The room had gone unusually quiet.
That alone was strange.
Normally, whenever Team 17 entered a period of silence, Minseok filled it within three seconds.
Five if he was tired.
Right now, however, even he was staring at the lyric sheet.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[OPPORTUNITY]
Challenge For Additional Lines?
YES / NO
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Challenge.
The word lingered in his mind.
Slowly, the sounds around him faded.
Not completely.
Just enough.
Enough for his thoughts to become louder.
A few days ago, he had entered Star Dust with one goal.
Pass.
That was it.
Then had come the team mission.
And a new objective.
Don’t become a burden.
Simple.
Reasonable.
Safe.
Very safe.
Maybe too safe.
His eyes moved around the room.
Minseok.
The best dancer.
Hyunwoo.
The obvious center.
Doyoung.
Reliable at everything.
Jaehyun.
The strongest performer on the team.
Objectively speaking, he had no business competing against any of them.
Jiwon knew that.
The System knew that.
Everyone probably knew that.
And yet…
The thought still appeared.
What if?
His chest tightened slightly.
Not from fear.
Not entirely.
Excitement.
The kind he hadn’t felt in a long time.
A memory surfaced.
A different life.
An office building.
A computer monitor.
A younger version of himself watching performances during lunch breaks.
Always thinking the same thing.
Maybe someday.
Then:
Maybe later.
Then:
Maybe when things calm down.
Eventually, “later” had become never.
Jiwon looked back at the window.
For some reason, pressing YES felt less like accepting a challenge…
And more like refusing to repeat a mistake.
Slowly, his hand moved.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
YES
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The System immediately reacted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SPECIAL CHALLENGE ACCEPTED]
Compete For Additional Lines
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Requirements
Challenge Other Candidates
Perform Evaluation Pending
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Reward????
━━━━━━━━━━━━
His heartbeat accelerated slightly.
A challenge.
An actual competition.
Before he could think further, Minseok suddenly slammed a hand on the floor.
“Let’s just decide already.”
Everyone looked up.
“Decide what?”
Doyoung asked.
Minseok looked offended.
“The killing part.”
“That’s what we’ve been discussing for the last five minutes.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s not helping.”
“It helps emotionally.”
“No.”
Hyunwoo laughed.
Even Jaehyun looked mildly amused.
The atmosphere had become lighter.
Less tense.
More dangerous.
Because now everyone was thinking about the same thing.
The killing part.
And unlike yesterday…
Jiwon found himself wanting it too.
A lot more than he probably should.
Minseok leaned forward.
His eyes moved between the members one by one.
Then he pointed dramatically.
“Let’s be honest.”
“That’s usually a bad sign.”
Doyoung sighed.
“Nobody has ever said that before doing something intelligent.”
“Rude.”
“Accurate.”
Minseok ignored him.
“The killing part.”
He tapped the lyric sheet.
“We all want it.”
Silence.
Nobody immediately denied it.
That alone answered the question.
“See?”
Minseok pointed around the room.
“I told you.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“I choose to believe it was.”
Hyunwoo laughed.
Even Jaehyun seemed mildly amused.
Only mildly.
Which, for Jaehyun, was basically a standing ovation.
Hyunwoo leaned back against the mirror.
“Realistically, shouldn’t the center get it?”
Minseok immediately pointed.
“Objection.”
“You can’t just say objection.”
“I just did.”
“The center usually gets the killing part.”
“Then why are we discussing it?”
“…Fair point.”
The silver-haired trainee shrugged.
“I was asking.”
Doyoung adjusted his glasses.
“We should define what we’re actually evaluating.”
Minseok visibly suffered.
“Why do you always sound like you’re presenting a thesis?”
“Because unlike you, I enjoy structure.”
“See?”
Minseok looked at Jiwon.
“This is why rich people are scary.”
“I’m not sure those things are related.”
“They are in my heart.”
Nobody understood what that meant.
