Chapter 92

The truth was, Kang Hajin had gotten a lot of airtime in the troubled episode 2.

He'd basically hogged the whole thing solo.

handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D who's the bastard that made my baby wolf cry? [photo] engagement: shares 308 · quotes 22 · hearts 412 handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D guys apparently it's a sunbaenim disperse [video] engagement: shares 725 · quotes 167 · hearts 1,536 handle: @inging02 name: Ing-ya ???? this kid's kinda cutey ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋshould i just try a little taste handle: @IDOLOL name: Funny Celeb Clips man's never heard of surrender [video] handle: @rossy_1017 name: Rossy Day this has gotta be hajin-ie winking at doha right?? what what you guys are supposed to be on opposite teams… [photo] [photo] engagement: shares 73 · hearts 92

On top of those, self-flattering lines he'd dropped on purpose to play along with Seo Taeil, and moments of him giving pretty sharp assessments of the A-team's stage, were getting clipped and passed around in real time. Once the broadcast wrapped with the final result going to the B-team, the momentum only picked up harder.

The classic 'underdog uprising' — the exact thing survival-show geeks lose their minds over.

Clichés always landed.

title: [Today's insane-dopamine male idol survival] [photo] - eh but Kang Hajin lost the battle? who was his opponent > the kid dropped out so he's not on the broadcast - team battle looks like an A vs B taste thing but on individual battle doesn't Kang Hajin just win? just watched the perf vid - the dropped-out kid was on fire on the actual stage they say? how the hell did they beat that

The problem post went up right then, not missing a beat.

Right after the broadcast — while interest in Miro Maze and Kang Hajin was still at its hottest.

title: [But Miro's pushing KHJ, no??ㅋㅋㅋ] idk about anything else but this one you can't really deny… watching yesterday and seeing all the B-team kids being used as Kang Hajin's props was like whoa… the other B-team trainees' fans must be feeling honestly bummed

This wasn't the first post of its kind, but most had been dismissed as bait and faded on their own.

This time was different.

- honestly through ep 1 i was whatever…but watching ep 2 hmmm ㅋㅋㅋ… - it's basically an ad for making him leader tho, but agency survivals are all like that > right yeah didn't everyone already know? the debut lineup's set ㅎ - i'm fine with everything else but that last scene where he asks if Park Jaeyoung is okay felt kinda unnecessary??? like they really wanna protect his image

People had started leaving comments in agreement.

As those posts multiplied, people started spreading misinformation based purely on having seen them.

title: [omg guys is this real?? attn: Miro Maze] [photo] i just saw this and i'm so shocked…ㅠ did they really cut every other kid's parts to hand them to Kang Hajin??? - ya on the live broadcast Kang Hajin did all that but on the perf vid it was a different kid's part > yeah right if you didn't watch the show don't butt in on the TL - what bs is this now - the kid who had the part got sick and dropped right before recording so Hajin took it;;; stop spreading rumors > (op) so in the end Kang Hajin DID do it all?? there were plenty of other kids too omg… > out of the B-team kids Hajin was the most capable so the B-team kids asked him to do it first ㅠㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠplease stop with the unfair hate > ??? this is a bit…i'm the fan of another B-team trainee and this rubs me the wrong way ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Kang Hajin himself said the other kids gave him parts because his own were few, so why is it suddenly about skill ㅎ - guys it's obviously a trollpost pls just don't feed

Comments and replies stacked up one after another, and spinoff posts kept multiplying.

The board was heating up past the point where even the Destis ignoring the trolls couldn't ignore it.

Once he'd confirmed that several of the controversy posts had settled at the top of the board's popular list, Kang Hajin set his phone down and thought,

'It's boiling.'

Of this crowd, how many were actually catching the Miro Maze broadcast live and voting for the trainees — real fans?

'I'll bet Han Seongwoo's wrist it's under 20%.'

My own wrist's too valuable to bet.

'Well, sure, there might be some fans of other trainees who want to check me.'

Miro Maze wasn't some network-run random-agency death match — it was an in-house survival where all these kids were going to end up eating out of the same pot regardless.

It wasn't like debut came down to viewer voting alone — so why the teeth-clenched effort to hobble me?

"Well, I saw this much coming, so it doesn't matter."

Aggro over hogging airtime — I'd been prepared for that ever since I squeezed out tears in front of Seo Taeil.

It was part of why I'd deliberately let Han Seongwoo make off with some of my votes, too.

'Better I take a hit around this level — then they can't chew on me any harder.'

Dropping all the way down to Feather rank would be the icing on the cake, honestly. Since I'd taken first place in the second mission too, the edit I'd get was bound to be favorable as hell.

'Park Jaeyoung's fans seem a bit sore over me eating up all of his parts, though….'

That would die down fast enough once the second mission aired. I'd deliberately handed him parts by the fistful so he could go all out on what he hadn't gotten to do in the first mission.

'Second mission's more likely to focus on Seo Taehyun than me anyway.'

Once I'd calculated that far, my head felt at ease.

'Somebody's always gonna eat the hits early on. Way better it's me than the Selreg getting caught and triggering a regression.'

Thirteen — who I'd figured would be back soon — had still been AWOL since sports day.

Skills and the like seemed to be holding steady, but with no way to know if regression risk spiked suddenly, I'd need to stay careful for the time being.

