Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

[Reputation A]

This was the average reputation score newly displayed in the status window.

[81]

[78]

[91]

These were the numerical values of the evaluations individuals had given Yuseong.

It was the afternoon of the second day since moving into the dormitories, after another night had passed.

As Yuseong went about his usual routine, he discovered unfamiliar 'numbers' appearing above people's heads.

The reputation category in his status window, which had remained empty all this time, had finally activated.

The numbers were calculated and appeared only when Yuseong made eye contact with someone.

Like a meter.

There had been no scores of 100 yet, but those affected by Enchantment gave generous scores approaching the nineties,

And the numbers changed in real time according to his actions, sometimes affecting the average as well.

Naturally, the highest scores were given when he showed kindness.

Furthermore, acting like a friendly older brother from the neighborhood doubled the effect.

Thanks to this feature, Yuseong could now easily elicit the reactions he wanted from others whenever he wished.

It might not seem like a big deal...

But considering the nature of Producer Cheon Jinmyeong, whose specialty was malicious editing, nothing could have been more suitable.

The numbers reflected people's feelings.

As long as he made good use of those feelings and brought them out at the right moments, he could create some pretty good footage.

If everyone only showed goodwill toward him, and he himself never did anything that could give them ammunition, how could the producer manipulate anything?

...Still, he couldn't let his guard down.

[5]

Because absurdly low numbers like this existed too.

______________

“Yuseong, have you found someone to do a cover song with yet? If you haven't-”

“I really think our voices would go well together, hyung~”

“Hello, hyung! There's something I really want to ask you. Would you like to do a cover song with me this time...?”

Meanwhile, Yuseong was experiencing the effects of Enchantment firsthand.

85, 87, 79...

Numerous trainees with high numbers above their heads approached him, making all sorts of appeals.

It was for the filming of a fifty-second cover song video that would be used as one of the promotional contents before the second grade evaluation and the competition to determine the center.

The videos would be released after the profiles were revealed.

Special benefits would also be awarded to the top five videos ranked by views and likes.

It was a fairly important competition in its own right.

'Why did they have to make this a team competition and cause such a commotion...!'

Self-promotional videos had always been filmed individually.

But this time, it was a team competition in which they could recruit up to three members.

And since they had been told to choose their songs and form their teams entirely 'at their own discretion,' everyone had been thrown into a panic, their feet practically fried from the pressure.

Even so, he couldn't rush.

What mattered here was strategy.

Yuseong politely turned down everyone's proposals, then slipped away and quickly set off.

Since it was free time, people were scattered throughout the dormitories, practice rooms, and studio, making the route rather crowded. But finding his target was easy.

This is why having a good nose saves so much trouble.

Sniff, sniff... Discreetly twitching his nose, he followed the lingering citrus scent in the air and arrived at a practice room on the second floor.

“Oh, look who it is~ I was wondering why you hadn't come to practice today.”

Hearing the cheerful greeting before anything else, Yuseong nodded in response.

“Hello, Juan.”

“Ah~ You're still being so formal with me~ Come on, hyung, I told you that you can speak casually to me.”

The other man smiled playfully and winked.

The man approaching while retightening his loosely tied half-up low bun was none other than Seo Juan, an A-grade trainee.

Apparently, he was already a famous trainee known to the public.

He had spent several years at a major entertainment agency before recently transferring to a label affiliated with Play ON's broadcasting station.

He was sociable and had an easygoing, unpretentious personality, making him the type who easily won people's favor wherever he went.

Yuseong liked him as well.

Although they hadn't had many opportunities to interact and had barely exchanged a proper conversation, he had a feeling they would get along well.

In short, he was an excellent choice for a partner.

Yuseong paused briefly before raising the corners of his mouth and saying, “All right, Juan.”

The reputation score Seo Juan gave him, with a yellow light hovering above his head, was 95, the highest Yuseong had seen so far.

