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Chapter 20

We were going to place fifth out of five teams. I felt sorry for my members since their faces were full of hope and joy. It seemed as if they firmly believed that we would win first place, or even if we were not first place, we would definitely be able to earn the top spots.

“The best team. Hmm. Everyone is so good that it’s hard to pick just one team...”

Since they were confident of their victory, my members were happily choosing the best and worst teams with a leisurely attitude. However, I knew that we were going to place last despite our performance being up to par or even better than Only One. The fact that our performance was comparable to Only One’s would probably be most irritating for groups that have already debuted, like OnebyOne and Luminin.

Even if they couldn’t win because Kang Hyun-Sung was in Only One, they wouldn\'t want to miss second place. Thus, they would feel threatened if a pre-debut group that they had never heard of won second place. Although it was only right and fair to compete with pure skills—

‘Who would play fair and square on a battlefield like this?’ These were groups that came out in the show by selling their sad stories. This was no time for playing games fair and square when our basic livelihood was on the line. It was only obvious that the other groups would try to rig the voting system and lower our ranking since there were no other tricks they could pull off. In my previous life, an innocent group had come last in this way, and it was clear that we would meet that same fate.

“Guys, who do you think did the best job?” Yeon-Hoon asked as he lifted the card of the four groups in front of us.

“Honestly, everyone did a good job.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“It’s hard to just pick one group~”

My members had a hard time making their decision. I glanced at the cards Yeon-Hoon was holding. Despite what they were saying, the members probably had a rough idea of who did the best and who did the worst today.

However, they were all skirting around the issue as we would come out mean or problematic if we easily made our decision without much discussion. On the other hand, no matter what we did, this scene was bound to be cleverly edited out. Rather than getting edited out, I thought it would be better to clearly state my opinion out loud and go with the standard ranking.

I said, “I think the best is Only One and the worst is Luminin.”

“What?” Yeon-Hoon asked in surprise at my straightforwardness.

“The reason why Only One is the best is because they performed extraordinarily on stage, and the reason why Luminin is the worst is not because of poor skills but because they had the least wow factor on stage.” I gave a reasonable explanation, and the ranks I just gave were not based on my personal taste. I didn’t think that Only One or Luminin did anything particularly wrong or bad.

‘How can I rank people who danced their hearts and souls out?’ The ranking I mentioned was based on the public opinion that was formed when this show first aired in my previous life. The general public opinion after The Showcase 2\'s first episode was that Only One did the best and Luminin did the worst.

I didn’t think the public opinion would differ much this time either, so I thought it would be the safest to follow this ranking. Even if PD Park Soo-Chul made us look bad by \'evil-editing’, people’s overall reaction would agree with us.

In fact, in my previous life, Bleshu had been the one to get last place in the actual show while the public opinion had thought Luminin should have been last place. The innocent team that I mentioned earlier was Bleshu. In my previous life, Bleshu shared a similar position as us. They were considered the only group who stood a chance against Only One.

Since other groups tried to keep Bleshu in check, Bleshu, who should have been in second place, came in last place. Of course, we would be last this time, not Bleshu. I felt bad that I took away Bleshu’s position from my previous life, but since I was in a desperate situation, I pushed my conscience away.

“I do agree with Tae-Yoon.” Then Do-Seung backed my opinion.

“Hmm. I’m also leaning a bit towards...” Lee Woon seemed to share the same opinion as me and Do-Seung.

We already had the majority, and even Dong-Jun cautiously supported my opinion, “Yeah, I think Luminin’s hook was a bit weak.”

“Okay, then, let’s go with Only One as the best and the worst as Luminin,” Yeon-Hoon said and put Only One’s card in the best box and Luminin’s card in the worst box.

Then we left the polling station and went back to our seats. There was only awkward silence on the stage. It was an uncomfortable and unpleasant situation where we had to rank each other. All we could do was wait for this time to pass quickly.

* * *

After Luminin came out of the polling station, all the votes were finished. The two hosts resting in the back returned to the stage. The lights came on again, and the electronic display brightly flashed.

When the stage came back to life, host Kim Young-Jin raised his mike and began saying his lines, “All the votes for the introductory performance have just ended. The five groups here have just selected the best and worst groups respectively.” Even though he was just reading the script, he induced a strange tension in the surroundings. This was the moment when I realized the value of a skilled and experienced host.

Kim Young-Jin continued, “The group voted as the best would get 1 point. The group voted as the worst would get minus 1 point. This was how the scores were aggregated.” It was a simple and clear method. “Then, with that out of the way, I’ll announce the results now.”

Ellipsoidal lights began to sweep the darkened stage, and a bass sound rang in the background. I thought they added this sound after filming during the editing process, but I guess they turned it on set as well. Perhaps due to the power of lighting and music, Yeon-Hoon became nervous and grabbed my arms and shook my body.

“Aghhh! Ahhh! Tae-Yoon!”

“Ohhh! Wow!” On the other hand, Dong-Jun’s eyes were shining with curiosity.

“Pwehh. Let’s take a deep breath. Deep breath in.” Lee Woon breathed in and out.

Sighhhh. And Do-Seung sighed deeply.

“Okay! Then I’ll put up the total scores on the screen for everyone at once!”

“Wooow! At once!”

Sigh.

“Ugh. Please...!”

As various reactions burst out, the atmosphere of the scene boiled like a furnace.

Tap.

The electronic display flashed, and the rankings and scores were released at once.

-1st: Only One (4 points)

-2nd: Luminin (0 points)

-3rd(tie): Bleshu, OnebyOne (-1 points)

-5th: Siren (-2 points)

“Look at that!”

