"Thank you!"
"Th-Thank you!"
Was this song always this long? Right about when I started to wonder, it finally ended.
Jun-hyeok hyung wrapped up with a clean bow to the very end, while I, catching my breath, fumbled a beat, as if all the stamina and dance skills I'd built up counted for nothing.
Still, I could proudly say the stage itself had gone pretty well.
"We enjoyed that. Please wait a moment."
What kind of expression is my face making right now? I just hope I don't look too relieved.
'Sadly, you look way too relieved. Like someone who could die right here with no regrets. Get your face muscles in line.'
At Super Strong Dragon's words, like a hard smack to the head, I tensed the corners of my mouth and my eyes again.
I'd practiced a lot, in my own way, and it still showed all over my face. How on earth was I supposed to fix this?
"Hm. First, Trainee Jeong Jun-hyeok?"
"Yes!"
The first to be called was Jun-hyeok hyung.
Since it was Park Hui-su sunbae-nim who'd called on hyung, was she going to praise his vocals? I wish Park Hui-su sunbae-nim would give me advice too.......
"I heard it in your introduction too, but your trainee period is on the long side."
"Yes. It's been over 5 years now, counting the years."
Why bring up his trainee period out of nowhere? Surely she isn't going to say something horrifying like, all that time and that's all you can do? She's someone I respect, though?
'I'd call it a talent, twisting every single word that much.'
I'd only been thinking to myself, and while I bristled at Super Strong Dragon for picking a fight, Park Hui-su sunbae-nim smiled brightly and nodded.
"Stacking pitch live on a dance song must have been hard, but maybe because of everything you've built up, it was stable and easy to listen to. Good work."
"Thank you!"
Ah. So she was going to praise him.
While I wore a sheepish smile, looking at hyung's beaming face, a question came my way too.
"Trainee Jae-min, your preferred position is vocals too?"
"Yes!"
And from Choi Su-jin, the choreographer who rules the K-POP dance world, no less.
It was a little disappointing that it wasn't Park Hui-su sunbae-nim, but if anything, I tried to straighten my back a little more.
But what came next was enough to make even my squared shoulders shrink.
"Maybe that's why you seemed to gloss over a few of the intense moves....... As the choreographer of this song, that hurt a little."
"Ah....... I'm still really lacking when it comes to dance. I'll work harder!"
No wonder Team Leader Seol pushed this song so hard. It was because choreographer Choi Su-jin had worked on it.
Then again, of course it hurts when someone throws away the choreography you worked so hard to make.
'Yeah. If it were me, I'd have cussed you out, cameras or not.'
I know, okay? So please, when I'm not calling you, could you just rest by yourself?
Realizing I'd committed the one discourtesy I should never have committed, I felt like every vertebra of my straightened spine was crumbling.
"But even to my untrained ear, your singing was so good that if it weren't my own choreography, I wouldn't have noticed. Right, Hui-su?"
That is, until choreographer Choi Su-jin called on Park Hui-su sunbae-nim.
"I agree it's definitely not a talent that should get buried. So much so that I wished you'd sung more of the hook instead of just adding the chorus. Trainee Lee Jae-min, do you have another song prepared?"
"W-Well, I don't have a prepared track, but I can do it a cappella!"
I couldn't let a chance worth its weight in gold slip away, quite literally, so I nodded right away.
"I like the attitude. Then will you sing one?"
Of course. As much as you like. I've been waiting for just those words.
I took the handheld mic a staff member handed me and closed my eyes once, then opened them, to settle my racing heart. And the song I chose was, naturally, a ballad Park Hui-su sunbae-nim had composed.
Even as time passes, at the thought of you that suddenly comes to mind, I stop in my tracks again—
It was a song I'd sung hundreds of times before I came back. Picking the 2nd verse and singing it without a single slip, I stared hard at Park Hui-su sunbae-nim, my heart pounding.
"That was lovely."
A moment later, sunbae-nim picked up the mic, and at the critique that followed, I had to swallow my tears.
"You're definitely talented. But let's work together so you can develop more of your own color, Trainee Lee Jae-min."
"Thank you!"
The grade doesn't matter one bit now!
'I hope you don't regret saying that.'
***
"After combining the opinions of the 4 judges, we've set AP's two trainees at Grade C."
After a heated discussion, tapping away at the files that must have held our information, the grade producer Na Seung-pil gave was C.
Did I jinx it? Our singing got good reviews, hyung's and mine, but it seemed me throwing away the choreography had been the variable. The 'color' Park Hui-su sunbae-nim mentioned bothered me too.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
But I wasn't born with the guts to ask why at a moment like this.
All I could do was follow hyung, bend at the waist once more, and clench my fist, promising myself next time.
"Good work, you two. Please go sit wherever you like in the Grade C section behind the judges' table."
At the MC's words, hyung and I took palm-sized round stickers with a C on them from him, stuck them over the last syllable of our names, and walked to the seats laid out in a pyramid.
Even if B and C were set at the same height, I'd still thought we'd get a B.
"......."
Just then, as I silently gazed at the Grade B seats across the way, Jun-hyeok hyung nudged my side and asked.
"Let's sit over here where we'll be easy to see, even once the seats fill up."
The seat hyung pointed to, with that explanation for my benefit, was the shortest route up to A. A seat close to the empty aisle down the middle.
