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Chapter 2
A whole week had already passed since this incomprehensible event began.
After making that deal with the cotton fluff, I opened my eyes and found myself in a shabby goshiwon.
Ding!
A strange notification rang out.
Congratulations! You have become ‘Yoon Cheong.’
From now on, you must save the girl group ‘Steel Blue,’ whose fate is destined for failure!
This world is a little different from your own.
To put it simply, it’s a parallel world.
Everything is the same as your world, except for one thing.
In this world, a person named ‘Baek Nokha’ has never existed. And never will.
A game-like window floated before my eyes.
Compared to your own world, you have entered the body of ‘Yoon Cheong’ from ten years ago.
All you need to do is fulfill Yoon Cheong’s two wishes.
Yoon Cheong’s first wish is—
[Debut in first place on the agency’s debut survival program, Make a New Color.]
“…?”
What?
Suppressing my disbelief, I searched my memory for the name Yoon Cheong.
“Yoon Cheong… Yoon Cheong…”
Ah. I remembered.
Around the time I debuted, there had been a debut survival program airing on a cable network.
It was a survival show organized by one of Korea’s five major entertainment agencies, Colors, to launch a new girl group.
Every female trainee in Colors competed on the show for a chance to debut.
And Yoon Cheong had been one of those trainees.
I hadn’t watched the program properly because I was so busy back then… but it had been popular enough that I knew the general story.
“But I thought she debuted.”
…So what kind of wish is this?
[Debut in first place on the agency’s debut survival program, Make a New Color.]
She wanted to debut in first place?
I frowned.
She debuted back then… but what rank had she finished?
The trainees who made the debut lineup officially debuted one year later as the girl group Steel Blue.
There were five members in total, right?
Our promotion periods had overlapped once, so I’d seen them before.
One of them had been an excellent singer. I vaguely remembered thinking, So that’s the main vocalist.
“Did she debut in fifth place or something? I mean, isn’t debuting at all already something to be grateful for? Why does it have to be first?”
Still confused, I remained sitting on the bed.
Then—
Bzzzzzz.
The phone beside me began vibrating.
But something felt strange.
“This phone… it’s my phone.”
What?
Wasn’t I supposed to have entered someone else’s body?
Then why was this my phone?
And my phone from ten years ago, at that?
I was too confused—and honestly a little scared—to pick it up.
Bzzzzzz—
The phone vibrated even more insistently.
Left with no choice, I picked it up.
A notification was displayed on the screen.
…A news alert?
[Yoon Cheong Selected as the Final Member of Make a New Color.]
…This…
It was an article from my world.
As if possessed, I tapped it.
The fifth and final member of Make a New Color has been confirmed.
It is trainee Yoon Cheong, who became the center of controversy throughout the program for her lack of confidence and poor social skills.
Although Yoon Cheong finished last in the viewer popularity vote at 12th place, she became the final member through the judges’ selection, the ‘Color Choice.’
Judge Do Heeyoung, a member of the twelve-year veteran girl group Grayish and Yoon Cheong’s agency senior, explained that she selected Yoon Cheong because “the group needed a main vocalist.”
Ding!
While I was reading frantically, another notification popped up as if it had been waiting.
[Controversy Over Yoon Cheong’s Selection as the Final Member?]
“They call everything a controversy.”
Tired of it already, I opened the article anyway.
I needed to understand what was happening.
Director Kim Mogyeong of Colors explained Yoon Cheong’s selection by saying, “She has a voice capable of anchoring the group. She is the final puzzle piece needed to complete the still-inexperienced Steel Blue’s musical abilities.”
However, many netizens criticized the judges’ decision, claiming it ignored the opinions of the viewers.
So that’s why she wished to debut in first place.
…She must have been heartbroken.
Being at the center of something like this.
Of course every trainee dreams of debuting. Debuting alone is something to be grateful for.
But being grateful and being hurt are two different things.
She’s only human.
There was no way she wouldn’t be devastated when hateful comments started pouring in before she had even debuted.
It must have felt like the whole world hated her.
“More importantly… what’s with this phone?”
I unlocked it and looked through everything.
But nothing worked.
The only things I could access were the news notifications…
And the Contacts app.
“Why is the Contacts app the only thing I can open?”
Nothing about this made any sense.
Fortunately, once I opened a news notification, I could read it again whenever I wanted.
I wanted to search for more articles, but there was no internet connection whatsoever.
What an unbelievably arbitrary phone.
“Still… I guess I should be thankful I have even this much.”
…Did I really…
Make a deal with a demon?
