Chapter 21
Chapter 21
What Woomjjalgye's eyes caught as they frantically scanned the stage was.......
"Gasp!"
'Thank you, you damn otaku bastards!'
First, the team that had entered earlier was dressed in crisp suits.
But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that the Seo Cha-gyeom team, who followed them in, were wearing vintage old-school uniforms.
As if aiming for the vibe of an action movie set in an early 2000s school, a bandage was even neatly stuck on one side of Seo Cha-gyeom's cheek.
'Ack.'
Woomjjalgye nearly lost their grip on reality right then and there.
"Whoa. He's on the same team as Seo Cha-gyeom."
Home Master muttered in a low voice.
When they finally tore their eyes away from Seo Cha-gyeom and checked out the other team members, coincidentally, that Kkamnyang-i whom Home Master had picked was also on the same team.
Unlike Seo Cha-gyeom, who had his buttons done up all the way to his neck, Kkamnyang-i had a white t-shirt layered underneath with his jacket worn open. A long scar makeup was even drawn across the bridge of his nose.
A coldly handsome visual that made you wonder all over again just how a guy like that ended up with a cute nickname like Kkamnyang-i in the first place.
Woomjjalgye shouted without realizing it.
"Whoa, that guy seriously looks like a total delinquent!"
"......."
"......I meant that as a compliment."
"I know. I was thinking I liked him."
With a scoffing laugh, Home Master began adjusting their camera. Meanwhile, Woomjjalgye scanned the stage one more time.
'Both of these seem like ace teams, don't they? The vibe is totally different from everything so far!'
Unlike the previous stages, which had been dominated by worry and secondhand embarrassment, a pure sense of anticipation welled up.
But Home Master voiced their dissatisfaction with cold, chilly eyes.
"Baek Gyeonwoo's team is the ace team, and we're probably in the position of getting crushed by the aces. The opposing team's lineup is way too stacked."
"Who's Baek Gyeonwoo again?"
"The one doing the airplane gesture. You saw the article about one Yoos trainee appearing this time, right? That's him."
Woomjjalgye rolled their eyes and located Baek Gyeonwoo.
A neat, actor-like face and a tall, lean physique. Definitely the kind of talent Yoos would scout.
'Hmm, I thought this while making GIFs too, but if those two debut together, they'd seriously devour the next generation idol scene.......'
In fact, there were already a lot of people who assumed Seo Cha-gyeom and Baek Gyeonwoo would debut together. They were the two most mentioned names on social media, after all.
But a survival show was never going to go the way anyone expected. Sure, plenty of people liked lumping them together right now, but by the later stages, they could end up tearing each other's hair out.
Just look—hadn't they already been split apart, even now?
"This time, the AhMarycano Team and the Cucumber Sparkling Team will face off with a cover stage of the group Wonseokit!"
When 'AhMarycano' was mentioned, Baek Gyeonwoo gave a slight nod, and when 'Cucumber Sparkling' was mentioned, Seo Cha-gyeom waved his hand.
Home Master grumbled.
"Cucumber? Like the vegetable? What kind of freak concoction is that."
"I heard they did a collab with Dayday Coffee. Wait, no way—don't tell me they're doing one of those events where you get a cucumber team photocard if you drink cucumber and an iced americano team photocard if you drink an iced americano?"
"Insane. I didn't even eat cucumbers in my past life."
While they were distracted by cucumbers, there was one thing they missed.
The fact that this matchup was a battle between a senior group's hit song and their debut song. A few audience members who caught on began to murmur.
"Wonseokit?"
"Don't tell me it's Nice Zombie?"
"Ah, please....... Let it not be this side."
Hearing the whispers around them, Home Master calmly examined both teams' outfits.
And then smirked cynically.
"We're screwed."
Anyone could see this side was the bomb. They didn't exactly look like they were about to sing something like 'tear down this boring everyday life, ho!' while dressed in suits.
Either way, the competition was progressing steadily.
