The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

‘I have something to tell you, so come out tonight…’ I kept thinking about the text Kang Hyun-Sung sent me as I went down the elevator. It was a sentence that felt fishy at first glance. Moreover, since I received this text on the day before the final performance, I couldn’t help but feel more suspicious about it.

‘What the hell’s up with this dude?’ Considering the stories I heard from him last night while we were inside the jacuzzi before, Kang Hyun-Sung seemed to have a connection inside The Showcase 2. However, rather than an unfair connection that reeked of corruption, it seemed more like a connection he made while working in showbiz. Anyway, I was sure that he had more information than the other contestants, and if it was to the extent that he was calling me on the day before the final…

‘Does he have something to tell me?’ It might be to deliver information like before.

‘There’s no particular information…I’m curious about.’ I had already watched this show in the future. I already roughly knew the history and behind-the-scenes of this show, and I probably had more information than Kang Hyun-Sung. But even then—

‘I should go out.’ Since I didn’t know what he had to say, I thought it was only right that I should head out. However, I had an ominous feeling that Kang Hyun-Sung might be trying to give me false information.

‘What if he’s lying?’ However, there was no reason for Kang Hyun-Sung to deceive me, but above all, I thought, ‘He doesn’t have that kind of personality.’

He was not the type of person to stoop that low. While I thought random thoughts like this and followed the members, I reached the hotel lobby.

“I think they told us to wait here?”

“Didn’t Ms. Seung-Yeon and Ms. Hyuna say they’ll be here?”

A van was approaching the entrance of the parking lot. It was an old van we always rode on.

“Let’s hurry up and get on~”

We drove to the practice room.

‘As for Kang Hyun-Sung, I’ll think about it later.’ I didn’t think I needed to think more about this for now.

* * *

We moved to the practice room prepared by the production crew by car. Since it took only 10 minutes to walk, we arrived at the location in two minutes by car. I heard that each team got a different practice room to keep our performances a secret. Thus, this meant that there could be some differences in the practice rooms’ conditions among groups.

“Wow!” “Ohhh!”

“It’s amazing!”

Looking at our rooms, I thought that our practice room was at least above average even though we hadn’t checked the quality of the other group’s practice rooms. It was a practice room of a similar quality to the private practice room used by Kang Hyun-Sung, which I had visited before. The members forgot that they had to practice and busily looked around the practice room for a while.

“Let’s practice now, guys.”

However, they soon calmed down and started practicing. Truthfully, it wasn’t a difficult practice. All we did was connect the sound source prepared by Do-Seung to the speaker in the practice room and repeat it nonstop. We had been practicing like this every single day for the past few days. In the past, we did stretching and whatnot before practicing, but now, we even cut that part out and began practicing right away.

Since we were doing such repetitive practice, it was natural to end up being sloppy in our movements as we were already doing it dozens, hundred times more anyway. I couldn’t help but think, wouldn’t it be okay to do this comfortably just one time, since we just have to do well on stage, but—

“Tae-Yoon, put some sharpness to your leg movement!”

“Donng-Jun! I told you to swing your arms bigger!”

“Don’t lose focus! One! Two! Three!”

“Focus at the end!”

Woon didn’t allow a single ounce of sloppiness in our movements. Even while performing or practicing, I couldn’t afford to lose focus. Although I had improved my dance skills by using Insight, I had just improved my base skills, and it didn’t create a talent that I lacked.

‘Just how talented is he?’ Even while making perfect movements, Woon could even check the others’ movements.

“10 minutes of rest~”

“Ahhhh!”

“Wow, I thought my lungs were about to burst just now.”

“I’m going to faint before I even get on stage at this rate.”

After a long time of frantic choreography, we only got a 10-minute break. We leaned against the wall of the practice room and breathed heavily, and gradually, the breathing rate became constant. When our red faces returned to usual, and I looked at the clock—

“It’s already 3 o’clock…?” I remembered coming into the practice room at 10 am, so this meant that we’d already practiced for 5 hours. Now that I thought we didn’t have much time left to practice, my body automatically gained strength.

