Sunday mornings were supposed to be relaxing.
Apparently, nobody had informed Team 17.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
At eight o’clock, Lee Minseok was already regretting his life choices.
“Again.”
The instructor’s voice echoed through the studio.
Minseok stared.
Sweat dripped from his chin.
His shirt was soaked.
His legs hurt.
Everything hurt.
“…I got it.”
“Again.”
The instructor didn’t even look impressed.
Minseok glanced at the clock.
Then at the mirrors.
Then at the clock again.
Only six minutes had passed.
The realization was devastating.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Maybe a little.”
Minseok groaned.
Then the music started again.
And once more, he threw himself into the choreography.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Across Seoul, Seo Doyoung sat alone in a library.
Textbooks occupied half the table.
Practice materials occupied the other half.
A pair of earphones rested in his ears.
The Killing Part lyrics filled his tablet screen.
Beside them sat tomorrow’s study schedule.
Doyoung looked from one to the other.
Then added another note.
And another.
And another.
Eventually, the tablet showed nearly as many comments as lyrics.
Satisfied, he nodded.
Efficiency was beauty.
At least that was what he told himself.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Elsewhere, Kang Hyunwoo stood alone before a mirror.
No music.
No choreography.
No lyrics.
Just a mirror.
For several seconds, he stared.
Then smiled.
Stopped.
Smiled again.
Stopped.
Adjusted his gaze.
Tried again.
Most people would have thought he was insane.
Unfortunately, experience had taught him otherwise.
A camera captured things ordinary people never noticed.
The corner of a mouth.
The angle of a head.
The direction of a gaze.
Small things.
Important things.
Hyunwoo tilted his head slightly.
Then smiled again.
Better.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meanwhile, Park Jaehyun was exactly where everyone expected him to be.
In a practice room.
Alone.
Music played.
Stopped.
Played again.
Stopped.
A notebook rested on the floor beside him.
Every few minutes he picked it up.
Crossed something out.
Wrote something new.
Then tried again.
The page was already filled.
Trial #12.
Trial #13.
Trial #14.
A few moments later:
Trial #15.
Jaehyun nodded once.
Then restarted the music.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Across the city, Han Jiwon was staring at a faceless virtual coach.
“And you still look creepy.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[QUERY NOT UNDERSTOOD]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“As expected.”
The coach remained silent.
Then another window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[BEGINNING DAILY TRAINING]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jiwon sighed.
Sunday had officially begun.
The apartment was quiet.
His parents had gone out.
Which left Jiwon alone.
Exactly what he needed.
A familiar blue window appeared before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[VOCAL TRAINEE]
Daily Training Available
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Without hesitation, he selected it.
“Yes.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[BEGINNING DAILY TRAINING]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next hour disappeared almost instantly.
Breath control.
Pitch correction.
Tempo exercises.
Tone stability.
Every mistake was identified.
Every weakness was exposed.
Every flaw was corrected.
Merciless.
Efficient.
By the time the session ended, sweat covered his forehead.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Training Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Breath Support +1
Pitch Stability +1
Tone Consistency +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jiwon nodded.
Good.
Not amazing.
But good.
More importantly, he could actually feel the difference.
His voice felt steadier.
Cleaner.
Less forced.
For once, improvement wasn’t just a number on a screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The System disappeared.
Another hour immediately replaced it.
Dance practice.
Alone.
The living room became a temporary rehearsal room.
The coffee table had already been pushed aside.
His phone rested against a stack of books.
The choreography played again.
And again.
And again.
By the tenth repetition, his shirt was soaked.
By the twentieth, his legs burned.
By the thirtieth, he stopped counting.
Still—
The movements felt smoother.
The transitions cleaner.
Maybe.
Just maybe.
He wasn’t completely hopeless.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
03:08 PM
Practice Room 3-B
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jiwon wasn’t the first to arrive.
For once.
Hyunwoo was already there.
Naturally.
The center sat against the mirror scrolling through his phone as if the upcoming competition didn’t exist.
