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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The First Broadcast
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Episode 37
[Yoo Jung-ah: Trainee Lee Ju-ha. You are in the Ace group.]
[Lee Ju-ha (Q Media): Thank you!]
“I guess it’s my turn now.”
[Appearing amidst everyone’s anticipation!]
[(BGM: Deicide)]
[The trainees murmur with expectant eyes]
[Hyun Na-na (Shark Music): From the moment I first saw her, she had this powerful aura… I had a feeling she’d be really good?]
“What? She said that in her interview?”
Powerful aura, my ass. They must have been laughing so hard at that dance.
A tsunami of embarrassment washed over Hye-sung, and her face, sitting in front of the monitor, turned beet red.
[Yoon Hye-sung (Individual Trainee): Hello. I’m Yoon Hye-sung, an individual trainee. My skills are still lacking, but I’ll do my best.]
[Minty: She’s from a major agency, so I’m curious to see if her skills are major league as well.]
The focus shifted to Hye-sung standing on stage, as if they were about to show her evaluation right away.
-Ugh, a commercial.
-Then I guess this is where it ends.
[To be revealed shortly!]
[(Advertisement) The clean, refreshing taste of carbonation! Have a good night with FeelNight~]
-Sigh, so predictable.
-They’re not showing it today?
-Ah, I’m so curious. They’re really playing hard to get.
-FeelNight tastes like crap; it’s not even beer.
└Legally, it’s not beer. It’s sparkling malt liquor.
“Fools with no taste. FeelNight is delicious. It’s even better for you than real beer.”
*Smack.*
Hye-sung licked her lips, thinking of the barley beverage she could no longer drink.
[Next Week’s Preview]
[(Surprised trainees) What song is this? Is it an original?]
[The vocal trainers smile faintly]
-What? An original song?
-See? I told you she was a musical genius lol. I said she had the face for it.
└What are you gonna do if she’s not? lololol
-It’d be amazing if it really is an original song.
-Main vocal-level skills and producing? She suddenly looks gorgeous.
As Hye-sung readjusted her grip on the microphone, the screen changed.
[Yoon Hye-sung (Individual Trainee): I will be performing *****.]
[Jade: Oh? Someone’s confident.]
Hye-sung, tilting her head up with a swagger.
It was edited to make her look incredibly arrogant.
“Did I really act that much like a jerk? No way.”
Tense background music, fit for a disaster movie, began to play. The trainers stared at Hye-sung with shocked eyes, and the trainees covered their mouths.
[Minty: Trainee Yoon Hye-sung. Why did you *****?]
A close-up of Hye-sung’s freestyle ending pose, one arm raised high.
The preview for the second episode ended there.
-What on earth did she do to make Minty look like that? I can’t tell if she did well or poorly.
-What’s with that last pose? Looks like she did Black Arm, not Deicide.
└She could’ve done both.
└Seeing how they’re not letting us hear the sound until the end, I think she might not have performed a Skiller song.
-Why are she and Lee Ju-ha, who both got eliminated, dragging down the girls who actually debuted? Let’s just go our separate ways.
└They have to stir up drama like this to get attention and votes.
“It wasn’t me who stirred things up, it was Young-min.”
After another VCR explaining how to vote, an instrumental version of the signal song began to play.
“The rankings for the first episode are coming out!”
[Real-Time Rankings]
.
.
14th Na Yeon-woo
.
.
.
29th Yoon Hye-sung
“Yeon-woo is 14th! She was 23rd before! She went up 9 spots!”
The pictures from Sangam-dong must have spread and worked as promotion.
Hye-sung screamed with joy internally. This was her ranking before her evaluation performance had even been revealed. It was based solely on a few photos.
“I knew I could trust you! You stans with an eye for beauty!”
Hye-sung, who had been cheering for Na Yeon-woo’s rank without a care for her own, suddenly paused.
[27th Amamiya Rurika]
“Why is she ranked so high?”
This didn’t seem right.
Even though her own rank was higher than expected, seeing this left a bad taste in her mouth.
