Chapter 42
Chapter 42
[Ju-hee: Neuti review plz]
In front of the <MAKE100%> audience studio. Woomjjalgye sent Homma an "ok" and took a refreshing step forward.
Sure, the only thing she could do was inch along amid a zombie horde that occasionally let out moans of agony, but it wasn't hard at all.
All thanks to the spoiler post that had gone up just yesterday.
[Fans worried about Strong Boy, don't worry]
That's all bullshit SCG BGW are on the same team for real
The song is One Circuit's
Ask me anything if you're curious but no details
I'm attaching my employee ID for reference. (photo)
Comments
―What's Cha-gyeom really like in person?
└Imagine whatever you want
―Did Han-ul do dance or rap?
└You think he did dance?
―Where did our Gyu-min go for vocals? Heuong
└Who's Gyu-min?
―Are Cha-gyeom and Gyeon-woo close?
└So-so
The strangely insolent tone actually boosted the post's credibility.
Not only that, most of the posts being passed off as spoilers pointed to Seo Cha-gyeom and Baek Gyeonwoo being on the same team.
'At this point, it's worth betting on!'
Homma, a firm believer in the Strong Boy theory, insisted, "They're just writing that Baek Gyeonwoo and Seo Cha-gyeom are on the same team to bait aggro so everyone will mass-downvote it as fake." But Woomjjalgye did not agree.
There was no logic to it. It was simply that her mind had been hijacked by her refusal to accept Strong Boy and her desire to see the Airplane Duo.
Even the kes who'd been lingering outside the studio during rehearsals said they hadn't managed to catch a single note this time, so the competition song that day was a complete unknown.
Which meant that anticipation was doubled, too.
'I'll be the first to post a review and seize the narrative!'
Woomjjalgye clenched her fist with an audacious plan.
After finishing entry and a long wait, the MC came up on stage.
"I will now explain the rules for the <2%> competition."
The MC explained the familiar stuff—the kind that shifts slightly from program to program but never strays from the big picture, the kind everyone already knew.
"The seven trainees who place first in each team will receive a benefit of 50,000 votes."
'Whoa, 50,000 votes?'
In the current era, where buzz had faded compared to the show's glory days, 50,000 votes was a number that could even shake up the standings of the upper-middle tier.
While she thought it would hold little value for Seo Cha-gyeom's concrete line, what secretly worried her was...
'Why the hell won't they tell us the vote counts!'
It was because of the new blind rule that kept even the raw votes hidden for anyone below 4th place.
Since nobody knew how wide the vote gaps were, it was impossible to gauge what these 50,000 votes were actually worth.
Which was why posts like this popped up in the community on a regular basis.
[Cha-gyeom-dans going to the live audience recording, don't vote for Cha-gyeom]
At this rate it really looks like Cha-gyeom's ranking will stay unreleased til the end and it's freaking me out He's for sure safe from elimination anyway so it seems better to let him drop a bit in the 2nd or 3rd round so he gets a wake-up call and then debuts safely in the finale
Comments
―You still have to vote though what kinda bullshit is this
―Just vote... overthinking makes it worse
―Ugh this is so annoying what is this lol So now I have to stress about voting for my ult? What the hell is up with the producers' heads
―Even if you let him drop, it's better to drop in the 3rd round right before the finale
└From the 3rd round it switches to 1-pick voting so it's hard for him to fall Hyeon is #1 in the core index
For a beginner who had plenty of survival show viewing experience but was new to being this obsessively immersed, it was all deeply confusing.
But Woomjjalgye, whose thinking was simple, reached a conclusion quickly.
'It'll work out somehow! Vote for someone other than Cha-gyeom.'
Meanwhile, the first performance had begun.
This time too the order seemed arranged based on buzz potential, as the first team was just... a team.
Those lacking in skill generally trended toward dance over vocals, so it was a dance stage as expected, and the reaction was chilly.
'Mmm... It felt more like calisthenics.'
The whole group was so cowed that gloom oozed out of them and even cheering along to their hard work threatened to turn cringey.
The subsequent performances also struggled to meet Woomjjalgye's expectations. It wasn't so much that they were bad; they just barely hit average.
