"Don’t get nervous, and it’s important to do it the way you practiced."
"Yes!"
"I don’t think there’s anyone who shows sothing beyond their skill. Even if it looks like that, that’s a miracle made by what that person has built up day by day."
Park Taesu paused and looked at the LYNX mbers listening closely to him.
-TSP kids are especially kind of bad, aren’t they?
⤷Yeah, being shaky live is basically their tradition
⤷Park Taesu’s songs carry them, honestly—if they were at another major agency, a lot of those mbers wouldn’t have debuted at that skill level
⤷Their CEO performs better than their artists lol
⤷I’m telling you, it’s not for nothing they got 3rd place in Three Kingdom this ti
⤷They probably miss Ryu Ayeon who got snatched by KJ Entertainnt
Lately, bad evaluations of TSP artists’ skills had been floating around online.
By now, it wasn’t treated as a groundless rumor but accepted like an established truth, so TSP had no choice but to pay attention.
And that was because, no matter how much they tried to hide it, LYNX’s mbers also had no choice but to see those evaluations online, so TSP stepped in to manage things in case their ntal state got shaken.
'Our kids’ skill is never lacking.'
But Taesu believed LYNX’s skill didn’t fall behind not only Iam, but even VYNNIA.
Compared to those two, on the surface it might look like LYNX’s skill was unstable, but that was purely because of his own instructions.
Performance.
What Taesu had emphasized to his artists for a long ti was that, on stage, they had to deliver energy to the audience through performance.
Accurate pitch mattered too, but what mattered more than that was expressing emotion through facial expressions and movent, and connecting with the audience.
Even if the pitch wavered a little, if the emotion they wanted to convey reached the people watching, he believed that would lead straight into imrsion in the stage.
So TSP idols’ choreography had more full-body movents than you’d expect, and a lot of movents that cut off your breathing.
'That’s how the stage impact cos alive.'
Even knowing it was disadvantageous for live singing, LYNX endured it purely for the performance they would show on stage.
Even Taesu thought it might be a heavy burden for rookies like LYNX, but he still trusted them.
"Please trust us, CEO."
"I always do."
Esther spoke on behalf of the mbers, as if to prove to him right now that his faith in them wasn’t wrong.
And when he saw all the others sending their agreent with firm eyes at her words, he couldn’t help but nod.
Before he knew it, TSP had beco one of the major agencies you could count on one hand in Korea.
LYNX was the group TSP had created by choosing raw gems over the past few years while even delaying their debut, then training and preparing them according to his philosophy.
That was why he was convinced that, in a few years, they really could beco a girl group that represented not just Korea, but the world.
Especially as he prepared LYNX’s stage for this second mission of Three Kingdom while directly working with them on a stage from Anygirls—LYNX’s seniors, who once stirred up a craze across Korea—he felt even more certain.
'Anygirls evolved to fit the modern era. That’s LYNX.'
Because he had directly produced both groups, he was already excited at the thought of showing that sense in front of people.
"You’re preparing well. I’ll get going."
"Yes!"
All of a sudden, he found himself curious /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ about how the other judges who would watch LYNX’s stage would react, and among them, the one he was most curious about was Raon’s reaction.
'This ti, even Raon won’t be able to give her own group the top score with that “cover your eyes and pretend” routine.'
Last filming, while Taesu and Seyoon held back and criticized their own groups to save face, Raon had thrown her image aside and shalessly handed Iam the top score.
Because of that, for a while after the broadcast, he couldn’t lift his head whenever he went to work, thanks to the cold looks from company employees and from LYNX’s mbers.
But this ti, even if Raon wrapped herself in thick skin, the thought that she wouldn’t be able to avoid giving LYNX the top score made a smile form on its own.
There was still ti left before the stage started, so Taesu left LYNX’s waiting room—partly to get revenge for last ti, partly to make her curious again—and headed to Raon’s waiting room.
Knock knock.
He lightly knocked on the door and waited for an answer telling him to co in, but even after quite a while there was no response. Just as he started to turn back, thinking maybe no one was inside—
"You don’t want to go to the ER again, right? There’s still chocolate Ryujin made left in the company fridge."
"Why would you leave that! Isn’t your company crazy too?"
"I left it to secretly feed it to soone mouthy like you! I’m going to give this as a present to Taesu and CEO Seyoon later!"
"Seriously, ever since you went to KJ Entertainnt, you’ve gone crazy!"
A familiar voice ca through the door.
***
"Are you not managing Lee Sion properly, Raon?!"
