Chapter 34

Kang Hyun-Sung showed open hostility. I might be going too far to say that he was being outright hostile, but I saw clear antagonism in his eyes. His expressionless face, hollow voice, and the ambiguous distance he was maintaining—they were all signs, indicating that he didn’t welcome us.

Even then, it was a speculation to say he was being hostile by these factors alone. However, the reason why I was convinced that he was coming towards us with animosity was because I knew he was not the type to approach people first.

Kang Hyun-Sung had seen me in

The Showcase 2

for the first time, but I had encountered Kang Hyun-Sung through countless media platforms in my previous life. Of course, there was a huge difference between directly knowing a person and seeing them through the media.

However, a person also couldn’t make up what they didn't have. The images he showed on the broadcast were somewhat consistent with real life as well. The Kang Hyun-Sung that I knew was cautious, quiet, and never went out of his way to make friends. He was reserved to the extent that the Only One members said they only knew his inner thoughts a long time after their debut.

The reason why I knew all this was because, although I hated to admit it, I’ve loosely followed Only One’s activities in my past life. While I hadn’t spent a lot of money on them, I checked them out during their promotion period every time they came out with an album. However, it was questionable whether I could call myself a ‘fan’ with these actions.

While being a fan involved affection, my actions at the time were not out of affection. It was closer to remorse, longing, and envy. I had wondered if our group, Siren, would have looked like them if our group had debuted. In other words, Only One was the object of my meaningless ‘IF’ games that I constantly ran through my mind. I got a little embarrassed when I suddenly recalled this time, and I stared at Kang Hyun-Sung without showing any emotions as much as possible.

I replied, “Thank you. Senior, I was also impressed by your performance.” It was basically a golden rule to give a compliment back after receiving a compliment first. Kang Hyun-Sung quickly reeled in the hostility that had been coming out of his whole body and smoothly changed his expression.

Then he smiled brightly at my answer and said, “Thank you.”

“Um senior, is Young-Ho okay...?” Yeon-Hoon brought up Young-Ho- Only One’s

maknae,

who twisted his ankle. I couldn’t believe that Yeon-Hoon would ask about Young-Ho so outrightly like that. After all, wasn’t it like a forbidden topic right now? However, judging by Yeon-Hoon’s face, he appeared genuinely worried about Young-Ho. Considering Yeon-Hoon’s personality, that was probably the case, but it was questionable whether Kang Hyun-Sung would also accept it that way.

Kang Hyun-Sung’s expression got slightly colder, but he quickly changed his expression and replied, “As soon as the stage was over, he went to a nearby hospital with our manager.” Then he added, “When we got in touch with him, he told us the injury wasn’t that serious.”

Yeon-Hoon replied, “Ah! That’s a huge relief. Please tell him to get well soon!”

“Yes, thank you.”

“No need to thank me!” Kang Hyun-Sung and Yeon-Hoon continued to have a friendly conversation. While Yeon-Hoon kept smiling, Kang Hyun-Sung’s expression darkened little by little.

“Then, see you again.” Kang Hyun-Sung then went back to where the Only One members were.

“Woow!”

“I think he’s even more handsome close-up.

“Yeah, I agree.”

After Kang Hyun-Sung left, everyone was busy praising Kang Hyun-Sung; their assessment of him was getting skewed by his fame once again. I just stared at the members and tried to infer Kang Hyun-Sung’s psychology and how he must be feeling right now.

From his perspective, a strange team had joined a program that he thought Only One would be able to easily monopolize and was now sharing the spotlight with them. I wondered how long he would be able to endure this situation. While I was thinking about various matters like this, the production team went around and told me that it was time to film again.

“We’re going to shoot!”

We began to prepare for the shooting again.

* * *

In the resumed shooting, we stood in the same formation as we had previously used at the introductory performance. We were going to shoot the delivery of the second-round mission and additional cuts.

“Now! The first round of

The Showcase 2 First Chance

has been completed. Thank you for your hard work, all five groups~” Host Kim Young-Jin said and progressed the show. We applauded each group in accordance with his lines.

“We just saw the rankings for the first round. It was definitely an announcement that had a twist in many ways.” Host Nahyun commented and glanced at our team. The twist must be referred to how we placed fifth in the introductory performance and rose to first place in the first-round competition.

“On the other hand, there are some teams with disappointing results.” Although no one showed it, we probably all thought of OnebyOne.

Frankly, I thought,

‘It was a performance worth being in last place.

’ Even I thought that performance had been unfortunate. Maybe with good execution, a gangster concept could make a solid impression, but they had a rap part that didn’t fit and had sloppy acting in the beginning. Furthermore, they were shameless to argue that they showcased the concept of red by splattering a bit of blood.

Besides this, I wondered why the hosts’ lines were getting so long when Kim Young-Jin suddenly said, “Now that you’ve all received your results, let’s hear how you feel.”

I realized they went on for so long to make us do this. Come to think of it, these scenes were included after every competition. The producers took the time to gather everyone together and asked each group how they felt after the ranking announcement.

Frankly, this was the cruelest part about the show: if the participants misspoke even once, they might completely fall out of the public’s favor, and people might accuse them of being arrogant or not knowing their place. It was a setup where there was a good chance of making a mistake.

“Let’s first hear from OnebyOne, who came in fifth place.” Host Kim Young-Jin said and pointed to OnebyOne.

There was a bit of a scuffle as none of the members from OnebyOne wanted to hold the mike, but after a while, the leader received the mike and said, “Uh, ah, yes. First of all, we expected to be in fifth place.” He continued, “Because other teams showed such great performances, I think we prepared ourselves to be placed fifth bit by bit while watching them.”

