Chapter 17
The atmosphere immediately turned cold as soon as the video played.
—Ah, um, hello Siren. This is Kim Siwoon from Only One.
The first video to come up was Only One. Everyone here knew that a strange tension existed between our group and Only One because we uploaded the same video as them. Thus, our image among Only One’s fans wasn’t very favorable, and the fact that the group was declaring war on us meant that the result of their spinning wheel had been manipulated as well.
After manipulating our result, there was nothing stopping the production team from pulling the same trick on them as well. It appeared these broadcasting guys also pulled the same tricks on Only One. Nevertheless, Only One’s Kim Si-Woon was having a difficult time continuing.
Though this group was like ‘the king’ among no-name idols thanks to Kang Hyun-Sung, they were also from a small company in the end. It was unlikely that Kim Si-Woon was properly trained and educated about show business manners and speech like idols from big companies were. And even if he had received training in these areas, he would’ve been nervous for his first shoot. Kim Si-Woon hesitated like he had no idea what to say.
—I-I saw that you guys shot the same video as us.
He blatantly brought up the topic that was on everybody’s minds, and the atmosphere on the set turned cold to frigid. Nobody laughed or talked.
—I don’t know if this is just a coincidence or fate, but we would definitely not lose to you guys...!
Kim Si-Woon murmured a line that could’ve come out from the main character of a comic book and disappeared from the screen. It seemed Kim Si-Woon tried to end the video on a light-hearted note somehow but failed.
At this rate, he would just look awkward as the person who made the provocation while we would be villainized. We needed to loosen up this atmosphere to change the story, but it was dangerous for us to hastily say something or laugh because it could also be edited as us scoffing at the other group.
“Hahaha!” Yeon-Hoon then laughed very brightly as if the video he saw was very funny. He seemed to have really enjoyed the video as he looked at Kim Si-Woon with no ill but positive feelings.
“Yes! It really feels like this is destiny!” Rather than pointing out the part about not losing to us, it seemed Yeon-Hoon was only focusing on the part that our teams were perhaps fated for each other.
“Uh, yes perhaps this could be the beginning of a new love?” Kim Si-Woon immediately clutched to Yeon-Hoon’s comment as if he had received a lifeline in a dangerous situation.
The atmosphere in the set became light and warm again.
“Ah~ It seems like there’s some connection between the two groups already!” Kim Young-Jin commented at just the right time to continue the light-hearted atmosphere. “And since Only One’s video came out, it seems only natural that Siren’s video should play next. This is Siren’s declaration of war!”
The Siren’s video, where I came out, played next.
—We will definitely beat Only One. We seriously can’t lose to them.
The atmosphere changed drastically again because I declared we won’t lose to Only One right from the beginning. Yet, what came next was enough to make the rest of the groups laugh in pity.
—I mean, have you guys ever danced while inhaling concrete dust?
“Concrete dust...”
“...Pft,” everyone covered their mouths and tried to stifle their laughter.
—Our wooden floor squeaks every day, yelling at us to spare its life.
Bleshu’s leader blocked his entire mouth when he heard about the wooden floor and turned bright red while trying to hold back his laughter.
—Even though I turned nineteen this year, my back already hurts. Do you know why? It’s because there isn’t even a single foam roller inside our practice room.
“What?”
“Oh, how sad...”
When they heard about the foam rollers, everyone looked at us pitifully without any signs of amusement. My video changed the battle of nerves to a battle of who has the most pitiful background story. Yet, the responses from my group members weren’t that great.
“Sigh....”
“Ughh....”
“Are you serious?”
“Hahaha!”
Do-Seung glared at me sharply like a high school student whose pride was hurt. Yeon-Hoon’s face was bright red as if it was going to explode, and Woon stared at the video screen despairingly. Only Dong-Jun laughed as if he found the whole situation funny.
—We can’t lose to Only One, because then, we would really not have anywhere else to go.
Then, when our video ended, people called out.
“I will buy you a foam roller!”
“Us too!”
“We have many foam rollers in our practice room! We will give you one!”
“You can have your choice of colors from us!”
Many offered to give their foam rollers. I didn’t think that was the point many people would get fixated on but I didn’t plan on refusing what people offered me first.
“If you tell me your address, I will also buy you a foam roller and send it to you. Haha,” Nahyun also added while looking at us.
“We are fine! After that interview, we bought him a foam roller!” Yeon-Hoon tried to cover up the situation with his still bright red face, but I retorted.
“They didn’t.” I refuted it since that was the truth.
“Ughh...Tae-Yoon...” Yeon-Hoon appeared at a loss for what to do because I wasn’t helping him.
“But you didn’t buy me one,” I said firmly again. I couldn’t lie about what happened. And it appeared our interaction looked like a comedic skit of sorts and all the other group members burst out laughing. The mood that could’ve turned sour became completely bright again. After that, they also played other teams’ videos. Perhaps because the atmosphere had already loosened up once, everyone was able to laugh at the videos and pass over them without many problems.
“Since we saw all the videos, let’s not wait any longer to see each of the group’s 120-second introductory performances,” Young-Jin said and changed the tone of the set again. All the laughing faces turned serious now and looked tense. I was surprised by how instantly and drastically the atmosphere changed with just this one line. On the other hand, this showed how much effort each group put into their performance.
“Then, we will now reveal which team will go first and the order of the performances!” Nahyun said, and a list came up on the large electronic display behind her.
1—Luminin.
2—OnebyOne
3—Bleshu
4—Only One
5—Siren
“Huh?”
“Whaat?”
It was a surprising order. I knew that the producers had decided the order of the groups’ performances after a meeting. Thus, I thought Only One would naturally have the ending stage.
