Top Girl Group Scenario Rewritten with My Own Hands - Chapter 7

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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 7
“My goodness, what has Ji-on been doing all week?! That step she couldn’t nail last week is coming together now?”
As a result, I received far more praise from my dance trainer than I’d anticipated—enough to make me genuinely proud, but terribly embarrassed.
Heat crept up my neck, and it was genuinely difficult to bear. ……
In any case, both objectively and subjectively, my dancing had improved tremendously. If my first day was a broken puppet with dislocated joints, now I was a robot with properly input commands……?
I still couldn’t quite manage dynamic control, so there was a certain stiffness to my movements, but my body was now keeping up with all the choreography. At the very least, the disaster where my head learned the steps but my body couldn’t execute them had stopped happening.
I’d reached a level where I could blend into Group Choreography without standing out awkwardly, but watching Go Hyun-seo and Hyun Jae-yi made me realize I still had a long way to go.
Objectively speaking, Kang Su-a’s dance level was only slightly better than mine, and after her came Lee Han-byul—who’d started learning to dance for the first time since joining MusicProof—then Ju Hye-rin, and above them were Go Hyun-seo and Hyun Jae-yi.
Kang Su-a said she’d started only one and a half months before me. Naturally, her dancing still felt awkward. ……
Ju Hye-rin didn’t seem particularly comfortable with pop-style dance, but thanks to her figure skating background, her body control looked remarkably polished.
Graceful and light—that’s how I’d describe it. Unlike those two who started with Pop Dance from the beginning, she had a distinctly different, very refined way of moving.
According to her, it was because of the Ballet and Contemporary Dance lessons she’d received during her skating career that dancing itself didn’t feel unfamiliar, but I suspected she had some natural talent too. During her competitive days, Ju Hye-rin had earned a reputation for exceptional choreography ability and expressiveness.
“Oh~ nice, Ji-on’s got the timing down now!”
There we go. My effort hadn’t been wasted after all.
Up until last week, I was still struggling to keep up with the choreography on the Main Beat, but things had really changed.
“Good, you girls look like idols now.”
That was the dance trainer’s final comment before ending the class, punctuated with a round of applause.
In other words, until today, we apparently hadn’t looked like idols. ……But well, we’re trainees, not idols yet, so it’s fine.
……At least for now!
“Oh, that’s right, Hyun-seo.”
“Yes?”
“Are we doing this month’s Monthly Evaluation on the song we’ve been working on?”
“Ah……, for now, yes. But Ji-on probably doesn’t have time to learn new Choreography right now…….”
“Then next week, before we wrap up, let’s film it during a Live Performance.”
“A Live?”
“It’s the Monthly Evaluation. We do it in the final week.”
I tilted my head slightly at the trainer’s words, and Hyun Jae-yi, sitting beside me, quickly jumped in.
“We didn’t do it last month?”
“When you joined, the manager decided to skip the Monthly Evaluation and just had a consultation instead.”
“So that’s what happened……. How come I’m just now hearing about this……?”
“Ah-ha! We were actually planning to tell you today anyway! We need to start preparing for the Monthly Evaluation soon.”
Manager, why didn’t you inform me of something this significant?
Evaluations, no matter how small or trivial, demand your best effort. And a Monthly Evaluation, no less……. I felt slightly dizzy.
Or was this my fault for carelessly assuming the company wouldn’t hold evaluations since they showed no interest in the idol division……?
“But you don’t need to worry too much. For dance, we evaluate as a group, and the only separate preparation is Solo Vocal—singing something other than an idol song.”
“That’s less than I expected?”
“Yes. Mostly just the manager watches, and it’s not like anyone gets cut based on the Monthly Evaluation or anything. It’s more of a routine check-in? So really, you just need to prepare the dance Live Performance.”
“……A Live Performance?”
“Ah, yes. We evaluate both the dance and the Live Performance together.”
Oh……, good heavens.
Today, having been at MusicProof for two weeks and a day, I felt genuinely resentful toward Manager Lee Su-bin for the first time.
It’s not that I lack confidence, but if the Monthly Evaluation is a Live Performance, won’t I need to do separate dance Live Practice……?
“Um……, so what about song selection? How does that usually work?”
“Normally we all discuss and decide together, but it seems like Hyun-seo is set on this one? Since it’d be hard for you to learn new Choreography from scratch right now…….”
“Wait, I didn’t mishear that, right? She’s set on this one?”
“Yes. But doesn’t that seem better for you?”
“No, no……. Hmm, I don’t think that’ll work.”
“Yes?”
