Top Girl Group Scenario Rewritten with My Own Hands - Chapter 40

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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 40
“Five, six, seven, eight! Okay, that’s good!”
At the PN performance director’s words, I glanced casually at Go Hyun-seo and asked.
“How does it look?”
“It’s solid? I think we just need to nail down some details.”
“Phew, thank goodness.”
Honestly, I’d thought my usefulness would be completely gone if we were doing AR lip-sync, but at least the fact that I pick up choreography fast is turning out to be a pretty solid advantage.
“Overall it was fine just now. Let’s take a quick break and then run through the whole thing again!”
At the performance director’s words, I leaned against the corner where the water bottle sat.
QBS hadn’t specified exactly who would be in the collaboration. They just set the collaboration song and three members per team, then told us to figure out the rest ourselves.
The song was Asera’s “New World,” and it was three members from each team.
It was just over two minutes—a collaboration stage with the second verse cut—but the intent was crystal clear.
‘Among girl groups, the ones worth pushing as rookies are Ashcode and us, apparently.’
I heard the boy idol side was similar. They were pairing up the two most eye-catching rookie teams for a collaboration.
Before my regression, there was probably a different group here instead of Ever Great. Ashcode was making noise on several fronts at the time, and by several measures, they had the highest recognition among rookies that year—no contest.
And yet, despite everything, Ashcode’s title track failed to win public favor with its maniacal approach centered on performance. So there were these bittersweet posts in online communities saying, ‘They became known as a group through scandals and members’ faces, but honestly, nobody knows a single Ashcode song.’ That kind of thing.
“Maybe I should’ve picked Hye-rin instead of you? Is this hard?”
“I’m giving Hye-rin something else to do at the Music Awards. This is better left to me.”
“Kang Su-a…”
“She’s a bit scared of dancing.”
I shrugged at Go Hyun-seo’s words. In my opinion, she’s absolutely not someone who can’t dance.
Even back at “Never Give Up,” she complained like that but ultimately delivered perfect sharp synchronized dance in both the live performance and the choreography video—that was Kang Su-a.
Though she did seem to feel some pressure about picking up new choreography and demonstrating it right away.
I have things planned for Hye-rin at the Music Awards, and Han Byul learns choreography a bit slower, so she’s not a great fit for a collaboration like this. Excluding Kang Su-a, our lineup actually came together pretty easily.
Me, Go Hyun-seo, and Hyun Jae-yi—the three of us.
Standing between two people who are 170 centimeters tall made even me, who already exceeds the average adult female height, feel short. The Ashcode members participating in this collaboration were all slightly shorter than me, though…
Ashcode’s members were one each from seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old.
All of them were minors. Noah, who’s nineteen, apparently takes on the role of eldest and de facto leader, and it really seems like she does.
“Yu-jin needs to step out about half a step more from there. She might bump into someone if she’s not careful. Oh, and Hye-eun’s timing here is…”
Even with a dedicated performance director on-site, he looks pretty busy. If I asked for feedback, it would come right back, but…
“Are you worried?”
“A little?”
“It’s not even our team… Is it because they’re young?”
“Probably.”
I sat there drinking water and staring at the scene for a moment when Hyun Jae-yi suddenly trotted over and spoke to me.
Hyun Jae-yi seemed a bit bothered by my taking an interest in Ashcode.
It wasn’t that the younger kids greeting each other was a problem, but she didn’t seem to like it when people older than her bothered to pay attention to other groups—that kind of vibe.
“But honestly, I’ve got too much on my own plate to be meddling. And I’m not really the meddling type to begin with.”
“Hahaha! Right, you’ve got so much going on… Are you really that busy?”
“Well… honestly, I’d love to just sleep for a solid twelve hours. It’s too much.”
“Wait, aren’t you gonna run a fever like that? Didn’t that happen before?”
“When was that? … Don’t tell me last year?”
Bingo.
When Hyun Jae-yi readily nodded and met my eyes, a laugh burst out.
