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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Fun&Cool
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“Kuhhh~ We picked the perfect center. The very definition of refreshing! A human summer!”
Immensely satisfied, Hye-sung leaned her head back like an old man who’d just had a bowl of rice wine and clapped repeatedly.
“Goodness. Yeon-woo's the one who got picked, so why are you happier than she is?”
“I can't tell if the Supernova Project gave birth to a human summer, or if you did, Hye-sung.”
Memories of the past, of endlessly running 'what if' scenarios about Yeon-woo being the center in the first competition, flashed before her eyes.
‘Finally, that lingering regret is starting to fade. I feel like I can pass on in peace now.’
It felt like a reward for all the nights she’d spent crying herself to sleep, soaking her pillow with tears.
“If we picked a good center, isn't that good for the team? Of course I'm happy! All hail our human summer, our refreshing bunny! Let's go!”
Hye-sung, who had long since thrown away any sense of decorum, just laughed heartily in excitement.
“Hye-sung eonni, thank you for recommending me.”
Na Yeon-woo, a center sticker now on her chest, abruptly pulled Hye-sung toward her by the shoulder.
‘Whoa, so forceful!’
With Hye-sung’s eyes wide in shock, Na Yeon-woo kept her arm around her and continued.
“To show how hard I'm going to work, may I say a word of determination?”
“S-Sure. You can say ten words!”
Perhaps still under the influence of the leftover 'cool' persona, Na Yeon-woo acted without hesitation, doing things she normally never would.
“I will hold the center of the stage—Fun, Cool, and Fancy. Because that's what a center does.”
Finishing her speech, Na Yeon-woo nodded with a solemn expression.
* * *
Half a day passed after the team practices began.
Inspired by Na Yeon-woo's declaration, the team name was decided as 'Fun&Cool', and Hye-sung, who had taken the Sub-Vocal 2 part, was feeling a bit pressured.
‘Aren't there a few too many lines for me to handle?’
It made sense, as the only proper vocal members were Lee Ju-ha and the Middle-grade Kim Ga-young.
The two of them, with their 3-star vocal stats, naturally took the Main Vocal and Sub-Vocal 1 positions. Shin Hyeon-ah, whose position was rapper, took the rap part, and Na Yeon-woo, who already had the center's part, volunteered for Sub-Vocal 6.
‘The more I think about it, this team's composition is a bit…’
Lee Ju-ha was definitely well-balanced, and the three Middle-grades could pull their own weight, but the other three, including herself, seemed to be a different story.
‘Rurika and I were picked out of pity, and Seong-bin is all looks with nothing to back it up… If only Han Young-won were here, our chances of winning would be much higher.’
Once she concluded that if they weren't going to get the benefit, it would be more advantageous for Na Yeon-woo to be the sole visual, Seong-bin's physique and face felt utterly useless.
‘Did she say Seong-bin and Lee Ju-ha were high school classmates? Are these kids already getting tangled up in school ties or what?’
It was unbelievable that a team formed with the first-pick advantage was saddled with two weak links and one time bomb.
‘At least I have my status window. What are those two going to do?’
As she thought this, her eyes fell upon Rurika, whose bizarre movements looked like she was summoning an ancient being, and Seong-bin, who was wrenching the beat with her raw, untrained voice.
‘I told them to sing, but what kind of spell is she chanting?’
They were definitely practicing the same song, but one looked like her body had been possessed by a being from another world, while the other seemed to be chanting a sutra to exorcise it.
‘Why did she pick them like this? Does she want to give off the impression that she's leading the less-skilled members? To appeal with her leadership and take the main vocal spot for herself?’
Hye-sung glanced at Lee Ju-ha through the mirror. Then, her eyes met Cha Ju-yeon's in the reflection.
Nyah. Cha Ju-yeon stuck out her tongue and bobbed her head cheekily.
‘She only messes with me. Only me.’
Cha Ju-yeon, a dance position, had basic vocal skills at best, and at first, Hye-sung had tried to pass the Sub-Vocal 2 part to her.
“Ju-yeon, you want to be Sub-Vocal 2? It even has a killing part.”
“Nope~ I like the choreography for Sub-Vocal 3 more.”
Cha Ju-yeon refused Sub-Vocal 2, citing the choreography.
Even if she tried to pass it to another teammate, the only ones left were Seong-bin and Rurika.
‘It's better if I do it rather than leaving it to those two, but…’
Rurika confidently asked for more, more noticeable parts, but with her low vocal stat and a terribly nasally voice, it was impossible for her to get even a single extra line unless she completely overhauled her singing style.
‘My vocal is still 2-star, but the opposing team's Sub-Vocal 2 is 3-star.’
The opposing team, who they would be competing against with a song by MyB, was more than half-filled with Ace-grade trainees, including Hyun Na-na and the signal song's center, Kang Hae-in.
‘It's a relief that the songs have completely different vibes, at least.’
The opposing team's song was a dynamic hip-hop dance track, the first attempt of its kind by MyB, a group known for its innocent, boyish charm, as they changed their concept.
‘I just hope Hyun Na-na completely dominates the stage.’
Hyun Na-na was a trainee who gave off a strong solo artist vibe rather than that of an idol group member, so she seemed at a slight disadvantage when it came to harmonizing in a multi-person team battle.
‘Hyun Na-na is the main vocal, but she's not the center. I wish it would change during the mid-point check, but that probably won't happen.’
The current center of the opposing team was Kang Hae-in.
‘Of all people, it had to be Kang Hae-in again.’
They say you meet your enemies on a single-log bridge.
Kang Hae-in had been the center of the opposing team that beat the team Hyun Na-na and Na Yeon-woo were on in the battle before the 'revelation'.
