Chapter 108

After a long stretch more of chatting, before they knew it, recording time was creeping up.

Right after eating, the three of them arrived a little ahead of the posted time, helped Squishy Bear with her slogan hand-out, and slid smoothly into the line.

"Um…. who are you a fan of, by chance?"

"We stan Dohajin and Siwoo."

"Oh! This is an Eunchan slogan — would you take one?"

"Ah, yes, yes. I'll take it."

Between picking up other trainees' slogans along the way and eyeing the goods the Miro Maze production side was handing out, the three of them filed into the studio in order. It was still only mid-May, so it wasn't especially hot outside — but stepping into the studio with the A/C blasting was cold enough to raise goosebumps.

"Yeah, entry check really isn't strict."

"Told you. Still, gotta be careful just in case."

"I'll shield you with my body. Squishy, keep an eye out later."

"'Kay, 'kay."

Getting the camera in had gone easier than Gwajam expected. The audience section was dim enough that if she stayed low, she could probably go the whole show without getting caught.

"Everyone, hi~."

Once audience seating was done, a PD in comfortable clothes climbed onto the stage. Wearing large glasses and holding a mic, the PD worked the crowd like a pro.

"Okay, we're gonna quickly explain today's recording order and the voting method — and then! You get to see our trainee friends' stages, right! So let's do a quick practice on reactions and cheering~!"

The PD ran through, in order, viewing etiquette, how to vote, and finally coached the audience through their reactions.

"Alright, imagine a trainee just walked out! Cheer! Clap!"

For about ten minutes, they drilled applause, cheers, and try shouting your favorite trainee's name. Practice, sure — but with the jib crane and cameras rolling on it, they were clearly pre-recording reactions to fold into the edit later.

"Great, well done. So we'll be starting the recording shortly~."

The PD stepped down, and another younger-looking PD climbed onstage with a slate.

"Slate!! One, two, three!"

With a ringing, resonant call, the slate she was holding cracked crisply.

'Ah, brings me back to Kang-Slate.'

Soda thought of Hajin's slate scene from episode 2 and snorted a small laugh. Gwajam must've had the same thought — she was wearing a fond little smile, and their eyes met.

'You too?'

'Yep. Me too.'

Wrapping up a brief mental musing on can accumulated stan-power grant telepathy, the studio dropped to black, leaving only the barest lighting on. Dark or not, Soda — parked pretty close to the front — could roughly sense someone stepping onto the stage.

Tang—.

At the dark rear of the stage, a single spotlight snapped on, sharp and bright. Fully caught in that light, backlit, a silhouette walked slowly toward center stage.

"Holy — those proportions, what?"

"Those legs alone gotta be six feet."

Murmurs rippled around from every direction. A silhouette straight out of a 3D animated feature. His face was hard to see through the backlight, but every audience member knew exactly who he was.

It was Miro Maze's MC, Upia's Seo Taeil — the one whose recent appearances had viewers losing it in the comments, going wait, is the MC re-debuting too??

"That oppa really does not age…."

"Look at that suit fit. Who's gonna call that a discharged thirty-something ajusshi."

"If that is an ajusshi, then as of today, my type is ajusshi…."

Once the murmurs died down a bit, Taeil delivered his opening line. A voice rock-steady, clean — with nothing in it to trim.

"You who would touch the sun — fly high. The third leg of the journey to become Miro's Icarus."

Tang, tang, tang—!

With that line, more lighting punched into the studio in rhythmic bursts.

"Seventeen trainees, taking on the challenge of becoming Miro's third idol group. And you — the Destis — the final goal of these trainees, and the ones who set the direction and destination of this journey. Welcome!"

"Waaah!"

To thunderous applause and cheering, the dark stage lit up in an instant. An LED screen unfurled outward from where Taeil stood, fast. All the lights came up, and vividly colored moving heads set the mood on fire.

Seo Taeil's presence, now that the audience could finally see him properly, was enormous. It was a plain, no-frills suit, and yet on either side, people were clapping hands over their mouths in awe.

"You'll be seeing three stages our trainees have prepared today. Excited?"

"Yesss!"

"Obviously!!!!"

"Aaah~~!"

"Haha, oh, we'd better get going."

Taeil played it up in the face of the wild reactions. Beside Soda, Gwajam was using Seo Taeil to test her shots. Soda kept an eye on the distant security team and quietly screened Gwajam with her body.

"Today, you'll be seeing three stages our trainees have prepared. Since these are the first performances shown in front of the Destis — the sole destination of this journey — today's stage order is up to you."

Up to us?

Before the audience could finish being confused, Taeil made a light gesture, and the LED screens behind him changed again.

On the right, the left, and the center LED screens, three different keywords appeared, each with matching graphics behind it.

〈Confession〉

〈Liberation〉

〈Festival〉

"Each keyword is the central theme of one team's stage. From now, please press the button matching the keyword you most want to see first. The team with the most votes will bring you the first stage."

There were two voting methods in this round.

After watching a team's stage, you voted once on whether you'd liked it, then voted once more for the trainee you thought had done the best on that team. Loved every stage? You could vote all three times — but for each team, you could only pick one trainee.

