After the shock brought by the genre selection died down, the practice time of the different teams was now being shown.
Lin Zhi's team was the first to be shown on screen. From the start, it seemed like their team was doing pretty well, with Lin Zhi even taking the lead in making their song.
Wei exclaimed in joy when she saw her favorite trainee, causing Bora to scowl at the girl.
"You really don't have taste," Bora muttered, but Wei was too busy ogling Lin Zhi to even hear her comment.
A compilation was shown, with Lin Zhi clicking a few buttons and then a song being produced. When he first played it to his team, the girls were surprised that it sounded so professional.
- Did Lin Zhi actually produce that? If he did, then he's very talented in music production.
- It's kind of iffy, though. He made all that in just a day? Is that even possible for professional music producers?
- Shut up. Don't question Lin Zhi's talent.
- Nah, man. I replayed the scene just now. He was just pressing the spacebar for most of the time. Who the hell uses that to edit music?
- It's not like the entire scene was shown. You don't know what you're talking about.
"See!" Wei exclaimed. "He's actually talented."
Bora narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Whatever. I still don't like him."
The scene progressed, with Lin Zhi taking the lead most of the time. However, there was another person who stood out—Steel. There was no doubt that he poured his everything into this performance.
And when their performance was shown, even though Lin Zhi was in the center, Steel stole the scene with his all-out performance and great dance skills.
- Alright, fuck it up. This is actually a good performance.
- Good song, too. Lin Zhi did a good job.
- Are you guys seeing Steel right now? He's killing it!
However, just as the compliments for Steel started pouring in, it was all buried in the sea of comments when Lin Zhi ripped his shirt off at the end of the performance.
Wei screamed even louder while Bora grimaced. For Bora, seeing it live was atrocious. Such an action was out of place in the song. Their concept wasn't even sexy like the 'Tie Me Up' performance that Team Aglet had.
However, it couldn't be denied that the audience loved his plan, and even the online viewers couldn't stop themselves from complimenting Lin Zhi's body.
- He's buff! Damn, boy.
- Ooh, some eye candy. This is what I'm looking for.
- Kyaah! I'm going to vote for Lin Zhi starting today.
- *Shaking my head.* We lost them, fellas.
As their performance finished, the viewers continued talking about Lin Zhi's abs. It was a similar situation during the live shows. And Lin Zhi, who was watching alone in his room, smirked when he saw the comments praising his body.
He sighed in satisfaction as he leaned against the wall.
Being praised was definitely his favorite thing in the world—after money, of course.
"When the hell are they going to stop talking about his body?" C-Jay asked, frustrated that the people still weren't over their performance. "Sehun's team is already performing, for fuck's sake. It's been four performances already. Get over it!" he ranted.
Ren chuckled and patted C-Jay's back. "Relax," he said. "Oh, our team is on now!"
"Thank goodness, it's almost over," C-Jay sighed in relief. However, when he saw Jangmoon's face on the screen, he couldn't help but smile.
That bastard still looked annoying, but he strangely missed him.
Akira nudged his side and smirked. "You miss him, huh?"
"What do you mean?" C-Jay scoffed. "My time had been quieter after he left."
The others shook their heads. It was obvious that C-Jay missed Jangmoon. In fact, most of them did. And even if June tried to deny it, he, too, missed the goofy trainee who called him big bro.
"I'm most curious about your production process," Zeth said. "Nobody knew what you were cooking up."
"That's because we weren't cooking up anything for the first three days," Casper chuckled. "It was only after the break that we had started producing the song."
"Really?" Zeth asked. "I thought you would have come up with something then," he nudged Ren.
"I thought so, too," Ren said. "But I was having a hard time, okay? We even fought about this."
"Right," Zeth scratched the back of his head. "Sorry."
Ren chuckled and shook his head. "I'm fine now. I was even able to make a new beat yesterday."
"It looks like the viewers are thinking the same," Jisung pointed out.
- Yo, Ren. Carry this team again.
- I just know their team is settled. Ren's the goat.
- Ren will make another hit song.
- Ren looks like he's having a hard time, though. He's been awfully quiet throughout the show.
"You okay?" Zeth asked, patting his friend's back.
Ren nodded, looking unfazed. "I'm great," he responded with a wide smile. "I already told you—I'm fine. Comments like these don't even faze me anymore."
"Damn, you're strong," C-Jay said. "I would have started bawling if people expected so much from me."
"And that's the reason why I broke down last week, too. People expected too much from me, but I felt like I never lived up to everybody's expectations—including myself. However, I've come to realize that it's okay to not meet your expectations sometimes. And people who talk shit like this are people who never supported me in the first place."
"Here, here," Akira exclaimed in agreement.
"I'm just glad that June was there to help us make a song," Ren added. "He looked like a genius when he first revealed that song to us."
The scene on the screen continued, with June looking more concentrated than ever. His editing scene was longer (courtesy of Cindy), and it was believable that he composed the song itself.
"When did you learn how to edit music?" Jisung asked, amazed at how great June's music was.
June shrugged. "Tried it out the first time during this mission, actually."
Akira clicked his tongue. "You're really unfair. It's like you've been blessed with the demi-gods or something."
[Did he just call me a demi-god? Omo!]
June shook his head. 'You only come out at times like this?'
"I'm not," June said. Fu was definitely not a demi-god. He was an intern, at most.
"Then, you must have been born to do this," Jaeyong chimed. "I really like the song…and the lyrics."
Akira chuckled as he slapped Jaeyong's back. "This dude cried again after the performance."
"Woah, you're worse than me. I almost cried, but held it back," Jisung, the official crybaby of their friend group, said.
"It was an emotional song, okay?" Jaeyong snapped, causing the others to chuckle.
"I was just wondering where you got your inspiration from," Jaeyong added, diverting the topic.
"Ice cream," June said without any hesitation.
"Ice cream?" they exclaimed in unison.
"Ah, right! I almost forgot," June said, bringing out his century-old phone and typing something into his Navel account. He didn't forget to attach the photo he took of the atrocious truck.
Hi_ImKittyJunexxR1s1ingSt4r5 has a new post.
Hi_ImKittyJunexxR1s1ingSt4r5: If you're anywhere near Jongno Street, do visit the pink ice cream truck with a banana split on top of it. Forgot its name, but it's really good. Don't miss the chance because it's June-approved.
