13. Grade Evaluation (1)
After eating a packed lunch in the morning, they were given free practice time.
The next day, the judges would come and evaluate the grades, so they were told to prepare songs to be evaluated in advance.
They all knew that they would be evaluated except for Neoul, so they lightly reviewed the songs they had prepared in advance.
The main writer worried about Neoul, wondering if he could prepare in one day.
"The other contestants were notified in advance and even submitted their songs, but since Neoul-ssi joined suddenly, he was bound to be at a disadvantage. He was out of his mind because he went to the hospital yesterday..."
"....."
"Even if you're a little lacking in the first evaluation, you can still do well in the midterm evaluation if you work hard. Don't worry too much, and just select the song and send it to me by the morning."
She thought he'd nod, but Neoul shook his head.
"Why? It seems like selecting the song by the morning would be difficult? Um... Then can you just let me know before 6 PM?"
The main writer tried to accommodate Neoul as much as possible. However, Neoul shook his head again.
The writer was starting to get a little annoyed. If you can't select the song by the evening, you'll let me know tomorrow? But the evaluation is tomorrow?
Just as she was about to say something sharply, Neoul suddenly started humming a song.
"Song selection. I'll go with this song."
The main writer stood there blankly, as if entranced by the beautiful voice, then suddenly came to her senses.
"What... is the title of the song? I have to prepare the MR, but it's not a song I've heard before."
"It's called
Oh, you compose songs too?
The main writer's broad cheekbones rose as she thought that a fortune had rolled in.
She was very curious about the other two songs with unusual titles, but she wrote them down in a notepad and asked, deciding to listen to them later.
"Then, will you send me the MR of your own song today?"
"There's nothing like that."
"Yes?"
"Will I be eliminated if I just sing it?"
"No. It's not like that...."
Shouldn't you sing it while playing the guitar or piano?
You're going to sing it unaccompanied?
I don't doubt your skills, but I was worried that your excessive confidence might be poisonous.
But this is a survival show. Every single choice could affect your debut, and I couldn't interfere with the contestants' choices.
The main writer said she understood and moved on to another question.
"But the song you just sang doesn't seem like a song you can dance to."
"...?"
Neoul's eyes widened at the mention of dancing.
"Do I have to dance?"
"Of course. Our program is an idol survival show, so we have no choice but to evaluate both dancing and singing. If you're going to sing that song, you should prepare a separate dance song or freestyle dance."
Neoul nodded.
***
Neoul went to Baek Gi-yeom and asked.
"What kind of dance songs can even beginners follow?"
"If it's something you can do with your skills... rhythm?"
"Rhythm?"
"Yeah. You're doing it to prepare for the ranking evaluation?"
Neoul nodded.
Baek Gi-yeom frowned for a moment and thought deeply before showing a YouTube video.
[Hey yo! Yo! Hello everyone!
Look at me! I'm a baby octopus! (Octopus!)
In the shallow mud of the sea
A cute baby octopus! (Octopus!)
Little by little Little by little
Crawling~
I actually want to swim in the deep sea too!]
The lyrics are at the level of a nursery rhyme, but this song was an idol song.
About 8 years ago. At a time when short video challenges were booming both domestically and internationally, a girl group that was called a small miracle at the time released an electro house genre song,
'The choreography is very easy, but it's cute and addictive, so it was quite popular.'
There was even a challenge video of kindergarteners dancing to it, and later it was used in a talent show.
It's a crazy concept, but thanks to the lyrics about a baby octopus dreaming of quickly becoming an adult octopus and going out to the wider and deeper sea, some parents said they cried for no reason when they listened to it.
It was popular among celebrities and YouTubers to wear a large octopus doll hat and do the challenge.
"If you don't have confidence in dancing, it's okay to go cute like this. You just have to work hard and show that you're getting better."
Baek Gi-yeom heard that Neoul had only received Baek Yu-ri's leg tongs training for a few hours. However, the fact that he looked like that means that he was much worse before the training.
Even to Baek Gi-yeom, who corrected Neoul's posture so that he could walk and run properly at dawn, Neoul looked like someone who had just started to control his limbs.
'It may be a bit cold, but this is all Neoul-i can do right now.'
Although he may be criticized for not being earnest... Since his vocals are excellent, wouldn't that have some kind of offsetting effect?
When the show airs, he'll definitely be called 'Baby Octopus' and become quite a hot topic. If he continues to improve his dancing and show his overcoming, the story of hard work will naturally follow.
'If his skills don't improve... well, there's nothing we can do.'
That was the only thing that Neoul-i had to do.
***
Neoul-i, who went to a corner alone, diligently practiced his dancing while watching the video that Baek Gi-yeom found for him. It was awkward and boring to just dance, so he sang a song and learned the moves.
In the evening, a barbecue party was held for night filming. Since there were a lot of people, they split into groups of 10 and had dinner, and the main dish was meat and ramen. There were also plenty of tangerines and watermelons to eat for dessert.
The outdoor grill for grilling meat and the burner for boiling ramen were PPL products.
There was no mission for the meal, but a request to show how to cook deliciously and eat deliciously.
Baek Yu-ri left the cooking of ramen to the teenagers who were not accustomed to grilling meat, and he naturally grabbed the tongs.
While he was grilling the meat with great concentration and dazzling skill, he saw Neoul looking at the knife from the other side. It was a knife prepared to cut a watermelon.
'Are you going to kill me with that and take out my liver...?'
It was hot in front of the fire, but in an instant, it became cold as if he had been splashed with ice water.
'Hey... no way...'
