Chapter 95

Grab The Regressor By The Collar And Debut! — raeinovels.com · All chapters

Chapter 95

Never in my wildest. Wildest what?

"Ju Eunchan's original position was vocals?"

"Yep."

Dan Haru, a heaping spoonful of ice cream from the tub in his mouth, nodded and nodded.

Rocked by a second wave of shock, I first pressed a wet wipe into his hand — a hint to wipe the ice cream off his lips.

'At this point the galaxy really is trolling me full-tilt.'

Fortunately, right around the time Thirteen went off on his trip, one small comfort held — I could still pull up the data on anyone I'd already scanned with the 〈Dragon's Eye〉 skill. That was the whole point of the update.

'The data isn't perfect, of course…. But good enough to use as reference.'

Kim Wonho's stats hadn't updated since I'd scanned him at the last month-end evaluation (another shock, learning it wasn't auto-update), so his data was still stuck in the percentage format. Jung Siwoo, my new teammate this round, had no data on file at all.

'Thank god I ran a preemptive scan on Ju Eunchan back when I was recruiting him as a Comrade.'

Hajin sat down beside Dan Haru, dropped his head onto the table, and pulled up Eunchan's status window.

label: Ju Eunchan (Miro) Vocals: B+ Rap: B Dance: B+ Expression: B+ Charm: A+ Special: ※stat has not yet manifested※ Appeal Points: — 'On My Own' — Self-conviction, decisiveness, performance precision

Coming off status windows loaded with S's and A's, you'd ask what's with all the B's?

But this stat sheet was absolutely not one to take lightly. Convert it back to the old percentage format, and….

label: Ju Eunchan (Miro) Vocals: 43% Rap: 84% Dance: 41% Expression: 64% Charm: 35% Special: ※stat has not yet manifested※ Appeal Points: — 'On My Own' — Self-conviction, decisiveness, performance precision (70%)

'Which points to one conclusion — this kid has terrifying room left to grow.'

Even now he was already carrying his weight, but outside of rap and expression, most of his percentages didn't even clear 50%.

Something I'd figured out during the boost-camp-from-hell for the month-end evaluation: these percentages seemed to be calculated on a per-person basis, with different reference values for each. Maybe because it composited a range of criteria — the person's talent, growth potential, effort, all of it.

'Growth speed and value both varied depending on the individual's state.'

Take this, for example.

Kim Wonho — once the middle child of the No-Hope Trio, now grown pretty dependable — currently looked like this:

label: Kim Wonho (Miro) Vocals: 89% (Rap 34%) Dance: 65% Expression: 93% Special: Choreo Creation (92%) Appeal Points: — 'A TO Z' — Fast learner

Compared to before the month-end evaluation, his dance only went up 3%, and expression a mere 1%. But the 'Choreo Creation' special had jumped a whole 6%.

For context, Kim Wonho hadn't even known he was good at choreo creation until the month-end. He'd asked me over and over if I was really going to take his choreo into the month-end.

'The percentage probably factors things like that in when it goes up….'

Anyway, this whole percentage concept clearly had to be thought through and used carefully. Low percentage didn't automatically mean unlocked potential; high percentage didn't automatically mean maxed out.

And the easiest example to grasp that with was sitting right there on Hajin's own team.

label: Lee Doha (Miro) Vocals: 17% (Rap 64%)

That was Lee Doha's vocal stat at the time of the month-end evaluation. It'd shifted a bit since, of course.

label: Lee Doha (Miro) Vocals: 37% (Rap 64%)

His vocals had jumped a full 20% in a few months! But his absolute rating?

label: Lee Doha (Miro) Vocals: F

Crank it to 100% and all you get is a tone-deaf guy who hits his pitches.

'How the hell is Lee Doha even doing rap, then?'

An impossible kid to figure out, honestly.

On top of that, his rap — sitting there at S — hadn't budged a single percent yet.

'So to use this skill properly, you have to look past the numbers and letters that look absolute… and pull together every element that goes into a person's talent and growth…. Ha, please. Don't. Why me, world.'

