A Single Dream

Before the final ranking announcement, every last trainee took the stage.

The song they would sing was titled Eternal Dream—the number chosen to close out the finale. It was bright, and yet somewhere beneath that brightness ran a current of sorrow.

Do Won-woo walked forward as he sang the opening lines, and Lee Hae-won appeared next.

Then Hyeon Si-woo and Kwon Hak-jin sang facing each other. Beneath the white lights, their voices unfurled across the stage, quiet and steady.

The cameras found Kang In-hyeok and Won Ji-an standing side by side.

Han I-jae took the next verse, then passed it to Jeong Hui-min.

Radiant light poured across the stage as the trainees sang, trading glances, passing the song from one pair of eyes to the next.

The orchestra surged all at once, flooding the stage with a brilliance that felt almost too much to bear.

The cameras cut to the audience. Some of them were crying. Others sat with faces undone by something too large to name.

Lee Hyo-seop reached out as he sang, and Na Jae-hyun took that hand, a bright smile breaking across his face as he walked toward the front of the stage.

The song rang out, and the audience roared as if they already knew this was the end. Pure white petals of confetti drifted down over the singing trainees, catching the lights as they fell, glittering brighter with every spark.

Won Ji-an lifted the microphone for the final lines.

Every other voice on the stage had fallen silent. Before he could sing the last line, Won Ji-an lowered his head, as if the tears were about to break. The hand holding the microphone trembled.

And then, with great difficulty, he brought out the final words.

With those lyrics, Won Ji-an lowered the microphone and broke into sobs.

In the end, the tears had won.

The final VCR filled the screen—short interviews with the trainees, cycling through quickly. And once again, the venue became a sea of tears. Everyone already knew. The end was coming.

Someone would debut. Someone would leave without ever debuting. It was a beautiful reality, and a cruel one.

"Ji-an."

The moment they came down from the stage, Kwon Hak-jin ran to him and gathered Won Ji-an close. The other trainees hovered nearby, checking on him—and no wonder. Won Ji-an was crying as if he might collapse where he stood.

"Are you okay?"

Everyone would have assumed the same thing: that these were tears born of anxiety, of terror, of the fear that he might be eliminated.

Half right. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Half wrong. If the other trainees here were cut, they would simply go home. Won Ji-an would die. He would vanish from this world forever.

A death sentence... that's basically what this is. The moment just before it's handed down.

I couldn't bear to keep watching. A person falling apart this completely—I couldn't stand it. Because I knew how hard Won Ji-an had fought to keep his composure until the very end. Pretending he was fine. Forcing himself to look bright. Because I knew better than anyone that he had wanted to leave those moments—moments that might be his last—without a single regret. Beautifully.

Ah...

I felt like I was losing my mind. If Won Ji-an really failed to debut—what was I supposed to do?

I went under too. My mind blanked, and I crumpled right there on the spot.

"Won-woo, what's wrong?"

The trainees around us startled as I sank down beside him.

"Are you okay?"

I gripped my knees with trembling hands and barely managed to stand.

...Maybe it would have been better if I'd never gotten close to anyone from the start.

A wave of nausea hit me out of nowhere, though I hadn't eaten a thing. My stomach churned, wild and relentless.

I went to Won Ji-an's side. He lifted his head, and I saw his face—a wreck of tears.

He said it through the crying.

"You, at least—you have to remember me."

I couldn't say a word.

He seemed to already know. He seemed to have felt it in his bones—that he wouldn't debut. That was why he'd said it, I thought. Maybe the idea of vanishing from this world, of being remembered by no one at all, was the one thing he couldn't bear.

"Yeah."

I barely managed to hide the tremor in my hands as I set one of them on Won Ji-an's slumped shoulder.

When the time came for the ranking announcement, every trainee climbed onto the stage.

Nine chairs waited in front of us. Which meant there were no extra spots after all—or at least, that was how it looked. I didn't know that for certain yet.

I found myself tearing at my nails without realizing it. The anxiety came in a mad, drowning rush.

Please.

I started praying, something I never did. Because in this moment, there was one thing that absolutely had to come true.

"Dream Stage Season 2 is about to come to a close. To all the trainees standing here today—thank you for walking this journey. You've worked so hard."

The MC held his cue cards, his voice more solemn than it had ever been.

"Now, I'll announce eighth place."

The rankings would be called from eighth down. Ninth, as expected, was being saved for last.

The air was stretched tight enough to snap. I didn't need to look to know that every trainee on that stage was burning up from the inside.

"Eighth place is..."

And then the name was called.

"Trainee Kwon Hak-jin, congratulations!"

