Chapter 85

Whether Kang Hajin's fans were fretting themselves sick or not, the broadcast rolled on.

—…what is this?

—Wait, they're telling us to escape Miro!

—But is 'escape' really the right word? If we escape, that's… that's resignation.

- resignation jokeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - resignㅋㅋㅋㅋationㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - ah why is the way ju eunchan talks so funny when he doesn't look the part > we should've seen it coming from earlier when he and dan haru were trying to rip a wall off... - so-chun putting seo cherry through all the ups and downs of life should have prepared him but of course his debut survival is on hard-mode and him zoning out is fucking hilariousㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The trainees' near-fainting reactions on encountering the mega-sized maze set were a delight.

The trainees had to make their way through the winding maze, and now and then perform missions or solve puzzles.

But this wasn't a mystery-solving variety show, so the broadcast focused less on the puzzles themselves and more on how the trainees went about tackling them.

〈Miro Maze — Current Status〉

(Video of Jung Siwoo working through a complicated equation in his head and cracking a lock)

(Video of Park Jaeyoung and Gong Seok performing a scene mission — a romance-drama iconic-line roleplay)

- idol survival, 20+ min into the broadcast, no stages yet, and the trainees are stuck forcibly escaping a maze (Not the agency Yes the Maze)ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - for real? - just what the hell is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - earlier jayden singing one line of a pop song for a mission was literally the only "performance" i wondering if this is right > and even that's jayden the rapper...meanwhile the rapper actually rapping is something we haven't heard handle: @2uuu_gunn2 name: Reason for Yugeon ha guys please watch ntv miro maze a 183cm hottie trapped in a giant maze a world where you don't get out unless you clear a girl-group relay dance and our yugeon-ie actually pulls it off [video] handle: @tae_day name: TaeDay what i expected what miro gave me for the record my type → this one [photo] [photo] title: [Mapl] hey guys i've got a question about MRMZ just in case, marking it as MP [photo] so i'm watching MRMZ rn but why does this guy have no airtime?ㅠ he shows up on camera but there's no interview and barely any lines... if there's a problem i'll delete right awayㅜㅜㅠ - (anon1) he withdrew - (anon2) wthdrw - (anon3) he withdrew a while back that's whyㅇㅇ > (op) ah oh thank youㅠㅜ he's my face type but he wasn't showing up and i couldn't figure out why...so will there also be no stages from him going forwardㅠㅠ? - (anon3) he'd already done a few evaluations before withdrawing so his stages might still make it in?? but airtime-wise probably don't expect much even without him there's still 17 and to give everyone screen time you know how it isㅇㅇ

"Honestly it's always the ones spouting off without even watching that are the biggest problem."

Older sister — a.k.a. Assistant Manager Yun, of Rene's New Talent Development team, and Kang Hajin's #1 fan.

Watching Miro Maze at her apartment with her sister over spicy chicken feet, she closed her phone — feeling a mix of anxiety and quiet satisfaction at how well the reactions were shaping up.

"What?"

"There were people going off saying Hajin got pushed into the spotlight because he's a production pick."

"Oh. But he was on a bit earlier and now he's barely on, isn't he?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Earlier Hajin was on because he was the one making the moment work, and right now the other kids are making the moment work, so the other kids are on."

"Though I didn't really feel like Hajin had that much airtime earlier either. The impact was just huge."

The younger sister, thanks to her own one-pick Lee Doha getting paired up with Kang Hajin and delivering some fun character chemistry, had grown even more generous in her assessment of Hajin.

Showing the kid who's doing well — isn't that the whole point? It's variety!

"Watch — now they'll spin it as 'if only Hajin keeps showing up it'd be too obvious, so they're showing the other kids.' A hundred percent."

"Seriously, those types always say the exact same thing. I wish they'd at least get their story straight."

"They've already decided Hajin's a PD pick and they're just cramming everything to fit. It's a mental disorder, I'm serious."

Older sister let out a snort at the ridiculous trolls and dunked a bite-sized rice ball deep into the red broth.

Ever since the trainees entered the maze, Hajin's airtime had been all but nonexistent.

After a quick scene of him going into the maze with Doha and linking up with Wonho, who'd been wandering around lost, there'd been nothing.

"But he really is barely on right now."

