Chapter 40

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Surprise Support and a Stage in Crisis
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“Ah… it’s hard to get past the metal detectors, right? I heard they have several of the walk-through ones.”

“Yeah, not setting off the alarm is pretty much just luck…”

“So the chances of getting caught are high?”

“Probably. And since Hye-sung doesn’t have a company, I won’t be able to get photos of her going to and from the salon… I’m going to try to bring my gear in, but could you help me when we enter? If I succeed, I’ll send you today’s photos of Yeon-woo for free.”

“Gasp. Of course, I’ll help! Your pictures of Yeon-woo were so beautiful!”

“Haha, she’s a pretty kid, so the pictures come out pretty.”

As the two of them were happily chatting about the girls, a man approached them.

“Ahem, excuse me… Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but…”

“Yes? What is it?”

Kim Gwang-in was immediately on guard. A quick scan revealed he looked quite clean, a far cry from the ill-mannered male fans who deserved to be on the blacklist.

“…I wasn’t eavesdropping, I just happened to overhear. It seems you’re a fan of Yoon Hye-sung.”

“I am. Why? Is there a problem?”

“Ah, well…”

The man hesitated at Kim Gwang-in’s defensive tone, her guard still up. He then took something out of the shopping bag he was holding.

“This is a slogan banner. I would appreciate it if you could use it to cheer for her during the competition.”

The man handed over a paper slogan and bowed his head slightly.

“Ah… Yes, thank you. We brought our own slogans, too. Would you like one?”

“I’m fine. Also, would you be willing to take one for a trainee named Na Yeon-woo? Hye-sung insisted I hand them out together…”

“What? What did you just say?”

“Hye-sung told you to hand them out?”

“Ah, I’m Yoon Hye-sung’s older brother.”

“W-What did you say?”

“Excuse me???”

Hearing the man’s declaration, Kim Gwang-in and Mareun Boksunga were so shocked they nearly fell over backward.

‘Now that I hear it, they do look a bit alike… Yes, there it is. I can see Hye-sung in his face!’

Forgetting her manners, Kim Gwang-in stared intently at the man’s face.

“…Well then, I’ll be counting on you.”

Perhaps burdened by her stare, Yoon Eun-ho bowed his head once more and left to hand out more slogans to the other fans in line.

“You heard that, right? He said Hye-sung made sure to give him Yeon-woo’s slogans to hand out with hers.”

Mareun Boksunga quickly took a picture of the slogan Yoon Eun-ho had given her and posted it on social media. It was an account she had made just two days ago, exclusively for Syunopeu.

> **SogogiTtakbokguk @peachcook**
>
> I'm here for the 1st competition right now
>
> standing in line and
>
> Hye-sung's actual older brother
>
> just gave me a slogan ㅠ_ㅠ!! He gave me
>
> Yeon-woo's too, and he said Hye-sung
>
> insisted he hand them out together!!
>
> They must have gotten really close, so cute
>
> my babies... (teary-eyed emoji)
>
> (Photo of the slogans)

While Mareun Boksunga was engrossed in her screen, Kim Gwang-in was on the verge of fainting. The relationship content, served up right from the start, had her mind spinning.

“I think I’m going to pass out. How can they be this precious already…”

Lost in all sorts of fantasies and on the verge of crossing the River Jordan, Kim Gwang-in barely managed to pull herself together and spoke with a determined voice.

“Hye-sung and Yeon-woo absolutely have to debut together. My life depends on it.”

* * *

[Oppa! I’m about to go in for filming. I might not be able to text until it’s over, just so you know.]

[Eun-ho: What time does it end?]

‘Whoa, why’d he reply so fast?’

[Probably after midnight. But did you do what I asked?]

[Eun-ho: Yeah. I’ll be at a PC bang nearby, so call me as soon as you’re done.]

[How many are left?]

[Eun-ho: The slogans? I’ve handed out about half.]

‘Hmm, so he’s given out about 200. I didn’t think he’d be able to, but he’s doing better than I expected.’

[You handed out Yeon-woo’s too, right?]

[Eun-ho: Yeah. Some people didn’t take yours, but almost everyone took hers.]

[Okay. That’s a relief. I’ll call you when I’m done. You can just go home first if you want.]

[Eun-ho: Mom would kill me. Call me when you’re done.]

[k]

After confirming that Yoon Eun-ho had successfully completed his mission, Hye-sung reviewed her plan one last time before filming began.

‘The roulette reward didn’t give me anything useful, so I’ll pass Possession to Yeon-woo. The chances of winning are higher if she, the center, uses it instead of me. And even if our team loses, it’ll definitely leave a strong impression of Yeon-woo on the audience.’

Having calculated that the broadcast of the second episode would earn her enough votes—even if they were just pity votes—to pass the first round, Hye-sung decided to transfer her hidden trait to Na Yeon-woo.

‘To secure a spot in the debut lineup from the start, Yeon-woo absolutely has to stand out here. This is also a way to save myself.’

A moment later, filming began.

Sitting in the trainee monitoring room, Hye-sung watched the performances of the teams that went on before hers.

‘It’s hard to focus. I’ve been up since dawn…’

The Fun&Cool team was seventh in the lineup.

The third team’s performance had just ended, meaning there were still three more teams to go.

‘The next team is… ah, them.’

The next group to perform, Strawberry Killer’s `` team, included Gil Ah-yeon and Namgung Seol. Im Ye-in, who had been in F-Class with her, was also in the group, which made her feel a little glad.

‘This is a song that wasn't a mission track before I went back in time.’

Instead of the original song’s electric guitar, the sound of a daegeum flute played as the team members appeared in pure white outfits.

They wore *cheollik* robes over modern dance-style wide-leg pants.