“You think that’s funny? Do you know how scared we were back then…”
“Do you know what I did that day? I took Go Hyun-seo out and asked her what on earth was wrong with you. There was absolutely no need to worry like that.”
“What?”
“And now I’m stuck going to the gym with her because of that karma… You said that day if you were worried, you’d come exercise together.”
“Oh my god! That’s why you go to the gym without complaining!”
Actually, Hye-rin’s the only one who’s stuck with exercising with Go Hyun-seo without giving up, and everyone says you do it so well!
Hyun Jae-yi seemed to be holding back her laughter as much as possible, given we were in someone else’s practice studio, but somehow that made it even more annoying.
I gave her a light tap on the back—not hard enough to hurt—and she flopped dramatically onto the studio floor. Wasn’t she basically optimized for getting under my skin?
“But hey, you said that thing wasn’t a big deal.”
“Yeah.”
“Getting nosebleeds and running fevers and stuff—that’s definitely a big deal. Kang Su-a was worried too last time, remember?”
“That’s not worry—that’s extortion.”
“Hahaha, I do kind of think so… but still, I can’t just tell you to stop working!”
“You understand reality very well. How impressive.”
“I’m impressive, aren’t I!”
Hyun Jae-yi straightened up and giggled.
For this comeback, she’d bleached her hair a bright blonde. It made her look even more like a Golden Retriever than before, I thought…
Maybe that’s why she seemed so dog-like—my hand nearly reached up to ruffle her hair, but figuring that wasn’t quite appropriate, I stopped myself and patted her shoulder instead.
“Without you, our team wouldn’t function. So like… um… if you get sick, I’ll do my best to grow enough to cover for you.”
“What, are you going to learn composition?”
“Not that, just like… I should get better at singing, you know?”
“If you’re going to do it, learn producing properly so we can split the work.”
“That’s not my major…”
“Right.”
“I’m Ever Great’s visual and dance member!”
“And?”
“I’ll dance well and look good. Like, enough that people online will be like, ‘Whoa, who is she?'”
At that audacious, almost shameless remark, I couldn’t hold back my laughter anymore.
After laughing so hard for a while, it came time to practice again, but it didn’t feel difficult anymore.
***
Before I start this story, let me lay out some excuses first.
Throughout these comeback activities, I squeezed every last drop out of the roulette items and points the system gave me to push through a deranged sprint.
I was healthy enough that even Go Hyun-seo asked, ‘Haven’t the workouts been paying off pretty well?’
“I just woke up from a short sleep and my throat feels a bit swollen, maybe from having the air conditioning on. I haven’t taken my temperature yet, though…”
“You’ve got a slight fever. Could be the flu. Eat some over-the-counter medicine for now, and if you’re not better after the pre-recorded shoot, we’ll head to the hospital.”
I’d taken a quick nap in the Work Studio, and new symptoms of the flu had crept up—I dutifully reported everything to my manager, and took the medicine.
Since my condition wasn’t too bad, I got through the pre-recorded shoot smoothly and even managed the live broadcast without issues.
Even with a slight low fever, I wrapped up my second comeback activities still within the range of a basically healthy person.
– Shim Yu-jeong: Sent it by file email
– Shim Yu-jeong: What about directing today?
My condition’s a bit off today –
Having you there with me –
Would be a lot better ㅜ –
Even if it’s AR for the special stage, I should probably have someone check –
– Shim Yu-jeong: lol
– Shim Yu-jeong: Even dogs don’t catch summer colds, they say
It’s just that my condition’s bad –
How do I even know if it’s a cold or not lol ㅠ –
– Shim Yu-jeong: Fair point
– Shim Yu-jeong: Can you be at your company by like 5 today?
Come by 6, we’ll eat dinner –
I’m planning with some buffer time –
Eat dinner beforehand please –
– Shim Yu-jeong: Got it
I’d even arranged ahead with Shim Yu-jeong to help with the AR directing for the special Music Awards collaboration stage.
