WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

I'm a Reporter, Please let me get off the Stage

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Chapter 67

The next day, the recording for episode 3 had begun.

After that night, Seo Haedun didn’t act out toward me again.

Was he just quietly sulking on his own?

I still had no clue what he was thinking.

I also didn’t have the time or energy to figure him out right now in this situation.

I just assumed he got heated in the moment due to his fiery temperament and let it go.

“Episode 3 of <Ultimate Idol> is about to begin.”

The assistant director’s cue sign dropped, and the show officially started.

“Hello, viewers! I’m Lee Kyubin, the host of <Ultimate Idol>! Can you believe we're already at Episode 3? Our incredible idol contestants have already completed multiple challenges, including the ‘Audition Reenactment’, the ‘Hit Song Battle’, and ‘Idols, Become All-Rounders’!”

The camera zoomed in on us for quite some time.

I held my smile in place so tightly that my jaw physically hurt.

“Starting today, a new evaluation system will be applied. First, fan voting has officially begun at midnight. Furthermore, the contestants’ rankings, based on past missions, will be revealed today. The rankings are determined through evaluations across multiple categories, including vocals, dance, and stage performance. As previously stated, the winning group will be determined by adding up all their members’ individual rankings. The group with the highest combined score will claim victory. However, please note that if there’s a gap of 20 or more ranks between any two members of a group, the highest-ranking member’s score will be nullified.”

So basically, if I were in 1st place, but Baekgyeom ended up 31st, my score wouldn’t count.

They actually put some serious thought in this system..

“Some of you might be wondering why we’ve introduced this new rule. Let me explain a little. Basically, in the idol industry, working as a group is the standard. But have you ever heard phrases like ‘Only one member carries the group’, ‘Only a few members stand out’, ‘There are some members who just take up space’, and ‘There are some members who just feel unnecessary’......? They may just seem like malicious comments, but we need to analyse further why people are saying these things.”

What the hell was he leading up to this time using such a scary introduction?

The entire studio tensed up.

“Each member has a role in the group. Dancer, vocalist, leader…… However, with the rise of larger idol groups, these distinctions have become blurry. The more members you have, the harder it is to divide up the screen time. Some never even get the chance to stand in the center. Even after debuting, many of you have experienced being overlooked.”

I kept my posture perfectly straight, while my eyes glanced around.

If anyone nodded here, that would be social suicide.

Luckily, no one was stupid enough to throw themselves into this deathtrap, like moths flying into a flame.

“In larger groups, it’s common for only a few members to get the spotlight while others are left in the background. I’m sure many of you here have felt that before. That’s why <Ultimate Idol> wants to redefine what it means to be ‘The Ultimate’. Our goal is simple, to create a group where every member is equally popular.”

So, to sum up what Lee Kyubin had said.

They were declaring war on idols who were seen as dead weight. Those who people questioned how they even debuted.

If one were to put it nicely, this was supposed to be a revolution against ‘invisible members’.

To put it badly, it was like telling those who were incompetent to just tug their tails and get lost.

‘And how the hell do they think they can control that……?’

I thought to myself.

No matter how well they sang, danced, or worked the stage, idol popularity was never determined by honest effort.

An idol or group didn’t blow up just because of their own charisma, you know?

It depends on executive decisions from their agencies, the overall trends in the music industry, the fandom’s shifting preferences, and a spoonful of luck. And yet the production team was trying hard to pretend that these things weren’t factors.

“We hope our viewers and fans will enjoy watching each member grow and find balance within their groups.”

Lee Kyubin gave a short bow before checking his cue cards.

“Alright, let’s move straight to the ranking announcements!”

“Ooh~.”

The idol contestants instinctively responded with excitement.

Music blasted through the studio with its lights dimmed.

“First, let’s reveal the rankings from 31st to 20th!”

[31st : VOV Heonju]

[30th : IONER Min]

[29th : Loop7 Takezai]

[28th : WEEKANIZ Haram]

“Agh.”

A small gasp slipped out of me.

I had assumed Baekgyeom would be ranked low because of his negative reputation, but a completely unexpected name appeared instead.

No way.

Haram ranked this low?

From where I was standing, his face was nowhere near bad looking.

“There you have it, the rankings from 31st to 20th have been revealed! But don’t be discouraged. Fan votes and future performances will play a major role, so there’s nowhere to go but up.”

One by one, the faces of the contestants in 31st through 20th place were captured by the camera.

Gong Haram also looked quite flustered.

What was he lacking?

He could sing so well, his personality wasn’t bad, and while he wasn’t insanely good looking, he was objectively quite likable……

Had I already become biased, favoring my own group members too much?

