"Hyung, Danwoo really is working hard."
"It's Seez Label, you know. Of course he's desperate."
"Why, what about Seez Label?"
At Aiden's question, Cheon Serim, who was lounging back against the bed with a cup in one hand while brushing her teeth, flicked her eyes toward the camera. She looked like she was wondering for a moment whether what she was about to say would make it into the broadcast or not.
"…I don't know the details, but I heard Seez Label isn't planning to put together a debut lineup for a while now~."
Cheon Serim left it at something vague like that and shut her mouth, but I could immediately pick up on what she really meant.
'Just as I thought, this is probably Joo Danwoo's last chance.'
In the future I'd come from, I'd never seen an idol called Joo Danwoo. I had seen an idol group from Seez Label, though.
Right after aired, Seez Label had debuted a boy group. They had a rough image that leaned hard into the agency's brand—full of heavy-sounding, hard-hitting rappers.
Their lyrics were overtly rebellious and almost in a diss-rap style, which wasn't at all what the public currently wanted out of idol groups, so as far as I remembered, their debut song had sunk without a trace.
'Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that group included a trainee from too.'
But Joo Danwoo wasn't in it.
On top of that, it didn't take long for the "free-spirited" concept they flaunted to twist into outright trouble.
'…One of the members got caught doing weed at a club.'
Starting with that guy, it came out that the whole group had been doing marijuana and then even harder drugs, and were involved in distributing them.
Naturally, the idol group Seez Label had put out was ruined, and for a long while afterward, I remembered every Seez Label artist carrying that junkie image around. That druggy image hadn't been shaken off even by the time I died.
'Joo Danwoo probably got kicked out of Seez Label after , or left on his own.'
Judging from his vibe, the way he talked, and how he looked, he didn't seem like the type who belonged at Seez Label. He didn't look particularly close with the other Seez Label trainees who were on with him, either.
Most likely, Joo Danwoo had been sent out as a trainee meant to highlight the already-decided debut lineup—basically, a disposable piece. Which meant he himself probably knew this was his last chance.
As proof, one Seez Label trainee whose rap fit the strong concept perfectly was in Class B, while Joo Danwoo was down here in Class D. The level-evaluation stage had obviously been put together to showcase that trainee from the start.
"..."
So after being used to the fullest, he gets eliminated from and then gets dropped by the agency?
I stared blankly at the low-frequency massager cradled in my arms, then finally let out a sigh. Then I tore open the fatigue recovery drink Joo Danwoo had brought and downed it.
"Hyung."
I went back to the practice room around dawn. With just a single flashlight on, Joo Danwoo was practicing alone.
"...! Yuha, you're not resting?"
"I did rest. I just came from resting."
refused to guarantee the rights of minors in the weird places where it actually mattered, yet tried to act like it was protecting their basic rights in other areas. Sleep, for example.
Since a lot of idol trainees were minors, all the lights in the dorms and practice rooms had to be turned off at ten p.m. Exhausted from practicing every day, most trainees would collapse into bed without complaint and be asleep shortly after ten.
Of course, there were always the over-eager ones who would sneak into dark rooms, stair landings, or practice rooms to practice in secret.
If Joo Danwoo belonged to the latter group, he never seemed inclined to stay in the dorm. I usually wouldn't know because I'd be knocked out myself from depleted stamina, but judging from what Cheon Serim and Aiden Lee said, he only crawled in when dawn was already breaking.
"Hyung, can you do the point choreography for the chorus one more time? The move where you frame your eyes with your arm."
"L-like… this?"
"Your feet are in the wrong place. And your waist is way too stiff. Also, your center of gravity keeps shifting every time you step… that makes the whole dance look unstable. One more time… yeah, try it like this."
I set down the flashlight I'd brought next to Joo Danwoo and slowly went through the point moves one by one again. His expression was awkward, but he watched my movements closely and copied them pretty well.
Watching him, I could tell he'd been feeling even more frustrated than I'd thought.
'He could've just asked.'
Even after seeing me teaching the other D-class trainees the choreography one by one, Joo Danwoo never came up to ask me anything.
From the way he kept practicing so hard, it didn't look like he'd given up like some of the others. I'd just assumed it was because he was shy, or because he'd decided to figure it out on his own.
But when he brought me that recovery drink and low-frequency massager today, I became certain.
That idiot had been deliberately keeping his distance so he wouldn't overwork me.
'…What an idiot.'
I let out a small sigh as I watched Joo Danwoo, flustered yet earnestly following the corrections I pointed out.
He was getting squeezed dry teaching vocals to the other D-class trainees himself, so why was he stubbornly holding out without using the perfectly good dance leader standing right here?
In the end, this was a competition; no matter what shape someone else's body was in, you could just use them. Everyone here was like that.
