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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: A New Rivalry
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“Hye-sung! Are you really an Ace?”
“…You’ll have to watch the broadcast to find out.”
Hye-sung parried the question with a joke.
“Aw, come on! Just give us a little hint!”
“Didn’t you just tell Kim Yu-chan?”
*So that guy’s name is Kim Yu-chan.*
“No, guys. Kim Yu-chan just guessed on his own since he heard I was the same rank as a trainee from his company.”
“Ah, still, can’t you just tell us? I’m curious. By the way, how many kids from our school went on the show?”
“I don’t know. Maybe two or three from each grade?”
“I should’ve tried out.”
“They take your phone away when you’re staying at the dorms. Lee Ha-ram, you wouldn’t last a day.”
As the topic naturally shifted, the students started chatting amongst themselves again. Hye-sung eavesdropped on their conversation, picking up a few more names.
*I guess I can get through today like this.*
Hye-sung let out a small sigh of relief.
***
Three days later.
For the past few days, Hye-sung had spent her time at school quietly. She’d occasionally find herself wanting to see Na Yeon-woo in her school uniform and would wander near the second floor where the sophomore classrooms were, but she never went to find her, afraid she might run into Cha Ju-yeon.
*I have no idea what would happen if I ran into that girl…*
The press conference was tomorrow, and the second training camp would begin the day after.
So, she had selected two songs she remembered from the first competition mission list before the reset, registered them in her ‘Jukebox,’ and had been practicing them little by little.
She couldn’t memorize all the choreography, so she couldn’t register them in ‘Master of Dance,’ but she practiced the dance moves as much as she could.
With her increased Dance stat, it was certainly easier than before. However, learning choreography on her own was still too difficult. It was so daunting that she even found herself missing Jade and Kang Min-guk.
Over the three days, she had discreetly managed to learn the names of all her classmates. They were all names saved in her contacts—likely Hye-sung’s friends in this world’s setting.
Perhaps thanks to Kim Yu-chan, who had sat next to her on the first day, Hye-sung had been able to act quite naturally in class since that conversation.
“Yoon Hye-sung, Yoon Hye-sung, Yoon Hye-sung, Yoon Hye-sung!”
“I can hear you just fine. You only need to say it once.”
“Isn’t today the day it gets released?”
“That’s right.”
“What time was M Space again? 6?”
“5:55.”
“Okay, okay. We’ll be sure to watch it live for you~”
“You can just watch it after it’s uploaded to WeTube.”
Today, the first performance of would be revealed on M Space.
Afterward, the trainees’ profiles and self-introduction videos were scheduled to be released sequentially.
Unlike previous seasons where they were released over several days, this time, everything from the stage performance to the profiles and intro videos would be released all at once on the same day.
5:50 PM.
Hye-sung had turned down her parents’ offer to watch it together on the living room TV, claiming it was embarrassing, and was now sitting in front of her monitor in her room, waiting.
On one of her dual monitors, she had the live stream from an OTT site; on the other, a window for the large online community where posts about eliminated contestants had appeared. In her hand, she held her phone, waiting for the stage to begin.
[First reveal coming up soon!]
[Supernova Project Season 5 Signal Song]
[Chance!]
A massive title card filled the screen, followed by a flurry of clips from the upcoming performance.
On the community forum, which had more casual viewers than idol fans, a few negative comments began to trickle in.
- Was just watching M Space for the first time in a while, what’s this lol. Wow, can’t believe this show is still alive for a fifth season.
- Season 1 was legendary~~ It went downhill from Season 3.
└ S3 was decent, I don’t even remember S4.
- Stop making so many idols;; I’m sick of it.
└ IKR. So sick of idol songs dominating the charts.
- Korea is a total celebrity republic. That’s why everyone’s so desperate to make a quick buck.
└ Isn’t that a bit of a stretch? A lot of them are still minors, you don’t have to be so harsh.
- The idol market is already saturated, debuting now at the tail end… They probably won’t succeed.
“Is this really it? The level of interest is seriously low, isn’t it?”
Not only was the show barely being mentioned, but most of the reactions were unenthusiastic.
Even those few comments were quickly buried by posts about the next artist’s performance.
Hye-sung was once again reminded that this was a failing audition show. She opened her social media and started searching for ‘Syunopeu.’
GrandmaBebe @granmabebe
Syunopeu is on again? Tsk.
Daeng @xi8nomdra
How is Syunopeu already on Season 5?
HomebodyGirl♡TakingCommissions @donjo
Hey family…
Sorry to barge in from another fandom,
but my 3D daughter is on this show.
Syunopeu Season 5’s first stage is being revealed today.
For the sake of our family bond,
please, please vote for
Lee Ju-ha of Q Media..♥
(I'll do a raffle for a fixed SD-style commission for anyone who shows proof of voting later)
Uuoong2 @uuoong2
#Syunopeu #Syunopeu_Season5
OMG ㅠㅠ It’s finally out!
My girl has to debut this time ㅠㅠ
She’s the one I worry about most ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Han Young-won has to debut ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
KimTriangle @triangkim
I'm out right now.
Can someone ping me when the Syunopeu stage comes on?
Aside from a few promotional posts from fans of already well-known trainees, there wasn’t much of a reaction here either.
Hye-sung herself had only watched the first episode by chance, so she hadn’t realized just how dismal the pre-broadcast buzz was.
“…I’ll have to search again after the stage and profiles are all up.”
[First Reveal! ]
A few minutes after Hye-sung put down her phone, the first performance of “Chance!” began.