That cotton fluff… it must have been a demon.
Otherwise none of this made any sense.
“Yeah. Honestly, it’d be better if it really were a demon. At least then it’d actually have the power to grant wishes.”
I looked at Yoon Cheong’s face—my face now—in the mirror on the desk.
She really was pretty.
I’d never looked closely before, but even in the entertainment industry, where beautiful people were everywhere, she was the kind of person who naturally caught your eye.
“She’s way prettier than I was when I debuted.”
Well, Baek Nokha hadn’t become famous because she was exceptionally beautiful.
Compared to other idols, my face had been pretty average.
Of course, my fans…
They always told me I was the prettiest person in the world.
But really, I was the one who wanted to say that to them.
When I first debuted, I got buried under styling, hair, and makeup that didn’t suit me.
Later, once I found a style that matched me—and after plenty of camera experience—I looked much better.
“Hmm. With looks like these, you’d think she’d have been popular.”
She had the skills too.
She belonged to a major agency, so she must have received decent promotion.
Then why…
Wasn’t she popular?
Just as my confusion continued to grow—
Ding!
Another notification appeared.
[Make a New Color Episode 1 Updated!]
[Would you like to watch it now?]
…Can this thing read my mind?
“No wonder she wasn’t popular.”
I felt sorry for Yoon Cheong, but it was the honest truth.
That was the conclusion I reached immediately after watching Episode 1.
In a fifty-five-minute episode, Yoon Cheong appeared for barely three minutes.
And those weren’t even three minutes focused on her.
She only appeared together with the other trainees.
And during those three minutes, the only impression she left was frustration.
The owner of this body…
Yoon Cheong…
Really…
Had absolutely no star quality.
If that were the only problem, it would’ve been fine.
But she also lacked confidence, social skills, and even basic variety sense.
On stage and off…
She was as stiff as a statue.
In survival shows like this, chemistry with the other trainees is important too.
But Yoon Cheong had none of that.
Actually…
She barely spoke at all.
Even when someone talked to her, all she’d manage was,
“U-Um… yeah…”
Nothing more.
“No wonder she got no screen time. She wasn’t entertaining.”
The practice room scenes were even worse.
The girl could sing.
But her dancing and facial expressions were an absolute disaster.
She couldn’t even keep up with the formations and kept bumping into the other trainees.
That alone said everything.
Even so, I didn’t think she was pathetic.
Because I thought I knew why she was like this.
It was only a guess, but…
The original Yoon Cheong…
Had a fear of cameras.
And stage fright to go with it.
Ten years.
I’d spent ten years surviving in this industry.
If you counted my trainee years, that made twenty.
I couldn’t say I knew this industry better than anyone else.
But I had enough experience that no one could look down on me.
If you stay in this business long enough, you see every type of person imaginable.
The people who survive usually fall into a few categories.
People blessed with incredible talent.
People who make up for lacking talent through relentless effort.
People with nerves of steel who simply endure.
And so on.
The people who struggle to survive are different.
People who cause scandals.
People who lose sight of why they started.
And…
People who are soft-hearted.
This is a harsh world.
Kind-hearted people can’t survive here.
It’s not that those people are weak.
The problem is that this industry grinds people down until they can’t endure anymore.
Anyway…
Yoon Cheong belonged to that third category.
An unbelievably soft-hearted person.
From what I could tell…
She was timid to the core.
“…Well, at least she wasn’t unpopular because of a terrible personality.”
That kind of person is much easier to help.
People with rotten personalities usually didn’t suddenly become that way after debut.
Debuting them wasn’t the difficult part.
What came afterward was.
No matter how carefully you managed them after debut, their past still existed.
If bullying scandals or personality controversies surfaced later…
There was no fixing that.
But being timid and lacking star quality wasn’t a crime.
Honestly, for someone this age to have strong mental resilience would be the unusual part.
She was only twenty.
Practically just a kid.
Well…
The soft-hearted part was something I could fix.
“Other things, maybe not.”
But when it came to mental strength…
And stage presence…
I knew exactly what I was doing.
Ding!
[Tutorial Complete!]
[Calculating Tutorial Rewards…]
[~Yoon Cheong’s Memories Up to Age 19~ Have Arrived!]
[Would you like to view them? (Yes/No)]
“…That whole thing was just the tutorial?”
There were rewards too.
And the reward was…
This body’s memories.
There was no reason to refuse.
I was going to have to live as this person from now on.
I pressed Yes.
And then…
For a long time, I couldn’t say a single word.