It was suspiciously high to attribute solely to the effects of Enchantment, but what did that matter?

Juan would surely listen happily even if Yuseong got straight to the point.

Of course he would.

“Anyway... I came looking for you because there's something I'd like to propose...”

But Yuseong's mouth stopped moving while it was still open.

He had belatedly noticed the person standing behind Juan.

“...Ah, you two were together. I only just noticed. I'm sorry.”

“...”

He hurriedly added an apology before the other person could misunderstand and think he had deliberately ignored him.

A gesture indicating that it was fine followed instead of a verbal response.

Upon looking more closely, he recognized the person as a Japanese-Korean trainee from E grade.

At that moment, a certain intuition struck him.

“...Just checking, but have you already found someone to do the cover song with...?”

There was another reason Yuseong had chosen Juan.

There was Yuseong himself, whose voice was deep enough that he personally considered its rich, resonant low tone one of his charms,

And Juan, whose defining characteristic was his soft voice, which leaned toward the lower-middle register.

They had sung the signal song together during A-grade training, and Yuseong remembered their harmonies blending beautifully.

That was why he had been certain that choosing a song with a pleasant atmosphere and singing it together would produce explosive synergy.

“Ah, yes! As you can see. We were actually practicing our cover song just now! Hmm, are you interested too, hyung?”

“What song did you choose?”

“J-pop, of course~ Do you know a song called <Bagel>? It's a song I really love! Rikiya here even made an acoustic arrangement that fits exactly into fifty seconds. It's absolutely amazing~ Ah, you really ought to hear it too, hyung.”

“Already? That was fast.”

Yuseong replied calmly, but inwardly, he could only repeat, Ah, damn it, twice.

Unbelievable.

He didn't know which of them had proposed forming the pair first, but he should have moved more quickly.

To think he'd failed so spectacularly at the guessing game of who would ask first.

Juan stared at Yuseong for a moment before snapping his fingers.

“You've got a really nice voice too, hyung~ Since things have turned out this way, how about the three of us do it together? We were actually considering recruiting one more person!”

It was a decent counterproposal, but Yuseong had no choice but to decline.

This wasn't the arrangement he had wanted.

J-pop wasn't his specialty, either.

If possible, he wanted to sing a Korean song with exactly two people so that the attention of the fans watching the video wouldn't be divided.

After exchanging farewells with a disappointed Juan and promising to see him later, he stepped out into the hallway.

He had overlooked the important fact that liking someone and pursuing one's own ambitions were two separate matters.

Several alternative plans came to mind, but he soon crossed all of them out.

No matter how he considered them, the chances of achieving perfection didn't seem to reach even ninety percent.

What he wanted was one hundred.

And nothing would be better than a partner with whom each could contribute exactly fifty percent.

Just then, bang- a small noise came from somewhere.

Following the sound around a corner, he found someone pressing their forehead against a vending machine.

The person in question had a familiar head of spiky hair.

“Rubin? What are you doing there?”

The moment his name was called, the other person startled and raised his head.

“Ah, hyung...! No, it's just... I guess you could say I was trying to decide what drink to have...”

“So that's why there's a button mark on your forehead.”

“Gasp, really?!”

Rubin hurriedly covered his forehead with both hands.

Of course, that was a lie.

After practicing together in the early morning, they had naturally begun speaking casually to each other, making jokes like this come easily.

That didn't necessarily mean they had become close, of course.

Yuseong smiled and added that he was joking.

“Is something bothering you?”

As soon as he asked, Rubin responded with a drawn-out “Hmm,” hesitating before answering.

So there is something.

Yuseong also had a good guess as to what it might be.

At this point, what else could he be worried about besides the cover song?

Just like Yuseong, whose plans had fallen through moments ago.

As expected, he was right.

“I still haven't found anyone to do it with.”

Rubin answered in a deflated voice.

