Chapter 58: From Twenty to One Dream

“The final 20th place is….

GH trainee Yoon Jae-hee.”

With the announcement of the last successful candidate, the ranking ceremony ended.

He followed Kwak Jun-sung, who was gesturing with his hand, down the stairs.

From the ‘Beautiful Hate‘ team, Rohan, Na Woo-jae, and Bae Jae-hyung were eliminated.

Behind Rohan, who was crying, Na Woo-jae and Bae Jae-hyung were smiling with somewhat relieved faces.

As he approached, following Kwak Jun-sung who had run to comfort Rohan, Bae Jae-hyung smiled a smile he had never seen before and offered his hand for a handshake.

After hesitating for a moment, he took his hand.

Jae-hyung’s grip tightened.

“I’m really sorry for acting so petty towards you.

I’m sorry for apologizing only now.”

Then he pulled his hand and wrapped an arm around Jae-seo’s shoulder, whispering for him to definitely debut.

He knew it wasn’t something you could just do because you wanted to, but he nodded and thanked him anyway.

After Bae Jae-hyung let him go, Na Woo-jae rushed in.

“Jae-seo hyung, I’m glad I was on the same team as you at the end!”

Na Woo-jae, who had wrapped his arms around Jae-seo’s waist, rubbed his head against his shoulder and then pulled away.

“It was really fun!

I’ll definitely come see you as your junior later!”

Again, whether he could become that senior was unknown, but he smiled back and nodded.

Then he turned his head and saw Rohan crying in Kwak Jun-sung’s arms.

As he approached, Rohan looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and muttered something in English.

It was hard to understand completely, but it seemed like a thank you for caring about him.

As he smiled and nodded, and ruffled Rohan’s hair as he tried to smile back, Kwak Jun-sung looked at him with a strange expression.

“What?”

“Don’t seduce the kids.”

What?

At the absurd words, he made a dumbfounded face, and Bae Jae-hyung and Na Woo-jae burst out laughing.

Watching the two laughing, Rohan also let out a small smile.

He let out a small sigh at the three of them.

…Right, as long as you guys are happy, that’s enough.

***

The bus, now carrying only twenty participants, sped along as always and arrived at the camp.

Even after the ranking ceremony, it was still bright outside.

That’s how much the number of participants had decreased.

The bus, which they used to split into three to ride, was now just a single bus.

He looked back at that sight for a moment, then quickly turned and headed towards the main building.

After changing into training clothes, he headed to the hall.

Son Chae-i had already arrived and was preparing for filming.

The two large panels set up behind her, where she was talking with the production team, immediately caught his eye.

As before, they were clearly related to the next contest songs.

Come to think of it, is this the final contest song?

It felt strange.

When he first started this program, he had only hoped to get at least 60th place, and now he had survived to the end and was facing the final mission….

“Jae-seo hyung!”

He turned his head at the tap on his shoulder to see now all-too-familiar faces smiling at him.

It was Lee Woo-rim and Lee Chan-seo.

“Why are you standing there blankly?”

Behind Woo-rim, who was asking the question, he saw Ha Jin-woo and Jang Young-bin playfully bickering as usual.

Come to think of it, the members of the ‘July Snow’ team, with whom he’d done the first contest, had all survived up until now without being eliminated.

Realizing he’d probably be with them again this time, he felt oddly at ease.

Looking back, it was funny.

When that team was first formed, he had felt desperate….

“Thinking it’s the last time, it feels strange.”

As he looked around the hall and muttered inadvertently, Lee Woo-rim’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.

Then he burst into loud laughter and started jabbing his side with his elbow.

“What!

Jae-seo hyung, you’re the kind of person who can say sentimental things like that?”

…I shouldn’t have said that.

Regretting it too late, he closed his mouth, but at the sound of Woo-rim’s teasing, calling him a scarecrow or AI, Ha Jin-woo immediately came over as if reacting to it.

Ha Jin-woo and Lee Woo-rim—a combination very familiar, and dangerous, to him.

“What?

What is it?

Something fun?”

Leaving the two of them—no, the four of them, including Lee Chan-seo and Jang Young-bin—to get excited and start chattering, he quietly slipped back.

