The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 70

An unexpected turn?

The filming location’s atmosphere stirred for a moment at MC Go Hyeon-ju’s choice of words—something she had never once brought up before.

I also clenched my fist slightly while quickly thinking about what this could mean.

‘If it’s enough to call an unexpected turn at a ranking ceremony, either a trainee who had been maintaining high rankings dropped drastically, or someone who was expected to rise after receiving high praise in this 3rd team battle didn’t make it up. It’s likely one of those two possibilities.’

When I combined both assumptions…

Damn, no matter how I twisted it around, I couldn’t escape the conclusion that it involved a trainee from our team.

“This trainee has drawn a steady upward trajectory in rankings since 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 began. And he also performed well in the 〈Winning Shot〉 team that took 1st place in this 3rd competition, receiving love from the national managers. The 18th place trainee is…”

They even kindly hammered the final nail in.

As soon as the words “〈Winning Shot〉 team trainee” came out, the guys sitting around me hurriedly started turning their heads.

“18th place… is that Sang-hun?”

“No, I haven’t been consistently rising. I fell once last time and became 20th place.”

“Hmm, then it’s not Sang-hun either. No wait, who among our team would drop in rankings anyway.”

Everyone seemed to sympathize with Kang Seon-woo’s words filled with frustration.

But one trainee sitting next to me was waiting for the results calmly, showing almost no agitation.

“…Trainee Yu Ha-woon. Congratulations.”

“Hehe, at least I survived!”

When his name was called, Yu Ha-woon stood up from the seat next to me with a relieved expression.

Despite dropping three ranks, he was actually smiling, leaving us unsure how to react.

Looking at the numbers, a three-rank drop isn’t that significant.

However, considering this was the gateway to the final round that would determine the last debut group.

And considering he was part of a team that created a stage with enough impact to monopolize all media spotlights, it was truly an unexpected result.

‘…Even after performing this well on stage, why didn’t people vote more for Yu Ha-woon.’

I watched Yu Ha-woon take his seat in the 18th place chair with complex emotions.

“I feel like my ranking might drop too.”

Seong-hwi, who had been sitting to the left of Yu Ha-woon’s now-empty chair, spoke quietly.

I wanted to tell him not to say such pessimistic things, but somehow my mouth wouldn’t open.

Seong-hwi, who had been running a stable race by consistently securing individual benefits, had missed the individual benefit during this 3rd team battle.

And in this 〈Winning Shot〉 performance, he had received attention that didn’t match his reputation as a result of putting aside his personal desires.

Even looking at individual fancam metrics, he was trailing behind Ma Si-hyeok and Chae Ha-ru.

It seemed inevitable for such words to slip out unconsciously.

The next time a trainee from our team was called was at 10th place.

“By any chance, who was the trainee who took 10th place in the last ranking ceremony?”

“That was me.”

When Ma Si-hyeok raised his hand, Go Hyeon-ju flashed a grin and asked a question.

“Do you think you’ve maintained your 10th place spot this time too?”

“It would be personal greed, but I definitely want to keep 10th place, which could be considered debut territory.”

“I see, trainee Ma Si-hyeok. Then I’ll announce the protagonist who will sit in the 10th place chair.”

From her way of speaking, it seemed like Ma Si-hyeok would hold onto the seat he sat in last time.

But what MC Go Hyeon-ju actually called was a trainee who had placed 7th in the 2nd ranking ceremony.

“…I would have felt much more at ease if I’d been called just now.”

“Don’t worry, you absolutely won’t drop this time.”

I sent Ma Si-hyeok, who seemed to be feeling pressure, a message to cheer up.

But when his name wasn’t called at 9th place, and not at 8th place either, Ma Si-hyeok began making an expression that didn’t match his large frame.

“Did I really plummet to the 20s?”

“Brother Si-hyeok, I haven’t been called yet either.”

Chae Ha-ru also calmly chimed in from the side.

Then Kang Seon-woo, sitting behind them, grabbed both younger brothers’ heads firmly.

“You guys who even secured individual benefits, what are you being so negative about! You’re definitely going up, so have some confidence.”

“…The 7th place trainee is Ma Si-hyeok. Congratulations!”

As if deliberately waiting for Kang Seon-woo’s words, MC Go Hyeon-ju revealed the result with perfect timing.

With the typical dazed look that always appeared at ranking ceremonies, Ma Si-hyeok stumbled up onto the stage.

“Though I’m always lacking, to the national managers who continue to send unchanging support…”

After Ma Si-hyeok’s lengthy thank-you speech that grew longer when he was nervous, Chae Ha-ru was called immediately.

He rose from 9th place to 6th place, becoming a trainee who could now even aim for the TOP 5.

“Is that the same Chae Ha-ru who was so dull and unrecognizable in the 1st round?”

“Right?”

“Isn’t our Hwan-father the one who made it possible for him to climb that high?”

I chuckled softly at Kang Seon-woo prodding my shoulder.

“Of course I’m the one who got rid of Ha-ru’s bangs, but how he changed after that was his own decision and effort. I didn’t do anything.”

“Wow, so modest. Anyway, I think it’s almost my turn, so I’m going up first. You two hold hands and come up slowly.”

“Please don’t say disgusting things, friend.”

Ma Si-hyeok and Chae Ha-ru still looked like they couldn’t believe they deserved to be in such high places.

