Episode 20
National Idol Season 2, launched with dreams of an even greater leap forward based on the success of National Idol Season 1.
Along with the scene of the final ranking announcement from Season 1's last episode, showing the growth of 'Everygirl' who debuted through Season 1, the highly anticipated first broadcast began.
—Waaaaaaah!
As the broadcast started, the trainees gathered in the auditorium let out cheers.
"Wow, it's really starting!"
"No way, we're going to be on TV?"
Listening to the endless banter of the Bu brothers next to me, I was struggling to manage my facial expressions.
'No matter what kind of editing I fall victim to here, I must maintain a poker face.'
If I frowned unnecessarily, I had no idea what scene it would be attached to when it aired.
It was better to just watch with a calm expression.
At that moment, the 60-second self-introduction videos of Season 2's 77 participants quickly flashed across the screen.
—Hello, I am...
—I am a 3rd-year trainee at YM...
—My name is Kang Ajin.
—I am Yujin Kim.
Everyone let out groans mixed with shrieks each time their face appeared on screen.
"Ajin! Did you see me just now?"
"It wasn't you, it was me, Bu Jihun."
"No, it was definitely me. You idiot."
"Lin, can you ask this idiot if his eyes are crooked?"
"Both of you, shut..."
—Victory! Super Soldier! Captain Korea Sunwoo Rin!
It felt like mine was shown longer compared to the other trainees.
No, that wasn't the important part.
"Puhahahahahahahahaha—"
"Keheheheheh"
"Pfft, ah sorry. Hyung, that's not— khep."
'Poker face, poker face.'
Fortunately, it moved right on to the next video, and I barely managed to keep my composure.
The set from the first day of filming appeared on screen.
"Wow, I can't believe that was already a month ago."
"I was really nervous back then."
The trainees started pouring out their impressions from the first filming.
77 chairs and an empty set. And before long, a group of trainees began to enter.
The first trainees to enter were from AX Entertainment, the agency of judge Leo and where the center of the group song, Park Hanhwi, belonged.
"Wow, Hanhwi-hyung, we're on screen!"
"Awesome!"
The screen transitioned, and Park Hanhwi's ending scene from the group song briefly passed by.
'As expected, they're pushing him hard from the very beginning.'
I briefly observed Park Hanhwi's appearance, surrounded by trainees from the same agency and smiling, then focused back on the broadcast screen.
Starting with Park Hanhwi's agency, the names of various agencies flashed by as the 77 seats were filled one by one.
Only a few trainees, including Wi Cheonwoo and Woo Jungwoo, were caught on camera.
'There are many trainees who don't even appear from their entrance.'
Sighs from trainees whose entrance turns had passed could be heard here and there.
"Are we going to end up not appearing at all either?"
"Nah. With A-rank Ajin and Lin here, we'll definitely appear."
Almost as soon as the Bu brothers spoke, our group of four appeared on screen.
"Wow! We're on!"
"Mom, I'm finally on TV. Sob."
The sight of the Bu brothers joking around with each other on screen passed by once.
Shalalalala—
Suddenly, sparkly music started flowing out.
With a dewy effect like a cosmetics advertisement model, Kang Ajin's brightly smiling face was captured on screen.
"So cute!"
"Milky-skinned Kang Ajin!"
As the trainees who had grown close to Kang Ajin cheered, Kang Ajin bowed his head with a face red from embarrassment.
Finally, my individual shot was captured on screen.
But the entrance background music was unusual.
Under the Torch of Destroying Communism—
Along with a military march, my face with that closely shaved head from that day was captured on screen.
"Loyalty!"
"As expected, Captain Korea!"
Reactions mixed with playfulness could be heard here and there.
Of all times, it was when I was debating what stat to raise, so my excessively expressionless face was caught.
Of course, even if I hadn't been expressionless, because the camera cruelly alternated between Kang Ajin and me—
"Isn't this Beauty and the Beast, no, Pretty Boy and the Beast?"
"Hahaha. The gap between the two is way too extreme."
