Episode 6

Gyeoul, who was squatting in the lodging district mixed with motels and hotels, looked even more disheveled than yesterday, with her smeared eyeliner still not cleaned off.

If she enters the audition venue looking like that, she would be immediately kicked out for lack of preparation.

“Why do you look like that? Didn’t you wash up at the reserved lodging?”

“…Well, minors need parental consent to stay, and I think I left the consent form in my wallet.”

“Then you should have gone to a jjimjilbang to wash up. You can’t go to the audition looking like that.”

“I went to a jjimjilbang, but they saw my school uniform and told me students are restricted from using it from midnight to 5 a.m., and they kicked me out…”

“You should’ve taken off your uniform…”

Gyeoul, having nothing to say, just whimpered and cried.

“So, did you end up sleeping rough here?”

Gyeoul nodded, looking completely dejected.

Even though Korea was safe, how could a girl sleep rough alone in a motel district without knowing what could happen?

It was a truly bold and careless decision.

I wanted her audition to fail, not her entire life to fall apart.

“First, go to a sauna or bathhouse and wash up. You still need to attend the audition, right?”

“…The thing is, the audition was in the morning, so I already went to the venue. They said it was yesterday, not today.”

Wow…

This was why she couldn’t debut.

“Yeji definitely said it was today…”

“Didn’t you mishear her?”

“No, she even saw me off. She said she hoped I would make it even though she didn’t…”

According to Gyeoul, she only learned to dance and sing by following a girl named Yeji and had no intention of auditioning.

She thought she didn’t have the talent to be an idol.

Then, one day, Yeji suggested they audition together, and she found the idea of doing something with Yeji enjoyable, so she auditioned.

Yeji, helping Gyeoul, who was clueless about computers, assisted her with the application and online setup, so she successfully completed the online audition. However, only Gyeoul passed the first audition.

Gyeoul was afraid that they would grow apart.

She even thought it would have been better if she had failed and Yeji had succeeded.

But Yeji encouraged her, saying she would help with the process and schedule confirmation, and told her to go for the second audition.

With Yeji’s help, Gyeoul practiced dancing and singing and came to Seoul today to audition on the date Yeji told her, but this was the result.

This situation didn’t seem like a simple mistake.

It wasn’t just my suspicion; in Gyeoul’s detailed story, Yeji didn’t seem like a genuine friend.

Even though Gyeoul, the speaker, tried to speak positively, there was a sinister vibe that stood out like a thorn.

Yeji probably never thought of Gyeoul as a friend from the beginning.

Or even if she did, she might have considered Gyeoul inferior to herself.

In such a situation, the jealousy of Gyeoul succeeding where she didn’t could have motivated her to deceive Gyeoul.

Gyeoul, being the person involved, would have felt this even more.

But she would have excused it to herself as ‘because we’re friends,’ deceiving herself.

“…Don’t hang out with that girl Yeji anymore.”

Gyeoul couldn’t answer and just let her tears fall.

Gyeoul, having lost not only her audition opportunity but also her only friend, looked more pitiful than anyone in the world.

Now seemed like the perfect time for my plan to introduce her to Cheon Jonghoon to work effectively.

“You said the agency you were auditioning for was CH, right?”

Gyeoul looked up at me with swollen eyes and nodded.

“How about joining SS?”

“…SS?”

“Yes, SS, one of the three major agencies. In terms of facilities, vision, and support, SS is better than CH.”

“It would be great to join SS… But would they accept me? I heard SS has the highest competition rate for trainees and the lowest debut rate. There must be many people better than me.”

I encouraged her.

“You can become greater than those amazing people.”

“…Thank you for saying that. But what do you see in me to make such a statement? I lost my wallet because I’m clumsy, and I got tricked into mistaking the audition date because I’m dumb. What do you see in that?”

What do I see? I had the status window.

But, of course, I couldn’t tell her that.

If I said that, I would be lucky if I wasn’t sent to a mental hospital.

So, I had to be shameless.

“Because you have talent.”

“How do you know I have talent?”

