Chapter 159

Snap of the body, kick of the leg, bend at the waist — moves flowing one into the next.

Inside a beat anyone would call intense, Ju Eunchan seized the stage with a gaze more intense still.

The next part came from Lee Doha — over a solid, workout-forged build, a three-piece suit, and in his hand a cane carved with the figure of an eagle.

A dopamine-hungry, deranged Pandora

He, too, landed his entrance with visuals and a voice every bit as striking.

With nothing more than the smallest movements and gestures, Lee Doha took over the stage atmosphere — which had been full of Ju Eunchan — in an instant.

The trick they'd used once on the round-3 stage made another appearance. The four members surrounding Doha carried on the group choreography, and with just a few moves that made it look like Doha was conducting them, a superb composition was completed.

In the meantime, Lee Doha held a handheld mic in his non-cane hand and spat out the rap lyrics he'd written himself. His diction was so sharp that even without the lyrics on the electronic screen, every word came through clearly.

"…ah, this kid. Bringing it hard, seriously."

Watching Team A's stage on the waiting-room monitor, Hajin clicked his tongue in a way that read as impressed disbelief.

Since the round-4 Raebingyu stage, Lee Doha — as if he'd hit some kind of awakening — had grown astonishingly in his on-stage capacity.

Not just as a general impression — the numbers showed it clearly, too.

label: Lee Doha (Agency: Miro) Vocals: F Rap: S Dance: C+ Expressiveness: B+ Charm: B+ Special: Melody (SS) — Composing and producing ability significantly enhanced. Appeal Point: 'Strong Heart' — Delivery, on-stage adaptability, performance realization (83%)

Still trash… no, rapper-fitting stats — but compared to before, dance and expressiveness both had a + tacked on. Performance realization, which had been at 80%, had also gone up 3%.

And that wasn't all.

label: Lee Doha (Agency: Miro) Vocals: 37.2% (Rap 64% ▶ 70%)

Rap, which had been at 64%, had gone up to 70%. Meaning that even at the same S grade, it wasn't the same S as before.

What was even more unnerving: the other guys' situation was the same.

label: Ju Eunchan (Agency: Miro) Vocals: 43% ▶ 56% (▲) Rap: 84% ▶ 85% (▲) Dance: 41% ▶ 67% (▲) Expressiveness: 64% ▶ 68% (▲) Charm: 35% ▶ 39% (▲) Special: (※Stat has not yet manifested※) Appeal Point: 'On My Own' — Self-conviction, decisiveness, performance accuracy (70%)

Ju Eunchan's letter-grade tier hadn't shifted yet, but the percentages had risen sharply across the board.

Probably the psychological anxiety he'd been carrying because of Han Seong… no, that Han-demort bastard, had finally been resolved — and, freed from rap parts he'd never wanted, he was getting greedy about parts he was actually confident in.

A one-of-a-kind Taste not found anywhere

The new fruit I tasted because of you

The moment Wonho — carrying his part with a confidence he hadn't had before — was caught on the monitor, Hajin's body lifted off the seat on instinct. They'd shared a room for the past week, but he still hadn't gotten to talk much with Wonho. Their practice schedules didn't line up, so one of them wouldn't be in the room, or even if they were at the dorm, every spare minute went to resting and stockpiling stamina.

"……."

Only after seeing Wonho finish his part safely and turn away did the tension drain out of Hajin's body. Because of the skill window he'd pulled up earlier, Wonho's stat window was already auto-displayed in front of him.

label: Kim Wonho (Agency: Miro) Vocals: 89% (Rap 34%) Dance: 65% ▶ 71% (▲) Expressiveness: 93% ▶ 88% (▼) Special: Choreography Creation (92%) Appeal Point: 'A TO Z' — Quick uptake

Compared to the month-end evaluation, dance was about the only thing up — by 6%.

Choreography creation, which had been trending upward, was still stuck at 92%, and expressiveness — which had been solidly high — had actually dropped to 88%.

