Chapter 59: A Spot He Never Wanted

At the same time, a staff member approached and handed a stack of dozens of papers to Yoon Jae-hee, who was standing at the very end.

After checking the contents of the papers, Yoon Jae-hee kept only two of them and passed the remaining stack to Chae Han-ul, who was standing behind him.

Chae Han-ul also selected two sheets and handed the rest to the next trainee.

Soon, the papers that reached him had been reduced to twelve sheets.

Looking at what he was given, they were lyric sheets indicating the parts for the two new songs that had been revealed earlier.

He took one lyric sheet for each song and passed the remaining ten sheets to Kwak Jun-sung, who was standing in front of him.

After confirming that even Park Hyun-jin, standing at the very front, had received his lyric sheets, Son Chae-i raised her microphone.

“From now on, we will play the full songs and full choreography videos for ‘ALL Time’ and ‘Time Killer’.

Please listen and watch carefully, then decide which song and position you want.

We will play ‘ALL Time’ first.”

Not long after Son Chae-i lowered her microphone, the song began to play.

As he listened to the song while following along with the lyric sheet, a short part that appeared when the mood changed in the second verse particularly caught his ear.

In front of that part’s lyrics was written ‘Sub-Vocal 6’.

If he were to do ‘ALL Time’, he thought he’d like to try Sub-Vocal 6.

At the same time, the sound coming through the speakers gradually faded.

Afterwards, the choreography video for ‘ALL Time’, the full song for ‘Time Killer’, and its choreography video were played in sequence.

As the last choreography video, for ‘Time Killer’, ended, Son Chae-i raised her microphone again as if waiting.

“Both songs have great music and choreography, but even so, you probably each have a song you want to do and a position you want to take.”

Son Chae-i turned and pointed to the two panels installed on either side of her.

With the explanation that they could choose the panel for their desired song and attach their name tag in the blank space next to their desired position, she handed out elongated name tags with magnetic backs from a staff member.

“But!

Not everyone can do what they want, right?

The selection will proceed in order from 20th place, and trainees with later turns can choose a song and position that was already taken, pushing out another trainee at any time.”

In short, higher-ranked participants could push out lower-ranked participants and choose the song and position they wanted.

At first glance, this rule seemed extremely advantageous for him, who was 3rd place, but in reality, it wasn’t at all.

It was better to pick first and get pushed out; he wasn’t ambitious enough to force someone else out of a position they’d already taken.

It was clear he would end up choosing the best one among the remaining spots.

…Of all times, this rule gets applied when I’m 3rd place.

I really have no luck.

He let out a small sigh.

Seo Jun-jae looked back at him and let out a low laugh, having apparently heard it.

He’s so perceptive.

He’d probably read all his thoughts from that one short sigh.

“Alright, then starting with 20th place trainee Yoon Jae-hee, we will begin the song and position selection.”

At Son Chae-i’s words, Yoon Jae-hee walked without hesitation to the ‘ALL Time’ panel and attached his name tag in the blank space next to Sub-Vocal 6.

The position he had wanted most was taken first.

He felt disappointed but also thought it was natural.

Everyone’s ears were similar, after all.

“Next, 19th place trainee Park Ye-chan, please come and make your selection.”

Park Ye-chan, called out next, hesitated for a moment, then chose the Rapper 1 position for ‘ALL Time’ and returned to his spot.

Afterwards, as participants were called out one by one, the blank spaces on the two panels gradually began to fill.

“15th place trainee Lee Ha-jin, please come out.”

Lee Ha-jin, who went next, hesitated briefly, then, with an apologetic shout, unhesitatingly removed Na Yoon-jae’s name tag attached to the Sub-Vocal 4 spot on the ‘Time Killer’ panel.

“No!”

Lee Ha-jin, apologizing once more to Na Yoon-jae, who was reaching out and shouting, attached his own name tag to the spot where Na Yoon-jae’s had been.

Then he approached the ‘ALL Time’ panel and attached Na Yoon-jae’s name tag, which he was holding, next to Sub-Vocal 2.

“Huh, that’s insane!”

Amidst Na Yoon-jae’s exaggerated cry about not even being able to do the song he wanted, let alone the position, laughter burst out among the participants, and at the same time, tension heightened.

