Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Now all that remained were the first and second place announcements. I wasn’t worried that Park Moondae might not have made the cut after all.

There’s nobody else. Out of the remaining contestants, none of them could possibly have placed first or second. Oh, and the random guy who’d gotten third place last time had been spotted in public with his girlfriend, leading to a rapid drop in popularity. I felt kind of bad for him, but he’d brought it on himself by seeing his girlfriend every time he took a break from filming even though he knew full well he was on an idol audition show.

“We’ll now reveal the two candidates for first place!” The emcee continued to speak, dropping a few hints, voice hoarse as we approached the end of the lengthy live broadcast. Stalling as they had for the other contestants, the emcee finally revealed the first candidate.

“Cha Eugene!”

Eugene grinned and stepped forward, and the crowd cheered easily, no doubt having expected this.

“And the second candidate is...”

Get ready.

“Park Moondae!”

I knew it. A few of the contestants I didn’t know very well went through the motions of congratulating me as I stepped forward.

“Congrats, Moondae.”

Goldie #2 sounded sincere, at least, but he was probably dealing with the realization that he wasn’t going to debut. I could see he was trying to put on a cheerful face.

After patting him on the back a few times, I went to the front, where Eugene was already standing. He held out his hand.

“Let’s shake hands!” he said. He looked very excited.

I hope he gets first place while he’s at it. I didn’t comment as I shook his hand. For a moment, the mood in the room took a turn for the warm and fuzzy.

At least I know now that I’ll definitely be debuting. I checked the status window quickly just in case something had changed, but there was only the popup I’d gotten before about a successful performance.

“So, how do you feel, the two of you, now that you are competing for first place?”

Cha Eugene took the microphone right away. “This is amazing!”

“Haha! What an enthusiastic response!” the emcee laughed. Then came time for the loaded question intended to create tension. “Do you think you’ll be walking away in first place today?”

“I don’t know, but first place would be great!” Cha Eugene said with a thumbs-up.

He didn’t come off as obnoxious or anything—if he had, people might have been upset that he was joking around during the finals—he was just relaxed enough that he put anyone watching in a good mood.

“All right! Now then, let’s hear what Park Moondae has to say. What do you think of your opponent?”

I held the microphone to my mouth. “He’s such a talented person... Frankly, I can’t believe I’m even standing here beside him.”

“That was certainly a very modest answer! But what about first place? Do you think you have a chance?”

I knew I would be asked this question. I waited a moment, as if thinking, then shook my head gently. “I don’t think I can... uh, to be honest, second place is much higher than I expected to place. I’m grateful just to be here.”

Though I had no idea why, there was some tittering among the audience when I said “I don’t think I can.”

Did I sound too serious?

“So you won’t be disappointed if you place second? Are you sure about that?”

“Yes... Of course, I’d be very grateful to win.

“Ah! I understand. So that was Park Moondae, everyone.”

You’re tenacious, aren’t you? The emcee finally abandoned that line of questioning and began another round of stalling, this time talking about the buzz the show had generated, reactions from various demographics, and the amazing rewards that we would receive upon debuting. What felt like an age later, the time for the announcement finally arrived.

“The long-awaited first place winner... will be revealed right after this ad!”

Just as I thought. The average candidates might have tensed up and fallen to their knees or had some equally dramatic reaction. As it happened, it was me and Eugene who were waiting and all we did was laugh and applaud. There were quite a few groans and curses from the audience, however.

I think I heard some pretty coarse language just now. I was pretty certain I’d heard one of these curses coming from behind a Moon Puppy banner.

“Hey! We get to debut! Let’s do lots of fun stuff together!” Eugene said as soon as the production team indicated that the ad was playing.

“Sounds good.”

He looked so excited, it was almost as though he’d already debuted and been assigned a room in the group’s shared accommodation.

Is he really not interested in first place at all? The first place reward was still a mystery, with the emcee simply describing it as incredible and amazing. Someone who had no desire for personal fame could very well be content just to debut, but as someone who knew what the prize was going to be, I was nervous.

As I’d already thought to myself many times over, the reward was more like a penalty than anything else. Eugene had always placed first, including in all the previous ranking announcements. This meant he was more likely to win.

But my gut was telling me otherwise. After seeing how the internet was reacting to everything yesterday, I couldn’t throw off the ominous feeling that Park Moondae might actually take first place.

Oh, whatever. I guess I’ll just have to live with some criticism. I gave up on thinking about it. I’d avoided death, so that was good enough for me. After chatting with Eugene for a little while, the broadcast resumed.

“Welcome back to Relisted! Idol Incorporated! The long-awaited first place announcement is just around the corner!” The emcee repeated again. It felt like I could recite the script from memory, I’d heard it so many times at this point.

Get on with it already. Frankly, everyone already knew we were going to debut. There was no need to drag it out like this. I get the feeling a lot of people will have switched to a different channel by now.

Thankfully, the wait was finally over. The first place winner of Idol Incorporated was...

“Park Moondae!”

It wasn’t the name I was necessarily expecting to hear, though.

It really happened. I came in first. Hanging my head, just in case anything showed on my face, I was surprised by my own reaction. I felt... good. The penalty-disguised-as-a-reward aside, winning gave me a strange rush of adrenaline. It felt amazing and I almost laughed out loud.

