The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 58

Beep! Beep!

“Mom…… I want to sleep more……”

“Mmmmmmph……”

“Noisy…… noisy…… alarm……”

I looked at the completely wiped-out dorm while listening to alarms blaring from all directions.

‘It is a forced march, so it makes sense they’d collapse like this.’

But the schedule was too tight to show mercy with oversleeping out of sympathy.

Seeing the kids who weren’t moving, Cerberus smacked his lips beside me.

{Master, should I just lightly bite their ears?}

‘Please don’t do such scary things.’

Before Cerberus could do anything reckless, I personally visited each bed and tugged on their ears.

“Get up, we need to go run on the track.”

“Ow ow! Brother, Brother, gently! I’m awake!”

“If you’re awake, why aren’t you turning off your alarm?”

“I’m sorry!”

After waking up the 6 members who were deeply drunk on sleep, it was already 6:10.

There hadn’t been the luxury of changing clothes after practice last night either.

The team members who had just collapsed on their beds in the same workout clothes they wore during late-night practice gathered on the track in identical outfits.

I was tired too, but I could still endure this much.

“Alright, let’s run five laps like yesterday and head back!”

“Yessss……”

There was a reason I had inserted morning exercise into our already breathless schedule.

Two days ago, when we received 〈Winning Shot〉 from composer Kang Hae-soo and got the choreography video from Shin Jae-hoon.

My head was immediately filled with the obsession that we needed to start physical training right away.

Kang Hae-soo hadn’t said “digest this song with the mindset of smashing the stage” for nothing.

The choreography for 〈Winning Shot〉 created by judge/trainer Shin Jae-hoon had almost no breaks for the entire 3 minutes.

Countless position changes, sections that required continuous jumping, chorus choreography that twisted every joint in the body, and above all, the dance break part that desperately needed group cohesion among team members.

It was at a level where you couldn’t pull off that insane choreography with live singing unless you had considerable mental strength and stamina.

That’s why I decided we needed to solidify our basic stamina as a priority, which is why I made up my mind to run on the track from this early morning.

“Good, just one more lap!”

“Wasn’t this the fifth lap?”

“You seem to have stamina left, so let’s run one more time!”

“Can I just collapse right now and not have to run?”

“No tricks will work, Chae Ha-ru.”

I led the team members, who had fallen into a state of exhaustion, to the cafeteria at 7 AM.

No matter how busy the period was and how diligent the trainees were, there wasn’t a single person who had come down to eat breakfast at 7 AM.

Kang Seon-woo looked around the empty cafeteria with toast in his mouth.

“It feels nice, like we rented this whole place out.”

“Right? Then should we get up even earlier and run?”

“Ryu Si-hwan, you devil. Why do you keep saying we should get up early and run whenever you speak? Did you become leader just for that?”

“I won’t deny that, but don’t forget that you guys were the ones who picked me as leader.”

I had originally planned to recommend Kang Seon-woo as leader.

But since all 6 members except me voted for Ryu Si-hwan in the leader vote, I ended up taking on both the leader and main vocal positions again this time.

There was one particularly surprising moment yesterday.

“How about Ha-ru tries being center?”

“M-me?”

“Yeah, you.”

Seong-hwi had been the first to yield the center position to Chae Ha-ru.

After watching the choreography video that trainer Shin Jae-hoon gave us once or twice, Seong-hwi voluntarily gave up the center position.

Everyone was so surprised that they couldn’t react properly.

“It’s kind of a tough image, isn’t it, the center part here? But um, my feeling is that Ha-ru would suit it better than me. Don’t you all think so?”

“Uh, uh…… you’re probably right—.”

“Anyway, even if I don’t insist on center, we’ll properly distribute individual parts through part allocation, right? Brother Si-hwan, am I wrong?”

“……No.”

“Then it doesn’t matter.”

It seems the memory of working together during the 2nd team battle was effectively at play.

Instead, there were 2 main dancer slots available, so Seong-hwi and Ma Si-hyeok took those positions.

At first, I was anxious about that combination too, but the two same-age friends seemed to have gradually grown closer while doing 〈Back in the Time〉, more than I thought.

After quickly eating breakfast, the morning practice session immediately followed.

We decided to check dance first in the morning since our voices were still rough, and split vocal practice into two sessions in the afternoon.

“Okay, here you need to move head, shoulders, waist, legs. Split it into 4 beats like this. Everyone following along?”

