The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 6

I carefully examined the names written on the class placement chart.

Each class had a minimum of 2 A-grade trainees, about 4 B-grade trainees, and about 4 C-D grade trainees.

Class 3, which included my name, was slightly different from this typical minimum.

There were 2 A-grade trainees including me, 5 B-grade trainees, and 3 C-D grade trainees.

I could see a few familiar names.

[A-grade: Ryu Si-hwan, Kang Seon-woo]

[B-grade: ……, Ma Si-hyeok, …….]

The odds were 1 in 10, but two trainees I was acquainted with had ended up filtering through those cracks.

“Oh, we’re in the same class!”

“So it seems.”

Kang Seon-woo appeared silently behind me. He smiled broadly while even patting my back.

‘Is he trying to keep creating this kind of intimate image with me?’

Well, I had no intention of pushing away a fellow A-grade trainee from a major agency.

So I continued responding appropriately in casual speech.

“But no matter how I look at it, doesn’t this seem a bit too much?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s kind of obvious why they arranged it this way.”

Kang Seon-woo lowered his voice and whispered to me.

As if this conversation shouldn’t be captured on camera.

“Doesn’t it feel like they did this to filter out the kids who’ll drop out on their own from the start?”

This guy isn’t ordinary either.

Whether it’s because he’s from a major agency or because his personality itself is analytical.

‘Looks like he had the same thought as me.’

Originally, in these survival programs, it’s typical to group participants of the same grade together for practice. Putting people in groups with similar skill levels makes it easier for trainers and reduces elements that members would feel self-conscious about.

But 〈ISL 2〉 broke this rule.

The intent hidden behind such actions is obvious.

A role to filter out participants who lack the ability to generate buzz from the start.

A role to further highlight skilled trainees.

And insurance that lower-grade participants might occasionally explode with potential and boost ratings.

By deliberately creating extreme situations and throwing more spotlight on skilled people, they can promote early fan influx while also expecting situations that create reversals.

In short, it’s a strategy where the broadcasting station has nothing to lose.

Since they can increase 〈ISL 2〉’s search volume through provocative methods anyway, they don’t think much of lower-ranked participants’ mentals breaking down.

I quickly looked around.

Sure enough, the C-D grade participants were already unable to hide their anxious expressions.

Because they could clearly see how pathetic they’d look in a setting with skilled trainees.

‘From here on, mental factors become important alongside skills.’

For trainees with relatively low rankings, it’s a battle of how much they can improve their skills without getting discouraged.

For trainees with relatively high rankings, it’s a battle of how much they can meet the expectations naturally focused on them.

In the end, it all comes down to whether you can maintain confidence or not.

However, you also need to know how to control that confidence appropriately to get good editing.

* * *

“Pivot with your left foot here and powerfully!”

“Gonna make it HIT!”

The trainees spun their bodies following the dance trainer who stood at the front personally teaching the choreography.

Even though the movements themselves formed without any major problems, there wasn’t that refreshing feeling somehow.

After maintaining this pattern of just following basic steps, perhaps affected by gradually insufficient breathing, the strength drained from the trainees’ bodies.

“Again, again, again!”

The dance trainer roughly waved his hands and stopped the music.

‘What a complete mess.’

I sighed internally while looking at the trainees pouring sweat like rain on both sides of me.

I don’t know how many times we’ve repeated just this highlight part now.

Even setting aside the C-D grade kids, the B-grade guys’ form was also deteriorating with each repetition of this high-intensity session.

Kang Seon-woo’s expression, who had been silently learning 〈HIT〉’s choreography in front of me, also turned slightly sour.

“Kids, I really didn’t want to bring this up from the start.”

Here it comes, the line you can only taste in survival programs.

“Are you really here because you genuinely want to become idols? No, you must have practiced a lot at your agencies at least. Where did you leave all that time? Did you just throw it away when you applied here? Starting completely fresh?”

“No…….”

“But why can’t you smoothly do even this simple passage once? Especially you kids making sad faces in the back right now! You really need to have a sense of urgency. Once you slip up, you don’t know how far you’ll fall. Isn’t that why you came here to debut? Doesn’t it matter if you just drop out? Is this the level of determination you applied with?”

