June felt more tired than usual. He entered their shared room and dropped down on his bed. He'd usually wash up first but was too damn tired to get up.
Hoon's boisterous laughter filled the room. "I'm the center of the three-star level," he boasted. "I'm also the leader. Can you believe it? I'm such a vital person to our group."
"You have a lot of responsibility, brother," Jisung said with awe. This kid is really innocent. He doesn't even notice that Hoon is just boasting.
"Of course," Hoon said. "Our level wants to win. So, watch out, brothers. Even if you have more money than us, we can beat you."
Jisung and Jaeyong chuckled.
"I'm not letting you," Jaeyong joked. "How's it going in four-stars, brother?"
He asked Jisung an innocent question. However, Jaeyong had the hidden objective to know about their current status. Then, he would know what to improve with the five-star performance.
"I tried to be the center for four stars, but Brother Lin Zhi was a better fit," he shyly said. "He seemed to want it more than anyone else too."
June wanted to laugh out loud. That kid probably gaslit some of the trainees into giving him the center part. Lin Zhi's definitely not as good as Jisung or Steel.
"We have also started preparing our stage effects and outfits. It's quite fun doing all of those."
"What outfits are you going to wear?" Hoon asked.
Jisung chuckled and nudged his shoulder. "I won't tell you, of course. You'll have to see on the day of the performance."
Hoon pouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"What about you, senior?" Jisung asked. "Is everything going well with the five stars?"
"Of course it is!" Hoon responded for Jaeyong. "They have an unlimited budget. They must be having a field day at their level."
"Yeah, the budget is not a problem at all," Jaeyong said. "But we haven't settled on who the center will be yet. Everyone seems to want to do it."
"Oh, that's expected. There are a lot of excellent brothers in five-stars," Jisung said.
"How about you, June?" Jisung suddenly asked. June could feel their gazes on him despite his face being buried in his pillow.
He sighed, not bothering to lift his face. "I don't even want to talk about it."
***
It was another day, and June was all alone in the training room. They had agreed to start practicing at 10 AM, but the trainees only started coming in 30 minutes later.
June had enough. They couldn't go on like this. He wouldn't end up debuting at this point.
He clapped his hands, causing the discouraged trainees to look his way.
"Alright. It's time for us to talk about our stage. We can buy our outfits with the 500 dollars at least. The default stage lighting is already built-in, so that wouldn't be a problem. We just need to show a good performance to the mentors and the starlights." he said. People who vote for the rising stars are called starlights.
"What's the point?" Jangmoon whined. "The five-stars will win anyway. The trainees there are naturally talented and have fandoms already. Who would even watch a video of a bunch of untalented trainees?"
June sighed, trying his best to stay patient. "Then, let's establish the center," he said, hoping they'd cooperate this time.
"You do it," C-Jay said. "You're the only one who has experienced being in three-stars. And you seem to be the most enthusiastic out of all of us."
"Brother June would be great," Chany said. "You're the only one who can hit the high notes. That is if your voice is already fine."
Eli chuckled. "Yeah, you do it. Maybe we'd earn some views from your pink cat mask," he joked. The trainees burst into laughter and exclaimed in agreement.
"That'd be hilarious!" C-Jay exclaimed. "Imagine a cat as the center of the performance."
They chuckled once more.
They thought of it as a joke.
However, June found himself pondering upon Eli's statement.
Genius!
If they can't win through popularity, they might be able to win through other ways.
Only three kinds of videos got popular during these idol survival shows:
1. Handsome idols. It would be a bonus if they were talented, but they must be handsome in the end.
2. Pitiful idols with sad backstories. Tearjerkers always get the media. Mei Ling herself is a victim of this trend. She cried endlessly when she found out a trainee had been training for more than 3 years with their family disapproving of their dream. It's quite ironic since the siblings' past could also be considered pitiful. This body, Choi Joon-ho, is quite pitiful too. If she's watching now, she must be bursting into tears if the real Joon-ho participated.
3. Funny moments. If one's lucky, this would be the biggest hit of all categories. Normies who aren't fans of the idol industry might even tune in if the moment is too funny or ridiculous.
June already had an idea in mind. However, he needed the zero-star trainees to cooperate for his plan to push through.
If only he had something to boost their spirits…even if it's just temporary.
Ah, Eureka!
June stood up and paced back and forth, surprising most of the trainees.
"What time are we shooting tomorrow?" he asked.
"10 AM," Mike responded. "We'll be the first to perform since the other groups probably have quite extravagant stages. Why?"
June glanced at the wall clock and smirked.
11:11 AM.
Perfect.
'Fu, prepare the Power Up! booster.'
[Power Up! booster preparing.]
