Chapter 44
After clearing the great hurdle of the semifinals, a peaceful atmosphere finally settled over the lodging as well. Perhaps the production staff wanted to give the contestants a sort of bonus before the final, because they left only one or two cameras running today and allowed us some free time.
The menu was, of course, meat.
And not just any meat, either. It was premium Korean beef sent from somewhere—rumored to be from one of Blooming's parents—and compared to the feed served at Neulneul Orphanage, it was luxury fare. I settled at an outdoor table, drooling before I could even start eating.
In the midst of it all, Yoo Seolha picked up the tongs by herself and declared,
“All right, all right! Everyone, attention! Today, there are no designated grillers—only people who eat!”
But that declaration was overturned in less than five minutes because Yoo Seolha was unbelievably bad at grilling meat.
“……Unnie, you have to turn that over. It's going to burn.”
Unable to watch any longer, I said something.
The sight of the premium sirloin that was supposed to go into my mouth sizzling and burning on the grill was simply too painful to bear.
“Hng… B-but Jinwoo oppa went somewhere too…”
Obviously, he had gone to smoke. From what I heard, he hadn't smoked before enlisting, but had picked it up in the army.
‘As expected, nothing good comes from going there.’
You lose something precious, but in exchange, you don't have to serve in the military.
Wasn't that an equivalent exchange?
“W-who knows how to grill meat!”
Not one of Blooming's members could raise her hand. They really looked like rich young ladies who had grown up pampered at home.
In the end, I sighed and took the tongs from Yoo Seolha, practically snatching them away.
The sight of a nine-year-old kid wielding tongs and deftly turning over meat must have been quite bizarre.
Joo Jinwoo finally returned to the barbecue area after finishing his smoke break and said, looking dumbfounded,
“Kid, is there anything you can't do? You even know how to grill meat at your age?”
“Thanks for the compliment. I guess the orphanage taught me?”
Guilt flooded Joo Jinwoo's face at my prickly answer, which I had tossed out without much thought.
“…Sorry.”
“Ah, no, this isn't the reaction I wanted… Honestly, I kind of like being an orphan. There's no one to interfere with me…”
“Sniff… That's so sad.”
Beside us, Kim Seol suddenly started trying to squeeze out tears, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Apparently, everyone saw me as a pitiable orphan forcing herself to act cheerful, so I decided to leave them to it.
Meanwhile, Joo Jinwoo used the tongs he had taken from me to grill the meat to perfection, then approached us carrying a plate.
“There you are. Do have some meat, young ladies.”
“Kya. As expected, men handle the big jobs.”
Kim Seol popped a freshly grilled piece of meat into her mouth and gave a thumbs-up.
He really was damn good at grilling meat, so I gave Joo Jinwoo a thumbs-up as well, wearing a blissful smile.
Fundamentally, regardless of gender, Joo Jinwoo was the only adult here, so he was the one who should be grilling the meat.
I stopped eating for a moment and checked the charts.
‘As expected, Jellypop is number one.’
Christma of the day, which I had sung last week, was in second place, while Jellypop was in first.
Glassy Sky was even in third place, and Starry Night was in seventh.
Play On and Pray For had also taken spots near the bottom of the chart's TOP 100, and even the OST from Detective Cartoon, which I had sung, had barely managed to get a foot in the door.
The sheer firepower was downright monstrous.
If only I could release a properly prepared full-length album in this situation…
‘I could put five songs in the top ten all at once.’
Of course, if enough time passed after Singerstar ended for me to prepare and release a full-length album, the situation would be completely different. Still, being popular was always a good feeling.
“What are you doing, Siyeon? Oh, are you looking at the charts?”
“Yes. It feels good, since I'm still number one.”
“That's amazing! Being number one on the charts at your age!”
She was absolutely right.
But honestly, I didn't feel all that amazing. It felt like I was using an unlimited supply of cheats.
How should I put it? Like using cheats in GTA to massacre ordinary passersby?
It felt good, and it was true that I found it rewarding in my own way, but I still didn't think I was some incredible genius.
‘Of course, the talent possessed by the child named Seo Siyeon really was on a genius level.’
Whether it was her looks or singing, even dancing became easy to master after a little practice.
