Chapter 32

Volume 1 / Chapter 32

The 110 survivors from the area eliminations boarded a bus to a condo in Pocheon, Kyeonggi-do. The contest to select the top 10 would begin while staying at the condo for the next 5 nights and 6 days.

A staff member from the production crew raised the tension so the ride to Pocheon would not be boring,

"There there, everyone listen up. When we arrive at the condo in a bit, the room assignments will start. As soon as the assignments are over, the team mission will start... and five people will make up each team. A band member will be regarded as one member. Place the name tag being passed out now on your chest. If you look at the tags, it says each of your...should I say genres, specialties? Anyway it has a characteristic, so check those and form your teams. And when we start filming, don't act too restless... Got it?"

As soon as they arrived at the condo, they had to meet in the basement hall without time to even greet their roommates. A set had already been prepared to shoot.

"There there, we're going to start quickly. Please make your teams within two hours."

Not everything on the program was filmed according to a script. There are unpredictable situations and the crises these situations create. It seems these are the devices that keep the viewers under suspense. Star Week is the content that participants create, excluding their music.

***

Everyone was busy trying to find the teams they would be working with. A team member was a colleague but also an opponent. One could not be on a team with someone at a lower level who would ruin the mission or with someone who would overshadow others with their talent.

Jun Hyuk slowly started getting annoyed. He even had the thought that he should have listened to Yoon Kwang Hun and began to regret going on the program.

'Shit, should I just go?'

He was going back and forth like this when two people cautiously approached him.

"Excuse me. Hello. Do you remember us?"

"Who? Oh, the rappers from last time?"

"Yes. Thanks to you, we also passed the area preliminaries. We wanted to thank you then but you left first."

"Oh, I see."

"Do you want to be on a team with us? If you're okay with that."

"Sure."

"We'll try gathering the team members as well."

"I'm okay with anything, so you can take care of it."

The two rappers spoke deliberately, but Jun Hyuk consented to go along apathetically. This was because it was easier for him to be on a team when people approached him instead of having to find people to form a team with.

The two rappers ran around looking for people to make up the rest of their team. Once Jun Hyuk agreed to work with them, the rest of the team was formed quickly.

Jun Hyuk was the perfect team member because he was good looking, his guitar skills were amazing... and the best thing about him was that he did not sing. No one knew what their mission song would be, but it was clear that they would need instrumentals to back up the singing. It also would not hurt to take him out of the competition early.

When the recording started, the VJs were busy trying to shoot the bustling participants forming teams.

Jun Hyuk sat still through the tedious period and the VJ who filmed Jun Hyuk during the area eliminations was acting as his personal mark man.

The full-fledged mission started after two hours.

22 panels were hanging on the wall and a question mark was printed on each.

"On the backside of these panels are the faces of 22 senior singers. Each team will choose a panel and check the singer you get. We will commence the contest with the song of your choosing from that singer."

Jun Hyuk's team chose singer Park Ki Young. Though it sounds like a man's name, the picture was of a woman. None of the members knew who Park Ki Young was.

The broadcast staff came in as soon as the 22 teams chose their mission songs.

"This is the team that chose Park Ki Young's song, right?"

"Yes."

"Raise your hand if you know Park Ki Young's songs."

When no one rose their hands, the staff member pulled out an MP3 player.

"We recorded the songs on this, so listen to it. Both the original and edited songs are in there, so you'll have to listen carefully."

The staff member pulled out a music score as well.

"This is the edited score, so raise your hand if you know how to read sheet music."

Jun Hyuk and a girl rose their hands.

"Okay. You two look at this and teach the kids. Don't waste any time and hurry up and start practicing. When you're done, call us."

Someone spoke to the staff member as he was walking away.

"Excuse me, isn't the mission song supposed to be one of Park Ki Young's that we choose and arrange?"

"When you don't even know who Park Ki Young is?"

"Yes."

As the replying voice grew confidence, the staff member's brows went up.

"So? Do we need to prepare all songs by Park Ki Young and present them to you guys? And you guys will listen to all of those songs and choose? You have that much time? Are you guys crazy?"

Everyone looked dejected at the staff member's biting words and relented.

"Are you good at arranging music?"

"Excuse me? No, that's not it."

"Is arranging something that can be done within a few minutes? If you can't do it, just do what you're told. And is the broadcast a joke? You're trying to go on air with a song you arranged when you can't even arrange music? Save that for your school performance."

The staff member turned away and put his foot down.

"If you don't do this properly, your faces won't make it on air even for a minute. We'll edit all of your parts out, so get your head on straight."

When the grunting staff member walked away, the rapper spoke up,

"Shit. I knew this would happen. It was all a show."

The participants who had only been viewers up until now had just found out a new truth. Broadcast is a show.