Chapter 38: The Miracle Idols’ Stage

“Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2’s 1st contest is a cover song mission, covering famous songs by boy groups that represent K-pop.

After each performance, you, the audience, can participate in voting using the remote controls you’ve been given.

Please vote only for the teams you think did well.”

As Son Chae-i explained, the small remote controls in the audience’s hands were shown in close-up, filling the screen.

Some people pressed the buttons to test them out.

“Depending on your voting results, an incredible benefit will be given to all members of the first-place team, so please vote carefully.”

At the mention of a benefit, the audience stirred, but the atmosphere in the waiting room was surprisingly calm.

It was because there was a strong candidate for first place.

“Congratulations in advance, Ji-heon hyung.”

And that was exactly their team.

Even Jae-seo thought that Yoon Ji-heon, Seo Jun-jae, Yeo Hyun-tae, and Lee Chan-seo being on one team was practically a disaster for the other teams.

Not only their skills, but judging by the voting results shown at the end of the last broadcast, their popularity was also at the top.

…Actually, he had even placed 6th in the last broadcast’s voting.

He had no idea why, though.

But in terms of skill, there was a world of difference between him and those four, so he was certain he had contributed absolutely nothing to making their team a strong first-place candidate.

Anyway, the fact that even Nam Jin-wook—who had been in A class with those four, had debuted before, and ranked 3rd in popularity—could say something like that so openly meant that an atmosphere of not expecting the benefit was already prevalent among the other team participants.

“Then shall we stop wasting time and get right to it?”

Son Chae-i’s voice from the monitor jolted him back to reality.

The contest was about to begin in earnest.

“Then, the first team!

Trainees who will be covering ‘per7”s ‘Hashtag‘, please come out!”

***

“Guys, we worked hard all week, so let’s not be too nervous and just do it like we practiced.”

They gathered in a circle and nodded at Yoon Ji-heon’s words.

Then, stacking their hands one by one, they brought them down at his count of “Two, three,” and quietly shouted “Fighting!”

Whether it was because they were nervous before the real stage, not practice or rehearsal, time flew by as if someone had increased the game’s speed, and soon it was their team’s turn to go on stage.

After frantically putting on the microphones and in-ears, which felt more complicated than he remembered, they waited behind the stairs.

Soon, the ment introducing them reached their ears.

“The sixth team!

Trainees who will be presenting a cover stage of A.C.E’s ‘July Snow’, please come out!”

They climbed the stairs and stepped onto the stage.

Finding their pre-rehearsed positions and standing in a line, they bowed in greeting at Yoon Ji-heon’s cue.

“Hello!

We want to become the miracle of April—we are ‘Miracle Idols’!”

As they raised their heads, the blazing lights that had dazzled their vision gradually came into focus, revealing the brightly lit space below the stage and the hundreds of spectators standing there, roaring with cheers.

“Aack!

Jae-seo!”

Among the various names being shouted loudly from all directions, his own name rang out particularly clearly.

Following the sound, he spotted several spectators holding up matching long paper signs with his name written largely on them.

He hadn’t particularly shown any outstanding skills on the program, wasn’t exceptionally handsome, and didn’t have the kind of friendly personality that would make fans think he’d be good to them.

Yet these people had come all the way here to support him and even put effort into making cheering tools with his name.

He felt both grateful and sorry.

As an ‘idol’, he was never a good option.

After a moment’s hesitation, he gave a small wave towards the spectators who had called his name.

Seeing them happy at even that small gesture, he thought they would have been happier if they were supporting a participant like Lee Woo-rim or Chae Han-ul instead of him, and his feeling of guilt deepened a little.

“Alright, everyone, please calm down a bit.”

Even after the team introductions, the cheering didn’t stop for a long time.

Son Chae-i spread her palms as if to calm the audience, but then a high-pitched shriek comparable to a pterodactyl’s cry of “Aaaack!” burst out, and she ended up laughing.

Fanning her face with a cue card as if to calm her laughter, she let out a long breath and continued with a composed expression.

“Most trainees picked your team, ‘Miracle Idols’, as the team they want to avoid the most.

This is the team that ‘Me and Me’ center, Trainee Seo Jun-jae, used his center privilege to pick first, right?”

Raising the hand microphone they had received before going on stage, Seo Jun-jae confirmed, and the same questions they’d heard during rehearsal followed.

“I remember you picked your current members without hesitation back when forming the team.

Was there perhaps a special criteria?”

“I think I just picked the members I thought were the best and the ones I got along well with while we’ve been together.”

Nodding with an expressionless face as if it was the expected answer, Son Chae-i added a surprise question, asking if he could give examples.

Seo Jun-jae hesitated for a moment, “Uh…” trailing off, then slowly opened his mouth.

