Chapter 18

The next day, which was a completely different day.

I officially opened the discussion about the center position in front of everyone.

"We need to decide on who will be the center spot before the midterm."

"Yeah."

"I have someone I want to recommend, what'd you guys think about Haru being the center?"

I turned to Chae-haru, and I could see their eyes widen.

"Haru?"

"I hadn't thought about it... uh, now that you mention it, I guess it's really a different day?"

"Haha.... You asked me to put my bangs up, so I did what you asked."

"What the fuck, man, you're so fucking handsome, you've been doing this since forever!"

This was a natural reaction.

After all, it wasn't that long ago that I was the silent, sullen one behind the scenes.

Now that he's secured those pesky bangs with a hairband, his image has changed 180 degrees.

I smiled and quickly tried to explain.

"I was practicing yesterday, too, and when he put his hair up, it reminded me of one person."

"Uh, uh, uh, come to think of it, he's kind of like 'Upbeat''s Sungjin. He's got the same face, the same eyes, and he's really pretty."

"That's exactly what I thought too."

One of the C-level participants said exactly what I wanted to say.

In fact, he had an uncanny resemblance to Jang Jang-jin, the visual center of 'Upbeat', and Chae-haru had the body, shape, and most importantly the face.

It's said that people like familiar flavors better.

It's also likely to make a good impression on 'Upbeat' fans who will be looking for stage videos to be released later on.

"He's also gotten a lot better at dancing in a day. We even had a few days of special lessons with him."

"Well, let's see the dance and then we'll decide by majority vote, shall we?"

"Okay!"

The consensus was quickly reached, and Chae-haru stood alone in the center of the practice room, looking a little nervous.

When I sent him a smile that said it was alright, he seemed to relax a bit.

Chae-haru then danced the center position choreography for about a minute.

Wow, Haru, were you always this good?"

"You and your bangs are so much better! Wow, I didn't realize it, but you're really good-looking too."

"No, I'm not."

"I do feel like Haru's hair is more centered in the middle. Is that the point of styling?"

In conclusion, the tone was one of approval.

After seeing it with their own eyes, they understood why I had recommended Chae-haru for the center position.

"So, let's go straight to the majority vote, shall we?"

"Yes!"

"Before we go do a majority vote, does anyone else want to try and play the center?"

I'd like to give everyone a fair shot at not getting caught by the tail as much as possible.

There was a moment of silence, and no one said anything.

"If there are none, we'll go straight to the majority vote. Raise your hand if you think Haru should be in charge of the center."

All six raised their hands, except for Chae-haru. Of course, one or two of them waited until the last minute to join in.

After receiving a passing grade, Chae-haru bowed his head and thanked them with a more animated tone.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll try harder."

I hadn't expected it to have such an immediate effect, either; I'd heard it from hell and back.

Unless I was a genius, there was no way to prove that this theory would actually work. I didn't have that kind of genius, I had just gotten to this point through repetitive practice.

As if to dispel my doubts once and for all, I performed a dance that became more and more perfect with each passing day.

It's as if I'm visualizing my movements and outputting them through my body.

It was like a copy-and-paste skill that you might find in a game.

This solved the choreography in the center position to some extent. However, I couldn't completely fix the vocal part, which required more careful part distribution.

"Haru, can you do this part? It's low in the range and there are only a few lyrics."

"If I can't do this, I don't think I deserve this crown."

Given the center position, Chaeharu got a fair share of the stage time.

On the other hand, he kept his singing parts to a minimum and then gave the rest to everyone else for their fair chance of screen time.

"Bro, I think I can do this part perfectly!"

"You're as good as a hound, I told you so."

"Don't be such a dick!"

And another lamb for me to care for, Yoo Ha-woon.

Yoo Ha-woon's case was much simpler and less complicated.

For there is no better medicine for a man with low self-confidence than an infinite amount of repeated praise.

During our private practice sessions, I realized something for sure.

'Yoo Ha-woon has all the basics down, he's just not performing at 100% of his potential because it's due to his self-esteem and confidence have been at rock bottom caused by a string of failures.'

