NOVEL NEXT Chapter 66
So, I was forcibly reclassed to be the leader center…
“…Yes, then I’ll take the role of team leader and center as per the votes. Everyone, please take care of me.”
“Waaaaah!”
“Shall we first discuss the song?”
I quickly continued on since the song’s difficulty was going to require a lot of discussion and practice.
But…
“I feel like the vocal range is too high, and it’ll be tough to follow the original as is. What does everyone think?”
“……”
Those damn kids didn’t say a word when I asked for their opinions.
“…So, do we all agree on lowering the pitch a bit?”
“Yeah-!!”
They only responded in unison when I asked for agreement, which was just so childish!
“…Is there anyone with rearrangement ideas?”
“……”
“Huuuh…, then let’s start with lowering the pitch and keep the original vibe for the choreography.”
“Yeah-!!”
With that, our first team began to set sail towards the second team competition.
Creeeak creeeak, I was already hearing some bad vibes, but…
We quickly settled on the leader and center, plus defined the song concept.
Well, it was smooth sailing.
…That’s what I decided to think.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long to come up with the choreography.
It was because Na Han-na’s dancing abilities were way better than I had thought.
Na Han-na’s dance stats may be lower than mine, but stats aren’t everything.
“Hanna, when did you start dancing?”
“…Huh? Um, I’ve been dancing since before elementary school, but I don’t remember exactly.”
Her experience and instinct were evident in her body.
“Yerin unni, didn’t you know? Hanna’s older sisters are super famous dancers!”
“…Really?”
“Yeah, the shorts Hanna took with her family are mega famous.”
And that natural talent flowed through her veins.
Na Han-na was truly a gifted dancer, and thanks to her, we could learn the choreography quickly.
‘The other team members aren’t too shabby either.’
Even the other members had decent stats for their ranks, and above all, there was no needless chatter from Seo Yoo-jin!
I surprisingly thought our first team could finish the second team competition smoothly.
…At least until now.
“Okay, now that we’ve finished the choreography, what’s left is practice.”
“Right.”
“So shall we practice hard from now on?”
“Yeah, let’s start hard from tomorrow.”
“……Huh?”
“……Hmm?”
…Did I just hear that wrong?
That conversation felt a bit off, so I asked Na Han-na.
“Hanna, what did you just say?”
“I said we should practice hard starting tomorrow!”
“…Tomorrow?”
I looked at the clock just as Na Han-na finished speaking.
It was currently 11:41 PM.
Yes, it was late, but…
“It’s not even midnight yet!”
Na Ah Ah’s time flows differently from the outside world.
Right now wasn’t a time to sleep; it was the burning hour for practice!
But…
“…Sigh, I normally have to sleep by now.”
…It seemed Na Han-na’s time flowed differently from mine too.
“If I don’t sleep now, my efficiency drops, and I can’t move properly. There are still lots of teams that haven’t even finished their choreography, right? We’ve made good progress, so let’s head in early and rest… Is that okay?”
“……”
I couldn’t help but snap into a daze at Na Han-na’s pleading look.
‘…She wants to go to sleep before midnight?’
I hadn’t gone to bed before midnight since the final ranking evaluation and the first team competition.
1 or 2 AM was the basic, and 3 or 4 was optional.
If I pushed it, I could go until 5.
‘…I’m not even sleepy right now.’
In fact, I was buzzing with energy and could easily keep practicing for another 3 or 4 hours.
But unlike me, Na Han-na looked like she’d collapse any second if she didn’t sleep.
“…Okay, if you’re tired, go sleep then.”
“Yep, thanks for your hard work!”
After I permitted her to go, Na Han-na bowed her head quickly.
Since she was out, it was pointless to keep practicing together.
Reluctantly, I said to the other team members,
“If anyone else wants to rest, let’s do that.”
“……”
Then everyone glanced around nervously…
“Well, I guess I will…”
“Honestly, we finished our choreography pretty quickly anyway…!”
“Since one person is missing, it doesn’t make sense to practice anyway, right?”
“Let’s really work hard starting tomorrow!”
Whoosh!
And just like that, they all followed Na Han-na back to the dorms.
“Hah…”
When I came to my senses, I was the only one left in the practice room.
I sat alone in the practice room, deep in thought.
‘Being a leader isn’t easy.’
What would Seo Yoo-jin, who was the leader in the first team competition, say if she were now the leader of our team?
She’d probably say…
“Are you serious? You’re going to sleep when you guys can’t even keep up with your skills? Are you all out of your minds?! If you don’t want to sleep forever, get over here and synchronize!”
She’d probably manage the team well, despite being rude.
“Ah… thinking about that makes me really miss my old team members.”
Thinking back, I was quite lucky with my team during the first team competition.
If that team were here, they would’ve handled the song Medical Love☆ perfectly without a hitch.
‘If Yoo-jin led, and I was the center with Hye-jeong as the main vocal and Yoo-jung holding everything together,… it would’ve been perfect.’
Being alone in the practice room made me long for my former team members even more.
