Chapter 41
Chapter 41
<AWAKE>, the grade evaluation mission song, had no rap part. That was probably why Lee Jae-young had stagnated in Tier 3.
But by anyone's standards, Lee Jae-young's rap was top-tier. Watching him confidently perform a self-written rap at the first evaluation stage, his pride seemed considerable too.
It wasn't that I suddenly wanted to have a compliment session.
The rap world originally thrived on arrogance and bravado, so I just figured his pride had taken a serious beating all this time.
"Hyung, all the stages you've done so far were light songs. But from what I see... it felt like you were conceding too much."
"......."
"Wouldn't a more serious song suit your rap style better? On fast beats, your unique flow seemed less apparent. And rappers with diction as good as yours aren't common—it feels like a waste not to do a stage that maximizes your delivery."
It was just blabbering whatever came to mind. I didn't know rap well.
......Honestly speaking, Lee Jae-young's rap was a versatile type that fit well just about anywhere.
But this was merely flattery meant to persuade him, so let's not mind the factual accuracy.
And next.
"Jun-bin hyung's vocals too. Your strength is singing clearly and cleanly, so why on earth a sexy concept...."
'Ah, did I slip into being too sincere?'
Actually, with Choi Jun-bin, it wasn't so much his voice as other issues.
A face so young I mistook him for a minor, and a height in the low 170s. Small hands and feet that made him ridiculously cute... I remembered seeing a Choi Jun-bin fan's SNS shouting exactly that.
A sexy concept with that appearance? It would only look pathetic. Even his fans would reject it.
There was a sliver of ulterior motive mixed in too.
From what I had pried further out of Jae-hyun and Baek Gyeonwoo, Choi Jun-bin didn't seem to have ever taken part in Lee Jae-young's factional activities.
And sure enough, his agency happened to be one that wielded some real power.
Which, in other words, meant...... He was a card I absolutely had to secure to seize the upper hand in this hierarchy game.
"What about me?"
And Kim Han-ul.
"Ah, hyung, I haven't seen any of your stages, so I don't really know."
I'd use him as a card to appease Lee Jae-young.
I could guarantee that Lee Jae-young felt absolutely no remorse over the act of discriminating against and ignoring people itself.
He just didn't like being on the receiving end of it.
He felt hurt that he was discriminated against?
Was there any other way to soothe him besides discriminating against someone else in his favor?
"I wanted Jae-young hyung's rap to be the main focus. I didn't even get a chance to think about you, hyung......."
Before I could even finish the sentence, a wave of fatigue washed over me.
Somehow this felt more exhausting than dealing with Gray. Was this team really composed entirely of adults?
Whatever my inner thoughts, Kim Han-ul gave me a dumbfounded look, then soon clenched both fists and said,
"What? Then what about me and Woo-jin—."
"Mm, yeah."
Lee Jae-young cut Kim Han-ul off and nodded.
I waited silently for the next words that would follow.
"It'd definitely be hard to beat the kids who chose dance with that kind of concept. On the flip side, it does seem right for us to go with a concept they'd struggle to compete against."
'Hmm.......'
That went over far easier than I thought.
Well, any guy who cared even a little about the stage would naturally come to this conclusion.
Kim Han-ul, the exact opposite example, looked as bewildered as if he'd been smacked in the back of the head with a hammer, and hurriedly tried to persuade the team members.
"Yo, this isn't right. We already decided!"
He almost seemed desperate.
Did he want to do sexy that badly?
"It wasn't exactly decided, it was just a temporary pick."
"No, what do you mean! It was all decided, ah, then what about you, Jun-bin?"
"I was just going to follow the rappers' opinions......."
"I'm a rapper too? And Woo-jin hyung is a rapper! Woo-jin hyung?"
Kim Han-ul sought opinions from the other two trainees who had been standing there dazedly, unable to chime in until now.
Both were faces I'd seen at the dormitory yesterday.
Which meant they were also part of Lee Jae-young's hierarchy game gang.
Which was equivalent to saying I didn't need to worry about them. Their opinion would simply mirror Lee Jae-young's.
