Chapter 669: Rainy Days

Rainy days.

Despite their preferences clashing most of the times, Mei Ling and Jun Hao both loved rainy days.

How the air was colder and more humid.

How the grass smelled unusually fresh as the first few drops of rain descended from the heavens.

How you have an excuse to be lazy because the surroundings are wet.

How life sounded more peaceful because the internal noise was drowned out by the pelts of the rain.

Except for soggy shoes and acid rain, the two of them liked the season a lot.

However, it seemed like Mei had changed her preference, confusing June.

"Why is that?" Mei read a question from the chat, placing her hand under her chin.

"I don't know if I could say this, but I don't really mind sharing it," she said.

June's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Did something happen to make Mei hate the rain so much?

"I had an accident in the rain," she revealed, making him frown even deeper.

- An accident?

- What?

- Why did our precious baby get into an accident?

"It's not that serious," Mei quickly said.

Mei watched the scene from her seat and shook her head. She was already regretting oversharing to the camera.

"I was just involved in a minor car accident," she continued. "A car ran into me, and the next thing I knew, I was in the hospital with my parents."

June clicked his tongue. So, it seemed that her lost memories actually had a physiological reason.

At that moment, it seemed like the producer from behind the camera continued asking her questions.

"I honestly forgot what I was doing in the rain at that moment," she continued. "But, I just remember running...and running...and running—away from someone or to someone—I don't really know."

She sighed and shook her head. "But that doesn't matter, does it? It didn't really take a toll on me that much. I just have this scar on my leg that strangely resembles a number, but aside from that, all is well."

With that, her scene transitioned to the other ladies, yet June still couldn't stop thinking about her answer.

As far as he knew, she had lost her memories on the same day that he died.

So, does that mean that Mei wasn't in their home like she told him she was during that day?

The layers just kept unraveling and unraveling, yet June couldn't pinpoint what the importance of each layer was.

The clip finally ended, yet June was still a bit dazed.

"It's time," Casper said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

June looked up at Casper and stood before taking the microphone once more.

"Now, let's head to the 15th to 25th spots," Casper announced. "We are getting closer and closer to the top five!"

Once again, Casper and June took turns announcing the trainees who had survived.

By the tenth spot, June was hoping for Mei's name to be called.

"In the tenth," Casper started off. "We have Ara!"

The cute girl sprung from her seat, excited to have risen in the ranks despite their loss in Team Kill Mission.

Meanwhile, Mei frowned since she had the tenth spot last time.

"When am I going to get called?" she muttered, already feeling uneasy.

June looked at the next trainee on the list.

"In ninth, we have Sejeong," he said, and the talented trainee went up the stage to give her mini-speech.

"Just three more spots until the top five," Casper said, building the tension in the room.

The girls became even more nervous; however, June was even more nervous!

"Gosh," June muttered. "There's no way she has dropped, so she could only go higher."

Casper announced the trainees in eighth place, and it seemed like June's nightmare was coming true.

By the time Casper announced the sixth-ranked trainee, June felt like his sister was once again going to be martyred online.

"In sixth place is Mina!" Casper exclaimed, making the girls turn to each other in surprise, gasps filling the entire place.

- What the heck? Mina's in sixth place? She deserves the second place, at least!

- She's been training for more than five years. Why does she have such a low rank?

- Is sixth a low rank? I think it's pretty decent.

- She deserves way higher. It's not even in the debut spots.

- Goodness, I can see the people who still haven't been called, and I hate it already.

- Don't tell me—THAT girl is going to place higher than Mina?

- THAT girl deserves the 50th spot, to be honest.

- She doesn't even deserve to enter the top 50.

"Umm, thank you all for voting for me," Mina said with a smile.

However, even with a smile, she appeared to be quite disappointed. June pursed his lips as he empathized with how she felt.

However, even with a smile, she appeared to be quite disappointed. June pursed his lips as he empathized with how She was the trainee with the longest training time out of all of them, yet she didn't make it into the top five despite people rooting for her.

It just seemed like a lot of people liked her, but not a lot of people took the time to vote for her.

"I'll work even harder so I can be a part of the debut team," she ended her speech with a sad smile, heading over to her chair.

- She doesn't need to work harder.

- That's right. She should be able to debut with how talented she is.

- If anyone needs to work harder, then it's her.

- I swear, if she makes it into the top five, I'm going to commit arson in Azure's building.

- You guys are so cruel. Why don't you vote for your fave instead of throwing hate at other trainees?

June, despite his racing heart, opened the next envelope that contained the top five trainees.

"We will now be announcing the trainees who made it into the debuting ranks," he started off.

Then, his breath got caught in the back of his throat when he saw who was the first on the list.

He clicked his tongue and subtly shook his head.

High.

It was higher than what June had achieved during the first eliminations.

"In fifth place, we have none other than..."

"...Mei," June announced.

The studio turned silent, with only some claps of courtesy from some girls. However, it was evident that they didn't think Mei deserved such a high rank.

The people in the comments, too, started spamming the chat, which made it unable to be deciphered by a normal human's eye.

Mei pursed her lips and went up the stage despite the hostility in the room.

June stared at her and found that she didn't have any particular expression on her face. He frowned since she couldn't read her at that time.

Then, Mei took the microphone before saying her words—one that June wasn't expecting at all.

"Hi," she started off, clearing her throat.

Then, she proceeded to say one of the most ridiculous opening statements to a speech in the history of the show.

"I know I don't deserve this spot."