Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 63

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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 63.

The outside world was in chaos, but chaos or not, filming had to continue.
We still had the final mission and the final vote ahead of us.
Yet the atmosphere on set was inevitably gloomy.
Everyone was watching me carefully.
Not just the trainees, but the Production Crew as well.
The “Let’s Go” team naturally knew of my innocence, but the “Go Go Beach Girl” team couldn’t possibly know.
The 【Let’s Go】 team naturally knew of my innocence, but the 【Go Go Beach Girl】 team had no way of knowing.

“Good luck with today’s shoot.”

…Well. It didn’t matter.
Whatever. It doesn’t matter.

“Has Oh PD said anything? Like, will there be an official announcement?”
“Nothing yet.”
“That’s harsh. Still, they should be protecting you somehow….”
“I don’t know. They’re probably thrilled the buzz is so high.”
“Well, if anything, the buzz around it will increase, so you’d probably be thrilled.”

Oops. Had I been too honest?
Oops. Was I too honest?

“Sorry?”
“This atmosphere right now… you’re not scared? If it were me… I’d really want to give up.”
“Oh.”
“Oh.”

Oh, that’s what you meant.

“Why?”
“Because it’s not my fault.”
“!”
“It’s childish, I know, but I really love the saying ‘truth will prevail.’ So… I’m fine. Because I’m innocent.”
“….”
“….”

Seo Baek-young fell into a moment of contemplation, her expression distant.

“Yun Chung.”
“Yes.”
“To be honest, sometimes you feel so… unfamiliar to me. I didn’t know you that well, but… the you I first met wasn’t like this at all.”

Of course not.
I was a completely different person back then.

“Still, I think I can see now that you’re truly an upright person. If you ever need me for anything, just say the word.”
“…Thank you.”

I was genuinely surprised.
I hadn’t expected Seo Baek-young to say something like that.
…It’s a strange feeling.

“Let’s go, filming is starting.”

Seo Baek-young ruffled my cheek affectionately before hurrying off.
It was just before filming was set to begin.

“Alright, here’s the explanation for the final mission.”

The final mission would be conducted live.
Which meant everyone’s true abilities would inevitably be laid bare.
Post-production corrections would be minimal at best.
There was no way they could apply Kim Ryeo-yu’s pitch correction during a live broadcast.

“The final mission consists of three songs total.”

Oh PD began explaining slowly before the camera.

“The first song will be performed by everyone together on a single stage. I’m sure you all anticipated this much.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.
It would be a stage similar in concept to Rainbow.

“For the second song, you’ll be divided into two teams, each performing the same song separately.”

Hmm.
Up to this point, there wasn’t really anything surprising.
The truly shocking part starts now.

“The issue is how we’re going to select the teams.”
“?”
“The Production Team won’t be involved in how you form your teams.”
“!”
“You’ll discuss it among yourselves, form teams of five or six members each, and then come to us.”

The trainees’ eyes widened like saucers.

“Throughout this program, you’ve gotten to know each other. An idol group isn’t just people working together for a few months. You’re looking at a minimum of seven years—sometimes decades together. The relationship between members is something you won’t find in any other workplace. More than colleagues, but less than family. Yet it’s different from friendship too. With friends, you can cut ties if you can’t stand them. With members, you can’t. After all, it’s a business. But it’s also more than business. It’s a relationship where you have to stick together until the end, whether you love each other or hate each other.”

More than colleagues, less than family.
Those words fit perfectly.
Comrades who share hardship and joy together.

“Find the people you want to be on the same team with. And in the final live broadcast voting, you can vote for ‘five’ members. That means your fans will—”

Oh PD flashed a rather unpleasant smile as he spoke.

“Help decide your members as well.”

Then Kim Geum raised her hand sharply.

“But isn’t it true that only four members are decided by voting, and the Judges Panel chooses the remaining one?”
“That’s correct.”

Oh PD nodded immediately.

“However, everyone. Whether it’s politicians, celebrities, or us—”
“…?”
“It’s not easy to completely ignore public opinion.”
“You mean….”
“The Judges Panel would prefer to choose a trainee ranked between fifth and seventh, rather than suddenly picking someone ranked eleventh, right? They wouldn’t want to disregard our Colorist judges’ eyes. And besides—”

Oh PD cleared his throat with a soft cough.

“People’s eyes are all the same, really.”

…After a long time, she was finally saying something that made sense.

“Form each team and try to create some chemistry. Who knows? The Colorists might be so captivated by your chemistry that they’ll debut that team as-is?”

It sounded plausible, but in reality, it wasn’t that simple.
Overturning everything with a single performance… that was like plucking a star from the sky.
Unless, of course, you displayed absolutely phenomenal chemistry.

“The final song will be a fan song dedicated to all of you. We’ll perform it together. Think of it as a final farewell. More like a curtain call feeling.”

…It seemed everyone had anticipated things up to this point.

“So now we’re going to form teams. You must all be feeling pretty lost about this, right?”
“Yes!”

