The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 195

Seasons change quickly.

Just as the bright spring had passed swiftly, summer had also flown by in no time.

With the hot temperatures dropping slightly, the cool autumn breeze was beginning to stretch and wake up.

The arrival of September meant one thing.

The day had finally come for the special program 〈All Star〉 broadcast that both the cast and fans had been waiting for so long.

“Ah, seriously… I should have gone to the live audience too.”

Song Ji-won muttered to herself while boldly tearing open a snack bag.

She had achieved sweet victories at CENTIX-related events and audience programs up until now.

But like a ghost, she had spectacularly failed to get into the 〈All Star〉 live audience.

With other fandoms all swarming together, the competition must have been too fierce.

As a result of not being able to see the stage with her own eyes, she had no choice but to search for reviews posted in communities.

While reading the reactions full of live atmosphere was very enjoyable, it was also like being tortured at the same time.

I could have gone there and cheered to my heart’s content too.

There’s still so much time left until the actual broadcast.

There’s no way I can wait until then.

The days filled with such laments had ended.

Song Ji-won prayed that CENTIX would show scenes of overwhelming their seniors with pure skill, just as the reviews had conveyed.

[Korea’s top idols unfold a war of stars. Welcome everyone who came to the 〈All Star〉 venue!]

Should she call it a scale befitting the holiday special title?

No. Rather, thinking about past specials, this 〈All Star〉 seemed to boast abnormal planning costs and investment.

Both the recruited groups and the set stage now sparkling with brilliant lights showed this.

Song Ji-won opened a can of beer while listening to MC Min Yonghan ramble on explaining the outline of 〈All Star〉.

‘I want to see the kids’ stage soon.’

As if her feelings had been heard, right after the concept introduction ended, they immediately moved to each group’s behind-the-scenes VCR.

It was content covering the preparation process for the 1st competition, ‘Representative Song Battle.’

[Hello, everyone! This is the first reveal… wait, that’s not right?]

[We probably appeared dozens of times in reality shows.]

[Hehehe, right? Anyway, welcome to our practice room!]

[Yesss!]

After about two teams had passed, CENTIX’s VCR was shown.

The members, wearing almost no makeup, sat in a circle having an idea meeting.

[Guys, first we need to decide on our song.]

[They definitely said it was a representative song battle, right?]

[Choose a song that can best express our color…]

[Actually, all our title tracks are good.]

[Still, I think this way.]

At leader Ryu Si-hwan’s words, the other members’ heads all turned in unison.

[After debuting, where we’ve reached now feels most like us, I think.]

[Oh, that’s a deep statement.]

[Brother is trying to take all the cool parts by himself again?]

[…You could say it instead.]

[Unfortunately, I don’t have eloquent speaking skills like Brother.]

[So, so! Brother Si-hwan thinks we should do 〈Realize〉 because it’s where current CENTIX has reached!]

[Right.]

Everyone nodded vigorously as if in agreement.

Even looking back, it seemed like quite a meaningful song selection.

‘He always says cool things like that.’

The place CENTIX as a group had reached.

After a successful debut with 〈Chronic〉, they leaped forward through 〈Find Me〉.

They even released their 1st full album, truly solidifying their position.

The arrival point of that journey was now 〈Realize〉.

After song selection ended, the members went down to the studio to have meetings with composers.

While discussing ideas with each other, they had really bright, innocent faces.

But when they entered full-scale work mode, not a trace of playfulness could be found, and serious expressions greeted the viewers.

[We had an opinion to change the overall atmosphere of the song a bit.]

[In what way?]

[Since this is also the first stage we’re showing at 〈All Star〉, and we need to seize the initiative, right? So we thought about amplifying the existing base a bit and adding much more intense sound.]

Led by Kang Seon-woo, who had abundant composition knowledge, CENTIX actively exchanged opinions.

The main message was that they needed to leave a strong first impression.

CENTIX’s VCR ended while discussing arrangement methods that could make this possible.

When the scene of determining competition order through nominating the weakest came out, Song Ji-won and other MILLENNIUM couldn’t help but be very displeased with the result.

‘What, choosing because they’re the youngest? Honestly, how many groups there could beat CENTIX in performance?’

It was frustrating, but they had somewhat expected it, so there was nothing they could do.

In that kind of situation, if you wrote down a group senior to you, you’d naturally feel awkward.

CENTIX naturally became the easiest target.

However, when it was revealed that the name CENTIX wrote was Zefa, people went wild.

—True no-back-down god-tier Ryu Si-hwan LMAO

—It could be provocation, but listening to what he says, you really feel that ‘rookie spirit!’ and can’t really criticize him LOL

—They knew they’d be nominated → meaning they’re underdogs so they had to prepare well and win → to prove that determination, they wrote the name of the best senior here. Really, CENTIX collectively ate a whole bucket of poison berries and came out

The main stage that followed was, well, what more is there to say?

It was really just as the community reviews had described all along.

‘I thought the dance difficulty had become a bit easier, but what the hell is this?’

Song Ji-won looked at the TV with an incredulous expression.