Which was either confidence.
Or insanity.
Possibly both.
A few seconds later the door slid open again.
Minseok entered dramatically.
As usual.
“I’m exhausted.”
“No you’re not.”
Hyunwoo didn’t even look up.
“I can literally see you walking.”
“Emotionally exhausted.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It is in my heart.”
Nobody acknowledged that statement.
Mostly because nobody knew what it meant.
Including Minseok.
The door opened again.
Doyoung entered carrying a notebook.
An actual notebook.
Minseok immediately pointed.
“There.”
Jiwon sighed.
Here we go.
“Rich people behavior.”
Doyoung blinked.
“It’s paper.”
“Exactly.”
“Normal people use paper too.”
“Not like that.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you’re making it look expensive.”
The room filled with laughter.
Even Hyunwoo smiled.
Briefly.
A rare event.
Jaehyun arrived last.
Which immediately made everybody feel guilty despite the fact that nobody was doing anything wrong.
Leader power.
It was unfair.
“Everyone here?”
The room nodded.
“Good.”
Jaehyun looked around.
Then noticed the notebook.
“Doyoung.”
“Hm?”
“Still taking notes?”
Doyoung flipped the notebook open.
“I said I wasn’t competing.”
That was true.
“And?”
“I’m investing.”
Silence.
Minseok narrowed his eyes.
“What does that mean?”
“I’m collecting data.”
“That’s somehow worse.”
“It really is.”
The atmosphere relaxed.
At least until somebody mentioned Tuesday.
Then tension immediately returned.
Because nobody had forgotten.
Not for a second.
The Killing Part.
Minseok pointed toward himself.
“Just so we’re clear.”
Nobody liked that opening.
“I’m still winning.”
“No.”
Jaehyun answered immediately.
“Wow.”
“No hesitation.”
“There didn’t need to be.”
Minseok looked wounded.
Deeply wounded.
At least for four seconds.
Then he recovered.
As expected.
Eventually Jaehyun clapped.
Once.
The room quieted immediately.
“Let’s start.”
No arguments.
No complaints.
The leader pointed toward the lyric sheet.
“We already agreed.”
Everyone nodded.
Tuesday would be the real audition.
Today was preparation.
Today was information gathering.
Today was finding out who actually had a chance.
Doyoung sat down near the wall.
Pen ready.
Notebook open.
Minseok pointed.
“You’re enjoying this way too much.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re scary.”
“I’ve been told that before.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The music started.
Hyunwoo stepped forward.
Nothing dramatic happened.
No explosive movement.
No overwhelming energy.
No perfect vocals that made everyone stop breathing.
Yet somehow…
The room’s attention shifted immediately.
His eyes lifted toward an invisible camera.
Then moved away.
A simple action.
Barely noticeable.
And somehow impossible to ignore.
The Killing Part arrived.
Hyunwoo sang.
His expression changed with the lyrics.
Not exaggerated.
Not theatrical.
Natural.
Like he instinctively understood what the audience was supposed to feel.
For a brief moment, Jiwon had the bizarre impression he wasn’t watching a trainee.
He was watching an edited music video.
Every angle looked intentional.
Every glance felt timed.
Every expression lasted exactly long enough to leave an impression before changing into the next.
None of it seemed forced.
Which was probably the most infuriating part.
When the section ended, Hyunwoo stepped back into formation.
Immediately the room felt slightly emptier.
As if the spotlight had moved with him.
Silence followed.
Then Minseok sighed.
“I hate that.”
Hyunwoo blinked.
“Hate what?”
“Whatever that was.”
“I sang.”
“No.”
Minseok pointed accusingly.
“That thing you do with your face.”
“My face?”
“Exactly.”
The silver-haired trainee looked genuinely confused.
Which somehow made it worse.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The moment the music started, Minseok transformed.
The trainee who spent the last ten minutes complaining vanished instantly.
His movements exploded with energy.
Every gesture became bigger.
Sharper.
Faster.
