I Was Trying To Debut My Baby, But I Ended Up Debuting Instead

Chapter 19

“Yes. Good job. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to do well since you went to the emergency room early this morning, but seeing you do so well like this, it makes me almost want to cry.”

Jade pretended to wipe away tears with her hair.

“…It turns out you couldn’t do it because you never learned properly. I knew it. I believed in you, Hyesung.”

Kang Min Gook, who was still standing in shock, slumped into his seat, muttering as if he had foreseen her talent.

‘When did you scold me to death? Just hurry up and make me the ace.’

“Hyesung, you did so well, but let’s have a quick meeting first.”

“…Yes.”

“Didn’t she just do better than Yeonwoo?”

“For now, the movements were more precise than Yeonwoo’s. But it felt a bit mechanical, slightly off.”

“It’s kind of… how should I say it, there’s no charm or feeling. How about her singing? I think her vocal volume and dance live were good.”

“Hyesung has never been bad at singing… um, I think she did better than expected.”

“So, should we send her to the ace group?”

“Based on just this performance, it seems like she should go to the ace group, but it’s also true that Hyesung lacks basic skills compared to other ace members… I’m not sure if she can keep up.”

Even though it was a performance that anyone would agree deserved an ace rating, the trainers were hesitant to make a decision.

“She’ll develop her charm and feel over time. This is the first time she’s learned to dance properly, and she seems talented at this level. We’re evaluating based on this performance, so I think she should go to the ace group.”

As Minty summarized her opinion, the trainers seemed to agree. Hyesung, who had been eavesdropping with her ears pricked up, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Of course, it’s Ha Hyun unnie. This is why she’s my big sister. Recognized, indeed.’

* * *

After the classes were readjusted, Hyesung happily donned her purple practice uniform and headed to the grand auditorium, which had been turned into a set.

It was because the center selection for the first stage to be revealed on M Space was taking place.

“I didn’t expect you to come to the ace group.”

Han Youngwon said with her arms crossed.

It might have sounded sarcastic, but seeing the corners of her lips twitching upwards, it seemed she was pleased that Hyesung had joined the ace group.

“Good job, Hyesung. We’ll see each other more often today. And Yeonwoo too.”

Lee Joo-ha patted Hyesung’s head.

Since the stage movements were divided by grade, they only overlapped practice with the same grade.

“I didn’t expect to come to the ace group either. It’s amazing.”

‘I almost felt wronged thinking they wouldn’t send me to the ace group earlier, but I made it after all.’

“Come here, I’ll introduce you to a friend.”

Lee Joo-ha grabbed Hyesung’s and Na Yeonwoo’s hands and led them.

The current number of ace group members was 15. It was originally 13, but there had been some changes with the recent re-evalutaion.

Five trainees from lower classes had been promoted to ace level, and three ace trainees had been demoted to lower classes.

Among the ace group, Hyesung recognized someone.

‘Hyun Nana. I finally meet her after seeing her during the agency entrance.’

Hyesung recalled when Hyun Nana had waved at her from the first place seat.

‘If only Yeonwoo could have a bit of that confidence.’

Hyesung firmly believed that it would change the history of K-pop. Na Yeonwoo undoubtedly had potential, but whether it was enough to change K-pop history was uncertain.

‘Just give it a year. Yeonwoo will straighten out the loose discipline in the idol industry.’

Hyesung’s biased affection for Yeonwoo showed no signs of fading.

“Hyesung! What’s this? You said you’d be eliminated in the preliminaries, and now you’re in the ace group!”

‘Hyesung? What’s this? Why are you suddenly talking informally? I’m 27 years old.’

Hyun Nana enthusiastically patted Hyesung’s shoulder with a sound.

She didn’t remember agreeing to speak informally. Hyesung asked, puzzled.

“Did we agree to speak informally?”

“No!”

Hyun Nana answered brightly.

‘…I felt it in the restroom back then, but she’s a bit overly cheerful, similar to Lim Yae-in.’

Earlier, Lim Yae-in had jumped for joy, saying she had been promoted to the beginner group.

“Then why are you speaking informally? Our Nana friend?”

“We’re the same age! Do you speak formally to kids at school? No, right?”

“…Okay. You can speak informally.”

It seemed that Hyesung, who had been a notable trainee, had built internal familiarity alone.

“What, you two know each other? School friends?”

“No! We met in the restroom during the preliminaries.”

In response to Lee Joo-ha’s question, Hyun Nana answered cheerfully.

“She said I looked like an ox…”

“Well, you tried to break down the door.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. You know that, right?”

“Yeah…”

Hyun Nana slightly shifted her direction and extended her hand with a smile to Na Yeonwoo.

“Hello, I saw your re-evalutaion earlier. You can speak comfortably to me!”

“Hello. Then I’ll call you Nana unnie… I’m 18…”

“Sure!”

“Then you already know Youngwon unnie, Yeonwoo. I’ll introduce you to those unnies over there.”

Lee Joo-ha pointed to the two showing off their flexibility by doing splits on the floor.

‘It’s strange having to call more people unnie.’

“Unnie Ahyeon! Unnie Seol! This is Hyesung, my roommate, and next to her is Yeonwoo.”

