The Evil Member Returns! Episode 38
* * *
With the two-day break over, the trainees' reactions upon returning to the dormitory were all over the map.
"Why did I get so little screen time... Am I not charming? Am I no good? Ah, I should've been more proactive..."
Some were wallowing in self-reproach, while.
"Choah-sseu. I'll work harder and get on air more. I'm the second son of the Ji family, after all—gotta make Mom and Dad proud."
There were those burning with fiery passion.
"Ugh, so damn annoying... Why did they have to put in the part where I cried..."
And some, still not having fully recovered from their previous mental collapse, were taking out their irritation on the new round of filming that was starting right up again.
And then, my multinational roommates in our dorm room...
"P-please, do I really look like that? Lies! Lies! I'm not that scrawny and gloomy! Look, my muscles!"
"No, Ryota. From what I saw, it was spot on. My sculpted face was captured without a single millimeter of error. No way that could be wrong."
"Aaagh! That's just camera trickery!"
"All the more reason you're only disgracing your own face, Ryota! We were filmed with the same camera!"
"Impossiblllle! Come here, Gao Yan. We go one more round!"
"Roommates shouldn't fight, you guys. Filming's about to start. And we need to properly check the cameras."
I smoothly stepped between Ryota and Gao Yan, patting their shoulders.
At the same time, I didn't miss the sight of Logan off in the distance, talking with Ji Hwaseong.
"I mean, so you were playing Go Stop with Gao Yan and Ryota and you... cheated? Logan, aren't you kind of a thug?!"
"Hwaseong! It's not cheating—it's bluffing. Bluffing is the flower and the alpha of card games."
I'd been worried after he'd so firmly cut off our conversation in the early morning.
"No, if you palmed a card from the bottom, that's not bluffing, that's cheating... You're scarier than I thought."
"Scary? God, you're the scariest one of all to me, Hwaseong."
But fortunately, he didn't seem to be in a bad mood.
Taking my eyes off Logan, I shifted my gaze to the production crew, who looked busy somewhere.
Since today's shoot would introduce another new format, they seemed to be meticulously checking everything with the person in charge.
If my memory's right, around now...
"Everyone! Did you have a good break!"
That's it.
As I saw Choi Gaon fling open the front door of the auditorium and appear with the cameras, I quickly pulled Ryota and Gao Yan along.
Filming's started, you guys.
"Wow, I can't believe I, Choi Gaon, get to witness in the front row the trainees who are so deeply loved by the viewers of Star Shooter. I'm truly a blessed MC. I might start to worry you'll all become bigger superstars than me."
"...
Come on. We're the ones who are honored to be on a program where the super-popular Gaon-nim is the MC!"
"Whew, nice comeback! A round of applause for trainee Lee Chaehyeok's incredible quick wit!"
Clap clap clap!
All seventeen of us trainees, myself included, clapped for Lee Chaehyeok, who had smoothly fielded Choi Gaon's overreach.
Being able to naturally play off a big senior's words and snatch a camera chance is a skill in itself.
"H-ha ha... Thank you..."
Anyway, regardless of my personal thoughts, the shoot flowed onward as naturally as water.
"I missed you all so much that I watched Episode 1 and Episode 2 of
At Choi Gaon's sponsorship plug, the main writer standing behind the camera gave a thumbs-up. Gaon winked in their direction and soon began reciting the lines on the teleprompter again.
"But more importantly, everyone. Do any of you happen to know what kind of shoot we're having today? Trainee Seo Bin over there! Would you like to give us an answer?"
"Uh, uh..."
With the cameras all suddenly fixed on him, Seo Bin carefully chose his words, striking what he believed was the unbeatable angle that made him look his most handsome.
"Isn't it filming for the third performance theme? It seemed like something similar happened the last time Gaon-nim appeared!"
"Correct!
Is what I'd like to say... but unfortunately, no. Too bad, trainee Seo Bin. Because today's shoot is..."
Something a bit special.
The moment Choi Gaon finished speaking, a picture appeared on the auditorium screen.
Between pictograms suggestive of a dart and a gun, the English words written in deep pink were...
"Mission time? What?"
"We got to hear trainee Logan's native pronunciation quite nicely! Ha ha, that's right. It's a mission. A mission!"
Choi Gaon carried on with his trademark beaming smile.
"'Missions' are
As they chewed over those words, question marks floated above the trainees' heads.
So it's exclusive content on the paid service YouTube Blue, and they get points based on the views and likes on those videos...
'What does that even mean?'
As if to give voice to the trainees' distorted thoughts, Gao Yan and Ryota whispered to each other in small voices.
"...
I thought I had a full command of Korean. It's difficult. I didn't understand a single thing. Oh my god."
"Me neither, Gao Yan. Learning truly has no end."
"Ah, you don't need to understand. It's fine."
I lightly laughed as I cut into their conversation. The two foreigners' expressions twisted oddly.
"Chunyong hyung..."
"Chunyong aniki!"
I patted Gao Yan and Ryota on the back, thinking they were moved by my encouragement and calling out my name.
They seemed to take it as me saying that just to comfort them.
"Hmm..."
That wasn't it.
It's just that they really didn't need to understand.
[Idol survival show 'Targeting Star' mission point system causes public outcry... 'Hard to find transparency']
[Simply for chemistry? Or rigging debut members? Digging into the 'Missions' of
['Points in a survival show through something other than performances?' The 'mission system' of
Just as the trainees themselves couldn't understand, the public hadn't found it easy to grasp, either.
