Chapter 91
The entertainment industry is a jungle.
It's something I once heard someone say.
The entertainment industry really is an incredibly harsh industry, just as the saying goes.
All kinds of producers with rotten personalities and agency heads who are human garbage.
And idols who become arrogant after gaining a little fame and throw their weight around with the staff, as well as senior stars who lure their juniors with drugs and women.
The entertainment industry is a place where you have to deal with countless kinds of people while never completely forgetting the innocence you possessed from the beginning.
That's why countless hopefuls who dream of making it can't endure it and drop out one after another.
Even if they endure all of that and become celebrities with a certain degree of recognition...
“Hyung. Do I really have to go on?”
“Yeah. The boss told me to.”
“Sigh…”
You can't only do what you want.
You have to appear on shows you don't want to be on, sometimes perform while dragging your sick body around, and suffer stalking disguised as the love of your fans.
Rian, a male idol who had barely managed to make a name for himself at a small agency—roughly a second-tier idol—let out a deep sigh.
“You know I can't sing well.”
“That's why they want you to half-ass the first round, show your face, and at least get your name out there.”
The manager grabbed Rian's shoulders and shook him hard, clearly unwilling to let him give up.
“Hey. Get a grip! It's not every day we get a chance to appear on terrestrial TV. This is a good opportunity.”
“…Ugh. I know... It's just that I feel like I'll make a complete fool of myself if I go on, hyung.”
“It's fine. They'll probably... um, pair you with someone similar, won't they?”
The manager didn't know that, either. He had only tried saying something hopeful.
Masked Singer.
A music competition program where contestants perform while concealing their identities, and those judged favorably by the panel advance to the next round.
In fact, among music programs of this kind, it was unambiguously number one in both buzz and ratings, and had been a long-running show for nearly five years.
However, because the program had been running for so long, everyone who could be recruited had already been recruited, with the side effect that invitations even reached nobodies like Rian...
“That's exactly why it's worth trying. I probably won't get completely humiliated, right?”
“…All right. I'll go.”
That made it likely that his opponent would also be a nobody like Rian, and unknown singers were all more or less similar in skill anyway.
Since winning the crown was impossible in any case, it wasn't a bad program if he planned to get eliminated at a reasonable point.
So Rian accepted the invitation with a reluctant, “I have no choice,” attitude, and because the first round was a duet, he soon got to meet his opponent and rehearse with her.
“Hello.”
The masked woman's voice sounded familiar, as if he'd heard it somewhere before, yet he couldn't possibly identify her.
But what caught his eye more than that was...
‘Why is she so short?’
She was under 150 centimeters tall. Was there really an adult singer this short? She wasn't an elementary schooler, after all.
Or was she a female idol who had debuted recently?
In an age when even elementary schoolers were being made to debut, there was nothing particularly strange about an idol being that short.
Still, even when he tried to think of someone, no one came to mind.
‘I guess she's a child actress.’
His thoughts inevitably went in that direction.
Child actors whose dramas had done reasonably well showed up on the program from time to time.
There was no way an adult singer could be that short, right?
‘If she's not a singer... I might actually have a chance.’
No matter how much of a nobody second-tier male idol Rian was, he'd spent practically his entire life singing.
His skills certainly weren't so poor that he would lose to a nonprofessional.
After rehearsing together just once, Rian was able to objectively assess his opponent's skill.
“Okay. I can't win.”
He didn't know who she was, but his opponent was a monster far beyond his reach.
At the same time, that made it possible to make a fairly accurate guess at her identity.
“Of all times for her to make a comeback...”
Seo Siyeon.
A monster who had left behind achievements no one in the Korean music industry could match.
At the same time, a genius currently receiving enormous public attention based solely on a rumor that she was returning.
“Wait... then even if I just sing like a normal person here...”
He could receive an enormous amount of attention.
Because he would be singing a duet with Seo Siyeon.
It was an opportunity that didn't come often for a second-tier idol like Rian.
Rian clenched his fists and made up his mind.
He would just sing like a normal human being.
But then, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
‘Wait. Does that mean I'm singing a couple song with an elementary schoolgirl right now?’
