Chapter 158

The song rolled quickly into its back half.

Before the shock of Hajin's red hair had time to settle, the parts followed in quick succession: Dan Haru, bleached bright blond; Jayden, hair cropped into a short buzz with an eyepatch over one eye; and Kim Wonho, a cape draped over his crisp uniform.

The knife-sharp choreography that moved as one, and the uniforms that harmonized while still bringing out each member's individual character, wove together into a spellbinding sight. From how many times they must have run it during Miro Maze, even Lee Doha — who used to get teased as a stiff mover — was executing the choreography perfectly.

Daylight, follow that road

With Jung Siwoo's voice, the dance-break section began.

In the finals-prep footage aired after the cut ceremony in episode 9, there had actually been a mini-audition to pick the center of this dance break. To keep the anticipation for the finals up, they hadn't shown who'd been picked on the broadcast — and now, right this moment, the result revealed itself.

"Ah, Kang Hajin!!!!!"

Gwajam set her camera down entirely, waving a fan with Hajin's name printed on it and screaming. Because through a formation that had split cleanly in two, Hajin — coat tails streaming — had taken center once again.

Getting picked as center over that stacked dance line, and standing there so unapologetically — that alone was already impossibly cute, and on top of it Hajin threw a small wink at the camera on him!

"Look at him flirting, is he out of his mind!"

"No, aaargh!"

Gwajam's rationality was starting to evaporate.

She couldn't even manage anything like praise; all that came out of her mouth was screaming and "he's crazy." Barely gripping her sanity, she lifted the camera again, and up on stage the Hajin-led dance break was in full swing.

…huh?

Working from a failing to capture uniform-and-red-hair Kang Hajin in high resolution is a crime mindset, Gwajam had her trembling hands locked steady and was focused on Hajin through the viewfinder — when she spotted something and lowered the camera.

Pulling up the gallery and checking the shot she'd just taken, she quickly figured out what had felt off.

Ah, the glove….

Zooming in on the photo, she could see one of Hajin's gloves had slipped down and was just barely hanging on across the back of his hand. The glove was cut snug to the fingers so pulling it off cleanly wasn't easy, but leaving it meant it could fly off at any moment — clearly bothering him.

Having found the reason he'd been faintly furrowing his brow even while dancing, Gwajam lifted the camera again with a worried look. The dance break was almost over — so once he was past the center part, he could probably fix it—

"Heol."

—was what she thought a beat before Hajin, brow drawn tight, lifted his hand, caught the end of the glove between his teeth, and pulled.

…he's really lost his mind.

The leather glove settled back firmly into place over the long fingers fans lost it over. Him checking that the glove was seated right and giving a small grin was the perfect finishing touch.

Gwajam quickly lowered the camera and pulled up her gallery. In the middle of it all, she was proud of herself for having hit the shutter on instinct and fired off a burst. The gallery had every frame — from Hajin frowning and biting the glove to smiling in satisfaction — captured perfectly.

"Th-this, this is a preview, I have to post the preview."

Damn, I'm shaking so much my words are coming out wrong.

Hands still trembling, Gwajam pulled out her phone to put the preview up.

Hajin-ah. Wait — noona's gonna make you blow up, for sure.

The finals miracle.

Let me see if I can make one myself.

Firmly resolved, Gwajam's fingers swam busily across the phone screen.

---

"Next up, new-song Team A — straight to positions!"

"Team B! Team B, get in costume, fast! Hurry!"

Backstage during the live broadcast was, in a word, close to sheer chaos.

The moment they came down from the stage, the trainees moved fast into changing outfits and touching up makeup for the next stage.

Hajin, too, was patiently letting the makeup staff redo foundation that had washed off in sweat and reapply lip color, while buttoning up his shirt for the next stage.

"VCR has 15 minutes left!"

Of course, to prepare for situations like this, broadcasters always kept ample VCR queued up for the next stage transition. Right about now, the VCR the new-song Team A had shot must be playing. Not as tight a schedule as a concert, but if they moved briskly, they could get in even one more run-through of a move.

"Hajin-ssi, all done."

"Yes, thank you."

Hajin gave a small nod, let out a short breath to steady himself, and headed to the bathroom near the waiting room to wash his hands — clammy from the sweat trapped under the gloves.

Arriving at the bathroom, Hajin rinsed his hands at the sink and dried them carefully, watching that no water splashed onto or soaked into his stage costume. Stepping from a place that had been all flashing lights and packed bodies moments ago into a quiet space with only the sound of running water felt a little strange.

So — today, at last.

Yeah. It's here, today.

Answering Thirteen — who somehow seemed even more tense than he was — Hajin, for the first time in a while, pulled up the quest window and checked what quests were still on the board.

title: Basic Quest 01 — Find the Regressor! content: You've been designated as the Selected Regressor's Mentor. Find the Selected Regressor and stop the regressions. reward: Young & Rich & Tall & Handsome title: Single Quest 02 — The Crazy One Around Here Is Me! content: You who have entered (or will enter) Miro. Overcome the suffocating politicking and one-upmanship going on inside, meet the Comrades who will help you, and successfully debut. — Clearing hidden bombs lowers regression-trigger probability and raises quest success rate. success reward: A clue for tracking down the Regressor failure penalty: Probability of 5th-run regression trigger increases

If today Hajin made it into the final debut lineup, he'd finally have cleared Single Quest 02 — and whatever reward it gave him, Hajin planned to use it on checking Haru.

Then I'll be — just in case anything comes up, I'll be stepping out for a bit!

