Chapter 6: If Mangdol Returns Three Times (6)

Of the top 10 in the month-end evaluation lineup, a total of four were from the radical faction of stagnant trainees led by Kim Seokje.

If I managed to eliminate all four of them, that would leave six,
so if Ji Cheonseong and I appropriately took the vocal and dance positions and then colluded, there shouldn’t be any problems getting us to debut.

However, if there was one thing that bothered me, it was the high probability of Kim Seokje coming in as the lead vocalist.

Since all the vocal positions in the radical ’embedded stone’ faction were concentrated there,
Saesom was unlikely to drop that entire line if they considered an even distribution of positions within the team.

I racked my brain for a long time, wondering who among Kim Seokje’s four cronies was at least somewhat usable.

Participant No. 1 Kim Seokje: Gambling addiction is only cured by death… Eliminated.

Participant No. 2 Lee Seungjun: I decided to take this guy’s spot as karmic retribution… Eliminated.

Participant No. 3 Cha Oreum: Six years as a trainee.

Meddlesome and smart, but too political… Eliminated.

Participant No. 4: Kwon Hyunjin: Kim Seokje’s lackey who, along with No. 2, hazed me, but he’s an idiot, so he’s easy to instigate.

There’s no one left to eliminate.

Eli… Pass.

If I had my way, I would have told Ji Cheonseong to do everything himself
– be the main vocalist, the lead vocalist, everything
– but life never goes as planned,
so I decided to gently coax Kim Seokje’s loyal lackey and try to place him in the lead vocalist spot.

I didn’t want to use the vile skill of sowing discord that I had acquired during my six years as a trainee at an unknown small agency, but society was inherently cruel.

“What are you thinking so hard about all by yourself again?”

Ji Cheonseong lightly poked my arm with his fingertip while I was deep in thought.

‘Thinking about making you debut?’

Those words almost escaped my throat, but I barely managed to hold them back.

When I just said I was wondering who among the good singers, aside from Kim Seokje,
would be good to have in Perfection, Ji Cheonseong asked with a bewildered face, ‘Why are you worrying about that?’

This… ungrateful b*stard.

“You and I are going to debut together, so it’s better if the team composition is good.”

“……”

“If you’re not going to live carelessly just because you can keep regressing,
you should think about it too.
Who you want to sing with.”

‘We’re going to debut together again this time, aren’t we?’

I firmly squeezed Ji Cheonseong’s shoulder, who had a dazed expression, and then let go.

Ji Cheonseong’s rare foolish expression vanished as quickly as it had appeared, as if it had never been there.

Instead, with a bright smile, Ji Cheonseong said, ‘That’s kind of touching,’ and moved closer to me.

I was about to play along moderately, but then it became a bit bothersome, so I pushed Ji Cheonseong away again.

‘Hey, instead of acting all friendly, go think about who’s more suited to be the lead vocalist. You ungrateful wretch.’

MMI was scheduled to be broadcast for a total of six episodes on general programming channels, including YouTube.

What was particularly impressive was the announcement that for the latter episodes, 5 and 6,
the final stage would be broadcast live, and real-time text message voting would be reflected in the evaluation scores.

It seemed Saesom was indeed a large corporation.

To think they were having a live broadcast and planning to make money through text voting for just a debut group survival show.

The 10 trainees confirmed to appear on the program would go through a total of three rounds,
with one person eliminated in the first round, two in the second, and one in the final round,
resulting in six survivors who would ultimately debut as Saesom’s new boy group, Perfection.

This program format was almost identical to another major entertainment company’s girl group debut survival program that had debuted about two years ago, differing only in the number of eliminated contestants.

I couldn’t help but say it reeked of being hastily put together.

If the program planning team hadn’t managed to come up with something more groundbreaking and creative in a short amount of time,
the evaluations and matches would probably be similar to that girl group’s debut survival program as well.

One match for individual position ranking, one team match where two members from the losing team are eliminated, and finally,
under the guise of a final evaluation, a netizen popularity poll to implant the image that ‘you guys chose these group members.’

Roughly, the position match would be broadcast around episode 2,
the team match in episodes 3 and 4, and then if they did a live broadcast for episodes 5 and 6, the structure would fit perfectly.

Since each episode was at least 40 minutes long, in addition to the performances, dorms were temporarily provided to the 10 trainees appearing on the program to film small content or mini-games to fill the episodes.

It was said they were ‘given’ dorms, but it was more accurate to say that among the trainees who originally lived in dorms,
those who didn’t make it into the top 10 of the month-end evaluation were kicked out, and the 10 filming the program took their places.

Due to the large number of people, they used two floors of a building, with 5 people per floor, and Ji Cheonseong and I were assigned to completely different floors.

I was on the 6th floor, and Ji Cheonseong was on the 8th.

A small mercy was that Son Minyoung, who naturally took care of others, the person of interest Kim Seokje,
and two members from the radical ’embedded stone’ faction were assigned to the 6th floor with me.

I bit my lip hard at Kim Seokje’s voice behind me, saying that if four people from our floor were eliminated, it would become a single room.

