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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Chapter 6
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“I'm home.”
Hye-sung dragged her exhausted body home.
It felt like too much had happened in such a short time. Just from indulging in a bit of fantasy before bed, her dream and reality had swapped places. Now, she was suddenly a 19-year-old idol trainee about to appear on a survival show.
“How should I define this situation?”
This wasn't regression, possession, or reincarnation.
“The world has been turned upside down because of me.”
I'm probably the only one who knows this. The thought that she'd suddenly become the protagonist came with the realization that she had done something tremendous.
“...I've flipped the world on its head.”
It wasn't a figure of speech; it was literal. A new world had opened up because of Hye-sung's choice.
“I guess I should call this a 'creation.'”
Not the creation of heaven and earth, but the 'Hye-sung Creation.' She decided to call the previous world the 'pre-creation' era. The choice of words sounded a bit like a cult, but she named it that anyway.
“But I'm already exhausted. What am I going to do now?”
*Tiring.*
[Today's Random~ Quest has arrived!]
[Close the door and practice hard! Practice the song (vocal) you'll perform at the class evaluation. 0/10]
“The day's almost over, what do you mean 'today's' quest? I'm going to practice tomorrow, so can you just disappear?”
[Quest Completion Reward: Vocal stat increased by half a star (☆)]
“You're saying I just have to sing it 10 times to get a 0.5-star increase? Then I have to do it. Accept.”
Hye-sung staggered to her feet, her body heavy.
“First, I have to pick a song and practice.”
To avoid complete embarrassment, I definitely can't pick a song by a currently active group... Something not too difficult, but that will leave a good impression on the trainers.
“Maybe I'll try that song. It's a choice no one else would probably make.”
Hye-sung mulled it over for about 10 minutes before making a decision. She seemed calm, as she was already expecting to be sent to F-class.
She found the chosen song on her phone and played it. A fresh yet wistful melody played, and Hye-sung hummed along, as if she didn't know the lyrics.
“Hmmmm~ mmm-hmmm~”
After listening to the song a few times, Hye-sung pulled out a Bluetooth microphone that had been stashed away in a corner of her bookshelf.
“Ah, ah—mic test—okey-dokey. Music, start~”
After singing the entire song once with the mic, the number in the quest window changed to [1/10].
“Oho. Just nine more times.”
Hye-sung sang her heart out excitedly.
“Ah~ the scent of lilac~ your sweet breath~ flower peta—...”
“Hey! Yoon Hye-sung!”
An angry voice rang out as the door flew open.
“You scared me!”
“Could you keep it down? It's not like you're good at it, so why are you singing so much! It's almost 10 o'clock. You're being a nuisance.”
Yoon Eun-ho pointed a finger at Hye-sung with a stern face.
“What? 'Hey'? 'You'? Are you crazy, Yoon Eun-ho? How dare you talk to your older sister like... Hup!”
Hye-sung clapped a hand over her mouth.
‘Did my age change, turning Eun-ho from my younger brother into my older brother?’
“Did you eat something weird? You're the one with the attitude, talking to your older brother like that.”
“So it's true...”
“What's true? Snap out of it and go to sleep. Or rent a practice room. Why did you leave the company you were so lucky to get into...”
“Company? What company?”
“Seriously, what's with you today? Did you hit your head at the audition? I'm talking about your former agency, D&F. You were there for a month and then you quit.”
“D&F?”
Hye-sung's eyes widened. The whites were visible all around her irises, making her look startled.
“Hey! Stop staring like that. You're scaring me to death.”
“Just answer my question, was I a D&F trainee!”
Hye-sung grabbed Yoon Eun-ho by the collar and shook him.
“Yes! You'll probably never get into a better company in your life, so why did you quit just to mope around at home like this?”
“Hah... This damn system is crazy.”
“You're the one who's crazy. Anyway, keep it down. Your brother is going to bed early.”
“Yeah, no can do. Just nine more times.”
“Ha, damn it. My one and only little sister is so disobedient.”
Yoon Eun-ho smacked Hye-sung's hand off his collar, then closed the door and left.
* * *
The day of the main recording for Syunopeu Season 5 had finally arrived.
Hye-sung, who had been trembling with anxiety because she hadn't received a call confirming she'd passed, had finally gotten the news just yesterday, the day before.
During the eight days she waited for the acceptance notice, she had diligently completed the 'Close the door and practice hard' quest, improving her vocal stat by two levels, from 0.5 to 1.5 stars.
One might think that was all she managed to raise it, but the random quests didn't appear every day.
And while the first quest was easy with 10 practice sessions, the second required 50, and the third, 100, which she couldn't complete in a single day, so she failed.
‘I thought my vocal cords were going to rip from suddenly singing 100 times with an untrained voice.’
Hye-sung massaged her throat, which had nearly given out right before the nationwide audition.
Moreover, when she attempted it with higher stats than before, it seemed they weren't just counting the number of attempts but also judging her singing.
‘I've gotten better than before, but this is too much for a beginner. I thought I'd automatically become a power vocalist just by completing the reps.’
Even without quests, she did practice on her own, but it seemed she would need professional lessons to truly improve her skills.
*Rumble, rumble.*
Hye-sung arrived in front of DMC Station, a heavy suitcase in hand. The training camp would last for about a week, so she had quite a bit of luggage.
“Ugh, it's so heavy. Maybe I should have taken a taxi. If my age hadn't changed, I would've driven myself here.”
‘...But if my age had stayed the same, I would've been eliminated in the preliminaries.’
With a nervous heart, Hye-sung looked around at the familiar streets as she made her way to the MvN Media Center.
“All familiar places.”
She said this while looking at the restaurants in Sangam-dong, where the broadcasting stations were clustered.