Their team atmosphere was in shambles, but I wasn’t sure if it would be beneficial for them to get a few more cuts like this. Then the team leader added, “But we will reflect on our performance today and won’t stop here. We will prepare for a better performance to get a high ranking in the second round of competition.” It was a standard speech. Although their performance had been a mess, they must have prepared well for their commentaries.

The next was Luminin. A member, who was not the leader of the group, took the mike this time. He said, “It would be a lie to say that we are not disappointed that our performance ranked fourth place, but we were roughly expecting this ranking. Although it was disappointing this time, we will show you a better performance in the second round.”

As OnebyOne paved the way, everyone used the same standard lines to express their thoughts about the performance. If this pattern were repeated, the whole thing would be edited out. I hoped that Bleshu would at least say different lines but—

“First of all, we are very happy with our ranking. While it would be a lie if we said we had no regrets, we’ll work harder and...” They showed the same pattern as the other two. While expressing disappointment over the ranking, they respectfully said they would do better in the next performance. The same two phrases were packed into different words and have now been repeated three times.

I thought this whole scene might really be edited out, but at the same time, I also thought,

‘Honestly, there’s nothing else to say.’

It was for a reason why the other groups just repeated similar words. Since they didn’t even give us time to prepare in advance, it was only natural that similar commentaries were coming out.

“Then, please tell us how you feel, Only One.”

Next, it was Kang Hyun-Sung, who grabbed the mike. He said, “First of all, thank you for your generosity and giving us first place.” Kang Hyun-Sung went differently from the beginning; this part was only natural since they won first place, and the next line was the important part.

“I think I was able to learn a lot and gain motivation while watching today’s performances.” However, in the end, he was going to say the same thing as the others, and honestly, I didn’t blame him as there was no need for him to take risks here.

However, contrary to what I thought, he suddenly pointed us out. “After seeing Siren’s performance that expressed the color blue, I realized that it was possible to show colors differently than I imagined and thought we interpreted gold too one-dimensionally.”

“What?”

Gasp!

“Ah.”

“No way.”

My members gasped and craned their necks up.

I thought he was only going to talk about us, but Kang Hyun-Sung continued, “Bleshu’s performance of black was also...”

It seemed he was going to compliment every group. I thought it was actually better this way, but I also thought,

‘The length of his words is different.’

The nuance and length of his compliments were subtly different when praising the group’s stage compared to when he was praising us. After realizing this, I had a good idea of what Kang Hyun-Sung was thinking and doing.

‘Ah.’

Right now, Kang Hyun-Sung was clearly uplifting and highlighting our performance. He gave a word of praise to every group for formalities’ sake, but he clearly gave us more praise and sincere ones at that.

There was no way that the producer wouldn’t take notice of this. The reason why he must be praising us this much was—

'He doesn’t want to get insulted.’

He probably didn’t want to be criticized for being tied for first place with us after his group made a mistake. If he praised us in this way, it would indirectly imply that they knew that their stage was not good enough to win first place. And like this, they would be partly shielded from insults that accused them of ‘having no conscience for taking first place with popularity alone.’

And now, Kang Hyun-Sung could garner reactions of pity like

‘I think they’re embarrassed that their performance won first place.’

Furthermore, this might not be the only reason why he suddenly complimented us.

‘If I state another reason, it must be because he gave up on the royalty system.’

He must have quickly given up on playing king in

The Showcase 2

. Since a group strong enough to tie for first place appeared, he would look like a sore loser if he continued to play king. Rather, it was better to acknowledge us and position us as worthy rivals. In short, he wanted to share the pie he had been planning to eat alone with us now, but in exchange, he wanted to increase the size of the pie since it would become troublesome for him if his portion became smaller. All in all, if there was a rivalry plotline in the show, it was easier to garner more of the viewer’s attention and create more tension.

‘Am I overthinking it?’

Of course, there was a high possibility that all this interpretation was purely my delusion. Kang Hyun-Sung might have really wanted to compliment each team. However–

‘What’s the likelihood of that?’

Kang Hyun-Sung joined

The Showcase 2

after going through all kinds of hardships and debuting as a temporary project group from

Select Your Idol

. He had gone through too many sufferings and hardships to preserve his innocence. However, I stopped further thoughts about this as there were more pressing concerns. It was now time for us to comment about our performance, and Yeon-Hoon grabbed the mike.

“First of all, thank you so, so,

soooo

much for looking favorably at our performance and giving us first place. Rather than believing that this was entirely due to our ability and being conceited, we will accept this as a push to do better next time and continue to work hard! Thank you!” Yeon-Hoon spoke as kindly as ever. I clapped a little harder than others.

“Now, we’ve heard the thoughts of all five groups. Shall we start preparing for

that

now?” Kim Young-Jin said and laughed like an evil clown and said with a higher tone to lift the mood. “It’s finally time to announce the theme of the second round–what you have all been looking forward to!”

Host Nahyun also kept up the tension and exclaimed, “Wooow!”

We didn’t lose to them and cheered appropriately to raise the atmosphere.

“You’ve all shown a great performance expressing different colors under the theme, ‘Color of Showcase’, so what’s the theme of the second round of the competition? That is—.” Kim Young-Jin stopped and took a deep breath.

Then at the perfect timing, Nahyun announced, “It’s ‘Your Showcase’—create a performance with another group’s song!”

‘What?’

Another group’s song?

‘Your Showcase?’

This was the first time I heard about it. Once again, the future had changed, but this time, I could easily guess what it was about as soon as I heard its name.

“Among the introductory performances and the first round of competition, you have to choose a performance from another group you want to steal right now!”

It was to steal another group’s previous performance. In other words, I thought,

‘It’s to clearly show who can do better.’

The production team was going to line up the five groups from worst to best as plain as day.