The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 189

It was extremely difficult to see a major male idol group up close even once.

The fact that you could see six groups with such rarity all in one place was very appealing.

Starting from the day 〈All Star〉 program audience recruitment was announced, countless speculative posts and discussions being uploaded was the norm.

Now that the first competition had ended, the number of people waiting for vivid reviews was enormous.

―No, so sisters, please upload some reviews. During ISL, they uploaded even at dawn, but why is it so quiet today?

└Let’s be calm everyone… It hasn’t even been an hour since the competition ended

└I’m eating at a rest stop right now, so wait a bit… I’ll write a review on the bus

└That’s right, I believed in you sister~~

―Performance spoilers aside, I just want to see real-life appearance reviews

└For real, even if everyone feels differently about performances, wouldn’t everyone feel the same about handsome faces? ^^

└Lmao but honestly, won’t everyone’s performance impressions be similar this time??

└Huh why? Was there a group that did really badly?

└The 1st competition was performing with their representative songs, so was there a group that messed up? Lol they’d get absolutely roasted

└No no no, I don’t mean they did badly, but one side did incredibly well

└So the Big 3 lived up to their reputation

└LOL from the beginning when the lineup was announced, I knew these kinds of comments would come up. It felt like there were extras between the Big 3

―To give a simple spoiler, the HYI were definitely the dark horses… I didn’t like them before but objectively speaking, they did the best

└I can’t keep up with the slang T_T What is HYI?

└If you’re going to participate in communities, searching is basic lol

└CENTIX=hundred-year-idols=HYI

└Ah, thank you so much

└Wow but it wasn’t Zefa who did the best? CENTIX was really number one?

└Zefa did well enough too, but somehow they felt pushed back in energy throughout. The order was right next to each other too

└This is new too…they performed back to back? At the end?

└No, they were 1st and 2nd

└????????

Before detailed review posts went up, a few audience members briefly shared news in comments.

Among them, the story that immediately caught people’s attention was about CENTIX overwhelmingly dominating the stage.

When the 〈All Star〉 lineup was announced, they had been given the modifier “Big 3” along with Zefa and Comet, but even MILLENNIUM hadn’t expected they would receive the best evaluation.

―Can I drink some kimchi soup? CENTIX really smashed the stage and came back, right?

―Honestly their title tracks are all well-made, so it would’ve been good with any of them

―Most curious thing: Did they arrange it again this time?

└This can be spoiled lol. Yes, they arranged it again

└Wow….these kids really don’t rest, do they? Their activities literally just ended not long ago, and in that time they arranged again, changed choreography again, and redid all the blocking. I’m going crazy, it’s making me lose my mind

CENTIX’s first full album 〈Emancipation〉 had just achieved the tremendous record of 970,000 first-week sales not long ago.

It was a number that could even challenge the all-time male idol first-week sales record, but they couldn’t break the 1 million barrier, which was secretly disappointing.

Still, they had swept up trophies from music shows, demonstrating their continued popularity.

When they suddenly announced their appearance on 〈All Star〉 amid this good momentum, MILLENNIUM had been somewhat confused.

They clearly knew how cold the public’s gaze would be if they went to such a place as the youngest.

For members who debuted through a survival show and hadn’t even been active for a year yet, being told to enter another competition was also unpleasant.

But since it was already decided and fans couldn’t do anything about it, they had hoped that they would really do well on stage and show their potential.

When reviews came out saying CENTIX had achieved that wish, fans couldn’t help but be excited.

MILLENNIUM waited for detailed reviews to be uploaded to communities.

And finally, long reviews began to be uploaded.

[Audience Review lol (wristband verification)]

I took a bus to Seoul early in the morning and now I’m breathing dawn air while going back down… Anyway, I’m on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, but I need to write a review while my memory is still clear

First, here’s the audience verification photo

(Photo)

As everyone knows, they had their first battle with group representative songs, and each team’s songs were

―Zefa: Moon Shot

―Comet: For Her

―CENTIX: Realize

―TRIX: As You Please

―Lunatic: Trace

―RunHigh: Shadow Dance

I wrote them excluding the writer’s note for easy searching

As other people already said, the Big 3’s performances were really good and the other 3 teams were a bit disappointing

But I was also a hardcore tier believer lol. So I naturally thought Zefa or Comet would do the best, but I got completely blindsided here

I don’t know what criteria they used to pick, but CENTIX came out first and I was initially like “huh??”

Then suddenly I heard loud guitar sounds and a remixed arranged version of the Realize instrumental I knew came out, and the kids were flying around the stage. I was like “Are their knees okay?” was my first thought lol

They did a dance break once during the intro and once during the latter half like the original, but I had briefly seen their music video before, you know? Actually seeing it in person, it felt like the stage was vibrating. And when Ryu’s high note went up, I just got chills lol. I understood why they have so many fans in that moment…

Anyway, they did the arrangement excitingly and the song was made to be easy to sing along to, so everyone sang along to the chorus lol I thought I was at a concert

Zefa came right after them, so I was like “huh???” again, but I quickly snapped to attention and watched their performance. But the Realize I’d just heard wouldn’t leave my head lmao. Sigh… Zefa did well enough too, but I felt like Joo-won was really enjoying himself up there, so I liked it more I guess. Somehow Zefa was the taste I expected when I came out, and CENTIX was beyond expectations…

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―So is hundred-year-idols totally possible for 1st place?

