Chapter 23
“All right! Enjoy your summer vacation, everyone. And if anything comes up, be sure to contact your teacher! That's all!”
“Waaaaah.”
Finally, the awful first semester was over, and summer vacation had begun.
Since I possessed this body in March, I'd spent nearly three months attending school, but...
‘Fuck, I have to do this more than ten times?’
If I graduated from high school, I still had nineteen semesters left in total.
I had to complete seven semesters of elementary school, six of middle school, and six of high school before I could graduate.
I was already exhausted just thinking about it.
“Is this seriously real?”
I shook my head and tried to deny this unbelievable reality, but the fact that I was currently a second grader in elementary school wasn't going to change.
Besides, quitting school outright was problematic because the public cared more about celebrities' educational backgrounds than you'd expect.
If I dropped out after elementary or middle school, people would call me an ignorant bitch with nothing in her head.
Even if it meant coasting through attendance at an arts high school, I had to attend high school.
“Um, Seo Si-yeon.”
“Yeah?”
It was the class president who stopped me.
For the record, these days schools apparently elected class presidents twice a year.
There were separate first- and second-semester class presidents. I guess the idea was to give as many kids as possible a chance to be class president, and personally, I didn't think it was a bad idea.
‘Wait. Then now that the first semester's over, he isn't the class president anymore, is he?’
If so, what was I supposed to call him from now on? Naturally, I didn't know his name.
“Former class president. What's up?”
“...Former class president? Anyway, Seonghun was looking for you.”
Seonghun?
I tilted my head and tried to recall the names of my classmates. But no matter how hard I thought, I had no memory of anyone named Seonghun.
“Seonghun? Was there a kid like that in our class?”
“Yeah. You know, the round-eyed boy.”
“Huh?”
“Jeez. The boy who gives you chocolate milk every single day!”
“Oh! Seonghun?”
Even after I'd rejected his confession, Seonghun was a true old-fashioned romantic, a boy who brought me chocolate milk every day and offered it up to me.
If I hadn't been a man in my previous life, I might have thought about keeping him around, raising him well until he became an adult, turning him into my ideal type, and dating him... but sadly, I had no intention of dating Seonghun, who would grow up to be a hairy man.
‘He's looking for me... Why?’
Surely he wasn't about to launch another confession attack? If so, I'd have to tell him that obsessing over someone after being rejected once was incredibly pathetic.
Anyway, I'd made it all the way to the school gate, and now it looked like I'd have to return to the classroom.
If it wasn't anything important, I'd turn into the vicious Seo Si-yeon and make him sick to death of women.
“Ahem. Hm-mm.”
After all that trouble getting back to the classroom, there wasn't a lone boy sitting there... There was no one at all.
“But you said he was in the classroom.”
“I-I’m... right here.”
A human figure suddenly sprang up from a space where I hadn't sensed any presence at all.
“Jesus, you scared me!”
“B-Bad words...”
“What, am I not allowed to swear?”
“I-I didn't mean that...”
Hmm. But wasn't I being a little too vicious right now? He was a kid who gave me chocolate milk every day, after all...
At roughly a thousand won per carton, he'd spent tens of thousands of won giving me chocolate milk every day.
A few tens of thousands of won was quite a lot of money at his age.
So I decided to calmly hear Seonghun out.
“All right. Go ahead and tell me, Seonghun.”
Seonghun stared blankly for a moment as if dumbfounded, then sighed and opened his mouth as if he'd given up.
“If you aren't busy during summer vacation... would you like to go to the swimming pool with me?”
Hmm, what a precocious little thing. Wanting to go to a swimming pool alone with a member of the opposite sex at that age!
You're out of the running as my boyfriend candidate.
“Um. Sorry, but I’m busy.”
“I-I see.”
I really was busy. From now on, the Singerstar contestants who had made it into the TOP 10 were going to be attending a training camp.
Apparently, they'd rented a chaebol's villa in the Gangwon region, where various practice rooms and sound equipment had been set up and were used every season.
Starting tomorrow, I had to take the bus that came to the orphanage and go to Gangwon Province. There was no time to leisurely visit a swimming pool with some little kid.
