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Chapter 13

At a glance, a spinning wheel appeared to be the most challenging game to rig since viewers could witness the process leading up to the result. Yet, these people even manipulated the spinning wheel in their favor. The method to achieve this was easy: they simply needed to change the weights of the different parts of the wheel so that the arrow would stop at the section they wished. This was clearly immoral, but it was also hard to say that it was downright horrible.

‘It’s kind of iffy,’ I thought. From an ethical standpoint, it was something that shouldn’t be done.

‘But it will be a loss for both the broadcasting station and us if the show isn’t fun.’ In some ways, this was preferable to going completely authentic and having a boring show. It would be a problem if they screwed over a person’s life through evil editing, but it was understandable to do some at a moderate level; and in my perspective, this spinning wheel was a suitable and almost necessary trigger for the show to be more entertaining.

“Okay! So, I just need one person to come out and spin this spinning wheel as a representative of his group,” the scriptwriter, Kim Min-Young said and placed the spinning wheel right in front of us.

“Wow...ah...” Everyone had a hard time making a proper reaction. Even Yeon-Hoon, who always maintained a smiling face, looked stiff and his lips froze in place.

“I-Is it absolutely necessary for us to make a provocation to another group...?” Yeon-Hoon asked.

“Yes,” Kim Min-Young said firmly.

“This is hard,” Do-Seung added.

“I have never done something like this before,” Woon said worriedly.

“How interesting.” Only Dong-Jun remained as carefree as ever. He looked a bit tense before hearing the mission, but it appeared he loosened up after hearing what it was.

I knew that depending on the results, we could be easily edited as villains of the show. We could be edited to appear arrogant or thoughtless, and we needed to think carefully about how we would react after rolling this spinning wheel. In the end, I came to a decision. Rather than my group members receiving evil editing, I thought it was better for me to take the burden.

“Can I spin the wheel?” I had already received my share of hate comments, and I even got death threats whenever I wrote the endings of my novels. Thus, it was better for me, who was better trained in this area, to do this.

“Will you be all right?”

“It could be risky for you.”

It appeared all my group members realized that this was the perfect chance to get villainized.

“Yes, I want to do it,” I said and waited for my group members to agree. Yeon-Hoon pondered on this for a bit and then declared.

“T-Then we can all spin the wheel together and provoke the other group together!”

“No, the mission is only one of you guys to spin the spinning wheel and declare war on the chosen group,” the producers firmly replied. The producers already had a scenario in mind and wanted to lead us in that direction.

I fixed my expression and stepped forward. Then, I said, “I will do it. There are some phrases I thought of too.” Since I already knew this mission beforehand, I had already thought of lines to say. My group members seemed to think about this for some time until they finally said:

Sigh.

“All right.”

“You have to spin well.”

“Be really careful.”

My group members backed away a step and let me go.

‘You would think I’m going on a real war or something.’ Based on my group members’ response, it appeared as if I was getting dragged to the slaughterhouse. Perhaps, this scene could be used in the show as older group members worrying for their maknae.

I grabbed the spinning wheel’s handles. I knew that there would be only one result no matter how I spun this wheel.

Drrrr! I pushed the handles hard, and the wheel written with group names spun. The wheel kept spinning until it stopped at one place.

—Only One

The result was just as I had expected.

“Gasp!”

“What in the world!”

“Ah...”

“Oh...”

My group members seemed at a loss for words and soon pressed their lips tightly. They were probably all scared. We had already made a bad impression on Kim Hyun-Sung’s fans since we uploaded the same video as Only One. In the process, a small battle comparing our looks with Only One was made.

Though most people laughed and passed over the incident, there were some fans who expressed their discontentment. Though they didn’t openly rebuke us, they seemed displeased about the situation and our tie to Kim Hyun-Sung. Thus, if we made the wrong move here, we could receive a bucket load of insults from Kim Hyun-Sung’s fans.

‘Those broadcasting guys must be aiming for this.’

It appeared that the broadcasters wanted to make Only One and us rival groups.

‘But rather than a healthy competition, we would look like challengers who didn’t know our place.’ Perhaps, the broadcasters’ plan was to make us the annoying villain extras who stood in the way of the main characters—Only One.

There was no one who didn’t know that The Showcase would center around Only One after Kang Hyun-Sung joined the scene, and the only question was how the other no-name groups would be placed around him. And in these pre-planned theatrics, the role that Siren would have to fulfill was to spice things up in the beginning to inevitably fall in the end.

‘I should try to overturn the game.’ That was the only way to prevent our fall. Of course, I couldn’t do that right now since I needed to deal with the current crisis in front of me. I stared at the camera and asked, “So, do I just have to make my provocations while looking at the camera?”

“Yes, please start when you are prepared.”