Including Minseok.
Doyoung ignored him.
“If we’re deciding fairly, then we need criteria.”
“Such as?”
“Singing.”
Jaehyun nodded.
“Stage presence.”
Hyunwoo nodded.
“Dance.”
Minseok nodded.
“Charisma.”
Everyone looked at Minseok.
“What?”
“That’s stage presence.”
“It feels different.”
“How?”
Minseok thought.
For almost five entire seconds.
Then finally answered:
“I don’t know.”
The room filled with laughter.
The atmosphere relaxed.
Yet something had changed.
The topic no longer felt hypothetical.
It felt real.
The killing part existed.
Somebody would get it.
Which meant somebody else wouldn’t.
Jiwon’s eyes drifted toward the lyric sheet again.
The highlighted section.
Just a few seconds.
A few lines.
A single moment.
Nothing more.
Yet his heartbeat accelerated every time he looked at it.
The strange thing was that he couldn’t explain why.
A week ago he would never have cared.
A week ago he would have been terrified simply standing in this room.
Now?
He wanted more.
Not because he thought he deserved it.
Not because he believed he would win.
Because he wanted to try.
That alone felt new.
Jaehyun eventually crossed his arms.
“We need a solution.”
The room quieted immediately.
Leader.
There it was again.
That thing Jaehyun did.
He never forced attention on himself.
It simply arrived.
“We can’t waste practice time arguing.”
Nobody disagreed.
“Then let’s settle it.”
Minseok immediately raised his hand.
“Fight to the death.”
“No.”
“A dance battle.”
“No.”
“A rap battle.”
“No.”
“A survival game where the losers are eliminated.”
“Definitely no.”
Minseok looked disappointed.
“No one appreciates genius.”
The room fell silent once more.
For some reason everybody started looking toward Jaehyun.
Waiting.
Expecting him to decide.
Jiwon noticed it too.
And unexpectedly…
Didn’t like it.
Not because Jaehyun wasn’t capable.
Because this wasn’t something the leader should decide.
Not alone.
The thought formed before he could stop it.
Then the words followed.
“What if we compete for it?”
The room froze.
Instantly.
Four pairs of eyes turned toward him.
Even Jiwon seemed surprised he had spoken.
“…What?”
Minseok blinked.
Jiwon swallowed.
Too late to back out now.
“The killing part.”
Nobody interrupted.
“If it’s important…”
He looked around the room.
Then continued.
“And if multiple people want it…”
His gaze landed briefly on the lyric sheet.
“Then let’s earn it.”
Silence.
Real silence.
The kind that followed unexpected honesty.
Hyunwoo was the first to react.
A small smile appeared.
“You’re serious.”
It wasn’t a question.
Jiwon nodded.
“Yeah.”
For some reason his pulse was racing.
Not fear.
Something else.
Something he hadn’t felt in years.
Competition.
Minseok suddenly jumped to his feet.
“I LOVE THIS IDEA.”
Nobody was surprised.
Not even slightly.
Doyoung pushed his glasses upward.
The familiar gesture appeared again.
A sign he was thinking.
“Actually…”
His eyes moved around the room.
“That’s probably the fairest solution.”
The attention shifted toward Jaehyun.
The leader remained silent for several moments.
Thinking.
Evaluating.
Then finally—
He nodded.
“We audition.”
The room immediately focused on him.
“Anyone who wants the killing part performs it.”
A short pause.
“We vote afterward.”
Simple.
Clear.
Fair.
Impossible to argue against.
Minseok’s hand shot into the air.
“Me.”
Hyunwoo raised his.
“Me too.”
A moment later, Jaehyun spoke.
“I’ll participate.”
Nobody looked surprised.
The killing part suited him.
Naturally.
Then everyone’s gaze landed on Doyoung.
The rich heir considered it briefly.
Then shook his head.
“I’m out.”
That caught several people off guard.
“Really?”
