Special Mission! Shine Bright (1)

"So — from here, I'll walk you through how the teams get picked."

There was no particularly good reason I'd chosen Han Seongwoo as my battle opponent.

'He's the easiest target.'

Plus, he pissed me off a little. The second special class and general class merged, he was the one out front, politicking the hardest. The younger kids fell in behind his politicking without thinking, and it wrecked the mood in the practice room.

'And I've got the angle worked out to make it look picture-perfect on camera, too.'

He had a decent-enough rep himself, so it was a little intimidating, but hey — I just had to win, right? Land in a good team and no problem.

'Title-track team selection is probably going to go one at a time, starting from the Wings-class guys.'

Meaning first place picks whichever team he wants, on down the line. Tenth out of eighteen was honestly on the lower end, but a pick would definitely still make its way to me.

'Kim Wonho'll do everything he can not to end up on Lee Yugeon's team. Ju Eunchan and Seo Taehyun — given what they said earlier, zero chance they land on Han Seongwoo's team.'

As long as a few of the top-rankers split between teams, I had a shot. First stage the public would see — I needed to tuck in with the good ones and cash in on the bouquet effect. Just following Seo Taehyun and Ju Eunchan's side should do it….

"The teams for the first title track have already been divided based on your most recent month-end evaluation scores."

…huh?

"From trainee Jung Siwoo, ranked first, through trainee Kim Wonho, ranked ninth — that's one team, Team A."

Hold on, wait a second.

"From trainee Kang Hajin, ranked tenth, through trainee Park Jaeyoung, ranked eighteenth — that will be this mission's Team B."

The faces of the members Seo Taeil had just named popped up inside the large boxes for Teams A and B on the screen. And on top of that, the top seven had wing designs stuck onto their nametags to mark Wings-class status — a petty little detail.

"For reference, in this mission, the highest-ranked trainee on each team automatically takes on the leader role. Trainee Jung Siwoo and trainee Kang Hajin — please come forward and pick up the materials for practice."

By the time I came back to myself, I was holding a lyric sheet for parts, a pen, and a tablet for choreo — surrounded by low-rankers, not one of whom I was close with (worse — not one I'd ever practiced with).

Past the guys swarming me like bees to peek at their parts — right in the middle of a lineup you could debut tomorrow — Han Seongwoo stood there wearing that punchable smile, watching me.

I thought:

'…Our Selreg friend — feels like right about now would be a great time to want to regress, right? No? Well, I sure do. Come on. Regress already.'

Fucked. Fucking fucked.

---

Confession — if someone asked me what I'd hated most about being at Miro—

Nonstop regression threats? Han Seongwoo's laughable turf-guarding? Head of Department Son's disgusting antics?

Beating out that stacked field of contenders, my answer would be:

'This god-awful defeatism.'

The despair of knowing we could never beat the good ones, that who was debuting had already been decided. The resignation, the helplessness — going back to the dorm or home on the dot every night, sleeping ten dead hours, and still knowing my skill wasn't going any higher than this.

For the general-class guys, that 'defeatism' came pre-installed as default.

Just like right now.

"Ah, honestly, isn't this way too unfair? Honestly — Team A is straight-up all former special-class. We've been learning different things this whole time, honestly, how are we supposed to win."

"Come on, don't you know these things always have a preselected winner? You catch how it was just Seo-Ju-Dan coming in all dressed up today?"

"Seo Taehyun and Siwoo-hyung already have a bit of a fandom too…. There's just no way we're winning. Best case, we don't end up humiliated."

Team practice — first session.

Being team leader meant I had a few things to relay to production, so I'd stepped out for a moment — and coming back to find them sitting around chatting instead of practicing, my first response was a sigh.

I hated people who reflexively blamed others. Even more, the ones who mindlessly spouted baseless takes to tear down other people's effort.

'No time to clean up after brats whose first move is blaming everyone else.'

Not worth listening any longer — I opened the door loud on purpose.

"I said work on the choreo. What are you doing."

That said, I wasn't so socially clueless as to let it show on my face and turn things awkward in front of guys nearly ten years younger than me — so I put on a decent smile and walked over.

"Ah…."

"You all warmed up? I dropped the part division off with the PD. There's a midpoint check tomorrow, so let's start by getting the choreo down today."

"……"

"What are you doing, not getting up? Not practicing?"

"…Ha, seriously. What a show-off."

For a second, I doubted my ears.

'Did he just call me a show-off?'

The System suspects there might be a problem with your hearing.

But unfortunately my hearing was fine — and the guy who'd cursed me out as a show-off got up, irritated, and looked up at me with a face full of grievance.

"Hyung. Two leader roles in a row got you all excited? Feeling like you're something now?"

"……"

"You've been hanging around guys like Seo Taehyun and Ju Eunchan lately, so I guess you keep forgetting — honestly, hyung, you've only been a trainee for a month."

"……"

"That good rank of yours this time was all thanks to your groupmates carrying you, and now suddenly you're playing leader, running us around — honestly, that's a bit much for us."

