The Second Mission (4)
There was no ruining the stage at this point.
Like it or not, I had no choice but to give it everything I had.
Not for the team. For myself. A good response in the individual evaluations didn't mean much — what truly counted was the main stage. A single mistake up there would stamp me as a trainee who folded in a live performance. And if those little stains piled up, they would become obstacles to saving Lumiere and Yu Na-bin.
I'd been counting on us losing because our team's overall ability was low to begin with. But I'd also intended to give it my all from the very start.
Beneath the spotlight, the lights grew steadily brighter. The audience sank into darkness, and the stage rose into sharp, vivid focus.
In one section of the audience, a woman who looked to be in her early-to-mid twenties sat with her arms crossed, watching the stage. She was one of the many invited spectators — a die-hard idol fan.
Honestly, every performance she'd seen so far had been exactly what you'd expect from trainees. You could see the effort, but the polish was lacking, and none of them had managed to pull her in.
The team coming up now, though, was different. Her eyes lit up.
Lee Seo-yeon and Yu Na-bin. The two trainees who'd gotten the strongest reactions during the group song. And of the two, Lee Seo-yeon. She was the only contestant who'd already looked like a professional — and it wasn't merely that she looked like a celebrity. It was something else entirely.
But how would she hold up on a real stage, in front of a real audience? Holding onto that flicker of anticipation, the woman watched Seo-yeon take her place.
In those first few seconds, the stage lights flickered and the accompaniment began to play. Then Lee Seo-yeon moved.
"...!"
For a single instant, the woman's breath caught. Even before the lights had fully come up, Seo-yeon was already glowing. From the very first motion, she seized the stage completely. The meticulously calculated tips of her fingers, the razor-sharp precision of every gesture, the look in her eyes that heralded the start of the song — every last element made Lee Seo-yeon the undisputed star of the stage.
Yeah... that girl is already a pro.
The thought surfaced unbidden in the idol fan's mind. And in the same breath, she realized something else. Take Lee Seo-yeon out of this team, and there was no one left who stood out. It wasn't that the other members were bad — but the center of gravity was unmistakably tilted to one side. That was how singular Seo-yeon's presence was.
The further the song went, the deeper she fell into the performance. Every time Seo-yeon stepped into center, there was a perfect sense of balance. Her gaze was pulled toward the girl as if by gravity.
Then one of the trainees unleashed a soaring high note, clean and unrestrained.
...Oh?
Was that the main vocal? That was refreshing.
A gasp of admiration slipped out before she could stop it. Kang Se-rin. A trainee she hadn't paid much attention to until now — which made sense. There was no way to show off main-vocal chops in a group song, and with the first broadcast yet to air, there hadn't been any particular buzz around her.
But in this moment, she'd landed a genuine hit.
Not bad.
Honestly, she'd done far better than expected. She'd succeeded in lifting the energy of the song, and the rest of the audience was responding well too.
That was when a strange movement caught the corner of her eye.
...What's that girl doing?
She wasn't even the center, but she was overacting to an absurd degree. Movements packed with too much force, expressions dripping with excessive charm. Even when it wasn't her part, she was twisting herself into every possible angle to steal the spotlight.
Why is she going that far?
Her brow furrowed before she even realized it. When Lee Seo-yeon was in the center, none of that overacting had been visible — because you simply couldn't look away. But whenever the other members stepped forward, Park Hye-in would start moving too hard, and the stage would get messy.
It wasn't that her skills were bad. But what she was doing right now was the kind of thing that completely shattered teamwork.
Standing out is one thing. This is just too much.
It was painfully obvious she wanted to shine by herself, not as part of the team. This wasn't someone trying to show a distinctive performance — it was someone trying to forcibly snatch every eye in the room. And because of that, the stage was losing its coherence.
Ugh, this is getting on my nerves.
In the end, it was the center who completed the stage. Lee Seo-yeon. The one who buried every messy current under her own presence. The moment she moved back to center as the song raced toward its climax, Park Hye-in's showing off vanished. The disrupted flow vanished. The instant Seo-yeon stood in the middle, the stage was perfect again.
...Of course.
She sank back into the performance with an easy heart, and before she knew it, the stage was over. Uncrossing her arms to applaud, the spectator thought:
Lee Seo-yeon isn't a once-in-a-thousand-years idol... she's a once-in-ten-thousand-years idol.
