Chapter 112. Things Will Explode (12)
The audience’s cheers erupted only after a brief moment had passed since the performance ended.
Destis, who barely managed to pull themselves out of their trance, shouted with all their might.
“Phew… Ah, that was tough. Thank you!”
The Blue Flare team, who had maintained their ending pose for a little longer, loosened up their stance with smiles in response to the cheers. After taking a moment to collect themselves and adjust their hair and makeup, the Blue Flare team stepped off the stage. However, the audience’s excitement showed no signs of cooling down.
“Please, seriously, guys, no, I mean, I’m at a loss for words, no….”
Soda clutched MalangGgom’s hand tightly, barely managing to keep a grip on her sanity, which felt like it was about to fly away. The problem was that MalangGgom wasn’t in much better shape either.
“Unnie, Siwoo… Siwoo… Our Siwoo really seems to be a prince. What the hell, we used to joke about him being the noble prince of Miro, and now he actually shows up as a real prince, how are we supposed to survive this….”
MalangGgom, who had always viewed Jung Siwoo as a classic prince who went through the arts middle school, arts high school, and arts university route, muttered as she held her temples. It seemed that the impact of the white shirt and cummerbund had been significant.
Then, someone grabbed the shoulders of the two.
“…Everyone, quiet down. My thoughts are really complicated right now.”
It was Gwajam, who had endured the sight of her bias’s chest and back through her viewfinder, and even withstood the three-octave high notes with superhuman willpower, grinding her teeth to suppress her screams.
MalangGgom and Soda looked at Gwajam in amazement.
“How did you… manage to hold it in?”
“I just kept thinking that if I didn’t capture this moment, my entire life as a fan with a camera would be in vain.”
“Unnie, did you get all the shots?”
“I think I got one of each of them. I don’t know, really, I was just focusing on not shaking the camera, so now I’m completely burned out.”
Gwajam said she had taken all the pictures she needed today, and without hesitation, put her camera back in her bag, ready to fully enjoy the remaining talk. Before putting it away, she carefully checked the preview and, just in case, took out the memory card to keep it separately. The three of them couldn’t contain their excitement at the thought of checking the previews later in the dorm on Gwajam’s laptop.
Meanwhile, the stage was set, and once again, Seo Taeil was the first to come up.
“Blue Flare team’s ‘Set me free.’ It seems like everyone enjoyed… watching it.”
Instead of asking, “Did you enjoy it?” at the right timing, Seo Taeil nodded as if he already knew, making everyone laugh.
“Now, let’s proceed with the voting as usual.”
In the previous stages, they had also taken votes before the post-performance talk. It seemed to be a strategy to capture the lingering impression of the stage before it faded or to avoid forgetting the emotions while engaging in the talk.
“Wow… How are we supposed to do this?”
“What’s there to think about? Just vote for your favorite, right?”
“Yeah, but… Wow, I mean, yeah, but….”
When it was time to vote for the trainees, which had felt perfectly timed in the previous stages, it was a bit challenging this time.
“My brain says I should vote for Doha….”
“Unnie, but you’re thinking about Yugeon, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s not out of pity or sympathy, but honestly….”
Soda finally admitted it.
Today, Lee Yugeon was undeniably the MVP of this stage!
Especially when he fiercely bounced his body and doubled up on his rap at the end, it made her empathize to the point where she thought, ‘Pygmalion from Greek-Roman mythology must have felt this way when he saw his sculpture come to life.’
“I’m still going to vote for Hajin.”
“Hah, should I vote for Doha too?”
“No, it’s just… I think everyone else will vote for Yugeon. Hajin did an amazing job too, but honestly, considering what happened last time, people who watched today’s stage would probably feel moved to vote for Yugeon.”
Gwajam gave a rather cold and rational assessment. Hearing this, MalangGgom finally decided to give her vote to Siwoo.
The only one left was Soda.
‘Ah, what should I do?’
As Soda was deliberating, Seo Taeil announced that the voting would soon close. The unique numbers for each trainee appeared on the screen, with Doha being number 2 and Yugeon being number 4, in order of age.
Caught between 2 and 4, Soda finally pressed a button.
-…3, 2, 1! Voting is now closed.
“Unnie, unnie, who did you vote for? Doha?”
“No. Yugeon.”
“What, really? Unnie, did you decide to go with him after all?”
“…Not quite there yet, but, hmm.”
Soda shrugged, suggesting they talk more about it later. MalangGgom and Gwajam exchanged glances, chuckling softly as they seemed to understand Soda’s mindset.
Soon, the Blue Flare team came back on stage.
“Aaaah!! Siwoo-ya!!!!!”
“Kang Hajin, wrap it up!!!!!”
“Guys, I love youuuu!!!!!”
With screams erupting from all around, the trainees took their positions on stage, smiling slightly. It wasn’t until the assistant director hurriedly quieted down the individual comments that the audience finally settled. Gwajam, who had put down her camera, shook Hajin’s slogan with sparkling eyes.
“Blue Flare team, please greet your Destis first!”
“Yes. We’ll greet you. Two, three!”
“The light burning within Desti! Hello, we are Blue Flare!”
At Hajin’s command, the six boys looked up at the left sky, mimicking the motion of shooting an arrow. Curious about the unique greeting, Taeil asked,
“Oh, this team has an interesting greeting. What’s that motion about?”
All eyes turned to one place.
Doha, who looked like someone who would never do such a thing, blinked blankly.
“The creator of the team name will kindly explain that part.”
“Oh, trainee Lee Doha came up with the team name and motion? Then let’s hear it!”
Our Doha made it? Soda’s ears perked up like a rabbit’s. She carefully listened to each word, thinking she’d later sneakily use it as promotional material for Doha when writing her viewing reviews.
