Chapter 56
Chapter 56
My memories with the head of Youth's new talent development team here went like this.
Back when I was still a trainee at Mary.
I had gotten his business card after we ran into each other on the street.
...... That was it. It was such a brief connection that I had naturally assumed he'd forgotten me, so when he acknowledged me first I was honestly caught off guard.
"You told me you were a trainee back then, so I looked you up and it turned out to be Mary. Everyone who needed to know already knew, you know?"
"Ah, yes."
"Did you leave Mary on your own?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I see. Hmm."
The Youth team head paused deliberately and glanced over at the table where our Sorasum team manager and the President were sitting.
A question mark practically floated on his face. He wasn't even trying to hide what he was thinking.
"What a shame. If you'd come to our company back then, you would've debuted with Gyeon-woo. People at the company now say every day how great the two of you would fit together. You know Airplane Duo, right?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Do you need a business card by any chance?"
"No...... I'm fine."
Offering a business card probably meant, 'If you ever think about switching companies, get in touch.'
'I'm twenty years old, what the hell.'
That wasn't self-deprecation about my age; I meant their new idol group had barely gotten their footing after just debuting.
A normal agency would set their next rookie plan at least three or four years out, so what would they do by recklessly bringing in a twenty-year-old trainee?
All I learned was that they were a far more slipshod company than I'd thought.
As I stubbornly answered with empty pleasantries, the Youth team head also ran out of things to say and shut his mouth.
Soon he scraped his chair back and stood up.
"It's reassuring to see you get along well with Gyeon-woo. I'll be going now, so you two talk. Gyeon-woo, hang in there for the rest of the time."
The team head said that and turned his back without another word.
He looked like he was about to leave the auditorium, but he stopped a production staff member near the exit and tried to strike up a conversation. Naturally, I couldn't hear what they said.
Instead of spending time attaching and detaching halos onto Han Neuti, how about giving me a function I can actually use at times like this? Who made this System for it to be so lacking.......
"You should take the business card."
"Huh?"
It was Baek Gyeon-woo's voice.
I stopped internally scolding the System and turned my head toward Baek Gyeon-woo.
Baek Gyeon-woo, his gaze fixed on a canapé, went on.
"It'd be nice to debut together."
How could he say that when we literally just witnessed his company's sordid behavior yesterday.......
"It would be nice, yeah."
But his expression looked like he didn't have the wherewithal to think that far, so I took a vaguely agreeable stance.
I should at least say something nice. Saying, 'No way, I absolutely can't do that?' here would just mean I had a personality problem, in my opinion.
"Seriously."
Baek Gyeon-woo clicked his tongue briefly, as if he'd instantly seen through the empty words.
I shrugged and stared up at the ceiling.
"......."
Should I say it, or not.
Something had come to mind after seeing Baek Gyeon-woo's expression just now, and I was slightly worried he might take it as teasing.
'No, it's not like I'm the only one who benefits, why am I even hesitating.'
I finally made up my mind.
"Gyeon-woo."
Baek Gyeon-woo looked up at me with a slightly sour expression.
"That part, are you still not thinking about doing it?"
* * *
Friday evening.
While the trainees were gearing up for the next day's rehearsal, viewers were on the verge of watching Episode 7's live broadcast.
The content of Episode 7 was none other than the 2nd Ranking Announcement Ceremony.
Normally, the community would have been a noisy red-light, green-light show of hyping and dropping trainees while predicting the rankings about to be revealed, but right now an entirely different topic held a much bigger share.
That topic was the "30-Second Preview of Evaluation Songs (Guide ver.)" released last Saturday.
And this spoiler that went up right after the preview video was uploaded.
[Believe It or Not]
Kim Ik-hyeon (No Matter What)―An Jiwon
Allure (incomplete)―Lee Jae-young
Im Cheon-seon (I Want to Give All This Spring to You)―Choi Jun-bin
KDD (bone say)―Seo Cha-gyeom
Comments
―bone say is dead for real holy shit
―If this is legit then this is a real insider...
―So it's not a fake account, this is the real one?
―No but did Cha-gyeom join to revive dead songs or something how many times has he performed CPR on songs ㅠㅠㅠ
There was no verification, but the post was written in the exact same format as the spoilers that had so far been proven real.
Anyone could see the content said Seo Cha-gyeom had taken this round's landmine of a song, <bone say>, and Seo Cha-gyeom's fans were thrown into an uproar.