Minseok blinked.
Doyoung nodded.
“The part doesn’t fit my strengths.”
A very Doyoung answer.
Entirely logical.
Entirely reasonable.
Which left one final person.
Jiwon.
The one who had proposed it.
The room waited.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Jiwon smiled.
Small.
Determined.
“I’ll do it too.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The evening sky had already darkened by the time Team 17 left the practice building.
Nobody had much energy left.
Even Minseok.
Which was probably the clearest sign of how exhausting the day had been.
The candidate auditions would start soon.
Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Tuesday.
That gave them two full days.
Two days to prepare.
Two days to improve.
Two days to catch up.
Or fall behind.
As they headed toward the subway station, the conversation naturally drifted.
Mostly toward the killing part.
“Just so we’re clear,” Minseok said.
“I’m winning.”
“Based on what?”
Hyunwoo looked genuinely curious.
“My confidence.”
“That isn’t how competitions work.”
“It should be.”
“It absolutely should not.”
Doyoung sighed.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“About what?”
“I should have competed.”
Minseok looked horrified.
“Traitor.”
“You weren’t even on my side.”
“That’s not important.”
Somehow, despite the upcoming competition, the atmosphere felt lighter than before.
Maybe because everything was finally out in the open.
No hidden ambitions.
No awkward pretending.
Everyone knew who was participating.
Everyone knew what was at stake.
And everyone knew the decision would ultimately be made on performance.
Not popularity.
Not seniority.
Performance.
For a strange reason, Jiwon liked that.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Eventually, they split up at the station.
One by one.
Minseok first.
Still talking.
Then Hyunwoo.
Then Doyoung.
Jaehyun was the last to leave.
“Don’t be late tomorrow.”
“That wasn’t even a goodbye.”
“It is now.”
Then the train doors closed.
A moment later, Jiwon was alone.
The city slid past outside the window.
Bright signs.
Office buildings.
Traffic.
The familiar scenery of Seoul at night.
A blue notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SPECIAL CHALLENGE UPDATED]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Winning Probability:
8%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jiwon stared.
Eight percent.
A short laugh escaped him.
“…That’s rough.”
The System offered no comment.
Not that he expected one.
Another window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Candidates
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kang Hyunwoo
Park Jaehyun
Lee Minseok
Han Jiwon
━━━━━━━━━━━━
His eyes moved down the list.
The favorite.
The leader.
The strongest dancer.
Then himself.
Jiwon leaned back in his seat.
Actually…
eight percent might even be generous.
Hyunwoo owned the center position.
Minseok could probably dance circles around him.
Jaehyun was better at almost everything.
And him?
He had spent the last practice trying not to fall behind.
His gaze drifted toward the dark train window.
The reflection staring back looked tired.
Jiwon laughed quietly.
The old him would’ve looked at the numbers.
Seen the odds.
Calculated the risk.
And decided there was no point trying.
Safe.
Reasonable.
Smart.
He knew that version of himself very well.
After all, he’d spent years being him.
The train entered a tunnel.
The reflection became clearer.
Dark glass.
Dark eyes.
Blue windows floating in front of them.
Eight percent.
His eyes moved back to the notification.
A new window opened.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SPECIAL CHALLENGE]
Killing Part Candidate
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evaluation Date:
Tuesday
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Time Remaining:
2 Days
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Winning Probability:
8%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tuesday.
Two days.
Jiwon looked at the number again.
Then unlocked his phone.
Opened his notes app.
And started typing.
Hyunwoo.
Strengths.
Weaknesses.
Minseok.
Strengths.
Weaknesses.
Jaehyun.
Strengths.
Weaknesses.
By the time the train reached the next station, the page was already half full.
The percentage remained unchanged.
Still eight.
Jiwon looked at it one last time.
Then closed the notification.
Not because he didn’t care.
Because staring at it wasn’t going to make it bigger.
Two days.
That was the only number that mattered.