The Cucumber Team went first. Thinking that the order wasn't bad since the opposing team was obviously going to get a much more enthusiastic response anyway, Woomjjalgye clenched both hands tightly.
The trainees lined up into formation, and at the same moment, the stage went dark.
Their heart pounded.
......It was the sound of the stage beginning.
Step, step.
In time with the instrumental's footsteps, the long silhouette at the very back slowly walked forward.
The center, who had walked all the way to the front of the formation, stood crookedly with his hands in his pockets and stared into the camera.
A moment later, when the center tilted his head to the left, the instrumental cut off with a sharp stop—
Yes, ready
A pitch-shifted, eerily modulated voice rang out.
Have a NICE ZOMBIE
Boom!
As if a massive blast had shattered the darkness, the stage lit up.
The face revealed alongside the light was—
'Seo Cha-gyeoooooom!'
Woomjjalgye howled the name they had only just learned today deep within their heart, and thought:
'It's a hit! It's a hit!'
Not a single line of singing had happened yet, but they could already feel it.
This stage was going to be a hundred percent success!
long time no see
It's been a while, I bet
This kind of fashion
This kind of manner
This kind of pose
'A hit.......'
Seo Cha-gyeom stepped back, and Trainee 2, seated on the perpendicularly raised knee of Trainee 1, began rapping.
Woomjjalgye's lips took a sharp downturn.
'What do I do?'
It was the moment their confident declaration from moments ago—that it would be a hundred percent success—turned shabby.
'W-Well, the kiddos are trying hard, so it's nice to watch!'
Laughter burst out sporadically from the surroundings. Compared to the previous stages, which had been filled with jeers and irritation, it was certainly a heartwarming start.
Part of it was because watching them put in effort was far better than mumbling while staring at the ground with zero motivation, but the response was this favorable also because what came next was the ace team's stage.
Concentration naturally rises the closer you get to the highlight. Unlike the previous stages, which had grown desolate from an interminable wait with no end in sight, watching the stage with genuine interest had naturally broadened everyone's generosity.
Of course, it was the kind of leniency only possible because it was still early days, with few people having locked in an ultimate bias yet and no serious fanbase power struggles.
Still, no one could be generous enough to laugh at a truly disastrous stage.
But.
From the center—no, the periphery—just one word tossed out
And come―hither looks come pouring in
All the records I'm setting right now
A straight hook to blast away your pride
'I can't tell if the song sucks or if they suck!'
At Trainee 1's rap...... no, recitation, delivered with overflowing confidence, the audience was left bewildered.
um um, a myth that doesn't feel real
Don't wanna believe it, you leaving the temple
The pathetic whining of flaming haters, blah blah blah
pumpkin shit, wanna bark until the 80th century?
Trainee 3, following up, began reading from a textbook.
These were lyrics that used so-called mondegreens to bypass censorship, originally meant to be misheard as 'fucking shit, barking like a goddamn bastard.'
The lyrics of <Nice Zombie> were full of curses hidden behind childish mondegreens like this, which was exactly why this song was called Wonseokit's dark history.
But whether they knew it or not, or maybe it was just a lack of skill—thanks to their overly honest pronunciation and youthful voices, their performance didn't sound like swearing at all.
Never even wanted it, honor or whatever
Holed up in the studio every damn day, banging out beats
Pretty girls hit me up, I will pass it
all right, I don't care what anyone says
My path was always a hellish thorn field
The lyricist's original intent was probably for the last part to be pronounced as 'thorn—field' to match the rhyme scheme repeating the 'i' vowel sound, but once again, Trainee 4 walked through the thorn field with total sincerity.
Thanks to that, the catastrophe of it sounding like 'go fuck your—self' was neatly avoided.
And yet the lyrics were still trash.
'Yeah, "I've got no fucking honor or whatever,"' they could let slide, but how on earth was a 4th-generation idol singing about getting calls from girls?
Just as they were thinking how impressive it was that Wonseokit had somehow survived after releasing a song like this, Kkamnyang-i finally swept his hair back and entered the center.