When we came off the stage, Kang Se-rin was panting beside me, both hands clenched tight. She must have given it everything she had — beads of sweat stood out across her skin. Even so, she looked up at me with sparkling eyes.
"S-Seo-yeon...! How was I?"
"You were incredible."
I meant every word. Kang Se-rin had done far better than I'd expected. Her singing had always been stable, but when she'd driven that high note home on stage, even I had been stunned.
Se-rin covered her face with trembling hands.
"Really...? I feel like I messed up a little..."
"I didn't notice a single mistake. You did more than enough!"
Se-rin pressed her lips together, then smiled faintly. The tension seemed to drain out of her all at once.
"I can't believe I just performed in front of an audience... this isn't a dream, right...?"
"It is a dream."
"What...? No it's nooot..."
She gave me a weak little poke, and it was adorable. Se-rin was usually so cautious and timid, always reading the room — seeing her this happy made me want to look after her even more.
"Se-rin! You did great!"
The one who'd cut in was Park Hye-in, wearing that same unshakable confidence as always. There was nothing wrong with jumping in to praise someone.
"I really threw everything I had into it up there, you know? I bet that's what made our team's energy pop."
If there was one person on that stage destined to become a controversy, it was Park Hye-in, no contest. Even though she wasn't the center, she'd made far too many unnecessary bids for attention, and there had been more than a few moments when she'd muddied the flow of the performance.
How is it that obvious when we're standing on the same stage?
It wasn't as if I'd been specifically watching her out of the corner of my eye. And I'd still noticed. That said everything.
Thanks so much for that.
If this had been a team we actually needed to win with, I probably would have been furious. But right now? As far as I was concerned, this was a good thing. And at least offstage, she blended into the team atmosphere well enough that she wasn't giving anyone extra stress.
"The facial acting during my part was the killing point, by the way."
"When we watch the footage later, I bet you'll only see my face."
I let the nonsense slide and moved on.
Once we'd caught our breath, the opposing team's stage was about to begin.
"It's Yu Na-bin's team now."
"They got a good response during practice too."
"Ugh, I'm getting nervous."
Then the stage began. The moment the lights came up, my eyes found Yu Na-bin first — of course they did.
My whole body went rigid.
The flawless expression. The razor-sharp movements. A performance that belonged to a professional. In a matter of seconds, all of it had me completely in its grip.
"...!"
I screamed internally and bit down on my lip.
She's insane...! This is too thrilling...!
On the outside, I tried my hardest to keep my face as blank as possible. I was sure I'd hidden it well.
"Seo-yeon, what's wrong?"
"Huh?"
"Just now... weren't you smiling and mouthing that Yu Na-bin is so pretty?"
"Na-bin is pretty, though."
I tried to sound casual. But Se-rin wasn't even looking at the monitor — she was looking at me — and I could feel a cold sweat starting to form.
"She is. Na-bin is pretty. But I think you're even prettier, Seo-yeon..."
"Oh? Th-thank you."
I answered with an embarrassed little laugh and turned my eyes back to the monitor. I couldn't look away from the charisma pouring off Yu Na-bin as she filled the stage.
God, she was the best. There was no beating that.
Wait... if they actually perform that well, we might really lose.
Se-rin hesitated beside me, then asked carefully,
"Seo-yeon, is there a chance we might lose?"
"...Can you read minds or something?"
"...Huh?"
"You know. Telepathy. The kind of thing where you can see what people are thinking."
Se-rin tilted her head at me.
"I was actually thinking we might lose."
That was the honest truth. No — if anything, I wanted to lose. But I couldn't say that out loud, so I just shrugged and let the sentence trail off.
"Well, it's all relative."
Se-rin muttered in a small voice,
"But I still want us to win..."
She really shouldn't have been saying that with Na-bin right there on stage — but the way Se-rin shrank into herself and still said exactly what she meant was a little cute.
A short while later, Na-bin's stage came to an end. The MC took the microphone again.
"We'll now begin the vote!"
A murmur rippled through the audience. The MC explained the voting method one more time.
"You are not choosing which of the two teams did better! Each of you may vote for only one trainee — whichever one you liked most!"
A brief silence settled, and then the voting began.
Once the votes were in, they didn't announce the results. They moved straight on to the next matchup. After every remaining team battle had finished, the audience filed out. And now, at last, we were standing on the edge of the real results announcement.
The trainees swallowed hard, the tension thick enough to taste. I clasped my hands together as well.
Please, I'm begging you — let us lose!