“Oh, that’s quite the confidence.”
Yungyeom smiled, lifting the atmosphere.
“Everyone knows that OnX’s stage is confident enough to have that self-assurance. It seems like everyone desperately wants their team to win.”
Thanks to Yungyeom’s smooth hosting, the briefly stirred atmosphere settled down again. Sehyun tapped Doha’s shoulder from the side and whispered in his ear.
“Hyung, you look pretty cool today? Very hip-hop.”
“Shut up.”
Doha replied curtly on purpose, but inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been worried about ruining the atmosphere, but fortunately it seemed to have passed well.
“The atmosphere is so heated that I’m curious about the results. I’d like to see the results right away… but.”
Yungyeom made a playful expression looking at the camera.
Indeed, is that the face of a professional?
“Before the results announcement, we have a special stage prepared. Please forget about the competition for a moment and enjoy the special stage.”
With Yungyeom’s comment, the lighting changed.
Originally, the special stage was a corner created with the intention of having a few people from different teams come together to show various performances, but due to the AVN incident, it became internally chaotic and the composition changed to having one or two people from each team do special stages. From OnX, Eden prepared a solo stage.
“Then, please move to your positions.”
Each team moved according to their pre-designated paths.
Until now, each team had been separated and seated far apart or filmed in different waiting rooms, but today they sat relatively close together in a row. For Doha, it was really an unwanted picture.
While the stage was being prepared, videos that had been filmed during Battle Crown were flowing on the stage screen. Most were scenes that had become topics among fans. Scenes highlighting each team’s chemistry, comical scenes from team-building events, things that emphasized a warm atmosphere rather than competition.
After making them compete like racehorses all this time, what’s with the warm packaging now? With the clever editing, it felt like friendships with other teams that didn’t exist were being created.
Throughout the competition it seemed like it was just practice, practice, practice, occasionally injuries, practice, practice.
Fabricated memories were passing by like a midsummer night’s dream.
That’s when it happened.
“I’ll replace your mic.”
“Oh, hello.”
The face of the staff member who came from the sound team looked familiar. I’d seen him before.
“You’re Jeonghyeon-ssi, right?”
When the name came from Doha’s mouth, the other person flinched in surprise. His eyes, which had been replacing the pin mic attached to his clothes, widened.
“You remember my name.”
At his surprised reaction, Doha was also surprised.
“Yes, well, I remember. Haha.”
Is memorizing a name that surprising?
“Usually at these hectic sites, it’s not easy to memorize even the sound team maknae’s name.”
“Ah.”
“…You seem really kind.”
The touch of his hands fixing the mic to the clothes was delicate. It would be good if he gave the impression of being kind.
“All done.”
After finishing his work, the man bowed politely. His black crown was visible. Doha also bowed.
He stared intently at Doha for a moment, then gathered up his equipment and went to other performers. His gaze was strangely drawn to him.
“Eden hyung is first.”
Sehyun pointed to Eden who was settling into position as chairs and a standing mic were being set up on stage. Then Doha’s gaze naturally turned to the stage as well.
“Whose member is he to be so pretty?”
Sehyun whistled and waved his hand as if cheering for Eden.
“You’re going to completely break his concentration.”
Doha clicked his tongue at Sehyun’s behavior. Then Sehyun shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“I’m the official OnX cheer squad.”
“You’re just OnX…”
What cheer squad? When you’re a member yourself.
Listening to the ridiculous talk made him feel comfortable dealing with Sehyun again. It was a completely different feeling from this morning when even making eye contact was awkward because of that day’s incident.
As expected, Lim Sehyun was amazing. No, thinking about it carefully, it was even unfair. He himself had been worrying his head off ever since, but why did Lim Sehyun seem so nonchalant?
This bastard, turns out he’s an open-minded person for whom such things don’t matter at all? Just how open-minded do you have to be to do that thing with a member and still be unbothered?
With a bang, the lighting changed to darkness. It was the signal that the stage was starting.
“Wow, even under that intense pin light, his features don’t get crushed.”
“Shh. Be quiet.”
A sweet piano melody flowed through the speakers. Unlike the heavy bass that laid down underneath, the intro started with delicate and soft keyboard sounds. A slightly husky yet sweet-toned voice filled the studio.
Doha watched Eden’s stage with his mouth hanging open.
