Chapter 64
“He’s trying to take our Tae-Yoon?”
“No, he can’t.”
“Wow~ You’re so popular, Tae-Yoon.”
When Kang Hyun-Sung called me out, each of the members showed different reactions. In contrast, I was so startled that I blurted out, “Me?”
I had never imagined that Kang Hyun-Sung would call out my name. On the other hand, Kang Hyun-Sung, who was responsible for this whole affair, was calm. However, there was one problem.
“Um, Mr. Hyun-Sung! Please call out the name of the person you want when all the leaders have been confirmed! I was just explaining the perks of being a leader just now! Haha!”
This was not the right time to call out a name.
“Ah, I see. I was in too much of a hurry.” Kang Hyun-Sung smiled awkwardly and lowered the mike. Then he met my eyes again. Was I mistaken if I sensed a murderous gaze from his eyes? I couldn’t believe that getting on his nerves before was coming back to bite me on the butt like this.
‘This is crazy.’ I felt chills run down my back. Furthermore, it felt like Kang Hyun-Sung knew he would get rejected, and he had called out my name with the mindset to make sure others knew that he had his eyes set on me. It seemed as if he wanted to make a clear announcement that I was going to be on his team even before the other leaders were confirmed. Since Kang Hyung-Sung had the most experience and was most popular among us, people didn’t even fault him for this.
I said to the other members, “Guys.”
“Yeah?”
“Why?”
“I have to be the leader. I’ll gather everyone in our group.” Thus, I had to take drastic measures. I didn’t want to be a leader, and I thought among everyone here, the position of leader didn’t fit me the most. However, I sucked it up and volunteered. I had wanted to gather all the members together in one team for the third round, but of course, this had only been in the back of my mind...Anyway, I tried to console myself by thinking of the advantages of being a leader.
I said, “Siren Bong Tae-Yoon, I’ll volunteer to be the second leader.”
“Wow!”
“Siren’s Mr. Bong Tae-Yoon will be the second leader! Please come up on stage!”
I trudged to the center of the stage and got closer to Kang Hyun-Sung. He was staring directly at me, and the words, ‘What the hell do you want?’ came right up to my throat, but I forced them back in. If that punk hadn’t called me out, I wouldn’t even be standing here on this stage right now; feelings of resentment came rushing into my heart, but I endured it for now.
“Then we should get the third leader now. Oh, we have a volunteer! Mr. Choi Soo-Hyuk from Luminin! Please come forward!”
The third leader also came forward. Choi Soo-Hyuk was Luminin’s leader, and like this, everyone besides me was the leader of the group. I was the only maknae among the leaders, and unintentionally, it felt like I was a maknae rebelling against my superiors. Even though I was supposed to be a bright-eyed, naive 19-year-old, I now felt like a young kid who matured too fast after shouldering all the burdens of the world.
‘Does anyone even think I’m 19?’ Upon careful reflection, I didn’t think anyone thought I was actually 19, and I thought I should just shut up and pretend to be older.
“Then, from now on, all three leaders can start calling the members you want in the order you volunteered. All you have to do is get eight or nine people in your team. I’ll say this again, but those who are called cannot reject the leader’s decision!”
All we needed to do was create a team of eight or nine.
“From now on, the leaders’ call is absolute, so please follow what they say. The only rule in this team-selecting game is that you can’t reject the leader’s call.”
Host Kim Young-Jin said and scanned the stage. He kept emphasizing that we couldn’t reject the leader’s call like it was a catchphrase. Well, I didn’t think it mattered because this rule was beneficial for me anyway.
“Then! Let’s start the team selection!” Like this, the team selection for the third round began.
* * *
The team selection went on smoothly. Perhaps because everyone had affection for their own group, they called their team members first. Even Kang Hyun-Sung gave up on me after I became the leader and immediately called Only One members of his team.
“I’ll choose Park Young-Ho from Only One as a team member.”
“I’ll choose Kim Si-Woon from Only One as a team member.”
“Kim Ju-Hyun...”
“Lee Chul-Woon...”
Like this, Kang Hyun-Sung prioritized picking his members first. It was the same for me.
“I’ll choose Woo Yeon-Hoon of Siren as a team member.”
“I’ll choose Lee Woon...”
“I’ll choose Kang Do-Seung...”
“I’ll choose Park Dong-Jun...”
