Top Girl Group Scenario Rewritten with My Own Hands - Chapter 103

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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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Episode 103
The first shoot of proceeded without delay, and the next performance by Ashcode began in turn.
To be honest, they’re the group I’m most curious about in terms of their motivation for participating.
They’re from a major agency, and despite some live vocal controversy, they’ve consistently competed for the Rookie Award and won it at award ceremonies that give out multiple awards. They’ve also built up a solid core fanbase.
Moreover, Ashcode’s weak point is live vocals. Even after the summer collaboration stage controversy, PN continued to use lip-sync performances for Ashcode, and only around winter did they start showing some live vocals with heavy AR backing.
Jo Eun-bin—or Noah, as she’s known—actually sings quite well. You could see that clearly in this year-end collaboration stage.
But no matter how good she is, PN wouldn’t run a survival show betting on just one member. I’m genuinely curious about PN’s judgment on this.
Unless they deliver a stage that completely overcomes their weak point, they’ll become easy targets for public ridicule.
Given how much they’ve leaned on that weakness, you’d hope it doesn’t come to that. But honestly, I have no idea.
Maybe I should try getting closer with Jo Eun-bin.
In this timeline where Hyun Jae-yi hasn’t been caught up in rumors, there’s no real connection between me and Jo Eun-bin. I only hear about Ashcode secondhand from the younger members or Jae-yi occasionally.
As the Bellier members came off stage, applause and words of encouragement rained down on them.
“Next up is Ashcode, a group in their second year since debut. Please take the stage.”
Soon after, the Ashcode members rose from their seats with nervous expressions.
“Fighting…!”
“Don’t be nervous. Just do your best!”
“Yeah, we’ll give it our all!”
When Lee Han-byul and Ju Hye-rin offered words of encouragement toward Ashcode, the members smiled back at them.
I think it was a good call to let the younger members bond on their own terms.
The entertainment industry isn’t a pure meritocracy where skill alone solves everything.
It’s a place where charm, popularity, and buzz matter more than raw ability. Of course, relationships between members and between groups are valued here too.
No matter what gets said online, if there’s actual friendship between members, the public tends to view things a bit more leniently.
Evergreat and Ashcode competed for the Rookie Award all last year since their debuts, so the fatigue between their fandoms has built up quite a bit. It’s good for them to appeal like this that the members themselves get along.
‘The live vocals… I wonder if they’ll be okay.’
To be blunt, Ashcode was close to being well-packaged performers.
This stage was a space where they had to show their true identity with minimal packaging.
But when the performance started.
We alive
Breathing
‘…They’re doing well? What?’
I was genuinely surprised.
But thinking back on it, in my first life, Ashcode was a first-tier idol group. No matter how much a company supports you or how good the environment is, you still need a certain level of ability to establish yourself in the first tier of idols.
The Ashcode members actually had impressive detail in their dancing, solid visuals, and strong stage presence.
Those qualities showed clearly on a stage without much special staging. There were no empty spaces even without backup dancers, and each member executed their part properly and created atmosphere.
‘The live vocals aren’t stable, that’s true. But…’
Of course, their weak point of live vocals wouldn’t improve overnight. However, that very precariousness blended into the song’s themes of apocalypse and survival and Ashcode’s group concept, creating a certain kind of atmosphere.
‘They must have practiced really hard.’
Without fundamental skill, you can only leave an impression of anxiety. You can’t pull off this kind of artistic direction.
The Ashcode members from a year ago—trembling on stage, uncertain whether they should sing or not—wouldn’t have been able to create even this level of execution.
In other words, this means.
“We still have many areas where we’re lacking, and there’s a lot we need to learn. But I think we should aim high regardless. We want to win…!”
I’d say another potential winner emerged, one I hadn’t been watching closely.
Even if it’s hard to rank them high in raw skill, they could potentially win by keeping pace with strategy and fanbase size.
Jo Eun-bin ended her statement and bowed politely. The other members instinctively bowed along with her—that was the key point.
Let me be clear: I wasn’t intimidated. I was just surprised they did better than expected.
“The order works out well. Our vibe is completely opposite.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”
That’s probably a line for broadcast.
Kang Su-ah probably wanted to add something about how they’d be clearly outmatched in terms of skill.
***
Evergreat deliberately chose white-toned school uniforms that didn’t stand out too much for this competition.
Given that the song for this competition is called and considering the outfits from their promotional activities, it feels like a slight mismatch—the outfit is pretty plain.
But the styling team had their reasons for approving these outfits.
pursued a dark and luxurious image from the poster onward. Overall, the aesthetic seemed to be modeled after Western medieval imagery.
Starting from the poster, the set design used dark colors throughout to emphasize a weighty, sophisticated image.
The stage was no different. A Navy Blue Curtain hung behind the stage, Dark Velvet Carpet on the floor. Even without knowing the details, you could predict that dark colors would be used.
