A Bear That Looks Like a Fox Pretending to Be a Bear
A bear that looked like a fox pretending to be a bear.
My Idol Academia.
An idol survival audition program planned and produced by Nnet.
One hundred idol trainees and a total of twenty-three agencies had signed on to compete.
One hundred contestants. Twenty-three agencies.
A few had come alone as their agency's sole representative, but most of the contestants had entered My Idol Academia alongside fellow trainees from the same company.
The long-awaited first shoot began, and the moment the agency's name lit up on the electronic board, four contestants stepped into view.
"Waaah~"
"So this is the set!"
What greeted the Taihai Entertainment trainees as they entered with their somewhat forced reactions was a pyramid of chairs ranked from first place all the way down to one hundredth.
"Whoa~ that's insane."
"They've got rankings stuck on every chair."
"Which numbers are we supposed to sit in?"
When the Taihai trainees called the question out toward the edge of the set, an answer came back almost immediately.
"Estimate where you'd rank among the hundred, and sit wherever you like."
"No way~, we get to pick? What do we do~"
If subtitles had been slapped over this moment, they probably would have read something like this:
[THE BRUTAL SURVIVAL BEGINS IN EARNEST!]
[JUST HOW HIGH WILL THE TAIHAI TRAINEES RANK THEMSELVES?]
"Unnies, where should we sit?"
"I know, right… Ugh… why did we have to go first."
They said it, but deep down they were relieved to be first. Going first meant more screen time, and it meant they could claim the good seats before anyone else.
"Then how about we sit here?"
"Ooh~ I love it!"
And so, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, they settled into seats eighteen through twenty-one — positions that would catch the cameras well. The rankings were solidly upper-tier, too, which let them signal confidence in their own skill without overreaching.
The Taihai trainees sat down looking thoroughly pleased with themselves and launched into the reactions the PD had coached them on before they walked in.
"But guys, who do you think is going to sit there?"
At the end of their gazes sat the first-place throne crowning the very peak of the pyramid. Unlike the ordinary chairs around it, this one glittered with lavish ornamentation — a queen's seat in every sense of the word.
The Taihai trainees stared up at the first-place throne with varying shades of naked greed, then shook their heads one by one. They wanted it, sure… but that was not a seat just anyone could take. The moment you sat there, whether you liked it or not, an overwhelming amount of attention would stick to you like glue.
If you could shoulder that pressure and still put on a good show, you might climb even higher. But if you couldn't…
You would become the public's favorite punching bag. Sitting in first place was nothing short of a poisoned chalice.
"No idea. But, well… whoever's actually good will sit there, right?"
"I hope we get to meet everyone else soon!"
The second the Taihai trainees finished their little performance, fresh lettering bloomed across the board.
"Oh, it's the Rahiti people."
"So we weren't first after all? Ah… hello!"
Rahiti Entertainment was roughly the same size as Taihai. The three Rahiti trainees who walked out together bowed their heads toward the Taihai girls already seated in the chairs.
"Yes! Hello!"
"Looking forward to working with you~"
"Yes, nice to meet you. Looking forward to it~"
They didn't know each other, and they certainly weren't friends. But the cameras were rolling, and they needed to project a polite, well-mannered image for the audience at home.
After the greetings, the Rahiti trainees claimed seats in the row just below Taihai — center stage again, where the cameras would find them easily.
After that, contestants from agency after agency filed in and filled the seats one by one.
"We'll take seventy-first and seventy-second!"
"Waaah! Looking forward to it!"
Before long, every prized center seat the trainees preferred had been claimed… and just as the remaining contestants were grinding through soulless small talk for even one extra camera cut, a new name appeared.
"……!"
The instant the new agency name lit up on the board, every contestant flinched in unison. And for good reason.
"Someone from SAV Entertainment is… coming out…?"
SAV Entertainment stood alongside JJ and YW as one of the three major agencies in South Korea that no one could leave off the list. Every trainee sitting in that room had dreamed of the Big Three — and every one of them had failed to clear the threshold.
With no prior information, the trainees could give genuinely raw reactions to SAV's appearance. Tension and curiosity funneled toward the entrance where the SAV trainee would emerge…
"Wow, a lot of people are already here. Hello, everyone~"
A single beautiful girl stepped into view, her face radiating pure self-assurance.
"Nice to meet you~"
"SAV? That's insane! Nice to meet you!"
"Hehe, looking forward to working with all of you~"
Her clothes, bright with a smile like sunlight itself, bore the SAV affiliation alongside the name Seo Yujin.
Seo Yujin exchanged greetings with the contestants, surveyed the remaining seats, and then…
"Not many seats left, huh? Hmm…"
She pretended to deliberate for a beat — then dropped straight into the second-place seat.
"……!"
The first high-ranking seat to find an owner sent a small ripple of unrest through the contestants. In truth, second place wasn't all that attractive. The pressure was nearly as crushing as first, and unlike the first-place throne planted dead center, second sat off to the side — a disadvantage for camera coverage.
But she settled into it with a satisfied smile, as if declaring that screen time was made by the person, not the seat. And the moment she sat down, the staff scrambled to keep their lenses on her. Jealousy, envy, and admiration all turned her way.
Ah… this is nice.
Seo Yujin savored the tangle of emotions in their stares. Greedy by nature, she had deliberately chosen second place for the attention and the airtime. And of course, she was confident in her ability.
I'm from SAV, after all~
Unlike the other contestants, she hadn't come from some no-name shit agency. She may not have debuted under SAV, but the company's halo filled her self-esteem to the brim. She was certain she would stand out on My Idol Academia — more brilliant, more skilled than anyone else here.
