Chapter 54

"Ah, yeah — this one really is mean, can't do it, writer-nim."

Han Seongwoo's face crumpled — a satisfying sight. Leaving the guy — who couldn't even keep his expression in check — hanging there, Hajin turned toward the voice calling for him from a distance.

"Whoops, they're calling for me. I'll head off first."

"Yes, yes. See you at the next recording, Hajin-ssi."

"Hyung, good work."

After a couple of hard pats on Seongwoo's stiff shoulder, Hajin walked off. The writer, watching him go with a fond expression, made a fuss.

"So you two are close! I had no idea. Why didn't you say anything in the interview!"

"…Ah, n-no. Just…"

The stiff, awkward smile Seongwoo gave the writer wouldn't come loose. A pressure and tension he wasn't used to had a grip on him and was slowly bearing down.

And—

'That son of a bitch.'

The one grinding his teeth with a hardened expression — the same went for Hajin, once he'd turned away.

---

'Han Seongwoo is the real parachute.'

The reason I'd come to think that wasn't just because that punk had beaten me.

'Him hazing Ju Eunchan had been off from the start.'

Han Seongwoo wasn't that dumb. Heard he'd been a trainee a long time, and at least with the B-class trainees, he'd earned enough trust to be called class rep. A guy like that, hating Ju Eunchan just because he'd been bumped from special class?

No — even if he hated him, he should've hidden it. If Ju Eunchan really had been the parachute, then to a trainee desperate to debut, the person who can decide whether you debut or not is basically a god.

'Look at Seo Taehyun.'

Even with the Director's behavior filthy and petty, Seo Taehyun — desperate to debut — hadn't been able to say a word.

'Well, since everyone here's a young punk, they probably went along with the Ju Eunchan bullying, believing the rumors without thinking.'

When I'd asked Ju Eunchan about Han Seongwoo, he'd answered like this:

—It's not like hyung did anything wrong to me, so it's hard to say.

—It's just that after I talk with him, I feel really frustrated. It's always my fault, my problem….

—Anyway, it's better not to get tangled up with that hyung if you can help it.

Malice heavy enough that even Ju Eunchan felt it — a kid so oblivious to interpersonal friction he wouldn't know he was being threatened while it was happening.

The calculation to hazing Ju Eunchan on one hand while, with the others, keeping up a saintly image of 'looking after the parachute fair and square.'

So at first, I'd figured he was just some personality disaster with a rotten streak.

"Kangha-hyung, interview done?"

"Yeah. Stepping out for a bit."

"What, where are you go— hyung!"

I thought back to the moment I'd become certain Han Seongwoo was the parachute.

Earlier — during my phone call with Seo Taehyun.

—As long as you didn't run. Get down here quick, apparently you're up as soon as this one wraps.

—Yeah, coming right now. Thanks.

—Ah, also… the way I saw it, you did way better than Han Seongwoo. Don't worry about the result.

—…? Ah. Well, thanks.

Seo Taehyun clearly had more of a grievance about my battle result than I did. Come to think of it, when I'd first named Han Seongwoo as my battle opponent, that punk had gotten all fired up saying I absolutely had to win. And then something started nagging at me.

—Taehyun-ah.

—What? Ah, hold on. Yes, writer-nim. Hajin-hyung says he's on his way right now!

—Why do you hate Han Seongwoo?

This was the Seo Taehyun who'd wrestled with whether he even needed to apologize to his mortal enemy Cha Minseok, because of some future possibility. He wasn't the type to show open malice even toward the Director — a man who'd disregarded him and talked down to him — but with Han Seongwoo, Seo Taehyun openly showed his dislike.

That was pretty rare, in his case.

Hearing my question, Seo Taehyun thought for a beat. From the sounds on the other end, he seemed to be moving somewhere with fewer people. And soon, when everything around him went quiet, Seo Taehyun answered.

—The one who told me about Cha Minseok — that was him.

—What?

—He was the one who told me. That the offer from Rene had originally come to me, and that Cha Minseok knew and sold me out to the Director.

—Han Seongwoo told you that?

—And when he did, hyung was smiling. We weren't even the kind to talk to each other, and he called me over specifically to say that, to my face.

Han Seongwoo knew about the exchange between the Director and Cha Minseok. Even that Rene's offer had originally been for Seo Taehyun. That was something the Director had contacted Rene about privately — even Ji Suho hadn't known.

'At this point, there's no way not to suspect it.'

The moment I stepped into an empty practice room, I called Ji Suho.

—Hello?

"Team Lead. Let's meet, briefly."

—Right now?

"Yes. It's urgent."

When Han Seongwoo picked those pointless power struggles with me, and when I found out Han Seongwoo was behind Shin Youngho's move to shut me out — even then, I'd thought Han Seongwoo was just some pathetic loser whose eyes had rolled back from the defeat and inferiority of being outshone by a parachute.

Desperate enough, you can go there. Desperate enough, you can make mistakes like that. Stick around this business long enough, it's a perfect setup for losing your mind. Up to that point, he was just an ugly little guy with a busted character.

But if he himself is the 'rumored parachute,' the whole picture changes.

—Still, this is really sudden….

"I'm pretty sure I've figured out the real parachute's identity."

—What?

"So I've got two options in front of me right now. One — carefully discuss this suspicious situation with Ji Suho, the team lead in charge of this program."

—……

"Two. Even if it costs me the show, I hit every online community out there with 'Miro's next survival is a rigged show with the winners already picked,' and I spread it far and wide. Pick one."

—On my way. Let's meet at the same cafe as last time.

