After finishing the performance, our team named "Moon Rabbit" returned to the waiting room to film reaction cuts for us. It was a room with a large monitor set up to watch the other teams' perfomances.

By the way, when we got off the stage, our eyes were as swollen as those of crucian carp.

To be honest, I deserved to cry too.

I didn't get enough rest for more than ten days and I did my best to present what we had prepared. If I was twenty years old, I would have slept more.

"MoonDae, how can you not shed a single tear? Are you sure you're not from the NIS...?"

"I already said no."

I stopped Gold 1's attempt at a burlesque joke that he wanted to make. All around the team members laughed out loud.

The atmosphere was nice.

'We did a good job.'

Since we were together with other team participants, we hadn't talked about it, but we implicitly knew what our outcome would be after the positive reviews we had in the midterm evaluation and rehearsal.

Unless someone from another team suddenly uses some hidden and shocking ability in their performance that is very favorable to them, we were sure that we would win this battle.

Thanks to that, every time we saw the presentations of the other teams, we reacted in the same way.

We felt comfortable and enjoyed their presentations.

'This is fun.'

I also went back to the spectator position and looked at what the other teams had prepared. Of course, I also took a good look at each one and reacted according to the level they showed.

'I wouldn't put him second or third.'

The second team's arrangement was unexpected, as they couldn't finish the choreography on time, more than half of the members couldn't dance in sync in the second half of the song.

The third team seemed to want to show off a sexy concept like Keun SeJin, but it was too exaggerated and brazen that it made the audience feel a bit ... angry.

'I think the girls won't like it very much.'

The key question was how much editing would be done on the broadcast.

The fourth team could win the battle. The Gold 2 team chose a cute and exciting song, although the arrangement was not very different from the original song, it fit them well.

"HeeSeung is so good!!"

Gold 1 shouted excitedly as Gold 2 came out into the center. I applauded him too.

There was only one team left to show up.

It was the team that had suffered hellish fights, the one led by Ryu CheongWoo.

'Poor guy.;

If CheongWoo wasn't a brave and compassionate person, he would never have agreed to be on that team.

I could see that the relationship between Lee Sejin and Choi WonGil was very bad, but ... why did they choose them, add a troll, and join Cha YooJin to form a team?

This in itself was an unimaginable achievement that had to be paid for.

YooJin is still down, so he was visiting our room every 2-3 days to eat snacks.

I don't know if he ate that many chocolate bars because he's going to use a lot of energy in his performance, but I don't really care if he doesn't make it. He is not on my team.

"Fighting!"

Keun SeJin, who cheered on each team that came out of the waiting room and onto the stage, also cheered on Ryu CheongWoo's team.

After a while, his team appeared on the monitor screen.

"Let us begin!"

The atmosphere in the waiting room was full of anticipation as it was a team of high-ranked boys, though those expectations might be dashed if they didn't perform well.

However, Ryu CheongWoo's team did not fail.

"... Why is he flying?"

YooJin grabbed all the attention of the audience. Every time he sang the chorus and positioned himself in the center of the lineup, there was an optical illusion that the performance was perfect.

'That's why he got the first place.'

I thought that he had lost his emotional and mental stability because of all the trouble he had with his team, but when he came on stage, he became a different person.

'It must be because of his ability.'

I remembered the characteristics of Cha YooJin's status window that I checked in the last team battle.

A human being who absorbs all attention.

Scenic immersion by 150%

Since he possesses that ability, he has no choice but to debut.

"Ooooh!"

When he finished his presentation, the participants in the waiting room applauded in admiration.

"Cha YooJin is too good."

"Yeah."

I heard the murmurs of my "Moon Rabbit" team, but I didn't hear any anxiety or nervousness in their voices.

This is because no matter how impressive YooJin is, there was a clear difference between his performance and the one shown by his teammates.

"The only problem is that my team was the first to show up."

As time passed, the impression made on the public would weaken. It would have been better if it hadn't been for the minigame results that established the order of the introductions.

I didn't expect Gold 1 to go this far.

At that moment, the majestic comments of Gold 1, who played the minigame as a representative of our team, came to mind.

-Just trust me!

However, our faith and hope never came true.

Gold 1, who put all his energy into the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game, suffered a series of devastating defeats.

What if we don't get first place in the team battle by a narrow margin due to being the first to show up?

Well, the only one who would be very sorry would be Gold 1. The rest of the team had nothing to worry about, even if we lowered our positions, we would make it to the end of the program.

But since he has the lowest ranking compared to the others, it is possible that he will be eliminated in the next ranking ceremony, so we had to get the victory of our team.

Considering the benefit that the winning team got in the second battle, if we win, we will definitely be awarded survival to the next ceremony.

'They will announce it soon.'

Since all the presentations are over, there is about an hour left until the team rankings are announced.

There was a high possibility of delaying the announcement of the winning team until the next ranking ceremony, but the scheme will be outlined anyway.

And an hour and a half later, the results were exactly as expected.

"The remaining two first place candidates are the "Moon Rabbit" and "Husky" teams! Which team will win the glory of the Third Team Battle?"

"Husky" was Ryu CheongWoo's team name. I already had a feeling that we would face them.

"Please check the results ... at the Rankings Ceremony!"

Oh, I expected that too.

"But you must be tired of hearing the same thing, right? So, I will announce right now the benefit that the winning team will get!"

