Idol Hides His Military Service

“Haa...”

A sigh slipped out of Seo Ryujin’s mouth.

It wasn’t from being physically tired, but from mental exhaustion.

‘This isn’t easy.’

Up until now, all throughout filming Idol Ground 100, Seo Ryujin had always been in the leader’s seat.

She’d been the leader when preparing the Entrance Ceremony stage with the trainees from Logic, and when she’d gotten A rank and practiced with the A-class contestants, it had been Seo Ryujin leading the class then too.

In the two missions that had taken place before this, the team members had all looked to her as if they’d made some kind of pact, and Ryujin had always responded to their expectations.

Of course, it would be a lie to say she’d never once felt burdened by all the other contestants’ gazes fixed solely on her, but she’d never run away from it, believing that her taking on the leader role was the best choice.

Sometimes comforting, sometimes scolding, she’d done her best to lead the team and bring out the best possible results.

But—

“Jisoo, I think you’re sticking out too much in this part right now...”

“Yes, I’ll be careful.”

An answer that came flying back the moment Ryujin pointed out what was wrong after a round of practice.

On the surface, it didn’t look like there was any problem, but Ryujin could tell it was only words.

‘They don’t even bother to care anymore.’

It wasn’t just Jisoo, whom she’d just called out.

One after another, team members were popping up who cared more about standing out themselves than about the completeness of the stage.

And to those contestants, normally Ryujin would have said something sharp, but right now, that wasn’t easy either.

‘I’m not really any different from them.’

Because she couldn’t guarantee that if she were in their position, she wouldn’t be acting the same way.

– For the hip-hop concept mission song I’ll be in charge of, “Don’t touch,” only five contestants will be able to stand on the final stage.

The hip-hop concept Seo Ryujin had chosen.

The number of contestants who’d initially picked the hip-hop concept had been as high as fourteen, nearly a quarter of the entire cast.

Because of that, there’d even been a small incident where they’d had to vote out four people from among the team members, and the atmosphere had gotten extremely sensitive.

No matter how much they were competitors, having to personally vote another contestant out of your own team was not an easy thing.

And so, after many twists and turns, the ten-member hip-hop concept team had finally been formed.

Just as most contestants had expected, the producer for the hip-hop concept was EM, a current idol and member of WTX whose stock had been rising rapidly lately.

And Don’t touch, EM’s song, perhaps because it was made by an active idol, wasn’t just great to listen to but also great for building a stage, which had the contestants who’d chosen the hip-hop concept excited.

But when EM went on to say that only five of the ten would be able to stand on stage, the mood started to turn strange.

These were contestants who’d gotten into fights over screen time in previous missions, and now they were hearing from EM that they might not get to stand on stage at all, so you could practically feel everyone’s nerves on edge.

On top of that, the fifty contestants remaining now were those who’d survived two rounds of rank announcements, so each of them had pride in their skill or popularity, and in a way, it was only natural that the competition had become fierce.

That was why Ryujin found it hard to speak harshly.

Up to this point, the team doing well had directly benefited them, so even if they didn’t get the part they wanted, or even if their parts were cut a little, the contestants had endured it for the sake of the team.

But now, if they didn’t stand out at least a little more than their competitors, they couldn’t survive.

“Ryujin, are you okay?”

“...I’m fine. Thanks, Shinyu.”

“Not at all!”

The voice that reached Seo Ryujin as she agonized over what to do with her team’s difficult situation belonged to none other than Shinyu.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Whatever you need, I’ll serve you with everything I’ve got!”

“Serve?”

“Ah... that way of talking I used with Sion slipped out.”

At the random word that came out of Shinyu’s mouth, Ryujin couldn’t help letting out a little laugh.

‘What has Lee Sion been teaching Shinyu?’

Even so, Ryujin genuinely felt it was a relief that Shinyu had ended up on the hip-hop concept team.

– Ayeon said I have a good sense of rhythm. And I’ve been interested in rap for a while, so I wanted to give it a try.

No one would ever know just how surprised Ryujin had been at Shinyu’s words that she wanted to try a new challenge.