Soon as I had Ji Suho's answer, I hung up and grabbed a cab. Every moment of the mission result announcement wouldn't leave my head.

The Team B guys, cheering over their first win. The Team A guys who'd pulled scores that made no sense. And in the end, Ju Eunchan, dropping out of Wings class on cumulative points.

"……"

If all of that had been rigged so Han Seongwoo could beat me.

"…Should I actually just kill him."

If that was really it — even if that punk turned out to be not the Selreg but the Selreg's granddaddy, I was planning to grab him by the collar and drag him down so he couldn't debut this life.

I meant it.

---

Ji Suho — soon to be promoted to Director — wore a somewhat stiff expression the whole time he listened to my explanation.

'Right after the result announcement, I'd dumped a manipulation issue on him — no wonder.'

On top of that, there wasn't anything decisive yet — just circumstantial — so from Ji Suho's position, he needed to be all the more careful.

'Any survival show, no matter how successful — one manipulation scandal and it's over.'

Actually, in my life-zero, several PDs had ended up buried over exactly this. And this was an in-house survival that hadn't even aired its first episode — manipulation here? Getting saddled with a manipulation-idol nickname before you've even debuted?

"Just to be safe — I'm not spouting nonsense because I lost to Han Seongwoo and got pissed."

"Ah, yes. I know. But… you'd hardly call Seongwoo a parachute — he came in as a trainee through auditions, and he'd been bumped from special class too."

"The one in charge of those auditions was the former Director, right?"

"……"

"And until Ju Eunchan got saddled with the parachute rumor, Seongwoo was always just barely squeaking into the special class."

"That's… true."

"Even so — this isn't hard evidence either. There's still a lot more to look into. Anyway, if it turns out to be true, we'd have to respond, so I'm bringing it to you."

As I shrugged and said it, Ji Suho — who'd been wetting his throat with coffee — let out a sigh and spoke.

"Then I'll… start by checking whether the results could have been manipulated at all."

"For the first mission, scoring factored in the mentor panel, Miro's New Talent Development team, and the production team — right?"

"Yes. Taeil would know the mentor panel scores, and I reviewed the New Talent Development ones. So if there's a hole… it'd be on the production side."

Hearing 'production side,' the first thing to auto-pop in my head was Voluntary-Resignation. Those two, rigging things for Han Seongwoo? The whole show? Sure, they were people who edited with vicious intensity for ratings and buzz — but from what I remembered of my past life, that kind of corruption was miles away from them.

'If anything, they were the type who overturned the games of go-stop everyone else was quietly rigging, and ended up starting their own outside production company.'

Hold on. Outside production company?

Something raced through my head. Felt like I was missing something painfully obvious.

"Team Lead, what channel did you say this was again? Where it's airing."

"Ah, Ntv."

This show was an outside production. The main PD was PD Kwon, but she belonged to the outside production company — so on the broadcaster's side, there had to be a PD attached with some title, whether CP or general director. And if it's Ntv…

"The PD in charge on Ntv's side — the CP, right? Who's the head?"

"Ah, one moment. …This person."

Ji Suho must have caught on to something too — he hurriedly pulled out his phone. He scanned urgently through his messenger for someone, stopped his finger on one spot, and showed me a profile picture.

And I knew who this person was.

"Oh my god."

"Seems like someone pretty high up. …You know him?"

"…I know him, yeah."

Because about five years from now, this is the guy who's going to lose his job over a manipulation scandal on a massive nationwide audition show.

"This guy is the CP?"

"Yes, actually…"

As if something had clicked, Ji Suho furrowed his brow and said:

"Originally, this Miro Maze wasn't planned to broadcast on TV. Scale was much smaller too. But he'd heard about it somewhere and came to us first, offering to slot it onto their channel — CP Yoon. Brought investment and sponsorship along with him too."

"No wonder. I'd been thinking, why is an in-house survival burning money like there's no tomorrow."

"Of course, we cut all the PPL that would have flipped the priorities. But the broadcast slot alone — that was an offer we absolutely couldn't afford to turn down, so we took it…"

Apparently thinking that had been the losing move, Ji Suho rubbed his forehead and let out a troubled sound.

I sorted the pieces in my head for a beat. The Notepad skill would be perfect right about now — really, this thing cannot time itself right. Chin propped on my hand, I threw out a line to Ji Suho, who was still wearing a serious expression.

"Then, let's leave it alone for now."

Situation's clear enough. Doesn't really matter.

---

A few days later.

"Alright, let's smile a bit more — big!"

A studio in the metropolitan area.

"No, um. Not that — uh…"

"……"

"O-of course! Of course it's good! It is! It's just — you look really tense right now, so — one more time!"

Here, they were shooting profile photos to be pre-released to viewers. One formal pose, one free personal-concept shot.

A simple shoot — you just had to come out as pretty as possible, with everything you had.

Hair neatly set and pinned in place, Seo Taehyun — watching someone else's shoot — asked, sounding genuinely curious:

"That hyung. How does he even pull off a stage?"

Kim Wonho, who'd already finished his own shoot and come out in his next outfit, chimed in.

"Whoa, what's this. This hyung's seriously unphotogenic."

"No, that's just him being bad at posing for photos."

"Ugh, come on, that's a bit much."

"I can hear all of that, kids."

And Kang Hajin — the 'that hyung' and 'this hyung' of the conversation above — standing in front of the photographer with the glaring lights on him, thought:

'Fuck. Feels like the parachute isn't the problem right now.'

Ran into an unexpected obstacle!