While proceeding with Battle Crown, Eden had gone through many things too. But Eden didn’t collapse while going through such things—rather, he felt like he’d become more solid.
The various storms surrounding OnX felt like they were just a mischievous breeze passing by. He knew it was all because of a certain regressor’s efforts.
What kind of feeling is Lim Sehyun having right now?
He’d successfully prevented Haram and Eden’s blunders. Now what remained… were Yunbeom and himself.
In Yunbeom’s case, he’d thought he might get involved in a violence incident at any time because of his temper, but contrary to expectations, he wasn’t that violent. Rather, he seemed to have strong patience. That’s why he could barely endure with patience even though he himself caused all kinds of trouble.
To Doha, Yunbeom objectively belonged to the good people side.
After getting to know the members’ personalities, he came to realize that their blunders really didn’t make sense.
Setting Yunbeom aside for now, Baek Doha. As expected, Baek Doha was the problem.
What problem arose in this body that made him put a period with death?
In his current state, Baek Doha’s surrounding relationships consisted only of the members and company people. He wasn’t living a debauched life like before, and there was no indiscriminate philanthropy regardless of gender, so hadn’t the danger of death been passed?
‘Don’t think complacently.’
It’s a matter related to life, so he should refrain from roughly conjecturing.
Doha’s gaze, which had been fixed on the stage, turned to Lim Sehyun. Under the blue lighting, he could see Lim Sehyun’s profile boasting a smooth jawline.
As he quietly looked at him, Sehyun’s eyes, which had been directed at Eden, smoothly moved to the side.
Their eyes met.
While the soft melody flowed, the two quietly looked at each other.
‘Have I grown attached?’
Now Lim Sehyun felt less like a demon crazed with ambition like before, and more strongly like the fresh-faced appearance he showed. Rather, it was a bit admirable that he was struggling desperately to live well with the members.
‘This is trouble.’
He shouldn’t be seeing him like this. As expected, he’d definitely lost his initial resolve.
Was it better back when he was worried about penalty fees? Now he couldn’t even grasp what he was worrying about.
The piano melody gradually faded, leaving lingering notes. Before he knew it, the stage had ended, and applause burst out.
Startled, Doha quickly looked at the stage and clapped along.
* * *
At the end of the long stages, finally only the moment of the final results announcement remained.
“This is more nerve-wracking than the stage.”
Eden clenched and unclenched his hands while managing his expression. Since everyone had worked hard, even without saying it, they couldn’t help but be greedy.
“Only the grand results announcement remains. The team with the highest cumulative score will win.”
[Competition Evaluation Categories
Performer Self-Evaluation 25%
Expert Evaluation 25%
Global Voting Evaluation 40%
Video Views 10%]
Thinking about it carefully, if there was a performer self-evaluation, he thought maybe he should have shown himself reasonably well to the other teams. But with the competition already over, it was too late to regret now. In the first place, as a power introvert, pretending to be an extrovert to get along well with other groups was something he couldn’t even dream of.
“We’ll announce from 5th place.”
Everyone in the studio held their breath and looked at the electronic board. They were all hoping their names wouldn’t be on 5th place.
[5th Place – Blaze]
They breathed a sigh of relief and sent applause toward Blaze who placed 5th. Their stage video appeared briefly. Soon the MC interviewed them. Blaze’s leader smiled and said regardless of the ranking, it was a good experience and they were happy to have safely finished the competition.
He could relate to those words. At this moment, never mind the ranking or anything, the feeling of liberation of ‘finally it’s over!’ seemed like the greatest reward.
After that, the rankings were announced in order.
[4th Place – Deep Signal]
[3rd Place – D.N.X]
Around then, his heart started pounding.
Could this be…?
While Yungyeom was interviewing D.N.X, the OnX members exchanged glances with each other. Now they couldn’t help but count their chickens before they hatched.
“At this rate, are we really going to win?”
Haram whispered in a small voice. Crash was a popular group, and since they were a team that had gotten good results in all competitions, if you compiled the competition rankings so far, they were quite a difficult opponent. They were also a team with an overwhelmingly large global fandom.
But couldn’t they hope for the other evaluation categories…?
Thump thump, his heart beat.
“Then we’ll announce the grand 1st place.”
Tense music flowed, and even breathing sounds diminished.
Yungyeom, who checked the cue card, raised his head and looked at Doha. He briefly smiled.
Soon the name was emblazoned largely on the electronic board.
