Chapter 111

The final stage — the one everyone had been holding their breath for.

Team Blue Flare's stage, like the ones before it, opened in the dark.

〈Catch, Pull〉

The moment the last team's keyword went up, a thunderous roar broke out from the audience.

Just as eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to barely register that trainees were standing on stage —

Biiiiiiii—

A siren-like warning tone kicked in, and at the same moment blood-red laser effects filled the stage.

Like a prison.

No — like chains.

Through the pouring red lines, the trainees came into view, formation locked in as if they were binding one another in place.

Dililing—

To a seductive piano line, the figure at center, head bowed, slowly lifted his gaze.

It was Lee Yugeon, silver chains connected to the thick leather choker at his throat wrapping down around his body. Over skin-tight black leather top and bottoms, the silver chains caught the light and glittered.

"…insane."

Doom, doom-doom, the beat dropped fast, and Yugeon snapped his body out with it, like he was popping free. On his cue, the other trainees, still holding formation, moved as one in lockstep.

In an instant, the blocking shifted.

Jung Siwoo — who'd cut his long hair and gone silver — pulled one earpiece out with a slightly edged expression and started to sing.

Easy to play

Everything is easy for you

At the very first line, a scream went up all over again.

The original song was titled 'Set Me Free.' A sexy Latin-flavored track — an album cut from Rene's boy group Sphere.

Team Blue Flare had left the base instrument — the piano — as it was, but pounded pop elements into the rhythm and overall mood, taking a little of the edge off the original's raw stickiness.

Siwoo's wrist — cuffed with a band in the same material as Yugeon's choker — swept up to cover Yugeon's eyes. The white shirt Siwoo was wearing ran slightly loose, but the black cummerbund cinching his waist tight and the leather pants underneath brought out the naturally slim line of his body.

Yugeon, eyes still covered, moved in sync with Siwoo, then smoothly caught his wrist and swept it aside. At the same beat, Wonho — standing behind — cut in fast.

Locked-in Moonlight

Senses gone hazy,

Faded — maybe already forgotten

Wonho's low, weighty tone collided with the piano's high-octave melody in dissonance. A thin harness sat over his black turtleneck, and Wonho's clean, textbook dance lines came through. He drove strength into his body to cut a move short, then released softly, riding a light wave.

The part ended, and the three slid aside to reset for the next section. Then, kneeling on one knee facing each other with arms tangled in and out of each other, Doha and Hajin came into view — and between them, using the two men's thighs as a chair, Eunchan was seated.

'Wait, isn't this the rap part?'

As if to mock the thought, Eunchan — the only member with his shirt buttoned all the way to the throat — started to sing.

Easy, Easy on me

Please be easy on me

You keep saying

Come and Easy, My one

At the husky yet distinctly boyish tone — a color they'd never heard on him — the Destis let out startled sounds. At their first taste of Eunchan singing, the Eunchan onepick fans holding his placards were visibly barely biting back their screams.

Eunchan slipped fluidly out from between Hajin's and Doha's arms and drifted to the side. All six of them locked into formation for the first time and hit the choreo in crisp sync.

Under a love deeper than breath

Watch me suffocate

The beat quickened, and a sweeping wave of sound punched through, lifting the mood higher.

The instant that tension hit its peak, a razor-edged high note that felt like it was ripping the room in half cut through every layer of sound and struck the ears.

Set, me, free—!

Along with a bit of choreo where he shoved Wonho — center — aside, Kang Hajin exploded out to the front, delivering the high note with zero wobble while nailing the move. Two hands brought down together as if cuffed at the wrists, head turning slow. On cue, red lighting and lasers flooded the stage.

Endless thirst — I fill it with you

I swallow you down; there's no escape now

Through the wide-open collar of Hajin's leather shirt, showing his clavicle clean, a necklace-style body chain flashed. A belt looped around one thigh and ear cuffs dangling in a cluster from one ear were plenty provocative on their own. But what had the Destis screaming like they'd been hit was something else entirely.

Everlasting thirst

Only you can save me

For the next move, the trainees turned their backs to the audience — and the middle of Hajin's leather shirt had been cut open in a sheer panel down the back, laced together with several leather cords. On top of that, as if he'd known the reaction it would draw, Hajin — while sustaining the high chorus — turned his head slightly and even flashed a smile straight at the Destis!

The gesture had plenty of calculation baked in, but it didn't come off as blatant. That was thanks to the choreo Yugeon and Wonho had built from scratch.

The two of them had ripped out almost all the hip- and waist-heavy moves from the original and centered the new set around keywords like knot, shackle, bind.

—Me, Wonho, and Eunchan are all minors. And Doha-hyung's control isn't there — swinging his hips is just gonna look funny.

That was Yugeon's idea. Hajin agreed, then added — in that case, let's go a little bolder on the costuming.

His pitch: the plainer the choreo, the more the sexiness of the wardrobe would jump.

Praying, wishing

Set me free

And the two of them's gambit was landing dead on target.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Yugeon — three-white-eyes flashing, body cutting hard — grabbed center again. And what came out of his mouth wasn't the just filling in his part okay-ish singing he'd shown so far.

