Translator: Dreamscribe
‘What is Class F’s strength?’
I thought to myself as I looked at the heavy atmosphere in the practice room after yesterday’s Class F disaster.
If someone was good at both singing and dancing, they would have gone to Class A or B, and if they were good at at least one of them, they would have gone to Class C or D.
The fact that we ended up in Class F meant, by default, that we were lacking in both singing and dancing, so I doubted whether Class F could possibly have any strengths, but unexpectedly, there was one.
‘When it comes to visuals, we’re just as good as the other classes. No, maybe even better?’
Come to think of it, the fact that we became idol trainees in the first place meant there had to be at least one standout aspect. If you take away singing and dancing, what’s left?
Visuals.
Despite their disastrous singing and dancing skills, the participants of Class F were chosen as trainees precisely because they had exceptional looks.
“Yun-kyung.”
“Yes, unnie.”
Even just looking at Yun-kyung, who came running over as I called her name, her face was extremely cute.
Just by looks alone, she stood out among the 100 contestants.
“What do you think will happen if we keep going like this?”
“The judges will scold us during the mid-check, and we’ll probably stay in Class F.”
Hooh.
Such a cold-headed analysis, hard to believe she’s only fifteen.
“You think so too?”
“Yes. I’m one hundred percent sure.”
After Judge Hye-ryeong’s sharp criticism yesterday, it was painfully obvious that Lee Ga-hyun, the leader of Class F, had her mentality shattered.
And her collapse wasn’t just a personal matter, it affected the whole class.
If yesterday there was still some passion and drive to practice together centered around Lee Ga-hyun. But today, it was like everyone had given up.
‘None of you are in sync with your choreography right now. It’d be good to watch Class A and take notes.’
During the dance training session this morning.
Judge Lee Jung-yoon sighed after watching the performance Class F had prepared, then led the entire class over to Class A’s practice room.
And the performance that Class A, who practiced the exact same amount of time as us, showed us was.
‘On a different level.’
Even someone like me, completely clueless about singing and dancing, could tell how incomparably different their performance was from ours.
Especially Ryu A-yeon, who confidently stood at the center of the formation, her presence was overwhelming.
With Ryu A-yeon standing in the center, the rest of Class A’s participants naturally moved around her, creating such cohesion that it felt like one person was performing alone.
“Haa…”
And Class A’s performance seemed to instill a sense of despair in Class F’s participants.
Ever since returning from that visit to Class A, the practice room was filled with sighs from the participants.
It seemed Judge Lee Jung-yoon’s intention was for us to get motivated by seeing Class A’s polished performance, but
‘That only works if the gap is small enough to feel catchable.’
It was like showing a professional gamer’s play to someone playing Legend of the Valley for the first time and telling them to copy it, rather than feeling motivated, they’d probably just quit the game. It felt like we had been shown a wall that was too high from the very beginning.
“What about the others?”
“None of them want to do it. After seeing Ga-hyun unnie get scolded like that yesterday and today, who would want to stand at center?”
Yun-kyung shook her head as she answered my question.
Lee Ga-hyun, now in a groggy state from the judges’ brutally honest critiques.
Seeing her like that made me feel bad, but if things continued this way, Class F as a whole would go down with her.
So I asked Yun-kyung to check with the others if anyone might be willing to take the center position.
But perhaps out of fear, no one stepped up to volunteer.
“Do you know contestant 70, Kim Na-yeon?”
“Na-yeon unnie? I didn’t know her before, but we talked a bit yesterday while practicing together.”
Indeed, the sociability of a fifteen-year-old was remarkable.
I still hadn’t gotten close to anyone besides Yun-kyung, but she seemed to have connections with everyone I asked about.
Honestly, the only people I could say I got along with in Class F were Yun-kyung, and then Soo-yeon, Nara, and Ji-hye, who shared a room with me.
“That’s your fault, unnie.”
“Mine?”
When I expressed my question about why I couldn’t get along closely with other people, Yun-kyung responded as if I were asking something completely obvious.
“Unnie, try smiling.”
Ssiik..
At Yun-kyung’s sudden command to smile, I lifted the corners of my lips and gave a smile.
“See? It’s a relief for me because I know that’s your version of a smile, but if someone else saw that, they’d totally think you were looking down on them.”
“What?!”
The shocking statement that my smile looked like a smirk.
But Yun-kyung didn’t stop there, she kept pressing on.
“Especially you, unnie, you really shouldn’t look people in the eyes carelessly.”
“Why?”
“When someone makes eye contact with you, it makes them wonder if they did something wrong.”
This was clearly slander.
Back when I was company commander, my soldiers praised my gaze as one filled with fatherly affection.
It had to be that Yun-kyung, being young, simply lacked the discernment to read people correctly.
“But why did you suddenly ask about Na-yeon unnie?”
“Hmm... Yun-kyung, do you know Liu Bei?”
“What’s Liu Bei?”
Ah.
I instinctively raised my hand to my temple.
Why don’t teenagers these days read Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
I wasn’t expecting them to read the novel version.
But still, there’s the comic, the games, the dramas and movies, how can there be someone who doesn’t know that immortal masterpiece?
Once again, I had no choice but to question Yun-kyung’s judgment.
“Anyway, there was this guy in China named Liu Bei.”
“Ah... okay.”
“That Liu Bei was an emperor, but when he was about to die, instead of passing the throne to his own child, he tried to pass it on to a subordinate named Zhuge Liang.”
“Eh? Why?”
“Because his kid was completely incompetent.”