Because back when they’d trained together as trainees at Logic, the Shinyu Ryujin had seen had always been lacking in confidence and completely deflated.

But now, while it wasn’t a full 180 degrees, she’d changed at least 90, enough for Ryujin to feel it clearly.

– Sion is great at everything else, but she’s still lacking a bit when it comes to rap, so if we debut together, I thought it’d be nice if I could take care of that.

When she found out that the reason for Shinyu’s change lay in Lee Sion, Ryujin had even felt a small stab of jealousy.

‘She always had talent to begin with.’

In truth, it had been Ryujin who’d recognized Shinyu’s talent earlier than anyone else.

In any case, as she talked with Shinyu, Ryujin found that her headache had eased a little before she knew it.

“This mission isn’t going to be easy.”

Ryujin hardened her resolve again that she’d somehow soothe her team members, whose nerves were frayed by the fact that their own survival was on the line, and pull them along.

Because if she failed and they ended up showing a half-baked stage—

– Half-baked? Who just said “half-baked” right now?

—she felt like she wouldn’t be able to stand that annoying face that would come over with a big grin to tease her.

Still, she couldn’t help thinking that if that Lee Sion were by her side in a situation like this, things would be a little—no, a lot—different.

‘Can’t believe the day would come when I’d miss Lee Sion’s nonsense.’

Thinking that she usually wanted to smack her, but once she didn’t see her, she missed her, Seo Ryujin stood back up, ready to start practice again.

***

Suyeon was throwing herself into memorizing the lyrics of Starlight Umbrella by singing it herself.

You had to have the lyrics down perfectly first if you wanted to add emotion or technique, so it was the first thing she needed to practice.

As she listened to it on repeat while memorizing the lyrics, Suyeon was newly struck by just how good a song Starlight Umbrella was.

She was even praising her own judgment for choosing girlish pop instead of another concept.

If you asked her which she was more confident in, dance or singing, she was slightly more confident in singing, so for Suyeon, Starlight Umbrella—where vocal ability was key—was the perfect song.

Because of that, the thought came to her on its own that if she worked hard, she might be able to show a really good stage this time.

In the previous Position Evaluation, Suyeon had chosen the vocal position and performed, only to receive a less-than-great result, so she needed to make up for that.

That was why she’d chosen the concept she felt most confident in, girlish pop, and it had been a relief that Lee Sion, whom she secretly relied on, had picked the same concept.

Only—

– Main Vocal 1 is split between Yuri and Suyeon.

The problem was that Kurosawa Yuri had been assigned to the same position as Suyeon. To take the Main Vocal 1 part, she had to outperform Yuri, and the pressure of that weighed heavily on Suyeon’s heart.

“Confess honestly, Yuri.”

“Yuri doesn’t know Korean very well.”

“You’re the only one here who could have stolen my chocolate, you know?”

“Sou ka?”

“Don’t cowardly switch to Japanese, speak Korean!”

“Nande?”

“You’ve got chocolate on your lips?!”

“Really?”

In Suyeon’s line of sight were Sion, lunging to grab Yuri by the neck, and Kurosawa Yuri, dodging and running away from Sion.

‘When did those two even get close?’

Watching that rare sight, Suyeon let out a disbelieving laugh.

During break time, Sion had managed to extort chocolate from a staff member, and while Sion had gone off to get training, Kurosawa Yuri had stolen and eaten it and was pretending not to know anything.

There didn’t seem to be any tension at all in the way the two of them were acting.

In contrast, the other girlish pop concept team members, who had barely any conversation now and were just focused on practicing their own parts, were the complete opposite.

Suyeon was the same.

‘If I lose in tone color, I have to overwhelm her with skill.’

Suyeon couldn’t help resenting Park Taesu for assigning Kurosawa Yuri to the same part as her of all people.

Kurosawa Yuri.

The only foreigner among the survivors of Idol Ground 100, and a contestant popular enough to currently be ranked fifth in the vote standings.

On top of her cute looks, her skills weren’t lacking at all compared to top-tier Korean trainees, and her Korean was excellent too, so there was no way she wouldn’t be popular.

