Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 3

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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 3.

Even in this different body, dawn broke without fail.
7 a.m.
I was heading to the Practice Room.
In Yun Chung’s memories, she always went to the Practice Room at this hour.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she would unlock the door, clean, and practice.
Most of the other trainees would arrive not long after.
And today was no exception.
Only the atmosphere felt different from usual.
Today marked the beginning of filming for Make a New Color.
Currently, Colors had fifty female trainees.
But only twelve of them were candidates for the debut group.
Of those twelve, only five would debut.
The remaining seven would return to square one and chase their debut dreams anew.
And of these twelve, I knew seven of them.
Because only seven of them would debut.
Five who debuted as StillBlue, and two who debuted afterward.
The remaining five never debuted at all, walking entirely different paths.
And of those seven who did debut, only two lasted ten years.
Three from StillBlue vanished within a year, and another disappeared from the entertainment industry within five years.
That was how this industry worked.
So many people disappeared that it was hard to keep track of who was gone.
The biggest problem was that this happened so often, everyone treated it as inevitable.
Even though it wasn’t, really.
But anyway.

“The atmosphere is insane.”

Everyone was stiff and tense, perhaps because today marked the beginning of filming.
And rightfully so.
It felt similar to the college entrance exam day for high school seniors.
Besides, not a single person had greeted me.
I had actually been a trainee under a different agency just a few months ago.
But after being cut from that agency’s debut lineup, I transferred to Colors, which was searching for a main vocal trainee.
That’s why I didn’t know the trainees here well.
Just because we were under the same agency didn’t mean we had to be close.
I casually sat down in the front row right in front of the mirror and began stretching.
I needed to loosen up first… huh?
…Why is everyone staring at me?

“Hey you.”

That’s when someone called out to me.
Not by name, but “hey you.” Either they didn’t know my name because I had virtually no presence, or they disliked me intensely.
Neither scenario was particularly welcome.

“That’s Seo Baek-young’s seat.”

…Assigned seats in the Practice Room?
I moved over without much resistance.
There was no need to create conflict from the start.
Especially not with Seo Baek-young.
The door opened.

“Seo Baek-young!”
“You’re here?”
“Hello!”

As the saying goes, speak of the devil.
It was Seo Baek-young.
Seo Baek-young was the longest-serving trainee at Colors and held the position of a “leader”—someone everyone relied on.
She had endured here for nine years.
Everyone believed she would debut.
Perhaps because of that, unlike Yun Chung, Seo Baek-young received greetings from everyone.
After casually acknowledging each greeting, Seo Baek-young walked toward me.
It was her seat, after all.
Seo Baek-young stared at me intently for a moment.

“That’s surprising.”
“…What is?”
“You were always stuck in the corner.”

Seo Baek-young plopped down beside me and began stretching just as I was.

“Did you decide to suddenly act all eager just because of the filming?”

Ah, I could see it clearly now.

“Look, I’m fine with everything else, but don’t drag others down with you. Like last time.”

She hates me.
No, everyone in this Practice Room…
…hates Yun Chung.
I’m finished.

***

Even if I had seen Yun Chung’s memories, they were only fragmented recollections at best.
To summarize Yun Chung’s life—she was utterly alone.
For reasons unknown, Yun Chung had chosen to live in solitude, without a single friend or colleague.
From what I could gather, it seemed she was afraid of people.
A vicious cycle.
She feared people, so she kept her distance; the more distance she kept, the more she feared them.
Fearing people meant fearing the stage, fearing the camera—it was inevitable.
Yun Chung practiced alone.
In empty spaces.
So no one knew how hard she was working.
They only saw her results.
…The result of becoming rigid and frozen the moment the camera turned on.
This was manageable during individual evaluations.
But the moment group evaluations came around, the problem spiraled.

‘Are you messing with us right now? Just because you can sing well on your own doesn’t mean anything! Your dancing doesn’t match up at all!’

For the group evaluation, we all had to practice together.
We needed to synchronize the choreography and formations, and naturally, we had to match our vocal harmonies as well.
But outside the hours when I absolutely had to practice with everyone, I trained alone.
Fear of people was my excuse, but naturally, the other trainees couldn’t view it favorably.

‘She’s really selfish. She just wants to debut as the main vocalist on her own.’

If the results had been good despite practicing that way, it would’ve been fine—but the results were disastrous.

“Everything else is fine, but don’t drag others down. Like last time.”

So Seo Baek-young’s reaction wasn’t unreasonable.
Especially since she’d just been evaluated in the same team as me.
The problem was,

“That won’t happen again.”
“!”

Things were going to be different from now on.

“Then that’s a relief.”

Seo Baek-young seemed quite startled, but soon responded matter-of-factly.
She wasn’t the only one shocked.
All the trainees around us who could hear my answer looked equally stunned.

‘Did she take something after being on broadcast?’
‘Leave her alone. The quiet ones are always scarier when they snap.’

I hear everything, you know.
Well, anyway.
This is where the real beginning starts.