‘An East-Asian concept is always a winning formula. It’s a survival show staple, but…’

A calm arrangement followed. Just as the audience, who had cheered at their entrance, was beginning to get bored, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.

The lights went out, and a scream echoed along with the sound of a tearing drum.

“Aah! What was that!”

“It suddenly got scary…”

Not only the audience evaluators but also the trainees watching on the monitor were visibly startled. It was a part they hadn’t shown during the interim check.

The team members, excluding the center Gil Ah-yeon, threw off their *cheollik* and ripped off their wide-leg pants, revealing form-fitting, single-layered black martial arts uniforms underneath.

“What is that? Are they grim reapers?”

“They look like ghosts.”

“Maybe they’re evil spirits.”

Surrounded by black cloth, Gil Ah-yeon dropped to her knees.

Namgung Seol, who had been standing back and minimizing her presence, began a partner dance that made it seem as if she were controlling Gil Ah-yeon. The movements, which looked grotesquely contorted as if not of her own will, were incredibly striking.

“What is this…”

“I’ve got goosebumps…”

The audience let out gasps, their faces filled with shock.

Opinions on the performance would likely be divided, but its impact was astounding.

‘Honestly, the original song was a bit cringey, but going full-on grotesque makes it look like art.’

Strawberry Killer’s `` continued the narrative of their debut song, ``. It was a concept that required a strong tolerance for cringe, telling the story of killing a god with one’s own hands and having one’s arm turn black, firmly cementing the group’s image in an edgy, dark, eighth-grader-syndrome-esque aesthetic.

[Nobody can save me… Nobody can control me…]

The performance ended with Gil Ah-yeon’s acting, portraying a pure self that had finally been consumed by darkness.

‘With this broadcast, couldn’t Gil Ah-yeon rank in the top three?’

The fourth team’s performance ended as well. It was a decent performance with no major mistakes.

As the next group took the stage, Han Young-won caught Hye-sung’s eye.

‘Her expression doesn’t look good. Or am I just seeing things?’

Her subdued face seemed to go beyond simple nervousness, reminding Hye-sung of the shaky teamwork she had witnessed during their interim check.

‘Looks like they had more than one problem child on their team.’

“Now, let’s see the performance from Sfire’s `` Versailles team.”

Under a blue light, the team members appeared, kneeling on one knee with their hands intertwined.

‘I had a feeling, but are they really going for a cross-dressing concept?’

Riding trousers and long boots. The modern European-style outfits and the team name, Versailles, naturally brought to mind the French Revolutionary Army.

‘But the song has a Latin feel. What are they trying to do…?’

`` by Sfire, a representative male idol group of the second generation.

Released in the late 2000s, it was an old song, over a decade old, that expressed the heart of a man clinging to a breakup. It used an exotic Latin rhythm to create a sorrowful yet mature atmosphere.

[Ting-]

The song began.

Like a droplet falling onto a calm surface of water, creating ripples that spread outward, a resonant sound enveloped the venue, raising everyone’s expectations.

“Oh…”

“This is different.”

‘This isn’t ``.’

Usually, competition backing tracks were made by copying the original and recreating it with MIDI, so the virtual instrument sounds might differ slightly. However, the Versailles team’s `` had a completely different bass rhythm from the original.

‘Did they have time to rearrange it this much? Most teams just change the intro or the instrumental break a little…’

The kick rhythm was changed to be more rhythmic.

The original’s rich Latin-style guitar sound was completely stripped away, replaced by a dreamy synth piano that captivated the ear.

[I tried to hold onto the end
Before the end roll, before the curtain fell
Perhaps this was our fated conclusion]

Hye-sung’s jaw dropped without her realizing it. The arrangement was so different from the original song, which honestly wasn’t to her taste.

The subtly spreading, three-dimensional reverb made it feel like walking through a dream, completely drawing her in.

‘Hearing this live must be truly enchanting.’

Han Young-won moved to the center for the first chorus.

With Han Young-won at the center, the formation spread out like wings. With every movement, her classic-style blouse fluttered gracefully.

“What is that face? What is that?”

“How can they put Oscar on stage like that? This is cheating…”

The audience, stunned by the sound and visuals, began to murmur.

Han Young-won wasn’t just serving princely looks; she was slaying them.

[The times we promised forever
Fade away like a fleeting dream]

And it wasn’t just her face that was exceptional.

Han Young-won’s true value was her voice. Her emotive tone, like a mermaid’s song from the deep sea, combined with the sight of her dancing on the dry-ice-covered stage, her black hair flying, made her seem like a mythical being.

“I feel like I’m being bewitched.”

“Her voice is insane, there’s no other way to put it.”

Just as it seemed they would carry the deep, mystical atmosphere they had built up to the end, disaster struck. At the peak of the performance, during Kim Yoon-ji’s high-note highlight, her voice cracked.

[This is just a proce-ee-ess
For the ending where we can be together]

“She’s been shaky since rehearsal.”

“This is where it needed to be clean.”

Short sighs escaped from the trainers, who were watching from a separate monitoring room just like the trainees.

Influenced by the main vocalist’s voice crack, the trainee in the vocal position providing chorus also sang with an unstable pitch, making everyone’s hearts pound with anxiety.

“This is bad. It’s affecting all of them.”

“Oh no, they did so well in the beginning. Why is this happening at the end?”

[I was chasing a mirage
That this love would end like this
You knew it too]

At the moment when the unstable vocals continued one after another like dominoes, Han Young-won’s voice suddenly covered the part.

“Is this Young-won Eonni’s part?”

“I don’t think so?”

“What’s going on?”

The trainees watching the stage murmured among themselves with puzzled faces.

“Is she allowed to do that?”

“I don’t know…”