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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Ace Class
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“Yes. You did great. I heard you went to the emergency room this morning, so I was worried you wouldn’t be able to perform properly, but seeing you do so well… I think I’m getting a little misty-eyed.”
Jade pretended to wipe away tears with her hair.
“…So it’s true you couldn’t do it before because you were never properly taught. I knew it. I believed in you, Hye-sung.”
Kang Min-guk, who was still standing in shock, plopped back into his seat and muttered, as if he had seen her talent all along.
‘And when were you tearing me a new one? Just give me the Ace rank already.’
“Hye-sung, you did wonderfully, but we’re going to have a quick meeting.”
“…Okay.”
“Wasn’t that better than Yeon-woo just now?”
“Her movements were more precise than Yeon-woo’s, that’s for sure. But it was a little too mechanical, which felt a bit jarring.”
“Yeah… how should I put it? It lacked a certain flair or feeling. What about her singing? From what I saw, her volume was good, and her live vocals while dancing were solid.”
“Hye-sung was never a bad singer to begin with, but… hmm, I think she did better than expected.”
“Then it’s right to send her to the Ace class, isn’t it?”
“Based on this performance alone, she should go to the Ace class, but it’s also true that her fundamentals are much weaker than the other Ace trainees… I’m not sure if she’ll be able to keep up.”
It was a performance that anyone could see deserved an Ace rank, but the trainers couldn’t easily make a decision.
“She’ll develop her own style and feel over time. And if this is the first time she’s properly learned to dance, I’d say she’s talented. The evaluation is based solely on this performance, so sending her to the Ace class seems right.”
As Minty summarized her opinion, the other trainers seemed to agree. Hye-sung, who had been straining her ears to eavesdrop, finally let out a sigh of relief.
‘That’s Ha-hyun *eonni* for you. That’s my girl. I knew she had a good eye.’
* * *
After the classes were reassigned, Hye-sung excitedly changed into her purple practice uniform and headed to the large auditorium that had been converted into a set.
It was time for the center selection for the first performance to be revealed on M Space.
“I didn’t expect you to come to the Ace class.”
Han Young-won said with her arms crossed.
It could have been mistaken for a sneer, but the corners of her mouth were twitching upward, suggesting she was pleased that Hye-sung was in the Ace class.
“You worked hard, Hye-sung. We’ll be seeing more of each other today. You too, Yeon-woo.”
Lee Ju-ha said, gently patting Hye-sung’s head.
She said this because the stage formations were all divided by rank, meaning only trainees of the same rank would practice together.
“I didn’t expect to make it to the Ace class either. It’s pretty surprising.”
‘I was about to feel a little wronged, thinking those folks weren’t going to send me to the Ace class. But I made it in the end.’
“Come here, I’ll introduce you to some friends.”
Lee Ju-ha took Hye-sung and Na Yeon-woo by the hand and led them away.
There were currently a total of 15 trainees in the Ace class. There were originally 13, but the recent re-evaluation had caused some changes.
Five trainees from lower classes had been promoted to Ace rank, while three had been demoted from Ace to lower classes.
Among the Ace trainees, Hye-sung saw a familiar face.
‘Hyun Na-na. I saw her during the agency entrances, and now we finally meet.’
Hye-sung recalled Hyun Na-na waving at her from the number one seat.
‘If only our Yeon-woo had a fraction of that confidence.’
If she did, Hye-sung firmly believed, the history of K-pop would be rewritten. While Na Yeon-woo certainly had potential, whether it was enough to rewrite K-pop history was another question.
‘Just wait one year. Yeon-woo’s going to whip this lazy idol scene back into shape.’
The rose-colored glasses Hye-sung wore for Yeon-woo showed no signs of coming off.
“Hye-sung! What’s this? You were saying you’d get eliminated in the preliminaries, and now you’re in the Ace class!”
‘Hye-sung? What’s with that? Why is she suddenly speaking so casually to me? I’m twenty-seven.’
Hyun Na-na greeted her cheerfully, patting her on the shoulder so hard it made a thudding sound.
She definitely didn’t remember agreeing to drop the formalities. Hye-sung asked, her memory hazy.
“Did we agree to speak informally?”
“Nope!”
Hyun Na-na answered brightly.
‘…I got this feeling in the bathroom back then, but she’s also a bit overly cheerful, kind of an airhead… ah, maybe I shouldn’t put it like that. Anyway, she’s the same type as Im Ye-in.’
A little while ago, Im Ye-in had been jumping for joy, saying she’d been moved up to the Beginner class.
“Then why are you speaking informally, my friend Na-na?”
“We’re the same age! Do you use formal language with your friends at school? Of course not!”
“…Alright. Go ahead.”
It seemed that because Hye-sung was a trainee of interest, Na-na had built up a one-sided sense of familiarity.
“What, you two know each other? Are you school friends?”
“Nope! We met in the bathroom during the preliminaries.”
Hyun Na-na answered Lee Ju-ha’s question with a cheerful voice.
“She told me I was like a bull…”
“Hey, that was because you were trying to smash the door down.”
“It wasn’t on purpose. You know that, right?”
“Right…”
Hyun Na-na turned slightly and extended a hand to Na Yeon-woo, who was standing beside her.
“Hi, I saw your re-evaluation performance. It was great. You can speak comfortably with me!”
“Hello. Then I’ll call you Na-na *eonni*… I’m eighteen…”
“Okay!”
“Um, well, since Young-won *eonni* already knows Yeon-woo, I’ll introduce you to the *eonnis* over there.”
Lee Ju-ha pointed to two girls on the floor who were performing a marvelous feat, doing the splits.
‘The number of people I have to call ‘eonni’ keeps growing, and it feels pretty strange.’
