Chapter 93
The audience was visibly shaken, but an even louder murmur came from the bands. No one had expected Ulim Stones to choose Group Sound.
And that was only natural. Everyone with the eyes to see and ears to hear had regarded Group Sound as a strong contender for the championship.
Even if they had received an audience score of 62 in Round 1 and advanced in sixteenth place in Round 2… those scores and rankings did not represent the band’s skill. Group Sound had long been recognized among the participating bands as possessing something that could not be measured by such things: true skill.
And that fact was well known not only to the other bands, but also to the members of Ulim Stones.
“Hyung, are you crazy? What are you thinking?”
The shoot had been briefly halted, perhaps because this was a scene the PD had not anticipated. During the pause, Ulim Stones gathered in a corner of the set and engaged in a heated discussion.
The leader, Jung Woojin, had chosen Group Sound as their opponent without consulting them. The members of Ulim Stones simply could not understand their leader. How could he pull something like this on his own after they had worked so hard to reach the repêchage?
“Go cancel it right now. Tell them you misspoke.”
“No, fuck…! How does that make any sense?!”
“It’s already done. You need to think about how to clean it up. What good will it do to just sit there getting angry?”
The guitarist snarled and lunged at Woojin. Hwang Eunji, the bassist and Woojin’s girlfriend, pulled him away while speaking to him. But Eunji’s expression also showed that she could not understand her boyfriend at all.
“Anyway, oppa. What were you thinking? You said earlier that you had a plan. Is this it? Are you trying to screw us over? If this was what you had in mind, why did you tell us to prepare for the repêchage?”
Despite Eunji’s words, Woojin turned his gaze elsewhere and opened his mouth.
“I have something in mind.”
“What do you have in mind? Are you just planning to go into the audition and get your asses kicked? Hyung, get a grip! You heard them explain the format. It’s a completely one-on-one battle! Like Eunji noona said, go beg the PD right now. Tell him you misspoke!”
“Do you guys remember that time?”
Woojin suddenly tossed out the question just as Jaemin was about to explode. The unexpected interruption seized everyone’s attention.
“Which time?”
“Back when it was Band Pioneer. When they dropped out.”
“…Didn’t that end with there being no real evidence? What does that have to do with anything?”
The drummer asked the question. Instead of answering, Woojin smiled and then spoke again.
“I have something in mind. I have a witness and a plan. I’m going to test it out in a little while, too.”
“Hyung, get a grip.”
But the guitarist poured cold water on his enthusiasm. Woojin began glaring at him, but the guitarist continued speaking as though it made no difference.
“Whatever it is, why do you keep trying to rely on some lucky break? What are you going to do if it doesn’t work? Get crushed by them?”
“There’s no way it won’t work.”
“What kind of fucking nonsense is that…!”
The guitarist shouted again, but Eunji pulled him back. Amid the worried gazes of the remaining band members, Woojin continued muttering.
“There’s no way it won’t work.”
It sounded less like he was speaking to the others and more like he was trying to convince himself. The band members stared at Woojin, frozen for a moment. He had been a decent person, but he had changed after Band Pioneer.
* * *
The recording resumed. Perhaps they wanted to capture a new take, because the staff had the opposing band recreate the exact same scene as before.
“We choose Group Sound.”
“Really?!”
Despite having heard it moments earlier, the MC reacted as though he had been startled all over again. Is that what they called professionalism? Myeongjeon wondered as he furrowed his brow.
‘What on earth are they thinking?’
Ulim Stones. They were an unmemorable band, and they did not seem particularly skilled, either. Iseo had said, “Those people were on Band Pioneer, too! They even came to Vitetailored!” That meant Myeongjeon had had opportunities to see them, yet they had still failed to leave an impression.
“Then first, the battle between 2MAJOR and COTRA! Before that, let’s hear a few words about your resolve!”
Leaving the MC to continue the proceedings, they followed the staff’s instructions down from the platform and headed backstage. Ulim Stones followed behind them.
“Why did they choose us?”
“Who knows? I don’t, either.”
