Idol Hides His Military Service

“Special Treatment Lee, this is always your last stage. What are you, addicted to endings?”

“Ahem. I didn’t pick it. The producers reached an amicable agreement among themselves and decided the order, and yet your mouth is so loose, Sluggish Ryujin.”

“I told you not to call me petty.”

“You’re calling a contestant who’s hurting over a nepotism controversy ‘Special Treatment Lee.’ What word could possibly replace that narrow-heartedness besides ‘petty’?”

“Ah... why are you only good with words at times like this?”

Ryujin unconsciously lifted a hand to her forehead at Lee Sion’s shameless attitude.

‘Like you ever said you were hurting because of the controversy!’

Even after the nepotism controversy ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ with the main PD, Kim Miyoung, the one who shamelessly came over to Logic to hang out and cleaned out the snacks they kept stocked was Lee Sion, after all.

“You still don’t know Lee Sion? We’re in front of the camera right now.”

“Ugh...”

Because Lee Sion had been assigned the last slot in this Concept Evaluation mission and had plenty of breathing room, Lee Sion was idly patting Yunkyung’s head with a relaxed expression. Ryujin, feeling annoyed for no reason, opened her mouth—and ended up not even getting her money’s worth.

It was even more miserable that Ryujin couldn’t argue back against the scolding from Ryu Ayeon, who’d been watching from the side.

There were usually only two reasons Lee Sion messed around so brazenly.

One was when the other person had something that could become leverage against Lee Sion, or when the camera operator was blatantly filming them so the other person couldn’t act however they wanted.

Normally, when a camera operator latched on, the other contestants would actually be more careful with what they did and said, but—

-Blehh~

In Lee Sion’s case, Lee Sion would just hide behind the camera operator, stick out her tongue, and focus on nothing but provoking the other person.

Even now, Lee Sion alternated her gaze between the camera operator and Ryujin, wearing a sly smile.

“Does she not get nervous at all?”

“If she was going to get nervous, would she have done that on the entrance ceremony stage?”

“...That’s true.”

Ryujin nodded while listening to Ayeon’s answer cutting in on her muttering, then suddenly felt something off.

‘Since when did Ryu Ayeon get this annoying?’

From earlier, Ayeon kept tossing out remarks that were hard to refute, and the shape of it looked so much like Lee Sion that Ryujin found herself wondering if this was right.

The Ryu Ayeon Ryujin used to know had such terrible social skills that there was a fun in teasing her, but at some point it felt like Ryujin had started being the one getting hit by Ayeon more often.

“Oh! It’s starting!”

Ryujin wanted to seriously examine this unsettling situation, but it didn’t seem like she’d have time.

Because Geum Shinyu, sitting behind Ryujin, was announcing the start of the stage in an excited voice.

-Then, we will now begin the stages of the contestants who chose the EDM concept! It’s show time!!!

The stage visuals coming through vividly on the waiting room monitor.

The performance of the EDM concept team—the first act of today’s Concept Evaluation stage—was beginning.

“I didn’t think they’d put Gahyeon in the center.”

“In the past, it would’ve been forcing it, but right now it suits her, doesn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

Amazingly, the EDM concept team put Lee Gahyeon in the center.

This is twelve, twelve, our time

Forget everything, right now, this moment

Dance it up, clap it up, never stop

We shine, zero to twelve, yeah

We fill this night, twelve

The stage, which began as the distinctive EDM beat dropped, was incredibly hype.

‘It kind of even has a trot vibe?’

To Ryujin’s ears, the EDM concept team’s song, “Twelve,” wasn’t the trendy Western-style EDM that was popular right now. It was a song mixed with the particular sensibility of Korean dance music.

In a way, it could end up feeling childish or tacky, but precisely because of that, the melody that went straight into your ears was so catchy that the other contestants gathered in the waiting room could hum along immediately.

“Nayeon’s insane. She’s pulling off the highlight of this song so steadily.”

“Nayeon has really been practicing like crazy lately.”

“My sacrifice is shining. I made Kim Nayeon into a person.”

“Boss, you know after that, Nayeon got kind of vicious to just us?”

“I know. That ungrateful Kim Nayeon—she even got over her stage fright thanks to us.”

“Seriously, Kim Nayeon needed to hear this.”

When Kim Nayeon, who’d chosen the EDM concept along with Lee Gahyeon, showed something amazing in the highlight part of the song, the waiting room got noisy.

‘Gahyeon is surprising, too, but honestly, Kim Nayeon carried this stage.’

Ryujin admired Kim Nayeon in her heart as she watched.

There were songs that sounded easy if you just listened, but were hard when you actually did them. This “Twelve” from the EDM team was exactly that.

A tricky song where, if you were even a little sloppy, the energy drooped and the stage died in an instant.

But the EDM concept team singing “Twelve” right now looked hype beyond belief, and the audience reaction was fervent as well.

And Ryujin thought that was possible because of—

We shine, zero to twelve, yeah

We fill this night, twelve

—Kim Nayeon, who was leading the song with a bouncy voice even while dancing intensely.

