Damned Idol Chapter 75
* * *
I once said this to the team.
If the broadcast kept flowing the way it was now, there was a high chance one of the missions would be cut.
My guess became reality.
The total number of missions, which had been scheduled to be five, was reduced to four.
In other words, this would be the final stage we put on as Sedalbaegil.
The theme of the final mission was…
“It’s a free song mission.”
A free song.
“Anything is fine. You may sing a song you’ve already performed, or you may present an original song.”
CEO Choi Daeho glanced at me.
I wondered if he was looking because I was the only one who would make an original song, but that didn’t seem to be it.
It was silent pressure telling me not to choose an original song.
When a program had as much buzz as this one did right now, choosing a famous song was the safer option.
I understood what he was thinking, but, well.
Even if I don’t look it, I’m a venerable American who came across the water from the land of freedom.
Of course, I still hadn’t decided what I’d do.
“For the final competition, we plan to invite as many as 2,000 audience members. So we’re thinking of preparing a special stage that will entertain them.”
I could feel it coming.
They were probably going to mix Take Scene and Sedalbaegil.
Sure enough, the words “duet performance” came out of CEO Choi Daeho’s mouth, and the partners were announced right away.
Gu Taehwan – Ready
Onsaemiro – Juyeon
Choi Jaeseong – Fade
Lee Ion – C.U
Han Sion – Eye Level
Am I the only one who sees the intention here?
At a glance, they looked like randomly made pairs, but in reality, it was a lineup designed to make Take Scene stand out on stage.
Even Gu Taehwan and Ready’s duet was like that.
Gu Taehwan creates an incredible feeling in the intro, but Ready, who’s in the rap position, has the ability to turn up the atmosphere.
In other words, if the two of them performed a duet, the picture could only become Ready completing the good feeling Gu Taehwan had created.
Should I call it a Gu Taehwan toss and a Ready spike?
That wouldn’t change even if Gu Taehwan took the chorus part.
And that wasn’t all.
Putting Onsaemiro and Juyeon together was openly telling them to have a vocal battle, and Choi Jaeseong and Fade didn’t have good compatibility either.
Choi Jaeseong was a hexagonal vocalist with few weaknesses, but Fade, while a little lacking in singing ability, was a vocalist with excellent facial acting and immersion.
I disliked Fade, but I had to acknowledge what deserved acknowledging.
So if Choi Jaeseong and Fade were paired, Choi Jaeseong would have the higher total score, but Fade would receive the spotlight.
A vocalist of Choi Jaeseong’s type creates stability in a group, but it’s hard for him to stand out in a duet.
My guess was probably accurate up to this point.
But I didn’t know why they paired Lee Ion and C.U.
In terms of singing, Lee Ion was moderately ahead, but the difference in looks was…
Ah, I got it.
Through the broadcasts so far, C.U had gained the image of someone who tried desperately.
Looks, singing, dancing.
Everything was a little lacking, but he never lost heart and kept moving forward with his teeth clenched.
What would happen if a character like that was paired with Ion-hyung?
There was a high chance the public would find themselves cheering for C.U without realizing it.
Because from the starting point, it would look like an unfair fight.
The underdog syndrome was always a narrative that worked.
In other words, the main characters of every duet stage except mine had already been decided as Take Scene.
Well, fine. It wasn’t bad.
It was obvious the production team had racked their brains, and considering their goal, it made sense.
But wasn’t this a little too much?
They edited the main stages like garbage, and the judges gave fake critiques.
Couldn’t they at least run an event stage fairly?
The duet stage wasn’t even a competition deciding winners and losers, so just…
“…”
What am I doing right now?
It’s a good thing for the members of the team I’ll debut with to be highly evaluated by the public.
It can’t be helped that I’m closer to Sedalbaegil than Take Scene right now, but I shouldn’t mix emotion into my judgment.
In any case, my relationship with Sedalbaegil would disappear with a single regression.
If I don’t appear on Coming Up Next in the next round, we’ll simply be strangers to one another.
There’s no need to be sentimental.
Around the time I was reflecting on that, the judges split into two groups.
Blue and Lee Changjun took charge as Sedalbaegil’s mentors, while Yu Seonhwa and Choi Daeho took charge as Take Scene’s mentors.
Before long, Sedalbaegil headed with their two mentors to a restaurant that was clearly a location sponsorship.
Because if it weren’t a sponsorship, there was no way we’d drive forty minutes out from Pocheon just to have a meal.
* * *
“You’ve all really worked hard until now.”
“You worked hard too, Judge-nim!”
“Thank you!”
“Guys, it’s not over yet.”
Blue grinned and continued.
“It’s not over, but now that we’re preparing the final stage, it feels strange. Right?”
“Yes. It feels really weird.”
“So, what kind of song do you want to do?”
“Mm, wouldn’t Sion have some thoughts?”
“You’re completely entrusting it to him and leaving him alone now?”
“He’s reliable. Since Seoul Town Funk… he’s proven himself.”
At Lee Ion’s slightly hesitant words, Lee Changjun, who was sitting across from us, threw out a comment.
“You were honestly upset, weren’t you?”
“Pardon?”
“You watched the broadcast. There were parts you did well too, but only the disappointing parts were focused on.”
“No. It’s not like they made up scenes that didn’t exist.”
“Listen carefully. You guys are definitely going to debut. You’re guys I’ll see at broadcasting stations someday. So think of this as advice I’m giving to juniors and let me say a bit.”
After that, Lee Changjun talked about the business side of Coming Up Next.
The fact that Take Scene had no choice but to debut, and that an enormous amount of money was tied up in this.
But also his well-wishes that we, too, would debut at Lion Entertainment.
And even the empty promise that if that didn’t happen, he’d start a company himself and recruit us.