“I asked everyone I could think of, but they said they'd already found partners. Did you manage to find someone, hyung? Weren't you going to ask Seo Juan...?”

“Yeah, that's right. But it didn't work out. He'd already found someone.”

“Gasp, really?”

“Apparently they're doing J-pop. Anyway, so... I haven't found anyone either.”

Rubin merely responded with an “Ah~.”

The evaluation score he gave Yuseong was a remarkable 86.

The important point here was that Rubin had never once fallen under the effects of Enchantment.

Perhaps that was why he didn't ask anything like, 'Would you like to do it with me?'

It was actually a relief.

If he had asked, Yuseong would have worn himself out trying to figure out how to turn him down.

Rubin's vocal stat was C+.

He had also received a D in the first grade evaluation because he became nervous halfway through and forgot the lyrics.

Even if his skills weren't particularly bad, Yuseong had absolutely no intention of teaming up with someone who couldn't even sing properly onstage.

“...There was a song I wanted to sing.”

It was Rubin who broke the silence that had nearly settled between them.

“I thought of the perfect song that probably wouldn't overlap with anyone else's choice~ Something no one else would do~ But something that could still leave a really strong impression! Do you know what I mean?”

“I think I do. It's important not to choose the same song as everyone else.”

Rubin grinned, raised both hands into position, and gently grasped the empty air.

He was pretending to hold a guitar.

“Actually, I might not look like it, but I'm a band guy. A veteran guitarist and vocalist~ I started learning in elementary school, and I've been performing since middle school. I wanted to keep doing it after entering university too, but somehow I ended up taking an extended leave of absence...”

Rubin awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“Anyway~ It was only club activity, but I sang this song so many times back then that I could probably perform this one as well as a professional~”

“I can believe that. So what song is it?”

“<Chicken Stock Soup> by our seniors White Rum!”

...He had absolutely no idea what song that was.

He rummaged through all the memories in his head, but even among the information he had accumulated over the past thousand years, there was nothing about such a song.

What was it again?

When Yuseong gave him a puzzled look, Rubin took it upon himself to hum a short melody.

“So it doesn't matter~ we stuck together~ Within the time that melted away so thickly~ It's a song like that.”

Since they were in a hallway, he kept his volume quite low, but the low, rough sound he produced on the word 'stuck' was rather impressive.

Wait... Did Ma Rubin normally sing like that?

“I guess you really don't know it... Not many people seem to know this one! Hmm, then maybe I should just give up on it~”

“...Rubin, let me ask you something. Do you normally sing with that kind of rasp?”

“Pardon?”

“You've never sung like that before. Like that 'stuck together-' part just now.”

“Ah, aah~ Ah~ Ah, that, um... Did I do that? Ahaha~”

The way he tried to deny it and pretend otherwise made it certain.

Although he had never managed to properly belt out a note because his throat kept closing up or his voice cracked,

The Rubin Yuseong knew basically possessed a lovely, high-pitched voice.

When he sang, his voice was thin and weak, giving him the strong impression of a delicate, sickly pretty boy...

But what he'd just heard was unmistakably the kind of sound a rock star made.

“It's the first time I've heard you make a sound like that. Do it again.”

“What?! Again?!”

Unable to withstand Yuseong's persistent questioning, Rubin eventually hesitated before singing the same part again.

But this time, unlike before, he used a thin, trembling falsetto.

It was his usual singing style.

'I hadn't noticed until I became conscious of it... But listening now, it sounds like he's suppressing something. Is he deliberately singing that way to hide his natural singing style? Why? What's the point?'

If that was the case, it was a complete error in judgment.

His natural voice, even when roughened into a rasp, was far more pleasant and appealing than his artificial high voice.

Suddenly, Yuseong remembered that Rubin's status window had contained a skill that needed to be unlocked.

[Vocals C+ (?)

Rap -

Dance C

Appearance B-

Reputation -

Special Skills:

Unlock Required

]

And even the question mark in parentheses beside his vocal stat.

