The Photo at Dawn
[Trainee Nam Junho: "Man, I was so shocked back then. The whole atmosphere was terrifying, and then he just raises his hand and jumps in out of nowhere. I honestly wondered if he'd eaten something weird."]
One of the charms of an in-house survival show is that far less polished statements come out of the contestants than on your average idol program.
[Trainee Yuseongwoo: "I was thinking we could build the stage around the feeling of a lover's quiet obsession."]
"Huh?"
Every single teammate wore exactly the expression Gyeongjin had on her face right now. Obsession? Out of a bright, bouncy song built on upbeat choreography?
"Ah, that's way too much of a stretch, isn't it?"
"Oh, Yuseongwoo…."
But Robin's reaction was the last thing anyone expected.
[Robin: "Sorry, what? Have you by any chance heard our demo?"]
"Huh?"
"What?"
Gyeongjin set down the beer glass she'd been holding. One after another, the bewildered trainees' faces rolled across the screen.
[Robin: "Honestly, the demo version of this song was steeped in this dark, mournful atmosphere."]
The behind-the-scenes story of 'Shadow Play', revealed for the first time on broadcast.
"Whoa. I never picked up on any of that listening to the song…."
[Robin: "This is fun. How on earth did you catch that from the lyrics?"]
[Trainee Yuseongwoo: "Actually, Trainee Kang Yiyul said at the very beginning that the lyrics sounded a little frightening to him."]
The camera found Kang Yiyul's startled face.
Gyeongjin instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Oh, come on."
"Yuseongwoo!!"
[Production Team: "Was there a particular reason you specifically named Trainee Kang Yiyul? You could have taken all the credit yourself and no one would have been the wiser."]
"Why would they ask it like that?"
"You've watched a survival show or two before, right?"
Yuseongwoo shot back a look that said, why would you even ask me that? A strange sense of kinship pulled a laugh out of Gyeongjin.
[Trainee Yuseongwoo: "I can't live in debt to anyone."]
"Unbelievable."
"Amazing."
Once the concept is locked in, the Black & White team moves at full speed.
Trainees of Team Black & White marvel at the track arranged by Trainee Yuseongwoo.
With string sections layered over the melody, the song had transformed completely into something antique and chilling.
Gyeongjin found herself marveling right along with the trainees on screen.
"Incredible…."
In moments like that he looked like a genius — and then you watched him dance and he was a total squid…
Trainees Kang Yiyul and Yuseongwoo, who never leave the practice room until dawn.
[Production Team: "Doesn't practicing together leave you short on time for your own practice?"]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "Well… when I owe someone something, I can't rest easy until I've paid it back."]
"This absolute lunatic. I don't even have the brains to sharpen right now, and he's saying what?"
"Isn't our Yiyul an actual angel?"
[Production Team: "Debt, you say?"]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "Yuseongwoo-hyung told me it was thanks to me that he came up with the arrangement idea."]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "…Hyung, do you, um, happen to have a minute?"]
The two of them, agonizing over the solo-part gesture.
Yuseongwoo's demonstration, performed with every scrap of his soul.
[Trainee Yuseongwoo: "And then you snap your head back around, just — whoosh, like that."]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "You could… also just explain it in words, you know."]
Yuseongwoo would flail through a movement, and Kang Yiyul would output it flawlessly, like a machine.
"How does he turn that into that?"
It was like watching a freelance illustrator produce a museum-quality piece from a kindergarten-level cover sketch.
But the funniest part was still to come.
"Wait, why does it actually suit him?"
It didn't just stick in the memory better than anything Kang Yiyul had come up with before — it genuinely looked good on him.
[Production Team: "How did you find the gesture Trainee Yuseongwoo taught you?"]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "It was a little… hard to follow, but I trusted hyung's instincts."]
[Production Team: "And his dancing ability?"]
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "…."]
He didn't need to answer. His face said everything.
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "Thank you. I'd been worrying so much about how to bring this part to life, and thanks to you, it's solved."]
"Ha… Yiyul's gotten even more grown-up while I wasn't looking…."
For Gyeongjin, that wasn't exactly welcome news. If he'd matured this much, she could only guess how long it had taken him to endure it.
Repeated debut deals falling through, agency transfers. Through all of it, Yiyul had had no choice but to grow up faster than the kids his age.
And then, unprompted, a thought crossed her mind.
If he debuted, she hoped he'd be the doted-on youngest of the team. Spoiled a little, even.
[Trainee Kang Yiyul: "I think we'll be able to show you something even better."]
"…Just like Juhan."