In other words, there's very little I can do about it.

All he needs is to rekindle his 'can do' motivation.

So even if it's a very simple animation or a really easy isolation, he'll just praise me up to like a storm.

"That's it, Ha-woon, you just need to get the facial expression just right."

It was almost like a parenting schedule.

Still, I was proud to see Yoo Ha-woon's face light up.

"You sound a lot better than you did before. Don't forget the diaphragmatic breathing I'd taught you. It's all about compressing the air from your stomach and sending it up here. You can do it, man."

Just like that, the whole practice seemed to go smoothly. The songs used in the first round of group battles were so strong in their original form that we didn't even have to arrange them; we just had to memorize the dances, songs, and stage moves and put them together.

But as always.

Trolls and selfishness always come right back at you when you'd least expect it.

***

On the afternoon of the fourth day of practice, before the scheduled mid-judge evaluation.

Group 9 had gotten up early that morning to work on their vocal part that was quenching under my direction.

To avoid the trainers criticisms as much as possible and to be told that they were better than Group 4, with whom they would be competing with.

The overall range of 'Volt' was doable, and if I had to compare it to 'HIT', it was much easier than the slap part.

The first verse, the pre-chorus, and the verse are not particularly difficult to sing. The difficulty level of the sub-vocal parts, except for the main vocal, was similar, so the distribution process was not complicated.

However, knowing the song well, I didn't want to compromise the position of being the main vocalist.

Center? No problem. It doesn't make that much of a difference as long as they're able to deliver on their own parts.

But giving up the main vocal part in 'Volt'? That's way over the line, no matter how much I've tried to make myself likeable.

The bridge line proves why 'Upbeat' has been called a big rookie since his debut.

The bridge line of 'Volt', which requires an explosive high note for a whopping six seconds, helped to instantly imprint Upbeat's name in the minds of the public.

Without the complex choreography and formation, this is where the battle will probably be decided.

How cleanly they'd hit the high notes.

And how smoothly they breathe.

No matter how important the center position is, the main vocalist is bound to be the center of attention in this song.

"I'll definitely protect you~."

I knew I had to do it perfectly, so I let my guard down and practiced with maximum concentration.

You never know what's going to happen in the real world.

As I continued to double-check smoothly.

"....I have something to tell you."

"Huh?"

Group 9 was sitting in a circle, and Park Chang-joong, who was directly across from me, raised his hand and opened his mouth.

Now that I think about it, he seemed to be the last one to have raised his hand, even when we passed Chae-haru's center position.

I already have a bad feeling about this.

'This guy's face has been extremely rotten since the practice a couple days ago, what kind of trolling is this?'

"I don't think my part has too much impact."

"What do you mean, impact?"

"I don't have a high-pitched part... and I also don't have a long part like that. I think it's too vague."

I could read his thoughts very clearly in his tone.

'He's realizing that he could be buried.'

"Chang-joong, you know very well that the song itself is similar in vocal range except for this bridge. And didn't I show you all when we were assigning the parts, how much each part was going to cost, so I think I was being as fair as I could be, redistributing the parts down to the bushes."

"Well, that's true."

Park Chang-joong gave me a rather defiant glare as he agreed with me.

I guess he realized that if he just walked away, he would never have the chance to get his share.

I glanced over at the dozens of cameras recording footage directly behind us.

'You're way too impatient, you don't even consider your own image. This is all being captured in real time.'

It might have been better if I'd stopped when I said it nicely. No matter how much we try to be nice to each other, it's a survival program, and that first line could have been edited down to a competitive suggestion.

But the moment it crosses that thin line.

you're just KNet's favorite prey.

{Master, I'm clearly sure now.}

'Suddenly?'

Cerberus, who was either sleeping in his quarters or quietly resting in a corner of the practice room when I was in the middle of the team, said in a stern tone.

{'I told you before, I don't know who it was, but he stank. I could feel it when he opened his mouth just now, and he's the source of the odor.}

'Ho-ho.'

