TDOCD Chapter 79

Chapter 79

The New Victim  ​​

The FloU&I team and I silently rose from our seats.

"Next up is the FloU&I team."

Our turn had come quickly.

"FloU&I is wearing some very stylish outfits today. While Crescendo received high praise for their dance, I heard this team has been praised for their vocals. Let's look forward to their performance."

"Yes!"

"FloU&I team, please proceed to the stage."

We responded energetically and left the set.

Following Crescendo's overwhelmingly impressive performance was somewhat pressuring, but we weren't intimidated.

'Because we're confident.'

I was confident we could move the audience in our own way, different from Crescendo.

While we prepared for our performance on stage, the monitor played a VCR showing our training camp experience.

The members stopped moving among the busy production staff and watched the monitor.

[Training camp near Seoul, filled with sunlight]

As the caption suggested, warm sunlight poured through the windows of the dormitory.

'It looks different seeing it like this.'

I thought it was pretty at the time, but on video it looked like something out of a drama.

Cute background music played, perfectly matching the dormitory's scenery.

The space was still quiet for now.

Then someone opened the door and peeked through the gap.

"Oh, has no one arrived yet?"

"Oh! It's you! It's you!"

Squeals could be heard from the stage.

Young-juwas apparently teasing Young-il-rin about her appearance.

In the video, Young-il-rin moved cautiously, seemingly uncomfortable with all the cameras installed throughout the dormitory.

"I guess no one else has arrived yet?"

She headed straight for the living room sofa and sat down.

Though the dormitory was beautiful enough to warrant looking around, she seemed quite nervous.

While Young-il-rin was alone being cautious in the empty dormitory, someone else entered.

"Unnie, my bag is stuck, what should I do?"

Following Young-il-rin, she seemed to have gotten her carrier strap caught in the wheels.

"It's Jia!"

Once again, Young-ju's voice and squeals could be heard from behind.

"Wow, why do I look like that?"

Jia covered her eyes with two fingers and quickly hid behind Young-il-rin.

She looked just pretty to me, but why was she so embarrassed?

Smiling slightly, I focused back on the video.

Jia managed to enter the dormitory with Young-il-rin's help.

Right after U&Da entered, I Meet You's Young-ju came in.

"Heey! You were already here! How have you been? I missed you!"

The awkward tension in the dormitory instantly disappeared with Young-ju's arrival.

"Ah, that's I Meet You for you. The moment they came in, they greeted us so warmly that the tension just melted away."

Young-il-rin's interview was shown, followed by Jia's.

"We became close with I Meet You members when they were our opponents in Round 2. Their whole group was really friendly."

As expected of I Meet You.

True to their reputation as Start Plan's mood makers, U&Da members' expressions looked more relaxed when talking about I Meet You.

And then I appeared...

"Hello."

Sha-la-la~

"..."

What's with this background music?

What's with these CG effects?

Bright filters and flower stickers decorated my face.

"Pfft."

"Ji-ye, what is that?"

While I watched speechlessly, the members naturally started teasing me from behind.

Well, okay.

I shouldn't have said anything about Jia.

My face heated up seeing myself presented that way.

Then came the members' first impression interviews about me.

"When she came in, wow, she was so pretty."

"When the door opened and she came in with the sunlight, I couldn't tell if I was dazzled by the sun or Ji-ye's face..."

Young-ju's really laying it on thick. Slightly Min Ha-young style.

Then came Jia's interview.

"Ah, a pretty person, and someone really skilled, I heard we're the same age so I thought I should become friends with her quickly."

Then she smiled shyly.

While everyone was expressing their good impressions of me and the warm atmosphere continued, suddenly the BGM changed to classical music.

Ah, my personal theme song.

If this song is playing, that means...

"I missed Ra-eun unnie."

The screen changed and showed my interview. I was speaking with a very troubled expression.

"When I entered the dormitory, everyone was so energetic. It felt like I couldn't just sit quietly in that atmosphere."

And I had a caption that read [Truly an I] attached like a pig's tail.

T:N [Truly an I] is a Korean slang used to express someone’s personality whose an introvert without a doubt.

Right.

Being an introvert, I honestly wanted to close the door and come back with Seo Ra-eun at that time.

Of course, Ryu Ji-ye's face probably didn't show it at all...

"I hesitated about going in. But then, all the other members came rushing toward me."

Why do I look so terrified?

Matching my words, the relaxed bed commercial BGM changed to Beethoven.

The production became more dramatic.

"So, I was a bit startled, but..."

Then as if nothing had happened, the bed commercial, my personal BGM, started playing again.

"The members took care of me better than I expected, so I felt relieved. But I still missed Ra-eun unnie."

The screen changed to show the dormitory scene again.

More giggling could be heard from behind.

"Ji-ye speaks so gently but dramatically?"

It was Young-ju.

When I turned around, Young-ju and Young-il-rin were giggling while looking at me.

"Ji-ye was waiting for me... and I didn't even know. I should have left earlier..."

And Seo Ra-eun was making weird comments beside me.

I shook my head and looked back at the VCR.

In the video, the Ra-eun I had been waiting for was rushing out of her car and running into the dormitory.

"Did they pick all the individual trainees based on looks or something..."

Ra-eun also had the bright BGM.

The dreamy filter and stickers were naturally decorating her as well.

It was a grand entrance, edited together with other members' (especially Young-ju's) enthusiastic interviews.

Then the scene changed to show our song selection meeting.

The previously cheerful atmosphere was nowhere to be found as members hesitated and watched each other cautiously.

"Um, jazz style... but I've never really done jazz before."

It started with Young-ju firmly rejecting Young-il-rin's song choice.

"Jazz is a bit difficult."

At her words, Jia nervously hid her song selection card.

"I did bring a song selection, but mine is also kind of jazz-like, an unfamiliar genre... just skip mine."

Then under the members' urging, she timidly held out her selection card.

Actually, it wasn't the members urging her - Young-ju had realized her mistake and tried to persuade Jia, but that part was completely cut out.

"Um... there's this song called 'Dolce' by Calidus..."

"I brought that song too."

I followed Jia's words by holding out my card.

Then the screen changed to show footage about Calidus and Dolce.

"When you listen to it, the song flows very diversely. If we arrange it to be a bit more accessible..."

"If we divide it by sections for different groups to sing, wouldn't that be interesting..."

It showed Jia and me taking turns trying to persuade the members.

Just as the members were starting to show favorable reactions...

"Ah, for me... it's too difficult a genre for me..."

Once again, Young-ju firmly rejected it.

The dormitory's atmosphere grew cold.

"Hmm..."

Well, while the context matches what happened then... why did they edit it this way?

It makes Young-ju look too selfish.

Is Young-ju this episode's editing victim?

This is ridiculous.

The laughter from behind had stopped at some point.

It seemed all the members had noticed something was off.

'This is unpleasant.'

Even if they needed the trainees' VCR reactions, what were they thinking showing this kind of editing right before the performance?

​On screen, Young-ju was looking down at the floor with a deflated expression in the midst of the heavy meeting atmosphere.