What’s more, Starlight Umbrella fit her so well that you could say it had been made for Yuri, so at this rate, Main Vocal 1 was practically as good as hers already.

But that didn’t mean Suyeon had the slightest intention of giving up.

‘Sion has climbed up from way worse situations than this.’

Back at the Entrance Ceremony stage, no one who saw Lee Sion would have predicted she’d still be surviving now.

From F class to A class.

And then, a miracle where she’d won in both missions.

Because Suyeon had watched that Sion from closer than anyone, if she gave up easily just because she’d met a strong opponent, it would be way too embarrassing.

“All right, let’s gather and talk about the choreography now!”

The familiar voice snapped Suyeon out of her thoughts.

At some point, Sion had slung her arm around Yuri’s neck and was calling the contestants scattered around the practice room to gather together.

***

“Phew... seriously, how did Senior Miyoung handle all of this?”

Looking at the mountain of reports and footage piled up in front of him, Park Hyungsoo felt overwhelmed.

Even with the number of contestants reduced to fifty, there was still this much material, so seeing it made him respect his predecessor, Kim Miyoung, anew, wondering how she’d managed to personally review all this material and shoot the program back when there had been a full hundred.

At least the big stuff was done now, which was a relief.

– We came to an agreement with GU. They’re going to run a tie-in product ad timed with the broadcast, so the schedule can’t get delayed! And just because it’s YouTube doesn’t mean you can get lazy with the edit—put your back into it!

‘Try saying that after adding some staff.’

Variety department head Kang Hyukjin had gotten the report about the YouTube release of the great escape and pushed everything forward in one go.

Apparently the negotiations with the convenience store side had gone well, because they’d even added a generous amount to the production budget.

Now all that remained was to decide the release timing. He’d considered putting it out before episode 5 aired, but then the buzz of the main broadcast might get split, so Hyungsoo had decided to release it after episode 5.

“Hak yoon, how’s the atmosphere in the practice rooms?”

“Wow... it finally feels like a real survival show now.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s almost no sound of people chatting being picked up. It just feels like everyone’s silently doing their own thing.”

At Hak yoon’s words, Hyungsoo moved over to the monitors that were streaming the practice rooms in real time and started observing.

Sure enough, just as Hak yoon had said, instead of the boisterous practice room atmosphere from before, he could feel the tension in the rooms.

“How’s Sion’s side?”

“Over there too, it’s the same for everyone except Sion and Yuri.”

“Don’t let your guard down. You’ll miss something important that way.”

“Oh, come on. Even Sion can’t do much in a cutthroat atmosphere like this, can she?”

“She can.”

“Sorry?”

“Sion will.”

When he answered, Hak yoon pushed back, saying wasn’t he getting ahead of himself, but Hyungsoo quietly ignored it.

‘I believe. I’m going to believe in Sion.’

The only reason he’d revised the format into one that would obviously be called harsh was because he was relying entirely on Sion.

If even Sion started taking the survival seriously, the viewers might get exhausted and there could be a disaster where ratings plummeted.

But Hyungsoo’s firm belief in Sion did not waver.

Because it was always Lee Sion, the demon of variety, who proved herself.

However—

“We still need to do our part.”

“Do what?”

“Let’s roll out a hidden-camera prank.”

“A prank? We just did one with Dongyu Pharm last time. Ah... don’t tell me, is this that zombie prank Senior Miyoung wanted to do?!”

“Are you insane, thinking we’d do something that ridiculous?”

“Then what?”

At the mention of the zombie prank, Hyungsoo couldn’t stop himself from snapping “Are you crazy?” at Hak yoon.

But he couldn’t help it. Among the directing ideas Kim Miyoung had tried to push, the zombie prank had been the one thing that had gotten unanimous opposition and been sealed away in history, and now Hak yoon had dared to bring it up, so of course Hyungsoo had reacted sharply.

“I mean just simple stuff. The number of contestants has gone down, so it’s harder to pull enough footage, and if we sprinkle in some small bits here and there, it’ll help switch up the mood.”

