Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 198 Copycat (1)
I returned to the dorm after finishing the dayâs schedule and found Yu-geon already in the room.
âDid you shower already?â
He had a towel around his neck and droplets of water on his hair tips, indicating he had just come out of the bathroom.
âYeah, todayâs practice ended a bit early.â
Even if it ended early, he couldnât have come back that soon since the schedule was fixed.
I asked him out of concern.
âDid you⊠have a fight or something during practice?â
He burst into laughter without hesitation when I asked him worriedly.
âWhat are you talking about? Why are you so concerned?â
Then he reached out his hand to pat my head, but no way. I was nineteen, but I wasnât going to let a twenty-something guy treat me like a kid.
âWow, look at your reaction speed. Am I dirty? Iâm hurt.â
He exclaimed in surprise as I quickly grabbed his hand and pushed it away from my head.
âIâm sorry. Someone doesnât like having their head touched.â
If he was actually older than me, I might have accepted it with a K-confucian mindset since I was young. frŃewebηovel.cŃłm
But I hated it. I backed away with a disgusted look and he laughed even more as if he found it amusing.
âFine, I wonât touch you. Thanks for worrying about me, but I can handle it myself, so donât stress too much.â
That âhandle it myselfâ was what worried me. In reality, Yu-geon had achieved his debut by choosing a self-aggrandizing strategy without any of my conditions.
But even if this wasnât reality, I couldnât help but care since he was always in front of me.
âI shouldnât be worrying about someone else right now.â
I had a mountain of worries on my own. He said he would handle it himself. I stretched and put the timer and tools I used for practice on the bed and headed to the communal shower.
âIf I can finish the rehearsal tomorrow well⊠Iâm almost done.â
It felt strange to realize that this bizarre dorm life was almost over.
No matter how adaptable humans are. It was weird to suddenly become a 24-year-old person and then a 19-year-old who was neither myself nor someone else.
And then I adapted and did what I could, which seemed to prove what was really me.
âMy biggest strength is probably perseverance.â
I try my best until I can coldly judge that it wonât work. If it doesnât work, I change the route and find what I can do and do it.
No matter where I was thrown, the secret to doing better than average was there.
âLetâs work hard until the end.â
With that thought, I finished a light shower and ran into a familiar face in the hallway.
âHey! Long time no see!â
It was Park Junki, a B-grade trainee who I hadnât had a chance to talk to properly since I met him at the audition.
âUh. Long time no see.â
He smirked as I greeted him with a lukewarm tone.
âHowâs your practice going? I heard the number of people there dropped a lot.â
I wasnât sure if he was trying to pry or just asking out of curiosity. I looked him in the eye and answered with a faint smile.
âWell⊠so-so?â
I didnât need to give him any information. I brushed him off and he widened his eyes as if he was surprised.
âReally? Well, thatâs a relief⊠Anyway, hang in there!â
He then disappeared with a group of B~C rank trainees who seemed to share the same room with him.
What a bland guy. I looked at his back and his colleaguesâ backs and suddenly felt a bad premonition. I summoned the status window.
âStatus window.â
As soon as the translucent window popped up, I called up the inner thoughts card confirmation window.
[Please select the target to check the inner thoughts card.]
[Remaining times 1]
I used two cards to check the attitudes of the B rank guys in the afternoon, and another two cards to update the A rank guys in the morning when I had breakfast, so I only had one left for today.
[>Park Junki]
[>Lee Cheon-hwan]
[>Yu Jae-sik]
[>Oh Du-yeon]
[>Jo In-hyuk]
Most of the trainees had inner thoughts cards floating above them, but fortunately there werenât many people in the hallway, so his name was right at the top.
I opened Park Junkiâs card without hesitation.
[>Park Junki]
[- Should I tell him this? But if I say something and it goes wrong, Iâll be the one to suffer⊠Actually, weâre not that close, so letâs just pretend I donât know.]
âWhat⊠What was he going to say but didnât?â
I was left with a nagging feeling as if I had opened a Pandoraâs box. It was too late to go and ask him what was going on.
In the end, I had to find out for myself.
âThere was nothing special in the other inner thoughts cards I checked todayâŠâ
When I came back from washing up, Hwijin was already there.
