The One Who Reaches for the Sun (3)

'Kim Wonho, and Lee Doha, huh.'

Two candidates, each with clear pros and cons. I sat with it a beat.

I still didn't fully have a handle on what exactly this 'companion recruitment' system was. But if I got to pick one, better to grab the one who'd pay off more going forward.

And on that axis, one of them was overwhelmingly ahead.

'What card beats a member already locked into the debut track.'

Taking Lee Doha as a companion would obviously make life easier — the one snag was how low his reaction rate was.

'If it were even 70% I could talk myself into it somehow.'

"Kangha-hyung, quit zoning out and get over here, look at this."

"Yeah yeah."

Even the way Kim Wonho jumped on me the second my attention drifted was pretty useful, actually. Situational read was fast too, enough to make me feel a little bad for lumping him into the No-Hope Trio at the start.

'This is a tough call.'

Why were these guys 'reacting' to me on their own, anyway? The longer I turned it over, the more my head tightened. I wanted to sit down and think, seriously, but this cursed maze escape refused to end.

"……"

"Kangha-hyung, what are you doing?"

I looked up at the one open thing in this claustrophobic square — the ceiling. Lights set with an obvious eye toward filming, and rig cameras strung between them at intervals.

"That should catch it, right?"

"Catch what."

"Wall-running. With those camera angles, they'd pick it up clean, right?"

"Running what?"

Leaving a bewildered Kim Wonho and Lee Doha behind, I walked up to the sturdiest-looking wall. Being a shrubbery wall, there were footholds all over it.

"Whoa, hyung!"

"If you're not following, I'm going ahead."

Two jumps and I was over the wall. First image the broadcast would see, so I had to plan it — but this whole segment was obviously going out as a five-minute image cut anyway. Nothing much to milk here.

"Man, seriously, sometimes this hyung's more of a bulldozer than me."

Left behind, Kim Wonho grumbled something, and soon enough there were two thuds as Lee Doha and Kim Wonho vaulted over after me. Kim Wonho — you could tell just from watching him dance that his athletic instincts were solid. And Lee Doha wasn't the type to let a physique like that go to waste, dance disaster or not.

Yeah, this works.

I pointed up at the time-limit mission text hanging huge in midair.

"Our goal — punch through the maze in five minutes. How? Wall-running."

"Sometimes this hyung freaks me out."

Lee Doha's cocked-back "Sometimes?" got smoothly ignored as we launched. Straight for the exit.

---

Back in the control room.

"Who are those kids again? Kang Hajin, Lee Doha… all Wings guys?"

"Yes, that's right."

For a PD, this was as juicy a character intro as you could hope for. PD Kwon's eyes were already lit up as he asked the second writer beside him for the trio's names. Who's the writer on their table? Make sure you flag them at the pre-meeting later — he didn't forget to nail that down either.

'A decent start, I guess?'

Watching from behind in a cold sweat, Suho felt some tension leave his shoulders now that things seemed to be flowing okay. He unclenched his stance and eased back into monitoring.

Up on top of the maze walls, the three of them mapped their route and hopped along, and before long you could see them arriving at the escape.

—Lee Doha, Kang Hajin, Kim Wonho have completed the escape. We'll capture audio and put them on standby.

—Trainees in Zone B2 clearing in five minutes.

—Zone C1 wrapping in three minutes.

"Yeah. Good work. Once the kids have their mics on, send them to the fifth-floor practice room. We'll run a quick orientation and briefing there while the other spots strike everything."

—Copy.

—Yes sir.

As the other trainee groups that had gone in ahead started lining up their escapes one by one, PD Kwon got up too. Suho — who'd been given the shooting plan in advance — knew opening filming was nearly wrapped, but on the off chance, he leaned over to another PD organizing schedules next to PD Kwon and asked casually.

"How's the rest of the shoot looking, out of curiosity?"

"Hmm — quick OT in the practice room. Once the main spot's cleaned up, we shoot the survival overview with Seo Taeil-ssi… then individual sit-downs and interviews, and we're done. Today's day one, so… ah, want a look at this?"

At the simple cue sheet the PD offered, Suho waved it off and stood up alongside PD Kwon.

"Ah, Team Lead Ji. Let's head down together. I'm on my way to meet the trainees now."

"Sure, sure. I'll walk you over."

PD Kwon, plan in hand, cheerfully fell in behind him. Suho carefully pretended not to notice the name inscribed neatly in unmistakable letters at the very top of that plan — Kang Hajin — and started walking.

---

"Alright, mics on now, then we move to the practice room!"

Blowing through the maze escape at ludicrous speed, the sight waiting for us was the usual (very familiar to me on more than one level) broadcast-crew setup we all know. A short-haired woman who looked like an assistant director led us to the audio director, and staff came over holding mic packs with our names on them, ready to fit them on us.

"Ah, I've got it."

"Sorry?"

Ugh. Occupational hazard, again.

The sound assistant — probably the newest hire — was hovering in front of me with a mic pack, flustered, and without thinking I took it from her and clipped it on myself. Old reflex from my AD days — when things got tight, you'd just grab and clip the cast's mics yourself.

"This is live, right? I know how to fit it, so I'm fine — go help them first."

I tipped my chin toward Lee Doha, fumbling with his, and Kim Wonho, standing there blank-faced waiting his turn, and sent the flustered sound assistant off. She soon walked over to them with a slightly awkward look.

"Um, mine's on."

"Ah. We'll move you to the fifth-floor practice room."

"The fifth floor?"

"…Ah. We've cleared all those walls out, they're gone now. One moment."

At the AD's breezy answer after a beat of thinking, I couldn't shut my mouth. They really put all of that up just for a brief shot? The same question came up in my head again.