As he was turning away and heading for a corner of the hall, his name was called again.

“Jae-seo hyung!”

Before he could even fully turn his head to follow the sound, something large quickly approached and lightly bumped his right arm, then clung to it like a hanger.

“Hyeong!”

Complaining that it felt like they hadn’t seen each other in so long, Chae Han-ul hung onto his arm.

He ended up letting out a small sigh.

Come to think of it, this kid wasn’t in that group.

“I hope we’re on the same team again this time!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he answered vaguely, nodding a few times, and Chae Han-ul’s face broke into a bright smile, dimples fully showing.

Does he like me that much?

He was thinking this shameless thought when he turned his head and made eye contact with Kwak Jun-sung, who was standing not far away.

Kwak Jun-sung’s face, which had been quietly watching Han-ul clinging to him, suddenly crumpled.

…He wouldn’t be thinking something weird, would he?

Sure enough, Kwak Jun-sung turned his head sharply with a face that said he’d seen something unsightly.

Feeling like a shameless scoundrel who had touched a minor, he awkwardly pulled his arm away from Chae Han-ul.

“…Ah, it’s hot.”

Making a lame excuse while the air conditioner was blasting, he freed his arm completely.

Chae Han-ul’s shoulders slumped dejectedly.

Wondering what to do with him, a staff member conveniently gathered everyone, saying filming would start.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he approached where the staff was.

They were lined up in two rows according to the rankings announced that morning.

Standing between 2nd place Seo Jun-jae and 4th place Yoon Ji-heon, he felt oddly self-conscious.

Even if it was just once, and for a moment, standing at a higher rank than Yoon Ji-heon….

“Looks like I lost to Jae-seo this time.”

He looked up at Yoon Ji-heon, who spoke jokingly.

For the first time in a while, he felt like he was standing somewhere he didn’t belong.

As he was about to feel uncomfortable, alone, next to the completely unbothered-looking Yoon Ji-heon, Son Chae-i raised her microphone and spoke at the perfect time.

“Everyone, hello!”

And so, the first filming of the final camp began.

***

“The final contest mission is the debut evaluation.”

No sooner had Son Chae-i finished speaking than Park Hyun-jin and Park Seo-hu, who had been called forward earlier, simultaneously peeled off the stickers covering the panels.

Two large tables were revealed.

On each table were the words ‘ALL Time’ and ‘Time Killer’, and below them were various positions like ‘Main Vocal’, ‘Sub-Vocal 1~7’, ‘Rapper 1~2’, along with blank spaces.

“On June 9th, in the Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2 Final Live Broadcast, you will perform one of these two new songs and receive the final evaluation from the viewers on whether you are suitable for the debut group.”

He heard the participants in front inhale nervously.

This was truly the final, most important mission, determining their debut.

Of course, with the points accumulated so far, it would be hard to overturn the results with just one final stage, but for the participants bouncing in and out of the so-called PTSD zone, the safe zone, this could be their last chance.

Of course, this was also true for him, who every ranking announcement video comment called a permanent resident of the PTSD zone.

“Then, I will introduce the final contest songs you will be performing.”

As Son Chae-i finished speaking, the screen lit up and the words ‘ALL Time’ appeared.

After a moment, the choreography video began to play along with the song.

Using the playing song as background music, Son Chae-i spoke.

“The first mission song, ‘ALL Time’, is a refreshing deep house genre dance song, created for you by composer Randy Kim, who composed ‘Me and Me’, the signal song for Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2.”

As the roughly 30-second choreography video for ‘ALL Time’ ended, the screen changed and a new song and video began to play with the words ‘Time Killer’.

“The second mission song, ‘Time Killer’, is an intense future EDM genre dance song, created by the composer team Joe&Soul, who have composed numerous K-pop hit songs.

A representative song composed by the Joe&Soul team would be my own, ‘Dust’, right?”

Behind Son Chae-i, who smiled as she mentioned her own hit song written on her cue sheet, a choreography video that looked difficult even at a glance was playing.

Just as he was thinking he should try to do ‘ALL Time’ if possible, the choreography video for ‘Time Killer’ ended.