Chapter 91

“You said you’re an investor, so you can do that much, right?”

“I’ll look into it.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

“...You trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Hmm....”

Instead of answering, I chose to simply smile. At the same time, I burned the face of my dependable leader into my memory once more.

Kwon Taeyoung held my gaze for a long moment before turning away.

Current Plausibility: 66% (▲2)

Ah, so that was the alert that popped up earlier while we were filming the PPL.

During the second competition, Gowon had pulled Plausibility, which had been at 49%, straight into the sixties.

What the hell did he do onstage?

It was a shame I hadn’t been able to watch properly because I’d been busy dealing with that leader bastard picking a fight.

At this point, I was certain Gowon had a 100% chance of making it into the nine-member debut lineup.

But the Plausibility of him actually taking first place was still only this high.

Roughly speaking, it meant that if Gowon were announced as the winner, two out of three viewers would accept it, while the remaining one would push back.

I’d raised his skill level enough.

He’d steeled his own resolve too.

Then what is it that still hasn’t been filled in...?

With the final moment drawing closer, it felt like it had to be something that couldn’t be defined with simple words like effort or luck.

***

The popularity of <Debut Chart! 100> continued soaring day after day.

At a time when audition programs were practically dying out, it had erupted like one last burst of flame.

The response was heated not only domestically but globally as well, and every kind of social media platform and online community was on fire with talk about the trainees.

Hazel

@HeyAngel_

I’m a terminal case of youngest-member obsession & main-vocal obsession.

📌 Pinned

Debut Chart trainee “Baek Hanje” voting link rnet.co.kr/debutchart/...

Support project account @Hanze.debut

⤷ ButHanjeStartedIt @howeverHeIs

Hello, Hazel >.< I’ve only ever seen you from across the timeline, so I wanted to say hi. I got grabbed by Hanje in episode one of Debut Chart too and ended up diving into survival-show hell...

...These girls....

So we meet again like this.

They were close friends who always took pictures of each other at fan signings, and they attended so often that even the older members recognized their faces.

Apparently they had come to watch one of the competition recordings, because both accounts had uploaded a whole pile of photos of me arriving and leaving work.

Their skills were as good as ever.

Hazel @HeyAngel_

Hello, ButHanjeStartedIt! (Is it okay if I call you that?!!!!!)

Right?? I’m usually the type to stick with established groups too, so I never thought I’d get into a survival-show idol lolololㅠㅠ I’m so happy to meet you.

...

⤷ ButHanjeStartedIt @howeverHeIs

Even if it’s a survival show, our boy’s skills are so solid~! hahaha I don’t know if I’ve ever watched an audition program this comfortably >.< Did you see the song-selection mission? He was basically a baby master vocalist...

⤷ Hazel @HeyAngel_

God, nothing sweeter than a filial son showering you with devotionㅠㅠ

And those idiots stanning some old ugly bastard are crying that Hanje was rude to his elder when all he did was cut off that whiny troll who only became leader because of his age...

“Please hand in your phone.”

“Okay.”

I had already been thinking I should stop looking anyway.

If the two of them are happy, that’s good enough.

At the same time, it made me resolve to work even harder for the remaining filming.

The votes cast for me, the names shouted from the audience, the support projects happening in places I didn’t even know about....

An idol’s duty was to repay those feelings by showing results worthy of them.

Ahead of the long-awaited second ranking announcement ceremony, the surviving contestants took their seats in the places marked with their name tags.

Once this announcement was over, <Debut Chart> would have only the final competition left.

Only twenty people would survive today.

The MC began calling survivors and eliminated contestants in alternating order.

First came the names of trainees ranked around the middle of the teens, followed by trainees whose rankings made elimination obvious to anyone.

Up to this point, it was a relatively low-tension stretch.

— Next, let’s meet the trainee who placed ninth.

The MC slowed the pace and began calling the trainees inside the debut range.

I glanced at the person the camera had just swept past.

If you’re going to climb, climb even higher.

Maybe encouragement from his senior at the same company had worked.

— Ninth place, trainee Nam Jeongho!

He clapped both hands over his mouth.

Nam Jeongho had finally broken into the single-digit rankings.

— Trainee Nam Jeongho impressed our Chartmakers with his astonishing improvement in vocals. He rose a full eleven places! Congratulations.

“Th-thank you..., I, I..., is it really okay for me to receive a ranking like this? I’ll work... even harder....”

His speech was practically half sobbing.

After repeating “thank you” several times, he finally managed to calm down and turn around.

His unfocused, wavering gaze landed on me.

Yeah, calm yourself down by looking at your one-year-younger little brother, idiot.

