The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 51

Everyone showed their own different reactions.

“Hahaha! Ah, seriously, isn’t Ryu Si-hwan just a wise saying generator? How can someone obtain such elegant speaking skills? Give us poor mortals some tips—”

“That kind of thing, cough cough! Doesn’t exist! Cough!”

“Oh my, you’re really choking properly. I guess even wise saying generators can still coughing?”

“U-useless talk! Cough!”

Kang Seon-woo teased me with his characteristic sly tone while simultaneously patting my back.

Then Seong-hwi, who had been behind us, stuck out his tongue while wiping around his eyes with exaggerated gestures.

“That’s finally coming out. When Brother Si-hwan said those words to me, I was so moved. Thankfully, the scene of me crying didn’t air—”

“L-cough! Don’t lie, cough!”

“You don’t need to be that embarrassed. I feel like I’m about to tear up right now.”

“Stop it!”

Seeing him put on a performance no less cheeky than Kang Seon-woo’s, he seemed to be in a really great mood.

Since those were words I actually said myself, I couldn’t say it was all fabricated.

I felt like I just wanted to quietly move past this, but.

“Y-yes, that’s Brother Si-hwan for you! You gave similar advice to me and Ha-ru too!”

“Everyone seems to receive a lot of help from you. I want to become someone who speaks as well as you do someday—”

“You guys stop it too, cough cough! Please.”

Unable to hold back for even that brief moment, Yu Ha-woon and Chae Ha-ru sent me gazes full of sincere respect.

Now I was embarrassed to the point where even my ears were turning red.

“……”

But the most impressive was Ma Si-hyeok.

With a truly expressionless, stern face, he was clapping at a very steady tempo.

As if no special modifiers were needed.

‘What a mess, what a complete mess.’

The exact moment that thought occurred, even the sleeping Cerberus woke up, making it truly a complete mess.

{Master, why do you keep spreading your charm around places where I’m not? That kind of attention was only for me for the past 50 years!}

‘My head already hurts, so please stop with those bizarre stories.’

{Are you saying the time you spent with these humans is more important than the 50 years we spent together?}

‘That’s absolutely not the case, so please.’

{Alright, alright. I’ll stop since it looks like Master might die from coughing if I keep teasing!}

After drinking water and barely calming my choking, I attempted a belated recovery.

“I just told the truth. To someone who stayed up all night choreographing alone, saying ‘you can look forward to it a little’ and ‘you can definitely do it’—isn’t that perfectly reasonable? N-nothing special, just from a teamwork perspective—”

“A leader has to communicate internally with team members to be more effective! I’ll work harder later and try to become someone who can open up and talk like you do!”

“……Right.”

I’m giving up.

Looking at Yu Ha-woon’s sparkling eyes, it was obvious he’d shower me with praise no matter what I said here.

So I just quietly drank water while praying for a quick transition to the next scene.

But the live talk was already completely wrecked.

—Ah I’m seriously going crazy T_T Just looks like an obvious cheesy comment anyone could see coming, but when Ryu Si-hwan says it with that dead serious tone, it hits like crazy

—What’s amazing is that Si-hwan’s face never appeared in that scene LMAO. But I can naturally see both their faces floating in front of my eyes LOL. Is this right??

└Their faces never appeared but their faces said everything

└Can’t you see the face behind the wall? I can see it so clearly

└Are you wearing X-ray goggles by yourself, teacher? LOL

—How can every single of his action be so deep

└But seriously, words like that absolutely won’t come out if you try to make them up on purpose. Who would speak so sincerely to someone they don’t care about?

└Just god Si-hwan…… Don’t tell me he’s even taming Seong-hwi?

└No way, is Si-hwan some kind of animal trainer? LOL

└Isn’t he a premium trainer? During grade evaluations, during the 1st team battle, and now too, he’s subtly taming all his team members while going “there, there”

Following the “Hwan-father” title, am I now acquiring the “trainer” title too?

