Damn Idol Chapter 160
When Coming Up Next was first being filmed, Choi Jaeseong had been a small-hexagon vocalist.
He had no major flaws, but no distinct strengths either.
Of course, that was by Sedalbaegil’s standards.
If he had been a member of an ordinary idol group, he would have been called a large-hexagon member.
That Choi Jaeseong spent his time diligently, gradually expanding his hexagon, and appeared on Stage Number Zero.
A survival program was a format that inevitably had to face countless unexpected situations and variables.
On top of that, Choi Jaeseong was famous, while the other contestants were unknown.
Meaning, if he didn’t show consideration for his competitors, he could come off as selfish.
Naturally, Choi Jaeseong had to yield everything, and had to compete in whatever field his opponent was most confident in.
In other words, he always had to sing under unfavorable conditions.
But.
“Contestant Choi Jaeseong?”
“Yes?”
“What on earth was that? Were you always good at this kind of thing too?”
“I got lucky.”
Choi Jaeseong didn’t feel any difficulty.
And that was how he came to understand what Han Sion had said.
A small-hexagon vocalist was evaluated as “pretty decent overall,” but a large-hexagon vocalist was evaluated as “there’s nothing to criticize.”
Choi Jaeseong was now the latter.
And on Stage Number 25, where he had arrived like that, Choi Jaeseong sang, for the first time, a song he wholly wanted to sing.
A song composed by Chris Edward, who had ties to them, and by Ludwog, the Billboard pop star.
Choi Jaeseong began the intro as if he were Gu Taehwan, hit the notes as precisely as Lee Ion, and handled the high range like On Saemiro.
Then he tried to resemble Han Sion’s incomprehensibly deep expressiveness.
As a result.
“That’s unbelievable. Seriously.”
“It was the best live performance I’ve seen this year. It felt less like a competition and more like a concert.”
“I thought I should have paid to watch it.”
The judges couldn’t hide their admiration.
It hadn’t aired yet, but the atmosphere was such that everyone was certain this performance would become the best stage on Stage Number Zero.
After filming ended, while Choi Jaeseong was waiting for his manager to pick him up, he met the CEO of NT.
The CEO of NT didn’t speak at length.
“Have you ever thought that you could become the protagonist?”
Considering the NT CEO’s social position and age, his tone was extremely polite.
The proposal was simple.
An agency contract with NT.
He wasn’t telling him to stop promoting with Sedalbaegil.
Only that, if he wanted to carry out activities centered a little more around himself, he should do it with NT.
“If Sedalbaegil truly is a crew, that is.”
It wasn’t impossible under the contract either.
The members of Sedalbaegil had signed contracts this time when they received their settlement, but those weren’t contracts regarding their agency affiliation.
They only concerned the distribution of profits from the activities they had done together.
In other words, since their affiliation was free, he could leave Sedalbaegil if he wanted, or do other work alongside it.
He didn’t know about the other members, but……
Choi Jaeseong felt his heart waver.
Everyone has a desire to become the protagonist.
And that desire was strong in Choi Jaeseong.
The reason he had jumped into the idol scene was because he wanted to prove to his parents that he, too, was someone who could be loved.
Because his parents had always looked only at his older brother, who was two years older.
The one with the greatest talent.
But when he looked back coldly, Sedalbaegil’s activities weren’t very different from the situation at home.
Just as his parents had looked at his older brother, Sedalbaegil’s fans looked at his hyungs.
They especially looked at Sion hyung.
The one with the fewest personal fans was Choi Jaeseong, and the one with the lowest importance in Sedalbaegil was also Choi Jaeseong.
If one only looked at singing parts, Ion hyung actually had the fewest, but that was how it looked from the outside.
So Choi Jaeseong wavered.
Even the contract terms that the NT CEO explained in detail were, in Choi Jaeseong’s eyes as someone who knew the K-pop market well, extremely good.
They weren’t terms NT could put forward unless they valued him highly.