└I voted for CENTIX and came back but I don’t know how it’ll turn out

└I was there too and there seemed to be a lot of Zefa fans mixed in lol. Honestly everyone knows these programs can become popularity contests regardless of the actual stage

└Ah, I had that feeling too lol. That’s why I said I don’t know how it’ll turn out. From what I saw, CENTIX did better, but Zefa might win with popularity

―But this is a bit unfair because Zefa did well enough too… Just because you arrange loudly and scream high notes well doesn’t automatically make it good

└Isn’t arrangement really important in these competition programs? Reading this, everyone got excited and even sang along during CENTIX’s stage lol. And hitting high notes live is definitely skilled

└If you put it that way, Baek Joo-won’s rap was damn good too

└This is why I hate hundred-year-idols fangirls more than ZF fangirls lol. No matter what post goes up, they’re always like “our oppa did better though~” whining

└Seeing comments like this, Zefa will probably win with fandom size

This kind of reaction was also expected.

When two idol fandoms of considerable size clash, chaos ensues, and in 〈All Star〉, six fandoms could essentially fight every time.

From the beginning, it was natural for Zefa and CENTIX fans to engage in arguments.

Ultimately, would it be CENTIX’s victory, who had high stage completion in most people’s eyes?

Or would it be Zefa’s victory, with their acknowledged fandom unity ranking first? They’d have to check through the broadcast.

And a week later.

Serious psychological warfare began among the idols who had started moving for the 2nd competition as well.

* * *

“…Why does it feel like the ghost of 〈ISL 2〉 keeps following us?”

“Right.”

I let out a short sigh while looking at the familiar place.

It’s the facility where we lived together while filming 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

Why we’re seeing this place again was a bit puzzling, but.

“Starting today, we’ll begin the 2nd competition preparation process. There’s a high possibility that teams will mix with each other, and we need to film the practice process for stage preparation, so we’ll be using the dormitory.”

Hearing the announcement, it seems the 2nd competition isn’t teams facing each other but members mixing together.

That’s why they chose this place with dormitories and practice rooms to film scenes of harmonizing with new people.

However, it still felt strange that the ghost of survival shows seemed to be following behind us.

{Master, it’s been a while since we’ve been here!}

‘Right. And you’re coming in the same transparent state as back then.’

{Aren’t there too many coincidences?}

Cerberus, who came along, seemed to have similar thoughts.

We sat by groups in the auditorium where we always used to gather and listened to MC Min Yonghan’s 2nd competition instructions.

“This 2nd competition is a bit special. You all have positions you’re in charge of in your respective groups, right?”

“Yes~.”

“This competition is a position battle where we can see which group’s members shine in each position!”

As expected, we’re being forcibly mixed with people from other groups.

I raised my head and sharpened my nerves.

“Vocal/rap two songs and dance two songs. You need to choose your desired position from a total of four songs. Here, each team can select four position members to represent their group. The important point here is that teams with higher rankings in the 1st competition start later. That means…”

“It becomes a push-out system?”

“Exactly! The higher the ranking, the more definitely you can take the song you want!”

I don’t know why KNet’s production team likes push-out systems so much.

Do they get that much thrill from filming the reactions of people getting pushed out?

“Then here’s the most important part today. We’ll announce the 1st competition results.”

Next to me, Chae Ha-ru took a short breath.

‘We’ve gotten a lot of good evaluations for our stage so far. It’s worth having expectations.’

The most important thing in competitions is the ability to overwhelm the audience.

Recognizing this, we had arranged 〈Realize〉 somewhat intensely and worked hard to leave a deep impression.

Looking at the reviews, it seemed to have worked as intended, so we could have some expectations.

However, fandoms are fandoms.

“1st place is Zefa!”

CENTIX unfortunately remained in 2nd place.

I sent applause while quietly swallowing my slightly bitter feelings.

“Then we’ll reveal this competition’s songs! And please select your position representatives by group.”

This is where it gets important.

The things my intuition told me.

The abnormal obsession and provocations Baek Joo-won had shown toward Seong-hwi so far.

‘If I judge those things coldly, the choice I need to make here is simple.’

“Brother Si-hwan, you’re obviously going for vocal, right?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll put your name in for—. Huh, what? What?”

Yu Ha-woon, who naturally assumed I’d go for the main vocal position, momentarily stuttered.

He was staring at me intently, wondering if I had misspoken.

“I want to go to dance with Hwi.”

I hadn’t misspoken.

This time, I’m absolutely going to completely block variables.