Riskier.
The choreography looked alive.
Even the spaces between movements felt aggressive.
As if standing still physically hurt him.
Then came the Killing Part.
Minseok attacked it.
Not performed.
Attacked.
His expressions changed constantly.
His body language screamed confidence.
The energy pouring out of him was almost excessive.
Actually—
It was excessive.
When the music ended, nobody spoke immediately.
Mostly because they were recovering.
Jaehyun pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Too much.”
“What?”
“Everything.”
“What specifically?”
“Yes.”
The room burst into laughter.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
When Jaehyun stepped into position, the atmosphere changed.
Not dramatically.
Not suddenly.
Just naturally.
Like everyone had unconsciously agreed to pay attention.
The music started.
His expression remained calm.
Focused.
The first movement flowed into the second.
The second into the third.
Everything looked smooth.
Controlled.
Intentional.
No wasted energy.
No unnecessary motion.
No visible weakness.
His vocals remained stable throughout.
His timing never shifted.
His expressions matched perfectly without ever becoming excessive.
Watching him felt strangely reassuring.
No surprises.
No mistakes.
Just results.
Jiwon finally understood why everyone naturally listened whenever Jaehyun spoke.
He inspired the same confidence while performing.
When the section ended, silence followed.
Then Minseok sighed.
“Sometimes I remember why you’re the leader.”
“Only sometimes?”
“Don’t ruin the compliment.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Eventually all eyes turned toward him.
Jiwon’s turn.
For once…
He felt ready.
The morning training replayed inside his head.
Every breathing exercise.
Every vocal correction.
Every repetition.
The work had paid off.
The music started.
The Killing Part approached.
Jiwon stepped forward.
Center position.
Breathed.
Sang.
The first note landed perfectly.
Then the next.
Then another.
No mistakes.
No instability.
No hesitation.
The difference compared to a few days ago was obvious.
Even physically.
The choreography looked cleaner.
His posture looked stronger.
His movements looked more natural.
For the first time since entering Star Dust…
Jiwon looked like he belonged on stage.
A familiar blue notification suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[DANCE PROFICIENCY INCREASED]
Dance +2
━━━━━━━━━━━━
His eyes widened slightly.
Only for a moment.
Then he forced himself to focus on the performance.
The notification faded.
But not before another line appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Movement Accuracy Improved
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The System had noticed.
The hours of practice.
The endless repetitions.
The sore muscles.
Apparently none of it had been wasted.
The section ended.
He stepped back.
Satisfied.
Actually satisfied.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Minseok blinked.
“…Wait.”
Jiwon’s stomach tightened.
The dancer pointed at him.
“That was actually good.”
The room froze.
Mostly because Minseok wasn’t known for handing out compliments.
“Actually?”
Jiwon asked.
“Don’t make me repeat it.”
“That’s fair.”
Even Hyunwoo nodded.
“The vocals are a lot cleaner.”
“Right?”
Minseok immediately pointed.
“I’m hearing things.”
“No.”
Hyunwoo shrugged.
“He’s noticeably better.”
For some reason, hearing it from Hyunwoo felt different.
More real.
Jaehyun crossed his arms.
The leader’s expression remained thoughtful.
But he nodded too.
“The improvements are obvious.”
Something inside Jiwon relaxed.
Not completely.
But enough.
The morning training.
The dance practice.
The endless repetitions.
They had worked.
For once, the effort was visible.
A familiar blue notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[DANCE PROFICIENCY INCREASED]
Dance +2
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Another notification followed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Movement Accuracy Improved
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The System agreed.
Which was honestly a rare experience.
Jiwon almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he looked toward Doyoung.
The notebook had stopped moving.
The pen remained frozen.
Not writing.
Not turning pages.
Just…
Still.
That couldn’t be good.
“Hm.”
The dangerous sound appeared.
Immediately.
Jiwon’s confidence dropped.
What now?
Jaehyun frowned.
Searching for words.
Unexpectedly—
Doyoung spoke first.