“Intuition.”

“…Intuition?”

“Yes, intuition. I’m not saying it lightly. My intuition has never been wrong. I could bet my entire remaining life on you becoming the top idol.”

Of course, that was assuming there were no natural disasters, and she received reasonable training from a good agency.

Well, I didn’t plan to add such a lame statement.

There was only one thing I had to say.

“Trust me. I’ll make you the best idol.”

Gyeoul stared blankly at my confident face.

Then she spoke with a hazy look, as if she were drunk.

“…I’ll trust you.”

Her eyes, filled with blind faith, looked like she had found religion.

The drug seemed to be working too well…?

I brushed it off, thinking it was a good thing.

Anyway, since I got Gyeoul’s permission, it seemed okay to try to deal with Cheon Jonghoon.

Without hesitation, I decided to call Cheon Jonghoon immediately.

Since we had a relationship before my regression, I remembered his phone number.

Not one of his four work numbers, but his private number that fewer than twenty people knew.

Even if an unknown number appeared, he would definitely answer a call to this number.

As expected, after about thirty seconds of ringing, the call connected.

“…Who is this?”

“Team Leader Cheon Jonghoon, right? I heard you’re having trouble recruiting the last member for your new girl group project. Would you like to be introduced to a trainee?”

Before he dismissed it as a prank call and hung up, I quickly listed the information.

“She has an overall cold yet classy appearance. Think of an elegant black. The right song would be more about creating tension and synesthesia rather than being pure or lovely, like Jersey Club style. Of course, it should include intense and high-level performances that match.”

He couldn’t possibly ignore this.

Because I spoke exactly like his autobiography, which detailed the title track, “Queen in the Mirrorland,” of the idol group Alcest he was creating.

“…”

Cheon Jonghoon fell silent, thinking for a long time.

It made sense.

A stranger suddenly calling and speaking as if they had looked into his mind would naturally arouse suspicion.

However, despite the lack of credibility of this situation and myself, he would take the bait.

As a producer, he couldn’t ignore it if there was a candidate who completely matched his thoughts in a desperate moment.

“…It’s too good to be true. It feels like someone looked into my mind and then spoke. But having a stranger say that is unpleasant. Very unpleasant.”

Cheon Jonghoon spoke like a beast whose mood had soured.

“…But I can’t dismiss it outright.”

His simmering displeasure and overwhelming curiosity came through the phone.

“How did you get this number?”

Cheon Jonghoon seemed to want to know who leaked his number.

I had the answer ready.

“I used to be Manager Seonghwan’s manager. He didn’t belong to an agency, so it wasn’t an official contract, but more like a grandchild receiving pocket money.”

Seonghwan, a legendary figure in the music industry and a recently deceased trot singer, was a good excuse.

He couldn’t question a deceased person about why they gave out his number.

Additionally, I preemptively blocked any follow-up questions about a formal contract.

“Manager Seonghwan? Hah… Yeah, that could be.”

He seemed to think the name Seonghwan was plausible.

“Then how did you know I was having trouble recruiting the last member? The people working on this project with me aren’t loose-lipped.”

“Didn’t Manager Seonghwan visit SS on his YouTube channel while he was alive? I followed along and reviewed the trainees. And I was sure that only four of them would catch your eye, Team Leader Cheon.”

It was an effective excuse, as Cheon Jonghoon wouldn’t have been involved in the YouTube shoot.

“And it’s an open secret that SS’s new girl group project was set to have five members, so I pieced it together and guessed you’d have trouble selecting the last one.”

“I want to hang up right now, so don’t joke around. Are you seriously claiming that you limited it to four based on a quick glance during that short shoot? Do you think that’s a reasonable excuse?”

Even I thought it was a ridiculous excuse.

If that were possible, why would there be auditions and tests?

“Aren’t the selected trainees Lily, Coco, Amy, and Yoon Jeong?”

But I knew.

“…”

He couldn’t dismiss the words of someone who had seen the rise and fall of Alcest as mere nonsense.

If you don’t like it, you could regress too.