“Shinyu, let’s start getting ready, too.”

“Yes! Ryujin!”

Watching the stage, Ryujin’s body had started to itch before she knew it.

The hip-hop concept team stage that Ryujin and Shinyu had chosen wasn’t far off now, so Ryujin gathered the team members, wanting to run through preparations one last time.

‘We can’t lose.’

Some people lost their motivation when the other side was too good.

But Ryujin was different.

A bulldog.

That was the nickname Ryujin got when she first entered Logic Entertainment as a trainee.

Back then, even though she was young and lacking in skill, Ryujin always treated the top-ranked trainee seniors as rivals and tried to beat them, so the nickname stuck.

‘In the end, I beat them all.’

It took time, but Ryujin eventually claimed the number one spot among Logic’s trainees with skill.

So aside from wanting the contestants she was close with to get a good stage and ranking, she had no intention of yielding first place.

***

“EM, are you sure you don’t want to use this on your album?”

“Exactly. I’m regretting it, too.”

At EM’s answer, a small burst of laughter escaped in the waiting room where the producers were gathered.

“No, why is everyone coming into someone else’s workplace and causing this much chaos? How am I supposed to judge at the final stage?”

“Come on... Composer Ahn Seongho, your song was sharpened like a blade, too.”

They were smiling and talking, but it wasn’t purely a joke.

‘Whoa... if I’d half-assed this, I would’ve been humiliated.’

Ahn Seongho broke into a cold sweat as he looked at the hip-hop concept stage that had just ended.

It made sense. Among the producers for this concept mission, the team that had EM—arguably the least experienced and still “young,” as a producer—was the one he was on. He’d been worried something might look immature.

-Fake smile, erase it all (erase)

Leave only the real, let’s get raw (get raw)

It was a huge mistake.

The hip-hop concept track “Don’t Touch,” with its fast rhythm and blunt rhymes, was showing the orthodox form of idol hip-hop—tight on the beat and driving the tempo forward.

If you covered the composer name, it was the kind of high-quality track you’d believe came out of YH, the first name people thought of when they thought hip-hop in the idol scene. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

And on top of that—

-I won’t allow even your fingertips

Don’t cross the line, yeah

Hot flame, the blaze inside me

If you come closer, burn it up, burn it up

—the stage shone even more because of the two contestants who pulled the song off perfectly.

“Is Ryujin’s throat going to be okay? She was basically spitting out shouts.”

“She’s seriously amazing. At first she felt awkward, but a few days later she was pulling it off perfectly.”

In truth, hip-hop as a concept was something where doing it halfway was worse than not doing it at all.

If the standard for rap that idols were expected to do in the past was just speaking fast and accurately, these days, with hip-hop programs and music becoming popular, the public’s bar had risen, so—

They were demanding pretty precise rap from idols, too.

So if you did it sloppily, idol hip-hop was the kind of concept that was perfect for getting dragged for it.

‘WTX was the poster child for that, too.’

Even WTX, the group EM was in, which debuted pushing a hip-hop idol concept, had been cursed out over the concept at one point.

Of course, now, with great track quality and skill, those words had been shut down, but hip-hop really was a concept people said you shouldn’t do unless you were YH.

But—

-If you come closer, burn it up, burn it up

—as if that worry was ridiculous, on that stage just now, Seo Ryujin looked like she’d made up her mind for real. With momentum like she was going to devour the audience, she seized the stage in an instant, showing a low-mid vocal.

“Composer Ahn Seongho, you picked Geum Shinyu as your favorite contestant, right?”

“Ah, that?”

“While producing this time, I totally agreed. Shinyu is seriously good. Her rap skill is still lacking, but she rides the beat so well that it feels convincing just from that, and because she understands why I made the song the way I did, the way she performs it on stage is different.”

EM went on and on praising Geum Shinyu, who, along with Seo Ryujin, made this hip-hop concept team stage stand out so much that EM’s mouth went dry.

‘She definitely feels like she cracked her shell. This song had a ton of rap parts, and because Geum Shinyu firmly handled that, Seo Ryujin’s vocal got to shine.’

Inwardly, Ahn Seongho had hoped Geum Shinyu would come over to the EDM concept team, but seeing Geum Shinyu do well in hip-hop, too, made Ahn Seongho feel proud.

-Hyerim looks totally head-over-heels for Lee Sion, and Lee Jeongyun acts tsundere but you can tell she’s taking care of Ryu Ayeon, but why is Ahn Seongho falling for Geum Shinyu?

-Compared to those two, Geum Shinyu is kind of...

-Even if she can produce, if her fundamentals are lacking, isn’t debut impossible?

Ahn Seongho’s choice had raised a lot of questions after a short interview about the judges’ favorite contestants aired.

But after seeing today’s stage, those questions were sure to disappear.

Because on today’s stage, Geum Shinyu, who handled the key rap parts of “Don’t Touch,” was the star of the stage no matter what anyone said.

“So the stages left are girl crush and girlish pop?”

“Yes, it’s my turn now.”

When the impressions about the previous stage—the hip-hop concept team—were wrapping up, Park Taesu’s words made everyone tense.