'This is usually the round where one stage with insane potential blows up, though.'
The performances that recorded the highest buzz every season always appeared right here, in the 2nd round.
It was the only competition out of the four—finale included—where the trainees were given autonomy. In other words, it was the mission most optimized for drawing out a trainee's latent potential.
If a trainee couldn't explode here, they were simply wrong for this path.
This round was the Maginot Line for a sudden rise, the last chance. Pulling off something great in the 3rd round would be too late—far too late.
'They wasted this precious chance on something that boring? I absolutely loathe people who constantly preach about being desperate, but this really is lacking desperation.'
It was starting from the fourth team—the one with An Jiwon and Jeong Hyeon—that the quality of the stages began climbing alongside the average ranking.
The fifth team was watchable too.
From that point onward, however, the other teams fell completely out of mind. Only one fact mattered.
The fact that Baek Gyeonwoo and Seo Cha-gyeom had not appeared yet.
'The spoiler that those two are really on the same team—watch it be true!'
Her heart started pounding.
Inside her head, a fantasy was already running: Seo Cha-gyeom and Baek Gyeonwoo, having debuted as one team, doing a storytime live broadcast together.
It was right as she was daydreaming about herself joining a disbandment protest after the debut group's contract ended.
The sixth team walked out onto the stage.
"......."
Two rows ahead, a gloomy aura radiated from a fan holding a Seo Cha-gyeom slogan.
Woomjjalgye felt the same.
'Insane.'
Baek Gyeonwoo and Han Neuti... were on the same team.
In that instant, the likelihood that the spoiler claiming Seo Cha-gyeom had sung was true skyrocketed.
Woomjjalgye shook her head side to side.
'There's still hope left.'
The team might have just been a lucky guess, and the song could be wrong. Clinging to that hope, Woomjjalgye waited for the stage to start.
Soon a groovy bass bounced up springily.
It was a song she knew, and at the same time, a song she was absolutely not happy to hear.
<the things>.
Because it matched the spoiler pushing the Strong Boy theory.
'Hey, producers! Don't you use the internet?!'
Woomjjalgye screamed internally.
She knew Strong Boy was a famous song.
She also knew that if she said anything about it in public, she'd just be called oversensitive.
But still, in this era overflowing with all sorts of jaw-dropping scandals, there was no helping the fact that she simply could not bring herself to trust an idol insensitive to an issue like this.
'Surely the sharp, perceptive Cha-gyeom didn't pick this himself,' she thought, and yet she was uneasy.
Even as she tried to comfort herself with the thought that they might not have known about the original artist's controversy, the mere act of handing ammunition to antis was upsetting...
After stewing in silent fury for a long while, Woomjjalgye forcibly focused on the stage so she could relay a review to Homma.
'If Han Neuti is there, it's obviously a dance number.'
Her prediction hit the mark.
As expected of a team with no short members, their angles were sharp even just standing still, and on top of that the styling was flawless. The choreography, too, was the peak of polish.
Formations that flowed like water, an ingenious use of even-numbered group shapes, a composition that never squandered a single beat and left zero room for boredom.
The reaction was especially explosive during Han Neuti and Baek Gyeonwoo's mirrored pair choreography.
'Whoa, this time it's here.'
Strong Boy was... going to have a hostile vibe from the song choice alone.
Besides, no matter how nicely they rearranged that song, the original had such a cheap feel that it would be hard to make it blow up.
'It's over.'
From Woomjjalgye's perspective, this team had far more trainees she liked than the Seo Cha-gyeom team that was up next.
But an ult was an ult. The regretful feeling was unavoidable.
When the stage ended, Woomjjalgye—who had been torn between voting for Han Neuti or Baek Gyeonwoo—thought of Homma, who was probably refreshing endlessly with no news by now, and cast her vote for Han Neuti.
After waiting for Seo Cha-gyeom for a long while with her soul half-threshed and her heart tangled in complicated feelings, six standing mics were brought onto the stage.
Then Seo Cha-gyeom's team revealed themselves, one by one.
Even though there was a saying that an ult was visible at a single glance, for a split second, every eye in the room locked onto one single person.