“Step and hit and come up and pivot turn and position switch then jump!”

Having 2 main dancers with different tendencies worked out smoothly.

When Seong-hwi, who liked taking charge, called out commands from the front while following the choreography.

“Ha-woon, try that part again.”

“Brother Si-hwan, I think it would be okay to close in a bit toward Ha-ru’s side.”

“This round was good. Hwi, shall we try from the beginning once more?”

Ma Si-hyeok looked carefully at the full-length mirror and pointed out detailed problems for each member from behind.

Thanks to that, we could take care of both the overall picture and small details simultaneously.

And Ha Sang-hun, who could have been awkward since he joined later, had smoothly become friends with the other trainees based on his easygoing personality.

“Si-hyeok, can you show me that part again?”

“I think our timing was a bit fast for the three of us.”

“Could you make the movement a bit bigger? The picture doesn’t look pretty.”

Watching Ha Sang-hun contribute to the practice session by appropriately mixing questions and help, I felt internal satisfaction.

‘Composition-wise it was perfect, and it’s really fortunate that the kids are getting along without any friction.’

Indeed, guys become friends best by sweating and bumping into each other intensely.

This is an unchanging universal truth whether in real life or hell.

After lunch, I took the lead in refining the vocal parts.

Just like Seong-hwi had said before, I measured the exact length of parts for every position and distributed them as fairly as possible.

The new variable that emerged in vocals was Ma Si-hyeok’s position change.

“Brother Si-hwan, could I go in as rapper 2 instead of sub vocal for this song?”

“The rap sections appear twice total so it’s fine, but will you be okay with rapping?”

“Yes. I’ve received some rap lessons at my agency, and Brother Seon-woo said he’d help me too.”

The exact song information for 〈Winning Shot〉 was ‘hip-hop based dance song founded on moombahton K-pop genre.’

Since there were quite a few sections where rap could be inserted, rather than having Kang Seon-woo handle everything alone, I judged it would be better to split it between two people and made 2 rapper positions.

I hadn’t expected Ma Si-hyeok to take that spot.

But as he said, he had some basic rap skills, and thanks to Kang Seon-woo providing close one-on-one tutoring like a private teacher, the situation was going smoothly.

Even while being chased by time attacks, I maintained a clear mind and devoted myself positively to practice.

Because all indicators were smiling at us.

So unlike usual, I was able to wait for 〈ISL 2〉 episode 8 with a much more comfortable heart.

* * *

It wasn’t just Ryu Si-hwan who felt at ease.

“Ah, it’s been so long since I could stretch out both legs comfortably and watch a ranking announcement like this.”

Song Ji-won happily muttered to herself while pouring a cold beer.

She already knew how well Ryu Si-hwan had performed through episode 7.

And with the subsequent direct cam explosion and flood of obsessive comments, she had confirmed that public opinion was on her favorite’s side.

Then it was almost impossible for Ryu Si-hwan’s ranking to drop in the 2nd ranking announcement.

‘It’s just a question of whether he can get 1st place or not. Well, he just needs to get 1st in the finale.’

Even in season 1, there were situations where participants who had consistently held 1st place got pushed to 2nd in the final vote. So it wasn’t just an empty dream.

Actually, Song Ji-won’s heart was focused more on something other than the ranking announcement.

The ‘All Team Members Designation Rights’ she had decisively invested a certain amount of her money in.

By now, the trainees would be shedding blood and sweat preparing for the 3rd team battle.

She was extremely curious about what combination Ryu Si-hwan would create after receiving that gift, what mission they would meet, and how they were preparing to shake the hearts of national managers.

Actually, there had been various opinion conflicts before making this decision.

“Hey, but isn’t it too wasteful? If we hit big a few more times, we could buy the 500,000 vote benefit. If you spend 5 million money, we practically can’t buy that benefit.”

“But I think All Team Members Designation Rights is better. Whether Sister Ji-won can gather 10 million money is uncertain to begin with, right? Plus time-wise, they’ll soon start filming the 3rd team battle, so we need to decide quickly. If he picked good team members here and get overall 1st place, he’ll get benefits there too.”

“Ugh, somehow I keep feeling regretful. Isn’t 500,000 votes at once too big? It’s several times more than the benefits you get from all the 1st, 2nd, 3rd team battles combined.”

“I just want to spend it. I think that would make me feel more comfortable.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

Song Ji-won, who had similar thoughts to Kang Eun-young, had flexed 5 million money right after ending the video call and sent that tremendous item to Ryu Si-hwan.

