Chapter 55: Born for the Spotlight

Before Son Chae-i’s introduction even finished, cheers much louder than usual erupted.

Fans who came to see the live contest in person probably already knew that Nam Jin-wook had left, so it seemed like they were sending encouragement to them, who must have had a hard time.

Feeling grateful for that, the moment he walked onto the stage, screams incomparable to before exploded.

“Waaaah!”

Startled by the shouts, as if something had happened, he looked down at the audience, but nothing seemed to be wrong.

Relieved, he let out a sigh, but then, piercing through the noise, he heard someone yell, “So sexy!”

Only then did he realize why the audience had screamed and looked down at himself.

The slightly oversized, dark red velvet shirt had no buttons.

The bottom was neatly tucked into his pants, but from his chest down to his navel, the front was open, revealing bare skin, barely covered by a single string hanging from his neck.

And underneath, the leather pants were clinging uncomfortably tight to his body.

…Not ‘disgusting’, but ‘sexy’—he could only feel grateful that they saw it that way.

“Ah, you shouldn’t be this excited already?”

When Son Chae-i added, with a source unknown, that the actual stage was supposedly truly amazing, the audience roared again, shaking the studio.

Thinking that their stage was already less polished than other teams, and now expectations were raised this high, he was worried as he looked around.

Surprisingly, the other team members seemed not just fine, but even calm.

“Trainee Kim Jae-ho, I heard you were originally in a different team but volunteered to come to the ‘Beautiful Hate’ team.

What do you think is the charm of ‘Beautiful Hate‘?”

While he was fretting alone, the interview began.

After Kim Jae-ho unnecessarily raised expectations by saying the song and dance were truly sexy, a few more short questions followed, and soon Son Chae-i’s gaze shifted to him.

“Trainee Sim Jae-seo, you’ve been consistently showing improvement in your skills on the broadcast, and viewers call you a ‘growth character’.

Did you know that?”

He took the microphone passed from Kim Jae-ho beside him and raised it.

It was true that after the ‘A Letter’ stage aired, positive comments on clip videos had increased a lot, so he nodded and gratefully said yes.

Son Chae-i continued.

“After continuously growing like that, you’ve ended up taking on the main vocal role for this stage.

How do you feel?”

Actually, until he heard this question during rehearsal, he hadn’t even realized he was the main vocal.

It wasn’t that his skills had improved to the point of becoming main vocal, as the previous question suggested; he had just ended up taking on the most parts by default after Nam Jin-wook left.

But he couldn’t answer that directly, so he gave the answer he had prepared, embellishing it as much as possible.

“First of all, I’m so grateful to my team members for trusting me.”

More than anything, that was sincere.

A nobody like him suddenly stepping forward and making demands like ‘let’s do this’ or ‘let’s do that’, and they followed without complaint or doubt—he was grateful for that.

It was a good thing the results turned out well; if it had gone wrong, they all could have failed together.

“Even though I’m the main vocal, I think the team members are all in this together, so I’m putting aside the pressure a bit, but I will try my best to do well on stage.”

That was also all true.

On the surface, he had taken the title, but the original main vocal parts were divided among everyone except Rohan.

So he didn’t feel like he was playing such a big role; he just thought he had a slightly more prominent part than others, so he should work hard not to cause any harm.

“This suddenly reminds me of the agency evaluation.”

Son Chae-i, who had been nodding at his answer, brought up an unexpected topic.

“Do you remember what I said back then?”

She seemed to be referring to when he was puzzled about receiving a C grade in the agency evaluation.

Had she said that in the idol world, being overconfident can be poison, but underestimating yourself too much can also be poison?

What did that have to do with the current situation?

Flustered, he just blinked slowly.

Looking at him, Son Chae-i laughed out loud.

“You still have that expression of not really knowing, don’t you?”

She made a similar remark as before and shrugged.

Then, with a warm expression, she looked at him and opened her mouth.

“But still, you seem much better than back then.

I’ll keep supporting you.”

Finishing with a similar remark as before, he quietly looked at Son Chae-i and then conveyed his sincere thanks.

Son Chae-i gave him a big smile, glanced down at her cue card for a moment, then lifted her head and looked at the camera, starting with, “Alright!”

“Then shall we meet the much-anticipated ‘Beautiful Hate’ stage right now?”

***

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103]

*Review from attending Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2 3rd Contest live to see Son Chae-i*

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

Into the Moonlight team had Park Seo-hu, Lee Seung-han, Kang Eun-hyuk, Hyun Young-woo, Oh Jung-min, Jang Young-bin, Han Tae-woo.

Maybe because the song was emotional, a legendary vocal team was born.

The harmony they built on the final chorus was so incredible it was hard to tell if this was a concept evaluation or a position evaluation.

Especially Park Seo-hu reached legendary status with this stage, and I cautiously think he might even end up as the final debut group’s main vocal role.

But his dance is seriously bad, so you have to turn a blind eye lol

Beautiful Hate team had Sim Jae-seo, Kwak Jun-sung, Kim Jae-ho, Na Woo-jae, Rohan, Bae Jae-hyung.

I thought the blow would be big with NJW gone, but it surprisingly didn’t show at all.

From what they were saying, it seemed he was the main vocal and then left, but for the team, it was actually a blessing in disguise.

The new main vocal Sim Jae-seo suited it so well and did an amazing job.

Especially the highlight part connecting from Kwak Jun-sung to Sim Jae-seo was the killing part.

If it had been Kwak Jun-sung – NJW, the vibe would never have worked.

And this team’s dance was insane.

The choreography was pretty, and they executed it well too.

