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Chapter 12

Kim Min-Young, the scriptwriter of The Showcase, stared at Bong Tae-Yoon, the youngest member of Siren.

“I practiced this a lot because we’re coming out on a show. I didn’t know I could sing this well either.” Bong Tae-Yoon suddenly began making excuses after singing so well.

“Pff.” Min-Young laughed without realizing it; she planned to laugh quietly in case the audio caught her voice, but she had accidentally laughed out loud. However, she wasn’t the only one laughing. The staff also had a big smile on their faces. As for the Siren members—

“Hahaha!”

“Do you think we’re going to bully you for singing well?”

“Tae-Yoon must be on a roll today.”

“Tae-Yoon, you’re improving fast these days.”

They all laughed cheerfully and congratulated Bong Tae-Yoon, and Tae-Yoon looked at the older members and the filming crew with a somewhat dazed expression. Judging by how his ears were slightly red, he seemed embarrassed. However, he tried to keep a straight face as much as possible.

‘He’s funny.’ It was cute in a way. ‘He finally seems like the maknae now.’

The youngest, who had looked solemn all day, now finally seemed like a maknae a little bit.

* * *

I made an awful mistake. I had made excuses in a hurry because I was flustered and was now a laughing stock.

‘If only it wasn’t for that damn krumping.’ Sigh.

After going through the krumping dilemma, I became wary of improving my abilities dramatically since my members would find it strange. Thus, I had made excuses in a hurry, but it seemed as if that had made me look weirder instead. In the case of my singing, only my emotional expression had become more vivid, and I had shown no technical change, so I could have just laughed about it and easily glossed over it. I felt embarrassed that I unintentionally performed a one-man show for everyone to see.

“Tae-Yoon passes too. Your singing improved a lot. Well done.” Yeon-Hoon said and gave me a pass sign. This meant that I didn’t have to practice singing anymore for today. And the last one left was now—

“Do-Seung, can you come and play for me now,” Yeon-Hoon asked.

“I got it,” Do-Seung replied.

The only one left to sing was Yeon-Hoon, who was our main vocalist and leader.

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve heard Yeon-Hoon sing.’ I went to a corner and stared at Yeon-Hoon.

After Do-Seung switched positions with Yeon-Hoon and made eye contact, he asked, “Which song do you want to sing?”

“Hmm, what should I do?” Rather than an official vocal practice, this must have felt like playing for him.

‘There’s nothing more for him to practice.’ Technically, Yeon-Hoon had nothing more to practice for singing as he was already on the level of a professional vocalist. Furthermore, he was slightly better than most main vocalists of other idol groups. After those two exchanged signs, Do-Seung began playing the piano.

Ding.

As soon as he began playing, everyone knew that it was the OST of a famous historical drama. The filming crew looked surprised by his choice of song as Yeon-Hoon had only shown a playful and cheerful appearance until now. It must have been surprising that a person like that chose to sing a historical OST that invoked sorrowful and longing emotions.

—Late spring, flowers wither

As soon as he sang the first note, Yeon-Hoon’s cheerful expression completely dissapeared from his face. His eyes looked as if he were already deeply immersed in the character’s emotions and situation.

—In the dead of night, I am too restless to sleep

—You are a ray of light, warm and soft

— who embraced and awakened me.

That was what talent was. It was something that I could only follow for a moment with a sort of trick called Insight. The filming crew’s eyes were filled with deep emotions, almost of awe. Since we had heard this song often and knew of Yeon-Hoon’s skills well, we weren’t very surprised.

‘But I was also shocked when I first heard him sing.’

The filming crew’s current reaction was the normal, general reaction when listening to Yeon-Hoon’s singing for the first time. He had a clear and pure voice, but it also sounded like the cold wind of winter. To put it simply, he had a sweet and gentle voice, but it sounded sad at the same time. It was striking that two opposite characteristics came from one person’s throat. In particular, the serious expression he made when singing made the audience even more immersed.

