After the second-round song and members were all decided, and after finishing individual interviews with some of the participants.
Our team entered the room assigned by the production staff to begin full-fledged preparations and practice for the second round, sitting down facing the staff and cameras.
And the three sitting next to me.
Hana unnie.
Harang unnie.
Sera unnie.
"Dohee~ I'm here~"
Sera unnie, who had smiled brightly when our eyes met, had ended up joining our team.
And so, an unprecedented super team was born, made up of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th place.
With a super team like this, the backlash would hit hard if we messed up.
But everyone was just smiling brightly as if they weren't worried at all.
Well, with these members, it wouldn't be easy to fail either...
"Then shall we start by dividing the parts?"
Among us, Hana unnie, the oldest, had taken the position of leader.
I had given up on being leader long ago.
No, I hadn't even considered it from the start.
Besides, the PD had already decided my image, so it was obvious I'd be edited as the hardworking maknae anyway.
"Then Harang is rapping, right?"
Harang unnie, our only rapper.
There was no one else to do it.
"Yap~"
Now what remained was the three vocals.
This song didn't really have a main vocal, if you had to nitpick.
It wasn't that there were no high notes.
There were high notes that could show off one's singing ability.
About two phrases worth.
But what was important in this song was the killing part in the chorus.
In other words, it was the part that drew the viewers' attention and the point where you could show off your charm.
Usually, songs loved by the public for a long time fell into two types.
Those with an incredibly addictive chorus.
Or those with a powerful killing part.
And this song had a charming chorus that was a killing part, encompassing both cases.
"Does anyone have a part they want to do?"
Fortunately, Hana unnie and Sera unnie were ambitious not only for the killing part but for the high notes too.
Since there were three vocalists and plenty of parts to go around, if I coaxed them well by offering to take the high notes, I felt like I might be able to snag the killing part too...?
But before choosing parts, there was an important priority.
The arrangement.
"How about we settle on the arrangement concept before dividing the vocal parts?"
First, depending on how we arranged it, some parts could disappear and new ones could be created.
"Harang unnie's rap part is short too, so I think we'll need to pick another part to add in."
Second, "FATAL" didn't have a lot of rap.
In other words, if we distributed the vocal parts in advance, it would be ambiguous to choose a rap part to give Harang unnie later.
Hana unnie seemed to think it made sense and nodded.
"Our maknae is smart. Then let's listen to the original again first, and even if it's a simple idea, say whatever comes to mind."
Hana unnie played the original stage video on the tablet PC she had received earlier.
"Your gaze (look me look..."
What I thought was this song's characteristic was its groovy swing rhythm.
The acoustic guitar sound and the synthesizer's unique tone met with the original singers' powerful ending note technique to give an intense image.
Several ideas came to mind.
Some of these were points I had devised from the moment I chose this song.
When the video ended, I raised my hand.
"Unnies, how about we do this in an R&B style?"
"FATAL" was a song with a fast beat and intense image.
In other words, it was an exciting dance track.
But the mission we had to do was the vocal & rap position.
"Since we're in charge of the vocal & rap position this time, I think R&B would bring out the vocals and rap better than a fast beat."
Harang unnie let out an exclamation and agreed with me.
"Oh~ I agree. I think it'd be really good. Then how about this for the concept? I just thought of it, but if we change it to R&B, it gets a softer feel, right? So the concept should change too, from the original's intense masculine charm to a gentle, subtle seduction."
Hmm... That made sense.
If the genre changed, the atmosphere of the song itself changed.
Meaning the concept needed to change too.
A bit of a shame.
I had wanted to do a manly concept...
Sera unnie also raised her hand and shared an idea.
"Then I want to try adding something like the sound of dress shoes to the 'look me look me' part. Like an approaching feeling."
Dress shoes.
An outfit that fit perfectly came to mind.
"Then how about we wear suits with dress shoes for our outfits too?"
Hana unnie jumped up and down and shouted in excitement.
"I love it! Then let's do that for the stage outfits, and we sing standing in front of stand mics, then starting from the first chorus, we detach only the mics and do a light point choreography. How about it?"
Once one direction for the arrangement was set, ideas burst forth in rapid succession like floodwaters breaking through a dam.
"And there's something else I want to do."
And another idea I'd been thinking of since the very beginning of choosing the song.
"What is it?"
Hana unnie asked as if curious, but I lifted my hips from the floor, got up, and sat on the chair in front of the piano in the corner of the room.
"I'll show you first."
I tried playing the piano, reproducing the original song I had heard earlier.
"What, how are you playing without sheet music? Did you play it before?"
Hana unnie said as if puzzled.
Yes, come to think of it, this was one of the moments I had dreamed of.
Showing off my perfect pitch on broadcast.
Kuu...