Come to think of it…… I am forcibly training a hellhound in real time, so it’s accurate.

After briefly turning off the live talk covered in all sorts of nonsense, I finally focused on Episode 7, which had moved on to the choreography revision process.

[Team 5 with a personnel gap due to center Seong-hwi’s absence]

[Even the dance break choreography needs to be redone……]

Ryu Si-hwan delivering the news of Seong-hwi’s injury and the team members showing worried expressions upon hearing it.

However, at the shout to cheer up and revise the choreography, everyone’s eyes changed completely.

The national managers also sent enthusiastic support messages for Team 5’s scene of not losing their fighting spirit even in an unexpected situation.

—Seriously, maybe it’s because of that weird team from earlier, but watching these guys feels healing T_T

—For real, this is clearly the normal team image we know, but maybe because we’ve only seen extreme scenes so far, I’m getting moved by trivial things lmao

—Thankfully the other team members are nice too, so they listen well to Si-hwan’s suggestions…… Being a leader must be tough, and doing it twice in a row makes this granny worry T_T

└That’s one thing, but will practice go well without a center?? I’m worried about that first

└Looking at the spoiler that Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan were on the same team being true, their stage must be legendary level too, so I’m looking forward to it with peace of mind

└Agreed, just worrying makes me more annoyed, so I’m just anticipating it instead lol

Shots of me mainly leading conversations and discussing revision plans continued in large numbers.

Meanwhile, they frequently showed Ma Si-hyeok’s face deep in thought.

‘This part will probably all go to Ma Si-hyeok, right?’

Since both Seong-hwi and I had already secured plenty of screen time, if Ma Si-hyeok’s ideas stood out more and appeared on broadcast, I’d feel much more comfortable.

[So even if it’s not choreography with beat killing, wow! point choreography that satisfies this song’s purpose that we emphasized early on is fine too. Restrained sexiness. I think slow choreography that fulfills this would suit us too.]

[(Ma Si-hyeok trainee, who had been continuously pondering something)]

[(Suddenly takes out his phone and busily searches for something?)]

With his already serious-looking mask, when he furrowed his brow and focused on his phone, his expression became even more fierce.

Ma Si-hyeok himself was startled seeing his face on TV.

“Do I really look like that?”

“If strangers saw you, you’d look just a tiny bit scary.”

“R-really……”

“No, no! Come on, that’s just a figure of speech. If they talk with you even a little, they’d know you’re not that kind of person at all.”

While Kang Seon-woo was waving his hands trying to help, the Ma Si-hyeok on screen spoke to Ryu Si-hwan with the most innocent face in the world.

[Props. How about using props?]

The national managers were also busily leaving comments about the tremendous gap derived from Ma Si-hyeok’s appearance.

—With that build and that expression, why is he so cute LOL. Seriously like a big large dog

└Everyone didn’t know how cute our Si-hyeok is. This kid’s been nicknamed “large retriever” from the beginning

└Ah lmao. The scene of him kneeling and crying during grade evaluation suddenly flashes by

└Scary-looking exterior and not-so-scary interior is precious, you know

—Setting everything else aside, the props idea is definitely good. If choreography difficulty drops, the viewing pleasure can drop somewhat too, but props can cover that to some extent

[What exactly is Team 5’s secret weapon?]

[Midterm Evaluation D-Day]

It immediately switched to the scene showing our stage prepared for the midterm evaluation.

Without any spoilers about the stage content, they just showed close-ups of the judges’ faces as they watched in admiration.

—What is it though

—LOL. Why does seeing Shin Jae-hoon’s excited face feel so awkward? It’s like they put a different person there

└Is that the same person who was roaring like a tiger just a few dozen minutes ago? Ah lol

└He especially makes that face when watching Si-hwan lmao. He liked him during grade evaluation too, I guess

—Ha, I knew this would happen. KNet, you guys wouldn’t tell us such important points in advance

—If they had shown this and then “To be continued!” I would have rioted, but I’m enduring it since the main stage is coming soon

The practice process video ended with scenes of Seong-hwi practicing in the hospital room while watching videos we sent him, and Team 5 matching up until early dawn.

