I'll Die If I Don't Debut Chapter 003
Nothing much happened at the broadcasting station I visited, almost dragged there by the writer. It was just a light interview in front of the cameras.
There wasn't even a perfunctory request to dance. And naturally, no advice about going to a dance academy either.
It was proof that the role expected of me was firmly set.
Well, that didn't really matter. What was important was the fact that I'd gotten my name on the participant list.
But there was an unexpected element.
The first recording date was much closer than I had anticipated.
"...In ten days?"
"Yes. Park Moondae, you came in right at the very end. Normally, spots don't open up like this, so you're really lucky~ Moondae got this spot because you're so good."
She sure wraps up the word 'filler' nicely. I thought cynically even while slightly flustered.
It doesn't cost anything to phrase things nicely, so she might as well be sweet about it.
Of course, once they open the lid and find I'm not particularly useful, they'd probably change their tune as if nothing had happened.
There are few fields where people cut ties as quickly as this industry.
Besides, demanding a regular person with no guidance to prepare for filming and an evaluation song on their own in ten days couldn't be a proper request.
She was talking about it as naturally as if it were nothing, but if this were a participant with an agency, the company might have protested.
They probably meant for me to just throw on some instrumental track, arrangement or whatever, and take the hate. If it wasn't even worth hating on, I'd just get edited out entirely.
But I had expected this much.
"...Yes. Thank you."
I bowed my head as if I hadn't noticed anything, but looking slightly nervous about the filming date that was right around the corner.
A satisfied look flashed across the writer's face.
"We're the grateful ones~ I'll contact you about the details later."
It was a dismissal. I left the broadcasting station without any lingering attachment, making plans for the next ten days.
With such short preparation time, it seemed I'd have to use a more extreme method than originally planned.
* * *
After such a busy ten days, the first filming day arrived.
It went without saying for a survival program's structure, but it started with individual evaluations of each participant.
First round of evaluations.
Anyone who's watched even one idol survival show could probably guess, but the impression formed here often lasted until the end of the program.
So for participants without any standout elements, being ambiguously average was the worst.
It was better to completely fail and become a laughingstock—at least then they could tack on a growth narrative depending on the editing direction later.
But if you failed to show any distinctive traits here and got edited out entirely, there was really no hope.
Not that I was saying I was aiming to be the target of viewers' hatred, of course.
"You remember your number, right? You'll be called by number. When you're guided, please enter through this hallway~"
The filming started with the rather artificial scene of participants walking through the set hallway one by one.
They were probably making it for the teaser, but the filming time spent on that 40-second video had already exceeded two hours.
That was understandable since there were 77 participants alone.
'Nothing but kids.'
I glanced around at the faces scattered in the set space that was almost embarrassing to call a waiting room, and my motivation faded slightly.
Even with status windows and regression, now that I was trying to aim for idol status among these kids, it finally hit me that this was rather embarrassing.
"Um, hello."
One of the kids going around talking to various people approached me.
I didn't know if this kid was just excited or trying to make connections by reading the room.
The important thing was that he looked like a middle schooler.
At my age, exchanging names with a middle schooler for the purpose of building social connections...
"Did you apply as an individual by any chance?"
"Yes."
"Wow, me too. Oh, by any chance, your age...?"
"...Twenty."
Lying about being nine years younger made my mouth itch, but surprisingly, it felt good.
"Do you have an agency by any chance?"
"No."
"Ah, right! Usually people from agencies come out to appear on the show. I was wondering which agency you were originally from..."
"I never had one."
"Ah... I see."
Immediately, the middle school kid clearly lost interest.
And after wrapping up the conversation roughly, he left to approach someone else.
Already reading the social dynamics so well—that kid would probably succeed.
Of course, he'd have to hide that calculating attitude from the cameras, but that was his own business.
Anyway. If even middle schoolers were acting like that, it was a cutthroat world.
I started to wonder if I'd made an absurd judgment after getting caught up in an unrealistic situation this time. But it was already spilled water.
"We'll be moving to the set now!"
The main broadcast filming had finally started.
I moved my feet following the middle and high schoolers moving in a flock like meerkats.
To wait for my turn beside the main stage where the first evaluation was taking place.