“Ah-yeon *eonni*! Seol *eonni*! This is Hye-sung, my roommate, and next to her is Yeon-woo.”
The tall one with an aristocratic beauty and long, black hair was Namgung Seol, and the one with chestnut-brown hair in a half-up style and a smiling face was Gil Ah-yeon.
‘Wow, all the visuals are gathered in the Ace class now.’
Hye-sung, a fan of pretty faces, marveled inwardly. She was referring to Han Young-won, Namgung Seol, and Na Yeon-woo.
When she had checked their stats before, these three were the only ones with a visual stat of four stars or higher.
‘Though you don’t really need to check stats to see visuals.’
Based on her own calculations, a three-star rating was the standard for being conventionally beautiful. While beauty was subjective, a three-star rating or higher meant that regardless of personal taste, one would feel that the person was ‘pretty.’
“Ah, hello.”
As Hye-sung and Na Yeon-woo hesitantly greeted them, the two who had been doing the splits got up, dusting themselves off.
“Hi.”
A short, concise greeting came back.
Namgung Seol was a woman of few words. That was only when the cameras were rolling, though. In reality, she had a rather immature personality, but she was currently being silenced by Gil Ah-yeon from the same agency to protect her public image.
“Hey, guys. We can speak casually, right? Seol and I are both twenty-two.”
Gil Ah-yeon approached with a smile.
These two were trainees from 2M Entertainment who had earned an Ace rank right before Na Yeon-woo and Cha Ju-yeon during the class evaluations. Both specialized in dance.
The CEO of 2M Entertainment was a famous dancer from the early 2000s, known for personally putting his trainees through high-intensity dance training.
The training was so rigorous that trainees from other agencies would line up to take lessons there. The image that came to mind when one thought of a 2M trainee was simply a dance monster.
In fact, the basement practice room at 2M Entertainment was filled with trainees who were already at the level of main dancers in debuted groups.
‘Just like in Season 1, they’ve laid all their debut group cards out on the table here.’
This was Hye-sung’s first impression of Gil Ah-yeon and Namgung Seol.
Unlike Lee Ju-ha, who had been sent to the survival show after being cut from a debut lineup, 2M had sent trainees who were center-level members of their planned debut group. It was a crazy move in a way, but it also showed their confidence.
In fact, before the world changed, both Gil Ah-yeon and Namgung Seol had maintained high rankings and successfully debuted. Hye-sung thought that their debut was something that wouldn’t change this time either.
They had the visuals and the skills, but their biggest advantage was having a built-in agency fanbase from the start. An agency fanbase referred to the fandom of a senior artist who would pass down their support.
In Season 5, the only trainees with powerful agency fanbases were Lee Ju-ha from Cue Media and the two from 2M Entertainment. Moreover, their direct seniors were from the debut group of *Supernova Project* Season 1, so their backing was incredibly strong.
‘Hyun Na-na and those two might as well have “Debuting” written on their faces this time around. Han Young-won will probably debut again too. So, the question is, who will Yeon-woo have to beat to get one of the remaining spots…’
Although she knew the debut lineup from before the world changed, approaching those trainees to sabotage them from behind was a suicidal act that would bring a karma bomb crashing down on her.
‘…That’s why Yeon-woo absolutely has to stand out in the first group competition. To do that, we need to form a good team. I have a plan. I’ll take care of it, so my baby girl just needs to…’
“What are you thinking about so seriously?”
“Gah?! Ah, it’s nothing.”
Hye-sung, who had been plotting inwardly, was startled by Han Young-won’s icy face suddenly appearing right in front of her.
‘Whoa, what’s with that look?’
Meeting Han Young-won’s gaze, with eyes like a lake so deep you couldn’t see the bottom, felt like having her innermost thoughts laid bare, and it was a little frightening.
“Nothing?”
“Of course. I was just thinking how amazing this place is…”
“Right, well… it looks like we’re done with introductions, so let’s sit down. It seems they’re ready to start filming.”
The center would be chosen from within the Ace rank. Applicants would come forward and show off a talent, whether it be dancing, singing, or even a speech, after which a vote by a show of hands from all the classes would begin.
Due to allegations of vote manipulation for the center position in the previous season, the voting method had been changed to be completely public.
Hye-sung had no intention of volunteering. Since her goal wasn’t to debut, she wanted to avoid drawing as much attention as possible.
However, she had already garnered unwanted attention internally from the class evaluation, so her wish to quietly blend in and secure a spot within the top 50 was all but shattered.
“*Eonni*, are you going to volunteer?”
“No.”
She asked Han Young-won, who was sitting in the row in front of her, and received a curt refusal.
“Why not?”
“Not interested.”
“What about you, *eonni*?”
“Me? Hmm… should I give it a try?”
Lee Ju-ha said with a gentle smile.
‘She’s already planning to go for it.’
“Yeon-woo. You’re going to volunteer too, right?”
“Me?”
Na Yeon-woo, also sitting in the front row, turned around with the wide eyes of a startled rabbit.
‘My little rabbit, you look just like one, and when you look at me like that, you look even more like one. But you’re actually a rabbit base with a spoonful of cat, which makes you a cat-bit…’
Hye-sung was attempting to turn Na Yeon-woo into a cute character at every opportunity.
“I’m… still lacking. I don’t think I’d make it anyway.”
“What are you lacking!”
Hye-sung shot up from her seat with a loud voice.
“Trainee Yoon Hye-sung? Are you volunteering? I’m still in the middle of explaining.”
Seol Han-na, who was explaining the voting procedure at the front, asked.
“Ah, n-n-n-no?”
“Then why did you stand up?”
“…I’m sorry.”
Her face turning beet red, Hye-sung quietly sat back down.