“All the bastards who watched that ridiculous self-promo video and voted for her should be thrown in jail.”
Rurika’s self-promo video concept was her acting overly cute in a Japanese moe-style maid outfit. And it was shot with suggestive camera angles.
“What was that company thinking, green-lighting that? It’s so damn cringey.”
Even if it had been Rurika’s idea and not something the company made her do, the agency and the broadcast station were still largely at fault for not stopping it.
“Didn’t she come to Korea because she didn’t want to do stuff like that?”
Knowing the bizarre nature of the Japanese idol industry, Hye-sung had assumed Rurika came to Korea to escape it, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
“Wait, surely the company didn’t actually force her to do it.”
For a moment, Hye-sung’s expression hardened.
“Sigh, why am I worrying about Rurika? Status Window, show me my stats.”
[Yoon Hye-sung (Female/19)]
Visual ★★★
Vocal ★★
Dance ★★☆
Star Power ★☆
Hye-sung had invested the full 1-star point she received as compensation for the system error into her Dance stat, without splitting it.
“Not bad. Now it finally looks like the stats of someone who can be called a trainee.”
[Singing (Proficiency 75.2%)]
[Choreography (Proficiency 71.4%)]
The moment her Dance stat surpassed 2 stars, she could feel a distinct change in her body. It made raising her proficiency much easier.
“I’m not so bad that I stand out, and it’s perfect for providing backup. I don’t think I’ll need to use Possession for Sub-Vocal 5.”
[Bonus Stats]
Delusion 3
Karma 2
“But this new skill I got is so ambiguous…”
The skill she gained from leveling up Delusion wasn’t one that helped raise her abilities like , and it was tricky to control.
*Ding.*
[Sudden Quest ]
[Reclaim your part! During the final practice, get back the part you were originally assigned.]
[Success Reward: ???]
“You want me to bring up changing parts again, expecting Rurika to back down? It’s been a while since I got a quest, but you’re not even telling me the reward. How reckless.”
* * *
[Fun&Cool Group Chat]
[Lee Ju-ha: Be at our company by 10 AM~ I’ll be waiting in the lobby.]
[Okay (Alien Face Emoji)]
[Cha Ju-yeon: (Saluting Emoticon) Roger!]
[Seong-bin: ok see u then (Wink)]
[MyPrincess♡: Okay! hehe (Dog Wagging Tail Emoticon)]
The performance was tomorrow. Since they had already left the dorms, they had arranged to borrow a practice room at Q Media for one last practice today.
“Well, I’ll be. To think I’d live to see the day I set foot in the Q Media building.”
Having arrived a little early, Hye-sung stood near the building and scanned it from top to bottom. A certain picture covering an entire exterior wall, large enough to be seen from a distance, caught her eye. It was an ad for Minty’s solo album, released last quarter.
“She’s the one who paid for this building, so of course they should give her this much promotion.”
From the entrance, she could see photos of Snowy and Enkith on the first-floor wall as well.
“Hmm. They’re small.”
Looks like those eonnis are still the ones bringing home the bacon.
Hye-sung clicked her tongue, thinking of her former groupmates who were still playing the role of breadwinners in their eighth year.
Just then, an arm wrapped aggressively around her shoulder. A frown formed on Hye-sung’s brow.
*Ugh, Seong-bin again.*
But when she turned, she saw Cha Ju-yeon and Na Yeon-woo standing there.
“Eonni! Why are you glaring so scarily? You kinda freaked me out just now.”
Cha Ju-yeon pouted and loosened her arm.
“I didn’t know it was you.”
“Who did you think it was?”
“Seong-bin eonni.”
“Why? Did something happen with Seong-bin eonni?”
“No. It’s just that she has a tendency to use my shoulder as an armrest. And now that I see you, it looks like you’re about to do the same, so let’s just remove this.”
Hye-sung lifted Cha Ju-yeon’s arm off her shoulder. Then, like swapping masks in a Chinese opera, she wiped the murderous look from her face and greeted Na Yeon-woo with a beaming smile.
“Yeon-woo, hi.”
“Hello. But Eonni, what were you doing standing out here instead of going in?”