From here, like hyung said, we wouldn't have to peer between people's heads to see the stage, and we could keep an eye on the Grade A seats we'd be climbing to, so it was perfect.
"Yeah. Sounds good!"
Right. We're going to climb up anyway, so it's too early to be disappointed. In the past I remember, Jun-hyeok hyung came out alone and got a Grade D.
"Then shall we meet the next contestants?"
Having checked that we'd taken our seats, the MC looked at the cue sheet and moved things along.
If it's the same order as roll call and rehearsal earlier, it should be the BTA kids' turn.
And my guess didn't miss. Because BTA popped up on the monitor behind the stage where hyung and I had been standing a moment ago.
"Hello! I'm Kim Yeon-hu, a first-year trainee with BTA. Please take care of me."
A moment later, the trainee who'd come up alone bent at the waist to ninety degrees, just like us, and gave his name.
He did look young, but I hadn't expected a trainee of only 1 year to be here. Interesting. Wait. This isn't the time.......
"See? Even a first-year's here."
"I know. Shh for now!"
I couldn't miss a golden chance to legally(?) talk back to Jun-hyeok hyung, who'd tried to stop me, asking why I'd go on something like this when I was only in my 3rd year.
The problem is that hyung isn't one to take it lying down.
"Yeees—"
Since we'd been seated first, we might get caught on camera, so I barely kept my lips from pouting on their own and focused on the stage about to happen in front of us.
"Hmm......."
"He does seem to have prepared hard, but......."
But the moment the 1st verse of his prepared song ended, hyung and I let out sighs, reacting about the same.
Honestly, as a first-year I was even stiffer than him. I couldn't even control my voice properly, so I'd blow out my throat after singing just one song.
Still, if he'd made it here, his agency must have managed him fairly well, so how had he ended up coming out with his throat that shot?
"Trainee Yeon-hu, you're sixteen this year? Sixteen makes you a third-year in middle school, right?"
Just then, producer Na Seung-pil resolved all my questions in one go.
Sixteen. And yet only a first-year, meaning he'd become a trainee at 15, right? On top of that, his vocal cords wouldn't even be fully developed yet, so no wonder his throat was shot.
Even AP, one of the Big Three agencies said to lead Korean K-POP along with Angels and KDO, turns down trainees that young!
"Yes. But I'm not attending school, so I was able to get this chance."
But answering the question about his age, Kim Yeon-hu showed a side of himself that didn't look sixteen at all. Even though he couldn't use his voice properly, his intense eyes and attitude were better than most adults'.
'Yeah. He definitely seems better than you.'
I know that too, so please shut up.
"I hope Star Recycle helps Trainee Yeon-hu on his path ahead. Trainee Kim Yeon-hu, please move to Grade D."
"Thank you!"
While Super Strong Dragon and I grappled with each other, a lot seemed to have been said, but in the end, the BTA trainee's grade was D.
Coming up with confident steps, he took the seat in D closest to B, and when his eyes met ours, he greeted us with a light nod.
"Impressive. I have to work harder too."
"Me too."
Hyung and I, having nodded back to him before we knew it, naturally burned even hotter with determination watching that kid.
Honestly, though, it's a little scary wondering just how much harder hyung plans to work, saying something like that.
And not long after, three trainees from KDO, AP's rival, came out.
"KDO, all of you please move to Grade A."
Unlike us, who'd come out with a song by AP's first-generation sunbaes, they'd come out with KDO's most recent release, and all of them got Grade A.
"We really are the best. Right?"
"Hey, hey. They can hear you. Keep it down."
At times like that, the polite thing is to not say anything. Talk about chatty, for guys who didn't even stick in my memory.
I was dying to trip one of the three as they passed us with light laughter, but I couldn't cause a scene, so I just clenched my poor fist.
"Wow— the seats have filled up quite a bit already. Contestants, can you see the stage all right?"
The teams that had come in alphabetical order already numbered seven, and counting people, well over 20. Maybe to lighten the mood at this point, the MC turned around and waved his arm.
I wasn't in the mood, but I had to play along.
"Yes!"
"We can see fine."
"Jeong Gyu-won, you're so handsome!"
Luckily, there were trainees making even more of a fuss than me, so my voice got buried. That was some small comfort, I guess.
"To the DD Ent. contestant who just said I'm handsome. I'll be sure to remember you. Thank you."
With the mood loosened up a little by the light joke, the MC flipped his cue card to move things along again.
"Oh! We finally get to meet some beautiful Hangul. Now— where will the honor of going first go?"
It's also a little sad that on a Korean idol survival program, it took 1 hour after recording started to finally get to an agency with a Hangul name.
'Yep. Your agency, AP. Traitorous lackeys.'
Why, you—
"Gareum Media! Let's see the stage first and then talk."
I was clenching my back teeth, unable to take any more of Super Strong Dragon's needling, when a somehow familiar agency name stuck in my ear.
He's finally here!
"Huh? That trainee. Isn't he the one who was talking to you earlier?"
"Ah! Yes. Trainee Kim Se-jun from Gareum Media."
Finally, someone worth watching had appeared, and my voice rose a little as I answered Jun-hyeok hyung's question. Meanwhile, a bold head of blond hair, which hadn't been able to shine in the dark behind the stage, was stepping into the middle of it.
Come on, start already. Prove to me that my memory wasn't wrong!
'It sure ha-a-ad better.'
Ah, come on! Don't come out when I haven't called you!