Trapped inside the fantasy of you

Maybe this is a dream

Yugeon's blue hair swayed without a pause. Even through the harshest moves, his breath stayed rock-steady as he spat rap with confidence. The voice that had felt characterless and thin when he was singing suddenly locked into its own color, an unusual tone that grabbed the ear.

See what you do

A wave deeper than darkness

Crashing into me from inside

Kill me slowly,

On the final line, Hajin roughly yanked the chain connected to Yugeon's choker. Yugeon threw his body with the pull as if he really were dying, closed his eyes, and dropped to his knees like he'd been felled.

Then, from the side, Doha's low, weighty voice — like a drum bass — flipped the mood again.

"Lee Doha, thank you for playing dirty!!!!!!"

Doha's outfit had the most skin of anyone: scratched-up black jeans and a black cloth sleeveless top. Between the collar — cut to almost hanbok lines — and a slightly-open side vent, a set of tight abs showed.

Take it easy,

Take it easy, Bae

You always say

Don't be serious, Bae

As Doha slowly tracked toward center, the rest of the trainees took on choreo hard enough to pass for a dance break. Siwoo aside, they were all top-tier dancers within Miro Maze — the only reason it was pullable at all.

'Lee Doha is a god.'

For once, not thinking about the dance and just pouring every bit of rap skill he had into it, Lee Doha was, frankly, a monster. Sometimes dragging, sometimes racing — pushing and pulling against the beat, he spat his own verse. Siwoo, still hitting his own choreo, threw in ad-libs and vocal accents between the lines.

The beat came pounding, then abruptly loosened, and a beautiful piano line stepped in to fill the space.

Easy, Easy on me

Please be easy on me

You keep saying

Come and Easy, My one

Wonho and Yugeon locked in harmony. Then, holding each other close, they moved through a pair sequence that read like a whispered exchange. Ju Eunchan's deep, decadent gaze paired with Kim Wonho's sharp, forceful moves generated its own chemistry. Kang Hajin gave his hair a light sweep back and turned to the side. The ear cuff in one ear, the scratch at the tail of his right eyebrow, sharp eyes shaded in soft burgundy, and the tear mole set below them like a stitched star — the angle was ready-made for the camera.

Your love, deeper than the dark

Can you see me? I'm running out

Sexy or not, his singing was strong enough to say that's really not what's on the table right now.

On the final line — see me — Hajin held the high note out long.

The hook came crashing back.

Set, me, free!

Siwoo took Hajin's ad-lib and carried it a full octave higher. With a steadier breath and cleaner technique than Hajin, he twisted the chorus melody bit by bit.

Praying, wishing

Set me free!

Before anyone knew it, the song was running toward its close. Past Wonho and Eunchan's presence-branded bridge parts, a short dance break followed.

"L-Lee Yugeon what — why is he like this, what."

"Did that kid pick today of all days to go all-in?"

Just as he'd told them to look forward to it, Yugeon's presence on the stage was overwhelming. Sure, they'd always thought he danced well — but today, something was different.

"Stop laughing, you psycho!"

Like he was feeling every inch of this stage in his body.

Like there wasn't a single calculation left in anything happening on it.

He pulled the audience in hard and had a firm grip on the mood of the stage.

With the center of the performance anchored, room opened up for the other members too.

Doha's slightly clumsy dance skills didn't even register on people's radar. Inside a performance this clean and this precise, free, instinctive gestures kept bursting out. As if refusing to lose to Yugeon's uninhibited feel, the other members kept sinking further into the stage.

In a brief moment, Hajin's eyes met Yugeon's as Yugeon smoothly finished a near-acrobatic b-boy move and rose. Fully sunk into the stage, he caught Hajin's small smile and returned one just like it. The two brushed past each other, moving into their next positions.

Hajin and Siwoo pulled to opposite sides, and the four locked into formation at center leaped lightly as the final hook exploded out.

Set, me, free!

Hajin and Siwoo's ad-libs came pouring in. The last hook was carried by Wonho and Eunchan in behind, backing it like a full-throated singalong.

Endless thirst — I fill it with you

I swallow you down; there's no escape now

(Easy Come, Easy Go)

(Inside your suffocating obsession

(Only now do I feel my freedom)

The center on the final chorus was Wonho. The call: his long arms and long legs would carry the song to the end at full power. Amid the driving dance and ad-libs, Yugeon and Doha's rap wove into the mix and formed a harmony.

A gamble — the tiniest slip in teamwork and it'd have been nothing but a wall of noise.

"Whoa…."

But every piece was perfect.

If a single one of them had been missing,

If a single part had been swapped,

If a single element of the arrangement had gone differently,

The stage was so complete you couldn't even entertain those thoughts.

The storm passed.

As if it were all over, a single piano line rolled out again, slow.

Praying, wishing

The one at the end of your eyes.

Let me be.

Whispering the last line, Eunchan slowly backed away.

Oh, baby

Set me free

Between members who bound one another in place as they had in the very first formation, Eunchan caged himself. As he stepped into their arms, snake-supple, the members' arms caught one another and locked tight.

A contradictory ending: caging oneself in order to be free.

The six trainees slowly closed their eyes and let their heads drop.

"……."

The song ended.

The Destis were now confused.

'Who am I even supposed to vote for?!'

The mentors had obviously ducked the choice themselves and shoved it onto us on purpose…!