{In case you didn't know, my lord. I'm not just saying that he has bad breath!}

'I know, I know.'

I continued to look at Park Chang-joong's face.

'Okay, let's see how far he's willing to go.'

"I've been thinking it's unfair the whole time, and to be honest, even yesterday. When we were talking about the center spot, wasn't it your personal opinion that you recommended Haru as the center? If you had asked me or any of the other brothers, we would have said we wanted to give it a try!"

I don't think Park Chang-joong can see anything else in his head.

He's probably convinced that this is the only thing he can do to survive inside this competitive world.

"After all, Haru wasn't even on the radar until just a few days ago, but they even recommended him for the center spot just because he changed his hairstyle, so I think it's only fair that he should do the same for the vocal part! He's the leader, isn't he?"

Ah, ah. So eventually, you'd fallen for it.

I sighed inwardly and silently prayed to the judges in hell.

'I gave him a chance to stop properly, I'm sure I did, but he just ignorantly crossed the line, you see?'

I replied in a nonchalant voice, hiding my expression as best I could.

'Well, first things first. We all took a vote on your suitability for the center position for the day, didn't we?"

"Yes."

"And before we voted, I asked if anyone else wanted to try out. If Chang-joong wanted to play center, why didn't you tell me then?"

"That's because-!"

Park Chang-joonh was about to say something when he slammed on the brakes.

He remembered himself.

That I wasn't lying, that I had actually asked everyone this.

I'm not lying, I've actually asked everyone.

"Speaking of which, let me ask you a question. Guys, does anyone have any complaints about their portion sizes?"

No one spoke up.

The instant chill in the air must have been noticeable.

I smiled rather broadly and raised both hands.

"No pressure. If you really think so, tell me now."

"Uh, uh, no!"

Yoo Ha-woon was the first to speak up, breaking the silence.

The other members nodded and voiced their opinions.

"I don't see anything wrong with it either."

"Didn't we all time it together? How many seconds per part. That's how we made it as fair as possible, so I don't mind."

Park Chang-joong was very embarrassed as the situation unfolded completely differently than he'd expected it to.

He probably wanted everyone to follow his lead and tell him that they wanted to be the center of attention, but his vision was too narrow.

Group Battle matches are both individual and team events. No matter how much individual votes and attention are distributed in each round, winning the group battle will definitely bring rewards.

This is a basic fact that anyone who has watched a lot of talent shows knows.

It's almost a given that winning a rivalry battle will bring benefits.

Just the season before, the first-round winner was awarded a whopping 5,000 votes. That's a lot of votes to send a ripple through the leaderboard.

Plus, even if you're only a small part of the team, the chances of an edit being unfriendly to the team that won the matchup are extremely slim. And you can use that edit as a springboard to slowly build awareness.

Park Chang-joong threw all of these benefits away for the sake of getting a quick buck.

If the rest of the team is not on the same page, you'll be the only one sticking out like a sore thumb, which is why it's so easy to get caught in a demonizing edit.

'I could drive a nail right in the coffin here.'

I glanced at the camera crew, who were still dutifully filming us.

I turned back to Park with a smile on my face.

"So, Chang-joong, have you been practicing this bridge part all along by yourself?"

"Practice? I did a little bit, but-."

"We have a midterm in a few hours, do you think you can sing it properly in the assessment?"

When I said this as if I was going to hand over the bridge part, Park didn't know how to react.

He's probably trying to decide if he should take this now or not.

But I think he realized that if he started this mess with his own hands and then walked away, it would be even worse.

"Make it clear to me. Like you said to me, I think it's only right to give everyone a fair chance, so if you say you can really sing the bridge part well, I'll give in."

"....I'll give it a try."

"Okay. Then let's take this part, Chang-joong."

"Ah, thanks...."

When I handed over the entire sheet, Chae-haru, who was sitting next to me, looked at me in confusion.

I just smiled wistfully.

Of course, I could have tidied up here.

I don't need to get blood on my hands.

Side Note: This was rushed in 1-2 hours DON'T BLAME ME, TOO MUCH WORK TODAY.