# Chapter 24
“Then why don’t you try it, Hyung? Perfect pitch isn’t something just anyone is born with. This is surprisingly difficult, you know?”
“Why would I do that? Am I a manager or a singer?”
Though he stubbornly insisted he wouldn’t do it, Han Sijin seemed determined to get his revenge one way or another.
“Ha! You’re so annoying!!”
I reluctantly made the sound as he instructed, and Han Sijin laughed as if I was ridiculous.
Then he played the actual note that I had made.
What’s this? Do I have perfect pitch?
Han Sijin tested me repeatedly as if that couldn’t be possible, and each time I produced the exact sound.
Even when he asked me to try it an octave higher, I did it perfectly.
“Sijin, is Hyung a genius or something? I must be the one with perfect pitch. What should I do? They’re already insisting I be the visual center, but what if I become the main vocal too?”
“That might really be possible, Hyung. Take vocal training with me. You don’t have much to do anyway. Our only schedule is Crop Five, so let’s do it together.”
I was left speechless when he took my joking comment seriously.
While waiting for Sarah Yeon, Han Sijin went around meeting with Grand Tamer’s vocal trainers, constantly asking about what he should prepare and practicing.
And I was right beside him, listening to all of it too.
Han Sijin’s comprehension was really poor—he couldn’t understand things the first time they were explained, and he would often forget things even after thorough explanations.
So I taught him every time that happened.
“But Hyung, isn’t it enough to just sing well? Is there really a need to work this hard on these things?”
“But you can’t even sing well.”
“……”
Other people burst out laughing when they heard our conversation, and I thought I really needed to be careful with my words.
As Crop Five continued to air like a never-ending show, Han Sijin started gaining fans, and I was afraid I might get in trouble with them if I wasn’t careful.
* * *
At our first meeting with Sarah Yeon, I found her much more approachable than I expected.
“I may not be good, but I’ll work hard. And I won’t give up—I’ll do my best until the end.”
When Han Sijin spoke enthusiastically, Sarah Yeon smiled and nodded.
“Let’s skip the difficult parts. If you get tired there, you’ll just lose energy and might lose your passion too. Just keep the memory that you enjoyed singing. That’s all you need to take with you.”
“Yes, teacher.”
Han Sijin seemed immensely comforted by those words.
However, that didn’t mean her lessons were easy.
She began the process of identifying Han Sijin’s vocal range and working to bring out the best sound within it.
“Sing powerfully. Powerfully.”
She didn’t simply stop at explanations but demonstrated comparisons with her own voice.
“Ah…!”
Han Sijin exclaimed as if he’d had a major realization, but watching him actually perform, you could tell he hadn’t grasped it at all.
Sarah Yeon seemed to realize that Han Sijin was a much more difficult student than she’d anticipated.
“Is my explanation perhaps too difficult?”
She asked with a concerned expression, but each time I shook my head.
I understood everything perfectly.
During a short break, I went outside and saw our members standing quietly there.
“Why are you guys here?”
“We were curious if Sijin is doing well.”
Cha Yeonwoo said that with a bright smile.
They probably knew that when their turn came, they would train with the trainers best suited for them, but it seemed they couldn’t help but be interested in this.
Sarah Yeon, who was coming out from inside, saw them and asked me.
“Are these Sijin’s team members?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm…”
She rubbed her chin as if deep in thought, then said to me.
“Could we talk for a moment?”
“That won’t work.”
I said that thinking she was about to say she had to give up on Han Sijin, which made Sarah Yeon give me a strange look.
“Why… not?”
“You’re all Sijin has now. You can’t give up on him.”
She then burst into laughter as if she finally understood what I meant.
“You’re really interesting. That’s not what I was going to say. Then I’ll just tell you here. Sijin has a really charming voice. But he doesn’t know how to use it. If he doesn’t know how to use it, it can’t become Sijin’s weapon. I want to help him bring it out, but when I explain things, he doesn’t understand. And I think that will continue to be the case. So I was thinking, what if I teach all the Crop Five members? By listening to me explain things to the other members, Sijin might also come to understand.”