‘Still an amateur.’

‘To say such things carelessly when there were probably observation cameras already rolling all over this dorm.’

Since they were trainees unaccustomed to variety show filming or in-house agency content,
they definitely made a lot of mistakes, such as using slang or making careless remarks.

‘It couldn’t have been a more thankful situation.’

‘If the higher-ups really intended to debut Kim Seokje, even if this guy did a strip show in front of the camera,
it would all be edited out, but when the time came for him to be eliminated, these trivial things would be thoroughly broadcast as unlikable moments.’

“Tomorrow’s when the program officially starts, right?”

Son Minyoung, who became my roommate, spoke while organizing his luggage.

He must have heard Kim Seokje’s words too, but his face showed no trace of wavering.

Lying sprawled on the bed, I politely replied, “That’s right,” to Son Minyoung,
who would be a stronger opponent than anyone if there really was an individual position match.

“I really hope we can debut together.”

“Me too.”

‘I really want to debut with you too, Minyoung.’

‘The thought that I might not have to be the leader seems genuinely great.’

A call came from my father at the crack of dawn.

It seemed the stock I had told my father to buy, half-believing, had risen quite a bit.

Normally, it would take another month for a 30% profit jump, but it was strange that it had risen that much at this point.

‘Since many small things have changed, is this also being affected?’

For now, with the mindset of not keeping my feet in entertainment stocks with regressor variables for too long, I told him to sell everything.

My father seemed reluctant, thinking something more might come of it if he waited longer,
but for entertainment stocks, whether the future changed or not,
the absolute unchanging truth was to quickly cut losses once you’ve made what you can and find another way to live.

Instead, I told my father to buy shares in a messenger application development company that seemed certain to do well.

– Did you hear that from somewhere too?

To my father, who asked with a hopeful voice, I couldn’t bring myself to say,
‘Your son is from the future,’ so still half-asleep, I mumbled, “Yes, yes, as it happens,
a school friend of a friend I practice with, his father works at that development company… What an amazing coincidence, right?”

– Hyunoh, you’re not overdoing it, are you?

As I was about to end the call and try to sleep for at least another 20 minutes, my father asked over the receiver.

My mother seemed to be next to him, as her voice, scolding my father,
“Why would you ask something like that to a kid who’s working hard and jinx it?” mixed with the small noises of daily life.

If I told her I could hear everything, Mom would be embarrassed,
so I just pretended not to know and cheerfully replied, “Of course not.”

My parents seemed both happy and worried about the fact that their child,
who hadn’t even been a Saesom trainee for a year, was in the top 10 of the month-end evaluation,
and that if he did well in some debut group survival program, his debut was just around the corner.

– I heard they deliberately edit those kinds of programs badly these days. And they even manipulate things…
Don’t let things like that get you down. If you worry about every little thing like that, you’ll get sick.

My mother’s voice, adding her words to my father’s call, was filled with determination.

– Even if you get eliminated from there, you’re still young.
I know you do well on your own, but it’s okay even if things don’t work out.

– That’s right, Hyunoh. You heard your mom, right? There are many things you can do besides being an idol.
Don’t overdo it, and if things get tough, you must tell Mom and Dad. Got it?

My heart inexplicably warmed.

Even in my previous life, which was full of incidents and accidents, my parents were always in the background, enabling me to endure for six years, trying to save one group without losing my mind.

I ended the call while joking with my mom,
who suddenly asked if it wasn’t okay for her to bring side dishes to our dorm since she had made some amazing oi-sobagi (cucumber kimchi),
saying, “How do you know when I’ll be eliminated to bring that over?”

Because my roommate, Son Minyoung, was still sleeping,
I had gone out to the living room veranda to take the call,
and it seemed the door hadn’t closed properly, so it was audible inside the living room too.

I saw the silhouette of a person standing idly in front of the refrigerator in the kitchen,
which was connected to the living room, seemingly having come out for a drink of water.

As I approached to see who it was, it turned out to be Cha Oreum, No. 3 of the radical ’embedded stone’ faction.

“You’re up early.”

“Thirsty. I’m going back in to sleep after this. Though I’ll probably only get about 10 minutes.”

When I politely greeted the person who was three years older than me, Cha Oreum nodded back.

“Talking to your parents?”

“Yes.”

“You seem close.”

Cha Oreum didn’t add any further comments and immediately returned to his room.

The way he didn’t pry or launch into a lecture as a senior trainee,
but instead went back in to sleep for even 10 more minutes, exuded the air of a long-time trainee.

I had heard he had rotted away at Saesom for a whopping six years since he was 15,
and compared to Kim Seokje and the other three idiot radicals,
he was smart, with good social skills and situational judgment.

According to what I’d heard, his debut had fallen through twice, yet when everyone else left, he gritted his teeth and endured at Saesom.

The person himself wasn’t bad, just too desperate and clever.

It’s hard to know what’s going on inside such people.

Because they think through every word they utter, even when they say something nice, it makes the back of your neck feel cold.

‘I definitely have to eliminate him.’

‘One inscrutable guy like Ji Cheonseong was enough.’