"Do you think she’d get managed just because soone tries to manage her?!"
"Th-That’s true, but! Is that sothing KJ should be saying?"
Hyeryeong couldn’t believe it as she watched Raon answer back proudly even after causing trouble.
-It’s wrong to be outside when a typhoon is coming!
Raon shut Hyeryeong down, leaving her speechless, insisting that when a natural disaster hits, avoiding it is just basic common sense.
"This is the second ti! Fine, let the first ti slide, but how do you feed ran before the stage every single ti! And Buldak Hot Chicken Stir-Fried Ran, at that!"
"Hyeryeong!"
Whoosh.
Hyeryeong turned at the voice calling her and glared at its source.
In one corner of Raon’s waiting room, a single girl was kneeling down, quietly pinned in place.
On both sides of her, manager Kim Yunsik and Park Jiu stood guard like they were escorting a violent criminal, giving off an ominous air.
The one in the middle—like a pirate king facing execution in Loguetown—was none other than Lee Sion.
"Why are you calling ?"
When the very person who had made her furious called out so nonchalantly, a sharp answer ca out of Hyeryeong without her realizing it.
"Of course, if you only eat Buldak Hot Chicken Stir-Fried Ran, it can be hard on your stomach."
Even to that sharp reply, Sion kept speaking calmly, as if she understood exactly how Hyeryeong felt.
"So?"
"I’m not soone who doesn’t know moderation. I mixed in a spaghetti cup ran that can neutralize the spiciness."
"···So you did a good job?"
"On top of that, I even put a slice of cheddar cheese on it. This is a special al you can only eat on your birthday."
At how unbelievably confident she was, Hyeryeong’s mind started to go blank.
"Be quiet, Lee Sion!"
"Seriously, how did you, in the short ti we looked away, even drag in a mber of another group and go to a convenience store again!"
At least the managers, unlike Sion or Raon, seed to still have sothing like a conscience left, because they hurriedly covered Sion’s mouth and tried to rein her in.
-Kaella, where did Kaella go?
-She said she was going to the bathroom for a bit.
-Don’t tell she went to throw up again?
Today, Hyeryeong had co to MPlay to watch VYNNIA’s stage for the second competition of Three Kingdom—the one she had personally coached.
After rehearsal, they gathered in the waiting room to wait for the actual filming together, and then Kaella disappeared saying she was going to the bathroom, causing a huge uproar.
Eating disorder.
Everyone at the company already knew Kaella’s eating disorder—sothing she’d had since before debut—was more serious than you’d think, so they worried she might be throwing up again.
'It’s a more common illness than you’d think.'
Hyeryeong could understand her.
Hyeryeong herself had once suffered from an obsession that was close to a ntal illness, and several idols she knew also dealt with physical and ntal illnesses, big and small.
Idols.
Even if they looked glamorous on the outside, inside it was a job that carried countless pains, so she could understand Kaella as a junior—and worry about her too.
-She’s not in the bathroom either!
VYNNIA’s mbers and the SY staff, including Hyeryeong, searched all over the station for Kaella, who still hadn’t co back.
-Don’t tell it’s the convenience store again?
But they couldn’t find her anywhere. Just as they were starting to get genuinely worried sothing had happened, soone muttered that she might be at the convenience store, and it was like lightning struck everyone’s head.
They rembered the chaos from last filming, when it was discovered that Kaella had gone to a convenience store with Iam mber Lee Sion and eaten food before going on stage.
With a half-believing heart, they rushed to the convenience store inside the station, and—
-How did you even co up with this combination?
-Big data. If you eat convenience store food to survive, you build up a database of taste.
-Hurry and try this too!
-Hey! But why does it feel like I’m the only one eating?
-I wanted to see you eat so bad I couldn’t sleep since yesterday.
They found Sion and Kaella sitting face-to-face with a mountain of food piled up on the table.
"Kaella, you too—kneel next to Lee Sion and put your hands up!"
"You’re not satisfied with just one, Hyeryeong!"
"Our Kaella wasn’t this kind of kid! Seriously, what···."
So dumbfounded she couldn’t even think, Hyeryeong grabbed both of them on the spot and dragged them to Raon’s waiting room.
After the last incident, they’d caused trouble again. This ti, Hyeryeong was going to demand of Raon, the producer, whether this wasn’t too much.
Even if Raon was a senior Hyeryeong respected and was close with, she still had to say what she had to say.
But—
"Say you’re sorry to !"
"Aughh!!"
At first, Raon flinched when she saw Sion and Kaella being dragged in by Hyeryeong, but then she quickly grasped the situation and started acting shaless, making the back of Hyeryeong’s neck throb.