I sat there, reminiscing for a while before practicing the choreography for another two hours and then heading back to the dorms.
That night, I found myself thinking about the Mackerel Sandwich team members, so I ate breakfast with Park Yoo-jung and Lee Hye-jeong the next morning.
I also thought about Seo Yoo-jin and knocked on her door, but…
“Do you not know that my team is competing against yours? We’re rivals! Rivals! How can I eat with a rival? Go away!”
I was shooed away since the first and second teams were rivals.
Thus, we three gathered for the first time in a while and started chatting over breakfast.
“Wow~ So everyone went back before midnight?”
“…Yeah.”
As I recounted yesterday’s events, Park Yoo-jung and Lee Hye-jeong were fuming as if it were their own situation.
“A leader should make everyone jump out of bed to practice, and they went to sleep instead?! That’s totally idiotic!”
“It seems like most teams were still practicing at least until 1 AM since it was the first night. Going back before midnight seems pretty off.”
Especially Park Yoo-jung, who was usually sunny, was unusually agitated.
“Unni! You should totally crush those bad kids into kimchi paste!”
“Crush them into kimchi paste…? Me?”
“Yeah! As the leader, you need to manage the team so they will listen to you later!”
“But how?”
When I asked with a puzzled expression, Park Yoo-jung started an impromptu lesson.
“Yerin unni, you tend to not use your looks enough.”
“…Use my looks?”
“Yeah, no offense, but even if you’re a softie, your looks are like the King of Hell!”
The King of Hell… I wasn’t sure if that was appropriate, but I definitely looked pretty intimidating.
“So you need to make a scary face to put some fear into them, and then they’ll listen to you.”
“Scare them into listening? I’m actually good at making scary faces! Want to see?”
After living in Ha Ye-rin’s body for 19 years, I was quite skilled at making scary faces.
I just need to make my already emotionless face even more blank.
Plus, if I pull my mouth corners down and narrow my brows a bit…
“See? How’s this? Does it look scary?”
“Ooooh…”
Park Yoo-jung gasped and quickly covered her mouth.
“Unni, could you try saying the line with that expression? ‘Are you all in your right minds?’”
“Are you all in your right minds?”
“Ah, this won’t do at all.”
“Ah, this really won’t do.”
“Kneel.”
“Kneel.”
“You filthy pigs, crawl over to me and lick my feet.”
“You filthy pigs, crawl over and…, …Yoo-jung? That line seems a bit off?”
“Hahaha! Just kidding, just kidding!”
Yoo-jung laughed hard at her own line.
“But unni, that expression of yours was definitely scary! Anyone who isn’t close to you would get scared seeing that!”
“…Really?”
“Yep, I’ve had my fair share of these mind games, you know? With a scary face like you just made, and a rough voice, they’ll naturally fall in line.”
“Yoo-jung, you’ve had mind game experience? Hoo, that’s pretty funny.”
Our cheerful Golden Retriever Park Yoo-jung seemed too innocent to have much of that experience.
Though it was amusing, still, it gave me a bit of encouragement.
I patted her head and expressed my gratitude.
“Anyway, thanks, Yoo-jung. Next time something like yesterday happens, I’ll give your advice a try.”
“Sure, hehehe.”
After sharing that laugh, we smoothly transitioned to the next topic of conversation.
Lee Hye-jeong, picking at her food, asked me,
“Hey Yerin, managing both leader and center at the same time must be really tough.”
“Well, it feels that way. The responsibility is pretty immense…”
“Generally, it goes like that when you manage both leader and center. But it’s interesting… there are two teams with a dual leader and center combo this time around.”
“…Huh? Another team has someone doubling as leader and center?”
Until that point, I had casually picked up my spoon, thinking it was pretty rare, but obviously not unheard of.
But…
“Wait, Yerin, you didn’t know?”
“Unni, you didn’t know?”
The reactions from Hye-jeong and Yoo-jung were a bit too intense.
“Why? Who’s the one doing both roles?”
“Your adjacent team! Team 2 has a dual leader and center!”
“…Team 2? …Ah, so Yoo Seol unni is also doubling as leader and center.”
Upon hearing ‘Team 2’, I stopped short and then comprehended.
If it’s Yoo Seol, she definitely has the skills to handle both roles.
And then…
“Wait, it’s not Team 2’s leader Seol, it’s…”
“…?”
“It’s Yoo-jin!”
“…Huh?”
Finding out the identity of Team 2’s dual leader and center made me drop my spoon.
“…What did you just say?”
“Yoo-jin is doing both roles in Team 2. It got pretty loud yesterday, but I guess you were too busy practicing to catch it.”
“…Yoo-jin. So that means…”
She’s actually doing both roles while leaving Yoo Seol out of it…?
I acknowledge Seo Yoo-jin’s skills.
Even with her obnoxious attitude, her skills aren’t lacking.
But even so, compared to Yoo Seol, she falls pretty short.
‘…But how can Yoo-jin be doing both roles when Yoo Seol is around?’
……
…Why?
This was a fact that even I couldn’t wrap my head around.