Chapter 394: Undisclosed Identities
"Are you guys excited?" Jay exclaimed as he drove the van to the filming site of the first episode of 'King of Kings.' A resounding groan was heard inside the van, making Jay smile. "I'm glad you guys are happy," he chimed. The members were, indeed, not that happy. They were running on about two hours of sleep because they had to prepare for their opening performance.
Once June came back, they ultimately decided that the performance they had curated wasn't going to cut it for the survival show. So, they scrapped it altogether. They had less than five days to prepare an epic performance—one that would impress their opponents as well as the viewers.
Along with this, they had meetings for their album, other small brand deals, and promotion videos for their new ambassadorships. In summary, the members were quite tired. However, Jaeyong, being their leader, cheered his members up. "Come on, guys," he said. "Let's be more excited." Akira smiled, sitting straight. "I'm very excited to perform on grand stages again.
I think we're all just quite tired." Ren slapped his cheeks to keep himself awake. "Nonetheless, we'll give them a very good performance," he said. "We definitely will," Sehun chimed. "With the amount of effort we poured into this, there's no way we're settling for a mediocre performance." "I'm just wondering who our opponents are," Zeth said. "I feel like there will be a lot of scary people." "You were the scariest when we were in Rising Stars," Jisung said. Akira laughed out loud. "Now, you'll know how we felt." Zeth chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. June shook his head in amusement.
It felt like yesterday when they were competing against each other, and now, they were competing with each other. "Are you not going to give us a spoiler on who's going to be there?" Jaeyong asked Jay. "I wish I could," Jay said. "But I'm also clueless about the show's details." Akira gasped, pointing an accusing finger at Jay. "You, out of all people, don't have any information?" Jay sighed deeply. "I know. I'm disappointed in myself, too." "I guess we'll just see when we get there," Ren sighed, suddenly feeling nervous as they pulled up into a large building—even larger than that of Azure Entertainment. SBC Entertainment.
Without a doubt, it was the biggest TV station in the entire country. Although Azure's assets were bigger in the entire market, SBC got them beat in the entertainment aspect. While more K-pop enjoyers tuned in to Azure's shows, SBC Entertainment had a broader audience, enjoining even those who don't enjoy K-pop as their viewers.
Most of their shows were dramas that were popular with domestic and international audiences. However, they also had talent shows that were less popular than their dramas but nonetheless still popular. One of these shows was Queen of Queens.
It had two successful seasons, and now, they dabbled in creating the male version of the show. "We're here," Jay smiled, turning off the engine of the van. June snapped out of his thoughts as his teammates started going out of the van. He followed them out and looked around the building, admiring its futuristic interior.
Even their underground parking lot was very modern! As they entered the lobby, they were once again surprised when huge LED screens that contained their most popular shows were displayed on the walls. In the middle of the floor, a beautiful clear fountain stood, and holograms of their characters surrounded it. "I feel like I'm in the future," Akira said, his mouth agape. "Hey," Jisung said, nudging his shoulder and pointing to one of the holograms. "There's your friend." June smiled when he saw Hana's hologram.
He brought out his phone and snapped a photo to send to her once their filming ended. "Friend?" Zeth asked, perplexed. "Who?" Ren narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Hana Lim?" Casper raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You're friends with Hana Lim?" Zeth chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. Ren, Sehun, and Jaeyong also appeared amused. "Casper's so gullible," Sehun smiled. "How could June be friends with Hana Lim?" "June must be a fan," Zeth chimed. "Yeah," Ren chuckled. "I'm a big fan of her too. She was so charming in 'Cherry Blossoms.'" Jisung, Akira, and Jay looked at each other knowingly. "They're friends, though," Jisung muttered. "Let's just go," Jay said, leading the members to the filming site of the show.
They were greeted with smiles as soon as they entered, and the members bowed their heads in respect, also greeting the staff members. "My fatigue is gone. They're so handsome." "Do you think they're willing to date a staff member?" "You're crazy. They probably have a dating ban contract." "I mean, the company doesn't have to find out." Jay led them to a hallway with multiple waiting rooms of some sort.
The black doors all had colored paper stuck to them, causing June to frown. Normally, the artists' names were stuck onto the door, so June thought they would finally find out their opponents once they saw the waiting rooms. However, it seemed like SBC was determined to keep the thrill of the show to the maximum since there wasn't a hint of the artists' identities on their waiting room doors. "This is ours," Jay said, opening the door with a green-colored paper stuck to it.
It also seemed like the colors weren't related to the group at all. Pink was more representative of EVE, yet they merely passed by the door with the pink-colored paper. "It's weird," Akira said as they entered the room. "I thought the call time was 11 AM. Why aren't the other artists here yet?" "I think they gave us different call times," June said. "That way, we wouldn't run into each other." "Damn," Zeth said. "They're really determined to keep the surprise factor." Zeth closed the door, being the last one to enter the room.
However, just as the door shut, they heard a clicking sound coming from outside the room. June frowned, his gaze turning to the door. "Did they just lock us inside here?"