Since it was individual, not team-vs-team, the order didn't actually affect the results — this seemed to be a light event-style opener.

"For your reference — today, there'll be no greeting before each stage. After you enjoy the stages fully like surprise gifts, we'll have time for the trainees to greet and chat with you. So don't be too startled."

"Right now your face is what's startling us~!"

Somewhere in the middle of Taeil's speech, someone couldn't hold it in and yelled out their own line. Since everyone was thinking exactly the same thing, they all cracked up despite themselves.

Taeil glanced briefly toward where the voice had come from, gave a small smile, then nodded once with an insufferably knowing expression.

"I know."

The shameless answer set the audience off laughing again. Yet Seo Taeil, without a trace of embarrassment, forged on to his next line.

"Alright, Destis! Now — please choose the keyword of the stage you most want to see first!"

The audience whispered among themselves and picked up their voting lanyards. Soda's brain was scrambling too as she conferred with Squishy Bear.

Confession, Liberation, Festival.

Only three, but that made it harder.

"What do we do? Squishy, what are you picking?"

"Something like…. it's the first one, so — Confession!"

"Gwajam?"

"Uh — pick for me. My hands are full right now."

"'Kay, 'kay. So Confession for all of us?"

Soda took Gwajam's lanyard too and pressed Button 1 for her. All around, the sounds of voting buttons being pressed.

"Ah, but I feel like Doha is Liberation."

"Then vote Liberation!"

"No, I'm not ready to face Doha yet."

Soda answered firmly. That was part of why she'd deliberately picked Confession — the one furthest from Doha — as the first stage. She might have been seeing Doha's face through a monitor every day lately — possibly more than Doha saw it himself — but seeing him in person was a whole different story.

"Alright! Voting closes now."

The LED screens shifted back to the default backdrop. Taeil, curious-faced, took the results printout the AD brought over.

"Ah — this team. Oh, feels like the perfect fit for the opener. What kind of trainees will your choice have called onto the stage? Miro Maze's very first stage — starting now!"

Along with an eruption of cheering, the stage cut to black once more.

Soda felt an odd flutter she couldn't stop. Who's coming out? What stage will it be? Just as she was pointlessly waving the Doha slogan she'd been holding just in case, she sensed someone step onto the stage.

Then the LED above the stage lit up with the keyword and background from earlier.

〈Confession〉

Against a yellow background, candies and chocolates flew every which way. Sure enough, everyone had picked Confession as the light, easy opener. As an anticipatory cheer went up, the song kicked in.

Hwii— hwieeee—

'A whistle?'

A clean, clear whistle carried through the studio. At the same time, light slowly rose on the stage — and when the audience saw the trainees standing one by one with their backs turned, the cheers only got louder.

1, 2, 3, 4!

At someone's count-off, a new jack swing beat and a bright synth-pop intro kicked in. In the same instant, the trainees, starting from the leftmost, spun to face the front one by one.

"AAAAH! SEO TAEHYUN!!!!!!!!"

Small hairpins in every color sparkled like jewels on his caramel-beige, baby-permed hair.

Seo Taehyun had a white shirt layered under a pale pink knit sweater, black shorts, white knee-high socks, and black loafers. Spinning around, he dropped to one knee — the pose of a confession — and held out a bouquet full of pink roses toward the audience, both hands cupped around it.

"Are you insane, are you INSANE!"

"So fucking pretty, Seo Taehyun!!!!!!!!"

The moment they realized it was Seo Taehyun, the audience erupted. But as each of the next teammates spun around in quick succession, that cheering just kept climbing.

"What is this, what is this lineup!"

Park Jaeyoung, spinning to face front after Taehyun, wore a pink sailor uniform with a red ribbon and had a single red rose held between his teeth. The over-the-top, swaggering pose and the smug little tilt of his chin sold him as a younger-guy-with-attitude right out of the gate.

Umm, umm—

Parang and Yuki, in matching pink-and-white preppy looks, wore a blue corsage and a yellow flower crown respectively; arms linked with each other, they drew a huge heart with their free arms.

Finally, Dan Haru — in a beret and a pink cardigan — looked out at the audience and, with a burst of confidence, whipped out another bouquet he'd been hiding behind his back.

Only what Dan Haru had wasn't flowers — it was a bouquet stuffed full of strawberry-milk lollipops.

Everyone else played it up with an oh, my! look at Haru, and it was devastatingly cute!

"Maknae line!!!!!!!"

"Noona loves lollipops, baby!!"

Groans of dying, help me rippled through the audience, but on the shattered downbeat, the trainees hit their steps. Snapping instantly from a single line to a W formation, the trainees launched into the choreo on the intro. That whistle from earlier looped back as the main melody.

"Wait? I know this song! It's — it's that. You know! What's it called?"

"Aaah! I'm Gonna Tell You!"

"I'm dying — spit it out!"

"Huh? No, I said the song title — I'm Gonna Tell You!"

The second Squishy Bear said the title, it all clicked for Soda too.

And she thought:

"Wow, these kids came in fully committed to being cute."

The song-selection sense on display was genuinely inspired!