[Help me.]
I had gained another chance at life thanks to Ka Jerim anyway, and if Ka Jerim’s wished-for dream was to debut and live as a celebrity, then let’s help him.
If I meet the hyungs, it will hurt a lot, right? But I think I just need to try hard to endure it. Right now, just thinking about it breaks my heart, but I deliberately squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.
“Aigoo, what end-of-month evaluation. You look like you’re about to drop dead today. Did you look in a mirror? Your face is pale. Hurry up and go to the hospital and get properly examined. Oh my— are you smiling?”
I grinned widely at Director Gye, who was looking at me with a ‘is this guy crazy’ gaze. But if I didn’t smile, I felt like I would cry because of Ka Jerim’s emotions, so I smiled even more brightly. Later, Director Gye stared at me with a disgusted face as I kept going on about the end-of-month evaluation even while being carried on a stretcher by 119, but since my condition had improved a lot, I even leisurely waved my hand while lying down and smiled.
“I’ll definitely come tomorrow.”
As an aside, after that day, I couldn’t properly meet Ka Jerim. So I belatedly realized that was Ka Jerim’s last moment, and regretted for a long time that I should have at least said goodbye.
Goodbye.
* * *
When Director Gye opened the door, the trainees standing in close rows all bowed their heads toward him at once, saying “Hello!”
“Everyone’s tired, right? Let’s hurry up and finish so we can rest.”
Director Gye waved his hand, looking at them fondly. And he greeted the vocal, dance, and rap teachers and producers sitting in chairs, simply asking how they were doing, then spoke to the trainees.
“Hey, is everyone here? From now on, we’ll begin December’s…… that is, this year’s final end-of-month evaluation. Before that, everyone sit down comfortably on the floor first.”
Finally, the day of the end-of-month evaluation had dawned. The end-of-month evaluation held at O-All Entertainment is usually conducted on the last Monday of the month and is the only day when Class A and Class B trainees gather in one place. It’s an important occasion where not only must every single trainee attend without exception, but all the teachers must also be present.
“Is the story about picking the last member of next year’s debut group true?”
“No, it’s the same as usual, so what…… I guess it was just a rumor.”
Though the end-of-month evaluation is something they experience every month, today the tension was several times higher. Because rumors had circulated that through this year-end evaluation, they would finalize the last member of next year’s debut team.
But now that it was today, since there was nothing particularly different from usual, the trainees’ faces full of expectations gradually became gloomy.
“There, stop chattering and focus!”
Director Gye clapped his hands to focus the whispering trainees, but the atmosphere was still chaotic. Actually, aside from the end-of-month evaluation itself, there was a particularly irritating presence to the trainees today.
‘Why is he acting like that today?’
That was Ka Jerim.
Originally, the Ka Jerim they remembered always became withdrawn when he went to spaces where many people gathered, so he would always bow his head deeply or be stuck in a corner. But that same guy supposedly danced Fort’s <Blood> yesterday, and now he’s sitting there with his head raised brightly instead of his usual withdrawn appearance, and even listening to the boring director’s words very well with sparkling eyes.
‘Really weird. Now it’s not just weird, maybe he’s gone crazy?’
The trainees glanced at Ka Jerim sneakily and frowned.
‘My goodness. Just look at that state.’
Ka Jerim wore the same clothes as yesterday, perhaps having pulled an all-nighter, and his dark circles were severe today, making him look even gloomier. His pale, almost sickly white face looked like a corpse.
‘Ah, crazy. We made eye contact.’
At that moment, one of the trainees who was looking at Ka Jerim, a Class B trainee, made direct eye contact with Ka Jerim.
‘The teachers are watching. Smile, smile.’
The trainee who made eye contact with Ka Jerim thought ‘unlucky’ inside, but since this was a place with several teachers present, he forcibly raised the corners of his mouth and made a fake smile. As the trainee barely created a smile and stared at Ka Jerim, Ka Jerim just silently stared at the trainee smiling at him.
‘What’s with that look? Unlucky as expected.’
The trainee gradually got annoyed because of Ka Jerim, who just silently stared blankly at him. Eventually, he thought he’d smiled enough and was about to turn his face away, but soon he was so surprised that he made a loud noise.
“H……huk!”
“What? Are you chattering over there?”
“No! I’m sorry!”
“Focus, I’m going to talk about something important today.”
As the trainee tried to turn his head, Ka Jerim belatedly seemed to realize something and went “Ah,” widening his eyes, then not only suddenly smiled bashfully but also waved his hand wiggling toward the trainee as if greeting him, and the trainee who saw that was startled.
‘No way, that gloomy, depressed, crazy Ka Jerim! Smiling bashfully!’
