Top Girl Group Scenario Rewritten with My Own Hands - Chapter 77

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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 77
Music show venues are always loud and exhausting.
Especially running both pre-recordings and live broadcasts takes either genuinely exceptional stamina, or a love for Idols so fierce it conquers fatigue—otherwise, it’s simply not easy.
Pre-recording headcount checks usually happen in the early morning. Some groups manage it in the afternoon or evening, but if you’re an avid fan of a rookie Idol with no clout, there’s no escaping it: you’re hauling yourself to Sangam in the dead hours when even public transit barely runs.
So look, let’s be honest. Pre-recordings don’t offer much beyond the chance to see your girl’s face once and snag an unreleased photocard.
For Im Ji-su, who didn’t make much of a fuss over photocards, that meant even less.
‘Seriously, who collects things in this day and age…’
It was a mindset rarely found among hardcore Idol fanatics, though Im Ji-su wasn’t exactly ordinary either. Still, that’s how it was.
And yet, she’d made it to Sangam anyway.
All the way out here at this hour of the morning…
“Everly! We’re first-place contenders today!”
“Waaaah!”
To witness Evergreat’s first-place finish in person.
One glance at Hyun Jae-yi beaming and shouting, at the fans cheering around her, made it obvious.
(Not that we’d have made excuses to show up either way—but let’s not say that out loud.)
If you weren’t a devoted fan who frequented offline events, you might not grasp what that means.
But I’m Im Ji-su, and I am a devoted fan who goes to offline events…
Whether it was because I’d missed so many offline events back when I was crazy about Go Hyun-seo, or simply how things had turned out, the current Im Ji-su was practically stamping her way through offline schedules with friends whose fan histories stretched nearly a decade.
A first-place finish. A first encore…
The meaning was immense. Genuinely, genuinely huge.
For her, chasing down offline broadcast schedules, to miss the first encore was simply unthinkable. At least for Im Ji-su, who valued the experience over collecting merchandise.
Besides, there were plenty of people in the general public who wanted to see Evergreat’s encore. In circumstances like that, a fan couldn’t possibly not want to watch!
Some fandoms did worry the encore might flop, sure.
But not ours.
Because today, our girls absolutely destroyed the live performance.
It was a crazy live where every member of Evergreat, who’d walked in looking half-dead and utterly drained during pre-recording, emerged with eyes sparkling back to life—a miracle to behold.
I’d worried a bit about fluctuations from vocal condition and early-morning recording fatigue, but it turned out to be a completely needless concern.
“…Hye-rin was kind of, like, a baby tiger today.”
“Kind of?”
“Actually, like, really.”
“I’m not arguing that.”
“So what about Hyun-seo? She was a total dance beast today.”
“Usually they write Hyun-seo as puppy-coded, but today Kim Si-hyun was what exactly?”
“Seriously, today she had the bearing of a true beast.”
“The dance line did look pretty fierce today…”
It wasn’t until after they’d eaten breakfast that Im Ji-su and her friends really came back to their senses.
The exhaustion from the grueling pre-recording schedule hadn’t even worn off yet, but talking about their favorites brought their energy roaring back. Kim Si-hyun and Park Ji-yeon were the kind of people Im Ji-su clicked with on that wavelength.
“They’re gonna win first place today… right?”
“If they don’t, that’d be weird. Starting this week, the second week of the album counts.”
“Our music score is high, and the album sales are even higher now…”
“The broadcast score’s the variable, but honestly, I don’t think we’ll lose there either.”
“Oh…”
The three of them looked at each other.
They were probably all thinking the same thing.
“…Haven’t the girls mentioned their first-place promise yet?”
“Nope. Maybe they’ll say it during a Univers Live later?”
“Or in an interview?”
“Can everyone make it to the live broadcast?”
“…If I rush through my 1 p.m. exam, would that be okay?”
“Probably? If not, we’ll just grab a taxi.”
“If Yeong-ie can’t make it, we’re roasting her.”
Park Ji-yeon, who’d long turned away from K-pop only to be dragged back in by her bias, was seriously weighing whether to blow off her final exam.