'Guys like him are going to get taken advantage of the second they debut in the industry.'
A life on a bed of thorns if he debuted, and a life on a bed of thorns if he didn't.
The reason I'd given up sleep to come to the practice room at this hour wasn't because I pitied him, or because I'd suddenly grown a conscience and wanted to help the hardworking kid.
If his life was going to be nothing but giving and never being repaid anyway, then at least I wanted to give him some proper payback.
'…And I did get help with vocals too.'
My stats had gone up, so things were easier than before, but I still lacked finesse when it came to expressing the finer details of the song, and I'd gotten help from Joo Danwoo there.
On top of that, he'd gone around all the classes borrowing massage devices for everyone during his own practice time, and even given up his own food.
I wasn't shameless enough to leech off a pushover like that and then just wipe my mouth clean as if nothing had happened.
"Yeah, like that. And next is..."
"What the? You guys doing a study group or something?"
"...? Huh? What?"
I was about to teach him the next move when the flashlight beam held by the people who had opened the door hit my eyes, making me squint.
"Yuha-hyung is teaching Danwoo-hyung?"
"Dance?"
The ones who entered were Aiden Lee and Cheon Serim. Looking baffled, Joo Danwoo stared at the two who had suddenly barged into the D-class practice room.
"How did you guys…?"
"Yuha went out, so I woke up too. I've got sharp hearing at night. But what are you doing? Night self-study?"
How does a kid from England even know the word night self-study?
Whether I looked dumbfounded or not, Cheon Serim grinned as he set the flashlight he was holding down onto the floor.
"Iden-hyung said we should go look for Yuha. And, well, it's obvious where he'd be. The D-class practice room."
"You guys practicing? Are you doing vocals too?"
"No, just the choreo for 'Look' for now—"
"Hm, dance practice? Hyung, are you weak at dancing? I heard you're good at singing. Mina-seonsaengnim praised you."
"Ah, yeah. But how did you—"
"Rumors spread fast among trainees. I bet all the other trainees know too."
"Yuha, if you're gonna practice singing too, I wanna join."
"Ah, hyung, you said you're weak at dancing, right? Then I'll help you with dance, so you help me with singing, okay?"
The moment Aiden Lee and Cheon Serim barged in, filling the room with noise, I felt my face twist in exasperation before I even realized it. As expected, group living wasn't going to stay peaceful for long.
"...."
"Yuha, careful."
"…Huh? Oh. Thanks."
My head, which had toppled forward from exhaustion, was caught by Aiden Lee. I struggled to clear my blurry vision and looked forward again.
The food on my tray wasn't even registering properly—my eyes kept drifting in and out of focus.
'…I'm dying of sleepiness.'
I rubbed my eyes and lifted my spoon again. Ever since I came here, I'd always been hungry, but honestly? Right now, sleep was more urgent than food.
'I didn't mean to work that hard.'
I had ended up staying awake all night.
Originally, I'd only intended to correct the parts of Joo Danwoo's dance he was practicing wrong and then head straight back to the room, but once Aiden Lee and Cheon Serim had crashed the session, the practice dragged on.
Cheon Serim said he had some unstable spots in his vocals and suggested he and Danwoo teach each other dance and singing. Meanwhile, Aiden insisted he wanted to practice singing with me.
In the end, I got trapped in the practice room with those three, going over dance and vocals until the point where we no longer needed flashlights.
'…Not that it was a bad deal.'
Blinking slowly, I looked at my newly increased stats.
『Detailed Attributes』
Specialty (Singing): B+
Specialty (Dance): B-
Charm (Appearance): B+
Charm (Aura): B
Talent (Expressiveness): B-
Talent (Focus): C
Stamina (Physical): D
Stamina (Mental): D-
'There's a reason they're A-rank.'
While practicing "Look" with Aiden Lee and Cheon Serim, I'd gained my own meaningful results.
Thanks to Danwoo and Aiden's advice on vocals, and Serim's help with dance, I was able to grasp "Look" in a way completely different from how I practiced alone. As a result, my expressiveness stat had gone up by one.
And because of the Jumping Growth Ticket, my dance stat, which had been rising quickly, jumped to B-rank after the dawn practice. It was still just barely on the threshold of B, but the difference between C and B was huge. My body already moved differently.
'Yeah, that was worth it.'
It had been a profitable deal, and I was satisfied mentally.
But physically, with my stamina already depleted, I was yawning nonstop and shoveling food into my mouth only out of obligation, when—
"Yuha!"
Someone tapped my shoulder, and I looked back with half-closed eyes. It was another trainee from D-class.
"The staff was looking for you. You're up next."
"…Next? For what?"
"The phone call."
I blinked blankly, trying to understand what he meant—and then it hit me.
The must-have scene in every survival show:the moment when they film the phone call with family.