Translator: Dreamscribe
20 people.
The 20 winners who proudly triumphed in the large-scale chicken fight, which began with 100 participants, stood atop the platform with MC Jang Joon-seok.
“You told me to get ready to be picked because unnie was going to be a team leader.”
“... Everyone played way too dirty.”
Next to me, Soo-yeon grumbled in a low voice.
We used the same dormitory, but in the last training camp we had been in different teams, so we had practiced separately. Soo-yeon had said that this time, we should definitely be on the same team.
‘Don’t worry. This game was practically made for me.’
Back then, I had told Soo-yeon to sit tight because I’d pick her.
Why did my past self make such poor judgments and decisions?
When I looked up at the platform, I saw Seo Ryu-jin and Yun-kyung pointing at me and laughing mockingly.
‘Did Seo Ryu-jin regress too? Was she some kind of special forces soldier in her past life or something?’
Seo Ryu-jin and her gang of villains who took me down with a joint attack early on.
Among them, Na-yeon had been eliminated after being attacked by another participant, but the ringleader Seo Ryu-jin and her underling, middle schooler Lim Yun-kyung, survived until the end and ended up becoming team leaders.
Especially Seo Ryu-jin, was she some kind of prodigy in chicken fights? She amazed everyone with her dazzling one-footed movements, taking down all the participants who charged at her in an unstoppable rampage.
‘That should’ve been me...’
Seo Ryu-jin stood tall alone among the fallen participants.
That was the image I had envisioned of myself, and it had been stolen from me.
And then,
‘Wow!! I survived, unnie!’
Enfant terrible.
A French term meaning a scary child, why did that phrase pop into my head when I saw Yun-kyung?
Unlike Seo Ryu-jin, who overwhelmed everyone with sheer force, Yun-kyung had simply survived quietly.
As if she had turned invisible, everyone passed her by and rushed toward other participants, a strange sight indeed.
‘Everyone’s being fooled. There’s a monster hiding inside that girl!’
She just looked like a cute little girl on the outside, so other participants had hesitated to attack her, and Yun-kyung used that hesitation as her weapon to survive into the final 20.
If I had still been in the game, I wouldn’t have been deceived by that appearance and would’ve attacked her without hesitation. I truly resented the world.
“Please give a big round of applause for the 20 participants who have been selected as team leaders through this fierce game!”
Clap clap clap.
But for losers like me, all we could do was applaud the winners.
‘Oh, she made it too?’
As I scanned the survivors on the platform, I spotted Ryu A-yeon standing off to the side with a blank expression.
I had felt it during the previous entrance ceremony as well, she looked completely at ease, as if it was only natural for her to be among the winners. She was the kind of participant who suited that role.
“Now, it's time for the twenty selected team leaders to choose their songs.”
At Jang Joon-seok’s words, all the participants turned their attention to the board listing the songs.
[Youth.Heartflutter]
On the Day of the First Snow
LOVE:ON
What’s Your Temperature?
[Charisma.Sophisticated]
NO SIGNAL
Venomous Whisper
REIGN OVER ME
[Dreamy.Mysterious]
The Moon and Your Shadow
Lucid Dive
[Addictive Dance]
BOOM BANG BURN
Click Click Heart
The song list was divided into four concepts, and even I, who didn’t know much about idols, recognized quite a few of them.
‘I’d rather skip the youth and heartflutter ones.’
As a loser, I had no right to pick a song, but I made the entirely logical judgment that the charisma and sophistication concept would suit me better anyway.
“You’d better not touch the charisma side unless you're confident.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Those are all male idol songs. If you do a half-baked cover, it’ll be a disaster.”
Hooh.
It was definitely helpful to have an expert nearby, this was something I didn’t know.
According to Soo-yeon, the most popular concept was likely to be “Addictive Dance”.
Because the songs themselves were upbeat, the audience on site would instantly respond to them, that was her reasoning.