"They've got the slowest escape time — either they botched the mission or it was boring."

The broadcast periodically threw up a mini-map of the maze, laying out each trainee's current progress.

At the moment, first place was the Seo-Ju-Dan (Taehyun-Eunchan-Haru) alliance, second was Jung Siwoo going solo, and third was the multi-person coalition including Park Jaeyoung and Gong Seok.

The sisters' faves — captioned Kang-Lee-Kim-z (Hajin-Doha-Wonho) — had been holding steady in dead last for several minutes now, still closest to the entrance.

"Even if it's boring you could still show them…. Their faces are the best part, usually."

"Ah, but I did think the teaser ending guy might be Hajin — no? If you look at the outfit, that's Hajin, right?"

"They probably filmed it separately. Ah, maybe they'll release him in unaired footage. He really isn't showing up."

On screen, the Seo-Ju-Dan alliance had spotted the EXIT and, taking first place, was finally escaping the maze.

—First place!!!!!!!!! (Elementary-school-sports-day CG effect)

—……! (Blinded-by-competitive-drive expression that says 'we made it out but is this really right?')

—……. (Worn-out out-of-body CG effect)

"They're cute though."

"It's just so weird to me that Seo Taehyun's being called hyung. For me, Seo Taehyun was the single blossom of a cherry among a bunch of hulking hyungs — the maknae."

"'A single blossom of a cherry'? Cherries aren't flowers. If you were going 'a single blossom of' anything, you'd say rose."

"Unnie, you're a T, aren't you? Read the context."

"How do I read context when nothing's written down. You mean the vibe."

"Ha, seriously. I'll shut up because you bought me the chicken feet."

Not another word.

Shaking her head, the younger sister was reaching for a chicken foot with her chopsticks when, in the very next scene, she dropped it clean.

—Ah, second place. Damn.

—Doha-hyung, are you a monster? How did you clear that in one go?

—I used to do a lot of high-jump training.

—…why would you do that?

Because the next group to escape — the one that hadn't come out for a long stretch after first place — turned out to be Kang-Lee-Kim-z!

"What. They came in second?"

"They were dead last though??"

"Was that a fake-out edit?"

〈Kang-Lee-Kim-z who were clearly stuck near the entrance until just now...〉

〈How on earth did this happen!?〉

"Asking us doesn't help."

"Ah, so they solved it early and got pushed back in the edit. Aw."

The screen rewound quickly.

Cuts came on of the three of them fighting through a difficult problem.

Here, the production side made one very clear move to head off any possible suspicion of tampering or edit shenanigans.

"No, they really were dead last, huh?"

"They were. Jung Siwoo cleared that one way earlier."

They fast-forwarded the ceiling-mounted aerial view straight through!

The three of them really had stayed put in the same spot for a solid stretch. With the other trainees' movements visible around them, there was no room for doubt.

And then, finally, the big scene aired.

—Whoa, hyung!

Kang Hajin, having done a quick warm-up, vaulted a wall clean in one go!

The angle from the teaser came back with a slow-motion effect for a cinematic beat, and the same moment was played up two more times from different angles.

—Our goal: bust through the maze in five minutes. How? By hopping fences.

—Sometimes this hyung scares me. (Wonho's awestruck expression)

—Sometimes? (CG overlay of Doha's face with Hajin's earlier motor-mouth flashing over it)

From there, the three tore through the course.

They didn't just hop fences. They used the high vantage to map out the escape route, and were even meticulous enough to track the other trainees' positions and avoid crossing paths with them!

—Ah, s-sunbaenim. Spot A2. Um… a trainee is climbing over a wall ㅠㅠ (Sweat-pouring CG)

The production even threw in the audio of a flustered assistant director radioing the main PD. The camera operator's rattled voice and the shaking angle made it feel that much more real.

〈1,000,000% Real Situation〉

〈Not-a-Little-Rattled Network Bastards Hold Emergency Meeting〉

—Wait, but is this okay? Isn't this cheating? Doesn't it disqualify them?

—But we didn't tell them how to escape, did we? We just said escape.

—!!!!!

—Hold on, Writer. Our mission — what exactly did we say?

—"Each of you, choose your own path and escape the maze within the time limit," that's what we said.

—So we did give them a directive — this should count as disqualification, shouldn't it….