In that light, the fact that Lee Yugeon — currently my top Selreg suspect — had just become chum for the trolls was a serious risk.

'That bastard's not seriously planning to just up and regress over this, is he?'

Thankfully, since everyone else at Ju Eunchan's place last time had been A-team guys, I'd gotten to hear the story from a variety of angles.

—Lee Yugeon's had that attitude from day one at the company. Siwoo-hyung didn't care until then, but when Yugeon carried it into a survival with debut on the line — that's when he got mad. He hates being a burden to other people.

That was Lee Doha's take — close with Jung Siwoo, having also worked with Lee Yugeon on the second mission.

—But I don't wanna say Lee Yugeon was totally slacking. He was the one who picked up the choreo fastest and taught it to us, and honestly, he helped me out a lot. His personality's just kinda light, I think.

That was Kim Wonho's assessment — thanks to all the help Lee Yugeon had given him from the battle through the second mission's song choice, he'd basically become a Lee Yugeon devotee.

—I've only been here a bit, so I don't really know!

—Right, keep eating your pizza.

Just Dan Haru.

—He never does weekend practice on his own, and I heard from Taehyun-hyung he's not taking private lessons lately either. But Siwoo-hyung was a little on edge back then too. Han Seongwoo-hyung kept whining about being anxious.

That was Ju Eunchan's take — the one who'd suffered like hell through A-team practice thanks to Han Seongwoo.

Either way, everyone agreed on one point: Lee Yugeon's usual attitude was unmotivated. And that he didn't seem to have any intention of debuting.

'For now, I'll operate on the assumption that Lee Yugeon is the Selreg.'

With the System in maintenance mode, Comrade recruitment and viewing past timelines both seemed to be off the table. So for right now, the focus went on not creating anything that would piss Lee Yugeon off enough — make him miserable enough — to want to regress.

"If I wanna keep him close and monitor him, doing the third mission together could work…."

Tomorrow was already the day the third mission and the new rankings were being announced.

To stop Lee Yugeon from doing anything sudden, the best move was to keep him right next to me and watch — but the problem was, this third mission was crucial for me too.

'〈To You I Declare〉 took first place, sure, but they weren't going to just let the fact that I set off alarms at the midway check slide.'

Once episodes 3 and 4 aired, the number of people wanting to tear into me would multiply. To shut those trolls up, I'd need to put out at least one stage no one could argue with.

'That would give my fans something to shield me with, too.'

At the very least, I wanted the people who were rooting for a trainee to be able to take pride in his skill.

Since there was a high chance I'd be leader again this time, I needed to put together a stage that was strong on both teamwork and quality if at all possible….

My train of thought landed right there, and my head started to ache.

"Ah, whatever. I'll think about it once tomorrow's results are in, after the results. No, hold on — do I really have to work this hard? Meanwhile the Selreg bastard's probably sitting comfy? Is this how it should be?"

When that Thirteen bastard comes back, I'm getting something out of him — this really isn't gonna fly.

"Mom, the world's hating on me for no reason…."

It was a night that made me miss Mom.

---

And the very next day. Kang Hajin was thinking:

'The whole universe is hating on me for no reason.'

There was no other way to explain this.

That Thirteen bastard had disappeared saying he was going to run system maintenance, and there was no doubt about it — he was cramming Hajin's own timeline full of misfortune. There was no other explanation for it.

'A plan? What's the point of making plans? Nothing goes according to plan.'

Hajin drove his belief bone-deep once again: with life, you just had to charge in and see.

Meanwhile, the AD — apparently done setting up the practice-room cameras — came over and called for attention in a loud voice.

"Alright~, we're just going to do a headcount real quick."

"Yes."

"Jung Siwoo, Kang Hajin, Lee Doha, Kim Wonho, Lee Yugeon… and Ju Eunchan. All six of you, right?"

"…yep."

"Great. We'll be rolling shortly. The PD will be here soon to do the script read, so please hold on for a moment."

Screwed.

'Good teamwork, badass stage — yeah, right. We'll be lucky if no one grabs anyone by the collar before we even get on stage!'

Couldn't get my hands on the Selreg's collar like I wanted, and yet everyone else kept giving me reasons to want to grab theirs.

If you were to ask what lunatic had put together a team like this — surprisingly, the responsibility fell on everyone.

Clutching his forehead, Hajin thought back to earlier — the mission-announcement recording.

—With Desti votes tallied through the first broadcast, here are the new Wings rankings.

‽

〜〚WINGS OF MIRO MAZE〛〜

Seo Taehyun · Jung Siwoo · Ju Eunchan

Dan Haru · Kim Wonho · Gong Seok · Jayden

‽

'That much I saw coming.'

Falling to the Feather rank was actually welcome news. I'd even given my Wings-rank badge to Kim Wonho — who'd probably climbed on the strength of the maze escape and his chemistry with Lee Yugeon — and congratulated him.

—Before we announce the third mission's theme, we'll be running team selection first.

—Three rooms have been prepared outside.

—You'll each, in turn, select and enter one of those three rooms.

—No one's selection will be shown to the others, and once a room fills to capacity, no one else may enter.

Up to here it hadn't been too bad. It was the kind of random-mixing setup you commonly saw.

The problem came right after.

—However — each room's capacity is set by the highest-ranked trainee in the room.

Yeah. That right there was what had created this godforsaken lineup.