Because of the comparison with Kang Ajin, I ended up leaving an even stronger impact from the very start.
Putting that aside.
"Why does a military march play every time my face is caught?"
Even after our entrance scene passed, a military march would flow out every time my face appeared on screen.
It was too clear what concept the production team was trying to put on me.
'Is this a good thing?'
I couldn't predict how everyone would receive the soldier concept. Of course, it was better than not appearing on broadcast without any concept at all.
"I think the military march is cool and nice when it plays? It's manly and cool!"
At that moment, Kang Ajin threw words of praise at me.
'You'd obviously see everything positively when sparkly music plays every time you appear!'
"But..."
Suddenly, Bu Jiseok alternated looking at my face on screen and me in reality, and spoke as if puzzled.
"Lin looks way more handsome now than back then."
At Bu Jiseok's sharp words, cold sweat ran down my back.
'Of course, I raised the appearance stat 3 times...'
While I was maintaining my expression as if I knew nothing—
"Maybe it's because his hair grew and time passed after his discharge? Lin-hyung's skin seems to have gotten a lot better too compared to back then."
"It could be that he doesn't photograph well on screen. But he definitely does look more handsome now. Do people normally get more handsome after military discharge?"
As Kang Ajin and Bu Jihun passed it off casually, Bu Jiseok tilted his head but didn't say much and moved on.
'I shouldn't raise my appearance thoughtlessly from next time.'
For now, since I was in the middle of an audition and always in the dorm, I could easily refute even if suspicions of plastic surgery arose. But I thought I should be more careful when raising the appearance stat after the audition ended.
Like that, the broadcast continued as the seats gradually filled up.
And finally.
With a feeling of "Finally appearing!" Yujin Kim entered the set.
—Wow! It's a celebrity.
—I'm personally a fan!
—My jaw dropped when he entered.
—Why is Yujin Kim here? That kind of thought?
The last trainee to speak seemed to have made a slight mistake.
Feeling it himself, his face was turning bright red in real time.
And then.
—Well. I'm not really sure.
Who just spat out those words so half-heartedly? I wondered as I looked at the screen.
'It was me?'
Even the subtitle read "—Whether they knew about trainee Yujin Kim," so it was an undeniable situation.
"Hyung, did you really say that?"
"No..."
I was confused about whether I really said that, so I thought about it.
The original question seemed to be something like "Do you think you did well on today's stage?"
I remembered adding something like "But I prepared with all my heart."
'To cut that out and paste it like this...'
Of course, not knowing wasn't wrong, and I truly didn't know.
But I wasn't sure how people would receive those words.
I had expected that the words from my interview would be cut and edited this way and that.
But experiencing it firsthand didn't feel very pleasant.
'Is this level just a taste of what's to come?'
I should be a bit more careful during interviews from now on.
Just in case, I shouldn't say anything negative at all.
With Yujin Kim sitting down next to me, who didn't know much about him, all the seats were finally filled.
And now it was time for the judges to appear and the grade evaluation stage to begin.
***
"Min, what are you doing in your room?"
"Huh? Just a moment!"
At my grandmother's voice calling me, I hastily switched the screen where I had National Idol Season 2 playing to another window.
"Are you studying?"
"Yeah, I'm watching an online lecture."
"They say your brother's broadcast is airing today, so come out and find the channel for me. Grandmother can't figure out what channel it is at all."
"Okay, just a moment!"
I turned off the monitor, came out to the living room, and sat next to my grandmother.
"Your brother is on TV, and you just stay in your room studying. Your brother thinks about you so much, and you can't even cheer for him."
"Ah, Grandma, stop nagging!"
To block my grandmother's nagging, I quickly turned to the MusicNet channel.
On the screen, trainees inside a large set could be seen.
"Is Lin in there among those people? Grandmother's eyes are dim so I can't see well."
"Yeah, he's in there. He probably won't be on screen much. He might not appear at all today."
"Is that so..."
Among 77 trainees, how much screen time would my brother get even if he was caught on camera?