The remaining money was about 1 million.

Even if she won all the money in real-time match predictions, it would be difficult to reach 10 million now.

She had invested believing only in her favorite’s ability and luck.

Song Ji-won gulped down her beer while staring at the screen with 〈HIT〉 BGM flowing.

Rather, it felt like she had thrown a huge burden off her shoulders, so her heart was truly light.

[The trainees who survive the 2nd ranking announcement are only 35.]

The 2nd ranking announcement, announced from the bottom up, proceeded steadily.

One noteworthy point was that the 3 members of 〈Back in the Time〉 were called relatively early.

Then naturally, the community opinion that had continued for the past few days came to mind.

—Lol. That’s right, no matter how overwhelming the Back in Time group was, the core members carried it, so the spotlight would be focused there

└Just setting everything else aside, individually only the three of Ryu-Seong-Ma were visible lol yeah

└Lmao, what’s Ryu-Seong-Ma, sounds like some game item

└It’s sad but team-wise they matched really well and worked hard, but the only wow! parts were those three T_T

The attention focused on Ryu Si-hwan, Seong-hwi, and Ma Si-hyeok showed clearly in numbers too.

Just looking at individual direct cam view counts, the three had mobilized a total of 2 million views.

On top of that, due to the Ryu Si-hwan—Seong-hwi combo’s performance broadcasted in episode 7, organic movement between individual fans was added.

‘It’s kind of interesting seeing people’s attitudes change in an instant.’

People who had been throwing profanity at each other and executing so-called ‘hate’ just a few weeks ago were high-fiving like they never did that.

From a third party’s perspective, it made you wonder what this was.

[Trainees Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan. Please come up to the stage!]

—Ah lol obviously those two

—Our Hwi’s true love vibe continues LOL why does he look at him with those eyes even while going up on stage LMAO

└For real. Aren’t they filming We Got Married or something lmao. I’m going crazy

└The beagle-like Seong-hwi rushing over and the just calm Ryu Si-hwan…… I support this combination

└Definitely when he’s with Ryu Si-hwan, Hwi looks happier than when he was with those troll bastards before ㅇ.ㅇ Environment makes the person!

‘When did you bash Si-hwan so desperately.’

Song Ji-won wasn’t too pleased with Seong-hwi fans’ attitude change after witnessing the real-time persecution of commenters, but.

[1st place is! Trainee Ryu Si-hwan! Congratulations!]

Seeing the comments celebrating Ryu Si-hwan’s rise to 1st place, she felt a bit of sweetness.

[—I will always think that this ranking contains not just that I did well, but the belief that I will continue to show even better sides. I will work to ensure that belief is never broken, and become a trainee who works even harder.]

—Hwan-father T_T T_T T_T don’t cry T_T T_T

—Why am I getting more choked up, seriously every single word comes flying like a sincere punch and my heart hurts

—He really speaks so well, better than most movie actors’ award speeches lol

└Right LOL Si-hwan, did you know you’d get 1st and prepare your speech in advance……?

└Wow I just imagined Ryu Si-hwan alone in bed scribbling down his speech on his phone memo and almost destroyed the Earth

└Please endure it, teacher, I want to destroy the Earth after I get into college.

└LMAO

Episode 8 ended with a preview of the next 3rd team battle.

It was truly a perfect day beyond perfection.

‘It couldn’t be better than this!’

She had risen to 1st place from the 2nd ranking announcement, and she could even take the 3rd team battle advantageously with the All Team Members Designation Rights she had sent.

Song Ji-won was able to sleep very comfortably, thinking about her favorite whose possibility of debut was growing larger and larger.

However, the next morning.

The sky apparently couldn’t leave this smooth flow alone.

[〈Breaking!!〉 Ma Si-hyeok participating in Idol Stove League Season 2 is a school violence perpetrator. +14398]

Hello. I’m truly sorry to convey this message only through the power of anonymity.

The thing is, Ma Si-hyeok, my classmate and the person who makes me have nightmares every night, is a school violence perpetrator. Ma Si-hyeok from S Middle School continuously bullied me and my friends who were in the same class since 1st year of middle school……(omitted).

……Below is a photo of me holding my graduation album. Ma Si-hyeok, I know you’re watching this. If you truly have any humanity, I hope you voluntarily withdraw from the program.

“……What the hell is this.”

Ash had been heavily sprinkled on the celebration table.