Chapter 64
Chapter 64
"Huh?"
"Really?"
Perhaps because our team was in the most remote corner, I felt the stares pouring in all at once with startling clarity.
'...But.'
Strangely, everyone seemed to be looking at me, not Baek Gyeonwoo.
"So Cha-gyeom never gets a benefit then."
"Oh wow, seriously."
I only realized what they meant when I heard the murmuring voices.
So that was it. I hadn't known because I never paid attention to benefits.
But aside from that part, my own situation was just as serious.
'They're giving the benefit to Baek Gyeonwoo?'
After treating him like a cold side dish, they were now casually handing him a benefit?
...Did they rig it or not?
I was going to take advantage of the MC's congratulatory remarks to guess what was going through the production team's heads, but Baek Gyeonwoo, sitting beside me, tapped my arm.
I turned my head.
"What?"
"......."
"What."
"This is doing pretty well, right."
Given all the commotion, of course it was doing well.
I wanted to say that, but the screen that had just shown the MC now displayed me and Baek Gyeonwoo, so I hurriedly withdrew the remark.
I tapped his shoulder as a sign of affirmation and congratulations.
The benefit announcement, which held no interest for anyone outside the top ranks, ended, and at last the survivor rankings started being revealed.
"Now, I will announce the 11th place trainee who achieved 89%."
The announcements proceeded quickly.
Once the 11th through 9th places, which lower-ranked trainees pinned their hopes on, were finished, the studio was filled more with detachment than bitterness.
Whether it was because they'd grown fond of each other or had given up hope, I couldn't know their true feelings... but the atmosphere was definitely much warmer than any previous ranking ceremony.
That warmth cracked during the 6th place announcement.
"The trainee who achieved 94% is... trainee Kim Han-ul."
Even the mechanical applause that had accompanied every ranking now fell silent.
Instead, a murmur began to fill the hush.
"......That guy?"
The words matched my inner thoughts, but they weren't mine; the voice belonged to Jo Woo-jin, sitting beside me.
Jo Woo-jin was part of Lee Jae-young's circle, so I thought he was quite close with Kim Han-ul. Seeing even him flustered made me think this was an especially unacceptable ranking.
"I'll... I'll become a Han-ul who tries harder..."
While Kim Han-ul gave his tearful thoughts, Han Neuti remained on the display board. Clearly intended to shed light on last night's controversy one more time.
He was sitting far away, so his expression was hard to see. Thanks for showing him like this, I guess...
"Continuing on, I will announce the trainee who achieved 95%."
Obviously it would be one of the five.
Baek Gyeonwoo, Lee Jae-young, Choi Jun-bin, Ahn Jiwon, and me.
All had placed within the top 4 at least once, so I figured whichever of us it was wouldn't be all that surprising.
"The 5th place trainee who achieved 95% is..."
'...Wait.'
The voting changed from 7-pick to 1-pick, which meant the total votes also dropped to one-seventh.
"The 5th place trainee who achieved 95% is..."
Then even a simple calculation suggested the benefit's influence had to be much bigger than before.
Among the five candidates, the ones who hadn't received a benefit were only me and Ahn Jiwon...
"The 5th place trainee who achieved 95% is..."
A familiar chill washed over me. It was exactly the same feeling as when the blind rule was first announced.
As if reading my thoughts, the MC met my eyes.
"Trainee Seo Cha-gyeom."
Had I just said seconds ago that I wouldn't be surprised?
Ridiculously... I was surprised.
"Ehhh?"
"What?"
"Whoa?"
"Not the ultimate secret technique?"
I was genuinely surprised, but because the people around me were even more shocked, I regained my composure.
In that moment, the murmuring grew louder and filled the studio.
Reactions encouraging me or feeling sorry for me were few; the dominant emotion was...
"Seo Cha-gyeom?"
"Really?"
"Wow, even if it's 1-pick... seriously?"
"This is ridiculous."
It went beyond surprise and looked almost like disbelief.
Calmly, I straightened my clothes and rose from my seat.
