When the Unexpected Happens (2)
"Feels like we got the bad luck out of the way."
On the drive back, Lim Seoyoung blurted it out of nowhere.
"The floor was insanely slippery. Imagine if we'd gone back out there and someone else wiped out and broke a bone. What would we have done about the Next K-Star taping?"
"Yeah. I was on edge too."
"If somebody got hurt and it threw off the recording schedule, that'd be the bigger disaster."
The kids took turns tossing in a line.
I checked the rearview for Lee Songha, tucked into the corner of the back seat. She wasn't crying, and she wasn't putting on a show of guilt. Even so, everyone knew she wasn't all right.
When we'd stopped at the rest area, I'd told them to pick up something for lunch, and Songha alone had come back hauling enough food for three. She was still forcing every last bite of it down.
She'd told me once that when she was stressed, she ordered late-night delivery and ate. She wasn't letting it show, but there was no doubt she was under stress now.
If she would just cry, the others could comfort her properly. Instead she packed it all inside and acted like she was fine, so for now the only thing left was to pretend we weren't fussing and loosen the mood.
That went for me, too.
"Songha."
At my call, Lee Songha looked up.
"Is it good?"
"Yes. Would you like one?"
"You've still got some left to give me?"
She'd been eating like she was at war, and there was still food left?
I glanced at the rearview. Songha hesitated, then held something out—a chicken skewer slathered thick with red sauce.
"......Do you want it?"
"No. You finish it."
How was I supposed to take that from her?
Lim Seoyoung stared a hole through Songha.
"How do you eat like that and not gain any weight?"
"She burns as many calories as she eats, dummy. You don't work out, so you gain whatever you put in."
At LJ's teasing jab, Seoyoung's round eyes went sharp as axes.
"Excuse me? I work out too, you know."
"Please. Besides breathing exercises, what do you even do? What, spoon lifts?"
"Hey, and what about you—!"
Seoyoung stammered, as if the words had jammed in her throat. Asking how much the other person worked out was a bad move when your opponent was LJ, who boxed for a hobby. Cornered, Seoyoung switched targets.
"Unnie Taehee! Taehee-unnie doesn't practice either—whenever she's not rehearsing she hogs the couch and rolls around, doesn't work out at all, and she still doesn't gain weight!"
"That unnie's just built that way, dummy. If it bothers you so much, get reborn."
"Stop calling me dummy, dummy!"
Even so, thanks to those two, the mood never had a chance to sink. A glance showed Songha watching the childish squabble with the faintest smile.
The noisy chatter carried on a while longer, then gradually died away, and soon a hush settled over the car. I looked in the rearview. All of them were fast asleep.
"They're out."
"They got soaked in the rain. Just let them sleep until we get there."
The traitor in the passenger seat said it while staring at his phone.
Right. Now that I thought about it, I still had something to settle with him.
"Choi Geon-young."
"Yeah?"
"Didn't you say earlier you had something you wanted to ask me?"
"Oh. That."
As if he'd only just remembered, the traitor turned to me with a strange look on his face. I was curious what would come out of his mouth—why he'd brought up persimmons at all, and what this thing was that he'd supposedly been wanting to ask me all this time.
At last the traitor grinned.
"Forget it. It's nothing."
Nothing?
"Hey, I'm too curious to focus on driving. What is it?"
"It really wasn't anything. Don't worry about it."
How was I supposed to not worry?
"It's seriously nothing."
He insisted it was nothing, and I could hardly threaten him into spitting out whatever he'd been about to say. After scrambling my head in an instant, the traitor went calmly back to fiddling with his phone.
I'd almost rather my foresight just laid Choi Geon-young bare—what kind of bastard he was, and every thing he was going to do from here on. This felt like walking around with a bomb in my hands that might go off at any second.
I couldn't tell which would blow first. Him, or my last nerve.
When we arrived at the Knet studio, Kim Hyunjo was already waiting in the greenroom.
"Songha, I heard you fell. You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm okay. Not a scratch."
Kim Hyunjo only relaxed after he'd confirmed Songha was all right.
Unlike music shows, Next K-Star didn't come with long waits. We used about thirty spare minutes to make the rounds with the other teams and to greet the judges we were meeting for the first time today.
Next K-Star had three judges in all. Producer Song Baek-jin, who had turned out a string of stars anyone would know by name; Cha Soo-ji, a powerhouse vocalist who'd come out of a girl group; and Simon Lee, the star composer who was a constant face on variety shows. Knet's intentions in casting them were plain as day.
All three were characters with a genuine gift for venom.
There was no time for a long talk with the judges. Eight teams in all, plus the members and the staff attached to each—dozens of people poured into the judges' waiting room at once, so we barely managed hellos, let alone a conversation.
A few teams hovered around the judges like hyenas, but we went back to our greenroom without lingering. The kids would rather hear the song one more time before the performance than catch the judges' eyes one more time.
A little later, a floor director made the rounds of the greenrooms.
"Recording starts in five minutes! Stand by!"
The makeup artists and stylists would watch on the monitor attached to the greenroom. Only the rest of us moved.
