"Who placed cleaning supplies as part of the hidden items?" Yena asked, frustrated at the production team.
The crew members started pointing at each other. The intern, Ann, who always seemed to run into June, sighed and raised her hand.
"What?" Ye-jin asked. "Are you insane?"
"It's not part of the hidden items," Ann explained. "Someone in their right mind wouldn't even think of that. I just spilled my coffee and borrowed the janitor's cleaning cart. I left it there since I got busy preparing the live stream. I didn't know a trainee would even get it!"
Ye-jin massaged the bridge of her nose. "Well, that June kid definitely isn't ordinary. What should we do now?"
"I say, we just let it be?" Yena suggested. "He doesn't have any other item. Besides, I'm also curious about what he'd do with cleaning supplies."
"Alright," Ye-jin sighed in agreement. "Let's get this thing started then."
***
Loyal 'Rising Stars' viewers waited in anticipation after the announcement that the trainee's self-PR live streams were going to be aired this afternoon. As usual, the three friends huddled in their own laptops inside their university library.
It was their final exam this week, yet the fan girl's life still did not stop.
Yes, there were only three of them! Since Jia was unlucky enough to have an exam scheduled in the afternoon, she couldn't join her friends for the live-streaming event.
"Wait for me, June!" Jia thought as she pressed the numbers on the calculator harshly. She was already cursing her professor and wishing him a lifetime's worth of bad luck.
Soo-min immediately clicked on Zeth's live stream, his striking blue hair and wide smile being shown on the thumbnail.
"Hey, guys!" Zeth exclaimed. "Oh, you're filling in this stream so fast. I can't believe a thousand of you are already in here!"
"Zeth," Soo-min whispered, falling in love with his boyish charms. "I'll give you the world if I could."
"We don't have much time to talk, but I hope you still enjoy this stream. I'll be doing dance covers with you, guys!"
Zeth moved back and started playing the trending idol songs on social media. It was supposed to be a random playlist, yet he knew each and every song that was played.
Na-ri, on the other hand, clicked on all three live streams of the RAVEN members. She knew she couldn't focus on all three of them, but who cares? She was staring at three handsome men on her tiny screen. What more could she ask for?
Jaeyong, who found some dumbbells, gave the viewers some exercising techniques. His toned body and strong biceps were being flaunted on screen, melting the hearts of many.
Evan, on the other hand, was lucky to pick a guitar. He wasn't the best at playing it, but he could play simple chords—just enough to serenade the starlights.
Although he was deemed the most "unpopular" member, ranking lower than his other members, Akira garnered the most viewers because of his unique live stream.
- OMG! Is that a Kyoto?
- I've only ever seen one in anime shows. That's so cool!
- Akira's so handsome. His voice is very nice too!
Akira smiled as he read some of the comments. "I'll sing more songs for you, guys. So, stay here with me, okay?"
Wei, who was a fan of timid-looking boys, couldn't pick who to watch. She first clicked on Lin Zhi's live stream but found that he was teaching the viewers how to speak Chinese using a whiteboard.
Wei would have loved to tune in. But she's of Chinese descent! She got bored after watching for a few minutes.
So, she settled on one of the trainees who was starting to crawl up her bias list—Jisung.
"Ah, hello, guys," Jisung shyly said, a pink tint on his cheeks. "I'm new to this kind of thing, so please bear with me."
"So cute!" Wei quietly exclaimed.
- What are you going to do today, Jisungie~
- Please dance soon. I love your dance.
"Yes, yes," Jisung said. "I'm going to dance ballet today."
- Omo! Ballet? What did we do to deserve this?
- I can't wait to see it!
Now that it was their third week, Jisung became increasingly popular after an edit of his audition was posted on LikLok, a popular application for sharing short videos.
As a result, Jisung was in the top ten trainees with the most viewers in their live streams. To be exact, he currently has 75,000 viewers!
"I'm going to be dancing a routine I learned in ballet school," Jisung continued. "But I learned it when I was very young, so please bear with me."
As he was about to stand up, he realized that he didn't get to thank the person who allowed him to put on a ballet performance.
He shyly sat back down, clearing his throat as he prepared to talk. "I have one more thing to tell you, guys."
- Tell us anything, Jisungie~
- Go ahead, our baby!
"Honestly, I was really unconfident during the start of this mission, but one of my brothers was kind enough to give me these ballet shoes as an item. I want to thank June for being such a good friend and for selflessly giving his item to me!"
- June? That masked guy?
- OMG! June? I like that guy.
- Right! I remember they were both in three stars when the show just started.
Wei straightened her back. "June? Oh, Jia would love this."
"So, if you guys want to support me, please head to June's live stream after my dance! He has a pretty interesting item," Jisung hinted.
Wei watched Jisung gracefully dance to a Nutcracker song, and she was amazed by how broad his dancing background was. However, as much as she was amazed, she couldn't get her mind off what Jisung had said a while ago.
To satiate her curiosity, Wei muted Jisung's live stream before clicking June's.
Wei exclaimed in shock, causing the librarians and other library-goers to turn her way.
"Shh!"
She covered her mouth with the back of her hand to stifle her giggles.
All the other trainees picked locations in the training grounds—some were in the living room, kitchen, hallways, and other reasonable areas.
What was June doing in the bathroom in front of a toilet?
"These guys don't know how to flush after themselves, so it's best to use bleach to clean it. This one's an expensive kind," he said in a serious voice before pouring some of the bleach on the inside of the toilet.
And he's giving people cleaning advice?
"Soo-min! Na-ri! You guys need to watch this!"'