This feels better than when I got accepted into college. The fortunate side effect was that I didn’t have to contrive any feelings while giving my speech.

“Congratulations!” Eugene hugged me enthusiastically, leaving no room to mistake him for anything but sincere.

American style, huh? I returned the embrace briefly and then accepted the microphone. Now that I could look down on the audience from the same vantage point as the emcee, I noticed a handful of the production team were looking at me encouragingly like they wanted me to cry.

Nah, not today, suckers. I simply smiled at them. My win was partly thanks to good luck and the status window, but I’d still had a part in it.

“Park Moondae! Please say a few words.”

“Okay.” I paused to think for a moment, then simply chose to be honest. Maybe I was high on the adrenaline, but my words felt like they were coming straight from my heart, rather than my always calculating brain.

“Honestly, my only goal coming here was to debut. I wanted to debut. I needed to debut... So I never thought for a second I might get first place. I didn’t expect it at all. I thought just debuting would be more than I deserved.” I paused to take a deep breath. “But... now that it’s actually happened it’s really nice.”

There was cheering and laughter from all around the hall.

I continued by saying, “Frankly I didn’t see this coming,” but the cheering drowned out my voice. The production team signaled to the emcee that they should stall again, so it was question time.

“Do you have anyone you’d like to thank?”

Yeah, I was getting to that.

“Uh... I can’t think of anyone in particular, but I’d like to thank everyone who invested in me.” Screams erupted from the audience, so I paused for a moment before speaking again. “I wish I could repay them somehow... Uh, regardless of how much you spent on me, I’ll do my best to perform at a level worthy of the money you invested, within my price range, so to speak. Thank you.”

Bowing deeply, I could hear some sniffling amongst the cheering and clapping. The person holding the Moon Puppy banner was openly sobbing and the paper clutched in her hands was so crumpled I could hardly read the words anymore.

They’re that moved by what I said? I was a little confused, but it could only be a good thing that my speech had been well-received. It tugged on my heartstrings a little to know that people were so happy about my success, even though I didn’t know them personally.

This feels pretty good. Maybe I could even be fine with the first-place penalty.

While I gathered my thoughts, the emcee began interviewing the second-place contestant. Eugene beamed as he delivered a message to his mother in English, then waved at the crowd with great enthusiasm. He was obviously enjoying the spotlight and I could understand why people were drawn to him. He wasn’t the type to cause unnecessary stress or emotional fatigue in people.

“Thank you!” he cried cheerfully, ending his speech.

The production team signaled that he should join the debuting team on the podium. He skipped away with great excitement and the emcee turned to look at me. Tense background music began to play.

“Now, the time has come for a choice.”

Here it comes. I stood up straight, bringing my hands together.

“We’ll now reveal the amazing prize that will be awarded to the first-place winner! Park Moondae!”

“Yes.”

“What would you like for it to be?”

“I don’t have any ideas...” I’d have appreciated a hundred million won. “Maybe a quick debut?”

“Ah! That’s very important, yes.” The emcee raised a hand dramatically. “Please show us the first place prize!”

The huge screen mounted above the stage, as well as two smaller screens on either side, showed a dramatic animation with letters appearing.

[50,000,000 won in prize money!]

Why were they suddenly handing out prize money now?

“Yes! Park Moondae will receive fifty million won for finishing in first place, as soon as the show ends today!”

This isn’t right. Despite my confusion, my brain did the math, deducting the tax. I’d get to keep thirty-nine million won. It would be nice to have, of course, but as expected, that wasn’t all there was to it.

“Or! You have another choice!”

The words onscreen changed.

[Recruit a new member!]

“As the first-place winner, you can choose one of the fourteen other contestants who made it to the finals to join your debuting team!”

There it is. The cursed choice I’d feared was being offered to me. It was a bizarre reward, which would force me to select one of the disqualified members and allow them to join our team! It was a punishment in disguise, and it was a worse one than I remembered.

So I’m supposed to choose between the money and selecting a new member? How could I choose the money in such a situation? If I did, I’d be spitting in the face of the fourteen people who’d been disqualified. I really had no choice. I could already picture what people would say about me if I chose the money over a new member.

- Fifty million is nothing to scoff at, but it’s worth less than another person’s career, isn’t it?

- He’ll make plenty of money anyway after he debuts LOL. He must really love money! I can already see him planning to defect for a better-paying team

- I didn’t think he’d want the money after everything they’ve all been through together...

This wouldn’t be good for my reputation. I had a feeling no one in my shoes would be able to choose the money. The production team had probably known this, which was why they’d made this quaint little arrangement in the first place.

They wanted some drama in the last episode and hadn’t hesitated to back the winner into a corner in order to get it. I hadn’t expected anything less from the people who’d made downvotes a thing in an audition show.

Honestly, this is pissing me off. I wondered if I should just choose the money and take the heat for it.

“Park Moondae?”

“Yes,” I was almost late answering, caught up in my thoughts as I was.

The shouting from the audience was so loud I could hardly hear myself thinking though. The people closest to the stage were also screaming various names, and I couldn’t get my thoughts in order.

“Have you made your decision?”

“Yes...”

There was no point in dragging it out. I opened my mouth to speak.