"Ah, what the heck! Why is everyone suddenly—,"
"Han-ul."
Lee Jae-young cut Kim Han-ul off.
"You can at least do that much."
'......That much?'
As Kim Han-ul clamped his mouth shut, Lee Jae-young turned his head toward me and asked with a smile,
"But the original song is kind of playful. If we turn it serious, it feels like it'll clash too much with the hook. Got any ideas?"
His tone had changed.
From an annoying tone to an unsettling one.
I hid my awkward discomfort and shook the lyric sheet in my hand.
"I have something in mind."
"Oh yeah?"
I had jotted down the concept draft beforehand. An hour ago.
I unfolded the lyric sheet and plopped down on the floor, and the team members naturally began sitting in a circle around me. It seemed like a purely reflexive action, separate from any personal feelings.
'Anyone watching would think we were all buddy-buddy.'
Watching these former delinquent types docilely nod along after hearing my concept draft......
It was incredibly flabbergasting.
Not that it was bad. As long as we reached a consensus, I could overlook the process. We were only going to see each other once anyway.
After seriously mulling it over, Lee Jae-young finally cast his vote in agreement, and Choi Jun-bin, who had entrusted his ego to the rappers, naturally joined in too.
The other two, who had been standing around with uncertain expressions wondering if this was okay, also brightened up, apparently finding my idea decent.
Kim Han-ul kept his mouth clamped shut as if in protest, but let's ignore him.
'It worked.'
All that was left was to turn the imagination into reality.
* * *
"Oh, this team looks promising."
"Shall we see?"
Though it was called a 'mid-term' evaluation, it was an assessment held a mere three days after the teams were formed.
If we missed this timing, the only chance left to get advice from the instructors would be during the dress rehearsal, so we really completed it by jabbing our eyes open without sleep.
Lee Jae-young and I were the only ones capable of arrangement, so even though I really didn't like it, the two of us had to put our heads together and fix it up.
After finishing the arrangement, I was immediately seized by the lyrics. I felt like I spent half the time just digging through all kinds of language dictionaries, articles, and data. Was songwriting always like this?
'That hyung churned them out in a snap.'
......Well, comparing myself to Yuri hyung was a bit shameless.
Fortunately, as if personality and skill had no correlation whatsoever, the team members' abilities weren't bad.
Thanks to that, we managed to draw a decent reaction even at the mid-term evaluation held right after completion.
Or maybe, it wasn't because of that at all.
"Oh, emotional hip-hop. Nice, I like this kind of thing."
"Good job changing the lyrics. It feels new."
Being on a team with a pre-selected member had just added one more inconvenience.
That reaction being good—I couldn't tell if it was really because we did well, or because of the script the production team handed them.
'This isn't satisfying.'
During the first competition, our team's expectations were low, so it would've been fine to just pull off a 'they did their best' level performance.
This time was different. Wasn't this clearly a semi-ace team, filled only with trainees on an upward trajectory even within the upper-middle ranks?
A good team delivering a good stage was only natural.
A merely expected stage wasn't enough. With this team lineup, if even one person gave a lukewarm expression, that would be no different from a failure.
And right now, in front of us, was a mentor who looked ready to pronounce us a failure at any second.
"Hmm."
Joo Yeonhee, who had been tapping her foot and radiating displeasure, flipped rapidly through the clipboard in her hand.
Then she smacked the clipboard with the back of her hand and spoke.
"Han-ul, why are you the only one singing a completely different tune?"
"......."
"The lyrics... well, they weren't all bad....... But you're the only one that felt completely separate. Didn't you stray way too far from the theme?"
Kim Han-ul seemed to falter for a moment, then straightened his back again.
"It does fit the theme. The stories we each imagined......."
"Right, right, but from the listener's perspective, it's like everyone else is telling a dream story and you're the only one writing a love letter out of nowhere, that's how it looks right now."
"......."
"Why are you chickening out? I'm not saying anything bad. Changing the lyrics, what's the big deal? Why, what. Is there a problem? I'm just saying it because I want it to be a better stage."
After relentlessly pressing him, Joo Yeonhee looked at the now-silent Kim Han-ul and shrugged.