“When Hyunwoo performs, I write about Hyunwoo.”
The room looked over.
Doyoung glanced at his notes.
A page turned.
“When Minseok performs, I write about his energy.”
Another page.
“When Jaehyun performs, I write about his execution.”
Then he reached Jiwon’s section.
A pause followed.
Longer than before.
“When you perform…”
Jiwon suddenly wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest.
Doyoung looked up.
“I write about the performance.”
Silence.
Not Jiwon.
The performance.
Another pause.
“The song sounds better.”
That part felt good.
For approximately half a second.
Then—
“But I stop paying attention to you.”
The room became quiet.
Very quiet.
Because everyone understood immediately.
Even Jiwon.
Especially Jiwon.
Doyoung tapped the notebook.
“You’re improving faster than anyone on the team.”
The words caught everyone off guard.
Including Jiwon.
Then Doyoung continued.
“But improvements only matter if people notice them.”
Ouch.
That one landed.
“Try it again.”
Jaehyun’s voice broke the silence.
Nobody objected.
The music restarted.
Jiwon stepped forward.
Performed.
Finished.
The result didn’t change.
Again.
Same thing.
Again.
Still the same.
The performance wasn’t bad.
That would’ve been easier.
At least then there would’ve been a clear problem.
A clear solution.
Instead—
Everything looked fine.
Yet something felt missing.
Something nobody could properly explain.
Eventually Jaehyun called for a break.
The music stopped.
The atmosphere gradually became lighter.
The conversation started to move elsewhere.
Practice.
School.
Food.
Anything except the obvious topic.
Only Jiwon remained quiet.
His gaze drifted toward the mirror.
Toward the center position.
Then a familiar blue window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SPECIAL CHALLENGE]
Killing Part Candidate
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Probability Recalculated
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Winning Probability
5%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jiwon blinked.
Then blinked again.
Five.
Yesterday it had been eight.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Winning Probability Updated
8%
↓
5%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“…”
For a moment, he wondered if the System had made a mistake.
Then another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evaluation Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Vocals
Acceptable
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dance
Acceptable
━━━━━━━━━━━━
A pause.
Then more lines appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Audience Attraction
Poor
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Charisma Projection
Poor
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Stage Presence
Poor
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“…”
His eye twitched.
The System wasn’t finished.
Of course it wasn’t.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Comparative Analysis
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kang Hyunwoo
Audience Retention
★★★★⯨
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lee Minseok
Energy Projection
★★★★☆
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Park Jaehyun
Performance Control
★★★★★
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Han Jiwon
Audience Attraction
★☆☆☆☆
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“…”
One star.
A single star.
The System truly had no mercy.
A final notification materialized.
Slowly.
As if making absolutely sure he read it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Primary Obstacle Identified
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ability To Attract Attention
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Silence.
The noise of the practice room faded.
Minseok was still arguing with Doyoung.
Something about unfair note-taking.
Hyunwoo was drinking water.
Jaehyun was reviewing formations.
Ordinary things.
Normal things.
Yet Jiwon’s attention remained fixed on the blue window.
Five percent.
After improving his vocals.
After improving his dancing.
After spending hours practicing.
His probability hadn’t increased.
It had dropped.
Because the thing he spent all day improving…
Wasn’t the thing that mattered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
People Notice The Performance
People Do Not Notice You
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Those words lingered.
Long after the rest of the window disappeared.
Jiwon stared at the empty space where the notification had been.
Then slowly looked across the room.
Toward Hyunwoo.
The silver-haired trainee wasn’t doing anything.
Just sitting there.
Drinking water.
Yet somehow people’s eyes naturally drifted toward him.
As if attention itself wanted to follow him.
Jiwon looked away.
For the first time since accepting the challenge…
He finally understood what he was really competing against.
Not vocals.
Not dance.
Not skill.
Presence.
And with Tuesday only two days away…
That might be the one thing he didn’t know how to train.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Time Remaining:
2 Days
━━━━━━━━━━━━