“Sorry, but try finding another girl.”
* * *
Singerstar's filming had entered its latter half before we knew it.
Head PD Kang Jun-hyung slowly looked over the list of the final ten contestants.
Han Seong-sik, a middle-aged man employed by a major corporation.
Lee Hye-na, who had failed to debut on a famous idol audition program because of vote-rigging.
So Yu-jin, who possessed a distinctive voice and had already built a niche following.
Choi Seong, who had barely made it this far with vocal skills that were decent but nothing exceptional.
Alford Choi, a talented mixed-race vocalist from Germany.
Boyfriend, a male duo that had earned praise from the judges for witty original songs, though they had somewhat been overshadowed by Seo Si-yeon.
Blooming, a high-school girl band that had already proven its commercial appeal to the public with “glassy sky.”
Baek Yu-yeon, who mainly sang period-drama-style songs with her distinctive husky sensibility.
“The remaining two are the real hit products.”
In fact, the fandoms of the remaining two were so strong that it felt like they were essentially fighting over first and second place.
Seo Si-yeon, an elementary school student with dozens of high-quality original songs.
Joo Jin-woo, an engineering student with looks and a vocal tone that drove aunties wild.
“Last season, it felt like the winner alone stood head and shoulders above everyone else, but this time there are a lot of good contestants spread evenly across the field.”
It was something no one had expected before the season began. To be honest, he had thought that by Season 5, everyone worth discovering had already appeared, but geniuses from outside the established scene kept emerging in droves.
It was already more or less certain that they wouldn't be able to bring in the representatives of the Big Three entertainment agencies as judges next season.
That was why he'd thought this would be the final season, but if the show continued to be a hit like this, they wouldn't be able to avoid making a Season 6.
Ratings were soaring past 20 percent, and now that they were moving to live broadcasts incorporating real-time votes, ratings were expected to rise even further.
“Either way, the protagonist is one of those two...”
Even Kang Jun-hyung couldn't quite guess whether Joo Jin-woo or Seo Si-yeon would win.
Even if Joo Jin-woo had ruined one stage, that had been a team competition, and all of his individual stages had been close to perfect.
Seo Si-yeon had likewise performed every stage perfectly, but objectively speaking, singing wasn't exactly her greatest strength, so she would have to compete with her original songs.
“In the end, Seo Si-yeon's original songs will decide which way the victory goes.”
From here on, it was time for the training camp. How much entertaining footage could they draw from those days at camp?
Kang Jun-hyung's heart was already beginning to pound hard.
* * *
The road to Gangwon Province was longer and rougher than expected.
When I dragged a large suitcase onto the bus at the orphanage entrance, familiar faces already came into view, along with the air-conditioning.
‘Ah, now I can live.’
I enjoyed the cool breeze and laboriously hauled my suitcase into the bus.
It was a modest-sized bus compared to a tour bus, but the tension inside was no less than that in a concert hall's waiting room.
“Oh, Si-yeon! Over here, over here!”
It was Yoo Seol-ha, the vocalist of the all-girl high school band Blooming, who welcomed me.
I went over to the seat she pointed out, shoved my luggage in, and plopped down.
A suitcase was definitely too much for a small nine-year-old body.
“Did you come alone? Where's your orphanage teacher?”
“She saw me off to the entrance. Besides, they'll take care of everything once I get to the training camp, so what's the problem?”
At my matter-of-fact answer, the gazes of the contestants around me subtly changed.
Admiration in their eyes—or perhaps the doubt that someone that age could really be so independent.
I was used to neatly filing away looks like that and gazed out the window.
A little while later, the bus door opened again, and the final passenger boarded.
It was Joo Jin-woo.
As usual, he was dressed in a neat shirt with a guitar case slung over his shoulder.
The atmosphere on the bus rippled in an instant. It seemed no one could help being conscious of the arrival of a favorite to win.
Joo Jin-woo gave a light bow as he walked down the aisle, then stopped near the seat beside me.
“Hello, little one.”
“Hello.”
