard. At this rate it'll be almost even with 'Domino.'
Nothing changed through thought alone. Even after debuting once, if he could not turn thoughts into action, that was the limit of Nam Ji-yu.
"Let's go up."
At leader Kang Hae-sol's words the members stepped toward the stage.
Now it was Ye-chan's turn.
"Continuing with the fourth stage! Candidates Kang Hae-sol, Seonwoo I-gyeong, Woo Hwi-gyum, Lee Seung-heon, and Ha Ye-chan with 'Sinabro'!"
"Aaaah!"
"Insane!"
"Woo Hwi-gyum marry meee!"
"Ha Ye-chan marry me!"
"Woo Hwi-gyuuuum!"
"Hae-sol! I-gyeong!"
"Lee Seung-heon I love you!"
The biggest roar since filming began today erupted. Soft lights illuminated the trainees' feet, and dry ice created a thick fog across the stage.
The moment the accompaniment cut off, a spotlight dropped onto Ye-chan's head.
Gracefully raising his right arm, Ye-chan smiled.
It was time to fill the moon.