Everyone nodded vigorously.

“That’s why we want to help you out. We had planned to hold a ranking announcement after the fourth mission, remember?”
“Yes!”
“Instead of the fourth mission, we held the guerrilla concert.”
“Yes.”
“We did cancel the fourth mission, but we didn’t cancel the ranking announcement, so we’ve been continuing to tally votes. And last night at midnight was the deadline.”
“!”

Of course, everyone was curious about how the ranking announcement would unfold.
They all knew the voting hadn’t been suspended.
Their families were constantly contacting them, saying they were voting diligently every day.
They’d expected the voting results would be revealed one way or another….
But like this? So suddenly?

“Well, we’ve been quite busy with things. So we’re going to do a simple ranking announcement right now. The changes have been quite significant.”

Significant changes?
The trainees exchanged anxious glances with one another.
For those in the upper ranks, this was clearly not good news.
For those in the lower ranks, it sounded like an opportunity.

“First, I’ll announce the total number of votes. At the last ranking announcement, each Colorist could vote for up to twelve people per day. That gave us a total of 2,130,108 votes. However, this time, each Colorist could vote for only one person per day. So this time’s total vote count is….”

Oh PD drew out the suspense like a true Broadcasting Station professional.
Last time, with twelve votes per person allowed, that astronomical figure of 2.13 million votes had been possible.
But this time, it was limited to just one vote per person.
Even a simple division by twelve would yield roughly 170,000 votes.
I wondered just how many votes had been tallied this round.

“The total vote count is… 1,151,206 votes.”

1.15 million votes…?

Insane.
The trainees’ eyes wavered.

“First, excluding the last-place ranking of 11th, I’ll announce from 10th place onward.”

Since Jo Hee-on had left, the lowest ranking naturally shifted from 12th to 11th.

10th Place
Shin Yu-hyeon 21,394 votes (
▼
1)
9th Place
Park Ha-eun 32,374 votes (
▲
2)

The lower rankings showed only minor fluctuations, nothing dramatic.
The expressions of the two at the bottom were composed yet tinged with despair.
In a way, it seemed like resignation.
The real issue came next.

8th Place
Yeon Ju-hong 81,384 votes (
▼
2)

Just before this, Yeon Ju-hong had been in sixth place, right on the edge of debut eligibility—and now she’d plummeted to eighth.
Yeon Ju-hong’s expression was naturally devastating.
An overwhelming sorrow.
Eyes barely holding back tears that threatened to spill over.
In truth, I’d anticipated this ranking.
In this entire controversy, the person who suffered most after me was none other than Yeon Ju-hong.
Four days had already passed since the scandal erupted.
The voting couldn’t have escaped unscathed.
Yeon Ju-hong likely saw this coming too.
Even if she did, it was probably too much to bear.
I moved to sit beside Yeon Ju-hong.
Then I pulled her into a tight embrace and whispered in her ear.

“You absolutely cannot cry right now. Not at all.”

Yeon Ju-hong whispered back very softly, her voice trembling with moisture, “Yes.”
Hearing that, I patted Yeon Ju-hong’s shoulder.
It’s only temporary.
This too shall pass.
I comforted Yeon Ju-hong briefly and returned to my place.

7th Place
Lee Gyeong-a 92,937 votes (
▲
3)

Meanwhile, Lee Gyeong-a’s ranking, which had been considerably low, surged dramatically.
Of course, there was a sense of benefiting from others’ misfortune, but Lee Gyeong-a surpassing not just Yeon Ju-hong but other trainees as well was due to her own strong performance.
She’d garnered considerable attention from the Fingertips team as well.
So the real issue now was…

6th Place
Yun Chung 132,048 votes (
▼
5)

me.
Every trainee except me had their expression shift dramatically.
More striking than the high vote count of 130,000 was the ranking drop indicator.
▼5.
I’d plummeted five entire positions.
From 1st place to 6th.
From the frontrunner for debut to outside the debut line.
No matter how much I’d mentally prepared myself, it was a painful fall.
Wow.
The psychological blow is immense.
The fact that I could still receive that many votes was probably because….
The controversy erupted during the final voting period.
And my fans did everything they could to protect me.
I’m grateful that this scaled-down ranking announcement meant I didn’t have to give remarks.
I like to think of myself as a professional, but right now I can’t manage to be very professional.
Ha ha.
I was laughing awkwardly when someone took my hand.

“…Unnie.”

It was Ryu Bora.
I tried to pull my hand away from her.
I was still the center of the controversy.
If she got caught up in this with me, it wouldn’t be good for Ryu Bora either.
But she gripped my hand so firmly that I couldn’t push her away.
Then someone else took my hand from the side.
It was Seo Baek-young.
No, I’m telling you, this isn’t good for you guys.
Even Kim Geum nodded at me from beside Yeon Ju-hong.
Were they all idiots?
They really were idiots.
I was desperately holding back tears when the next ranking was announced.

5th Place
Lee Ju-seon 139,782 votes (
▲
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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