“Ah, then I’ll brainstorm something with the writers.”

“Okay. And Hyuksu has a lot on his plate, so pull some editors over from other variety teams. I want Hyuksu to be able to focus on YouTube.”

“You’re really going to put that much emphasis on YouTube?”

“Yeah.”

Watching the Idol Ground 100–related YouTube videos whose view counts had been shooting up lately, Hyungsoo had an almost certain premonition that there was money there.

Because of that, he felt it wasn’t enough to just upload clips from the program as one-offs; they needed to manage the YouTube channel systematically.

‘I’m going to have to keep pushing the department head until he makes a dedicated team.’

No matter how stingy department head Kang Hyukjin was about adding staff, after the escape video went up, Hyungsoo was convinced he would have no choice but to approve more hires.

***

Endure.

There’s an old saying that if you write the character for patience three times, you can avoid even murder.

Right now, I was repeating that to myself in my head.

‘Hold it in... Lee Sion.’

One of the few flaws I had was that I was lacking in patience, so I had to make an effort to make up for that myself.

Even in my past life, hadn’t I become a soldier by choosing the Military Academy because I couldn’t swallow a moment’s irritation?

– Try applying for the first test round of the Military Academy. The atmosphere there is similar to the CSAT, so it’ll help you a lot.

Back in my senior year of high school, a cram school teacher had recommended I apply to the Military Academy.

Of course, it wasn’t a serious suggestion that I should actually go there. The Military Academy’s entrance exams were split into a first test and a second test, and the first test was conducted almost the same way as the CSAT, so it had been a suggestion to apply as practice.

So I’d taken the first test with a light heart.

Naturally, I’d passed, but even then, I had ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) no intention of going.

But when I screwed up the CSAT and started getting nagged at home and at school from both sides, I got annoyed and, out of spite, went to the Military Academy, and after a lot of things in between, I ended up getting shot and dying in the end.

If I’d had just a little more patience back then, who knows what the future would have looked like.

That was why I was holding it in now too.

“Guys, let’s run through the choreography one more time!”

“Sion, I’m sorry. But our choreo’s on the easier side, so can’t we finish the rest tomorrow?”

“But the mid-check isn’t far off...”

“Right now I really want to focus more on vocal practice.”

When Yuri suggested they work on the choreography, the girlish pop concept team members, as if they’d agreed in advance, all said they wanted to keep doing individual practice a bit longer.

Right now, the only ones gathered around Yuri were me and Suyeon.

“Hey, why are you deliberately going off-beat here instead of matching the rhythm?”

“That’s just my vocal style.”

“You still have to match when we’re doing it together.”

“Isn’t this the kind of thing that falls into each person’s individual taste? We don’t have to all be exactly the same.”

That didn’t mean vocal practice was going smoothly, either.

Even to my eyes, it was obvious that each contestant was desperate to stand out.

“You worked hard on it...”

“You did great, Yuri-chan.”

“What about me? I helped make it too!”

“Of course you did great too, Suyeon.”

Because the other contestants had been passive about it, Yuri and Suyeon had taken the lead in creating the choreography for Starlight Umbrella.

I’d tried to help too, but since I was still lacking, I hadn’t been much help.

‘Is this really right?’

Even so, the other team members were completely ignoring the choreography Yuri and Suyeon had poured their effort into and were just focused on their own individual practice.

I really had tried to be patient.

But seeing the team members scattered all around the practice room, each doing their own thing, I felt like flames were roaring up inside me, so hot that I couldn’t hold them back.

Ah.

It had been a while, but this was a feeling I knew very well.

‘I see how it is...’

The moment I recognized what emotion I was feeling, my body moved first.

Thump!

I walked to the center of the practice room and stomped my foot loudly, drawing everyone’s attention.

“What the?”

“What was that sound? Did Sion make that?”

“Why’s she acting like that all of a sudden?”

The team members murmured as they watched me, but I didn’t care.

“Eyes on me!”

That cold sensation rising up from my lower abdomen.

“Today, I am disappointed in all of you!”

It was time to go back to being a company commander.