"How are you any different from Lee Sion?"
"What? Are you done talking?!"
"No, PD, if you react like that there, what does that make !"
When Hyeryeong pointed out her shaless attitude, Raon snapped and glared sharply.
And then Sion butted in, looking wronged that she’d been ntioned at all—
"Stay out of it!"
Hyeryeong and Raon shouted at her at the sa ti, and only then, as if she realized she’d get stuck holding the bag if she got caught now, Sion went quiet.
"You don’t want to go to the ER again, right? There’s still chocolate Ryujin made left in the company fridge."
"Why would you leave that! Isn’t your company crazy too?"
"I left it to secretly feed it to soone mouthy like you! I’m going to give this as a present to Taesu and CEO Seyoon later!"
Their argunt only got more intense.
But—
Creeeak.
"Raon···?"
The door opened, and Park Taesu appeared. Raon froze like stone.
***
"Why don’t you just go ahead and assassinate soone while you’re at it?"
At Seyoon’s voice, Raon could only bow her head.
"I’m so scared I don’t think I’ll be able to drink even water you give for a while."
"No···that was just sothing I said in the heat of the mont."
"So scary, so scary. I raised you like my own kid, and now you’re even trying to give poison chocolate."
"It’s not poison! People will misunderstand if they hear you. There wasn’t even a single ingredient in it that could get you in trouble under the Food Sanitation Act, you know?"
"But Hyeryeong went to the ER and got an IV after eating it."
"That’s because she’s weak."
Raon, Seyoon, and Park Taesu sat side-by-side in the judges’ seats.
Of all things, Raon was in the middle, so with Seyoon and Taesu attacking her from both sides, even if she had two mouths, she had nothing to say.
'No, why did Taesu show up right then!'
Because he walked into the waiting room while she was in a small argunt with Hyeryeong, Raon was in a very awkward situation right now.
"Iam picked 'that song.'"
"···Yes."
"Bold of them."
Fortunately, after teasing her once, Seyoon seed satisfied and moved the conversation to another topic: the song Iam chose for this second mission.
"Out of your songs, Raon, that one was the one I liked the most."
At his words, Taesu added that he also liked the song Iam chose the most this ti.
"I like it too, but that song is still second place."
"Then what’s first place, Senior?"
"Your debut song. Raon, do you rember back then?"
"I rember, CEO."
Raon recalled her debut at Seyoon’s question.
Back then, everyone at SY had opposed her solo debut.
Starting with how she was too young, the company’s main argunt was that it would be better to make a boy group or a girl group that had already proven successful.
But because Seyoon, the CEO, pushed it through despite all that opposition, her debut happened. And because they went through the entire process together, her debut song held an especially special aning for both Seyoon and Raon.
"So this ti, I’m not going to go easy on Iam’s stage."
"That’s what I want too."
Raon understood how he felt, speaking firmly that he would never go easy on Iam’s stage that chose her song.
Seyoon cared deeply about Raon and her albums, just as much as she did, so if they reproduced it clumsily, he couldn’t possibly tolerate it.
And Raon, who was producing Iam, wasn’t planning to go easy on them either.
This ti, if the mbers looked sloppy, she was even prepared to grit her teeth and drag it all out of them one by one.
"But seriously, you two both went all-in, isn’t this too much?"
"Us?"
"VYNNIA is G.G, LYNX is Anygirls. Are you trying to do so kind of girl group all-star showdown or sothing?"
Now that attention had moved off her, Raon counterattacked Seyoon and Taesu.
And as if they felt a little guilty, both of them deliberately looked away.
'They really went all-in.'
SY prepared their stage by mobilizing G.G—the girl group called the best in Korean history—and even Hyeryeong, who had been their leader.
And TSP, not to be outdone, had prepared Anygirls’ stage too—the rival of G.G, who had once even carried the title of the nation’s girl group.
"Even having the sa producers is cheating."
"If you’re going to talk like that, isn’t it even more cheating that the original singers themselves stepped in directly?"
"That and that are different!"
"What’s different!"
Watching even Taesu—usually famous as a saintly gentleman in the music industry—snap like that, Raon got a feeling that this competition really wouldn’t be easy.
'Our kids prepared hard too, but it’s the sa on the other side.'
Unlike the first mission, the opponents didn’t show even a hint of letting their guard down.
"We will begin filming."
Hearing the staff mber’s voice announcing the start of filming, Raon had no choice but to believe Iam’s mbers would do well.
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