“You’ll need to make your decision quickly. If the decision is fast, you may even be able to aim for victory on Stage Number Zero.”
And so Choi Jaeseong returned to Sedalbaegil’s dorm with his mind in turmoil.
“Oh, you’re back?”
“Did it go well?”
His hyungs were kind as always, and Choi Jaeseong felt like a traitor for wavering.
But he didn’t show it.
“I did great. At this rate, it feels like I might even win.”
However, there was someone who noticed the change in Choi Jaeseong.
It wasn’t the sharp-witted Gu Taehwan, nor was it Lee Ion, who always watched over the members, nor was it On Saemiro, who was sensitive to negative emotions.
It was Han Sion, who seemed to take little interest in anything except music.
“Choi Jaeseong.”
“Yes?”
“Did something happen?”
“Why?”
“You look like someone being tempted.”
“……”
Sion hyung was strange from time to time.
He looked as though he was indifferent to the world, but Choi Jaeseong had never seen him miss the core of anything.
While not fearing people’s reactions, he knew how to satisfy their eyes and ears.
Then did he also know how to satisfy one’s inferiority complex and sense of lack?
Choi Jaeseong opened his mouth impulsively.
“Hyung.”
“What?”
“I want to become the protagonist too.”
“The protagonist? That’ll be hard. No, maybe impossible?”
As expected, Sion hyung didn’t know how to say empty words.
“Because of the hyungs? Or because of you, Sion hyung?”
“That’s not it.”
“Then?”
“When’s your next Stage Number Zero filming?”
“Wednesday.”
“What are you planning to sing?”
“The PD gave me a list. I have to sing one of those.”
“Show me.”
When he showed him the song list on his smartphone, Han Sion rubbed his chin, then nodded.
“You’re allowed to arrange it, right?”
“Normally, the program does that. Leaving it to the contestants carries too much risk.”
“If I say I’m doing it, won’t they okay it?”
“They will.”
Considering how hot Sedalbaegil was right now, there was no way they would refuse an arrangement by Han Sion of Sedalbaegil.
“Contact the PD. I’ll work on the arrangement in the meantime.”
“Have you picked the song?”
“Even If I Sink Beneath the Waves. I’ll go with this.”
Even If I Sink Beneath the Waves was an R&B ballad with that distinct early-2000s K-pop flavor.
When Choi Jaeseong finished his call with the PD and returned to the studio, absurdly enough, Sion hyung had already made a guide track.
When he checked the clock, only twenty-five minutes had passed.
Wondering if he had perhaps done it sloppily, he listened to the song……
It was no joke.
The deeply plaintive ballad unique to the early 2000s had been transformed into alternative R&B mixed with electronic sounds.
The electronic guitar that pierced through the intro formed the main melody, and that scattered throughout the whole song……
‘Is this something you can do this quickly?’
It was at an unbelievable level.
“Sing this.”
“Do you mean I should become the protagonist, even if it’s just on Stage Number Zero?”
“No. You’ll know once you sing it.”
Han Sion gave no further explanation.
Time passed like that, and Wednesday came.
* * *
The production team of Stage Number Zero had been shouting with joy day after day.
The program was doing well—too well.
All of it was thanks to Choi Jaeseong and Sedalbaegil.
They had drawn attention with Sedalbaegil in the promotional ads for the time slot and secured their initial viewers, and thanks to Choi Jaeseong’s stage forming the highlight of episode one, defending the ratings had been easy too.
On top of that, when episode one aired, Sedalbaegil’s On Saemiro had just created a huge buzz on Masked Singer.
Thanks to the common keyword of Sedalbaegil, that buzz had carried over to Stage Number Zero.
But what pleased him more than anything was……
‘Choi Daeho lost.’
The fact that Sedalbaegil had beaten Choi Daeho.
More broadcasting stations now wanted to cast Sedalbaegil, and some had even moved on to making offers.