The C-D grade trainees, already drooping from being drenched in sweat, hung their heads even lower with each harsh word from the trainer.

“I’ll be honest. This choreography is among the easier ones I’ve created. If you really become official idols and debut, you’ll need to be able to handle choreography 3 times harder than this. So please, kids, snap out of it and try. Okay?”

I had thought it would be a week of mental breakdown. But I didn’t expect them to practice it this seriously.

I could feel Class 3’s HP decreasing in real-time.

At this rate, there’ll be kids who voluntarily escape before even performing the theme song stage.

However, the dance trainer’s words weren’t wrong, so I couldn’t defend them.

The choreography for 〈HIT〉, which came out as the 〈ISL 2〉 theme song, had an overall bland feeling.

But the pressure from the survival program called 〈Idol Stove League 2〉.

And the burden from the presence of high-ranking trainees beside them was making the C-D grade guys collapse on their own.

While I felt sorry for those kids, I still wanted to escape from this endless choreography hell.

“Let’s try again! Everyone, let’s cheer up together! We can do it!”

‘Oh.’

When everyone was just catching their breath, one trainee with a B-grade badge on his chest clapped his hands trying to lift the mood.

He looked like he wasn’t even 20 yet, but he wasn’t intimidated even in this harsh atmosphere.

The dance trainer looked at the B-grade trainee for a moment with a slightly satisfied expression.

“Right, Chang-jung. That’s the spirit I’m looking for. What’s done is done, so let’s forget about it quickly. We’re starting from the intro again. Okay?”

“Yes!”

After sweating for an additional hour like that, Class 3 was finally able to escape from the dance practice room.

“Ah, thank you!”

“Thank you!”

The participants grabbed water from the ice box the production team had prepared outside the practice room while loudly giving their greetings.

Even though cameras were rolling constantly, having to keep taking such artificial actions.

But if I got branded as a rude guy, all the effort to get here would be completely wasted. So I had no choice but to bow my head repeatedly while drinking water.

Unlike the trainees who were still sweating even while drinking cool cold water, I was relatively fine.

Actually, despite receiving guidance from that notoriously harsh dance trainer, it wasn’t difficult at all.

Touching my soft cheeks lightly, I suddenly recalled that hot warmth I had endured and endured in hell.

‘Am I not getting tired from this level of exercise anymore? At this rate, I’ll keep being filmed with a fine face, so I should act tired on purpose.’

Well, thinking about it roughly, it was natural.

I had lived playing catch with Cerberus every day in a place that easily exceeded 40 degrees Celsius.

My basic stamina had developed to a level where I couldn’t get tired even if I wanted to.

Ah, that Cerberus is currently sleeping alone in our dorm room.

If he rode on my shoulder during every session, I wouldn’t be able to dance properly.

Meanwhile, the trainee who escaped from the dance practice room last trudged over here.

Overwhelming physique but poor eye contact skills.

I could now recognize Ma Si-hyeok just by looking from afar.

‘Ah, come to think of it, the ice box.’

The production team, thinking all Class 3 trainees had come out, was already moving elsewhere carrying the ice box.

“Excuse me, writer! Could you give us just one more bottle of water?”

I hurriedly caught a writer walking at the end of the staff and got one more cold water.

Seeing Ma Si-hyeok flapping the bottom of his t-shirt trying to cool down his sweat, I felt some inexplicable pity.

‘Why does such a tall guy act so sluggish?’

When I lightly brought the dripping water bottle to his arm, Ma Si-hyeok turned his head with a startled expression.

“You seemed like you couldn’t get water by yourself.”

“Ah, ah. Thank you so much!”

“You looked thirsty.”

Without time to answer my words, Ma Si-hyeok downed the entire 500ml water bottle in one shot.

What is he, not a hippo, drinking that cold stuff all at once.

“Thanks to you, I’m alive. I really thought I was going to die from the heat.”

“Hey, it’s nothing to make a big deal about.”

“Still, I’m so grateful that you looked after me like this…….”