We threaded out through the packed hallway and sat in the audience seats of the open hall, and the set came into view all at once. It was nothing like the simple set from last time. The sheer scale made my mouth fall open on its own.
Rails ran the length of the dizzyingly high ceiling, and every kind of lighting rig hung packed together, flaring to life and dying out again and again.
"Don't step on that cable! If a camera goes down, we're finished!"
"Reset the product placement on the judges' desk so it actually shows!"
"Audio on the cast—did you get everyone on standby?"
"Except Cha Soo-ji! She says she's changing outfits?"
"What?!"
"She says her look is clashing with the other two judges, so she's switching to something else! It's coming by rush courier, almost here—she said she'll be out in ten minutes!"
"Oh, for the love of—!"
Below the stage, staff shouted and sprinted in a frenzy. Everywhere I turned there was something new, and I was craning around when my eyes stopped on the Neptune kids. Last taping they'd been too busy gawking at everything to focus, but today every one of them had earphones in and was locked in.
"You both turned your phones off?"
Kim Hyunjo turned to me and the traitor.
"Of course."
"Be careful wandering around down there. Block a camera or bump one and it's a disaster. And if a VJ asks for an interview, think your line over two or three times before you answer. Don't forget."
"Yes."
"There'll be more and more days I leave things to you two and step out, so watch closely today."
My ears pricked up. I knew perfectly well I still had plenty to learn, but the thought of controlling every situation myself was exciting all the same. The heavier the weight on my shoulders, the bigger the sense of accomplishment once a schedule was done.
We were nodding when someone in the row behind spoke up.
"Watching the kids and training the rookies—must be exhausting."
I turned. Sugar Cat's members, and their chief manager. We'd brushed past them a few times at the last taping, and maybe because the Sugar Cat girls looked unpleasant every time I saw them, their manager didn't leave a great impression either.
Sugar Cat's chief glanced at the Neptune kids and smiled.
"Neptune's working hard, though. Today's just a fight over who catches less flak, isn't it? Production said they'd come in hard at the start, and all three judges are the type who say whatever they want with zero filter."
"Well, you need a reaction early in a broadcast, so going somewhat provocative is unavoidable. Still, they promised the judges would properly hype and boost anyone who's obviously good, so it depends on the kids."
At Kim Hyunjo's lukewarm reply, Sugar Cat's chief let out a short laugh.
"How many kids like that do you think there are? Those people's standards are sky-high. Whatever—provocative is fine. I just hope the ratings come out well."
It wasn't only the two of them. Plenty of the other groups and staff around were fretting over ratings. Fair enough—on a variety show like this, nothing mattered more. Among everyone tied to Next K-Star, I was probably the only one not worried about them.
I already knew Next K-Star would post high ratings and turn into a seasonal program. I just wanted the first episode to air soon, so I could actually feel Neptune's name climbing. Then the kids wouldn't get jerked around the way they had this morning, and my own room to move would open up a great deal.
"Seoyoung. Did you practice a lot?"
Out of nowhere, Sugar Cat's leader, Han Saet-byul, leaned forward. Lim Seoyoung frowned slightly and pulled out an earphone.
"Yeah. As much as I could."
"Really? You must've had a lot of time. I'm jealous. Our other schedules were so packed we couldn't carve out much practice."
If someone else had said it, I might have let it pass without a thought. After a few run-ins, though, everything she said now arrived already run through a translator. What she meant was, We were busy handling other schedules and didn't have time to practice. You lot don't get called anywhere but here, so of course you had plenty of time.
Call me petty and I wouldn't have a word to say back. Even so, I hoped those girls got torn apart by the judges until there wasn't a speck of them left, and came back down that way.
Then, beside Seoyoung, LJ muttered,
"Then you should've practiced more instead of camping outside the judges' waiting room."
"......What?"
Han Saet-byul's face twisted, and LJ shrugged. In that instant our side got busy, checking whether a VJ was anywhere nearby.
I confirmed the VJs were well off and let myself relax, and underneath it I felt a clean, satisfying thrill at how blunt LJ had been. Honestly, it was like ten years of pent-up irritation sliding straight out of my chest.
"Hey!"
Seoyoung pinched LJ in the side.
"What! Did I say something wrong?"
"What were you going to do if there was a camera!"
"I already checked there isn't one around. You think I'm an idiot?"
When the kids fight, the parents fight. The moment the girls looked ready to spar, the air between the two chief managers went cold. Kim Hyunjo and Sugar Cat's chief didn't say another word to each other.
"Members of each team, get your mics on and sit in the front row! Recording starts soon!"
A production staffer's voice boomed through the hall.
The kids pulled their earphones out one by one and stood. Kim Hyunjo patted each of them on the shoulder.
"You heard earlier, right? Even if the judges rip you apart, tell yourselves it's a show and they're being harsher on purpose. Don't take it to heart."
"Don't worry, oppa. Getting rained on this morning made my mental armor rock solid."
Lim Seoyoung clenched a fist.
"I'll show them here everything we couldn't this morning!"