WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

[ Translation - Aren ]

I'm a Reporter, Please let me get off the Stage

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Chapter 41

“Now, we will proceed with the photo session for the production team and cast. Idol leaders, please step up first!”

Trudge, trudge……

Five young men, left in critical condition from the earlier verbal assault, trudged onto the stage.

“We’ll start with individual photos, followed by a group photo of all five leaders. First up, VOV’s Yeojun-nim!”

Yeojun made his way to the center of the stage. Camera flashes erupted in rapid succession.

Standing tall with a straight back, Yeojun greeted the cameras with a slight wave.

Whenever a photographer requested a new pose, he smoothly adjusted his stance, created a heart with his hands, or changed his facial angle, displaying remarkable confidence.

“Yes, thank you. Next is WEEKANIZ’ Yuyoung-nim! Please come to the center.”

This shouldn't be too hard. Strike a few poses, play along, and the time would pass.

Flash-!

‘Huh!’

Flash—!

Flash—!

“Could you relax your expression a little?”

A loud male voice called out from below the stage.

It was a photographer.

“Ah, yes. Yuyoung-nim. Could you loosen up your face? A smile would be great!”

The announcer looked at me, lowering her eyebrows into an encouraging smile.

‘Damn it, what do they want me to do when the lights are blinding me……?!’

The stage was already painfully bright, and now the dozens of camera flashes raining down made it nearly impossible for me to focus.

Celebrities could keep their eyes wide open and stay composed in this blinding white hell…… I couldn’t even imagine how resilient they had to be.

Get tougher, me. I couldn’t let some light reflections take me down here.

I smiled with the resolve to absorb all the light and fight back by lighting my eyes on fire!

I was funneling every ounce of my strength in my body to my eyeballs!

“Give us a different pose!”

After glancing to the right, center, and left in sequence, as if on cue, a photographer called for a ‘free pose’.

I stuck to the basics, showing a simple V-sign with both hands.

Then, I gave them the familiar hand-heart gesture, the one where you make a tiny heart with your thumb and index finger…… Was it called K-heart? Well, whatever, that one.

Trying to keep my eyes wide open was already exhausting enough, but now that I had to hold up the corners of my mouth, I could feel my facial muscles trembling under the strain.

Fortunately, the individual photo sessions weren’t overly long.

As the announcer called my name to signal the end, I gave a deep bow to the center and quickly moved to the left.

“……Were you really nervous?”

“Sorry!?”

It was Yeojun, who had gone right before me.

I practically jumped at his question, like a guilty person caught red-handed.

“You seemed super tense…… That highlight video earlier was kind of rough, huh?”

“Ah, yes. It’s fine. Honestly, I’m a bit nervous, haha……”

“Don’t overthink it. Sure, it’s a big network, but at the end of the day, the show doesn’t work without us cast members, right?”

“Yes, yes, you’re right……”

Yeojun gave me a giant smile as he offered me some words of encouragement.

The way he spoke was completely different from that obnoxious brat, Yeeun, from earlier.

How could those two who were both from flop groups be so drastically different?

I appreciated his effort to console me, but that wasn’t the reason why I was nervous…… It was purely because of the cameras. Did he know what camera shyness is?

‘……’

If I, a fifth-year idol, ever admitted to having camera shyness, that would be a total disaster, right?

No, it wasn’t even as severe as a full-blow phobia. It was more like something I could overcome after getting used to it a bit more. I was just a little awkward and stiff right now, that’s all!

“Alright, now let’s move on to the group photo. Everyone, please come up and line up in a row.”

And that was how the group photo session was wrapped up as well.

I sat on a tall chair the staff had brought out.

The three members of the production crew sat in the front and us five idols sat in the back.

“Now that the photo time is over, let’s dive into more details about the program. PD Kim Youngjin, could you explain the evaluation criteria and the rules of <Ultimate Idol>?”

I perked up my ears as well.

Honestly I didn’t really get to hear about that part during the first recording session either.

I got the part about them flattening us ‘Dead-fish eyed’ idols into ingredients for some pollack soup or whatever, but I would like to know how exactly they are planning on doing that.

“Yes. I know this is a topic many are curious about. Ranking will be determined as 1st, 2nd. and 3rd place. However, as you all know, idols belong to groups, right? They already have existing teams.”

“That’s right. They are all part of teams. Oh, so this begs the question, are we talking about individual or team competitions here?”

