The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 72

‘If this is how it’s going to be, why give me the grand 1st place badge in the first place.’

I looked with resentful eyes at the two options of ‘choreography’ and ‘lyrics’ that densely filled the roulette spaces.

Whatever comes out through this roulette is just the result of probability.

Any of the 20 people on the filming set would face the same outcome no matter who spun the roulette.

But regardless of which option falls to us, what people will remember is ‘who’ spun the roulette.

Since that ‘who’ became me, I naturally found myself hoping the future would turn out as well as possible.

Whether we’d have to write lyrics for an already completed song.

Or whether we’d have to create choreography from scratch.

Based on MC Go Hyeon-ju’s explanation, it seemed the lyrics were already decided.

The 〈Royal Road〉 they played as a demonstration for us had been entirely replaced with humming.

Applying this same formula, there’s a very high possibility that choreography had already been created too.

If we had to choose just one thing to create within 12 days…

Naturally, the easier option would be lyrics.

With lyrics, you just need to rack your brains and somehow make sounds that make sense, but with choreography you suffer both physically and mentally.

Moreover, since it’s the primary visual appeal that reaches audiences, its importance is even higher.

In that sense, lyrics would definitely be less burdensome for the trainees.

“Si-hwan, pick lyrics, lyrics!”

“If you want to suffer less, lyrics would be better.”

“Brother, fighting!”

Listening to the words the guys behind me were throwing out one by one, it seemed everyone was thinking along the same lines.

“I’ll spin it now.”

“You really show that gambler’s instinct. Trainee Ryu Si-hwan, please spin the roulette!”

At times like this, you have to do it without thinking.

I spun the roulette downward without hesitation.

The metal arrow cheerfully struck and passed by the options.

Each time one passed, exclamations burst out from the trainees watching from behind.

“It should stop around here—!”

“Lyrics, lyrics, lyrics!”

“Choreography creation really can’t happen. That’s really tough…”

If I had to prepare 〈Winning Shot〉 again on top of creating another choreography with the team members, my head would probably cramp up.

The result of clenching my fists and waiting for the roulette to stop.

“It’s decided! You’ll have to create the choreography for 〈Royal Road〉 on your own before going up on the final live broadcast stage. Cooperation between each other will be more important than ever.”

Of course.

My luck isn’t that good, so I wasn’t expecting much.

The arrow really did stop squarely on the ‘choreography’ space.

When I returned to my seat, Kang Seon-woo hit my arm firmly as if he’d been waiting for it.

“Hey, how could you pick choreography! We’re going to get twice as little sleep now!”

“I just spun it. What was I supposed to do with that—”

“As expected of Ryu Si-hwan, he really was cursed with bad luck!”

Even Cerberus, who had come to the filming set after a long time, grinned while teasing me.

{Master is stupid.}

‘Yeah, mock me all you want.’

{Stupid dummy poop-head!}

Well, no matter how much I get scolded, there’s nothing I can do about it.

I just have to endure it.

The trainees were already making gloomy faces after meeting the giant monster of choreography creation, but MC Go Hyeon-ju smiled brightly as if the story was flowing exactly as she wanted.

“Now, there’s only one thing left. Which genre of 〈Royal Road〉 each trainee will enter. Is there any trainee who can guess how the 10 people allocated to each of the two camps will be arranged?”

Hearing Go Hyeon-ju’s question, only this thought came to my mind.

At this point, something using individual rankings should come up.

Considering that all team selection processes have always proceeded in order from highest rank, this time wouldn’t be different either.

When I casually raised my hand, Go Hyeon-ju’s gaze immediately turned this way.

“Oh, trainee Ryu Si-hwan. Do you think you know what method it is?”

“I think we’ll choose camps according to the rankings confirmed at the last ranking announcement ceremony.”

“Is this the dignity of 1st place? That was a very sharp answer. As trainee Ryu Si-hwan said, the final round team selection will also proceed by ranking. But unlike the past when we always went from top to bottom.”

Hearing that comment, my gaze naturally turned to Ha Sang-hun, who survived at 20th place.