Myeongjeon answered Iseo’s whisper with indifference as he looked at their opponents. The members of Ulim Stones flinched. Their leader, however, stared at him with the same fierce gaze as before.
‘Did I do something?’
Myeongjeon racked his memory, but nothing in particular came to mind.
“All right! Then the song for the competition will be…!”
At the MC’s cry, a roulette wheel spun on the stage screen before pointing to a song. It was a fairly famous idol song.
“The song has been selected! Now, 2MAJOR and COTRA will face off in a true showdown using this song. Who will survive? Which band will the audience choose? What about the other bands, the mentors, and the online voters? Which band will they choose?”
The recording continued. The MC kept the proceedings moving while the bands that had gone before them reacted. They shared their impressions and determination, as well as their gratitude to the fans who had helped them reach this point.
Even as they exchanged such words, the two bands selected as opponents in the repêchage were sizing each other up. The tension between them was strong enough to reach Myeongjeon, who was waiting his turn in the back.
“Now then!! Up next… the rising stars, Group Sound!! And Ulim Stones, back from hell after throwing down the gauntlet to them!! Let’s meet them right now!!”
“Please go stand at the front~”
At the MC’s call, a staff member guided the bands forward. As they stood in a long line onstage with the two leaders in the middle, footage began playing on the screen. It was obvious that the stage videos of Group Sound and Ulim Stones had been prepared in a hurry.
Myeongjeon was about to yawn, but he desperately composed his expression. It would have been one thing in the band seats or behind the set, but he could hardly yawn on a stage where everyone else was watching him.
“Ms. Ha Suyeon.”
The timing was therefore an unmistakable surprise attack.
This was a stage where everyone was watching. She could neither control her expression nor avoid the question. It was a moment when she had to take someone else’s words exactly as they came.
“You were famous as a school bully at Hanseung High, weren’t you? You tormented other kids and committed school violence.”
Jung Woojin spat out the words.
‘It has to work.’
Watching Suyeon’s expression, Woojin thought that.
The timing had been carefully calculated. He had studied the format of the previous season’s repêchage and observed how the teams before them had behaved.
He had also calculated how his opponent would respond.
First, denial. A reaction like, “I’ve never done anything like that,” or, “What are you talking about?” Or second, anger. Something like, “Are you crazy?” or, “What the fuck are you talking about, you piece of shit?”
Either reaction would be fine. No, any answer would be fine. They were recording, after all.
If she denied it, he would press her by calling her a liar. If she got angry, he would counter by saying that he had evidence. If the conversation went well, he would threaten her by saying he had a witness and make her give up the mission. Whether she denied it, got angry, or showed any other reaction, he would record it, create evidence, and use it to tighten the noose around her.
That was Woojin’s plan.
If they met backstage or on the street, she could mumble an excuse and run away. But on this stage?
The moment she reacted, she would be caught. And even if she was not caught, she would create the evidence herself… It was a perfect plan, like a spiderweb.
Thinking that, Woojin waited for Ha Suyeon’s response. But when none came, he threw out another question.
“Excuse me, Ms. Ha Suyeon. You used to be a school bully, didn’t you? You committed school violence and shamelessly came on television. Yoon Jimin, Kim Jiwon, Lee Seoyeon, Seong Juhee. Why are you pretending not to know them?”
Despite his words, Suyeon did not react. She simply stared straight ahead without saying anything, as if the matter had nothing to do with her at all.
‘How can this be?’
Woojin thought.
To him, Ha Suyeon was the typical piece of human garbage who had bullied others as a school delinquent, then shamelessly crawled into the music world while pretending to have reformed, convinced that she had done nothing wrong.
That was the Ha Suyeon he saw.
Besides, she had even been forced to leave over the Band Pioneer incident. She must have been harboring a deep grudge. So she had no choice but to react.
“You already got caught once and had to withdraw. Did you think you wouldn’t get caught this time?”
Thinking that, he shook Suyeon one more time. He waited for the reaction of a school bully who had enjoyed tormenting others during her adolescence—an insult, a denial, anything at all.
But what came back was another silence. This was a possibility Woojin had never imagined, and his expression gradually stiffened.
That’s right.