To be honest, surviving on the strength of self-composed songs alone might have been difficult, but thanks to the talents Seo Siyeon's body naturally possessed, I had been able to make it this far while carefully rationing the songs I thought should represent my future peak.
To think such talent had emerged in a place like Neulneul Orphanage…
Honestly, if I hadn't taken over her body, Seo Siyeon would probably have lived an unremarkable life before marrying some ordinary man and becoming a housewife.
Her looks were certainly remarkable, but apart from that, she had almost nothing, and that meant she had few opportunities to challenge herself with anything.
‘She was born without parents, so it couldn't be helped.’
But now, the story had changed completely.
Because by taking over her body, I had turned Seo Siyeon into a star.
She probably wouldn't ever have to marry a man.
“Nyam.”
That was that, but for now, I decided to eat as much meat as I wanted.
Because if I returned to the orphanage, I had no idea when I would get to eat food like this again.
Escaping the orphanage might realistically take quite a while. Considering my circumstances and my level of public recognition, the process seemed likely to become rather complicated.
Unless some chaebol descended from heaven to help me become independent, things were going to get troublesome in all sorts of ways.
“Try this too, Siyeon!”
“Mmnm.”
What Blooming's keyboardist, Choi Yeona, fed me was…
“Blegh! W-what did you feed me!”
“Huh? It's just a mushroom…”
“Oh.”
Come to think of it, was I unable to eat mushrooms?
Thinking about it, I had never once picked up and eaten a mushroom since taking over Seo Siyeon's body.
In my previous life, I hadn't liked them, but I had eaten them without any particular aversion…
‘Come to think of it, I haven't eaten onions or green onions either.’
I suddenly had an existential crisis over my own eating habits.
* * *
As always, the users who practically lived on online communities were usually angry.
That was because the popular posts were normally nothing but hateful topics that made people frown.
So the people who lived on those communities endured the contradiction of complaining every day that they were sick of hateful topics, while the posts with the highest views were still hate posts.
Yet even in such places, there were posts without a trace of hate, like rays of light.
[Seo Siyeon GIF Collection (Warning: Image-Heavy)] [Comments:1566] [Recommendations 1.5k] [Views: 245233]
They were posts of this sort.
Posts sharing something beautiful, or sharing something infused with desire.
The impact Singerstar had on the various general-purpose communities this time was beyond imagination.
An audition program had appeared in a place where, after the Winter Olympics ended, hateful posts had been filling the site all day long.
Those who had thought they would spend the whole time watching different fandoms fight unexpectedly encountered an extraordinary existence.
That existence was Seo Siyeon.
Honestly, Seo Siyeon would have been someone the communities liked even if she hadn't been pretty.
Because she was a genius.
Wherever they appeared, geniuses tended to monopolize attention and affection, and online communities were no different.
If she had at least been a little older, there would probably have been plenty of slander mixed with jealousy and inferiority, but no one could bring themselves to feel that way toward nine-year-old Seo Siyeon.
For most people, the feeling they got from looking at her ultimately came down to one word: ‘cute.’
No matter how much of a genius she was, the more people watched her, the more accustomed they became to it, until the only thing left was her impossibly beautiful appearance.
In the comment section, which was unusually warm thanks to all the cute GIFs, one person's question suddenly drew a flood of attention.
-But why are Seo Siyeon's eyes blue? Is she mixed-race?
ㄴ Who knows.
ㄴ Only her parents would know that…
ㄴ I heard her maternal grandfather was British.
ㄴ Who are you to know that? lol
ㄴ Apparently my dad's younger sibling is Seo Siyeon's mother? I don't know the details either, lol.
Later, that user proved that they themselves had blue eyes, and as a result, the comment spread not only through that community but across various other communities and social media as well.
“Hmm…”
That was how even I ended up seeing the comment while busy preparing for the final stage.
In fact, I had suspected from the beginning that relatives existed.
People in the old days generally didn't have just one child; they had several.
So there definitely had to be uncles, and there had to be cousins as well.
Still, it wasn't a particularly important issue. Even if they claimed now that they were my family, I had no intention of accepting them as such.
“This should be fine, right?”
More important than that was the fact that the song I would sing in the final was finally complete.