I put the members of my team first. The people who were called got up from their seats and gathered behind the leader. All my members were now gathered behind me.
“Isn’t this just the Siren 2.0 version?”
“Is this okay?’
The members seemed concerned that I gathered all of them together for a coalition mission, but it couldn’t be helped. There was no need for me to be a gambler when I had a winning combination in my hand. Even Luminin gathered their team members first.
“Tae-Yoon, how many people are we going to have on our team?” When all the members were gathered, Yeon-Hoon asked.
Yeon-Hoon posed an important question, and I actually had to think a lot about this as well. I answered, “I’m thinking of a 9-member group for now.”
“Ah, why?”
“If there are a lot of people, we have more options for our performance.” Having one more person played a critical role in a performance. Since we were going to have a large group anyway, I thought it would be better to increase the number as much as possible and create a more dynamic performance.
But most of all, I thought, ‘We might get a higher production cost.’
If it was possible, I wanted to gather people from several groups so that several companies would be involved in our stage performance. Since most of the other group’s goal wasn’t to actually win and transfer their contract but to increase their popularity, they probably received a lot of support from their company. Thus, I might be able to utilize those funds and plan a stage with a slightly higher quality than before.
Therefore, I called out Bleshu’s leader. “I will choose Han Do-Young from Bleshu as a team member.”
“Huh? Me?” Bleshu’s leader rose from his seat, wondering why his name was called. Then he said goodbye to the Bleshu members as if he was sad to leave them and walked towards us.
“Hello.”
“Hello!”
If we had to choose the group we were closest to, I would answer Bleshu first. True to my words, my members welcomed Bleshu’s leader, Han Do-Young, and didn’t seem uncomfortable around him. The Luminin’s leader, Choi Soo-Hyuk, called out a name and Kang Hyun-Sung went next.
When it was my turn again, I said, “I’ll choose Yoo Ji-Hyuk from Bleshu as a team member.” Since I had room for more people anyway, I called out one more member from Bleshu. Now, we had seven members in total. I just needed to gather two more people, so I turned to OnebyOne.
“I’ll choose Kim Joon-Hyuk from OnebyOne as a team member.”
“I’ll choose Lee Young-Joon from OnebyOne as a team member.”
After I successfully chose 2 OnebyOne members in my group like this, the selection process was over.
“And that’s the end of the team selection! Kang Hyun-Sung’s team has 8 members, Bong Tae-Yoon’s team has 9 members, and Choi Soo-Hyuk’s team has 9 members!”
I looked behind me. I thought we had a pretty good team—there were my members and members with decent skills from different groups.
‘I’ll win the 3rd round. I’ll definitely win first place.’ After this, I thought each team would now be given a chance to exchange phone numbers and discuss where to practice and chat. The actual broadcasting format seemed to follow that prediction as host Kim Young Jin said, “Now, each newly created team will—.”
Swoosh.
Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly raised his hand.
“Ah, yes? What is it, Mr. Hyun-Sung?” The host asked with his head tilted.
“We haven’t finished our team selection yet.”
“What?”
The studio buzzed at his unexpected words; it was not only us but the production crew also murmured amongst themselves.
However, Kang Hyun-Sung calmly continued, “The only rule of this team selection process is that no one is allowed to reject the leader’s selection, right?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right. The only rule of this team selection is that everyone needs to accept the leader’s decision, but hasn’t everyone been called now?”
“No, there are still people who have not been called yet.” Then Kang Hyun-Sung made a chilling smile and dropped a bomb without blinking an eye, “I’ll choose Bong Tae-Yoon, the leader of Bong Tae-Yoon team, as my team member.”
The studio’s atmosphere instantly froze at his words, and everyone was tilting their heads, wondering if they had heard him right. But the most surprised person was...me.
‘What the hell is he saying?’ I even volunteered as leader so I didn’t have to be on the same team as him, but why on earth did I have to go through such a terrible ordeal? I desperately hoped that the host would reject his call-out and help me out. Regardless of Kang Hyun-Sung’s fame, rules were rules.
But contrary to my expectations, the host seemed to ponder about it. “Well, the only rule is that the leader’s words are absolute.”
No, why was he even thinking about this? Why was he pretending to hesitate after hearing such nonsense? I glared at the host because of how ridiculous the whole situation was. Although I needed to control my expression because I was on broadcast, this was going way too far.
