The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Chapter 16

I went up to the stage with the rest of the members. Since we were called last, we were naturally the last ones to go up on stage. The other groups were probably awkwardly greeting each other and waging a war of nerves. I thought it was fortunate that our name was called late so that we wouldn’t be involved in such a bothersome fight.

“We can do it. We can do it. Ugh.” Yeon-Hoon kept muttering to himself to calm his anxiety.

“You can do it, Yeon-Hoon.” I said and massaged Yeon-Hoon’s shoulder.

“Yeah, that’s right, I can do it!”

Yeon-Hoon quickly recovered his energy with our encouragement. Although we had already climbed the stairs once for our rehearsal, it felt especially nerve-wracking.

“The walls here will open on both sides so don’t panic and walk straight.” We prepared ourselves after listening to the staff’s explanation.

Soon after...

Ziiing—

With the sound of mechanics moving, the center of the wall in front of us split and began to open on both sides. Then, a long, rectangular stage came into view. Several chairs were arranged on both sides of the long stage. Luminin was sitting at the innermost left seat, and Bleshu was sitting next to Luminin. The group sitting at the innermost right seat was OnebyOne, and the group sitting next to OnebyOne was Only One. Siren’s seat was—

‘It’s at the left end.’ It was the seat next to Bleshu and right across from Only One. In other words, it was a place where we had no choice but to keep making eye contact with Only One.

‘They were aiming for this.’ It seemed as if the production team were trying to stir up drama by constantly putting us up with Only One. As soon as we came up on stage, all the eyes of the other groups were on us. There were no groups that pretended to welcome us or look surprised as they already received information about which group would come out. They all just looked at us with a moderate look of vigilance. We slowly walked to our seats. After getting into our seats, I looked forward, and I could see Only One right in front of me.

‘It’s bothersome as hell.’ After sitting down, this setup was quite burdensome. I saw Park Young-Ho, whom we met before entering here, and I saw the other members of Only One: Kim Si-Woon, Kim Ju-Hyun, and Lee Chul-Woon. And the member who sat right in the center was Kang Hyun-Sung.

‘It’s my first time seeing Kang Hyun-Sung in person.’ Kang Hyun-Sung was right in front of me.

I wasn’t sure if I should say this, but I thought, ‘He really does stand out.’ I could see why the word 'star potential' existed.

Kang Hyun-Sung was a fair man with platinum hair, and there was nothing remarkably handsome about his features. He didn’t give off a fierce impression but had rather soft features instead. He had the type of face that senior citizens would like, saying that he had a gentle and friendly face. Yet, his face also left a lasting impression and grabbed one’s attention. And the reason for that was—

‘What’s up with his eyes?’ Hyun-Sung’s eyes were a little different from the norm. I wasn’t talking about whether his eyes were deep-set or anything about his eye shape; his gaze was clearly different from the others. It seemed as if his eyes shook less than the others; no, his eyes didn’t even tremble in the slightest.

‘His eyes are mad for success.’ I alone called him 'mad eyes'. Since it was with absolute certainty that I would be bombarded with insults if I said this in front of Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans, I secretly called him by that nickname in my head. On the other hand, his eyes looked even more intense in person. He really seemed crazy about success. Kang Hyun-Sung was probably the only person who gave such an impression with only his eyes. The other Siren members seemed a bit scared as well.

“Pwehh.” Yeon-Hoon took a deep breath and tapped his chest to calm his mind. Do-Seung was frozen and didn’t budge at all, and Woon couldn’t stay still and kept twirling his fingers. Only Dong-Jun remained relatively calm. However, his face also looked slightly nervous as he kept looking around.

The stage was still silent. Originally, we would have greeted each other, but the war on nerves seemed to be continuing. Perhaps, the other groups had already shared greetings with each other and were not sure whether they should share greetings once again. It seemed as if it would be better for us to say hello first. I slightly poked Yeon-Hoon’s side. He looked at me for a moment, nodded as if he understood what I meant, and got up.

“Ah, we’ll introduce ourselves, everyone!” Then after speaking loudly for the other teams to hear, he drew everyone’s attention. Only One and the other groups looked at us in unison.

“One, two, say yes! Hello! We’re Siren! We look forward to meeting you all!”

When we shouted our team greeting and bowed our heads, applause, and hellos came from all over the place. The first group that came forward with a friendly reaction was Bleshu, who was right next to us.

“Hello! We enjoyed watching Siren’s application video!” The leader of Bleshu said and approached us to network.

Since the leader of Bleshu came forward, it was only right for our leader to step forward as well. Without us even asking, Yeon-Hoon immediately answered with a smile. “Really? Thank you! That was our maknae’s idea!”

“Ah, maknae?”

“Yes, Tae-Yoon here is our maknae.”

“Ah, he must be one smart maknae.”

“Yes, he’s a smarty pants!”

“Oh, Bong Tae-Yoon, the smarty pants maknae. What a brainy kiddo~” Dong-Jun sneaked into the conversation and called me 'smarty pants maknae'. I don’t know why Yeon-Hoon decided to use that phrase of all words. It was a phrase that might only come out in a kid's show.

“Have you watched our application video too?” Bleshu’s leader asked whether we’ve seen their video as well.

“Yes! Of course!” Yeon-Hoon answered with a nod and continued, “It’s the video where you all took turns singing, right?”

“Yes, that’s right! We sang a song continuously as if we were competing for the mike.”

“I thought that was a really good idea when I first saw that video.”

I silently watched our leader socialize with the Bleshu leader. Since Yeon-Hoon maxed out in sociability stats, he didn’t seem awkward about it; rather, it seemed as if it was a little too much for the Bleshu leader. He looked like someone who attempted to make light conversation and wanted to exchange a few words but was forced into a lengthy conversation. Well, he would have to hang in there, since he was the one who decided to socialize.