The production side got well into the weeds of the debate. They clearly had one eye on the fairness angle, if this were to blow up.

But the debate, which looked like it was heading straight for disqualification, got flipped in the very next scene.

—……? Siwoo-ssi, why are you coming out of THERE…?

Another rule-breaker had appeared!

—Ah, rereading it, nowhere does it say we have to escape through the maze.

—T-the, the choice you were supposed to make, and escape….

—Yes. So I 'chose' to look for a shortcut.

Jung Siwoo — who'd been out in front — had discovered a hidden staff passageway and taken third place out of the maze!

—H-how in the world did you find….

—I saw the camera director going back and forth to change batteries.

—Ah….

In the end it wrapped up cleanly as a defeat for the production, thoroughly outmaneuvered, and the final maze-escape rankings went up on screen.

The moment they clocked what had happened, the sisters set their chopsticks down in perfect sync and grabbed their phones.

- yo trainees these days are scary - god im laughing so hard im cryingㅜㅠㅜ hihihiㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - when i watch this kind of stuff the best part is always the production getting owned - all those trolls doggedly insisting it was image cuts, where'd they all go > they went to bed too embarrassed to face anyoneㅜ handle: @ice_ciu name: Jung Sicream a guy who looks like he doesn't know the c in cheating honor-student class-president visuals getting the production to throw in the towel can pull a cheat code like this? jung siwoo too??? [photo] engagement: shares 208 · hearts 387 title: [ah but am i being sensitive?ㅜㅠ] subject miro maze somehow it feels like only the kids who did the mission fair and square got shafted...ㅜㅠ - yeah you're being sensitive - cautiously but i22...shouldn't the production have stepped in and disqualified thatㅠ what did the kids who did the missions properly get out of itsigh... title: [omg Kang-Lee-Kim-z gifs are up alreadyㄷㄷ] handle: @ov__rv name: over the river [photo] [photo] - ㅁㅊ followed on the spot - is this maybe someone's gif account? > kim wonho & kang hajin twin acc i think

In some corners voices went up about 'the injustice of winning through cheating and rule-bending,' but those got quieted down soon enough too.

- but the other kids were all trading answers with each other though?

Because it also came out that the other trainees, too, had been quietly swapping mission favors and cheating on answers behind the production's back.

The production edited every scene meticulously to fit the frame of 'clever trainees who owned the network bastards.'

- ah please, just watch variety as variety guys... - miro maze is fucking funny though? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ they know how to make a broadcastㅋㅋㅋㅋ - so in the end every team except first used cheating and rule-bending — true heirs of miro, unfair fair and square > i have no idea what you just said but somehow i get it

The thread list refreshed in real time. Miro Maze's buzz had officially broken out.

Dig around a little deeper and there'd probably be some quieter negative reactions too, but the sisters chose not to spoil their good mood by going looking.

Sometimes not knowing is more fun, anyway.

Buzz—,

A KakaoTalk notification popped up at the top of the older sister's screen as she was scrolling. As she read it, her cheekbones climbed higher and higher toward the ceiling.

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ (Miro Maze Kang Hajin screencap)〉

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ wow〉

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ this is that #71 kid right?〉

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ Jae-hee-ssi's eye for talentㄷㄷ〉

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ i can't tease you about it anymore〉

〈Kim Hyun Sunbaenim ‖ gonna show this to the new renez kids for motivationㅋㅋ〉

Kim Hyun was a work senior who, every so often, would tease her — 'you still can't get over #71?' She barely restrained the fingers that wanted to unleash a whole rant and typed back the most measured reply she could manage.

〈omg i haven't watched it yetㅋㅋㅋ he was seriously so good it's such a shame ㅠ〉

〈i'm going into new renez training tomorrow so i might show it to the kids thenㅎㅎ〉

Jae-hee felt the thrill of it — the monolid-appreciation gospel she'd been preaching since her first day at the company, finally getting its moment. And at the same time, she remembered her 'actual real babies' — New Renez, deep in debut prep.

'Ah. So the two of them will debut around the same time….'

She could see the future clearly — caught in the middle, taking hits from both sides, between the baby she'd claimed in her heart and the babies she was actually being paid to raise. Yun Jae-hee thought—

'…should I quit?'

Yeah. Quitting really was the answer.