That impertinent trap of a mouth… s-stop it!

I just kept staring down at this 'honestly' addict's face.

'What is this… defiant lump of an inferiority complex.'

Then I asked the question that had been forming in my head the whole time.

"So what's the plan. You saying we skip the shoot?"

"Hyung, what were you thinking, picking Seongwoo-hyung?"

"What?"

"I know Seongwoo-hyung's been putting up with you being obnoxious this whole time. Honestly, isn't that too much? You didn't pick Ju Eunchan or those guys because you're friends with them — talk about cowardly."

"……"

"And now you're gonna play leader with us."

Only then did I place who this kid was. The one always stuck to Han Seongwoo, self-appointed lackey. So this bootlicker-to-the-bone piece of shit was going off on me because I picked a fight with Han Seongwoo?

The System demands the (Fixed) Regressor's Rage-Mouth restore discipline immediately! The System finds the (Fixed) Regressor's non-response bewildering!

"……"

The System window — angrier than I was, pinging out alerts left and right — I set aside for now. I took in the guy glaring up at me with hostility, and the rest of them hanging back behind him, watching, not one stepping in to stop this — and felt a bleak kind of pity.

'At least Gong Seok isn't here — small mercy.'

If the eldest of the No-Hope Trio — landed on my team again this round — had been mixed in with that bunch, I really might have lost faith in humanity. But since I'd never had any expectations for these guys to begin with, it barely registered. Even the few ex-special-class holdouts on this team all had similar looks on their faces — probably all in Han Seongwoo's inner circle.

"Hey — you all too?"

"……"

"You all thinking the same thing? You agree with him?"

Even that last-chance question got only wary silence in return. Looking at that, I came to a simple conclusion.

"…Alright, then. For this mission — each of you fend for yourselves."

Input Error Input Error An error has occurred in the (Fixed) Regressor's response! Demanding to know why proper re-education isn't being administered!

Why should I?

Leaving them behind, I turned and walked out of the practice room. The still-fuming System kept throwing quest windows and reward offers at me, demanding I re-educate them — but if anything, I felt my blood cool from head to toe.

'Why the hell would I bother rehabilitating trash like that?'

The battle with Han Seongwoo was decided by individual score anyway. Chalk the team match up as a loss and just wreck the individual score. Honestly — these guys weren't like the No-Hope Trio. They didn't even have the scrap of desperation that would've had them at least trying something.

"Hey."

……

"You and me — let's cut a deal."

As I headed up to the roof with a smile, the System trembled and cried out. Brace yourself — however much cash is left in my balance, I'm blowing every last coin today.

---

"Huh? Where's Hajin?"

"Ah, hyung, where'd you disappear to?"

"Kang Hajin-hyung? Dunno. Off crying in the bathroom, maybe."

"Ah, fuck — you piece of shit."

Gong Seok — briefly out of the practice room to talk to his parents — came back to find Hajin still gone. And looking at the other trainees, who were putting off some strange vibe, he felt a hostility he couldn't quite explain. What's up with this atmosphere?

"Where's Hajin gone? Are we not practicing?"

"Just doing our own individual practice — we'll meet up at the shoot tomorrow to run through it."

"What?"

"That hyung's been a trainee for barely a minute and he's out here playing leader like it's a big deal — was gross to watch, so I said something. He sulked and walked out."

'Ugh — these guys, again.'

At the trash talk spilling out, Gong Seok's brow furrowed the tiniest bit. It had happened plenty of times before too. Ganging up on a trainee they didn't like and taking their inferiority out on him.

'Before Hajin, it was Eunchan….'

Truth was, before now, there'd been times he'd been mixed into that group himself — anxiety and mounting inferiority getting the better of him. Because it was comfortable in there. That gnawing feeling about himself, about a tomorrow he couldn't see — dumped on someone else in that group, it started to feel manageable.

But not anymore.

"You really don't know where Hajin went?"

"No idea. He walked out a bit ago…."

"Hyung, what's your deal today."

As if he was done with them, Gong Seok walked out of the practice room. The moment he was out the door, he pulled his phone out and left Hajin a message. (Actually calling was more than he could work up the nerve for.)

〈Hajin, where are you right now? I heard the kids were rude to you. Let's talk.〉

There was something he really needed to say to Hajin.

---

And back to it — at that same moment, Hajin was—

"Hand it over."

No way!

"Now you're really letting me down here, buddy?"

The System protests — the thug act should've been aimed at those punks earlier, not this direction!

"Thug? Come on. It's a deal. A deal."

He was cornering the System window (which had gone pale blue in horror), running his deal — a deal in the disguised-extortion-and-threats sense of the word.

"Come on, in web novels people are always dumping stats into looks and physique. Why can't you do that? Is this the kid I raised?"

X YOU ARE NOT MY FATHER X

"Hey, technically speaking, buddy — back then, right? I was like, ugh, I can't live like this anymore, and you came to me, right? That makes me your second parent and you the kid I birthed with my heart."

The System refuses to fall for the (Fixed) Regressor's off-topic bullshit.

Not working. Tch.