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Chapter 49

There were almost 350,000 views. The application video we uploaded in the beginning, had jumped in views almost three times overnight. People were paying more attention to us after the first episode was released, and we were also getting many comments and posts about us on social media pages.

“If you search our name right now, so many searches pop out!” Woon said excitedly.

“Wow! Wow! Woooow!” Yeon-Hoon’s energy seemed to rise gradually as he jumped up from his seat.

“Wow, this is insane...” Do-Seung pulled out his phone and searched through the social media pages in a daze.

“Wow~ I think we might really become something!” On one hand, Dong-Jun cheered and seemed to enjoy the situation.

I surfed through social media sites and the internet and tried to assess the situation. While we were winning the Pepcola commercial through mini-games, there were some talks about The Showcase 2 circulating around the internet. As some events clashed and people gained interest in our video and Yeon-Hoon’s face also spread across the internet, it brought more attention to our group. This all drew in more curiosity towards the general show and increased the show’s general visibility to the public.

Thus, it wasn’t just our video that increased in views significantly. Only One, Bleshu, Luminin, and One by One all increased in fame. In Only One’s case, their video view count increased to more than 400,000 while Bleshu’s video view count rose to 150,000. OnebyOne and Luminin also recorded 100,000 and 130,000 views each. All the videos’ views had gone up dramatically.

‘But our views increased the greatest amount.’ I was sure of this. The flow of internet searches favored us the most. In Only One’s case, their video count had only increased to 400,000 from 300,000. Thus, they only gained 100,000 views from news searches while we earned 250,000 views and decreased the gap between us and them.

‘I can clearly see the gap between us dwindling now.’ Only One, who had seemed far away, seemed reachable now, and today was the day when The Showcase 2’s first episode would be aired.

I didn’t want to get my members’ hopes up in case they could be disappointed, but I thought, ‘If today’s episode also goes well, I think we can really have a good chance of rivaling against Only One.’

Now that we have come this far, I began to see a path for us and the possibility for us to overturn this whole show.

“Wow...”

“I can’t believe it..”

“Ahh, I’m nervous.”

“Today’s show is going to be important.”

My group members and I became silent for a moment while sitting in front of the dining table. They were all preparing themselves for the upcoming future. Perhaps, some were envisioning a bright hopeful future while others were worrying about the worst sort of outcome they could imagine.

But I simply prayed inside my mind, ‘Please let them show us in at least above-average light—not as villains or just annoying characters in the show.’

The flow of all the recent events was good for us. We just needed to wait for now.

***

Only One’s dorm stirred up as many conversations took place. After bringing the breakfast that their trainers had prepped for them to the table, they chatted. They were all energetic and excited because The Showcase 2 was supposed to air at 8 pm today.

“Our video view count increased to 400k.”

“Wow! What happened yesterday that our views jumped by 100k suddenly?”

“I’m dying to see the episode today.”

The Only One members didn’t think too much about the fact that their video view count rose the least amount of times and passed over the matter like it was a good thing. They were all still excitedly talking about the show that was going to air soon when Kang Hyun-Sung’s low voice interrupted them.

“Siren’s video has passed 350k now.”

The members’ voices gradually quieted then.

“Huh?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Their views increased by almost three times.”

It was then the Only One members also began to check the other group’s videos.

“It wasn’t just us, but all the other groups’ videos increased in view count too.”

“Maybe people are watching the videos the day before the show gets aired.”

The members suggested possible reasons and tried to assess the situation. Yet, they didn’t seem to dwell on it too much and passed over to the next topic. Only Kang Hyun-Sung among them searched through the web and checked the comments.

And after he finished his research, he concluded, “This might get dangerous.” He meant that there was a possibility that they could fail to defend their first-place titles at this rate.

“Sorry?” All the group members turned and stared at Kang Hyun-Sung’s sudden remark.

Kang Hyun-Sung opened his mouth again and said, “The ranks could completely overturn depending on today’s episode.”

The mood at the dining table instantly turned cold as Kang Hyun-Sung said these lines. Kang Hyun-Sung saw how tense his members were and opened his mouth again. He was aware that each and every word he said could sway the mood and knew that from the beginning, his relationship with his group members could never be equal.

Kang Hyun-Sung smiled bitterly and spoke again, “Let’s go practice after finishing our breakfast. I don’t think this is the time for us to laugh and just chat.”

Since he was still addressing a pre-debuted group, Kang Hyung-Sung thought he needed to take the reins and raise this group to a higher level.

“Yes, sir.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, we have to practice hard,” Kang Hyun-Sung said while throwing away half of his food.

***

The day quickly passed before The Showcase 2’s airtime. Today was the day when we needed to go to the practice room of the dance team we were going to collaborate with for the second-round performance. I thought everyone wouldn’t be able to focus on the practice because today was the day when the show was going to be aired, but fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Instead, the thought of the show airing today seemed to push my group members harder and they all practiced with all their might. We harmonized with the dance team well and were able to finish difficult moves in one go. Moreover, since we practiced without rest until dinner time, we were able to finish our practice before the show’s air time.

“Thank you so much!”

“Thank you!”

“Let’s meet again in the studio’s next rehearsal.”

“Yes!”

Like that, we returned to our dorm rooms, placed a laptop on top of the dining table, and huddled around it. This was the time we had been waiting for all day long.

“Ah, I’m so nervous.”

“Urgggh.”

“Please, please, let us be shown in a good light.”

“They won’t edit us badly or anything like that, right?”

