If Cheon Serim had said he planned to escalate things even if Kim Youngshin rejected him, I wouldn't have given him the number. I probably would have reconsidered using the item altogether.
'Because that would make him no different from Kim Min-ho.'
Kim Min-ho, who used Cheon Serim to stir up attention no matter what it took;
and Cheon Serim, who would be invoking Kim Youngshin's name to solve the situation.
He would have become the same kind of person.
If things were only going to get worse, it would be better to stop Serim from posting the apology letter in the first place.
But Serim didn't do that. He said that if Kim Youngshin refused, he'd give up—even if it meant losing a highly effective way out of the crisis.
—I don't regret leaving right before debut. If I went back to that time, I'd make the same choice.
But the things I said when Youngshin-hyung asked me for help… I think I'll regret that forever.
Because of that, I could give Cheon Serim Kim Youngshin's number.
"I didn't think he'd accept my call."
Fortunately, Kim Youngshin did accept Serim's contact—and he allowed Serim to post the apology letter.
"I'm glad it worked out."
I had been fairly sure that Kim Youngshin would accept Serim's call. From the small glimpse I saw of him in Serim's past, judging by his attitude and manner of speaking, he didn't seem like someone who would shut Serim out completely.
Whether out of revenge, opportunity, or the past bond between them, it was highly likely he would allow Serim to post his statement.
More than anything, if things weren't going to go that way, the system would never have allowed me to help Serim in the first place.
In other words, my assistance had been premised on success from the beginning.
"Hyung, none of this would've happened without you."
But since Serim didn't know the system existed, he seemed to view everything that had happened as some sort of miracle. From his perspective, the situation had resolved far better than expected.
Seeing Serim looking uncharacteristically sentimental in my direction, I averted my gaze and answered:
"Don't talk nonsense. Get up—we're moving."
"Hm, are you embarrassed?"
I ignored Serim's playful tone and rose to my feet. At some point, the staff had begun calling trainees one by one.
Serim, Aiden Lee, and I lined up according to agency order. While trainees followed the staff's call and entered the set through the entrance, Serim—waiting for his turn—suddenly spoke as if he remembered something.
"But apparently, I wasn't the first to expose Snatch."
"Huh? Who spoke before you?"
"Oh, a comment. The story first spread on a community, so things were already chaotic even before my apology went up…"
Serim fell deep into thought for a moment, humming quietly, then glanced at me as if testing me.
"I heard Kim Min-ho and Eight Entertainment were desperate to track down the person who wrote the first exposé comment. They tried everything, but couldn't find any personal info. They said the account didn't even exist."
"…Really?"
When I pretended not to know anything, Serim narrowed his eyes slightly and continued, his tone subtly probing.
"They said when they tried tracing the writer, the IP address didn't exist at all."
"Ugh—what? A ghost?"
Aiden Lee spoke with a rare expression of disgust. It was surprising to see the guy have a field he genuinely disliked.
"Probably more like a hacker, don't you think? Maybe one of Snatch's victims became a hacker or something."
…He's oddly sharp in strange places.
Since the item's name did include the word "hacking," I felt a tiny pang of guilt and quickly started walking again. Then, as I moved, I happened to run into Yoo Chanhee walking with other trainees from the same agency.
"Ah, go on ahead."
As soon as Serim spotted Chanhee, he excused himself and walked over. Chanhee flinched briefly when he saw Serim, then turned his head away.
He's sulking.
"Chanhee, are you mad?"
"Mm… kinda."
Aiden Lee answered for him, and I roughly agreed. It was probably because he had voiced his concern, only for Serim to cut him off bluntly. Even if he understood the situation, Serim had always treated him warmly, so the sudden coldness must have stung.
Sure enough, no matter what Serim said, Chanhee kept turning away. When Serim grinned and slung an arm around his shoulders, Chanhee finally shoved him off with an irritated expression.
They're getting along fine.
Thinking that, I continued walking with Aiden. Since none of the other trainees from Aiden's agency were still around, we would enter one by one.
While waiting for our turn, Aiden spoke in a slightly disappointed tone.
"It would've been nice if Dan Woo-hyung were still here. He's really such a waste."
Aiden had been repeatedly saying this in the four-person group chat created after the recent level reevaluation, clearly still upset about Joo Dan Woo's elimination. Dan Woo himself said he was disappointed too, but brushed off Aiden's comments with a bit of humor.
"But hyung… something's up, right? He hasn't contacted us in days."
"He's probably busy."
He hadn't replied in the past few days at all. And I had my own guess as to why.
