Well, we were ecstatic but my mind started drifting on having to compete with dozens of contestants much better than us. So, I steeled myself and decided to dedicate my time to practicing as much as I could to raise my stats before we appeared on the show.
However, it started to feel like everything was going downhill. We had an extra two weeks to prepare for our first stage, but a week has passed and our statuses have not budged an inch, we also didn't receive any new missions to gain skill points.
We had also made a decision to perform a new song on the ranking stage and picked a vocal rap song to make up for our lack of dance skill. The song consisted of groovy beats that had a lot of room for error, which I hoped would be compatible with our mid-tier skills. I was starting to rethink this as our skills had not grown at all, but it was far too late to turn back now.
We were feeling quite stressed so Eunho and I took a break from our practice session. I hopped onto my bed and started scrolling on Instakg, when I came across the profile of another trainee, Kim Hajun. I furrowed my eyebrows as I had clearly remembered this person scoffing at us when we left the audition room. I opened his page and pressed on the latest post, which was a dance cover of the very first song that I had attempted: 'TNT'.
"...Fuck" Why was this guy so good? His fluid movements combined with precise choreography left my mouth gaping. I started feeling silly for how proud I felt of my improvement. Eunho, who had heard me swearing under my breath and asked me what was wrong.
"Eunho, I think we'll have to intensify our practice if we want to be able to proudly compete on this show."
He grinned at me and nodded, "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's start practicing again!"
Like that, two weeks had passed with grueling practice sessions, which almost made me miss studying for the CSAT. With one day left before the first recording, we had achieved noticeable results.
[Name: Kwon Sunwoo (Kang Juwon)]
Age: 19
Potential: ???
Vocal: A
Dance: C
Rap: D-
Visual: A
Skill Points: 0
Attribute: Limitless, Become An Idol Or Die!
Skills: All Eyes On Me!
[Name: Song Junwoo (Kang Eunho)]
Age: 17
Potential: ???
Vocal: D
Dance: C+
Rap: A
Visual: B-
Skill Points: 0
Attribute: Limitless, Become An Idol Or Die!
Skills: Feel What I Feel
We had managed to even out our dancing skills, and our rap and vocals had grown by a whole grade. During this time, we had also tinkered with the system to find any new features. We found out that we could press our attribute and skill names to see the description. My skill "All Eyes On Me!" could help me grab viewers' attention whenever I performed, and Eunho's "Feel What I Feel" would allow him to emulate his emotions better when he performed. We also confirmed that the "Limitless" attribute just meant that we had no skill cap.
With one day before the show, Eunho and I had received the results for our school leave application. Luckily, it had been accepted, and we had no worries about attending classes for the time-being. Our preparations were almost over, all we needed now was clothing to wear on the stage itself.
We didn't have much money to spare for renting our clothes, our total budget combined was about $30. In any case, we set out to find a decent pair of clothes that would suit our concept. We searched up affordable clothing rental stores near our area and found a little shop with a collection that consisted of mostly street-wear aesthetic items.
We made our way there and were greeted by a cheerful lady with multiple streaks of color in her hair. "Welcome to my humble store! What are you looking for today?"
I was slightly taken aback by her optimism but I smiled back and told her we were looking for something that was unique but not too extreme. She gave us a broad smile and animatedly walked to a section in the corner of the store and brought out a pair of dark leather clothing with streaks of bright colors skillfully scattered throughout.
I stared at her in amazement "Thank you! This is exactly what we need! How much do I owe you?"
The lady smiled at us, forming moons in her eyes "Today's outfit is free of charge, you can even keep them! Just make sure you come back here" She said while giving us a small wink.
"Thank you so much! We'll make sure we come back and pay back the favor!" We bowed deeply to the kind woman.
With a stroke of luck, we managed to secure our stage outfits without having to spend our budget. Since we had some money leftover, we decided to treat ourselves before we have to spend the foreseeable future not being able to eat tasty food. We filled our stomachs with street food and headed home with a food coma.
I safely kept the clothing we had just acquired and wrapped myself in my blanket, dozing off in peace.
I woke up to my body being shaken like a ragdoll, the sound of Eunho's voice slowly getting clearer
"-ung! HYUNG! Wake up! Your alarm has been going off for 30 minutes now!"
I groggily opened my eyes and looked around me. "Ugh... What time is it Eunho?"
"It's 6 A.M!" Eunho frantically told me. "Huh..? Why are you waking me up at..." Then my eyes widened. "shit.. Shit. SHIT" We had to be at the studio by 7:30. Ah... Why is it always at the most important times that my instinct doesn't force me awake.
We put on our stage clothes like we were trying to set a world record and ran out of the orphanage to catch a taxi with the remaining money we had. Thankfully we found one as soon as we left, so our worries subsided quickly.
With about 10 minutes left our appointed schedule time, we ran into the studio. The moment we step foot into the brightly lit space, I could feel the curious stares of other contestants looking at us. I ignored them and walked towards the person that had a nametag that matched the contact we had.
"We apologize for being late writer-nim" We bowed at the writer holding a clipboard while speaking into a walkie talkie.
"Oh? Junwoo and Sunwoo right? Hurry up and put the nametags over there on, you're up in 15 minutes." She said while pointing at a table with nametags neatly arranged.
