Idol Hides His Military Service

Tap tap.

‘How did the senior PDs in the old days even do editing?’

The youngest PD at MPlay, Lee Hyuksu, was alone in the editing room, clicking his mouse as an endless reverence for the senior PDs of the past welled up inside him.

Right now he was editing Episode 1 of Idol Ground 100, and since there were 100 contestants, he was already overwhelmed by the sheer, brutal amount of footage.

Given that he was struggling this much even while editing comfortably on a computer program, Lee Hyuksu simply could not believe that, in the past, his seniors had supposedly done all of this on dedicated hardware, cutting and taping physical tape by hand.

‘Still, editing this is fun.’

If there was any consolation, it was that the program he was editing right now was actually pretty entertaining.

To be honest, the whole reason he had joined the broadcasting station in the first place was because he originally liked girl group idols, so Idol Ground 100, packed full of idol trainees, was a program that was fun for him both while filming and while editing.

Especially,

‘This trainee called Lee Sion is seriously insane.’

Among the 100 contestants, Hyuksu’s one-pick was a contestant named Lee Sion.

He had felt it from the pre-interview stage already, but unlike her appearance, where she looked the total opposite, Lee Sion had shown an easygoing charm, and throughout the entire filming period, she had been nothing less than a single ray of light to the production staff.

‘If we just compiled everything we filmed of her so far and released it as a solo variety show, it would 100 percent be a hit, you know?’

As if some kind of god of variety shows had descended into her, wherever she went and whatever she did, Lee Sion drew out usable footage; she was a born variety entertainer.

And that wasn’t all.

It wasn’t like she was only good for variety, either. She had shown such an incredible level of growth that she climbed all the way from rock-bottom F class up to A class, so from the program production team’s perspective, as long as they just left her alone, she was a grateful existence that would make the program for them.

‘If we take her out, the program is going to crash and burn, so what the hell is up with Senior Miyoung?’

As he edited the scenes featuring Lee Sion, Lee Hyuksu recalled something that had happened during a meeting not long ago.

-How about we try cutting down contestant Lee Sion’s screentime a bit?

During the program meeting, main PD Kim Miyoung had suddenly said they should reduce Lee Sion’s screentime and try editing with a focus on the other contestants.

Of course, it was something that was never going to fly, so the idea had been withdrawn, but even after that, Kim Miyoung had come looking for editor Lee Hyuksu and said,

‘Hyuksu, let’s not just think about laughs too much. Isn’t growth and hope and stuff like that important for an idol survival program?’

‘We need Lee Sion for that too, though?’

‘···Really?’

She had been trying to persuade him, asking what he thought about reducing Lee Sion’s screentime.

But no matter how much she was the main PD, editing for the program was to be done according to what had been decided through meetings, so Lee Hyuksu was firmly editing according to the principles.

‘Senior Miyoung··· no way, right?’

PD Kim Miyoung, who was his direct senior, was someone whom Hyuksu considered competent.

And for good reason. It was absolutely not common at all for someone 32 years old, which was quite young, to be entrusted with directing a program that the station was pushing as one of its main shows.

If she didn’t have the skills, there was no way such an exceptional appointment could have happened.

And yet that same Kim Miyoung kept trying to cut out the very Lee Sion who was, to anyone’s eyes, the one who should be treated as the main pillar of the show, so Hyuksu remembered a rumor he had heard a long time ago.

‘Back in the day, music show PDs really sat on a money-making seat. They said just letting someone appear on stage once would net you hundreds.’

These days it had supposedly died down a lot, so no one was brazen about it anymore, but only a few years ago, the stories about music show PDs receiving entertainment or money from agencies were famous.

So, Hyuksu couldn’t help but suspect that maybe PD Kim Miyoung had made some kind of deal with one of the agencies that had sent their trainees onto this program.

‘Probably not, right?’

Of course, it was just suspicion, but for some reason, the thought left a nagging feeling in his chest.

“Agh···.”

Having done nothing but editing work for the past few days, Lee Hyuksu’s body felt stiff, so he got up from his chair for a moment and started stretching to loosen up.

‘It’s tough, but I’m still excited.’

The edit of Episode 1 was now almost complete.

The subtitles, the sound effects, and the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) adjustment of cut scenes were all in their finishing stages, so with just a bit more tweaking, it would be done.

Hyuksu was already looking forward to seeing how people would react once the Episode 1 he was editing right now went out on air.

‘Even when I first saw it, I was so dumbfounded, so people who see it on broadcast are going to feel it even more.’

Since Episode 1 was, by its nature, the Entrance Ceremony stage, the early and mid parts were composed mainly focusing on skilled contestants like Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon.

But that was just bait.

You could say it was like an appetizer for ‘that stage’ that would come out in the latter half.

***

“Ugh··· why are the commercials so long!”

They say that the university you can attend changes depending on how you spend your winter vacation in your second year of high school, that it’s such an important time in life, and here was high school girl Lee Jiyeon in the middle of that crucial season.

But her choice was not studying, it was fangirling.

‘Ah, I already used up my parents’ and my idiot older brother’s resident registration numbers··· is there any spare ID number lying around somewhere?’

A week ago, having gone to see the live broadcast stage of Music Count in person, Lee Jiyeon had immediately gone into full campaigning mode for Lee Sion’s debut starting from that very day.

Twitter, Facebook, online communities.

Anywhere that could be used for promotion, she did not discriminate. She spent a busy week like a politician in election season, asking people to please give one precious vote for Lee Sion’s debut.