Liu Bei chose Zhuge Liang to lead Shu after his death, but unfortunately, the deeply loyal Zhuge Liang couldn’t bring himself to take the throne in place of his lord’s son.
“And then Shu fell.”
“Wow... Liu Bei must’ve felt so wronged.”
“What’s the lesson you learned from that story?”
“Hmm... follow orders well?”
I shook my head at Yun-kyung’s answer.
That wasn’t the right answer.
“To prevent the fall of a country, you have to choose the right leader.”
“I guess that makes sense. Wait! But why is this story taking such a weird turn?”
“Yun-kyung, I don’t think you can feel this new breeze that’s blowing.”
Turning my back to her, I looked around the practice room.
Participants with hopeless expressions, their heads buried in the floor of the practice room.
In the midst of them, the leader of Class F, Lee Ga-hyun, in despair and having lost the trust of her peers.
‘The eastern wind is blowing.’
Romance.
Something a soldier should never entertain, but since I was no longer a soldier, it was finally time to realize my romantic ambition.
Now was the time to begin Class F’s coup d'état.
***
Operation Name: The 7th Republic.
A coup project to replace Class F’s leader from Lee Ga-hyun to Kim Na-yeon.
‘Wei Yan, I can’t believe you were going to have all this fun by yourself!’
Just the thought of launching a legitimate coup made my heart race.
If it succeeds, it’s a revolution! If it fails, I can just go home, can't I?
“But why Na-yeon unnie, of all people?”
“She’s the best in our Class F.”
“Really? Uh... she didn’t really stand out during practice, though?”
Yun-kyung’s question was valid.
Honestly, I hadn’t paid particular attention to Na-yeon until yesterday either.
But.
“I saw her practicing alone in the studio early this morning, she’s really good.”
“You went to the practice room at dawn?”
“If you’re bad, you’ve got to practice.”
Yun-kyung looked surprised that I had gone for extra dawn practice.
Of course, it wasn’t because I had some lofty dream of debuting as an idol that I trained alone at dawn.
It was simply.
‘Because being in F grade is humiliating.’
Having lived life twice now, I had come to evaluate myself somewhat objectively.
I was fundamentally lazy, had moderate ambition, and was extremely susceptible to pleasure, that was the kind of person I was.
But at the same time, I had a personality that hated being looked down on. I didn’t want to stand out for doing well, but standing out for being bad wasn’t my style.
Middle ground.
I had to at least be in the middle, that was me.
And.
‘She was pretty cool, to be honest.’
The stage performance led by Judge Lee Jung-yoon and the skilled dancers in the auditorium was impressive.
They were simply dancing and singing, yet why was it so captivating that I couldn’t take my eyes off them?
In particular, the performance by Ryu A-yeon, who is now serving as the leader of Class A, during the entrance ceremony would often come to mind even now.
Watching her confidently stride across the wide stage as if she were filling it all on her own while singing, I even imagined myself standing there in her place.
And though I didn’t know exactly why, just imagining that gave me a tremendous thrill.
It was on a level similar to what I felt when I watched the finale of the drama 'Kongming: Romance of the Three Kingdoms', or when I super-carried my team out of danger in 'Legend of the Valley'.
For that reason, I couldn’t sleep last night, and without realizing it, my feet led me to the practice room.
‘Si-on, you haven’t learned singing or dancing before, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘I think you have talent. You still need more work on dancing, but if you polish your vocals a bit more, you might be able to use them right away.’
Judge Hye-ryeong, who was in charge of vocal training, told me that she saw potential in my vocals before leaving after evaluating Class F, and even gave me a separate method to practice.
So I was planning to practice that and also go over the choreography again, but someone had arrived at the practice room before me.
“Haa...”
A contestant dancing while exhaling heavy breaths.
‘Kim Na-yeon? What is she doing here...’
Though I hadn’t gotten close to the Class F contestants yet, I had already memorized all their faces and names.
Back when I was a company commander, I memorized the names of over 100 soldiers in just two days, so remembering the names and faces of just 19 people in my class was nothing.
What surprised me, though, was the level of skill Kim Na-yeon was displaying.
‘What the... there’s no difference from the Class A members or no, she might even be better?’
Of course, I’m not a professional, so I couldn’t accurately judge her ability, but after participating in 'Idol Ground 100' and watching the various performances, I had at least developed the ability to distinguish between good and bad.
And right now, Na-yeon, who was singing the highlight part of “Spotlight” while dancing at the center of the practice room, was on a whole different level compared to the other Class F participants.
I clearly remembered that she wasn’t this skilled when we were practicing together.
‘If she had shown this level of skill during practice or no, during the entrance ceremony, she would’ve definitely gotten a Grade A.’
Then I recalled Na-yeon’s entrance ceremony performance.
Out of the 100 contestants, the entrance performances were only memorable if they were done really well, but I remembered hers because.
‘She cracked her note and completely froze up, didn’t she?’
Because it was the opposite, it was that bad.
Na-yeon had a voice crack on her very first line on stage, and even though the music continued playing, she froze on the spot like she had turned into ice.
There were many contestants who performed poorly, but Na-yeon was the only one who looked that nervous.
And now, seeing her fully immersed in practice as if trying to make up for that moment.
I thought of the current Project 7th Republic.
Our Class F didn’t have skill, but in terms of visuals, we were objectively not bad.
What if someone with the skill to lead us, and the ability to stand at the center of the formation, were to step forward?
It was clearly a gamble, but it was one with potential.
*****
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