I was called at roughly the early-to-mid point.
* * *
"Participant Lee Sejin B is... 15th! Please take your seat."
"Thank you!"
At the MC's words, one of the participants being evaluated bowed his head.
He was one of four participants from the same agency who were evaluated together.
He was at least somewhat worthwhile among them, but the production team's minds weren't very comfortable.
'It's extreme.'
Ryu Seorin, the writer spinning her pen, frowned.
Season 3 had less investment than the previous season. Naturally. It was a season that barely restarted after Season 2 flopped.
Even attaching a funny subtitle like "Re-listing," the production team all gritted their teeth and prepared the broadcast to erase the shadow of Season 2.
But even if they somehow covered and hid things with connections and planning, there were parts that still showed.
One of those was the talent pool.
The moderately trained candidate pool had leaked out in numbers to other audition programs.
To fill 77 spots, they packed in people who at least looked decent on the outside, which increased the ratio of hollow shells.
If there were too many incompetent ones, there was a limit to how much they could liven things up through editing.
In Korean audition programs, pushing someone without skills was close to impossible. If they tried to package non-existent skills and slipped up even slightly, all sorts of criticism would pour in.
Not hate accompanied by buzz, but centered on keywords like "boring" and "deception."
They at least filled the headcount for the 1st-tier participants they'd marked for debut eligibility, but running the program without any dark horses up to that point was no easy feat.
'Like the kid coming up now.'
The participant about to be evaluated was a complete rookie thrown in with only ten days left before the first main filming.
Since they'd hastily kicked out one participant for drunk driving at the last minute and picked this one, expectations weren't high.
'Name was... what again? They'll say it when they come out for evaluation, whatever.'
That participant had a decent voice and okay looks, plus a backstory they could use in case of emergency.
Thanks to that, he easily surpassed her standards that had been lowered in desperation.
But even combining all those merits, he was ultimately just better than the alternates.
'Well... he can be used for comparison at least.'
The judges were also flipping through documents that had nothing noteworthy except family circumstances, making small talk with uninterested expressions.
So she too subtly had that thought.
'Yeah, rather be terribly bad. At least draw some aggro.'
If averagely bad contestants kept appearing it would get tedious, but a few extraordinarily bad ones would fill out the richness of the program. Under the motto that mockery is also attention.
Since it was a stage prepared by a regular person in just ten days, and alone at that, the probability of it being hilariously bad was quite high.
She glanced at the stage with faint expectations.
"Next participant, please enter the stage!"
Right then, that regular participant was coming up onto the stage.
Fortunately, he seemed to have styled properly, as his face looked better than before.
The problem was the subtle atmosphere that seemed both bored and melancholic.
Last time she'd wondered if it was because of family circumstances, but that attitude in front of all these cameras?
In truth, it was because he'd seen scenes swarming with cameras countless times while doing proxy filming, but the writer, having no way to know this, found it strange.
'...Is he the type who doesn't show nervousness well?'
It didn't really matter anyway. Then they could just frame it as the image of someone arrogant despite being incompetent. The writer racked her brain.
Meanwhile, Park Moondae, who had come up to the stage, was listening to the MC's words.
"Yes. Contestant. Please introduce yourself."
"...I'm Park Moondae. Please look after me."
And he bowed his head. At that, scoffs and snorts quietly emerged from the judges' seats.
"No, is that it?"
A male judge holding a microphone asked with a laugh in his voice.
It was a subtly negative tone. He probably meant to ask if he wasn't going to speak properly, but Park Moondae nodded seriously.
"Yes. I have no credentials worth introducing."
At that, laughter burst from the judges' seats.
"Whew, what a unique kid!"
"Fun~"
A few whispered softly. Of course, clearly picked up by the microphones.
"Ah, looking at this application, there really is nothing."
"Right."
It was about time for remarks like "Why did you even come out?" to appear.
But perhaps thinking it would be more impactful to do after the performance, the judges all smoothed out their laughter.
And the writing staff thought: Some usable footage might come out of this.
"Then let's see your stage."
"Yes."
With malicious interest, the contestant took the microphone handed to him by the staff.
Before long, the instrumental intro began to play.
And everyone was bewildered.
This song playing here?