“Okay.” I stared intently at the camera. This provocation part was quite important, and I knew my part could be entirely edited out if I did a boring job. We would have to be grateful if we just came out for five seconds of the show or if we got edited out for only one episode. But once we were marked as a boring group from the start, we could not get any cuts in the future too. This was a test of some sort to see our variety show skills. Considering that, it was better to give them the scene they wanted.

“We will definitely beat Only One,” I said. For now, I said a comment that seemed to accept my role as villain extra 1, who didn’t know his place. Kim Min-Young’s eyes slightly widened. It seemed she liked the fact that I said a line she wanted. Yet, I won’t be led into the scenario these people wanted.

As I continued, I changed the wording of my lines just ever so slightly so that I was declaring a fight against Only One but wasn’t really provoking them. My words created a slight tension and had just the right amount of humor. Moreover, it didn’t cause anyone to scowl in dismay.

After hearing my declaration, Kim Min-Young stared at me strangely. My group members also looked like they didn’t know how to respond and whether I had done the right thing or not. But this was what I intended, and their faces seemed to indicate that I did my job.

“...”

“Hm.” A short silence filled the practice room. There were some people who were trying to hide the smiles on their faces. It didn’t seem like I did a bad job since Kim Min-Young also looked pleased. She probably didn’t expect me to declare a fight so readily. Kim Min-Young stared at me intently and smiled. That was enough. I didn’t know how I was going to get edited, but it seemed I was able to avoid getting completely edited out.

“All right, I will acknowledge this as mission complete.”

“Gasp!”

“Oh!”

“I-It’s done!”

My group members raised their heads in surprise. Then, Kim Min-Young handed us a piece of paper. I took the paper as the representative of the group even though I already knew what its content was. Then, I handed the mission paper to my group members, and everyone gathered around Yeon-Hoon.

“I’m opening the mission...!” Yeon-Hoon spoke tensely while looking at the camera and opened up the sheet of paper towards the camera. This was the mission:

—Prepare for a 120-second first-meeting performance

Compared to how much fuss we made, the mission was too ordinary and simple.

“Uh, is this all?” Yeon-Hoon glanced around at his members and asked. Though there was the condition of 120 seconds, there wasn’t anything special about it and everyone had already expected to do a first-meeting performance. After all, what kind of broadcasting show would gather idols and just make them greet each other in their first meeting? Everyone appeared disappointed by the lackluster mission.

“Yes, you all just need to prepare a performance in ten days when all groups will meet. The time limit for the performance will be 120 seconds.” Even while my group members looked unenergetic, the scriptwriter confidently continued the show. And knowing that they could be edited out if they showed their disappointment any more than this, my group members quickly brightened their faces.

“I can’t believe we have a time limit of 120 seconds...!”

“I don’t know what we are going to do.”

“That’s insane~”

“As expected, it’s an interesting mission...!”

Everyone took turns, making fake reactions.

“Then, we will see you in ten days,” Kim Min-Young said and raised her sketchbook.

—Closing statement

It seemed we were supposed to say our farewells here.

“We will all work hard to give a cool performance for the other groups and viewers in ten days!” Yeon-Hoon stood in the front and started our closing lines. These were lines he hadn’t come up with on his own but what a writer showed him before they began filming.

“Then, until now, it has been Siren from The Showcase 2 First Chance!”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you~”

Like that, we finished our closing statement.

“Good work, you all~”

“Nice job~”

Then, all the producers and writers who had been watching us with their lips tightly pressed complimented us and began to take their equipment.

All my group members turned limp, thinking that their first shooting was finally over.

“Haaaa~” Yeon-Hoon whimpered and hugged anyone near him. He tried to hug Do-Seung, but because Do-Seung pushed him away annoyedly, he went to Woon. The room began to become emptier as people left, and as this commotion was going on, Kim Min-Young approached us and said, “Thank you for working so hard on the shooting today.”

“Thank you for all your hard work today too, ma’am!” We all simultaneously bowed and greeted her.

“There’s no need for you to act this politely. Thank you for doing a good job when it’s the first shooting. Anyways, let’s see each other in ten days,” Kim Min-Young said and left the practice room with the other producers. But before she left, her eyes seemed to linger on Yeon-Hoon a bit. Well, I supposed it was good that this show’s writer was looking favorably on us.

“So, what should we do for our 120-second stage?”

“Ummm. It’s hard to think of one now that the time comes to do it.”

After the producers left, we all began to talk about the 120-second stage. In ten days, we needed to prepare for a performance that could make us stand out from all the other groups.

“Should we do something really tough?”

“What about hip hop?”

“Since Tae-Yoon was good at krumping last time, maybe we can do something like that.”

“What about mixing some contemporary dance?” My group dancers wondered. Yet, I knew what the first-meeting stage would be like and what would go on it. Thus, I also knew we needed to wear sailor suits on that stage.

“Let’s wear sailor suits,” I suggested.