Before she became a fan of Na Yeon-woo, these were the places she had frequented tirelessly when following Gu Bon-jin's music show appearances. It was heartwarming to see they hadn't changed over the years.
“Memories of the pre-dawn recordings are bubbling up...”
She remembered the days of waiting on the street, huddled under a piece of sackcloth. It felt like crap back then, but thinking about it now, it had become a fond memory.
Lost in thought, she soon arrived in front of MvN.
Almost at the same moment Hye-sung arrived, several large vans glided into the parking lot in front of the broadcasting station.
*Click.* The van doors opened, and trainees holding suitcases appeared one by one.
A cameraman was already in front, filming them. It seemed they were getting insert shots.
‘This is why it's good to have an agency. I should've asked Mom and Dad to drive me.’
Hye-sung watched them with a hint of envy. What she envied wasn't being filmed, but the fact that they had arrived by car.
‘A car driven by someone else is the best.’
Hye-sung's current status was an individual trainee. She had been shocked to learn about her past setting as a former D&F trainee.
It seemed that when her dream and reality swapped and the world was reorganized, her usual delusions had been mixed in.
Hye-sung, an extreme N type in MBTI, had always set herself up as belonging to a major agency whenever she ran the 'If I were an idol...' scenario in her head.
Even if it was just in her own delusions, it was quite shameless of her, considering the only thing she knew how to do was fangirl over an idol (Na Yeon-woo).
‘So now I'm in a real bind.’
D&F Ent. The company set as Hye-sung's former agency was one of the Big 4 major agencies, particularly famous as a powerhouse for girl groups.
Starting in the late 2000s, the girl groups they debuted every three years were four consecutive massive hits. Among them, the currently active teams were ViViD, a top-tier girl group in their fifth year, and Strawberry Killa, the most talked-about rookies.
‘At this point, Strawberry Killa debuted about six months ago, so timing-wise, it's not like I was cut from the debut lineup. I must have just gotten in by luck and then been cut during the monthly evaluations.’
Being from a major agency seemed to be nothing more than a career credential for attracting aggro.
‘I just want to keep my mouth shut, but my application must say I'm from D&F. Those bastards at the broadcasting station are probably gearing up to use it. What do I do?’
Before the 'creation' (before the world was reorganized by Hye-sung), there were no D&F trainees on Syunopeu Season 5, but there were two from other major agencies. Like Hye-sung now, they weren't currently signed but were 'formerly' from there.
‘They used those two who left their agencies and hyped them up in the previews as 'the two pillars of K-pop agencies' and all that bullshit, pulling in so much aggro.’
Those trainees' skills were average, around mid-to-high mid-tier. So they didn't get much juicy footage. But this time, Hye-sung, who was low-mid-low tier, had come with the 'from a major agency' tag, so it was obvious what kind of treatment she would get.
‘I'm so scared I want to run away.’
“Hey, trainee over there, aren't you going in?”
A staff member asked Hye-sung, who was standing blankly in front of the door.
“The other trainees are all going in now.”
“Ah, yes! I'm going, I'm going...”
Hye-sung pulled her suitcase and blended into the crowd of trainees heading inside.
* * *
‘Ha, f♡ck. I knew it.’
Hye-sung was now standing in the waiting area behind the set, her hands and feet trembling.
A couple of hours ago, after getting a brief explanation of the filming order from a staff member, she had exchanged pleasantries with the other trainees in the waiting room. Among them, there was no Na Yeon-woo, nor any of the trainees she had encountered during the preliminaries.
She had no intention of chatting with the other trainees, so she just sat there awkwardly. She was called out briefly in between to film a pre-interview, and before she knew it, her turn to enter had arrived.
‘For the reason I left, I just said I quit because there were no plans to launch a girl group for the time being. That should be fine, right?’
She hadn't even mentioned the 'S' in Strawberry Killa, but she already felt a chill down her spine, thinking the producer would edit it to create a connection anyway.
And just as she expected, the letters 'D&F Ent.' appeared in huge font on the large screen in front of the trainees.
The seated trainees began to murmur in surprise.
Hye-sung peeked out, her eyes just barely visible, and stole a glance at the set.
More than half of the pyramid-shaped seats were already occupied by trainees.
‘When I crawl out there, they'll probably flash the word 'Former' on the screen.’
She felt sorry for the trainees who had jumped to their feet in surprise.
Hye-sung's eyes darted around at Mach speed, searching for Na Yeon-woo.
‘She should have been sitting around there... did she sit somewhere else this time...?’
Na Yeon-woo, who was supposed to be at the end of the second row, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Yeon-woo, where are you? I'm desperately looking for you, huh? Ah, there you are.’
Hye-sung, whose eyes had been rolling around as if possessed, finally spotted Na Yeon-woo sitting next to the stairs in the third row. Thankfully, the seat right next to her was empty.
‘Yeon-woo, just you wait. I'm coming for you.’
“Okay, Trainee Yoon Hye-sung! You're up.”
Following the staff's guidance, Hye-sung took a heavy step forward.
“Oh! She's coming in.”
As she appeared before the trainees, about a hundred pairs of eyes stared intently at her.
Everyone seated in front of her was watching her. It felt like cold sweat was about to stream down her back.
“Hello... I'm Yoon Hye-sung.”
Hye-sung bowed. It was obvious she was intimidated.
“Hello!”
Dozens of booming replies came back. She was startled by their energy, but the welcoming atmosphere put her a little at ease.
*Shwaaak.*
Just then, the sound of the screen behind Hye-sung changing could be heard. As expected, the word 'Former' had been added.
Only then did sounds like “Ah...” ripple through the trainees.
‘...I'm so embarrassed I want to run away.’
Hye-sung lowered her head and quickly scurried over to the seat next to Na Yeon-woo.
“Hello.”
Hye-sung greeted her first as she sat down.