She even forgot to sip the beer in her hand.

The topic that had been endlessly discussed during their 1st full album title track 〈Realize〉 activities was precisely CENTIX’s choreography change.

While they always showed tremendous group dance in dance breaks as usual.

In other parts, there were many movements that ordinary people could easily follow along with.

However, in this 〈All Star〉 1st competition stage, it was truly full-throttle from beginning to end.

She could immediately understand why the phrase that appeared most in review posts was ‘thought they had wings.’

It was so like your idols who never betrayed expectations.

The comment reactions were hot too.

—I thought it was just viral bluffing, but they’re really good??

—Now I understand why even general public praised the hundred-year-idols a lot lol. All the kids here are groups with top-tier recognition, but there’s no group as openly venomous as the hundred-year-idols

—Perfect song, perfect dance, perfect visuals. What more is there to say?

—I always feel this, but the most amazing thing is how their live vocals don’t shake even while jumping around like that

└Yes, next lip-sync AR one-trick group ^^

└LOL. Now it’s so obviously transparent that it’s too annoying to even argue back (link) Just watch this and shut your mouth

└The AR talk has really consistently come out since CENTIX debuted lol. On the flip side, there are lots of AR removal videos too, but the steadfast haters don’t even watch those~

When the results showed CENTIX took 2nd place, losing to Zefa, fans were more disappointed than the actual members.

Since they had shown a stage and performance that could have definitely won, the frustration was even greater.

But CENTIX didn’t show any such signs and just kept applauding.

—They seem okay, so should I say that’s a relief…?

—In my eyes, it looks like they’re thoroughly suppressing their anger

—Lmao. As if CT didn’t feel any emotions here

—Thinking about the 2nd competition spoilers, didn’t they harbor tremendous venom here and bury the legendary-fa members?

└But if they harbor any more venom than this, that’s just chemical weapons

└Ah lol. Instead of exhaling carbon dioxide, they exhale venom~

Song Ji-won had similar thoughts to most comments.

For the most anticipated 2nd competition to proceed as spoiled, CENTIX had to feel some emotion here.

‘Ah, how am I going to wait until next week?’

Song Ji-won sighed while finishing the rest of her beer, but despite such worries, time passed quickly.

Living real life caught up in work, seven days flew by in an instant, and the day the long-awaited 2nd competition was broadcast returned.

Not only MILLENNIUM but also people supporting other groups looked at the TV with very interesting gazes.

Since a considerable portion viewed Zefa’s fandom, who had committed numerous misdeeds due to pride in guarding Korea’s top position, unfavorably.

They were also in an extremely curious state about how much humiliation Zefa would suffer as the live audience reviews unfolded exactly as they were.

First, the team formation process was exactly the same as the spoilers.

[Wow, that team’s members are really brutal.]

[We did well with the mind games. Thank goodness.]

[If we had gone there, we really might have been crushed like shrimp in a whale fight.]

[What about the Lunatic brothers?]

The combination of Zefa and CENTIX, formed while receiving the attention and fear of other teams, and Lunatic, who had fallen victim to misfortune.

Song Ji-won couldn’t believe that Ryu Si-hwan had abandoned vocals and gone to dance, even seeing it with her own eyes.

‘But he still beat that Baek Joo-won and Seok Jae-han.’

Instead of calling him a genius vocalist, um… at this rate, would he become a genius dancing vocalist?

[This part. I think it would be better to create a new dance break.]

Baek Joo-won’s words about newly creating the middle choreography of 〈OBEY〉 came out.

Soon after, choreography that looked like it would break your ankles just watching was created.

This alone was enough to drop jaws, but when Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan volunteered for this dance break, jaws dropped even further.

—This isn’t live singing while dancing, right?

└That’s crazy LMAO. Looking at audience reviews, the dance positions were AR recorded and played

└Phew… I was getting the feeling my lungs would explode thinking about singing while doing that

—So that choreography was made by Baek Joo-won? Then according to spoilers, Baek Joo-won got beaten by Ryu Si-hwan and Seong-hwi with the choreography he made LOL. So funny

└Baeky’s expression just says ‘you guys definitely can’t do this’ lol. He’s being cocky

└Logically, putting such risky choreography in an event-heavy special program doesn’t sit well with me… What if they get injured doing that?

Checking the community, it was chaotic here too.

Song Ji-won was swallowing tension while alternately looking at her phone and TV.

Even during 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, she had never hoped spoilers would be true as much as now.

While watching other position teams’ competition stages with wide eyes.

Finally, Min Yonghan’s mouth said that the amazing people from the dance position were waiting.

Song Ji-won instinctively straightened her posture and clasped her hands together.

With such a reverent mindset, she didn’t take her eyes off the TV screen for 5 minutes.

“……”

Right after the 〈OBEY〉 team’s stage ended.

She couldn’t figure out what to do with this emotion surging up from below her chest.

She just moved her trembling fingers with excitement and joy and accessed the community.

The first post title that entered her sight perfectly represented Song Ji-won’s feelings.

[People happy that Zefa got their hierarchy sorted, leave comments LMAO Starting with me!!]