Chapter 49

While I was crushed by self-loathing and drowning in embarrassment, Ria offered a generous voice of consolation.

"I used to get those lyrics mixed up at events too."

"You actually got them wrong a lot, right?"

"Taeil-ssi, quiet. They're going to run reference footage. PD-nim, don't go looking. If that footage actually goes on air, I'll seriously cry."

Watching the two of them smoothly ride out the moment and set up the next edit point, pro idols really are pro idols. Anyway, at least the focus had slid off me — small mercy.

"I really enjoyed your singing. Wow, so good."

"Not at all, the song was just so good…. It's a little embarrassing, but it's an honor to sing it in front of you, sunbaenim."

"Uh-uh, Hajin, this isn't your character. What's this, image management?"

"…What?"

Ah, damn it. {Guess pulling over my army-days stamina dragged the speech patterns along with it.}(#z7cm2wyvpy20) Ptooey ptooey.

I was trying to wrap this up nice and warm as your standard rookie-trainee-meets-idol moment, but Seo Taeil wasn't helping me out here. What's with the sudden image-management routine? I looked at Seo Taeil with a dumbfounded face, and he actually propped his chin up and dug into me.

"When we met at the midpoint check, this wasn't your character?"

"Ah."

The hell was he going on about — oh, he meant last time, when I fired the joke back at him.

'Fail to counter this properly and I'm getting cut clean out.'

Variety shows are like that — botch the wrap and the whole moment, however good, gets tossed. Especially this — a side bit that wasn't even in the shoot outline to begin with. No way I was letting this get cut just because I grinned my way through it.

I swept my bangs back once, like there was no help for it, and locked eyes with Ria and Seo Taeil, running the greasiest look I could pull off. Ha, seriously.

"Bums you out, doesn't it — letting a talent like me slip past?"

"Aha ha! What!"

"What — Hajin, what concept is that?"

Landing well.

Enjoying the mentors cracking up over that, but a little heat crept up the back of my head from the embarrassment, so I dropped the expression fast and tidied my bangs again.

I shot Seo Taeil a glance that said 'happy now, you punk? Satisfied?' — and found him already banging on the desk, laughing.

"Ah, seriously, that's too funny."

"Alright, so now that we've all had a good laugh. Let's move on to the next topic."

"Yeah, um. Should we? Next question?"

Any longer and it'd overrun — the prompter must have flashed a signal to get on with the next thing. While everyone was still dazed from laughing, the vocal trainer, checking the prompter, picked up his mic.

"For Team B — I understand one member got sick and you had to redivide parts on short notice…. Am I right that trainee Hajin's taking on all of those parts?"

"Ah, yes."

"Honestly, that's a call that takes serious confidence."

Here it comes. Of course they'd ask, and since I'd been told to expect it by the writer before I came in, it didn't throw me. I thought about it for a beat, then looked over at the Team B guys standing next to me, who hadn't gotten a single word of mic time yet, and said,

"Honestly, the guys were really considerate."

"Considerate?"

At the unexpected answer, the mentors looked at us with curiosity. I put on a more startled face than the mentors — while making sure to shoot the Team B guys a get-with-the-program look, and slapped on my professional-social smile. Guys, you cannot be making that face right now.

"I… haven't been at the company long, and suddenly getting such good reviews, and then landing the leader role on top of that — honestly, it was a lot of pressure."

"Ahh."

"So when we first divided parts, the guys were really considerate. They took the high-impact parts off my hands and helped keep my load light… and then Jaeyoung suddenly got sick."

Around here, I paused a beat and steadied my breathing. Maybe because I knew Park Jaeyoung hadn't gotten sick for 'no reason.' For a second my stomach turned, and guilt over Jaeyoung tapped, ever so faintly, somewhere in my chest.

"…And since the guys were already handling much harder loads on their own parts and their positions, we talked it over and I decided to work harder and take on Jaeyoung's share too."

'All bullshit. Not that the real reason could go out even as behind-the-scenes footage.'

I couldn't exactly say 'these bastards dumped it on me,' could I? I patched over the answer with a tear-jerking tale about Team B's teamwork pulling us through a crisis, then shot another look at the guys still watching me with that 'this hyung tells lies without even wetting his lips' expression.

'Get with the program, you punks.'

Luckily a few of them roughly caught the message, nodding and quietly dropping the corners of their mouths.

"Suddenly having to rework choreo from a nine-member setup to eight must have been really tough. But you seem to have handled it calmly, which is a relief. Um… I'll be looking forward to today's stage."

"Alright — Team B, please get ready for your stage."

The stage call came down and the lights slowly shifted. The guys who'd been standing there watching my one-man show scrambled into their positions. Just before the lights fully cut, I turned to the guys — still looking stiff — and said,

"Guys."

"……"

"Let's do this."

The lights went out. Finally — time to show them our first Daylight.