―Im Cheon-seon sir we even gave Ah-yu a reverse-chart run so please save us this time
―I really hope Airplane Duo ends up on the same team this time ㅠㅠ The show's ending soon, you can let them be together at least once...
└No way ㅅㅂ
└You wanna die together?
―There's no verification in the first place ㅋㅋㅋ Might not even be the same person as the real believe-or-not... I'm not believing it okay Gyeom is 100% No Matter What~
Seo Cha-gyeom's fans, who had been denying the spoiler with all their might, finally entered the mental preparation stage.
[Cha-gyeom fanbase currently infinite-streaming bone say preview]
Entering Stage 6 of coping: 'making despair a fetish'
Currently at 50% complete
Can't get past 51% because of that damn coy 'meow'
Comments
―I always thought it was good ㅋㅋㅋ addictive as hell ㅋㅋㅋ
―It's a masterpiece whose message of walking your own path instead of following others resonates deeply, why do people hate it?
―I listened to this and dropped the exam I was prepping for
―If there has to be a meow I hope Cha-gyeom does it
└Opposed ㅅㅂ
└The resistance is because of the guide, Cha-gyeom will probably save it
└Honestly I'm looking forward to it ㅋㅋㅋ
It was a thoroughly unenjoyable time for Seo Cha-gyeom's fans, but even this was a luxury only afforded to those whose survival was certain.
Fans of lower-ranked trainees, whose fate was unclear, watched those scenes with bitter eyes.
And three hours later.
The ranking announcement ceremony ended.
[2nd Ranking Announcement Results]
4th: Seo Cha-gyeom, An Jiwon, Lee Jae-young, Choi Jun-bin
5th: Baek Gyeon-woo
6th: Mun Jeong-jin
7th: Song Se-ho
Comments
―Baek-dans I told you Gyeon-woo was in danger... ㅠㅠ
―I love the debut lineup right now so much ㅠ♥♥ Let's just debut like this
―Choi Jun-bin is honestly impossible to read... He has fewer fansite views than Han Neuti but he's 4th and Han Neuti is 12th?...
―How many people in the debut lineup don't even have a real presence anyway
―The comments are going crazy ㅋㅋ Look at Cha-Ti-Baek fans trashing others without even bothering to be subtle now
└Here goes Cha-Ti-Baek pulling each other's hair again
└It's anonymous, how do you know they're Cha-Ti-Baek fans
└ㄴThey swarmed in ㅎ
―Great job lining up the PD's picks~
"They sure are having fun......"
Normally he was a Homma who would happily throw all ten fingers into this melee, but instead he buried his head into his pillow.
Less than an hour had passed since the ranking announcement broadcast ended.
When he opened the open chat room 'Lonely Han Neuti' to soothe his tangled mind, its members were still a sea of tears.
[ㅠㅠㅠㅠ12th placeㅠㅠㅠ]
[What do we do now]
[I seriously thought the final was a given ㅋ]
[ㅜㅜ I only stanned high-rankers so this is really hard..]
[I can't sleep, there are so many people I want to kill]
[I asked my ex-boyfriend to vote...]
[Let's listen together (Frequencies to Make Your Ult Debut.tube)]
Homma, who had been chewing his nails, soon clutched his head.
If the show followed the 'MAKE100%' format exactly so far, then the next cutoff would surely be 14th place.
And Han Neuti was 12th.
The ranking was ambiguous enough already, but what made Homma even more anxious was the '1-pick voting' being implemented starting this round.
[Finally, 1-pick ㄷㄷ]
The time when previous contestants who tiptoed around managing their image to not lose votes will all collectively let loose
All those forced pairings formed just to exchange secondary-bias votes will tear apart, and who will be the last surviving pairing in the end
Comments
―I'm so glad I won't have to see those damn Thang-Thangz for a while
―This feels so refreshing, now I can finally run my mouth and trash them freely ㅅㅂ That bastard stop getting tangled with my guy!!!!
―I honestly care zero about anyone but my ult, I really hope they keep it 1-pick fixed starting next season ㅠㅠ
This '1-pick voting' always brought unexpected results.
It was commonplace for a surprise contestant to shoot up in an instant or to plummet completely.
Han Neuti had a fair number of secondary-bias votes he'd been getting from Seo Cha-gyeom's and Baek Gyeon-woo's fans, so depending on the extent, he might have to brace for a total crash.
"Do I have to personally debut these idols nowadays? They should handle debuting on their own......."