'Miro — did you win the lotto?'

The person who'd guide me showed up, and soon Kim Wonho and Lee Doha, mics on, fell in beside me. Kim Wonho's mic was clipped crooked on his crewneck, and I straightened it as I said,

"When you talk, watch this — if the mic knocks into your necklace it'll rattle. And that '-im' verbal tic? Comes off snotty on interviews, so keep a lid on it."

"Uh? Ah, yes."

"Every voice is being recorded, so watch your words. Both of you."

"…Kangha-hyung, you sounded just like Team Lead Ji just now."

See? Occupational. Hazard. That's what's messing me up.

Not finding a clean way to answer, I shut it and just followed the staffer, and soon we reached that same fifth floor that had thrown us earlier. Looked like only the area right in front of the elevator had been dressed up — this time an open, wide hallway stretched out in front of us at a glance.

"Please wait here for a moment."

"Yes, thank you."

"Hyung! You're here?"

Stepping into the fifth-floor practice room as directed, familiar faces and voices greeted us. Ju Eunchan and Dan Haru, apparently out of the maze early, had staked out the middle of the practice room and welcomed us.

"Seo Taehyun? Said he was coming with you today."

"Taehyun-hyung's over there."

"Where? …Ah."

At my search for Seo Taehyun, who'd definitely said on the last day of the break that he'd crash at Ju Eunchan's and come with them, Dan Haru pointed a hand at one corner of the practice room. There sat Seo Taehyun, looking utterly drained — hoodie pulled up over his head to the crown, hands folded neatly like a corpse, out cold.

'…I can guess without looking.'

Reining in Dan Haru — who had a bulldozer streak nearly as bad as mine — plus a competitive-fire-off-the-charts Ju Eunchan, he'd probably collapsed.

"Ah, the other hyungs are coming too."

One after another the other trainees filed in. Lee Doha exchanged a short nod with Jung Siwoo, who came in on his own. I'd figured those two were close — turns out he wasn't the type to move in a pack. One look at our huddle and Jung Siwoo picked a spot at a comfortable distance and settled in.

Watching the trainees get noisy with the month-end evaluation, the break, and — the hottest topic — the maze escape, I quietly opened the system window.

label: Ji Suho (Awakened) Modifiers: 'Of Burning Passion,' 'The Deepest Shadow' Trait: Star Maker☆ — Recognizes those with the makings of a star 'by fate.' (Hit rate 77%) — Different-colored auras appear depending on the star's caliber. Special: Affected by a 'past timeline' through contact with the Selected Regressor. (Déjà vu) Recruited companions' current status and location can be tracked, and if needed, they can be summoned (10 cash required).

'What is this… no volume control? If a call comes in right now I can't even talk, mic's live.'

If you're letting me recruit companions, shouldn't I at least get telepathy? Leaving a text trail — who's that good for exactly?

After running one perfectly realistic thought like that, I summoned Ji Suho — banking on Ji Suho having the sense, in this situation, to send a text instead of calling.

And this time, again, the effect was astonishing!

〈Miro ent_Team Lead Ji Suho ‖ Hajin-ssi?〉

'Yeah. This works.'

Phone buzzing on the spot — 10 cash well spent, I marveled, and fired back fast.

〈The scale here is insane.〉

〈Miro ent_Team Lead Ji Suho ‖ Figured you wouldn't have wanted a heads-up. Yeah, it kind of got out of hand.〉

〈Miro — did you win the lotto?〉

〈Miro ent_Team Lead Ji Suho ‖ Taeil did win the lotto once. Third prize, though.〉

Ah, Seo Taeil's in on the investment side too? That accounts for about a third of this scale, then. At his current stage he'd land somewhere in the top five for royalties nationwide, easily.

'That kind of guy wins the lotto too. Life is just an RNG-cursed hellgame.'

Feeling in my bones the rich-get-richer reality that the ones who have it get more, I burned Quest 1's reward into my brain. Young and rich, tall and handsome. Just you wait.

〈Miro ent_Team Lead Ji Suho ‖ For the rest of the details… let's talk in person soon.〉

〈Yes. Good work today.〉

Keep this up and I'd get pegged as the guy glued to his phone on set, so I wrapped it there. I deleted every one of the messages I'd just exchanged with Ji Suho (web-novel veteran, N years in — this is exactly the kind of thing that causes problems when you don't delete it) and shoved my phone deep into my pocket.

And soon after, the practice room door opened and someone walked in, drawing every eye.

"Alright, everyone — hi, hi~."

Ji Suho stepped into the practice room with two women in tow. The three of them took the center of the room, and every trainee's gaze swung their way.

"Big shock, right? We wanted to see some real reactions, so we set up a little surprise initiation. Everyone make it out of the maze okay?"

"Yes~."

"Guys, good work today. Sorry I couldn't give you a heads-up. Head-spinning, huh?"

Ji Suho smiled as he swept his eyes over the trainees. But with no time to be flustered — clocking that this was their first broadcast shoot — the kids were tripping over each other to answer, faces flushed and lit up.

"This is PD Kwon Myungeun, and Writer Ko Sehwa. They're the main PD and writer on our upcoming survival, so you'll be seeing them a lot — say hello properly."

"Yes!"

At this warm first-meeting moment, exactly one person couldn't manage a smile.

Me.

"Saw a lot of really impressive kids today. So — let me walk you through the show real quick, and then today's schedule."

'Why is that sunbaenim… why…?'

Four regressions in, and I'd finally become a trainee to make it as an idol — and now the PD in charge of the survival for my debut turns out to be my senior from my first-life job. How does that feel?

'I'm screwed.'

Amid everyone's applause, I could only clap a hand over my mouth.