“…Pardon?”
That had its own set of problems.
There was a consensus that Sarah Yeon was the most suitable trainer for Han Sijin, but I wasn’t confident she would be the same for the other members.
She seemed to grasp that fact in the moment I couldn’t answer.
“Trust me. I can teach all these members very well. I received Sijin’s video and looked up information about the others too. You can check. I’ll prove it.”
If that was possible, I thought it would be good to do it that way.
“Dagyeong and Chan don’t exercise, right? They don’t seem to like it, but they need to.”
At her words, the two of them made expressions that seemed to ask how she knew.
“Irun is the most promising member. But if he doesn’t change from this state, he’ll be caught up to quickly. I can guess why you started Sijin’s training first, but if it were for Crop Five’s ratings, I would have started with Irun’s training.”
I found myself focusing on what she was saying.
I had been discussing things with Hyung all along, but there weren’t many people who would offer opinions from this angle.
I had consistently heard from trainers, but none of them spoke like Sarah Yeon.
“What I want to propose is this: selecting one person from these five members to release a solo album. They’ll develop beyond recognition while competing with each other. Right now, all goals feel distant, making it hard to maintain tension. When’s the debut? I don’t know. When will the song come out? I don’t know. Will we go on music shows? I don’t know. Isn’t it tiresome to answer like this? Right?”
The members nodded vigorously at her words.
I understood what she was trying to say and sent a message to Hyung right there.
I thought he absolutely needed to hear this conversation too.
Han Sijin liked her proposal more than anyone.
“I really couldn’t understand anything the teacher was saying, so this is great. I was pretending to understand, but I couldn’t figure out what she wanted, and I was really down.”
“You don’t have to say that. I can tell just by looking at your face.”
Sarah Yeon laughed and patted Han Sijin on the back.
“So now, is this becoming ‘Crop Five Survival’?”
Lee Dagyeong asked, his eyes shining.
They already had the experience of participating in an audition program and being eliminated.
But this time, it was clear that everyone would show a completely different side of themselves.
* * *
Hyung couldn’t come right away.
An important meeting at the company had gone long, but he sent his opinion that Sarah Yeon’s idea seemed good and to proceed with it.
Sarah Yeon, our members, and the people Hyung had appointed continued the meeting, and some pretty good ideas came up.
Since Crop Five had received good responses, they decided to run it for a longer period, and everyone welcomed the idea of ‘Crop Five Survival’ as it would secure content.
They ended the meeting, agreeing to think more about how to conduct the ‘Crop Five Survival’.
Sarah Yeon also said she would make plans and left first, while I stayed with the members.
“Hey, don’t you think you guys are going to start seriously competing against each other now? Excited?”
When I said this, Lee Dagyeong shook his head.
“Sijin Hyung, stop hanging out with Seomin Hyung from now on. You’ve completely ruined our Hyung.”
“Why is Seomin Hyung your Hyung? That’s ridiculous. And Seomin Hyung was like that from the beginning. It’s not like I ruined him. Don’t you know that lately I’ve been influenced by Seomin Hyung? I’m trying to be better, but Hyung keeps using bad language.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t hang out together. That should work.”
“What are you talking about? Don’t you know the saying ‘the one who caused the problem should fix it’? I have to take responsibility.”
I had no idea why those guys were bickering like that.
“Hyung, those guys are too noisy. Let’s not stay here and go somewhere else. It’s our rare free time. Seeing Sarah teacher, I think once training starts, it’s going to be really intense. We might not have time later.”
Cha Yeonwoo grabbed my arm as he said this.
But why do you think I’d want to spend my break time with you?
Jeong Chan voiced what I was thinking out loud, but before I could tell him he did well, Seo Irun took me away.
“We’re watching episode 2 today, right? Let’s watch together, Hyung.”
“Huh? Oh.”
Let go of my hand as we go.
But Seo Irun held my hand firmly and walked with long strides.
As if he wanted to leave before the other guys could follow us.
But they weren’t the type to let us get away.