Hajin had, at one point, used to gauge Wonho's limits looking at these stats.

He'd already developed a significant portion of the talent he had, he'd worked hard at it, and Hajin had thought further growth, further climb, might be a stretch.

But switch the stat window over to the absolute-grade view, and the read on Wonho could flip 180 degrees.

label: Kim Wonho (Agency: Miro) Vocals: B Rap: C- Dance: B+ Expressiveness: C+ Charm: B Special: Arcade Mode (B+) — The more he's enjoying himself, all stats are temporarily boosted with a set probability. Appeal Point: 'A to Z' — Quick uptake, quick thinking, wit

Assuming every percentage was pushed up to 100%.

So assuming he could pull himself at least one grade higher than he was now, and factoring in additional gains from Arcade Mode, Wonho's special disposition —

…at the very least, it's a stat sheet that could comfortably carry an average idol-group sub-vocal or main dancer.

The kids here were all out-of-their-minds monsters, which was the only reason he hadn't gotten to shine properly — but you absolutely couldn't say there was no potential there.

You can do it, Kim Wonho.

But that sense of I can do it — that was the one thing no one else could teach him.

Hajin could only silently pray for Wonho.

"Hyungnim, you're gonna wreck your eyes doing that."

If you frown at the TV, you'll get creases between your brows.

At the mom-flavored nagging out of nowhere, Hajin turned his head. Yugeon — spinning a ball cap around his finger — could be seen coming over with a bandage box in hand and plopping down beside him.

"You seriously remind me of my mom sometimes."

"Sometimes you hyungs remind me of the tigers back home, and it throws me off."

Unruffled by Hajin's line, Yugeon offered the hand mirror he was holding in his other hand toward Hajin.

What, so what am I supposed to do?

Looking at Yugeon with eyes that said exactly that for a moment, Hajin took the hand mirror and, naturally, started checking his own face.

"…no. I said please hold it for me. What are you, Snow White? Checking your own face first?"

"The one who looks in the mirror isn't Snow White, it's the stepmother. The Queen who gave the poison apple."

"Want me to promote you to Queen?"

"My taste actually runs more toward Sleeping Beauty, though…."

"Please, cut the nonsense and just hold the mirror, hyung."

"Mm-hm."

To Yugeon — offering the mirror again with that line — Hajin quietly handed the hand mirror back. Even so, he kept sneaking it down, then up, then spinning it around trying to mess with him, until Yugeon smacked his thigh in scolding, and only then did he settle down.

"Hyung, seriously…. Sometimes you seem like a grown adult, like, thirty years old? But at times like this you seem younger than our tigers, and I get confused."

"Just between you and me — actually, it's because I'm an alien."

"What are you even saying…."

Hajin cackled, satisfied with Yugeon's grossed-out reaction.

Still, thanks to Hajin holding the mirror obediently, Yugeon safely got the styling tape stuck onto the bridge of his nose, checked his face from every angle, and took the hand mirror back.

He'd figured Yugeon would get up and leave, but unexpectedly Yugeon stayed put in the seat next to Hajin, watching the monitor.

"Ah, Seo Taehyun's part is coming up."

The A song was structured a little unusually — the main vocal part started from the mid-point of the song.

On the screen, Seo Taehyun — in black smoky makeup, black nail art, and a fitted set of black shirt and black jacket — was caught in the shot cutting forward to center stage with a glint in his eyes.

"That was originally hyung's part, right?"

"Yeah. 'Originally' sounds a little weird for it, but — yeah."

"What do you think? About Seo Taehyun doing that part."

Yugeon asked like he was genuinely curious about Hajin's take.

Practically speaking, it was a question Yugeon — and everyone watching this stage — probably wanted to know.

Hajin leaned back in his chair, folded his arms, and shrugged.

"Well…."

Sure enough, Taehyun choosing the A song over the B song this time was a gamble with more to lose than to gain.