That certainty held firm even as contestant after contestant filed in behind her.
The later the entrance order, the more impressive the résumés that walked through the door. Among them were trainees from agencies that, while not quite Big Three, still carried real name recognition — and more.
"Whoa, that unnie made it to seventh on K-Star!"
"She's famous on Shorts! I saw her doing challenges with actual idols…"
There were powerhouse contestants who had already placed high on music audition shows, and others who had already built followings on social media. Seo Yujin watched every last one of them and still brimmed with confidence. She was simply better than all of them — that was what she believed.
I should've just sat in first.
There was only one reason a girl who loved attention had not claimed the first-place throne: company orders. Having obtained the first shoot's details through lobbying, SAV Entertainment had instructed Seo Yujin not to sit in first. Sitting there was too much of a double-edged sword, they said.
It's not like anyone else here could even take first. The company was way too cautious.
Even as she grumbled about her agency, the seats kept filling, until at last even the dead-last hundredth-place chair found its owner.
Q: Why did you choose to sit in one hundredth place?
The contestant who took the hundredth seat had deliberately written herself a growth narrative — a calculated play for extra cuts.
And so most of the seats found their owners… until only two remained.
First place, and ninety-ninth.
The contestants tossed out camera-ready reactions while stealing glances at the first-place throne.
"Only two seats left~, just two."
"Who's going to sit there, do you think?"
Only two contestants remained. The production team behind My Idol Academia was no pack of fools. They had almost certainly decided the owner of first place long before the cameras rolled. The contestants waited with taut, nervous eyes, wondering who it would be.
And then one final agency name appeared.
"Huh? Pffhah—!"
The moment they saw the name Hyeongje Entertainment, the contestants burst out laughing in unison. And for good reason.
Compared to every other agency, the name was painfully, spectacularly uncool.
"Hehehe."
"Ahahaha—!"
The contestants cackled over Hyeongje Entertainment and chattered noisily among themselves.
"Hyeongje Entertainment? Ever heard of it?"
"Nope. Not even once. Heh, more importantly — who the hell named a company that?"
Seo Yujin was no exception. She sneered at the name just like the rest of them.
Ahaha, what kind of shitty little agency is that?
For a moment she even forgot the cameras were rolling, tipping her head back as she laughed. Amid the contestants' mockery, a different kind of curiosity turned toward the entrance.
Click.
The instant the Hyeongje Entertainment trainee stepped into view—
"……!!"
As if someone had flipped a switch, the laughter died and shock flooded the room.
"……."
"……."
Everyone here had grown up hearing they were pretty until the words were drilled into their ears. Every contestant knew, objectively, that they had a beautiful face.
But…
The girl who had just appeared before ninety-eight contestants was on an entirely different level.
Pretty? The word was inadequate for her.
A face cold and delicate as if sculpted from ice, proportions so perfect they might have been measured with a ruler, and above all an aura that seized the entire room and refused to let go…
She was beautiful.
Yes. She was… far too beautiful.
"…Hello."
"……."
Low expectations made the impact all the greater. The contestants, drowning in shock, forgot the cameras entirely and could not even bring themselves to answer her greeting. Her haughty, frigid presence made speaking to her feel almost impossible. She had simply overwhelmed them.
"…?"
Ha Yerin of Hyeongje Entertainment tilted her head at the silence, then scanned the remaining seats.
"…Ah."
What remained were first place and ninety-ninth — two seats of the most extreme contrast imaginable. But everyone in that room already knew. The owner of that brilliantly glittering first-place throne… was the Ha Yerin standing right in front of them.
Seo Yujin, seated in second, stared blankly at Ha Yerin without even knowing what she was thinking. She had always believed she had been born to be an idol.
…She was wrong.
Prideful as she was, in this single moment she found herself admitting it without meaning to. The one qualified to sit in first place — no, the one who had to sit there —
was no one but her.
And so she watched, dazed, as Ha Yerin — carrying herself like a queen — began to climb the pyramid toward the first-place throne…
"…Huh?"
Except…
Click. Click.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Ha Yerin did not climb the stairs toward first place. Instead she walked forward, heels clicking, and then—
Dropped straight into the ninety-ninth seat.
"……!!"
This time a shock of the exact opposite kind crashed over the contestants. Every face turned toward Ha Yerin in pure astonishment at her unexpected choice. In a moment when anyone with eyes could see she belonged in first, she had veered off course and sat in ninety-ninth.
In that instant, every contestant understood it on instinct.
This girl… is a fox…
A nine-tailed fox who toyed with people's hearts and knew exactly how to farm screen time. She had flaunted her overwhelming beauty, feinted toward first place, then planted herself in the utterly mismatched ninety-ninth seat. Whatever else came of it, this was guaranteed to become a massive talking point. And as a bonus, she would walk away with the image of someone free of greed.
Ha Yerin had clearly calculated all of this and chosen ninety-ninth on purpose. And even then, she showed no intention of dropping the mask of pretense.
"I look forward to working with all of you…?"
The way she pretended to be flustered by the excessive attention aimed at her was almost nauseatingly calculated. And especially—
That fox-faced little—!
Seo Yujin, snapping back to her senses a beat too late, ground her teeth at the girl who had stolen every scrap of attention that had been hers. The sight of the cameras that had been trained on her now swarming toward Ha Yerin — as if announcing that Seo Yujin's airtime was over — only made her feel more pathetic.
And so Ha Yerin, seated in ninety-ninth, received jealousy, envy, and admiration several times greater than what Seo Yujin had drawn.
And though this had not yet come to pass — it was the near future — Ha Yerin's first appearance would go on to record the highest ratings of any moment in episode one of My Idol Academia.