A sophisticatedly sexy feel lol

The more I think about it, the more I think NJW leaving was fortunate.

A muscular look probably wouldn’t have been better than this current vibe.

Especially when Sim Jae-seo was at the center, it was the real deal, the crowd went absolutely wild lol

As for personal taste, other teams might have been better for the stage itself, but individually, Sim Jae-seo was the most memorable and will probably get the best reactions.

If Park Seo-hu reached legendary status in the previous team, here Sim Jae-seo reached f*cking legendary status.

Thread continues
May 21, 20xx • 22:01 • Posted via Twitter for Android
368 Reposts 52 Quote Posts 814 Likes

[ChaeChaeCherry @handcherry150103 • 4h]

Reply to @handcherry150103

Over the Sky team had Lee Woo-rim, Park Hyun-jin, Chae Han-ul, Park Ye-chan, Kim Ian, Jang Kyung-jung, Takaki Hiro.

I don’t know if fans deliberately pushed for this combination, but they were all minors, which was interesting lol Just listening to the songs, this one seemed the best, and Lee Woo-rim executed it amazingly well.

Park Hyun-jin and Park Ye-chan’s rap was good too, but as for the other vocalists, I don’t know about skill, just that they’re cute?

At the end, Chae Han-ul’s ending fairy got a really good reaction.

He does utilize it well.

Want It team had Lee Ha-jin, Park Kang-hoon, Na Yoon-jae, Ha Jin-woo, Choi Joon-yeop, Choi Gyeom, Jo Do-hyung.

No holes, everyone performed above average.

But even if the concept was retro, the outfits and choreography were too old and cheesy, which was disappointing.

There’s a reason the Villain team is the ending.

The song, choreography, members—all legendary. Seo Jun-jae, Yeo Hyun-tae, Yoon Ji-heon, Lee Chan-seo, Kim Woo-hyun, Yoon Jae-hee, Ki Jae-young on one team.

Just looking at the lineup, you wonder how you can beat this, and they were all f*cking good.

Especially Yeo Hyun-tae has always been good, but today felt like the real deal.

The dance break starts with Yeo Hyun-tae at the center, and he absolutely killed it.

His expression was so crazy, I thought he had really possessed a crazy villain.

There’s a part where Yeo Hyun-tae, Seo Jun-jae, and Yoon Ji-heon take turns at the center, and that part was just insane.

They’re truly crazy bastards.

Ah, Lee Chan-seo and Yeo Hyun-tae rapping was also crazy.

They’re definitely 1st place.

Once you see the stage, no one will be able to deny it.

[WhiteNine @whitenine1_09]

A screenshot of Jae-seo’s A Letter stage suddenly got posted on the composer team MAB’s official account.

What is it??

[TEAMMABOFFICIAL @TEAMMABOFFICIAL • 3h]
THUMBS UP!
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(screenshot.jpg)]

May 22, 20xx • 00:27 • Posted via Twitter for iPhone app
9 Likes

[Kim Song Song Tak @0song1song1tak0 • 1h]

Reply to @whitenine1_09

There was a rumor that Beautiful Hate was composed by MAB. Maybe they wrote it after watching the 3rd contest? Daebak

[WhiteNine @whitenine1_09 • 27m]

Reply to @0song1song1tak0

Holy shit then Jae-seo must have done amazingly wellㅠㅠ Our admirable puppyㅠㅠ

***

“Alright, let’s go!”

As they were leaving the broadcast station after successfully finishing the 3rd contest, Kim Jae-ho slung his arm around Jae-seo’s shoulder.

Jae-seo looked at him, asking where they were going, and Kim Jae-ho made a dumbfounded face, “Huh?”

“Of course we’re going to the after-party.

Especially on a day like today!”

“At this hour?”

Kim Jae-ho clicked his tongue, saying mood is what matters, not the time, and started pushing Jae-seo’s back.

I have a class tomorrow….

Seeing his excited face, he couldn’t bring himself to say he couldn’t go and was just letting himself be pushed when he heard his name called from behind.

“Sim Jae-seo.”

Turning his head, he saw Seo Jun-jae leaning against the doorway, waving his hand slightly.

“Just a moment.”

Seeing Kim Jae-ho nod and walk ahead first, he approached Seo Jun-jae.

Given that he was leaning here, it seemed he was waiting for someone—probably him.

“What’s up?”

“Where are you going?”

Jae-seo gestured with his chin towards Kim Jae-ho walking ahead and answered, “After-party.”

Seo Jun-jae nodded slightly with an “Ah.”

“I’m one step too late.”

At the sudden comment, he reflexively frowned.

Did Seo Jun-jae mean he was also going to suggest an after-party?

Why would he, since they weren’t even on the same team?

As he looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, Seo Jun-jae subtly curled the corner of his mouth.

“What, already forgot?

You owe me, remember.”

At that, his expression relaxed with an “Ah.”

If Seo Jun-jae hadn’t reminded him, he would have completely brushed it off without a proper word.

It was incredibly ungrateful, even by his own standards.

“I was really thankful for this.

I’ll definitely repay you, so just tell me anything.”

“Then will you come with me now?”

“…Huh?”

As he looked up, involuntarily letting out a stupid sound, Seo Jun-jae laughed softly and said it was a joke.

“I’ll go ahead.

Don’t drink too much.”

Seo Jun-jae added, “Like last time,” then pushed himself off the wall, waved, and left first.

Wondering if it was Seo Jun-jae who had carried him when he was drunk before, he turned around.

Kwak Jun-sung was standing there, looking his way, with that same crooked smile, one corner of his mouth lifted.