“Hold on, let me gather everyone. Hey, everyone—gather around for a second.”
The song we’ve been learning has all the vocal elements that are easy to listen to but difficult to actually perform.
More than half of this song’s vocal parts require delicate Falsetto and Technique demanding extensive breath control…….
“I overheard you and the trainer talking about the Monthly Evaluation—our evaluation is as a group with dance and Live Performance, right? Are we doing this song as-is for the evaluation?”
“That was the plan for now. Since there’s no time to learn something new, I didn’t want to burden you…….”
“Hmm……. Has anyone here sung the song before? It’s…… actually much harder to sing than you’d think…….”
No one can. At least right now, I don’t think anyone besides Kang Su-a could actually pull off this song properly.
“Is that because of me that you’re saying we should just stick with what we’ve learned? ……I think changing the Monthly Evaluation song might be better—what do you all think?”
The members are genuinely trying to be considerate, but this song is just too high-difficulty for our current team…….
***
The problematic song, , is the title track from ACEra’s 10th anniversary special album.
It’s a considerably high-difficulty song that embodies the polish and skill of a ten-year veteran. Especially considering ACEra is famous for having all members’ vocal abilities brought to an elevated standard…….
“Our seniors performed this song at their ten-year mark. For us, it’s too early. It’s not that the Concept doesn’t fit, but……how do I explain this? Just because a song sounds easy doesn’t mean it’s easy to sing, you know? ……Do you understand?”
Oh my, you young things…….
The four young members huddled together are certainly trying hard to understand what I’m saying, but it clearly isn’t coming easily to them.
Though honestly, about seventy-five percent of the blame for that falls on my poor explanation…….
Only Kang Su-a has a faintly comprehending expression, just staring at me—but if you understand, stop just staring and help me out!
“Hmm……, I agree with Ji-on. When you’re dancing, the song is too delicate and has too much Syncopation to safely perform it. I think changing it is the right call, and the difficulty level is genuinely high.”
Kang Su-a, sensing my resentful glance, stepped in with backup support.
Kang Su-a’s right—this song is delicate and demanding.
The dance moves to the Main Beat while the vocal enters on Syncopation in spots throughout, and the Chorus is a section where you need to carefully manage so much measure by measure. One mistake and it sounds like grinding metal.
To put it simply, the basic rhythm coordination is frustratingly tricky, and if the tone slips even slightly, it can produce an unpleasantly shrill sound—it’s genuinely a difficult piece.
“It’s that hard……? But……, listening to it, it doesn’t sound that difficult…….”
“Hmm, I can see why you’d think that. It’s probably not in a difficult Vocal Range for Han-byul. The problem is…… how do I put it? Technique?”
“Technique?”
“Yeah. It’s not a song that uses just bright, sharp sounds.”
I paused there and made eye contact with my younger members, who still looked confused, staring at me. I didn’t want this to sound strange…….
“First……, what I’m about to say doesn’t mean you can’t do this. You’re good, but the song is just hard. That’s what I mean.”
“We’re not hurt by that level of feedback, so just tell us straight.”
They’re pretty cool about this…….
Go Hyun-seo waved her hand quickly, urging me to speak, so I dropped the hedging and laid out my conclusion.
“Okay, then. ……I don’t think we’re at the skill level to properly perform yet. Dancing while singing a song that’s already difficult just standing still, with our breathing compromised by the movement—it’s just too much……. That’s my opinion. So I’m suggesting we change it.”
If it were powerful belting, maybe, but executing light, breath-heavy vocals naturally while dancing requires genuinely massive amounts of practice.
And……,
We don’t have that time…….
“Jae-yi mentioned earlier that the Monthly Evaluation is basically just the manager watching, but even if there’s no major impact, it’s still an evaluation, right? I don’t want us to take an evaluation with an unreasonably difficult song because of me. If we mess up or get bad feedback, it’ll hurt all the same…….”
I did my best to speak gently……, at least I think I did. I’m not sure how it came across, though.
Fortunately, these girls seemed to understand well enough that the song is difficult, as they all nodded in fairly convincing agreement.
“Understood. But if we change the song, we’ll probably need to start practicing the new Choreography right away because of you, so……do you have a song you’d like to do? ……I mean, not blaming you or anything. Just collecting opinions.”
Go Hyun-seo quickly added that caveat.
So I’m not the only one worried that a sharp statement might land badly. That’s a relief.
“Hmm, I do have something in mind. I have something, but……, are you all okay with learning the Choreography from scratch? Or if there’s something you’ve already learned, we could pick from that…….”