“Oh…”
In the group shot, Hye-sung spotted herself immediately.
There were no shots close enough to recognize her face, but she was performing properly, looking very much like an idol.
“Seeing it like this feels different.”
The solo shots were mostly given to the center, Kang Hae-in, and the trainees on either side of her, Han Young-won and Hyun Na-na.
Lee Ju-ha and Na Yeon-woo, who were in the row behind them, were also caught on camera, but not enough to satisfy Hye-sung.
Still, considering Na Yeon-woo wasn’t an Ace in the original timeline and got no screen time at all, this was a decent improvement.
As the song concluded, a few trainees who had caught the camera director’s eye received ending shots.
After Kang Hae-in, Han Young-won, and Namgung Seol, the camera lingered on Na Yeon-woo for a long moment.
Her black hair shimmered blue under the lights, and her vibrant eyes sparkled as if they held captured stars.
“This is it! I don’t know if Young-min ordered it or if the camera director just has good taste, but for once, I’m satisfied.”
Then, after capturing a few more key trainees… Hye-sung’s face appeared on the screen.
She had assumed it wouldn’t be used, so she hadn’t paid much attention when they were filming her, but the very last ending shot was hers.
“…What the!”
The screen faded to black after a final group shot from the jib camera, and then a pre-release teaser began.
[I’m Lee Ju-ha from Q Media.]
[They’ll probably be even stricter with me, right? Since I’m representing our company.]
It seemed they had spliced Minty’s words to the rap trainer over a shot of Lee Ju-ha introducing herself.
[(Trainees murmuring) Whoa, no way. Snowy?]
A brief clip of Lee Ju-ha’s performance of Snowy’s flashed by.
[Do you have any experience as an agency trainee?]
Strawberry Killer’s played in the background as Hye-sung walked onto the stage.
[It says here you’re from D&F.]
[I’m looking forward to seeing if your skills are major-league as well.]
And then, a shot of Hye-sung confidently tilting her head up, thanks to the effect of .
“Have these bastards lost their minds?”
She hadn’t expected them to stir up this much drama. Hye-sung was completely flustered by the provocative editing.
[A clash between trainees from the agencies of the nation’s top two girl groups!]
[Q Media vs. D&F?!]
Real performance clips of Snowy and Strawberry Killer flashed on screen for about 0.1 seconds.
[Who will be the one to carry on their legacy!]
With an unnecessarily dramatic caption, a split screen filled with the faces of Lee Ju-ha and Hye-sung.
Behind them, brief clips of other trainees’ class evaluations played before the screen faded to black again, the program’s logo shimmering into view.
Then, a final caption flew onto the screen.
[Supernova Project Season 5]
[Premieres next Friday!]
“…I’m so screwed.”
Hye-sung was suddenly terrified of the first broadcast.
***
After the “Chance!” performance video was released, Hye-sung was plagued with a headache.
Her phone buzzed nonstop with messages from friends who had seen her in the ending and the teaser, and she was completely drained from having to vaguely explain the situation to her parents and her older brother (who was now her younger brother).
Her getting the ending shot was probably the effect of the four-leaf clover that had activated during filming.
“An effect I never even asked for…”
Of all things, she had snatched the ending shot right before that absurd teaser. It was driving her crazy.
“This is scary, so scary…”
She was so worried about her future that she shivered, goosebumps rising on her skin.
Before the reset, they had created drama using ambiguous interview clips from two trainees from major agencies. But this time, it seemed they were dragging Snowy and Strawberry Killer into it.
Both groups were first or second-year rookies who had the most momentum and attention.
Since Lee Ju-ha had conveniently chosen a Snowy song herself, they had edited it to make Hye-sung, with her D&F label, look like an eliminated Strawberry Killer trainee, even though she had no connection to them.
“How am I supposed to show my face in public now?!”
[More than 100 people are watching you. Star Quality has increased by ☆! Current Star Quality: ★]
On top of that, her Star Quality had suddenly increased by half a star.
It seemed Star Quality wasn’t about talent or flair, but a stat that went up simply by getting any kind of attention, even malicious attention.
The word “watching,” not just “noticing,” felt like a warning that she was going to get torn to shreds if she made one wrong move.
“Don’t go up, just stay where you are! Why is this happening to me…”
Terrified, Hye-sung buried her face on her desk.
She wanted to check the public’s reaction, but her face had been shown so clearly that she couldn’t bring herself to search, afraid of getting hurt.
“The press conference is tomorrow… My face is going to be in the articles…”
She could already guess the headlines.
[(MyStar News) Yoon Hye-sung, a confident tilt of the head. Anticipation for her overwhelming skills…]
[Syunopeu S5’s Yoon Hye-sung, a firm expression: “An absolute monarch does not smile.”]
“Aaaargh!!! How do you even raise your Visual stat?! You can’t practice your face!!”
Fearing the future where she would be judged down to the nanometer, Hye-sung cried out in the middle of her room.
To be fair, Hye-sung was generous with her own looks and thought she was fine as she was, but she knew she had the kind of face that was perfect for receiving comments like “doesn’t look like an idol” or “plain and uninteresting” from the public.
Moreover, when she recalled her face occupying half the screen next to Lee Ju-ha’s, she looked undeniably plain and indistinct, like some random student you’d find in a high school dance club.
“It was only a half-star difference, but the gap is this huge…?”
It was only a 0.5-star difference, but the gap was enormous.
“First, I need to watch that ending shot… one more time.”
Hye-sung mustered her courage and pulled up the video uploaded to the WeTube channel.
