"So, you were debuting solo and then, debut with the group?" Noze asked him while mixing the bibimbap.
He nodded and replied in a low tone, "Yes."
22-year-old Noze was the leader of the Wayb dance crew and has been working as the backup dancer for Taemin, Zico, and recent girl group Twilight. Not only that, but she was also incredibly popular in social media with over 500k followers on Instagram and over 4 million followers in TikTok.
In a way, she is considered a celebrity herself. Jun's looks were least effective on her. At the same time, he wasn't even a rookie yet much less a star where fans and photojournalists keep following. So, she wasn't too careful with her speech either.
It wasn't only her but the other members of the crew were also a little bit casual with Jun right from the get-go. Maybe, it's because all of them aren't only outgoing in nature but also used to male-female interactions on a daily basis.
On the other hand, it was a new experience for Jun. Being surrounded by many girls in his same group, he turned out to be a little bit shy and reserved, although it has mainly to do with the middle school years.
"What do you guys do in your free time?" Noze continued the conversation. If a stranger observes them, they might have misunderstands that she was interested in him but it isn't that way.
Since they will work together, she wanted him to be free with them. She wasn't a fool to not even realize that Jun was reserved to even a little bit of skinship. After hours of practice, she realized that already and is currently on the problem. As the leader, she felt it was her responsibility.
As others also paid attention to him, Jun answered, "We don't get much free time, barely about an hour or so if I exclude eating time. I'm the chef of our dorm. I cook like 10 to 12 dishes overall for everyone. The others take the cleaning duty by turns. Our manager helps out things with cleaning and dishwashing and other things.
Those who are free will play either card games or bowling. We have a bowling alley at our dorm, you know."
"Bowling alley?" Kim Jinhee couldn't hold her voice as she was shocked by his reply. "The company provided you a bowling alley?"
Jun blinked twice and nodded.
"If they provide you bowling alley, your dorm must be big, I guess," Noze commented.
Jun nodded in response and said, "We have 14 rooms."
"14?" This time, even Noze gasped in shock.
Even the CEO himself was surprised by it. He felt like the company really took this rookie group seriously because only 2nd generation top artists like Super Junior and Big Bang get such treatment when they stayed together.
Seeing the expression from the others, Jun understood that it might not be common as he earlier expected. They must be given special treatment.
They talked for a while and returned to the academy, trained there until dinner time. Jun ate with them at the cafeteria. And then, continued the practice once again, this time, the second choreography.
Jun returned to the dorm by 1 a.m., had slept barely for 5 hours, then, went on exercise for an hour, completing a daily quest, then, spent the next two hours cooking once again, ate breakfast, then, left for the academy to resume the dance practice.
This routine continued for three more days. In this time, he became closer to everyone, not only exchanging numbers with everyone but also joining their group in kakao talk. If not for the fact that Jun felt trouble with the skinship, both of the choreos would have done in just two days.
By April 12th, everything was finished. However, 13 has been an unlucky number and it is supposed to be Jun's debut, the management postponed it to the next day.
So, Jun just spend his day practicing the choreography again and again while intending to reach 8 points, although, in the end, he could end up reaching 7.91.
On April 13th, Jun finished the practice by dinner, returned to the dorm, and went to sleep without talking much to his housemates. He went to sleep right away.
At around 2:00 in the morning, Jun's mobile phone started to ring and vibrate, forcefully waking him up.
"Hmm, it's already 2…" Jun let out a yawn and went to the bathroom. He started brushing his teeth.
By 2:25, he was done with his morning activities and sat on his bed.
"Aria, Show my Character stats."
Name: Han Sung-Jun
Stage name: Jun
Birthday: June 5th, 1997
Age: 20
Height: 184 cm (6'0")
Weight: 71.2 kg
Strength: 8.92
Appearance: 8.7
Talent: Max
Vocals: 9.07
Rap: 7.6
Dance: 7.91
Songwriting: 5.6
Luck: 6
Cooking: 8.2
Free talent/attribute points: 0
Credits: 560
INVENTORY:
AUDIO: Here I am again, What 2 Do, Happy Death Day, and Breathe.
TALENTS:
Archery: 5.8
SKILLS:
Active:
Rap God (Level-1): Temporarily enhances rapping skill to the maximum level for five minutes. CD: 24 hours.
Passive:
Inspection (Level-3): Inspect a person or thing to find out their details.
Language Expert (level-2): Instantly learn, write, and speak fluently of the languages of Japanese (Tokyo dialect), English (American), and Chinese (Mandarin).
Voice of an Angel (Deactivated): The user's voice would be able to attract the attention of any listener regardless of their gender, age, mother tongue, or music taste. And during the live singing, the user would draw out the emotions of the listener who can understand the lyrics.
*****************
"Hmm, except for songwriting, my stats are now in the level of top singers. I guess by the time I debut with the group, I would be able to reach 9 points in everything.
As for Archery, maybe, I can practice and raise it to 7 by the time ISAC will be held. There are a lot of months left. So, there's nothing to worry about with that too.
The only issue is the credits. Earning rate is really too slow. At this rate, I couldn't buy blockbuster music videos like Boy with Luv, DNA, How you like that, etc…
I can earn them through the lottery but I can't take the risk when my debut is around the corner. Should I just save them? Or just use it to buy audio songs or raise my skill levels.
For now, three languages' mastery is enough. I can take it slowly on it. Rap God is a useless skill for me. I can level up inspection but it costs 400 credits. I can't maximize it either. So, what's the use…
Hmm, how about just buy five songs that have a moderate view count like 10-20 million and send it to the company management? No, my remuneration is at stake here and I'm also a rookie. I need to make sure all of them are bought by the company at all costs. If the first two I submit will turn successful, then, I will be favored.
So, let's look at 50 million range ones, preferably female idols ones and a bit latest ones.
Yup, let's do this way."
For the next five minutes, Jun continued to search one by one while scrolling down the list.
The system doesn't let him listen to the song or watch the mv. So, Jun cannot gamble on a song, which he didn't watch in his past life. Moreover, he also needed to take the idols into account while selecting a song.
Even if the song doesn't look good, if it is sung by popular idols, their stardom brings the views. So, for the song to be selected by the management either the lyrics should be good or the music should be trendy. That way, even if some unpopular girl group releases the song, it will at least gather 10 million views.
At around 400-500 rankings, Jun finally found the first song that he was willing to hand it over.
*Ding! You purchased "I'm so hot." 100 credits have been deducted.
He proceeded to play the song sung by Momoland in his previous world. After listening to it, he nodded with a smile, "Good. But, for a demo, I need a female voice to record… Hmm, should I ask Yuna? Coming to think of it, Yuju was a member of Gfriend, right?
Is there any song of them nearby?"
In the next minute, he found another one that belonged to Gfriend, which has over 70 million views.
*Ding! You purchased "Time for the moon night." 100 credits have been deducted.
"Okay, let's search for the third one." Jun proceeded with the scrolling. In the middle, his door was knocked on twice, all of a sudden.
"Hmm…" Jun climbed down the bed and opened the door to find the manager who had a brush in his mouth. "Hyung…"
"Oh, you are up, already." Manager Seon was taken aback at first and then, he said, "okay, we need to leave by 3. Get ready."
"Hyung, I was already done with it," Jun replied to him, immediately. "I woke up more than 30 minutes ago. I was just waiting for you."
"Ah, is that so." Manager Seon quickly left for his room to finish his brushing.
About ten minutes later, Jun and the manager left the dorm.