As Mei began to sing, the silence in the room increasingly became louder.
Akira pursed his lips as all his hopes and dreams came crashing down.
Meanwhile, Ren tried his best to stay respectful, but since his ears were extra sensitive due to his music production skills, he had to cover them with his hands, even grimacing as Mei's voice cracked once more.
"Umm, am I the only one who thinks that this song is too high for her?" Casper suddenly asked.
They all shook their heads while June remained silent.
He didn't know what the production and editing team did, but Mei sounded even worse than she did during the live audition. Maybe because all of the noise and the other static elements were removed, her voice was now clearer—clear, not in a positive way, but in a way that showed all of the flaws in her voice.
Nonetheless, her emotion still shone through in the song that she was singing.
However, with the cold editing style that they employed, it was hard to feel the emotions that she was trying to portray.
"It's okay. It's okay," Akira chuckled to himself. "Not everyone is perfect! Maybe she's a great dancer."
Then, as the chorus arrived, Mei began dancing. She had similar dancing skills when June was also auditioning, so one could already imagine that her dancing couldn't save her singing at all.
"Maybe rapping?" Sehun asked, also trying to be optimistic.
Ren turned to Sehun with raised eyebrows. "Since when did this song have a rap?"
Sehun scratched the back of his head and inferred that staying silent was the best way to go.
Although the members of EVE were trying to be nice, the comments from the public were already going haywire.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})- I knew it. A face like that couldn't be talented, too.
- It's no excuse. Mina's very pretty, too, but she's not as useless as this trainee.
- Come on. You have to admit that Mei's on a different level when it comes to visuals.
- Still, it doesn't make sense why someone who can't sing or dance would even participate in the show.
- Don't be too harsh, guys. She's just a trainee. She even said that she's only been training for a few months.
- Talent is something you are born with, not something you can force. If you can't sing or dance when you are young, then it's most likely that you're also not going to be able to sing when you're older.
- Fucking ugly ass bitch. I can't believe someone like her even came to the show.
June knew that he shouldn't have scrolled through the comments on the livestream, but he just couldn't help himself.
So, he brought out his phone and started scrolling through the comments to see the public's reaction.
Indeed, it was as worse as he expected—maybe even worse.
They weren't merely cooking her in the comment section; they were already burning her!
- I swear, if someone like her debuts, I'll have to believe that this show is rigged.
- Agreed. Azure is a piece of snake, but I couldn't believe they'd stoop down this low.
- Kill yourself.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})- Seriously, I hope she jumps from a tall building so we can stop hearing her goat-like voice.
- These comments are not it. This girl appears very young, and she's doing her best to sing and dance despite her lack of ability.
- Well, she should work harder if she doesn't want to receive any death threats.
- The song is just too high for her. Her voice is actually not that bad. She just needs to sing something within her range. Moreover, I could see some potential in her dancing. If she had only trained for a month or so, then this is already a great foundation.
- Too high, my ass. June is singing the song in the same key that she did, and he sounds like an angel!
June closed his eyes and leaned his head against the couch.
All right, maybe showing off after Mei Ling's audition was really a huge mistake.
The fans that he was grateful for were also the ones throwing hate at the innocent girl!
"Dang," Jaeyong said. "You definitely showed them how to sing. I nearly cried at your rendition."
"June is the best singer in the idol industry! It's unfair to compare the trainees to him," Casper remarked.
June nodded in agreement, still feeling awful about the hate comments that were being thrown at his sister.
Finally, her audition ended, yet the hate comments didn't stop.
June sighed in relief when he felt that the show was already coming to an end. However, he nearly forgot that Rising Stars always did a compilation at the end of the first episodes—ones that would elicit pity from the audience so they would continue watching the show.
The words—'Why did you become an idol?' were shown on screen, accompanied by mellow, melancholic music that made the audience pay greater attention.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Because I'm not good at anything else."
"It's my passion!"
"I want to make my parents proud.
"I want to make other people happy!"
"I don't know."
With the sound of Mei's voice, June lifted his head, only to be met with Mei's bare face.
This was the sweet, innocent sister (not really) that June was aware of. However, it was evident that she had gotten prettier. Her bare face was somehow even more attractive than the one with make-up.
Mei sat in the white room with which the boys were all too familiar with. The music had now gotten softer, adding even more emotionality to the scene.
"I don't know," Mei repeated, her voice soft.
"For the longest time, I felt like something was missing inside me. Like there was a void in my heart that I couldn't fill."
"For a year, I woke up every day with this emptiness gnawing at me. I tried to ignore it, but it was always there."
"Then one day," she continued, "I saw idols dancing on stage. Their movements were so full of life. And suddenly, I felt this urge, this... longing to be up there with them."
She looked up, her eyes meeting the camera, making those watching feel her sincerity even more.
"It was like the missing piece of my heart was right there in front of me," Mei confessed. "But if you ask me why... I don't know. Maybe it's because when you're on stage, you can give happiness to others just by being yourself. Maybe it's because of the love and adoration you receive from fans."
"Or maybe... maybe there is no reason. It just... is."
