Chapter 92
The original song’s boisterous disco-pop melody and vocals continued without a hint of humor. But underneath them lay an industrial metal sound. As people listened to what could only be called a dizzying song, they wondered how on earth they were supposed to score it. The atmosphere was sharply divided: those who liked it burst out laughing, while those who disliked it recoiled, saying they had no idea what they were listening to.
But that feeling did not last throughout the entire performance. As the song reached its climax toward the end of the second verse, a guitar solo came in.
“Waaaaah!”
Several bands let out cheers before they even realized it as a pitch-shifting solo in the extreme high register, played with a whammy pedal, poured forth.
Suyeon played the solo as though the dizzying song shown up to that point had merely been buildup for a twist. Her outfit was still the helmet and flare skirt, but what unfolded from her fingertips was a furious guitar performance without a hint of humor.
As the solo progressed, even the complaints of audience members who had been negative about the performance gradually subsided. They could tell that the strange opening had not been done merely for laughs—the girls had done their absolute best to bring the song to life somehow.
“Thank you.”
When the performance ended, applause filled the venue. It was closer to encouragement than praise. Reactions like, “They seem like they’re really good, so why did they give them a song like this?” began to drift through the audience. Donguk let out a sigh of relief. At least it had been a performance he could find an editing angle for.
“And finally… Group Sound, out of a total of twenty-four bands! An audience score of 68! A band score of 73! A mentor score of 82! With a total score of 74.2…”
This round weighted audience scores at 30 percent, band scores at 20 percent, and mentor scores at 50 percent. A score of 74.2 out of 100 was not particularly high, but…
“Therefore, with Group Sound taking sixteenth place, all the remaining bands have been eliminated automatically. Ulim Stones, NOTK, 2MAJOR… What a shame.”
The MC bowed politely. The eliminated bands lowered their heads deeply. But the leader of Ulim Stones was staring at Myeongjeon with a strangely burning gaze, which made Myeongjeon wonder if something was wrong.
‘Did I owe them something?’
Myeongjeon merely glanced at his phone. He could understand holding a grudge, but why on earth would they hold it against him? What a bunch of weirdos.
Meanwhile, the MC finished shouting various remarks and went down, while a staff member came up and began relaying the announcements.
“As previously announced, next week’s shoot will feature the twelve bands eliminated in Rounds 1 and 2 filming the repêchage footage. The following week, the bands revived through the repêchage will select existing bands and compete against them.”
“So we’re taking a break, then? For about two weeks?”
“I guess so.”
Iseo spoke with a grin after hearing the staff member’s explanation. Of course, only about one week was certain; the week after that had not been confirmed.
“Unless they’re insane, nobody’s going to pick us.”
Myeongjeon muttered that. They had placed sixteenth in this round, but merely avoiding elimination with that song could already be considered a success. And considering the performance they had shown during the previous shoot, Myeongjeon could not imagine any band daring to choose them.
“Then are we off for two weeks…?”
“Let’s travel. Japan! It’s the season right now. Or Jeju Island, at least!”
“Even if we’re taking a break, we still have to show up for filming. Besides, school hasn’t gone on vacation yet.”
Seoha scolded the excited Hyuna and Iseo. Watching the two quickly grow dejected, Myeongjeon let out a low laugh. They were keeping up diligently, but they were still children in the end. There was nothing to be done about liking to play.
* * *
“What do you want to eat for dinner?”
“Gukbap.”
Suyeon answered in an indifferent voice. Iseo immediately felt her temper flare.
“What the hell, gukbap? Are you an old man? Do you have tattoos and wear Under Armour or something? Why do you suggest gukbap every time we eat?”
“It’s either mala or tteokbokki anyway. Is eating gukbap really that different?”
“What are you talking about? We’re not…”
Iseo initially got angry at Suyeon’s counterargument, but when she thought about it carefully, it did seem somewhat true. Whenever they met, they usually ate malatang, tteokbokki, tanghulu, or something similar…
“I still hate gukbap. It’s too old-fashioned.”
“What’s old-fashioned about gukbap?”
“I wouldn’t mind if it were somewhere clean, but you’re always looking at markets or shabby restaurants and saying that places like those have the real stuff, then insisting we go. You weren’t like this before…”
With Suyeon’s lips sticking out in a pout for some reason, Iseo continued venting her complaints. Just a year ago, Suyeon had been incredibly fussy about cleanliness—though they had not been close back then—but after the accident, it was as if an old man had taken up residence in her body and she went around searching for gukbap.
“…I was like this before, too, you know?”
“Not at all.”
“I was.”
“No, you weren’t. You were never like that.”
“Hey, if I’m saying I was, why do you keep saying I wasn’t? Are you me or something?”
“You can’t even remember what happened back then, so why do you keep insisting you’re right? Even Daini said your tastes had gotten weird.”
As they chatted about such pointless things, Iseo and Suyeon arrived in front of Photo Signature at Myeongdong Station, their meeting place. Hyuna and Seoha were waving at them from outside the shop.
“There are way too many people… I really hate places like this…”
“That’s what I’m saying. Why do you keep trying to take pictures?”
Suyeon and Hyuna were busy complaining. Since this was a familiar sight by now, Seoha and Iseo dragged the two of them into the shop. It was packed with people, perhaps because it was a holiday. Only a few men were visible, apparently dragged there by their girlfriends; everyone else was female.
“Use a curling iron. Curl your hair.”
“It’s a pain…”
“You should be grateful you were born pretty. If you were ugly and went around like that, we’d really be in trouble.”
