Chapter 12

"Why am I more exciting?"

"Yeah, well, we didn't invite you."

"How many times have you watched this?"

I nagged the two uncomfortable people in front of the TV in the hostel.

I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed that Kang Sun-woo and Ma Si-hyuk only played at the part where my high-pitched voice appeared at.

"Wow, but the camera followed you really well. Si-hwan, how did you do that?"

"Very easy."

"Oooh, is Yu Si-hwan, the first baseman, back in action?"

I replied in a cheerful voice to Kang Sun-woo, who was still giving me a glare.

"Now, the camera has a red light, right?"

"Yeah!"

"Then we should follow it, right?"

"That's right!"

"Yeah, just follow every camera that has a red light like that."

"No, is that suppose to be a tip?"

"Brother Si-hwan, we all know that, just tell us which cameras are going to have red lights and how to anticipate them!"

"Unfortunately, from this point on, a fee will be required."

Ignoring the resentful sigh, I watched the brief trailer that followed the end of the 'HIT' stage.

Of course, I'd already watched the show, so I knew what was going to be coming.

Still, today is the first day of the first round, so I thought I'd watch it again for my motivation.

[Remember the roar that had lit up the summer sky around three years ago?]

A spotlight shone on the dark stage, and out of it emerged a suit-clad MC that was Ko Hyun-joo.

[For the program managers who tasted the passion and joy along with many trainees at that time, our front side worked hard to make the league even better, and at the end of it.]

I could tell that this was a program created and invested in by a very large company that actually owns a baseball team because of the clever use of the baseball terms.

Normally, they would use terms like producer and a voter as the nicknames for the viewers, but here they would call them managers.

However, when I thought about it, it seemed like a good choice because it made me think of managers, who are in charge of managing idols.

As Ko Hyun-joo spread his arms, the lights of the very set where the theme song 'HIT' from 'Asri 2' was filmed soon came on one after another.

All of a sudden, there was three seconds of silence in the midst of all of this.

[I don't know. My first thought was, hmm. That sounds interesting.]

Sung-hwi's interview flashed by like a thunderbolt, his shoulders relaxed and his manic expression.

'This is the kind of scene that KNet likes to edit with.'

I sipped my water and recalled the editorial flow of KNet that I had read when I was in Hell.

Alchemists who can spin an otherwise unremarkable scene and create it into a sensationalized version of itself.

If you need to spice things up a bit, KNet's creators have a knack for taking in every single line of dialogue from a completely different scene and splicing it into a plausible new scene.

And even when there was no actual ki fight, I was more cautious in my behavior because I knew they were specialized in creating controversy.

'...Of course, I don't know what will exactly happen because of that one idiot.'

Sung-hwi's interview was then followed by our level test scene, which came in together smoothly and quickly.

[terrible, this isn't really going out well at all.]

[Is this all you have got to show me?]

[Let's be honest, I'm not sitting here to just see this].

[I'm asking because I'm curious].

Culminating in the judges' scathing comments, which were punctuated by back-to-back KO punches, Shin's comments were louder than ever.

[Did he really want to be an idol?]

The rest of the day had went by quickly, with a few with their shaking heads and having tears too of course.

It was all too seamless for the viewer,

"Wow, that's just as vicious on a second viewing."

"In that scene, we were wiping our sweaty faces in our self-practice."

"And he's doing it with fake tears."

The three of us watching the screen stuck our tongues out at the shameless KNet weaving.

The reactions of the trainees that were being crushed to a pulp were included to a certain extent, and also the other scenes that were made with ridiculous editing. They would just take a scene where they were practicing peacefully and would glue and fit it in, or make it look like they were freaking out when they were just putting eye drops in their eyes.

[He's finally starting to get excited].

[That was so cool, is this a class?]

[This is what I was hoping for!]

[You know I don't often say this, but it was so cool.]

[That's so funny ahhh!]

It's the epitome of the bottle and the pill style.

After evaluating the bad trainees, he immediately did the exact opposite, touting in 'we have kids like this inside our program!'

Even though the scenes were fleeting, the judges' lines from Kang Sun-woo's and my evaluations both had stuck with me.

And at the end of the trailer.

[**Ah, you'd done extremely well.]

It even jumped ahead from my final rating, subtly building anticipation for the viewers.

Of course, Yu Si-hwan's face hadn't appeared, but it was still a strange feeling to watch it on TV.

"Only my rating was not shown."

"I'm sure you're going to have a field day with your rating, you're literally on your knees begging for it to show."

"Should I consider that to be a good thing?"

As Kang Sun-woo offered Ma Si-hyuk some words of comfort, the screen crackled with words.

[Support your idol now! First broadcast in June 17, ON AIR].

I stared at the TV as the trailer ended and reflected on where we were.

To put it bluntly, I had mobilized up quite a bit of buzz with the 'HIT' preview stage video.

All the elements were in the right place and at the right time.

I received a final grade of A and performed on 'HIT' with the highest platform, and even scored with a camera one-shot.

My solo verse was even on a high-pitched part and at the end of the 2nd verse.

