CH32

It's <Remind > by Drop Out.

I don't recognize this song.

Despite keeping a keen eye on K-pop, I haven't managed to listen to every song on the music charts.

I just went through the monthly Top 100 for the past 5 years. That would be around 6,000 songs.

Sure, there's likely plenty of overlap in the monthly Top 100, so in reality, it might not even be half of that, but it's still a hefty number.

Furthermore, although the song <Remind > supposedly belongs to Drop Out's album, it's not a song you'd know unless you're a true fan.

Now that I think about it, I heard that Drop Out is looking to tweak the release schedule a bit earlier…

Could it be coming out when they were doing <Coming Up Next>?

As these thoughts are crossing my mind, Go Tae-Hwan's song kicks in.

Hmm, his intro does indeed have a good vibe.

The only hitch is that, with his current skill level, I can only savor the intro.

The location where the filming of <Coming Up Next> was currently taking place was a large-scale entertainment facility in Myeong-dong.

On the 1st floor, there was a cafe. On the 2nd and 3rd floors, there were singing rooms. From the 4th floor, there were various attractions, including a shopping mall, aimed at foreign tourist groups.

It was around the time when the members of <Three Months, Hundred Days> began singing energetically that people started entering the 1st floor of this building.

"Please have a seat over here."

Receiving guidance from the staff and moving to her seat, one of the audience members, Choi Se-Hee, scanned her surroundings with sharp eyes.

'There are way more ordinary people here.'

She knew that there were exactly 50 audience members today, but at a glance, there were only a few who looked like idol fans.

Instead, it seemed like there were more couples who did not quite grasp what this was all about and simply showed up for a date after being randomly selected.

In fact, rumors about <Coming Up Next> had already circulated on the online community "Dolpan" a while back.

Lion Entertainment had announced they were scouting participants for an in-house survival show to debut a new boy group.

Initially, Dolpan's reaction was '???'

Don't the words contradict each other?

The show's goal is to debut the participants right after it ends, so why recruit participants?

Then, the participants won't have to go through any trainee period and will just debut right after the program?

Are they looking to recruit only those who seem to have crash-landed from an 'idol planet'?

Or were they trying to poach debuted groups from other companies?

These were the initial reactions.

Moreover, though they were rare, there were even a few "Take Scene" fans on Dolpan,

These fans became supporters through the casual content of Take Scene, which was directly uploaded to Lion Entertainment's YouTube channel.

Upon learning about <Coming Up Next>, these fans unleashed their wrath on Choi Dae-Ho.

'This lunatic is playing games with these boys instead of properly training them for years…' was the beginning of their lengthy comments.

However, as time progressed, the true purpose behind <Coming Up Next> gradually came to light.

It was a format where the already-debuted Take Scene would compete against the newly recruited participants.

There were also rumors circulating that either Take Scene had fallen out of Choi Dae-Ho's favor and was being cut off or that the program was designed to promote Take Scene.

However, regardless of the reason, Choi Se-Hee did not care. Her primary focus was on Drop Out, and she firmly believed that no boy group could surpass them.

Even NOP had attempted to outshine them with their "body-contorting" concept, but except for the initial sales, Drop Out was ahead in all other metrics.

'Initial sales are just inflated these days anyway!'

Everything would be neatly resolved once Drop Out made their comeback.

The only drawback to being a Drop Out fan was their lack of active promotion.

Driven by a strong obsession with musical perfection, they did not promote much even before or after their contract renewal. They had gone silent after completing individual activities.

But it was accepted.

Recently, though, rumors of a comeback started spreading after Sido, the leader of Drop Out, posted a screenshot of a soundtrack he was working on on his SNS.

Thanks to that, the Drop Out fandom "Dreaming" started getting hyped again…

'But there are no teasers at all.'

They needed more fuel to maintain the hype.

In the midst of that, Choi Se-Hee happened to see the audience recruitment for <Coming Up Next>.

With her passion already ignited but lacking a place to direct it, it was no surprise that her fandom power led her to apply as an audience member.

As long as my main focus is solid, it's okay to take a look around outside.

She had no reason to feel threatened by a new group anymore, so she could watch with an amused mindset.

This was the reason why Choi Se-Hee became the first audience member of <Coming Up Next>.

As Choi Se-Hee was thinking that, the audience seats filled up, and a man who seemed to be the PD started talking.

"From now on, you will choose the better performer between those singing the same song."

As the PD's explanation continued, an expression of interest appeared on Choi Se-Hee's face.

Right now, there was a group called <Three Months, Hundred Days> on the 2nd floor, and <Take Scene> was on the 3rd floor.

The two groups were unaware of each other's existence, and the production crew had each of the members submit a list of their favorite songs.

We'll have them sing the same songs between the two lists. Simultaneously."

The singing from the 2nd and 3rd floors would be played on the 1st floor where the audience was sitting.

But she found it a bit strange.

If two people sang the same song at the same time, wouldn't it be hard to distinguish?

It might even be noisy since they won't be harmonizing.

One of the audience members from the couples' section threw out a question like that, but the PD just smiled and said they would understand when they heard it.

They gave the 50 audience members remote controls with two colored buttons, and they waited.

When some people started yawning out of boredom, suddenly, a song started playing throughout the entire 1st floor.

"Huh?"

As a Drop Out fan, Choi Se-Hee caught on to what song it was after just hearing the 1-second intro.

This is <Remind >.

It was one of the bottom songs of the album, so it was a song that even fans would not know unless they were true fans.

'These boys are good.'

She was already starting to like them.

Well, if they're a new boy group, it's only natural that they would take Drop Out as their role model.

