Chapter 41
“Hmm… I wonder?”
“What would you do if you were me, Unni?”
“Can’t you just do it?”
I glared at Yuseolha for giving such a simple answer.
What I had asked her about was which song I should choose for the next round.
Whether I should swallow my pride, sing an idol song, and perform a cute little dance, or sing a ballad that didn’t quite suit my voice but was a good song in itself.
Or perhaps I should bring out the band song ‘Your Name Is Blue,’ which I had been saving to give to Blooming later.
“Hmm. Could you save the last one for later?”
“…For now, okay. Got it.”
“Hehe. Our Siyeon really is the best!”
In truth, I wasn’t even sure whether this song would end up in their hands after the audition ended.
We had no idea where we would each end up or what kind of work we would do at which company, so everything was completely uncertain for now.
“Come to think of it, is your father really buying a company?”
“That? I heard he already acquired it!”
“Wow.”
No wonder he spent money so lavishly, being practically at the chaebol level.
I casually asked which agency he had acquired.
“BlueSky Entertainment…? I heard Winter Girl used to be signed there?”
“Oh, that place? Not a bad company to acquire…”
BlueSky Entertainment was a fairly well-known company. Although some time had passed, it had even produced a top-tier idol group before…
‘Come to think of it, there isn’t much else besides that.’
In any case, entertainment companies with that level of name recognition were quite rare in this industry.
That was why it had been one of the companies I sent songs to after possessing this body…
‘They didn’t even read it.’
Well, I didn’t particularly resent them, but it was clear that the CEO had no eye for talent. Otherwise, there was no way they could have failed to recognize my song.
“No, so which of the remaining two seems better?”
“Obviously the completed version of Jellypop.”
“But I told you I’m embarrassed, didn’t I? The question is whether it’s worth enduring that level of embarrassment…”
“Sometimes, you act way too much like a man, you know? What’s so bad about a girl doing a cute little dance?”
“Ugh.”
I trembled at Yuseolha’s pointed remark, wanting to tell her, You just hit the nail right on the head!
Even so, lately I had started to think I was acting more like an elementary-school girl than before. Apparently, that wasn’t how I looked to other people.
“Honestly, Jellypop is a good song. Since you’ve already sung it, you can’t exactly give it to anyone else now… Wouldn’t it be better to use it for your stage now?”
“You’re only saying the textbook answer.”
“Heheh. Did I sound smart?”
Yuseolha’s words were the textbook answer.
In fact, letting Jellypop languish like this would have been the worst possible move. It was a song that had reached the top of the charts in my previous life, and it was even the debut song of the first idol group I had personally produced.
It had been a major hit, and I had many memories attached to it.
Giving a song like that to anyone other than those girls felt a little wrong, so whether now or later, I had planned to sing it myself and officially release it.
In that case, using it on this stage and releasing it would be more efficient than pointlessly remaking it later…
“You’re right. That would be more efficient.”
“Right? If you’re still reluctant, do something else. It’s your stage anyway, Siyeon.”
“No. Jellypop was the right choice from the start. Sorry for making you waste your time.”
“Heheng. I liked it.”
As she said that, she tightened the arms wrapped around me.
Right now, I was in Yuseolha’s arms, being petted endlessly.
Since I had recently stopped resisting altogether, Yuseolha had developed the habit of putting me in her arms the moment she saw me.
In truth, she enjoyed hugging a cute little kid to her heart’s content, while I enjoyed being healed in the arms of a beautiful woman, so it was a mutually beneficial habit.
But now it was time for me to go.
Because, damn it, this song needed at least some choreography. I had to create a dance as cute as possible to match its bouncy rhythm.
At the same time, it couldn’t contain too many embarrassingly cringey moves. I needed choreography that was within the limits of what I could pull off.
“Ahh… Has the time come to watch YouTube again…”
Naturally, I couldn’t make something like that on my own, so I would have to copy bits and pieces from here and there and stitch them together like a patchwork golem.
But Yuseolha beside me came up with an innovative idea that completely overturned my line of thought.
“Can’t you ask that person among the older girls at your orphanage? You know, the one who made the choreography for the cheer song!”
“…There’s another way! Are you a genius, Unni?”
“Hah!”
* * *
Seo Ina’s life at Neulneul Orphanage was peaceful.
On weekdays, she went to school, the academy, and the orphanage.
On weekends, she repeated the routine of going back and forth between the academy and the orphanage.