***

Make a New Color.
A rookie girl group debut survival program from Colors, one of the five major entertainment companies and famous as a girl group hotspot.
Only five out of twelve trainees will debut.
Four through 100% viewer popularity voting, and one through the judges’ selection.
Voting happens once every two weeks, but only the final vote counts toward debut.
That means even if you rank first in the initial vote, it’s worthless if you don’t place in the top four in the final vote.
However, there is a way to debut even without placing in the top four.
Catching the judges’ eyes.
There are four judges in total.
Kim Mo-gyeong, a company director and producer.
Do Hee-young, the representative girl group of Colors and a senior of twelve years with Greysh.
Kang Soon-hwa, the representative vocal trainer of Colors.
Jo Won-ho, the representative dance trainer and choreographer of Colors.
I knew all of them in my past life.
…Though I didn’t say I knew them well.
There are no eliminations, but instead they announce the popularity rankings every two weeks.
And they also announce the MVP of each mission chosen by the judges.
The number one in popularity ranking and the MVP receive benefits in the next mission.
And the trainee ranked twelfth in popularity receives a handicap.
And Yun Chung never escaped twelfth place throughout all twelve episodes, then debuted through the judges’ selection.
That’s how it was supposed to happen.
But not anymore.

***

Not long after, cameras and various broadcast equipment began lining one side of the Practice Room.
And a man who appeared to be a PD stood at the front of the Practice Room.

“Alright, today just do what you normally practice. Each of you can just do whatever you usually do.”

…If we each did what we normally did, twelve people wouldn’t even use the same Practice Room in the first place.
I looked up at the PD.
It was a familiar face.
Oh Baek-gyeong, the PD.
The problem was that it wasn’t a face I knew well.

“Chat with each other too, yeah? Just go with the flow.”

If this PD is directing the broadcast, that’s dangerous.

“Don’t bore me with empty pretense.”

She was famous for her devilish editing style.
…There were other things she was known for, but that wasn’t important right now.
Of course, the broadcast station benefited whenever scenes were sensational.
In a competitive survival show like this, if contestants fought, it was pure gold.
They could milk three episodes from a five-minute scuffle.
The problem was the contestants’ image.
Trainees had no fanbase and no pre-established image to speak of.
That’s why the impression created early on would linger for a very long time.
So for now, I had to stay quiet.

“Chung.”

But why was she calling out to me so tactlessly?

“Did we finish our first group choreography practice?”

Seo Baek-young had already warmed up completely, asking me the question loud enough for everyone to hear.
I was ninety-nine percent sure she was doing this to get some screen time.

“Our group choreography isn’t easy, you know. I was worried.”

The first stage of this program was a ‘group dance stage.’
It wasn’t a mission or anything—it was a stage used to introduce the trainees at the beginning.
A first impression stage that would last about four minutes and then be over.
The problem was that despite its purpose, the choreography difficulty was quite substantial.
The original Yun Chung could barely pull it off.
And I had only seen this choreography for the first time twelve hours ago.

“Oh, we’re still practicing, but it’s not easy.”

Stay humble no matter what. Humble.

“Is that so? Which parts are difficult? I can help.”

…I see what role you want for yourself.
The cool older sister, the caring leader role.

“Ah, could you spare a moment to look at just our chorus section?”

Still, I should at least keep time with them.

“Of course I can.”

Seo Baek-young readily agreed and stood up.

“Why don’t you show me first? I’ll point out what parts could use improvement.”

There it was.
In an instant, every trainee’s gaze snapped toward me.

“I’ll play the song now. Just dance through the chorus part.”

Yun Chung sings well, but her dancing is an absolute disaster.
At this rate, she’d probably humiliate herself on camera.
The preview would probably flash captions like “A trainee in trouble from her first appearance…?”
In other words, she was going to be branded a “black hole” right from the start.

“Ah, I was worried it might be a bother since everyone’s already practicing…”
“No!”
“Absolutely not. We’re fine, so don’t worry and just go ahead.”

The other trainees quickly waved their hands dismissively.
You’ll be fine, won’t you?
The problem is that Yun Chung won’t be fine.
Most of the trainees looked at Yun Chung with sympathetic eyes.
Seo Baek-young, however, was watching with a cold gaze.
And finally, Producer Oh was—

“Ah, good, good. Let’s give it a try.”

He looked like he was having the time of his life.
Producer Oh had probably reviewed the trainees’ profiles beforehand.
All their strengths and weaknesses, positions, personalities, and characteristics.
Which meant Producer Oh also knew that Yun Chung was weak at dancing.
Yet he was still asking her to do it… which obviously meant her struggle would make for good television.

“Ah… I’m still lacking in skill…”
“It’s fine. We’re all lacking in something, aren’t we?”
“Then, sister.”

I looked at Seo Baek-young and smiled brightly.

“Would you be able to dance alongside me?”
“Huh?”
“Since you’re so skilled, sister, if we dance together, I think I’ll be able to find my rhythm and feel more confident.”

Seo Baek-young’s eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn’t expected me to say something like this.
But she nodded immediately.

“Sure, why not?”

She seemed to think it wouldn’t be a loss for her.

“Then, since we’re dancing anyway, why don’t we dance from the beginning instead of just the chorus?”

Damn that Oh PD.

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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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