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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: A Price to Pay
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[You can pay a price to temporarily expand the scope of application.]
‘What’s the price? I already said no to things like my lifespan. Is it converting proficiency into points again? I’d gladly give that up.’
[It is a method of accumulating karma.]
‘Accumulating karma?’
[You can increase your karma and expand the scope of application.]
[ Additional Application Scope: 1 person (24-hour limit)]
[Price: Karma will increase by 1.]
‘…….’
This was dangerous. The price was too high. Hye-sung fell into deep thought.
‘But without this, there’s no way to get Yeon-woo into the Ace class right now.’
Dropping to F-Class by mistake during the class evaluation, taking on the role of class president to help other trainees, and then rising to Ace in the re-evaluation as if she were reclaiming her rightful place.
An impact of that magnitude was needed to make a favorable first impression.
Besides, it was the center position for the first competition that Hye-sung so desperately wanted for her.
To make Na Yeon-woo raise her hand with confidence, she had to be sent to the highest class, no matter what.
‘I’ll pay the price. Add one person to the application scope. Do it.’
[Price paid successfully. Karma +1]
[The application scope of will be expanded for 24 hours. Please register the target.]
‘Na Yeon-woo.’
[Na Yeon-woo. Registration complete.]
Hye-sung hadn’t overcome the trauma that made her stomach churn at the mere thought of rewinding the clockwork, but she was ready to sacrifice herself for Na Yeon-woo.
“Yeon-woo, let’s go to the vocal room.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yeah. Let’s practice together.”
“Hey, Hye-sung, let us join too.”
“Me too. You’re the only one who didn’t get yelled at today, Hye-sung Eonni. Yeon-woo helped us with our dance practice yesterday, so you can help us with our singing today.”
Just as she was about to leave with Na Yeon-woo, the F-Class trainees all stood up at once.
“Wait, hold on. I need to practice a bit myself, so I’ll help you when I get back. Just give me an hour.”
“What? But you’re taking Yeon-woo.”
“Yeon-woo stayed up for two nights helping me. Young-bin, please understand. I’ll help you when I get back.”
“Fine, come back quickly.”
“Then we’ll do some individual practice while you’re gone, Hye-sung.”
“Okay. We’ll be back.”
With more people to help, she could only spare an hour for them, but she planned to use the clockwork rewind to get about five hours of practice in with Yeon-woo.
‘I’ll have to sing it once, rewind five times, and repeat the process so Yeon-woo doesn’t notice anything strange.’
The two of them, squatting on the floor of the small vocal room, held up the lyric sheets and slowly sang.
“Yeon-woo, I think you can sing louder.”
“Ah, okay.”
“It’s okay if your voice cracks, so don’t swallow your words. Just belt it out.”
Having just barely surpassed the average standard herself, Hye-sung tried her best to pass on everything she had learned and felt to Na Yeon-woo.
After singing the song through once and rewinding the clockwork, Na Yeon-woo’s voice went off-key in the exact same way five times in a row.
After the second time, it was a little less severe.
After the tenth time, on the final of the five rewinds, she finally finished the song without her voice cracking.
It was an achievement born from a total of 50 attempts, but for Na Yeon-woo, it felt like less than 30 minutes had passed.
“Eonni! I think I’m getting better, right?”
“Yeah, you’re doing great. A little more practice and you’ll be much better.”
After an hour of practice that was equivalent to five—at Hye-sung's expense—Na Yeon-woo could now sing with more confidence than she had in the morning.
“Having you help me makes me improve so much faster than when I practice alone.”
Na Yeon-woo’s eyes crinkled as she smiled brightly.
It had been so long since she’d seen such a bright smile. Since coming to the dorms, she had mostly seen her tense and stiff, so seeing her laugh like that filled Hye-sung with a sense of pride.
‘…I hope her life is always full of things to smile about.’
She felt like she could be struck by a karma beam and fall into hell, as long as Na Yeon-woo could be happy.
“Should we go to the practice room now? We promised to practice with everyone…”
“Sure.”
