The Butterfly Effect (3)
“Should we decide the leader through a vote?”
“I recommend Unbi noona!”
Han Yu-ri raised her hand first and spoke.
“It seems like Unbi noona’s doing would be fine.”
Everyone seemed to agree.
Unbi noona was originally the type who softened the atmosphere, and she had good popularity among the trainees.
But then, someone cautiously opened their mouth.
“But… there are times when the leader needs to be firm… I’m afraid she might not be able to handle it since she’s too kind?”
Some showed hesitation at that.
In fact, the words weren’t entirely wrong.
Unbi noona wasn’t really the type to strongly push people.
“Ah… am I that kind?”
Unbi noona herself looked a bit surprised.
Han Yu-ri playfully interjected.
“Then~ Unbi noona is the type that gives in to everything. In a good way, she’s kind, and in a bad way…! Mueum!”
Next to her, Park Hye-in quickly covered Han Yu-ri’s mouth.
“Don’t say bad things.”
After hearing the warning, she nodded.
As soon as Hye-in removed her hand, Yu-ri’s mouth opened again.
“Idiot! It’s the type that’s easy to get scammed a little.”
I shook my head internally.
Park Hye-in had just sensed the abyss and tried to block it, but she jumped happily into her own grave again.
Han Yu-ri is really amazing.
Fortunately, the atmosphere was bursting with laughter.
The worrying parts were quickly forgotten.
And eventually, without much disagreement, the leader was decided to be Unbi noona.
“Then our Unbi noona is the leader! Clap clap!”
Han Yu-ri playfully clapped, and everyone followed with laughter, the atmosphere lightened.
“I’ll work hard.”
With the temporary part decided, serious practice began.
While everyone was holding lyric sheets and practicing songs or following the choreography, Park Hye-in caught my eye.
…She’s definitely changed.
Although it was still early in practice, the feeling of slacking off like last time was gone.
She asked with a quite serious attitude whether the notes matched, and repeated the same part over and over.
Was it because she had awakened?
Or was she acting on the broadcast edit?
I’m sure it wasn’t forced tears… Can people really change like this overnight?
Honestly, I don’t know.
No matter what, it was clear that Park Hye-in was working hard now.
If this is a sincere reflection, what decisive factor changed her like this?
Was it the shock of seeing herself on the broadcast?
I was genuinely curious.
If Na-bin really was the one who was bullying her, this could be the key that changes her.
“Is it better to stop here?”
“The line seems a bit twisted here?”
While I was thinking about something else, the surroundings became noisy.
It was the sound from the position where they were telling the teammates how to follow the choreography.
It wasn’t just individual practice, but it had to be synchronized as a team, yet the coordination wasn’t working at all.
Everyone was working hard, but something wasn’t syncing.
There were awkward parts where each one didn’t know where to stop or move.
“Can we bring one more person to line them up?”
“There’s no one doing anything right now. Just one minute.”
“We haven’t finished melody copying yet.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to hang on all together.”
“Can we use one of us for a moment, Unbi noona?”
Unbi noona looked a bit surprised.
“One minute… wouldn’t that be okay?”
“I’ll do it.”
“I’ll just check the lines quickly.”
But time was passing.
One minute wasn’t enough to neatly organize.
“Hey, a lot of time has passed.”
“It’s almost done. Do we have to match all this together?”
“Was the choreography all different?”
“No, I think it’s better to do it all at once.”
“Isn’t it better to learn the choreography first and then consider the lines later?”
“We still have parts to match now.”
It was gradually getting chaotic.
“Unbi noona, should we just wait?”
“We’re almost done.”
“You’re the leader. I’ll ask you.”
The air in the practice room subtly froze.
Everyone was waiting for Unbi noona’s opinion as the leader, but she couldn’t easily speak up.
“The choreography lines seem complicated, so let’s reinforce with one more person. Shall we continue practicing like this?”
Unbi noona’s words, which she barely managed to say, seemed to be resolved for now.
But this situation repeated.
Since the leader couldn’t clearly express her opinion, everyone’s opinions clashed and no proper direction was set.