—Even if I run away, it chases after me

—This emotion called love

—is a flower that has bloomed belatedly

—but will never wither

The song gradually moved towards the climax. The staff’s eyes began to look almost sentimental, and when everyone was getting ready to shout at the upcoming climax—

—And that, ack!

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

“What the?”

Yeon-Hoon suddenly stopped singing. Then he went to the corner and coughed like crazy. He immediately pulled out a tissue and brought it to his mouth. When I thought something seriously bad might have happened to him from singing in a place with bad air—

Yeon-Hoon shouted, “A bug entered my mouth! Eeeeeckkkk!”

“Oh.”

“Pweh.”

I whispered, “That’s a relief.”

It was just a bug.

“How is it a relief that I ate a bug? Seriously.” Yeon-Hoon must have heard my quiet whisper as he began expressing how hurt he was.

I replied, “It’s too bad that you ate a bug.” Honestly, I didn’t feel bad, since that could happen from time to time. However, injuries to his neck needed to be avoided at all costs. Yeon-Hoon’s neck was way too valuable to lose for us in the future.

“Let’s end today’s vocal practice here. I don’t feel like singing anymore after eating a bug.” After saying this, Yeon-Hoon clicked his tongue in regret.

“Ah...” Then suddenly, Kim Min-Young sighed in disappointment. Her eyes were not of a scriptwriter but more like—

‘An audience.’ She looked like someone who had fallen in love with Yeon-Hoon’s singing.

Then her expression quickly changed, and she said, “Then, let’s take a break for a moment and continue filming.”

She returned to a cold professional in an instant.

* * *

During the ten-minute break, Kim Min-Young reviewed the parts they filmed today. However, even if she tried to recall the contents, she couldn’t do it well as Woo Yeon-Hoon’s singing continued to linger in her head.

‘Woo Yeon-Hoon, what was that?’

She had seen many idols, but she had never been this surprised. Of course, there were idols who sang better than him, and there were idols, albeit not many but definitely a few who were more handsome than him. She had worked with idols like that but today was...how should she say it—there was something strange about it.

‘He’s really good, for real.’ However, she needed to forget about that moment and focus on work right now.

‘If he sang a bit more, you might seriously fall for him...how interesting.’ Min-Young thought she finally understood the feelings of idol fans a little bit.

‘Hmm?’ Even though it was break time, Min-Young felt her eyes naturally follow Woo Yeon-Hoon as if she was attracted by a magnet and then began doubting her professional skills.

She muttered inside her mind, ‘You’re crazy, Kim Min-Young.’

* * *

During break time, my group members and I decided to buy coffee at a café and pass it around the staff. Of course, WD Entertainment’s Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna also joined us.

“Mr. Yeon-Hoon, wow, your singing was amazing!”

“Yeah, I got goosebumps.”

“Really? Was it that good?”

While going to the café, Yoon Seung-Yeon and Lee Hyuna chatted with Yeon-Hoon. We ordered all the coffee for the staff as takeout. Now, we just had to pay when I heard a muttering next to me.

“Pweh. Seung-Young, you can do it. Don’t worry, it’s just one time.” Yoon Seung-Yeon muttered to herself while shaking her hands as if she were chanting a spell.

Wondering what she was doing, I looked closer at her card.

‘A check card?’ It was a pink check card with a famous character on it.

I said, “Wait a minute.”

“What?” Yoon Seung-Yeon asked.

“That’s not the company’s card.”

“Ah, yes!”

Hyuna and Seung-Yeon were using their own money to pay for the drinks. Then the members’ eyes were all gathered towards Seung-Yeon.

“What, your own money?”

“Ms., you don\'t have the company’s card?”

Seung-Yeon asked in puzzlement, “Why, what’s wrong?”

“What’s this?”

Yoon Seung-Yeon seemed to have felt pressured by the members’ eyes as she hurriedly gave her card to the café staff, “P-please complete the payment quickly!”

The café staff seemed to have intuitively realized that if not for this chance, it would take forever for us to pay, so they quickly completed the payment.

However, the situation was still not over. I asked, “Why did you use your personal card?”

Seung-Yeon answered, “Well, only the head manager has the company card. Also, even if we get a company card, we’ll definitely get scolded like crazy if we use it.”