Hye-sung subtly rolled her eyes upward. She could see both her own and Na Yeon-woo’s proficiency levels.
‘So I can see her exact proficiency because she’s included in the application scope.’
[Temporary Skill Application Target: Na Yeon-woo]
[Song: Chance! (Proficiency 28.3%)]
Hye-sung’s own proficiency was climbing toward 50%.
* * *
“Come on, everyone. Confidence is half the battle. Why do you keep swallowing your words? Project your voices. Are you all intimidated because you’re in F-Class? You can’t be like that.”
“Hye-sung. Like this? Your gaze~! I’ll take it aaall—ack!”
“Except for you, Ye-in Eonni. I think you could use a little less confidence.”
“Why me? Why just me?”
“You should try swallowing your words a bit, Eonni. All your notes are wrong, and your voice is so loud it just sounds weirder.”
“Okay…”
It was a rare sight to see Im Ye-in looking so dejected.
Hye-sung taught them everything she could, just as she had given tips to Na Yeon-woo earlier, but she couldn’t use the rewind on everyone here, so their flaws weren’t corrected as quickly as Na Yeon-woo’s had been.
“Still, I think we’re getting a little better.”
“Confidence is half the battle. That really seems true.”
“We have to get ready for dance lessons, so let’s wrap this up quickly. Who wants to go to the vocal room and practice hard~?”
Whether it was a group placebo effect, they seemed to be improving compared to the morning when they’d been thoroughly chewed out. The progress was as minuscule as a newly sprouted bean sprout, but each of them had begun to see a glimmer of hope of escaping F-Class.
‘Dance class is starting soon.’
After reaching 99% proficiency in the choreography for “Chance!” yesterday, Hye-sung no longer feared dance class.
Her dance stat was only 1.5 stars, so she was barely at an average level; it wasn’t that she had become a good dancer. If she had to learn new choreography, it would surely be another struggle, though perhaps not as bad as before.
But until the re-evaluation and the M-Space stage recording were over, she wouldn’t need to learn any songs or choreography other than “Chance!”, so for the time being, she could take lessons without trembling in fear of being yelled at.
A moment later, Kang Min-guk and Jade walked in together. Their simultaneous arrival suggested they were planning to push the trainees hard since the re-evaluation was tomorrow.
“Class president, front row.”
“The ones who got yelled at yesterday, up front too.”
‘I can dance without messing up now, you jerks.’
Nevertheless, she deliberately danced with a certain sloppiness, making small mistakes that weren’t big enough to get her yelled at.
She couldn’t reveal her sudden, drastic improvement here. But even with her intentionally sloppy dancing, the trainers looked surprised.
“Hey, Yoon Hye-sung! Yesterday, that… what is it? You kids’ slang these days, ‘sleep is for the dead’? Anyway, you said you practiced all night, and you’ve improved a lot, huh?”
Kang Min-guk said with a swagger.
“Who else stayed up all night yesterday?”
Jade asked while shuffling through some papers.
“Hye-sung Eonni, Yeon-woo, me, Im Ye-in Eonni, and Lee Min-kyung Eonni. The five of us.”
Kim Woo-ri, who had also stayed behind yesterday, quickly answered.
“Rurika said she couldn’t practice because she went to the emergency room, and Young-bin, how late did you stay?”
“I… until 3…”
Jade tilted her head to one side, brushing her long hair back.
“Why didn’t you stay longer with Hye-sung’s group?”
“I’m sorry…”
Yoo Young-bin was one of the three trainees, along with Rurika and Hye-sung, who were always considered the worst.
“No, I’m not scolding you, just asking.”
That’s what Jade said, but Kang Min-guk immediately put pressure on Yoo Young-bin.
“But if you know you’re lacking in skill, going to bed early must mean you’re confident, right? Doesn’t look that way to your teacher.”
“……”
Yoo Young-bin couldn’t say a word and hung her head low.
‘The classroom atmosphere is like walking on thin ice again.’
Hye-sung let out a small sigh. She couldn’t be happy just because she had escaped the scolding herself.
After the suffocating dance class ended, Hye-sung whispered something in Na Yeon-woo’s ear.
