WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

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

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Chapter 68

“Different teams?”

I heard some contestants murmur anxiously.

Everyone seemed visibly thrown off.

Only Lee Kyubin stood there, with an extremely bright expression on his face.

I quickly glanced over to Chenstin.

They were awkwardly smiling as well.

Whether that was real or just acting would become clearer as I watched more, huh.

“For the Position Battle, members will be grouped by their assigned roles, vocal, dance or rap. Each position will have their own performance. This is an important opportunity to showcase your personal strengths, so make sure to take full advantage of this stage! And remember, your rankings will change depending on your performance and audience votes.”

Lee Kyubin’s voice seemed solemn.

My mind had been momentarily completely blank.

This format wasn’t exactly new or something. Plenty of survival shows had done position-based battles before.

But now, with our rankings just revealed, WEEKANIZ had way too many problems to solve right now.

Haram’s low ranking.

The ongoing fan war between Haedun and my fans (A.K.A teamkill bloodbath).

Baekgyeom’s mouth (A.K.A his ability to do teamkills just by talking).

Sanho was the only one I never really had to worry about, but for some reason, whenever I left him alone, I couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy.

Chae Ire……. He needed to figure out his own charm points if he wanted to win over fans, but I wasn’t sure whether he could do that all alone.

Same for Tae Oh.

Since he was a foreigner, he had an obvious disadvantage when trying to appeal to Korean fans.

He did speak Korean well enough, but next to a native speaker, it became clear that he wasn’t perfectly fluent……

I hoped that he would get paired up with a Korean member who had good chemistry with him, but that was completely out of my hands now.

When I glanced around, I saw that everyone was just as lost as I was.

IONER’s Yeeun sighed deeply as he ran a hand through his hair.

Reacting so dramatically will definitely earn you a full-screen shot, you know?

Loop7’s Heerae blinked rapidly, still trying to process the situation.

Meanwhile, Chenstin’s Yuho couldn’t seem to wipe the surprise off his face.

“Alright, now, using the team leaders as the starting point, we will begin forming the new groups! Leaders, please step forward.”

I slowly got up and walked toward the front.

For a brief moment, my eyes met with Haram, who was sitting right next to me.

As expected, he looked utterly crushed.

Just before he could look away, I silently mouthed some words

His eyes widened slightly.

‘Stay strong. You’re a first-place singer.’

I didn’t know if it would help him.

If he just honestly kept improving his strengths, even in this rotting industry, there would always be a moment for him to shine.

However, for that moment to have to happen before this program ended was a bit, no, very troublesome……

* * *

“Hello, I’m Chenstin’s Iho.”

“Hello, I’m VOV’s Kiwoong!”

“Hello, I’m Loop7’s Chanyoung. Erm…… I’m 24.”

“I’m IONER’s Saemi! Nice to meet you, Hyung-nims!”

“H-hyung-nim……”

I stumbled over my words.

Shock hit me like a tidal wave.

“You don’t…… have to be so formal with us.”

“Nah, you guys are older than me, that makes all of you Hyung-nims.”

IONER’s Saemi grinned mischievously.

This kid’s natural boldness was at least three times higher than a normal humans.

He was speaking in a heavy Gyeongsang dialect.

He had only spoken two sentences, but from just that I suddenly realized how much effort Haedun had been putting into polishing his Seoul accent.

“I’m Yuyoung, the leader of WEEKANIZ. Erm……Nice to meet you all.”

“Nice to meet you~.”

The five of us sat in a circle, who were selected as a new group, staring blankly at each other.

Was I seriously fated to be the leader of these little brats now?

I let out a sigh, then glanced around at each of them, before finally speaking.

“I know this might be a bit overwhelming for everyone…… but I hope we can work together and create a great performance. Hmm…… And I think we should drop the formal speech, how does that sound?”

“Great!”

Chanyoung immediately agreed.

We had already been involved with each other before, so he seemed genuinely happy to see me.

“I think I’m the oldest one here…… right?”

“That’s right, Hyung. Ah, I’m 22.”

Saemi spoke up.

“I’m 23.”

Kiwoong added.

“Alright, I’m looking forward to working with you all. Uhm, nothing has been decided yet, huh……”

I glanced around.

Most people were awkwardly greeting each other.