And crucially, the
"There was no manipulation. It was simply intended to heighten viewer interest using a unique format."
Later, when controversy erupted regarding the debut lineup, what came to light was that 'it wasn't a score significant enough to actually change the debut members.'
There were quite a few differences between the survival shows PD Joo Cheolyoung had shot before and
Unlike his previous works, where the participating trainees numbered as few as 50 or as many as nearly 100, the trainees appearing on
And even though they were on provisional contracts, they were all August trainees.
Because of the relatively small, elite group, there was no way to generate broadcast tension through an elimination system.
'In the end, what drives people crazy is relationships, isn't it!'
So the method Joo Cheolyoung chose was 'bringing out the chemistry between the trainees'.
In conclusion, the core of the 'missions' was the burgeoning relationships between trainees through those missions, and the revenue via YouTube Blue.
'Which means, all I have to do is film whatever they tell me to well. While doing my best to look charming and handsome.'
"The future missions will be decided after a vote by YouTube Blue viewers, but this very first mission today was specially prepared by the production team, they say!"
Once the trainees' murmurs had died down, Choi Gaon held up six fingers and gave a cheeky grin.
"It's about six of the trainees appearing here right now!"
Instantly, the screen that read 'MISSION TIME' went black, then slowly brightened, revealing interviews with trainees whose voices were distorted and faces were blurred out.
- "Uh... Things I've wanted to try? There are so many, it's hard..."
- "―beep― has done almost everything, but this is something you can only do in Korea. Korea is the best in this field. I've always admired Korea's ―beep―."
- "When I said I was going to Korea, a friend told me I absolutely had to try this. I was busy, so I couldn't, but..."
- "...
Just. One thing."
The short interview clip ended with a beep.
"What, what was that? Did any of you film something like that?"
"No? Minho, what about you?"
"Me neither..."
As the trainees' murmurs filled the hall, Choi Gaon, as if he'd been waiting for just this, shouted in a high voice to the bewildered trainees.
"Your first mission..."
"is 'Fulfilling the Korean Bucket Lists of the Foreign Trainees'!"
Choi Gaon's voice echoed through the auditorium, and every camera turned to the trainees.
"...
Huh? The foreign trainees?"
"So, Tsubasa, and Li Mingxian, and Liu Wei..."
As the twelve Korean trainees shot them looks that screamed, 'Don't tell me you knew what the mission was in advance?', the foreign trainees frantically waved their hands in denial.
"I-I didn't know. I thought it was just a personal interview!"
"If I knew, I would have told you..."
"Yeah! Gao Yan knows nothing!"
"Gao Yan, if you put it like that, people will misunderstand!"
"Huh, I didn't know either. Honestly."
"......"
"Now, now. The foreign trainees are right. I heard the production team was very, very careful with the interviews to avoid giving away that it was a 'mission,' so no more suspicion!"
Phew
Choi Gaon, who had calmed the trainees with a whistle, grinned lazily and stretched his arm toward the screen.
"Before that, aren't you curious what the foreign trainee friends' bucket lists are? Trainee Tsubasa. Do you remember what you answered in your interview?"
"Ah, I..."
"Shh! Don't say it! Because whose bucket list it is has to be revealed later!"
A sentiment like, 'Then why the hell did you ask, you XX?' would've been perfectly reasonable, but Tsubasa, who'd come from Japan with Ryota, simply nodded with a mild face.
And satisfied with that reaction, Choi Gaon gave Tsubasa a thumbs-up and continued.
"From now on, the six foreign trainees will each enter a room located on the 4th floor, and in front of that room, they'll place an object symbolizing their bucket list. And! The rest of you trainees will look at those objects and guess who's inside as you go in!"
At that rather systematic method, the trainees looked at each other and clapped.
The same thought went through everyone's head.
This is going to be fun...
And if we build good chemistry with the other trainees, we might get a lot of camera time!
That was indeed the case.
The mission videos were released right after Episode 4, when the core fandoms were starting to solidify, and the visibility of those trainees skyrocketed in line with their fandoms' firepower.
It was after the second mission was released that my own vote totals, which had been a bit short for debut, started to climb.
'I can only hope that happens again this time... but let's not get greedy.'
What mattered right now was debuting safely with Arrows.
"......"
And figuring out why Logan was dropping out, and if it was a solvable problem, solving it and bringing Logan to Arrows.
'To do that, first, I have to choose Logan's room during this mission.'
Because I'd need to have a conversation to learn the inside story.
I checked the words that had appeared on the screen and smiled faintly.
[1. Have a picnic by the Han River
2. Go busking in Hongdae
3. Tour a Korean PC bang
4. Visit Namsan Mountain
5. Tour Daehakro in Korea
6. Visit Gyeongbokgung Palace]
The six bucket lists listed were no different from the ones I'd seen long ago.
Visiting Namsan was Ryota, touring Daehakro was Li Mingxian.
And 'Have a picnic by the Han River,' which I'd done before, was Tsubasa.
By process of elimination, it wasn't hard at all to figure out which bucket list Logan had put forward.
On top of that, if the bucket lists were the same, it meant the symbol placed out front would be the same, too.
Looking across at Logan, who was scratching his cheek with an unreadable expression, I pondered what would be best to say when we met in the room.
Peek-a-boo? Or since he's British, surprise?
Whatever it turned out to be...
I absolutely had to use this mission to get a lead on why Logan was dropping out.