Then she began giving feedback to each team member one by one.
"And as for Cha-gyeom."
When it came to my turn, Joo Yeonhee finished her feedback with a single phrase.
"You're doing well."
"......Thank you."
Hearing those words gave me absolute certainty.
'This is not enough as is.'
The mid-term evaluation ended, and the team members who hadn't received any other criticisms left the practice room for a meal with proud expressions.
Not that the criticized Kim Han-ul was so dejected he starved himself—far from it, he dashed out the moment lunchtime hit.
I was the only one who sat back down on the practice room floor, resting my head against the mirror wall and agonizing.
'What was the problem?'
Let's replay it by recalling the mentors' expressions during the evaluation.
was characterized by a main riff that repeated ad nauseam everywhere except the bridge section.
Instruments were added and dropped out, but overall, it had a structure so simple and straightforward you could memorize it after hearing it just once.
The crucial point was 'you could memorize it after hearing it just once.' The mentors would have felt the difference right from the intro.
The expressions on the mentors' faces, who immediately started scanning the lyrics sheet as a sentimental piano melody hit instead of the familiar pounding electronic sound.......
"Ah."
'They couldn't get immersed.'
We had changed all the lyrics and atmosphere, so an audience familiar with the original song would feel uncomfortable first.
But the part that served as the foundation of the arrangement only appeared once we reached the chorus. So until the chorus started, the audience might be stuck wondering 'why on earth did they change it like this,' making it hard for them to immerse themselves.
'I thought about it too simplistically.'
If I wanted to flip the original song 180 degrees, I should have compensated with other elements in equal measure.
For example, LED visuals, stage backgrounds, effects, that sort of thing.
But here's the catch... Teams that chose songwriting had to display the rewritten lyrics as typography, making it hard to utilize LED visuals to their fullest.
Stage backgrounds and effects were also out of the question. It was a show running on a shoestring budget from the start, so we should be grateful just to have a single wooden model prop set up.
"Hmm......."
I did have an idea that came to mind right away, but there was a risk that it might turn into a case of the tail wagging the dog.......
"Cha-gyeom."
"Uh, yes, yes?"
I lifted my head from the wall, and Choi Jun-bin came into view.
With both hands resting on his half-bent knees, Choi Jun-bin looked down at me and carefully spoke.
"May I ask for some advice?"
"Huh?"
"How can I... stand out more."
"Ah."
Choi Jun-bin had received a review from Joo Yeonhee saying his presence wasn't really felt.
She had clearly made an effort to phrase it as indirectly as possible, but everyone present must have realized she meant he lacked appeal.
'Wouldn't it be better to just ask the mentors?'
Why ask a mere fellow trainee like me.
Besides, he couldn't possibly be unaware of the production team's scrutinizing gazes, intent on making the two of us into epic rivals right now.
"Mm, well......."
I smoothed down my hair, which had been swept upward against the wall, and opened my mouth.
Well, when it comes to completing a stage, there are no allies or enemies. Once you're on the same stage, you're all one team.
"With your skills, hyung, I'd say it's past time for you to be listening to what others say."
"Excuse me?"
"That thing usually called 'kuse'—I think that as long as your skills back it up, it becomes individuality."
"Ah......."
"So, don't get too swayed by what others tell you, and just start by creating your own distinctiveness following your own taste first......."
But wait, from Choi Jun-bin's perspective, wasn't what I was saying right now just another version of 'what others tell you'?
The moment that doubt arose, I clamped my mouth shut, but Choi Jun-bin seriously chewed over this contradictory advice for a moment before asking again.
"I know it in my head, but I can't seem to get started......."
"Hmm, in that case, it's not bad to pick a role model and start by imitating their style. And if you still can't get a feel for it, you could try a completely different genre......."
"......."
"......."
"......Cha-gyeom?"
Right.
I'd been thinking about it since Kim Han-ul started his 'intensity' mantra. Why had I forgotten this?
Something that could minimize the cliché feeling of the 'dream' keyword, while also being intense enough not to be swallowed up by the other elements.......
"Hyung."
"Yes?"
"How about we try some rock?"