“And certainly, the leaders are also members that haven’t been called yet...” The host wasn’t concerned about whether to give Kang Hyun-Sung’s preferential treatment or not, but he was concerned about following the rules. Perhaps he might be acting like this because it would be humorous for the show if there was a 'Tae-Yoon Team' without Tae-Yoon. The team I worked hard to make might be shattered because of the host’s desire to make the show more entertaining.
“Tae-Yoon...!”
Yeon-Hoon grabbed my wrist.
“Wow...”
“What should we do...”
“I didn’t expect this.”
While the members and I fell into a panic, Kang Hyun-Sung’s annoying voice rang out again, “We’re still an eight-member group, so it wouldn’t matter if we take one more from another group to make a nine-member group, right?”
I needed to shut that damn mouth. I glared at Kang Hyun-Sung, but Kang Hyun-Sung easily passed over my gaze and stared at the host and production crew. The people he needed to convince were not me but the hosts and production crew. If this was his ploy, then—I thought I could just use the same method as him.
“Then I’ll choose myself for my team.” Since I haven’t been called out yet, I could call out my own name.
“Ah! Now, it has become even more complicated.”
“What an interesting turn of events.”
What the hell were they talking about–complicated and interesting? It was all just stressing me out, but now that I looked around, I saw a sparkling glint in the production crew and host’s eyes. Judging by their faces, it seemed as if they wanted to create a Tae-Yoon team without Tae-Yeon as The Showcase 2 was a variety show before it was a competition show.
I also knew that the third round evaluation was an individually ranked competition like Select Your Idol, so it didn’t even matter which team I went to as long as I did my part well. However, even then, I wanted to do a performance with people I wanted to perform with.
The production crew and the hosts held an emergency meeting, and their final verdict was—
“Since the rule is that the leader’s decision is absolute...”
The beginning lines sounded very ominous to me. I prayed and prayed that what I feared the most would not come true.
“I think we have to acknowledge that rule to some extent.”
However, it was heading in the direction I did not want. At this rate, it wasn’t just an ominous sign but a definite ending.
“However, we fully understand Mr. Tae-Yoon’s concerns as well, so we would like to suggest a simple game to compromise.”
“A simple game?” A seed of hope began to sprout in my heart.
“Mr. Tae-Yoon and Mr. Hyun-Sung will play rock-paper-scissors, and we will go with what the winner wants. If Mr. Tae-Yoon wins, the current teams will remain the same, but if Mr. Hyun-Sung wins, the Tae-Yoon team will end up without Mr. Tae-Yoon.”
It was an extremely sloppy and simple game. How could they choose rock-paper-scissors for such a critical decision? Weren’t they just telling me to leave my fate to luck? Moreover, it wasn’t just my fate but my team members’ fates as well. While I was second guessing if this was really my reality, Kang Hyun-Sung was already approaching me and reaching out his hand.
He said, “Let’s go with rock-paper-scissors.”
I couldn’t even make it obvious that I hated this idea as everyone was pressuring me to just accept this proposal.
“...Let’s do it.” In the end, I reached out my hand.
The production crew was already on board with Kang Hyun-Sung’s idea because they wanted to see a Tae-Yoon team without Tae-Yoon. It wasn’t important to them whether or not this situation was fair. If there was an appropriate excuse, they were ready to jump in with Kang Hyun-Sung’s proposal, and Kang Hyun-Sung had already made a suitable excuse to make this happen.
There was no point in arguing about fairness anymore. Their number one priority was to make the show as entertaining as possible, and like this, a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide my fate began. I prayed to all the gods that I knew to help me win, but I—
“Uh?”
“Ah.”
“Ahhh!”
I lost. I couldn’t accept it so I imagined cutting Kang Hyun-Sung’s rock with my scissors, but there was no point in denying it. ...I really lost.
“Geez, Tae-Yoon...”
Sighh...
“Tae-Yoooon...”
“Tae-Yoon...”
My members sighed.
“Yes!”
“Oh!”
“Awesome!”
I didn’t know why, but Kang Hyun-Sung’s team cheered. I wanted to blame my damn fingers for making a scissor. Then, at that moment, I met my eyes with Kang Hyun-Sung, and I was sure that he was trying to mess with my mind.
He smirked and said, “Let’s go, maknae.” He immediately dropped formalities and spoke casually to me.
Today was the worst day ever since I regressed.
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