The timing of the Best of Idols Survival show broadcast was not precisely the best. Another Idol Survival show had just concluded, and the country was not reacting positively to it because of the rigging scandal.
"Another survival show?"
"Uh-uh? The name is so ambitious, but how can we guarantee it would be a fair show?" Thousands upon thousands of netizens sneered when the teasers of BOI first aired.
The nation had not yet recovered from the previous idol survival show. Everyone had deep distrust towards producers of the same type of programs.
When the promotional pictures of the contestants chosen via a closed audition were posted, their reactions did not change. Only a new sentiment was added.
"Look at these handsome boys. Their visuals are top-notch. But damn, KNET will definitely evil-edit and ruin the lives of some of these cuties."
The woman clicked her tongue when one article about Best of Idols appeared on her news feed. She skimmed the texts with a bored look on her face.
Jo Ha-rin and her close friend and colleague Park Young-Soon occupied a table next to the window at the cafe across from their workplace. The sight of the empty street outside and the lack of a sea of people walking to cross the wide road or stroll the pedestrian lanes was something they saw every day now. The pandemic had scared a lot of people into hiding in their homes.
"It will air tonight, right?" asked her friend. The two of them work from home, too, but today, they decided to meet after being bored inside their rooms for so long.
Ha-rin nodded as she brought the cup of coffee to her lips. After a sip, she replied, "Nova backs the program. Some trainees are formerly from Nova as well."
"Oh, so they're loaded. No wonder they can snatch a prime-time slot from KNET."
"Nova is one of the Big Four, you know. Only these big companies would dare take on the challenge of producing this kind of show now."
The two ladies casually talked about stuff that people with access to the internet could easily search and cross-verify. Then, together, they scroll down Ha-rin's screen to check on the profile pictures uploaded days ago on KNET's voting website.
"Look at this one. If you dress him up in historical princely attire, he'd totally look like a royalty."
Naturally, the one that garnered that response was Juwon's profile picture.
"The rest are not bad either. I especially like this guy's eyes."
"Oh. Jun?" Park Young-Soon blinked once and then narrowed her eyes. "Looks like a mixed-blood."
"His skin is even whiter and clearer than yours. At a glance, you know he's from a wealthy family. I like his eyes and jawline," said Ha-rin with a shrug.
"I'm not fond of this kid's hairstyle." Young-soon's remarks elicited a brief chuckle from the woman sitting across her.
"At least you agree that this Jun is the next most handsome after the prince-looking guy."
They continued to talk about the trainees and eventually decided to wait for the first episode to be broadcast later. They left the cafe, one of the rare shops opened in the establishment, with their face masks on. Afterwards, they headed home with the agreement that they would chat and watch the show.
Hours passed. In Ha-rin's room, the flat TV screen was on, and KNET's logo could be seen in the upper left corner.
The evening broadcast schedule flashed, and the woman who had just come out of the bathroom with a towel on her head was surprised.
"Hmm. So it is a three-hour broadcast right off the bat. The pandemic has done us dirty."
The woman sighed and blamed the pandemic that caused a lot of drama productions to halt and made the various TV stations allocate a lot of time to their in-house documentary talks, variety shows, and survival shows.
When KNET finally began airing Best of Idol's pilot episode, Ha-rin honestly only stayed to appreciate the new handsome faces. The first half of the episode was okay-ish at best. Yes, the format was different, and the tension was good. But the trainees' performance themselves were not that outstanding. Only two or three had decent stages.
"Haaah. Really, that stage earned eleven votes?"
Through the phone's speaker, her friend's voice rang. "This is because the voting is left to the trainees. Those who performed first were lucky. The others had no idea how to judge their peers yet. There are twenty trainees, and there is a quota of twelve, so later on, when slots became fewer and fewer, they became stricter."
Ha-rin walked to her small ref. She opened it and grabbed a small can of coke before she sat on her bed with crossed legs. "In my opinion, though, the last performer who got eleven votes out of twenty-four did better than the second performer who got twenty-three votes."
"Yeah. It's obvious to all. But what can we do? The trainees are definitely on edge."
"Their judgment has been subjective since the beginning. It became worse at the end."
Ha-rin frowned since she did not like the format.
Like Park Young-soon said, out of 24, there were only 12 tickets to the so-called Greenhouse. The condition to qualify for a ticket was to get 12 votes from their fellows. So far, 17 qualified. These people entered the luxurious building called the Greenhouse, while those who failed were led to the Barren Lands. A voting session occurred right after the quick tour to determine who among the 17 would immediately leave the Greenhouse. It was because only 12 would be allowed to stay.
"Uhhh. One and a half hours for this." Her friend's face on her phone's screen looked impatient.
"I feel bad for the five. They saw heaven before being sent to the purgatory. But what now?"
The two ladies were about to turn off the TV when the signal song finally played.
Because the unsung melody of the chorus haunted them, they reluctantly continued watching.
The following scenes showed the Inhabitants and the Barren Landers' way of tackling the signal song's mission. Finally, the two got intrigued enough to forget their original intention of turning away from the show.
"Oh. So, the Inhabitants held an impromptu contest to distribute parts. How quick and efficient."
Not much of this section was cut, so now they saw the contestants' skills in earnest.
And then what was boredom at first turned into interest until they looked addicted and invested.
"Sujin, I will remember this kid."
"Neo is a dance god's mortal incarnation! I'm certain of that!"
"Ahhh, really, Juwon is like a prince. His voice is as pretty as his face."
For quite a while, only Young-soon kept speaking. The woman showed fondness for a lot of trainees, yet she never failed to go back to praising Juwon.
Meanwhile, the silent Ha-rin had just finished her drink. She was also diligently watching; like her friend, she focused on one person.
'What's with him?'
Every time the particular boy had screen time, her eyes automatically followed and stayed on him.
'I think I have found my bias.'
When Jun's version of Part 1 played, Ha-rin angrily told her friend to shut up. She ended the video call because she wanted to watch it in peace.
'OMG. OMG. Is he for real? Committing everything to memory in such a short time? Or is this edited? This was edited, right?'
The subtitle said otherwise, though.
[Inhabitant Jun who surprised even the staff???!]
[He executed all the moves perfectly without singing off-key or forgetting the lyrics.]
The other Greenhouse Inhabitants' reactions also appeared on screen after every iconic or surprising move.
So Ha-rin had no choice but to get convinced.
'OMG. Who cares if Young-soon's Juwon is a prince? My Jun is an idol god! A real deity!'
The song was hauntingly beautiful. And Jun danced and sang it perfectly. In simple words, he gave the song the justice it deserved.
Ha-rin couldn't remember how long she screamed in excitement. But when she regained her senses, which was exactly when the episode ended, she poured out all her analyzing and writing skills.
She looked possessed as she typed furiously on her laptop.
Five minutes after the broadcast, a brief analysis of BOI episode one came out. Following right after was an extremely detailed analysis of Jun's handsomeness and amazing leadership, talents, and skills.
The same person wrote the two posts and uploaded them on different social media platforms. However, the difference in the effort made was very blatant. While the BOI review was short, Jun's analysis was long, with no typos, and filled with various photos of Jun.
Afterward, because it was one of the earlier posts, it attracted a lot of views from people thirsty for updates about Jun and the other BOI contestants. Content creators saw these posts and one of them created a video version that went viral in Wetube and Toktok.
In less than a day, Jun went from an unknown trainee into one of the top three picks from Best of Idol. For the first time in this timeline, hundreds of thousands of people remembered his existence.