Looking at the current results… 100,000 individual benefit votes definitely weren’t insignificant.

With the advantage of 100,000 votes on their backs, those two had drawn the most explosive popularity from the 〈Winning Shot〉 stage video.

‘That influence occurred in the same way as during the 2nd competition.’

Even during the 2nd round 〈Back in the Time〉, except for a few top-tier trainees including myself, the other team members’ rankings actually dropped.

While the overall stage balance was equal, when it came to individual fandom influx, it inevitably became biased.

This 〈Winning Shot〉 also resulted in the hypothesis that overwhelming influx was concentrated on specific trainees.

Unlike Ma Si-hyeok and Chae Ha-ru, who had clear presence in individual fancams and comments, Yu Ha-woon and Ha Sang-hun, whose name hadn’t been called yet, were relatively quiet.

Based on this, the remaining rankings shouldn’t be much different from the 2nd ceremony.

However, ranking upheavals continued even in the top tiers.

“This could also be called quite an unexpected result. This trainee has been aiming for 1st place throughout 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉. And he performed well in 〈Winning Shot〉 during this 3rd team battle.”

With the announcement reaching 4th place, three spots remained.

And the remaining people were once again me, Seong-hwi, and Kang Seon-woo.

The words just mentioned applied to all of us, so they didn’t mean much.

‘Another unexpected result, huh.’

“The protagonist of 3rd place is… trainee Seong-hwi.”

“What?”

“Did I just hear wrong? Hwi?”

“Hwi dropped to 3rd place?”

“What is this sudden…”

As soon as Seong-hwi’s 3rd place result was announced, murmurs erupted both above and below the stage.

Especially Kang Seon-woo’s face, which usually always wore a grinning expression, twisted sharply.

“Uh… uh, hey, con-, congratulations.”

“Ahaha, thank you.”

“It’s, it’s okay, 3rd place is still doing great—”

I forcibly stopped Kang Seon-woo, whose expression management and comment selection seemed to be experiencing serious buffering.

While skillfully grabbing his arm at an angle that wouldn’t be caught by the cameras on both sides, I whispered quietly.

“You can stop talking. You’re only ruining your own image.”

“But, but this is unavoidable.”

“Hwi himself isn’t panicking, but if you panic more than him, that makes the picture even weirder.”

Kang Seon-woo watched Seong-hwi climbing the stairs beside the stage with confused eyes.

A small sigh escaped me.

‘This guy might look like he just loves goofing around without any thoughts, but he’s actually the type who really considers the personalities of people around him. So he probably knows well what this 3rd place title means to Seong-hwi.’

“You took 1st place in the 1st ranking ceremony, 2nd place in the 2nd ranking ceremony, and now 3rd place in this 3rd ranking ceremony. Is there any particular reason for this ranking decline, trainee Seong-hwi.”

Was there really a need to specifically ask such a question?

Of course, this would be a comment influenced by the production team who love stirring up topics, but it was a moment when Go Hyeon-ju felt unnecessarily unpleasant.

I was internally worried that Seong-hwi’s fiery crazy streak might kick in and produce a strange answer.

“I don’t think there’s any particular reason, I simply think this result came about because I showed the national managers aspects that didn’t meet their expectations.”

Surprisingly, he gave only a brief answer and moved on cleanly.

The following 1st and 2nd place announcements ended somewhat anticlimactically.

I took 1st place and Kang Seon-woo took 2nd place by an overwhelming margin.

And even while climbing up to the highest level of the stage together, Kang Seon-woo couldn’t shake off his uncomfortable and unpleasant expression, so we couldn’t create any proper reaction scenes.

Sitting in the highest seat in the filming location for two consecutive times, I felt good about the ranking itself, but the aftertaste wasn’t refreshing.

It was a stage we had struggled to complete together.

Every single member without exception had received praise.

I had been picturing an ending where everyone’s rankings would rise together, but instead we faced a situation where some went up and others fell.

There was even someone from the 〈Winning Shot〉 trainees whose name hadn’t been called yet.

‘Anyway, Ha Sang-hun doesn’t need to worry because of the survival guarantee… but what’s important is whether he actually made it into the top 20 on his own or whether he was destined to fall but survived because of the survival rights.’

Since mental factors play an important role in survival shows, I hoped it would be the former as much as possible.

But when Ha Sang-hun’s face appeared on the electronic board as a 20th place candidate, everyone probably realized.

“As announced earlier, trainee Ha Sang-hun was a member of the 〈Winning Shot〉 team and received survival guarantee rights. So trainee Ha Sang-hun automatically becomes the owner of the final 20th place spot. So would trainee Ha Sang-hun have been in the survival safe zone even without this survival guarantee?”

It was cruel.

This was too cruel a scene not just for Ha Sang-hun, but for other participants as well.

Even though they already knew they had been eliminated, showing every single ranking to the end.

And when it was confirmed that Ha Sang-hun’s original ranking was 21st place.

“Sob sob.”

The trainee who had been 20th in the original voting but was inevitably pushed off the cliff of elimination burst into tears he had been holding back.

That trainee even belonged to the 〈Get High〉 team, creating an even more dramatic script-like direction.

‘In the end, it came down to who received the group benefit determining how fates were divided.’

…It was a brutal reality.