The announcer chimed in with a follow-up question as PD Kim explained.

“Exactly. When we're dealing with trainees who haven’t debuted yet, it’s naturally a 100% individual competition. That’s just the way it has to be. But for idols who’ve already debuted it’s inevitably 100% a team competition.”

“That makes sense. Oh, so does that mean that this show isn’t necessarily a team competition?”

“That’s correct. <Ultimate Idol> isn’t strictly a team competition. The details will be revealed through the broadcast, so please stay tuned.”

Was that guy just completely oblivious or something……?

Or had his intuition evolved into something totally bizarre?

No matter how I thought about this, this was just a totally reckless move.

Disbanding groups? Idol groups were nothing if they didn’t have unity.

An idol group didn’t become successful just because they shoved the ones in 1st to 7th place into one group.

They only reached their full potential when they were in the positions appropriate for their roles.

It was like a sports team. If you made a soccer team with eleven midfielders, that would be an absolute disaster.

Even WEEKANIZ, who was one of the so-called failed idol groups, had designated positions for each member, so why did they want to disband them so badly?

What kind of insight could these broadcasting execs possibly have to make that call?

“For now, each contestant will be given an individual ranking. After the final showdown, the selected group will receive special support from KCN.”

“So essentially, KCN will be producing their own idol group. I’m looking forward to it!”

PD Kim continued his explanation.

“The group that ranks first will receive even more benefits. Prize money, funding for a new album, and an exclusive reality show produced by KCN’s online label. Additionally, they’ll be given the opportunity to perform a special stage at KCN’s year-end music awards.”

“Prize money, an album release, a reality show, and a solo stage at an award show. These are some very impressive rewards.”

“In addition, we’ll also secure opportunities for radio and music show appearances, as well as have them form a long-term partnership with KCN.”

PD Kim emphasized these points with complete confidence.

A long-term partnership? Wasn’t this just a blatant way of showing the unfair collusion between the network and agencies?

I had a pretty bad feeling about this.

Was this show even going to be judged fairly?

In short, an agency would bribe the network. The network would then quietly give special treatment to that agency’s group. That group would end up winning, bringing in revenue for the agency. The agency would then give back a portion of said revenue to the network……

……I already had the whole movie script spread out in my head.

I had the sudden urge to just jump down from the stage, find a seat among the reporters, and raise my hand to ask some real questions.

“PD Kim, it sounds like you’ve already thought out the ‘big picture’. So, now what’s probably most crucial for our idols and fans. How will the competition be scored?”

“It will be a cumulative points system. Each group’s total score will be the sum of its members’ individual rankings. The group with the highest combined score will take first place. However, the weight of each member’s score will depend on the number of members in the group. For example, in a five member team, each member contributes 20% to the total. In a seven-member team, each member’s contribution amounts to 14%.”

“I see. Is there anything else we should take note of?”

“Yes. The most important thing is that a group cannot have too much of a ranking disparity among its members.The maximum allowable gap is 20 ranks. For example, let’s say a group has four members, ranked 5th, 8th, 10th, and 40th. The highest-ranking member is 5th, while the lowest ist 40th. That would be a gap of 35 ranks which would result in the lowest-ranked member being marked as ‘failed’, pushing the entire group’s ranking to the bottom.”

“In short, the gap between the highest and lowest ranking members within a group cannot exceed 20 ranks. It sounds simple, but it’s actually pretty difficult.”

“To move forward as a team, no one should be sprinting ahead or falling behind alone. This is my philosophy. It’s a bit different from what one typically associates project groups with. Haha.”

Oh, he sure loves the word philosophy. That massive ego of his wouldn’t even fit in a 100-liter garbage bag. He should register himself as oversized waste.

I looked down at the top of PD Kim’s head, snearing at him internally.

“Then, PD Kim, how exactly will the judging process work?”

“Fan votes will have the biggest impact on the judging process. After that, our panel of external judges will assess each contestant with their professional expertise.”

“Wow. that sounds like it would lead to some really interesting results.”

Fan voting and judge scores.

I slowly processed the judging criteria that PD Kim had laid out.

There wasn’t anything particularly unusual to take note of.

However, there was one thing that still nagged at me.

“I’m really looking forward to it! My competitive spirit is on fire.”

A youthful voice rang out.

Chenstin.

It was them.

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