Chapter 63: Voices, Tears, and One More Try

“Hey, kids!”

As the twenty participants squeezed into the slightly larger studio than yesterday and waited, Won Ju-ha soon entered the studio, waving happily.

While they were exchanging greetings, Moon Gi-hoon, looking flustered, hurriedly opened the studio door and came in.

“Did you practice well?”

“Yes!”

At the participants’ confident answer, Won Ju-ha let out an “Oh ho!” and nodded.

Saying this was a new side to them, Moon Gi-hoon laughed out loud, then immediately looked down at the part sheet and called Jae-seo’s name.

“Then Jae-seo, let’s go first!”

Nodding at Moon Gi-hoon’s call, he headed into the recording booth.

Perhaps because he had recorded just yesterday, he put on the headphones with a slightly more relaxed heart and quietly cleared his throat.

“Let’s start from the intro.”

As Won Ju-ha finished speaking, the engineer sitting in front of the recording equipment operated various controls and played the accompaniment right before the intro of ‘Wanna be your star’.

He matched the beat and sang up to the lyrics for his part.

At some point, the music abruptly stopped, and Moon Gi-hoon’s voice came through instead.

“Jae-seo, the ‘star…’ and ‘you…’ The vibrato at the end, want to try making it a bit cleaner?”

Nodding towards Moon Gi-hoon, who briefly sang a demonstration mimicking what he had just sung, he lessened the tremble at the end of the phrase.

With the instruction to try that, the accompaniment played again.

After singing the intro once more, this time Won Ju-ha spoke.

“‘Always’—let’s record this part a few more times.”

Answering that he understood, he repeatedly sang only the word ‘always’ along with the repeated accompaniment.

“Okay, that’s good!

Let’s move on to the bridge part.”

Next, the accompaniment for the start of the bridge part began playing through the headphones.

No sooner had he finished singing to the beat than they said let’s go again, and the accompaniment repeated.

After singing through three times like that, the music stopped.

“Jae-seo, for the beginning, instead of ‘any-ti-i-i-me’, try singing it like ‘any-ti-me’.”

He repeatedly sang only ‘anytime’ over the following accompaniment, and then the accompaniment for ‘days’ started playing repeatedly.

When the accompaniment suddenly stopped, he closed his mouth and turned his head.

Moon Gi-hoon said listen to this and played back the song he had just sung in sequence.

“You did well!

You can come out!”

As his two short parts ended, Won Ju-ha’s voice, raised a tone with satisfaction, came through the headphones.

After tidying up his phone and the microphone, he came out.

Won Ju-ha and Moon Gi-hoon both turned their heads and smiled at him.

“Jae-seo, you’ve really improved a lot.

Well done.”

Bowing to them in greeting, he barely managed to perch on the edge of the only empty chair.

Lee Woo-rim, sitting right next to him, looked at him, pointed to his own knee, and whispered.

“Hyung, want to sit on my knee?”

Shaking his head and answering, “I’m heavy,” to mean it’s okay, Woo-rim made an “Umm” sound, pursed his lips into a line, then as if struck by a great revelation, let out an “Ah!” and noisily stood up.

“I’m light!”

Then he suddenly climbed onto Jae-seo’s thighs.

Since he had been only perched on the edge, he almost dropped Woo-rim, but managed to lift him up and let out a long sigh.

Ignoring Ha Jin-woo, who was quietly snickering beside them, and Chae Han-ul, who was sending envious glances, he scooted further into the chair.

“Next, Kang-hoon, come in.”

Seeing him call Park Kang-hoon, whose part came right after his intro, it seemed the recording was proceeding in part order like yesterday.

He pulled out the part sheet from his pocket, unfolded it, and urgently searched for Lee Woo-rim’s name.

Scanning down, he saw Woo-rim’s name written for the first time only in the middle of the second verse.

“Haha!”

Seeing Woo-rim laughing excitedly, his legs dangling in the air, it seemed he wasn’t going to get off Jae-seo’s thighs until his own turn came.

…By the way, you said you were light, didn’t you?

Expressing sympathy to his own thighs, which would probably have to endure this subtle weight for quite a while, he squeezed his eyes shut.

***

After listening to the completed song in sequence following Lee Chan-seo’s recording, the last one, the participants began to applaud enthusiastically.

Even Lee Woo-rim, who had found his way back onto Jae-seo’s thighs after returning from finishing his recording, clapped harder than anyone.

The added weight from his swaying body made Jae-seo let out an involuntary “Ugh.”

“Kids, you’ve all worked so hard….”

Won Ju-ha, who had been applauding back at them, couldn’t continue for a long while and eventually turned her head away, hiding her face, apparently overcome with tears.