Next, she said that the youth and heartflutter concept wasn’t bad either, because all the songs under that concept were hits from girl groups, making them safe and easy choices.
On the other hand, Soo-yeon said the hardest one was the dreamy and mysterious concept.
“The dreamy and mysterious concept is tough even for active idols. Everything needs to align perfectly, the stage styling, the mood of the song, and the members’ images, so the difficulty is just too high.”
After hearing that explanation, I mentally crossed out the dreamy and mysterious concept.
A concept that should absolutely not be attempted.
Originally, just avoiding what the experts tell you not to do is enough to prevent disasters.
***
“...Yun-kyung.”
“...Yes, unnie....”
“Did I maybe do something wrong to you?”
At my question, Yun-kyung shook her head.
“No! I actually trust only you, unnie.”
“Our Yun-kyung really needs to be careful with the people she trusts. So tell me, why did you grab onto such a precious person when you were falling off a cliff and fall together?"
I was standing behind Yun-kyung, speaking like a ventriloquist.
“Well, what else could I do... It’s obvious no one else wants to join my team....”
“I didn’t want to either, you know?”
“It’s okay! Unnie is my leader.”
Ah.
Who said it was not malice, but goodwill, that corners people?
The events leading up to this disaster flashed through my mind.
-Now, it’s time for the team leaders to choose their songs!
As the moment came for the 20 team leaders to pick songs, the noisy field quickly fell silent.
Since the songs would be decided according to the team leaders’ choices, everyone had no choice but to pay attention to which team leader would pick the song they were eyeing.
And then,
-The order of song selection will be determined by a flag-snatching race. The team leaders who carry the flag from the turnaround point and cross the finish line first will be given the right to choose their songs in that order.
The intention of the production team to not simply hand out the order, for the sake of airtime, was clearly visible.
In the end, the 20 team leaders who had survived the chicken fight had to run another race with the songs on the line.
‘Participant Seo Ryu-jin, 1st place! Followed by participant Ryu A-yeon....’
Seo Ryu-jin, as if proving my theory that she was a regressed special forces soldier, earned the first pick with an overwhelming performance, and the rest, including Ryu A-yeon, took the top spots in order.
And then,
“Huff... huff.”
Was it because she was short? Or just not good at running?
The spirited middle schooler Lim Yun-kyung seemed hopeless at running.
Out of 20, she placed 17th, earning one of the lowest picks, and her expression looked like she was about to cry.
-Participant No. 68, team leader Lim Yun-kyung, chooses “Lucid Dive”!
Only near the end did Yun-kyung finally get a chance to choose a song, and her pick was “Lucid Dive.”
But rather than saying she chose it, it was more accurate to say it was the only one left. As Soo-yeon had said, the dreamy and mysterious concept was avoided by everyone, and that was the only remaining song.
-Now that all team leaders have selected their songs, it’s time to select your team members. This time, team leaders will take turns picking one team member each in reverse order of song selection!
As Jang Joon-seok’s explanation ended, the team leaders began selecting their team members, starting with the one who came in last in the flag-snatching race.
When it was Yun-kyung’s turn, third in line, I was actually rooting for her in my heart at the time.
Even if Yun-kyung had betrayed me during the chicken fight by siding with Seo Ryu-jin, she was still just a young middle schooler burdened with the role of team leader.
And on top of that, she ended up with a song from the most avoided and difficult concept, so I hoped she would at least get good members.
‘I... I choose participant number 100, Lee Si-on, as my team member.’
To this day, I have no memory of when Yun-kyung made her first pick.
Blackout.
It’s said that sometimes, when you experience extreme shock or something completely irrational, your brain shuts down momentarily to protect you.
From the outside, I probably looked like I was standing still just fine, but in that moment, I definitely experienced a blackout.
And when I came to, I was already standing on the platform, right behind Yun-kyung, as her first pick.
“It’s o-okay, unnie! We made it through Class F just fine too!”
“Hey... You! Ah! You little-!”
Right now, my brain and mouth are locked in a fierce war.