This is more serious than I thought.
I sighed internally.
Although it was before the middle evaluation, if we continued like this, the team would have no choice but to become a mess.
Since there was already conflict in everyone’s opinions.
If we get harsh feedback at the middle evaluation, everyone’s minds will be full of blaming others.
Some would resent the one who swung Unbi noona, and some would blame the leader who didn’t lead properly.
Of course, they wouldn’t show it outwardly.
Still, the small grudges in their hearts would inevitably lead to the stage completion.
Something needs to be done.
But I couldn’t just take the lead on my own.
It could be seen as ignoring the armband.
Suddenly, a good idea came to mind.
I deliberately pretended to be slightly hesitant and leaned towards Unbi noona.
“Noona, how about quickly dividing those who have learned and those who haven’t?”
“Roles?”
“Yeah. Learn the choreography simply without the lines, and the ones who have mastered the melody or difficult parts help separately, and the lines are matched last!”
I deliberately continued slowly so that she could take the lead.
“Noona can check while looking at the overall picture of the team and give immediate feedback, so you can see objectively and give feedback right away, right?”
“We’re suggesting to do a quick self-check.”
“Right. Thanks to noona, we saved a lot of time by separating choreography and melody copying.”
Suddenly, Unbi noona’s face brightened.
She seemed relieved and happy that her judgment wasn’t wrong.
“Then shall we do that?”
Everyone nodded and started agreeing.
“Yeah. If we’ve learned it moderately, it’s better to match quickly and fill in the lacking parts.”
“Quickly figure out where we’re weak.”
“It’s easy to correct with noona looking at the whole thing.”
Unbi noona said with a smile on her face.
“Then let’s summarize the organized parts first.”
“Yes!”
“Good!”
The team members’ atmosphere clearly changed.
After quickly exchanging information, they immediately synced.
When Unbi noona checked while looking at the overall picture, the blocked parts started to be resolved.
“It’s a bit fast here, it’s difficult.”
“Then let’s try practicing with half a beat slower.”
“We can learn the movements slowly first and then speed up again.”
Unbi noona looked at the flow and gave necessary advice at the moment, and the team members detailed tuned only the parts without unnecessary actions.
Finally, after matching the last lines, Unbi noona clapped vigorously.
“Good! This is it!”
Everyone looked at each other with satisfied faces.
It was creaky at first, but eventually, they found the proper direction.
“More detailed parts will have to be practiced continuously, but it seems everyone has the frame set.”
“Noona looking at the whole thing made it easy to correct.”
“Seeing this, our team won.”
“Unbi noona leader is doing well!”
Unbi noona shrugged and laughed.
“Aigoo~ Seo-yeon did almost all of it, right.”
I smiled awkwardly on the surface while internally sighing in relief.
I was the best for her.
When the leader couldn’t firmly lead, you shouldn’t take away the baton.
The way to save everyone is to naturally give strength while trusting and respecting the person who set the leader till the end.
I would have weakened Unbi noona’s speaking rights if I had organized it like I did, and she would have become more passive.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Unbi noona expressed her voice as the leader till the end and showed how she held the center as the leader.
Surviving show is really… nothing easy.
And up to this point, she didn’t know at all that changes were happening because of me.
*
“How should we handle Park Hye-in’s part?”
On the monitor placed on the editing room conference table, several video clips were floating.
They were videos featuring Park Hye-in’s appearance.
At first, the appearance of not caring about the teammates and only taking care of her own part.
Then, after the broadcast, the scene where she realizes how she was seen and apologizes while crying.
And the scene where she writes rap lyrics reflecting on the position evaluation and finally bursts into tears after giving her best on stage.
“Should we really keep this?”
PD tapped his pen on the desk.
“Yeah. Park Hye-in has become like this, so she’s not a character we can use now, and since she’s a trainee on the verge of elimination, no matter how we send her out, it won’t have a big impact.”
“But Park Hye-in cried while watching Seo-yeon’s stage.”
At that word, the atmosphere in the meeting room subtly changed.