Ha Sang-hun, who had a very stiff expression from before filming started, was becoming even more stone-like.

“Today it’s the opposite. We’ll start from the lower-ranked trainees.”

I could instinctively feel cameras capturing close-ups of trainees making surprised expressions.

“The papers I’ll distribute later have three numbers in total. 1st choice, 2nd choice, and 3rd choice. All trainees will write down the genre and part they want. And when the results are revealed, each person’s chosen parts will be determined purely according to ranking. For example, if the 19th place trainee’s 1st choice overlaps with the 15th place trainee’s 1st choice, the 19th place trainee will be pushed to their 2nd choice. If they get pushed and pushed by ranking until even their 3rd choice is taken, they’ll automatically be assigned to whatever genre and position remains.”

This means the higher your ranking, the more definitively you can decide both your desired genre and position.

I finally felt like the top-tier numbers were becoming meaningful.

Right, don’t always just use me as a bullet shield—give me some benefits like this.

“Then after distributing the lyric sheets that the producers wrote in advance, I’ll give you one hour to practice and decide which parts you want to take. I wish all trainees the best of luck!”

After delivering that bombshell announcement, MC Go Hyeon-ju left the filming set.

We sat down on the filming set floor and carefully read through the lyric sheets.

We could keep playing the melody of 〈Royal Road〉 through the speakers and laptops the production team brought.

While everyone was working hard to figure out which vocal range suited which parts and which genre fit them better.

“Brother Si-hwan.”

Ha Sang-hun, who had been sitting alone at the far end, came over to my side.

Looking at the lyric sheet in his hands, it seemed he’d been agonizing quite a bit.

Red and blue pen marks were left at almost test paper levels.

“Brother, have you decided which genre you’re going for?”

“Ah, I’m still thinking about it a bit.”

“Since your position is fixed as main vocal… you’d be fine going either way.”

Ha Sang-hun put down his lyric sheet for a moment and smiled faintly.

“I kept thinking about it. Since this seems like it’ll be the last time, I want to complete a stage with people I want to work with. Either way, I’m definitely going to get pushed down from any good position I choose, so I think it’d be best to quietly follow along by choosing a lower position in the genre Brother chose…”

So that’s the direction he’s set his mind on.

For Ha Sang-hun, who has almost no choice available to him, this might be the optimal judgment.

It’s a concept where 10 people split parts of a song, and in the latter half that changes to mainstream pop genre, all 20 people have to appear.

Simply put, the differences between positions aren’t that significant.

Considering that situation, the main thing is showing a good image to viewers during those roughly 2 minutes when 10 people perform together on stage.

Performing the stage with organic movement alongside trainees you’ve practiced harmonizing with.

Ha Sang-hun is thinking of aiming for that ultimately.

“I don’t mind any position, so I’m planning to follow Brother Si-hwan as much as possible.”

“Because we have memories of performing together twice?”

“That’s part of it, but mainly when Brother is there, that group’s command and atmosphere definitely get established. I really liked that kind of stable leadership.”

I just tried to accept everyone’s opinions as much as possible and eliminate sources of conflict.

It was a moment when I thought that might look different to other people’s eyes.

“You saying that makes me not know what to do with myself. Um, I think I need to watch the genre a bit more…”

“Take your time deciding! There’s still plenty of time left, and I just have no other intentions—”

When Ha Sang-hun waved his hands earnestly, as if they’d been waiting for this moment, Kang Seon-woo and Seong-hwi came and sat on both sides of me.

“Oh my! So, where is our Si-hwan going?”

“Why did you guys come too.”

“Obviously. Shouldn’t we set another self-record this time? For that, we need the same member lineup as then.”

Seong-hwi, who was blatantly appealing that it would be nice if the seven members of 〈Winning Shot〉 gathered again, was followed by Chae Ha-ru, Yu Ha-woon, and even Ma Si-hyeok gathering together.

“Brother! You’re going to deep house, right? Let’s do deep house!”

“I thought future EDM sounded better. For the final stage, future EDM would be better than deep house melody for showing off a shocking performance.”

