The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

[Probability of winning first place: 65%]

It was a significantly high number. The percentage that had hovered around 50% soared above 60% and reached 65%. There was only one reason for this substantial increase—it was because I became the center of “Never Mind.”

‘…What in the world?’ I couldn’t understand this. ‘It’s a good decision for me to be the center?’

I began to have doubts about the system, and worries began to cloud my mind. Although this round was in the form of an individual competition, it was still a performance on stage. No one would give a high score to a bad performance. Of course, there would be fans who would give a high score regardless of the performance of their favorite idols.

But if that was not the case, there was no way the audience would give a high score to a bad performance; instead, they would give a harsh evaluation, saying, ‘at least he’s a bit better than the others in his group’. If I stood at the center, we would probably get the following reactions:

—Why is the performance such a mess?

—It’s messy.

—Why are they so out of sync?

—Why is the center’s performance so lackluster?

If the center didn’t do well, it could hurt the entire performance.

Sigh.

‘My head hurts.’ In the end, these were just my thoughts, and the system thought differently. I stared at the mirror and carefully inspected my expressions. People were shallow so no matter how well someone danced and sang on stage, their eyes naturally went to the performer’s face first.

Of course, this didn’t mean that only good-looking people could be the center, but there needed to be something captivating about the center’s face to draw the audience in. That could come from expression or ability to convey the concept, or just having a god-level face to bewitch people.

‘Am I good at making expressions?’ The flat-out answer was no. I often heard that my expressions barely changed. I usually looked indifferent or slightly smiled and that was the limit of my expression.

‘Would I be able to convey the concept well?’ Frankly, the concept of a younger man was tough for me. I needed to be refreshing and lively, but I didn’t know how much of that feeling I could pull off.

‘For god-level face…’ That was not the case for me; another member of our group was in charge of the visuals.

While I was deep in contemplation, Kang Hyun-Sung said, “Then, let’s roughly try to match the chorus dance.” We got up with Kang Hyun’s lead and began to match our choreography. It was not difficult to learn the dance thanks to my Insight ability, and I could make the key points of the dance stand out.

“There’s one move at ‘never’ from ‘never mind.’ And another move at ‘mind’. Why don’t we make the moves more clear-cut from each other.” Naturally, I began to explain the dance moves to the others. Everyone except for Kang Hyun-Sung started to learn the moves according to my explanation. On the other hand, Kang Hyun-Sung—

‘He already knows the dance.’ Since he planned to do this song, it seemed as if he had already memorized the choreography.

“Then let’s roughly set up the formation.” I stood in the center, and people stood in line behind me. The lyrics of the chorus consisted of a melody that could be easily followed along.

—NEVER MIND~ That blue sky

—I’ll run! To hold them all~

—Swoosh! I’ll hold the

—Rising cloud in my arms and—

We roughly matched our movements according to the chorus that boomed through the speakers. We cut through the air as if we were swimming and then stretched our left hand to the sky and moved forward one step at a time. Most of the moves required our arms and legs to be stretched out. I thought it was because large movements were better to convey the cool feeling of the chorus. Since everyone had experience as a trainee, nobody had difficulty learning the choreography. We were able to synchronize in our first attempt.

“Wow!”

“We did it!”

“Ohhh!”

“We’re in sync.”

Everyone was brimming with excitement.

‘Hmm.’ But I was still unsure about this. Overall, the members of our team were tall and had long arms and legs, so these moves looked good on them, but with the slightest mistake, it could look like we were floundering buffoons. Furthermore, if I lost my energy even a little bit as the center, the whole performance could end up as a disaster, and the overall picture could look downright terrible.

Since we were just looking at the overall moves and not details like facial expressions, it looked alright for now, but the more I thought about it, I became more and more concerned. After a few more hours of memorizing and familiarizing ourselves with the choreography, we decided to end today’s practice.

“Pweh. I think that’s enough for today.”

“Since we haven’t rearranged the song yet, and we’ll revise the choreography anyway, I don’t think we need to practice any more from here.”

“Let’s stop for today.”

We finished our practice around 6 p.m. Since we only practiced synchronization and details repeatedly for hours, everyone seemed bored, and I also thought it would be meaningless to practice more than this. We began to separate into different corners of the practice room naturally and began to pack our belongings.

“Everyone is going to watch episode 2 of The Showcase 2 at 8 pm tonight, right?” Then Kang Jin-Kyu of Bleshu asked everyone out of the blue.

“Of course.”

“Wow, I really wonder how they’ll edit it today…”

“I hope our group gets a lot of screen time.”

Everyone seemed full of worries and hopes for the second episode of The Showcase 2.

“Uh? Should we just watch it together?” Then Kang Jin-Kyu made a sudden proposal.

“Oh!”

“Shall we?”

“Yeah, sounds good to me!”

“I was too scared to watch it alone, so I’m all for it.”

Everyone responded positively. I stared at Kang Jin-Kyu; all of the Bleshu members gave off a similar vibe as him. They were the mood makers of the group and amped up the energy wherever they went.

‘Let’s sneak out.’ But there was no need for me to join them since I had made plans to watch the show with the members. I sent a message.

—Yeon-Hoon, are you heading to the dorm right now?

Since I sent it to Yeon-Hoon, I thought I would get a reply within two minutes. I was wondering if I should pick up a salad for dinner on the way when Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

“Mr. Tae-Yoon, aren’t you going to watch with us?”

