Chapter 25: Nerf

[Continuing, Dance A Grade. Yang Seou]

“Wow, that person finally got an A grade. I knew they’d do well.” Jo Seha, who had now firmly settled into his place, smiled brightly as he listened to the broadcast.

“Ugh, what am I going to do, I only got a C grade.”

How about just getting eliminated?

“Yeah, that’s right!”

Oh. You think so too, huh? Then let’s hurry and make a perfect plan for elimination…

“No one starts out perfect! I’ll just practice harder and make sure I debut!”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Hm? What do you mean?!”

Never mind, forget it. I’m just going to stop caring about you from now on. It’s too stressful.

When I didn’t bother to retort and sharply turned my head away, Jo Seha let out a confused “Huh?”

“Seha, you really are an optimistic person.”

“I hear that a lot!” It’s really… really hard to keep up with that kind of energy. I miss you, Jiwon… Woojin… Hyung…

[Continuing, Rap F Grade]

The broadcast continued, and Jo Seha started talking again to Seo Chanul, who was sitting next to him.

“Oh right! You said we’re the same age, right?! Let’s drop the formalities!”

Seo Chanul formed an ‘O’ with his lips and nodded.

“Should we? Sounds good.”

Soon after, Seo Chanul’s gaze turned to me.

Why are you looking at me like that? At least say something before you stare at me.

“Oh, you and Haram haven’t dropped the formalities yet?”

Jo Seha saw Seo Chanul’s expression and immediately made a fuss.

“Haram and I already did!! You’re the same age as Haram too, so you should drop the formalities! That’s okay with you, right, Haram?”

Are you really Jo Jungjae’s son?

The more time I spent with him, the more reasonable my suspicions became.

How could someone like that sly old man have such a flower garden… No, I still don’t know. Don’t let your guard down, Seo Jimin.

“Should we?! I’ll drop them, Haram!”

“Uh…?” Why are you doing this too, Chanul…

One of our roommates who’d been listening to the three of us glared sharply.

“Can you keep it down? This is the Rap position.”

At his sharp tone, Jo Seha stuck out his lips and made an annoying “Yeah yeah~” face.

…So irritating…

[Continuing, Rap D Grade. Park Minkwon……..]

“Ah… D?”

Checking his own name… His name… Tsk, Rap D let out a sigh of regret.

“It’s okay! I’m a C too, so we’re CD!”

What does you being C have to do with him being D?

Rap D seemed to have the same thought, looking at Jo Seha in disbelief.

“…Jo Seha.”

“Hm?”

“I think it’d be better if you just stayed quiet for a while.”

“……??? Why?”

If someone tells you to be quiet, just be quiet.

Suddenly, my head throbbed. It felt like a wave of pain was coming. Seo Chanul placed a hand on Jo Seha’s shoulder and gently shook his head with a kind expression.

“……???”

Jo Seha clearly didn’t understand the reason, but he shut his mouth anyway, as if just doing what he was told.

And a moment later.

[That concludes the Rap position grade announcements. Next up—]

The announcements for Vocal, Dance, and Rap positions were all finished.

Now, what remained was—

[Continuing, All A Grade]

Even though Jo Seha had finally shut up, the room, which was still a little noisy, now fell completely silent. Well, that makes sense. Both people with All Positions are right here.

Well…

[Seo Chanul.]

“Huh?”

I had more or less expected the result. Everyone except Seo Chanul instantly turned their gaze toward me.

Stop staring.

[Continuing, All C Grade]

The grade announcements quickly moved on to C grade.

[Kim Haram.]

The eyes fixed on me grew even more confused. Now even Seo Chanul couldn’t take his eyes off me.

I didn’t bother to say anything first.

“Uh…” Jo Seha, unable to bear the silence, was about to open his mouth, but I stood up abruptly.

“I’m going to the practice room for a bit.”

No one answered, so I simply walked toward the entrance.

“Uh… Haram!!” Jo Seha couldn’t hold back and called after me.

“Hey, Jo Seha.”

Jo Seha froze in place, hand still outstretched toward me.

“Read the room and stay put.”

Leaving the now silent room behind

Thud

I left the room.

*****

There were various practice rooms prepared for the contestants.

I sat alone in the most secluded of them, the single-person practice room.

I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.

‘I knew I would lose….’

I felt it as soon as the evaluations started. There’s no way I can beat Seo Chanul right now. After the rankings were announced, I thought I’d need some time to talk to Soram alone, so I was planning to… set the mood for a bit.

“Phew~”

I flopped straight onto my back. Yeah, I knew I’d lose, set the mood, and come out of the room alone.

But!!!

“I didn’t know I’d get a C grade!!!!”

I shouted so loud the practice room could’ve shaken. The thick soundproof walls should protect me.

“Huh?”

But before I could even finish the thought, several shadows zipped past the semi-transparent practice room door. So much for privacy.

Tch…

I wasn’t that bad.

All the songs used for the grade evaluations were fairly well-known.

There wasn’t a single song where I couldn’t take advantage of the overlapping effects of [Born to Be Idol] and [The Fan’s Jackpot] traits.

“Jang Yeonju…”

I thought of Jang Yeonju PD, who had gone out of his way to check on me even at the All Position evaluation.

“He definitely tilted his head after my first stage….”