“First of all, while practicing together before, I often saw Ji-heon hyung leading the team members, so I picked him first for that reason.

Next, I think I picked while thinking about each person’s role—like main vocal Woo-rim, main rapper Chan-seo, main dancer Hyun-tae, that sort of thing.”

As she listened to Seo Jun-jae’s answer, a mischievous glint appeared in Son Chae-i’s eyes for a moment, and she asked, “Then what role do you think you play in the team, Jun-jae?”

Smiling as if troubled—whether genuinely or pretending—Seo Jun-jae started with “I am….”

“Visual, then?”

At his sly retort, as if he had never been troubled at all, cheers immediately erupted from the audience, and some of them wildly shook cheering tools with Seo Jun-jae’s face printed on them, as if agreeing it was the right answer.

As Seo Jun-jae added with an embarrassed smile that it was a joke, Son Chae-i waved her hand at him.

“No, no.

Visual is totally acknowledged.”

Son Chae-i, giving a thumbs-up, asked the audience, “Right?” and got an explosive reaction.

No matter how joking it was, if an average participant had mentioned visuals, the atmosphere might have turned cold, calling them conceited, but since the subject was Seo Jun-jae, everyone in the studio seemed to have expressions that said ‘of course’.

Jae-seo, of course, felt the same.

Suddenly, he recalled being called out by the production team one by one during practice not long ago.

Following orders, he stood in front of the camera, and the production team suddenly thrust photos of participants at him, asking him to pick the trainee who suited the visual role the most and give a reason.

The situation was flustered, but it wasn’t a difficult question, so he immediately answered with Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae’s names.

At the same time, the entire production team let out a deep, deep sigh.

A writer, looking quite tired, said he was already the tenth person to give the same answer and asked him to pick one more person, excluding those two.

Probably because those two were so overwhelmingly prominent, no specific face came to mind, so he kept flipping through the photos when Lee Woo-rim’s photo suddenly caught his eye, and he picked it up.

When the production team asked why, he answered, “Because he’s cute,” and returned to the practice room.

In the previous season, there had been a segment called ‘Trainee Pick! Visual Ranking?’ where they only had to choose one person.

But because Seo Jun-jae or Yeo Hyun-tae were such obvious choices for them, they had no choice but to pick three.

Otherwise, the ranking might have only gone down to 3rd or 4th place.

“Alright then, shall we stop wasting time and get right to the stage?”

Lost in the sudden stray thoughts, he snapped back to attention at Son Chae-i’s voice suddenly reaching his ears.

In that brief moment, Seo Jun-jae, and then Yoon Ji-heon, had apparently finished their interviews and were returning their hand microphones to the staff.

If he hadn’t come to his senses in time, he could have caused enormous trouble for the team, the broadcast, and even the audience.

A sigh of relief escaped him involuntarily.

Moving behind his teammates to find their stage formation, he lightly bit the inside of his cheek to focus his mind even more.

***

Not long after they got into formation, the now-tiresomely familiar accompaniment for ‘July Snow’ began to play, and the audience cheered in support.

Hearing that sound gave him a strangely pleasant thrill.

Suppressing his rising excitement, he danced, then moved inward to prepare for his first part, the intro.

As he emerged from between the team members splitting left and right, another loud cheer rang out through his in-ears.

Don’t get excited and make mistakes.

Repeating the advice Yoon Ji-heon had given him before going on stage, he started singing as calmly as possible and, as he had practiced with Ha Jin-woo, Seo Jun-jae, and Yeo Hyun-tae, lightly curled the corners of his mouth into a smile and stared into the camera with its red light on.

***

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103]

*Review from attending Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2 1st Contest live to see Son Chae-i*

Chae-i review x Trainee review o Writing as I remember

First team covered Hashtag, only remember Jo Soo-hwan being there.

Jo Soo-hwan barely did his part, the rest were the worst

Second team did LOT?

The Devil’s Call? song.

Had EODER’s Kang Eun-hyuk, Wakers’ Kim Woo-hyun, one Code:Kids member, and one Chinese and one Japanese trainee.

The foreign trainees were super clumsy, but Kang Eun-hyuk and Kim Woo-hyun hard-carried, and the rest of the Korean kids did average, so it turned out okay

Third team covered P N.O’s Monsun.

Had Kwak Jun-sung, Wakers’ Kim Si-heon, Juke’s Oh Jung-min.

Kwak Jun-sung did both main vocal and center, totally understandable because he was just flying.

Of course, Kim Si-heon and Oh Jung-min have experience so they did well too

Thread continues
April 9, 20xx • 22:07 • Posted via Twitter for Android
201 Reposts 19 Quote Posts 417 Likes

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103 • 5h]

Reply to @handcherry150103

Fourth team covered Male’s Without You.