I didn't think I could possibly work harder, but then I thought, ‘No, I can do more.’ Even during this 10-minute break, I could check my movement little by little while looking in the mirror.

Then, Do-Seung looked at his phone and said, “Wow, OnebyOne has started their MP.”

“…Really?”

“Let’s check it out.”

With dying expressions, Woon and Yeon-Hoon slowly crawled to the place where Do-Seung was.

“Hmph!”

“I want to see.”

The three huddled together and looked at Do-Seung's phone screen. Instead of trying to join them, I looked in the mirror and checked my movements little by little. Dong-Jun was also just breathing heavily with his legs stretched out on the floor. However, the three gave a strong response that caught our attention.

“Whaaat!”

“What the?”

“Wow! Awesome!”

The members began exclaiming while looking at the phone. I was wondering why they would react like this in an MP. I wondered if they were answering comments in a very unique way, but I didn’t think they would react this strongly because the method was unique.

In the end, I stopped checking my movements and walked towards them. “…Did something happen?”

Dong-Jun also wriggled and rolled towards the other members. Then all five of us huddled in front of Do-Seung’s phone, and I was able to find out the reason why they were all shocked.

[Hello, everyone.

We are The Showcase’s cuties, OnebyOne!

If you have any questions for us,

Please ask us anything—!!<3

#Ask_anything_OnebyOne

#The_Showcase #Wnet

#THE_SHOWCASE #OnebyOne #KyungJun #JinYoung#SangHoon

From this point on, it was an announcement that was nothing out of the ordinary. However, the comments that fans wrote—

‘What’s with the speed…!’ The fans were asking questions to OnebyOne at a ridiculous speed, but what was more surprising was—

“Are OnebyOne preparing for a shorthand typist’s license…?”

“They type so fast.”

“Wow…”

OnebyOne was responding quickly to countless ‘mentions’ at an unbelievable speed. Of course, since it was a minority versus majority fight, it took longer for OnebyOne to reply than for people to ask questions. However, they were still replying at an amazing speed. Furthermore, it didn’t feel like they were giving a hasty and thoughtless answer either.

—Please tell us today’s TMI!

—[#Kyungjun] I actually like bread with raisins! But I think I’m the only one who likes this :*(

They put in selfies from time to time, their way of speaking was kind and caring, and they carefully answered each of the fans’ questions. Of course, they obviously had to do this unless they wanted to destroy their fandom on the eve before the final.

No, even if it wasn’t the day before the final performance, I thought, ‘Of course, they have to be nice.’ This was an artist and fan relationship; being kind was the default.

Despite that, I still thought, ‘It’s amazing that they can write like that at this speed.’ I could clearly see that they were trying to answer as many people as possible. ‘We need to do at least this much.’

However, there was one thing that worried me. Since we were doing the MP with the same account, we could see how many replies each group posted. Of course, the number of replies wasn’t an absolute indicator of how much idols cared about their fans, but I thought, ‘I can’t help but think about it though.’

I couldn’t help but feel that I wanted to give even one more reply than other groups. Sure enough—

“I’m going to make at least 500 replies…!” Yeon-Hoon passionately exclaimed.

500 replies. I said, “Your fingers will break then.”

“They won’t break!”

“I’m telling you, 500 is too much. How can you make 500 replies in an hour?”

“I can do it if I try?”

“You’re going to use 1 hour by yourself?”

“…Well, no, that’s not it.”

I briefly calmed down Yeon-Hoon, who was too passionate. Then I made eye contact with the other members. After seeing this situation, I realized that practicing for the performance wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about.

‘I should pay attention to both the MP and v-live.’ Both MP and v-live were connected to the final competition. I thought I should be more passionate as well.

“Let’s go through the choreography a few more times and get ready for the MP."

“Yes.”

“Got it~”

We got back up for our last practice session before our MP.

“Siren, you're practicing right now, so I brought the phone for MP.” Then, after practicing for about two more hours, the production team came in and gave us an account and a phone for our mention party.

