Chapter 14

"Let's go!"

At the sound of MC Ko Hyun-joo's voice announcing the start, the representatives of each group, who had been gathering their strength, rushed forward in unison.

I, too, stomped the ground at the right time.

'That's the goal.'

The sign pinned to my vision was 'Volt', the debut song by the six-member boy group called 'UpBeat'.

To be honest, 'Volt' wasn't the most recognizable of the eight songs. In terms of pure recognition, 'December Rain', which has been in the top 20 of the annual charts for six years on Korea's largest music site, Jamong Chart, and that would've been extremely overwhelming to handle.

There's a reason why we picked 'Volt' over such a strong contender.

I'll have more to say about it when I get there and catch it.

"Hey, hey, hey, Si-hwan, why are you so fast…"

Less than five seconds after the starting whistle blew, I heard a very funny sound next to me.

I turned my head slightly to see Kang Sun-woo, who hadn't even gotten off the start line, falling hard to the ground in a fall that would've instantly made a comedian cry.

He must have gotten his foot tangled up in the air because he was going too fast.

When he made eye contact with me, he gave me one of those looks that said, 'I'm wrong, you should go faster' you'd see in movies.

'Stupid.'

Well, I didn't want to look like that either.

As I picked up my pace and took a step forward, the chants around me slowly grew louder.

"You guys are so fast!"

"Come on guys!"

The excitement is comparable to a track meet up with a bunch of idols.

By the time we reached the halfway point, we started to see a distinction between those who were lagging behind and those who were ahead.

However, there were still about 10 people who were racing each other like racehorses.

I took a deep breath.

Imagine this.

The very shitty moments I had to go through in Hell, and catching escaped demons on that sizzling hot ground.

Circling the playground hundreds of times because Cerberus sends the ball I gave him flying into the distance whenever he would get way too bored.

The days when I built up my stamina by running not around the Han River, but around the lava-filled Pleketon River.

Recalling those moments from Hell naturally puts extra strength into my legs.

With a momentary burst of power, I pulled ahead of the other trainees, ever so slightly.

I could hear Sung-hwi's disbelieving laughter ringing in my ears as he ran right next to me.

"Ha, haha!"

Something about getting that reaction from that asshole makes me feel alot better.

I was the first of the 16 group representatives to reach the wall, and I grabbed the Volt sign with pinpoint accuracy.

I turned around and ran back to the start.

I heard a loud thud behind me, like a downpour hitting an umbrella.

"Ouch, I missed it!"

"Hey, hey, I had gotten to this one first—!"

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

All at once, the rest of the trainees slammed into the signposted wall and got tangled up in the mess.

I'm glad I made it out of that duck market by the skin of my teeth.

If I had stopped, I would have been caught in the middle.

As I made my way back with a leisurely 'Volt' sign, the members of Team 9, who had been cheering from afar, were chanting my name like crazy.

"Yu Si-hwan! Yu Si-hwan! Yu Si-hwan!"

With a slightly goofy grin, I slammed the sign into the groove.

I can't believe they're cheering for me when I've barely spoken even two words to them.

On one hand, it's pretty cute.

After a while, the later runners who had won the banner battle arrived one after another.

Sung-hwi, who was the second to arrive, looked a little annoyed and had hit my sign.

"...This is what I wanted to do."

"Too bad."

"Haha, but what the hell, I guess it can't be helped. Si-hwan's pretty good at sports, so what can't you do?"

"I don't know, I haven't really thought about that."

"I guess that's to be expected, my brother is very fun."

Sung-hwi's face returned to its normal color.

"But on the other hand, I think it's a good thing we picked different songs, so there's no chance of us meeting, right? Honestly, it's too much for Si-hwan to fight with his brother this early."

"You're pretty outspoken, too."

"Hahaha, I've been told I don't have a clue."

I only smiled at Sung-hwi's words.

It was the last thing I wanted to do.

No matter how strategically we approach the group battle rounds, a group with two A-grade players was just too risky to do.

Once I had my target song locked down, my primary concern was alleviated.

"Wow, what can't you do? If you're so good at running, what about us commoners?"

"I've already been asked that question, so get off the plane, man."

Yoo Ha-woon looked like he would have gone all the way to the rinse if I hadn't stopped him.

I glanced at the faces of the Group 9 members gathered around me, checking my estimate or value.

'We didn't have that much information on each of them yet. Episode 1 of 'Asri 2' hasn't even aired yet, and they haven't filmed their own direct cams or PR videos, so we're going to have to rely on a very limited analysis.'

In this situation, the only thing we can rely on is the judges' ratings.

Even if I said that a group with a good balance is likely to fail, it's impossible to get any information other than the rating at this point.

Because maybe.

"Okay, so that completes the song selection process, and as you may have noticed, the first group to get their sign in the groove gets the chance to perform that song exclusively, and you're probably thinking, "How will the rivalry be determined?" Well, I'm going to tell you how the rivalry will be determined for this group battle round right now."

