BLDGF 05

Chapter 5

“Ah, Trainee Baek Young?”

Producer Oh let out a thoughtful hum as the corners of his lips curled upward.

“Baek Young said the same thing earlier. She said your skills seemed to improve because the two of you practiced together.”

A lie.

Cheong and Baek Young had never once practiced alone together.

“Oh, it wasn’t just practicing together. She practically raised me.”

Another lie.

Raised me? Not at all. I raised myself.

“You two really have a great relationship, don’t you?”

“Of course. She’s my savior.”

Wondering how things ended up like this?

Then we have to go back thirty minutes.

While the other trainees were taking turns being interviewed,

I handed Seo Baek Young a bottle of water.

I already knew.

Producer Oh would deliberately schedule our interviews for last.

He’d squeeze every reaction and every bit of material out of the other trainees first…

Then come after the two of us at the very end.

I’ve worked in television before, you know.

“…Thanks.”

Fortunately, although Seo Baek Young looked at me suspiciously,

she didn’t refuse.

“No, thank you, Unni.”

“You’re thanking me?”

Seo Baek Young asked in surprise.

“Yes. Thanks to you, I got screen time and had the chance to show my skills.”

Besides, I didn’t think any of it would get edited out.

I was genuinely grateful to Seo Baek Young.

Of course, I didn’t believe she’d done any of it with good intentions.

But the result had turned out well, hadn’t it?

“…No. You got screen time because you did well. Besides, I ended up getting screen time too, so it worked out for both of us.”

That was true.

I nodded immediately.

Of course, more of the spotlight would fall on me.

I was a complete before-and-after case, so naturally I’d get more attention.

But Seo Baek Young had also shown off her skills while standing beside me.

And regardless of what happened behind the scenes, on camera she’d openly said she wanted to help me.

From Seo Baek Young’s perspective, there was nothing for her to lose.

“So, Unni.”

I sat down beside Seo Baek Young.

“Do you want to get even more screen time?”

“…Huh?”

“In a positive way. Without doing anything provocative.”

“Ah, then could you please look into the camera and say this?”

The staff smiled kindly as they made their request.

“’It even made me wonder if Cheong had been hiding her skills all this time.’”

The moment Baek Young heard that request,

she realized instantly.

This was the moment Yoon Cheong had been talking about earlier.

“Producer Oh and the writers are definitely going to find it strange. They all thought I couldn’t dance, so they’ll be surprised when I suddenly perform well.”

“I was wondering about that too. Just how—”

“I’ll explain later. We don’t have time right now.”

At the time, Baek Young had wondered.

Was she always this confident when she spoke?

She had always seemed…

so timid.

“When your interview starts later, Producer Oh is definitely going to ask if I’ve been hiding my skills.”

“…Huh?”

“If you say you think that’s true, what do you think will happen?”

“…What?”

“At first, it might seem like it benefits you. It’ll look like my image is taking a hit. But that’s only temporary. Eventually I’ll prove that I wasn’t hiding my skills—I was simply improving. And in the end, you’ll be the one known as the trainee who badmouthed another trainee out of jealousy.”

“…!”

“So let’s make this a win-win instead. We can build some chemistry too.”

“Trainee Baek Young?”

“Ah, yes.”

Baek Young quickly came back to her senses.

Then she gave the answer she’d prepared.

“I’m sorry. Actually… I know why Cheong suddenly improved so much.”

“…Hm?”

Producer Oh asked back, frozen in place.

His expression clearly said,

What is she talking about?

“Cheong and I stayed up all night practicing together. For three straight days. I helped her with the details of her dancing.”

“Trainee Baek Young helped her?”

“Yes. And Cheong—”

Baek Young stopped midway through her sentence.

Is it really okay to go this far?

But in the end, she made up her mind.

“Cheong helped me practice my vocals.”

After all,

she had nothing to lose.

Producer Oh wore an odd expression.

The truth was, he’d intended to pit the two of them against each other.

How entertaining would that be?

Colors’ longest-serving trainee versus its newest trainee.

Of course, he knew Yoon Cheong had actually trained for ten years in total.

But Producer Oh didn’t care.

She had only been at Colors for a few months.

As long as the headline sounded sensational, that was enough.

The veteran versus the rookie.

Or…

The main dancer versus the main vocalist.

He could come up with all kinds of dramatic titles.

Producer Oh had been completely confident.

Until Seo Baek Young crushed that confidence.

And then Yoon Cheong stomped on whatever confidence he had left.

“Yes. As you saw earlier, Unni was really worried about my dancing. So whenever she had free time, she helped me practice.”

I deliberately put on the most apologetic expression I could manage.

“The truth is… I’m really terrible at dancing. I was always causing trouble for the other trainees.”

At times like this,

you had to look pitiful.

So pitiful that it stopped being entertaining.

“So… even though I was embarrassed, I asked Baek Young Unni to help me.”

“Why Seo Baek Young specifically? There are plenty of other trainees.”

But Producer Oh refused to give up.

He had to get something.

Some juicy material for the broadcast.

“Ah, because she’s been at Colors the longest. And she’s such an amazing dancer.”

But I wasn’t easy to deal with either.

Don’t fall into the trap!