I put on the polite smile of an elementary school student. Joo Jin-woo stared intently at me for a moment, then took the seat in front of mine.
Where had the Joo Jin-woo who wiped away tears after watching my last performance gone? His eyes now held the sharp gaze of a rival once again.
‘That's harsh on a baby.’
With a rumble, the bus began to move slowly.
‘It's really starting now.’
Watching the familiar scenery recede outside the window, I swallowed the bitter saliva pooling in my mouth.
The training camp at the Gangwon villa.
It was called a training camp, but it was really no different from a massive survival camp where cameras rolled twenty-four hours a day.
I had to use my past-life experience to secure screen time while avoiding villain edits.
And above all... it was finally time to bring out my secret weapon.
I had to choose one of the many masterpieces that had been ahead of their time, sleeping in the database of my mind—the song that would fit Seo Si-yeon in this life best.
“All right, everyone, may I have your attention!”
The assistant director sitting at the front of the bus took the microphone.
“Once we arrive at the training camp, you'll have a day of free time. However, the announcement for the first camp mission will be made tonight, so prepare yourselves mentally!”
At the words “free time,” conversations began to blossom, but I quietly took a headset from my bag and put it on.
Instead of the elementary school bell I'd heard to death all semester, I could now listen to music freely.
It felt like escaping the grueling compulsory education system and heading into a real battlefield.
’This is a hundred times better.’
* * *
A university district on the outskirts of Seoul.
And in a small rented studio apartment located there, Ji-hye Lim, whose face had become somewhat gaunt, was receiving a visitor she wasn't particularly happy to see.
“So what brings you all the way here?”
“I take it you're not particularly happy to see a friend whose face you're seeing for the first time in four years?”
“No... That's not it, but...”
“I was worried when you suddenly cut off contact... and in the end, you really did get yourself into trouble.”
Lim Ji-hye had nothing much to say. Looking back now, she had been acting a little strange back then.
“I have something I'm curious about.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did you throw that intending to hit it?”
“As if... Even if I were that crazy, I wouldn't go that far.”
“I thought so. If it had hit, it wouldn't have ended with you simply getting cursed out.”
As she said this, the woman lowered her disguise sunglasses slightly. Her pink irises showed through the gap.
“Ugh. What is that colored-contact-lens color?”
“It's not like I wear them because I like them, you know? They say cherry blossoms symbolize Japan... What else could I do?”
The person standing before Lim Ji-hye was Saki of FYG, an idol who had once trained alongside her and now enjoyed immense popularity in both Korea and Japan.
She had soared so high that it contrasted painfully with Ji-hye's miserable circumstances, prompting Ji-hye to cut off contact—though she had once been her best friend and colleague.
Lim Ji-hye looked at her with mixed feelings.
“So why did you come?”
“The boss told me to come check on you.”
Lim Ji-hye flinched.
The boss was clearly warmhearted and wanted to come himself, but after making such harsh comments as a judge, the boss couldn't show up in person, so Saki had obviously been sent instead.
Lim Ji-hye let out a small laugh. The boss did have a subtly cute side.
“And I have some personal business, too. Still, I'm surprised you're doing better than I expected.”
“It was only a week of getting cursed out before it ended. Produce played a big part.”
Produce 11, which had been embroiled in vote-rigging controversies for years, eventually became a target of entertainment-industry gossip after the Fact-Finding Committee filed criminal charges against the production staff.
On the social front, the outrage merchants had shifted their attention to the hot-button gender conflict these days, so Lim Ji-hye had taken less abuse than expected and managed to return to her daily life.
“So, what is this personal business?”
“Oh my? Aren't you impatient... Would you consider giving this a try? I think it's a great opportunity.”
On the smartphone screen she held out was...
“Starlive, third generation?”
Amid a sea of anime characters was some kind of recruitment notice written in Japanese.
“They call it VTubing, and it's all the rage these days... You use a cute character and work as both an idol and a YouTuber! Oh, I actually have a favorite among these. Want to know who...”
“Get lost. Seriously.”
The reunion with my best friend of four years was the worst.