Then, whenever she had a music-show schedule, she went to Seoul with the older girls from the academy, appeared on music shows, and ate delicious meat that wasn’t available at Neulneul Orphanage.
She carefully saved the daily pay she received there in her bank account.
She was the very model of an exemplary middle schooler! The fact that she earned money at that age and saved all of it instead of spending it put her in the top 1 percent.
Today was no different. After enduring grueling practice and dragging her exhausted body back to Neulneul Orphanage, what awaited Seo Ina was a message from a completely unexpected source.
-By any chance
-Could you make a choreography for me just this once?
“Hmm?”
It was a message from the hero of Neulneul Orphanage, Seo Siyeon.
Naturally, Seo Ina herself didn’t have the ability to create decent choreography. But the instructors at her academy were another matter.
-I’ll arrange financial compensation after Singerstar ends.
-And I can send you a sample of the song right away.
After seeing the message, Seo Ina immediately began contacting the instructors at her academy.
Money was, of course, extremely important when making choreography. But more important than that were publicity for the academy itself and a chance to prove the instructors’ abilities.
The academy she attended was fairly large in Incheon, but on a national scale, it was hard to say that it was truly top-tier.
That was why the instructors had no reason to turn down an opportunity for choreography they had created to be performed nationwide.
In fact, a case like this didn’t really require financial compensation, but…
“If she’s offering, we should accept it.”
Since Seo Ina already had one foot in the industry, she could roughly gauge how much money Seo Siyeon would go on to earn in the future.
Given how much she had seen and heard on set, Seo Ina could tell that Seo Siyeon was destined to become a celestial being so dazzling it would be difficult even to look at her. She didn’t feel all that guilty about taking money from her.
However, Seo Ina and the academy instructors apparently saw things differently.
-No, no, no! Ina,
-Could you tell her we won’t accept any money? We’ll start making the choreography right now!
-Get the song sample and send it to us as quickly as possible.
“Why won’t they accept it if she’s offering?”
Regardless, Seo Ina downloaded the song file Seo Siyeon had sent and forwarded it to one of the instructors.
“Yaaawn… I’m sleepy…”
The choreography was finished before Seo Ina even woke up the next morning.
When she got up that morning and checked her smartphone,
-I went ahead and put something together quickly for now?
-If there’s anything you want changed or don’t like, tell her not to hesitate to say so!
“Wow. That’s insanely fast. I’ve never seen anyone work at this speed.”
Her messages already contained choreography demonstration videos filmed personally by the academy instructors.
* * *
“Aaaah…! This is too…”
As I replayed the choreography demonstration video Seo Ina had sent, I couldn’t take it anymore and pressed the pause button.
That was because every single move in the choreography was incredibly embarrassing.
The instructor’s frozen pose on the screen was the very embodiment of cuteness.
She had both hands curled into cat paws beside her cheeks while slightly lifting one leg.
In my previous life, these were the kind of moves that would have made me cringe to death just by looking at them, and they continued one after another.
"……They want me to dance this?"
When I pressed play again, the full-blown choreography came pouring out.
During the intro, light steps were accompanied by motions of jabbing fingers at the sky, and when the highlight section arrived, the choreography’s madness exploded.
It included bringing both hands to my mouth before spreading them wide like a blooming flower, followed by tiny hip shakes from side to side and steps that tapped my heels.
There was even a section where I had to wink while making a biting gesture and going Ang!
”This is a bit much. Maybe they made it like this because I’m young…
The choreography itself wasn’t difficult, but the level of cringe resistance required to perform it was impossible to measure.
That said, was the choreography low quality?
Not at all.
So would I really ask them to revise it when time was already so tight?
It would probably make things uncomfortable for everyone.
“Still, the song is good… Let’s give it a try.”
Since Jellypop was already a completed song, the only thing I needed to focus on was the choreography. The vocals were so simple and easy that there was no need to practice them separately.
I played the choreography video on my laptop and copied the dancer’s movements exactly to the song playing in the video.
Seo Siyeon’s body had a decent knack for moving, so she was fairly talented when it came to dancing as well.
Of course, it wasn’t as gifted as I was vocally, but choreography at this level was simple enough to master without much difficulty.
That was why I was able to follow and learn the moves without much trouble, but…
Suddenly, a strange laugh came from the back of the practice room.
“Pff, hehehe…! Ah, Si-Siyeon is so cuuute…!”
Yuseolha was standing there, barely holding back her laughter as she watched me.
With my face flushed red, I glared at Yuseolha and said,
“Get out. Right now.”