The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

“Let’s go, maknae.”

I looked at him in shock when he addressed me so casually. Kang Hyun-Sung smiled to show the viewers that he was speaking in a joking manner. I didn’t know whether it was my bias towards him but everything he did felt like part of a scheme or devious strategy. And though I perfectly built my team to get first place in the third round, Kang Hyun-Sung came and ruined everything. Perhaps, this was what Kang Hyun-Sung was aiming for. By ruining my plans, he was trying to increase his likelihood of getting first in the third round, which would allow him to win the show for sure…

“Hello, Mr. Tae-Yoon!”

“Welcome!”

But for that to be the case, people from Only One looked too bright when they greeted me. I looked towards Kang Hyun-Sung again. Perhaps, it was because I put down some of my biases; he didn’t look so conniving. But of course, there was no way I could tell that with his expression alone.

“Let’s work together well, Mr. Tae-Yoon.” His voice and manner of addressing me were the same as usual now. He didn’t appear tense or overly excited. It was as if he had just brought me into his team without any underhanded plots.

‘Why in the world did he pick me though?’ I thought. Honestly, our relationship wasn’t very good. We butted heads in our first confrontation under the stairs; and though things loosened up a bit after I saved Young-Ho from his team, the relationship worsened again when I provoked him at the prayer room. It would’ve been reasonable for Kang Hyun-Sung to detest me instead.

‘What is this guy really?’

Why was he going so far to bring me to his team? If this part of the show aired on television, he could be insulted for it depending on the way the producers edited the scenes. Of course, it was still on the safe side, but considering Kang Hyun-Sung’s personality, he wasn’t the type to play dangerous games. Thus, he acted out of character to pick me while risking his reputation.

‘Ah, I don’t know.’ I couldn’t think of the reason behind his behavior at all. All sorts of thoughts popped into my head. And even besides Kang Hyun-Sung, there was a mountain pile of things I also had to think about.

‘We really need to get first place in the third round.’ There was no more room for failure. After losing the first-place title to Only One in the second round, the road to winning the show became much harder. Thus, Siren needed to win the third round no matter what.

‘But it’s going awry even from the very beginning.’ My plan was ruined already.

For now, I surveyed my group members. They were Only One’s five members: Kang Hyun-Sung, Park Young-Ho, Kim Si-Woon, Kim Ju-Hyun, and Lee Chul-Woon. Then, the other members were OnebyOne’s Kim Sang-Hoon, Choi Jin-Young, and Bleshu’s Kang Jin-Kyu. There were two people from OnebyOne and one from Bleshu. Including me, there were a total of nine people in this group.

‘It’s not a bad group.’ Each of the people here could do more than their keep. OnebyOne, Kang Sang-Hoon and Choi Jin-Young were both vocalists, while Bleshu’s Kang Jin-Kyu was a rapper. It was a good balance of roles.

‘Furthermore…did that bastard Kang Hyun-Sung bring in the members based on their visuals?’ Both members from OnebyOne and Bleshu were the visual lines of their groups. I thought Kang Hyun-Sung had called the names thoughtlessly when choosing the teammates, but as expected of him, it seemed like he had a big picture and a plan all along.

‘But will I be able to stand out in this group?’ In the third round, members would be individually assessed instead of as a group, and the group that got the highest combination of individual scores would win first place. Thus, I needed to stand out here.

‘It won’t be easy for me to make myself noticeable.’ Though I was the tallest in my group, everyone here was tall in this group too. I suspected that the average height of this group was 180cm and as mentioned before, their visuals were good.

‘And above all, Kang Hyun-Sung is in this group…’ It wouldn’t be easy to get people’s attention when Kang Hyun-Sung was on the same stage as me. I wondered if I could make a lot of ideas for the stage formation to give myself an advantage but this wasn’t even my team. My group members only respected and accepted my ideas because we were in the same group. It would be difficult to expect the same here.

‘Moreover, since the entire Only One team is in here, the setup for this performance will flow in favor of them.’ Whether we decided on the ideas democratically or not, it was obvious that the performance would be made to place Only One at the center.

‘This is seriously tough.’ My head hurt.

“Okay then! We will give you all time to get to know each other and discuss your next performance,” the host, Kim Young-Jin spoke then and continued the program. “But before that, there’s one announcement that I need to make!”

‘Hm?’ I turned my head towards the host, wondering what this was about now.

“Does everyone remember how the scores will be decided on individually this time?”

“Yes~”

“On top of that, we are going to introduce an MVP system!”

‘An MVP?’ I wondered if it was what I was thinking about.

“In short, the individual who showed the best performance in each team will be chosen as MVP. The MVP will be given enormous rewards so I hope you all give your best for the next performance! The MVP will be decided by professional guest judges who will come for the third round!”

It was just as I thought. Of course, there was an MVP system when people were individually scored. It was a rule perfect for crushing any sense of teamwork in each of the teams.

“Ah, hahaha.”

“An MVP?”

“How nice.”

