The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 77

“How has everyone been?”

“We’ve been doing great!”

“Now that the program is ending, you must feel like you can live a little?”

“No, we’re sad it’s ending!”

“You don’t have to lie, you guys.”

After a long time, all 20 trainees gathered in one place.

With the live broadcast not far away now, genre-specific individual practice had reached a conclusion.

Centers for both sides had been selected, and all trainees had nearly perfectly mastered their choreography.

Now what remained was time to synchronize the latter half mainstream pop group choreography.

Trainer Shin Jae-hoon, who was once again being exploited for labor, looked at the trainees with a grin.

“Wow, it feels like just yesterday when 100 people were crammed in here making a ruckus, right?”

I laughed softly along with the other kids.

It really was true. Just three months ago, the entire dormitory was bustling with so many people, but now so many trainees had left that they could barely fill this one large practice room.

“Let’s put aside the sentimental reminiscing for now. You’ve all decided centers for both genres, right? Come forward.”

“Yes!”

With a vigorous response, Yu Ha-woon stepped forward from the deep house genre side.

The crown sticker attached to his chest seemed to sparkle more than ever.

When Yu Ha-woon came out, Trainer Shin Jae-hoon’s eyebrows shot up in complete surprise.

“This is really unexpected. Ha-woon became center?”

“We judged that among us, he suited this song the best.”

“Oho. Well, if Si-hwan says so, then that must be right.”

Isn’t he believing my words too blindly again?

I smiled awkwardly at Trainer Shin Jae-hoon’s words while recalling the voting process.

In the internal vote where we wrote down the trainee who seemed most suited for the center position, Yu Ha-woon was unanimously selected for center.

It’s rare to find such unanimous agreement even if you searched with your eyes washed.

Everyone seemed to have the same thought after watching Yu Ha-woon’s video.

“First, visually he fit too well. Like a young prince feeling?”

“From start to finish, his eyes were alive, which was the best. I immediately picked Ha-woon!”

“I didn’t know our youngest had this kind of charm. Of course, during 〈Winning Shot〉 he also showed a tough side different from before, but this is a different feeling from that. But he suited it so well that I almost started clapping without realizing it.”

“Did Ha-woon also get taller and broader shoulders during this time?”

As Ha Sang-hun directly mentioned, Yu Ha-woon apparently grew a whole 3cm during 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

So he didn’t get buried in the center position even more.

“Hehe, I’ll do my absolute best!”

Yu Ha-woon gave a short nod to Shin Jae-hoon, who was sending him unexpected looks.

Next, Seong-hwi walked out confidently from the future EDM genre.

“This combination is fresh. Honestly, I expected this guy. But Ha-woon as center, this will be quite interesting.”

“Ahaha, did I suit the center position that well?”

“I was going to keep quiet because I knew you’d say something like this. Just quietly blend in, man.”

Shin Jae-hoon, who cut off Seong-hwi’s self-loving comment with one stroke, stood up from his chair.

Then he rolled his shoulders around and casually threw out a comment.

“This really is the last time, so everyone give it your all without regrets. Got it?”

“……!”

“Yes!”

The days that followed passed by like arrows.

In front of the 20 trainees lay only one stage.

The final round had finally begun.

* * *

The academy district from elementary through high school days.

The packed campus experienced during college.

And the hellish commute experienced daily as a working adult.

Song Ji-won, who prided herself on having tasted most of the chaotic environments life could offer, felt like she was writing a new page in history today.

“Damn, there are so many people! Where are you? Which exit?”

“No, there are so many people right now that I can’t tell if this is exit 9 or 6!”

“I’m going up the stairs! Isn’t there even room to step? This is crazy!”

Barely breaking through the crowds choking her from all sides, Song Ji-won escaped to the surface where Kang Eun-young, who had successfully secured audience tickets together, was waiting.

Just when she thought she could finally breathe.

“……Outside is even more of a battleground.”

“What did you expect, sister? Hurry up and come buy a placard.”

The 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 final live broadcast was held at a large gymnasium in Seoul.

Since it was attached to a subway station, she had thought ‘the transportation will be so convenient!’

But the convenience of transportation didn’t apply only to Song Ji-won.

Vendors selling various goods like placards and slogans, as well as drinks and snacks, were packed densely at every subway station entrance.

There were even students and regular citizens who came to receive free goods distribution on top of those who succeeded in securing audience tickets, making it a complete marketplace.

“I feel like my HP is already starting to decrease.”

“The performance doesn’t start for about 5 more hours! Drink some water and recover your health.”

Kang Eun-young handed over a tumbler filled with ice water.

“Come to think of it, sister, aren’t you buying slogans or placards?”

“Ah, that NeoTuber I met back then said she’s coming today too. I’m going to get the free distribution.”

The homma who runs the NeoTube channel [HwanFather] had been seen during the 3rd team battle competition.

Even then, she had received ultra-high quality goods for free, and today a post had gone up on the NeoTube community tab saying she would do free distribution at the venue again.

The waiting continued endlessly.

No matter how much this ticket was assigned seating when purchased rather than first-come-first-served exchange, the entrance line itself was so long that they had to come early.

When they spread out a mat and took a brief rest, they had leisure to look around the area near the gymnasium.

The first thing that caught their eyes were buses slowly roaming the streets.