And on top of that, in the middle of all this there was one more guy giving me a headache.

"Haru-yah."

"Yep."

Beside me, Dan Haru was still nom-nom-ing his way through the ice cream Seo Taehyun had bought. I showed him my phone and asked:

〈Miro_dongsaeng_Lee_Yugeon ‖ concept ok〉

〈Miro_dongsaeng_Lee_Yugeon ‖ (iTube link)〉

"What the hell is Lee Yugeon thinking?"

Lee Yugeon had actually sent messages with his opinions.

Detailed ones, no less. He'd sent, separately by text (apparently he doesn't even have KakaoTalk on his phone — what is this kid doing), the basic concept and direction we'd nailed down in the meeting earlier, and you could tell he'd read through and properly understood everything we'd passed on.

"He ditched practice but also picked out a song list?"

"Huh, Yugeon-hyung did?"

"Yeah. And we ended up going with one of the songs he sent. Wild, right?"

The material Lee Yugeon sent, from references to song picks, was airtight. For performance reference he'd even pulled up all sorts of overseas dance-crew videos.

Ever since he'd danced through ten girl-group songs back to back with a straight face, I'd figured this kid was no ordinary flavor of crazy….

"Then that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"That'd probably be better for my mental health, wouldn't it?"

"Yes!"

"Right. Grow up bright."

I stroked Dan Haru's head — he was swinging his legs and grinning brightly like he hadn't a care in the world. He'd apparently followed Seo Taehyun and gotten a perm; his curly hair had the same psychological effect as petting a puppy.

Sitting still under my hand, Dan Haru turned his face back to the ice-cream tub and said,

"Ah, I'm just trying to take it lightly."

"Huh?"

"My grandma used to say. When you're so scared from thinking too much, that's when you just stop thinking."

Dan Haru's round, sparkling eyes crinkled prettily.

"I've been so scared lately. Scared I might not get to debut with you hyungs."

"…is that so?"

"Yeah. But if I keep thinking through this thing and that thing, it just gets too scary. So I decided to stop thinking!"

Bravely, he shoveled another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. I'd thought he was just uncomplicatedly cheerful, but the little guy apparently had his own share of worries tucked away in that head.

'…I know something like that feeling.'

Lee Doha and Ji Suho hit me with hard truths and I'm past it now, but still.

Stroking the head of Dan Haru — who was demolishing half the tub of ice cream at terrifying speed — I said in a level voice,

"Haru-yah."

"Yep."

"By the way, that ice cream's Seo Taehyun's."

"……"

"He's on a diet, so he tracked down zero-sugar on purpose to have just one bite at a time, I heard."

At that, Dan Haru dropped his spoon with a small clink and looked at me as if asking whether that was really true. I nodded benevolently — yes, it's true.

"I wasn't going to tell you, but you said something so touching, so I'm giving you a heads up in advance."

"I'm not going to end up with no parts on this stage, right…?"

Dan Haru — who'd picked Room 2 with Seo Taehyun — went wide-eyed and trembling. Cute little guy.

"He said he bought it at some convenience store, so track one down and replace it."

Kindly slipping him a pro tip for the perfect cover-up, I got up from my seat.

Right — no amount of sitting here agonizing was going to change anything.

'Since when did I ever work by agonizing this delicately?'

Whatever it is, solve it first — and if it blows up in your face, agonize then!

Blue Flare minus Yugeon reconvened.

At a late hour, they gathered in the trainee lounge and each staked out a comfortable chair. Because tonight's meeting didn't look like it was going to wrap up easily.

"Alright, Blue Flare second meeting commencing."

"Trainee Kim Wonho. Today's agenda?"

"Trainee Eunchan… no, trainee Ju Eunchan's position — what is truly the right one!"

Since the self-cams were rolling, some for-broadcast overacting was in the mix. Of course, if this went on-air it'd kick off another wave of where's Lee Yugeon uproar….

'I'll paper that over with the whole he-sent-a-text thing!'

Given that the team had shaped up this way, any hope of coasting through on smooth narrative was already gone. To neutralize the incoming discord rumors and the Lee-Yugeon-attitude controversy, we had to somehow make legend of this stage.