Everyone was smiling, but they didn’t seem too pleased to hear this. Since we were scored individually, it was already clear that there was going to be a lot of competition between the team members, but with the addition of this MVP system, the competition would grow fiercer.

Sigh. I sighed inside my mind.

I hoped that everything would be over then, but when I was about to leave the stage, the host said, “Then, now, I hope you talk to your new team members and get to know each other.”

At the same time, I heard the following–

[A surprise mission.]

‘Haa, please.’ This damn system loved to push me into a corner. I already felt annoyed before hearing the content of the mission. I thought I should still hear it out.

[Place first in the third-round performance.]

[Upon success, the secret of your regression will be partly revealed.]

[Upon failure, control over your Insight ability will be retracted.]

‘…What the hell?’ It was a reward and penalty that I hadn’t expected at all. I thought the penalty was understandable since the system had given me the Insight ability in the first place, but the reward was truly unexpected.

‘What in the world is the secret behind my regression?’ Although the system always worked beyond my expectations, this part was especially surprising.

‘…This isn’t easy.’ I felt conflicted. But the only thing that I could be sure of was that I needed to win first place no matter what. To hear what this secret was about, I really needed to succeed in this mission. Perhaps, my desperation reached the system, and I heard the system continue.

[Your probability of winning first place is revealed.]

[Probability of winning first place: 35%]

As if I had activated a device in another world, I saw my probability of winning in the corner of my vision.

‘The probability of us winning is 35%?’ Perhaps, the system wanted us to win and gave me this special perk to see probabilities.

“Okay then, let’s gather together and discuss,” Kang Hyun-Sung called us then. Everyone gathered around Kang Hyun-Sung in the center and sat in a circle.

“You all know each other's names, right?”

“Yes.”

“Haha, yes.”

Kang Hyun-Sung got right to the point, skipping all formalities. It seemed he didn’t want to talk about useless stuff. ”Let’s get right to the point. What kind of performance do you all want to do?”

Perhaps, it was his experience from being on Select Your Idol, but Kang Hyun-Sung appeared used to this type of team-alliance mission.

“I personally think it will be a good idea for us to do a sexy concept.” OnebyOne’s Sang-Hoon suggested.

“Something sexy?”

“Yes, it’s because I don’t think anyone has done a concept that could be considered sexy yet.”

“Oh! It’s not bad.” OnebyOne’s Jin-Young agreed with OnebyOne’s Sang-Hoon. Perhaps, he was supporting a fellow group member, but Bleshu’s Jin-Kyu also agreed.

“Yeah, since everyone’s physiques aren’t bad…”

‘Sexy concept, my ass,’ I thought. This team alliance was a big group. Other groups would probably utilize their large numbers and make a large-scale performance. Yet, it wasn’t easy to have a big-scale performance with a sexy concept since sexiness oozed in a place that was more secretive and in the shadows. Even if it were fine to have some sexy elements in a conceptual performance, it wouldn’t be easy centering the whole performance around it.

[Probability of winning first place: 27%]

The system seemed to prove me right as the percentages decreased dramatically. At this point, I needed to stop this idea from solidifying at all costs.

“Rather than doing something sexy, why don’t we do something a bit more conceptual?” I suggested. They could do this sexy concept or whatever years after their debut and for their fans in a concert, but here, it was better to do a performance filled with elements that K-pop fans liked.

“I don’t know what concept we should decide on yet, but I think it would be a good idea to have some narrative elements, too,” I said, and as soon as I spoke these words, the probability rose again.

[Probability of winning first place: 30%]

‘It didn’t shoot up though.’ The probability didn’t recover to its original 35%. In cases like this, maybe it was better not to do anything, but the situation was still better than when we were talking about doing a sexy concept.

“I-I also think it will be good to have narrative elements…!” Someone supported me quietly from a corner.

I turned and saw Young-Ho from Only One nodding.

‘What?’ His whole body seemed to be saying, ‘I agree with you 100%!’

And perhaps, pushed by Young-Ho’s agreement, other Only One members supported me.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

“Honestly, all our past performances had a story to it too.”

“I think we just need to choose our concept wisely.”

I was a bit taken aback that Only One members seemed to support and even like me.

“Conceptual narrative, that’s good,” Kang Hyun-Sung said. Because he had been staying quiet after giving us the topic of discussion, everyone instantly turned in his direction when he spoke again. After checking that all eyes were on him, he said, “But what about we try something cute?”

“Sorry?” I was so shocked to hear the word ‘cute’ come out of Kang Hyun-Sung’s mouth that I intuitively asked him to repeat himself.

“We have the youngest member among the cast here. I think it will be a good idea to do a younger man concept,” Kang Hyun-Sung continued calmly without the slightest trembling in his voice. Then, he stared at me. I began to have serious doubts about Kang Hyun-Sung’s ability to assess me. How in the world could he think of doing something cute, seeing my size and appearance…?

[Probability of winning first place: 51%]

That was what I thought, but the numbers seemed to disagree with me.