“But we have the ending stage?”
“What?”
Only One would perform fourth while we will go after them. I thought the producers’ plan was to just use us as unlikeable villain extras, but with this, it appeared that they were planning to use us for a bigger role.
‘Maybe the main producer’s mind changed after seeing our rehearsal.’ I thought. It appeared that PD Park Soo-Chul came to a new decision during rehearsal time.
“Isn’t this good?”
“I-I mean, why wouldn’t it be?”
But it wasn’t like there were no setbacks to this. If we did well in this performance, we could soar in popularity and fame but if we messed it up, we could receive a great wave of criticism.
‘If we screw things up, people could accuse us of being the PD’s personal pick or the show being staged.’ People could say that it had been the producers who made us upload the same videos and could shoot down the reason that had helped us rise to our current position.
“Luminin, please prepare for your stage!” MC Kim Young-Jin said and called the group towards the center. Luminin went up and as the set settled with just the right amount of tension, he declared, “Let The Showcase 2 First Chance’s first set of performances begin!”
The official stage opened.
***
Our performances began with Luminin. Luminin was a group that centered around performance. They turned on music with a strong base and only danced without singing. They were so good that it would’ve been believable if they said they were professional dancers.
‘Yet, the stage is too dark.’
It was hard to differentiate and remember their faces. Though they looked cool, it was hard to see who danced where and what. The second stage was OnebyOne. As expected of a hip-hop group, they got a song with a strong 808 bass sound. Their raps clearly struck the listeners’ ears as the vocal lines’ singing contrasted them. The group was good at singing and rapping, but in the end, their stage, clothes, and concept were also all too dark. This was exacerbated by the dark lights they used to accompany their strong and heavy song.
And the third in line was Bleshu. Unlike the cute and familiar image they showed in their videos, they surprisingly prepared a krumping stage. They used a conceptual and one of the hardest songs of a famous idol group and did a good job.
‘But their performance is the darkest of them all.’ My eyes kept shifting elsewhere. If I had to review the first, second, and third performances, it felt as if a herd of guys wearing black rushed in, shifted from here and there while flailing their limbs around, and ended their performance with a scream. But of course, this was only my opinion and other people around me seemed to think much more favorably of the performances.
“Wow, they are so cool!”
“Amazing!”
“Everyone is so good at dancing.”
“I can see how hard they worked on this.”
It seemed my group members all appreciated the performances very much. Besides, the dances were much cooler to witness with all our six senses experiencing the performance. There were times when songs were better to hear through official audio clips than live, but dances were almost hundred percent cooler to see in person.
But for the viewers watching this on television, they would probably think along the lines of, ‘Ah, they are good’, and their commentary would end there. They wouldn’t have the same impression as the people exclaiming and cheering on this set.
The next one to go was finally, Only One. After finishing their performance, Bleshu filmed their ending poses and returned to their seats. Because of how strongly they had danced, they kept heaving after they sat down.
“You guys were really cool!”
“Wow, it’s not easy to do krumping well but you guys did such a good job.”
“I also saw a bit of locking movements. Did your group mix two genres?”
“Ah, yes!”
“It’s nice to see someone recognize our efforts.”
Woon, Yeon-Hoon, and Do-Seung continued to build their friendship with Bleshu and gave their compliments. In contrast, I didn’t pay any more attention to Bleshu and only stared at the stage in front of me. It was time for those who had gone on about how well and cool these performances were to feel a bit embarrassed of their assessments.
“Thank you, Bleshu, for your fiery performance! You all showed a completely different side of yourselves from the application video!” After the MC’s formal commentary, there came the announcement. “Now, let us see the next group in line! Only One, please come up to the stage!”
The set’s atmosphere changed as soon as Only One went up. Everyone was looking at the stage much more intensely than all previous times.
‘It’s like the main event.’
All the other teams were probably most wary of Only One since it was the group where Kang Hyun-Sung was. Though he was in The Showcase 2 where other no-name idol groups like us gathered, Kang Hyun-Sung used to be part of a first-tier idol group not so long ago. And because the one-year project group, ‘Yours’ from Select Your Idol did their activities during the time when all other first-tier idol groups were on their break, they left an especially big impact on the entertainment world.
Considering that Kang Hyun-Sung used to be the main member of such a group, he was a character one couldn’t help but pay attention to. Furthermore, Kang Hyun-Sung had already proved his abilities through Select Your Idol.
I watched as Only One got into their positions on stage. They were all wearing black tech outfits and fake swords on their waist. I couldn’t see what kind of swords they were holding inside their sheaths, but based on their outfits, I supposed their theme was cyberpunk. Already at this point, I could sense what kind of press would come up among the idol fans.
‘There’s a reason why idols from small companies stay where they are and Kang Hyun-Sung is Kang Hyun-Sung.’ At first glance, there wasn’t much of a difference between Only One and the other groups. They were wearing black like the other groups and played music with strong bases. Yet, the important part wasn’t what genre they were performing but who was doing it.
Boom. A heavy bass sound rang out. The lights went off and spotlights tinted red shone on Only One.
Screeech—a sharp electronic sound rang out and Kang Hyun-Sung stepped over his group members, who were lined up in formation like ladders and jumped upward. The moment he landed on the ground, the beat perfectly dropped in sync.
—We will TAKE OVER! HOOK!*[1]
—Match the beat of my footsteps!
The hook of their song burst out. It was a scene that wouldn’t have formed with just a single-second offbeat or wrong move. At the sight of their perfect timing and synchronization, everyone on the set exclaimed.
“Wow.”
“This is insane.”
1. The capitalized words are English lyrics. ?
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