Because Woojin was an ordinary person with an ordinary imagination, he had overlooked one important fact about Ha Suyeon. Namely…
The Ha Suyeon of today was not the Ha Suyeon of before.
‘Was it this bastard?’
When he heard it the first time, Myeongjeon had let it pass, wondering what the man was talking about. He had assumed it was just nonsense, but after hearing it a second time, he became certain. This was the bastard who had leaked the story to the judges during Band Pioneer.
The only reason Myeongjeon had been able to restrain his mouth and expression when he was about to react was the experience and intuition Seo Myeongjeon had accumulated over the years. The old Ha Suyeon would have reacted without fail.
‘He’s testing me.’
The realization flashed through his mind like lightning. Why would he bring this up at this exact point, at this exact moment? And why did he keep saying things like that to her?
Myeongjeon made a superhuman effort not to react to his opponent, no matter what he said.
‘This isn’t how it was supposed to go.’
Woojin was capable of thinking things through. And because of that, he knew exactly when a threat worked best.
A threat worked when the target was afraid of the weapon. When someone pointed a gun and said, “I’ll shoot!” or held up a knife and said, “I’ll stab you!” The person being threatened feared what would happen next, and the person making the threat used that fear to obtain what he wanted.
In other words, someone making a threat paradoxically did not want to use the weapon. Once he shot or stabbed them, there would be nothing left to gain.
That was why the person a threatener feared most was someone without fear.
This was exactly that situation. Woojin had already held up the weapon of “I know what you did.” But his opponent’s reaction was nowhere to be seen.
What was he supposed to do now?
Should he expose it?
If it were PD Yoon Donguk, he might shout, “Even better!” and drag Group Sound along with him. He was a man obsessed with ratings. Besides, unless they forfeited or deliberately lost, he would definitely send another team against them.
Then it would all be meaningless. What mattered was Ulim Stones advancing to the upper rounds. Woojin was not seeking some kind of righteous victory.
Should he keep it hidden?
That might actually be better. He could use it later.
‘Then how are we supposed to beat them and advance?’
That thought suddenly stormed through Woojin’s mind. He knew very well that their skill could not compare to Group Sound’s. That was why he had believed they could shake their opponent, win by forfeit, or force a deliberate loss and advance to the next round.
He had arranged everything from the beginning. The reason he had not exposed the school-violence allegations before the repêchage, and the reason he had brought them up only immediately before the battle… It had all been for this timing—the timing to shake their opponent and secure victory in the round.
But if things turned out like this… what was he supposed to do?
Woojin suddenly felt as though the field of vision before him had widened. The senses that had been focused on a single thing expanded, seeming to grow endlessly wider.
“Mr. Jung Woojin?”
“Ah, ah, yes…”
The MC’s voice reached him.
“Please tell us a few words about your resolve after choosing Group Sound.”
“Uh…”
Woojin looked straight ahead. The wide stage. The other bands looking down at them. The audience hidden in the darkness. The opposing band wearing puzzled expressions, and the members of Ulim Stones staring at him as if to say, What the hell are you doing?
When he thought about it, the plan had been flimsy. It was built on the premise that the opponent would react to his words. Yet Woojin had thought it was perfect.
Why had he done that?
Why had he thought his opponent would inevitably fall into his plan?
“We’ll… do our best.”
Woojin could not answer those questions right away. Instead, he struggled to drag something out of his throat. But in the end, the only words he managed to produce were those two: he would do his best.
“That’s right! If you want to win the repêchage! What ambition—to choose the strongest opponent in order to prove your potential to win the championship!”
The MC’s comment seemed to dress up his choice in a more flattering way. Then the roulette wheel spun again. Woojin prayed one last time, hoping it would select a song that favored them.
“The selected song is… this one!!”
But the song chosen by the roulette was the exact opposite. It was a Korean psychedelic rock song emblematic of the 1970s. Woojin had heard it before, but he had no confidence that he could bring out its distinctive sensibility. He could feel the band members sighing without even looking at them.
Woojin raised his head and glanced sideways at Suyeon. She wore her usual emotionless expression.
But to him, that expression looked like nothing but scorn.