“I think the same as Si-hyeok. Ahaha, looks like we’re performing together again?”

“Wow, when did you two become so close. Just a month ago these guys were using formal speech with each other—”

“Brother Seon-woo, please be quiet.”

With opinions split in all four directions, I clapped once.

“You all want different things, right?”

“Yes.”

“And this is our really, really last stage on 〈ISL 2〉. You should go with what you want for a stage like that, so you won’t have regrets later.”

Everyone looked like they understood what I was trying to say.

I stood up with a grin.

“I won’t tell you where I’m going, so each of you write down the genre and parts you want. No more secretly coming to interrogate me from now on.”

“That is the right way, but…”

Chae Ha-ru radiated wistful eyes until the very end.

The hour given to us passed quickly.

After submitting our position preference forms to the staff and returning to our seats, MC Go Hyeon-ju reappeared and organized the panels.

“Now, let’s reveal them. As announced earlier, we’ll start with 20th place trainee Ha Sang-hun’s choice.”

Team selection proceeded in a format where magnetic pieces with our names were attached one by one to each genre.

Ha Sang-hun had written deep house genre for his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. His position was… Sub Vocal 7, the lowest number.

Yu Ha-woon’s choice, revealed next, was also deep house genre.

‘The competition is already fierce on this side.’

Yu Ha-woon also wrote Sub Vocal 6, which could be relatively less competitive, but no one knows where the remaining 15+ people will lean.

However, from then on, most choices concentrated on the future EDM side, so the two guys’ magnets remained precariously in place.

“Trainee Ma Si-hyeok wrote future EDM genre, Rapper 2 as his 1st choice. This means trainee Yoon Taek-hyung, who was originally in the Rapper 2 spot, automatically gets pushed to his 2nd choice of future EDM Sub Vocal 3.”

“Sorry…”

The rules are rules, so this was an unavoidable development.

Even so, Ma Si-hyeok bowed his head to the trainee who couldn’t hide his bitter expression.

“Trainee Chae Ha-ru wrote deep house genre Sub Vocal 4 as his 1st choice. Wow, this fills up the last open spot, and the deep house genre is gradually running out of empty spaces!”

Chae Ha-ru and Yu Ha-woon seem to have decided to go in the same direction for the final round too.

Both were clasping their hands together, desperately hoping they wouldn’t get pushed out.

Both sides had main vocal and Rapper 1 positions open.

Now that everyone had gotten to know each other’s abilities fairly well, other trainees probably recognized that there’s risk in trying to claim main vocal themselves.

And before long, one of the main vocal spots was filled.

“Trainee Seong-hwi wrote future EDM genre main vocal as his 1st choice. This leaves only Rapper 1 spot remaining for future EDM!”

What remained was deep house main vocal and future EDM Rapper 1.

And surprisingly, the picks of the remaining 2 trainees—me and Kang Seon-woo—fit perfectly into those open spots.

“Trainee Ryu Si-hwan wrote deep house main vocal as 1st choice, and trainee Kang Seon-woo wrote future EDM Rapper 1 as 1st choice, completing all selections. A fierce battle is already anticipated, isn’t it?”

The trainees began clustering together efficiently with their chosen camps.

“Brother! Same team!”

“Ah, thank goodness. I was so nervous. If Brother had gone to the other side, I would have been too scared.”

“Phew… Thank you.”

“Haha, let’s all do well until the end.”

I gave a slight smile to Yu Ha-woon hopping around like a rabbit, Chae Ha-ru sighing in relief, and Ha Sang-hun even praying.

“In the end, this is how we stand for the finals, Brother Si-hwan?”

Eventually, a sly voice called my name from behind.

When I turned around, Seong-hwi was extending his hand with his characteristic manic smile.

“It feels like we’ve returned to our original intentions, yet fresh at the same time.”

“Right, it really reminds me of the 1st round.”

“Ahaha, we’re not going to slack off because we’ve grown close and all that, right?”

I grabbed Seong-hwi’s hand firmly and answered.

“Let’s do our best until the end.”