Thirteen had decided to step out and beef up the perimeter watch, on the grounds that Retty might try attacking again. When Hajin asked how Thirteen planned to handle missing the actually-important ending chapter after running a whole idol-raising simulation, Thirteen came back with an extremely Earth-patched I'll catch the replay later.

The System wishes the Fixed Regressor luck. ദ്ദി•̀.̫•́✧

Yeah. Let's meet again after debut.

With a bzzt, Thirteen vanished, and Kang Hajin turned his steps back too.

The dreary regressor life — the end was truly in sight now.

And for that end, no matter what, he had to pour everything into today's stage.

---

Meanwhile, in the venue, a VCR laying out the new-song Team A selection and prep process was playing in short form.

In this team lineup — decided through a bump-up process running from the lowest ranks up to the highest — the one who drew the most attention was, without question, Seo Taehyun.

I honestly figured Taehyun would go with song B. Song B is way more the genre Taehyun's stronger at — how do I put it? Taehyun's a little weak on the hip-hop side, dance-wise too. For starters, you can't ignore the vibe of the Team A kids. Just Taehyun suddenly, all floaty and dreamy.

Breaking everyone's expectation that he'd pick the bright, upbeat B song, Taehyun had elbowed out Hajin — the original A-song pick — and taken the main vocal on the A song.

Because Doha and the rest of the teammates sat, in both physique and visuals, at pretty much the polar opposite of Taehyun's usual image, the sense of dissonance felt sharper still.

Haaa…. Taehyun-ah. You can't do it this way. You're the main vocal.

In the end, footage even came out of Taehyun — unable to adjust well during practice and, unlike his usual self, racking up mistake after mistake. The prep VCR closed on teammates encouraging Taehyun and actively helping him, and on Seo Taehyun's resolve to steel himself and deliver the role he'd taken on to perfection.

What kind of reaction that VCR was drawing online, none of them in the venue could know — as the next VCR began.

Hello. …ah, um. Is this the seat?

A single wooden-toned chair placed at the center of a white-background horizon studio — an empty set where the wall edges seem to disappear.

The next video opened with the trainees hesitantly stepping up to that chair, one by one.

> Lee Doha: …It was watching the Upia sunbaenim that made me decide. > Seo Taehyun: When I was young my parents both worked, but they always came out to my performances. That memory is still with me. I really loved that. Getting to show my stage to the people I love.

Set to an emotional pop song, the trainees' candid answers played through, interspersed with more questions.

> Jayden: Hmm. …every day? > Ju Eunchan: At night sometimes, when the dorm gets really quiet. In moments like that, I think I felt lonely. > Kim Wonho: Back then, what I wanted most was to do a concert. It's just — isn't it? Getting to fill more than two hours entirely with your own songs. > Kim Wonho: Ah, these days…. mm, these days. …just — that I get to do team activity together with good people?

The heartfelt thoughts of the Team A trainees came through, one after another.

After that, a brief interview segment about the song and the stage played, and finally, they were asked to say a word to the Destis who would be watching this stage.

> Lee Doha: It's a song where the intense beat is addictive. I hope you'll really take in the energy we're putting out. > Ju Eunchan: I was happy I got to do this with good hyungs, and through this stage, I'll properly show you who Ju Eunchan is as a person. > Kim Wonho: Since this might be the last stage…. so I don't leave regrets behind, I'm going to give what I can. I'll work hard. Please watch us. > Jayden: We're doing well, I think. You can look forward to it.

The final interview, again this time, was Seo Taehyun's.

> Seo Taehyun: First — to everyone who waited for me over those three years, and to everyone who's getting to know me for the first time now — I want to say thank you.

When Seo Taehyun's calm voice rang out through the venue, a bunch of people — probably Taehyun's fans — let out weepy little oohh~ sounds. Taehyun's voice came in again, layering back over that sound.

> Seo Taehyun: Through this stage…. I want to be sure to show you how I've changed and grown, over the past three years.

The final shot of Taehyun's bright smile eased gently into slow motion.

The video faded out, and hazy stage fog and sharp, vivid lighting poured in over the darkened stage.

Drop the beat—

Along with Lee Doha's low voice, boom— a hip-hop beat kicked in.

With Enderway's main rapper Park Woong on the credits, and with this being a song personally picked by Miro Maze's own rap positions Lee Doha and Jayden, the intro — set on delivering full-out hip-hop — showed that intent from the first bar.

So bored, All day

Where'd the usual sweet chaebol-family maknae go — Ju Eunchan had swapped in the eyes of a mafia don's unhinged youngest son, gesturing like he was letting out a yawn. The cat-faction Destis, who'd been moe-fying Eunchan into a languid baby kitten, could only slap their hands over their mouths at Eunchan with smoky makeup and the sharp, whites-showing glare flashing in his eyes.

Unlike the opening stage, where the uniform had been buttoned tight all the way up to the throat, Eunchan was in a white shirt with a wide collar undone at a casual angle, and a buttonless black jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms.

In an outfit convincing enough that you'd honestly buy him as an actual mafia son, he did a kick motion in time with the bass and leapt down off Doha's back, where Doha had been sitting.

Chasing something new every day

Like a Columbus

Not easily satisfied

Explorer's just in my blood

Since Eunchan had handled the rap parts before he'd taken on vocals properly, he handled a verse that had to ride on off-beat rhythm in an easy singing-rap style.

A laid-back mood, like the pressure of being on Miro Maze's first new-song first-part had been chucked out the window.

It was the dazzling opening — composed by Enderway's Park Woong, with lyrics co-written by Doha and Jayden.