I turned my attention away from Bleshu and looked at Only One. Only One was also talking to the team next to them and socializing. However, it felt more like a fan signing event as I could hear people repeatedly saying that they were fans of Kang Hyun-Sung. When it felt like the atmosphere’s tension was slowly loosening up—

Tap!

“Uh?”

“What?”

“What’s happening?” The stage light suddenly went dark. When people began to look around to find the source of the sudden change, then—

Ziiiiing—

A familiar mechanical sound rang on the stage.

Flash! One spotlight flashed at the end of the stage. A pair of male and female hosts walked out of the door. The male host was a famous comedian, Kim Young-Jin, and the female host was solo singer Nahyun. Both were celebrities who frequently appeared on TV shows. I knew they were going to be the hosts, but I didn’t think anyone else knew as I was the only one from the future.

“Oh my gosh...”

“Is this for real?”

“Wow, crazy!”

“Mr. Young-Jin is so tall...”

“He’s handsome.”

Everyone was surprised and stared at the hosts. The funny thing was that none of the numerous reactions were about Nahyun. Since reactions to the opposite sex could become problematic in the future, they were already being extremely careful. The two hosts came out to the center of the stage and looked straight at the camera.

“Hello, I’m comedian Kim Young-Jin, the host of The Showcase 2 First Chance, a war to find the most brilliant gem on stage.”

“Hello, I’m singer Nahyun. Nice to meet you, everyone!”

After greeting the camera, the two hosts turned their eyes and greeted us as well.

“Hello, ma’am!”

“Hello, sir!”

“You’re handsome!”

Perhaps due to how young and innocent we looked, Kim Young-Jin and Nahyun smiled slightly and met each of our eyes one by one. Then they returned to their original position and continued to talk while looking at the camera.

“Among countless applicants, a total of two idol groups and three pre-debut groups here were specially selected to join us here today, right?”

“Yes, there were countless applicants for The Showcase 2, and among them, the five teams gathered here obtained the highest number of views with their unique talent and wit.”

Their remarks continued naturally like flowing water. Their lines might have been written by the scriptwriter, but it was a whole different ball game to relay it so naturally.

“Now, shall we look at their faces?” Comedian Kim Young-Jin said so in a playful tone and pretended to look around jokingly.

The only one who accepted that ad-lib was our team leader, Yeon-Hoon. He matched Young-Jin's gesture and cupped his face with both hands and shook his head gently. I had no idea Yeon-Hoon would be this good in front of the cameras. He had been so nervous before going up on stage but now didn’t hesitate to grab attention.

“Hahaha! How cute.” Young-Jin burst into laughter at Yeon-Hoon’s actions.

‘We got at least one more cut in the bag.’ Thanks to Yeon-Hoon’s wit, I thought we could come out for at least a few more seconds on air.

After exchanging a few more ad-libs so that the atmosphere could be relaxed for a while, the hosts began relaying their lines.

“Each of the five teams gathered today was selected based on the application videos that best represented their team, so let’s now take some time to check out the videos that have garnered massive attention.” At Nahyun’s remarks, the lights went dark one more time and a video came out of the electronic display at the end of the stage.

The first to appear was Luminin’s video. It was a performance video of a six-member group, and there was nothing unusual about the dance itself. However, their excellent skills were clearly noticeable, so they were able to achieve a moderate number of views of 30,000. Luminin was a flopped group that had debuted a year ago but hadn’t even been able to come out on any major music shows.

The next video was from OnebyOne. Like Luminin, they had debuted 1 year ago but weren’t able to draw significant attention and were being buried by other groups. OnebyOne had posted a video reminiscent of a hip-hop cypher.

As expected of a hip-hop group with three rappers and two vocals, it was a video that paid more attention to rap and atmosphere than choreography. Since they showed a rare hip-hop video among many similar idol performances, they were able to receive a bit of attention and recorded 35,000 views.

The next was Bleshu’s video. Bleshu was a pre-debut group like us, and in their video, they sang one song while competing for the mike. They filmed it in a fun variety show manner and all the members had good vocals so they were able to reach a high number of views for a total of 50,000.

However, this was actually just getting a taste of the program and the real show started from here on. Frankly, I knew that the reason why our application video was being shown again was to pit us against Only One. Sure enough, Only One and our videos didn’t play separately but were—

“Side by side comparison?”

“Wow...”

Our videos were placed side to side on one screen. The aim of the broadcasting show was way too obvious. When the show went on air, they would probably add a reaction cut with the phrase, ‘Siren and Only posted exactly the same video’, at the bottom. The reaction cut that they would use at that time will most likely be us looking taken aback. After the application video was finished, the hosts continued their lines.

“Did you guys enjoy the application video that showed the charms of the five teams?”

“Yessss!”

We all gave the appropriate reply, and by this point, the atmosphere was still amicable. However, this congenial atmosphere would most likely not continue.

‘If the atmosphere is warm and friendly, they would have to think about breaking it somehow.’ Even though I didn’t remember the whole set-up of the show, this was just my feeling as a writer. Although we were in different fields, all writers were of the same blood. And as expected—

“But if it ends here, it won’t be The Showcase.” One of the hosts made a comment that broke the friendly mood.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m sure you’ve already completed this mission. Let’s now watch the declaration of war videos that all of you sent to each other at the same time!”

It was now time to watch the provocations we were all forced to make. Those cruel production bastards immediately relayed those videos right in front of us. The first to appear was—

—Ah, um, hello Siren. This is Kim Siwoon from Only One.

It was a video of Only One declaring war on us.

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