I looked closely at the names that were labeled in the class layout.
Each class had a minimum of at least two A's, four B's, and four C's through D's.
Class 3, the one with my name in it, was a little different than the typical minimum.
There were two A's, five B's, and three C-D's, including me. I also saw a few familiar names.
[Grade A: Si-hwan Yu, Sun-woo Kang].
[Grade B: …, Ma Si-hyuk, ...]
It was a one-in-ten chance, but two of the practitioners who had a one-sided conversation with me came through that one-in-ten chance.
"Oh, we're in the same class!"
"Yeah."
Kang had appeared behind me without a sound. He smiled brightly and then patted me on the back.
'Are you trying to keep creating this intimate image with me?'
Well, I wasn't about to put down a fellow A-grade trainee from a large agency in the first place.
So I continued to respond in a moderate manner.
"But don't you think that's a bit much?"
"Like what?"
"It's just that I can't figure out why you had to do it this way."
Kang lowered his voice and whispered to me.
As if this conversation shouldn't be caught on camera.
"Don't you get the feeling that they'd done this to weed out the kids who'd drop out on their own from the start?"
This guy is definitely no ordinary bet either.
Maybe it's because he's from a big agency, or maybe he's just really analytical.
'He must've had the same idea as me.'
It's common practice in survival programs to group participants of the same level together. It's easier for the trainers and was less distressing for the contestants if they're in groups of similar skill levels.
However, 'Asri 2' broke this rule.
The intention behind this behavior was obvious.
To weed out participants who don't have the ability to generate buzz in the first place.
To give more prominence to those who that were doing well.
And insurance that, just in case, one of the lower-ranked contestants possibly has a burst of potential and can drive in viewership.
By deliberately creating extreme situations to throw in more spotlight onto those who were doing well, they'd hope to attract early fans, and they'd also hope to create upsets.
In short, they'd have nothing to lose.
They can increase the search volume of 'Asri 2' in a stimulating way, so it didn't matter if the mentality of the lower-ranked contestants were to break.
I looked around quickly.
As expected, the C~D level contestants were already unable to hide their anxious expressions.
They knew how pathetic they'd look within the presence of the higher-ranked students.
'From here on out, it's wasn't just about skill, it's also about mentality.'
It's a battle of how much lower-ranked contestants can improve without getting frustrated.
Higher-ranked contestants struggle to fulfill the expectations that are naturally placed onto them.
In the end, it's a matter of being able to turn around and maintain your confidence.
But you'd also need to be able to control that confidence at a minimum in order to get good editing.
***
"Pivot here with your left foot and then go hard!"
"Gonna make it HIT!"
The contestants pivoted their bodies to follow with the dance trainer, who stood at the front of the room and personally coached them through the choreography.
The moves themselves were clearly well formed, but they had lacked a certain coolness.
As the contestants continued to follow the basic steps, their bodies began to drain of energy, perhaps affected by their lack of breathing.
"Again, again, again!"
The dance trainer had stopped the music with a rough wave of his hand.
'This is just plain shit.'
I sighed inwardly as I'd looked at the contestants pouring sweat on either side of me.
I didn't even remember how many times I've replayed this highlight reel now.
The C~D kids were fine, but with each repetition of this high-intensity session, even the B guys were losing their form.
Kang Sun-woo, who was practicing the choreography of 'HIT' in front of me without saying a word, had also changed his expression slightly.
"Guys, I really didn't want to say this from the beginning."
Here it comes, the kind of comment you can only find in survival programs.
"Did you guys really come out here because you really wanted to be idols? No. At least you must've practiced a lot at the agency. Where the hell did you leave all that time? Did you just dump it all when you applied here so you could start off fresh?"
"No..."
"Then why the hell can't you even get this one simple phrase down smoothly, especially the ones who are crying in the back right now! You guys really need to be more alert. One wrong slip and you don't know how far you'll fall. Isn't that why you're here, to make your debut? Doesn't it matter if you just fall? Did you even bother to apply?"
The sweaty, sagging C~D trainees shook their heads even harder as the trainer's tirade continued.
"I'll be honest with you. If you're really going to become a full-fledged idol and debut, you'll have to be able to handle choreography that's three times harder than this, so please, boys, pull yourself together and just do it. Okay?"
I thought it was going to be a mental week, but I didn't expect it to have been this serious.
I could feel my Class 3's HP dwindling in real time.
At this rate, we're going to have some kids bailing before we even make it to the theme song.
But the dance trainer wasn't wrong, so I couldn't say or do anything about it.
The choreography of 'HIT', the theme song for 'Asri 2,' was pretty bland.
But the pressure of a survival program called 'Idol Stardig 2'.
And the pressure from the presence of the top-ranked trainees right next to them was causing the C~D grades to collapse on their very own.
I feel sorry for them, but I still wanted to get out of this endless choreography hell.
"Let's try again, come on, we can do this!"
'Oh'
While we were all busy holding our breath, a student with a B on his chest patch tried to lighten the mood by clapping his hands.
He doesn't look like he's even 20 years old yet, but he's not intimidated by the harsh air.
With a slight look of satisfaction, the dance trainer had looked at the B-grade contestant for a moment.
"That's the kind of spirit I'm looking for, Chang-joong, a mistake is a mistake, so let's get over it. Let's start over with the intro, okay?"
"Yes!"
After another hour of sweating it out, Class 3 barely made it out alive from the dance studio.
"Oh, thank you!"
"Thank you!"
The contestants shouted as they grabbed water from the coolers the crew had set up right outside the practice room.
