Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 186:

I would be in big trouble if I messed up the grade evaluation. There was no problem during the pre-audition, where they assessed the minimum skills and popularity of the participants.

But it would be very chilly if I reused the choreography of the opening song here.

If I wanted to show a decent stage, I had to rely on fate skill…

At that moment, when I was sweating in my head, a status window popped up.

‘What’s this all of a sudden?’

As I looked at the translucent window that appeared without me calling it, there was a quest that arrived, not giving me medicine or a poison.

[>Do you accept the mini quest ‘Save My Heart’?]

What is that? What do I have to do?

As I frowned at the status window, the scroll slowly went down and showed me the explanation.

[You will receive 10pt each time you randomly select and read the inner thoughts card of the people around you who think about you.]

[However, there is a daily limit of 5 times]

And as soon as I read the explanation, a small note-shaped badge appeared over each person’s name tag.

Of course, there were people who didn’t have it. No, there were fewer people who had it. There were 100 final entrants, right? Including the judges, about ten people…

It seemed that only the people who had met me face to face or who had a good impression of me had the inner thoughts card mark.

I don’t know what they thought behind me, but it was worth doing to see their inner thoughts once and get +10pt.

‘The fate skill usually costs 10 to 30 points per use…’

I have to open at least three of them. I answered in my mind as I looked at the staff who was explaining the progress in front of me.

‘Accept.’

And at the same time, a window popped up asking me whose inner thoughts card I wanted to check.

[Choose who you want to check the inner thoughts card of]

[Remaining times 5]

[>Shin Daegun]

[>An Seongjin]

[>Lee Hogeun]

[>Kang Yu-geon]

[>Sabina]

[>Park Junki]

[>Park Yuseung]

[>Jung Euisoo]

[>Cho Sangyeol]

[>Kim Raryeon]

Here, Shin Daegun, An Seongjin, Sabina, and Kim Raryeon are the judges, and the rest are the participants.

I looked around for a moment and opened the female choreographer who pretended to know me earlier.

[>Kim Raryeon]

[- There’s no way the draft I submitted before the audition was leaked. How did he copy the choreography so quickly? If he doesn’t debut and gets eliminated, I’ll take him to our crew.]

I felt a lot of pressure because I unintentionally acted like a genius, but it wasn’t a bad situation that he saw me as a talent he wanted to work with…

I hoped I could pass the first round with a good impression.

I thought the content was not that hard to read and moved on to the next one, Kang Yu-geon.

[>Kang Yu-geon]

[- He’s from a personal trainee background, but he looks skilled. The trainees from the agencies will stick together, so it would be nice if the personal trainees could get along to some extent. There are few personal trainees who are ready in terms of skills, which is regrettable.]

Ah. I finally understood why Yu-geon was looking at me out of the blue. As he thought, the participants who were sent together by the agencies were gathered together in the waiting room.

‘Most of them must have prepared the stage for the grade evaluation together, so unless there is a big difference in skills, they will probably be assigned to the same grade.’

My Idol Stage was basically an individual competition, but the stage was a group competition whether you liked it or not, so forming a team was ultimately a matter of luck and skill.

To prepare for that, he was looking for a participant who looked good among the personal trainees and wanted to get acquainted with them, and I happened to fit the bill.

‘I was worried that there might be some suspicious reason that I didn’t know.’

I confirmed that it was just my paranoia, and I felt relieved.

I’ll just look at one or two more and finish for now. Before I knew it, the lights on the stage were all on and the MC, a famous Hallyu actor, moved to his place.

‘Lastly… who…’

As I was wondering, I noticed a heart card mark floating over the name tag of a trainee who had never spoken a word to me nearby.

‘He never talked to me properly, why…’

I wondered and chose his card.

[>Jung Euisoo]

[- He persuaded me to sign the contract as if it was not much of a benefit, but did he steal the opening song choreography from someone?]

‘…?’

It was a content that made me float a question mark in my head.

Could it be… that the people who signed the pre-contract or knew about its existence misunderstood me as a participant who signed the contract and got the opening song leaked in advance?

I hastily opened another card of a participant who I had never spoken to directly.

[>Cho Sangyeol]

[- He’s blatantly favoring the choreographer. Why did he ask me to sign the contract if he had already decided who to pick?]

Oh no. I was caught off guard by the unexpected misunderstanding. Since I wasn’t very good at vocals, I was planning to use my improvisation skills to show a dance or performance-focused stage on the spot.

If I did that, I would get a response like ‘He must have told him the song in advance and let him prepare.’ It was obvious.

‘I hope they just think that in their heads.’

As expected of kids at that age, they would start rumors like that among the people they knew from the same academy, school, or agency.

Anyway, the first re-evaluation only mattered if I looked good to the judges and the production team. But before that, I had to go through two weeks of training camp.

And I had to do a group stage there, so it was not good for me to be labeled as ‘privileged’ by the participants.

Now that this happened, I had to change my plan, and as soon as I had time, I had to look through the heart cards as much as I could.