I could roughly guess what happened. Yoon Tae-Hyun was the source of all evil; I couldn’t believe that he didn’t even give them a company card while they were working. Since the drinks have already been paid for, we couldn’t do anything about it.

Instead, I said, “Please send me your account number.”

“What? It’s all right.”

“It’s not all right.” I couldn’t put the burden on one person alone. I was going to at least share the burden when—

“If there’s anything that costs money during promotions, let’s all pay for it!”

“We can’t let Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna pay for everything!”

The other members also joined in.

“You can just use my card~.” At that moment, Dong-Jun behind me said this. I understood what he meant, but the other members seemed to not know it yet.

Yeon-Hoon shouted, “No! We have to share it evenly!”

Well, I didn’t reveal it for now because they would all find it out eventually. We left the café with a large amount of coffee. While going to the practice room, we all pinched into Ms. Seung-Yeong’s account. I knew the company was working desperately to not spend any money on us, but they were going too far by not providing us an activities fee.

‘I’ll have to get the company card even if I have to fight for it.’ Even if we couldn’t do anything about today’s payment at the café, we couldn’t do this every time. This was a problem that we needed to deal with at least once. I thought I should talk to the company to prevent this from happening next time.

* * *

Filming resumed after the break. From now on, the reality show-like shooting was over. Before starting the official shooting, the scriptwriter explained the scene we were going to film.

Min-Young said, “We will now be filming scenes that are essential for the broadcast. I’ll give you the script here, so please read through it.”

The script we received was roughly to give our first greeting to the viewers of The Showcase, play several games, and receive our first mission.

The filming progressed quickly.

“Hello, We’re Siren, the debut group of WD Entertainment! Please give us your support!”

First of all, we gave our first official greeting to the viewers, and then we introduced ourselves briefly. It was nothing much as we just introduced our names and positions in the group.

“I’m Woo Yeon-Hoon, the team leader!”

“I’m Kang Do-Seung, the rapper.”

“I’m Lee Woon, the main dancer!”

“I’m Park Dong-Jun, in charge of cuteness~!”

“I’m Bong Tae-Yoon, the maknae of Siren.”

Everyone except Dong-Jun and I said our positions, but frankly, positions were not that important so the writers didn’t interfere with our greeting. Then there was time for us to explain Siren’s strengths. Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna must have written this part in advance and sent it to the broadcasting station.

Yeon-Hoon began to explain our strengths in an overly nice voice, “Our Siren group has a variety of charms in five different talents! With many years of practice, our members have all developed a strong...”

It was an extremely normal and common introduction, and there were lines that didn’t have much substance. So after our introduction was over, the official shooting began.

“First of all, congratulations on joining <The Showcase 2—First Chance>.”

“Yesss!”

The official shooting began, and the scriptwriter, Kim Min-Young, acted as the host. She explained that the video we uploaded had become a hot topic with a lot of views and asked how we ended up filming it.

Yeon-Hoon answered the question by saying that the youngest of the group suggested it and that they were also all really surprised to see that it overlapped with Only One’s group. The scene gave off a moderately friendly and warm atmosphere. However, there was a moment when that atmosphere completely flipped.

“It’s our first official shoot in 10 days.” The atmosphere instantly changed when Min-Young relayed the message about the first shooting. She continued, “There’s a mission that every group must fulfill.”

Mission delivery was the heart of the program. The members began to look noticeably nervous. Yeon-Hoon literally froze and even Dong-Jun seemed to stiffen a bit.

“But it won’t be fun to just get the mission, right?” After saying this, Kim Min-Young took out something. The identity of that object was—

‘It’s a wheel.’ It was a spinning wheel with the names of various groups on it.

“You have to spin the wheel and film a declaration of war video to deliver to the group that you landed on to receive the mission!”

As expected, it was exactly as I remembered. However, if I remembered correctly, ‘it’s all staged.’

Even if we span that wheel a hundred times, the same name would come out, and that name was probably—

‘Only one.’ It was probably Kang Hyun-Sung’s group.