I put down my water bottle and sighed in relief.

‘I should thank the KNet production team for this.’

They created a truly smooth situation with inspired editing skills.

Thanks to that, Seong-hwi’s personal circumstances were cleanly cut out.

They inserted survival-related narratives to better reveal our shared desperation and urgency.

Our stage that decorated the end of the 2nd team battle was also beautifully filmed by the skilled camera directors.

My eye mask scene, which could be called the key point, and the black cloth I waved during the dance break were also captured satisfyingly.

〈ISL 2〉 Episode 7 ended with a closing comment that next week would have the 2nd ranking announcement ceremony.

“Wow…… I got chills watching it again.”

“Right? All three of you were so cool.”

“Haha, I didn’t do anything. It’s because the rest of you did well.”

Seong-hwi grinned and got up from the bed at Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon’s praise.

“Then should we start cleaning up and head back now?”

“Ah, yes!”

“We’ll help too!”

“Hey, hey, the room owners should stay still. The outside invaders should clean up.”

“Seon-woo, it would be nice if you emptied the trash can on your way out too.”

“Ryu Si-hwan only gets sweet like ‘Seon-woo~’ at times like this, huh?”

Eventually all six of us cleaned up the trash and organized the room together, finishing our day.

After brushing our teeth again and lying in bed, Ma Si-hyeok quietly called my name from the opposite bed.

“Brother Si-hwan, are you sleeping?”

“No, I haven’t digested the chicken yet.”

“……”

“If you called me, say something, man.”

“Will we all be able to survive?”

Hearing his voice tremble slightly at the end, it seemed he’d been worrying alone.

Looking just at the stage and editing, our team had no problems.

The real-time reactions were good too, and the audience’s cheers were the loudest.

But no matter how much we want to think of it as a good result, in the current situation where every moment stands at the crossroads of survival and elimination, the trainees’ hearts can’t help but be anxious.

“Si-hyeok.”

“Yes?”

“Honestly, unless I know the future, there’s nothing I can tell you for certain, but it’s still true that we put on the coolest stage.”

“Brother Si-hwan is right.”

“You weren’t sleeping either?”

“Ahaha, I should digest what I need to digest before sleeping too.”

Seong-hwi’s languid voice came from the bed by the window.

“If we could read people’s hearts, the world would be so comfortable. We’re anxious like this because we can’t read them. But our same-age friend Si-hyeok.”

“……It feels so weird when you call me that.”

“You’d better get used to it gradually. Anyway, personally, I came down with no regrets. Even though it was a stage I almost ruined due to my greed, didn’t you and Brother Si-hwan save it beautifully? It’s not like me to say this, but I came down from the stage feeling grateful for that fact.”

“Keep those belated thanks to yourself.”

“Brother Si-hwan is pretty weak to this kind of blatant praise too, huh? I should use this often.”

My head hurt from Seong-hwi’s giggling laughter.

Is this also Kang Seon-woo’s influence?

“Anyway, what I mean is, if you yourself had a stage with no regrets, just think about that. Think about the ranking and results later. Okay, friend?”

“……Got it.”

“And I’m not just saying this—I really want to stand on stage again with these exact members later. Next time with my ankle in perfect condition. So let’s not get eliminated, everyone.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Seong-hwi’s bold words.

“Yeah, it would be great if we all survived until the next filming.”

Tomorrow’s sun continued to rise, and the result tally for the 2nd ranking announcement ceremony was being finalized.

And two days later.

On the stage where the intense 2nd team battle had taken place, MC Go Hyeon-ju spread her arms wide and said.

“〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, the long-awaited 2nd ranking announcement ceremony day. The trainees who will survive to the end on this stage today are only 35 people.”

The day that would determine fate had arrived.