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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The First Mission
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“Yeon-woo!”
Her damp hair and clear, freshly washed face were absolutely adorable.
‘Damn. She's so cute. A total fluffy bunny princess.’
Seeing Na Yeon-woo in her pajamas, Hye-sung flared her nostrils to hide the twitching corners of her mouth.
“Is Young-won eonni inside?”
“Did you come looking for Young-won eonni? Come in.”
Na Yeon-woo put an arm around Hye-sung's shoulder and ushered her into the room as if she were a distinguished guest.
“Young-won eonni! Hye-sung eonni is here.”
Inside the room were Lee Ju-ha and Han Young-won.
‘I should have been in this room.’
Hye-sung licked her lips, thinking this combination of roommates was the best.
Being separated from Na Yeon-woo was bad enough, but her current room, where she had to deal with an ill-mannered brat, was truly the worst.
“You came looking for me, not Yeon-woo?”
“Yes. I was wondering if you had any cooling leg patches to spare. Ami needs some but said she lost hers.”
“Ah.”
Han Young-won nodded with an "I thought so" expression and pulled a whole bundle of cooling leg patches from a drawer.
“Here, take them.”
“So many?”
“Share them with your roommates. I can't just give some to Ami.”
“Thank you.”
‘As expected of an adult, she's so generous. I like it.’
She remembered getting a ton of expensive fatigue recovery drinks when she shared a room with Han Young-won.
‘This should have been my room.’
Lingering with regret, Hye-sung stood blankly in the middle of the room, showing no signs of leaving.
“I can't sleep here, can I?”
“Why? Does someone in your room snore?”
asked Lee Ju-ha, who was lying on her bed.
“Not really... but the girl on the top bunk seems to have bad sleeping habits.”
“Who?”
“Yoon-ji.”
Hye-sung feigned misery and subtly sat down on Han Young-won's bed.
“Does Yoon-ji toss and turn a lot?”
“Yes. It's a little unsettling sleeping below her.”
“Really? But we don't have an empty bed in our room...”
“Where did she go now?”
“She went to see Ah-yeon. She's probably in the room next door.”
The absent roommate was Namgung Seol.
“Hye-sung eonni. If you're really that worried, you can sleep with me.”
Na Yeon-woo said, patting her bed. It was a mouth-watering offer, but Hye-sung remembered something she had to do in the morning that she had momentarily forgotten.
‘Oh, right. I have to sneak out.’
“Uh... Thanks, Yeon-woo. But I'll try sleeping in my own bed tonight. If it really doesn't work out, let me sleep in yours.”
Trudging back to her room, Hye-sung handed the cooling leg patches to Ami and lay down on her bed.
‘Please, let them be heavy sleepers.’
Hye-sung prayed that the plan she had set in motion at the start of the second training camp wouldn't go awry.
Everyone probably knew from previous seasons that there would be a wake-up mission the next morning, but no one knew what the reward would be. No one except Hye-sung.
* * *
The next day at 6 a.m. Hye-sung quietly sat up in the darkness. Tiptoeing, she grabbed her toothbrush, opened the door a crack, and slipped out.
After washing her face in the communal bathroom at the end of the hall, she quickly prepared to go outside.
The wake-up bell hadn't rung yet, but it seemed there were already trainees awake in other rooms.
‘I'll pretend to be taking a walk, linger near the stairs, and as soon as the bell rings, I'll sprint out.’
In this season's wake-up mission, the first to third-place winners would be given the right to choose their song and team members for the first competition.
Until last season, the wake-up mission had been a time slot for product placement, and the reward was getting a solo camera shot while pretending to be happy about receiving some useless health supplement or cosmetic product.
Therefore, even when the bell rang to announce the start of the mission, not many trainees would be running with any real urgency.
‘Still, you never know. I have to be the first one there, no matter what.’
She had already thought of the perfect song and team members for Na Yeon-woo.
There was a chance the situation had changed and the songs from before wouldn't appear, but she had to secure the first-place reward regardless.
Hye-sung loitered in the hallway, sizing up the situation, before starting to stretch near the stairs.
She could see camera staff gathered at the bottom of the stairs. They seemed to be waiting to film the trainees rushing out of the training center entrance.
‘They'll be surprised when I come right down.’
A short while later, the familiar intro to "Chance" played, followed by an instructor's voice booming from the speakers.
[Everyone, wake up! All trainees, please gather in the plaza immediately. I repeat. All trainees, please gather...]
Hye-sung put on a show for the unmanned camera in the hallway, pretending to be startled, then immediately bolted down the stairs.
‘I'm number one!’
As she clattered down to the first floor, the staff waiting by the entrance stared at her in surprise.
“Good morning!”
Hye-sung gave a cheerful greeting to the camera and immediately dashed out of the training center entrance. The plaza was a short distance away, less than a two-minute run.
“Huff, huff... I don't need to run this hard, but still.”
As the plaza came into view, Hye-sung slowed her pace.
“As expected, I'm first...”
...or so she thought, until she saw what looked like a human head among the landscaped flowerbeds.
‘What! Who is that!’
Hye-sung quickly ran to the meeting point.
“Ju-ha eonni?”
“Oh? Hye-sung. You're up early.”
Lee Ju-ha stretched and turned around.
“Eonni, what are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?”
“Ah, I was jogging to warm up, and they said to gather here.”
“Eonni, so you were outside the whole time, even before the bell rang?”
“Yeah. You didn't come with Yeon-woo?”
“...I also woke up early to go for a walk, and then they suddenly told us to gather. I thought I was the first one here, so I was surprised to see you...”
“I see. Then Yeon-woo will probably come with Young-won eonni.”