As I approached the podium, the MC handed me the mic. I took it and thought for a moment before opening my mouth.
"Seeing a clear number actually puts my mind at ease."
When I started with that, the MC standing next to me laughed.
"Thank you for voting for me, and I will do my absolute best to debut with the coolest image. Please watch over me until the end."
After finishing my thoughts, I sat in the seat marked '95%'.
If I were to say it felt novel... originally, 1st through 7th places all sat in the same row in the same chairs, so, well, it was the same.
Next, the MC announced the four trainees in the top 4.
Very predictably, Choi Jun-bin, Ahn Jiwon, Lee Jae-young, and Baek Gyeonwoo took the seats.
After all four had given their thoughts and sat down.
A tension we had been trying hard to forget began to creep back into the studio.
"Now, I will announce the final survival candidate."
Trainees who had a chance, and those who didn't.
The way to tell them apart here was simple. The former showed nervousness by clasping their hands or biting their lips, while the latter even exuded a hint of boredom.
A stretch of time that was short for some and long for others passed.
"The trainee who will take the final 88% seat, the candidates are..."
The screen split into two, showing two people.
"Trainee Jeong Hyeon-i and trainee Han Neuti."
Here it comes.
On the screen, Han Neuti surprisingly wore a disarming smile.
Beside him, Hyun-i hyung had his head bowed deep, hands clasped as if in prayer, his expression hidden.
"...The final trainee advancing to the finals is..."
Even the MC, who always spoke in a steady voice, seemed to have grown attached to the trainees by this point.
What followed wasn't just a pause to heighten tension, but a hesitation that looked genuinely complicated.
And finally, the last survivor was announced.
"Trainee Jeong Hyeon-i."
On the split screen, Hyun-i hyung's camera zoomed in, pushing Han Neuti out of the frame.
Hyun-i hyung staggered to his feet and walked over, receiving congratulations from the other trainees.
Han Neuti, without much reaction, just clapped quietly.
He was too far away to see his expression. And the screen didn't seem inclined to show him anymore either.
"Today, today... I thought I'd have to go home... I barely packed any luggage, ah... thank you..."
Watching Hyun-i hyung's joyful expression, I didn't know what I was supposed to feel.
Because right now, I was in the process of becoming quite certain.
'They did it.'
The rigging, that is.
* * *
This morning, Jeong Sowol burst open my door and came in.
Mistaking him for his usual routine of opening the curtains, I was silently about to pull the blanket over my head when Jeong Sowol shook me awake like he was dusting sesame seeds.
―......What?
―Neuti hyung is Rei!
And I sat up abruptly to grasp the situation.
The internet was already abuzz with talk of Han Neuti. There was no trace of ranking announcement tension.
'...This breaks now, of all times?'
At that moment, I just thought it was exquisitely coincidental timing.
But it wasn't a coincidence.
First, the number one contributor to this affair was none other than the production team.
Thanks to their evil editing, Han Neuti's controversy posts had been able to spread here and there, and naturally more people came to see Han Neuti.
That's how Han Neuti, whom only people interested in <MAKE100%> barely knew, finally entered the sight of people who weren't interested.
And here, the example of those 'uninterested people' was who.
―You changed so much I was like is it you or not, then saw the keyring and recognized you, it is you, right.. Rei lolㅋㅋㅠㅠ I gave you that keyring and Park Hyeong-tae threw a fit at you because of it... I felt so bad... but thanks to that I found out Park Hyeong-tae is a total jerk... And I'm still keeping in touch with Park Hyeong-tae's girlfriends I met back then!! lol
└Oh noㅠ?? Neuti is my one pickㅠㅠ he had a girlfriend? Why didn't they date?
└They're twelve years apart you dumbass
It was none other than Park Hyeong-tae's ex-girlfriend.
Soon the internet grew noisy with the story that Han Neuti was Rei, and interest in Han Neuti skyrocketed.
―No but now that I look he's totally Neuti=LEI how did I not recognize him ahㅠ
―How could literally no one know??? He was supposedly Underlion's big team... Plenty of people would've known Rei
└The circles of people who know Rei and people who know Han Neuti didn't overlap... and the production team hid Han Neuti so tightly...