At last, the Black & White team's stage began.
Even the brief snippets from the practice footage had seized her ears, but hearing the finished track was something else entirely.
"Ah — here it comes."
Yiyul's solo gesture, reborn through Yuseongwoo's idea.
Hold me tight—
With delicate movements of his fingers, he gathered an embrace around the air. In that instant, Gyeongjin had the strange illusion of wings unfolding from behind Yiyul's back.
Jisoo couldn't hold it in and spat out a curse.
"…Ffff—."
Even the moment he turned his head seemed to stretch out slower than real time.
His gaze drifting ever so slightly downward, Gyeongjin murmured like she was under a spell.
"God, he's just an angel…."
"If I die, put on my headstone: Kang Yiyul — Shadow Play, solo part…."
As the formation drifted backward, Yuseongwoo's awkward fumbling grew more and more visible — but everyone watching felt the same way about it.
But the judges' comments defied every expectation — and ignited a firestorm.
[Robin: "You need to practice dancing like your life depends on it. Otherwise, you'll regret it later."]
[Robin: "You can't get carried on everyone's backs forever, even after you debut, right?"]
"Still, he'll make the debut group, won't he?"
But the instant Yuseongwoo was called at Code 6, Gyeongjin blurted out a curse without thinking.
"What the— what is this? Why? Because of the dancing?"
Code 3 goes to — Trainee Kang Yiyul!
"YES!! Hey, did you see that? Yiyul's back in the debut group!!"
"Huh? Oh… yeah."
Jisoo clinked her glass against Gyeongjin's, but Gyeongjin couldn't shake the sour feeling in her chest.
Even in the moment her ultimate bias stepped back into the debut group, it was Yuseongwoo who lingered in her mind.
The moment I opened my eyes in the morning, something felt off — I sensed it instinctively.
"Since when?"
The SP that had sat at a modest 500 just yesterday had ballooned to an absurd figure.
Growing attention was a good thing. But…
"…Something's wrong."
SP climbing at an abnormal rate. My gut told me this was nothing to celebrate blindly. And sure enough, I soon found the reason.
Rookie Development Team Leader — 7 missed calls
If the tiger of a team leader was reaching out personally, there was no way it could be good news.
…I think something just got well and truly screwed.
I dialed immediately.
"Yuseongwoo, I need you to come to the Rookie Development meeting room for a bit."
"Yes, sir. I'm on my way right now."
"Good. It's just… something's come up. Try not to worry too much."
"Understood."
That last line was the scariest part of all. In my whole life, I had never once seen a "don't worry" that turned out to be worth not worrying about.
Every imaginable scenario ran through my head on the way to the meeting room.
Could it be school bullying accusations?
No. Not that.
Smoking?
I hadn't even smoked before I regressed.
An ex-girlfriend exposé?
I'd never had a girlfriend in the first place.
And above all —
I did nothing but study, right up until I went to university for music.
I arrived at the meeting room door and took a deep breath.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
The moment I opened the door, the atmosphere in the room was anything but ordinary.
"Sit here."
"Ah — yes, sir."
"The reason I called you in so suddenly is that something's been posted online."
At this point I'm actually more curious what it could possibly be.
"You know how dangerous it is for this kind of noise to crop up in the middle of a survival show."
Getting a scolding for something I hadn't even heard of yet felt deeply unfair.
So what IS it already?
"Well, if it's some past misconduct, you'd usually settle with the victim, or post an apology, or something along those lines…."
"What kind of post is it, sir?"
"Do you genuinely not know, or are you pretending not to?"
His eyes sharpened. I shook my head quickly.
"I honestly don't know. I can't explain myself until I know what this is about."
The team leader studied me for a moment, then held out his phone.
"Fine. Then see for yourself."
On the screen was a photo of me walking down a street beside some woman. And at a very intimate hour of the very early morning, no less.
"Wow."
The reaction was far bigger than I'd imagined. This had gone up at four in the morning, and it was already at this scale?
I studied the photo closely. And then I spotted a bag the woman was carrying — one I knew all too well….
"What is this… no, wait a second."
In that instant, a chill ran through me from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head. And the feelings that came flooding in were fear and sheer, dumbfounded disbelief.
"Yuseongwoo."
The team leader's voice was heavy with a sigh.
"A scandal over a woman, and this early? What are we going to do with you."
"No, sir. This…."
With a trembling hand, I pointed at the screen.
"Hm?"
"That's…."
The words wouldn't come. No — more precisely, I didn't want to let them out of my mouth.
"What is that?"
That woman is Yu Seong-ah.
Which means I am dead.