In that kind of atmosphere, overly casual outfits could seem like a mismatch with the program’s tone. To harmonize while still standing out on stage, bright colors combined with relatively modest outfits seemed like the best choice.
If we couldn’t direct the performance ourselves, we’d highlight our team’s identity while using the expected stage aesthetic. That was Evergreat’s strategy.
We also rearranged the original flashy band-sound-based song in a different direction, emphasizing unity and a fantastical feeling over the bouncy liveliness of the original .
Well, there’s no need to say much more.
Hey, would you play with me?
Just watch the stage.
We’re definitely going to win.
The moment the lights came up and Hyun Jae-yi’s intro meshed perfectly with the music, gasps of admiration came from the idols sitting in the audience.
Unlike the original song, which maximized the mischievous image and energy by adopting band sounds, we took the arrangement in a Future Bass direction that could emphasize calm, overwhelming emotion, and sweeping momentum.
This matched the direction of youth that Evergreat pursues and the “Fantasy” keyword we’ll pursue going forward.
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green
That’s so colorful we shine
Heavy electronic sounds crashing at the hook, arranged with a drop beat created by twisting the rhythm in between.
The feeling of being swept away is probably the most accurate way to describe it.
The choreography changed along with the arrangement. It wasn’t a complete overhaul, but unlike the freewheeling feel of the original, we modified it to emphasize group formations, and instead of the original’s playfulness, we structured it to showcase the charisma and power of our dance line.
We kept the refreshing vocal that was the original’s highlight, with me and Kang Su-ah mainly handling it. Lee Han-byul’s delicate, beautiful tone worked well as a new point in the rewritten arrangement too.
In this process, the plain outfits served to neutralize the excess felt in the music and choreography.
Visually, being too flashy gets tiring. We needed to sweep viewers away with intensity while also pulling back somewhere—and that was the outfits.
The near-white outfits contrasted with the dark stage, and by not being too flashy, they reduced visual fatigue.
Breathtakingly flashy yet not excessive—exactly that level. That was the perfect balance.
– Looking at it through the concept of a prism, color separates from light. Today, our concept is light before it separates.
– I hope you’ll see it as a way of showing Evergreat’s radiant side. We wanted to show you the moment when we shine brightest, which is why we chose this theme for our self-introduction stage.
Looking back at what we said in today’s pre-interview, I think we stitched it together well.
To be honest, rather than assigning meaning from the start, we focused on the performance—so all the answers are retrofitted. We wanted to secure the upper hand by structuring things around what our members do best.
When our prepared stage ended without major mistakes, applause and cheers erupted from the idols in the audience.
Some of it was probably exaggerated for the broadcast reaction, but the response felt like it hit the mark well enough that I didn’t feel bad about it.
“Great performance, we really enjoyed it. This is a question for all the team leaders—what was your reason for participating in ?”
Ji Cheong-yeon, who was hosting, looked at us with an interested expression and posed the question.
With the members’ silent pressure on me to answer (not that I wasn’t planning to anyway…), I slowly opened my mouth.
“We were fortunate enough to receive a lot of love and many Rookie Awards last year. Of course, we didn’t want to stop there. We wanted to do better and advance further.”
“Is that ambition?”
“Yes. We believe we’re a team that can do better and rise higher. So…”
There was something the members and I had agreed on before the Pod Arc shoot.
Somewhere between grounded confidence and slight arrogance.
“We came here to finish first. Among every team here, we’re confident we’ll definitely be first in terms of skill.”
Murmurs rippled through the assembled idols.
Right, that was the most aggressive statement of the day. The two teams before us were so careful about playing it safe that we’re the first team to openly declare we’re going for first place.
Come to think of it, Ashcode’s statement about wanting first place isn’t a declaration of victory—it’s a wish.
We’re the first team to actually declare we’re going to win first place.
“We came here to put on a good stage, have an exciting competition, and confidently take home first place.”
The idols stirred again.
It’s aggressive, sure, but since our skill backs it up, it’s hard to argue—that’s the situation.
Only Daylight, the group that’s been through a survival show, is enthusiastically cheering us on, which makes the whole thing look pretty lighthearted.
And I’ll guarantee one thing.
There’s no group here that can immediately be confident they can perform better than Evergreat.
“We appreciate everyone’s support. Thank you!”
I deliberately raised the tone on my final statement.
Because this was a declaration of war. A declaration that no matter who the opponent is, we’ll take first place.
Rewriting the top girl group scenario with my own hands
Author
: Nam Seo-rang
Production date
: May 29, 2026
Publisher
: AES Media
Editor
: AES Media Editorial Team
Address
: Teheran-ro 325 Urban Bench Building 4F, Gangnam District, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by AES Media under contract with the copyright holder.
Without permission from our company and the author, the content may not be used in any form or by any means.
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UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260102083

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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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