"Next—KRM Entertainment trainee Won Yuha! Please enter!"
"I'm going first."
Following the staff member's call, I stepped inside and took my seat. I counted the number of folding chairs set below the ranking stage.
Forty.
There were thirty trainees remaining.
Meaning ten seats would be empty.
Seeing those chairs, I finally confirmed what I had been suspecting.
'It hasn't changed.'
Broadcast stations don't prepare sets carelessly. They wouldn't prepare extra chairs "just in case." The number of seats always matched the number of people who would ultimately fill them.
And I wasn't the only one who noticed.
"There's something more coming?"
"Yeah."
Do Ji-hyuk sat down next to me after entering, and when he said that, I nodded lightly. He hummed briefly, then said:
"They were never going to let Hyunjin go…"
Then he grinned and added:
"Too bad, huh? It was your chance to be first place."
I glanced down at the microphone clipped to us—silently asking whether it was okay for him to say things like that with the mic on. Ji-hyuk covered his mic with his hand and replied:
"This kind of stuff won't air. If the trainees' conversations are broadcast before the big announcement, it kills the excitement."
"…Still, be careful. You never know how they'll edit things."
Broadcast stations collecting all kinds of trivial cast conversations and then splicing them however they want for drama is nothing new. Better to not give them anything to work with in the first place.
Ji-hyuk laughed as if agreeing, then added leisurely:
"Alright, alright. But don't get too tense. Things are just going to get harder from here anyway—if you start stressing already, you'll be exhausted."
"…Why?"
"Hello, trainees of
The moment I questioned Ji-hyuk's random comment, the MC walked in, cutting off our conversation. We had to turn our heads toward him.
The MC looked over the seated trainees and began speaking energetically.
"Today is the day of the second ranking announcement! I know many of you are curious about where everyone stands, but before that, we have an important notice."
After smoothly calming the murmuring trainees with practiced showmanship, the MC pointed meaningfully toward the row of empty chairs among the trainee seats.
"Thirty trainees have survived the previous battle evaluation. But in front of me are… ten empty chairs."
"What?"
"Oh… he's right."
Some trainees had already sensed what was going to happen, while others were completely lost, causing the set to stir again. The MC immediately continued to satisfy their rising curiosity.
"We couldn't just leave those chairs empty, could we? Among the eliminated trainees, there are some who showed excellent performances but unfortunately failed to remain—boys whose elimination drew sighs from fellow trainees and countless Idol Makers."
"No way—"
"Oh my god."
"The ones who shouldn't have to give up on their dreams just yet—
the ones who will fill these empty seats!
Ten trainees who have gained one more chance thanks to your love—
please enter!"
Only then did all the trainees fully understand the situation, and everyone's eyes shot toward the closed entrance gate. Under the mixture of confusion, anxiety, and hope—
The doors opened again.
"Woooooah!"
The ten trainees who had been eliminated in the second battle appeared.
As the surviving trainees stood up in unison, cheering and clapping loudly, I made eye contact with Joo Dan Woo leading the group.
As expected, he made it.
I bowed my head slightly toward Joo Dan Woo, who was smiling brightly.
Truthfully, Joo Dan Woo's return had been predictable since the very beginning of the second evaluation.
Joo Dan Woo was someone the staff and the general audience did not want to lose. Visuals, skill, and a dramatic storyline of overcoming conflict and growth—he had it all.
There were only reasons to bring him back. He was the perfect pick for revival—good optics and all.
Before regression,
Since the battle was so unfair, the show gave revival chances to the two most-voted eliminated trainees from each team.
And judging solely from his previous stage, Joo Dan Woo was guaranteed to be one of the two.
"Hyung!"
Aiden Lee, who had always said it was a waste that Joo Dan Woo was eliminated, shouted joyfully as he rejoined the trainees. I watched him approach—
And then, just past him, I locked eyes with another trainee I had been certain would be chosen.
"Ah, Hyunjin. Looks like you've had a rough time."
It was Kang Hyunjin—once the immovable first place, but knocked out after losing to Aiden Lee's group in the battle.
As Do Ji-hyuk had said, Hyunjin did look worn down—visibly thinner than before. Early elimination must have hit him hard.
And when Hyunjin immediately looked away upon meeting my gaze—and I noticed the camera relentlessly filming us—I finally understood what Do Ji-hyuk had tried to tell me earlier.
The returning #1 and the remaining #2.
The desperate #1 and the rising #2.
The next round will definitely put us on the same team.
If someone couldn't make use of such a perfect narrative setup, they'd be an idiot.
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