“You’re going to be learning it all from scratch anyway, right? The Choreography will be hardest on you, so whether it’s a song we know or a new one doesn’t really make a difference, does it?”
“……, that’s true.”
Our Go Hyun-seo, with her devastating fact-based knockout skill, truly is formidable…….
Since she’s not wrong, I readily acknowledged and nodded in agreement. The Choreography is my biggest bottleneck, so it makes sense to focus on finding the right song.
What’s odd is that Kang Su-a, sitting across from me, looks somehow even more serious than I feel—her expression alone seems to audibly shout, “Are you the leader?!”
If I kept dragging this out, I’d start laughing first, so I quickly moved on.
“Do you know from ACEra’s earlier releases? That one was huge when we were in elementary school.”
“I know that one. Wasn’t it the nationwide college entrance exam support song?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Hye-rin, you know it even though it came out when you were in kindergarten?”
Despite being over a decade old, the song doesn’t feel dated so much as powerful, with a rock-based band sound built on straightforward Main Beat—pure and driving.
“Cheering for your life”—that’s the message the song carries, and it was released in summer before becoming a nationwide college exam support anthem. The Concept itself is a cheering squad, cheerleading.
Even ACEra, who’s heard as the overwhelming top-tier female idol vocalist, had a trainee phase. A time when fine control was difficult and powerful, dynamic delivery came easier and suited them better.
This song is really well-suited to where these girls are now.
Since joining, I’d compiled a list of songs that might work well with the team, just in case. I’m really glad I prepared ahead—now I’m actually using it.
“Even though it’s an older song, I think it’d suit Hye-rin and Han-byul’s vocals well, and everyone’s Vocal Range should be fine. Rock genres often demand power over delicacy, and that’s actually easier to pull off while dancing.”
“I just watched the stage video, and it seems doable? Han-byul and I can probably work out the Choreography pretty quickly. I’m in favor!”
“Hmm……, Jae-yi does like this style of song, doesn’t she?”
“Eh, what, Lee Han-byul. How do you even know my music taste!”
“Ah, you’re always like this…….”
Things got quieter, I thought—ha.
I lightly admonished Hyun Jae-yi and Lee Han-byul’s playful bickering and gently sought Go Hyun-seo’s agreement. If Kang Su-a had objections, she would’ve raised them already, and Ju Hye-rin also seemed to like it.
“I think sounds good too. But will you really be okay? With the time…….”
“……I’ll give it my best shot. If it doesn’t work, I’ll pull an all-nighter.”
What can I do—I’m still just a brand-new idol trainee, only two weeks into working at MusicProof.
At my mention of pulling all-nighters, Go Hyun-seo’s eyes sharpened with displeasure…….
Why, what. Is there a way for a beginner to catch up with Choreography faster without extra practice?
There’s no answer but grinding it out…….
It’s better for one person to suffer through grueling practice to deliver a good performance than for everyone to fail together out of consideration.
Besides…….
[▷ Sudden Event Triggered!]
[▷ EVENT: CEO’s Surprise Visit]
[The CEO, who dislikes idols, will make a surprise visit as a panelist at the Monthly Evaluation. Be careful not to fall out of the CEO’s favor with insufficient skill!]
[Event Period: D-16]
[After the event period ends, based on your event objective completion rate, you’ll receive a Clear Grade (S/A/B/C/D), and corresponding rewards and penalties will be applied based on your grade.]
Ever since I became aware of the “Monthly Evaluation,” a notification window like this has been popping up in the corner of my vision at random moments.
Lim Gyeong-taek, the CEO of MusicProof. That stubborn old man.
The representative of a company that launched a girl group, yet he doesn’t even treat idols as singers, spouting harsh words without hesitation—a truly unreasonable fossil.
Before I returned, there was even a time when he came by as a producer to directly tell the team to spend more of the budget, but as a mere trainee in the current timeline, I’ve never once laid eyes on him.
Wait, the CEO is coming to the Monthly Evaluation?
I can’t mess this evaluation up.
No—I need to perform flawlessly enough that even that man can’t find fault!
Aside from his rotten character, that guy has an ear like a demon for hearing every flaw in vocals…….
……I think I absolutely need to raise the overall vocal completion by the Monthly Evaluation.
No question about it!
Rewriting the Top Girl Group Scenario with My Own Hands
Author
: Nam Seo-rang
Publication Date
: January 5, 2026
Publisher
: ACS Media
Editor
: ACS Media Editorial Team
Address
: Urban Bench Building 4F, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACS Media pursuant to a contract with the copyright holder,
and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and any unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260102083.0007

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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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