However, some idols had already met before and were casually chatting like old friends.

“Everyone, can I have your attention for a moment?”

A voice called out from one side of the studio.

Lee Kyubin had reappeared after being gone for a moment.

“Are you happy with your new teams? I hope you’ll work well together and showcase a fresh side of yourself to your fans! The competition will take place in two weeks, live!”

It was quite the bold move to have the first live competition be the mixed team position battle.

They probably were trying to spread out the fan votes.

If the battle was done in fixed teams, the votes would be dominated by existing fandoms, but by forcing mixed groups, they were disrupting the usual fan wars.

“Hmm……”

Our group of five still sat in an awkward silence, even though we had free time to discuss, no one seemed to know where to start.

“Hmm…… Since we are a dance team, choosing a song and choreographing our performance will be the most important step.”

“Hyung, you can speak comfortably with us.”

“Aah, right.”

Chanyoung encouraged me warmly.

I nodded in agreement.

“I think it’d be good if we all introduced our dance styles first.”

I turned to look at Chanyoung.

“I used to do some waacking back in the day, but honestly, it’s been so long that my body probably forgot everything, haha. That said, I was in charge of precise movements, so I’m really confident when it comes to sharpness!”

“Okay.”

Sharp moves. That was a good thing.

I nodded.

Since we were a dance team, the performance had to be visually striking.

This position actually had a strong chance to increase our individual scores on the ranking.

And from the looks of it, the team’s morale was pretty high as well.

“Same here, Hyung-nim. IONER’s songs have a lot of rap, so I’m used to breaking down beats and stuff.”

Saemi flashed his adorable smile, while still sounding like a mobster.

“I mean, me too I guess……”

Kiwoong laughed shyly, giving a small nod.

Compared to those other two, he seemed a lot more reserved.

Well, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Too many strong personalities would have just led to chaos.

I thought it might be best if we could push Changyoung and Saemi forward as the young, energetic types, while Kiwoon could stay in the back row for balance.

Of course, I still needed to find a way for me to stand out as well since my ranking also needed to improve……

“……By the way, are you the leader of this team, WEEKANIZ’s Yuyoung?”

“Huh?”

The problem was him.

The one who kept stabbing me with his gaze since earlier.

“……”

<Ultimate Idol>’s current number 1 contestant.

Chenstin’s Iho.

“Aren’t I?”

I responded as if nothing was wrong.

“Ah, now that I think about it, the team next to us are reelecting their leader.”

And sure enough, there was one group that looked to be deep in discussion.

It was Haedun’s team.

“They’re reelecting a leader?”

So that was why Iho was staring at me like that.

He probably was considering doing the same thing here.

Haedun’s team had gathered in a circle, discussing something with serious expressions.

They then started raising their hands one by one.

It looked like they were voting.

Once the vote was over, one of their members walked over to Lee Kyubin.

He listened, nodded, then grabbed his mic.

“We have just received an inquiry. Teams are not required to keep their existing leaders, How you choose your center or leader is completely up to you. You can keep your original leader or you can elect a new one. For reference, the team previously led by Chenstin’s Yuho unanimously voted WEEKANIZ’s Haedun as their new leader and center!”

‘Impressive.’

That thought slipped into my head before I knew it..

Just how strong did someone have to be to be unanimously chosen by an entirely mixed group?

‘……It’s not like I’m jealous.’

It was just as WEEKANIZ’s leader, I was proud to see one of our members being acknowledged by others.

I definitely wasn’t thinking that this was unfair.

“What should we do?”

“Uuuhm……”

Saemi spoke up, while Kiwoong hesitated.

“……Let’s just leave it as is for now.”

This moderate answer unexpectedly came from Iho.

“Hmm…… Alright. Let’s do that.”

I nodded reluctantly.

However, even though Iho agreed to wait, his expression made it clear that he had no intention of giving up the leader or center position.

Honestly though?

Iho didn’t seem to have intended to sound neutral or moderate with that.

Instead, it felt like he was looking down on me, like he was granting me mercy or something.

I didn’t really want to fight him, so wouldn’t it be better to just let him have it……? I thought about it for a moment, before immediately shutting it down.

I couldn’t just half-ass this.

Not with my life literally on the line here.

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