Best of all, I followed along with the camera movements perfectly.

This is one of the basic skills you learn as an idol trainee, but I was able to relive my experiences from Hell and could pay even extra attention.

For example, I was constantly looking away to manage the harpy-like creatures that were flying through the sky.

Or watching Cerberus's paws as he tried to slip off his leash and run away from the clearing.

With all this experience, I eagerly chased on with the camera's red light.

A simple eye contact is a much more natural way to steal the viewer's attention.

{Uh, master, did you just call me?}

'I was thinking of you, but I didn't call you, so go back to sleep.'

{Ah, what a shame!}

'You look like you want to sleep more than anything right now.'

{You know me too well!}

Cerberus, who remained invisible, smirked, then plopped down on my pillow.

I shook my head and tried to surf the social media web.

It was imperative to see where the public's primary interest lay.

— The kid who sometimes sings high-pitched at [02:45], does anyone know who that is?!!!

└ I'm so curious about this guy too, so I had looked it up, but I really don't know, but really, he's extremely good.

└ Go search up on the 'Asri 2' homepage and look at the list of participants with the name Yu Si-hwan

— And his profile is labeled personal, I had thought I'd already gotten all the personal trainees I could from the last 'Asri 1', but where did they come from?

└ It's not like I've been living in this life with that wacky thing;;; well what can I possibly do? I'm just suddenly excited.

In the comments of the 'HIT' video on YouTube, there was also something like this.

['HIT' Center Stage Participants Profile Summary.txt 6453] N/: down below.

There was a similar case like what was in the last season, and I'm sure the kids on the center stage would've gotten the A's in general, so here's a quick rundown of the ones I saw!!! I wrote them down while comparing their faces to their profiles on the website, so I'm asking for recommendations.

Starting center: Sung-hwi (from X2)

Early second column: Yu Si-hwan (individual trainee of mebo material), Kang Sun-woo (from BK).

There were also articles analyzing 'HIT' by looking at the brief profiles with all the 100 participants that were recently updated on the official website.

Yu Si-hwan was mentioned quite often and was quite popular.

─ But why is everyone falling in love with Yu Si-hwan? He's handsome, but if you look at his face, he's not the winner.

└ Nwaku is also a waku, but first of all, there are a lot of songs. I've never seen a kid who can play a part that goes up to 3 octaves in a group theme song like this.

└ No matter how you look at it, it's the kind of material that the K-pop guys will like hahahaha, Everyone knows that these storytellers push each other.

└ Even if it was me, I'd want to take care of them if they had that kind of presence among the big agencies... They're so venomous in their eyes to sing a hit.

└ But I think Si-hwan is more handsome lol; he's a little FM, first prince style and Hwi is a little playful.

As it turns out, the gateway that awaits us is a hell of a lot of trolls and selfishness.

It's going to be a group battle.

***

That afternoon,

as the host of "Idol Stardig Season 2," Ko Hyun-joo quickly walked inside the auditorium.

He smiled wryly at the incoming trainees.

'I feel kind of bad.'

In his role as MC, his is merely following KNet's orders. He holds no absolute authority nor power.

However, since he is the one who gives all the orders to the trainees, this feeling of guilt would co-exist.

He felt that what he was about to say on the cue card that was in his hand would be too harsh for these young participants to handle.

'Idol Stardig Season 2' contestants, did you all have a good rest?"

"Yes~"

The trainees, who had a short break of about a week after the final evaluation, replied with voices full of energy.

"Now that your final ratings have been determined, we can really start this league, so let's announce the first round missions here today."

As his words had fallen, the mood in the room changed in an instant.

The trainees, who had been playing pranks on each other and were showing their bright faces, all swallowed onto their saliva and soon looked at Ko Hyun-joo.

"It's said that to become a top idol, you need this more than anything else, 'teamwork'. I'm curious to see how well you can work on it together with your unfamiliar teammates, so this first round we've prepared for you is a 'group battle competition'."

The curtain behind Ko Hyun-joo then opened wide, revealing the 16 signs.

The contestants cheered as they saw the names of famous male idol songs.

All of these songs have made their mark on the history of K-pop.

These were the songs that almost every aspiring idol would've covered around at least once.

"You'll be forming groups of 16, and you'll be battling against each other's rival teams with one song. Pretty simple, right?"

"By any chance, how does the team formation and song selection work?"

"Good question."

In response to one participant's question, Ko Hyun-joo appeared and mounted with a meaningful smile.

"If it's a team game, you'd probably be more comfortable with the people you'd know."

"Yeah!"

"But the world doesn't exactly bend towards your will, sometimes you'll get lucky and sometimes you'll get unlucky, so this team will be entirely determined by luck."

From one side of the auditorium, a member of the staff team soon appeared and had wheeled in a large machine.

He looked at the confused participants and spoke in a very refreshing tone.

"Sometimes it's better to do things the classic way than from the complicated way. What would you like to think, everyone? Are you ready to swallow with me?"

N/: I'll be updating this, and i'll have two more chapters up timed at 9:00 EST from now, thank you for reading my translation.