‘Come to think of it, they’ve been unusually quiet.’

Only then did Ahn Seongho realize that, while watching today’s stages, two of the producers had been unusually quiet.

Those two were Tenji and Park Taesu.

‘Tenji, fine—but CEO Park isn’t that kind of person.’

Tenji was famous in the industry for hating being on broadcast, so being quiet made sense, but—

-I expected something from the lyrics, but I couldn’t hear a single word. I don’t know if I should say I lost my mind. She plays piano while singing, but I can’t hear the lyrics, and if she hits even a little hard, her body flinches... I’ve truly never heard music like this.

—in Park Taesu’s case, Park Taesu was someone who’d shown such over-the-top, ridiculous judging comments on other audition programs that people called Park Taesu the personification of a fuss.

And yet Park Taesu was just nodding, saying nothing, watching the contestants’ stages.

‘Is Park Taesu confident?’

The girlish pop concept team stage Ahn Seongho saw at the final check had definitely been good.

But if that was all there was, it hadn’t been such an overwhelmingly dominant stage that Park Taesu could look this relaxed, so Ahn Seongho couldn’t help suspecting Park Taesu was hiding something.

“It’s starting.”

But now it was time to watch the stage of the girl crush concept team that was just beginning, so Ahn Seongho put the thought aside and focused on the monitor.

***

The waiting area behind the stage was the best place to watch the live scene vividly.

“Ayeon is really good...”

Because our team had the last slot in this Concept Evaluation stage, we were watching the performance of the girl crush pop team, who were ahead of us in order, from the waiting area.

Seeing Ryu Ayeon’s solo part, Yoon Jaei let out an exclamation with eyes that looked like she was in love.

“Ryu Wuss is good, though.”

It really was like that. Ryu Ayeon fit the girl crush concept particularly well, so even on this stage, she was confidently showing off her charm, and Jaei reacting like this wasn’t strange.

“But Sion-chan, why is Ayeon ‘Ryu Boss’?”

“It’s not Boss. It’s Wuss.”

“Boss! Boss!”

Kurosawa Yuri jumped into the conversation between me and Yoon Jaei, putting on a cute act with sparkling eyes.

‘This one is trying to mess with me again, huh?’

Yuri’s Korean ability wasn’t a joke—it was at a level that slapped actual natives in the face.

Of course, maybe as a side effect of learning it in an illegal way, she occasionally used words meant to insult people, but in terms of pronunciation, it was so natural you’d have a hard time thinking she was Japanese if you only heard it.

But this kid was crafty. Whenever she got caught on broadcast, she’d deliberately pretend her Korean was clumsy.

-Sion-chan! If people see you speaking Korean too fluently, they’ll be disappointed in Yuri!

Yuri would shamelessly insist it was just to give people what they expected from the Japanese member.

If I kept nitpicking pronunciation here, it was obvious I’d get dragged into Yuri’s scheme, so I kept quiet.

-This is racism!

Did Yuri think she was a Black person living in 1960s America or something?

If I showed even the smallest opening, Yuri’s first pattern was to drag out the ultimate trump card—racism—and use it to mess with me like this.

‘The starting gap is way too extreme.’

This kid was very smart.

Yuri used the frame of “I came alone from Japan and I’m training to become an idol in a foreign country” as a shield, and on top of that, just looking at Yuri’s appearance, Yuri looked innocent—perfectly optimized to make the attacker into the bad person.

But who did Yuri think I was?

“Ah! Sion-chan is hitting migrant workers again!”

I was the type who could also use force against someone I couldn’t reason with—a model of being both pen and sword.

I’d realized that with Yuri, a fist was closer to the solution than words were.

Even now—

“Wuss! Wuss! I pronounced it right!”

“See? You can do it.”

I quickly poked Yuri’s side with a finger in a direction the camera wouldn’t catch, and Yuri’s pronunciation came out just fine.

“Aren’t you getting nervous even watching that stage?”

“Seriously. My heart’s already pounding.”

Watching me and Yuri, the other team members, Jang Yoona and Park Jihyo, spoke like this as if we were ridiculous, but I was actually excited.

‘I’m curious.’

Today, there were a lot of things that were different from when I went on stage normally.

I’d gotten professional makeup for the first time—makeup I would’ve refused in the past.

And my hair wasn’t something Yuri did like usual. A stylist had actually handled it directly.

And that wasn’t all.

-These are outfits our company made for you. I’d be happy if you wore them gladly.

Before, we picked from outfits the production staff prepared, but this time, we were even wearing outfits made specifically for this stage.

‘It’s unfamiliar.’

Because it was my first time being done up head to toe like this, how I looked right now felt unbearably unfamiliar to me—but I was so curious how the audience that came to watch the stage would see me like this.

“Starlight Umbrella Team, get ready to enter!”

“Okay! Guys, let’s go!”

It looked like the previous girl crush pop concept team stage had finally ended.

At the staff’s instruction to prepare to enter, me and the team members stood in a line in front of the stairs.

Now it was time to confirm what I’d been curious about.