‘Ah… this is annoying.’

Even though it wasn’t a fatal mistake or problem, it started to bother me. My peace of mind was completely shattered, and soon the light in the center went out and the MC on the line was spotlighted.

[We are all beautiful who dance and sing for our dreams! Hello, trainees. I’m Choi Kwon-young, who will be hosting ‘My Idol Stage’ with you to find your dreams. Nice to meet you!]

With the MC’s cheerful and neat greeting, small fireworks went off at the edge of the stage and everyone cheered loudly, hoping to be caught on camera for a shot.

[From now on, you will start a 100-day journey for your debut. Of course, there will be trainees who will sadly leave ‘My Idol Stage’ in the middle. But the sure thing is, the ones who stay on the stage until the end will be the most

[It was said that a splendid debut awaited the nine who showed brilliant light.]

Everyone’s ears perked up at the word ‘debut’. They lifted their heads from where they had been bowing and looked up at the stage.

Unlike in the waiting room, familiar faces appeared everywhere as the filming began.

Of course, there were the Floss members who had caused controversy with their pre-contract or rude behavior. There were also Naru, who was grouped with the same agency’s trainees, and Hwijin, who was stuck alone in a corner.

‘Why there, of all places…’

Hwijin, who was tall and looked out of place in the corner, made me wonder what he was thinking.

Didn’t they usually try to sit in the front seats where the camera could easily catch them? I chuckled at the sight of him sitting in a spot that I didn’t even know existed, or rather, that looked like it belonged to a staff member, not a participant.

As I was observing the participants and the MC, the MC announced the start of the first evaluation stage.

[Now, before we begin the official training camp, we will conduct a grade evaluation to accurately assess your skills and promote your rapid growth.]

It was a euphemism for growth promotion, but in reality, it was a gateway for the producers to decide who to push and who to hide.

The participants who had been passed for their buzz and the fun of the program would be filtered out here.

[Namepen Music, Eom Yunsang, Lee Sunjae, Kim Inho, please come up to the stage.]

The first trainees to be called shouted a simple cheer among themselves and headed to the stage.

The stage that followed was a cover of a hit song by a famous group that was released about two years ago.

They weren’t completely talentless, but… they weren’t eye-catching enough either. It was an ambiguous stage that ended with the three of them being assigned C grade.

“Is that a C? They did well, though…”

A trainee who looked young muttered to himself.

That’s a C. I answered to myself and waited for the evaluation to end.

The evaluation was neither flattering nor harsh. They said they could see that they had prepared hard, but there were still some points to improve on the stage. Along with that conclusion, the three of them moved to the ranking zone.

[The seats you are sitting in now are first-come, first-served, and once you sit down, you cannot exchange or give up your seat. Please choose carefully!]

Then, the most cheerful-looking member of the three climbed up the stairs to the first place.

“Wow, wow, wow.”

“Look at that confidence. Cool.”

“So it’s better to get the grade evaluation sooner, huh?”

As everyone murmured, the three of them took the first, second, and third place seats. I felt my head droop at the sight of the future that would soon stir up the sympathy of the viewers.

These kids don’t know that this ranking is not final.

‘I should sit as low as possible.’

With a faint determination, the second call began. Since there were as many as 100 participants in the training camp, it would take at least 5-6 hours to finish the filming.

I guess I’ll have all kinds of experiences in my life. This is also a good experience in its own way, as I intend to work as a label representative. I decided to focus on the stage with the most positive circuit.

It was a little less than two hours later. After about 15 stages of C~F grades pouring out, Yu-geon’s name was called before mine.

[Individual trainee, Kang Yu-geon, please come up.]

Yu-geon waved his hand lightly at me and went up to the stage with a confident expression.

Well… I already knew he was good. It was a bit surprising that he was an individual trainee, but he would do well anyway.

Then, a question that I had forgotten popped into my head.

What was Yu-geon’s grade in the first evaluation?

I only knew that he soared to A in the second evaluation…

I couldn’t even remember what letter was on his chest, he had so little screen time in the early days of My Idol.

That’s when Yu-geon started singing naturally along with the MR.

[I opened my eyes in the darkness. I threw everything away more boldly]

It was a solo dance song with a vocal-focused arrangement. He sang with emphasis on his vocals over the minimal beat at first, then quickly transitioned to rap and dance parts, capturing everyone’s attention with his stability.

[Catch me if you can. Maybe your gestures will circle in the air again]

‘He’s really good.’

He would have stood out in an instant if he had been like this before his debut. He had a confident and relaxed expression on his face. How could he have that kind of charisma when he hadn’t even debuted yet? He was better than the original singer. It was a stage that anyone had to admit.

Everyone was mesmerized by the overwhelming genius, looking up at the stage with their mouths open.

[I slip away smoothly, try to narrow it down if you want to catch me.]

He finished the stage with his playful smile, enchanting everyone.

‘How did they not give him an A from the start?’

I couldn’t understand it at all, so I waited eagerly for the judges’ comments that would follow.