―....During Park Hyeong-tae days I begged them please debut Rei... So I could've debuted him with my own hands...? But I didn't vote for him....?
―But taking a rough look, I can see why people didn't recognize him, there's exactly one Rei clip and (capture) you can't see well anyway he seems really slender here, looks like eighteen~nineteen-ish
└Wow is this the military magic
└Did he finish military service?
└They say Rei finished military, then Neuti probably did too;;;
―Crazy how does someone who finished military have zero stories about it... for real I knew nothing about Han Neuti except that he went to middle school in Gwangju
―Why does a 22-year-old have so much history what did he do to live so hard
―Let's cut his age for him since he's served, let's make Han Neuti honorary 20 years old
└Seo Cha-gyeom: Neuti hiㅎㅇ
└It's funny-sad how only Seo Cha-gyeom gets mentioned because he has no friends
―Who called Han Neuti King Timid Cat
―Vote for Rei.. he's good at fighting..
└Why does an idol need to be good at fighting
And then, people trying to slowly grab a share of that attention began to appear one by one.
[I used to wonder what he'd do if his pro path got blocked acting that reckless]
He's handsome so he can just become an idol, got it
Damn, a breakthrough method my ugly self couldn't even dream of
But thanks to him we skipped a lot of discipline sessions, so I'll repay the favor
I'm voting, hope he debuts
Comments
―Are you actually voting?
└Nah you have to sign up for membership;; I'm definitely doing Muntoo though
―lol That guy who always talked back even in front of X-military discipline... I thought he was young back then but seeing him on broadcast he's exactly the same, I burst out laughing
As anecdotes about Rei kept getting bumped up, people went back to examine Han Neuti's controversy post one more time as if possessed.
And at that exact timing, evidence supporting the fact that Han Neuti had been victimized by evil editing was posted.
The controversial Han Neuti interview was actually from the first competition, and the words and subtitles didn't match...
When I told Han Neuti about it on the way to work today, this was the reply I got.
―......That happened?
―You really didn't know?
―Yeah, I really did think at the time that I was making a fuss about nothing much, so I wondered if I'd said it without realizing. Wow, I'm really relieved.
―What's so relieving about it.
―That I still had my head on straight...
Seems like I was the only one worrying.
Anyway, once even the evil editing evidence was posted, the number of people cursing Han Neuti drastically decreased, and some even started attaching memes and worshiping him.
Actually, the only confirmed evil editing was the remark about 'nothing much.'
But based on Han Neuti's past history, reasoning started from 'Rei would never do that' and ultimately reached the conclusion 'Kim Han-ul must have done something wrong.'
And that was around when I thought.
'He's going to get eliminated.'
Up until the third round of voting, voting was done through their own app.
So the process was long and cumbersome for regular viewers to vote.
On the other hand, the final voting was done by text. A simple method of just entering the number and name and sending.
That's why the presence of the public pick skyrockets in the finals.
The production team must have had a lot on their minds. They'd planned to debut their preselected picks under the excuse of 'a miracle made by the public pick,' but the one to snatch that miracle had become Han Neuti.
So they had to eliminate Han Neuti, even as a makeshift measure.
'Did they decide that even by their own standards, 15th place was an unreasonable ranking.'
I was now in the process of becoming convinced that even the change in survivors to twelve people was because of Han Neuti.
When my thoughts reached that point, the MC raised the mic.
"Then, will the eliminated trainees please leave the seats."
Seriously, as if they weren't going to stop them from leaving because they had to film the scene of them hugging the surviving trainees and crying...
It was obvious they were just saying it to add a spoonful of cruelty.
Some of the eliminated trainees who heard the MC's words smiled as if this day had finally come. Of course, some trainees were crying too.
Even as I confirmed that the production team had rigged it according to plan, it didn't feel refreshing, surprisingly.
I leaned my back more against the chair and waited for the filming to end quickly.
The scrap of paper tucked in my pocket rustled.