Other fans—quick to insist that this was due to a lack of affection and to raise their voices louder in support of their own ults—and Seo Cha-gyeom's fans, who had no such need, began to roar with all their might.
"Seo Cha-gyeom is insane—!!!"
"Cha-gyeom-aaaaaah!!"
A white racing jacket and vintage washed jeans. A face that, even without any extra accessories, filled itself to the absolute brim with glamour.
It satisfied the fans' long-felt frustration from having only ever seen him in a school uniform in one single go, while simultaneously giving birth to a new craving to see him in at least a hundred more outfits—a perfectly fitted look.
Woomjjalgye watched Seo Cha-gyeom move to the side and nodded, conceding that a face like his would catch the eye no matter where he stood, so she could yield the center position. Then her eyes narrowed.
Because she spotted Choi Jun-bin adjusting his mic at center.
'Choi Jun-bin...'
And it brought back the memory of a message exchange with a friend from the "Flyde Failed Idol Escape Committee" who handled the clip side of things.
[Su-yeon: vote for Jun-bin plz (link)]
[Sure!!]
[If you have spare votes, vote for Cha-gyeom too]
[Su-yeon: is Seo Cha-gyeom your ult?]
[Yeah hehe]
She knew that Seo Cha-gyeom's fans and Choi Jun-bin's fans were on bad terms.
She knew because the power struggle between the two fandoms had bled so far that it even washed into Woomjjalgye's timeline, despite her habit of avoiding fanwars as much as possible.
'Still, no matter how you look at it, after all the time we spent together, isn't it too much to go completely no-contact like that?'
Woomjjalgye, who counted interacting with fellow fans as one of the main reasons for being an idol fan, felt deeply hurt. But she was able to calm down quickly thanks to Homma, who, upon hearing the story, had flown into a righteous rage on her behalf and filled a full 1,000 characters with fury.
'Well, once the show ends they'll probably come back acting like nothing ever happened.'
Just then, the stage went dark.
Woomjjalgye immediately held her breath and pricked up her ears.
From the stage, now so pitch-black that faces couldn't be distinguished, came a sound like chunks of scrap metal tumbling across the floor. It repeated four times.
And then, like a falling droplet spreading out in wide ripples, a dreamy piano performance began to fill the venue.
'Huh?'
Woomjjalgye's eyes flew open.
Because it wasn't the familiar intro of , the one she had fully expected to hear.
But instead of any appropriate feeling of unfamiliarity, what welled up was a flicker of nostalgia and, at the same time, a sense of comfort.
It was because the song was so profoundly familiar.
'This is...'
It was a famous OST from a classic space movie.
Woomjjalgye realized that they had chosen a mashup as the focal point of this stage.
'Will it be okay?'
There had been many stages that used mashups before, but most of them had failed to balance the elements properly and ended up having to endure criticisms about fairness.
Picturing a future in which she'd have to keyboard-battle against opinions like "If they were going to do this, our kids should've just performed the song they wanted to do" and malicious nitpickers who even worried about the network's copyright fees, Woomjjalgye thought:
'But it's good?'
It felt a hundred times better than being mocked as the Strong Boys, or than a stage that looked like a pitiful, desperate effort just to cover a song caught up in controversy.
'Hm?'
That was when Trainee 1 grabbed the mic and recited lyrics as if doing a narration.
This will be the most intense countdown
While Woomjjalgye, who was hopeless at English, was just scratching her head, a low-resolution black-and-white video that looked like the moment just before a rocket launch began playing on the LED screen behind them.
At the same time, beneath the OST, the melody of 's chorus began to gradually assert its presence.
Woomjjalgye, who had reflexively been mouthing those lyrics along with the melody, realized in that moment the reason for this mashup.
'...Armstrong!'
And at the center of the LED screen, a giant countdown appeared.
Three...
two...
one...
With each decreasing number, a distortion-laden guitar sound cut off short, playing like an engine turning over.
lift off into the unknown
Along with the trainee's final lyric, a drumbeat that soared up fiercely devoured the OST and declared a mood reversal.
The gritty electric guitar then morphed into a clearer, brighter sound and surged forward.
It was a clear omen of alternative rock.