‘Honestly, I wanted to avoid her. If I'd had the choice, I would have put Yeon-woo and Kang Hae-in on the same team… She would have given up the center position anyway.’
In Hye-sung's memory, Kang Hae-in had refused the center position when her teammates recommended her. Her reason was that since she’d already been the center for the signal song, she wanted to give another trainee a chance.
However, due to the frequent mistakes of the trainee who took the center position, the center was changed to Kang Hae-in the day before the performance.
And they won the competition.
‘Maybe because the song is different, she didn't refuse this time and became the center from the start.’
Hye-sung recalled the Kang Hae-in who had led her team to victory in the battle before the revelation. How, despite her shy and plain appearance that seemed devoid of any ferocity, she transformed on stage.
‘She was good. Very good.’
But they only won back then because they stuck Yeon-woo in a corner. This time, it'll be different.
I'll show you. I'll show you what happens when our Yeon-woo is the center.
No matter how strong the opponent was, in Hye-sung's eyes, her own chick was always the best.
* * *
“I'm hungry! Hey guys, let's eat before we continue~!”
“Rurika also feels like there's a beggar in her stomach right now.”
“Wait, Rurika! When did you learn to say that?”
“Hye-sung said it every hour in F-Class, so I memorized it.”
“Wow, Yoon Hye-sung. You taught her well. Let's go eat before the beggars in our stomachs multiply.”
Dinnertime.
While everyone was getting ready to head to the cafeteria, Hye-sung was on edge, her nerves frayed as she waited for the penalty that still hadn't activated.
‘Food isn't what's important right now. When is this Pork Soup or whatever going to hit? I'd really prefer it if it happened while I was asleep…’
“Hye-sung eonni, aren't you going to dinner?”
Na Yeon-woo approached Hye-sung, who was standing in front of the mirror, warily scanning her surroundings.
“Huh? O-Oh. Let's go.”
“Eonni, is… something wrong?”
“Hm? Why?”
“It's just, you've been acting a little strange today.”
“Me? H-How so?”
“During practice, you kept...”
‘Did she find out? That I kept stealing glances because Yeon-woo is so adorable with her hair in a ponytail.’
Hye-sung, whose eyes had been darting toward Na Yeon-woo at every opportunity during practice just to see her with her hair tied up, waited anxiously for what she would say next.
“You keep looking around by yourself when there's nothing there… Eonni, are you perhaps… seeing something?”
The answer that came back was the complete opposite of what Hye-sung had worried about.
As if she were hoping for some sort of psychic phenomenon, Na Yeon-woo's jewel-like eyes shone with a strange light.
‘This is driving me crazy. When she looks at me with those eyes, it makes me want to conjure up a ghost just to put it there for her.’
Na Yeon-woo had previously shown signs of being a firm believer in fortune-telling, and it seemed she was probably interested in the occult as well.
Perhaps that's why, though the type was a little different, she seemed to have instantly picked up on the fact that Hye-sung was terrified of being possessed by the Pork Soup ghost.
“I don't see anything. Sorry, Yeon-woo. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.”
“Ah… No, it's better that you don't. Let's hurry and get some food.”
Looking slightly disappointed, Na Yeon-woo naturally linked arms with Hye-sung, and they left the practice room together.
‘But Yeon-woo's intuition is too sharp. I'll have to be more careful.’
Worried that her true identity as a fangirl would be exposed, Hye-sung resolved to restrain herself from now on. Arriving at the cafeteria with that thought, she saw the dinner menu and screamed internally. No, she screamed out loud.
“Aargh!!! Pork Soup!!!”
Her voice was so loud that the startled gazes of every trainee in the cafeteria turned toward Hye-sung's group in unison.
“What's wrong, Hye-sung?”
Lee Ju-ha turned around, a bewildered look on her face.
“Jeez, she must have really been craving pork soup.”
“What!? I hate pork soup!”
Hye-sung snapped at the innocent Cha Ju-yeon and glared at the pork soup at the serving counter.
‘This is what's for dinner? The status window definitely had something to do with this.’
Seeing pork soup, a relatively minor type of gukbap in the metropolitan area, appear so brazenly on the group meal menu, a wave of anxiety washed over her.
“Hye-sung eonni, you can't eat pork soup? What should we do? Maybe you can have the cup ramen I brought from our room…”
Grrrrumble. Roooar. Guuurgle.
While Na Yeon-woo was offering to share her cup ramen, a sound akin to thunder echoed from within Hye-sung's stomach.
She hadn't realized it, being so tense about both the timing of the penalty's attack and practice, but it seemed she was quite hungry.
“It's fine, Yeon-woo. Can I be a picky eater at my age? I need to eat. Let's hurry and get in line.”
Hye-sung, who had been planning to skip dinner because the menu was suspicious, completely changed her stiff expression at the mournful cry of her stomach and moved quickly to the serving line.
“Eonni, don't force yourself to eat it, though. What if you get indigestion?”
“It's fine. It's not like it'll kill me.”
And so, as she stood in line waiting to be served, the thing Hye-sung had been waiting for appeared.
[Penalty Activated! Transform Pork Soup Mode ON! (Duration: 30 minutes)]
‘It's here!’
She thought it was for the best. It would have been quite awkward if it had happened during practice or when a trainer was watching.
However, upon hearing the words that flew out of her mouth next, she immediately retracted that thought.
“Graaah! Hey lady, pile on the chives.”
‘What was that? Did I just say that? What's with this accent!’
She had only meant to shyly ask the serving staff if she could have a lot of chives, but what came out was a raspy, regional dialect.
Her tone, expression, and gestures were the very picture of a man in his fifties from Busan.
“Aigoo, here's a student who knows how to eat. Here you go. Eat up.”
“Well now, thanks a bunch.”
Even after she sat down at the table, the Pork Soup Mode continued.