Old memories surfaced of when bias and coursework had been separate priorities, bringing a sting of near-tears—but there was no way she wanted to miss Hye-rin’s first-place victory as an Idol!
“Taking a leave of absence is the best.”
“I’m jealous. Maybe I should just take a leave for next semester too?”
“You loaded or something?”
“Nah, just don’t feel like going to school.”
Of course, for Kim Si-hyun, who was on a leave of absence, and Im Ji-su, for whom Idols came before grades, it was hardly a concern.
For Im Ji-su, exams being in session right now didn’t matter. The letters that showed up on her transcript were just letters—just a reason to retake classes later.
What she was waiting for was solely Evergreat’s first first-place finish and encore!
***
For this cycle, the 2nd Single “Summer Signal” had sold over 170,000 copies in first-week sales.
That was a significant increase compared to previous cycles. Rather than me actively tweaking something specific, it reflected the entire group’s rising recognition and trending potential.
If there was anything else to point to… maybe adjusting the events scheduled for April and May to perform at peak form?
Raising the quality of the “That Song Back Then” stage, which I thought could handle more intensity, and seeing the May Music City stage reaction really explode.
Around this point in previous cycles, I’d stopped monitoring feedback, and the last cycle… things went differently, and I ended up losing the “That Song Back Then” appearance opportunity entirely.
Anyway, direct response comparisons are hard, but it’s clear the internet’s giving us positive reactions and inflow. The view counts are performing really well.
Beyond that, Han Jeong-yeon’s friendship became public, and it looks like some international fans are dipping their toes in as well.
Album sales naturally favor those with larger international fanbases, so steadily building overseas fandom like this is something we absolutely need.
Which means…
Starting this week at Song Station, Evergreat’s name keeps appearing on the first-place contenders list.
“I’m just asking because I’m a little worried,”
“Yes?”
“You guys aren’t nervous about the encore live, right? We’re first-place contenders today.”
I talked a bit more with Han Jeong-yeon on the way back to the waiting room.
According to her, it was possible everyone was more nervous than expected. Her own members had been through survival shows, so she thought they wouldn’t be nervous, but some of them were trembling.
So I asked just to be sure.
“Wow, seriously? No way. We’ve got the practice hours.”
“For me… if anything, the lesson with you was scarier—no wait, I think I was just nervous about that? But the encore seems fun…”
Looking at Go Hyun-seo, who turned completely serious, and Ju Hye-rin, who actually let the word “scary” slip out of her own mouth, it didn’t seem like that was really it.
“So Hye-rin, you’re scared?”
“…Yeah, this part was really scary.”
“Hmm.”
“When you smile like that, that’s when it’s the scariest…!”
It’s human nature—the more someone recoils, the more you want to push. Ju Hye-rin was wonderfully innocent that way. I kept at it until she squirmed and protested, and only then did I let my lips curl upward.
“We need to settle on a first-place promise before we go out. The MC said they’d ask about it during the interview.”
“Me!”
“Yes, Kang Su-ah.”
“Let’s do a part change! I want to do Hyun-seo’s part!”
“Don’t mess around with the encore. Rejected.”
“Aw!”
Kang Su-ah looked pretty unhappy… but there was no helping it.
If the encore fell apart, all that hard-earned image of being a good live group could crumble in an instant.
“This isn’t just your song, and it’s our first encore. A part change is too risky. Let’s practice that first and do it later.”
“I can’t argue with that logic…”
“If you can’t argue, accept it.”
“Yeah, this is so very you, Seo Ji-on… Do you have any other ideas?”
“Hmm…”
Honestly, I didn’t have any special ideas. We’d never won first place in previous cycles, so we’d never made a promise before.
The times we’d been on the first-place contenders list, nobody’d asked about promises, so there’d never been reason to think about it.
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“Ah, then just let’s go with the part change!”
“I’m telling you to practice it first. If we just wing it, the encore becomes a massive disaster broadcast archived on YouTube.”
“We practiced a lot, though…?”