In other words, they no longer had to worry about Choi Daeho taking revenge just because they cast Sedalbaegil.
It was a situation filled only with good things, but the main PD of Stage Number Zero had one concern.
‘Can’t Choi Jaeseong keep going?’
Namely, Choi Jaeseong’s departure from the show.
Choi Jaeseong was in a state where it had been agreed that he would not enter the top ten.
It was simple capitalist logic.
From the top ten onward, it was time for the broadcasting station to pursue profit more than the program’s popularity.
So the agencies that would take in the top ten contestants provided production sponsorships and signed music revenue settlement contracts.
Through the broadcasting station’s logic of, “We’re promoting your artist, aren’t we?”
In such a situation, it was realistically impossible for Choi Jaeseong to make it into the top ten.
That was such a waste.
Before the broadcast began, the Stage Number Zero PD hadn’t known much about Choi Jaeseong.
Like most people, to him, Sedalbaegil equaled Han Sion, and he also knew Lee Ion, the most handsome one.
But once the program actually began, Choi Jaeseong showed an entirely different level.
No matter how desperately the other contestants struggled, when they hit the wall that was Choi Jaeseong, they fell away miserably.
There had been a contestant named Ju Sechan who was considered a candidate for the win.
Ju Sechan had never once been grouped together with Choi Jaeseong.
Not during the team mission, not during the duet mission, and not even during the minor missions.
They had all been conducted separately.
Under those circumstances, Ju Sechan had done quite well.
If Choi Jaeseong was the ace on one side of the bracket, then Ju Sechan was the ace on the other.
In reality, the competition among agencies to snatch up Ju Sechan was fairly fierce.
The mood was that if Choi Jaeseong left, Ju Sechan would likely take first place.
But the two faced each other in the final duet……
‘To put it crudely, he got absolutely wrecked.’
He knew it was an uncouth expression, but there was no other phrase that described that day’s situation better.
He had simply been thoroughly beaten.
The two of them sang together, but Ju Sechan was the chorus.
In the end, at the request of NT, which had been going back and forth over contract terms with Ju Sechan for quite some time, they re-filmed the stage.
With a matchup that separated Choi Jaeseong and Ju Sechan.
And NT made up its mind.
After seeing Ju Sechan, whom they had been trying to recruit, be brutally defeated by Choi Jaeseong, their eyes had been opened.
As far as the main PD knew, NT had delivered a recruitment offer to Choi Jaeseong at the last filming.
The mood was fifty-fifty.
It wasn’t positive, but it wasn’t negative either.
So the PD was praying with his hands clasped.
Please, let Choi Jaeseong go into NT’s arms.
If only that happened, NT would show an appropriate level of sincerity, and they could make Choi Jaeseong first place.
No, there would be no need to make him.
They only had to show him as he was.
While the main PD was thinking that, he saw the contestants entering the filming site.
Today was the Stage Number 15 stage, and seven people would be eliminated.
A total of eight would survive, and after holding a revival round, they would bring back two of the eliminated contestants.
That was how Stage Number Ten would be completed.
“We’ll begin filming!”
At the FD’s shout, the main PD also hurriedly moved to find what he had to do.
And after seven long hours passed……
“Hello.”
It was Choi Jaeseong’s turn.
* * *
Choi Jaeseong, who had gone up on stage, took a moment to catch his breath.
Even If I Sink Beneath the Waves, which Sion hyung had made for him, was not originally that difficult a song.
The so-called “cow-herding” singing style was the core of it, but for a vocalist of Choi Jaeseong’s level, he could express most high ranges just fine.
On top of that, back during Coming Up Next, he had been evaluated as having a weakness in soul music, so he had worked tirelessly on it.
But strangely, the arranged version Sion hyung had given him this time was quite difficult to sing.
People around him said he sang it well, but it was hard to be certain.
However, regardless of his emotions, it was time to sing.
The song began with the electronic guitar Sion hyung had played himself.