“Ah, that would be good, right? Okay. I’ll tell them.”
Na Yeon-woo cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and shouted to the whole class.
“Everyone~ After some individual practice, we’ll practice the choreography together starting at 11. We’ll go until 2 for now, but I’d really like it if we all stayed until 5 today.”
Since it was the class president who had been helping them all this time, everyone seemed to agree.
Right after she spoke, a few trainees hurried to the vocal room, while others stayed in the practice room, put on earphones, and started practicing their live dance performance.
“*Yawn.* Yeon-woo, let’s go to the vocal room too.”
Hye-sung said with sleepy eyes, letting out a huge yawn.
The plan was to first go to the vocal room and get her song proficiency to 50%, then come back and fill up both her song and dance proficiency through live dance practice.
“Should we stay a bit longer this time?”
It seemed Na Yeon-woo also wanted to get in some more vocal practice, which was lacking compared to her dancing.
The two headed to the vocal room and practiced just as they had during the day, singing the song through once and then rewinding five times.
She was anxious that Na Yeon-woo might find it strange how her weak vocals were stabilizing so quickly, but it was a needless worry.
“Wow, practicing with you really helps me improve fast. It’s amazing. Do we just have good chemistry?”
Na Yeon-woo said, scratching her head with the cap of a ballpoint pen. She seemed to really believe it.
‘It’s not that we have good chemistry; it’s that I love you enough to endure this nauseating rewind time. Even if there’s something worse than this, I’ll bear it for you.’
*Yeon-woo, I’ll do anything for you.* Hye-sung nodded, her expression intoxicated with the idea of her own self-sacrifice.
“Eonni, what’s your Saju day master?”
“Huh? Saju?”
It seemed Yeon-woo had interpreted Hye-sung’s nod as agreement with her chemistry theory.
“My Yongsin is Earth, so maybe you have strong earth energy?”
“…I’m not too sure about that stuff. Haha.”
Who knew my princess was such a firm believer in this supernatural pseudoscience. Flustered, Hye-sung laughed and changed the subject back to practice.
When they left the vocal room, Na Yeon-woo and Hye-sung’s song proficiencies had reached 50% and 70%, respectively.
Three hours had passed, but Hye-sung had once again spent 15 hours alone, leaving her mentally exhausted.
Her own proficiency was already above the Middle-Class level, and she desperately wanted to go back and rest.
‘Just a little longer, for Yeon-woo.’
Later, during the live dance practice in the practice room, she used fewer rewinds.
She only rewound twice after each run-through. Rewinding five times here would be too obvious.
‘Finally, Yeon-woo’s dance proficiency has passed 70%. After tonight, she’ll be able to catch up to the Ace class…!’
Her joy was short-lived; Hye-sung had to force strength into her staggering body to keep her balance.
Na Yeon-woo was in the same boat, but Hye-sung hadn’t slept for more than four hours since the day before yesterday. The fatigue had piled up, and if she pulled another all-nighter today, she might really collapse.
‘Even if it’s hard, let’s just endure a little longer.’
It was 11 p.m. The F-Class trainees, who had been practicing separately, gathered in the center of the practice room.
“Is everyone here?”
Hye-sung clapped her hands like a street peddler again and stood in the front row of the formation.
“Hye-sung, do you want to move to the back this time?”
Im Ye-in asked.
“Me?”
“Yeah, we’re going to rotate rows, but the girls who haven’t fully memorized it yet should go first. You can watch from the back and help them out.”
Being asked to watch from the back and help out… it was the first time she’d been treated this way, and it felt strange.
“Okay.”
The class president, Na Yeon-woo, stood in the center of the front row, while Im Ye-in and Hye-sung moved to the back.
When she was in the front, she was so focused on not being too precise that she couldn’t check the other trainees’ movements in the mirror. But from the back, she could clearly see their mistakes.
They practiced like that, rotating rows, practicing and practicing and practicing again, until it was nearly 2 a.m.
‘…I really can’t do this anymore. I’m so tired. Should I just go to bed? No, I just have to endure it for today. Just today.’