“What?” I moved my gaze away from my phone and looked straight ahead. Kang Hyun-Sung was looking at me. I could have secretly run away, but now that he pointed me out, it became impossible to do so.

However, I had to go anyway, so I replied honestly, “Ah, I made plans to watch it with my members.”

“Is that so?” Kang Hyun-Sung sounded like he didn’t care. I didn’t know why he even bothered to ask. Was he indirectly telling me to go quickly? Even without him telling me, I was planning to go anyway.

Zing-

Then I got a reply from Yeon-Hoon, but—

—Tae-Yoon…

I got an ominous feeling about this.

—I don’t think we can watch The Showcase 2 together :'(

‘What, why?’ I got an unexpected reply.

—I’ll tell you when I get home…the practice is getting longer, so it’ll probably end at 10pm :((((((

‘They’re practicing until 10 pm?’ This was a whole new problem; if they had to practice until 10 p.m., a serious problem must have arisen in their team. Yeon-Hoon’s text message also had a negative nuance.

When I stared at my phone blankly, Bleshu’s Kang Jin-Kyu said, “Huh? But Mr. Tae-Yoon, aren’t your members practicing right now? I’m texting with our group’s leader, and he said they haven’t finished practice yet.”

This was dangerous. I now became someone who lied because I didn’t want to watch the show together. I had no intention of wrecking my social life, and the atmosphere turned strangely cold.

I quickly said, “Ah, I just saw the message too and found out they’re not done with practice yet.” I hadn’t lied, as I just got the information a little late, and I actively made my appeal.

“Then…do you want to watch it together?” At that moment, Only One’s Park Young-Ho asked. The mood had become strange, and it felt like I couldn’t say no now.

In the end, I nodded and said, “…Yes.” I had no choice.

But then, in the corner of my mind, I thought, ‘Is this okay?’

I was actually worried about this situation. Editing was done to produce the most entertaining result possible, and to give the most dramatic entertainment, it was easiest to create hero and villain characters and make them fight each other. Whether it was blatant or not, there would always be someone who would fall victim to the production team’s editing.

‘The atmosphere could get tense.’ Since this was a gathering of several groups, discomfort could arise from the editing, but I couldn’t leave anymore.

‘Let’s just hang in there.’ I needed to endure and push through.

It was then Kim Ju-Hyun of Only One who suggested, “Then why don’t we buy dinner and watch it together while eating?”

“Yeah! Let’s go out to buy food~”

“Let’s eat~”

Everyone got up from their seats and went out with their wallets in their hands.

* * *

Like this, we came back to the practice room with dinner in our hands. Although I said dinner, the menu was the same as always. For an idol who was ‘on the job’, we couldn’t eat carbs or fat, so we were all unified under leafy greens.

“Wow, I love this dressing!”

“It’s a sin to like yuja dressing.”

“Ah, respect people’s taste.”

Of course, there were differences in what kind of greens we got. We each packed a salad box at the salad shop where Only One frequented. I ordered a salad with salmon and oriental dressing, and coincidentally, the menu overlapped with Park Young-Ho.

Park Young-Ho said, “It’s really good if you put tartar sauce on top of it instead of oriental sauce. I really recommend it!”

I answered, “But if you think about the calories, I would go with oriental.”

“That’s true. But don’t you think we have similar tastes?”

“Ah…is that so?”

“Yes!”

I didn’t really have a special preference for dressings, but maybe Park Young-Ho was the same as me. I didn’t think too much about it and glossed over it. When we returned to the practice room after buying salads, a beam projector and white screen had already been installed.

“It’s part of this practice room’s options,” Kim Hyun-Sung said in a flat voice.

‘I’m so jealous…’ Compared to our practice room with squeaky floors, this was like a super luxury. Soon after, we brought out a table, laid out the salad, connected the laptop to a beam projector, and accessed OTT to stream. Since there was still time left until the broadcast started, everyone was chatting and ignoring the screen. But soon, the broadcast logo appeared on top of the screen, and the countdown before the airing began.

Sighhh.

“I didn’t even eat much, but why do I have an upset stomach?”

“Do I have to drink a can of beer…?”

Everyone began to look noticeably tense. I just wished for one thing. ‘I really hope there’s no evil editing today.’

I hoped none of my teammates here would be villainized, or the atmosphere here would turn very uncomfortable. When I watched the screen nervously, episode 2 of The Showcase 2 began.

“It’s starting!”

The second episode began after showing a summary of the first episode.

“Ah…”

“Hmph!”

“Um.”

Thus, it started from the scene where Siren was last place in the introductory performance. Since people felt guilty about this, they all avoided my gaze. This was why I hadn’t wanted to watch this show with the other groups. Why did they want to watch it all together…?

Sigh.

Since this already happened, there was no point dwelling in regret. I fixed my gaze on the screen and wondered what kind of development would happen.

From my prediction, I thought, ‘We’ll probably still be the main characters.’

I thought the second episode would be pretty similar to episode 1 as in the first round since we tied for first place with Only One. We went from last place to first place in the first round and achieved a huge rebound. Thus, I thought we would be given the main character role for there to be a buildup for the first round.

“…?”

“What?”

“Ah…”

However, the show went quite differently than I expected; it wasn’t that we were robbed of the main role. Rather, it was even more emphasized that we were the main characters in the first round. But the problem was—

‘Did the producer go crazy? They’re throwing away Only One?’

It was great that the production team highlighted us, but in episode 2, Only One members were portrayed as arrogant and narcissistic villains who looked down on the whole competition.