“Is this the power of capital……”

“At least there are buses for Si-hwan and Hwi. It would have been disappointing if there weren’t any.”

Overseas fans watching 〈ISL 2〉 can’t participate in today’s text voting.

The production team had already announced that they only accept votes from Korean carrier numbers due to the risk of text voting manipulation.

So rumor had it that overseas fans rented these large advertising buses with disappointed hearts after fundraising.

Song Ji-won had once supported Ryu Si-hwan’s comprehensive advertising set through the virtual currency Money.

But wherever you go, that’s just ‘virtual currency.’

If she thought about planning such an event with real money……

She could imagine the back-slapping from her parents flying from behind.

So she took tons of photos of this amazing sight with her phone.

“I wonder if there are many people who came to the audience on the community?”

At her question, Kang Eun-young pointed to the people earnestly using their phones in the shade.

“What else would everyone be doing while waiting until entrance time? They’re all probably thinking the same thing.”

“Right? I should write an audience verification post for the first time in a while too.”

When she entered the community, just as Kang Eun-young said, many people were already logged in to pass time.

Topics like whose placards were most numerous at the venue, whose bus was decorated most prettily.

They were rolling around casual bait topics while post regeneration was increasing exponentially.

While browsing the hot board, there was content that caught her eye.

[〈HOT!!〉 But somehow isn’t this season too peaceful? +98]

Usually around finals or 3rd stage times like this, weird incidents should be exploding lol but why is this year so peaceful

Of course Ma Si-hyeok’s school violence thing blew up but it was blocked as false information within 24 hours, and thinking about last season or other audition programs, usually 2-3 people would drop out in the middle but not this year. Did KNet’s eye for people improve? Lol

—Ah I relate to this a bit lol. By the 2nd ranking announcement, usually the 1st or 2nd place kid’s private life or past gets exposed and their ranking plummets

—Come to think of it, Seong-hwi was at X2 for a really long time so his past should be pretty exposed by now, but surprisingly there’s nothing to say??

└A major company would definitely manage themselves properly

└In the trainee gallery, Hwi stories have been around since before, but aside from sightings there wasn’t much else. He quit school early too

—Si-hwan stories really don’t come out at all. What exactly was our Hwan-father doing with his life?

└Right, other kids have fans who went to the same school show up occasionally, but nobody for Si-hwan

└Maybe it’s just exactly what’s written in his application profile? Dropped out in 10th grade and practiced alone

└Then at least middle school classmates should appear…… Maybe his face changed a lot from then to now? Ah of course I don’t mean he got plastic surgery lol

└Maybe he lived quietly during school days

└There’s never been any talk about his past from the beginning, so there’s no need to ask about it lol

└That just means our favorite lived cleanly~

“Looking at the comments, I realized Si-hwan’s stories really never came out once.”

“Ah, I just saw that too. But isn’t it better to have no news at all rather than weird rumors coming out?”

“That’s definitely right. I was just curious from a fan’s heart about how our kid lived cutely and preciously in the past.”

Song Ji-won had to swallow her disappointment while agreeing with Kang Eun-young’s words.

Originally, you should save your favorite’s graduation photos or past photos on your phone.

Well, if she could give up on that, as long as controversy-free, clean and honest Ryu Si-hwan could just take 1st place.

Two hours before entrance, she was able to meet the homma who runs the [HwanFather] channel and obtain a new slogan.

“This time I specially ordered one with embossing!”

The material was so amazing that it felt like she could rub her face against it all day.

Soon enough, the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and when darkness began to fall.

“Starting with the standing area, please line up for entrance!”

Finally, they could enter inside the gymnasium.

After that, she was too busy looking around the set to think of anything else.

She had thought the stages for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds held at the KNet building were very spacious.

But this set was truly on the scale of a solo concert.

The thrones that seemed to have risen twice as high as usual…… wait. Thrones?

“There are 11 thrones total?”

“Then does that mean the final 11 people will debut?”

“That’s a lot?”

Indeed, there were 11 thrones set up on the set.

That meant the trainees who would ultimately debut today would be 11 people.

Song Ji-won had a premonition that things wouldn’t flow straightforwardly.

“If they’re going to advertise so openly like this, why did they create aggro with money and the number of people until now?”

“Right. I didn’t really think 11 people would debut either……”

All around, heated discussions were unfolding about the thrones and debut member count.

At this point, she wished they would just coolly reveal it and satisfy everyone’s curiosity.

One hour later. After the magnificent opening when MC Go Hyeon-ju appeared, that thought changed again.

“〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉. I want to express my gratitude to all the national managers who ran this race with us to the very end. Tonight, will the trainee you cheered for and supported be able to achieve their dream of debut?”

The spotlight that had been flashing brilliant blue suddenly changed to an ominous red.

And simultaneously, Go Hyeon-ju’s voice tone dropped a level.

“To find that out, we need to mention a topic that has been the talk of the town for weeks. That is, the ‘final debut member count.'”

A moment of silence flowed.

Song Ji-won, positioned right below the center stage, could see Go Hyeon-ju and the production team exchanging some kind of signals.

And as if an OK sign had been given, Go Hyeon-ju grabbed the microphone again and spoke.

“Starting now, 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉, the final chapter to determine the ultimate debut member count. We begin 〈Draft Sponsorship〉!”