Baek Yuri shook off his delusions and put the deliciously grilled meat on a plate and placed it on the table. Then, he diligently placed raw meat on the empty grill again.
Neoul watched the people using chopsticks intently, then picked up the chopsticks and put them in his hands here and there. In the meantime, the plate was empty in an instant. It couldn't be helped since everyone was eating well.
Neoul looked at the empty plate with a blank expression.
One of the participants gave the other participants some ramen, and gave Neoul a bowl too. Neoul tried to eat the ramen with chopsticks, but when it didn't work, he just picked up the bowl and drank it.
"...!"
Neoul was in agony, with his mouth full of ramen, rolling his arms and legs. He couldn't spit it out, so he swallowed it all and groaned as he looked for water.
"Water! Water! It's hot! It's hot! My mouth hurts!"
"Can't you eat hot food? Let it cool down slowly and eat it."
At the words of another participant, Neoul waited for the remaining ramen in his bowl to cool down and tasted it again.
"It still hurts! It's definitely poisoned!"
"Oh my, is it really spicy? You're a spicy food loser!"
[Mapjjili: A new word created by combining the words spicy and jjijil, a term referring to a person who is weak to spicy food.]
It was a mess.
Baek Yuri cut the well-cooked meat and put it on a plate, and gave the remaining tongs to Neoul. Neoul moved the tongs around and succeeded in picking up the meat and eating it.
"Yuri. I'll grill the meat now. You go and eat it too."
"Yes. Thank you."
Baek Yuri handed the tongs to another participant. He went to the table, picked up a few pieces of meat, and then grabbed the knife.
You shouldn't use such a dangerous weapon and quickly put it away.
Before the others, especially Neoul, touched it, he got the knife and quickly cut the watermelon.
While he was cutting the watermelon beautifully with his craftsmanship, Neoul came and asked.
"Sir Rabbit. Is your liver in your stomach right now, or is it somewhere else?"
"Haha, the skit isn't over yet?"
"...?"
Hahaha… This is it.
He asked with a smile, pretending not to know, but he just stared blankly as if wondering what he was talking about.
The camera is rolling and the microphone is on, but doesn't he has any intention of hiding his identity? Or does he not know what the camera and microphone are for?
He became more and more certain that Gal Neoul wasn't human.
The tips of his fingers holding the knife were trembling. If he told him that his liver was in his stomach right now, he would immediately take the knife and slice it vertically under his ribs like cutting a watermelon.
Red watermelon juice flowed like blood through the watermelon split in Baek Yuri's hand.
"I left it at home."
"..."
"Home is far away. It's very far away. It's really far away."
The brief silence made his breathing feel tight.
Neoul nodded and went back to quietly eat the meat with tongs. Baek Yuri quickly finished cutting the watermelon and put the knife away.
***
The next day. The three judges flew to Jeju Island.
The production crew set up a cute tent and laid out a mat in the hotel auditorium, which was located 20 minutes away from the pension. They put up high-end camping chairs and tables, and hung up garlands and light bulbs to decorate it cutely, so it looked pretty good.
They had originally planned to film outdoors, but the weather was too hot and humid, and the rain kept coming and going, so they set up the space indoors.
"Oh! It's good?"
"Wow~ It really feels like we're on vacation!"
"Wow!"
The judges who entered the filming set cheered. Their attire was also comfortable, like they were on vacation.
Sunglasses, Hawaiian T-shirts, straw hats, sleeveless beach dresses, surfboards, and rash guard swimsuits(?). They were all dressed up in vacation looks that matched the program concept.
"I wish the judging would end quickly! I'm going to go surfing right after it's over. Do you want to go with me?"
PD Seok Oh-young, who was impressed by the judges' outfits, was quickly shaken by the words of one judge who brought a surfboard.
'Did you really come here to tease me!?'
Still, he was grateful that they came anyway, so he put snacks on the table to replenish sugar in addition to the PPL drinks.
After the judges were ready, filming began soon.
The trainees who were from the same agency and had prepared for the evaluation together were evaluated first.
They came in three or four at a time with nervous faces and let out exclamations of surprise when they saw the judges.
After a while, the slightly more serious contestants bowed and introduced themselves at the center of the stage.
"Oh, they're from Jest. I heard they train hard here. They'll do well."
"Ha On Ha, the contestant in the middle, was also nominated for the Signal Song Center."
"Where have I seen him? Ha On Ha. Didn't he film an ice cream commercial before?"
"Yes! He filmed one when he was seven."
"Okay? I remember him because his eyes are pretty."
"Oh, right! He was famous for a while as a blue-eyed Korean kid model."
The judges gave one more comment to each of the contestants who were nominated for the center position. Then, the contestants finished their songs and the evaluations continued.
The contestants who received harsh criticism and those who received favorable reviews had mixed feelings. The judges divided the contestants into three classes and evaluated them.
It was based on the economy, business, and first class airplane seats.
Behind the judges' seats, there were seats divided by class. No matter how much it's called healing or anything, survival is survival.
"The seat that Ha Onha will be sitting in is... first class!"
***
The contestants waiting in the waiting room outside the auditorium started to murmur when they heard the news of the first first class boarding.
Since there was no soundproofing at all, the judges' voices speaking into the microphone could be heard clearly.
"I'm jealous."
"Ha Onha is already good. He's definitely going to debut."
The contestants waited for their turn with even more tension.
After about forty people entered, it was Neoul's turn. When Neoul's name was called, Woo Cheong and Baek Giyeom patted Neoul on the back and cheered him on.
Neoul entered the auditorium with a natural gait, without any sign of nervousness.
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