* * *
“It's Rian.”
My first-round opponent was a fairly popular male idol, though I couldn't remember what his name was.
The reason I knew that idol's name despite not knowing the group's name was simple.
He was the only one in that group who was actually a normal person.
He had stuck in my memory because he was the only member who wasn't lacking in either singing or dancing.
But that didn't mean I could see any chance of losing, did it?
No, it didn't.
The first-round song had been chosen by the production staff; it was a couple song performed as a male-female duet.
It was the kind of sweet, romantic song that had briefly been popular in the mid-to-late 2010s.
The production staff said they had chosen it because its mood differed from what people sensed in Seo Siyeon's usual appearance, which would make it easier to hide my identity...
“Do I really look that cold?”
I might look like a somewhat chilly little brat, but didn't I have a lovable side, too?
Anyway, the song itself was extremely easy.
It had no particularly difficult high notes or sections with complicated rhythmic subdivisions, which was why it was also called a favorite couple song at karaoke.
I wasn't thrilled about having to sing it with a man...
‘It wasn't as if we were even the same age.’
If Rian developed feelings for me, it'd be straight to jail for him.
What if kids my age developed feelings for me?
I could understand that. I mean, I had to be reasonably pretty.
But even so, an adult doing that would be... pretty damn weird, wouldn't it?
“Let's assume I make it through the first round. What should I sing in the remaining rounds?”
That was what I was worried about for now.
There were two weeks left until filming.
I had to choose quickly and get some practice in.
So I decided to ask the people around me for recommendations.
After stopping members of Blooming and NOIRIS as they passed through the company hallway and asking them, I received recommendations for a fairly diverse selection of songs.
Blooming had moved beyond listening exclusively to Japanese songs and recommended several Korean songs that were fairly decent.
But how should I put it...
They were a little iffy.
Every one of them was the kind of song that would give away I was Seo Siyeon if I sang it.
The NOIRIS members' picks, however, were more useful.
“…Where do you even find songs like this?”
“Hehe. I listen to a lot of idol songs to begin with.”
Yuina recommended an idol song from the early 2010s.
Back then, there were still songs that openly played up cuteness, and this one rode that trend.
Of course, it had bombed spectacularly.
“If you sing this, no one will realize it's you, right?”
“Sounds good. Let's use this for the second round.”
Let's say I get through the second round with this.
Then I had to sing a serious competition song in the third round.
The current singing king, Joo Jin-woo.
His vocal skills had improved over the years, and he had gained more stage experience, too, growing enough to be called one of Korea's top vocalists.
To beat him, I needed a song that would leave a strong impression on the audience.
This was especially true because I was wearing height-increasing shoes, making strong showmanship onstage impossible.
“How about this song?”
It was a song Ihanan recommended in a curt tone.
Its release date was 2021. In other words, it was a fresh new song.
“Hmm? This is a song by Senior Yuna?”
It was by a solo singer I had no direct connection to but whose songs I listened to from time to time.
She had a solid fanbase and mainstream appeal, but I hadn't known she'd released a new song.
“I suppose it's because she's long past her prime.”
The song's genre was rock.
“Oh...”
After listening to the whole song, my impression was that I understood why it hadn't taken off.
Piano rock, which could be called Yuna's identity.
The harmony between the band instruments and synthesizer, along with the buildup of meticulously structured harmonic changes leading into the chorus.
It was a well-made song.
The quality and the vocals were both excellent; there wasn't a single thing lacking, making me wonder how I hadn't heard of it.
“It sounds like a Japanese song.”
But it sounded too much like a Japanese song.
Yuna was already past her prime, and if she released a song running counter to Korean sensibilities, it was inevitable that it wouldn't attract attention.
“But the song is good...”
Powerful beats and a perfect rise-and-fall structure.
It might not be something I'd want to listen to often, but it was the kind of song that was insanely good whenever you happened to hear it.
In other words, it was a song well suited for a competition.
“Okay, I'll go with this.”
The title was ‘Comet.’
It was the right song to go head-to-head with Joo Jin-woo.