Chapter 29
Among the audience, there was a girl who had come to this place to find a new group to stan. She scanned her surroundings warily. The distribution of the fandoms was so biased towards one group that it was hard to tell if she was at Kang Hyun-Sung’s fan meeting or The Showcase.
‘Maybe I’m just wasting my time,’ she thought. Her mood had already reached the lowest point after shivering in the cold outside for hours and because of how aggressive Kang Hyun-Sung’s fans were. Though she had expected this to happen, it was a completely different matter to experience it in real life.
Eventually, she sat at her designated spot and stared at the stage blankly. Though the shooting was going to start soon, nothing was happening, and the stage was quiet. There were hardly any staff moving about as well. She was wondering if it was normal for a show to be this quiet when—click!—all the studio’s lights turned off.
“Ahh?”
“What happened?”
Gasp!
“I think they are going to start!”
Only the camera’s lights shone in the dark room with no natural light. A strange energy and a sense of anticipation began to rise in her heart. Simultaneously, the lights returned, and the show’s two hosts appeared on the stage.
—Hello to all our viewers and the audience who came to see this performance!
—We are the hosts of The Showcase 2 First Chance. I am comedian Kim Young-Jin.
—And I’m singer Nahyun! Welcome!
“Ahhhhhh!”
Though the hosts appeared in a classic way with flickering lights, the cheer that came from the audience was bigger than the girl expected; perhaps it was because the show used high-tech equipment, but it made her gasp.
— Okay, so this is The Showcase 2 First Chance! After finishing our introductory performances, we are about to start our first round. What did you think about the performances last time, Ms. Nahyun? Examine the origin of this data, deeply intertwined with n0v[lbin★
—Seeing all the five groups work so passionately, I was reminded of my rookie days.
Nahyun and Kim Jin-Young exchanged a couple of lines that might or might not be broadcasted on television but filled up content for the show. The majority of the audience knew that their lines were 90% false. Many had to swallow back their laugh when they heard Nahyun say that she was reminded of her rookie days while seeing these no-name or doomed idols. It was a well-known fact that Nahyun debuted at a big agency and worked without a period of anonymity. The difference between her and these idols’ beginnings was far too big.
Yet, since the audience was also aware that these weren’t Nahyun’s personal thoughts but what the scriptwriters had written for her, no one blamed her for her insincerity. And after a couple more formalities, the hosts announced:
—Should we now introduce the first group who created their performance around the first round’s theme, ‘The Color of Showcase’?
—This is a group known for their skills and where every member is the main vocalist and dancer. They decorated their entire stage in black. Let’s see Bleshu’s performance, ‘Hide’!
They finally introduced the next performance, and the audience cheered even louder than before to greet Bleshu. The lights turned off, and when it came again, five men were standing on top of the stage.
“Ohh.”
All the group members were wearing black from head to toe—black leather pants and rider jackets. The girl who came to find a new group to stan looked at the stage hopefully. It couldn’t be helped that she was unfamiliar with most of their faces. She tried to memorize the members in different groups by the preview, but all their faces were mixed up inside her head because there were so many of them. The only one she could properly remember was Bleshu’s leader, and he was the guy who was glaring at the camera with a serious look on his face.
Screeeeech. The girl wondered what kind of song they chose when a scratching sound rang as if an electric guitar was plugged into the wrong code.
As expected of a boss of a small company with doomed idols, they had no sense, and this time, they basically ruined the futures of these young men with their own hands without knowing it. Even if this group did well later on, this performance was one that would haunt them, and it was too terrible to be considered even cute or funny.
‘Did their boss see a mafia movie last night or something?’ The girl wondered and other audiences watched OnebyOne’s performance pitifully. If they were going to give a bad performance, they should’ve just gone all out to make an impact. Yet, all the group members tried their best to liven up this terrible concept and worsened the damage.
Thus, now, they were even failing to make an impact and began to feel like the epitome of a ‘flopped idol group.’ The girl who had come to find a new group to stan clicked her tongue and soullessly stared at the stage. There had been two performances and both of them fell way below her expectations. All the interest she had for the upcoming performances completely disappeared.
‘Is this why people like idols from big companies?’ she wondered. She couldn’t imagine the past groups she supported coming out on broadcast and showing a performance like this. Finally, OnebyOne’s performance came to an end. Then, the hosts conversed again.
—It was as if I was seeing a scene from a movie.
Yes, but the problem was that this movie was nowhere a masterpiece but a lame domestic noir. However, nobody said anything about this and watched the stage with sealed lips.
—Now, it’s time for us to see the next performance. Ms. Nahyun, could you introduce what kind of performance it is?
—Yes, this performance is by a group that has gotten quite the attention recently because of their application video: the Sirens.
The girl and the audience’s interest rose again upon hearing this. The girl remembered most of the members in this group, unlike the others. It was not only because their visuals were generally good but because they became a hot issue for uploading the same video as Only One.
—They are going to show us a blue performance with a song they produced themselves!
The group even seemed to do some self-producing. It wasn’t clear how good they were yet, but this was something that set them apart from other groups.
—Then should we watch their performance? Let’s hear their song, ‘Walya’.
‘Walya?’ The girl reiterated the title in their minds again and looked towards the stage.
‘Huh?’ The stage went dark again and when the lights turned back on, only one person was standing on the stage. It was the main dancer, Lee Woon, posing under a bluish spotlight. But the most noticeable thing about him was the clothes he was wearing.
‘Isn’t that a hanbok?’ It was a modernized stage hanbok, and the bluish overcoat over him was especially eye-catching.
Dang, Daaaang, dang.
“Ohhh!” A tune made from only gugak string instruments rang out; it gave a clearly different feel from a tune made up of Western string instruments’ sounds, and the main dancer, Woon smoothly extended out his arms and legs. His elegant dance moves looked like Korean modern dance and his outer coat flapped around and seemed to sweep the stage.
As the edge of his coat’s fabric touched the bluish lights and scattered them, it gave off a chilly atmosphere. Then, after the main dancer finished his dance, the stage became quiet again.
Thud. The silence continued and as people's hearts swelled in anticipation, a rush of sounds combined with not only gugak sounds but also Western instruments filled the room.
Tap.
The lights brightened again, and a giant moon rose on the giant LED screen at the back. The audience’s bodies trembled slightly from the cold and chilly energy it gave off, and the five members of Siren appeared. The Siren members stood straight without shifting the slightest amount and looked determined. As the gugak sound poured around them, the member in the center extended his hand and looked forward.
—On a deep dark night, I lay wide awake
—The boundless azure sky, bluish moonlight
—Softly envelops me and drives me to the streets once again
The main vocalist’s heart-wrenching voice dug into the audience’s ears. The girl who had come to find a new group to stan stared with her eyes wide open. She intuitively sensed it then... she found her group.