On a finals stage with debut on the line, setting aside what he was best at to try something he'd never once shown was, without exaggeration, borderline crazy.

But sometimes, the best offense really is the best defense.

"Either way, it was a mountain Taehyun was going to have to cross at some point."

Seo Taehyun had already experienced failure with the thing he was heartbreakingly good at.

In a situation strikingly similar to that one three years ago, Seo Taehyun had just carried out the best defense available to him.

Hajin thought back to what Taehyun had said to him before he'd gone on stage.

—Hyung, you said something to me.

—You said, no way I'd just been off eating and playing for those three years, right?

Quoting the words Hajin had said to him ahead of the challenge with B-liver on A Countdown, Taehyun broke into a grin.

—You were right. I wasn't playing. I put in effort like I was going to die of it.

—So I'm going to do what I've been doing, and come back.

—The effort I put in over three years — I'll show every bit of it.

Remembering Taehyun speaking with more confidence than he'd ever had before, Hajin, too, broke into a smile.

"Anyway, he's gonna do great, that kid."

Overlaid across Hajin's vision were Taehyun's stat window and, on the monitor, Taehyun himself — pulling a sharp, cutting expression like a completely different person from before, radiating aura.

label: Seo Taehyun (Agency: Miro) ※ Charm stat currently elevated by a special-skill effect ※ Vocals: B+ Dance: A- ▶ A Expressiveness: A ▶ A+ Charm: S (A) Special: Enchantment (A) ▶ (A+) — Charm stat temporarily boosted with a set probability. Appeal Point: 'Can't take my eyes off him!' — Vocal tone, dance lines, stage expressiveness

Grab hold, dive in, NEW! YOU!

Taehyun let the note out with a rough scrape at his throat.

Even through the high-difficulty dance moves that followed right after, his breath never wavered — and the gestures came through, calculated in precise detail all the way down to the angle of his hair whipping.

Taehyun's voice — which had once been all delicacy — had, after Boys of the World, gone through voice change and dropped lower, taking on weight.

In the previous timeline, thanks to a bad contract, he'd been sent out to a run of events even before that voice change had finished, and had wrecked his vocal cords.

On top of that, thanks to an agency that kept flogging the Boys of the World image without considering Taehyun's changed physique or voice after voice change, Taehyun had ended up disappearing without even carving out a proper name in the music scene.

…but this time is different.

Whether it was thanks to that department-head bastard leaving Seo Taehyun to rot for a full three years, Seo Taehyun's vocal cords had ridden out voice change more stably than at any other time.

Through Miro Maze, he'd met a range of mentors and gotten to work through a variety of genres and get objective feedback,

and with the special class abolished and Han Seongwoo out of the agency, the factional split among the trainees was gone — an atmosphere had formed where Seo Taehyun could mix more easily with the other trainees and ask them for help.

Can't miss it, Never

Grab the Beat!

The sweetness of catching a moment and taking it for myself

Seo Taehyun didn't miss even the beat of rhythm-drop, pulling a languid expression toward the camera as he bit his lip.

That it didn't come across as excessive or overdone was Seo Taehyun's greatest strength,

and the current Taehyun was someone who knew how to bring his strength out to the fullest.

Hajin let out a laugh like it was ridiculous, and got up from his seat as if there was no need to watch any more.

"…? What, you're not going to watch the rest?"

"What's the point of watching. Having someone like that as a rival is just cause for despair. Let's go run through ours."

Tapping Yugeon on the shoulder as he said it, Hajin started walking, and though bewildered, Yugeon followed him.

Hajin's steps carried him in good spirits toward where the B-team members were gathered.

They kept making a kid like that do lisp-cute aegyo — no wonder he didn't take off. Ugh, idiots.

Why on earth had Seo Taehyun never blown up?

It was, at last, the moment he'd found the answer to the question he'd been thinking every single time he looked at Taehyun.