The beautiful girl frowned deeply. In her memories that did not belong to this timeline, the Jun she remembered was very talented. But he was underappreciated and underrated since people had a deep impression of his embarrassing moments in Best of Idol Survival Show. It was to the point that even three years after his group's debut, the first to come to mind upon seeing him was the title Mr. raise-hand-eight-times.
However, what was the situation right now?
'Uhh, is this a good thing or not?'
The girl did not know the answer. Looking at her favorite contestant's youthful and boyish smile against the plain black backdrop, she expressed her heartfelt wish.
"Regardless, I really want Seth to debut this time." The young lady looked determined as she opened all her available devices and accounts to vote for Seth.
After that, she closed her laptop, changed into an elegant dress, and put on a white facemask that covered half her fair face. She planned to meet a close cousin who worked at KNET.
The apartment her parents gifted her was just one of the many properties to be legally under her name once she came of age. From this fact alone, one could infer that she was from a rich family. She was living alone because her parents trained her to be independent at a young age and because she wanted to hide from others that she was no longer the sweet sixteen-year-old lady they knew.
If the changes her regression caused would negatively impact her favorite, if the variable that changed beyond recognition, namely Jun, would bring trouble, she was more than willing to do what she didn't in her previous life—using her family's ties to KNET to pull some strings behind the scenes. She would do the same even if the negative variable was not Jun but someone or something else.
If things still did not go well for Seth... she did not believe that a few more regressions would not solve the problem.
...
Seven days were short, especially when learning a new song where almost every member had more lines to master for the performance. Hyeon-ju's case was quite the dilemma. No matter how talented a participant was, expecting them to change their temperament or the habits developed for years in mere days was impossible without a very traumatic experience or catalyst.
But was a change in behavior and personality necessary?
Well, Jun and the others did not really want Hyeon-ju to change himself. Every day, they told him that they only wanted him to 'act.' Act cool and confident. Embrace the confidence possessed by somebody who thinks he is the protagonist of a world where everything goes according to his will.
Capital A. C. T.
To Hyeon-ju it was a challenging task, but the thought of dragging his team down scared him so he persevered with the extra side missions that his teammates gave him.
Juwon raised the important question to their teammates only a day before the performance.
"So how will we manifest the three keywords in our stage?"
Five seconds later, the awkward leader broke the delicate silence. However, he only raised a more disturbing question, "Sorry, what are those keywords again?"
All eyes went to Seong-Hun. He felt embarrassed by the stares, which obviously asked, 'How come you don't know or remember?'
Hyeon-ju laughed, then covered his mouth before he looked down. Then he discreetly glanced at Jun to check on his reaction.
Jun grimaced, then smiled wryly. "Change, adaptability, and vigilance."
"Now that I think about it, why do I feel like we got a song that has no whatsoever relation to the third keyword?" Xavi tilted his head, and his fluffy, curly fringe also moved to the side.
Where could you find any hint of vigilance from a narcissistic song like theirs?
"Yeah," Juwon pondered for a long while before he said, "Change is easy to explain. Almost everyone is trying roles that we haven't done before. Adaptability comes with change. If there's no choice but to change or try something new, then we have to adapt to it to show a worthy performance."
Jun nodded and replied, "The last keyword should also be related to change. I mean, if someone doesn't ever change and only shows what he is good at, what he has already mastered, or what he is used to, then they're essentially losing vigilance. It's like a castle lord who only stays inside his castle. He trusts his walls to keep him safe, so he doesn't upgrade his army or war weapons or experiment with war tactics anymore. Vigilance is thus lost."
"... That sounds like a riddle," laughed Xavi while scratching his hair. It was not like he truly had no idea what Jun meant. However, he just disliked listening to things where he had to use extra brain cells to decipher their meaning. "Can't you just be direct to the point next time?"
"I did my best already to explain," Jun laughed, "We will see tomorrow if our guesses are correct. For now, we should try our best to perfect our stage first."
"Let's pray our stylist tomorrow can transform Hyeon-ju's face into a fierce one," Daeho said.
This time, nobody thought that Daeho was being mean.
Jun retained a smile as he replied, "That's a matter for tomorrow as well."
Time ticked by for everyone indiscriminately. When the timer in the main lobby showed there were only five minutes left in the mission countdown, the emcee called everyone to the lobby.
Hours before that, the contestants were not in the practice room but in front of the stylists sent to them. The two Greenhouse teams' costumes and accessories had dark shades and hues, but the songs they had to sing were quite the polar opposite. One talked about grieving for a love that ended due to one side cheating, while the other talked about being so unbothered by troubles because the singers believed they were the best, the coolest, or the most handsome.
Sujin sat on the opposite side of the room, smiling and waving at Jun. Clearly, the acting leader of the other Greenhouse team analyzed their getups, hairstyles, and even their expressions to gauge their confidence level. The opposing team's main vocalist eyed Hyeon-ju the longest.
A chuckle came from Juwon, "I feel like besides competing for the three keywords, Sujin and his team also want to contest in terms of concepts."
The remark created a quirky question in Jun's mind. 'So, which side would viewers like more? Emotional, heartbroken boys or narci... cool bad boys?'