The practice room fell strangely quiet.
The sound of my ragged breathing seemed unusually loud.
“…….”
The judges didn't speak right away.
They looked down at their score sheets, then back at me.
That brief silence felt several times longer.
“Wow.”
It was the dance trainer, Katin, who broke it.
“Have you ever trained at another agency?”
I shook my head as I caught my breath.
“No. Nix Entertainment is my first.”
Katin's eyebrows rose.
“Really? To be honest, I'm not even familiar with Code 20's face yet.”
He looked at the trainer beside him.
“But to improve this much in such a short time-”
The other trainer nodded, too.
“To get this far in two days with no foundation-”
‘Got them.’
That was exactly the reaction I'd been aiming for.
The biggest advantage of going first was that there was no one to compare me with. If polished performers like I-yul or Juhan had gone before me, they wouldn't have been this surprised.
And the further the evaluations went, the more tired the judges would get.
Their extremely low expectations of me, or perhaps their complete lack of any, combined with my place in the order to create an impression better than my actual skill warranted.
“Of course, your skills themselves are still lacking.”
Song In-hyeok adjusted his glasses.
“Yes.”
“Your breathing became unsteady toward the end, and your movements were stiff overall.”
“……Yes.”
I nodded at the accurate criticism.
“But.”
Song In-hyeok looked at me again.
“You have considerable potential to improve.”
Some of the trainees looked up at once.
‘He really knows how to lift someone up and knock them back down.’
“Normally-”
Song In-hyeok tapped his fingers against the desk.
“Just memorizing all that in two days is difficult.”
“Exactly!”
Katin immediately chimed in.
“Seriously, how did you…… memorize all the choreography?”
This was the question I'd been waiting for.
“I'd never learned to dance.”
I paused to catch my breath.
“So I gave up on dancing well.”
All the judges looked at me.
“Instead.”
I raised the corners of my mouth a little.
“I decided I wouldn't make a single mistake.”
Katin laughed.
“That's a good approach.”
“At least that was something I could do by practicing.”
The judges exchanged glances.
SCRITCH, SCRITCH-
I heard pens moving across the score sheets.
“Did you do all of that alone?”
Another question I'd been waiting for. I hesitated for just a moment before answering.
“……Some of the other trainees helped me.”
The show's writer's eyes lit up at once.
“Who?”
“Code 1 and Code 3.”
I-yul and Sang-yun both looked at me.
“Code 3.”
I looked at I-yul first.
“Even with his injured arm, he kept teaching me the moves one by one.”
“And Code 1……”
This time, I turned toward Sang-yun.
“Mr. Han taught me how to control the force of my movements. Thanks to him, I was able to dance to the end.”
The judges' brief laughter softened the mood.
“I'll look forward to seeing those two trainees as well.”
“They're competitors, in a way. That's heartwarming.”
The writers and the PD would be hungry for this information, too. The story of first place and last place worked in any genre.
“I look forward to seeing more from you.”
“Thank you!”
I bowed and returned to my place. Eyes followed me: envy, wariness, even open hostility.
“How much did you practice?”
Sang-yun tapped my shoulder.
“You looked like a completely different person.”
Sang-yun, I practiced for exactly a hundred more hours after you taught me.
“I worked hard.”
“Hard work alone shouldn't get you that far.”
He was smiling, but his eyes were serious.
“Still…… it's good to see that teaching you paid off.”
“Good work.”
Those few words gave me a strange lift.
I-yul, on the other hand, said nothing beside him.
He just watched me silently.
“If a new trainee can do that well, it raises my expectations for the rest of you, doesn't it?”
Groans broke out around the room.
The evaluations that followed were, quite literally, a complete mess. Trainees who remembered the dance forgot the lyrics; those who sang well threw away the choreography.
“I didn't expect you to dance without singing a single note.”
“So because you'll only be dancing at the shoot, you aren't going to sing at all?”
Some skipped the entire second verse. Others simply stood there, unable to do anything.
The judges must have felt sorry for them, because they kept silently mouthing, ‘Just do it,’ and ‘Keep going.’
“You lost all the details in the choreography, and you couldn't even start the song…….”
“I'm sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for? You're the one who won't debut.”
Every word cut like a knife. Eventually, one trainee after another began to cry.
“Code 13, why are you crying? What will crying do for you right now?”
“N-no, sir.”
At last, Song In-hyeok, unable to watch any longer, picked up his microphone.
“Listen, all of you.”
I could hear how hard he was holding back his anger in his voice alone.
“Code 20 has only been a trainee for a week, and he came in having memorized everything as if his life depended on it. What do you think you're doing?”
‘This is…… uncomfortable.’
“Filming has started.”
Song In-hyeok's voice sank lower.
“Do you feel no urgency just because this is an in-house survival show?”
The trainees' faces paled before my eyes.
“Get a grip. Aren't you afraid the kid who's Code 20 now will end up with a number ahead of yours?”
The fact that he never raised his voice made him even more intimidating. Vocal trainer Park Jae-hun, seated beside him, hurriedly stepped in with a smile.
“C-CEO Song, perhaps we should stop there for now. It's their first evaluation, so they must be nervous. And we still have filming to do. Right, PD?”
But the PD gave a short laugh.
“Why? It's provocative. I like it.”
Park Jae-hun faltered.
“There'll be plenty of lines we can use.”
Honestly. He really was addicted to the dopamine rush.
Kang Se-jun quickly changed the mood.
