The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

It wasn’t the mission I remembered. From my memories, the theme of the mission at this time was props instead of colors. After laying out an array of props, we were supposed to pick one item and come up with a performance around it. I clearly remembered it because at the time the show aired in my past life, many people ridiculed the mission saying that the concept was like a doljanchi*.[1]

‘Colors?’ It wasn’t what I expected. It seemed my actions were already having a butterfly effect and making changes in the current time. I didn’t know what this could mean in the future, but I thought I needed to solve the current problem at hand.

‘I will have to change my plans.’ I had already thought about which prop to choose and what kind of stage we would create according to it, but this was complicating things. I would need to throw all my ideas away. Though I felt bewildered, I maintained a calm demeanor on the outside.

“Colors?”

“Is there anything you want to choose?”

“Hm.”

My group members temporarily pushed aside the shock of ranking last place and discussed the mission. It was then, one of the hosts, Nahyun came forward and announced. “Okay! We will now give our benefit to Only One who ranked first place!” Simultaneously, the staff placed a table on top of the stage. There were five different colored papers on top of the table: red, black, white, gold, and blue. After checking all the colors, I sighed in relief.

‘At least, they didn’t throw a curveball at us.’ It wasn’t too difficult to think of performance for each of the colors, and the colors weren’t obscure, like khaki or maroon.

‘We should just avoid blue,’ I thought because the color could overlap with today’s performance, “Sailing.” We would have only four opportunities to perform on The Showcase 2. Including today’s introductory performance, that would be five performances in total but that was still a very small amount. If we had a similar concept two times in a row, that would be a loss of an opportunity for us.

There was nothing more inefficient than that. We needed to show performances that were as diverse as possible because we didn’t know which point could draw people to become our fans. Furthermore, if we did two of the same performances in a row, it would lower the impact of the second one and wouldn’t make us stand out as much. In a time when every moment was important, we couldn’t allow for a single mistake to happen.

“Members from Only One, please come out to choose your colors!” The hosts announced. The Only One members all stood in front of the table to choose their color. They were able to choose their own color because of the benefit they received by ranking first place. I personally wanted them to pick blue.

‘If we also get blue, it’s the worst,’ I thought. My head was already in a mess because things weren’t playing as I expected, but the situation would grow worse if we had bad color luck on top of that.

“We will pick gold,” they said. Though it was disappointing, I could tell why they chose gold.

‘Maybe they are trying to maintain their royal image,’ I thought. Only One was the overwhelming first place in The Showcase right now, and with this choice, they could do a concept that signified their kingly status. It appeared that they wanted to maintain their role as this show’s main characters. Though it was unfortunate for us that they didn’t choose blue, it was a smart choice.

“Okay! Since Only One chose their colors, it is time for the other teams to choose theirs,” Kim Young-Jin said and scanned the stage. Besides Only One, the rest of the four teams couldn’t choose the colors they wished. They probably needed to go through some process to get one.

‘I think they will make us choose the other group's colors,’ I guessed because that was what they did in my past life. Personally, I hoped that was not the case this time since that meant we couldn’t take matters into our own hands, and our positions would be decided by other groups.

‘It would be better if they had a simple mini-game or something,’ I thought and hoped that we would be able to do something that could change the results. Yet, the host announced.

“Now then, we ask each of you to choose each other’s colors!”

“Ohhhh!”

“Awesome!”

“Ahhhh!”

Damn it. I hoped that this event would change after the mission changed, but it didn’t. I didn’t know why this part had to be the same.

‘Nothing is going as I planned.’ Like this, everything seemed to run out of my control and expectations. I looked back at my group members.

“What color should we pick?”

“Shouldn’t we be okay as long as it's not blue?”

“Yeah, since it will be too similar to our last concept.”

It seemed the rest of my group members had a similar thought as me and wanted to only avoid blue.

“But it’s not like we can choose the colors. Let’s do a good job despite whatever color they choose.”

Yet, unlike me, who thought we shouldn’t get blue at all costs, it appeared they were more open-minded than me. I suppose they were satisfied as long as they could stand on top of a stage, and the color blue was something they would only avoid if they couldn’t help it. Yet, we had different stakes on the line. I needed to do well even in a mission like this to potentially block Do-Seung’s death while my group members were simply trying to get their names known.

“Bleshu will choose Luminin’s color, while OnebyOne will choose Bleshu’s color. Lastly, Luminin will choose OnebyOne’s color and Siren will take the color left,” the host said. It seemed they were going by our ranks. The first group who would get their color chosen was Luminin, then, Bleshu, and the third was OnebyOne. We were the last ones to get our colors and had no choice but to take the remaining color. I knew there was no place that gave rewards to last place, but this was too pitiful.

I was still praying that other groups would take blue when one of Luminin’s members declared, “I hope the Sirens’ next performance will be blue!”

I didn’t know if I was materializing all my fears, but blue was the last remaining option on the table.

“Ah…?”

“Blue…”

“Hm.”

All my group members froze and looked displeased for a moment. Everything happened smoothly and so fast I needed to take a moment to take it all in. When Luminin was choosing OnebyOne’s color, the group’s members saw that the only colors left were red and blue and smirked at us.

Then, they left blue while fakely stating that they wanted OnebyOne to show a fiery performance that fit the color red. Those guys must have known that if our group did another blue-themed concert, we would naturally have less impact on the second one.

‘How aggravating.’ I could understand their behavior, considering how desperate their situation was, but still, I wanted to throw a punch at them because of how obvious their intentions were.

“So everyone’s colors are decided!” Only One was gold, Luminin was white, Bleshu was black, OnebyOne was red, and we were blue. It was an annoying situation but I couldn’t do anything to change it.