Doha, who was holding the mic, hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Um, to explain that, I’d have to start with the subtitle of the program… so the story might get a bit long.”
“Oh, is there such a profound meaning behind it?”
“To sum it up as much as possible, since the hottest flame burns blue, the team name ‘Blue Flare’ was created to signify the brightest burning light. The reason we didn’t choose ‘Flame,’ which means ‘fire,’ is… related to our program’s subtitle.”
Soda thought that Doha’s soft-spoken explanation was practically an ASMR.
But, the subtitle?
Miro Maze’s subtitle was ‘In Search of Icarus’ Wings.’ It was a story Soda knew well from Greek-Roman mythology. Her focus heightened.
“Since Icarus ultimately loved the sun, we decided to use ‘Flare,’ which can also refer to the light energy around the sun, rather than ‘Flame,’ to represent Desti.”
“Wow, that’s a deep meaning! So what about the motion that looks like shooting an arrow? Is it like shooting at the sun?”
“It symbolizes Cupid’s arrow from Eros, the god in Greek-Roman mythology. It expresses our bold ambition to make the sun we love inevitably love us back.”
“Wow… that was a much deeper concept than I expected.”
Taeil marveled. MalangGgom and Gwajam, standing beside him, were thinking along the lines of, ‘So nowadays, survival shows also put so much effort into team names and motions, huh?’
But Soda, who had fully activated her auditory senses and was engraving each of Doha’s words into her mind, felt something.
‘…Why do I feel the same vibe from my bias as I do from a fan who’s into the same fandom?’
Of course, given the program’s concept and the story of Cupid’s arrow, it wasn’t that unusual…
‘Is it just me, or does it seem like he’s pondering how to explain this so that non-fans don’t get bored while still conveying the meaning correctly?’
But as the individual greetings continued, Soda shook off her suspicions. Based on what had been shown on the broadcast so far, Doha still had a strong image of being a pure-blooded muggle.
After the team introduction ended, it was time for the individual greetings.
Since they had put on such a hot performance, and the outfits and silhouettes of the six men standing right in front of them were so overwhelming, every time they greeted, loud cheers erupted.
“Hello, I’m Kang Hajin.”
When it was Hajin’s turn, those holding Hajin’s slogans welcomed him with dolphin-like screams. Hajin, with his red shaded makeup that made his monolid eyes stand out even more today, smiled as if he found the Destis adorable.
Then, without saying a
word, he turned around!
“Aaaah!!!!!!”
“Kang Hajin!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Under the bright lights, the sheer back was even more visible. After showing off for a moment and quickly turning back around, Hajin laughed as if he was quite embarrassed.
“I think the cheers are louder now than when I hit the three high notes.”
“That’s how it usually is. I’ve been doing this for about 13 years, and we’ve never topped the cheers from the day Jinu revealed his abs.”
Taeil’s seasoned response made everyone burst into laughter.
It was the next person’s turn. Yugeon, who had stepped back a bit to listen to his team members’ stories, suddenly grabbed the mic with an “Ah.”
“Uh….”
Before greeting, Yugeon hesitated for a moment. He seemed to be searching for the right words. At that moment, Hajin, who was standing next to him, whispered something to Yugeon in a voice low enough not to be picked up by the mic. Yugeon soon began to speak.
“Hello, I’m Lee Yugeon.”
“…….”
“Um, I was actually a bit worried about what to say when meeting you all.”
Yugeon’s eyes, which appeared gray due to his lenses, darted around. Perhaps feeling a bit choked up, he coughed lightly before quickly passing the mic to the audience.
“Did you enjoy the stage—?”
“Yes!!!!!”
“It was the best!”
“Lee Yugeon, from today, you’re the king of K-hip-hop!!!!”
Hearing the reactions, Yugeon smiled beautifully, as if he felt relieved.
“That’s all I needed to hear. Thank you.”
Another round of applause erupted from the audience. The Blue Flare team members all looked at Yugeon with pride, patting him on the shoulder or lightly tapping his waist as if to say he did well. Seeing this, Soda felt somewhat reassured.
After Eun-chan, the last one, safely finished his greeting, it was finally time for Blue Flare team’s talk. Perhaps because there were many trainees currently popular in the top ranks, the questions varied widely.
“I’ve always liked singing. But I wasn’t sure if I could make a living out of it. Then, due to some personal reasons, I couldn’t play the piano anymore… so I think I naturally started singing more.”
“Do you need to practice? Why?”
Everyone stared blankly at Yugeon after his response. Feeling their gazes, Yugeon awkwardly added a capitalist-style response with a laugh.
“I’m usually quick at memorizing choreography.”
In reality, it was because he had seen it so many times while working part-time at a dance academy. But Yugeon left it at that.
Finally, it was Hajin’s turn.
“Ah, Hajin, please let it be the one I submitted.”
“Gwajam, what did you submit?”
“I asked him to cover one line from James Dear’s ‘Everything is fine.’”
“Oh, that would suit him perfectly.”
“Indeed, the sense of a true fan….”
Gwajam, who had recommended a cover of the pop song recently famous as a BGM on SNS shorts, clasped her hands together in prayer. Hajin reached into the box and carefully pulled out a slip of paper.
“Uh….”
But as Hajin checked the slip, his expression became peculiar.
“Pfft!”
“…Seriously?”
Yugeon and Siwoo, who peeked at the contents beside him, couldn’t believe it either—one burst into laughter, the other raised a question.
What is it, what is it?
Just as the audience began to murmur, Hajin’s question was revealed.
What is Kang Hajin supposed to do? Cry? Where? At the subway station?
Everyone’s expressions, except for Hajin, were filled with nothing but bewilderment.