“The road to achieving the dream of debuting certainly isn't easy. Now, let's continue with Code 10's evaluation.”
“Yes!”
Code 10, Choi Un-jo, answered so loudly that his voice rang through the practice room.
“Code 10, are you nervous?”
“Soy sauce?”
Un-jo's answer to an entirely different question made the MC and judges laugh.
“Nervous. Nervous.”
“Oh, nerves? No, I'm not nervous!”
I'd noticed it back in our Impacter days, too, but that was a talent.
“Then let's begin!”
His mischievous expression had already turned serious.
“Doesn't Un-jo seem like a completely different person when he does that?”
When he stopped smiling, his whole face changed. Plenty of fans who'd fallen for him onstage had said it took them a while to get used to that.
More surprising than his clean dancing was how stable his singing was, far beyond my expectations.
But then—
[Make a new history
Beyond this door……]
His mouth suddenly stopped moving.
‘Don't tell me he forgot the lyrics.’
“……Yeah, we go up now, break the code—”
While everyone watched anxiously, Un-jo casually turned the bridge into a rap.
“……!”
Even the judges' shoulders twitched with laughter at his audacity.
“Code 10, what went through your mind when you forgot the lyrics?”
“Um, total disaster. That's what.”
I glanced over and saw Sang-yun pressing a hand to his forehead.
“Where did he learn a word like that……?”
That was fascinating, too. Even after our debut, Sang-yun had been the member who watched what came out of Un-jo's mouth.
“Forgetting the lyrics was a critical mistake, but handling it naturally is a skill too. Overall, you did very well.”
“Judge, mega thanks!”
Sang-yun pressed a hand to his forehead again.
Next was Code 4, Go Jae-seong.
“As for Jae-seong……”
Katin smiled.
“I'm sure he came prepared.”
The song began, and Jae-seong entered at exactly the right moment.
‘He wasn't untalented.’
I heard his lackeys admiring him nearby.
“Look how precise his moves are.”
“I'm jealous. You can tell at a glance he's in the debut range.”
I watched Jae-seong dance closely. His arms and legs moved in dazzling patterns, each move flowing naturally into the next with the beat.
But I smiled faintly.
‘He looks perfect on the surface. But…….’
I could see what he'd missed.
And then there was his mistake in the final lyrics. He pretended nothing had happened, but it hadn't escaped my ears.
“You prepared well.”
“Thank you!”
At last, it was Code 3, I-yul's turn.
To be honest, I hadn't paid much attention to Jae-seong's evaluation. All I could think about was I-yul's injured arm. No matter how perfectly he performed the choreography, the cast on his arm would inevitably count against him.
“Code 3, please come forward.”
“Yes!”
I-yul walked forward.
And then—
“What?”
“Has he healed already?”
He took off his splint.
I sprang to my feet before I realized it.
‘What is he doing?’
Without a word, I-yul rotated his arm.
His brow furrowed at once. He was clearly still in pain.
‘He's going to dance without his splint when he hasn't even healed?’
I barely regained my composure and sat down, but I still couldn't believe it.
The judges and MC were taken aback by I-yul's sudden move, too.
“Code 3, you don't have to push yourself. Put the splint back-”
“I am fine.”
‘Fine? How is this fine……?!’
I clutched my head. I began to wonder whether he'd lied about never having pain after our debut, too.
But I-yul lightly stretched his wrists and ankles, then began the evaluation.
***
[Boom!]
I watched I-yul's performance, barely able to breathe. Every time he extended his injured arm, my own shoulder flinched before I knew it.
His voice trembled briefly, perhaps from pain, but his expression didn't falter.
‘Just a little.’
‘A little more.’
I clenched my hands so hard my fingertips tingled. Every move felt like a quest with his life at stake.
[That will open this door
The only code
Boy's code]
The moment he stretched out his arm for the final move-
‘He did it!’
I couldn't have cheered this hard for a goal at the World Cup. My throat grew hot. If someone so much as tapped me, I felt I might burst into tears.
The tension drained from my whole body.
‘I-yul was the one dancing, so why do I hurt all over……?’
The dance trainer spoke, visibly moved.
“I was a little choked up.”
The practice room fell quiet.
“A trainee who wants to be onstage this badly deserves a good position.”
“Is your arm really all right?”
Song In-hyeok sighed.
“Yes, it is almost fully healed. And…… I did not want to leave myself with regrets.”
In the distance, I saw a writer going, ‘That's it!’
“Well done.”
“Thank you!”
The two who remained were Sang-yun and Juhan. Neither disappointed anyone.
Juhan in particular. That guy really had been born to be an idol. Sang-yun was solid in every area, but Juhan was beyond even that.
When people said, ‘So that's the kind of guy who becomes a celebrity,’ Juhan was the guy they meant. There was a reason he'd been the center before my regression. Seeing his skill and presence in person left me even more speechless.
‘No wonder I-yul felt so much pressure.’
They were the same age, which meant people compared them especially often.
Thanks to those last two, the interim evaluation ended with satisfied smiles on the judges' faces.
“The interim evaluation is finally over. Good work, everyone! After the judges have discussed the results, we'll announce the final positions.”
Only after quite some time did the judges return to the practice room.
“First, I'll call the trainees assigned to the Code C group.”
Nine code numbers were called. Thankfully, mine wasn't among them.
‘……I survived.’
“Next, the Code B group.”
Five more code numbers were called, and I could feel that mine was about to be next.
But as I took a step forward, I heard a number.
“And finally, Code 4.”
That wasn't my number.