If it was related to what he'd just heard...

Wasn't it possible that there was a hidden twist, and Rubin was actually an incredibly talented singer?

On top of that, Rubin himself had said that his position was guitar and vocals.

That wasn't a position that suited a voice like a bleating goat.

Nor did it suit that song about chicken stock or whatever it was.

'There's a possibility that revealing his true abilities is the condition for unlocking Ma Rubin's skill... There's a high chance this will benefit me.'

Having quickly finished his calculations, Yuseong reached the unusual conclusion that, for once, he should sacrifice perfection for the sake of potential gain.

There was still a possibility that Rubin's skills wouldn't satisfy him,

But from the viewers' perspective, it would be a case of 'So this guy can sing like that too?'

The cover songs would be uploaded after the signal song was released, and several versions of the self-promotional videos filmed around the same time were also scheduled to go up.

As far as Yuseong knew, Rubin had sung a brief portion of a song in his self-promotional video, just like most of the other trainees, including Yuseong himself.

The contrast between the thin falsetto in his self-promotional video and the powerful voice in the cover song.

Whether viewers watched the self-promotional video first or the cover song first, Rubin was certain to be reevaluated before long.

That difference would provide more than enough material to go viral among the public, and the resulting views and reactions... could be maximized.

Rubin only needed to perform well enough to achieve that.

I'll do well, and this kid will work hard...

Even if he falls short of my expectations, the fans will be moved to tears.

Let's stake our chances on this imperfect story of an unexpected transformation.

Yuseong looked at Rubin, who was biting his lips inward, and smiled brightly with his eyes.

“Rubin, how about doing it with me? With that song you said you wanted to sing.”

Rubin's eyes widened.

“Huh, with me?”

“Now that I think about it... wouldn't it be better to do it with someone I'm friendly with? Ah, of course, only if you're okay with it.”

“I-I'd love to...!! Let's do it, let's do it together!”

Only then did Rubin's expression brighten. After promising to meet again in the practice room at dawn, the two parted ways.

____________

Time passed, and night fell.

In the meantime, temporary partition walls had been erected in the previously empty studio lobby.

Profile photos of all eighty-seven trainees were lined up along the walls surrounding the area on three sides,

And a title written in a cute, rounded font had been placed in the center.

<Find the Operators' Top Visual Pick!>

As the title suggested, it was a vote in which the contestants themselves chose whoever they personally thought was the most handsome.

Dressed in his practice clothes, Yuseong stood in front of the display and picked up a voting sticker.

A camera installed in the upper corner moved to follow him.

'If there weren't any cameras or people watching, I could have comfortably voted for myself...'

He stared straight ahead with a weary gaze.

Trying to ignore the five pairs of eyes surrounding him.

Unfortunately, this was a public vote.

They should have made it anonymous, honestly.

“Wow~ At this rate, you might come in first, hyung. Don't you think so~? Legendary beauty!”

Seo Juan spoke first, laughing heartily like an old man.

At those words, Seong Iseong, who had been standing behind him, turned his head toward Yuseong.

“You never know~ It looks like Juan hyung has received quite a few votes too.”

He wasn't wrong.

Although it was impossible to count exactly how many there were, it was obvious that Juan had received a considerable number of votes.

Iseong himself had received a similar number.

“But Yuseong hyung is overwhelming everyone. Doesn't he completely steal your attention?”

“Seriously.”

The other trainees standing behind them pointed upward.

Even if they didn't want to show it, that was the truth.

Yuseong had received far more votes than those two or any of the other A-grade trainees present.

The stickers were packed so densely that they even encroached on his face, naturally drawing everyone's attention.

Amid the atmosphere in which everyone was expressing their desire to choose Yuseong, only two people were unable to join in.

One was Iseong, who merely smiled quietly, and the other was...

[5]

...Kim Hwanyeong, the person who had given him that astonishingly low evaluation score.