I've got no success, no goal to speak of
What I pursue is simply the act of pursuing
Ignoring the peak, soaring higher, my limit
You'd love to look down on me but, you know, the power law
"Whoa......."
Home Master let out an unconscious exclamation.
'That voice is seriously insane.'
Out of the rap that had felt like kids messing around, a proper low-tone rap suddenly punched in, and a whole new world unfurled—like a kids' cartoon channel abruptly switching to a noir film.
Normally, rapping in a voice this low while spitting the words out like you're chewing them up and spitting them out would just devolve into 'mumble mumble,' but astonishingly, every single lyric was audible!
Not that they particularly wanted to hear the lyrics, but still.
'Must be a rapper position, huh?'
There were always a lot of rappers among the delinquent-faced types. Home Master, who had already collected six rappers over the years, nodded with satisfaction, eyes sparkling.
The likes of you will never reach it, up here in this tree
Something like that won't ever satisfy me
Kkamnyang-i, having finished his part, stepped back.
At the same time, Seo Cha-gyeom, who had been at the side, launched himself in with a kick through the air.
The moment his foot touched the ground.
keep on truckin'
A broken bReak
There's no emergency escape, okay?
Home Master's jaw dropped.
'Just how many... keys did he raise that by?'
Usually, vocal parts in idol hip-hop songs got less screen time but left a correspondingly more intense impact in return.
But the vocal parts in <Nice Zombie> weren't particularly high notes, nor were they remotely appealing.
Because of those bland, watery vocals, it had always felt like being force-fed a dry sweet potato with a chaser of plain grain powder—zero sense of refreshment.
But this.......
This was seriously.......
As if smashing everything to pieces
I only look ahead and DASH
Even if I fall and shatter, again
'Now that's the cider!'
It was a catharsis that blew their ears wide open. Home Master unconsciously placed a hand over their chest.
And then recalled the cup ramen they had frantically boiled and devoured the moment they got back to Korea after spending a month overseas eating nothing but bread.......
It was, in every sense, a vocal that made life worth living.
'And on top of that, he's a visual main vocal. Now I get why Mary's sasaengs were going ballistic last year saying they had to sell their stocks because the 'Mary vibe' was completely gone.'
With a debut path so blatantly visible, it actually made things less interesting.
The whole point of a survival show was the thrill of watching your ultimate bias teeter on the brink of elimination, dying and begging, 'please, please save them,' while you sobbed your eyes out.......
'Still, I've got to put him on my pick list no matter what. Not if you don't want the group to flop.'
Home Master, who had truly become a K-pop expert just as their name implied, finished mentally assembling a full member lineup and nodded with deep satisfaction.
like a zombie
you must be afraid of me
As the flawless chorus ended, the stage went dark once again.
At the same time, the whirring sound of machinery and the metallic clack-clack of guns being loaded mixed together, and the beat's presence began swelling larger and larger.
Home Master snapped back to attention immediately.
'Is it dance break time already?'
The dance break of <Nice Zombie> was famously well-crafted—so much so that everyone here had probably seen a cut of it at least once.
Everything up to now had been choreography that was basically phoning it in, so Home Master felt anticipation and worry rush in at the same time.
'What if they get compared? There are way too many morons who'll hype up their oppas by comparing them to some trainees.......'
Come to think of it, Wonseokit was a group they could actually compete against.
Having shed their worry in an instant, they refocused on the stage.
"Huh?"
Just then, Kkamnyang-i walked out to the center while taking off his uniform jacket.
The completely removed jacket was flung into a corner of the stage. The exposed white t-shirt shone vividly amidst the black outfits.
So vivid that they couldn't see anyone but Kkamnyang-i.
'That's actually even better.'
His face was so striking that even just a short-sleeved plain tee radiated an extraordinary presence.
Kkamnyang-i stood tilted to the side, sent some kind of signal-like hand gesture, then turned to face the front.
And then, laying both arms horizontally side by side, he knocked each crossed arm against the other with a couple of sharp taps.
Home Master blinked.
'The choreography looks different?'