The trainee was so surprised that he momentarily let out a loud “Huk” sound. Ka Jerim’s somewhat shy appearance was too shocking, but what was most surprising was that even that gloomy Ka Jerim had such a side.
‘Whatever. Why bother with such a gloomy guy.’
But even so, the trainee’s earlobes were somehow flushed red. When the trainee ultimately didn’t accept the greeting and turned his head, Ka Jerim awkwardly lowered his wiggling hand and stared at Director Gye again.
“Before we start today, besides the teachers who came to guide you here with me, Seol-i came. Seol-i-ya, come in.”
Creak—
“Hello. I’m Onseol.”
‘Crazy. It’s Onseol, he’s amazing in person.’
‘Wow, it’s really Onseol?’
Seeing Onseol coming in with a bow in comfortable clothing, the trainees all whispered with surprised faces.
Onseol hadn’t debuted yet, but before that, he had already become famous through an audition program. Of course, he didn’t win first place, but he ranked high with quite good skills, and most of all, he was an issue for a while because of that glamorous appearance. However, since there was no particular occasion to encounter Onseol within the company, for most of them, today was the first time seeing him this close.
“When I told Seol-i that we were planning to pick the last member at today’s end-of-month evaluation, he said he wanted to come see for himself. So we’re going to pick the last member together with him.”
“I came with high expectations. Please take care of me.”
Awesome. I guess the rumor about picking a member this time was true.
The Class A trainees stared at Onseol with extremely excited faces. Onseol just smiled gently at their gazes and immediately conversed with the producer sitting next to him.
“Ah, they’ll probably pick from Class A anyway.”
“Right.”
Class A and Class B are divided by skill level. While the Class A trainees in the advanced class were excited thinking they might be chosen, the Class B trainees were making tearful faces knowing they would be pushed aside by Class A anyway.
If they miss this opportunity, who knows how many more years they’ll waste…… The expressions of the Class B trainees who had already given up were dark.
Director Gye, who noticed such trainees, waved his hand as if to change the atmosphere and said,
“Why are you all nervous? Just do what you’ve been doing. And here we’ll look at you equally regardless of Class A or Class B, so don’t worry.”
“Yes. Understood!”
“Oh right, we’ll start with singing first. From now on, the trainees that Teacher Son calls out should come out and show their most confident song.”
“We’re not dancing together?”
“Uh, we’ll look at dancing separately later.”
Looking at dancing separately? Usually at the end-of-month evaluation, they present original songs or practiced songs, then dance and that’s it. As they briefly wondered why it was being done separately, they soon stiffened their lips at the roll call by Teacher Son, the vocal teacher. The person whose name was called walked out with a tense, stiff face and bowed.
“Hello! I’m Kim Woohyeon from Class A!”
“Yeah, Woohyeon’s good. Woohyeon was the rap position, right? Start.”
Like that, starting with Class A trainees, all the trainees showed off the songs they had each prepared, and the director, producers, and teachers gave the trainees favorable reviews, critiques, or feedback.
Each time a turn ended, Onseol whispered something to Director Gye sitting next to him, and Director Gye who heard it repeatedly nodded. Like that, starting one by one, Class A was ending, and Class B began.
“Class B…… Seonwoo An.”
The Class B kids flinched at starting with Seonwoo An. In Class A, they had definitely called trainees in alphabetical order. Therefore, if it was alphabetical order, it should be Class B’s Ka Jerim, then Seonwoo An, but Ka Jerim was skipped. However, the Class B kids kept their mouths shut tight.
‘Did they make a mistake? Well, even if not, so what. Ka Jerim won’t be picked anyway, so there’s no need to look at him.’
With such thoughts, the trainees ignored Ka Jerim, and only Ka Jerim looked at Teacher Son, the vocal teacher who didn’t call his name, with a puzzled expression. But she was just busily turning chart pages. The teachers who were also turning charts together didn’t react either, as if no one was interested. Only Director Gye, who was looking at the chart together, frowned and opened his mouth.
“I think we skipped one kid.”
“Yes?”
Teacher Son, who was calling out the kids’ names, looked at Director Gye with a puzzled expression. Director Gye said, “Teacher Son, you made a mistake~” while tapping the chart.
“Teacher Son, you’re in charge of Class B, right? Ka Jerim is missing, Ka Jerim.”
“Yes? Ka Jerim?”
Teacher Son tilted her head, then let out an “Ah!” exclamation.
“Jerim is under my charge, but I left Jerim out.”
“Why? Is Jerim not feeling well?”
Director Gye looked at Ka Jerim as if yesterday’s incident came to mind. Ka Jerim, who made eye contact with Director Gye, shook his head as if to say no, and Director Gye looked at Teacher Son with a face that didn’t understand why Ka Jerim, who seemed to be in better condition than yesterday, was excluded.