Even though the cameras were rolling all the time, they still had to do this kind of gesture.
It would've been a shame to be labeled a rude bastard, and all my hard work would be for naught. I ducked my head and drank my water.
Unlike the other trainees, who were sweating even as they drank the cool water, I was relatively unaffected.
In fact, under the guidance of the infamous dance trainer, I didn't struggle at all. I gently touched my rosy cheeks and suddenly remembered the searing heat I had endured in hell.
I thought to myself, "I can't get tired with this much exercise anymore. I'm going to have to fake it on purpose because I'm going to be filmed looking like I'm fine.
Well, in the afterthought, it made sense.
I spent every day in 40-degree temperatures playing ball with Cerberus.
I've built a base of fitness that I can't get tired of, even if I wanted to.
Oh, and Cerberus is currently sleeping alone in our dorm room.
He couldn't even dance properly if he's on my shoulder every session.
Meanwhile, the last student to escape the dance studio staggered over.
Overwhelming physicality and poor eye contact.
He could recognize Ma Si-hyuk from a distance now.
'Oh, that reminds me, the icebox.'
Thinking that all the Class 3 trainees had left, the crew was already moving to another location with the cooler.
"Excuse me, Mr. Writer, do you think you could get us another bucket of water?"
I quickly grabbed the writer as he was walking away from the end of the crew and grabbed another bucket of cold water.
As he flapped the bottom of his T-shirt to cool off, I felt a pang of sympathy for him.
'For a guy who's so tall, why is he acting so slow?'
When I gently placed the dripping water bottle on his arm, he'd turned his head in surprise.
"I don't think you got water on your own."
"Oh, thank you so much!"
"You looked thirsty."
Before I had time to respond, Ma Si-hyuk downed 500 milliliters of bottled water in one shot.
It's not like he's a hippo to drink that cold stuff at once.
"You saved my life, because it was so hot I thought I was going to die."
"Oh, with something like this."
"But I'm truly grateful that you took care of me…"
"It's not like we've never met."
He even smiled, and Ma Si-hyuk nodded in appreciation.
This one. I didn't create the situation, but it was a great editing point.
I could already imagine the awkward conversation during the level test playing with the subtitle 'Their first face-to-face meeting' in my head.
'Is it a boy cartoon?'
With that, I headed to the vocal practice room with Ma Si-hyuk, who was scary in name but not in personality.
I'd had a sneaking suspicion of what was to come from the first time I saw the video for 'HIT'.
"You made my heart beat-!"
"Again."
"HIT! HIT your heart!"
"Again."
"I'll run for you-!"
"Again."
At this level, I would have been better off practicing my choreography earlier.
Even I, who was singing along to the indescribable feast of pixie dust, was cringing.
Min Si-hyun, the vocal trainer for Class 3, asked for repetitions with as much emotion as possible.
"You need to sing with as much strength in your throat as much as possible. If you don't, your vocal cords will tighten up like they are now, and you'll end up with a sound you don't possibly want to hear."
"Yes!"
"Let's start over. Let's focus a little more this time."
I'd rather just memorize the choreography while being scolded than this.
Vocals don't improve in such a short period of time.
You just have to figure out where your range is and get parts that fit that range.
"Verse 2, first verse, let me do that!"
"Okay, try it."
Feeling the pressure to get the light here, the contestants were eager to try the parts that didn't go up.
Getting an X for Min was a no-brainer.
If I'm being honest, I was very nervous.
'He's just going up there so easily.'
When I tried singing 'HIT' by myself, I already knew that there were no parts in my range that were a problem.
But before the first round had even begun, I wondered if I should draw attention to myself.
So I decided to wait and see.
"So, when you guys heard the song, what did you think was going to be the hardest part?"
"The end of the verse after the second chorus."
'There's a lot of high notes there, so...'
The students were all in agreement.
The high notes in the second half of the climax of 'HIT'.
When I first listened to it, I had a strong feeling that it was a part that I made while thinking that there would be a clear main vocalist among the 100 participants.
'Honestly, I'm a little greedy.'
Still, it was hard to spontaneously raise my hand to do something.
Then.
"Do you mind if I try?"
It was a student in the dance studio who volunteered.
I don't know what his name was, and to be honest, I hadn't memorized it until today because I didn't see anything special about him.
"Park Chang-joong, right? Let's try it,"
"Sure."
Oh, yeah, Park Chang-joong.
Apparently, in addition to dancing, he got a B in vocals. That's a lot of confidence to take on this high-pitched part on your own.
Chang-joong Park steadied himself and sang the climax.
"With all your heart~, kolok, kolok kolok, da, let's do it again!"
Three seconds in and you know it.
'He can't do this.'
Park Chang-joong was trying desperately to get the last 'I'll do it' up, but Min Si-hyun stopped him when she realized it wasn't going to work.
"That's enough."
"Well, I think I can still do it if I loosen my throat a bit-!"
"And even if you do, like I said, it's never going to sound good. No one likes a high note that sounds like it's being squeezed out of your throat."
"It's..."
Leaving Park Chang-joong with his head bowed, Min turned to the rest of the practitioners.
"Isn't there a vocal A-grade here too?"
Min Si-hyun's sharp gaze seemed to be directed in my direction.
Still undecided, I debated whether to leave or not.
"Yes, there's Si-hwan here, he's a good singer."
"Si, Si-hwan is your class's vocal grade A."
Kang Sun-woo and Ma Si-hyuk, who were on either side of me, recommended me to Min Si-hyun.
The moment my plan to 'do it in moderation' collapsed in real time.
I had let out a very small sigh.