“How’s your relationship with the other trainees?”

“They’re all so kind to me!”

I kept my answer short.

The longer I talked,

the more opportunities I’d give them to edit things however they wanted.

“Trainee Seo Baek Young said you’ve been helping her with vocal practice?”

“Yes. Though my own skills still have a long way to go…!”

I quickly added,

“But honestly, Baek Young Unni helps me so much more. And while I’m really grateful for all her help…”

Smile.

“My favorite part is just getting to spend more time with her. I really like Baek Young Unni.”

Even if that part got edited out.

Once all the pre-interviews were finished,

filming for the day finally ended.

It had been an incredibly long day.

If the very first day was already this exhausting,

the rest of the show was going to be rough.

I gathered my things and headed toward the vocal room.

I wanted to warm up my voice for the first time in a while.

Just then—

“Hey!”

Someone called out to me.

When I turned around,

I saw a familiar face.

Kim Ryeoyu.

Another trainee competing on Make a New Color.

And—

“Amazing dancing back there.”

The trainee who,

in the original timeline,

would debut in second place.

“Ah, thanks.”

I accepted Kim Ryeoyu’s greeting immediately.

“Seriously, though. How did you suddenly become so good? You totally shocked me earlier.”

“Baek Young Unni helped me a lot.”

“Baek Young Unni?”

Ryeoyu looked genuinely surprised.

“She’s a nice person, sure, but she’s not exactly someone who has enough free time to coach other trainees.”

“We just helped each other with what we were each lacking.”

Earlier, I’d already asked Baek Young not to tell anyone about our arrangement.

Not the other trainees either.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them.

I was just worried Producer Oh might trick someone into saying something during an interview.

Fortunately,

Seo Baek Young was quick to understand.

“Ah, so you helped her with vocal practice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then help me too!”

Ryeoyu said brightly.

…The problem was—

“Hm? Why?”

She and the original Yoon Cheong had never been close at all.

If anything,

she had always looked down on her.

According to Yoon Cheong’s memories,

Kim Ryeoyu could be summed up like this:

A promising trainee.

Director Kim’s niece.

And someone who subtly looked down on and dismissed Yoon Cheong.

“Why? We might debut together, you know~ Wouldn’t it benefit both of us if we helped each other? Just like you and Baek Young Unni.”

“Sorry.”

And according to Baek Nokha’s memories,

Kim Ryeoyu was…

“I only need Baek Young Unni.”

“…What?”

The girl who caused a massive scandal just one year after debut,

destroying the team in the process.

“Ah, I phrased that badly. That’s not what I meant. Baek Young Unni and I already worked out our practice schedule, so I don’t think I’ll have much time.”

“…Oh. I see.”

Ryeoyu still looked dissatisfied.

But it wasn’t an unreasonable explanation,

so she reluctantly accepted it.

“If we’re on the same team for the next mission, though, I’ll help you then. As much as I can.”

Help you? Yeah, right.

I don’t know about the others,

but you’re absolutely not debuting.

The vocal training room.

Everyone simply called it the vocal room.

The reason I came here—

“Ah… ah.”

To warm up my voice after such a long time.

For an idol, dancing was important.

But vocals were just as important.

After all,

a singer’s first job was to sing.

“As expected… her vocal cords are in terrible shape.”

More importantly,

Yoon Cheong had a major problem.

She’d never received proper vocal training at her previous agency,

so her vocal cords had suffered significant damage.

“At least there’s one piece of good news…”

“I still have my own voice.”

That was right.

The voice coming out now wasn’t Yoon Cheong’s.

It was Baek Nokha’s.

For some reason,

nobody around me found that strange.

Was that another one of the demon’s powers?

“At least I won’t have to get used to a new voice.”

My vocal range was the same.

My skills were the same.

The only issue was that these vocal cords were badly fatigued,

so I’d need to take good care of them.

I’d better be careful.

If I wasn’t,

I might lose my voice when it mattered most.

“…Should I buy some pear-and-bellflower-root extract first?”

I casually checked the balance in Yoon Cheong’s bank account on my phone.

Hmm.

…The pear-and-bellflower-root extract would have to wait.

Yoon Cheong had no family.

Which meant…

She had no one to support her.

No one to protect her.

Maybe that was why I couldn’t stop worrying about her.

If I was going to help her anyway…

I wanted to do it properly.

Even if this all started because of a deal,

I still wanted to do my best.

Especially after experiencing the cold atmosphere in the practice room today.

Loneliness was an emotion I knew better than anyone.

You could be surrounded by hundreds…

Even thousands of people…

And still feel lonely.

I had been lonely among crowds.

Yoon Cheong was lonely because she was completely alone.

“…Enough pointless thoughts.”

For now,

I needed to focus on the next filming.

Because the next shoot would be the truly important first impression.

Make a New Color—or simply MenuColor—made aggressive use of the video streaming platform OTube.

They planned to upload videos there even before the main broadcast aired.

That’s right.

Tomorrow was the day they would film the second video to be uploaded to OTube.

The first upload would only be a teaser,

and it was too short for viewers to really tell who anyone was.

So that didn’t matter.

Tomorrow was what really counted.

Because tomorrow’s shoot was—

The self-introduction.