We bowed and quickly pasted on our names and walked over to the row of seats. I sighed deeply as I sat down on the chair, my heart was still beating from anxiety. "Hyung are you alright?" Eunho asked me in concern. "It's fine... The adrenaline is still pumping that's all." I assured him. He grinned at me and raised his hand to fist bump. "We're gonna kill it on the stage later okay?" I smiled back and fist bumped "Yeah of course we are!"
In the corner of my eye I saw the same Kim Hajun snickering at us. "What the hell... Does he have a problem with us or something?" I thought as a frown formed on my face. I shook it off and decided to rest until we were called up.
15 minutes later, it was our turn to enter. When we walked into the small room past the waiting area, we found a stand filled with stars to stick on us. We decided that we'd be modest and placed 2 stars on each of our tops. We walked out as the circle door in front of us raised up and were surprised to see that there were 3 other contestants on the stage as well. I looked at the screen and realized we were just grouped as individual trainees. I gave a small smile to the three who came out before us. The producer then gave us the queue to find our seats.
I looked up at the hill of seats, most of the top and middle seats were filled by this point. My eyes darted around when Eunho tapped me and pointed toward a pair of seats that were still open. They were numbers 40 and 41. I sighed in relief and we sat down. Beside us there was a contestant with a menacing look. I assumed that was his stage concept and greeted him with a smile. "Hello, I'm Sunwoo, nice to meet you" Thankfully, he also greeted me back, he seemed nice enough. After that short interaction, I just waited for the rest of the contestants to come out. We were one of the later people to come out so I just had to wait for two more groups to come out.
It was the final group to come out as well as the final person. The screen flashed "HYVE Entertainment" The hall instantly got louder, it seemed like this was a popular company as I could hear murmurs like "They're coming out here?" and "Ah the bigshot has come out" I didn't understand all the hype so I turned to speak with Eunho, but he was starstruck as well. I nearly forgot that he was a fanboy. I shrugged and turned back to look at the stage.
There, the final contestant came out. I held myself back from frowning, the final contestant was Kim Hajun. He had multiple stars plastered on his chest, he was beaming with confidence. I felt slightly annoyed since he looked down on us but I could acknowledge his dancing skills. The hall went silent as Kim Hajun slowly walked up the steps with a smile on his face, his destination clearly set. He made his way up until he reached the #1 seat that resembled a throne.
On the seat sat a contestant that had previously debuted from a group that was decently popular. Kim Hajun then shook his hand and took his seat on the throne. The hall went wild, the final contestant to come up was full of confidence and he even pushed out someone with major seniority to him. After that, the contestant whose name I managed to read was Kim Hoon was forced to go all the way down to the 98th seat out of 100.
After the contestants settled down, the big screen suddenly flashed and started playing a video, and a robotic voice sounded out throughout the hall. "Hello, welcome to Stella Planet. 100 boys with the dream of becoming a star, only 10 will have the chance to realize their dream. With 8 places being fully decided by the Star Makers"
My eyes widened "So that means there will be two contestants who'll be picked by the judges?" I turned to Eunho, who seemed surprised as well. "I didn't expect them to suddenly change the system after 3 seasons." I nodded in agreement as I had binge watched the previous seasons while doing research.
I turned back and the screen had changed again now showing "Introducing the mentors VOCAL/RAP/DANCE" And with a flash the text changed to "VOCAL MENTOR" The circular door raised up and there was an air of suspense in the room as the mentor's face was hidden in the shadows. As they walked up, a roar of applause started sounding throughout the room. It was the legendary singer that everyone in the nation recognized "Jung Suri" I placed my hand over my mouth in shock as she was Yejun's favorite singer. It felt like I had absorbed some of Kwon Sunwoo's affection for his sister as I could feel my chest feeling heavy.
Jung Suri smiled at all of the contestants and took her seat in front of the stage. Next up the rap mentor appeared, causing even more chaos as it was the world renowned "JP" I was once again stunned, I couldn't believe that I was seeing such famous people in the flesh just meters away from me. I turned to Eunho and could tell that he was freaking out, so I grabbed his hand and started cheering. He looked at me in shock but realized what I was doing and cheered as well.
Finally, our dance mentor walked out of the circular door. And once again, the hall was in an uproar, another legendary person had appeared. Our dance mentor was the one and only "Aki", who had choreographed many famous songs as well as being part of the nation's boy group. I felt dizzy, I was excited by having such competent mentors but the people around me were a bit too overjoyed that I was overwhelmed by the noise. However, the hall thankfully quieted down once the screen displayed "First performance".
I took a deep breath to calm down, my ears were still ringing while I calmly looked at the screen to see it change to "Kwon Sunwoo and Song Junwoo". My jaw dropped as I whipped my head toward Eunho, whose color seemed to have drained out of his face. I looked back at the screen to confirm it was us, and then held back the instinct to put my head in my hands. "Fuck why are we first" I said in my mind as I smiled while grabbing Eunho's hand to head backstage. Once we were finally out of the cameras, I finally sighed deeply as I held my chest, my heart felt like it would jump out and run off without me. We slowly walked to the same room that we had picked the stars from that had been cleared out. Inside the room, there were numerous cameras placed around. Remembering what I'd seen from previous seasons, I covered up my anxiety and playfully greeted the cameras with Eunho.
However, that was quickly interrupted as we were given the signal to move onstage, I felt my soul jump out of my body but I quickly regained my composure as I grabbed Eunho's hand and cheered. "Let's kill it on stage!" He returned my enthusiasm as we then walked out of the same circular door the mentors had just been through.