“Su-ah, we’re not vocalists who can pick up your parts just by listening while you practice. I can’t promise I won’t mess up.”
“Ooh, Hyun-seo with the nice assist.”
Pretty good. When I gave Go Hyun-seo a thumbs up, she laughed like it was nothing.
“You make singing look easy, so everyone thinks vocals are easy.”
“…Huh?”
“You can do something, so you figure everyone else can too.”
“Wait, but it’s doable, right? Obviously it’s doable?”
“You sing too annoyingly well, so that’s the problem. So I’m voting for rejection too.”
This is the trap of talent: thinking what’s easy for you is easy for everyone.
Especially someone like Kang Su-ah, who makes singing look effortless and is a rare prodigy who breezed through the notoriously brutal Seo Jung Arts University vocal exam as a senior in high school…
But completely dismissing Su-ah’s idea was tough when we genuinely lacked another concrete promise.
So our conclusion was:
“Evergreat, first-place contenders on Song Station this week! Of course we can’t skip hearing your first-place promise! Can you share what you’ve prepared?”
In the cheerful smile of the music show MC’s eyes, I caught a flicker of desperation: ‘Please tell me you prepared something. For the love of broadcast standards, please.'”
“Actually, we’re rookies, and this is our first time being interviewed as first-place contenders, so we didn’t quite reach consensus on a promise within the group.”
“Ah…”
We’re truly sorry. We couldn’t come to an agreement in the end.
Despair flickered across the senior Idol MC’s eyes for a moment…
Probably because he had no idea how to steer the broadcast from here. I’m so sorry…
“But instead…!”
“Instead?”
I couldn’t let the interview fall apart, so I did have something prepared.
“If we win first place on Song Station today, we’ll show fans everything they want to see during the live broadcast!”
I know this doesn’t help the broadcast at all, which is truly regrettable…
But surely it’s better than tanking the interview?
After earnestly rationalizing and rushing through the first-place promise interview, what remained was endless waiting and more encore practice.
“If we calculate it by Song Station’s scoring system… we’d be first, right? It’s harder to flip the ranking with voter votes.”
The moment we returned from the interview, Hyun Jae-yi had already dug through all the available score data and confirmed it.
As a result, the waiting room had quickly filled with the sound of members warming up their voices and singing.
“…Where did the Hyun Jae-yi who said she’d sneeze out lyrics if she napped?”
“That’s different! A first-place encore is a whole other thing! Can’t you tell the difference?!”
It’s probably an impossible distinction for me to make for the rest of my life, honestly…
At Hyun Jae-yi’s jab, I could only watch my members.
***
“Song Station, shall we announce this week’s first place?”
The fact that three regressions had yielded no first place meant something in multiple ways.
“First, the music score.”
Either the music score wasn’t overwhelmingly ahead of others,
“Next, the album score.”
or albums didn’t sell as much,
“The broadcast score.”
or trending potential wasn’t exceptional enough. One of the three had to apply.
“Finally, combining all fan votes, today’s first place is…?”
Or the timing was simply wrong.
In Evergreat’s case, it was a matter of trending potential and timing.
As we’d entered the era of big capital, marketing power disparity had dimmed our trending potential, and overlapping with major boy group comebacks had made first place difficult to achieve.
Back then, anyway.
Once you understand all these problem points…
“Evergreat, congratulations!”
You can add things, subtract things, adjust timing, and focus harder on promotion.
Through various adjustments, you can push the first-place timeline forward considerably. Even if you’ve never achieved it before.
[CLEAR! ☆ ▷ Hidden Quest: Achieve a first-place finish on a music broadcast. ☆]
[Duration: Through the final week of 2nd Single promotions (Week 3)]
[Claim your reward]
It took a while, but this time, we won.
The first clear of that miserable hidden quest.
I Rewrite the Top Girl Group Scenario with My Own Hands
Author
: Nam Seo-rang
Production Date
: May 21, 2026
Publisher
: ACS Media Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief
: AcesMedia Editorial Team
Address
: 4F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam District, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
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and may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
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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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