Because Drop Out is a team that has overcome all kinds of adversities and hardships through just their performances alone.

Soon, the first verse spread throughout the entire 1st floor.

-영원할 줄 알았어. 너와 나.

(-I thought it would last forever. You and I.)

The moment she heard the intro, two thoughts came to Choi Se-Hee's mind.

The first thought was that the feeling was really good.

Originally, this part was sung by Dey, the lead vocalist of Drop Out, and the wistful yet resigned feeling was exquisite.

<Remind > was Drop Out's hidden masterpiece known only to true fans, and Dey played a big role in that.

And the person singing now was also pretty impressive.

The second thing she thought was that she could only hear one voice.

She had been told that two people would be singing together, but that did not seem to be the case.

That was when Choi Se-Hee noticed the words "Three Months, Hundred Days – Go Tae-Hwan" written on the monitor, which was originally used to display order numbers at the cafe.

'Oh, so it's a guy from Three Months, Hundred Days singing right now?'

Sure enough, when the next verse started, the voice changed, and the screen switched to "Take Scene – Re.D."

In other words, this match was between the participants Go Tae-Hwan and Re.D.

Choi Se-Hee wrote down their names.

She thought that being a Drop Out fan who included <Remind > as a favorite song was certainly a valid reason to support them.

The song progressed quite smoothly.

It seemed like the production crew had prepared a lot, as the distribution of parts was structured in a pleasant way to listen to.

Go Tae-Hwan dropped a verse, Re.D dropped a verse, and then Go Tae-Hwan dropped half a verse before Re.D continued with the next one.

They both kept it simple without any ad-libs, so it did not feel awkward to listen to them switching back and forth.

'But doesn't the side who gets the chorus have too big of an advantage?'

Choi Se-Hee thought about that, but the chorus distribution was fair.

Both voices were played at the same time.

And interestingly, there was a gimmick where depending on which way you tilted your body, the focus of the voices would change.

Tilt left, and Three Months, Hundred Days' Go Tae-Hwan's voice could be heard better.

Tilt right, and Take Scene's Re.D's voice rang more distinctly.

It seemed like there was an excessive number of speakers compared to the number of people, but there was a reason behind it.

'Is this Dolby Atmos'1, 5.12 channel or something?'

In the subsequent second verse, the two voices continued together.

They probably wanted the audience to keep listening now that they could somewhat distinguish the voices and knew about the left-right system.

After the first song ended, it was time for the evaluation.

"Blue button for Three Months, Hundred Days' Go Tae-Hwan, red button for Take Scene's Re.D. Vote for whoever you like better, even if it's just a little.

As the staff explained, Choi Se-Hee fell into thought for a moment.

She honestly felt that if she just listened to the first half, Go Tae-Hwan would win.

Not a sweeping victory, but a narrow one.

But after listening to the whole song, it became a bit ambiguous.

Re.D was better on the chorus and later parts, while Go Tae-Hwan was better on the chill parts like the intro and pre-hook.

In the end, she voted for Re.D.

If this had been a "Create Your Own Idol Group" kind of concept, she would have chosen Go Tae-Hwan.

Not everyone can be the star, and there would certainly need to be someone to handle the calm narratives.

But in this case, such conditions did not seem necessary.

It was just about who sang better.

Of course, no matter who sang it, the original was still the best.

After the voting was over, even before they announced the results, Go Tae-Hwan and Re.D came down to the 1st floor.

They did not have nametags on, but it was obvious at a glance who was Go Tae-hwan and who was Re.D.

'They're both good-looking.'

Go Tae-Hwan, despite appearing like a young thug, did not seem violent.

He had a lot of young thug friends around him, but he himself lived by principles.

Re.D had a trendy look that would definitely be popular these days.

Dolpan preferred stylish looks that could lead trends rather than overly delicate styles.

The sly fox Choi Dae-Ho clearly knew what idol fans wanted.

Meanwhile, Go Tae-Hwan and Re.D were shocked, first at the unexpected appearance of audience members and then at the equally unexpected appearance of their competitors.

After finally coming to their senses, they introduced themselves and exchanged greetings with each other.

'Cute.'

The votes came in, and Re.D won with 29 votes.

Next up was Three Months, Hundred Days' On Sae-Miro, and Take Scene's Tune.On, but one side completely overwhelmed the other.

It was to the point where people were amazed at how well the winning person sang.

Three Months, Hundred Days – On Sae-Miro: 14 votes

Take Scene – Tune.On: 36 votes

Tune.On, Take Scene's main vocalist, won. He was known as the best singer in Lion Entertainment's history, and he showed why.

In fact, Re.D, who was on the same team as Tune.On, was surprised that On Sae-Miro had managed to get 14 votes.

And the next performance…

"Wow…"

"What the heck?"

The one who momentarily broke the lovey-dovey vibe between the couples was Lee Ye-On.

As soon as Lee Ye-On came out after the song ended, people collectively gasped in awe.

Choi Se-Hee was also taken aback.

She had heard that when you see an actor in person, you can feel their aura, but she did not know what that feeling was until now.

His face looked like a statue of David.

Even C.U from Take Scene, who came down with Ye-On, had an objectively good-looking face, but he was made to look like a squiggly squid.

'And he can even sing well with that face. I wonder if he can dance too.'

Lee Ye-On won the third round with 26 votes.

'Both teams seem to have some solid members?'

She had only seen two members from each team so far, but the member compositions seemed diverse yet cohesive.

Then, the fourth stage was ready.

Three Months, Hundred Days' Han Si-On and Take Scene's Fade were up next.

TL/n - 

You can read 5 chapters in advance on p@treon.com/inkbound