The Goal is the Ending Fairy

As I took off my shoes and entered, Jinyu clung to me, avoiding Chae Seonha.

Meanwhile, Sunha clicked her tongue at me before turning her back and heading to her room. And she even slammed the door with a loud thud.

‘How rude…’

I shot a sideways glance at the door Sunha had just gone through.

The tall trainee who had been quiet beside me spoke up.

“You’re rooming with Chae Seonha, will that be okay?”

“… What?”

Shouldn’t it be Sunha who won’t be okay with it?

When I questioned if that was really true, Jinyu, who had her arm around my neck, added:

“The five of us who came first already decided roommates. Should I switch with Sunha unnie instead?”

… So that’s why Sunha’s expression was so sour. Because she knew we’d be roommates.

I was tempted by Jinyu’s offer for a moment… but no matter what, I couldn’t disrupt arrangements that were already made.

Having made up my mind, I shook my head.

“It’s fine. The dorm is just for sleeping anyway.”

“Aw, that’s too bad~ I would’ve liked to share a room with unnie.”

After finishing her playful comment, Jinyu blew a soft whoo into my ear.

Shiver

Getting goosebumps, I quickly pushed her away, including rubbing my ear where she’d blown.

“Ahahahah! Ah, unnie, isn’t that too much of a reaction?”

“You’re noisy.”

Was she always like this? Unlike her appearance, she’s beyond friendly—she’s a complete prankster.

Seems like we were quite close originally.

While it’s good to have a friendly trainee besides Yoon Heejo, did it have to be such a mischievous character?

People like Jinyu are number one on my list of types to avoid.

As I tried to peel off the constantly clinging Jinyu, the trainee beside us at least helped verbally.

“Go unpack now. It’s late.”

“Ah, yes.”

“… Have you eaten dinner?”

After a moment’s hesitation, she asked something simple.

“Yes, I ate before coming.”

“I see.”

That seemed to satisfy her, and she promptly turned to leave.

“Good night, Se-i unnie~”

“… Good night.”

Responding with just a nod, she entered her room.

“I’ll head in too then.”

“Unnie, if you’re ever uncomfortable, come to my room! It’s right across from where Se-i unnie just went in!”

How could I do that, it would make your roommate uncomfortable.

Still, I outwardly agreed, and only then did Jinyu finally disappear into her room.

“Phew…”

[This might be uncomfortable for a while.]

The helper who had been perched on my shoulder was now flying around freely.

Since no one else was around anyway, I silently expressed my agreement.

The reason I summoned the helper after so long was because I really needed them for something…

‘Help me move my luggage.’

‘[?]’

And so the helper, though confused, faithfully lived up to their name. Even their floating appearance now looked worn out.

Definitely… I can guarantee this was the most helpful they’d been since the tutorial.

[Ah! Ms. Dan-ah, then I’ll be going now…!]

“Okay.”

I’d worked them for well over half a day, so I figured it was about time for them to go.

[Please stay healthy while I’m gone, and take care…]

However, the helper disappeared before even finishing their farewell. Seems it wasn’t by their own choice.

>Currently charging cooldown….

>Helper: [Charging|▷▷▷|Complete]

After staring at the empty space above for a moment, I finally grabbed the doorknob.

“……”

Of course, the first person I saw when opening the door was Chae Seonha.

Though she must have heard me coming, she didn’t even glance my way.

Has she decided to completely ignore me?

She seemed to be preparing for bed, having already finished unpacking and arranging her bedding.

Come to think of it, the supervisors had mentioned something earlier.

They said cameras would be running throughout the practice rooms starting tomorrow, so we should return early for their installation.

Since we couldn’t use the practice rooms during camera setup, it made sense to just get a good night’s sleep and prepare for tomorrow.

Sunha seemed to think the same.

I also quickly unpacked and changed into my pyjamas with the same mindset. My minimal luggage was organized in no time.

While satisfactorily observing this scene, my eyes suddenly fell on the bed where I’d be sleeping.

A bunk bed, standard issue in any trainee dorm.

When I shifted my gaze to my roommate, she only emanated a dark aura as if saying ‘what are you looking at?’

“Chae Seonha.”

… Well, no response.

“Are you taking the top or bottom bunk?”

Not deterred by her silence, I asked, and Sunha sighed while putting down the clothes she was organizing.

“… Bottom.”

“Alright then.”

Since I didn’t particularly care, I readily gave her the bottom bunk.

I’d never slept in a bunk bed before, but this seemed nice in its own way.

After finishing my preparations, I climbed the ladder and flopped onto the bed.

Having showered before coming was definitely the right choice. As soon as my body hit the bed, sleep started overtaking me regardless of the new dorm.

The accumulated fatigue seemed to be finally catching up… I must have overdone the practice today, relying too much on my “Iron Constitution” skill.

Just as I burrowed deep under the covers, the lights conveniently went out.

These suddenly extinguished lights must have been my downstairs neighbor’s doing.