Drip.

“......?”

Except now tears started pouring down both sides of his face.

...What’s wrong with him?

Nam Jeongho kept his eyes fixed on me and continued leaking fluid all the way to the ninth-place seat.

The trainees ranked sixth through eighth were called next and moved to their places. From our team, which had originally been packed with high-ranking contestants, sixth and seventh place came out.

“Congratulations.”

Since one member of our team had been eliminated, I limited my congratulations to a light pat on the arm.

And with that, only the most glamorous part and the cruelest part remained.

The rankings of first through fifth—the top S-grade debut-line trainees.

And the reveal of nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first, whose fates would split between barely surviving and elimination.

Before the announcement, the screen was divided into three sections, showing all three faces at once to heighten the tension.

One of the faces on the split screen was familiar.

— The trainee who narrowly missed survival and sadly ends his challenge in twenty-first place... contestant Park Raehyun.

The leader bastard’s face crumpled.

He had originally ranked fairly high, but he had lost a great deal of public favor during this competition.

Goodbye.

In our team’s performance this time, the people who stood out were me and Nam Jeongho.

The difference had been obvious, so the editing had naturally turned the segment into the story of the two youngest members struggling against adversity.

Nam Jeongho staying behind to practice even after everyone else had left the training room.

Baek Hanje pulling an all-nighter alone to finish the arrangement, only to receive the least noticeable part.

Naturally, the people who had put us through that hardship couldn’t avoid running straight into negative public opinion.

And he even created a situation where nobody could defend him with skill.

Whether surviving or being eliminated, the acceptance speeches were equally soaked in tears.

Now, among the members of my second-competition team, I was the only one whose rank had not yet been revealed.

“.......”

And Gowon was still sitting in his original seat too.

— Fifth place, trainee Kim Minhyeok. And fourth place, trainee Kim Eumyul!

Only first, second, and third remained.

...Damn it, I’m nervous.

A tension I hadn’t felt during the first ranking announcement suddenly hit me.

No matter how you looked at it, the stage where I’d screwed over my teammates had caused a reaction against me too.

And because I was one of the younger members, I’d even run into Confucian complaints along the lines of, “Still, how could he treat an older member like that?”

Also, regardless of how anyone felt about Park Raehyun, this was an opportunity for people firmly supporting other picks.

The fall of first place meant a chance for their own favorite to climb.

I knew a fair amount of negative viral posting had spread in hopes of exactly that.

...But the biggest problem was—

I provoked Gowon way too much....

During the first ranking announcement, I’d honestly been certain I would rank above Gowon.

But this time, I’d picked up an unlikeable image.

And Gowon had... completely let loose onstage and gone absolutely insane.

With that face, plus a uniform and a harness. That’s basically a cheat code....

Yeah, I did tell him to go take first place!

And it’s true that Gowon needs to come in first!

...But if I get beaten by a rookie junior who’s even younger than a baby, I feel like I’m going to take some emotional damage too.

— At the very top of the chart, our long-awaited TOP 3: trainees Baek Hanje, Jung Garam, and Gowon! Among these three... we will announce second place first.

There were all kinds of ways to build suspense.

— Second place goes to a trainee who has become a hot topic in every mission thanks to terrifyingly strong skills.

The description alone didn’t make it immediately obvious who it was.

After dragging things out for a long while, the name finally left the MC’s mouth.

— Second place, trainee Baek Hanje!

“.......”

Second place was obviously a high rank.

But because the person receiving it was someone who had shown overwhelming ability in every category and had never surrendered the throne even once, a strangely solemn atmosphere settled over the room.

“Thank you so much.”

But if I couldn’t even hide disappointment on this level, then thirteen years of idol experience would be a waste.

I smiled toward the camera.

As if I had no regrets whatsoever.

“I’ll keep working hard forever so that everyone who voted for me can be proud of me.”

I slipped a private message into my acceptance speech and headed toward the second-place seat.

I’m sorry, Young Ace girls....

That was why I had used Young Ace’s slogan, “work hard forever.”

Gowon kept his eyes on me for a long time.

Ah, this is more embarrassing than I expected.

They should’ve just called third place first and gone in order. Why start with second and make me feel like I came in third while technically being second?

— We will now announce it. The contestant who showed tremendous growth, delivered an excellent performance, and seized first place.

Still, you did well, kid.

A growth narrative was good. Thinking about how stiff and gloomy that guy had been at the beginning, even I felt my nose sting.

“Trainee Jung Garam!”

...Huh?

“Which naturally means trainee Gowon receives third place.”

Plausibility has decreased!

Current Plausibility: 61% (▼5)

...What?