The instant his name rang out, Kwon Hak-jin lifted his head with stunned eyes.

"Me?"

He walked forward through a wave of congratulations, smiling as he went. This time, it wasn't a fake smile. It was the real thing—a smile that looked genuinely, unmistakably happy.

"Congrats, hyung."

"You worked so hard. Really."

Everyone around us was celebrating, and I felt my own face starting to slip. Won Ji-an's name still hadn't been called. Which meant the only thing left to bet on was that he would be ninth.

"Uh... well, I thought I might not even debut, so actually debuting like this feels so surreal. I can't believe it..."

Kwon Hak-jin stood at the podium and fumbled through his speech, rambling in a way that was nothing like the Kwon Hak-jin who was usually so good with words.

"I'll work even harder so I can show you a better version of myself than I am now. Thank you."

Still, true to the leader I'd seen in the original novel, he pulled it together at the end and closed on something clean and composed.

The announcements kept coming.

"Seventh place—trainee Jeong Hui-min!"

Jeong Hui-min crumpled too. His rank had risen at the previous announcement, and he'd spent so much of the last mission visibly agonizing over the rankings that the late surge had carried him. I was glad. I'd been right there watching him struggle through all of it.

"I'll become a Jeong Hui-min who can repay all the love you've given me. Thank you."

He finished in a voice thick with feeling. Jeong Hui-min, who always kept that blunt, unreadable face, had wet eyes today.

But I couldn't congratulate him with any peace of mind. The higher the ranks climbed, the further Won Ji-an's name receded—and the more I had no choice but to pin everything on ninth place.

"Sixth place—Kang In-hyeok!"

The moment his name was called, Kang In-hyeok pressed a hand to his chest, then walked out onto the stage. In a way, it was extraordinary. Originally, he was an extra who should have been eliminated long ago. And yet he had rewritten his own fate and made ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it all the way to debut.

"Fifth place—Hyeon Si-woo!"

At the next announcement, Hyeon Si-woo's name rang out. He grabbed his knees and hung his head. I knew better than anyone how long he had waited for this moment, so I patted him on the back.

"Thank you for pulling me out of the shadows and letting me see the light. I'll work hard to shine even brighter. I love you."

Hyeon Si-woo's speech was the kind that moved people. Anyone who knew what he had been through would have been in tears.

But I still felt like I was coming apart. With every rank announced, with every person who left the waiting line, the feeling of going insane only got worse. There was nothing I could do about it.

First place... can I even do it?

I was restless, sick with dread, my stomach lurching as if I might throw up at any second. The longer it went on, the more it felt like swallowing needles.

"Fourth place is trainee Na Jae-hyun. Congratulations!"

The moment his name was called, the delight on his face was impossible to miss. Na Jae-hyun went down the line high-fiving everyone, and when he held his hand out to me—the instant he saw my face—he pulled it right back.

"..."

"..."

I must have looked awful. I knew that myself. Cold sweat had been soaking through me for a while now. It was a familiar state of affairs, going back to the last ranking announcement. Ending ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up like this. A wreck.

"Now, I'll announce third place."

Third, already. The first-place candidates would be named any moment now.

"Third place—trainee Lee Hae-won!"

No surprises. Same as the last ranking announcement: Han I-jae and I were named as the candidates for first.

"Congrats."

"Yeah. You worked hard."

Before he headed to the stage, Lee Hae-won pulled me into a fierce hug. He patted my back a few times, then turned and walked toward the podium.

Once he was up there, Lee Hae-won spoke as if he had been waiting his whole life for this exact moment—like a person who had just been given the world.

"Wow, I'm finally debuting! I'm so excited—I feel amazing. I want to give back as much as you've all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠given me. Just like my nickname, Human Vitamin, I'll keep making you happy!"

Lee Hae-won grinned at the cameras and threw up a finger heart. That bright, innocent smile. In this moment, I envied it.

"And with that, third place has been announced. All that remains now is the announcement of first place."

Before I started toward the stage, I looked at Won Ji-an standing behind me.

This might be the last moment. And Won Ji-an—who had wanted so badly to be remembered looking bright—had not been able to keep that promise. He had been crying before he even made it onto the stage, and it showed: his eyes were swollen, the tear tracks still vivid across his face.

"Would the first-place candidates, trainee Do Won-woo and trainee Han I-jae, please come up to the podium."

The MC's voice reached me. Even so, my feet wouldn't move.

"...Ji-an."

Before I went, I murmured his name and reached out my hand.

Won Ji-an slowly reached back and held my fingertips, just barely. Then he let go and waved, as if to tell me to go on.

He waved as he said it. I watched him—and then I had no choice but to turn around and walk toward the stage.