Even so, I felt just as upset as Gong Haram.

“Alright, let’s continue with the ranking announcements!”

The ranking reveal continued without any mercy.

Then came the top 20 before the top 10…….

Among them, the rankings of WEEKANIZ were as follows.

[Ah Yuyoung: 17th]

[Tae Oh : 19th]

[Baekgyeom: 24th]

[Gong Haram : 28th]

[Ire : 11th]

‘……Where do I even start?’

What was this feeling……?

I felt miserable to the point where just looking at these numbers made me dizzy.

There was a 20 rank gap between our lowest ranking member, Haram, and one of our higher ranking members, Yoon Sanho.

“Now, let us reveal the top 10!”

I stared hard at the scoreboard.

There were still two members left whose names hadn’t been called yet.

[Yoon Sanho : 8th]

[Seo Haedun : 4th]

“Whoa, Haedun-hyung, that’s insane.”

Baekgyeom, sitting beside me, let out genuine admiration.

“And for 1st place…… Congratulations to Chenstin’s Iho!”

The announcement was so loud that you’d think they were announcing his final victory.

“……”

I knew I had to control my expression, but honestly, if the production team caught me on camera right now, I had no idea how I would appear.

‘This is pissing me off somehow……’

Thinking back, I had felt weirdly irritated about Chenstin’s participation since the moment I first heard about it.

To put it plainly, Chenstin didn’t belong on <Ultimate Idol>.

In other words, they weren’t a ‘failing group’.

VOV, Loop7, IONER, and WEEKANIZ all had one thing in common.

They were all failing groups that had debuted more than 3 years ago, but had never entered the top 10 of any chart, much less win first place.

Sometimes, one of them might sneak into the rankings when the industry was ‘empty’ of competition, but even then that was only limited for male idol groups.

There were always major soloists and female idol groups holding the top spots, so they never actually reached first place.

Even on cable TV music shows it wasn’t any different.

As far as I knew, Loop7 had managed to win 1st place once.

Honestly…… That was even barely worth counting, so I just left it out of the equation.

And WEEKANIZ?

We never broke our record of never charting even once.

We never even broke 50,000 album sales.

And our agency was secretly discussing whether or not they would want this group to continue.

They dressed it up nicely, calling it ‘restructuring’, but in reality, it was just a polite way of ripping apart this perfectly good group.

They were planning on reinvesting in a new group with whatever scraps were left instead.

Well, if someone asked me whether selling less than 50.000 albums counted as ‘perfectly good’ I wouldn’t have a good answer though.

Anyway, since our own company had already given up on us, leaving this ship before it completely sank was probably the smartest thing to do.

Our members had never really experienced social life outside of the industry, so they had many blind spots, but at the very least they seemed to instinctively understand how to protect their own careers.

However, Chenstin was different.

Their agency was already on a whole different level.

They belonged to Daom Entertainment. A company on par with EOO Entertainment.

They had been one of the original pioneers of K-pop, leading the industry since the very beginning.

Chenstin was their fourth idol group.

No matter whether it was their 2nd generation group or their 3rd generation, all of them had been massively successful.

However, even though it had only been two years since their debut, they were rather disappointed in their numbers.

They were the first crack in their flawless record.

Maybe that was why, KCN saw the perfect opportunity by giving Chenstin some traction.

Or maybe, it was the opposite and Daom was actively using KCN instead.

Why else would they willingly throw one of their groups into a garbage show like this, filled with aggressive editing, manipulative narratives, and reckless media play?

While it was running the risk of having Chenstin be labeled a ‘failing group’, at the same time, this was just classic noise marketing.

If Chenstin managed to perform well on this show, it would become a highly effective publicity stunt.

Chenstin could easily shine among the arrogant IONER, useless VOV, relatively old WEEKANIZ, and the forgettable Loop7.

Of course, that all depended on whether the editing painted them in a positive light.

‘Chenstin has already……’

In my opinion, Chenstin seemed to have already been established as the ‘Production Pick’.

Just looking at the ranking results, every single Chenstin member placed within the Top 30.

Even their lowest-ranking member was only just above 30th place.

And, let’s be real, these rankings didn’t even include fan votes yet.

That meant the ranking had been solely decided by the production team.

At this point, my mind was already fully convinced that Daom Entertainment had bribed KCN’s executives and PD Kim with more than just a cow.

“Alright, everyone! It’s time to announce the next mission. This time……”

Lee Kyubin’s voice felt distant through my messy thoughts.

“It’s Position Battle! And you’ll be competing in newly mixed groups!”

“……Huh? What?”

Hm?

Did I hear wrong?

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