I could see my grandmother's disappointed expression. But rather than watching until the end and having my brother not appear in a single scene, it was better to tell her in advance like this...
"Min, Lin is on screen there!"
"Huh? He really is?"
Fortunately, it seemed like my brother's stage would appear from episode 1.
Soon, my brother's 'sneeze' stage that had briefly appeared in the preview began.
"The kid next to Lin there looks really cute."
"Who? Kang Ajin?"
"How do you know that kid's name?"
"I... just now, it was on the subtitle."
"Really?"
'Sunwoo Min! Just keep your mouth shut, you idiot!'
When I barely managed to get past the crisis—
"But when does our Lin sing?"
"But Grandma. Do you really have to watch that?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I have to watch!"
"Ah, okay..."
Go ahead, watch!
As I was watching the stage half in resignation—
—Shall we meet today...? Achoo!
—Shall we meet today...? Achoo!
—Shall we meet today...? Achoo!
It was repeated exactly three times.
Once from far away, once close-up, and once with people's reactions—three times total.
My grandmother, who had seemed excited about my brother's appearance, suddenly fell silent.
And carefully asked me.
"Min, is this what being an idol or whatever... is normally like?"
"No, it's not all like that... Oppa will do cool things later too."
"Really?"
And then my grandmother, who had been silent for a long time, spoke to me again after my brother's stage ended and only other trainees were shown on screen for a while.
"Ahem, is our Lin not appearing anymore?"
"Since the stage is over, he probably won't appear for a while."
"My goodness, what do kids these days find entertaining about watching this? Grandmother is going inside now. Look how late it already is."
Was Grandma shocked?
I felt worried for a moment seeing my grandmother heading into her room.
"Oh, oh. Are you asleep? It's too late, right? No, that's not it, our grandchild appeared on broadcast... National Idol, the young kids are all crazy about it... Right, they say idol is the trend or something... No, he hasn't debuted yet! Geez, why am I already congratulating..."
Listening to the sounds coming from the room, it seemed there was no need to worry.
Left alone in the living room, I turned off the TV and went back to my room and put my earphones back in.
And after taking a deep breath once, I searched for reactions to the broadcast.
'Are all these... about Oppa?'
Posts were being uploaded in real time at a rate incomparable to when the preview came out.
—What's with the military march when he appears ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Slipping in some business while everyone's confused. Everyone vote for our discharged trainee Lin who doesn't have to worry about rubber shoes!
—No, how many times are they going to repeat that sneeze scene ㅋㅋㅋㅋ The trainees' expressions there = my expression ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—The comparison between Kang Ajin and Sunwoo Rin is so funny ㅋㅋㅋ The temperature difference between them is insane ㅋㅋㅋ
There were mostly positive reactions, but negative opinions were not few either.
—Am I the only one seeing them push another talentless kid picked by the PD?
—The concept is tacky and it's not even funny, why does S.W.R keep getting mentioned?
—Who is this guy that they keep giving screentime to when he has no talent?
Mostly, criticisms about his skills were visible.
But as soon as the criticisms went up, suppression posts started appearing right below them.
—Yes, people complaining about Sunwoo Rin's skills = people who failed to get tickets for the team battle and couldn't watch
—Come see the team battle review here (spoiler warning)
But suddenly the comments fighting each other disappeared at some point.
And at some point, the bulletin board started being covered with ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
'What is this? This ominous premonition?'
—Guys, I brought Sunwoo Rin's 60-second self-introduction video ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Everyone make sure to watch this! I died laughing watching it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└What is this? Advance team deploying!
└Did the advance team return?
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└The effect is certain as expected! ㅋㅋㅋ
As soon as I saw the post, I thought.
That this video spreading was something that had to be stopped.
'Please, just this video spreading... at least Captain Korea...'
Like that, as I was frantically pressing downvotes on the comments—
The moment I saw a certain comment, I felt my thinking come to a halt.
—The fact that every post about Sunwoo Rin's self-intro video has 1 downvote is so funny ㅋㅋㅋ Could it be Sunwoo Rin himself? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
'Oppa... I'm sorry!'