“…Pwehh.”

“We can do it…!”

“500 replies…!”

My members and I sat in front of the phone with passionate determination.

* * *

A Siren Fan logged into Bluebird with her phone at around 5 p.m. Rumors of the mention party of The Showcase 2, which started impromptu, had already spread among fans like wildfire. It had spread so much that information about when each group would be hosting their MP had already been revealed to everyone. OnebyOne was at 3 p.m., Only One was at 4 p.m., and Siren was at 5 p.m.

The Siren fan scrolled through the feed and watched how the MP was progressing before Siren began their MP.

‘Wow, they’re fast. Why is everyone so energetic?’ Both Only One and OnebyOne were quickly and kindly replying to their fans. Looking at their replies, she began to worry a bit since if Siren made even the slightest mistake on their MP, they might be negatively compared to other groups. Each person had a different typing speed, and people took varying time to think about their replies. They might write fewer answers than other groups. The Siren fan waited for Siren’s MP, hoping that they wouldn’t get insulted for no reason before the eve of the final.

[Hello, everyone.

We’re Siren, The official fairies of the sea in The Showcase 2!

If you have any questions for us, please feel free to ask~~

We’ll be waiting for you-!!! <3

#Ask_Siren

#The_Showcase #Wnet

#THE_SHOWCASE #Siren #YeonHoon #Woon#DoSeung#DongJun#TaeYoon

So far, this was a standard announcement for a mention party. When she scrolled underneath it, she thought, ‘Wow, how are so many people already asking questions?’

There was already a long list of questions, even though it had only been five minutes since they started. Perhaps the leak of the different group’s MP time on Bluebird had played a critical role.

“…Huh?’ But under those countless comments—

-[#YeonHoon] Yah, I think so too. 😢 Today’s weather was so, so nice today~hehe I think everyone will feel better if we all go outside and take a nice walk haha

-[#YeonHoon] I had salad for lunch today 😭 even though I wanted to eat meat…someone said (it’s definitely not Kang Do-Seung) told me I’ll get scolded if I don’t eat salad… 😢 I should eat meat to gain strength, right? Please tell him that for me, everyone!!

-[#YeonHoon] You got selected to watch the final performance? Congratulations-!! Let’s see each other on stage tomorrow hehe I’ll be waiting for you! :) (Yeon-Hoon_fighting_selfie)

Siren was replying to them extremely fast. Frankly, she thought, ‘What the, How are they this fast?’ It felt like they were replying to one almost every 10 seconds. In the case of long texts, it took a little longer, but it still ended in 30 seconds.

-[#TaeYoon] For lunch today, I got chicken breast salad with oriental dressing and added cherry tomatoes.

-[#TaeYoon] I read that meditating for about 10 minutes after waking up in the morning is part of the morning routine for successful people, so I often carry it out into practice to take advantage of its long-term benefits.

-[#TaeYoon] I share a room with Woon, but neither of us makes a big mess in the room, so we comfortably share a room without much conflict arising.

It seemed as if they set a rule to write three answers and alternate between each other. However, all the members typed extremely fast. At this rate, she thought, ‘Won’t they really give about 200 replies at this rate?’ OnebyOne seemed to have given about 70 answers, and she heard that OnlyOne wrote about 90 answers. Thus, Siren would be writing almost double the number of answers.

The Siren fan wrote a comment, wondering if they would also reply to her comment.

-Woon, what do you eat to dance so well?

She hadn’t had high hopes but—

-[#Woon] Cola fruit punch…? Haha, jk. Honestly, I’m not picky about food and eat everything well. Thank you for saying I’m good at dancing. I think I gain a lot of strength from hearing comments like this. I’ll try to show an even cooler side of me in tomorrow’s performance. Please look forward to it! ☺

‘Crazy…!’ She immediately got a reply, and the Siren fan froze with the phone clutched in her hand.

“…Seriously, what's up with these guys…” Her heart thumped fiercely and showed no signs of slowing down.