“I can’t wait to see what you all will come up with these colors! And with this, today’s episode comes to a close and we will say our goodbyes.” It was time for the shooting to end now. “The Showcase 2! First Chance! Everyone who stayed with us from the beginning, thank you so much!” Kim Young-Jin and Nahyun both said their lines and the first official shooting of The Showcase came to a close.

“Good work, everybody!”

“Good work!”

I thought we rose victorious for our first shooting but we ended fifth place and received the color blue. It had a bitter end. I also glanced at my group members. The expressions they had been maintaining in front of the cameras began to break slightly.

“We ranked last. Haha.”

“And our color happens to be blue of all things.”

“Haha. Hahaha….”

Our team’s morale was dreary. I decided to think positively about the situation somehow. Since we got blue again, perhaps, this was an opportunity to establish and solidify the group’s color.

‘Perhaps, we could overturn things and make an even bigger impact on the audience,’ I hoped. I tried to imagine a rosy picture and did my best to give my group members hope. After wearing sailor uniforms, we could do a similar concept with blue. Though the concepts overlapped, we could showcase a much better performance and stage that was as fresh and vibrant as the group…

‘It won’t be easy,’ I thought. I couldn’t picture the image clearly in my head after thinking about it for a bit. To make an impact with the same concept, we couldn’t simply do a good job. We needed to do so well that it would make everyone’s eyes pop out. And while I was thinking this, I noticed somebody walking toward us.

“Hm?”

Kang Hyun-Sung was approaching us. I wondered why a guy whose team ranked first had to come to visit us when our moods were at our worst, but Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly tried to make some small talk.

“I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your group’s performance very much,” Kang Hyun-Sung said.

“Ah, uh, uhh! Hello, sir!”

“Hello!”

All my group members froze and bowed deeply. Though we were in a panic, we still had to greet our seniors properly. Yet, I couldn’t react as punctually as my group members. Though it was strange that Kang Hyun-Sung approached us first, there was too much going on inside my head to celebrate seeing a celebrity. I planned to escape from the scene after my greeting, but Kang Hyun-Sung said, “You have good sense. Not only in writing lyrics but in many other areas too.”

I first wondered who he was talking to but realized his eyes were on me. What did he want? Based on his wording, he seemed to be remarking about how we uploaded the same application video as him and was trying to see whether it was just a coincidence or a ploy we devised with leaked information. I felt myself growing tired that Kang Hyun-Sung was trying to provoke a fight with me when I was already feeling conflicted about other matters. I knew I was the one who caused this situation, but it was still bothersome to deal with the consequences.

Thus, I stared directly at Kang Hyun-Sung and simply replied, “Yes. Thank you.”

I replied without overselling or belittling myself. Kang Hyun-Sung stared at me piercingly. Though his face was very expressive on stage, it was expressionless outside of it. Since I also didn’t lose to anyone in having a straight, poker face, I stared back at him with the same expression. Usually, one side turned away from a reaction like this but our unpleasant eye contact uselessly continued. After a short period of silence, Kang Hyun-Sung finally said, “I look forward to seeing your blue performance,” and left.

‘That’s it?’ I thought and was surprised that he came all this way to not even say much. I was about to dive back into my thoughts when Yeon-Hoon exclaimed with a cheer in his eyes.

“Woooow!” he said, “He was so good-looking! I thought lights were coming off his face!” It was strange for a truly handsome guy like Yeon-Hoon to talk about a comparatively normal-looking human like this.

“Yeah. His voice is much better in real life too.”

My other group members seemed to have also fallen for Kang Hyun-Sung’s reputation and name and gave a very favorable assessment of him. I looked back at Kang Hyun-Sung, who was standing far away now. He was exchanging a line or two with his group members, and our eyes met again. I quickly turned away and looked at my group members. Then the producers and cast began to leave the scene one by one.

“Let’s see each other in 2 weeks!”

“Good work, you guys!”

“Have a safe trip back!”

“Let’s go, Sirens!” Ms. Hyuna and Ms. Seung-Yeon also came to pick us up at that time.

“Yes, let’s go.”

Though our team’s mood went slightly up because Kang Hyun-Sung had come to talk to us, it still wasn’t good. While we moved back to our dorms, the group members’ faces still looked downcast. Though being fifth place could make us more memorable to the viewers in hindsight, it still didn’t give me a good feeling to see my group members looking so sad.

‘We can’t let this blue thing affect us,’ I thought. My fighting spirit boiled on our way back. While looking outside the car window, I thought about our concept. Not all shades of blue were the same and there were some that could be a better fit for us. I tried to rack my head for something when an idea came from an unexpected place.

“But if it’s blue, it will be a bit gloomy,” Yeon-Hoon suddenly murmured while sitting in the front.

“What? Gloomy?” Woon asked.

“‘Feeling blue’—doesn’t that mean you are feeling melancholy? I am worried about how we would have to make a gloomy performance.” It appeared Yeon-Hoon was thinking about ‘blue’ in a different way from all of us. While everyone was trying to avoid blue because they thought it would overlap with the “Sailing” concept, Yeon-Hoon wanted to avoid it because blue was too gloomy for him.

“Ah.”

“Oh!”

“Huh?”

“Ohhh!”

Besides Yeon-Hoon, all of us raised our heads.

“Hm? What is it, you guys?” Yeon-Hoon said surprisedly.

“We can go with that!” We all screamed at the completely different possibility presented before us.

1. A ceremony that celebrates the first birthday of a baby; in the ceremony, babies choose an item that is believed to signify their future career. ☜