It was a picture of him seeking an agreement through honesty before Sedalbaegil became dissatisfied and caused trouble.
But honestly, it didn’t feel good.
The way they constantly engaged in false judging and biased editing, and yet still tried to have the justification for their actions acknowledged.
Of course, I’m not a good person.
I’ve also lived committing countless wicked deeds.
There’s no need for that now, but in the early days of my regression, when I was still clumsy, I stole and took away other people’s opportunities.
I attacked others and incited the public many times for the sake of creating issues and image-making.
Especially before I learned the truth about the world after my regression.
But not once did I ever explain my justification to the victims.
I never made excuses, nor did I beg for understanding.
I simply accepted their hatred and resentment in full.
That’s what a villain should do.
Not act pathetically like this, but at the very least…
Damn it. Let’s stop.
At this rate, I feel like I’ll fall into regression depression.
“I’ll go to the bathroom for a moment.”
“Ah, Sion. Go up one floor. The staff will probably be coming and going on the second floor.”
“Yes.”
When I returned from the bathroom, I saw the Sedalbaegil members talking with Blue with serious expressions.
Lee Changjun was watching the conversation while standing by the window and talking on the phone.
Wondering what was going on, I approached, and the conversation hurriedly stopped before the topic changed in a flash.
“But don’t they have dessert here?”
“Are you already letting yourself go because it’s the last one? You need to manage your diet.”
“Come on, Mentor-nim. We came all the way to ‘Wells Fine Restaurant.’”
“Well, look at you. You’re a full-fledged celebrity now. Even taking care of the PPL footage?”
Were they talking about something I shouldn’t hear?
But I didn’t ask what they had been discussing.
I hadn’t told them everything about my choice, so it would be unreasonable to force only them to tell me everything.
After the mentoring session that doubled as PPL ended, we returned to Pocheon.
I was thinking of heading straight to the practice room, but the members naturally headed to the second floor, where there were no cameras.
“It’d be nice to have a comfortable meeting. Without having to watch what we say.”
That was true.
When we were in front of the cameras, we had no choice but to run our own filters, so brainstorming would be less effective.
“Let’s talk comfortably. Ah, Sion, do you want to lead? You’re the leader.”
“No. You can do it, hyung.”
“Yeah? Do you have any ideas in mind?”
“Nothing in particular. I just think it’d be nice if we did something everyone likes.”
“What about that?”
Onsaemiro, who had never interfered with song selection until now, spoke up.
“What?”
“The song we made at LB Studio.”
“Ah, that one?”
The track I’d made to show Onsaemiro my talent, and that I’d been surprised by because the accidental result was so good.
It seemed like it would be fine.
If we removed the PBR&B feel and arranged it to suit K-pop, it would become an easy-listening song with no strong likes or dislikes.
“I don’t know about the song choice, but I’d like the genre to be tropical house. It’s my favorite genre.”
Choi Jaeseong’s words were appropriate too.
I’d have to listen to it again, but I felt like it had been a melody that suited tropical house.
“I want a fresh yet addictive intro. You know that feeling of the first song that comes up in a YouTube video sharing a playlist?”
“Ah, the kind that hits you as soon as you hear it and makes you listen no matter what?”
“Yeah. A song you get hooked on because of the first two bars of the intro. I want to sing something like that.”
That was Gu Taehwan’s opinion.
The only one left was Lee Ion.
“Sion. Is there really no way for me to overcome my vocal tone?”
“No. I know it sounds cruel, but your vocal tone isn’t something that can be corrected, hyung.”
“You even add consoling predicates now? We really have gotten a bit close, huh?”
Lee Ion grinned and asked.
“Then can’t I do it the way you sang Under the Streetlamp?”
It was a supposition I’d never thought about, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“You’re talking about the critique Composer Lee Changjun gave, right?”
“Sion. You should say Judge Lee Changjun-nim.”
“Changjun-hyung?”
“Choi Jaeseong!”
Lee Ion, horrified by Choi Jaeseong’s joke, reflexively looked around, but there were no cameras here.
“Anyway, yes. Judge Lee Changjun-nim said that, didn’t he? That you handled your voice like an instrument.”
“It was a method where saying I used my voice like an instrument fit better than saying I sang. Because I had to hit the exact notes.”
“Can’t I do that too?”
If he was asking whether it was possible, it was.
Among electric guitarists, there were some who deliberately piled on distortion to create a dirty sound.
Just because the guitar sound is dirty doesn’t mean the melody sounds uncomfortable.
If anything, it sounds cool.
As long as you can express the exact notes, exact intervals, and exact sound pressure, vocal tone doesn’t matter.
But…
“It’ll be difficult. Even if you pull it off in practice, we don’t know what’ll happen in the actual performance.”
The practice room and the stage were different in many ways.
Because it was wide open, the sense of space was different, and because of the stage equipment, the sound reverberation was different too.
On top of that, the audience’s cheers caused confusion, and there was also the difference of having to monitor through in-ears.
What Lee Ion wanted to do could only succeed if he controlled all of those elements.
It was something I’d only become able to do after practicing for a long time too.
“Then what if it’s just two bars?”
“…”
The possibility would go up. But, hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“Then in the final stage, your solo part won’t even be ten seconds.”
“I still want to do it.”
Lee Ion looked at me with firm eyes, and I couldn’t turn away from that gaze.
“Understood.”
“But could you give me a cool part instead?”
“I’ll give you the pre-hook. So it can come up twice.”
“Oh, nice.”
And so, with every member adding their own opinion little by little, the direction of the song was decided.
But this wasn’t Sedalbaegil’s usual style.
To say they had become sentimental because it was the final stage, it seemed like they had already gotten their stories straight with one another.
So I could tell.
“You all found out, didn’t you?”
That the Sedalbaegil members had noticed my choice.