At Iseo’s muttering, Suyeon looked at her without saying a word. There was so much contained in that gaze that Iseo shouted, “You bitch!” and smacked Suyeon across the back. Suyeon let out a scream. Meanwhile, Hyuna, who was being held in place by Seoha and obediently having her hair curled, opened her mouth.
“We took pictures last time, too. Is there really any reason to take them again today? We could do something else during this time…”
“What else?”
“I heard there’s a fun maid café in Hongdae these days.”
Hyuna answered Seoha’s question.
“A maid café? That sounds fun. Isn’t that where the girls do things for you while speaking Japanese?”
Iseo muttered after hearing that and looked over at Suyeon. Suyeon did not seem interested, but Iseo knew that if she dragged her along, Suyeon would still have a good time without saying much, so she did not worry about it.
“That’s what they say, Bin-nim. Apparently, these days the maids are more hardcore otaku than the customers. The customers just show up without knowing much, but the maids start talking about otaku stuff and all that.”
“I kind of want to go…”
With that thought, Iseo continued brushing Suyeon’s hair. Suyeon’s expression gradually worsened, but Iseo failed to notice as she carried on.
“Huh? Um, excuse me…”
An unfamiliar voice came from beside them. Iseo turned her head without much thought. Three women were looking at Iseo and the others.
“Yes? What’s up?”
“Um, uh… Aren’t you the people in that band? Ah, maybe not… Sorry…”
The women hesitantly spoke to them, then inexplicably backed down and began to slink away. Iseo glanced to the side. Suyeon’s face looked completely indifferent. To other people, however, it looked like she was saying, ‘What the fuck do you want, bitches?’
“Oh, ah! We are in a band. That’s right. Did you perhaps see us on the show?”
“Uh… You’re Group Sound, right?”
Iseo smacked Suyeon sharply on the back of the neck, ignored Suyeon’s “Kek!” and answered the women with a bright smile. The other women responded with another question.
“Yes, we’re Group Sound.”
“We watched your performance in Episode 0! You were so good. I’d heard there was a really good band at Paradox, but I never had time to go… After seeing Episode 0, I was genuinely shocked.”
The moment Iseo confirmed it, the women responded passionately. She could hear people nearby murmuring, “Are they famous?” but she did not care. Weren’t these the first fans they had met outside Paradox?
“Thank you for enjoying our performance. Hey, you guys should say hello, too.”
Hyuna had already hidden behind Iseo, while Seoha stood a short distance away. Suyeon wore her trademark expression of ‘I’m not thinking about anything, but I look insanely pissed off to everyone else.’ Iseo let out a deep sigh and made the girls greet them.
“Oh, no, you all look like you’re taking a break…”
“It’s fine! They’re just shy. You should see how much they smile when they come to Paradox, hehe… We’ve never met anyone who recognized us outside before.”
At Iseo’s insistence, the girls staggered to their feet and greeted the women.
Everyone seemed embarrassed under the strange gazes of the people around them, but Iseo even liked that. Wasn’t this one of the reasons they appeared on television? To have people recognize and acknowledge them. She felt as though she had become famous, and she was incredibly proud.
* * *
The day of the shoot.
‘This is boring.’
Myeongjeon thought that as he briefly closed his eyes. Reacting to the performances of twelve teams they did not care about was surprisingly exhausting. Until now, the bands had at least been ones that affected Group Sound’s ranking and influence, but that was no longer the case.
‘It doesn’t matter what happens. It’s not like there’s some lunatic who’ll choose us anyway.’
Thinking that, Myeongjeon gave mechanical reactions. Clapping, nodding, and so on. Honestly, he felt that none of it had anything to do with him.
“Who do you think will win?”
“Hmm… I don’t know.”
That was Iseo’s question. To be honest, Myeongjeon had almost said, ‘Aren’t they all about the same?’ But saying that would surely give the editors a usable clip. He forcibly swallowed the thought and answered, “It’s too close to call.”
A considerable amount of time passed after that, and the repêchage finally ended.
“Repêchage! The winners of the repêchage are ‘2MAJOR’ and ‘Ulim Stones’! …And these two teams may each select one team to compete against.”
The MC pointed to the screen. It displayed the repêchage rules in large type. Each winner would choose one team and compete against them; the winner of the battle would join that mentor’s team, while the loser would be eliminated.
The method of the battle was written below that. A specific song selected by the production team would be chosen at random, and the two bands would interpret the same song in their own ways to compete for victory.
“Now, then! It’s time for the selections. Band 2MAJOR! 2MAJOR, which band will you choose?”
“We’ll choose… [COTRA].”
An impressed “Ooh~” rose up, followed by a wave of murmuring. COTRA. As far as Myeongjeon remembered, they had not been a particularly memorable band. Only one team had picked them during the mentor picks, and they had placed eighteenth in Round 2, if Myeongjeon remembered correctly.
Choosing the weakest opponent and advancing was a fairly sensible decision. Some might think it damaged their pride, but the important thing was advancing to the next round, not saving face. If they advanced, they would at least have another opportunity; if they picked a strong team here, they might not even make it through.
“2MAJOR’s choice is… COTRA! Then, band Ulim Stones! Ulim Stones, which band will you choose?”
“We’ll choose… Group Sound.”
Unlike before, a huge murmur swept through the venue. For a moment, Myeongjeon wondered if he had heard wrong. Who had they said they were choosing?
“I may have misheard you! Let me ask one more time! Which team did you say you were choosing?”
“We choose Group Sound.”
The leader of Ulim Stones spoke into the microphone, and his words spread through the speakers. The voice was so clear that there was no denying it.
…What? They’re choosing us?