Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 116.

The first recording of Top of Idol had finally wrapped.
Inside the car heading back to the Dormitory.
The members all plugged in their earbuds the moment they got in and started listening to “Slope”.
And exactly three minutes and forty-seven seconds later.

“How are we supposed to pull this off…?”
“Now that I think about it, I think we chose the wrong song.”
“I picked it because it seemed like a good track, but actually singing it is incredibly difficult.”

Complaints echoed from all corners of the vehicle.

“Everyone.”

I couldn’t say I didn’t understand their feelings.
“Slope” had such a wide vocal range and required such rapid breathing that it was genuinely difficult to sing.

“If even one person can sing it well, but five people splitting it can’t pull it off…”

But we still had to do well.

“You know what happens then…?”
“….”
“….”

My words cast a heavy silence over the group.

“Plus, Cha-yul is genuinely the top among all six teams. If we mess up the signature hit song of the most popular person, you all know what’ll happen. Everyone’s been through survival shows.”

We’d all experienced it.
That cold, merciless backlash that came from failing a cover of a popular song.
We even had a mission covering Colors’ senior idols’ songs.
I doubt anyone here escaped without getting cursed out back then.
…Maybe I scared them too much.

“Still, I have my reasons for choosing this song.”
“What reasons…?!”

Yeon Ju-hong looked at me with eyes that held the faintest glimmer of hope.

“I’m confident we’ll do well with that song.”

I truly was.
This wasn’t empty reassurance—I genuinely believed we could pull it off.

“The vocal range is wide, but… we can handle that by distributing it among the five of us. Besides, we all learned during Make a New Color that you can’t approach a cover with the mindset of surpassing the original artist.”
“That’s true.”

Seo Baek-young nodded in agreement.

“Yun Chung’s right. We should focus on showcasing our own charm through a proven masterpiece, not trying to outdo the original.”
“I’ll refine the arrangement to suit us better.”
“Perfect! I’m ready to give this everything I’ve got this time! We’re going to crush it and take first place…!”

Kim Geum and Yeon Ju-hong’s eyes began to burn with renewed determination.

“Crush what exactly…?”

Ryu Bora eyed Yeon Ju-hong with suspicion.

“Oops.”

Yeon Ju-hong clamped her mouth shut.
She meant crushing Hi-Hi-Ho and Kim Ryeo-yu, obviously.
I’d asked the members to keep what happened with Rumi earlier under wraps.
If they found out, they’d all lose their minds.
From my perspective, she wasn’t worth the trouble, and I didn’t want to burden the members with worry.

“What do you mean! Sister Ryeo-yu!”
“…Hmm.”

Ryu Bora continued to scrutinize Yeon Ju-hong with a suspicious gaze.
It’s funny how she never reads the room normally, but she’s sharp as a knife when it counts.

“Come on, everyone. You all need to collapse into bed the moment we get back today. Starting tomorrow, we’ll be practicing until we drop.”
“Yes!”

Before Ryu Bora could press me further, I quickly steered the conversation elsewhere, and Yeon Ju-hong eagerly latched onto my new topic.

***

“Sleep well, everyone! Dream of me!”
“…You mean have nightmares?”

Yeon Ju-hong and Kim Geum bickered as they headed off to bed.
Ryu Bora had already gone to sleep long ago.
Now only Seo Baek-young and I remained.

“Unnie.”
“Mm?”
“Can we talk for a moment?”

There was still more I needed to say from earlier.
Seo Baek-young smiled and let out a long sigh.
I’m the one who should be sighing here, honestly.
But Seo Baek-young didn’t refuse my request.
We both moved to our room.
Sometimes sharing a room like this has its advantages.

“Since when?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb.”

At my words, Seo Baek-young simply smiled quietly.
Even in the darkness that had settled over the room, her eyes gleamed with a soft but unmistakable light.
I know those eyes.
Eyes that hold unwavering conviction.
I find those eyes difficult to face.
People with those eyes tend to—

“I’m fine, Chung.”

—carry far too much on their shoulders alone.

“What exactly does the Shop Owner want?”
“!”

The moment Hong Yeon-seo’s name came up, Seo Baek-young’s eyes widened noticeably in surprise.
She hadn’t expected me to deduce that far.

“What did you ask her to do?”
“…Yun Chung.”
“I’m not blaming you for keeping it secret. I’m just worried, so I’m asking.”

Something had felt off for a while now.
She knew far too much to have simply gathered information as a senior trainee.
Information that seemed to come from company executives—knowledge that no newcomer should ever possess.
Where was Seo Baek-young obtaining such information?
It certainly wasn’t from Director Kim.
At first, I’d suspected Sung Director.
But no matter how I thought about it, there was no connection between Sung Director and Seo Baek-young.
Eventually, my suspicions reached all the way to Hong President.

“May I make a guess?”

If she couldn’t say it herself, I’d have to speak for her.

“The label separation Hong President mentioned this time—it wasn’t really for the directors’ benefit, was it?”

It had been the same in my past life.
The label separation did happen, but ultimately Hong President ended up controlling all three labels.

“….”
“In truth, you wanted to check Sung Director and Director Kim. But they’d accumulated too much merit to easily undermine. So you wanted to gather evidence.”

Seo Baek-young simply watched me, listening quietly.
But I could tell.
Everything I’d said so far was correct.