Then, as if he had a sudden idea, he even whispered something to the judges. Just wait. I won’t let this slide.

And to make sure I don’t, first, “Kim Soram, come out.”

There’s something I need to do. From behind the piano leg in the corner, Soram peeked his head out.

How long have you been there?

“Come here, sit down.” Soram trotted over and sat in front of me.

“You can fly, but you walked over just to look cute, didn’t you?”

[……..!!!!]

Soram tried to keep a straight face and hide his feelings. I can see all your thoughts through the system window, you know?

“Look at me.”

His eyes darted everywhere, but he still seemed to know he’d done something wrong.

“Kim Soram.”

Finally, Soram managed to meet my gaze.

“Open my Stat Window.”

Soram carefully held out his hands, and the system popped up above them.

[ >Name: Kim Haram (Seo Jimin)
>Dance: C
>Vocal: D+
>Visual: A
>Charm: A–C
>Luck: B+
You’ve made great improvements through steady effort! If you keep going like this, a true top idol might not be just a dream?!]

Look at him, leaving these carefree comments.

“Point out your own mistake.”

With a little sparkle, Soram’s hand weakly pointed to the middle of the system window.

[> Vocal: D+]

Of course, the problem is that the Vocal stat is too low. But that’s not all.

“Does this make sense, Kim Soram?” I crossed my arms.

“How can there not be a ‘Rap’ stat in an idol’s Stat Window?”

Soram drooped down again, almost melting into the floor.

Yeah.

I only realized it after the position selection started, so that’s on me too.

“But you’re the system, Kim Soram. You should’ve paid attention to things like this from the start.”

I couldn’t deny that the fundamental mistake lay with the system—meaning Soram.

Really… I was lucky during the preliminaries.

There wasn’t a real rap part in the first verse, so I got by.

The problem happened in today’s position evaluation.

‘Uh… Contestant Kim Haram. Hip-hop… I mean, rap… To be honest, you really don’t have any talent for it, huh?’

I remembered the mentor’s face, clearly struggling to find something to say after my evaluation.

‘That’s strange. Didn’t Haram do pretty well at rap in the Haram Show?’

Yes.

Probably did.

‘I’ll make up for it quickly and show you a better side.’

With that cliché line, the awkward rap evaluation finally ended. Only after a long pause did Soram finally open his mouth(?).

[Currently preparing an emergency update, and the ‘Rap’ or ‘Performance’ stat should be added as early as tomorrow morning.]

It had been a while since Soram used such a businesslike tone, but his appearance was so deflated I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Without compensation?”

[…TTTTTT]

Crying won’t help.

“Do you know how much this cost me? Of course you’re going to compensate me, right?”

[TTTTTTTT]

I said, crying won’t help.

“I expect a suitable compensation along with the update.”

Soram wiped his eyes with his tiny arms.

[…Okay.]

Alright, let’s move on from this for now.

“Next.”

This time, Soram quickly brought up a new window in front of me.

[ >Trait Name: The Fan’s Jackpot

>Grade: Unique
>Status: Active (33%)
>Effect: -Fan life is my life. All the devotion and effort you’ve put into being a fan has finally paid off.Every action related to being a fan influences the user.
>Usage Condition: Must be a fan of someone]

Yeah, this is it.

“This one probably isn’t your fault, Soram….”

This time, I pointed to the middle of the system window with my finger.

[>Status: Active (33%)]

What’s up with this? I widened my eyes deliberately and looked at Soram.

Soram looked troubled.

Honestly, even if there was no Rap stat, as long as this trait was working properly, there’s no way I should’ve dropped all the way to C grade.

[We’ve been searching for the cause ever since the abnormality was detected, but it’s still unknown.]

Abnormality…

Abnormality, huh….

It’s not like there isn’t an obvious suspect.

If anything, it’s too obvious.

‘Seo Chanul…’

He was definitely the cause.

Ever since I ran into him in the waiting room, the trait kept getting shaken up so much I could barely focus.

But I never imagined it would show up like this. A full third of its power was gone.

There were moments where it seemed to get better for a bit…

It did calm down when Seo Chanul was choosing his position. But then it crashed again. I was sure Seo Chanul was the cause, but the trigger was unclear.

‘For now, I’ll have to make do with what I have.’

That’s why I tried to squeeze a reward out of Soram earlier. It had only been a day since I’d met Seo Chanul, and the trait was already being affected like this—there was just no answer.

At that moment. Knock, knock, knock.

Creak— Someone opened the practice room door a little and peeked in with just their eyes.

‘…What is it?’

It was Seo Chanul. You really can’t help yourself, can you.

“Why are you here.”

Seo Chanul opened the door fully and came into the practice room.

“No reason, I was just worried. You left by yourself.”

No. Based on my experience, if you say things like that, for sure…!

[Unique trait, ‘The Fan’s Jackpot’, is shaking!]

As expected.

Ha… This is so frustrating.

“Chanul.”

“Huh?”

Don’t even talk to me.

The words were right on the tip of my tongue, but—

“…Never mind. Let’s go.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud.

How could I… to my ultimate bias…

And so, the eventful first day of filming finally ended.

“Wake up! Wake up, wake up!! All contestants, please wake up!!”

Just like that, the next day dawned in a flash.