The stage is next Saturday, and if my condition tanks now, I’m the one who’s screwed. Me.
“July, fourth week—and the trophy goes to?”
“Congratulations, Quinze!”
Which is to say…
Everything that happens from this point on has nothing to do with my will or intention.
[▷ Hidden Quest: Achieve #1 on a music broadcast.]
[Period: Until the final week of 2ND SINGLE activities (Week 3)]
[! QUEST FAILED !]
[For failing to complete the quest within the period, a random system penalty will occur.]
[▷ Current Penalty: Total Stamina 20% Reduction (Duration: 7 days)]
It was either the fault of the major boy group that ended their activities a week before us but never gave up a single #1, or the fault of the system for throwing out this insane penalty I’d never even heard of.
I was grateful the award recipient wasn’t present. During the encore—which wrapped up faster than usual—I forced my reluctant brain to turn and tried my best to look fine.
Damn it… my life really isn’t going the way I want. And I’ve really tried…
“Do It Now!” gained more word-of-mouth than our team’s staff expected, and it’s settled in stably on the Lemon chart. Even if the Lemon chart rankings don’t mean much these days, it’s still the biggest music indicator in our country.
Nowadays you hear it every now and then walking down the street—it’s become quite a trend, and the dance challenge that Hyun Jae-yi and Go Hyun-seo worked so hard on played a big role. The chorus of “Do It Now!” popped up pretty regularly on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts when I casually checked.
And yet… The fact that our comeback overlapped with first-tier boy groups made it difficult in every way. We didn’t get #1 even once.
We were frequently nominated for #1 during the activities. There were even days we led on music score. It probably varied slightly depending on how the scoring was calculated.
What we always fell short on was global fan voting points, album sales points, broadcast points—things we couldn’t adjust through the quality of our work alone.
‘Damn it… Is this quest just telling me to go eat shit?’
The system must know. That Ever Great in its current state couldn’t compete with first-tier boy groups at all…
Maybe I should’ve filed more hostile complaints earlier? There wasn’t time, but apparently I should’ve made it work somehow.
As I dragged my drooping body back to the Waiting Room, my body finally started to stop listening to me.
Staying upright by tensing my head was a one- or two-day thing—something for when I didn’t have a penalty. Now my vision was spinning and heat was rising, and I just wanted to lie down.
“Byul-a, water please. …Not what I was drinking. Fresh water. Something cold…”
My already poor condition worsened rapidly as the penalty tanked my stamina. I didn’t want to push the maknae around… I just couldn’t move my body, so I asked the person closest to me. That was all.
At this point, I couldn’t even properly distinguish what people around me were saying or who was talking to me. I drank the water the maknae gave me and half-collapsed onto the Waiting Room sofa when my manager quickly brought over a thermometer.
Well… I didn’t catch the exact number clearly. But it was probably quite high.
I ended up going to the Hospital with my manager right then and there.
Unfortunately, what came to mind at that moment was the remaining schedule for tonight.
AR recording for the special stage and the special stage rehearsal. Since it’s with another team, I can’t just skip it without warning…
Right. The Music Awards.
The penalty lasts seven days, the QBS Music Awards Summer is next Saturday, and today is Sunday.
Oh, damn it…
You’re telling me to do my first Music Awards stage now, in this state?
I’m genuinely curious what kind of spite the system has against me to throw this kind of quest and penalty at me right now.
Just find me a complaint submission form.
I’ll become a malicious complainer so crazy I could go on one of those exposé shows.
Rewriting the Top Girl Group Scenario by My Own Hand
Author
: Nam Seo-rang
Publication Date
: January 5, 2026
Publisher
: ACESMEDIA Co., Ltd.
Editor
: ACESMEDIA Editorial Team
Address
: 4F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACESMEDIA Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder.
The contents cannot be used in any form or by any means without permission from our company and the author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260102083.0040

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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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