Saying that, Homma went to Han Neuti's support page.
Because he knew full well he'd be more heartbroken than Han Neuti himself if Han Neuti didn't debut, he planned to deposit another small amount.
"Oh?"
[Han Neuti Supporters fundraising currently 500% of target achieved]
Homma's jaw dropped when he saw the notice on the support page.
'So many people are cheering for Neuti.'
And before he knew it, he had shouted out loud.
"And yet he's 12th? Does that make any sense?!"
He wasn't denying reality; it genuinely struck him as strange.
Around this time, not just the broadcast but even viewers would start going crazy over hierarchical rankings, and there were several metrics they used to line contestants up on their own.
The first was subway ads...... though that was now a thing of the past.
The reason it was past tense was that repeated nuisance issues at subway stations had led the production side to flat-out issue an advisory against them.
Thus, most of the money that had been pooled for subway ads shifted into support fundraising instead.
And this very support fundraising had become the representative indicator that could gauge a trainee's current popularity.
So how was this support fundraising money used?
[Han Neuti voting event is up]
(Event promotional image filled with content stating prizes will be given via raffle when votes are verified.jpg)
The scale is insane
Comments
―Woah how much money have they gathered?
―Are they planning not to do events for the final?;;;
└We are preparing separately for the final ♥ If you're curious, go vote
―At this level this pretty much squashes the firepower of most upper-rank fans, how is he 12th...?
―Is Seo Cha-gyeom's fandom not doing an event? I heard they collected a ton of money too
└They're going all-in for the final
└All the prize items being talked about on Seo Cha-gyeom's side right now are on a crazy scale, look forward to it...
Homma, who had always been on the side of spectating voting events with a 'sweet deal for decking out my place' mindset in previous seasons, felt a little sad.
'So this is how it felt.'
All that money that had been gathered with such desperate hearts until now, only to vanish into thin air after letting people down—just how much was it.......
Homma swallowed a sniff and clicked on the post.
[Han Neuti fundraising amount confirmed at n tens of millions or more]
On top of that this is just for the 3rd vote, the final is being handled separately
Now I'm curious about the upper-rank final voting events ㅋㅋ If the debut lineup's firepower is weaker than this guy's, does voting even mean anything...
Comments
―How would you know the fundraising amount? Even fans don't know
└I added up all the prize prices
└Creepy...;;;
―Is there anyone who can surpass this besides Baek Cha Won-jaeng? Even Cha is iffy
―If this guy had fancams he'd seriously devour everyone, but they suddenly stopped releasing solo fancams starting this year... To me it looks like he's the one who got on the PD's bad side, not Baek Gyeon-woo
'Right, the fancams!'
It was a topic that had already flared up once, but indignation welled up again.
As the survival audition genre became entrenched, individual solo fancams for each trainee had become one of the standard, obvious pieces of content.
But as if the production team had finally lost their minds, they suddenly announced this season that they would not release solo fancams.
When this fancam, which had served as another ranking metric, disappeared, fans of trainees in dance positions in particular regularly poured out their frustration.
Because dance can never be fully showcased through edited cuts. At least Seo Cha-gyeom had one full video thanks to him arranging all by himself, but Han Neuti didn't even have that.
'The very first trainee I ever picked is, of all people, the one getting every single piece of malicious treatment from the production?'
Homma lamented and wiped his face, then thunked his forehead against his phone screen.
And as if casting a hex, he muttered viciously.
"......So I'm going to try everything I can do."
There really were all sorts of indicators at play in the ranking line-up.
Another one that was included.
[Comparison of current debut lineup ranking and number of fansite accounts]
1st: Seo Cha-gyeom (4↑)
2nd: An Jiwon (4↑), Baek Gyeon-woo (5th)
4th: Lee Jae-young (4↑)
5th: Han Neuti (12th)
6th: Mun Jeong-jin (6th), Song Se-ho (7th)
8th: Choi Jun-bin (4↑), Lee Hyo-woon (8th)
Numbers in parentheses are 2nd ranking announcement results, and the poster is a fan of no one
Comments
―What meaning does this even have.. I get it, Neuti has a lot of fansites, enough~
―Anyway Jun-bin has the general public's vote, I'm telling you ㅋㅋ
―I like this debut lineup better ㅎㅎ
That indicator was the existence of fansite fans, the so-called 'jjikdeok'.
"Let's debut, Neuti, please......."
Homma steeled his resolve while looking at the audience ticket transfer message.