---

Unlike Team A, whose concept had been white-and-denim, Team B's outfit concept was a mismatch look, black and red blended together. Wistful-crisp with black-and-red? Fairly deep approach. Maybe it started as a way to contrast against the other team, Ria thought, and turned to spinning her pen.

'Still, could've dressed them with a bit more unity.'

The split between the two teams was so strong it felt like watching two separate stages on one platform — a shame.

Then the intro — a piece you'd call a masterpiece no matter how many times you heard it — began.

Whhhiii—

'Huh?'

Over the crisp guitar riff, someone's whistle came in like a hum. The orchestra kicking off with the timpani. And the Feather-class pair choreo — an even number now, one short — moved in formation, precise as a waltz.

'A ball?'

And that outfit split from earlier, apparently intentional after all — each pair wore contrasting colors. And soon, Hajin, who'd been in his spot running the choreo with his partner, moved to center and began the song, gently.

Hi, it's me.

Unlike Team A's Seongwoo, who'd bounced a greeting at someone, Hajin's nuance was delicate. Ria didn't miss that subtle expression and locked her eyes on Hajin, her interest thoroughly hooked.

For such a long time, you and I

kept looking in different directions

"Huh?"

"Haha, these guys are fun again."

In an even-numbered formation, for someone to stand at center in balance, one person has to sacrifice. Someone has to stand directly behind the center member. And typically, in that setup, the member behind the center gets almost completely blocked out.

But right now, with Team B's stage, it was a little different.

"Hajin's doing it completely reversed, right? The choreo."

"Yes, yes. Wow, that has to be incredibly disorienting."

Kang Hajin, standing at center, was running the entire choreo in fully reversed direction — which produced the optical illusion that he was pairing with the trainee behind him, along with the ones around him. On the parts that would have looked like actual mistakes, Hajin swapped in gestures; on the parts where it lined up, he executed cleanly and pushed on.

Running the choreo in reverse on the fly was clearly no easy trick, but at least for Hajin it wasn't all that hard. Dragging those guys through practice, hauling them by the collar, meant he'd always had to face them and demo the moves in mirror.

Moonlight filling the sky

Pouring Starry Night

When the whole journey ends

At last we'll face our Highlight

"Team A's kids are strong, no question."

"But Team B's not bad either, really."

"Personally, those crisp matching angles — that's got real rookie fire, and I love it."

Unlike Team A, which had crushed a bit of dissonance under each member's overwhelming individual skill, Team B's strength was the unified feel of a fully agreed-upon single performance. Only now did Ria understand what those clearly split outfits had been for.

"Their read on the song's fun too. This whole thing is a movement of two people searching for each other, all the way through."

The 'you' and 'I' the lyrics kept talking about came through vividly on the stage. And how thoroughly they'd baked that read into the staging exploded during the chorus. Seok and Hajin, singing the chorus, actually started running the choreo in the middle of the stage, facing each other.

Another sun will rise, shining down on you and me

Let's take each other's hands so we don't lose the way

I'll walk with you so the night doesn't come

Never fallin' down (down down)

At the end of this maze-like world, all that's left is

Never Going back (back back)

Just the story of you and me

They'd worked the positions cleverly, swapping spots on each other's parts so the camera could catch clean one-shots. Since they'd ended up as an even number anyway, Hajin had gone full-send on a pair concept — but from where Ria sat, it looked like a stage from a team that had aimed for this concept from the very start.

"Is that the revised setup?"

"The positions and formations they revised just now. But that concept's been that way since the midpoint check. I told you, these guys are fun."

At Ria's startled question, Taeil only smirked and jerked his chin. They were just entering the dance break, and Hajin still didn't look tired.

"Trainee Kang Hajin's breath control's better than mine, actually?"

"Apparently he was a trainee at another company for a few years before. Guess he did kids' musicals for a long time when he was little too. And a choir."

"Wow — youth really is something."

Of course, that young man's astonishing breath control hadn't come from kids' musicals or choir. Truth was, it had been forged by Corporal Kang, back in the day running the parade ground until his lungs gave out, and PD Kang from a past life who'd hauled tapes up stairs like his life depended on it — but there was no way those two would know that.

The song was pushing toward the third verse. Taeil, watching Seok — not Hajin — peel off to the side for the ad-lib, went huh? and rechecked the part-lyric sheet.

〈Kang Hajin:

Hi, it's me

My joy that will shine brilliantly

So that another sun rising to light you never sets

So that another beat of wings guarding you reaches you

My Daylight that will light up your night〉

"…He reached for it."

Even after the dance break, Hajin — still nowhere near his limit — punched the third-verse chorus out with strong, grounded projection. At center, running the choreo while giving the song everything he had, Hajin tilted his head up slightly and winked at Doha — who, sure enough, was staring back with a startled face.

'Thanks for the hint, punk.'

Kang Hajin was, today, fully planning to run the whole thing himself.