Because I was going to have them pick their rivals without even having time to discuss it.

I quickly scanned through the groups that hadn't gotten their signs and listened to MC Ko Hyun-joo.

"If you've worked hard, you deserve to be rewarded, and the groups that managed to get the first eight songs will also receive a nomination ticket to directly nominate their opponents in the order they arrived. Our contestant Yu Si-hwan, who came in first, was Group 9, right?"

"Yes."

"Starting in Group 9, you can name your favorite opponent and let me know. I'll give you a minute to discuss it, because I'd think it would be way too soon if you'd told me right away!"

Shit.

It's complicated enough to give me five minutes to think about it, and then they give me a minute to get my panties in a bunch. These damn producers.

The members of Group 9 gathered around me, but I tried to keep my focus as unbroken as possible and kept track of the other groups' figures.

"One, four, two... I don't know, that one. One, three, three over there."

"Excuse me, can I help you?"

Someone whispered in my ear as I furiously organized the numbers.

A skinny trainee with long dreadlocks that half-hid his eyes. A Class C badge gleamed on his chest.

For a moment, I didn't know what to call him because he didn't seem to have a face.

"I'm Chae-haru. I'm 19 years old, so feel free to talk to me."

"Oh, right, I didn't recognize your name, thanks for reminding me. But, why...?"

"You were just dividing the different groups into classes, right?"

The boy named Chae-haru stared at where I was looking with slightly lifeless eyes.

"I don't have much, but I do have a good memory and sharp eyes. I was organizing them when you were running hard."

"Organized, you mean, all the other people in the group by rank?"

"Yeah."

Help comes from the most unexpected places.

Chae-haru recited it to me so calmly, as if this was a given.

"Group 12 has the same number of people as us, so they don't have any special advantages, and although they have four C-D trainees in groups 2 and 5, I don't think they'll be easy to beat since the B-trainees were quite well-received in the evaluation. On the other hand, group 4 has a top A-trainee in Kang Sun-woo, but they have a relatively weak average of one B-trainee, four C-D trainees, and one F-trainee."

"Ah..."

"Contestant Yu Si-hwan. Have you decided on your opponent for Group 9?"

"Yes, I've decided."

As my gaze slowly moved towards him, Kang Sun-woo, who was standing at the front of Group 4, was startled.

"Hey, Si-hwan, are you really going to do this?"

"Just once, just look at me once!"

Now he's outright begging.

I felt sorry for him, but I couldn't help myself.

'You're a vote stabilizer anyway, even if you'd lose to the group battle.'

I said with a smirk.

"I'll pick group 4."

"Yes! Since Yu Si-hwan nominated Group 4, 'Upbeat's 'Volt' has been decided to be a Group 9 vs. Group 4 match, so the nominated Group 4 can move to the side of Group 9."

Kang Sun-woo, who stood next to me with a face of defeat, cried out in a very somber tone.

"You're... really mean."

"It's no use trying to be cute with me."

"We've still been in the same room for over a week!"

"Let's hope we're in the same group next time."

"Oh, that's not bad! Maybe Si-hyuk can join us later."

When the conversation turned to the distant future, Kang's face lit up.

This guy is really easy to deal with.

Moments later, the rivalry bracket process was finalized, and all the matchups were set.

Everyone was in a different mood.

Joe was confident that he'd found a worthy opponent, and Joe was frustrated that he hadn't gotten his size right the first time.

The first round of "Idol Strictly Come Dancing Season 2" is here! All the songs and rival nominations have been completed, and you have exactly one week. I hope you'll be able to master the songs in one week and create a great stage. Good luck, everyone!"

"Good job!"

"Thank you!"

The filming in the auditorium has ended.

Before the participants descended to their group practice rooms, they were briefly filmed for personal interviews that would be used between segments.

"You showed a lot of speed in that sign run earlier, did you do any workouts in the past?"

"Ahaha... I never trained professionally, but I knew how to use my body."

"You were able to name your first opponent and you said it so fast, did you have it in mind beforehand?"

"Actually, I was thinking about it a lot internally, but since I was so close to Sun-woo, I was able to choose the four of us without any pressure. And I thought that our group had a chance to win based on the overall atmosphere of the song and the composition of the group, so I cautiously…"

I've gotten about 10 questions like this.

I think it's because I'm a pretty big part of one or two episodes, so naturally there are a lot of interviews.

It's not bad. In this way, I can indirectly see that I have not been abandoned by the KNet crew.

After finishing my personal interview, I opened the door to the practice room where the members of Group 9 were gathered.

"I've been waiting for you, bro!"

"Welcome."

They're young, but they're not tired after a shoot that lasted well over two hours.

No wonder, I was the one doing all the hard work.

"Oh, and the crew told me to pick this one!"

Yoo pointed to three stickers on the practice room table.

When I saw the crown, the letter L, and the microphone, I sighed inwardly.

I knew that this was coming.