“What about Namgung Seol eonni?”
“She must have slept in Ah-yeon eonni's room.”
Hye-sung tried her best to act nonchalant, swallowing her panic.
‘Crap. I'm screwed. No, second place should be fine... I just hope we don't pick the same song. Please, please, I'm begging you, Ju-ha.’
Soon, the plaza was filled with trainees gathering in small groups.
“Do you know why I've gathered you all here so early in the morning?”
A sunglasses-wearing instructor came out and had them do a few exercises, calling it a physical fitness routine. In the middle of it, Seol Han-na appeared.
“Everyone, are you feeling warmed up?”
“Yes!”
‘No. What is this, so early in the morning.’
With her usual dull, fish-like eyes, Hye-sung forced herself to follow the movements.
“Hye-sung, you look like you're still half-asleep.”
“Huh? N-No, I'm not.”
“Instructor, what kind of exercise would be good for a situation like this?”
As Seol Han-na singled out Hye-sung, the instructor approached and showed her a few movements.
When Hye-sung couldn't follow them properly, he performed some rather aggressive moves, such as folding her body in half.
“Aaargh! My bones are breaking!”
“They won't break.”
“Aaaargh!”
‘He looks like he's twenty-three, maybe twenty-four, probably a part-time training camp instructor... Ah, crap, are my joints really going to give out?’
Contrary to her worries, a moment later, her bent-back shoulders felt refreshed.
“Huh? It doesn't hurt.”
“You seem to have a bit more life in your face now.”
Seol Han-na nodded in satisfaction.
The instructor hadn't seemed very reliable, but her mind had genuinely cleared, and her body felt lighter.
Seeing Hye-sung's reaction, the other trainees raised their hands, asking for the same treatment, and a few more were folded in half.
“Alright, everyone. You seem to be all warmed up. Now, for the prize, right? First to third place, please step forward.”
“Woooow! I'm so jealous!”
‘They're not jealous at all. The reward this time isn't some useless health supplement, kids.’
* * *
When the reward was revealed, Hye-sung became the object of all the trainees' envy. However, it was a little disconcerting that they seemed to be more envious of her than of the first-place winner, Lee Ju-ha.
Hye-sung knew it was probably because they saw her as an easy target.
“Wow, eonni, that's amazing. We're roommates, you could have taken me with you.”
When she returned to her room after breakfast, Kim Yoon-ji spoke bluntly.
“Hmm? I woke up at six. It would've been a bit much to wake you then~”
She would have thrown a fit if I had woken her up anyway. Hye-sung forced a smile, trying to move past it, but Kim Yoon-ji started grumbling again.
‘Patience. She's just a kid. A kid ten years younger than me. It's an age where they act like that.’
As she was trying to be patient, an irritating comment flew her way.
“Honestly, there are a lot of people who could make better use of the song selection privilege than you, eonni.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
It meant, ‘Your performance will be mediocre even with the selection privilege, whereas someone else, like me, could use it to create a much better stage.’
“Nothing, it's just...”
Kim Yoon-ji, perhaps frightened by the look in Hye-sung's eyes, trailed off.
‘She doesn't even realize I'm cutting her some slack.’
Hye-sung silently glared at Kim Yoon-ji.
Her back was to the camera installed in the room, so even if this scene was used, her face wouldn't be broadcast. She didn't relax her expression.
“Eonni, please calm down. Yoon-ji, you should watch what you say, too. I've felt for a while that you've been a bit disrespectful to Hye-sung eonni.”
“Th-That's right.”
Worried by Hye-sung's expression, which looked like she was about to throw a punch, Kang Hae-in stepped in to mediate, and Ami chimed in.
“...Yeah, Yoon-ji. Please be more careful with your words. Let's not make things unpleasant while we're sharing a room.”
“...Okay.”
Hye-sung rubbed her eyes and turned away. Her eyes were stinging from staring for too long.
“Let's get changed and go down, then.”
“Okay.”
* * *
The next segment was filmed in Auditorium 1.
Before explaining the new evaluation, Seol Han-na announced the number of trainees who would survive the first ranking ceremony.
“The cutoff for survival in the first ranking ceremony is 50th place. That means everyone from 51st to 100th place will be eliminated.”
A stir went through the room at the announcement that half the trainees would be cut at once.
“Wow, all at once like this? Half of us?”
“Wasn't it usually up to 60th place?”
“What do I do...? I might get eliminated.”
Some trainees were so shocked by the reduced number of survivors compared to last season that the color drained from their faces.
“Now, we will reveal the first mission that will determine the crossroads between elimination and survival. It is a team battle mission. Behind the screen in front of you are the mission songs you will be performing. How many teams do you think will compete per song?”
“Two teams!”
“Is that really so?”
Seol Han-na scanned the trainees with a meaningful expression.
“Oh no, I guess not.”
“Then is it one song per team?”
“Ah... if it's one song per team, the competition to pick a song will be even fiercer.”
“That's right. Here, behind the screen before you, are the group names and representative songs of globally active K-pop artists.”
Turning slightly, Seol Han-na pointed to the screen and continued.
“In this competition, it won't be two teams who chose the same song competing against each other, but two teams who chose the same group competing with different songs by that group.”
The trainees began to murmur amongst themselves.
‘The situation has changed again. The competition format is different. The mission songs might be completely different, too.’
Hye-sung's eyes narrowed.
“So, it's one artist, but two songs?”
“Yeah, it seems like teams that choose the same group will compete with different songs.”
Voices explaining the rules to trainees who hadn't yet understood echoed here and there.
“Well then! We will now reveal the mission songs for the long-awaited first competition of Supernova Project Season 5!”