The Showcase 2

’s first episode was going to be aired soon. My group members talked to each other to lower their nerves, but they still couldn’t shake off all their worries. Yeon-Hoon clenched his eyes shut and began praying, Do-Seung quietly inhaled and exhaled, Woon kept thumping his chest like he was feeling suffocated, and even Dong-Jun looked as if his hands were shaking.

“Then, I will turn it on,” I said while clicking around the laptop’s mouse.

“Ah, yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Turn it on.”

Sighh..

Using the OTT platform, where we could stream the show at the same time as the broadcast time, I went inside Wnet’s channel.

—Fresh and sweet taste! Pepcola Lime!

It was still commercial time so the official show wasn’t aired yet. Instead, I saw the program’s mark written in small font at the corner of the screen. There was a small countdown next to the mark. There were only ten seconds left.

—10

—9

—8

....

“Ahhh! Shh! The countdown is starting!”

“Ughhhh!”

Sighhhh.

My group members each gave huge reactions as their hearts tightened. Soon, the count number on the screen became 0, and The Showcase 2 First Chance’s first episode began. The show’s introductory video passed, which was a compilation video of the past season. Scenes of idols crying, smiling, cheering, and hugging each other quickly passed; and an interview of the last season’s winning girl group came out.

—There’s a huge difference in our lives before and after The Showcase.

—We aren’t just talking about our records and chart numbers. When interacting with our audience, we can clearly feel the change.

—What difference do you mean?

—Can we even say this?

—Well, ah, it feels like we can continue to perform on stage without worries.

This was the idol group that dramatically increased their fandom size from the last season. In their first appearance, they were the group with the smallest fandom among all the other casts. Yet, when the audience saw them progress by every show, they amassed more fans and they began to surpass other groups. In the end, the group even reached first place and the album they released recently sold 350k copies in its first week.

—So, this is what I want to tell the cast of The Showcase 2 this time.

—Do your best in this show and give it your all, thinking that it\'s your last chance!

—Because there could be a chance that something magical could happen.

I was barely listening to what these girl group members were saying. What they said was heart-warming and even moving.

‘But though they are from a small agency, the agency’s prominence is basically like a big agency.” This girl group came from a small agency in name only and the investment they got was comparable to big agencies. Furthermore, the owner of the agency was a self-made veteran who rose from the ranks of manager to CEO. Frankly, they were a group that would’ve risen to stardom even without The Showcase

. Thus, their words didn’t feel very genuine to me. Yet, it seemed I was the only one who thought this way.

“Wow, they are so cool.”

“Giving it your all...”

“Let’s also succeed like them.”

My group members looked touched by these idols’ words. It was as if peasants were getting encouraged by royals pretending to be peasants.

‘Well, the video’s purpose is to do just that,’ I thought and quickly passed over the matter. Then, after the interview video, there was another video summarizing how they gathered The Showcase 2’s participants.

There was a page where countless idol groups uploaded their videos and the top five groups that recorded the most views were chosen to be on the show. These were scenes that explained the most basic information about the show. After that, the show continued with a scene of the idols introducing their dorms.

—Only One’s dorm

The first group to come out was Only One.

—Be your ONLY ONE! Hello, we are Only One!

They said their group’s catchphrase energetically like newbie idols. Then the video played moments that clearly looked scripted such as the members playfully making jokes at each other in the morning and then stretching as soon as they woke up. If anyone pictured the ideal idols’ dorm life, this was the image they would have thought of. And after Only One left to go to practice, their scene came to an end. The next one to come up was Bleshu. Bleshu’s scenes weren’t much different from Only One.

They said their group’s catchphrase in front of the dorm and showed themselves getting ready to go to practice. The only difference from the last video could be that they showed their natural selves more than Only One. On the other hand, OnebyOne and Luminin’s dorm videos were quite disappointing. Not only was their screen time very short, but it was clear that most of their content was faked. Perhaps, they moved locations for the shooting, but there were even a couple of awkward scenes like this.

—Ah, um, where did we put the trash can?

—The utility room.

—Um, where was the utility room again?

Furthermore, all the members’ pajamas were check-patterned ones like the kinds newly-wed couples might wear, and they all looked brand new as if they had just been taken out of their wrappers. It seemed the two teams’ screen time significantly decreased because of these awkward setups.

“Ah, is it our turn now?”

“Ahhhh.”

“Haaa.”

We were the only group whose dorm wasn’t revealed yet.

“Why are we the last ones to come out?’ I expected our videos would be placed first or shoved around the middle, so it was surprising that our group would appear last. I naturally thought the videos would be edited to center around Only One but they came out first.

This was surprising since in programs like this, it was most likely that the team that the show introduced the last was the one the show was backing the most. In other words, this could mean the show was backing us up more than Only One in this episode. Perhaps, I was right because even the beginning of our dorm video was different from the other groups’ videos.

“Huh?”

“W-What’s going on?”

—Wow, there’s no elevator...?

—Be careful so you don’t step over the camera lines!”

—Haa...Haa....Huff, puff...

The entryway to our form was filmed like a documentary where the camera angles were directed towards the floor before infiltrating a place, and the background audio was the producers gasping for air while moving their filming equipment. That seemed to have happened because our dorm room was on the rooftop.

“Um, this is The Showcase, right?”

“Why did it suddenly turn into a documentary on our part...?”

My group members asked astonishedly.

‘This is it....!’ I shouted inside my mind. The show then revealed the inside of our door. It was a tiny, old villa rooftop room. And soon, someone opened the worn-out iron door and appeared.

—Gasp! You are already here.

It was Yeon-Hoon who looked bright and handsome enough to swipe away the dreary and shabby background instantly behind him. Seeing this, I became certain.

‘We are the main characters.’ Only One wasn’t the main character of episode 1. It was us.