The first time I realized I had perfect pitch was during vocal lessons with Teacher Kwon.
I could play a song I'd heard only once right away.
Teacher Kwon praised me, calling it perfect pitch, and was amazed.
Seeing as I didn't have it at age five but developed it later, it seemed more thanks to daily, repetitive piano practice than being born with it.
"No, I'm playing it for the first time today."
"Huh, so you're playing it right now after hearing it just once?"
"Wow... amazing. She's a genius."
"Dohee... cute."
Sera unnie's last words grated on me a little, but.
Anyway, what kind of comments would be posted when this aired... kuuh.
"Ah, it's no big deal~"
I waved my hand off nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.
Hah... Lee Dohee, you're so damn chic.
You're really the best.
You're really so cool.
You're insane.
"For someone acting like that, you sure seem to love it?"
Harang unnie delivered a tactless truth bomb, but.
I pretended it wasn't true and spoke to Sera unnie.
"First, Sera unnie, can you try singing 'Fatal' along with my playing?"
"Yeah, okay."
But isn't it possible to like it a bit?
Not liking it would be weirder.
Sera unnie stood next to me and cleared her throat.
"I'll raise it by 5 keys. Is that okay?"
"Yeah."
The average difference in vocal range between the average woman and man is 5 keys.
Since "FATAL" is a man's song, we had to raise it by 5 keys.
I started playing, raising the original song by 5 keys.
"Your gaze..."
Matching my accompaniment, Sera unnie let out a clear voice.
The song flowed like that, and before I knew it, we were at the very last high note part, which was also the chorus and the killing part.
The highest note in the original song was G#4.
And when raised by 5 keys, the highest note became F5.
The highest note for an average woman who isn't a vocalist is usually C5~D5.
"Fatal love, my heart I can't hide."
But unnie handled the note without any problem.
Once again, continuing to the chorus.
"Fatal love, your heart you can't hide."
This time, I changed the progression of the song with the left hand's bass notes on the piano.
And closing my vocal cords and opening my mouth, I built harmonies on top of unnie's voice.
"Fatal love, your heart you can't hide~"
"Fatal love, your heart you can't hide."
The harmonies I built were close to the original song's key.
So to speak, my voice is alto.
Sera unnie's voice was soprano.
My alto wasn't as low as a professional female vocalist's, but when it came to skilled low notes, I had confidence that I could produce them more cleanly than any other trainee.
After the song ended.
"How is this? I'd like to build harmonies in some parts like this."
I looked to the side nonchalantly, and Hana unnie and Harang unnie were staring at me with eyes wide open.
"Wow... I love it! Amazing!"
"Agreed...!"
Without realizing it, a smirk tugged at the corners of my mouth.
I gave a V sign toward the camera.
But this wasn't the end.
Hana unnie's voice, which would take the mezzo-soprano between me, an alto, and Sera unnie, a soprano.
Harang unnie's continuing background vocals.
That was the direction of the R&B arrangement I was thinking of.
***
Arrangement meeting.
All we could decide were the concept, direction, and elements.
Since the ones with actual arrangement skills were the music director and the arranger, we had to convey our opinions at the arrangement meeting.
Hana unnie, the leader, answered the music director's question.
"We want to arrange it with an R&B feel. And unlike the original, with a subtle, seductive concept."
The music director pondered for a moment and then opened his mouth.
"Yes, I think you've grasped the concept well. Do you have any more thoughts?"
We have quite a lot...
Hana unnie stepped in front of the music director and showed him a heavily annotated lyrics sheet as she spoke.
"First, we'd like the sound of dress shoes layered here... and here and here and here need harmonies, and we need to raise the key by 5 keys, and at the very beginning..."
At first, the music director and arranger listened with satisfaction.
But as our demands grew, their faces hardened as if troubled.
Of course, that wasn't our problem.
Work, just work.
***
While we were in full swing practicing for the second round, the production staff called the trainees in turn.
In the center of a room surrounded by cameras.
On the desk was a drawing of lots.
It seemed to be a new self-PR video.
"Do I just pick one?"
"Yes, these are all opinions from the Chusers who voted for trainee Lee Dohee, so just pick one from there!"
The voice of a cheerful female staff member.
I find staff members scarier when they're cheerful.
Of course, all the staff had been kind to me during the commercial shoots and music video filming so far.
It's not that the Jeodol 3 staff weren't kind.
They had been.
But these people too were always soaked with fatigue from their own grueling march, so for them to suddenly become cheerful... something felt off about it.
An ominous basket.
I had no choice but to choose a slip and pull it out to unfold it.
—Wear a cute animal costume and imitate that animal during PR time—
Ah.
"Now, show it to the camera!"
The production crew who checked my slip.
The outfit the production crew brought with a bright smile was rabbit pajamas.
Ah.
Please.