Soon, sounds of people swallowing tears could be heard from among the participants.

Lee Woo-rim, perched on his thigh, seemed no different, as his back, filling Jae-seo’s view, began to tremble slightly.

“Being able to be a teacher to such good kids like you… ah… I was really happy.”

Won Ju-ha continued, pressing her reddened eyes with tissue.

Moon Gi-hoon also looked emotional, biting his lip.

“Thank you so much for following along so well until now, and um… Let’s definitely see each other again.”

Finishing quickly, Won Ju-ha bowed her head to wipe her tears.

Some participants followed suit, bowing their heads.

Moon Gi-hoon, who had been looking around at Won Ju-ha and the participants, finally exhaled deeply and opened his mouth.

“Ju-ha ssam said a lot of nice things, so I’ll keep it short.

Everyone did really well.”

No sooner had Moon Gi-hoon finished than a sniffle burst out right in front of him.

As Lee Woo-rim and some other trainees burst into tears, Moon Gi-hoon ended up briefly wiping his eyes too.

“We’re going to see each other again the day after tomorrow, how will we handle the embarrassment if we act like this?”

Even at Moon Gi-hoon’s teasing laugh, Woo-rim’s shoulders, which had begun to shake more intensely, caught his eye.

He slowly raised his hand, hesitated for a moment, then lowered it to Woo-rim’s back and patted it a few times.

Woo-rim whipped around and burrowed into his chest.

The shoulder where Woo-rim’s face pressed down soon began to slowly get wet.

***

“Is someone behind me?”

After the two recording sessions that took place outside the camp, they were back to being holed up in the camp, continuing their practice.

“Ah, that’s me.

Sorry!”

“Let’s focus!”

Ahead of the final check-up with MC Son Chae-i and the trainers scheduled for tomorrow, their team was putting in the final sprint, absorbed in practice.

“One and, two and….”

He began moving to the next move, following the count Kim Jae-ho started anew.

As he rose from his seated position and turned half a rotation, his reflection in the mirror came squarely into view.

To execute the next move, he kicked his foot back once, then twisted it to the side, giving his body a bounce and bending down sharply.

At that moment, his first day practicing the ‘Time Killer’ choreography came to mind.

The move he was doing now was the same one where he had creaked like a wooden doll and Seo Jun-jae had grabbed his waist.

It had improved incomparably compared to back then.

Just as he was inwardly sighing with relief, Kim Jae-ho suddenly shouted, “Sim Jae-seo!” and pointed at him.

“You’re thinking about something else right now, aren’t you?”

…Seriously, there’s no fooling him.

“I’ll focus.”

“Yeah, focus.”

Trying to concentrate on the count Kim Jae-ho continued with next, he steadily progressed through the moves.

***

It was well past 2 AM when Kim Jae-ho finally signaled the end of practice.

On the way back to the dorm together, among the team members stretching their tired bodies with all sorts of groans, only Park Seo-hu was nowhere to be seen.

Did he stay behind alone to practice?

He glanced back.

Through the small window in the door of their team practice room, now far behind, a faint light was seeping out.

Thinking that he owed Seo-hu for his help during ‘A Letter’, so this time it was his turn to repay, he quietly turned around.

His own dance skills were certainly no match for Seo-hu’s vocal skills, so he didn’t know how much help he’d be, but thinking that practicing together would be less tiring than practicing alone, he walked down the hallway and pulled down the practice room door handle.

“…What?

You guys?”

As he burst the door open, Park Seo-hu, who had been holding a tablet PC, asked, his face frowning deeply.

…Wait, ‘you guys’?

He followed Park Seo-hu’s gaze and whipped his head around.

Behind him stood Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae.

He thought he had quietly slipped out, so how did they know and follow?

As he frowned in response to Seo-hu’s frown, Seo Jun-jae’s thumb suddenly pressed against his furrowed brow.

“What.”

Trying to dodge the hand by pulling his body back, Seo Jun-jae pushed past him and stepped inside, flashing a smile so bright it seemed impossible for this early hour.

“Two is better than one, and four is better than two, right?”

He let out a short sigh as he looked at Park Seo-hu, whose face was scrunched up in complete confusion.

Even practicing together for over a week, he had never seen Seo-hu engage in a proper conversation with Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae, so his reaction was understandable.

…Well, obviously, since these two definitely just followed me.

Still, since they came to help Seo-hu with his dance, and they were far more helpful than him, he wondered if he should consider this a blessing in disguise.

Pondering, he pulled Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae fully into the practice room, closed the door, and opened his mouth.

“You’re right, four would be better.”

…Ah, whatever.