Having thought that far, Hajin looked at Eunchan and granted him the floor.

"First up, trainee Ju Eunchan. Please state your case."

"……"

As if standing trial, Eunchan — sitting across from Hajin — pulled out the words he'd prepared.

Summarized:

—Up to now, teams had never had many people who could rap, and he'd gotten stuck with rap parts because there was no other choice. Being repeatedly assigned rap parts when he wasn't even a rap-position member was too much pressure, and he wanted to show the Destis him singing too. Since Doha-hyung was on this team, he wanted to do vocals — his original position.

"Okay. Trainee Lee Doha. State your position."

Turn passed to Doha. Wonho, on today's meeting camera duty, whipped the self-cam over to Doha.

—I don't rate Eunchan's vocal ability badly either. (Detailed feedback here ran five minutes.) …so I don't mind Eunchan taking a vocal part… (omitted) …but for the song we picked, one person doing rap alone is… (omitted) …so even if it's not Eunchan, we need at least one more rap part!

Lee Doha's logical (if slightly long) counterargument continued. Eunchan agreed that, given the character of the song, Doha handling rap alone would be tough. But it still seemed like he didn't want to end up strong-armed into the rap part.

Around then, Hajin raised his hand.

"Trainee Kang Hajin, taking the floor. What if I just do it?"

Hajin's absolute-value rap stat was A-. He'd never shown it on stage yet, but they'd gone around doing rap earlier as a skill check, so the team knew where he stood.

"Denied."

"Why?"

But that suggestion got shot down by main vocal Jung Siwoo, who raised his hand right after.

"You bow out and I sing alone?"

"Hmm…."

Siwoo had been the one who — solely to shore up the team's weaker vocals — had waited on Hajin at the cost of taking Yugeon. Unless Eunchan suddenly hit vocal enlightenment overnight, a Hajin-swap was a nonstarter, per Siwoo.

"Hmm. Then me?"

The next hand up was Wonho's. His rap was on the weaker end compared to the rest of the team, but on pure objective ability, it wasn't unlistenable.

Siwoo's and Hajin's expressions were just starting to brighten when Doha raised his hand this time.

"I'm against it. First, Wonho's voice is low, so his tone overlaps with mine. And when he's dancing and singing live, his breath still gets crushed — if he took rap, that weakness would stand out more. Sorry, Wonho, no shade intended."

Wonho had, in fact, gotten a similar read from Sarin during the 〈Cinderella〉 stage. Fine while dancing, but the moment he had to sing, he kept shrinking in on himself.

If he took a rap part — where lyric delivery is life — that flaw would only become more nakedly visible. That, too, was persuasive.

"Hmm…."

"What do we do…."

"……"

Watching the hyungs' faces cloud with worry, Eunchan felt himself instinctively shrink into his shoulders. He knew none of the teammates here were the kind of people who'd—

—Haa…. Eunchan-ah. Right now, over one thing you're stubborn about, how many people are you inconveniencing?

—Just give a little on your end, and it's fine. How can you always have everything the way you want it?

Just as Hajin had said — that it would take time before everything felt okay — the wounds left behind by Han Seongwoo and the other general-class hyungs still hadn't healed in Eunchan.

'No. I said I know these hyungs aren't like that.'

Even thinking it, every time he heard the hyungs' voices going back and forth, he couldn't help feeling himself shrink.

'…if I just give in. If I do that, will everything really be resolved?'

Finally, unable to hold back the anxiety piling up on him, Eunchan lifted his head. He was about to just say he'd take the rap part again.

"Um, I'll just—"

"Trainee Kang Hajin taking the floor. Trainee Ju Eunchan, speak after."

Hajin got his hand up a beat ahead of Eunchan. Missing his chance to speak, Eunchan's eyes met Hajin's across the table. Hajin was watching him with an unreadable expression.

So he was going to make me take the rap part after all?

But — just as the thought struck that Hajin, of all people, wouldn't do that—

"…let's just make him do it?"

Hajin pointed to someone.