Center was EODER’s Na Yoon-jae, main vocal was Code:Kids’ Hyun Young-woo, Juke’s Park Kang-hoon, Lee Seung-han who sang Lean on Me, actor Han Tae-woo from the drama Good Dawn, etc.

Overall everyone did well.

Watching this contest, I definitely felt that trainees with debut experience are better.

But main vocal was a bit disappointing, seemed like Lee Seung-han got a lot of doubling help.

Han Tae-woo did ^better than expected^, average.

Fifth team covered We Win’s Fallen.

Center Rohan, main vocal Park Seo-hu.

Park Seo-hu did 9 people’s worth by himself and saved the whole team.

Sixth team.

A legendary team was born.

To what extent?

They’re the only team from the 1st contest where I remember every trainee.

Seo Jun-jae, Yoon Ji-heon, Yeo Hyun-tae, Lee Chan-seo, Sim Jae-seo, Lee Woo-rim, Chae Han-ul, Ha Jin-woo, Jang Young-bin.

Apparently Seo Jun-jae was the previous center and used his privilege to scoop them all up.

What’s absolutely legendary is their song choice is f*cking hilarious.

These guys did A.C.E’s July Snow.

Yoon Ji-heon and an ND trainee together covering A.C.E?

Dopamine explosion lol.

But with this combination, I think they could have made a legendary stage with a different song, so that part was a bit disappointing.

Thread continues

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103 • 4h]

Reply to @handcherry150103

Center was Chae Han-ul, suited July Snow the best, was full of charisma and cute.

Main vocal was Lee Woo-rim — no matter how I look at him, his face doesn’t say ‘vocal’ but he was f*cking good.

Among today’s main vocals, he was the most impressive after Park Seo-hu.

Main rapper was obviously Lee Chan-seo, killed it today too, and the cute concept surprisingly suited him well.

Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae were seriously good.

Dance? no words.

Seo Jun-jae was main vocal when Lee Woo-rim wasn’t there?

Yeo Hyun-tae was main rapper when Lee Chan-seo wasn’t there?

They were better than other teams’ main vocals and main rappers.

Yoon Ji-heon wasn’t as good as in Saga but did well.

But I think the point of this team was Sim Jae-seo.

Sim Jae-seo’s intro part ate up 99% of the stage.

His dance wasn’t bad either.

Anyway, everyone was f*cking f*cking f*cking good.

This team will definitely get the benefit.

But also, it’s funny-sad because nobody seems to need the benefit lol

Seventh team did Breakers.

Center Ki Jae-young, main vocal Hwang Sung-min, Takaki Hiro.

Overall bad.

End.

Eighth team did Daon’s Youth.

Center Park Hyun-jin, Wakers’ Na Sung-hyun, Choi Joon-hyup — these three dragged the team by the collar.

But the main vocal messed up.

End.

Thread continues

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103 • 4h]

Reply to @handcherry150103

Ninth team did In2U’s Summat.

Here, Yoon Jae-hee hard-carried.

Same as 8, main vocal messed up.

Ah, Park Ye-chan? who went from F to B also did well.

Tenth team covered Stainer’s VS. Had Wakers’ Lee Ha-jin, Code:Kids’ Nam Jin-wook.

Main vocal was Nam Jin-wook, decent.

But Lee Ha-jin was f*cking good, don’t know why he wasn’t center.

Center was Bae Jae-hyung? who was just average, so it was more disappointing.

Last team did Eternals’ Puppet.

Center Na Woo-jae, main vocal Jung Sol.

Everyone didn’t seem that bad, but the song choice being Puppet made it feel ruined.

Whoever recommended Puppet or put it on the list has a really nasty mind.

***

[Yoon_G_Honey @Yoon_G_Hone]

Ji-heonie is doing an emotional song…???

April 10, 20xx • 01:05 • Posted via Twitter for Android

15 Reposts 3 Quote Posts 37 Likes

[TuneJiheon @BUSHEON • 2h]

Reply to @Yoon_G_Hone

Sigh, with Saga too, I guess it’s real lol T_T

[lol @jD0iuEKEw46nW • 1h]

Reply to @Yoon_G_Hone

Apparently even Lee Chan-seo is on the same team lol

***

[seojunjaeyeohyeontae_so_gay @ssjsjsyht_so_gay]

Holy shit SeoJunJae YeoHyunTae are on the same team I guess it’s fate

April 10, 20xx • 02:03 • Posted via Twitter for Android

19 Likes

[KangKyungAlphaSeo @DwT3Fe20AQp7N • 1h]

Reply to @ssjsjsyht_so_gay

So when can we start eating them?