“We’re not strangers seeing each other for the first time.”

When I even gave him a bright smile, Ma Si-hyeok nodded with a deeply moved face.

What is this? Though it wasn’t a situation I orchestrated, it was a scene that could remain as a very appropriate editing point.

I could already imagine in my head the awkward conversation from the level test being replayed with subtitles like ‘Their awkward first meeting.’

‘Is this a shonen manga?’

Like that, I headed to the vocal practice room with Ma Si-hyeok, whose name was scary but personality wasn’t at all.

Actually, I had been somewhat predicting what kind of trouble would occur from the first time I saw the 〈HIT〉 video.

“Make my heart beat―!”

“Again.”

“HIT! HIT your heart!”

“Again.”

“I want to run only toward you―!”

“Again.”

If it’s this level, the choreography practice earlier was actually better.

It was an indescribable feast of voice cracks that made even me, who was singing properly, feel awkward.

Min Si-hyeon, who was in charge of Class 3’s vocal trainer, demanded repetition while suppressing her emotions as much as possible.

“You need to sing while removing as much tension from your throat as possible. Otherwise, your vocal cords will become tight like now and only produce unpleasant sounds.”

“Yes!”

“We’ll go from the beginning again. Let’s focus a bit more this time.”

At least with choreography, you can finish by memorizing it even while getting scolded.

Vocals don’t improve in such a short period.

You need to understand where your vocal range extends to and get parts distributed according to that.

“I’ll try the first verse of the second verse!”

“Alright, give it a try.”

Perhaps because of the pressure that they had to receive spotlight here, the trainees desperately tried to attempt parts they couldn’t handle.

Getting an X from Min Si-hyeon was a natural procedure.

To be honest, my body was itching so much.

‘It goes up so easily though.’

When I tried singing 〈HIT〉 by myself once, I already knew there were no parts that posed major problems for my vocal range.

But I was very conflicted about whether I should focus attention before the full-scale first round even took place.

So I decided to just stay quiet for now.

“When you all listened to the song, was there a part that seemed like it would be the most difficult?”

“The end of the verse that comes after the second chorus.”

“The high notes go up so much there…….”

All the trainees seemed to agree.

The latter half high note part that marks 〈HIT〉’s climax.

When I first heard it, I got a strong feeling that it was a part made expecting a clear main vocalist would emerge among the 100 participants.

‘Honestly, I am a bit tempted.’

Still, it was difficult for me to voluntarily raise my hand saying I’d do it.

Then.

“Could I try it once?”

The trainee who had been boosting morale in the dance practice room volunteered.

What was his name again? Honestly, until today I hadn’t seen any particular characteristics, so I hadn’t even memorized it.

“You’re trainee Park Chang-jung, right? Let’s try it then.”

Ah, right. It was Park Chang-jung.

Looking at him, it seems he received B-grade for both dance and vocals. To volunteer for this high note part himself – what tremendous confidence.

Park Chang-jung straightened his posture and tried singing the climax.

“Put all of your heart into it―! Cough, cough cough! I, I’ll try once more!”

I could tell just from listening for 3 seconds.

‘This guy can’t do it.’

Park Chang-jung struggled desperately to somehow raise the final ‘into it,’ but Min Si-hyeon also knew it wouldn’t work and stopped him.

“That’s enough.”

“B, but if my throat loosens up a bit more, I think it might be possible―!”

“And even if by any chance you hit this note, as I said earlier, it definitely won’t sound good. Who would like high notes squeezed out from the throat?”

“……Yes.”

After Park Chang-jung hung his head low, Min Si-hyeon asked the remaining trainees.

“Isn’t there a vocal A-grade here too?”

It felt like Min Si-hyeon’s sharp gaze was directed toward me.

I, who still hadn’t made up my mind, kept worrying whether to go out or not.

“Yes, Si-hwan is here! He sings well.”

“Si, Si-hwan is vocal A-grade.”

Kang Seon-woo and Ma Si-hyeok on both sides of me recommended me in unison.

The moment my plan to ‘do things moderately’ crumbled in real-time.

I sighed very quietly.