“Yes!”

Shouts of joy and exclamation came from the Only One side.

“Wow!”

“What a relief.”

A sigh of relief from Luminin.

“Good job.”

“Yeah.”

“We can do better next time.”

And while Bleshu and OnebyOne shared encouraging comments—

“Uh...?”

“Minus 2 points...?”

“Us?”

“Ah...”

Our team’s atmosphere instantly plummeted. I looked around the members. After the electronic display flashed, the members’ expressions, which had been overflowing with joy and hope, rapidly deteriorated. Yeon-Hoon’s eyes lost their vitality. Do-Seung frowned deeply and stared at the screen, and Lee Woon had his mouth open wide as if he couldn’t believe it. Dong-Jun looked around the other groups as if he was genuinely a bit angry.

Seeing their raw reactions, I was slightly worried about how it would appear on screen, but then I thought, ‘No, it might be better this way.’ After realizing that our performance had been good enough to win first place, their realistic responses wouldn’t be so bad as the viewers would be able to empathize with them.

‘Perhaps we can use this to our advantage instead.’ I thought we could use the ill intent of the groups that gave us last place against them.

“I want everyone to know that regardless of the ranking, each and every group’s performance really shone on stage.” At that moment, Kim Young-Jin recited the lines written by the writers and looked at us. He was looking at us with eyes to console us but—

‘Why the hell are they talking about whether we shone on stage and whatnot after making us rank each other?’ As expected, TV show producers must be sociopaths.

Kim Young-Jin was not in the wrong, and it was the production crew’s fault.

“Ah, hahaha.” Yeon-Hoon, who had blanked out for a while, managed to regain his grip and smiled. However, that smile looked even more pitiful so I just covered his face with my hand. Then it surprised me that a person’s face could be so small that I could easily cover it with one hand.

Do-Seung, Dong-Jun and Woon also gradually fixed their expressions as they seemed to have quickly realized that it was not beneficial for us to show a strong reaction now. Just in time, Young-Jin approached us with a mike.

As he approached, there was a slightly apologetic look in his expression. He handed us the mike and asked, “Unfortunately, Siren came in last place. Are you guys okay?” It was a cruel question that the scriptwriters had put in, and this must be the reason why he had looked sorry earlier.

“Ah...” Yeon-Hoon looked at him with a slightly pouty expression as if he was in disbelief about being asked such an inconsiderate question.

No one in our team except me seemed fine enough to receive the mike now, so I took the mike from Yeon-Hoon. “Yes, we’re all right.”

Then I scanned my members one by one. I knew that one shouldn’t be emotional in front of the camera. However, after making appropriate calculations, I thought that deliberately expressing my feelings could add to the excitement of the show.

‘It could work in our favor.’ I spoke my mind as honestly as I could, “But I don’t think our group is in last place.”

Kim Young-Jin and Nahyun’s eyes widened at my words. I guess they didn’t expect me to respond like this as I openly said that we were not last in terms of skills. It was a remark that could not be made without considerable confidence on stage.

‘At the same time, it’s also an indirect criticism targeting those who are so blind with envy that they will manipulate the votes.’ I planned to make the guys who gave us the \'worst team status\' get some insults when the show went on air. Of course, since I made a strong remark, I thought I would get some criticism as well, but it didn’t matter. The other members were also surprised by my remarks.

“Ack! Uh, Tae-Yoon...!” Yeon-Hoon almost fell off his seat in shock and grabbed my arms.

“Bong Tae-Yoon...?”

Sighh.

“Wow...”

Do-Seung called my name quietly, Woon sighed deeply, and Dong-Jun seemed genuinely surprised and seemed to admire me.

“Ah, hahaha! Yes! All right! Then we’ll hear from Bleshu next.” Kim Young-Jin must have thought a real fight might break out if I said any more comments. He hurriedly retrieved the mike and went straight to Bleshu. The atmosphere of the set froze in an instant, but since it was a show in the end, everyone said lines they were expected to.

After Only One finished their thoughts on winning first place, Young-Jin said, “Then shall we begin revealing the benefits the No.1 team would receive for the introductory performance?” The show moved on from exchanging thoughts on the ranking to revealing the benefits of the No.1 team. The set’s atmosphere, which had been tense due to my remarks, was instantly revived.

“Yes! So the benefit that would go to Only One for winning first place at the introductory performance is...” Nahyun paused for a moment and then said, “You have the authority to decide the order of the performance in the next competition and—”

Since there was more than one benefit, the comments continued after another pause. “You are the only one who has the right to choose your own options for the next mission!”

People made moderately surprised reactions when the benefits were announced. No one was actually surprised because the benefits were not out of the ordinary. However, since we were on a show, they showed a certain degree of reaction. In fact, what people were curious about was not the benefits but the subject of the contest in two weeks.

Young-Jin said, “Well, then, we also have to talk about the next mission.”

It was only then did real curiosity began to appear in the contestants’ expressions. People earnestly waited for the next contest mission to come out of Young-Jin’s mouth.

After another pause, he finally said, “It’s ‘Color of Showcase!’”

It was a vague remark, and everyone tilted their heads as it was hard to understand what it was by just the title. The hosts seemed to catch on that we couldn’t understand and shouted, “Color of Showcase! You need to decorate the stage with color as the theme!”

“Color?” “Oh!”

“It sounds fun!”

Even our members, who had been crest-fallen a moment ago, looked at the hosts with shining eyes. On the other hand, there was only one among our group who looked grim and that was—me.

‘Color of Showcase?’ A stage with color as the theme.

‘The future has changed...?’ It was not a mission I knew.