[Sionism - Lee Sion fan café]

She had even created a fan café on Naver, and had already established herself as a real power within the Lee Sion fandom.

‘I hope Sion got good screentime···’

Just a moment ago, she had been clipping memes from Lee Sion’s pre-interview video and editing together only the parts where Lee Sion appeared on the Music Count stage, then uploading them to the fan café. As the time approached for Idol Ground 100’s first episode to air, Jiyeon grew anxious.

Because she was worried that the damn PD might have given stingy screentime to her ultimate bias, Lee Sion.

— The 100 contestants who gathered to become idols.

“It started!”

And so, with her heart on edge and paying attention even during the commercials so she wouldn’t miss a single second of the program, the sound announcing the beginning of the broadcast finally rang out.

‘I want to become an idol.’

‘I want to debut.’

‘I will definitely survive.’

The very beginning of the program started by showing little snippets of the contestants’ pre-interview videos.

— Idol Ground 100 waiting room.

And then the screen immediately moved to the filming site, beginning to show the 100 contestants gathered in a wide hall-like space with “Waiting Room” written on it.

‘Contestants I’m wary of? Probably trainee number 99, Ryu Ayeon···.’

‘I’d say contestant Seo Ryujin from Logic Entertainment. Among the trainees, there were a lot of rumors that she was really good.’

‘Contestant number 38, Yoo Jihae! That person actually debuted as an idol before, so probably···.’

After that, interviews about which contestant they thought was the strongest debut candidate flowed out.

“Wow··· seriously amazing. How did they even gather these kinds of trainees?”

Just from a glance, the contestants’ faces and auras looked extraordinary, and without even realizing it, Jiyeon found herself tensing up.

— Contestant number 100, Lee Sion.

“There she is!”

And the contestant whom Seo Ryujin, who had been picked as the second-most-likely-to-debut candidate, pointed out as the one she was wary of was none other than Lee Sion.

Right after Seo Ryujin’s answer, the TV screen showed the scene in the waiting room where Lee Sion and Seo Ryujin’s eyes met.

‘Wow··· the eye contact is no joke.’

Like a tiger and a lion glaring at each other, an invisible, razor-sharp war of nerves was being projected on the screen.

In particular, the way Lee Sion calmly looked at Seo Ryujin had such force that, if Jiyeon herself were in that spot, she felt like she would kneel on the spot, dig into her pockets, and offer up her wallet.

Soon, the TV screen changed again, this time showing the stage set.

— Wow! We’re doing the Entrance Ceremony stage here?

— This is insane.

— I’m going to sit over there!

The footage showed the contestants in the waiting room moving one by one to the seats prepared in the stage set.

And—

In the scene where Lee Sion entered, there was a contestant who had sat down first and greeted her happily.

“Did they already get close? Or did they know each other before?”

Jiyeon didn’t know the reason, but just seeing the image of Lee Sion sitting side by side with a contestant named Kim Suyeon on camera was enough to satisfy her.

On top of that, the seats they’d taken were dead center, so the fact that she would be able to keep seeing her the whole time was also satisfying. She was so excited thinking about capturing screenshots later on her computer that she could barely sit still.

Suddenly, the contestants’ murmuring voices were picked up, and then the camera switched to show the entrance to the stage set.

From there, a single contestant started walking in slowly.

“Ryu Ayeon is totally the main character.”

Seeing how, unlike the contestants who had entered earlier, she was given a shockingly generous solo shot, Jiyeon grumbled, but honestly, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.

TSP trainee Ryu Ayeon was a contestant who deserved that treatment.

And finally, the screen showed the image of Ryu Ayeon sitting down in the golden chair placed on the very top row of the seats without a hint of hesitation.

Even if she wanted to nitpick, it suited her so well that Jiyeon decided to let it go.

‘Still, our Sion was on screen a lot, so it’s fine.’

It seemed like the role of Episode 1’s main character had been taken away, but compared to the other contestants, Lee Sion was noticeably captured by the camera a lot more, so Jiyeon wore a satisfied expression in her own way.

— Right now, the number of idol groups that exist in Korea is in the hundreds. Of course, those hundreds are only the groups that have appeared on broadcast at least once.

Once the contestants’ entrance was over, the lights of the stage set went off, and the program’s main MC, Jang Junseok, appeared.

‘Looks like MPlay really put some power behind this!’

The fact that a fairly famous male actor was serving as MC meant the station was putting effort into this program, and as someone who was pushing Lee Sion, that was something Jiyeon welcomed.

After giving a brief introduction to the program, Jang Junseok paused for a moment and looked over the contestants.

— From now on, the people who will be evaluating your stages and, at the same time, will be in charge of training you so that you can be reborn as national idols! Please welcome them with a big round of applause!

At Jang Junseok’s words, the sound of the contestants’ applause followed, and the camera once again showed the entrance to the stage set.

“Woooooow!!!”

And when Jiyeon saw who was coming in through the entrance, she couldn’t help but scream.

Because it was Hyeryeong from G.G, the idol she had first liked, and whose updates she still chased after to this day as a fan.

And together with Hyeryeong appeared famous choreographer Lee Jungyoon, and finally, even Ahn Seongho, who was currently considered one of the top producers.

Jiyeon wanted to lavish endless praise on MPlay’s casting power for managing to secure such incredible judges.

— Then now, we’ll begin the Entrance Ceremony stage that will decide your grades···

‘I can finally see Sion’s stage!’

But,

(We’ll be back after 60 seconds of commercials.)

Accompanied by a line that instantly dropped Jiyeon’s soaring heart back down to the floor, the program screen switched over to commercials.