âYou guys finished early?â
Hwijinâs expression wasnât bad, which was surprising since I thought he would be struggling the most.
âYes, how about you, hyung? We still have some things to improve, but it seems like we have a rough idea.â
I added some information that I didnât even ask for, hoping that it wouldnât look like I was bragging, and Yu-geon seemed to catch on to my intention and spat out the water he was drinking.
âAh, gross.â
I teased him a bit on purpose and Yu-geon kept shaking his shoulders and coughing until he made an excuse.
âNo, I just heard a funny sound.â
âYou should clean that up, hyung.â
I shrugged and pointed at a tissue once, then looked back at Hwijin.
âUh⊠well, I think itâll be okay.â
He looked pretty calm, and it didnât seem like he was lying to reassure me.
âTheyâre all young and uncomfortable with me⊠But I guess theyâre grateful that I have some experience and they listen to my opinions well.â
It sounded like being assigned to a group of lower ranks without any high ranks was actually a blessing in disguise.
âWell, he did have some good planning skills when we did the Bobbyam mission last time.â
He was a jack of all trades, but how did he remain a pearl in the mud until he was twenty-seven? It was a mysteryâŠ
But then again, there was a climax at the beginning.
People would wonder why he couldnât make it when he had the money and the skills of each member to back him up.
But the truth is, many things are more influenced by luck than we think.
âItâs the same with business.â
As the saying goes, a pearl is made by piercing a hole in it. No matter how talented a singer or how great a song, you canât survive if you donât stand out.
In the red ocean where people who can sing well, dance well, and look good are saturated, itâs impossible to catch the eye unless you have luck on your side.
You either have to fit into the icon that the era wants, or ride the trend.
If you miss the 1% timing, even if youâre 99% perfect, youâll sink.
âMeeting the members who can highlight you the most and completing the mission smoothly is also luck.â
It was also my luck that I met the runaway members and got quite annoyed.
I started to worry about Park Junkiâs innermost card that came to my mind.
âWhat did he worry about? He didnât even tell me properly.â
While I was thinking for a moment, I noticed Yu-geon who had cleaned up the floor and asked him casually.
âIs there anything⊠thatâs bothering you these days?â
He pointed to the turned-off camera equipment with his chin and asked, and Yu-geon smiled mischievously.
âNobody talks to me anymore.â
ââŠâ
That made sense. I shook my head as if I couldnât help it and climbed up to my bed quietly.
âTomorrow will be busier because of the rehearsal, so go to sleep quickly.â
I turned off the light after wrapping up the conversation, but I couldnât sleep because it was earlier than usual.
Or when did I ever fall asleep right away? I tossed and turned quietly for a while and opened my eyes, and it was already morning.
âI can finally see how good the other teams are.â
Of course, I had seen the final stage roughly, but the members had changed a bit since then, so I couldnât rely on my vague memory.
âI have to try anyway.â
I have to do well. I stepped on the iron ladder with a firm determination.
The rehearsal order of the DIY B team I belonged to was 12th. Considering that there were 14 teams in total, it was a pretty late rank.
âWill it be the same order for the recording tomorrow?â
I asked the production staff nearby, but they said they couldnât confirm the recording order for tomorrow because it would be decided on the day.
In the end, all we could do was sit quietly and watch the rehearsals of the other teams in the small waiting room.
âThe teams that finished early went straight to the practice room.â
It seemed that the teams that included Shim Naru and other trainees who were likely to debut were mostly assigned to the front ranks.
âI was also⊠favored by the choreographer⊠didnât I get a lot of talk?â
They couldnât cover the order for me.
âItâs a shame, but thereâs nothing I can do.â
As soon as I sat down with the other three members in the seats that were arranged like an auditorium, the rehearsal began.
âHmmâŠâ
Overall, they were stages that matched the level of the trainees.
To put it coldly, I could see why they didnât debut, or to put it warmly, they had a lot of room for improvement.
As I looked up at the stage without much expectation, there were also some trainees who had outstanding skills among the many poor ones.
Updatđźd from freewÄbnoveâ.com.
âIf I had to pick someone who has the skills to debut here, thereâs only one person on the far left.â
The ones who were chosen by the national managers were separate.