"Eh?"

Ok ... I didn't expect that.

"The benefit to the winning team is surviving the next ceremony!"

"...!"

That was too good to be true. We only have thirty contestants left, why would they offer us the reward of five people surviving?

But the MC continued and said something that surprised us.

"However, only one person will be able to get that benefit! Before the next qualification ceremony, these teams will be asked to discuss and select the participant who will benefit from it."

The production team's ideas got weirder as the show entered its second half.

Isn't this ... a penalty to the rest of the team that won't be able to get that benefit?

And also, whoever gets it will be criticized by the fans of his team members.

As far as I remember, the production team never gave up on these controversial strategies until the final episode of the show.

They are amazing people.

Actually, there was no problem with the "Moon Rabbit" team because it has already been decided who will receive it.

'It would be more useful to give it to Gold 1.'

Since it doesn't look like the rest of us are going to be eliminated in the ceremony, instead of getting it for nothing and causing more controversy, we prefer to give it cleanly to take care of our image.

If there is a problem, it would be with AhHyun, because he was recently harassed a lot on the internet because of the change in position that he got thanks to the benefit that he won in the last ranking ceremony. He was scared to read those comments and said that he wanted to improve and win, but knowing his personality, it was unlikely that he would demand to win this new benefit.

Keun SeJin is in a state where public opinion on rumors of violent bullying when he was a high school student has reversed, so he may know what his new ranking position will be.

All our eyes were focused on Gold 1. It was obvious that we were thinking the same thing.

Gold 1 looked embarrassed, but he didn't seem to refuse. There were times when he did it out of courtesy, but this time he had to take advantage of it.

'We do not have any problem.'

Of course not. The problem was on the other team.

The production team looked anxiously at the "Husky" team to see who would be the first to blow up.

"And thus ends the Third Team Battle in "Idol Corporation - Reincorporated!"! Shareholders, see you at the next Ranking Ceremony~"

The filming ended with the contestants bowing to the camera with a lot of applause.

"Thanks for your hard work guys~"

"Until next time!"

In this way, the participants said goodbye. The "Moon Rabbit" team reconvened after changing their clothes.

And in an instant, we deliver the benefit of winning to Gold 1.

"Since we all work hard, should we give the benefit to our hyung?"

"'Yes."

"I agree."

"I-I like it!

"Oh, thank you very much, but we could discuss it a bit more...."

SeJin smiled and answered him.

"Hyung-nim, don't you understand? If we talk more, then we'll sleep too late..."

"Ah."

After the shoot, the tension completely disappeared and the tension accumulated during the last 10 days gradually flowed endlessly. Thanks to this, everyone is talking with their eyes half open.

"Well thanks guys. I'll buy you a meal."

"Haha, thank you, hyung! But don't treat us to lunch unless it's beef."

"..."

It seems that SeJin said it with the intention to be heard by me, but I'll ignore it because I'm tired.

With a warm atmosphere, the "Moon Rabbit" team parted ways.

I suppressed a yawn and searched my map navigator for the nearest bus stop.

"Moo-MoonDae-yah."

"Uh?"

When I turned around, Seon AhHyun was looking at me with his fists clenched.

I hope he doesn't want to hit me.

"What's the matter?"

"D-do you want to go home with me? M-my parents came to pick me up...."

"Oh... Yes, thank you."

Given the popularity of the show, I thought that now it would be difficult to get on the bus without being recognized, so I was thinking of calling a taxi.

'Thanks to you, I will save the taxi money.'

It's a bit of a hassle to meet the parents of other contestants, but I don't think it's a big deal as they'll give me a ride.

"O-oh, no! Y-you're welcome!"

AhHyun took the lead and walked excitedly, stopping in front of a black sedan on the side of the road. It was a foreign car.

'Looks like they've bought a new house.'

I guessed because the destination they were heading to was different from the apartment where AhHyun lived alone before.

I followed him and approached the car, greeting as politely as possible.

"Good evening."

"Oh, it's MoonDae! Nice to meet you."

"Come on up~ Did our AhHyun put on a good performance again?"

"D-Dad!"

The family atmosphere was more harmonious than I expected. When AhHyun, who was pale-faced, panicked, I could see that his parents were happy.

-"Yes, he did very well. You will be surprised when you watch the show."

"As expected of my son~"

AhHyun leaned her face against the back of the front seat to hide her embarrassment. Now that I met his family, I felt freer to express myself.

'Just as he thought, the root of his self-esteem problem was the bad relationships he had with his former classmates.'

I politely gave the direction of my apartment, leaned back in the seat and enjoyed the comfort of the ride. I responded in a good way to some other questions that they asked me.

A long time ago I felt strange when I saw friends who had good relatives who loved them. But not anymore, I was able to enjoy this lively experience comfortably seated.

* * *

"Please return carefully~"

"Yes, thank you very much."

"I-I'll call you later!"

"Okay."

I was able to go down in my direction only after saying goodbye to Seon AhHyun's family several times.

'I heard more TMI than I thought...'

I wonder if I needed to know that AhHyun went to Europe to study and also learned ballet, but I'll think of it as the price of transportation in a nice car.

I went through the old stairs and corridors until I reached the front of my hired room.

When I get in, I'm going to sleep....

'Oh.'

Oh shit...

The door is open.