The tall, noble-looking black-haired one was Namgoong Seol, and the one with a half-tied brown hair and a smiling face was Gil Ahyeon.

‘Wow, all the visuals have gathered in the ace group now.’

Hyesung, who was a visual fan, admired inwardly. She was referring to Han Youngwon, Namgoong Seol, and Na Yeonwoo.

When she had checked all the stats before, the only ones with visual stats of four stars or more were these three.

‘Visuals can be recognized even without looking at the stats.’

Based on her calculations, three stars and above fell within the conventional standard of beauty. Although the standards of beauty varied for each person, three stars and above meant people would generally think they were ‘pretty’ regardless of personal preferences.

“Ah, hello.”

When Hyesung and Na Yeonwoo greeted them shyly, the two who were doing splits stood up, brushing off their hands.

“Hello.”

A short, concise greeting came back.

Namgoong Seol was not much of a talker, but only when the cameras were rolling. In reality, she had a somewhat immature personality, but to maintain her image, she was kept in check by her fellow agency trainee, Gil Ahyeon.

“Hi, everyone. Can I speak informally? Both Seol and I are 22 years old.”

Gil Ahyeon approached with a smile.

These two were trainees from 2M Entertainment, who had earned ace grades right before Na Yeonwoo and Cha Juyon during the class evaluation, both specializing in dance.

The representative of 2M Entertainment was a famous dancer from the early 2000s, known for giving high-intensity dance training directly to trainees.

That intense training was so famous that even trainees from other agencies lined up for outsourced lessons, and the image that came to mind when thinking of 2M Entertainment trainees was simply ‘dance monsters.’

In fact, the underground practice room of 2M Entertainment was filled with trainees at the main dancer level of already debuted groups.

‘They did the same thing in Season 1, exposing all the debut group cards here again.’

This was Hyesung’s impression when she first saw Gil Ahyeon and Namgoong Seol.

Instead of sending out trainees who had dropped out of the debut group like Lee Joo-ha, they released center-level trainees from the debut group. It could be seen as crazy, but it also showed their confidence.

In the pre-Reset era, both Gil Ahyeon and Namgoong Seol maintained top ranks and successfully debuted. Hyesung believed that their debut was unchanged this time too.

They had both visuals and skills, but their biggest strength was having agency fans who were advantageous from the beginning. Agency fans referred to the fanbases of senior artists who gave their full support.

In Season 5, the trainees with powerful agency fans were Lee Joo-ha from Q Media and the two from 2M Entertainment. Moreover, these two were direct juniors of the debut group from Supernova Project Season 1, making their support undeniably strong.

‘Hyun Nana and those two basically have ‘debuting’ written on their faces again. Han Youngwon is likely to debut again too. So, who will Yeonwoo surpass to get into the remaining spots…’

Although Hyesung knew the pre-Reset debut list, approaching those trainees to manipulate things behind the scenes was a suicidal act that would lead to karma and ruin.

‘…So this time, Yeonwoo must stand out in the first competition. That means the team needs to be well-organized. I have a plan. I’ll take care of it, so my daughter…’

“What are you thinking so seriously about?”

“Yikes?! Ah, nothing.”

Hyesung, who was plotting her strategy inwardly, was startled by Han Youngwon’s cold face suddenly approaching.

‘Oh, her gaze.’

Facing Han Youngwon’s deep eyes that seemed bottomless like a lake, Hyesung felt as if her thoughts were being seen through, making her slightly scared.

“Nothing?”

“Yes. It’s just that this place is amazing…”

“Well, we’ve roughly finished the greetings, so let’s sit down. It seems like they’re ready for filming.”

The center would be selected from within the ace group. Volunteers would come up front and show their talents, whether it was dance, singing, or even a speech, then the whole class would start a hand vote.

Due to accusations of center manipulation in the last season, the voting method had changed to a public vote.

Hyesung had no intention of volunteering. She wasn’t aiming for debut and wanted to avoid attracting attention.

However, since the class evaluation, she had already gained bad attention internally, so her hope of quietly securing a spot within the top 50 seemed shattered.

“Unnie, are you going to volunteer?”

“No.”

Han Youngwon, who was sitting in the front row, answered firmly.

“Why not?”

“Not interested.”

“Then, how about you, unnie?”

“Me? Um… Should I try?”

Lee Joo-ha said with a bashful smile.

‘She’s already decided to volunteer.’

“Yeonwoo, you’re going to volunteer too, right?”

“Me?”

Na Yeonwoo, who was also sitting in the front row, turned around with surprised rabbit eyes.

‘My rabbit-like baby, looking at me like this, you look even more like a rabbit. But you’re actually a mix of a rabbit base with a teaspoon of cat, making you a nyang-rabbit… More to come.’

Hyesung kept trying to make Na Yeonwoo adorable in her mind.

“I think… I’m not good enough yet. I probably won’t make it anyway.”

“What’s not good enough!”

Hyesung stood up with a loud voice.

“Yoon Hyesung trainee? Are you volunteering? We’re still explaining.”

Seol Hanna, who was explaining the voting method, asked.

“Ah, no, no, no?”

“Then why did you stand up?”

“…Sorry.”

Hyesung, whose face turned bright red, quietly sat down.