“Over a year, you’d carefully collect their mistakes and misconduct… waiting for the right moment to expose them. To remove them or reclaim your power.”

Hong Yeon-seo.
She was capricious and unreliable, but she wasn’t stupid.
She was simply someone who loved her own music so much that she frequently abandoned the company.

“I think she probably chose one person from each of the lower-ranking groups to be both an informant and… someone who would take her side. Among us, that was probably you, right?”
“The Shop Owner apparently considered you originally.”

Only then did Seo Baek-young finally speak.

“But she sensed it. That you wouldn’t obey her orders without question. She didn’t say it outright, but… she must have thought I was a much safer choice since I’ve known Yun Chung longer than you.”
“To be honest, I don’t like the Shop Owner.”
“That’s why she asked me instead.”

Seo Baek-young’s eyes trembled slightly.

“Yun Chung, you really are something. How did you figure it out?”
“Because you know too much, unnie.”
“But you know just as much.”

Well, I have my reasons for that…
Though they’re not reasons I can share.

“Are you upset? That I… didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“Actually, the leader position… that’s partly why I said I couldn’t do it. I was afraid that if I became leader, our group would be manipulated by the Shop Owner without me even realizing it. I didn’t want that.”

So that was it.
Hong Yeon-seo was the reason I ended up taking on this leader role I never asked for.

“Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.”

Seo Baek-young looked both relieved and bitter.

“I’m sorry. For not telling you. I wanted to—”
“But unnie, are you okay?”
“!”

Seo Baek-young’s face filled with confusion and surprise.
A confusion mingled with darkness.

“I don’t think you need to apologize. You didn’t harm the team. For you, it was a choice to protect us.”

I understood the situation well enough.
The President himself had given the order—there was no way a rookie could refuse.
And Hong President wouldn’t have asked without offering something in return.
In exchange for receiving information, she would have given it as well.

“Whatever Hong President wanted from us… if it had been an unreasonable demand or something that would hurt us, I don’t think you would have agreed to it.”

The Seo Baek-young I knew was that kind of person.
A bit clumsy, perhaps a bit naive.
But upright.

“…All the President wanted was one thing. For you to report the things Director Kim was doing to obstruct us.”
“….”

So that was it.
Hong President was indeed trying to suppress the directors and resume control of the company.

“That’s why I followed the President’s orders. I dislike Director Kim just as much.”
“‘We do,’ you mean.”
“…Right. We do.”

Seo Baek-young let out a soft laugh.

“I wanted to protect it.”

Seo Baek-young spoke calmly.

“I thought that once we debuted, everything would be over. That after that, it would all be smooth sailing. That we could talk things through with the company and build our own vision.”

But it wasn’t.
The moment our debut was confirmed, Director Kim poured cold water on that hope.
I tried to imagine what Seo Baek-young, who had dreamed of debuting for so long, must have felt.
It must have been despair.
We had barely climbed one mountain only to find an even larger one looming ahead.

“I wanted to do something. For us. But I… I’m smaller and more insignificant than I thought. So much so that I finally understand why Director Kim looked down on me so much.”

What power could a trainee who had just confirmed their debut possibly have?
I had only just set foot into society.
I could feel Seo Baek-young’s helplessness.

“That’s why I accepted the Shop Owner’s proposal. Because I wanted to do something—anything—for us.”
“….”
“I hated that. You carrying all the burden alone.”

So that’s what she had been thinking.
I had never really considered it a burden.
Hearing Seo Baek-young’s true feelings for the first time, I found myself at a loss for words.

“I’m the oldest here… and I felt pathetic just relying on you.”
“It’s not pathetic. What have I even done?”
“Yun Chung, you’re a better leader than anyone.”

Seo Baek-young slowly lifted her head.

“I’m filtering out what needs to be filtered on my end. You don’t need to worry.”
“I’m not worried.”
“….”
“They say the enemy of my enemy is my ally. It’s a stretch to call the Shop Owner our friend… but there’s no harm in helping each other when we need to.”
“Yun Chung.”
“Yes.”

The way Seo Baek-young called my name—her expression looked genuinely anguished.
Had I made some mistake?

“How do you… know everything like that?”

Ah.
Had I been too composed without realizing it?
I should have pretended to be surprised.
Having grown so familiar with the members, somewhere along the way I had stopped being “Yun Chung” and had become “Baek Nok-ha” in this place.
As I kept my mouth shut, realizing my mistake, Seo Baek-young continued speaking.

“Ever since Make a New Color… I really thought it was strange. Actually, I thought it was a bit… odd. How could someone change so drastically overnight?”

Seo Baek-young was no longer looking at me.
She was staring at the floor.

“And… how is it that you suddenly do everything so well, and know everything too.”

I’d let my guard down far too much.
With the thought that our connection would last at most another year, I’d unconsciously set aside my vigilance for a moment.

“And how can a person be so strong.”

No, that wasn’t it.
The truth was, I simply wanted to let my guard down.
I wanted to feel at ease.
With the naive thought that at least in front of the members, I could afford to relax.

“So at first, I wondered if you had some kind of connection with Sung Director or Director Kim… but that couldn’t be it given your personality.”

I said nothing in response.
Because I knew I couldn’t explain my circumstances.

“And then I came to a conclusion.”

A conclusion?

“How you could have changed so much.”

What could it possibly be.
A chilling sense of dread trickled down my spine.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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