Since I was already lying down to sleep anyway, I didn’t say anything about it. It would have been more inconvenient for me to turn off the lights and climb up.

…

An awkward silence without a single word exchanged.

Before I could even feel uncomfortable about it, I quickly fell into sleep.

* * *

Inside the private vocal room.

My head felt like it was about to explode.

What song to choose for the vocal mission… That was the source of my worry.

For dance, I’m planning to use the choreography I practiced with Yoon Heejo.

The first mission seems to be a simple self-introduction anyway, so the preparation period is only two weeks.

Therefore, I need to use a dance I’m already familiar with to be ready within the timeframe.

So putting dance aside, the real urgency is the song.

Other trainees probably have songs they usually practice, but I’m different. I don’t know any songs in this world.

The fortunate thing is that this game’s MeTube isn’t completely disconnected from reality.

After all, the song I practiced dancing to exists in the real world too.

This game has a history of using real singers’ and idols’ songs this way.

It was common to use them in rhythm game-style challenge missions too.

Since the original artists earn decent royalties, many agencies invest their idol groups’ songs in this game.

The problem is that the timeline is all mixed up, so many songs I search for haven’t been released yet.

The only music I hear is the game’s BGM, so how am I supposed to choose a song as an idol?

Every song I can think of turns up empty when I search.

This is bad. What other songs…

… Ah, but there is one group’s songs I know best here.

IDEALIC, the idol group I played before possession.

I know all their lyrics by heart.

I quickly turned on my phone and searched MeTube for that name.

– IDEALIC

Related videos immediately filled the screen.

As expected, the current timeline I’m playing in is definitely after IDEALIC’s debut.

Even when I played before possession, the story mentioned that HON’s group would be IDEALIC’s junior.

Well, it’s fortunate that I’m playing as a member of their rival group.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to sing the only songs I know.

“Oh…”

They’re still so pretty.

I smiled contentedly while looking at the thumbnails of IDEALIC members’ individual fancams.

Maybe because I’ve entered the game I was playing, the song titles and order matched what I knew.

Then I stopped scrolling at one particular fancam thumbnail.

-[Fan Focus] IDEALIC HARIN Fancam 4K ‘WINning'(IDEALIC HARIN FanCam) | @REALMUSIC_20XX.01.22

The character I chose in my previous playthrough.

The member in the thumbnail was smiling at the camera with her beautiful straight hair neatly tied up.

She was definitely a striking beauty, unforgettable after just one look.

Looking at their most recent song, they must have been active for about 2 years now.

At that point, her likability stat would have been quite high, so it’s natural she catches attention immediately.

I clicked on the fancam and admired Harin’s face for a moment.

Seeing her familiar face again along with the song I once poured my affection into, I felt an unexpected nostalgia, like coming home.

Plus, seeing actual video of a character I’d only seen in illustrations… the game’s hardcore fans would probably have broken down crying if they saw this.

Hmm. Let me calm down first.

Separately though, “WINning” wouldn’t suit a solo mission.

It’s a hip-hop based song with a fast tempo.

Moreover, it wouldn’t be easy to handle alone a song meant for six people.

So instead, I chose “Star Rain” from the same album.

Being from the same album, when I searched MeTube, it existed in this timeline too.

Though there weren’t many videos since it was a B-side track, that was enough.

I clicked on a video showing lyrics and English translations by each member’s part, and the familiar melody played.

– ♪~♩♪♬~♪♩♬~

Yes, this song.

It’s not burdensome to sing alone, and it’s the only IDEALIC song without rap parts.

There are no excessively high notes for dramatic effect, and the slow tempo means lyrics can be delivered well even with poor technique…

Perfect for this mission.

Plus, I know all the lyrics by heart.

I had to do that cursed challenge mission of getting over 900 points in the rhythm game with this song.

Thanks to that, I practiced the mission dozens of times until my keyboard nearly broke.

So I unconsciously memorized all the lyrics to this song.

However… it might be challenging since it doesn’t match my sensibility.

Forget lyrical delivery—there’s a possibility I won’t be able to convey the emotions properly.

Can’t help it. I’ll just have to try my best with that part.

I connected my phone to the speaker via Bluetooth and turned up the volume a bit.

The atmospheric piano intro began to play.

Watching this, I smiled with satisfaction.

Good, this is decided. This will work for the song.

Along with the satisfactory song choice, I started singing too.

Since I’d raised my stats somewhat, it wasn’t completely unbearable.

But I could definitely still feel my lack of skill.

The most annoying thing was how stiff I became while singing.

What am I, a machine? There’s no emotion throughout the entire song. The pitch wavered occasionally too.

This kind of thing would only improve by raising both “Vocal” and “Charm” stats much higher…

But since I can’t help that right now, I should focus on learning the melody more accurately.

With my current stats, trying fancy techniques would only work against me.

While there were such drawbacks.

Singing like this also made me clearly understand this character’s vocal advantages.

This girl’s voice color is absolutely incredible.