“Just looking at the building. By the way, Yeon-woo, you look so lovely again today. That cardigan suits you so well. How can sky blue look this good on you? At this point, I’d say you’re doing the color a favor.”
Overcome with emotion at the sight of Na Yeon-woo’s casual outfit, Hye-sung showered her with over-the-top compliments.
“Ah, Eonni, there you go again. If you keep saying things like that, what am I supposed to say back…?”
“It’s just the truth~”
*Look at her blushing. She’s cute even when she’s embarrassed.*
Even her bashfulness was just more fuel for Hye-sung’s overflowing admiration.
“What, playing favorites again? You’ve never said anything like that to me. You’re always saying Yeon-woo is pretty.”
Cha Ju-yeon, who was standing beside them, stomped her feet. It was a signal for Hye-sung to hurry up and praise her too.
“If I compliment you even a little, you spread rumors that I like you.”
“What, you can’t take a joke?”
“Nope.”
“This eonni is hilarious.”
“What’s so funny? Fine, Ju-yeon, you’re pretty too. Happy now?”
Hye-sung spoke without a shred of sincerity, her eyes completely different from when she looked at Na Yeon-woo.
“Ugh, forget it! So insincere.”
“What, I’m just kidding. Kidding.”
Cha Ju-yeon pouted a few times, looking displeased, then turned her gaze to the building.
“Should we take a picture to commemorate being at someone else’s company? Minty-ssaem’s picture is up there, too.”
“Sounds good.”
So the three of them huddled together in front of someone else’s company to take a selfie, but the result was strange.
“Guys, this isn’t working. Minty-ssaem’s face is getting cut off.”
“Maybe it’s because your arms are short, Eonni?”
Cha Ju-yeon took the phone from Hye-sung’s hand and tried adjusting the angle this way and that.
“Ah, I think it’s because you’re short, Eonni. The angle is a bit low.”
“What did you say, you punk?”
“Ju-yeon. You can’t talk about her height like that. You’ll hurt Hye-sung eonni’s feelings…”
“Was your height a sore spot for you, Eonni? I’m sorry.”
Being treated as short for the first time in her life, one of Hye-sung’s eyebrows shot up.
“No, it’s not. I’m not that much shorter than you guys.”
“Eonni, aren’t you 160 cm?”
“Yeon-woo… I’m 165 cm. This is so unfair. I’m usually considered tall wherever I go.”
“Really? You don’t look like you’re 165 cm.”
Cha Ju-yeon stood in front of Hye-sung with a disbelieving look. She then started to measure her height with the side of her hand.
“You look like you’re barely over 160 cm.”
“Cha Ju-yeon. You are forbidden from looking down on your eonni.”
“What am I supposed to do when you’re short?”
“No personal attacks! Do ‘manner legs’!”
“Don’t be so hard on her, Ju-yeon. It’s not like Eonni chose to be short.”
“Yeon-woo? I can’t tell if that comment was meant to be on my side or not.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“Anyway, Yeon-woo has never looked down on me. She’s so nice. This is why I play favorites, you see.”
As Hye-sung patted Na Yeon-woo’s head, Cha Ju-yeon scoffed with a look of disbelief.
“That’s because Yeon-woo is only 169 cm. A little too short to look down on you, right?”
“T-too short?”
Hearing Cha Ju-yeon treat even 169 cm as short, Hye-sung finally snapped.
“Agh, this is why people over 170 cm are…!”
“Hey, guys~!”
Just as she was about to badmouth tall people, a familiar voice called out from about five meters away. She whipped around in surprise to see Seong-bin waving at them.
“Wow, Seong-bin eonni! Just now, Hye-sung eonni was sayi—mmph!”
“Be quiet. You know what’ll happen if you say anything weird, right?”
Hye-sung greeted Seong-bin while clamping a hand over Cha Ju-yeon’s mouth.
“You guys didn’t go in yet? And why are you covering her mouth?”
“Ju-yeon was being too loud, so I was just sealing it for a moment so she wouldn’t disturb the neighbors. Shall we go in?”