After Lee Ha-jin’s choice, several participants’ names began moving around here and there.

It was no exaggeration to say that a war broke out over the Sub-Vocal 6 spot for ‘ALL Time’, the position he had initially wanted.

Watching the pushing and shoving over positions, with shouting and bickering even if it was just for fun, he began to think that just choosing an empty spot from the back might not be so bad.

Yoon Ji-heon, who went before him, seemed to have thought similarly, as he didn’t get greedy and simply attached his name to the empty Sub-Vocal 7 spot on ‘ALL Time’ before returning.

The remaining spots now were only Sub-Vocal 1, Sub-Vocal 7, and Rapper 2 for ‘Time Killer’.

“Next, 3rd place trainee Sim Jae-seo, please come and make your selection.”

At Son Chae-i’s call, he approached the panels.

As he stood in front of the ‘ALL Time’ panel without thinking, he heard a shout from behind, “No!”

He quickly moved towards the ‘Time Killer’ panel at that.

Rapper 2 was obviously out of the question, and Sub-Vocal 1 was a position considered second only to the main vocal, so the responsibility was too great.

So, just as he was about to attach his name to Sub-Vocal 7 and return, he met Seo Jun-jae’s gaze.

The questioning look in his eyes felt rather unsettling.

…No way, right?

As he returned to his spot, Seo Jun-jae was immediately called out.

With his long legs, Seo Jun-jae strode up to the ‘Time Killer’ panel, turned for a moment, and sent him a glance with a bright smile.

Then, without hesitation, he removed Jae-seo’s name tag attached next to Sub-Vocal 7.

Bad feelings never missed, and he stared blankly at the name tag in Seo Jun-jae’s hand before raising his own hand to his forehead.

“Jae-seo, are you going to end up doing rap at this rate?”

At someone’s joking remark, the participants except for him burst into laughter.

Some of them, remembering his rap from Please Take Care of My Idol Episode 1, laughed even harder.

Meanwhile, Seo Jun-jae attached his own name tag to the Sub-Vocal 7 spot and stepped back.

Then, as if keeping time with the participants’ joking comments, he moved Jae-seo’s name tag to the spot marked Rapper 2.

“Jun-jae!

Jae-seo can absolutely not be our team’s rapper!”

Kim Jae-ho, who had already secured the Sub-Vocal 5 spot for ‘Time Killer’, shouted, purposely saying ‘absolutely not’ as if teasing him.

At the commotion, Ha Jin-woo, standing diagonally in front of him, was laughing so hard he was bent over backwards.

Seo Jun-jae, looking back at them with a smile, then raised his arm.

The moment the name tag in his hand was attached to the Sub-Vocal 2 spot, Kim Jae-ho let out an exaggerated sigh of relief, saying it was a real relief.

“Then finally, 1st place trainee Yeo Hyun-tae, please come and make your selection.”

While he was looking up at Seo Jun-jae, who had returned to his spot, with dissatisfied eyes, Yeo Hyun-tae was called out and stepped forward.

Yeo Hyun-tae immediately approached the ‘Time Killer’ panel and filled the last empty spot next to Rapper 2, completing the selection for both panels.

“With this, the selection of songs and positions for the final stage is complete.”

Until now, after all participants had chosen their mission songs, they would pause filming briefly and resume when practice started.

However, today, even after the mission song selection, the cameras kept rolling without stopping.

Son Chae-i also remained in place and continued speaking.

“In addition to the two songs you just selected, you have one more stage to present during the live broadcast.”

No sooner had Son Chae-i finished speaking than a video began playing on the screen mounted on the wall.

Gentle music played over a background of photos of the participants, as if taken by a phone.

After a moment, the screen changed, and vocal trainers Won Ju-ha and Moon Gi-hoon appeared.

[Hello, trainees.

And viewers.

I’m Won Ju-ha, a vocal trainer on Please Take Care of My Idol Season 2.]

[I’m Moon Gi-hoon.]

As Won Ju-ha and Moon Gi-hoon greeted them from the video, the participants cheered as if the two were actually there.

[Gi-hoon ssam, there’s a reason we’re appearing like this on video, right?]

As Won Ju-ha on the screen began to speak, the participants who had been cheering fell silent and started focusing on the video.