My mouth.
was telling me to unleash a string of satisfying curses at that impudent middle schooler.
My brain.
was reminding me that no matter how crazy Yun-kyung’s actions were, she was still young, and I must not forget that we were filming, urging me to hold back.
“So, do you have someone in mind for the next member?”
“I was going to pick Na-yeon unnie, but she got taken.”
At this point, there was no use blaming Yun-kyung for what had already happened.
What needed to be done now was damage control, minimizing the disaster however possible.
‘Neither I nor Yun-kyung can really be called skilled.’
The only reason I got a Grade A was because the judges saw potential and gave me a favorable evaluation. Objectively speaking, I was still far behind the other Grade A participants.
There were 20 members in Class A.
With 7 already chosen as team leaders, that meant only 13 Class A members remained.
“I’ll pick participant No. 33, Lee Ji-hye, as my team member.”
Naturally, as the team leaders made their first picks, the Class A participants were the first to be selected.
“Unnie, that team already has two A-grade members.”
“Having an A-grade team leader pick A-grade members should be banned by law.”
Before even the first full rotation, the A-grade members were already sold out.
“For the next member, pick Soo-yeon.”
“Soo-yeon unnie? Got it, I’ll pick her right away.”
Given the situation, we had to at least make solid picks from among the Grade B members.
And among Class B, there was only one person I knew well and who also had decent skill.
‘I kept my promise, Soo-yeon!’
Soo-yeon wouldn’t feel bitter about this.
She had been the one to say with her own mouth that we should be on the same team this time.
This was by no means a case of dragging someone down with me just because I didn’t want to go down alone!
***
“Hello, I’m trainee Geum Shin-yu from UI Entertainment!”
“I’m Lee Ga-hyun from Daon Entertainment.”
“...I’m individual trainee Kim Soo-yeon.”
Clap, clap, clap.
As the members of Team Yun-kyung, seated in a circle like a campfire gathering, introduced themselves one by one, Yun-kyung and I had no choice but to clap until our hands broke.
Soo-yeon, who was looking at me with eyes that could kill, and Lee Ga-hyun, who stared with a face full of doubt, wondering why on earth she’d been picked.
And then.
‘Hey! Pick Shin-yu. No matter what, pick her!’
When Yun-kyung and I were in a state of panic after picking Soo-yeon as our third member, Seo Ryu-jin, who had been watching, quietly came up and half-threatened us to pick a participant named Geum Shin-yu.
‘Geum Shin-yu?’
She was Grade C, and I had no idea why we were supposed to pick her, but Seo Ryu-jin’s expression was so serious that I decided we should just pick her and figure it out later.
So we picked Geum Shin-yu, and lastly, we picked Lee Ga-hyun.
Lee Ga-hyun still sat there with a strange expression, as if she couldn’t believe that Yun-kyung and I had chosen her.
In truth, when I suggested picking Lee Ga-hyun last, Yun-kyung had fiercely opposed it.
‘Unnie... do you hate me that much?’
With eyes full of distrust, Lim Yun-kyung looked at me as if to ask if this was how I intended to get back at her for picking me first.
Which made sense, considering back in Class F, it had been Yun-kyung and I who had pushed out Lee Ga-hyun as the leader and installed Na-yeon instead.
Facing that person again as a teammate wasn’t just awkward, it might’ve made us look like sociopaths to anyone else.
But I believed Lee Ga-hyun was necessary for our team.
‘She was just the perfect fit.’
With me, Lim Yun-kyung, Kim Soo-yeon, and Geum Shin-yu already selected, I mentally ran through who would best round out the team.
And what came to mind was an image: Lee Ga-hyun in the center, me and Geum Shin-yu on either side, and Soo-yeon and Yun-kyung on the outer ends of the formation.
I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it properly due to my lack of knowledge, but the moment that lineup came to mind, I knew our team needed Lee Ga-hyun.
So, despite Yun-kyung’s protests, I chose Lee Ga-hyun as our final member.